Inside Out with Jim Bennett and Ian Wilks

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What does it take to cover one of the world's most influential religious organizations—and what happens when the stories get uncomfortable?

Ian and Jim welcome Tamarra Kemsley, religion reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune, for a candid conversation about journalism, Mormonism, politics, and the challenges of reporting on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Tamarra takes us behind the scenes of the Tribune's religion coverage, discussing the church's involvement in abortion politics, the impact of Trumpism on Latter-day Saints, and the surprisingly cordial relationship between the Tribune and church leadership. She also explores why LDS apostles rarely grant interviews, whether greater transparency would benefit the church, and how professional journalism can maintain its credibility in an age of social media outrage and increasingly convincing AI-generated misinformation.

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What does it mean to stay in a church when you don't agree with everything it teaches?

Ian and Jim welcome Jaxon Washburn of Faith Matters for a thoughtful, candid conversation about faith, identity, and the complicated relationship between personal conviction and institutional religion.

Jaxon shares his journey through Mormonism, his Armenian mission, his marriage to a woman who has left the Church, and his experience as an openly bisexual Latter-day Saint. Why does he choose to stay? What does he believe the Church gets right, and where does he hope it will change?

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Why are so many people leaving The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—and why do so many faithful members misunderstand their reasons for leaving?

In this episode of Inside Out, Ian and Jim welcome two influential voices in the conversation about Mormonism's future: historian Dr. Greg Prince and former mission president and business executive Jeff Strong, author of Torn: Why People We Love Are Leaving the Church and What We Can Learn From Them.

Drawing on extensive research, decades of leadership experience, and a shared commitment to the people of the Church, Greg and Jeff explore the growing disconnect between institutional leadership and members experiencing crises of faith. They discuss the Church's response to their work, the cultural barriers to meaningful reform, and the difficult question of whether an institution that claims divine authority can acknowledge its mistakes and change course.

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What happens when three former Mormon missionaries reunite nearly 40 years after serving together in Scotland? Plenty of nostalgia, a little irreverence, and some stories that have gotten considerably more outrageous with age.

This week on Inside Out, Ian and Jim welcome their old friend and fellow missionary Steve Wrigley for a hilarious, heartfelt trip down memory lane. Together, they revisit their experiences in the Scotland Edinburgh Mission, from dreadful missionary apartments and eccentric companions to the challenges of navigating Scottish culture and the sometimes bewildering expectations of missionary life.

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What happens when one of the world's most prominent biblical scholars unexpectedly drops into an Inside Out livestream? 

Fresh off his headline-making appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, biblical scholar and Data Over Dogma host Dan McClellan joins Ian and Jim for an unscheduled, wide-ranging conversation about faith, scholarship, and the controversy surrounding his identity as a believing Latter-day Saint.

Dan responds candidly to critics who question his faith, explains why he deliberately separates his personal religious beliefs from his academic work, and reflects on the extraordinary response to his Joe Rogan appearance.

But the conversation goes much deeper. Drawing on his decade working in scripture translation for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Dan offers fascinating behind-the-scenes insights into the Church's evolving approach to Bible translations, his own involvement in proposed policy changes, and why he believes significant revisions to Latter-day Saint scripture may well be inevitable.

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Fresh off the October 2026 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ian and Jim welcome back historian Greg Prince for a candid, wide-ranging discussion of what was said, what wasn't said, and what the Church could be doing better.

Jim offers a firsthand perspective from his marathon weekend singing with the Tabernacle Choir, while Ian shares how General Conference looks and feels to someone who has left the Church. Greg brings his historical perspective to a conversation that celebrates some genuinely inspiring messages while challenging the institution to confront uncomfortable realities.

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Ian and Jim welcome Mariama Nadworna, a Black former member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to discuss race, racism, and the legacy of the Church’s priesthood and temple restrictions.

Mariama shares her family’s journey from Sierra Leone to the United Kingdom, her mother’s conversion to the Church, and what it was like growing up as a Black Latter-day Saint in a predominantly white religious community. She reflects on discovering the history and teachings behind the racial restrictions, the impact those discoveries had on her faith, and why she ultimately left the Church.

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Jordan Broadbent returns to Inside Out to talk with Ian and Jim about his new role supporting Latter-day Saint missionary efforts across the UK, Europe, and beyond. Drawing on his experience in both humanitarian and missionary work, Jordan offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the Church is adapting missionary service to a rapidly changing world.

The conversation ranges from the very different challenges facing missionaries in secular Europe and rapidly growing areas of Africa to mentorship, technology, changing approaches to proselyting, and the Church’s increasing emphasis on genuine conversion rather than baptism alone. Ian, Jim, and Jordan also tackle one of the Church’s most difficult questions: why so many members—particularly younger members and returned missionaries—struggle to stay, and what the Church can do differently to support them.

It’s a candid, wide-ranging conversation about the future of missionary work, the challenge of retention, and Jordan’s conviction that ultimately the reason for staying isn’t a program, an institution, or even a community—it’s Jesus Christ.

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In this episode of Inside Out, Ian and Jim tackle one of the most difficult and divisive issues in American politics: abortion—and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ decision to oppose Idaho’s Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act.

Ian and Jim examine the Church’s official position on abortion, including its stated exceptions for rape, incest, serious threats to the life or health of the mother, and severe fetal defects, and ask how those principles fit with existing abortion restrictions and the proposed Idaho initiative.

The conversation broadens into a deeper question: If the goal is to reduce the number of abortions, what actually works? Jim argues that criminalizing abortion and preventing abortion aren’t necessarily the same thing, while Ian wrestles with the competing moral claims of a woman’s autonomy and the developing fetus—particularly later in pregnancy.

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There’s been a disturbance in the Force—and apparently he’s been called to preside over the Alcatraz First Ward.

The livestream kick things off with an unexpected visit from Bishop Darth Vader before turning to a surprisingly substantive question: What is happening to the LDS Sunday meeting schedule, and what do shorter meetings mean for the future of Mormon community?

Ian and Jim discuss experiments with shorter classes, the move from three-hour to two-hour church, the unintended consequences of “home-centered, church-supported” worship during COVID, and whether efficiency has come at the expense of one of church’s most important functions: giving people a place to form friendships and actually enjoy being together. They compare the very different realities of compact Utah wards and geographically enormous stakes and branches elsewhere, drawing on their own experiences in Utah, Canada, Scotland, and the mission field.

Along the way, they talk about church culture, spiritual autonomy, what makes people actually want to show up on Sunday—and why sometimes the most valuable part of church happens in the hallway rather than the chapel.