Detroit native Alley Bird comes to Girlscamp to talk about her experience growing up as a Black Mormon girl, learning about the priesthood ban in seminary as a teenager, and later experiencing colorism on her mission in El Salvador. We talk about the health (or lack thereof) of sister missionaries, the resources (or lack thereof) for Black missionaries facing racism, and the unique culture surrounding Mormon missions. Alley also shares about her brief stint as a Temple Square Visitors’ Center missionary during Covid.

You can find Alley on TikTok here and on Instagram here.

Join the Girlscamp: After Dark Patreon account ⁠⁠here⁠ for two bonus episodes per month and more.

For more Girlscamp content follow along on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

For ad inquiries please email [email protected].

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been 10 years since our Mormon temple wedding at 20 and 21. Today Bentley and I are reflecting on young marriage, navigating faith deconstruction as a couple, the advice we’d give our younger selves, and whether we’d do it all over again.

Join the Girlscamp: After Dark Patreon account ⁠⁠here⁠ for two bonus episodes per month and more.

For more Girlscamp content follow along on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

For ad inquiries please email [email protected].

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s guest Ash Santos always dreamed outside the Mormon box. After an early marriage and becoming a mom young, she landed her first big break on American Horror Story. She later deconstructed her faith and then her marriage. And after years of fighting for the life she actually wanted, she’s now in a lead role as Andrea Cruz on the CBS hit series Marshals.

Amber Fillerup Girlscamp episode

Ash Santos on Instagram

Marshals on CBS

Join the Girlscamp: After Dark Patreon account ⁠⁠here⁠ for two bonus episodes per month and more.

For more Girlscamp content follow along on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

For ad inquiries please email [email protected].

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re doing a bread-and-butter Girlscamp submission episode today: church mission stories. We’re chatting about crazy (and sometimes dangerous) companions, bizarre proselytizing run-ins, and what happens when you tell the Mormon missionaries you don’t believe in Joseph Smith. Come along for the ride!

Crazy Mormon Mission Stories episode

STALKED on a Mormon Mission episode

Sister Missionary Snapchat ad

Join the Girlscamp: After Dark Patreon account ⁠⁠here⁠ for two bonus episodes per month and more.

For more Girlscamp content follow along on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

For ad inquiries please email [email protected].

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’ve got much to discuss about Netflix’s new docuseries Trust Me: The False Prophet. Watching it, I was surprised by how familiar parts of it felt. In this episode I talk through the parallels and patterns I noticed between the Samuelites, the FLDS, and mainstream Mormonism.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re catching up. I’ve got some life updates, big and small, to talk through with you. And, per usual, lots of thoughts and feelings about all of them.

Vagus Nerve Exercises card deck

Join the Girlscamp: After Dark Patreon account ⁠⁠here⁠ for two bonus episodes per month and more.

For more Girlscamp content follow along on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

For ad inquiries please email [email protected].

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chief Mary Murdock Meyer joins Girlscamp to share the history of the Timpanogos Nation, especially where it intersects with Mormon settlement in what we now call Utah. She talks about what life looked like for her people before 1847, what changed after Mormon settlers arrived, and how that history still shapes the Timpanogos Nation. We also talk about what those of us with Utah pioneer ancestry can better understand about how to engage with this history now.

Petition to rescind extermination order

The Timpanogos Nation website

You can follow the Timpanogos Nation on

Instagram
Facebook
Youtube
Substack
Patreon

Join the Girlscamp: After Dark Patreon account ⁠⁠here⁠ for two bonus episodes per month and more.

For more Girlscamp content follow along on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

For ad inquiries please email [email protected].

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re talking all things Easter this week! First on the agenda: why are Mormons suddenly celebrating Holy Week? Since when was Palm Sunday a thing? Then we get into resurrection theology, fear of death, and what it looks like to celebrate Easter after religion.

You can listen to the full episode on the Girlscamp: Unplugged Patreon here.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Instead of asking ourselves “What Would Jesus Do?”, today we’re asking: What Would Hayley Do?

I’m responding to your submitted dilemmas, talking through how useful the WWJD framework actually is as a decision-making tool, and (for fun) applying that question to some Mormon internet apologists… which doesn’t exactly go great for them.

Join the Girlscamp: After Dark Patreon account ⁠⁠here⁠ for two bonus episodes per month and more.

For more Girlscamp content follow along on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

For ad inquiries please email [email protected].

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tiffany grew up in a plural marriage family within a fundamentalist Mormon group, the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB). Her mom was a fourth wife and later (after a divorce) a sixth. As a teenager, she began questioning and ultimately left the principle of polygamy, joining mainstream Mormonism and getting married. When both her faith and her marriage later unraveled, Tiffany had to start over and begin building a life on her own terms.

REFERENCES

“Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men” by Lundy Bancroft

“It's Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People” By Ramani Durvasula PhD

Join the Girlscamp: After Dark Patreon account ⁠⁠here⁠ for two bonus episodes per month and more.

For more Girlscamp content follow along on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

For ad inquiries please email [email protected].

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices