Latest / The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of / Eli McCann New Book Interview From February 17th, 2026

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Eli McCann New Book Interview From February 17th, 2026 · The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, McCann is here.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Eli McCann is a columnist in the Salt Lake Tribune.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Is that your primary job?
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: No, No, I'm a lawyer by day. I just write
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: like one or two columns a month for the Tribune.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Okay, because I was going to say, and I can't
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: see you couldn't dress as well as you do if
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: you were just doing that. Eli has collected a bunch
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: of his columns. Are these all columns that have run before?
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah? All columns that have read in the last three
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: years at the time.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: The name of the book is We're Thankful for the Moisture.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: A Gay Guy's Guide to Mormon Faith family. And what
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: is it?
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Fruit preservation?
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, fruit preservation. Yeah, that's kind of okay. So Eli
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: tell us why it's called thank You for the moil.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: We're grateful for them.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: We're thankful for the moisture because when my husband moved
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: to Salt Lake City from Portland, Oregon, ten years ago,
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: he heard somebody say earnestly, sincerely, we're thankful for the
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: moisture after it snowed, and thought it was the funniest
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: thing he had ever heard, and that was sort of
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: his introduction to Mormon and Utah culture. And the book
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: is largely humor, essays about what it's like to live
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: as a gay man in Utah and introduce this very
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: bizarre culture to this.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Did you grow up here?
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, in the Salt Lake Valley?
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: And when did you decide I'm gay? And I'm going
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: to let the world know that.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: Well, I decided I'm gay with the moment I was born.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: But I came out of the closet and left Mormonism
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: about twelve thirteen years ago.
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: By the way, Eli is the only person that talks
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: about how wonderful his husband is more than I do.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: It's discussed it is what what your what does your
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: husband do?
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: He's a a dermatologist?
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Oh I need a dermatologist.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Come on over. Can we just joined some botox? Yeah?
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: We could do botox at the house, Come on over.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: So I talk a little bit about all of this
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: comes out as as humor, and I suspect that that's
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: there's a reason that because if you weren't being funny,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: it would be pretty sad.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't it.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: I mean a lot of yeah, being being a gay
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: man who grew up as Mormon in Utah, there there
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: are a lot of sad stories around that, and they're
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: they're The book is largely a humor book, but there
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: are certainly some stories and essays in there that touch
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: a little bit more on kind of the serious side.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: But I have found it to be healthy for me
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: to find the comedy in Mormon culture. I mean, how
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: else can you live here as a gay man? And
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: you know, I don't. I don't have any negative feelings
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: about the various Mormons in my life who are practicing members.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, my parents.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: But my parents have been unbelievably supportive of me, you know,
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: throughout this entire process, and they're written about in the
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: book and they're excited about it as well.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Is it one of those things where when you finally
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: said something to your parents about it, did your mother say, oh, Eli,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: not really prize.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: Well, you know what happened was I went to my
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: parents' house one day and I said, I need to
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: tell you something, and I wanted to be unequivocal about it,
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: make sure that there was no room for doubt. So
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: I said, I am incredibly gay, incredibly and my parents
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: both just got looked at me in shock, and my
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: mom said, is incredibly gay?
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Different?
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Than regular gay. And I said, no, I don't think so.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: I just wanted to make sure that you knew that
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: there was no doubt about this. And then and she said, okay, well,
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: now that you've told us, I hope you can finally
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: find some peace, which was very soon.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: It was a really really lovely way.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: But but my parents have made comments over the years
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: that there were signs I write about in the book.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Actually there.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: I have an essay my childhood best friend Sam and I,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: when we were eleven years old, begged our mothers to
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: make us noun costumes for Halloween because we wanted to
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: go as Sister Act nuns and singing door at the door,
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: he's gay too, and now.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: And and and my and they did.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: They turned us into Holy Drag queens for Halloween when
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: we were eleven years old.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: So you you've you left the prominent religion, the Mormon Church,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: but but you're still somebody once said to me, you know,
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: I said, I left the church a long time ago.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think I'm still on the rolls, but
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: they've never officially removed me. Uh. And I said, I
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: kind of miss certain things. And this person said to me,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: you know, culturally you're still You're still a Mormon. Yeah, yeah,
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: it's it's it's the culture that's in that's in bred
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: in you, whether you're whether you go to the church
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: or not.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, When when my neighbor breaks their leg, I
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: want to organize a cast role calendar for them. You know,
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: that's still a big part of me, and it's been
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: important and important part of the process for me to say,
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: what are the parts of growing up Mormon that I
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: actually think we're good for me because I want to
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: keep those ones and just shut the rest of them.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: The sense of community and preservation.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Do you know how to do fruit?
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, can?
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: I always come over it will do botox and then
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: I'll teach you to can we'll do pickles.
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah. We're hearing from a lot of friends of the
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: program who like to watch you on TikTok. I love
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: this one. My wife loves his stories. Every time we
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: have TikTok time we watch together, she always has one
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: of his videos she sends me. Oh, that's very thank
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: thank you for the support. Where can people find you
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: on social media?
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: So if there Eli mccownt on TikTok, that's the one
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: I'm most active on right now.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: You can find me on Twitter.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: I'm somewhat active there.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: And then, yeah, tell me about the essay the Holy
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Ghost goes to bed at midnight.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: This was when my husband heard somebody say the holy
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: ghost goes to bed at midnight. He came home and
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: he said, what does it mean when somebody says the
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: holy ghost goes to bed? He said, what does it
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: mean when someone says the sacred spirit goes to bed
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: at ten o'clock? And I said, first of all, it's
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: called the holy ghost, and it doesn't go to bed
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: until midnight.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: So however, tell you this one is wrong? And I
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: explained to me.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: I said, well, when we were kids, parents used to say, well,
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: the holy Ghost goes to bed at midnight, so you
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: shouldn't be out later than midnight. And he said, so
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: what is the holy ghost? And I, you know, tried
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: to explain to him what that was. And he said,
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: so it haunts people and I said, no, no, it just
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: follows people around and whispers things to that whispers instruction.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: He said that that is literally a haunting. What you've
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: just described as a haunting.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: You have to tell him it's the still small voice
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: within within the still small voice that says, you know
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: this is wrong. Yeah, and and and then but then
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: the Holy Ghost goes to sleep with Is the Holy
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Ghost a guy.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Or a girl?
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Do you know?
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I think it's a man. I think, of course.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: I always kind of thought.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: I would think if the Holy ghosts went to bed,
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: then that's the time you should be out, because he's
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: not paying attention to what you're doing.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: That's right point.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: It's like the Holy Ghost isn't in Las Vegas.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: For Gina, the Holy Ghost goes to sleep with her.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: It's time for us all to go to bed.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: And then talk about uh uh late oh so late
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: night feedings. That must be about your your child.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I have a seventeen month old child. I'm
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: going to count in months for his entire life. Yeah,
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: do that, seventeen month old child. And I, you know,
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: became a dad a year and a half ago and
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: learned what it's like to not ever sleep again. And
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: so I write an essay in the book about it's
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: not really a Mormon story, but about waking up in
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: the middle of the night. And I don't think I'll
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: miss late night feedings. But there was something that felt
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: almost sacred about just being alone with him and hearing
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: his little snores and breaths and feeding him night after night.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I became a dad of forty and so
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: later then it happens for a lot of people, and
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: it just feels like a miracle that I get to
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: be a parent.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: How did you meet your husband?
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: We met he was We met through a dating app
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: tender in twenty fifteen. He was on a one hour
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: layover in the Salt Lake Airport and our phones, you know,
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: connected to each other, and we matched. And by the
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: time we started chatting, he was already long gone. You know,
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: he's not from here, he doesn't live here, and and
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: so but we started, you know, calling each other.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: He was very funny, and so I wanted to stay
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: in touch with him.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: In a month later, I flew out to meet him
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: in person, and then we just started visiting each other,
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: and then I recruited him to come move here.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Was that a hard cell, No, not really, he was.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: He was living in Wisconsin at the time, and he
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: didn't really like it there because the winters are so miserable,
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: and he had a very flexible job where he could
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: live anywhere at that time, and and so I said,
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: why don't.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: You move out here?
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: I can't really leave you time a lawyer, and I
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: this is where I practice. And so he came out
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: here and then applied to medical school and got in
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: at the U.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: And we've just been here ever since.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: We how long have you been married?
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Seven years?
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Nice?
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And I'm sure a million people have told you
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: to enjoy every second with that baby, all the sleepless nights,
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: all it goes so fast. Yeah, I say, as a
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: mother with my youngest about to leave home, enjoy every
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: every sleepless night.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: She keeps trying to talk him into staying. But the
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: name of the book is We're Thankful for the Moisture.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: It's just out today. And where can we get this?
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: You can order it anywhere online, you know, Barnes and Noble, Amazon,
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: you can get it through your local bookstore, King's English
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: and selling it. Yeah, it's easy to find if you
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: google it. You can order it pretty much anywhere you
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: like to order books. And there's also an audible version
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: that I recorded that is today. Who was fun It
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: was exhausting. So what's funny is years ago I heard
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: that the Obamas want a Grammy for recording an audiobook,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: and I was like, you want to Grammy for reading
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: your book out, Loue.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: I get it now.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: It was it was exhausting. It's hard, so it's weird.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Thankful for the moisture. It's by Eli and that's E. L.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: I McCann and it's available now and it's not very expensive,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: so why don't you buy one.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: It's very funny.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: I've read the first chapter and then started thumbing through
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: it and I'm like, I relate to this guy on
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: so many levels except for the gay part.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Little gay, you seem a little game.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: I'm a little I always thought I was a little gay,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: But I said to Carry. We were at Pride one year.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: We've been in the parade every year and I'm looking
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: at this flatbed truck and it's all these guys in speedos,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: you know, dancing around. And I looked, I looked at
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: a turn to Carry and said, you know, that's how
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: I know I'm not gay. That that doesn't do anything
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: for you at all.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Very good. Well, thanks Eli, thank you, and good luck
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: with this. We hope it sells lots and lots and lots.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you all right, thank you very much.