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Postmormon Postmortem
By Hannah and JessReligion & Spirituality
Postmormon Postmortem episodes
- The Bundy Standoffs: Mormon Beliefs Behind the Fight Over Federal Land
Cliven Bundy refused to pay federal grazing fees. Armed supporters faced federal agents at his Nevada ranch, and his son Ammon later led the occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
We look at the Mormon beliefs the Bundys used to explain their actions, the history of Native land in both places, and what happened after the standoffs.
The main source for this episode is Betsy Gaines Quammen's "American Zion: A Story of Faith and Illusion in the American West."
SHOW NOTES, including all sources mentioned in this episode, are available on Patreon with a FREE membership. FREE members also get our monthly newsletter. Paid memberships start at $2/month for AD-FREE listening. https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
TO SUPPORT THE SHOW (Thank you!)
- Venmo: https://venmo.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
FIND US HERE
- Website: https://postmormonpostmortem.com
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/postmormonpostmortem
Theme song | Vocals: Hannah W. | Guitar: Dr. Dave | Audio: Mick
42 min - M. Russell Ballard's SEC Case: The Keystone Securities Fraud Before He Was an Apostle
This week on Mormon True Crime, Hannah and Jess dig into the Keystone Securities case: a mining stock offering, allegedly false and misleading statements, and a broker-dealer registration that got revoked. Ballard was personally named as a cause of that revocation. He was never criminally convicted, and Mormon apologetics site FAIR has a list of defenses — but the SEC's findings stood.
Then they connect it to something more recent: the Church's own 2023 SEC settlement over Ensign Peak Advisors, which used shell LLCs to obscure its investment portfolio for years.
Same institution, same pattern, decades apart — public-facing polish, and a very different story underneath once regulators got involved.
Why does transparency keep becoming a problem for an institution that demands total honesty from its own members?
SHOW NOTES, including all sources mentioned in this episode, are available on Patreon with a FREE membership. FREE members also get our monthly newsletter. Paid memberships start at $2/month for AD-FREE listening. https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
TO SUPPORT THE SHOW (Thank you!)
- Venmo: https://venmo.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
FIND US HERE
- Website: https://postmormonpostmortem.com
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/postmormonpostmortem
Theme song | Vocals: Hannah W. | Guitar: Dr. Dave | Audio: Mick
15 min - What Did Missouri’s Mormon Extermination Order Mean?
In October 1838, Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs signed an executive order declaring that the Mormons "must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary."
That order still anchors Mormon claims of persecution, including in a recent interview where a Mormon reached for Missouri when asked whether Mormons were more oppressed than Black Americans.
Jess set out to confirm one number: how many people died because of the extermination order?
The search led to what "extermination" meant in 1838, whether the men who attacked Haun's Mill had even heard of the order, a winter death toll no one has ever totaled, and a second forced removal happening that same autumn a few hundred miles away.
17 min - Name One Mormon Slave
SHOW NOTES, including all sources mentioned in this episode, are available on Patreon with a FREE membership. FREE members also get our monthly newsletter. Paid memberships start at $2/month for AD-FREE listening. https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
TO SUPPORT THE SHOW (Thank you!)
- Venmo: https://venmo.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
FIND US HERE
- Website: https://postmormonpostmortem.com
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/postmormonpostmortem
Theme song | Vocals: Hannah W. | Guitar: Dr. Dave | Audio: Mick
19 min - Name One Mormon Slave: Green Flake and the Mormon Pioneers
Asked to name one Mormon slave, a former Nevada Senate candidate said he couldn't. Green Flake was baptized Mormon while enslaved and entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, before Brigham Young.
Josh Stacy ran for Nevada State Senate in 2024 and lost his primary. A clip of him telling Dr. Will James that Mormons were oppressed more than Black Americans then showed up in Instagram reels. What he left out: Sidney Rigdon's 1838 "war of extermination" speech before Missouri's Executive Order 44, Brigham Young's 1852 declaration "I believe in slavery," Utah's Act in Relation to Service, and the pioneer monument that lists Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby as "Colored Servants." Also covered: Mormon Church wealth, the CIA and FBI recruiting reputation, patriarchal blessings and Ephraim, and priesthood and temple restrictions that lasted until 1978. If you grew up Mormon and never heard these three names, this one is for you. The answer was inside the pioneer story the whole time.
Support the show:
venmo: @postmormonpostmortem
buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem
Ad-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
TikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortem
postmormonpostmortem.com19 min - Mormon Temple Recommend: Who Decides You're Worthy?
In 1856, believing in plural marriage helped you qualify for the Mormon temple. Later, advocating it could keep you out. Nearly 200 years of recommend questions show who decides what "worthy" means.
From Joseph Smith's 1842 Nauvoo endowment to a 2026 seminary lesson, this is the history of how the Mormon temple recommend went from a leader's judgment call to a standardized worthiness interview. You'll hear about the 1856 Endowment House criteria, the Mormon Reformation's 27-question catechism, Wilford Woodruff countersigning thousands of recommends, the 1922 uniform recommend book, the 1976 honesty question historian Edward Kimball ties to Utah's fraud reputation, Russell M. Nelson's 2019 "strive" rewrite, digital recommends in 2021, and the 2024 garment question. Worthy has meant something different in 1856, 1976, and 2024. A definition that keeps changing was never a measure of you.
SHOW NOTES, including all sources mentioned in this episode, are available on Patreon with a FREE membership. FREE members also get our monthly newsletter. Paid memberships start at $2/month for AD-FREE listening. https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
TO SUPPORT THE SHOW (Thank you!)
- Venmo: https://venmo.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
FIND US HERE
- Website: https://postmormonpostmortem.com
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/postmormonpostmortem
Theme song | Vocals: Hannah W. | Guitar: Dr. Dave | Audio: Mick
33 min - Cody Judy: When God Says You're the Prophet
In 1993, Cody Judy walked onto the stage at BYU’s Marriott Center, claimed he had a bomb, and demanded that Howard W. Hunter read a letter naming Judy the new president of the Mormon Church.
Judy said Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, and ancient apostles had told him what to do. But Mormon history already had a long record of people claiming revelation that challenged the authority of church leaders.
In this episode of Mormon True Crime, we follow Cody Judy’s story and look at Hiram Page and his seer stone, James Strang’s claim to succeed Joseph Smith, Ron Lafferty’s “removal revelation,” Brian David Mitchell, Denver Snuffer, and the Mormon rules around who gets to receive revelation for whom.
SHOW NOTES, including all sources mentioned in this episode, are available on Patreon with a FREE membership. FREE members also get our monthly newsletter. Paid memberships start at $2/month for AD-FREE listening. https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
TO SUPPORT THE SHOW (Thank you!)
- Venmo: https://venmo.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
FIND US HERE
- Website: https://postmormonpostmortem.com
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/postmormonpostmortem
Theme song | Vocals: Hannah W. | Guitar: Dr. Dave | Audio: Mick
38 min - Mormon Roadshows: The Weird History of Mormon Musical Theater
Ward roadshows were once a major part of Mormon social life. Starting in Utah in the 1920s, wards wrote and performed short original musicals, competed against each other, and in the original version literally took the shows from chapel to chapel.
We look at where roadshows came from, how they became part of the MIA program, and why Mormons developed such a strong relationship with theatre and musical performance in the first place.
We’re drawing on the ideas of musicologist Jake Johnson’s work on Mormonism and musical theatre, including his argument that performance became a way for Mormons to express religious identity, build community, and create a Mormon alternative to outside entertainment.
SHOW NOTES, including all sources mentioned in this episode, are available on Patreon with a FREE membership. FREE members also get our monthly newsletter. Paid memberships start at $2/month for AD-FREE listening. https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
TO SUPPORT THE SHOW (Thank you!)
- Venmo: https://venmo.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
FIND US HERE
- Website: https://postmormonpostmortem.com
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/postmormonpostmortem
Theme song | Vocals: Hannah W. | Guitar: Dr. Dave | Audio: Mick
18 min - Women Can Lead Sunday School Now; Why are Young Women Leaving the Church?
In March 2026, the Mormon Church announced that women could now serve as Ward Sunday School presidents. A month later, buried in a routine statistical report, U.S. membership dropped for the first time in the church's history — and the group leaving fastest was young women.
Jess and Hannah walk through both stories month by month, in the order they actually happened, to see how they collide. They cover the "trial balloon" read from religion writer Jana Riess, the awkward question nobody wanted to ask about why presidencies still can't be mixed-gender, the actual membership numbers (and why a net loss of 186 people matters more than it sounds like it should), and the July profile of a woman thriving in her new calling — printed just as the harder story about why women are leaving quietly disappeared from the coverage.
SHOW NOTES, including all sources mentioned in this episode, are available on Patreon with a FREE membership. FREE members also get our monthly newsletter. Paid memberships start at $2/month for AD-FREE listening. https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
TO SUPPORT THE SHOW (Thank you!)
- Venmo: https://venmo.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
FIND US HERE
- Website: https://postmormonpostmortem.com
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/postmormonpostmortem
Theme song | Vocals: Hannah W. | Guitar: Dr. Dave | Audio: Mick
17 min - What Growing Up Mormon Taught Us About Love, Fear, & Worth
SHOW NOTES, including all sources mentioned in this episode, are available on Patreon with a FREE membership. FREE members also get our monthly newsletter. Paid memberships start at $2/month for AD-FREE listening. https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
TO SUPPORT THE SHOW (Thank you!)
- Venmo: https://venmo.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem
FIND US HERE
- Website: https://postmormonpostmortem.com
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@postmormonpostmortem
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/postmormonpostmortem
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/postmormonpostmortem
Theme song | Vocals: Hannah W. | Guitar: Dr. Dave | Audio: Mick
52 min
About Postmormon Postmortem
From the publisher's feed
Mormonism gave you a complete universe, with charts, diagrams, and a plan for everything. Leaving can dismantle all of it at once. Postmormon Postmortem is hosted by Hannah and Jess, two women who…
left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and wanted more honest conversations about what comes after. We cover Mormon history, doctrine, culture, true crime, institutional harm, religious trauma, and the messy work of rebuilding a life outside the church. Whether you're freshly out, years removed, or trying to understand someone you love, you're in the right place.