At Last She Said It

Latest Episodes:

Episode 243: Embracing Your Journey | A Conversation with Whitney Call Nov 04, 2025

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Each Latter-day Saint's path looks different, a combination of unique experiences, choices, and challenges. No matter how insistent our culture may sometimes feel, no woman fits in a mold. "I think my life began with holding dissonance," explains comedian Whitney Call. "I grew up in a very faithful LDS family...but a little squidgy around the edges. We would go to church and activities every week, and we'd watch the Simpsons together on Sunday nights. We'd bear our testimonies to each other, and we used crude humor about sex." In Episode 243, Cynthia and Susan are joined by Whitney for a wide-ranging conversation about all of it—how it started, how it's going, and one thing she knows right now (or did at the time of recording). CW: pornography, sexuality

Episode 242: Are You There God? It's Us, Susan and Cynthia | Part 2 Oct 28, 2025

Show notes

No matter what language we use to describe the Divine, for spiritual seekers the hope is that our understanding and connection will continue to expand and deepen. As Richard Rohr reminds us, "God is always bigger than the boxes we build for God, so we should not spend too much time protecting the boxes." In Episode 242, Cynthia and Susan take another look at the spaces where their own 'god-boxes' used to be: It's two women getting personal about what's new, what's not, and where and how they're seeking communion and/or communication now.

Episode 241: Demystifying Mysticism | A Conversation with Kathryn Knight Sonntag Oct 21, 2025

Show notes

Was Joseph Smith a mystic? Searching for the term 'mysticism' on the Church website yields, "See: False Doctrine, Sorcery, Superstitions; Traditions of Men." So it's no wonder many church members haven't thought much about mysticism—the role it may have played in Joseph's experience, or how it might inform their own everyday lives or transform their spiritual practices. But poet Kathryn Knight Sonntag describes it differently: "Trusting the groundless ground, trusting that the darkness or the chaos or the unknown place actually is deeply full of knowing and love and purpose. And that it's ultimately the path into apotheosis. It's ultimately where we begin that journey of becoming divine." In Episode 241, Kathryn joins Susan and Cynthia to explore the concept of mysticism. What might it look like for Latter-day Saints to step off the prescribed map and onto the sacred ground of our own lives in pursuit of personal encounters with God?

Episode 240 (Bonus): Navigating Transitions 4 | ALSSI Listener Stories Oct 17, 2025

Show notes

We can't get enough of these stories! Bonus Episode 240 features more ALSSI listeners answering the question, "What triggered your faith journey?"

Episode 239: Let's Talk About Enmeshment | A Conversation with Dr. Julie Hanks Oct 14, 2025

Show notes

"Differentiation of self is being a unique individual while maintaining connection with people you love," explains Dr. Julie Hanks. "We've been trained, particularly as women, to be enmeshed—to feel other people's pain for them. And that does no one any good. It doesn't help them, and it doesn't help us." On Episode 239, Dr. Hanks joins Cynthia and Susan for a conversation about enmeshment. It has been a core theme in her 30 years of practice as a therapist in Utah, working with families in which "the boundaries are not clear at all and everything's everyone's business." So why are some Latter-day Saints prone to focusing too much on the lives and choices of their children or other family members? Does our church have teachings that actually promote family enmeshment?

Episode 238: Embracing Your Journey | A Conversation with Lindsie Cornia Oct 07, 2025

Show notes

"With always wanting to do the right things, take care of people, and people please, this set me up perfectly to be an all-in member. Doing the formula. Hustling! I was married in the temple to a returned missionary, had 4 children, and did everything I could to be a good, righteous LDS woman," explains Lindsie Cornia. Those lines might be the beginning of a million stories in our church, but if there's one thing to be learned from ALSSI, it's that every woman's path is unique and evolving. So what happened next? In Episode 238, Susan and Cynthia have a conversation with Lindsie about all of it: where she started, where she's been, how it's going, what she knows—or doesn't—and how she looks at things now.

Episode 237: The Invisible Labor of Women | A Conversation with Christine Pagano Sep 30, 2025

Show notes

"There's no roadmap for how to do partnership in patriarchy, at least within our little Mormon frame of reference," explains Christine Pagano. "Patriarchy believes that men's time is finite—there's only 24 hrs—while women's time is infinite. It's unlimited. [...] Moms are carrying the load of domestic labor, invisible labor, emotional labor, and relational labor at much higher rates than their male partners." But it's not just at home: Within our church organization, women "are tasked with immense emotional, spiritual, and relational labor without equal voice, recognition, or authority. Improving the experience of LDS women means addressing both the invisible burdens they carry and the structural imbalance that keeps those burdens unacknowledged." In Episode 237, Christine joins Cynthia and Susan for a conversation about bringing the invisible work of women to light so that it can be shared more equitably.

Episode 236: We Don't Believe Our Own Stuff | Resurrection Sep 23, 2025

Show notes

It seems Latter-day Saints most often speak about resurrection in the literal sense: the reuniting of spirit and body. Jesus rising from the tomb holds promise for us after our own inevitable physical death. But as Richard Rohr says, "Literalism is invariably the lowest and least level of meaning." So what else can we take from this concept? Actually, the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about renewal! In Episode 236, Cynthia and Susan explore resurrection. It's a conversation not about what happens after we die, but about the possibility of experiencing transformation in our lives here and now.

Episode 235: Is it Too Expensive to be a Latter-day Saint? | A Conversation with Natalie Brown Sep 16, 2025

Show notes

"In all my angst about if I would marry and if I would have children and if I would have a career, I did not fully consider how the ideals in this proclamation from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reflected a certain moment in white, middle-class America's economic history," writes Natalie Brown. Most Latter-day Saints have absorbed a lifetime of talks and lessons centered around an "ideal" family model in which a father goes to work and a mother stays at home with the children. This arrangement is no longer economically possible for many American families, and the disconnect between Church teachings and members' lived experience can have many consequences. In Episode 235, Susan and Cynthia are joined by Natalie to explore the collision of realities that have changed with teachings that haven't. How might our church adapt to better serve members caught in the middle?

Episode 234 (Bonus): Navigating Transitions 3 | ALSSI Listener Stories Sep 12, 2025

Show notes

We asked, you answered! In Bonus Episode 234, more women from the ALSSI community share their stories in response to the question: What triggered your faith journey?

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