Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker: Matt is up first this week. One of the founders of WordPerfect, Bruce Bastian, died this week. The New York Times obituary described many facets of his life that are worthy of discussion. His company played a large role in making Utah what it is today. When he started WordPerfect, no tech company was he…

Send us a Text Message. Mailbag: There is a new way to reach out to the show. Have you heard of fan mail? Each episode at the top of the show notes there is a link to send us a text message. Reach out and let us know what you think. The Thought Provoker: Sam is up first this week. The party decides. Next up, Shawn. Watching all of our political lea…

Send us a Text Message. Trump Assignation Attempt. Members of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints should not condone violence The Thought Provoker: Matt is up first this week. Sam likes to tell me that I should support Donald Trump for president despite all of his shortcomings because he is the only person that can save our economy. Wel…

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker: Shawn is up first this week. Annuit coeptus is a motto written on the great seal of the United States. It means God, or Providence prospered our undertaking. The idea is that God put leaders in place to establish a new order and form a specific constitution and create a country of certain laws and not m…

Send us a Text Message. Mailbag: One listener writes, “I question your definition of liberal and conservative although I loved the discussion. You said conservatives mistrust government and liberals mistrust individuals. I would say that conservatives mistrust government and liberals mistrust businesses. What is it called if you think business and …

Send us a Text Message. Mailbag: One listener writes, “You'll probably get several of these, but here are a few facts to clear up about two of the country's newest felons.1.The lies Hunter Biden told on his two gun license applications were that he does not use drugs. He was also convicted of possessing a gun while addicted to or using illegal drug…

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker: Matt is up first this week. There is nothing members of our church value more than free will. Yet, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey warned this week that social media algorithms are robbing individuals of their free will. Specifically he said, “This is going to sound a little bit crazy, but I think the free …

Send us a Text Message. Mailbag: Carly’s recording The Thought Provoker: Shawn is up first this week. An anonymous expert recently participated in a debate discussing Meta-Marxism and capitalism. They discussed how the theory of meta Marxism primarily looks at all relationships through the lens of power and power imbalance while capitalism looks at…

Send us a Text Message. Mailbag: One listener writes, “Like a lot of Republicans, Sam is pretty tone deaf when he talks about risk. On average, rich people have taken much less risk in their lives than the rest of us. Trump is a great example. Trump was a millionaire by age 8. Through all of Trump’s adventures and misadventures he was never in dang…

Send us a Text Message. Mailbag: One listener writes, “Ok. You cannot allow Sam to continue to reference “that one company in Seattle whose CEO decided to pay everyone $70,000 and his company imploded.” The company is called Gravity Payments. The late Rush Limbaugh predicted its downfall in 2014. It’s 20 years old now, still going strong and paying…

Send us a Text Message. New listeners, this episode replays some of the discussions that get brought up later on. Also, NBA YoungBoy was arrested in Cache Valley Utah recently and is back in jail. Shawn doesn't like to talk about it, listen to this episode to find out why.By Shawn, Sam, & Matt

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker: Shawn is up first this week. Eight regional daily newspapers sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement yesterday, the latest in an industrywide reckoning with the rise of content-dependent artificial intelligence. News publishers like The New York Times have sued OpenAI for using their journa…

Send us a Text Message. Apologies to Shawn's fans. He had technical issues that caused him to drop from the podcast. Sorry you all missed his great comments on the big question. The Thought Provoker: Sam is up first this week. Why don't people recognize the booming economy right now? Next up, Matt. Two exciting trials are going on right now. One tr…

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker: Matt is up first this week. Two big stories this week related to free speech. In the first, the University of Southern California canceled a graduation speech by a valedictorian who is Muslim and has social media posts that support Palestinians. They say that it is a question of safety. In the second, G…

Send us a Text Message. Links for the discussion about the changes in temple recommend interview questions. Handbook 38.5.5 was updated in August 2023 to include this statement about the garment. Wearing and Caring for the Garment Members who receive the endowment make a covenant to wear the temple garment throughout their lives. The temple garment…

Send us a Text Message. General Conference Recap Matt's Second Coming Prediction What is Mormonism?By Shawn, Sam, & Matt

Send us a Text Message. Mailbag: General Conference Predictions The Thought Provoker: Matt is up first this week. You guys are always telling me how Elon Musk is a proponent of free speech. Well, two things came up this week that suggest he is not. First, A federal judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit by Elon Musk’s X that had targeted a watchdog gr…

Send us a Text Message. Mailbag: One listener writes, “Another UBI experiment. This time in San Antonio. https://sanantonioreport.org/cash-without-conditions-san-antonio-experiment-guaranteed-income/ What do you think people did with extra money? You'll have to read to find out.” The Thought Provoker: Sam is up first this week. Did BYU’s ‘No Sunday…

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker First up, Shawn. This week Political Scientist Matthew, “Matty Bird” Miles interviewed LDS history Scholar Patrick Mason on the twim podcast. Matt asked a great question of Mason about how history informs his interpretation of religious doctrine? He answered it helps him be comfortable with change and to…

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker: Shawn is up first this week. Elon Musk has sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, claiming that the company failed to keep its promise of developing AI tools for "the benefit of humanity" over maximizing profits.Musk helped launch and fund OpenAI in its early years. His lawyers argue that Musk poured time,…

Send us a Text Message. One listener writes, “I know how much everyone loves UBI, but with so many trials and studies to learn about it happening and wrapping up, I feel like it would be good to talk about their findings. I'm also discouraged by rich people who are lobbying to prevent even the research and studies. The Thought Provoker: This week, …

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker: Matt is first this week. Exciting new research in the field of male contraceptives has identified a number of medications that a man can take that will make it impossible for him to impregnate a woman. The work is very preliminary at the moment, but the findings suggest that taking the medication has no…

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker Sam is up first this week. And I make the argument that the high prices we pay here in the US for pharmaceuticals subsidize the entire world, but they guarantee the best end result anywhere else in the world. We have medicines and therapies that are available globally because of the higher prices we pay …

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker: Shawn is up first this week. This week Tucker Carlson interviewed Vlad Putin and I got very mad because he didn’t challenge a single thing Putin said. Didn’t challenge his claim that Poland started ww2, didn’t challenge Putin’s claim that he has no interest in invading other countries unless they attack…

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker: One listener writes, “ I heard Shawn say that we shouldn't pay attention to the fact that people in blue states live longer. You talked about life expectancy, but you could make the same case that people in blue States are, on average, richer, safer, healthier, better educated and more likely to live in…

Send us a Text Message. Mailbag: I thought your discussion about longevity and quality of life was interesting. Healthy living is something I think is very important, but I don't know that a health care solution is the key. this map can help identify possible patterns for what might be contributing to longevity. The Thought Provoker: This week Sam …

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker: Matt is up first. Sam has been saying for a long time that Trump would be the Republican nominee. I have been saying that we should wait and see what the voters do, and not just trust polls. Well, now the voters in Iowa have spoken and it is nearly certain that Trump will be the Republican nominee. I ha…

Send us a Text Message. Mailbag: One listener writes “Military conscription has been shown to build a shared national identity, boost loyalty to the polity, and instill patriotism… But here’s the tradeoff: Men from conscripted generations show less trust in democratic institutions than those exempted from the draft…[and] weakens the relationship be…

Send us a Text Message. One listener writes, Hey I wonder if you guys have heard of Gypsy-Rose Blanchard. She was recently released from prison for her role in the killing of her mother. Now she has over 7 million followers on Instagram and she is likely going to be a millionaire because of the fame she is getting from her story. What is the morall…

Send us a Text Message. 2023 US politics. It may be hard to believe, but at this time in 2022, Donald Trump had not been indicted on a single criminal charge. As of today, Donald Trump has been indicted in four states on 91 different criminal charges. In addition, A jury found Donald Trump liable in May for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean…

Send us a Text Message. Most people don’t know that Kyiv is the birthplace of Christianity in the Slavic world. Ukrainians are used to having foreigners try to control the way that they worship. Despite the hundreds of years of Mongol control in the 13th century and the decades of communist control in the 20th century, Ukrainians have always found …

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker Matt is up first. Recently, Rudy Giuliani was ordered to pay over $148 million to two Georgia election workers for defamation. This all stems from lies he told about the 2020 election being stolen in Georgia. As a lifelong Republican, I see Rudy Giuliani as a metaphor for what has happened to the GOP. In…

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker Sam. All right, so here's my question. So I have friends that listen to our show and friends that are in the Chicagoland and in the Michigan area, Detroit, and other areas in the upper Midwest, and we've often talked about crime rates in those areas and some of the challenges that face people politically…

Send us a Text Message. Discussion of the Devate Thought Provoker: Since 2008, there has been a remarkable evolution in Russia's approach to propaganda. Described in this article, they focus on high numbers of channels using rapid, continuous, and repetitive messages that lack commitment to consistency. Like using a rapid fire shotgun as opposed to…

Send us a Text Message. Mailbag: Your idea for a coffee substitute cafe in Provo has already been tried. Latter Day Cafe opened in Provo south of BYU in 2021 making drinks out of the Copomo seed, which they promoted as better than coffee. You could caffeinate your drink on a scale of 1 to 4. 1 was equivalent to Mountain Dew, 2 coffee cup, 3 five ho…

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker: Sam is first. Quote from Quentin L Cook’s devotional last night: “Youth and young adults are not less active or leaving the Church in higher numbers than in the past, as has been widely circulated.…The percentage of church participation for the rising generation shows a continuous upward trend.” - Quent…

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker: Matt is first this week: This week The US House voted to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib over her Israel-Hamas rhetoric in a stunning rebuke for using this phrase. A censure is the strongest action the House can take against one of its members other than removing them from office. In the 1860s members were c…

Send us a Text Message. Mailbag: “Sam, If adversity is so great for immigrants, why not save some for the rich people? Why rob wealthy people of the chance to work their way up from the bottom? 100% inheritance tax. Who’s with me?” The Thought Provoker: Sam is first up this week, Are kids medically treated too quickly with medications for aniexty v…

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker: Shawn is first. I hope that he will choose something about how underwhelming Boston was. How he had high hopes given all the history there, but it was just another dirty crime-ridden town run by liberals 😊 Next up, Matt: “UCLA’s Center for Scholars & Storytellers, or CSS, found that teens — plus the 18-…

Send us a Text Message. Thought Provoker: First up, Sam. “participation trophies vs meritocracy” Next up, Matt.” Martin Scorsese’s newly released film “Killers of the Flower Moon” is based on actual events that happened in Oklahoma in the 1920s. You can follow the link to read the full history, but the short version is that US government policy tow…

Send us a Text Message. Thought Provoker: First up, Sam: Should members of the LDS Church support banning or censoring social media platforms like Tik Tok? https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/utah-tiktok-lawsuit-social-media-rcna119995 Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and state Attorney General Sean Reyes announced the lawsuit during a press confer…

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker: Shawn: President Nelson and President Oaks both preached clear and direct doctrine about what salvation is and what exaltation is. I am a little surprised at how new this concept was to many. The Scriptures teach it abundantly. Two questions: Question 1: Why do you think this was the primary message fro…

Send us a Text Message. Mailbag: One listener wrote: I come from Seattle but I finally moved out of the state after the crime became too much to ignore. Property crime ranks amongst the highest in the city and its suburbs in the US https://www.safehome.org/resources/crime-statistics-by-state/ If you live there you can almost expect your car to be a…

Send us a Text Message. Matt: The mayor of Dallas recently announced that he is switching parties from Democrat to Republican. In his announcement, he argues that “American cities need Republicans. The future of America’s great urban centers depends on the willingness of the nation’s mayors to champion law and order and practice fiscal conservatism…

Send us a Text Message. Mailbag: I wanted to say that I love the podcast that you, Sam, and Shawn have created! Latter Day Lens is what the world needs right now. People need to know that it is okay to disagree. That people can still be friends and love each other, and have differing opinions. Anyway, I love what you guys are doing. We are toe cool…

Send us a Text Message. The Thought Provoker: The previous discussion leads into Sam’s topic for the week. Is healthcare a right or a privilege? I found an interesting link in this story that shows that US healthcare system is not the envy of the world. In 2007, the US spent $7,290 per capita on health care but ranks last among seven countries. The…

Send us a Text Message. Two interesting thoughts from the mailbag. One listener writes, “In response to the #exmormon topic… personally if find exmo’s some of the most annoying people to listen to and I’m sorry if that sounds harsh but that’s because ultimately i don’t believe their intentions are genuine. I believe those people are more interested…

Send us a Text Message. We gotta start with Prigozhin. Sam, last week you suggested that he was the biggest threat to Putin, now he is no more. US officials say that a bomb is likely the cause of explosion that downed Wagner leader Prigozhin's plane, His death may help Ukraine in the short-term, but it removes Putin’s greatest internal threat. Besi…

Send us a Text Message.By Shawn, Sam, & Matt

Send us a Text Message. let’s start with our new segment which I have renamed “The Thought Provoker”. This segment will explore the ideas and concepts that someone has to say. We focus on learning new things and challenging our own viewpoints. After each story, we will decide if someone had an interesting or unique take on something, and whether th…