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Join us as Michelle interviews Chris Smith. Chris grew up as a practicing Pentecostal but eventually left his faith. Hear his fascinating story and his interesting ties to Mormonism.

Lend us you ear as I remember Leonard Arrington with Cristina Rosetti. Cristina is an ethnographer who recently presented at Sunstone about the new Arrington Diaries!

Chris interviews Russell Hatch about his non-religious upbringing in Provo (a town with a large majority of LDS). They discuss exclusion, dogma, the New Atheism, environmental philosophy, and the limits of anthropocentric ethics.

In this 2-part episode, the 3 of us hosts scratch the surface of some of the more indigestible topics from the early latter-days. We try to understand why these topics are triggering and hope to create a space where these topics are not taboo. Don’t forget to watch for Part 2!

Chris Wei interviews journalist Kristina Smith and filmmaker Spencer Allred about their collaborative project, THE HUSHED ONES, a documentary film which examines the issue of sexual abuse in the LDS Church by looking closely at the McKenna Denson story and the #ProtectLDSChildren movement. They explain some of the decisions they’re making as documentarians with regard to narrative structure, artistic expression, journalistic ethics, and socioreligious activism; they explore the difficulty in digging into systemic issues with nuance and balance; and they discuss generally what they hope to accomplish—and who they hope to reach—with the project.

In this episode, our host Blake Wright will dig into the life of Ms. Global U.S. Kindra Kauer. We talk about the conflicts between conservative religious views and pageant life. We also discuss the ‘Every Teen Seen’ platform that Kindra started to fight teen suicides in her community. Kindra describes how these issues have shaped how she perceives God.

Chris interviews two therapists—Briana Petters and Troy Leishman—and they chat about self-care and mental health. They respond to listener-submitted questions/discussions about healthy conflict, emotional intimacy, faith crisis, and dealing with isolation/shame. Briana has had a passion for defending the defenseless for as long as she can remember. She studied Psychology during her undergrad at Brigham Young University and then got her MSW (concentrating on Mental Health but also developing a background in Forensic Social Work) from the University of Utah. She works from a humanistic perspective, focusing on ACT, mind-body bridging, motivational interviewing, and mindfulness therapeutic practices. She has worked with trauma, PTSD, LGBTQ, veterans, spiritual transitions, autism spectrum, and substance abuse among other populations. Troy is a Clinical Mental Health Therapist and provides mental health services at Encircle through Flourish Counseling Services in Provo and also through Advanced Awareness in Sandy. You can find out more about Encircle at encircletogether.org; find out more about Advanced Awareness at advancedawarenesscounseling.com; contact Troy for counseling services at [email protected] or [email protected].

Chris was born into a non-religious household but was drawn to Christianity from a young age and ended up “converting” as a teenager. He determined then that he would be a pastor in order to help everyone feel what he had felt. After years of being a Baptist Pastor, Chris became disillusioned with the Baptist faith, left his pastorship and eventually, Christianity. Chris now works in the corporate world and lives in Atlanta, GA with his wife and four kids. This is his story.

In this episode, Chris, Blake, and Michelle compare their various perspectives on death, the afterlife, and Iceland. Is there a soul? Is there a Heaven, or a Hell, or a void? Is the world fundamentally “fallen,” and in need of redemptive grace? What does it feel like to grapple with different (post) theological answers to these questions over time, or to not have answers at all?