Mormon Stories Podcast

Join hosts John Dehlin and Gerardo Sumano as they explore what happens when a Mormon missionary reads the CES Letter.

Kolby Sorensen was raised a devout Mormon in West Valley and West Jordan, Utah. In 2020, he was called to serve a mission as the COVID pandemic began, when missionaries were encouraged to use social media to proselytize.  

Show Notes:

• Letter to a CES Director by Jeremy Runnells
• "Reflections on the CES Letter," Daniel Peterson, FAIRmormon Conference 2014
• "Belief after the CES Letter," Jim Bennett on Mormon Stories
• "A Faithful Reply to the CES Letter from a Former CES Employee," by Jim Bennett
• Jeremy Runnell's responses to "Debunkings of the CES Letter"
• "Missionaries returning home at their own insistence," Mission President's Handbook, Ch 4
• Kolby's posts on Ex-Mormon Reddit
• Kolby’s Instagram
• "Telling Your Loved Ones About Losing Your Faith," on Mormon Stories
• "Mormon Inoculation" on Mormon Stories
• "Personal Peace in Challenging Times," Quentin L. Cook, General Conference October 2021
• "Britvengers React: The Mormon British Rescue" on Mormon Stories
• "LDS Church addresses health of church president," by Ric Wayman, St. George News, May 3, 2015
• "Is the Mormon Church in Decline?" An Insider Report on Mormon Stories
• "No More Strangers," by Alexander B. Morrison, Ensign, September 2000
• "Strong Impressions of the Spirit," by D. Todd Christofferson, New Era, June 2013
• "Founder of the Book of Mormon Heartland Model," Rodney Meldrum on Mormon Stories
• Video by Shane Carpenter, an out gay LDS missionary
• "Jesus Christ is the Answer," Ronald A Rasband, Evening With a General Authority, February 8, 2019 [CW: May be triggering for those experiencing suicidal thoughts]
• "Daughter of Mormon General Authority Hartman Rector, Jr." Lila Tueller on Mormon Stories
• "Vogel and Metcalfe in Da House!" on Mormon Discussion
• Gerardo Sumano interview on Mormon Stories
• Kolby and Cami Reddish interview on Mormon Stories
• "From TBM to RFM: Radio Free Mormon Discusses His Transition from Mormon Apologist to Non-Believer," on Mormon Stories

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Welcome back Lizzy and Spencer Bean for the third and final part to their delightful, authentic, hilarious Mormon Stories interview! We dive in head-on in this episode hearing about how marriage for these two young Mormons was not what they expected. But with an interesting reframe to spirituality from an LDS therapist, Lizzy and Spencer’s autonomous spirituality began to emerge like never before. After having enough of spiritual gatekeeping and finding a way to make marriage finally work from them, Spencer describes almost being kicked out of BYU and the situation he was put in by a bishop telling him he had one week to read the Book of Mormon or lose his ecclesiastical endorsement. There are too many topics to list that we cover in this epic final episode with Lizzy and Spencer, but among them are: How and why some Mormons decide to supplement LDS church teachings with New Age spirituality, how wearing garments and Mormon body standards affect women, how empathizing with friends in the LGBTQ community can wake a person up to the realities and harms of Mormon doctrine, and so many other great insights and analogies that help describe why a couple would love Mormonism and choose to leave it!

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Welcome back Lizzy and Spencer Bean for part 2 of their delightful Mormon Stories interview! In part two, we have Spencer tell us about his upbringing in Orem, Utah as the son of the bishop and what led him to develop a testimony of the church. We hope you like our chat as we let it take us into discussions on missionary work in the developing world, undue influence, death, and the Plan of Salvation. Stick around for some interesting insights from Spencer’s mission to Sweden and even a story about Midsummer with Hans Maddsen’s brother, Leif.

We named this series “Loving and Leaving Mormonism” to allow our guests to speak authentically to their all-around good experiences being raised members of the LDS faith and hope you’ll stick around to listen to part three as Lizzy and Spencer describe the events and information that made them think twice about their membership in the religion they love.

Part 2 show notes:

• Packer talk on funerals
• Hans Mattsen Mormon Stories episode
• Swedish Rescue episode
• Mormon Civil War YouTube - Peter Bleakley
• Nemo the Mormon YouTube
• 21st century Saints

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We are 100% donor funded! Please click HERE to donate and keep this content coming!

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*PO Box 171085

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Mormon Stories viewers are in for a treat with this series of episodes as we interview married couple Lizzy and Spencer Bean. In part one, we dive into Lizzy’s story and unique upbringing as just one of two siblings in a Mormon family with convert parents in Upstate New York. We discuss the influence of her involvement with the Palmyra Pageant on her developing testimony as well as the Mormon propensity towards music and theater. Other topics include the culture shock after arriving in Provo when her dad’s career led him to teach music education at BYU, and acclimating to the very LDS saturated environment as she developed her musical and theatrical talents. We named this series “Loving and Leaving Mormonism” to allow our guests to speak authentically to their all-around good experiences being raised members of the LDS faith and hope you’ll stick around to listen to part three as Lizzy and Spencer describe the events and information that made them think twice about their membership in the religion they love.

Show notes:

• Hosanna shout
• Austin Archer Mormon Stories episode
• Tim Minchin

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We are 100% donor funded! Please click HERE to donate and keep this content coming!

Click here to donate monthly: $10 $25 $50

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*PO Box 171085

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Join Jenn as she introduces a new addition to Open Stories Foundation. The Open Arms Collective is a group of women and gender non-binary individuals meeting monthly along the Wasatch Front, with open arms, to embrace our family and friends wherever they are on their faith journey!

We hold monthly events to empower, learn, create and build community together.

Please click here to register for upcoming events.

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We are 100% donor funded! Please click HERE to donate and keep this content coming!

Click here to donate monthly: $10 $25 $50

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MSP on Spotify

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Contact Us!

*[email protected]

*PO Box 171085

Salt Lake City, UT 84117

European defenders are in huge need of military-grade Helmets and Armory Vests for Territorial Defense Battalions. The Ukrainian American Coordinating Council (financial coordinator), Razom for Ukraine (media partner), and International Charitable Foundation “Come back alive” (end user) with CO Foundation Serhiy Prytula (end user) are uniting their efforts to purchase this necessary equipment. Please consider a donation here.

Show notes: 

• Nastia Bigun MS episode
• Douglas Stillgoe MS episode
• Helmets & Armory Vests for the European Defenders
• Nemo the Mormon Youtube channel
• Book: Red famine
• Book: Bloodlands
• NPR episode

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We are 100% donor funded! Please click HERE to donate and keep this content coming!

Click here to donate monthly: $10 $25 $50

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*PO Box 171085

Salt Lake City, UT 84117

Recently the THRIVE Beyond Religion Foundation has been under attack by the Mormon church’s apologists, the Salt Lake Tribune, some vocal TikTokkers, and a few other Ex-Mormons.  Such attacks have taken a heavy toll on many in the THRIVE Board, and on the THRIVE Community overall.

Please join members of the THRIVE Foundation board of directors this Monday at 9am (mountain) as we ask ourselves and the post-Mormon community whether or not we should allow the THRIVE Foundation to die.

Note: Our heartfelt support goes out to the people of Ukraine.  Please join us Monday afternoon for a special Mormon Stories Podcast episode about Russia’s war on Ukraine.

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We are 100% donor funded! Please click HERE to donate and keep this content coming!

Click here to donate monthly: $10 $25 $50

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*PO Box 171085

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Did a single first pair of humans (Adam and Eve) ever exist? Join us this Friday at 4:00 pm MT for an epic discussion with Dr. Simon Southerton about Mormonism’s core doctrine of Adam and Eve. We will analyze the conflicts between the undisputed fact of human evolution and the belief that all humans descended from a single couple of humans in Jackson County, Missouri. We will break down the different ways in which the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its apologists have responded to conflicting scientific evidence and the ongoing debate regarding the existence of pre-Adamites. In addition, Dr. Michael Westaway will be joining us to speak about his groundbreaking research regarding the Mungo Man, the oldest and most famous human skeleton in Australia dated at 42,000 years, which was voted in the top 10 papers of the year by Science magazine in 2016.

Show Notes: 

• Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church by Simon G. Southerton
• The Sacred Curse: How Native American DNA Exposes Mormonism’s Lamanite Myth by Simon G. Southerton
• Stated Clearly YouTube channel
• Michael Westaway

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We are 100% donor funded! Please click HERE to donate and keep this content coming!

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The one and only Sandra Tanner joins Mormon Scoops as a special guest to address comments recently made on the Follow Him podcast by church historian Kate Holbrook. Join Carah, John, Gerardo and Sandra for this epic episode starting Thursday at 4:30pm mountain time!

Show Notes:

• "Doctrine and Covenants 129-132 with Dr. Kate Holbrook," on followHIM
  followHIM podcast with Hank Smith and John Bytheway
• "BYU professor [Hank Smith] calls gay student a Book of Mormon term associated with anti-Christ," by Courtney Tanner, Salt Lake Tribune, May 14, 2021
• Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults: A Face-to-Face Event with Elder Cook (and with historian Kate Holbrook)
• Kate Holbrook laughs while describing Joseph Smith's polygamy
• D&C101 as it appeared until 1835 when it was replaced by D&C132
• Times and Seasons denial of polygamy published in September 1842
• The sole edition of the Nauvoo Expositor, June 17, 1844, which exposed Joseph's teaching and practice of polygamy
• The Godmakers: A Shocking Expose of What the Mormon Church Really Believes by Ed Decker
  Book
• Film
• "Kingdom Come," by David Van Biema, Time, June 24, 2001 (in which Gordon B. Hinckley says the church doesn't teach/emphasize that God was once a man and that men will become gods in the afterlife, ruling their own planets which they populate with their own seed)
• Utah Lighthouse Ministry
• Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? by Jerald and Sandra Tanner
• Thrive for Women on April 2

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We are 100% donor funded! Please click HERE to donate and keep this content coming!

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*PO Box 171085

Salt Lake City, UT 84117

Join us for our interview with Rod Meldrum, founder of the Book of Mormon Heartland Model. In this episode we explore Rod's Mormon faith.

Show notes:

• Book of Mormon Evidence website
• Exterminate the Brutes

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We are 100% donor funded! Please click HERE to donate and keep this content coming!

Click here to donate monthly: $10 $25 $50

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MSP on Spotify

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MSP Blog

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Contact Us!

*[email protected]

*PO Box 171085

Salt Lake City, UT 84117