It’s that time of year!! Time to recognize the best LDS-interest works of the year by giving them Brodie Awards!!
When we first started doing these awards more than 10 years ago, the online discussion of Mormonism was mostly taking place on blogs (like this one!) — but that has changed completely over time. So, as we come up with our new categories for 2021, I’d like to shift the focus towards more active parts of the social media universe such as podcasts, video series, Reddit posts — even Tweets!
On that note, I’d like to list my initial proposed categories for these awards. Keep in mind that — as always — you can suggest new categories in the comments if you notice anything I’ve missed.
Year-long awards for sites/channels/etc.:
- Best LDS-interest podcast
- Best LDS-interest video channel
- Best LDS-interest blog
- Best new LDS-interest channel/site/blog
Awards for individual works:
- Best LDS-interest book
- Best LDS-interest song
- Best LDS-interest video
- Best LDS-interest short (e.g. TikTok)
- Best LDS-interest Tweet
- Best LDS-interest Reddit thread
- Best LDS-interest public Facebook discussion
- Best LDS-interest podcast episode
- Best LDS-interest comic or image
- Funniest LDS-interest work of humor
- Best treatment of subject X (where you suggest the subject when nominating)
If you’d like some more ideas for topics and categories that can potentially be added, please see our earlier collections of winners, linked in the sidebar =>
Please remember that we’re still collecting nominations for X-Mormon of the Year — I’ll put up the polls for that one sometime after the holidays, so you still have time to add your nominations.
As always, here are the nomination guidelines:
- Please nominate only works that first appeared during 2021 (or 2022, if you’re nominating for the 2020 awards — please specify the year).
- Please nominate as many people, books, blogs, sites, podcasts, songs, articles, images, etc. as you want. However, please do not nominate more than two individual works by any one author/artist.
- You are encouraged to nominate your own works. No one knows better than you do which pieces were your best. No more than two, though.
- Please only nominate works that have some connection with Mormonism (or, y’know, the religious movement formerly known as “Mormonism” *eyeroll*).
- A category must have at least three nominations in order to be included in the voting and awards phase.
- You may suggest your own categories — however please do it as early as possible in the nominations process, to give others plenty of time to add nominations in your proposed categories.
- Any other proposed changes to the categories or to the guidelines are welcome — feel free to discuss it in the comments.
- The nominations will be open until mid-January, 2022, depending on my schedule. I will finalize the dates and categories and add my own nominations a few days before the nominations close and voting begins.
How to nominate: Just post your nominations as comment to this thread, but please include links to the works you nominate. If your nomination comment ends up in the spam filter, please email me (chanson dot exmormon at gmail dot com) and I will fish it out.
I look forward to reviewing the best works from 2020 and 2021!!!
Best LDS-interest book: “Racism by Proxy” by Johnny Townsend
Thanks for organizing these awards, Carole. It’s always great to see items I’ve missed during the year by seeing the various nominations.
Best LDS-interest book (And why not break this out into memoir, analysis and fiction)
Memoir: Sealed: An Unexpected Journey into the Heart of Grace by Katie Langston
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57518008-sealed
Also, I haven’t read this yet, but
Queer Mormon Theology by Blair Ostler
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58237420-queer-mormon-theology
New(ish) podcast is ExMo Lex. I’m not sure when it started.
https://www.youtube.com/c/ExmoLex/featured
Johnny Harris has a YouTube channel that doesn’t often speak about Mormonism, but he’s very popular. Here’s a link to an episode from 2021 called “Why I left the Mormon Church.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTMsfOcHiJg
He also had a video essay in the New York Times about “blue states” not living up to their ideals, which it turn fuels the right:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/09/opinion/democrats-blue-states-legislation.html
Also, Tabernacles of Clay by Taylor Petrey came out in 2020
https://uncpress.org/book/9781469656229/tabernacles-of-clay/
I’ll shamelessly nominate this article for consideration as a “best of.”
The Rise of the Celebrated Celibate and Single Sexual Minority in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
https://affirmation.org/the-rise-of-the-celebrated-celibate-and-single-sexual-minority/
I love this post about Pioneer Day. Not sure about the category–humor or LDS history?
https://www.itjustgetsstranger.com/2019-07-pioneer-day-worlds-greatest-holiday/?fbclid=IwAR0Aioi4P8wHoWYIs0SGeVg-qk3oZfmyGHY1VhGvgDz-TqdMbHK-V5-qz7E
Here’s another absolutely hilarious post from the same website as the Pioneer Day post. While this site isn’t exclusively about Mormonism, it touches on the subject enough to be considered for an overall Brodie, IMO.
Anyhow, I’m not sure which category this fits into. Culture? Reviews? While it’s not a video, it did bring to mind Zelph on the Shelf’s Charley series. (Another fit for a Brodie nomination!)
https://www.itjustgetsstranger.com/the-long-road-back-a-1965-mormon-film-about-chastity-i-think/