about
Grab some whipped cream, mini marshmallows, pineapple chunks, mandarin oranges, and any other fruit you see fit, throw it all into a bowl, mix well and you’ve got the beginnings of frog eye salad. Throw in the dish’s namesake—tiny pastas balls known as acini di pepe that may for may not be the size of frog eyes—and this quintessential Midwestern summer dish—appropriated by Utahns is—complete.
Substitute the whipped cream for my strict yet quirky Mormon upbringing, the marshmallows for angsty Millennial takes, the pineapples for my love of counterculture, the mandarins for the art forms I love—music, literature, film, photography, tattoos—and finally the pasta balls for the words from my pen to your screen, you get blog eye salad.
👋 Hey there, I’m Ethan Gregory Dodge, an autistic and ADHD writer and documentarian. I was raised Mormon in a Utah County, Utah during a very strict era of the LDS Church. My indulgences of Taking Back Sunday and muttering swears under my breath caused me tremendous guilt despite my best efforts to be the perfect Peter Priesthood. To use an overused cliche, I was a square peg and the church was trying to shove me violently into a round hole. I ended up losing my faith at 25 and felt beyond liberated. When I was diagnosed neurodivergent at 34, I finally began to finding a mould that fit me.
Over nearly the past decade, I’ve written journalistically about surveillance, the inner workings of the LDS Church, and the culture and history of modern tattooing—another childhood guilty pleasure. In 2026, I realized that, while I enjoy writing about that stuff, I allowed the opinions of others—rather than my own intuition—to drive my creative output. I hope this blog is a marked end to that. My writing here in my personal blog will wax more memoiristic as I unpack what it means to be a post-religious secular Mormon in a world that wasn’t quite built for my brain.
If any of that intrigues you, subscribe below or follow along via this RSS feed. I’ve already got several posts ready to go and will begin publishing in 2026. I’m so excited to have you here!
press bio #
Ethan Gregory Dodge is an autistic and ADHD writer, photographer, and documentarian based in San Jose, California whose work explores the dynamics of identity, community, and power.
Raised in Utah Valley, much of his personal work wrestles with his identity as a non-believing Mormon. He was one of the journalists who exposed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ hidden stock and real estate portfolios. From 2022 to 2026, his journalistic work focused primarily on documenting tattoo history and culture—a lifelong fascination that was previously forbidden by his religious upbringing. He now works on the occasional short documentaries while writing personal essays that he feels help drive a cultural conversation.
Ethan is driven by a deep belief in speaking truth to power and preserving culture through careful, human-centered storytelling. His work has appeared in VICE, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Salt Lake Tribune, and many other outlets.
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