Many thanks to listener Kim Kerhsaw 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:
Episode 274 (Transcript): What About Politics?
A Conversation with Sarah Morse
CW: Before we jump into today’s episode, we want our listeners to know that we recorded this episode just a few days before The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued their statements on abortion in anticipation of the Idaho and Nevada midterm elections. Enjoy this episode
SH: Sarah, I wanna ask you the question: What do you know? What’s one thing that you know today?
SM: Well, as I mentioned, I turned 50 this year, and I grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, so I really absorbed a lot of diet culture, beauty standards, supermodels, all that stuff, and so I’ve been spending years now trying to shed some of those faulty ideas.
SH - Detox.
SM - Yes.
CW: Detox.
SM: And what I’ve come up with lately is thinking about … Because as I look in the mirror, I see that my face is aging, and I look different than I thought I’ve looked for the past many years. And at the same time, I’ve never known more than I knew in my life, right? Like, what I know right now, I’ve never known more nuance and details and people’s stories, and I’ve educated myself about lots of different things.and so my brain, I feel like, has never been more full of interesting things, and so I’ve started thinking about my face is the wrapping paper for my brain. Like, my face and my body are just the wrapping paper for my brain and my heart and who I am as a person.
SH: Love that!
CW: Love it!
SH: Thank you.
CW: Hello, I’m Cynthia Winiward.
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 What About Politics? A conversation with Sarah Morse.
SH: Gulp. What about politics? Hi, Sarah.
SM: Hi there. Thanks for having me.
CW: We are so glad to have you. I’m so glad that complicated is in our title if we’re talking about politics today, ‘cause holy moly.
SM: Yep.
CW: Are we ready for this? Everybody buckle up. Before Sarah introduces herself, we just wanted to say that Sarah is the social media person behind all of our lovely graphics that you see on Instagram and Facebook and Substack. And so thank you, Sarah, for making us look shiny and brand new. We really appreciate that.
SM: Oh, I love it. It’s such a fun job.
CW: Well, let’s jump in then, Sarah. Why don’t you give us a little bit of a bio that will help us give context to our conversation today?
SM: Sure. I am a lifelong church member. I will be 50 this year, and so I think I’m, like, right in y’all’s demographic. I’m from Illinois. I grew up in Illinois, but then I’ve been in Texas for the past 20 years, which means that I use “You guys” and “Y’all” kind of both. And because I live in Texas, I feel like we kind of lead the nation in some of these political issues, so I feel like we’re on the edge a lot of times of some of these debates. Lead the nation not in a good way necessarily, but- ... we have a lot of these hot topics bubbling up in Texas. Anyway, I went to BYU for a year, my freshman year, and I wasn’t quite the right fit. But I studied political science. I transferred to another school in Illinois, and so I have a bachelor’s degree in political science. And frankly, that kind of ends my qualifications. I was thinking about it like, you guys have professors and therapists and all these professionals on. My qualifications are that I am interested in politics, and I read a lot, and I care a lot about it. And so I hope that’s actually kind of inspiring to people who-
CW: 100%
