500 nerds. If I could only find a man like Aragorn.

I'm Greta Johnson. I'm Tricia Bobita. And this is the Nerdette podcast. We asked for your nerdiest

summer camp stories and you didn't disappoint. Autopsies. Mormons. Time travel. Let's jump in

with Shannon Heffernan. She's a radio producer and reporter at W.B.Z in Chicago.

And she says the six years she spent in Mormon summer camp made her a feminist. Which was maybe not their intent.

I was a Mormon for a period of time. I now am not. That was how I ended up in Mormon camps.

My best friend from fifth grade, her name was Aaron, her family was Mormon,

and I loved her family. So I spent a lot of time there. Wow, that's really interesting.

The only former Mormon stories I've heard have been like kids of Mormons who rebel hard.

I grew up in a family that was very non-religious, but also when I was growing up,

there was a lot of chaos. Not my parents, but people like aunts and uncles and my grandma

were all kind of a little on the edge. There was a lot of drug use and alcoholism and things

like that. And so all the girls in my family, our whole generation, were built in the opposite

direction. My sisters went with the evangelicals and the Baptist. I chose the Mormons. And your parents were kind of just to each child their own denomination. Yep. Wow. So how many siblings do you have? I have two sisters. Okay. And are they still religious? Yep. They're both still religious. How did Mormon camp come about then? Your

friends with Aaron, fifth grade. Each summer, after sixth grade, you could go to Mormon summer

camp. And I have to tell you, if you ever get the chance to go to Mormon summer camp,

you should go. It is the best camp. And I also went to the Baptist camp with my sisters.

Mormon camp wins. Okay.

Hands down. Why is Mormon camp so great? When you think about the Mormons, your first perception

on how they do on women's issues and gender issues. What do you think? Not so hot. Yeah,

I would say not so hot. Right. And I think that's true in terms of a lot of their theology.

Women don't get the priesthood.

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