Resources: 

Cherished Families: https://www.cherishfamilies.org/

Kidnapped From That Land: https://www.amazon.com/Kidnapped-That-Land-Government-Polygamist/dp/0874805287

Unfinished Short Creek podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/lu/podcast/introducing-unfinished-short-creek/id1516705248?i=1000488964911

At the same time, the United States, the nation with the most Latter-day Saints, saw its net raw numbers decline for the first time, and children of record continued to lag well below 100,000.

On this week’s show, we dissect the latest data — from the exceptional expansions in parts of the Global South to the stagnant figures in other parts of the world — with independent researcher Matt Martinich, who tracks such data for the websites cumorah.com and ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com.

In fact (not counting founder Joseph Smith) church presidents live to an average age of 87. And the current leader, Dallin Oaks, is 93.

Decades ago, liberal apostle Hugh B. Brown, a self-proclaimed “rebel,” saw this emerging gerontocracy as a problem and proposed a remedy, which included granting emeritus status at age 70 to all apostles, even members of the governing First Presidency.

In addition, Brown wasn’t particularly fond of how tradition has enshrined the process for picking church presidents and attempted to change it.

On this week’s show, historian Matthew Harris, author of the acclaimed “Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality” and who is writing a biography of Brown, discusses the apostle’s views on succession and aging leaders.

Brown “had strong feelings,” Harris notes, “about so-called old men running the church, as he put it.”

• The Easter weekend focus on the death, resurrection and Atonement of Jesus Christ.

• A solemn assembly combined with Dallin H. Oaks’ first conference sermon as the 18th church president.

• A record number of convert baptisms in 2025.

• The choice of an African woman to lead the faith’s Primary organization for children.

Oaks gave a powerful talk about peace, definitely a timely topic. And the elevation of the first African as head of any of the faith’s global organizations was historic. But the weekend falling on Easter meant that most of the talks began to sound alike — even repetitive — and quite similar to what you might hear at any Christian church on that sacred holiday.

That begs a number of questions: Is it time to rethink the structure and substance of these semiannual gatherings? Are there too many sessions? Are they too long? Does the Saturday evening session need to return? What about a women’s meeting? What about the speeches themselves, especially since they will form the basis of Relief Society and priesthood quorum lessons (occurring every Sunday starting in September)?

On this week’s show, Margaret Olsen Hemming, co-editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and Sam Brunson, a law professor and Latter-day Saint blogger with By Common Consent, address those questions and more.

Allowing women to oversee the teaching of scriptures and church doctrine to members was seen by many as a further move toward gender equity.

The news, though, came with a caveat: If a woman were named as president, her two counselors would also have to be women. Same with men. That element caused much consternation at a change that might have brought unalloyed delight.

So was this a big stride or simply a little step? What are the implications, if any, for the global faith?

Discussing those questions and more are Emily Jensen, web editor for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and LaShawn Williams, a clinical social worker in Orem with a private practice and current president of the Mormon Mental Health Association.

On this 'Mormons in Media' crossover, we discuss what ties back to religion and what is just drama. Plus, we talk about deconstructing religion on missions and GLP-1 addiction and how that ties back into the "Utah beauty standard." Will certain things stay black and white or are we entering a grey area? 

His name: Harry Reid. Passionately partisan, fiercely loyal and discreetly devout, Reid, who died in 2021, rose to majority leader in the U.S. Senate, where the onetime boxer fought for landmark Democratic victories on Obamacare, financial reforms and an economic stimulus package.

He was ruthless and religious — LBJ without the swearing.

Learn more about the real Harry Reid from political journalist Jon Ralston, author of the recently released biography, “The Game Changer: How Harry Reid Remade the Rules and Showed Democrats How to Fight.”

Afterward, he interned with the Utah Eagle Forum and learned the ways of backroom politicking at the feet of one of the state’s most effective conservative lobbyists, Gayle Ruzicka.

Thus, an advocate was born.

After embracing his sexual orientation, Williams rose to executive director of Equality Utah, the state’s preeminent LGBTQ+ rights group, and suddenly found himself on the opposite side from his onetime mentor.

Though he no longer labored for his former faith, Williams soon was working with it, helping to bring about the landmark Utah Compromise, which safeguarded religious liberty while barring housing and workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

More breakthroughs followed, including the church’s endorsement of the Respect for Marriage Act, codifying civil same-sex marriage. Now, after more than a decade at Equality Utah’s helm, Williams is stepping down.

On this week’s show, he discusses his incredible personal and political journey.

He currently serves other diplomats as president of the American Foreign Service Association.

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Dinkelman served a two-year mission in Argentina and graduated from church-owned Brigham Young University.

On this week’s show, he discusses his career, how his Latter-day Saint faith has guided him, and what part the church can play on the global stage.

The smallest mission in the world geographically, it is arguably also one of the busiest, acting as an introduction to the Utah-based faith for millions of visitors from across the globe — as well as a place of spiritual rejuvenation for members.

Temple Square is also the only mission composed solely of female proselytizers, who are given the chance to lead in roles otherwise reserved for men.

Like the guests they greet in dozens of languages, they have come for decades from all across the world. During their 18-month stints, they welcome visitors to the faith’s most iconic site, teach its history, and share its beliefs in tours and in call centers.

This July, that all comes to an end. After more than 30 years in operation, the mission will dissolve, replaced by the same model other church visitor centers have long employed. Instead, “sister missionaries” from surrounding Utah missions will divide their time between the serving on Temple Square and engaging in traditional proselytizing in their assigned geographic region.

On this week’s show, two Temple Square mission alums — Southern Californian DaMinikah Rigby, who served from 2021 to 2022, and Arizonan-turned-Utahn Roxana Baker, who served from 2009-2010 — talk about their experiences — what they loved, what they learned, whom they taught, and what they think may be lost and gained by the mission’s closure.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a standard crossing-the-Plains narrative: Pioneers traversed the Mississippi River on the ice led by Brigham Young. Everything was well organized, and everyone was well behaved. They trekked hard by day and prayed together at night. They sang “Come, Come, Ye Saints” around the campfire and then delighted in dancing to the tunes of fiddles.

Sure, there was hardship, so the story goes, but all the suffering was mostly ennobling. The names varied but the stories for these religious migrants were pretty much interchangeable.

For Parshall, however, the pioneer saga was so much wider, richer and, at times, more entertaining. Here, she shared some of the gems she discovered about that epic 19th-century pilgrimage.

Now his monthly humor columns have been compiled into one bright, breezy book. Titled “We’re Thankful for the Moisture: A Gay Guy’s Guide to Mormon Faith, Family, and Fruit Preservation.”

It’s a valentine of sorts to Latter-day Saint culture, containing classics like his first date with his future, non-Mormon husband at, of all places, the Kirtland Temple; his adventures — and misadventures — in the kitchen after unearthing a missionary cookbook; and the awkward — but somehow appropriate — chuckles he shared with a bishop when he signed his resignation letter from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A practicing attorney, Eli lives is Salt Lake City with his husband, physician Skylar Westerdahl, their toddler son, West, and, as Eli puts it, “two naughty (yet worshipped) dogs.”

On this week’s show, Eli and Skylar talk about his writings, their life and why Eli still finds laughter and love in the religious culture that bred him.

For more than nine decades, he has lived it, studied it, analyzed it, shared it with fellow believers and explained it to nonbelievers.

The soft-spoken scholar — with three degrees from Harvard and a drive toward understanding truth — has been writing about Mormonism for much of his academic career. He is a giant in his field and a mentor to many young historians.

He penned a seminal biography of Joseph Smith, founder The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and later published an examination of the importance of Smith’s “gold plates,” from which sprang the Book of Mormon.

To many, the emeritus history professor from Columbia University is a dream representative of the Utah-based faith — quiet, reasoned, faithful but open and willing to ask hard questions.

So what has he seen of the church in his 94 years? What eras were most difficult? Most satisfying? What struggles has he faced as a member and where does he see the church in the 21st century as compared to when he was born?

On this week’s show, Bushman, who is writing his memoirs, reflects on the past, ruminates on the present and imagines the future.

Raids on suspected immigrants have become a common occurrence, observers on the ground report. Gas-mask-wearing protesters take frequently to frozen streets. Twice federal agents have shot and killed U.S. citizens, 37-year-old Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Amid this chaos, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have sought to replace fear and isolation with faith and service — even as the church’s top leaders have remained largely silent on the issue.

On this week’s show, Cindy Sandberg and John Gustav-Wrathall talk about their experiences from the front lines in the beleaguered city.

That has slowly changed. In 2015, the Utah-based faith posted photos and videos of garments on YouTube to show the outside world that there is “nothing magical or mystical about temple garments.”

These days images of garments (especially the new sleeveless design) are posted on the church’s online store and by faithful Latter-day Saints themselves.

But how did the practice of wearing garments begin? What were early garments like? What did they signify to the wearers? And how have they evolved through the years?

On this week’s show, Nancy Ross and Jessica Finnigan, authors, along with Larissa Kanno Kindred, of a forthcoming book, “Mormon Garments: Sacred and Secret,“ discuss the history and purpose of this religious underwear.

That pairing says a lot not only about how the faith views the intertwining of the spiritual and the physical but also about the vaunted place in Latter-day Saint culture held by this particular sport: basketball.

From its conception, it was seen as a way to exhibit “muscular Christianity,” build character, learn discipline and practice teamwork — “no place,” its inventor said, “for the egotist.”

Latter-day Saint leaders and the members quickly adopted it, to the point that “church ball” became an integral ingredient in congregational life.

Fast-forward to today’s NBA, where showtime and showboating sell tickets, and the college ranks, where money increasingly rules — even at church-owned Brigham Young University, where millions in name, image and likeness cash helped the Cougars land prized recruit AJ Dybantsa.

How did this happen? How did basketball blend into church culture for so many years? And how does the modern game fit with BYU’s religious mission?

On this week’s show, Latter-day Saint historian Matthew Bowman and scholar Wayne LeCheminant, authors of “Game Changers: AJ Dybantsa, BYU, and the Struggle for the Soul of Basketball," answer those questions and more.

The 85-year-old Uchtdorf is now the acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and stands second in line — behind 92-year-old Henry Eyring — to take the reins of the global faith. While certainly not wishing death on any church leaders, many Latter-day Saints nonetheless look forward to the prospect of Uchtdorf one day rising to the presidency.

What is it about this German apostle that makes him so popular? Is it his backstory as a two-time refugee or the fact that he rose from outside the usual church leadership track? Is it his high-flying career as an airline pilot? Is it his sermons, filled with soaring rhetoric and down-to-earth wisdom? Or is it his GQ looks and perennial tan?

On this week’s show, Latter-day Saint writer Kristine Haglund, former editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and scholar Patrick Mason, chair of Mormon history and culture at Utah State University, discuss this much-admired apostle and why he seems to stand out among the faith’s top leaders.

After all, any of the men (and, in the patriarchal faith, they must be men) selected for this lifetime assignment could one day rise to the presidency of the global religion.

Choosing new apostles also represents a way in which Latter-day Saint prophet-presidents can leave their mark on the church long after they are gone — similar to U.S. presidents when they nominate justices to the Supreme Court.

In the mid-1990s, Howard Hunter led the church for a mere nine months — the shortest tenure of any church president — yet the one apostle he chose was Jeffrey Holland, who served for three decades and was positioned as next in line to take the faith’s reins at the time of his recent death.

With Holland’s death, church President Dallin Oaks, himself a former Utah Supreme Court justice and barely three months into his presidential tenure, has the chance to name his second new apostle.

Whom might he pick? How do church leaders go about deciding? What can we learn from past apostle selections? Were there any surprise picks? Were any notable leaders ever passed over? And what might the naming of new apostles say about the current church and its future?

On this week’s show, Latter-day Saint historian Benjamin Park, author of “American Zion: A New History of Mormonism,” discusses those questions and more.

In recognition, we are revisiting this “Mormon Land” podcast about one of the most significant developments in the research surrounding this major American religious figure: the stunning 2022 announcement that a descendant had discovered in a locket what is purported to be the only known photograph of his famous ancestor.

The finding led to a nationwide conversation among historians and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and those in the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints).

Historian Lachlan Mackay, a Community of Christ apostle and another Smith descendant, helped analyze the daguerreotype, trace the locket’s ownership and research its likely history.

On this show, Mackay answers questions about the photo, the process historians used to authenticate it, and why he’s convinced that it truly is an image of Joseph Smith.

In 2018 — 40 years after the church had eliminated the policy — national leaders of the country’s oldest civil rights organization held a joint meeting with top Latter-day Saint officials.

The groundbreaking alliance of the two organizations produced donations, scholarships and humanitarian initiatives. It was directed by then-church President Russell Nelson.

Now the church has a new president, Dallin Oaks, who has urged members to “root out” racism and famously called “Black lives matter” an “eternal truth all reasonable people should support.”

So what has the partnership accomplished, what is its current state, and what are expectations for the future?

On this week’s show, NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson answers those questions and more.

To the minds of many, even most, English-speaking members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this has long meant one thing and one thing only — the King James Version, including some of Smith’s edits, collectively known as the Joseph Smith Translation.

That is changing. Although still officially the “preferred” edition, the 1611 KJV is now one of several that church leaders have listed as approved for use.

On this week’s show, Latter-day Saint scholar Dan McClellan, author of “The Bible Says So: What We Get Right (and Wrong) About Scripture’s Most Controversial Issues," talks about the significance and potential ramifications of this announcement, including how the newer translations could boost members’ understanding of the Bible, shift their views of the Book of Mormon and strengthen — or challenge — their faith. If nothing else, the inclusion of more modern Bible editions promises to make for more interesting, informed and meaningful Sunday school discussions.

In the wake of the Ordain Women movement of 2013, it was seen as a small, visible step toward equality and inclusion.

Two years ago, an area president, whose jurisdiction included Northern California, abruptly discontinued the practice. In response, members in at least three stakes, or regional clusters of congregations, surrounding San Francisco have expressed their concerns to lay bishops and stake presidents, while also conducting surveys and launching a letter-writing campaign to church headquarters in Salt Lake City to return the women to the stand — all to no avail.

Now The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a new prophet-president, Dallin H. Oaks, and he recently said in an interview that the Utah-based faith has “work left to do” on gender equity.

Amy Watkins Jensen, who served as a Young Women leader in Lafayette, California, has been leading a Women on the Stand Instagram account since the letter-writing campaign failed.

On this week’s show, she explores what positive moves for Latter-day Saint women have happened in the past 24 months and what “work” she thinks remains.

On the December crossover episode between ‘Mormon Land’ and ‘Mormons in Media,' Rebbie and Nicole break down all that has happened over the last month in the realm of Utah reality television. You've got an entire new season of 'Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,' a docuseries from 'Real Housewives of Salt Lake City' star Heather Gay, 'Dancing With The Stars,' 'The Bachelorette,' and so much more. Let's get caught up and let's discuss.

Nothing new there. After all, about half the players on coach Kalani Sitake’s roster at the church-owned Provo school are former missionaries.

But wait. Lyons and Harris say they are going on one-year missions. Is this some new exception for elite athletes?

Turns out, no.

Of course, Latter-day Saints can — and do — leave their missions whenever they want. But the church maintains that full-time proselytizing missionaries are “expected to serve their full term of service” — two years for young men and 18 months for young women.

Still, Harris and Lyons are announcing in advance their intention to fulfill half that stint.

Is this good for the players? Is it good for BYU? Is it good for the church?

On this week’s show, Tribune sports writer Kevin Reynolds, who covers the Cougars, and columnist Gordon Monson discuss those questions and more.

The story comes from the Book of Mormon in chapters where the risen Christ visits the Americas and chooses 12 apostles. Of those, three ask to linger in mortality until Jesus comes again, ministering to the people.

From the time when the book of scripture was first published until today, members have reported encounters with these shape-shifting strangers, who seem to pop up randomly angelic visitors of sorts sent to help people.

For decades, Brigham Young University professor William A. “Bert” Wilson, seen as “the father of Mormon folklore,” gathered these accounts. After he died in 2016, the collection went to one of his students, Julie Swallow, a teaching and learning consultant at the church-owned Provo school.

The collection now forms the nucleus of a new book, “The Three Nephites: Saints, Service, and Supernatural Legend,” from Swallow and co-authors Christopher Blythe, Eric Eliason and Jill Terry Rudy.

On this week’s show, Swallow and Blythe, an assistant professor of folklore at BYU and co-host of the “Angels and Seerstones” podcast, discuss these stories, what they mean spiritually and communally, and why the “Three Nephites” continue to engage and entertain believers.

Aiding the activists was a powerful ally: the then-president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Spencer W. Kimball. In 1981, Kimball and his counselors, apostles N. Eldon Tanner and Marion G. Romney, came out against the project in a lengthy statement that read in part:

“Our fathers came to this Western area to establish a base from which to carry the gospel of peace to the peoples of the Earth. It is ironic, and a denial of the very essence of that gospel, that in this same general area there should be constructed a mammoth weapons system potentially capable of destroying much of civilization.”

The church leaders’ forceful opposition helped turn the tide of public opinion in Utah against the MX, and the U.S. eventually abandoned weapons plan.

Now, some of those same activists are agitating again, this time against the ongoing development, partially in Utah, of a new generation of nuclear missiles designed to replace an aging arsenal. Once again, they’re looking for an assist from the church’s top brass, now led by President Dallin H. Oaks. In an October letter mailed to the faith’s Salt Lake City headquarters, they called on the newly ascended prophet to condemn the Sentinel missile project.

To date, church leaders have offered no response.

How much impact would it have if they did is unclear and, according to political scientist Quin Monson, depends a great deal on how it would be framed and communicated.

On this week’s show, Monson, a professor at church-owned Brigham Young University, outlines research on how Latter-day Saint leaders have shaped — and can shape — public opinion with members in the pews.

That’s the most since the Utah-based faith of 17.5 million members created 58 missions in 2013 and brings its total tally worldwide to 506.

At the same time, the current corps of full-time missionaries has topped 84,000 and, according to apostle Quentin Cook, convert baptisms during the first six months of 2025 ran 20% higher than the first half of last year.

So what do all these positive numbers mean when it comes to the pace and prospects of church growth now and in the future?

Independent researcher Matt Martinich, who tracks such data for the websites cumorah.com and ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com, wrote an analysis of the new missions and discusses his findings.

He has been the subject of plays, articles, books and a documentary. For those who still don’t know it, though, there is now a feature film, “Truth & Treason,” that recounts Hübener’s harrowing experience of faith and courage.

What is fact and what is fiction in the film? More important, what is its message to modern believers?

Discussing those questions and more on this week’s show is Alan Keele, an emeritus professor of German language and literature at Brigham Young University, who first publicized the story.

In his newly published book, “Holiness to the Lord: Latter-day Saint Temple Worship,” historian Jonathan Stapley explores those changes in greater detail than any other work to date.

Those changes have not only practical but also theological implications, he argues, for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the past and the present.

Last week, Dallin H. Oaks, at age 93, became the 18th prophet-president of the faith, succeeding Russell M. Nelson, who died Sept. 27 at 101. Unlike a leader in any other American-based faith, Oaks will be expected to serve until the end of his life — as Nelson and 16 others did before him.

Oaks’ first counselor in the governing First Presidency, Henry B. Eyring, is 92. D. Todd Christofferson, his second counselor, is 80, one of four apostles in their 80s. Does this collective “gerontocracy” give rise to a stagnant, intractable, out-of-touch leadership? Would switching to a system that brings younger blood into the leadership invigorate the global faith of 17.5 million?

Historian Gregory Prince, who studied and written about these issues, discusses these, frankly, age-old questions — including how leadership succession has evolved throughout Latter-day Saint history, the advantages and disadvantages or having aging church leaders, and the prospect of apostles and First Presidency members someday being granted emeritus status rather than serving until they die.

In this episode, historian Richard Turley discusses his book “In the Hands of the Lord: The Life of Dallin H. Oaks," which documents the personal journey of a church leader known for his devotion to religious liberty, his doctrinal dissections and his pointed preachings from the pulpit.

Oaks’ father died when he was 7 years old. Reared by his mother and his maternal grandparents, he committed himself to hard work and diligent scholarship.

He became a star student, earned a degree at one of the nation’s most prestigious law schools and launched a legal career that would see him rise to the Utah Supreme Court with whispers that he someday could land a seat on the country’s highest court.

Then, virtually overnight, Oaks changed his life’s trajectory, trading his career in the law for a commitment to his Lord. He accepted a call to be a Latter-day Saint apostle, a lifetime appointment in which he now serves as the faith’s prophet-president.

Enjoy this episode and learn about life of the church’s 18th president.

There were talks by apostles and general authority Seventies, along with three women, punctuated by music by The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and other Utah choirs.

But it might be remembered mostly for what didn’t happen.

It was presided over by the Dallin Oaks-led Quorum of the Twelve Apostles rather than by a church president and a reconstituted First Presidency.

That’s because President Russell M. Nelson died just a week before the two-day meetings and, by tradition, the three-man presidency is not reorganized until after the previous president’s funeral.

On top of that Oaks broke with conference tradition and announced no new temples. Nelson’s presumed successor said that Nelson “loved to announce new temples at the conclusion of each General Conference, and we all rejoiced with him.” Not this time, Oaks said. Due to the “large number of temples now in the very earliest phases of planning and construction, it is appropriate that we slow down the announcement of new temples.”

On this week’s show, Emily Jensen, web editor for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and Patrick Mason, chair of Mormon history and culture at Utah State University, discuss what did — and didn’t — happen at the just-completed meeting, plus which speakers were standouts, and what an Oaks’ presidency might look like.

What will be his legacy? How did his leadership and innovations impact the global faith?

Then there’s the question of how his presumed successor, Dallin H. Oaks, will be “chosen,” how he might lead, how he will navigate the contemporary political landscape and how that relates to other religious groups.

In this week’s show, Latter-day Saint historian Benjamin Park, author of “American Zion: A New History of Mormonism," explores those questions and more.

These terms are as much a part of God’s plan in the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as agency, repentance and baptism. Yet they are rarely discussed or even mentioned — save for in hushed, almost apologetic, tones — among members.

Such hesitancy is not found in Latter-day Saint therapist Jennifer Finlayson-Fife’s new book, “That We Might Have Joy: Desire, Divinity & Intimate Love.” In it, she writes, for instance, that “the best sex is never hard work. Good sex is easy” and “the turn-on for most women is being the turn-on” and, finally, “our bodies and sensual natures are not obstacles to holiness, but essential components of it.”

By setting aside cultural taboos, Finlayson-Fife shows that the bedroom is a bedrock not just in marriage but also in Mormonism.

On this week’s podcast, she sheds light on how “soulful sex” can bring couples closer to each other and closer to God.

Recorded a few days after church President Russell M. Nelson delivered his widely praised General Conference address on peacemaking, it is as timely now — if not more so — than when it originally aired.

Latter-day Saint scholars Patrick Mason and David Pulsipher, authors of “Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Answer to an Age of Conflict,” explain how “peace is possible” and explore how the Mormon message — along with writings from other faiths and other thinkers — can bring help, healing and harmony to the world, nations, communities, homes and individual hearts.

They also discuss Nelson’s speech, those of other church leaders, and how true Christian discipleship can end political polarization and cultural conflicts, and convey peace to one soul and all souls.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox declared Sept. 9, 2024, as Russell M. Nelson Day. Throngs of young single adults signed a giant birthday card. And members everywhere reflected on the centenarian’s accomplishments and leadership.

By comparison, his 101st birthday on Tuesday was a quieter affair as Nelson gathered with close family and friends. Still, just before the calendar marked the day, Nelson published a major essay in Time magazine, extolling the importance of peacemaking in a divided world.

On this week’s show, Latter-day Saint historian Kathleen Flake, emeritus Bushman professor of Mormon studies at the University of Virginia, discusses his life, leadership and legacy.

It tackles the thorniest issues — LGBTQ relations, feminism, church history, race, polygamy, Book of Mormon historicity and divine revelation — currently faced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The ultimate approach seems to be to defend the church and help explain how members can wrestle honestly with these topics rather than deny their existence.

The effort was funded, directed and produced by Latter-day Saint businessman Robert Reynolds, with Jim Bennett, as co-producer.

On this week’s show, Bennett, the son of the late Utah Sen. Bob Bennett and a Latter-day Saint blogger and writer, discusses the project.

• The bishop asks Brother So-and-So to give a talk next week on being kind to strangers.

“No problem,” the member thinks. “I’ll just make a couple of queries in ChatGPT and, voila, instant sacrament sermon.”

• Or the Sunday school president calls on Sister Such-and-Such to pinch-hit in Gospel Doctrine.

“Sure,” the fill-in teacher replies. “I can do that.” Artificial intelligence, again, to the rescue.

Is A.I., then, a godsend or a devilish crutch?

The church, which has developed A.I. guidelines, points out that it uses this rapidly advancing technological tool in its global work.

But apostle Gerrit Gong matter-of-factly warned recently that A.I. can remove heavenly inspiration and should not be used to prepare talks, lessons, prayers or blessings.

On this week’s show, popular By Common Consent blogger Taylor Kerby discusses artificial intelligence — and the implications of the wise or not-so-wise use of it in the church.

It does say that BYU graduates “should be capable of competing with the best in their fields.”

So, in this era of “name, image and likeness,” with athletic budgets soaring into the mega-millions, does that mean the Cougars are correct to play this spending game in order to compete with the best on the field, in the gym, on the court and on the diamond?

Some boosters “rise and shout” an emphatic yes. Others worry that the school risks putting, in essence, football before faith, and veering from its principal purpose: following in the footsteps of Jesus.

On this week’s show, Salt Lake Tribune reporter Kevin Reynolds, who covers BYU athletics and wrote a cover story recently on the topic, discusses this balancing act.

As a prominent leader, he married 13 women — all sealed to him in temple rites — and fathered 28 children.

What most church members didn’t know was that James Jr. had Black grandparents — and that carries significance, given that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had a policy barring Black members from holding the priesthood or entering temples from 1852 to 1978.

On this week’s show, Brigham Young University history professor Jenny Hale Pulsipher, a descendant of Brown, discovered his racial ancestry, and W. Paul Reeve, who is head of Mormon studies at the University of Utah and has done the most scholarly research on African Americans in the church, discuss this finding and how it helps modern believers understand the messiness of the past and the “impossibility of policing racial boundaries” through profiling.

The following year, the faith’s “For the Strength of Youth” pamphlet pointedly counseled young people not to “disfigure” themselves with tattoos.

With those words, body art — no matter how innocent, innocuous or ingrained in one’s cultural heritage — joined a list of forbidden fruits for faithful Latter-day Saints.

A quarter century later, though, that prophetic prohibition has been silenced, or at least softened, and the explicit condemnation of tattoos removed from the latest youth guidelines.

Is the tattoo taboo, unlike that indelible ink, fading in mainstream Mormonism? Is such artwork no longer a mark of rebellion but rather, with the emerging embrace of Latter-day Saint symbols in some tattoos, now a symbol of that very faith?

On this week’s show, Ethan Gregory Dodge, co-founder of the former MormonLeaks website, a devotee of body art, editor of Tattootime magazine and an occasional Salt Lake Tribune contributor, explore this evolution, if not revolution. He also discussed the topic at a recent Sunstone Symposium.

The history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints includes an epic journey of migrants fleeing persecution to find a promised land.

Latter-day Saints, then, have a natural affinity for immigrants. On top of that, modern Mormonism attracts converts seeking a better life.

Uprooted from their homes, many immigrants find a safe haven in the religious and congregational life of Latter-day Saints.

What should the church and its members think and do about current U.S. efforts to round up and deport immigrants who lack current legal status and even, in many cases, those here legally?

On this week’s show, Charles Kuck, a Latter-day Saint immigration attorney in Atlanta who has served as a bishop of a Spanish-language congregation, discusses the church and immigration.

Sure, there was hardship, so the story goes, but all the suffering was mostly ennobling. The names varied but the stories for these religious migrants were pretty much interchangeable.

For Latter-day Saint historian Ardis Parshall, however, the pioneer saga is so much wider, richer and, at times, even more entertaining when members search for and honor experiences that differ from the oft-repeated accounts.

Parshall, who revels in being a historical sleuth, seeks out the little-known and unexpected episodes in the faith’s past.

In advance of Utah’s Pioneer Day on Thursday, July 24, she shares some of the gems she has discovered about the Latter-day Saints’ epic 19th-century pilgrimage.

When asked to comment on the tax agency’s stance, a spokesperson for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pointed, perhaps tellingly, to the faith’s official policy of political neutrality, which states matter-of-factly that that the church “does not endorse, promote or oppose political parties and their platforms or candidates for political office.”

But could that change someday? Might the time come when President So-and-So, sporting a red tie, or apostle Such-and-Such, donning a blue one, gets up in General Conference and urges members to vote for a Republican presidential candidate or a Democrat seeking the White House? Is the IRS’ position really revolutionary? Could it dramatically alter the delicate balance between church and state? Will most clergy even want to wade into partisan politics from pulpit?

On this week’s podcast, Sam Brunson, a Latter-day Saint tax law professor at Loyola University Chicago and author of the recently released “Between the Temple and the Tax Collector: The Intersection of Mormonism and the State," discusses those questions and more.

It has denounced the present federal administration’s quest for greater power and Congress’ unwillingness to act as a constitutional check against such executive overreach.

It has opposed Trump’s push for mass deportations. It has pleaded with Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a fellow member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to cease his online bullying. It has encouraged reasonable reforms to reduce gun violence.

It has even sued the Utah Legislature, accusing lawmakers of gerrymandering and undermining the will of voters in approving new congressional districts for the Beehive State.

Given all that activity, to say that Mormon Women for Ethical Government has been quietly sitting on the sidelines would miss the mark.

So what does this grassroots group, with thousands of Latter-day Saint followers and with the stated goal of “building a more peaceful, just and ethical world,” hope to accomplish during this time of U.S. political upheaval?

On this week’s show, Laura Lewis Eyi, the organization’s public relations manager, addresses that question and more.

Deseret Book had just published Tom’s memoir, “That We May Be One: A Gay Mormon’s Perspective on Faith and Family.”

As hosts, we were definitely neophytes, but the power of Tom’s narrative and his openness carried the moment.

Now, as “Mormon Land” approaches its 400th episode — and a decade after the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage the law of the land and the Utah-based church enacted a policy (later rescinded) labeling same-sex married couples “apostates” and barring their kids from baptism — we caught up with Tom Christofferson, who was in Utah for the Gather Conference in Provo, to explore how far the church has come, in his eyes, on LGBTQ+ issues and and how far it has yet to go.

Indeed, Cramm did not originally plan for a life of ministry in the church, which, like the much-larger Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, traces its origins to Joseph Smith.

But sometimes, Cramm says, God has other plans for you.

Earlier this month, Cramm was ordained to the highest office in the Community of Christ after nearly a quarter century of full-time ministry.

She is ready to help the faith, formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, move forward boldly into an even more inclusive, global church.

On this week’s show, Cramm discusses her background; the challenges her church faces; its position on a number of issues, including climate change; the faith’s finances and its relationship with the Utah-based religion, especially after selling the historic Kirtland Temple; and her hopes for the future.

As a member of the governing First Presidency from 1961 to 1970, for example, Brown wrangled with future church Presidents Harold B. Lee and Ezra Taft Benson, as well as other apostles.

“For a generation of Latter-day Saints, he represented the kind of pulpit magic associated with names like Orson F. Whitney, Brigham H. Roberts and Melvin J. Ballard from an earlier day,” wrote scholar Richard D. Poll in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. “For thousands of individuals with questions and problems, he represented the kind of understanding and counsel associated earlier with John A. Widtsoe, James E. Talmage and Joseph F. Merrill.”To Poll “and many others who knew him personally,” the historian wrote, Brown “was a multifaceted, magnificent human being.”

Yet, the outspoken Democrat eventually was dropped from the First Presidency, which left him bitter and sad.

On this week’s podcast. Matthew Harris, a history professor at Colorado State University Pueblo and author of “Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality” who is working on a Brown biography, explains some of the controversies surrounding the beloved leader.

That can put those who are in a same-sex marriage or advocating for it in a tough position. It also has led to self-loathing among LGBTQ+ members and serious conflicts with those who believe everyone has a right to love whomever they choose.

In 2012, members of the then-newly formed Mormons Building Bridges donned their Sunday best and marched en masse to wide applause in a Utah pride parade. Their simple yet potent gesture echoed around the globe, setting an example for fellow believers who then took up the style, if not the name, in other pride parades.

This year, there were no Latter-day Saint marchers under that banner. Indeed, the parade had few if any entries with a strong Latter-day Saint identity.

Instead, LGBTQ+ members are finding homes in a variety of organizations including a relative newcomer, Lift + Love.

On this week’s show, Allison Dayton, who founded the group, updates listeners on the current LGBTQ-LDS landscape and to discusses the Gather Conference taking place later this month.

Turner’s voyage is now complete and the resulting book, “Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet,” is available this month.

Infused with the latest scholarship, the volume reveals a Brother Joseph who is sometimes playful, sometimes reckless, sometimes incensed, often inspired, but always enterprising and forever fascinating.

The book appears certain to go down as the most significant and up-to-date biography of the Mormon founder since Richard Bushman’s “Rough Stone Rolling.”

On this week’s show, Turner, professor of religious studies and history at George Mason University, discusses what he discovered about Joseph Smith — the husband, the father, the book publisher, the community organizer, the city builder, the religious innovator, the polygamist, the visionary, and, above all, the prophet to millions of followers.

These days, though, the number of conversions is rising more rapidly in this East African country. Kenya now even has its first Latter-day Saint temple.

Such expansion brings with it challenges brought by having young lay leaders, adapting to cultural practices like “bride prices,” a kind of dowry, and finding new meetinghouses across urban and rural landscapes.

In this special “Mormon Land” episode from Nairobi, Denis Mukasa, who serves as a stake (regional) president and directs the faith’s humanitarian work in the area, and his wife, Eunice Kavaya Mukasa, describe how they met (singing in a church choir), how the church has changed from when they both joined, and how local leaders are coping with growth — and poverty.

“When I joined the church, there was a lot of negativity towards the church,” Eunice says. “But now people are being more receptive. People are listening, even if they are not joining, they can see that the church is a good place, and we as members of the church are good people.”

No guessing. No politicking. No top candidates. The senior apostle simply moves up a seat.

Some wonder, though, what’s wrong with mystery and surprise? Is an election in this context necessarily devoid of the Holy Spirit? Couldn’t God make any system righteous? Why does it matter?

On this week’s show, Latter-day Saint historian Matthew Bowman and Utah Catholic archivist Gary Topping discuss how the two global religions pick their top leaders — the precedents at play, the politics involved, the pluses, the minuses, and how both can see God’s hand in the result.

That was the assumption, at least, that Justin Dyer, professor of religious education at church-owned Brigham Young University, was used to hearing.

Then the statistician, along with a few colleagues, started digging into the data. What they found was more complicated than the common wisdom that church membership, with its lofty eternal aim of helping followers to become like God, leads its members to hold themselves to unhealthy and unrealistic expectations.

On this week’s show, Dyer joins Latter-day Saint psychologist Debra Theobald McClendon to talk about how the faith’s teachings and culture impact the rank and file, their goals, their perceptions and their self-worth.

Even when another eventual church president, apostle Gordon B. Hinckley, encouraged women in 1989 to “get all the education you can,” he paired it with a wish for his female audience that none of them would ever have to work for pay.

In other words, get an education and, if you absolutely must, a job.

Such messaging from the faith has since changed, but, for decades, this was the counsel faith leaders gave Latter-day Saint women, many of whom came to see their degrees, if they had them, as a backup plan.

Susan Madsen is a Utah State University professor and founding director of the Utah Women & Leadership Project. Tiffany Sowby is the founder of the nonprofit Rising Violet, which gives cash gifts to single mothers.

Both have witnessed — again and again — the downstream effects of the advice encouraging Latter-day Saint women to dedicate themselves to the role of stay-at-home mom.

On this week’s show, they talk about their observations and what women and the church can do to prevent mothers and their children from falling into poverty if marriages end.

Rebbie is surprised to learn that Nicole knows about the Celestial Kingdom and even more surprised to learn she heard about it on TV.

For our online friends, the answer is obvious: All are Latter-day Saints. Maybe you’ve heard of them. Maybe not. But these are just some of the names representing and defining, albeit unofficially, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for millions around the world.

Put simply, they matter. So do the Mormon-themed Netflix miniseries and Hulu tell-alls that studios are churning out at ever faster rates.

Here at “Mormon Land,” we’ve done our best to blend those conversations with all the other reporting our readers and listeners care about. And we will continue to host some of those conversations. But there’s no way we can do it all anymore. There’s just too much happening that deserves attention.

And that is why the “Mormon Land” brand is expanding.

We are excited to announce a new partnership with “Mormons in Media,” a podcast and Instagram account that has been tracking pop culture’s portrayal of Latter-day Saints and their church since 2018.

Co-hosts of this monthly “Mormon Land” bonus podcast will be Salt Lake Tribune guest columnist Rebbie Brassfield — the creator of “Mormons in Media” and perhaps the only person in the world to equate playing pickleball to crossing the Plains with handcarts — and Nicole Weaver, a Tribune audience team manager whom our superfans will recognize as a co-producer of our “Mormon Land” podcast.

Brassfield is an active Latter-day Saint. Weaver has no background in the faith. What she does have are a keen interest in this genre and a range of questions. Together, the two plan to track the developments of Latter-day Saint representations in the media — from “Under the Banner of Heaven” to “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” and everything in between.

On this week’s show, they tell us more about what listeners can expect from this new venture.

In fact, the Utah-based church recently published a new webpage addressing the topic, reminding members that President Russell Nelson directed them to “lead out in abandoning attitudes and actions of prejudice” and his top counselor, Dallin Oaks, urged Latter-day Saints to “help root out” the sin of racism.

The article went so far as to encourage members to speak up when racism arises in their congregations. So how can Latter-day Saints play their part? And do they need to start by looking honestly in the mirror and asking: Do I hold racist views?

Mauli Bonner — a well-known Black Latter-day Saint, and an award-winning filmmaker and songwriter — penned an opinion piece recently for The Salt Lake Tribune to help members examine themselves and answer their leaders’ call.

On this week’s show, he shares those ideas, assesses how the faith and the faithful are doing in combating racism, addresses how more inclusive art and music can help, and offers suggestions for ways top church leaders can help propel the battle against prejudice.

Convert baptisms topped 308,000 in 2024, a 27-year high, and pushed total membership above 17.5 million. The army of missionaries shot past 74,000, a number not seen since 10 years ago after leaders lowered the age minimum for full-time service. And the tally of missions around the globe swelled to 450, more than at any point in the faith’s 195-year history.

Amid all these encouraging statistics for the church, discouraging trends persisted. Babies added to the rolls continued to fall and the loss of members continued to rise.

This week’s show aims to make sense of all these figures, including nations where the church is growing the fastest or shrinking the quickest, with the help of independent researcher Matt Martinich, who tracks such data for the websitescumorah.com and ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com.

Would the sacred underclothes, which are expected to be worn under daily clothing, be visible under tank tops? Would the new slip or half-slip allow women to wear their own underwear? Would they be accepted by other members or seen as caving to modern fashion?

Perhaps the biggest question was about modesty. For years, Latter-day Saint women had been taught that the typical garment, with its capped sleeves to cover shoulders and upper arms, was meant, at least in part, as a display of modesty. Some members even joked about “porn shoulders.”

What do the new “open sleeves” say about those previous ideas? How do the new styles fit in practice? And what other changes would members like to see?

Discussing those questions and more on this week’s show are Latter-day Saints Andrea Fausett, a Hawaii-based Instagram influencer who has reviewed and showcased the new garments, and Northern California-based Instagrammer Rachel Gerber, who runs the LDS Changemakers social media account.

These modern feminists did not challenge the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on, say, polygamy, priesthood or other doctrines. They focused primarily on the challenges of motherhood, marriage and material culture.

Their first editor was Claudia Lauper Bushman, who exemplified Mormonism as wife of famed historian and Latter-day Saint Stake (regional) President Richard Bushman and as a mother of six. After she was asked to resign the editorship, she went on to other professional and personal projects.

Though the Exponent II group was hardly revolutionary, 50 years later it remains an important voice in the Latter-day Saint world, while Claudia Bushman went on to influence an entire generation of feminists in the church. Hundreds of men and women gathered recently to honor her life and work.

On this week’s show, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, one of Exponent II’s founders who would eventually teach history at Harvard and win a Pulitzer Prize for her work humanizing ordinary women, talks about the Claudia conference, the trajectory of Latter-day Saint feminism, and how today’s activists are different from the past.

So, in 2022, Valerie, a mental health counselor in Kansas City, Missouri, and Nathan launched a podcast, called “Latter Day Struggles,” to address some of their issues and find peace.

Their podcast drew wide appeal, but it also came to the attention of their local Latter-day Saint leaders. After numerous conversations, they say, those leaders summoned the couple to a disciplinary council. Expecting to be formally tossed out of the church, the couple instead chose to resign their membership.

Since news of their resignation became public, the Hamakers have heard from thousands of friends and supporters.

On this week’s show, the couple share their experience, their interactions in their congregation, their views of church discipline, their decision to leave, their efforts to help fellow Latter-day Saints, and whether they would consider rejoining the fold when their local leadership changes.

According to the survey of 37,000 U.S. adults, including 565 self-identified Latter-day Saints, active members of the Utah-based faith are some of Christianity’s workhorses, showing up for church each Sunday and finding time in between services to pray, read scriptures and teach their children about their faith — all at enviable rates.

At the same time, the study’s authors found a significant drop in U.S. retention rates since the last time they polled members in 2014. And women, long heralded as the more reliable sex, appear to now be in the minority.

On this week’s show, sociologists Marie Cornwall and Tim Heaton, former professors at church-owned Brigham Young University and editors of the 2001 book “Contemporary Mormonism: Social Science Perspectives,” contextualize those numbers and other findings — including Latter-day Saint views on politics, abortion and climate change.

For many years, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint warned members that porn was “dangerous,” “evil” and “damnable.” They taught that viewing porn was a sin. In the past decade, though, the church has suggested that repeated porn watching is an addiction, like alcohol and drugs, often requiring professional help to overcome.

Earlier this month, apostle Patrick Kearon addressed attendees at the Utah Coalition Against Pornography conference, saying he was no expert but acknowledging he did have “painful and heartbreaking personal experience with loved ones entrapped by addictions.”

Some Latter-day Saint — and other — therapists now question the addiction hypothesis.

Count Idaho psychologist Cameron Staley, author of “Confessions of an LDS Sex Researcher” and creator of the “Life After Pornography” online program, among them. On this week’s show, he discusses whether viewing porn is a compulsive behavior; why men and women watch it; how the church has improved its rhetoric on the topic; and how to help those who want to stop looking at such images.

His father, Joseph F. Smith, was the faith’s sixth president. His grandfather was Hyrum Smith, who was slain with his great-uncle, church founder Joseph Smith. His son-in-law, in fact, was apostle Bruce R. McConkie, a theological kindred spirit.

Joseph Fielding Smith served as an apostle for 60 years, church historian for 49 and as the church’s 10th president for two. But he will forever be remembered more for his prose and his polemics than for his positions or his pedigree.

A conservative and orthodox thinker, he wrote more than two dozen books, answered religious questions from lay members and engaged in high-level, high-stakes debates with fellow apostles James Talmage, John Widtsoe and other leading Latter-day Saint intellectuals. They discussed, debated and disputed issues ranging from scriptural interpretation to the age of the Earth and the theory of evolution.

Joseph Fielding Smith was, scholar Matthew Bowman argues, “the most important Latter-day Saint theologian of the 20th century.”

On this week’s show, Bowman, head of Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University and author of the recently released “Joseph Fielding Smith: A Mormon Theologian,” talks about this towering Latter-day Saint man of letters.

Enter the “manosphere,” a conservative- and Christian-leaning media ecosystem aimed at male empowerment.

On this week’s show, Amy Chapman, a faculty member at Arizona State University’s teachers college, and Levi Sands, a graduate student in sociology at the University of Iowa, discuss this growing subculture and its influence on Latter-day Saint men.

That occurs all too often at Cougar games. Obscene choruses, often emanating from opposing student sections, break out, mocking BYU’s sponsoring religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and members of that faith.

Why have Latter-day Saints and their beliefs become the target of such openly prejudiced chants? Do Catholics and Notre Dame run into the same hostility? And what, if anything, could or should BYU and Latter-day Saint leaders do in responding to such discrimination?

Answering those questions and more are Salt Lake Tribune sports writer Kevin Reynolds, who covers the Cougars and wrote about this issue in a recent special report, and Britain Covey, a practicing Latter-day Saint who starred at BYU’s rival school, the University of Utah, plays for the world champion Philadelphia Eagles and has deep familial ties to BYU.

In his latest book, “Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain With Democracy,” the self-described gay, Jewish atheist critiques secular Americans who think Christianity should be abandoned and Christian Americans who blame secular culture for their grievances. He shows why the two must work together — and points to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an example of how to do it.

On this week’s show, Rauch, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, discusses why he believes top Latter-day Saint leaders, including senior apostle Dallin H. Oaks, have landed on a prescription for compromising and healing a polarized nation’s ills.

While President Donald Trump’s next move — and that of immigration enforcement agents — is uncertain, this much is sure: The country is on edge — so much so that the governing First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints expressed concern about the “complex challenges and hardships now faced by members who are undocumented immigrants living in the United States” and outlined guidelines for the faith’s local lay leaders to follow.

Questions abound: The church stresses obedience to the law, but how does that jibe with its desire to show compassion to all of God’s children and keep families together? How do human-made borders have any relevance in a divinely created world without such barriers? And, at a basic level, how far should a church, with a rich immigrant history, go in supporting or resisting a sweeping crackdown?

Discussing the issue on this week’s show are Sam Brunson, a Latter-day Saint law professor who has written recently about the topic, and Erikala Herrera Urena, a Latter-day Saint immigrant from the Dominican Republic who lives near Atlanta and is now a U.S. citizen.

It took her through joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving a two-year mission, marrying and having children, being called as a bishop and stake president, and becoming head architect for the faith’s sacred temples.

Transitioning to her “authentic self,” she said, caused her to lose her job, her marriage and her church membership. Yet, she is more at peace with herself than she has ever been.

On this week’s show, Hall details the twists and turns her life took as she moved inexorably toward acceptance of her true identity, discusses her new memoir, “Dictates of Conscience: From Mormon High Priest to My New Life as a Woman,” and the stricter limitations her former faith has imposed on its transgender members.

Well, now the practice of donating a tenth of one’s income is essentially on trial — in the courts.

Nine plaintiffs are suing the global church, accusing Latter-day Saint leaders of soliciting and amassing these donations by the billions to support the faith’s religious and charitable purposes and instead spending money on commercial ventures, including the construction and development of a mall in downtown Salt Lake City.

Last week, in a key hearing, a federal judge heard arguments in the lawsuit, which, if it is allowed to move forward as a class action, could end up involving thousands, even millions, of plaintiffs and exposing hidden financial dealings within the church.

Lawyers for the faith say the suit unconstitutionally violates religious freedom and should be tossed out. Attorneys for the other side counter that their case is about deception and fraud, not faith.

In this week’s show, Salt Lake Tribune reporter Tony Semerad — who has covered this lawsuit and similar ones for several years, along with other aspects of the church’s vast economic empire — sorts through the various arguments, how the judge received them and what comes next.

It’s bleak. It’s bloody. It’s barbaric. It’s also the No. 1 TV show on Netflix. But what millions of viewers may misunderstand about “American Primeval” is that it is fictional.

While the six-part series is centered around real places, a few real events and some real people — ranging from the Utah War and the Mountain Meadows Massacre to mountain man Jim Bridger and pioneer-prophet Brigham Young, the show is not a docudrama. It gets many historical facts “wrong,” though the filmmakers weren’t necessarily trying to get everything “right.”

Did, for instance, any Latter-day Saints die in the Mountain Meadows Massacre carried out by Mormon militiamen? Did Native tribes participate in the atrocity? Did Brigham Young order the massacre? Did Latter-day Saints torch Fort Bridger? And are the portrayals of Young, Bridger and various Native American tribes accurate?

Answering those questions and more are Barbara Jones Brown, director of Signature Books and co-author of the critically acclaimed “Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath,” and Darren Parry, former chair of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation and author of “The Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History.”

To that end, the school has long required students and faculty to hold a “temple recommend,” which attests to belief and behavior standards set out by BYU’s owner, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Under the leadership of the church’s commissioner of education, Clark Gilbert, the school has added extra layers of rules, meant to ensure devotion to beliefs beyond what the church expects of its members — namely a firm “testimony” of the faith’s current teachings on marriage, family and gender.

To a number of faculty members, the extra demands feel onerous and unfairly compel employees and prospective employees to embrace a conservative interpretation of church doctrine.

Here to discuss BYU’s new approaches to hiring and firing, as well as the atmosphere on campus are Latter-day Saint historian Benjamin Park, author of “American Zion: A New History of Mormonism,” and Latter-day Saint researcher Jana Riess, author of “The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church” and columnist for Religion News Service.

The headlines from 2024 prove it.

Temples top the list. The centenarian prophet-president dedicated the church’s 200th temple and has now announced more than half of its 367 planned or existing temples. The Utah-based faith also bought the church’s first temple — the historic edifice in Kirtland, Ohio — from a sister sect. The Angel Moroni statue returned to its perch on the Salt Lake Temple, but the yearslong renovation work still going on inside the iconic six-spired structure came under fire.

Meanwhile, temples planned for places across the U.S. encountered community pushback, often over the height of proposed steeples.

Money also drew attention as the church’s publicly reported reserve fund added billions to its bottom line and lawsuits accusing Latter-day Saint higher-ups of fraudulent financial practices wended their way through the courts.

Speeches from Relief Society leaders about women’s authority, careers and motherhood stirred up controversy, while Latter-day Saint women gained national recognition as social media stars.

Nothing, though, caused more of a sensation than the church’s crackdown on the wearing of temple garments and its unveiling of new “sleeveless,” full-slip and half-slip styles.

On this week’s show, Emily Jensen, web editor for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and Patrick Mason, head of Mormon history and culture at Utah State University, discuss an eventful 2024.

In 2022, he wrote “The Law of Love,” in part to dispel the idea that love should be transactional. “If I do this, God will love me, or God will reward me.” Rather, Young wrote, love is about following Christ, helping to heal others and embracing all people, no matter where they are in their personal journeys. He drew on his football experiences and revealed much about his own shyness, anxiety and insecurity.

Now Young is back with a follow-up book, “The Law of Love in Action,” that moves from theory to practice, from believing to doing. He turns to Latter-day Saint scriptures as well as other faith traditions and personal experiences — his own and those of dozens of others.

On this week’s show, Young explains why he continues to think about these issues, and why it’s important to love without expectation, how not to “over-elevate” obedience, why perfectionism is a problem and how the “law of love” can improve everyday living.

Rather than peddling parenting or workout tips, McClellan, who has a doctorate in theology and religion, has attracted more than 1 million followers with his hot takes on the Good Book. Through it all, the author of “The Bible Says So,” due out in April, is particularly interested in rooting out misconceptions about what the text teaches.

On this week’s Yuletide “Mormon Land,” McClellan help us better understand the evolution of the story of the Nativity and how the rendition enacted in countless Christian households this season — scenes dominated by toddlers donning bath robes and lightsabers doubling as shepherds’ hooks — strays from the descriptions found in the Gospels and historical records.

There are rules, sometimes written but mostly unwritten. There are bad moves and good moves. There are winners and losers.

In Utah, this tradition takes on additional twists, turns and even, as some see it, traps. Some members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for instance, desire to date only fellow believers so that if the couple marry someday, they can be “sealed” in one of the faith’s temples.

Others rule out ever dating a Latter-day Saint, worried perhaps that they may be pressured to convert or at least hoping to avoid any entanglements with the religion.

All of these factors — plus a multitude of other scenarios — make dating a pinch point in the “Unspoken Divide” between those who belong to the state’s predominant faith and those who don’t.

On this week’s show, Utahns Kristen Jex and Jimmy Henderson, two single Latter-day Saints, discuss those dating dynamics.

Since then, though, the Utah-based faith has seen dramatic growth on the continent, and now Latter-day Saint chapels and temples can be found in a multitude of African nations.

So, what are the appeals of this American-born faith in lands so physically and culturally distant? Why do some Africans see this patriarchal faith as a “woman’s church”? How has the Word of Wisdom helped transform African families? And why is the church’s wealth sometimes viewed as a “double-edged sword” in these countries?

On this week’s show, Laurie Maffly-Kipp, the director of Mormon studies at the University of Virginia, answers these questions after delivering her first major speech at the school. It was titled, appropriately enough, “Mormonism Through an African Lens.”

And, in 2020, President Russell M. Nelson, leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, urged members to flood the internet with messages of gratitude, even as a global pandemic was sewing death and disease in every nation.

These days, there seems to be a national trend for keeping gratitude journals or practicing mindfulness. But what’s the benefit of it? Does it really help anyone, or is it just glib talk? Can those in dire circumstances really feel grateful, or is that just a naive view of life?

On this week’s show, Marybeth Raynes, a licensed clinical social worker, discusses the benefits of giving thanks.

Titled “Saints: Sounded in Every Ear,” the text documents the years of 1955 to 2020 and covers a range of milestones, including the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the end of the priesthood/temple ban against Black members, the struggles over LGBTQ rights, and the church’s opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment.

On this week’s show, Jed Woodworth, the managing historian of the series, and Tesia Tsai, a writer for the volume, discuss the memorable experiences of top church leaders and everyday members from this period in the quickly globalizing faith.

Four years ago, a number of Latter-day Saints, for decades a reliably Republican voting bloc, had bucked Donald Trump and backed Joe Biden, helping to deliver a crucial battleground state, Arizona, for the Democrat.

Those forces were at play again this time around in Arizona and neighboring Nevada for Kamala Harris, with the Trump campaign courting Latter-day Saints as well.

In the end, the nail-biter results pundits had predicted for months never materialized. Trump won the Electoral College count by a comfortable margin and even captured the popular vote.

Early exit polls have shown Latter-day Saints again overwhelmingly stuck with Trump, though his support among these voters may have slipped since 2020. That could be significant, given that the former president’s margins improved among many other constituencies.

So, what happened? What does the election say about the partisan breakdown among Latter-day Saints in the pews? And what might a second Trump administration mean for the church and its members?

On this week’s podcast, McKay Coppins, an award-winning Latter-day Saint journalist who covers national politics for The Atlantic, helps to answer those questions and more.

Coppins is the author of “The Wilderness,” exploring the GOP’s post-2012 drive to win back the White House, and, more recently, “Romney: A Reckoning,” a biography of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, the Latter-day Saint politician who famously became one of the most visible and vocal anti-Trump Republicans.

Two female missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints enter the home of “Mr. Reed,” apparently a welcoming seeker with, it turns out, his own marked-up copy of the Book of Mormon, the faith’s foundational scripture.

Could this be a heaven-sent “golden contact” eager to embrace the Latter-day Saint gospel? Hardly. The young proselytizers have instead begun a hellish descent into the dungeonous world of a bright but demented psychopath determined to test their religion — and all religions — in a terrorizing contest between belief and disbelief.

Therein lies the heart of “Heretic,” the new psychological thriller starring Hugh Grant and due out in theaters nationwide this week.

The film already has earned praise from some reviewers, drawn criticism from the church, and spurred flashbacks to real-life frightening moments among former missionaries.

The week’s show focuses on the merits and demerits of “Heretic” as both a movie, with our longtime film critic Sean P. Means, and as an argument for and against religion, with our award-winning faith reporter Peggy Fletcher Stack.

Since taking the helm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he has announced 185 — more than half — of the faith’s global total of 367 planned or existing temples.

At the recently completed General Conference, the 100-year-old religious leader explained the reason for the building blitz rather succinctly: God commanded it, he declared, because “the Savior is coming again.”

Historian Benjamin Park sees other forces at play as well. In a recent piece for The Salt Lake Tribune, titled “Russell Nelson’s billion-dollar gamble,” he points to the millions spent on each temple as among the faith’s justifications for the billions it has in its financial reserves.

Even more, top church leaders view these relatively lavish buildings, with their promises of eternal blessings, as a way to cement Latter-day Saints in the faith. “If we build them,” the thinking goes, “they will stick.”

On this week’s show, Park, author of “American Zion: A New History of Mormonism,” discusses the church’s temple frenzy — how it compares to the past, what it means in the present, and what it may portend for the faith’s future.

Faithful Latter-day Saints wear temple garments underneath their clothing as a reminder of sacred covenants. They are not meant to be seen, but the style and cut of them have been difficult to conceal under ever-evolving fashions. That is why so many women were delighted by one of the redesign options — labeled “open sleeve” — because it looks more like a tank top than the current capped sleeve alternatives. They also liked the new “full slip” and “half-slip” designs meant to be worn under dresses.

For now, these new garments are available in the Philippines and parts of Africa. But the church website shows they will be sold in the U.S. by the end of next year.

Discussing the new garments on this week’s show are Laura Brignone, a Latter-day Saint research analyst at Sacramento State University who has assessed current garment cuts and how they work — or don’t work — with popular fashion, and Emily Jensen, a writer and web editor for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.

On this week’s show, Gabrielle Blair, founder of Design Mom and The New York Times bestselling author of “Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion,” and Ben Blair, co-founder and president of Newlane University, discuss what they have discovered on their parental journey.

They spell all that out and more in their new book, “The Kids Are All Right: Parenting With Confidence in an Uncertain World.”

After the Tabernacle on Temple Square in the heart of Salt Lake City was completed, the choir performed there for more than a hundred years. Millions have heard the group’s music via a weekly devotional radio program, “Music and the Spoken Word,” which The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started in 1929, making it the longest continuously running network broadcast in history.

The show is inspiring to insiders and outsiders but never dogmatic. Ronald Reagan called the troupe “America’s Choir.” The famed choir has sung at six U.S. presidential inaugurations, 13 World Fairs, as well as the 2002 Winter Olympics, and toured in dozens of countries.

In 2018, the choir changed its name to The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, and, in 2020, it was sidelined by the global pandemic.

On this week’s show, former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, former Health and Human Services secretary and the choir’s current president, talks about how the choir navigated those changes and challenges, the group’s mission, and what’s in the future for the church’s most visible goodwill ambassadors.

What if the church went all-in on protecting the planet, proposing concrete plans to be adopted in every region? Would being involved in an urgent global effort — much as the food storage mandates prepared members for lean times — give more young people a reason to stay in the fold?

On this week’s show, Ben Abbott, professor of ecology at church-owned BYU, discuss environmental issues, his faith, and the activism and idealism he sees in his students. He also makes the case that safeguarding the Earth and fighting climate change are part of Christian discipleship.

In one case, prominent former Latter-day Saint James Huntsman insists top church leaders misrepresented how they spent $1.4 billion of the faith’s funds to build the for-profit City Creek Center shopping mall in downtown Salt Lake City. Topics ranging from religious autonomy and the U.S. Constitution to outright fraud and even a Beatles classic surfaced last week before a full panel of judges in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In the other, ex-members accuse church authorities of hiding important details of Mormonism’s beginnings in order to persuade the faithful to pay their tithes. Oddly enough, founder Joseph Smith, his “seer stone” and translation of the faith’s signature scripture, the Book of Mormon, were openly discussed before a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

So where do these lawsuits go from here? What are their prospects? And how do they fit into the continued media attention on the church’s wealth and a potentially expansive and expensive class-action case?

On this week’s show, Salt Lake Tribune reporter Tony Semerad, who has reported on these lawsuits from the get-go and brought to light other aspects of the faith’s financial empire, helps us wind through this legal maze.

It starts with Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) on the evening of Oct. 2 and concludes with Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) on the evening of Oct. 11. It is a time for self-reflection, for commemoration, for celebration and for recommitment. It is a chance to think about forgiveness and to make amends to those they have harmed.

This year’s High Holy Days are especially fraught for the world’s Jewry with so many eyes are on Israel and its ongoing battles against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. There’s also a war in Ukraine and deep divisions in the United States during this election season.

On this week’s show, Rabbi Samuel Spector, leader of Salt Lake City’s Congregation Kol Ami, discusses the importance of these holidays at this particular time.