Episode 214 (Transcript): Changemakers | A Conversation with McArthur Krishna and Anne Pimentel

Episode Transcript

Many thanks to listener, Quinn Nilsson, for her work in transcribing this episode!

This episode can be found on any podcast app, or can be listened to here on our website as well. All the notes and resources we cited in the episode are found at this link as well:

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MK: Part of that too is, you know, we've been given a box as women that we can fit into. You know, we talk about breaking the God box open, but let's break the woman box open too. You know, we don't have to fit into and do things a certain way because that's what's been prescribed to us. But we have millions of possibilities of ways that we can influence and change in and out of the church, like, like you're all saying.

So we, we need to break open that woman box.

CW: Hello, I'm Cynthia Winward. 

SH: And I'm Susan Hinkley. 

CW: And this is At Last she Said It. We are Women of Faith discussing complicated things, and the title of today's episode is Change Makers, A Conversation with MacArthur Krishna and Anne Pimentel. Welcome friends. 

SH: Hi friends. 

MK: Thank you. 

CW: So glad to have you both with us here.

Our topic for today is their new book, change Makers, women Who Boldly Built Zion. They can speak more to that, to its release date and all the goodies in a minute. But before we jump into talking about that, MacArthur, would you wanna give us like a one minute bio, introduce yourself and then Anne?

MK: Sure. 

MK: I'm delighted to be here. I think you guys have really important conversations and I always appreciate when people are willing to look something head on. So I'm really honored to be here and appreciate your work. I have been writing books and working for lifting women of our church for about 15 years now, so it is ongoing.

CW: Anne, what about you? We know who Anne is. She was on episode 1 92, she shared about her own faith journey. But go ahead Anne. For those who don't know you. 

AP: Yeah, I feel like I'm a little baby compared to MacArthur in how long I've been in this conversation, but I am passionate about uplifting voices of marginalized people and helping women feel empowered and I'm really grateful to be here again and to share my thoughts and perspectives.

I live in Utah with my husband and my four boys, and just plugging away at all the things I do

MK: Ann and I figured out we kind of swapped lives because I fully expected that I have the, like, personality for a boy mom and I have three daughters, and she always expected that she would be a girl mom, and she has four sons.

And so we like swap notes on like, you know what life with the other on the other side is about. 

CW: Love it. Susan, you had said something that you wanted. 

SH: Yeah, I was just gonna say, you're both doing amazing work in this space and we always have our ears to the ground listening for messages coming from you two, both of you because you continue to influence our conversations and to inspire us.

So we couldn't be happier to have you today. Huge privilege. Thank you for coming. 

CW: Well, like I said, our topic for today is their new book, Change Makers, Women Who Boldly Built Zion. It's, my gosh, it's beautifully illustrated. They can talk about the illustrator in a minute. Is it a children's book or, I feel like it's for everyone, but.

You guys can answer. 

MK: I like when our books are called Children's Books because then they don't seem so scary. And then they just infiltrate Young Women's and Relief Society and like all other things, right? And so, no it's absolutely for everyone. This is a message for everyone. It's a message for the people who read the books to their kids.

But I think that what we found with all of the books, the Girls Who Choose God Series and the Girls and Boys, Guide to Heavenly Mother, is that I frequently find that adults are reading them to children and it impacts the adults as much as the kids. And so it's a little bit of both, a little bit of everything.

CW: That's a perfect way to, to describe your books. I think so. But yes, this book spotlights LDS women who changed the landscape around them with, I feel like their innovative ideas, their actions. I recognized probably half of the women and knew about them, and the other half I didn't. So it was a delight for me.

I wanted to just read though, the dedication MacArthur that you wrote for Ashley, age nine. And you said for Ashley age nine who asked the question, wouldn't it be a good idea to have a book about girls who ask great questions? 

MK: Yeah. I was at a book presentation actually doing a book launch for our second cherish book vignettes and stories and art about Heavenly Mother.

And a little girl raised her hand and asked me that question and my jaw just dropped. And I said, Ashley, I'm gonna steal your idea, but I promise I'll give you credit. Right? And so that was one of the two or three instances that made me realize that we needed to celebrate question asking. We needed to celebrate problem solving.

We needed to celebrate women stepping in to participate. And I thought Ashley's question was just a great catalyst.

CW: [00:05:00] Well. Ashley gives me hope then for what is coming because I really can't think of a better discussion than to discuss women who have asked great questions like the women in your book.

So I'm gonna go ahead and turn the time over to Susan today, who's going to lead our discussion. 

SH: Well, let's talk about your book. First of all, can you give our listeners details about the book itself? So 

AP: We have the wonderful artist, Jessica Beach, that illustrated our book. She had the perfect style that we felt would just work perfectly with this book.

It's kind of an art deco, just really cool and inviting to kids and you know, adults are gonna love it. So we were really excited to have Jessica work with us in illustrating the book. And we highlight..how many women? Is it MacArthur? Is it…We have 11 stories and I think it's 14 or 13 women. 'cause a couple of them are paired up.

So, we go through from, it's kind of chronologically, we go through a couple women in the Bible that we thought added to the story, even though they're not technically LDS. But then we start at the early church with Emma Smith and we wanted to include women from around the world that are making a difference because even though the church started here in America, it has grown and you know, there's pioneers in all the countries.