Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Warm Stories podcast. I am your host for today John

Delin. It's October 27th, 2022 and today we have someone really two people in studio that I have

huge respect for and that I've wanted to interview for many, many years. The main guest for today

is the one the only Gary James perjera. Hey Gary. Hi John. Thanks for coming. Thank you. It's such a

treat to have you. It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah. For those of you who don't know who Gary is,

if you're into Mormon history, Mormon studies, you'll know Gary because he worked forever for

signature books and for the Smith Pettit Foundation. And I believe he still works for the Smith Pettit

Foundation. But the reason why Gary and one of his colleagues Ron Prittis and so many other people,

George Smith, have such a near and dear place in my heart is because when I was going through my

faith crisis, kind of pre-Mormon internet, I think you could say there are just several books that

were instrumental and I probably don't, I probably can't list all the books that were influential

from from signature books that were influential to me, but certainly Grant Palmer's and Insiders view

of Mormon origins, certainly losing a lost tribe, both of Michael Quinn's books, origins of

power and extensions of power and just so many other books at all of Dan Vogel's stuff, Dan Vogel's

biography, so many books on polygamy and Mormon history, we could do an entire episode listing all

the contributions that signature books and the Smith Pettit Foundation have made to allow

the sort of Mormon internet phenomenon of podcast and blogs and social media and honestly just

the awakening within Mormonism to accurate factual credible Mormon history and scholarship.

So much of that rests on the back of George Smith, the Smith Pettit Foundation, signature books

and Gary, Bridgera and Ron Prittis and other people who have been involved. So Gary, you're a modest

guy so you probably don't even love that introduction, but that's my introduction and I'm sticking to it.

It's, I'm not going to try to contradict it so.

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