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Journalist Sarah McCammon watched the Evangelical community shift from reviling Donald Trump to embracing him. The Latter-day Saints seem to have done the same thing. Drawing on years of political reporting and her own experience of “living, loving, and leaving” Evangelicalism, McCammon shows how Mormons followed a similar path, and what we can do to …

Two unsolved murders. One Black Mormon born into slavery. A doctor who challenged Brigham Young’s power. And a mutilated body left on Arsenal Hill with a warning pinned to its chest. In the winter of 1866, Salt Lake City became the scene of a story involving blood atonement, racial terror, vigilante violence, and a possible …

In 2006, Carol Lynn Pearson’s play “Facing East” premiered in Salt Lake City. Then it had runs off Broadway and in San Francisco. Focusing on the Mormon parents of a gay man who committed suicide, it helped religious families better understand their gay loved ones. The play will be revived in October and November 2026 …

Why did the U.S. Army build a fort above Salt Lake City with its guns pointed toward the Mormon capital? Lindsay Hansen Park and Bryan Buchanan trace the explosive history of Fort Douglas, from the Utah War and Brigham Young’s theocracy to Patrick Connor’s campaign to contain Mormon power, encourage mining, and remake the territory. …

Young Washington and Odysseus walk into a fast and testimony meeting. Only one will emerge triumphant! Both are violent. Both play fast and loose with their source material. And both are myths. In this episode, Stephen Carter compares the two movies for what they might offer to a Mormon audience.     https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/SLP-215.mp3

He dedicated Jerusalem for the return of the Jews, renamed Nevada’s oldest town, nearly became president of the LDS Church, and may have helped create one of Mormonism’s most enduring succession myths. This week, Lindsay Hansen Park and Bryan Buchanan trace the astonishing and contradictory life of Apostle Orson Hyde, from orphaned boy who walked …

Dan McClellan has done the seemingly impossible. He has made Bible scholarship not only accessible, but cool on his TikTok channel. In this episode, he talks about how he became the internet sensation he is today.

On Friday the 13th, 1862, a thousand armed men surrounded a muddy little fort on the Weber River, where Joseph Morris and his followers waited for the Second Coming. What followed was a three-day siege, cannon fire, disputed murders, mass arrests, and one of the strangest, bloodiest, and least-known breakaway movements in Utah history. In …

Roadshows, Boy Scouts, MIA, basketball leagues, potlucks—the LDS Church was once buzzing with community activities. But most of that has disappeared. How did it happen? In this episode, Mithryn (a.k.a. Kenneth Lines) presents a fast-paced history of the rise and fall of community activities in the Church.

In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan dive into the 1860s, the decade when Mormon polygamy reached its statistical and cultural peak. Drawing on census data, diaries, oral histories, and the sharp observations of British explorer Richard Francis Burton, they examine how plural marriage became woven into Utah’s theology, politics, economics, and daily life. From Brigham …

What if apostles were given emeritus status at 70 years of age? This was the question apostle Hugh B. Brown proposed to the Quorum of the Twelve as President David O. McKay descended into senility. Would the Quorum go for it? After all, Hugh would be the first to go! In this episode, Matt Harris …

What do Latter-day Saints mean when they say temples are sacred? Intrepid reporter Stephen Carter braves three tours of the Lindon Temple to find out. (Hint: It’s definitely not the symbolism.)

Before texts, tracking numbers, and two-day shipping, a letter could take months to cross the continent, assuming it arrived at all. In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan saddle up for the tangled story of Mormons, mail, freighting, and power in the American West, from Brigham Young’s ambitious Y.X. Company and the political chaos of the …

While Eastern theaters staged plays depicting Mormons as bloodthirsty polygamists, Brigham Young was building a Drury Lane replica in the Utah desert. It would go on to host Oscar Wilde, the Barrymore family across four generations, and Brigham Young’s own son performing in drag to packed houses. It was the most ambitious act of cultural …

What do Brigham Young’s flamboyant son, a legendary local gin, the University of Utah, the Huntsman Center, and a web of Mormon architecture all have in common? In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan follow one gloriously weird thread through Utah history, from Madam Pattirini, the stage persona of Brigham Morris Young, to the family empire …