Episode 252 (Transcript): Reclaiming Your Voice | A Conversation with Katie Ludlow Rich
Episode Transcript
Many thanks to listener Anne Totten 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:
KLR: And so when I became increasingly uncomfortable with women’s roles in the church and began to speak up more in relief society, my heart would pound and I would feel all this tension because I could get the vibes of how uncomfortable it made people with me directly. That even though these institutional structural things were not about my visiting teacher or my relief society president or my friends, it was perceived as such. It would become so personal and people would think that any challenge to inequality was a direct hit to them.
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 Reclaiming Your Voice: A Conversation with Katie Ludlow Rich.
Welcome, Katie.
SH: Hello, Katie!
KLR: So happy to be here. Thank you.
CW: We are excited to have you for many different reasons, but I can’t remember where I heard you speak–on another podcast or… anyway, I just said to Susan, we have to have Katie on. She could talk about wallpaper paste. I don’t even care. Like she’s, she’s so articulate. Let’s just have her come on and name the topic. And so I think that’s kind of exactly how this episode came about is you wanted to tell your story about how you reclaimed your voice. And so we’re really excited to have you on to talk about that today.
KLR: Well, thank you.
CW: Susan is going to lead the conversation today. So go ahead, Susan.
SH: Katie, would you mind starting just by giving us a short, basic kind of intro to who you are? Just so it situates us at the beginning of the conversation for our listeners.
KLR: Yeah, I am a writer and independent scholar of Mormon Women’s History, so I’m the co-writer of the book, 50 Years of Exponent II, which is an original history and selected works from the longest running independent Mormon women’s publication.
And I’m also a ghost writer and developmental editor. I live in Saratoga Springs with my husband and four children, and two dogs and a cat.
CW: Wow. Katie.
SH: Awesome.
(laughter)
CW: Kids, cats, and dogs.
KLR: Yes. Yes.
SH: I have to pause here to give a plug for the book, even though you’re not on the podcast specifically to promote the book, except I think the book will probably come up as it figures into your story.
I have to give a plug for the book because I have to tell our listeners that this book exceeded my expectations in every way. I was excited to read the book just because, you know, I have personal interest obviously in Exponent II and also you know, have known some women through the years who were part of that project.
And so I was excited to sort of read the backstory and all that. What I didn’t anticipate in the book was the essays from across the span of years from all of the women. And to me that was an amazing snapshot of the whole Mormon woman experience in my lifetime. Because if you look at 50 years, that really is–50 years is my lifetime.
SH: From the time that I was, you know, 12 years old and up. I enter young Women’s at the time that Exponent II is kind of starting.
I was looking at my own journey in very many ways. And so for women who have not known whether they would be interested in the book or not, I would say that if you are a woman, if you have been a member of the church, you’re probably gonna find something resonant in this book. And the history was also fascinating. So, anyway, loved it.
CW: That’s what I thought you were gonna actually say, Susan, is for me, the part of 50 Years of Exponent that really stood out to me because I was born in 1974, which I think is the year that Exponent II came back or right around there.
KLR: Yeah, yeah, started publishing.
