Sunstone Podcast

What should we make of the astonishing lack of females in the Book of Mormon? Carol Lynn Pearson says that it points to a lesson the Nephites never learned—one that likely contributed to their destruction.

In 1972, Marylee Mitcham started a quasi-monastic Catholic community, where she lived for ten years. Later, when she joined the LDS Church, she learned that one of her ancestors had started a branch of the United Order in early Utah. Mitcham narrates her fascinating religious history in this episode.

LDS scholar Hugh Nibley became a legend in his own time. But how many of the legends were real and how many were fantasies? In this episode, Boyd Petersen digs into the facts behind the stories.

Religious conversion and trauma have very similar structures, but with one important difference. In this episode, Stephen Carter draws on Adam Phillips, Julie Hanks, and Prentis Hemphill to explore what happens when people enter a religion, and what happens when they leave.

Is the story of Korihor the story of a missed opportunity? In the Book of Mormon, an anti-Christ named Korhior is struck dumb by Alma using the power of God. Could there have been a neurological contributor to Korihor’s sudden loss of speech? But even more importantly, could Korihor have been rehabilitated, physically and spiritually, if he had received the same treatment Alma had received when he had been struck down by God? Wade Greenwood explores the possibilities and what we can learn from them.

A Mormon can’t get a temple recommend if they drink coffee or black tea, but they can get one if they consume energy drinks that have five times as much caffeine as either. Launching from Michael Pollan’s book “Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World,” Stephen Carter explores the strange limbo caffeine has occupied in in the LDS Church—from general condemnation to apostolic approval.

“When virtues run wild, catastrophe reigns.” In this episode, John Durham Peters reveals the dangers of Mormon perfectionism and suggests a new approach.

Esther Peterson was one of the most beloved and effective activists of the 20th century, working with John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter to improve women’s rights in the United States. And she grew up Mormon in Provo, Utah. In this episode, Esther talks about how her Mormon upbringing affected her activism—both for good and ill.

If the Christian God and the Mormon God got into a fight, who would win? In this episode, S. Richard Bellrock shows just just how unfair the fight would be.

History is a dangerous profession in the LDS Church, sometimes leading to excommunication. Stephen Carter explores why history is such a charged topic—and what Ethiopian leopards have to do with it.