Sunstone Podcast

Is it blasphemous to publish a cartoon about Angel Moroni? How about Jesus? How about God? Sunstone has been exploring the limits of what LDS culture is willing to laugh at for decades. Using many hilarious (and possibly blasphemous) examples, Stephen Carter talks about the times when Sunstone ran afoul of sacred sensibilities, and also how its cartoonists subtly changed the Church—right up to the Church Office Building. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/SLP-206.mp3

Is your life a sermon? Do you imagine your every action being narrated by a general authority? In this episode, Stephen Carter dives into perfectionism, showing how it manifests in people’s lives, and proposing a few odd ways to escape it. (Hint: Not through fasting and prayer.) https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/SLP-205.mp3

Jesus, Mormon, and David Lynch walk into Stephen Carter’s head. Together, they manage to revise everything Stephen thought he knew about the Book of Mormon, the Atonement, and Eraserhead. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/SLP-204.mp3

A faith crisis is one of the most destabilizing things that can happen to an LDS marriage. Both partners feel betrayed. Feelings either erupt or are suppressed. In this episode, therapists Adam Fisher and Mary Fisher talk about the three most important things a couple can do to help each other. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/SLP-202.mp3

He was the Church’s most unlikely general authority. A coffee habit, an oft-shot-off mouth, and–according to this great-grandnephew–a deep spirituality. This episode includes some of J. Golden Kimball’s funniest stories and reflections by James N. Kimball on the man behind the myth. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/SLP-200.mp3

In September 1993, six scholars—called the September Six—were disciplined by the LDS Church. Lynne Kanavel Whitesides was the first. For the next ten years, she went on an extraordinary spiritual journey. Sadly, she passed away July 7, 2025. In her memory, this episode features a recording of the speech she gave about her spiritual journey at the 2003 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium.

Being a single, 25-year-old Mormon female is a tough life. But Dorothy Black makes it into a stand-up comedy routine in this episode of the Sunstone Podcast.   https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/SLP-199.mp3

For Heather Sundahl, Relief Society was the “monster child that sucked up my mom.” What was it like to be the daughter of the most powerful woman in the stake—who couldn’t find time to read to her? https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SLP-198.mp3

In 1954, California LDS bishop Devere Baker set out to prove that Lehi could have sailed from the Persian Gulf to Guatemala—by sailing his own raft, which he called the Lehi. Samuel Taylor tells about Baker’s 25-year endeavor—and how he went through six Lehis in the process. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SLP-197.mp3

How much can we heal from the wounds our religious community gave us? Stephen Carter explores the “hero cycle” story structure to find out. https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/SLP-196.mp3