S2 episode 46: Richard Ostler - "Listen, Learn and Love" Podcast

Richard Ostler is a 58 year old small business owner, former YSA bishop, husband and father of 6 children. He started a podcast in February 2018 called Listen, Learn and Love which shares the stories of the LGBTQ community within the LDS Church . From their website, “Listen, Learn, and Love was created out of the desire to better understand our LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters. We believe in God and in His decree to love one another, and this website is one of the ways in which we hope to foster that love and understanding”. Richard has posted almost 100 episodes of his podcast in just over a year! On this episode Nate sits down with Richard to discuss who he is and why he felt it was necessary to devote a website and podcast entirely to LGBTQ issues (05:00). They discuss How his mindset is different from many of his peers (15:30), the concept of “Church Generated Pain (35:30) and Richard tells some of the stories he’s heard that have had a lasting affect on him (50:30). They talk about the perfectionism culture in the church community and feelings of shame that can often come with sin, but how that is the beauty of the atonement and the beauty of progression (1:08:30) and then wrap up with a discussion about how great a time it is to be alive and what he foresees in the future (01:15:30).