Advertise on podcast: Inside Out with Jim Bennett and Ian Wilks

Send us Fan Mail Why are so many people leaving The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—and why do so many faithful members misunderstand their reasons for leaving? In this episode of Inside Out, Ian and Jim welcome two influential voices in the conversation about Mormonism's future: historian Dr. Greg Prince and former mission president and business executive Jeff Strong, author of Torn: Why People We Love Are Leaving the Church and What We Can Learn From Them. Drawing on extensive research, decades of leadership experience, and a shared commitment to the people of the Church, Greg and Jeff explore the growing disconnect between institutional leadership and members experiencing crises of faith. They discuss the Church's response to their work, the cultural barriers to meaningful reform, and the difficult question of whether an institution that claims divine authority can acknowledge its mistakes and change course.

Send us Fan Mail What happens when three former Mormon missionaries reunite nearly 40 years after serving together in Scotland? Plenty of nostalgia, a little irreverence, and some stories that have gotten considerably more outrageous with age. This week on Inside Out, Ian and Jim welcome their old friend and fellow missionary Steve Wrigley for a hilarious, heartfelt trip down memory lane. Together, they revisit their experiences in the Scotland Edinburgh Mission, from dreadful missionary apartments and eccentric companions to the challenges of navigating Scottish culture and the sometimes bewildering expectations of missionary life.

Send us Fan Mail What happens when one of the world's most prominent biblical scholars unexpectedly drops into an Inside Out livestream?  Fresh off his headline-making appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, biblical scholar and Data Over Dogma host Dan McClellan joins Ian and Jim for an unscheduled, wide-ranging conversation about faith, scholarship, and the controversy surrounding his identity as a believing Latter-day Saint. Dan responds candidly to critics who question his faith, explains why he deliberately separates his personal religious beliefs from his academic work, and reflects on the extraordinary response to his Joe Rogan appearance. But the conversation goes much deeper. Drawing on his decade working in scripture translation for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Dan offers fascinating behind-the-scenes insights into the Church's evolving approach to Bible translations, his own involvement in proposed policy changes, and why he believes significant revisions to Latter-day Saint scripture may well be inevitable.

Send us Fan Mail Fresh off the October 2026 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ian and Jim welcome back historian Greg Prince for a candid, wide-ranging discussion of what was said, what wasn't said, and what the Church could be doing better. Jim offers a firsthand perspective from his marathon weekend singing with the Tabernacle Choir, while Ian shares how General Conference looks and feels to someone who has left the Church. Greg brings his historical perspective to a conversation that celebrates some genuinely inspiring messages while challenging the institution to confront uncomfortable realities.

Send us Fan Mail Ian and Jim welcome Mariama Nadworna, a Black former member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to discuss race, racism, and the legacy of the Church’s priesthood and temple restrictions. Mariama shares her family’s journey from Sierra Leone to the United Kingdom, her mother’s conversion to the Church, and what it was like growing up as a Black Latter-day Saint in a predominantly white religious community. She reflects on discovering the history and teachings behind the racial restrictions, the impact those discoveries had on her faith, and why she ultimately left the Church.

Send us Fan Mail Jordan Broadbent returns to Inside Out to talk with Ian and Jim about his new role supporting Latter-day Saint missionary efforts across the UK, Europe, and beyond. Drawing on his experience in both humanitarian and missionary work, Jordan offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the Church is adapting missionary service to a rapidly changing world. The conversation ranges from the very different challenges facing missionaries in secular Europe and rapidly growing areas of Africa to mentorship, technology, changing approaches to proselyting, and the Church’s increasing emphasis on genuine conversion rather than baptism alone. Ian, Jim, and Jordan also tackle one of the Church’s most difficult questions: why so many members—particularly younger members and returned missionaries—struggle to stay, and what the Church can do differently to support them. It’s a candid, wide-ranging conversation about the future of missionary work, the challenge of retention, and Jordan’s conviction that ultimately the reason for staying isn’t a program, an institution, or even a community—it’s Jesus Christ.

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Inside Out, Ian and Jim tackle one of the most difficult and divisive issues in American politics: abortion—and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ decision to oppose Idaho’s Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act. Ian and Jim examine the Church’s official position on abortion, including its stated exceptions for rape, incest, serious threats to the life or health of the mother, and severe fetal defects, and ask how those principles fit with existing abortion restrictions and the proposed Idaho initiative. The conversation broadens into a deeper question: If the goal is to reduce the number of abortions, what actually works? Jim argues that criminalizing abortion and preventing abortion aren’t necessarily the same thing, while Ian wrestles with the competing moral claims of a woman’s autonomy and the developing fetus—particularly later in pregnancy.

Send us Fan Mail There’s been a disturbance in the Force—and apparently he’s been called to preside over the Alcatraz First Ward. The livestream kick things off with an unexpected visit from Bishop Darth Vader before turning to a surprisingly substantive question: What is happening to the LDS Sunday meeting schedule, and what do shorter meetings mean for the future of Mormon community? Ian and Jim discuss experiments with shorter classes, the move from three-hour to two-hour church, the unintended consequences of “home-centered, church-supported” worship during COVID, and whether efficiency has come at the expense of one of church’s most important functions: giving people a place to form friendships and actually enjoy being together. They compare the very different realities of compact Utah wards and geographically enormous stakes and branches elsewhere, drawing on their own experiences in Utah, Canada, Scotland, and the mission field. Along the way, they talk about church culture, spiritual autonomy, what makes people actually want to show up on Sunday—and why sometimes the most valuable part of church happens in the hallway rather than the chapel.

Send us Fan Mail Greg Prince returns to Inside Out for the fourth installment of our deep dive into the LDS temple recommend interview—and this time, some of the most consequential questions take center stage. Ian, Jim, and Greg tackle tithing: What exactly constitutes a “full tithe”? Gross? Net? Increase? Should someone struggling financially be denied temple attendance because they can’t afford ten percent? And what happens when individual bishops and stake presidents interpret the requirement differently? From there, the conversation turns to financial obligations to former spouses and children, followed by a wide-ranging discussion of temple garments—the history of how they’ve been worn, changing Church instructions, stories about garments providing physical protection, and the larger question of what the garment is actually intended to represent. Ultimately, the discussion returns to the purpose of the recommend interview itself. Is it primarily a worthiness test administered by Church leaders, or could it become something more pastoral—a conversation designed to help people draw closer to God?

Send us Fan Mail What happens when defending the Church turns into deciding who belongs in it? Kolby Reddish joins Jim Bennett and Ian Wilks for a lively Inside Out conversation sparked by three recent online controversies involving Jacob Hansen: labeling faithful Latter-day Saint Jeff Strong as an “exmo,” arguing that the Church isn’t really a “big tent,” and getting community-noted over claims about Catholicism. They also wrestle with a larger question: Do combative apologetics actually defend the Church—or does outrage, tribalism, and “rage bait” drive away the very people a Christian community ought to be trying to reach? This is the audio version of a livestream from August 25, 2026.

Send us Fan Mail What will it take for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to thrive in the decades ahead? Greg Prince and Ganesh Cherian join Ian and Jim for a wide-ranging conversation about two of the biggest challenges facing the modern Church: growth and retention. Why are record numbers of convert baptisms not necessarily translating into comparable growth in active membership? Why are younger Latter-day Saints increasingly willing to walk away? And what could the Church learn from other religious traditions about creating worship that is vibrant, meaningful, inclusive—and actually worth showing up for?

Send us Fan Mail Jim’s cryptic social media post about potentially “revolutionary” Church news sparked plenty of speculation—but no, this isn’t about coffee, one-hour church, or a dramatic change in doctrine. In this episode of Inside Out, Ian and Jim unpack what they’ve been hearing about the Church’s new Faith and Learning Center planned near the Preston England Temple—and why they believe it could represent something much bigger. Could this be a pilot for a new approach to investing in young people, supporting higher education, opening Church resources to the broader community, and collaborating more closely with other faiths and organizations? Jim and Ian separate what’s publicly known from what they’ve heard and what they hope may be coming, while exploring the enormous potential—and possible pitfalls—of such a shift.

Send us Fan Mail In the third installment of our conversation with historian Greg Prince about the LDS temple recommend interview, we turn to two of its most consequential—and complicated—questions: the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom. Jim, Ian, and Greg examine how the wording of these questions has changed, what those changes may reveal, and whether simple yes-or-no worthiness standards can adequately address complex questions of sexuality, morality, health, personal conscience, and religious commitment.

Send us Fan Mail This second installment of the Inside Out conversation with historian and author Greg Prince about the temple dives into the LDS temple recommend questions—what they ask, how they’ve changed, and what those changes reveal about the Church’s evolving ideas of worthiness.

Send us Fan Mail In this special Inside Out livestream, Jim Bennett and Ian Wilks sit down with Jeff Strong, author of TORN: Why People We Love Are Leaving the Church and What We Can Learn From Them, for a candid and wide-ranging conversation about one of the most difficult issues facing Latter-day Saint families today. Jeff discusses the remarkable response to TORN, the criticism of his research, and what his data suggests about why people leave the Church—and the role Church culture can play in pushing people away. Together, Jim, Ian, and Jeff explore belonging, orthodoxy, agency, leadership, safe spaces for difficult questions, and what faithful Latter-day Saints can do to better understand and love those whose relationship with the Church has changed.