By Tyler B. Nelson
Every Thursday morning, I go for a walk. I put on my shoes and pop in my headphones and take a couple of laps around the neighborhood. On Thursday mornings my favorite podcast, Revisionist History, airs new episodes. The host, Malcolm Gladwell, digs into overlooked and misunderstood bits of history. I learn and I get some exercise at the same time!
Revisionist History is but one podcast in the vast multitude of podcasts available today. Statistics from Apple, Spotify, and other streaming services that produce podcasts suggest that there are around two million podcasts active today.1 There are hundreds of topics for podcasts. Food, sports, behind the scenes, DIY—you name it. As I mentioned before, podcasts are versatile. You can listen to them on walks, while you commute, or even while you garden. Doing dishes? How about a side of True Crime? My wife and I even use a podcast for our weekly family study.
Podcasting is dynamic. It is powerful. And podcasting is part of a growing force of rising voices all around the world.
The History of Podcasts
Other forms of media spurred the growth of podcasting. Social media rapidly expanded through the 2000s. First Facebook appeared. Then Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.2 Facebook recruited its billionth user in 2012.3 As these platforms grew, people had more and more to say. But only so much can be reasonably put into a social media post. Podcasting’s ability to cover a wide range of subjects while simultaneously going in depth about those subjects was appealing.
Apple introduced podcasts to Itunes in 2006. At the time, tech savants and a few forward-thinking comedians were the only ones using podcasts. But podcasting’s popularity rapidly expanded. Politicians, sports teams, and history buffs soon got into the game. The famous/infamous Joe Rogan started a podcast. George Bush gave weekly updates from the White House via podcast.4 Even Buckingham Palace got in on the action, releasing a Christmas speech from Queen Elizabeth as a podcast.5
The power of the spoken word spread in popularity until reaching today’s levels of an estimated two million podcasts filling people’s ears. Fun and games and entertainment aside, podcasts quickly became the medium for tackling serious issues. One of the most amazing things that podcasting has done is give a voice to those who haven’t always had one. In recent years, the number of minority groups and people podcasting has surged. With the platform provided and important issues on the table, these groups have stepped up. They have raised their voices.
Minority Voices in Podcasting
If you spend some time looking around on streaming services, you will start to see podcasts with titles like Pod Save The People or Code Switch. These are podcasts that are run by Black creators. They discuss the role that race plays in Black American’s lives, Black heritage, and how to unpack the uneasiness that we often feel when it comes to discussing race. Whether or not you agree with what is being said, these podcasts utilize the medium to start conversations that otherwise would not be had. They allow racial, political, and geographical lines to be bridged as easily as putting in headphones. These podcasts reach millions of listeners across races, ethnic, and even political lines.
The Black communities are not alone in raising their voices through podcasts. La Brega, a Spanish word that means “struggle,” is a podcast published in both Spanish and English that details the Puerto Rican people’s experience both in and out of the United States. Judaism Unbound’s hosts interview everyday Jews and examine the current issues for American Jews. And #Good Muslim Bad Muslim takes time to discuss the everyday ups and downs for Muslim Women in the US.
As these podcasts continue to grow, their influence reaches further and further. No longer does an individual have to go to a different neighborhood, or another country, or even a mosque or synagogue to hear and learn from the words of other cultures and religions. The gift of technology blesses millions of lives around the world, and even within our church. Podcasting is being used in wards, for missionary work, convert retention, and connecting members across the world.
An Interview with Eriene Oh
I run a Podcast called Mission Report where I interview missionaries about their experience serving for the Church of Jesus Christ. A few weeks ago, Eriene Oh reached out to me on LinkedIn to ask a few questions about starting a podcast. She wants to interview Chinese converts about their experience joining and staying in the Church. I found the idea fascinating and asked Eriene if we could talk more about it. Eriene graduated from BYU in the spring and now lives in Seattle, so we were able to sit down together over Zoom and I got to ask her a few more questions.
Can you tell me a little more about yourself?
I am originally from Malaysia. I was born and grew up there. I grew up in the Church, which is kind of rare, since I am from Malaysia. My parents are converts. I moved to the States when I was fifteen. I did high school here, went to BYU, and then served a mission (California, Arcadia), came back to BYU, and now I am graduated and here in Seattle.
So your parents are converts; what is their story?
It’s actually pretty cool, because it shows the power of member-missionary work. My dad actually grew up Christian. His family was Protestant. My mom grew up Buddhist. But my mom growing up went to a Catholic school, and she wanted to become a Catholic. Her mom was really against it. She gave my mom one condition: she had to marry a Christian boy, or she could not convert. If my mom had a list for marriage, that was her one thing.
When my mom met my dad, he was investigating a lot of churches, including the Catholic church. My mom thought that was great. She could marry him and convert! Then one day, my dad was at work and he saw a coworker (who was a member) reading a Teachings of The Prophets book. My dad was kind of curious and asked what she was reading. She said “This book is from my Church—would you like to know more?” And my dad began to meet with the missionaries. Every time he came back from meeting with the missionaries my mom would ask him questions. It got to the point where she had so many questions that my dad couldn’t answer. So that is when she came to the lesson with my dad. And she stayed faithful ever since.
That’s amazing! So, where did the idea for a podcast come from?
When I was teaching at the Missionary Training Center (MTC), we were having a work meeting. One of the trainers asked us what we could do to push missionary work forward now that we were back from our missions. I was thinking about it and I was like you know what? A podcast would actually be really helpful! My parents are converts, and even though they have been in the Church for almost thirty years, I feel like their conversion to the gospel isn’t all the way there because I think there are cultural things that are preventing them from embracing the gospel wholeheartedly whether or not they know it. On my mission, I saw that a lot of cultural barriers came up that would lead to them not being able to endure to the end.
What do you hope to accomplish with this podcast?
Another catalyst that made me want to reach out and figure out how to get this thing started is that I had a friend reach out to me. She is from China. She asked if we could talk about something spiritual. She had been a convert of about 7 or 8 years by now. We talked and she brought up examples of people who had been so strong and then left the Church, and about converts she knew that weren’t strong in the Church anymore. She was hesitant to reach out to them about spiritual things because she didn’t know if they were strong in the Church anymore. That got me thinking: if that is such a big, not-problem, but enduring to the end is such a big topic, it’s what we really are about right? At the end of the day, it is to get people to exaltation, to the Celestial kingdom, and if she feels hesitant or she feels like she can’t reach out to people around her, that’s kind of sad. So I think at least for the converts that I have met, for that friend that I know, I hope that this can be a tool that they can use to look at successful converts, or people who were not born in the Church and had to adopt this whole new culture and how they successfully did it. I think those real world examples would be invaluable.
Why did you specifically choose a podcast as your platform?
I think that it’s the easiest medium to reach the audience I want to reach. I want it to reach people who may find reading hard. Or people who, maybe if one day China opens up it can strengthen the converts there. I want it to not have any barriers.
That’s a great goal. Do you have any last thoughts you’d like to share?
I have one scripture that I love. It’s 2 Nephi 5:27, “And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness.” I think that is the gist of the gospel. At the end of the day, it is to have true joy.
Incline Thine Ear to Wisdom
One of my favorite scriptures is in Proverbs 2:2. “…incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding.” In this day and age the Lord has provided miraculous tools for connection. The power of podcasting is immeasurable, because it is the power of voice. It can educate. It can uplift. It can inspire. Podcasting allows us to sit down and spark the needed conversations about topics that are crucial to this day and age. Hopefully someday it can bless those who need it in China. For now we can listen and learn. Maybe you could even start your own podcast! What we call all do is use this power for good, by speaking, and by listening to those who finally have voices to raise.
Sources
- https://www.podcastinsights.com/podcast-statistics/#:~:text=Also%2C%20a%20common%20question%20is,and%20it’s%20currently%20over%202%2C000%2C000.
- https://online.maryville.edu/blog/evolution-social-media/
- https://money.cnn.com/2012/10/04/technology/facebook-billion-users/index.html
- https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/podcasts/
- https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16322845 or https://www.royal.uk/
Tyler Nelson is an English Major at Utah Valley University, and will graduate with his Bachelor’s degree in English, Creative Writing this fall. He is the author of five published short stories, including Letters From Bahati which can be found through Owl Canyon Press. He is also the host of Mission Report, a podcast all about interviewing returned missionaries and letting them share their experiences and advice for future missionaries. Tyler and his wife currently live up on a hill in Provo, UT.
Excellent article! Very informative and interesting! I think you are such a great writer! So fun to read your work- An interesting side note -I am Teaching first grade at Foothill Elementary in the Mandarin Chinese Dual Immersion program so I have worked with several Chinese teachers who I have grown to love and care for. I have enjoyed talking to them about the church.