Welcome to Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Amy McPhee, all the best. It is a bittersweet feeling to introduce

the last podcast episode of Breaking Down Patriarchy before our finale. It's the last time I'll be

interviewing a guest in this format like I've done every week for the past five years. But there's no need to be

sad because first of all, this isn't the last podcast episode. Make sure you catch our finale

next week. And also because this is not the end. Listeners, please just hop on over to YouTube

where Breaking Down Patriarchy is continuing to produce incredible content.

And now, for today's episode, I could not be more excited and honored about our topic

and our guests today. I'm joined by Shirley Draper, who grew up in the FLDS Church, which

still practices polygamy, and she is now the director of operations

for Cherish Families, an organization that provides compassionate support to individuals and families

in need of help, primarily from polygamous backgrounds. This is the work of breaking down patriarchy

that is in a realm that has been really hard for me to even look at, let alone really deeply understand.

And so I am so excited and so honored that Shirley agreed to join me today.

Thank you so much for being here, Shirley.

Thank you for having me. This is an honor for me.

So I want to just get right into your personal story, introduce listeners to who you are,

but I think even before we can introduce you, we need to understand the context. And we have a lot

of listeners who are familiar with maybe what people think of as the mainstream LDS Church,

but we also do have a lot of listeners who aren't even too familiar with the LDS Church.

So could you just give us a little kind of primer on the LDS Church, the FLDS Church,

how they're the same, how they're different, and then how that kind of set the stage or set the

landscape for the world that you came into when you were born.

...