Sunstone

13/06/2025

You're Invited!

Join us for a conference celebrating the last 50 years of Sunstone history, and exploring what's to come in the next 50.

Get tickets for the conference and our closing fundraiser banquet here: https://sunstone.org/registration/

View our conference program here: https://sunstone.org/2025schedule/

06/06/2025

Join us for this year's Smith-Pettit lecture with John G. Turner at the 2025 Sunstone Symposium!

This lecture is free and open to the public. For more information or to register for the rest of the conference, visit: https://Sunstone.org/

20/05/2025

E199: How I Made It Through Life Without Missing a Single Guilt Trip.

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://wp.me/p2QXnQ-fly

28/04/2025

Stream wherever you get your podcasts!

E198: Relief Society Baby.

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://wp.me/p2QXnQ-f4v

17/04/2025

Out now!

The Indomitable Raftsman of Mormonism.

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://wp.me/p2QXnQ-f1I

11/04/2025

It's the last weekend to submit your proposal!

The call for papers for the 2025 Sunstone Symposium closes April 14th. Celebrate 50 years of Sunstone with us this July 31st - August 2nd by being a presenter! Submit your session proposal through our website here to be considered for acceptance:

https://sunstone.org/calls-for-papers/

02/04/2025

In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan dive into one of the most violent and outrageous chapters of early Mormon history: the “Runaway Officials” scandal. When federal appointees tried to enforce U.S. law in Utah Territory, they faced threats, beatings, and sabotage from a theocratic regime that ran more like a mafia than a government. From Governor Dawson’s three-week disaster to Brigham Young’s infamous finger of doom, this story has everything, corruption, intimidation, and fire shovels. It’s a crime drama disguised as religious history, powered by Benchmark Books.

In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan dive into one of the most violent and outrageous chapters of early Mormon history: the “Runaway Officials” scandal. When federal appointees tried to enforce U.S. law in Utah Territory, they faced threats, beatings, and sabotage from a theocratic regime that ran...

20/03/2025

Once again, through no action or righteousness on their part, another great story landed in the lap of Lindsay and Bryan. That’s right, it’s mailbag time again! A friend of a listener was going through some papers of her mother’s and found an affidavit from a woman claiming to be a plural wife of Joseph Smith. She didn’t recognize the signature but Lindsay and Bryan certainly did. This is the story of Malissa Lott Willes and her showdown with Joseph Smith III, on the line: was she in fact a plural wife of Mormonism’s founding prophet? Spoiler alert: their descriptions of this encounter are … a little different.

Once again, through no action or righteousness on their part, another great story landed in the lap of Lindsay and Bryan. That’s right, it’s mailbag time again! A friend of a listener was going through some papers of her mother’s and found an affidavit from a woman claiming to be a plural wife...

06/02/2025

E192: Annalee Skarin: Excommunicated then Translated—Yes, Like Enoch.

In 1948, Annalee Skarin had just published a book she said was written by the power of God. She was very soon excommunicated from the LDS Church. But then a few days later, eyewitnesses said she was translated. She wrote eight more books after that, becoming nationally famous. In this episode, Samuel W. Taylor and Skarin’s daughter Hope A. Hilton give two very different perspectives on Skarin’s life and legacy.

https://wp.me/p2QXnQ-eJj

29/01/2025

🚨 History is wilder than fiction. 🚨

The second part of our deep dive into the real history behind the Utah War... yes, the one that inspired American Primeval, is live now!

If you think the current response to the Netflix series is currently bringing up a lot of drama in the GSL, wait until you hear the drama that inspired the fiction!

🎧 Listen now: https://sunstone.org/episode-141-the-utah-war-part-two/

Join Lindsay and Bryan as they dive into the explosive history of the Utah War for part two of our Utah War series. We explore the complex interplay of guerrilla tactics, federal overreach, and theocratic resistance that defined this strange conflict. From Brigham Young’s bold proclamations to Por...

22/01/2025

E191: How to Spot an Unorthodox BYU Professor.

https://wp.me/p2QXnQ-eF5

Clark Gilbert is tightening the orthodoxy clamps at BYU, just like Ernest Wilkinson did in the 1950s and 60s. Is this the best way to make BYU students into lifelong Latter-day Saints? Stephen Carter compares Wilkinson's BYU with Gilbert's and then talks about his own experience with two BYU professors who kept him engaged with the Church—because of their unique mix of faithfulness and unorthodoxy.

https://wp.me/p2QXnQ-eF5