Sunstone Podcast

Being a single, 25-year-old Mormon female is a tough life. But Dorothy Black makes it into a stand-up comedy routine in this episode of the Sunstone Podcast. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/SLP-199.mp3

For Heather Sundahl, Relief Society was the “monster child that sucked up my mom.” What was it like to be the daughter of the most powerful woman in the stake—who couldn’t find time to read to her? https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SLP-198.mp3

In 1954, California LDS bishop Devere Baker set out to prove that Lehi could have sailed from the Persian Gulf to Guatemala—by sailing his own raft, which he called the Lehi. Samuel Taylor tells about Baker’s 25-year endeavor—and how he went through six Lehis in the process. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SLP-197.mp3

How much can we heal from the wounds our religious community gave us? Stephen Carter explores the “hero cycle” story structure to find out. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/SLP-196.mp3

The Baseball Baptism era is a controversial one in LDS history. Richard Mavin gives a first-hand account of how it all happened in Britain and how his mission experience both thrilled and haunted him for the rest of his life. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/SLP-195.mp3

Probably the most controversial period of Mormon missionary history was from about 1960–1962 when more than 100,000 boys were baptized into the LDS Church worldwide—sometimes without realizing it. They were on a baseball field one moment and being baptized the next. In this episode, D. Michael Quinn tells the story of the Baseball Baptism era and the fallout that occurred from it—including the excommunication of about 90 percent of those boys. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/SLP-194.mp3

LDS testimony meetings are usually tedious affairs. Yet we have them every month. Why? Anthropologist David Knowlton compares testimony meeting with similar rituals worldwide to see if it’s doing its job—or if we should toss it. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/SLP-193.mp3

In 1948, Annalee Skarin had just published a book she said was written by the power of God. She was very soon excommunicated from the LDS Church. But then a few days later, eyewitnesses said she was translated. She wrote eight more books after that, becoming nationally famous. In this episode, Samuel W. Taylor and Skarin's daughter Hope A. Hilton give two very different perspectives on Skarin's life and legacy. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SLP-192.mp3

Clark Gilbert is tightening the orthodoxy clamps at BYU, just like Ernest Wilkinson did in the 1950s and 60s. Is this the best way to make BYU students into lifelong Latter-day Saints? Stephen Carter compares Wilkinson’s BYU with Gilbert’s and then talks about his own experience with two BYU professors who kept him engaged with the Church—because of their unique mix of faithfulness and unorthodoxy. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SLP-191.mp3

Sterling M. McMurrin had only been a seminary teacher for two years before the president of the Church, Heber J. Grant, wanted to fire him. And he camped at the edge of excommunication for the rest of his life. McMurrin recalls these turbulent, and comic, years in this episode. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SLP-190.mp3

Much is made in the LDS Church about how David Whitmer, one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, never recanted his testimony, even though he left the Church. What they don't tell you is that it was precisely his testimony of the Book of Mormon that drove him out. In this episode, Karl C. Sandberg tells the rest of Whitmer's story, showing how Whitmer, B. H. Roberts, and Werner Heisenberg represent three different types of believers—all offering something completely different. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SLP-189.mp3

In the movie “Heretic,” Mr. Reed is the logical conclusion of many parts of Mormonism. And they threaten to destroy Mormonism’s best parts. Join Stephen Carter on a deep dive into Heretic’s multi-faceted story. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SLP-188.mp3

What happens when you grow apart politically from a parent? In this episode, Bryan Waterman looks back over the years he spent with his father—both at home and at school—and how they learned to live together. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/SLP-187.mp3

William A. Wilson and John B. Harris spent years gathering missionary folklore—everything from greenie initiation stories to encounters with the Devil. Whether the stories are true or not, Wilson shows in this episode what they reveal about the inner lives of missionaries. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/SLP-186.mp3

People need organizations to help us fulfill our potential. However, organizations are never entirely safe. In this episode, J. Bonner Ritchie explores how the LDS Church functions and how members can transcend its inherent organizational dangers. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/SLP-185.mp3

Stephen Carter takes you on a tour of various afterlife theologies—from Ancient Greek to LDS to New Age—to see if he can believe in one. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/SLP-184.mp3

What should we make of the astonishing lack of females in the Book of Mormon? Carol Lynn Pearson says that it points to a lesson the Nephites never learned—one that likely contributed to their destruction. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/SLP-183.mp3

In 1972, Marylee Mitcham started a quasi-monastic Catholic community, where she lived for ten years. Later, when she joined the LDS Church, she learned that one of her ancestors had started a branch of the United Order in early Utah. Mitcham narrates her fascinating religious history in this episode. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/SLP-182.mp3

LDS scholar Hugh Nibley became a legend in his own time. But how many of the legends were real and how many were fantasies? In this episode, Boyd Petersen digs into the facts behind the stories. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/SLP-181.mp3

Religious conversion and trauma have very similar structures, but with one important difference. In this episode, Stephen Carter draws on Adam Phillips, Julie Hanks, and Prentis Hemphill to explore what happens when people enter a religion, and what happens when they leave. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/SLP-180.mp3

Is the story of Korihor the story of a missed opportunity? In the Book of Mormon, an anti-Christ named Korhior is struck dumb by Alma using the power of God. Could there have been a neurological contributor to Korihor's sudden loss of speech? But even more importantly, could Korihor have been rehabilitated, physically and spiritually, if he had received the same treatment Alma had received when he had been struck down by God? Wade Greenwood explores the possibilities and what we can learn from them.

A Mormon can't get a temple recommend if they drink coffee or black tea, but they can get one if they consume energy drinks that have five times as much caffeine as either. Launching from Michael Pollan's book “Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World,” Stephen Carter explores the strange limbo caffeine has occupied in in the LDS Church—from general condemnation to apostolic approval.

"When virtues run wild, catastrophe reigns." In this episode, John Durham Peters reveals the dangers of Mormon perfectionism and suggests a new approach.

Esther Peterson was one of the most beloved and effective activists of the 20th century, working with John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter to improve women's rights in the United States. And she grew up Mormon in Provo, Utah. In this episode, Esther talks about how her Mormon upbringing affected her activism—both for good and ill.

If the Christian God and the Mormon God got into a fight, who would win? In this episode, S. Richard Bellrock shows just just how unfair the fight would be.

History is a dangerous profession in the LDS Church, sometimes leading to excommunication. Stephen Carter explores why history is such a charged topic—and what Ethiopian leopards have to do with it.

One fine July Sunday in Relief Society, Deja Earley was asked to share a story about her Mormon ancestors. Her story did not go down well. In this episode, Deja tries to come to terms with her polygamous forebears.

Testimony meeting would be a terrible place for Stephen Carter to talk about the movie that finally made him feel a connection to the atonement. Hint: It has connections to Lord of the Rings, Avatar, and Run Lola Run.

The Atonement is all about suffering. Or is it? In this episode, Stephen Carter stumbles across a new atonement theory that would stop any Sunday school lesson in its tracks. Yet, it fits perfectly into the Plan of Salvation.

In Part II of Gregory Prince's article, he explores what he thinks the LDS Church has done right and what kinds of changes both it and its members will need to go through to meet current and future challenges.

Gregory A. Prince has been watching the LDS Church for 75 years. And it has changed. A lot. Some changes have been constructive; some have been devastating. What does Prince see as the best way forward from where we are now? What will this path demand of the Church organization and its members?

Carol Lynn Pearson is known for her long-standing advocacy for the LGBT community in the LDS Church. This episode presents her thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of the Church, and why she continues to engage with it.

Using Eric Hoffer's book "The True Believer," Stephen Carter explores how Mormonism became a mass movement and the surprising way its cycle is playing out today.

The New Testament is full of healing stories. But in real life, not so much. Dana Haight Cattani talks about her struggle with cancer.

After a tour of the Orem Temple's art with Stephen Carter, Michael Stubbs talks about how difficult it is for him to find God in nature—even when hiking with a bunch of rowdy Young Men!

Treasure digging did not stop with Joseph Smith. In this episode, Kevin Cantera tells us about John Koyle, a Mormon visionary who started a mine that he said would lead to caverns filled with Nephite gold.

This episode honors the life, thought, and spirit of Lavina Fielding Anderson with one of her best Sunstone articles: "In the Garden God Hath Planted: Explorations Toward a Maturing Faith."

Are you a Barbie, a Ken, or a Gloria? Stephen Carter, who watched the Barbie movie five times in the theaters, argues that these three characters typify some of the most common faith crises in the LDS Church. And that they show us how to look at these crises in a completely new light.

As the old Primary song goes, "I'm trying to be like Jigsaw." In this episode, Stephen Carter explores the peculiar reason why so many Mormons are afraid to die.

Jana Riess grew up in a household where swearing was the norm. And she wonders if bringing a little of that spice over to our religious devotions might not kick things up a notch.

Buckle up as Stephen Carter takes you on a ride through Mormonism's most popular, and notorious, marriage manual on its 60th anniversary.

How did the one of richest Mormon polygamous groups get its start? With one man, Charles William Kingston. In this episode, his great-grandson, Charles Elden Kingston, tells his story.

Yes, the mothership temple of Utah County has been the butt of many jokes. But what will we lose if the LDS Church goes ahead with its renovation of the Provo Temple? Alan Barnett reveals surprising architectural aspects of the Provo and Ogden Temples, and argues that their loss robs us of an essential part of Mormon history and imagination.

Our intuition tells us that there must be humor in heaven, but the D&C has specific injunctions against laughter. Using theories of humor and stories from the Bible, Stephen Carter tries to figure out what kind of jokes gods make. And if they're any good.

When Michael Stevens started teaching university courses in Utah, he noticed that passive-aggressive behavior was significantly higher there than at the midwestern universities he had taught at. His studies revealed that the behavior was highest among people with an LDS background. Where does this behavior come from? How does it manifest itself? And how does it affect Mormon culture?

Would Jesus pass muster to visit an LDS ward? Ryan Shoemaker doesn't think so. But for reasons that have more to do with Whole Foods than the whole gospel. Episode includes bonus scripture from Jake Christensen.

The story goes that anyone who leaves the Good Ship Zion comes back all wet and half drowned. But in this episode, Stephen Carter argues that this is short-sighted, and that a journey away from the ship may actually be the best way to save both yourself and the ship.

Mormonism used to pride itself on how different it was from other Christian sects. But it has since become part and parcel of the Evangelical movement. How did this happen? In this episode, Stephen Carter looks at recent LDS history through Kristen Du Mez's book "Jesus and John Wayne: How Evangelicalism Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation."

Walking into the forest means walking into the unknown. Reverend Patty Willis has done so many times in her life, and is about to do it again.

When the Proclamation on the Family says "gender," what does it mean? Ted Lee makes a case that using the academic, rather than colloquial, definition of gender opens the way to fitting transgender people into the Plan of Salvation.

In these two hilarious and compelling dialogues by Theric Jepson, Mormon Socrates explores the theology behind transgender people and reproductive rights.