Hi, everyone. Welcome to Mormon News Weekly. This new weekly show is dedicated to a roundtable discussion of the latest news in the broad world of Mormonism.

Each episode will dissect the previous week's top Mormon-related news stories from our very different perspectives.

So that it's not all serious all the time. We'll also throw in a few fun stories and pop culture musings along the way.

My name is Patrick Mason. I'll be moderating the conversation this week with my two fellow panelists, Jan Arise and John Dillin.

We'll rotate with a different one of us directing traffic each week.

Now, in terms of our day jobs, I'm a professor of religious studies and history at Utah State University.

Jan is a senior columnist at Religion News Service, and John is host of the Mormon Stories podcast.

John and Jan are welcome. It's great to see you.

Thank you, Patrick.

Thanks, Patrick. This is super exciting.

Yeah. Hey, so what else do you want to each say about yourselves here to introduce yourself to our listeners?

Well, I'll start. So I am a senior columnist for Religion News Service, and I'm also the author of the book The Next Mormons,

how millennials are changing the LDS church. I'm currently at work on a project about people who have left Mormonism and what their lives look like now.

Awesome. John.

I think I'll say I'm president of the Patrick Mason and Jenneries fan clubs. I'll start by saying that.

Then I'm a six generation Mormon raised in the church did a tech career before I started my podcast Mormon stories to help talk about difficult things and Mormonism.

And ended up getting a PhD in clinical and counseling psychology along the way, research mental health and Mormonism, including the LGBTQ Mormon experience.

And at some point, my membership of kind of was challenged a bit, and I was actually communicated from the church.

But I remain someone who self identifies as a Mormon who loves the Mormon people and just loves talking about Mormonism.

Awesome. Thanks. And yeah, in addition to being a professor, so I write books both for the academy. People generally don't read those books.

My scholarly ones, and then I've written some books that are directed a little bit more at church audiences.

And so I'm fully invested in and participating in the church in addition to my academic work. And so I'm excited for what we're going to do here on this show.

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