Hello and welcome to the Scriptures of Real podcast.

This is the podcast where we talk about elements of the scriptures that have helped them become more real to us because we believe that allows us to draw more power out of them and we need all the help we can get.

I'm your host, Kerry Mulestein, and I'm so happy to have with me a friend of mine and a colleague here in our college and his office is just down the hall for mine. This is Dr. Mike Goodman. Hi, Mike. Hey, Carrie, how are you? I'm good. I'm so glad you'd spend time to be with us. So let me tell you all just a little bit about Dr. Goodman and then we'll let him tell you more about himself and he'll correct whatever false doctrine I've preached or anything else.

I don't actually know where you're from, Mike, so you'll have to tell us that.

But he ended up getting a bachelor's in journalism and public relations and a master's degree in information technology and a PhD in marriage and family and human development.

And that's what I know him for.

He's always involved in all sorts of great studies helping us understand families and youth.

He's involved in what's called the Family Foundations of Youth Development, Longitudinal Research Project. But anyway, there, it helps us understand all sorts of things about

how religion affects families and youth. And I think that's really, really powerful. He also

teaches missionary prep. He's been a mission president.

He's a convert to the church, I think at this point, like a 12-time cancer survivor,

something along those lines.

And we hope that he just keeps beating whatever it comes this way.

But I'm sure I've left out the most important stuff about your wife and your children. So we'll let you tell us all of that. Why don't you tell us what you're up to, Mike, and a little bit about yourself. You bet. So I, as you can tell from my academic background, I'm somewhat of a mutt. I've got an associates in business, a bachelor's in journalism, a master's in IT, and a PhD in marriage and family, and I teach religion.

And so, Jack of many trades, master a few.

My academic work largely focuses on the social science behind how young adults and adolescents thrive.

I'm part of what might be the largest longitudinal study in the nation on adolescent well-being,

looking at every aspect of health and wellness and risk behaviors and spirituality and and these things and so we're

actively working and we're about in our eighth year of this study trying to

try and to figure out what what from a scientific perspective helps people to

thrive so that's that's kind of the academic stuff I am a four-time cancer survivor not quite 12 well. I am a four-time cancer survivor, not quite 12.

Well, actually, I'm a three-time cancer survivor.

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