Welcome to Follow Him, a weekly podcast dedicated to helping individuals and families with their

Come Follow Me study. I'm Hank Smith and I'm John by the way. We love to learn, we love to laugh,

we want to learn and laugh with you. As together we follow him.

Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Follow Him. My name is Hank Smith and I am here

with my unparishable co-host, John by the way. I beg to differ, I have a freshness date which

is long expired. My kids check those all the time. Use by dates. You are unparishable. We talk about

if I perish, I perish in the book of Esther. So I looked up what is unparishable and this is you,

John. Not subject to significant deterioration or loss of quality over time. That is true about

you. You have not suffered any sort of deterioration or loss of quality over time. John, you're

pretty incredible that way. My doctor is shaking his head right. But I'll take it. John, we are

studying the book of Esther today, a famous book, a famous story and so we needed to bring in a

mind in the church who could help us understand this book like never before. Who is joining us?

Yes, and we did. We are so happy to welcome Ariel Clark Silver. She is a scholar of 19th century

American literature and culture. She has written and published on writers such as Angela Grimke,

Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Lydia Maria Child, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe,

Sojourner Truth, Julia Ward Howe, Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Katie Stanton, Caroline

Heady-Dall, Mark Twain, Henry Adams, and Willa Cathar. She has a particular interest in the female

protagonist, female education, female rhetoric, and female agency. And Ariel has been supported by

grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Dana Foundation,

the Parsons Memorial Foundation, Smith College, the University of Chicago Claremont Graduate

University, and the Maxwell Institute. I love that we found her. I love that you're here. Thank

you Ariel for joining us today. My pleasure. Dr. Silver, I think this is just a wonderful crossroads

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