We’re finally done with The Naked Communist!!! Instead of drawing it out for 2 more MoGP segments, we devote the primary segment to wrapping up NC with Cleon Skousen’s 5 questions and a LOOOONG speech in front of a Washington PTA. Then we finish our coverage of communism by reviewing the movie Trumbo about the Hollywood 10. Then we finish with some happy news about some Native American tribes administering surplus COVID vaccines. New merch store!!! Go here https://exmomerch.creator-spring.com/ a...
Mar 24, 2021•1 hr 57 min
BYU recently released a report on racism and discrimination at the university campus including 26 recommendations to increase diversity. We read through the entire report so you don’t have to! We discuss their findings, the data presented, and what changes we can realistically expect to see as a result of the report. After that we discuss the 2005 George Clooney movie Good Night, and Good Luck. We wrap with some happy news about electric cars because if Shannon gets to share her passion for movi...
Mar 10, 2021•1 hr 56 min
We start today’s episode with a brief deep-dive into a rumored race riot of 1965 that never happened in Salt Lake City. It reveals troubling trends we’ve seen play out over the past year. Be sure to follow the link to read the article for yourself. Then we do our next installment of The Naked Communist with an eye looking to the future of the Communist takeover of America. Once again, it reveals trends which cannot be escaped when seen through a glass box. Then we round out with a happy story ab...
Feb 24, 2021•1 hr 51 min
Boundaries Part 2! In this episode we give you some listener feedback from social media discussions on the Boundaries Part 1 episode. We talk to two very interesting people — Andrew Torrez and Kimberly Anderson — who give us various tools to help us make and keep our boundaries and we leave you feeling like your world is a little more under your control and safe. Show Links: Andrew: Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion, Dale McGowan: https://www.amazon.com/Pa...
Feb 10, 2021•2 hr 7 min
Special episode this week! Let’s talk about Boundaries: How the church and our TBM family and friends cross them and what we can do about it. We’ll introduce the topic then hear from a therapist and a listener about their interactions with the church and boundaries. We’ll jump into some of our survey data and round out the show with some of our own experiences. Finally, a big thank you to Braden for cohosting the podcast! You will be missed and cherished in all our hearts. Show Links: Protect Ev...
Jan 27, 2021•1 hr 51 min
Braden’s taking the week off so Shannon and Bryce spend a LONG episode going through a recent document dump by WikiLeaks concerning the Mormon church. After that we get into our next installment of the Naked Communist by Cleon Skousen. Shannon teaches us about Kruschev and Castro through the 1950s-60s. Then we wrap with happy news about the Georgia Senate runoff election. PLEASE TAKE OUR SURVEY ABOUT BOUNDARIES FOR THE NEXT EPISODE!!! Show Links: Boundaries survey: https://forms.gle/Q53MpYqqdfBQ...
Jan 13, 2021•2 hr 29 min
End-of-the-shit-year-of-2020 fun episode! We want to end the year on a high note and what better way to do that than to spend the entire episode talking about fun things! And what might those be, you ask? Some favorite movies and books, of course! Survey about BOUNDARIES!: https://forms.gle/bHUugqgdtiRxU9nw7 Bryce: Movie: Parasite: https://www.imdb.comhttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt6751668/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0/title/tt6751668/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 Book: Outbreak: A Crisis of Faith: How Religion Ruined ...
Dec 30, 2020•1 hr 57 min
We do a brief deep-dive into Book of Mormon archaeology, but probably not a story you’ve heard before. Thomas Stuart Ferguson was hired by BYU and the Mormon church to study Mesoamerica for ties to ancient Book of Mormon cities and artifacts. His findings will SHOCK you! Then we dive into the next installment of The Naked Communist with more background on post WWII history and the rise of fear and loathing of Communism in America. Finally we wrap with a feel-good story about a remote village in ...
Dec 16, 2020•2 hr 57 min
The Mormon Moses, Russel M. Nelson, recently released a video to all the social medias about a new ad campaign the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is running. We discuss the video, the campaign as a whole, and some of our takeaways watching the campaign play out over the past week. Then, Braden tells us about “Yes, God, Yes!,” a coming of age story of a woman raised in a sexually repressive religion streaming now on Netflix. Then we round out the show with some happy news about the c...
Dec 02, 2020•1 hr 31 min
In light of a recent Twitter op-ed, we invite Dr. Cristina Rosetti onto the show to discuss a polygamist group in Utah (the Kingston Group) who’ve recently contributed to political campaigns, shot rifles with POTUS’s son, and opposed the decriminalization of polygamy which recently passed the Utah legislature. Rosetti helps us navigate the tumultuous waters of Mormon polygamy and discusses the recently-passed bill. Then we jump into our next installment of The Naked Communist before wrapping wit...
Nov 18, 2020•3 hr 7 min
You heard it right, Justice Dallin H. Oaks said “Black lives matter”! Buuuuuuut, he said ‘but’ after it. We go top to bottom on Oaks’ recent BYU speech titled “Racism and Other Challenges” to see what slipped through the cracks and talk generally about masks, voting, protests, statues, and the works. Then we talk about “The Social Dilemma,” a new doc on Netflix about the problems of social media and how it has fueled and shaped modern politics. Then Shannon tells us about the Duwamish river in S...
Nov 03, 2020•1 hr 26 min
A whole episode about Ezra Taft Benson and Cleon Skousen! We invite Dr. Matt Harris, author of the recent “Watchman on the Tower; Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right” along with friend of the show, Joseph Geisner, to discuss the life and influences of Mormon Prophet, Ezra Benson. A product of the red scare and McCarthyism, Benson rose to prominence as Dwight Eisenhower’s Secretary of Agriculture and continued to gain status as a radical right-wing conspiracy theorist general auth...
Oct 21, 2020•3 hr 22 min
I mean, the title is pretty self-explanatory. Yeah, it’s that long because boiling down 10 hours of brainwashing stupefaction takes a while. But, we discuss what slipped through the cracks and why it matters for us to analyze every nook and cranny of each #GenCON. Show Links:Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html Find us on Facebook and Twitter @Glass Box Podcast
Oct 07, 2020•3 hr 23 min
We take this week’s episode as a time to reflect on the incredible life and legacy of one of the nation’s brightest minds. SCOTUS lost a paragon of civil rights and gender equality in a contentious election year. We discuss the life and accomplishments of RBG, what her death in September 2020 means, and what we can expect moving forward. After that, Braden phones in to tell us about Pride, a movie about a GLB rights group protesting for miner’s rights in Magaret Thatcher’s U.K. Then we discuss t...
Sep 23, 2020•2 hr 10 min
Shannon Grover joins us again for the next installment of The Naked Communist, why don’t we just make it official? Welcome to our new permanent co-host!! We start the show with a quick rundown of a recent talk given by Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of Apostles about the current wave of civil rights protests we see across the nation. We transition seamlessly into The Naked Communist and it’s remarkable how similar the arguments are with 70 years separating them. Then we discussed an ad campaign b...
Sep 09, 2020•1 hr 26 min
We’re joined by Brian Simper for an interview about Mormon membership statistics. Brian gave a presentation at the recent Sunstone Symposium and was kind enough to join me for a deep dive into his methodology and findings. After that we discuss The Invention of Lying and a brief rundown of Steve Bannon’s arrest on wire fraud charges. Happy news: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/08/steve-bannon-fraud-trump/615523/ Show Links:Website http://www.glassboxpodcast.com/index.html Find ...
Aug 26, 2020•2 hr 10 min
Our resident General Authority, Shannon Grover, at long last joins us for an entire episode. We begin with hearing her story growing up in the church, her early life, mission, marriage, and finally apostasy. She’s had quite the incredible journey and we’re lucky to have her share so much. After that, we get through the next chapter of The Naked Communist by Cleon Skousen and wrap up with some happy news about a miner in Tanzania! Happy news https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53642490...
Aug 12, 2020•2 hr 6 min
A lot of people have debated this question for decades. We sit down with some work from Steven Hassan, Margaret Singer, and other cult experts to discuss what makes a cult a cult. Short answer, yes. Longer answer, yes and it's complicated. Longest answer, yes and listen to the show. Now that I have your attention, reader, here’s a fun activity: send a Facebook message to Braden Hamm and ask him “if the players were required to be drunk, what would be the funniest sport to watch?” But don’t tell ...
Jul 22, 2020•2 hr 25 min
This episode begins with a panel discussion with Marie D’Elephant and Marissa McCool about navigating ethical non-monogamy. Open relationships/marriages can be a taboo topic and uncomfortable for some; Marie and Riss help us by giving a 101 discussion to introduce us to the subject, uncover some common pitfalls, and provide resources for further reading should non-monogamy be a topic which interests you. After that Braden and I debrief from the interview before jumping into part 1 of reading thr...
Jul 08, 2020•2 hr 26 min
Lots of interlocking stories to discuss this week. We jump right in with a discussion about the most recent headlines sparked by the protests following George Floyd’s death. A lot of legislation has been crafted in response to the protests, including an executive order from President Donald Trump. We examine the organizations he listed during the signing to determine the intent of the order, followed by looking at the text of the order itself. Once created, tools can be used for good and evil. T...
Jun 24, 2020•2 hr 46 min
Racial tensions and police brutality in America have caused protests, riots, and citizens becoming the victims of war crimes committed by our military-police force. How did we get here? Where do we go? How can we effectively reform policing in America? It’s a complicated issue and a couple of white guys are going to do their best to introduce you to the topic and form a basic foundation on which to build a base of knowledge about these subjects. We also take a look at the Church of Jesus Christ ...
Jun 10, 2020•2 hr 34 min
Update on COVID-19 time! The Mormon church is taking steps to reopen wards around the globe while there’s no evidence that we’ve effectively flattened the curve. They’re also investing some resources into making PPE for medical workers in the form of masks and surgical gowns made from sacred-underwear cotton. Plenty to discuss. Then, Braden tells us about After Life starring Ricky Gervais. We wrap with some happy news about a vodka company based in Utah making hand sanitizer to combat the ‘Rona....
May 27, 2020•1 hr 24 min
We do something a little different this week. This show starts out with an interview of two elders in the mission field who no longer believe in Mormonism, yet are stuck on their mission during COVID lockdown. How do Elders A and B cope with being on a sales force for a product they know isn’t real? They offer a window into the day-to-day life of missionaries stuck in the world of lockdowns while trying to be good people in spite of being missionaries. After that we dive into part 4 of Tad R. Ca...
May 13, 2020•1 hr 42 min
We take a break from headlines and current events to dabble into the lighter side of Mormonism. Braden and I square off in a trivia challenge drinking game. Braden brings the culture, I bring the history and we see who comes out on top. But, it turns out, when you play a drinking game everybody wins! Join us for a light-hearted hangout along with a Media of Great Price about Pineapple Express and a happy news segment about countries transitioning off coal power. Media of Great Price https://www....
Apr 29, 2020•1 hr 56 min
We hit our goal on patreon.com/glassboxpod! Braden had to watch General Conference for the first time in our podcast history. It, indeed, is a historic conference! We go through talk by talk to see what slipped through the cracks of all 5 sessions of the April 2020 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Strap in, it’s a long one. Did Rusty make this as historic of an event as the hype made it? Just like the other episodes about #GenConf, we get a little extra NSFW...
Apr 15, 2020•3 hr 3 min
How is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints handling the Coronavirus epidemic? We explore current events and the coming end of the world. Then we get into our next installment of The Case for the Book of Mormon by Tad R. Callister… ugh. Finally, we wrap up with some happy news about how celebrities, artists, and regular folk are helping each other through the epidemic. Being sent home https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/03/30/city-creek-mall-merchants/ https://www.sltrib.com/religion/202...
Apr 03, 2020•1 hr 56 min
Yes, we’re jumping into the outrage ball-pit of COVID-19, Coronavirus. We do our typical overview of the issue and piece together a chronology from multiple reputable sources. This is a worldwide topic and therefore dives into politics, which we don’t often do. If you want a break from all the hype or don’t want to hear about politics, this may not be the episode for you. If you want to be informed on what a viral outbreak looks like and attempt to gain some perspective, this episode may be wort...
Mar 18, 2020•1 hr 58 min
Boy Scouts of America is filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy because of child sex abuse? We thank thee, O God, for our Profit, Russel M. Nelson for getting the Mormon church out of Scouts before all those lawsuits crippled BSA! While this isn’t a story directly about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, these issues long predate the divorce of these two institutions. Braden and I explore the common threads and what this bankruptcy means. Then Braden tells us about some kids at a Catholi...
Mar 04, 2020•1 hr 30 min
The Wall Street Journal somehow got an interview with two of the leading guys of Mormon Money, the Presiding Bishop, Gerald Causse, and the head of Ensign Peak Advisors, Roger Clarke. We discuss the story with the help of a post in the /r/mormon subreddit (linked below). After that, it’s our next installment of The Case for the Book of Mormon by Tad R. Callister where he decides to go completely offensive because us critics have had the ball in our court for too long! Then we talk about Jeff Bez...
Feb 19, 2020•1 hr 38 min
Clutch my pearls! Braden and I talk about the Super Bowl halftime show and the expected responses from Mormons scared that the female figure exists who never batted an eye at a topless and tattoo-covered Adam Levine last year. After that Braden tells us about Ramy, a Hulu series about a Muslim-American finding his way in life. Then we talk about Activision utilizing lootboxes for good, for a pleasant change! Links: Super Bowl Halftime show: https://youtu.be/pILCn6VO_RU Media of Great Price: Ramy...
Feb 05, 2020•51 min
