Yay, you're here. I'm Lisa Whittle, and welcome to the Jesus Over Everything interview show, affectionately known as Joe's Friday Friend, where everyone I sit down and talk with is either an old or a new friend of mine.

Today's Friday friend is a newer friend, but one that has grown quickly

because she's incredible, and you'll soon experience what I mean. Mary Morant's podcast host,

speaker and author of new riveting memoir, Dirt, is on today talking to me about so many things

that will be important to our Joe listeners, how God redeemed stories, loving a complicated

person, not apologizing for your memories, even when those memories aren't something other

people remember or maybe remember differently from you. I'm telling you, I loved this interview

with Mary so much. Her story is compelling, but it's so much bigger than details of growing

up in a trailer in West Virginia

to becoming a Yale graduate. It's a journey, really, of finding her home. I know you will be

moved by this conversation, as was I with the wonderful Mary Morantz. I've already told you this, Mary, but your podcast interview with me when I was doing interviews

for the Jesus Over Everything book, it was one of my very favorites because, I don't know, I think this is the way I would say it,

you took such good care of me. You just took good care of me asking these incredible questions. And I feel

like you take care of all your guests. That's how I feel. Is that just like, is that a Mary

thing? Are you just a caretaker? You all, right? You know, well, first of all, thank you.

That is like a huge compliment because I kind of joke that I was sort of the reluctant

podcaster in that I sort of kept, my husband Justin kept saying, you really need to do this.

I feel like you'd be really good at it.

And like, you know, we launched the podcast one year ago in September as a lead up to the book coming

out. And he was like, I just really feel like you should be doing this. I just feel like you need

to make it happen. And we like, you know, kind of did like one of those like announced something

is happening on social media in like January of that year and then didn't get around to it for

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