Mormon Stories Podcast

Latest Episodes:

439: Greg Prince on "Faith and Doubt as Partners in Mormon History" Jul 14, 2014

Show notes

Dr. Gregory A. Prince was selected to present the 19th annual Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture. The lecture is an annual event hosted by University Libraries and its Special Collections and Archives Division at Utah State University. The lecture is sponsored by University Libraries, Special Collections and Archives, the Leonard J. Arrington Lecture and Archives Foundation and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Utah State University. Dr. Prince spoke on Thursday, Sept. 19, at the Logan LDS Tabernacle. The title of Prince’s lecture was "Faith and Doubt as Partners in Mormon History."

438: Elders - A Mormon Missionary Novel by Ryan McIlvain Jul 14, 2014

Show notes

Ryan McIlvain was born in Utah and raised in Massachusetts. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in many journals, including The Paris Review. A graduate of the Rutgers MFA Program and a recipient of the Stegner Fellowship at Stanford, he currently lives with his wife in Los Angeles. As part of Mormon Stories Book Club, today Heather Olson Beal and I discuss Ryan’s book "Elders," which is the story of two young Mormon missionaries in Brazil and their tense, peculiar friendship. Elder McLeod - outspoken, surly, a brash American - is nearing the end of his mission. For nearly two years he has spent his days studying the Bible and the Book of Mormon, knocking on doors, teaching missionary lessons "experimenting on the word." His new partner is Elder Passos, a devout, ambitious Brazilian who found salvation and solace in the church after his mother’s early death. The two men are at first suspicious of each other, and their work together is frustrating, fruitless. That changes when a beautiful woman and her husband offer the missionaries a chance to be heard, to put all of their practice to good use, to test the mettle of their faith. But before they can bring the couple to baptism, they must confront their own long-held beliefs and doubts, and the simmering tensions at the heart of their friendship. A novel of unsparing honesty and beauty, Elders announces Ryan McIlvain as a writer of enormous talent.

437: Elijah Abel - Early Black Mormon Priesthood Holder Pt. 2 Jul 14, 2014

Show notes

As an independent historian, Russell Stevenson has been studying Mormon history for nearly two decades. His first book, Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables, tells the vexing story of race in nineteenth-century Mormonism through experiences of Elijah Ables, a biracial man ordained to the priesthood during Joseph Smith’s lifetime. Drawing on documents unused in other treatments, Black Mormon is the first effort to understand Elijah Ables in all of his identities: black, male, Mormon, and priesthood holder.

443: Alternative Feminist Approaches to Ordain Women Pt. 1 Oct 16, 2013

Show notes

Originally published October 16, 2013.

Fiona Givens, Maxine Hanks, Margaret Young, and Neylan McBaine join John Dehlin for a two-part conversation about feminist approaches to Mormon womanhood and priesthood that differ from the tactics of the Ordain Women movement, recorded not long after Ordain Women’s October 2013 attempt to attend the LDS General Conference priesthood session.

In part one, Fiona Givens — a convert who spent years living in convents — walks through Elder Packer’s distinction between priesthood authority and priesthood power, and argues women already hold priesthood power through the temple. Maxine Hanks describes sensing a "ministerial or priestly calling" since childhood and identifying as a feminist as a teenager in the 1970s, long before her LDS mission. Margaret Young, a writer and filmmaker on Black LDS history and a returning Mormon Stories guest, and Neylan McBaine, founder of the Mormon Women Project, round out the panel as they go on record, one by one, on whether women already hold priesthood power.

Full episode and show notes: https://www.mormonstories.org/alternative-feminist-approaches-to-ordain-women/

442: Ordain Women General Conference Priesthood Event Pt. 1 - The Participants Oct 09, 2013

Show notes

Originally published October 8, 2013.

Part 1 of a three-part series on the Ordain Women event of October 5, 2013, when participants sought admission to the LDS General Conference priesthood session. John Dehlin speaks with participants Heather Olson Beal, Ann Marie Whittaker, Tinesha Zandamela, and Lorie Winder Stromberg.

Full episode and show notes: https://www.mormonstories.org/ordain-women-general-conference-priesthood-event-pt-1-the-participants/

440: Mormon News Review - Ordain Women, Steve and Barb Young's LGBT Support, and LDS Religious Freedom Sep 25, 2013

Show notes

Originally published September 24, 2013.

A Mormon News Review episode covering the Ordain Women movement, Steve and Barb Young's public support for LGBT Latter-day Saints, and the LDS Church's religious-freedom advocacy.

Full episode and show notes: https://www.mormonstories.org/ordain-women-steve-and-barb-youngs-lgbt-support-and-lds-religious-freedom/

436: Elijah Abel - Early Black Mormon Priesthood Holder Pt. 1 Sep 12, 2013

Show notes

435: A Sense of Order with Jack Harrell. Aug 13, 2013

Show notes

As the 10th feature of our Mormon Stories Book Club series, we feature Jack Harrell and his short story collection, A Sense of Order and Other Stories. Jack is currently a writing professor at BYU-Idaho. A Sense of Order and Other Stories contains two award-winning stories ("Calling and Election" and "A Prophet’s Story"); the collection won the award for best short fiction from the Association for Mormon Letters in 2010.

434: Hans Mattsson Pt. 5 -- His thoughts and feelings about the church today. Jul 18, 2013

Show notes

Hans H. Mattsson is a 3rd generation LDS church member from Sweden who served as a bishop and stake president before serving in the 3rd Quorum of the Seventy (Europe Central area) from 2000-2005 under LDS Apostle L. Tom Perry. In this 5-part interview, and accompanied by his beautiful wife Birgitta, Hans discusses the following: (1) His early years in Sweden, (2) His years as an Area Authority Seventy, (3) His interactions with LDS Apostles and the 1st Presidency, (4) His struggles with faith after being released as an area authority, and (5) His thoughts about the church today.

Special Fireside for Disaffected Swedish Latter-day Saints - November, 2010 with Elder Marlin K. Jensen and Assistant Church Historian Richard Turley. Jul 18, 2013

Show notes

Special Fireside for Disaffected Swedish Latter-day Saints. Speakers: Elder Marlin K. Jensen (LDS Church Historian) and Richard E. Turley Jr. (Assistant Church Historian). Date: November 28, 2010. Location: Västerhaninge Chapel; Stockholm, Sweden.

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