Mormon Stories to Interview RFM

[_consiglieri]

RFM is scheduled for a Mormon Stories interview this Friday.

Any advice?

[_Maksutov]

Be careful you don't come under the Satanic spell of the evil John Dehlin. You'll get the anonymous libel treatment here.

[_Grudunza]

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Advice: talk really fast. I love MS interviews, but not that they’re often several hours long.

[_consiglieri]

Talk really fast. Check.

Beware Satanic spell. Check.

[_candygal]

Just be yourself. I love Mormon stories because it is real...Can't wait!
I am a Dehlin fan. Because his interviews are real on diverse topics, we find a core in every interview. I think you will be surprised by what you share and will find out more about own "self".

[_2bizE]

Would love to hear more of your story. What were your ah ha moments.

[_Aristotle Smith]

This list is based on why I stopped listening to Mormon Stories years ago, i.e. please do this to fix my Mormon Stories listening experience.

Make sure the interview is severely time boxed: At some point, I just lost the will to listen to Mormon Stories 4-8 hour marathon sessions. It appears that John doesn't edit for time. Your interview won't be saved in editing. My suggestion would be no more than 2 hours.

Provide a list of questions you want to answer/talk about: John is horrible at asking questions. Both you and Bill are much better at it than he is. Have some idea of where the questions should go and try and get him to go along with it.

Avoid early life issues: John loves to spend hours talking about backstory; combined with lack of editing and bad question asking it absolutely kills interviews. You have already covered this material. If the subject comes up, use it as a chance to promote RFM and refer people to episodes where you discuss things like your childhood, mission, early church callings etc.

Don't do this: John and Brooke McLay – From CES to Ex-Mormons. You have enough wisdom to handle yourself well, so I doubt you will conduct the same kind of interview as the McLay family did. They shared too much, too soon, and the whole interview felt icky (that's the technical term). I don't hold the McLays at fault, John should have waited for their lives to calm down and sort itself out before doing the interview. You have been out for a while and are even keeled, I doubt anything like this is even a remote possibility for you. Still, I hold this episode up as the #1 example of what not to do on Mormon Stories.

Go with your strengths, not John's: You have unique takes on Mormonism because you are intelligent, are fair with the facts, and take the LDS church and its leaders seriously. In a word, you are an intellectual. Mormon Stories tends to do less well with people like you. For example, I thought John's worst interview of all time was Translating the Book of Mormon with Brant Gardner. John was completely unprepared to deal with Gardner's points. However, Gardner acquitted himself well in the interview. Like Gardner I would suggest a more intellectual interview, but maybe help John prepare more so that he doesn't end up asking dumb questions like he did with Gardner.

[_sunstoned]

Good advice Aristotle. John has killed several potentially interesting interviews by his rambling questions and by constantly interrupting the guest. The podcasts that were successful, such as the Christine Jeppsen Clark interview worked because John just kept quiet most of the time.

[_moksha]

Be careful you don't come under the Satanic spell of the evil John Dehlin. You'll get the anonymous libel treatment here.

Yeah, watch out for that water cooler smooching. Barring that, don't get obsessed if it doesn't work out.

Mormon apologetics is always an interesting topic to discuss since there is such a wide range of subject matter - from the original Danites to Sic et Non. Like, what happed to Kwadzu? Is he still pestering you?

[_Jason Bourne]

RFM is scheduled for a Mormon Stories interview this Friday.

Any advice?

Cool. No advice. Enjoy!