Questions for Viewers of Coffee With Kish

[Markk]

Thank you, Markk. That is extremely valuable. Yes, I am definitely not looking to be like Dehlin or RFM. I want to raise interest in aspects of Mormonism people may not have thought about before in short-form videos. The idea is to hit a neutral tone but one that seeks to pique interest of a nerdy or geeky kind. I want those Nevermos who are just curious about Mormons and Mormonism. I want ex-Mos who still find it interesting. I want LDS people who find I am covering something they didn’t know in a fair and sympathetic way.

I am not going to have the big guests or the glitzy production. I will definitely work on the production, and I will try to get guests whom I want to talk to, but I do not want to compete with Dehlin, RFM, Reel, etc. Honestly, I have no interest in being a journalistic watchdog who tries to hold the LDS Church to account, or who wants to show how it is untrue. Zero interest. Indeed, I want instead to show how interesting it is without investing in any form of advocacy one way or the other.

Who would be your audience? And this is a question I am asking myself?

If you are going to to be "church neutral," who would that demographic be?

I had a interesting week. My oldest brother pasted away and I went to the east coast for his funeral. It was a great time to get with family and meet my brothers friends he had back in his world, 3000 miles away from mine.

I flew in with my little sister who like myself is a evangelical, but she, is far removed from our Mormon upbringing in the church, and does not have a clue about of the current events of Mormonism. My older sister flew in from Utah county and is about as TBM as one comes. My brother that passed away was LDS, and would consider himself a TBM, but was hardly so compared to my sister. My other brother is agnostic, maybe a deist, but completely closed to any conversation of our pioneer TBM upbringing or religion at all (Vietnam closed that door long ago). My nieces and nephews, of my brother that passed, are all over the gambit....and came to me because they really were not sure what Mormonism was about past the talking points. I'm the "pull my finger" uncle that they can talk to. They wanted to know why they could not dress by brother and what he was wearing and why....questions like that.

So I guess my point and question is, these might be your audience. When my niece told me she really did not believe the Mormon faith and asked questions....and I had maybe a half hour to try to explain my journey out that started 33 years ago, I had no chance to tell her or communicate the complexities of the faith. Impossible.

It seems like from what you are saying, your audience might be the chapel Mormon, or inactive member of record?

Thanks

[yellowstone123]

Dan Peterson cites an article on the negative effects of coffee. Of course any food taken in excess is bad, for me I struggle with cheese and crackers:

https://www.deseret.com/lifestyle/2024/ ... lth-risks/

Another opinion:

https://www.maxworkouts.com/blog/10-hea ... ing-coffee?

Flauto traverso, Continuo J S Bach.

Ei! wie schmeckt der Coffee süße,
Ah! how sweet coffee tastes!
Lieblicher als tausend Küsse,
Lovelier than a thousand kisses,
Milder als Muskatenwein.
smoother than muscatel wine.
Coffee, Coffee muss ich haben,
Coffee, I must have coffee,
Und wenn jemand mich will laben,
and if anyone wants to give me a treat,
Ach, so schenkt mir Coffee ein!
ah!, just give me some coffee!

Of course if Joseph Smith and Company had made coffee at Zions Camp which starts by boiling water maybe about a dozen men would have avoided dying from cholera.

[yellowstone123]

Hey, all:

If you have been watching Coffee with Kish, thank you very much! I appreciate your interest. It means a lot to me that you would take the time to watch these videos. If you have watched or have any interest in watching, I have some questions for you:

1. What is the optimal video length you can reasonably watch?

I ask because YouTube judges the success of a channel by the aggregate time in a year that people have spent watching the channel.

2. How many videos a month or week would you be interested in watching?

I ask this for the same reason. I don't want to pump out too many videos in an inefficient way. The idea is to hit a sweet spot where people feel like they want to watch all of the video (right length) and don't feel like there is a flood of too many videos to watch (right frequency).

3. What do you want to see?

This ought to be the first question, but the above order is how the topics came to me. I want to cover all kinds of things connected to Mormonism that interest people: popular culture, news, history, my story, etc. My eventual goal is to discipline myself to do something like turn out three or so ca. fifteen minute videos a week. So far, I am going over time and producing a lot of videos. I have started to upload them and schedule their release in advance.

Any tips or suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated!

I would suggest a very focused 20 minutes if alone but if you have a guest then it can run much longer. If google is keeping track of views and giving a score I’m not sure issues with Mormonism itself would get a lot of points. I would say be patient and move forward. I liked the 116 pages one and will be getting the book. I think so far you are doing a great job.

[Moksha]

If you are going to be "church neutral," who would that demographic be?

Thanks

All who would not venture an opinion as to whether President Nelson was riding in the belly of a whale when its left engine spewed oil and caught on fire.

Kish's audience will gravitate to him regardless of the whale being given a clean bill of health in Atlantis. President Nelson arrived in St. George unscathed and felt no need to tell this harrowing story till later. Kish would be extra polite and ask if the pilot distributed any treats.

[Kishkumen]

Thank you, Markk. That is extremely valuable. Yes, I am definitely not looking to be like Dehlin or RFM. I want to raise interest in aspects of Mormonism people may not have thought about before in short-form videos. The idea is to hit a neutral tone but one that seeks to pique interest of a nerdy or geeky kind. I want those Nevermos who are just curious about Mormons and Mormonism. I want ex-Mos who still find it interesting. I want LDS people who find I am covering something they didn’t know in a fair and sympathetic way.

I am not going to have the big guests or the glitzy production. I will definitely work on the production, and I will try to get guests whom I want to talk to, but I do not want to compete with Dehlin, RFM, Reel, etc. Honestly, I have no interest in being a journalistic watchdog who tries to hold the LDS Church to account, or who wants to show how it is untrue. Zero interest. Indeed, I want instead to show how interesting it is without investing in any form of advocacy one way or the other.

Who would be your audience? And this is a question I am asking myself?

If you are going to to be "church neutral," who would that demographic be?

*****

It seems like from what you are saying, your audience might be the chapel Mormon, or inactive member of record?

Thanks

Thanks for sharing your personal experience with me Markk. That was very interesting and it is exactly the kind of thing I like to read about.

Maybe a small one, but hopefully I can learn how to draw more people in. My show will be a potpourri. I will talk to someone you never knew who makes Mormon electronic dance music. I will talk about Mormon pirates. I like the nooks and crannies. The weird niche stuff you never thought about or knew existed. I will talk about the speculative theology and folklore. No one will do exactly the mix of nerdy stuff I will do in the tone and approach I am taking.

[Kishkumen]

I would suggest a very focused 20 minutes if alone but if you have a guest then it can run much longer. If google is keeping track of views and giving a score I’m not sure issues with Mormonism itself would get a lot of points. I would say be patient and move forward. I liked the 116 pages one and will be getting the book. I think so far you are doing a great job.

Thanks, yellowstone123. I think you are right about the focused 20 minutes. I will try to put out regular episodes of about that length in the future.

Thank you also, by the way, for the praise on the 116-pages episode! That one was really emotionally gratifying to make. Your praise makes me feel good, and I appreciate it.

[Kishkumen]

Having listened to your latest video, might I suggest that you invite your Sunstone Symposium panel respondent to join the program to have a “meeting of the minds”? I didn’t quite get the respondent’s criticism of your paper. That may have been because of time constraints.

I didn't quite get it either, but it was written for a Sunstone audience, which, to my way of thinking, is not the same as an American Academy of Religion audience, which this person has been the president of. That said, it was really about the history of the kinds of stories Joseph Smith was telling going back to antiquity. It was not an argument that those stories made Joseph Smith's story true, and that is where I got confused with the criticism that I was "theologizing."

I doubt I will have this person on. I will not have that many academics on, and probably not the big cheeses. Younger scholars are a lot more fun to talk to because they lack the big egos and the calcification in their views. Mind you, this is not a criticism of this particular scholar. I just doubt a person of that stature would agree to come on a YouTube channel that presently has under 50 subscribers.

[Philo Sofee]

Having listened to your latest video, might I suggest that you invite your Sunstone Symposium panel respondent to join the program to have a “meeting of the minds”? I didn’t quite get the respondent’s criticism of your paper. That may have been because of time constraints.

I didn't quite get it either, but it was written for a Sunstone audience, which, to my way of thinking, is not the same as an American Academy of Religion audience, which this person has been the president of. That said, it was really about the history of the kinds of stories Joseph Smith was telling going back to antiquity. It was not an argument that those stories made Joseph Smith's story true, and that is where I got confused with the criticism that I was "theologizing."

I doubt I will have this person on. I will not have that many academics on, and probably not the big cheeses. Younger scholars are a lot more fun to talk to because they lack the big egos and the calcification in their views. Mind you, this is not a criticism of this particular scholar. I just doubt a person of that stature would agree to come on a YouTube channel that presently has under 50 subscribers.

When we get you to 100,000 subscribers he will pay attention........

[Kishkumen]

When we get you to 100,000 subscribers he will pay attention........

Maybe she will. From your lips to God’s ear, Philo!

[Philo Sofee]

When we get you to 100,000 subscribers he will pay attention........

Maybe she will. From your lips to God’s ear, Philo!

Did I just call a she a he?! Oh for..........