The Cricket and Seagull Fireside Chat

It seems wherever you look for advice, you'll find that exercise is the prescription for just about every ill, from diabetes to heart disease to depression to (ironically) fatigue.

Luckily, exercise bikes, dumbbells, and spandex suits are not needed in these 31 exercises to help keep our spirits in shape. I Hate It When Exercise Is the Answer is filled with funny, easy-to-relate-to stories that also come with lessons, such as: how "unsightly socklines" can help us keep it real, why you can't say yes when your heart says no, and how regrets from the past can actually be pointing to something liberating. In her lighthearted and conversational style, author Emily Watts offers ideas to improve our spiritual and emotional fitness.

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull...

Can you fill in the blanks? LDS Singer/songwriter Cherie Call looks and sounds like she was born holding a guitar, so it's surprising she didn't even learn to play it until ____. Her best-known song was written about a ride on an ____, and one of her personal favorites was inspired by her husband's discovery that, among other things, Heavenly Father is really good at being a ____ _____.

You can find all of that and more in this interview with the delightful Cherie Call. With this album she inaugurates the new "Most Requested" series from Deseret Book, plus she grabs a guitar and gives us an exclusive in-studio preview of two new songs from her upcoming CD "Grace," slated for a Fall release. It's all great musical and storytelling fun.

That's this week on the Cricket and Seagull...

Online and satellite radio are coming of age as people around the globe are figuring out how to listen and discovering what’s available.

Now Mormon Channel makes its debut as the new radio service from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In this edition Program Manager Rob Boshard talks about the beginnings of the new station, how content is developed, how the church station is different from commercial radio, and the various ways you can listen—both now, and in the future.

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull...

I'm sure I can't be only one who has ever wished for just one day in the City of Enoch, or in any of the other short-lived Zion societies we find in the scriptures, but if Zion is really a state of the heart, of a relationship, or even of a society, then I can "dwell in Zion" anytime and anywhere I am ready to open my heart and let it in.

In his ground-breaking new 5-book series, "The Three Pillars of Zion," Larry Barkdull walks us through years of study and personal searching, resulting in one of the most definitive and useful books ever wr itten on the subject.

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull...

Have you ever heard the "Bullet-Proof Washington" story? Known about the spiritual epiphany of young John Adams? If not, you're not alone -- they're omitted from nearly all school texts today even though they once were common knowledge.

If you've missed out on those stories, like I had, if you've wondered where the idea of "separation of church and state" came from, or wondered what the writers of the Declaration of Independence really meant when they speak of "the God of Nature," then you'll enjoy this interview with lawyer and educator Grant Beckwith.

That's this week on The Cricket and Seagull...