Tara Westover - Author of "Educated: A Memoir" Pt. 1 - Mormon Stories Ep. 881

We are excited to release our interview with Tara Westover, author of the New York Times bestseller “Educated.”
“[A] searing debut memoir… Westover recounts her upbringing with six siblings on an Idaho farm dominated by her father…who tried to live off the grid, kept four children (including the author) out of school…and stockpiled supplies and guns for the end-time…When she finally escaped the toxic atmosphere of dogma, suspicion, and patriarchy to attend college and then grad school at Cambridge, her identity crisis precipitated a heartbreaking rupture. Westover’s vivid prose makes this saga of the pressures of conformity and self-assertion that warp a family seem both terrifying and ordinary.”

[@droundyCubby]

Reading the book and hearing her talk both. I do not think she realizes yet the extent of the abuse and manipulation her brother "Shawn" used and uses on her. Same with the family. She returns home numerous times hoping for a change. She hasn't let go. Red flags all over the place. Having said that, I am so impressed with what she has done. Tara, if you read this, I am cheering you on.

[@hannahleon4192]

I can totally relate to her when she wasn’t friends with other kids at church. I always felt weird and different, my parents were a bit too strict and radical. So many rules

[@azukib2230]

Near the beginning, you could've edited in the announcements after the interview is over instead of having the guest wait... A lot of podcasts do that, just more respectful to the guest's time.

[@bernadettetibazi7893]

Hi, I have not watched this video but have read Tara Westover's Memoir 'Educated. ' It is an incredible account of her struggle to free herself and become educated. I am commenting here because I am hoping that the Tara will read this post. I want to say thank you!!! For your honest and incredible memoir. I was raised in the north of England in poverty in an Irish Catholic family with a father who was intolerant and bipolar. So I saw so many parallels with Tara's experience of growing up and my own. Your memoir gave me many personal insights. - I spent a lot of time as a small child working on a building sight stacking bricks. The most important aspect if the book was the account of a person freeing oneself for the 'normalization' of a violent up bringing and moving into the light of being educated. Thank you!

[@blisham9580]

I had an older brother with the same kind of duality as Shawn. He was a major source of both confusion and self esteem in the toilet along with the head. I much admire Tara's ability to rise above the childhood that life dealt her. I was never able to find the strength to do it.

[@gerry4281]

One of best interviews I've seen that letTara tell about her childhood. Sounds like both parents had some form of mental illness.

[@tlotus3032]

Well done Tara! You're lovely and powerful!

[@MultiGoodriddance]

minute 23:00 was spot on " people can use religion as an excuse for goodness or badness" spot on with that one check the history books

[@droundyCubby]

Wonderful interview. Great book, I could not put it down. You, Tara, say your parents were typical parents, and very mainstream referring to your upbringing especially your religious upbringing. Even for conservative Idaho they were very unusually conservative. (I am an Idaho native and much older than you) I would hope that the listener and the readers would not get the impression that your family was a typical family in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (Mormon). The students she met in BYU are more mainstream. Her upbringing was soooo far from mainstream as to be disturbing. They do not tend to go around all day reading the scriptures, though they do set aside time each day to read, often ten minutes to half an hour. They do not wear extremely modest clothes, though they tend towards more moderate clothes, the man does NOT rule the household, Usually the women actually do, and certainly the weird revelations were the product of a deranged or bipolar mind. It is no wonder that she found herself not accepted in the group, she did not fit. Child abuse was endemic to her family, but for the normal population, it is no more common than in other families. Hers was horrendous and shaped her life. I am proud of you, Tara, for breaking free of your family and time tends to heal all wounds.

[@steelrain52]

Dude, stop asking the same damn questions over and over again.

[@VictrixIcis]

I wish the interviewer was better prepared for such an intelligent and fascinating guest

[@sykemannon8651]

What are you referring to? This guy is one of the best interviewer I’ve ever witnessed. Keep on keeping on Dr. John.

[@heleneocleary5888]

Gosh, I think Dr John did a wonderful job. I’m not nor was I ever Mormon but watch as I find Dr Johns honesty and intelligence so refreshing.

[@noeytindol5529]

Geez. He's giving away the whole book. I just got the book today. I wanted to hear more stories that weren't in the book.

[@surfzombie2626]

She is a beautiful woman and sounds like her childhoow was a nightmare. Her father was such a control freak.

[@mwest3191]

Hey, that’s my last name! NeverMo so I’m sure there’s no relation but It does interest me to imagine long ago Westover’s splintering into Mormon and Catholic branches 😅

[@anna.m8]

I find the interviewer quite "demanding" and not really sensitive to her, in a way. I wish there would have been more questions for the audience. Not just an interview to answer all your personal questions that you got while reading her book.

[@11UncleBooker22]

The % of "True believers" in ANY organization is moderate at best. However depending on the total number of members the % of "True believers" can be quite a large and sometimes a troublesome %. The historical facts are that ALL of the Joseph Smith Jr church's have various levels of separation/peculiar people foundations. This is a characteristic still found today to make them unique as organizations seeking to show a separation from the other Joseph Smith Jr church's. When SOOOOoooo much importance is placed on the return of a deity at ANY moment, as in Christendom, there should be NO surprise that a % of members in these cultures live as if preparing for said return is a normal daily function. Tara's father is in the % of "True believers" that also had a psychoses causing behavior that is separate and peculiar from the larger % of members in his religious culture. While most LDS were preparing for a possible 3 month power outage , Tara's father was preparing for an apocalypse.

[@nobunkbibleprophecy4273]

Norwegian accent!

[@ifthisthenthat2107]

I always used to laugh when illuminati/skull&bones/gaddianton conspiracys came up, but after watching bulding 7 collapse ( search for "building 7" here on youtube ) i must admit, i'm not that dismissive. Anyhow, awesome interview John & God bless you Tara!

[@tinman24601]

It all began with Eisenhower's comments on the military-industrial complex and Kennedy being killed by the magic bullet that left multiple entry and exit wounds in three people before coming to rest on the back seat. No doubt there were a lot of those types of shenanigans surrounding 9/11: Larry Silverstein insuring the towers to the hilt 6 months before 9/11 and the israeli spies dancing on the white van who had set up camera equipment prior to the attack, but it was good old IKE and JFK who started the paranoia.

[@dodgerdave777channel]

In that case, I invite you to visit this particular web page on my website. I have done several videos regarding this subject matter. Then the integration between corporate governance and secret societies that run much more than most people realize, including the religions. You probably have no idea who I am with John is the only person on earth that I am aware of, as having more video content on the internet regarding Mormonism than me. I'd love to hear from you. On either video commentary or on comments at the home page. I've spent 40 years studying how the world is run. And I can't say I know it all, but I've learned quite a few things. And one of those things is that we are taught and conditioned to ignore a lot of things that those who run society don't want us to notice it in the same way in the microcosm of the church organization as it is done on a societal societal basis the more you understand how mind control works, the easier it is to see it in various venues. mormontruthvideosgospeltopicshub.weebly.com/secret-combinations-in-lds-scripture--modern-urban-legend-status-of-the-illuminati--the-danites-thru-mk-techniques.html

[@dodgerdave777channel]

Tom Miller okay now your commenting while I'm commenting on your commenting. And I just will note when you say Jesus forces you. That that is something I have noticed and mentioned. In other presentations myself as we note how important what used to be called free agency and I suppose is now called moral agency in the church dogma is touted especially sense of course it was not exercised properly by those fence sitters and we talked about that so much before 1978 but we noticed that whenever God has his way whether its Moses or Brigham Young as the leader the free agency goes out the window and you either obey or you pay with your life, which is supposed to be Lucifer's plan. Last I checked in the plan of salvation program, especially in the book of Abraham model and the man's search for happiness. explanation of how agency was supposed to work forces frontier.

[@tinman24601]

The arm of government that you really have to look sideways at is education. A PH.D at the end of someone's name doesn't mean they are intelligent or have any credibility, it just means they've been dog trained to give the correct responses to politically sensitive questions.

[@tinman24601]

The United States distributes anti depressants to make slavery to government and social chaos more bearable. The Soviets just gave out vodka.

[@carborundorum]

It's really a shame that herbalism gets a bad rap due in part to a lack of knowledge.

[@RichardChappell1]

So many of her comments on her parents are judgments based on her perceptions with apparently little thought on what they might be thinking or why. For example, she thought it was ironic that her mother studied childhood development and then seemed to disdain public education. It seems to me that it could easily be because of that education that she might not like public schools. The growth and demand for charter schools and home schooling shows that attitude is not radical at all, but much closer to mainstream. She literally said hiring a midwife is extreme, yet huge numbers of people who would not be considered extreme use midwives. What she, and the interviewer, are insisting are extreme are a lot more common in rural areas. It's apparent that she has spent some much time since leaving home in a very liberal environment who consider anything leaning towards conservatism or even self-sufficiency is extreme.

[@duchessofessex2550]

Shawn is that you?

[@debramccord7707]

Her dad is a controlling nut job end of story. The lectures about the Illuminati, the need to control their lives, etc. I grew up in a similar dynamic and it’s a need to dominate and to feel like a god. It’s a shame that man, and so many like him, create these little kingdoms for themselves and they get away with it.

[@agatawska8456]

I think you did not read her book.

[@RichardChappell1]

@@agatawska8456 I don't claim that I have. I'm responding to the interview and what she actually says in her interviews. Why would I bother to read when I can see so many problems with what she actually says? Her credibility is not high, and I have too many other things to focus on.

[@agatawska8456]

Interesting approach:)

[@bolenjane]

I’m not Mormon but total believe in homeopathic remedies. I will not take penicillin and do not recommend it.

[@aaronvasquez6167]

Why is she trying to talk with a British accent. She's from Idaho. One never sees a British person move to America and start trying to talk with an American accent.

[@tlotus3032]

She doesn't have an affected English accent like Madonna. She sounds very American, but to use words like 'bloody' is normal when you hear it all the time and it fits with what you are saying. Even Americans that move from South to North or East to West etc. have their accents changed, increased or decreased and foreigners definitely do.

[@twelfthhour]

She sounds like Madonna

[@yarawilde6026]

Aaron Vasquez She’s lived in England for several years. One picks up accents. When British people move here, they certainly do pick up traces of an American accent, more detectable to British people than to us because to our ear, they sound predominantly English. I assure you British people don’t think Tara sounds like them. Also, considering the breadth of material Tara provides from her remarkable story, I am surprised that this was of concern.

[@maryannebrown2385]

Oh jeez-she does not have a British accent. At. All! As someone who also went to University in England, I believe what you are hearing is about enunciation rather than accent. Her “t”’s are very crisp and defined-as Americans we tend to pronounce many of our t’s as d’s I also noticed she has also picked up the habit of have a strong emphasis on the the last consonants of certain words, especially those that end with the letter “k”. For example, if an American says the word “rock” we usually don’t have a sharp emphasis on the end of the word-it comes out evenly-as in “roc”. In England, it would be “rocK”-with a strong, crisp emphasis on the K at the end. I also picked up many of these habits when I lived in England, and not all unconsciously. Reason being if I didn’t speak with some of these vowel and constants emphasis, my English friends and classmates would actually have a hard time understanding me, and would ask “what?” or ask me to repeat what I was saying. Especially if they had limited exposure in their lives to various American accents. It may sound like it isn’t a very big deal, but honestly for awhile I felt exhausted every time I asked a question in class or went to a shop and people didn’t understand me. In many ways it is like another language, and to make life easier it became necessary for me to change many of nouns and verbs, and to more consciously speak and enunciate my words. I never, ever lost my American accent.

[@debramccord7707]

Yeah that’s the troubling thing about this woman’s experience🙄