Shows
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “The Disenfranchised Grief of Sibling Loss,” with Anne Pinkerton“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-08-2600 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “Breaking Down Yellow Fever and the Asian Fetish,” with Kaila Yu“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-08-1900 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “Eat the Damn Peach, and Other Love Stories,” with Mary Catherine Starr“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-08-1200 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “Dead Dads Club,” with Maddie Norris“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-07-2900 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “Little Interpreter, Big Responsibility,” with Olivia Abtahi“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-07-2200 min
RelationscapesUnearthing Family Secrets (with Ingrid Rojas Contreras)
Some family stories are proudly passed down. Others are buried under layers of silence, fear, and cultural taboo.
After immigrating to the United States, author Ingrid Rojas Contreras kept quiet about her Colombian family’s history of curanderismo—a lineage of mystical healers, visions, and spiritual powers. But after a traumatic head injury triggered amnesia, those buried stories vanished entirely.
Then, as her memories gradually resurfaced, Ingrid returned to Colombia with her mother to exhume her grandfather’s remains—a legendary curandero said to possess the power to move clouds. But what she unearthe...
2025-07-151h 16
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “Unearthing Family Secrets,” with Ingrid Rojas Contreras“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-07-1500 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “Detoxing Masculinity,” with Ronald Levant and Shana Pryor“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-07-081h 09
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “Safe Spaces: A Pulse Nightclub Survivor Remembers,” with Brandon Wolf“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-06-241h 09Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “Safe Spaces: A Pulse Nightclub Survivor Remembers,” with Brandon Wolf“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-06-241h 09
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “Black and Beyond the Binary,” with KB Brookins“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-06-171h 09
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “Queer History Repeating,” with Christina Cauterucci“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-06-101h 09
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “What The News Isn't Telling You About Trans Teenagers,” with Nico Lang“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-06-031h 09
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “What Disabled Parents Can Teach Everyone About Parenting,” with Jessica Slice“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-05-271h 09
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “What to Expect Online When You’re Expecting,” with Amanda Hess“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-05-131h 09
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “You Could Learn a Lot From This Gay Divorce Story,” with Karl Dunn“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Fireside host Blair Hodges. Enjoy this sample episode! Be sure to subscribe directly to Relationscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-04-291h 09
RelationscapesThe Gay Divorce Guru (with Karl Dunn)
When marriage equality was finally achieved, Karl Dunn thought life couldn't be better. He had a husband, a dream job, and a beautiful life in LA. But then, as everything unraveled through a contentious divorce, Karl discovered just how unequally the system treats same-sex couples.
This crisis sent Karl on an urgent journey of self-rediscovery—from heartbreak in LA to healing in Berlin and beyond. In his memoir How To Burn a Rainbow, Karl explores what liberation really means when he stopped chasing personal perfection.
SHOW NOTES
Karl Dunn's Substack
ABOUT THE GUEST...
2025-04-291h 09
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes Mini Episode: “Pace Yourself and Brace Yourself,” with Katelyn Burns)“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Blair Hodges, host of Fireside. Enjoy this sample episode and be sure to subscribe directly to Relatio0nscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-04-221h 04
RelationscapesMINI EPISODE: Pace Yourself and Brace Yourself (with Katelyn Burns of 'Cancel Me, Daddy')
Katelyn Burns, journalist and podcast host of Cancel Me, Daddy. Katelyn was the first openly transgender Capitol Hill reporter in U.S. history and she continues to be a leading voice among journalists on trans issues. It’s not the cushiest job there ever was, especially right now. I wondered how she was holding up under our excessively transphobic regime.
SHOW NOTES
Cancel Me, Daddy podcast
Katelyn Burns, GUEST COLUMN: The current ‘mindf*ck’ of being a trans journalist (The Handbasket)
The Flytrap
Assigned Media, Evan Urquhart
Erin In the Morning, Erin Reed
Nic...
2025-04-2231 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “Masculinity, More Liberated and Free,” with Frederick Joseph“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Blair Hodges, host of Fireside. Enjoy this sample episode and be sure to subscribe directly to Relatio0nscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-04-151h 04
RelationscapesMasculinity, More Liberated and Free (with Frederick Joseph)
Frederick Joseph grew up without a father, and he's wondering now whether he wants to be one himself. As a child, he loved Broadway musicals when everyone else expected him to be into sports. Today he resists the suffocating expectations placed on him as a Black man in America through his poetry and essays, inviting men to break the mold of masculinity and embrace the full range of human emotions—sorrow, anger, love, and joy, and more.
Frederick's latest book is a collection of poems called We Alive, Beloved. He joins us to talk about th...
2025-04-151h 20
RelationscapesPuberty Ain't What it Used to Be (with Cara Natterson and Vanessa Kroll Bennett)
Puberty has changed a lot since we were kids. It starts earlier and lasts longer. And it's still as awkward as ever to talk about. Luckily, Dr. Cara Natterson and educator Vanessa Kroll Bennett are here to help.
They joined forces to explain the latest science on puberty, and to help caregivers, parents, and teachers navigate puberty conversations with confidence, humor, and connection. Their book is called This Is So Awkward: Modern Puberty Explained.
SHOW NOTES
This Is So Awkward podcast
Less Awkward resources
Socks for stinky feet and other pro...
2025-04-011h 15
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: "From Cringe to Connection," (w/ Cara Natterson & Vanessa Kroll Bennett)“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Blair Hodges, host of Fireside. Enjoy this sample episode and be sure to subscribe directly to Relatio0nscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-04-011h 04
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “Escaping the Echo Machine," with David Pakman“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Blair Hodges, host of Fireside. Enjoy this sample episode and be sure to subscribe directly to Relatio0nscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-03-1834 min
RelationscapesMINI EPISODE: Escaping the Echo Machine (with David Pakman)
Staying up to date with the news is a huge part of David Pakman’s job. As one of the most popular progressive political pundits on the internet today, he’s spent years navigating the media landscape. And that can really wear a person down! He's not immune to burnout caused by local and global crises covered in today's nonstop news cycles.
In this mini episode, Pakman confesses his own exasperation about modern politics, emphasizes the importance of media literacy, and offers ideas about how we can stay engaged without losing ourselves in the...
2025-03-1832 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesRelationscapes: “The Bad Dads Who Helped Invent Modern Motherhood,” with Nancy Reddy“Relationscapes” is the current podcast by Blair Hodges, host of Fireside. Enjoy this sample episode and be sure to subscribe directly to Relatio0nscapes now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2025-03-041h 04
RelationscapesThe Bad Dads Who Helped Invent Modern Motherhood (with Nancy Reddy)
When Nancy Reddy had her first child, she approached the situation like the overachieving PhD student she was at the time: She went to find the best research on parenting, studied it, and then tried to apply it so that everything would work out perfectly. The problem is, a lot of that research about caregiving and attachment turned out to be based on flawed lab studies, sloppy research, and so much misogyny.
Nancy joins us to talk about the problems she found and to offer alternatives that can benefit parents today. Her new book is...
2025-03-041h 04
ConspiritualityRelief Project #8: Blair HodgesThe eighth installment of Matthew’s Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person. Friend of the pod Blair Hodges joins Matthew to talk about how he’s transformed the teachings of his Mormon upbringing into inspiration for social justice, how he grapples with the limits of the nuclear family as he thinks about community building, and why James Baldwin is so important to him.Blair has degrees in journalism, religious studies, and disability studies from the University of Utah and Georgetown University. He’s currently working on a research project on the history of inte...
2025-02-1826 min
RelationscapesA Haunted Trans Story (with Kyle Lukoff)
Kyle Lukoff knows how to captivate readers, and he also knows what it feels like to have his books taken captive by bans. Because in picture books like Call Me Max and middle grade novels like Different Kinds of Fruit, Kyle introduces characters who proudly defy common expectations of gender identity. Trans readers love to see themselves reflected in his books. But frankly, Kyle's giving readers of all backgrounds the opportunity to think more deeply about our own journeys of self-discovery.
In this candid interview, the acclaimed author pulls back the curtain on his creative...
2025-02-1853 min
RelationscapesSwipe Left on Romance (with Sabrina Strings)
The dating world today feels like a minefield—swiping, ghosting, endless situationships, and more. What if the problem isn’t just app fatigue, but the very idea of romance itself? Sociologist Sabrina Strings unpacks how centuries of racism and sexism have shaped our ideas about modern love, leaving many people—especially women who don’t fit the "white enough" ideal—excluded from the fairy tale of true love.
Drawing from her latest book, The End of Love: Racism, Sexism, and the Death of Romance, and her own experiences, Strings challenges everything we think we know about love...
2025-02-041h 10
RelationscapesCreating More Equal Partnerships (with Kate Mangino)
Have you ever felt resentment about how responsibilities are divided in your relationship? Kate Mangino joins us to break down why this dynamic exists—and more important, what you can do about it.
Outdated gender norms are causing a lot of problems for people whether they're married, dating, or in a queer or straight partnership. Luckily, some small, everyday changes can lead to a more balanced home life where everyone has time for work, family, and themselves. We're talking about the book, Equal Partners: Improving Gender Equality at Home.
SHOW NOTES
State of...
2025-01-211h 18ConspiritualityBrief: Tech-Bro Mormonism (w/Blair Hodges)We know Bryan Johnson gobbles 100 pills a day. He pumps his son’s plasma through his veins. He does light therapy on his junk and wants to live forever. But do we understand how Johnson’s fascinations reflect his Mormon heritage? No. No we don’t. That’s why we called our very own Salt Lake City expert, Blair Hodges, host of the Relationscapes podcast. Blair joins Matthew to discuss Johnson’s transhumanism, which has roots in the LDS but has also led him away from it. They cover the spirituality of his money, whether he’s trying...
2025-01-1847 min
RelationscapesComing of Age in a Cult and Beyond (with Guinevere Turner)
One January day in 1975, seven-year-old Guinevere Turner put on her best dress, hugged her favorite toy tightly, and waited for the spaceship to arrive. The world was ending and she would be saved, spirited away to Venus with the rest of her enormous and enlightened family.
When the prophecy failed, the cult carried on. But Guinevere would soon find herself thrown out into the world beyond, where things somehow became more nightmarish than before.
In this episode, Guinevere Turner joins us to talk about her remarkable memoir, When the World Didn't End.
2025-01-071h 06
RelationscapesMINI EPISODE: In Defense of No-Fault Divorce (with Heather Quick)
Attorney Heather Quick stops by to talk about the importance of no-fault divorce. She also has tips about what to look for in a divorce lawyer.
Check out Heather's resources:
Florida Women's Law Group resources
Women Winning Divorce podcast
We also hear from some listeners about their divorce experiences.
The full transcript of this episode is available here.
2024-12-2330 min
RelationscapesPainfully Funny (with Paul Scheer)
Paul Scheer is an award-winning actor, screenwriter, comedian and podcast host of How Did This Get Made? So you'd think his most interesting life stories would be about his audition for Saturday Night Live or how he came up through improv comedy to star in shows like The League and Black Monday.
Those are interesting stories, but in his new memoir, Paul gives center stage to family stories. Growing up with a loving mom and dad who divorced, the tyranny of an abusive stepfather, and what it's like to become a marriage partner and a par...
2024-12-1055 min
RelationscapesBeyond Barbie Feminism (with Rafia Zakaria)
Mainstream feminism today was created mostly by white women, for white women. It has soaked into American pop culture, social media, the economy, politics, and more. Rafia Zakaria wants that to change. In this episode, we discuss her book Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Rafia Zakaria is a Pakistani-American attorney, feminist, journalist, and author. Her books include he authored the books The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan and Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption.
2024-11-261h 02
RelationscapesTrans in the Latter Days (with Laurie Lee Hall)
Laurie Lee Hall was a promising college student studying architecture, and she was known to the world as a man. When she encountered The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints she saw a well-defined path that fit the gender she was assigned at birth. So she buried her past to become the perfect Mormon man.
Wearing her male disguise, she married, had children, and rose to the position of chief architect for the LDS Church, overseeing its most sacred building projects. But her past refused to stay buried. Could she become who she really w...
2024-11-122h 05
Fireside with Blair HodgesFamily Proclamations: “Trans in the Latter Days," with Laurie Lee Hall“Family Proclamations” is the current podcast by Blair Hodges, host of Fireside. Enjoy this sample episode and be sure to subscribe directly to Family Proclamations now, because this episode will fall out of the Fireside feed next month!
2024-11-122h 05
RelationscapesBorder Separations (with Efrén Olivares)
Trump's 2018 zero tolerance policy which separated immigrant children from their parents at the border with no plan for reuniting them shocked the conscience of many Americans. And even though Trump claimed to cease the practice within weeks, zero tolerance is rooted in American law that dates back 100 years and remains on the books today. It can easily happen again.
Efrén Olivares was on the front lines defending immigrant families, and the work was personal. Efrén himself is an immigrant, and he joins us to talk about his incredible book, My Boy Will Die of...
2024-10-291h 11
RelationscapesMINI EPISODE: Return of the Childless Cat Ladies
"We are effectively run in this country via the Democrats, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too. And it's just a basic fact, if you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we've turned our country over to people who don't really have a direct stake in it."
—J.D...
2024-10-1537 min
Living Beyond the Shadow of Doubt™Episode 145: Triangulation with Blair HodgesBlair Hodges is host and producer of Family Proclamations, a podcast about the evolution of family, gender, and sexuality. He earned a bachelor’s degree in communications (journalism) at the University of Utah and a master’s degree in religious studies at Georgetown University.
Hodges is the creator and former host of the Maxwell Institute Podcast at Brigham Young University. He also created Fireside with Blair Hodges, a podcast about the intersection of faith and social justice.
He loves reading, weekend napping, hiking, camping, the Utah Jazz, and spending time with his partner and two kids...
2024-10-0956 min
RelationscapesCelebrating Black Womanhood (with Catherine Joy White)
As a Black woman growing up in England, Catherine Joy White sometimes felt out of place at home, but also disconnected from the heritage of her Jamaican ancestors. Until she began connecting with the stories of remarkable but often forgotten Black woman from history. Their stories helped her re-envision what beauty means, how silence can also be strength, what "self care" really means, and what courage looks like.
She found fortitude which, like a thread of gold, can connect all of us to the past, keep us grounded in the present, and point us toward...
2024-10-011h 12
RelationscapesThe Challenges of Parenting Trans Kids (with Abi Maxwell)
Abi Maxwell's daughter wanted the pink shoes. She wanted to dress as a witch on Halloween in kindergarten. She wore her hair long and envied the dance costumes other girls got to wear for the recital. The problem was that Abi's daughter was "known" to her, and to their conservative New Hampshire town, as a boy.
Suddenly, Abi's beloved hometown became engulfed in a hurricane of controversy with her daughter right in the eye of the storm. In this episode, Abi tells the story of how her own ignorance about trans people turned into understanding...
2024-09-171h 14
RelationscapesThe Many Reasons Women Don't Have Children (with Peggy O'Donnell Heffington)
History is full of women who never gave birth to children, whether because they couldn't or even didn't want to. Historian Peggy O'Donnell Heffington says her research about women without children made her feel more settled about her own choice not to have kids, but it also surprisingly made her feel greater solidarity with women who make the opposite choice. She joins us to talk about her book Without Children: The Long History of Not Being a Mother.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Peggy O'Donnell Heffington is Assistant Senior Instructional Professor and Associate Director of U...
2024-09-031h 28
RelationscapesWomen's Reproductive Health Matters (with Dr. Karen Tang)
Up to 90% of women and trans men experience menstrual abnormalities or pelvic issues at some point in their lives. Dr. Karen Tang says too many people are suffering in silence, and that's why she wrote a comprehensive guide called It's Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (but Were Never Told). We're talking all about reproductive health, so if you've ever met with a gynecologist, this one's for you. And if you haven't, this one is also very much for you!
ABOUT THE GUEST
Dr. Karen Tang is author of...
2024-08-201h 11
RelationscapesFinding Happiness in Single Life (with Bella DePaulo)
Bella DePaulo has been single her entire life, but she doesn't want anyone's pity about that. This social psychologist loves being single, and she always has. In her latest book Single At Heart she highlights the lives of people who are thriving not in spite of being uncoupled, but because of it. She joins us to talk about what her research uncovers about the "Power, Freedom, and Heart-Filling Joy of Single Life."
ABOUT THE GUEST
Bella DePaulo has been described by The Atlantic as “America’s foremost thinker and writer on the single exper...
2024-08-061h 14
RelationscapesBusting Myths About Only Children (with Lauren Sandler)
Lauren Sandler is an "only child" expert. She is one. She has one. And as an award-winning journalist, Lauren dug deep to answer some of the most pressing questions about singletons. Are they more lonely? Are they more selfish? Would they be better off with siblings? She answers these questions and more in her book, One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child and the Joy of Being One.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Lauren Sandler is an award-winning journalist and author based in Brooklyn. She is author of multiple best-selling books including Th...
2024-07-231h 34
RelationscapesWhen High Demand Religions Control Sexuality (with Sara Glass)
As an ultra-Orthodox Jew, Sara Glass was raised to believe her purpose in life was to marry a righteous man and bear children, all to the glory of God. On the outside, she was following that plan to perfection. But on the inside, something was pulling her in a very different direction. It was traumatic, and she would have to risk everything to find healing. Sara joins us to discuss her new memoir, Kissing Girls on Shabbat.
Note: This episode includes discussion of miscarriage and also sexual violence. Listener discretion is advised. If you or...
2024-07-091h 04
RelationscapesLearning About Masculinity Today from the Ancient Romans (with Mike Pope)
What does it mean to be a man? It depends on who you ask. And it depends on *when* you ask, because masculinity has always been a moving target. In this episode we travel back to ancient Rome, where manly men loved war, violence, and sexual conquest. Mike Pope says this history has powerful relevance for us today. We're talking about his book, Lucretius and the End of Masculinity.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Mike Pope is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at Brigham Young University. He is author of the book, Lucretius and the En...
2024-06-251h 06
RelationscapesNonbinary Thinking (with Eris Young)
Eris Young is author of the go-to book on everything non-binary. They break down the basics of the gender binary, painting a more expansive, inclusive, and accurate picture of human identity.
What is it like to be nonbinary? What challenges do people face? What about healthcare for nonbinary folks? All this and more, as we talk to Eris Young about their book, They/Them/Their: A Guide to Nonbinary and Genderqueer Identities.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Eris Young is a queer, transgender writer of fiction and nonfiction. Their books They/Them/Their: A...
2024-06-111h 24
RelationscapesLiving and Writing Through Divorce (with Maggie Smith)
Maggie Smith gives us an unflinching look at divorce today and what it means to live and write our own lives. Her best-selling memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, is a story about a mother’s fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman’s love and regard for herself. Need some divorce catharsis? Want to hear what it's like to keep going? Join us.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Maggie Smith is a poet and best-selling award-winning author of the memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful. She also wrote Good Bones...
2024-05-2847 min
RelationscapesHow Child Protective Services is Broken (with Jessica Pryce)
Jessica Pryce believed a career at Child Protective Services would be a rewarding way to help keep kids safe. What she learned on the job completely changed her mind, as the system itself kept getting closer and closer to home. Now she's a scholar of the system and works as a public advocate to help change it for the better.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Dr. Jessica Pryce earned her Master's of Social Work degree from Florida State University and a PhD from Howard University. She is currently a research professor at Florida State University’s Col...
2024-05-141h 01ConspiritualityBrief: Religion is Not Belief? (w/Blair Hodges)The late historian of religion James Carse (1932-2020) made a radical proposal in his 2012 book, The Religious Case Against Belief. He argued that beliefs, far from being central to or definitive of religion, are actually antithetical to religious community. A religion’s historical longevity, he argued, depends on its ability to absorb and neutralize beliefs—epistemological dead ends built on willful ignorance. “The challenge to religion,” Carse says, “is not its opponents from without, but its believers from within, and the real enemy of religion is belief itself.”What does this mean for a project like...
2024-05-0447 min
RelationscapesCaregiving for a Dying Parent with a Difficult Past (with Deborah J. Cohan)
Caregiving for aging and dying parents can be tough for anyone, but it's even tougher when it forces you to confront longtime family dynamics of abuse. Sociologist Deborah Cohan blurs the lines between academic research on family caregiving and violence, and her own personal story about a father she calls both adoring and abusive.
Her memoir is called Welcome to Wherever We Are: A Memoir of Family, Caregiving, and Redemption.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Deborah J. Cohan is a professor of sociology at the University of South Carolina-Beaufort. She earned her PhD in...
2024-04-301h 16
RelationscapesBuilding LGBTQ Families (with Abbie E. Goldberg)
With the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015, queer families are more visible today than ever. But the path to becoming a parent is complicated for LGBTQ people. We talk about about the challenges and joys of queer family building with expert Abbie Goldberg, author of LGBTQ Family Building: A Guide for Prospective Parents.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Dr. Abbie E. Goldberg is a psychologist and researcher who provides LGBTQ parents and prospective parents with the detailed, evidence‑based knowledge they need to navigate the transition to parenthood and help their children thrive.
2024-04-1658 min
RelationscapesLuckily, Divorce Ain't What It Used To Be (with April White)
Divorce can be a difficult process today, but it's nothing compared to what it used to be. In the late 1800s, women from around the country had to fight for the right to separate from their husbands on their own terms. April White explains how their stories still impact us today.
ABOUT THE GUEST
April White is author of The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier. She has served as an editor and writer at Atlas Obscura and Smithsonian Magazine. Her historical stories have also appeared in...
2024-03-191h 06
RelationscapesThe Truth About Transracial Adoption (with Angela Tucker)
Angela Tucker is a Black woman who was adopted by white parents as a very young child. Angela says transracial adoptees like her grow up wrestling with complicated feelings of gratitude and love, but also rejection, loss, and confusion about their heritage.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Angela Tucker is author of “You Should Be Grateful:" Stories of Race, Identity, and Transracial Adoption. Her family story was featured in the documentary Closure. She has over 15 years of experience working within adoption and foster care agencies, mentoring over 200 adoptees as founder of the Adoptee Mentoring Society. In a...
2024-03-051h 12
RelationscapesOne Big Closeted Family (with Jessi Hempel)
When Jessi Hempel came out of the closet she had no idea her whole church-going family had been hiding in there with her. And things got complicated fast when the closet door kept swinging open.
SHOW NOTES
Jessi Hempel, "My Brother’s Pregnancy and the Making of a New American Family," TIME (Sept. 12, 2016).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jessi Hempel is author of The Family Outing: A Memoir. She is also host of the award-winning podcast Hello Monday, and a senior editor-at-large at LinkedIn. Her features and cover stories have appeared in Wired, Fortune, and TIME...
2024-02-2055 min
RelationscapesHow Children's Rights Impact Everyone (with Adam Benforado)
One hundred years ago, a bright new age for children was dawning in America. Child labor laws were being passed, public education was spreading, and more. But Adam Benforado says America stopped short in its revolution of children's rights.
Today, more than eleven million American children live in poverty. We deny young people any political power, while we fail to act on the issues that matter most to them: racism, inequality, and climate change. That's why Adam is calling for a new revolution for kids.
He joins us to discuss his book, A...
2024-02-061h 20
RelationscapesHealing From Family Trauma (with Mariel Buqué)
Your family is...loving? Your family is...hurtful? Your family is...all this and more? If you feel overwhelmed when you think about your family, this episode will help you understand your anxiety and give you evidence-based tools to repair it.
Dr. Mariel Buqué is a leading specialist in trauma psychology. She says our physical and mental health challenges can be rooted in family trauma passed down through the generations—not just culturally, but even biologically.
We're talking about her new book, Break the Cycle: A Guide to Healing Intergenerational Trauma.
ABO...
2024-01-231h 21
RelationscapesHow the Female Body Drove Evolution (with Cat Bohannon)
Cat Bohannon says for far too long the story of human evolution has ignored the female body. Her new book offers a sweeping revision of human history. It's an urgent and necessary corrective that will forever change your understanding of birth and why it's more difficult for humans than virtually any other animal species on the planet.
Her best-selling book is called Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution, and we're talking all about it in this episode.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Cat Bohannon is a researcher and aut...
2024-01-091h 33
RelationscapesWelcome to Relationscapes - Trailer
Welcome to Relationscapes!
The way society thinks about family, love, and identity seems to be evolving faster than ever. In our hyperconnected world, these changes feel more urgent, and as we're seeing every day in the news, it's sparking backlash. So what can we do?
I didn't have to worry much about that before as a white straight cisgender guy. But I realized that the less I knew about people who were different from me, the less I actually understood myself and the world. And the truth is, relationships have always been evolving.
I...
2024-01-0102 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesS'mores (Bonus Episode)—Tara Boyce on HopeTara Boyce joins us to reconsider Tom Whyman’s episode about “hope.” Is Tom too hopeful? Transcript at our website, firesidepod.org/episodes/boyce.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2023-09-2753 min
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2023-09-2100 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesJoy, with Ross GayRoss Gay is a New York Times bestselling author of essays and poetry. His latest book is ‘Inciting Joy,’ which argues that “joy is something like what we feel like when we help each other carry our sorrows, what we feel like when we sort of realize we're practicing our entanglement, our belonging to one another.”Transcript at our website, firesidepod.org/episodes/gay.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2023-04-181h 10
Off the Clock with The Interns30 | bauce: with Blair BenefieldWelcome back to Off the Clock! Joining Ian, Aidan, and Grant this time around is Blair Benefield! Blair is the Pastor of Ministry Integration at Fellowship Church. On this episode, the guys talk about Blair's story and journey to his current role, unifying a team, leadership, coffee, Ian and Aidan's failed TV show attempt, and more. We hope you enjoy!Follow us on instagram!https://www.instagram.com/the_official_interns/?utm_medium=copy_linkEmail us! internsofftheclock@gmail.comListen to Ian's EP! https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/ianpeters/time-2https://www.patreon.com...
2023-04-1456 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesInvisible, with Meghan O'RourkeMeghan O'Rourke is a citizen of what she calls the invisible kingdom. Anyone can become a citizen. Even you. All you need is a debilitating chronic illness that doctors can't easily understand or treat—autoimmune diseases, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic Lyme, fibromyalgia, and a bunch of other conditions at the blurry edges of medical knowledge. As doctors tried to pinpoint Meghan’s diagnoses, she decided to create a record of what she was learning about chronic illness from doctors, scientists, and patients along the way.Transcript at our website, firesidepod.org/episodes/orourke.Buy the book...
2023-04-0400 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesTransitions, with Susan StrykerWhen she was born, Susan Stryker’s parents thought they were welcoming a baby boy. She knew they were wrong by the time she was five years old, but it took decades to let them know who she really was. Being trans raised a lot of questions for Susan—practical questions of course, but also theological, philosophical, and historical questions. So she went searching for answers. Transcript at our website, firesidepod.org/episodes/stryker.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2023-03-071h 35
Fireside with Blair HodgesMission, with Kathryn Gin LumRace and religion have been intertwined throughout American history. Christians believed they could detect so-called “heathen” unbelief by the color of someone’s skin or the state of a foreign landscape. Over time, the word “heathen” dropped off, but historian Kathryn Gin Lum says the ideas behind it are alive and well in the United States today, even beyond religion. Transcript available: firesidepod.org/episodes/ginlum.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2023-02-2100 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesShell Play, with Toni JensenToni Jensen grew up around guns. As a girl, she learned to shoot birds in rural Iowa with her father. As an adult, she’s had guns waved in her face near Standing Rock, felt their silent threat on the concealed-carry campus where she teaches. Toni is a Métis woman, with mixed European and Indigenous ancestry. She's no stranger to the violence enacted on the bodies and lands of Indigenous people, especially women, and the ways violence is hidden, ignored, forgotten.This episode was incidentally recorded on May 24, 2022, the day of the shooting at Robb Elementary Sch...
2023-02-0700 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesHope, with Tom WhymanWhen Tom Whyman started thinking about becoming a father, he worried. Would he and his partner be able to make a living to support a child? What about political upheaval in the UK, or the increasing threat of climate change—not to mention all the little daily ways having a child could change his life. Then a global pandemic shook things up even more. As a philosopher, he asked: What reason is there for hope? Transcript available: firesidepod.org/episodes/whyman.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2023-01-2400 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesThe Fire, with Danté StewartComing up out of the waters of baptism at a new white Christian church, Danté Stewart envisioned leaving his blackness behind, washing away his boyhood Black Pentecostal baptism, and rising to a colorblind world where all lives matter. But as time passed, as he witnessed more bodies of Black Americans being killed, he felt rage growing inside. An unexpectedly holy kind of rage that prepared him for yet another baptism—this time, by fire.Transcript available: firesidepod.org/episodes/stewart.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2023-01-101h 29
Fireside with Blair HodgesHeritage, with Masha RumerMasha Rumer immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union when she was thirteen. At first, her nationality made her self-conscious; she wanted to blend in with her new American peers as fast as possible. But over time, Masha discovered her love for her homeland never really went away, and she wanted to share it with her own children. Which turned out to be complicated. Transcript available: firesidepod.org/episodes/rumer.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2022-11-0800 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesMonsters, with David Livingstone SmithDavid Livingstone Smith has studied dehumanization for decades. He's spent a lot of time researching horrific genocides, lynching, massacres, and other brutalities. Real humans pull the trigger. Real humans administer the poisonous gasses and drop the bombs. People not entirely unlike me and you, although it's a lot more comforting to imagine they're monsters. And in fighting monsters, we risk becoming the very thing we’re fighting against.Transcript at our website, firesidepod.org/episodes/smith.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2022-10-251h 06
Fireside with Blair HodgesVoices, with Jeff ChuWhen Rachel Held Evans unexpectedly died in 2019, the thirty-seven-year-old Christian writer left behind a husband and two young children, as well as an unfinished book manuscript. Rachel's husband Dan knew she would want that book out in the world, so he enlisted their good friend Jeff Chu—a writer, reporter, and editor—to put all the pieces in place. The technical logistics made it hard enough, but Jeff also had to reckon with his own grief at the loss of such a dear friend.Full transcript available at firesidepod.org/episodes/chu.Buy the book and...
2022-10-1158 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesMargins, with Fatimah Salleh and Margaret Olsen HemmingIt’s been said that, like the Bible, there are few women in the Book of Mormon. And that’s true, in one sense. But in another, women are everywhere there. Fatimah Salleh and Margaret Olsen Hemming are looking for them while they work on the first complete commentary on the Book of Mormon ever written by women.Transcript available: firesidepod.org/episodes/salleh-olsen.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2022-09-2758 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesThe Books, with Vanessa ZoltanWhat happens if we approach some of our favorite books with a similar kind of devotion and attentive reading religious communities bring to their scripture? Vanessa Zoltan breathes new life into our engagement with our favorite books—even the ones that don't hold up well regarding sexism, racism, and more.Transcript at our website, firesidepod.org/episodes/zoltan.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2022-09-1358 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesCivility, with Alex ZamalinIn his book Against Civility: The Hidden Racism in our Obsession with Civility, Alex Zamalin traces the history of civility from its deployment against African slaves, through Reconstruction and the Civil Rights movement, all the way to today’s Black Lives Matter protests.Transcript at our website, firesidepod.org/episodes/zamalin.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2022-08-3049 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesHidden, with Ayala FaderUltra-Orthodox Jews structure every aspect of their lives around their religion. But those who come to doubt their beliefs, or who question various practices and rituals, risk losing everything.Transcript at our website, firesidepod.org/episodes/fader.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2022-08-161h 31
Fireside with Blair HodgesBONUS—Let's Talk (Anna Sale)Anna Sale says a loss of faith in social institutions has left people seeking alternative ways of celebrating, mourning, and connecting. At a fractured and disconnected moment in time, she urges us to reconnect by having hard conversations that are too-often avoided. Anna Sale is the host of the award-winning podcast Death, Sex, and Money from WNYC Studios, and author of the book “Let’s Talk About Hard Things.”
2022-05-1029 min
Dialogue Journal PodcastSpecial Fireside with Blair Hodges episode with Editor Taylor PetreyTaylor Petrey traces the development of doctrine about gender and sexuality within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Find all Fireside with Blair Hodges episodes from Season 1 here.
The post Special Fireside with Blair Hodges episode with Editor Taylor Petrey appeared first on Dialogue Journal.
2022-02-171h 33
Fireside with Blair HodgesOptions, with Taylor PetreyIs human gender and sexuality fixed and binary, or malleable and multi-various? Taylor Petrey discusses the fascinating twists and turns in Latter-day Saint thought on these questions. By looking at LDS beliefs as they evolve over time, we might get a clearer view of where we are now and what's up ahead. Transcript at our website, firesidepod.org/episodes/petrey.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2022-02-081h 32
Fireside with Blair HodgesHome, with Lauren SandlerLauren Sandler was a journalist covering homelessness in New York City when she met Camilla, a woman without a home who didn’t seem to fit the homeless stereotype at all. Sandler tells Camilla’s story in This Is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search For Home. It’s an up close and personal account of one woman who shares the fate of millions of Americans battling homelessness and the stunning boring inefficient bureaucracy of it all.Transcript at our website, firesidepod.org/episodes/sandler.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/stor
2022-01-251h 14
Fireside with Blair HodgesSlow Down, with John SwintonJohn Swinton’s path-breaking book, Becoming Friends of Time: Disability, Timefulness, and Gentle Discipleship takes us through a brief history of time, showing how western culture has changed its experience of time in big ways, and how those changes have impacted people with intellectual disabilities, brain trauma, and people with conditions like Dementia. As a theologian, Swinton reflects on what this history suggests for Christianity. Transcript at our website, firesidepod.org/episodes/swinton.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2022-01-1159 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesReckoning, with Anthea ButlerAnthea Butler is a top expert on religion, politics, and race in the United States. In her latest book White Evangelical Racism she tells the history of the rise of the Religious Right in America—Christians who are politically conservative, predominantly white, and Republican. As church attendance shrinks and public confidence and respect of religious people dwindles, Butler sees a moment of reckoning for American Christianity. Transcript at our website, firesidepod.org/episodes/butler.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2021-11-161h 03
Fireside with Blair HodgesNo Compartments, with David DarkDavid Dark seems hard to pin down. He's a professor of religion and the arts, he's a Christian, and also a self-identified agnostic. He engages readers all along the spectrum of belief by claiming that everyone believes in some sort of scripture, even if it's a sci-fi novel or a Radiohead album. Transcript at our website, firesidepod.org/episodes/dark.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2021-11-021h 05
Fireside with Blair HodgesLost and Found, with Elaine PagelsElaine Pagels is a ground-breaking scholar of Christianity. Back in the Sixties she was a student at Harvard when long-forgotten ancient texts re-emerged, secret gospels challenging old religious ideas. That research shook up Christian history, but for Pagels, it was also really personal. And unlike most scholars, she decided to take her intensely personal stories public, writing about the incredible ups and tragic downs happening behind the scholarly scenes. Transcript at firesidepod.org/episodes/pagels.Buy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store.
2021-10-121h 09
Fireside with Blair HodgesRevision, with Kiese LaymonKiese Laymon is a writer and professor of English who believes time travel is possible. It's as easy to access as human language. Laymon discusses his re-released novel, 'Long Division' and his memoir 'Heavy.'Transcript at firesidepod.org/episodes/laymonBuy the book and other merch at firesidepod.org/store
2021-09-281h 04
Fireside with Blair HodgesNew Words, with Mary RakowThings were falling apart in Mary Rakow’s life. Her writing was stagnating, her marriage was falling apart, and she broke up with God. Then Mary picked up a pen and created one of the most religiously rich books I’ve ever read in my life.Transcript at firesidepod.org/episodes/rakowBuy the book at firesidepod.org/store
2021-09-141h 18
Fireside with Blair HodgesEnd Times, with Adam MillerIf you ask philosopher Adam Miller what he thinks the end of the world will be like, he’d tell you it looks like the day his son turned fifteen years old. Not because anything remarkable that happened that day, but because it wasn’t remarkable at all. It was a day that came and went and then it was gone. And it’s never coming back. We face the end of worlds like this every day. But rather than despairing, this realization can energize us to appreciate the present even more.
2021-08-3158 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesBelonging, with Nora KrugFamily history can be delightful, but it can also be heart-wrenching. Nora Krug was born in Germany decades after the fall of the Nazi regime, but the Second World War cast a long shadow over her childhood and youth. In her award-winning graphic memoir 'Belonging,' she struggles under the weight of catastrophic history and reflects on the responsibility we all have as inheritors of our peoples' pasts.See firesidepod.org for a complete transcript and show notes. Grab a copy of the book at https://amzn.to/3gcsRPq.
2021-08-1759 min
Fireside with Blair HodgesTrailer—Fireside, with Blair HodgesDo you think of yourself as spiritual but not religious? Or maybe you feel more religious than spiritual. Or maybe you're not quite sure what labels fit you best because things go back and forth--like, it depends on the day, and you've felt all of it or none of it. But most of all you're really interested in thinking about religion, spirituality, and culture. There's a seat for you at Fireside, with Blair Hodges. In season one of this brand new podcast I'll sit down with some of my favorite writers and scholars to talk about some...
2021-03-2301 minDialogue Journal PodcastDialogue Book of Mormon Gospel Study with Blair Hodges on Alma 17–22Dialogue Sunday Gospel Study June 28, 2020 Alma 17-22 Blair Hodges is the public communications specialist for the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University. He hosts the Maxwell Institute Podcast, featuring scholars of religion, scripture,…
The post Dialogue Book of Mormon Gospel Study with Blair Hodges on Alma 17–22 appeared first on Dialogue Journal.
2020-06-281h 07
Dialogue Gospel StudyDialogue Book of Mormon Gospel Study with Blair Hodges on Alma 17–22Dialogue Sunday Gospel Study June 28, 2020 Alma 17-22 Blair Hodges is the public communications specialist for the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University. He hosts the Maxwell Institute Podcast, featuring scholars of religion, scripture,…
The post Dialogue Book of Mormon Gospel Study with Blair Hodges on Alma 17–22 appeared first on Dialogue Journal.
2020-06-281h 07
Maxwell Institute PodcastCelebrating 100 episodes of the Maxwell Institute Podcast, with Blair Hodges [MIPodcast #100]
Get behind the scenes of the Maxwell Institute Podcast in this special interview celebrating one hundred episodes. Jeremy King, the Maxwell Institute’s administrator and controller, invited host Blair Hodges to talk about how the show is made and what he hopes it offers to listeners.
About the Guest
Blair Hodges is the public communications specialist at the Maxwell Institute. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communication with a minor in religious studies from the University of Utah in 2010. He received a master’s degree in religious studies from Georgetown University in 2013. He hosts...
2019-12-311h 05Maxwell Institute PodcastCelebrating 100 episodes of the Maxwell Institute Podcast, with Blair Hodges [MIPodcast #100]
Get behind the scenes of the Maxwell Institute Podcast in this special interview celebrating one hundred episodes. Jeremy King, the Maxwell Institute’s administrator and controller, invited host Blair Hodges to talk about how the show is made and what he hopes it offers to listeners.
About the Guest
Blair Hodges is the public communications specialist at the Maxwell Institute. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communication with a minor in religious studies from the University of Utah in 2010. He received a master’s degree in religious studies from Georgetown University in 2013. He hosts...
2019-12-311h 05
Mormon Discussions Podcasts - Full Lineup060: Blair Hodges: Maxwell InstituteMy interview with Blair Hodges. He works in Public Affairs with the Neal A Maxwell institute. We discuss the changes at the Maxwell institute, the general status of faith struggles in the Church, along with his working alongside Richard Bushman and Terryl Givens. We discuss faith and how we each are different in how we […]
The post 060: Blair Hodges: Maxwell Institute appeared first on Mormon Discussions Podcasts - Full Lineup.
2013-12-0351 min
Mormon Discussion Podcast060: Blair Hodges: Maxwell InstituteMy interview with Blair Hodges. He works in Public Affairs with the Neal A Maxwell institute. We discuss the changes at the Maxwell institute, the general status of faith struggles in the Church, along with his working alongside Richard Bushman and Terryl Givens. We discuss faith and how we each are different in how we… Read More »060: Blair Hodges: Maxwell Institute
The post 060: Blair Hodges: Maxwell Institute appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.
2013-12-0351 min
Mormon Discussion Archives - Mormon Discussions Podcasts - Full Lineup060: Blair Hodges: Maxwell InstituteMy interview with Blair Hodges. He works in Public Affairs with the Neal A Maxwell institute. We discuss the changes at the Maxwell institute, the general status of faith struggles in the Church, along with his working alongside Richard Bushman and Terryl Givens. We discuss faith and how we each are different in how we… Read More »060: Blair Hodges: Maxwell Institute
The post 060: Blair Hodges: Maxwell Institute appeared first on Mormon Discussions Podcasts - Full Lineup.
2013-12-0351 minMormon Discussion Archives - Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel060: Blair Hodges: Maxwell InstituteMy interview with Blair Hodges. He works in Public Affairs with the Neal A Maxwell institute. We discuss the changes at the Maxwell institute, the general status of faith struggles in the Church, along with his working alongside Richard Bushman and Terryl Givens. We discuss faith and how we each are different in how we implement faith in our lives.
http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/
http://www.maxwellinstituteblog.org/
The post 060: Blair Hodges: Maxwell Institute appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.
2013-12-0351 min