The Raising Family Podcast

In this episode, host Brent Andrewsen sits down with renowned gospel scholar Jared Halverson for a rich and timely discussion on Paragraph 3 of The Family: A Proclamation to the World. Together, they unpack profound truths about eternal identity, divine roles, and the sacred nature of gender as essential characteristics of premortal, mortal, and eternal life.

This thoughtful conversation explores:

[04:12] The doct...

Our guest in this episode is Jenet Erickson, a Fellow at the Wheatley Institute and Associate Professor of Religious Education at BYU whose research has specialized in maternal and child wellbeing.  Join us as we discuss the different, yet sacred roles of both mothers and fathers.  

Jenet shares how children develop emotionally and physically by bonding with both a mother and father as well as the areas of identity that are develope...

Benjamin Pacini, host of the podcast, “Radical Civility,” is currently a faculty member at BYU-Idaho in Elementary Education and pursuing an EDD from BYU.  His experience as both educator and student has given him a unique perspective on how our culture seems to view and express “truth”. 

Benjamin explores how truth remains constant across cultural borders and historical periods (4:14) and how we can manage to stand for truth and st...

Christopher Cunningham is the managing editor for Public Square Magazine, a faith and research based online editorial discussing various issues of the day. He joins us to discuss his most recent article, “When Therapy Subverts Change.”

In this episode, Christopher and our host, Brent Andrewsen, discuss a potential communication disconnect between therapists and clients (5:57),  how therapy can be compatible with faith (16:45), ...

Sharing our testimony can sometimes be a little intimidating, but does it really need to be? In this episode we sit down with Mimi Bascom, a Latter-Day Saint Content Creator who has partnered with us for the knew #HowIKnow campaign.  This campaign follows the “Stories of How I Know” lesson on thefamilyproclamation.org website and is designed to help each of us identify and share our own testimonies.

Join us as we discover what ...

Social media is a large part of our world and, for better or worse, our main source of information.  Our guest, Priscilla Davis started her Instagram account, SheSharesGoodness, to encourage anyone struggling with depression or anxiety and to help bring more light and truth to the world.

She begins by discussing her own battle with depression and how she found help through therapy and understanding her relationship with the Sav...

Elder Neil L. Andersen once said that “spiritually defining memories from our book of life are like luminous stones that help brighten the road ahead.” How do spiritually defining memories act like luminous stones and what can we do to make sure we have them in times of need? Professional storyteller Teresa Clark joins the podcast today to discuss stories and why they matter. 

Clark gives some background about how she came to t...

Jeff Bennion is a real estate and property manager, a part time marriage and family therapist, and one of the co-founders of North Star International. North Star is a faith-affirming resource for Latter-day Saints addressing sexual orientation and gender identity, and who desire to live in harmony with the doctrines and values of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In the first half of this episode, Jeff and host Brent ...

Jeff Bennion is a real estate and property manager, a part time marriage and family therapist, and one of the co-founders of North Star International. In this second part of Jeff’s two-part episode, he clarifies that not subscribing to a gay label does not and should not mean going “back in the closet” (3:30). He talks about the three aspects of the gay label (4:55), what they mean, and why they make it difficult to remain “all in”...

Dennis Schleicher is the author of “Is He Nuts?: Why a Gay Man Would Become a Member of the Church of Jesus”.  He joins the podcast to share his conversion story (1:14) and what drew him to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (4:23). Though being a gay member of The Church can be a painful journey, Dennis shares how his membership brings him joy through family history work (12:15) and having the spirit in his life (24:5...

Many families have trouble addressing the topics of gender and identity. This episode is a recording of a speech given by Carol Rice (one of the contributors of thefamilyproclomation.org) about how to address these topics and how to combat the enticing narratives of the world. 

The speech begins at 2:13, where Carol reminds us that even though we may have the same vocabulary as the world, we are operating with different diction...

The Family Proclamation “calls upon responsible citizens… everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family.” Andrew Young joins the podcast to share his experience as a DreamWorks animator and how he was forced to decide between answering the call to strengthen the family or keep his job.

Andrew begins by explaining what social engineering is (6:14). He gives some background on his career...

Blake Fisher is an Inclusion Advisor at BYU with the Office of Student Success. Helping students navigate being in the LGBTQ community while at BYU has given him a unique perspective on labels and how to identify when labels are helping us or hurting us. This episode is paired with the lesson ‘Identity and Labels: Part One’ on thefamilyproclamation.org. 

Blake elaborates on his job at BYU (3:10) why people feel the need to labe...

Nathan and Jelaire Richardson are some of the creators of the new curriculum on thefamilyproclamation.org. This curriculum is designed to be a resource for parents and church teachers who need extra tools when approaching difficult topics such as Identity, Gender, and Truth. 

The Richardsons discuss why this curriculum might be helpful for your family (3:42), how they created the curriculum and chose the topics (7:31), and how it mi...

When Michelle Pollard moved from Australia to the US a few months ahead of her husband Steve, they had no idea that a pandemic was about to change a planned few months away into nearly a year and a half of separation. Michelle and Steve look back on that time and discuss what it was like for Michelle to raise their two teenage sons without Steve, and what it was like for Steve to be the sole grandparent back in Australia. On this e...

Danny Frost, a Family Life professor at BYU, offers a unique perspective on Paragraph 8 of the Family Proclamation by applying his background in philosophy and politics. Paragraph 8 warns us that the disintegration of chastity and family will bring calamities on our societies and nations. Danny discusses current views of sexuality (5:10), the recent movements on sexual consent (7:32), and what our children are learning about sexual...

When Lauren Colemere  became a single mother she realized she wanted to make a course correction for her life and the life of her daughter. That course correction pointed them towards the temple, and on today’s episode Lauren shares her journey there and what the temple endowment means to her. 

We invite listeners to learn from the amazing response of her family and ward when learning of Lauren’s pregnancy (18:55) and the few things...

Collette Blackwelder became a first time mom at the age of 50 after a miraculous adoption. On this episode she shared her thoughts on infertility and how one can still be a parent though they may not have children of their own (12:35). She gives advice to those who are struggling on their own journey (18:30) and the story of their adoption (23:00). 

“Everyone has unrealized dreams. But God knows them, and because of the atonement we...