This is the 2nd installment of an ongoing series where Stephanie shares her incredible story of escaping CSA my Mormon church leaders and years of abuse and trauma. This episode contains descriptions of CSA. Viewer discretion is advised.

This is a first episode of an ongoing series where Stephanie shares her incredible story of escaping CSA my Mormon church leaders and years of abuse and trauma. This episode contains descriptions of CSA. Viewer discretion is advised.

We interview a legendary Utah podcaster who is the creator behind the popular, "I Am Salt Lake" podcast. He shares his background of the early days of podcasting and what inspired to create it.

This episode takes a different turn as we review the documentary “Trust Me: A False Prophet” and connect it to real-life experiences that feel almost impossible in hindsight.

While discussing the film, I reflect on my time working in and around Colorado City, Arizona, an environment shaped by strict boundaries, deep religious control, and a way of life that outsiders rarely see up close.

During my time there, I was tasked with setting up a remote office for a colleague connected to the community. What should have been a routine assignment became something far more unusual.

Each visit required an escort. Movement wasn’t casual or independent. And on multiple occasions, I was followed all the way to the city limits as I left.

This episode is about what it feels like to step into a place where trust, authority, and access operate differently than anything most people are used to.

We also unpack themes from the documentary itself, and how real-world experiences can either reinforce or complicate what we see on screen.

We sit down with Kellie as she shares a life story shaped by love, loss, faith, and the long road toward healing.

She talks about meeting her husband young, marrying in the temple, and building what felt like a lifetime together, until everything changed with a cancer diagnosis that came too soon. By the age of 26, she had lost him and was left to navigate grief while raising her children on her own.

In the aftermath, she turned to her church for support, but instead found herself feeling overlooked and rejected during one of the most vulnerable periods of her life. That experience reshaped her relationship with faith and community in ways she never expected.

Like many people searching for stability after loss, she made choices she later came to understand differently, including a second marriage that brought its own painful, jaw-dropping challenges.

But this is not just a story of loss. It’s also a story of survival, reflection, and eventually finding a healthier, happier relationship and rebuilding life with intention.

Kellie’s journey is complex, human, and honest story about grief, faith, and what it really takes to start over when life doesn’t go the way you imagined.

In this episode, Ashley shares what it was like stepping into a completely different world, where survival skills and everyday life blurred together in ways that don’t feel real until you’re living them.

From learning how to skin and quarter a caribou shortly after arriving in Alaska, to making the decision to keep the kids home from school when a family of moose decided to stand guard at the bus stop, nothing about this life followed a normal script.

And then there was the bridal shower.

What was supposed to be a simple family event turned into an unexpected moment of confusion and embarrassment when Ashley realized she had been helping prepare a bridal shower… that was actually for her.

This episode moves between wilderness survival, family chaos, and social surprises that only Alaska could deliver. It’s funny, uncomfortable, and strangely heartfelt all at once.

Off the coast of Malaysia, hidden in the South China Sea, sits Pangkor Laut Resort—an island that feels more like a dream than a real place.

In this episode, I talk about attending an exotic wedding in one of the most surreal settings I’ve ever experienced.

Getting there wasn’t simple. It took distance, travel, and a sense of stepping away from the normal world entirely. But what I found wasn’t just a destination, but an atmosphere where reality felt softened, slowed down, and almost suspended.

Between the ocean, the isolation, and the ceremony itself, the experience became something more than a wedding.

This is a story about place, presence, and what happens when life takes you somewhere that feels slightly unreal.

What started as a simple drive from California turned into a cross-country journey through Texas, up through Canada and straight into one of the most unpredictable survival experiences imaginable.

In this episode, Ashley shares how a road trip to Alaska took a hard turn at the Canadian border, where she was stopped by border patrol and everything changed direction.

What followed wasn’t a vacation or a quiet stay in the north. It became a crash course in survival.

• Learning how to quarter a moose.
• Using a bat to kill salmon.
• Running from predators in the Alaskan wild.
• Training with a crossbow just to stay prepared.

And eventually, figuring out how to make it out of Alaska alive.

In this episode, I share my time in South Korea, where I didn’t just learn Korean. I also learned Korean Sign Language and served as an interpreter in the Seoul LDS Temple.

Between spoken language, sign language, and spiritual language, I found myself navigating three worlds at once and none of them fully familiar, all of them shaping me in ways I didn’t understand until much later.

This episode isn’t just about Korea. It’s about communication without words, belief systems in motion, and what happens when you’re placed inside a world where learning Korean Sign Language was my key to survival.

In this first episode, we dive into real conversations about faith transition, life after religion, relationships, creativity, and building a new identity while living in Utah. We mix honest storytelling with humor, perspective, and occasional happy hour energy.

If you’re interested in:

• faith deconstruction and post-religious life
• life in Utah from an outside perspective
• creative careers, storytelling, and reinvention
• authentic conversations about relationships and culture

…you’re in the right place.

This episode sets the foundation for everything to come. Thanks for listening! We’re just getting started.