Many thanks to listener Rebecca Bigelow for her work in transcribing this episode!
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NB: There is a huge amount of pressure within LDS culture to perform the image of a happy family. And it’s like this prosperity gospel is quite evident within the church right now.
SH: Oh, it’s such a great way to put it. We’re almost to this place where the word happiness doesn’t mean anything-
NB: Yeah, that’s correct.
SH: anymore, right? So they can say it ‘cause it sounds good like, like other words get-
CW: But never have to define
SH: ... said sometimes, but they never define it. And it sort of means nothing
Hello, I’m Susan Hinckley.
CW: And I’m Cynthia Winward.
SH: And this is At Last She Said It. We are women of faith discussing complicated things, and the title of today’s episode is Let’s Talk About Happiness, a conversation with Natalie Brown. Hello, Natalie.
NB: Hello. It’s great to be back.
SH: Oh, we’re so happy to have you. It’s always a good day when you’re here recording with us. And I particularly love the topic today. We’re gonna get to that, but, you know, happiness is something that our listeners may know is a topic near and dear to my heart, and we have discussed it from the very beginning on At Last She Said It.
Yeah. I mean, episode 14 was called What Plan of Happiness? And that came straight out of my life onto the page. So that title speaks to a lot of feelings and a lot of experiences for me. So I’m excited that we’re gonna have this topic, and I mean, spoiler, Cynthia and I both blurbed your book because it spoke so-
CW: We loved it.
SH: Yeah. It was- ... it was just right in our sweet spot, so we can’t wait to talk more about it. Our listeners may also know you from two other At Last She Said It episodes, episode 235, Is It Too Expensive to Be a Latter-day Saint? And then episode 211, Who’s the Decider? So we’re delighted to have you back.
Do you want to just give us a quick little bio, a little minute of introduction for yourself for maybe our listeners who aren’t familiar with you or your work?
