Postmormon Postmortem

A 17-year-old Mormon girl called police in 1928, saying the maid killed the baby. When police arrived she smiled, and introduced herself as the maid.Erna Janoschek murdered baby Thais Dianne Liliencrantz in Oakland, then became a courtroom spectacle: laughing, refusing an insanity label, and narrating the crime in her own intriguing jailhouse prose. Hannah and Jess trace the case through Edward Janoschek’s LDS mission devotion, Marie Janoschek’s abandoned household, the Liliencrantz nanny job, early psychiatric testimony, San Quentin, mental hospitalization, and the family-system damage underneath the headlines. This might only make sense if you grew up Mormon.LA Not So Confidential podcast, episode 151 “Vintage Case: Baby Killer Erna Janosheck”https://www.la-not-so-confidential.com/episodes/151-vintage-case-erna-janoschekPostmormon Postmortem — New episodes drop every Sunday at 9:00 am, just in time for sacrament meeting.postmormonpostmortem.com @postmormonpostmortem (TikTok, Instagram)  buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem 

The LDS Church holds an estimated $265 billion in assets. Its investment income now exceeds what it collects from member tithing. And it still requires 10% of your income for life to stay a full member.This episode is the structural overview — the bird's eye view of how the LDS Church was built, how it extracts money, labor, data, and loyalty from members, and why it keeps working even when people find out things like this. From Joseph Smith's treasure-seeking origin story to the 2023 SEC fine for hiding $32 billion in shell companies, from the mission as a sunk-cost manufacturing machine to the genealogy database built by volunteers and owned by the institution — this is the machinery, piece by piece.If someone in your life keeps asking what the big deal is, this is the episode to send them.🎙️ Postmormon Postmortem — where we lovingly sift through the ashes of our former faith.🌐 postmormonpostmortem.com📱 @postmormonpostmortem☕ buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem🎙️ patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem 00:00 The Cost of Belonging03:05 Understanding Mormonism: A Systematic Overview03:57 The Origins of Mormonism: Joseph Smith's Influence07:01 Power Structures in the LDS Church08:51 Financial Extraction: Tithing and Its Implications11:31 The Mission Experience: A Tool for Investment13:21 Temple Secrecy and Its Effects15:05 Social Isolation: The Cost of Leaving16:57 Genealogy: A Hidden Benefit for the Church18:41 Institutional Protection: Revelation and Adaptation23:20 The Church's Optimization: Power and Control

In 2013, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints quietly published essays on its official website addressing its most contested historical questions — no announcement, no First Presidency letter, buried six clicks deep in their sitemap. The Book of Mormon Translation essay acknowledges what Emma Smith, Martin Harris, and David Whitmer all said: Joseph translated with a brown seer stone, with his face pressed into a hat, the plates covered with a cloth or sometimes absent entirely. This episode tracks what the church knew, when it stopped teaching it, and what it costs a truth claim when you have to redefine the word "translation" to make the method fit. Jess and Hannah cover the catalyst theory, Joseph Smith's 1826 court appearance as "the glass looker," Jeremy Runnells, and Elder Snow's inoculation framing — and what it means for every person who bore testimony of the painting version their whole lives.postmormonpostmortem.com@postmormonpostmortem (TikTok & Instagram)buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortempatreon.com/postmormonpostmortem

The LDS Church spent millions on "I'm a Mormon." Then called the word a victory for Satan. Now they've filed a federal lawsuit to prove it's still theirs.We're breaking down the April 2026 federal lawsuit against Mormon Stories host John Dehlin — and why the legal story is stranger than any headline has made it sound.What this episode covers: the "I'm a Mormon" campaign and its 2018 reversal under Russell Nelson; the trademark abandonment doctrine and why the church's own behavior is their biggest legal liability; the USPTO's rejection of a broad "Mormon" trademark in 2005; the 2026–2027 renewal window requiring proof of active commercial use; Dehlin's 21-year run under the name, his public excommunication, the failed mediation, and the consumer confusion argument. The church told members every use of the word was a gift to the adversary. Now they're in federal court saying it belongs to them. That's not just irony — that's institutional strategy.postmormonpostmortem.com patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem TikTok and Instagram: @postmormonpostmortem

A Mormon faith crisis is rarely a sudden decision. It's a gradual process of discovering information the church knew and didn't share — inside a system engineered to make every question feel like a moral failure. A Mormon faith crisis is rarely sudden. It's discovering information the church knew and withheld — inside a system that makes every question feel like a moral failure. Common triggers: the full scope of Joseph Smith's polygamy; the DNA evidence against the Book of Mormon; the Book of Abraham papyri identified as a common funeral text; the November 2015 LGBTQ policy and its 41-month reversal; the $150 billion investment portfolio. Hannah walks through Dr. Marlene Winnell's five recovery phases from Leaving the Fold — Separation, Confusion, Avoidance, Intense Mixed Feelings, and Rebuilding — nonlinear, always beginning before the previous phases are complete. In Mormon culture you don't just lose a religion. You lose your community, your identity, and a cosmology with charts and diagrams for planetary rulership. Life on the other side: you get your Sundays back, your 10% back, and eventually — the question "what do I want?" For many, that question is revolutionary. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

You were taught that your resistance was the problem. David Archuleta did everything the church asked — for thirty years. This is what that actually looks like from the inside.Jess and Hannah use David Archuleta's memoir Devout as a case study in what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints produces — not as an accident, but as a predictable outcome — when its theology of priesthood authority and LGBTQ unworthiness runs through a real human life for three decades.This episode covers scrupulosity (the religious OCD subtype David describes, and why its symptoms are literally indistinguishable from faithfulness in a high-control environment), the priesthood structure that gave his father theological authority over his identity and career, and the November Policy — the 2015 handbook update that classified same-sex couples as apostates and barred their children from baptism. Russell Nelson called it revelation. There were documented suicides. Forty-one months later the reversal was also called revelation. No apology. No accounting. Just an updated handbook and an expectation that members receive it as further light.Russell Ballard told David it was the most in-depth conversation he'd ever had with a gay person. He was an apostle. He was setting policy. He had never asked.The compliance you were trained into wasn't a character flaw. It was exactly what the system was built to produce. Naming that isn't apostasy. It's just accuracy.Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem Ad-free listening: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem TikTok and Instagram: @postmormonpostmortem Web: postmormonpostmortem.comCHAPTER NOTES00:00 Introduction — a man in an airport, and what David Archuleta already knew about him 00:29 What this episode actually is — and what it isn't 03:49 The church's proof of concept: talent, faith, and really good hair 06:27 Three engagements and a framework that called it hope 09:17 Scrupulosity — when the symptoms of a disorder look like righteousness 11:26 Jeff Archuleta, priesthood authority, and the structure that made compliance holy 13:02 What priesthood theology actually means inside an LDS home 15:40 Unrighteous dominion: the doctrine with no enforcement mechanism 18:15 What the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints told gay members for decades 21:08 BYU's electroshock program and the reparative therapy years 24:33 The November Policy, the suicides, and the 41-month reversal 28:38 Nashville, the pandemic, and when dying starts to feel like the honest option 32:02 Russell Ballard had never had this conversation before. He was setting policy. 35:10 What you were trained to call obedience 36:02 What David's story shows — and what he heard when something finally broke

How the Mormon Church Turns Institutional Policy Into Divine Revelation — With Receipts When the church shortened sacrament meeting for Palm Sunday 2026, they called it inspired. When they reversed the LGBTQ policy in 2019, also revelation. The mechanism has five steps. Here they are.  Jess and Hannah trace the five-step mechanism by which LDS institutional policy becomes divine revelation: identify a problem, trial a solution quietly, announce it as revelation, frame any revision as the Lord's timing, defend the change as sacred until the next change. The LGBTQ November Policy of 2015 classified same-sex married couples as apostates and barred their children from baptism. Its complete reversal 41 months later was also revelation. In the interval: resignations, torn families, and deaths by suicide. No apology was ever issued. The 2026 transgender handbook update applies the same designation used for those who have committed sexual abuse to transgender members. The Palm Sunday TikTok generated a live DARVO demonstration in the comments — Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender — that became one of the most instructive things they've ever seen in their mentions. If the schedule, the garments, the racial policy, and the LGBTQ policy all changed — what exactly was revealed in the first place? In this episode: the five-step mechanism for converting LDS policy into revelation; the November 2015 LGBTQ Policy — full text, consequences, and 41-month reversal; DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) as demonstrated live in LDS apologetics; the 2026 transgender handbook update and the designation it uses; the Palm Sunday sacrament meeting length change and the "inspired" framing; a timeline of LDS revelation reversals from polygamy to the 1978 racial priesthood ban to the LGBTQ policy — and what they collectively reveal about the revelation mechanism. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

Why Your Body Stays Stuck in Fear After Leaving Mormonism — And What Actually Helps You've left intellectually. Done the reading. So why does your body still brace when you disappoint an authority figure? Religious trauma doesn't live in your beliefs — it lives in your nervous system.  Drawing on Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score, Jess and Hannah explain why insight alone rarely completes healing after religious trauma. Mormon theology specifically conditioned children's nervous systems through omniscient surveillance (God always watching), eternal stakes (heaven and hell), and attachment wounds tied to worthiness — producing lasting physiological dysregulation that persists long after the beliefs are gone. The episode walks through four body-level approaches that actually work: EMDR, which Jess came to through a biking accident and found resolved years of stuck material in one or two sessions; TRE (Trauma Release Exercises), which she discovered on her living room floor out of desperation; rhythmic breathwork that directly engages the vagus nerve; and neurofeedback, which gave Hannah the first experience of genuine safety inside her own head. Your body isn't broken — it's running old software. In this episode: Bessel van der Kolk's somatic theory of trauma and why it applies directly to religious harm; how LDS doctrine engineered nervous system dysregulation through surveillance, eternal stakes, and worthiness-based attachment; EMDR for religious trauma — what it is and what a session actually looks like; TRE (Trauma Release Exercises) and why the body tremors are the point; breathwork and polyvagal theory; neurofeedback and what "feeling safe" actually feels like when you've never had a baseline. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

At 17, Jess sat in sacrament meeting hiding bruises on her neck and did the math. She knew she would have to leave. This is the episode she and Hannah wish someone had handed them on the way out the door.  Leaving Mormonism isn't a swap of one belief system for another — it's the collapse of an entire existential architecture. The identity work that follows isn't recovery of a self that existed before; there was no pre-Mormon self. It's construction from scratch. Jess and Hannah cover the grief that ordinary frameworks can't hold (you're not just losing a religion — you're losing your community, your cosmology, and your entire social operating system); how to rebuild self-trust after decades of being trained to doubt your doubts; therapeutic approaches that work for religious trauma specifically; the relationships that survive deconstruction and the ones that don't; and what joy looks like when it's no longer tied to a cosmic scoreboard. This episode includes practical resources: the Mormon Mental Health Association therapist directory, the Secular Therapy Project, and the Religious Trauma Institute. In this episode: why leaving Mormonism is an identity collapse rather than a belief change; grief frameworks that actually apply to religious deconstruction; IFS (Internal Family Systems), ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), and Narrative Therapy for religious trauma; how to rebuild self-trust after being trained to doubt your instincts; which relationships survive deconstruction and why; the Mormon Mental Health Association, the Secular Therapy Project, and the Religious Trauma Institute as starting points for finding help. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

Why Leaving Mormonism Is So Hard — The Psychology of Identity, Belonging, Cognitive Dissonance, and Sunk Costs Intelligent, thoughtful people stay in the Mormon church long after encountering evidence that should have sent them running. This is not a failure of intelligence. It's how belief architecture works.  This research-dense episode applies the psychology of belief directly to LDS institutional structure. Paul Harris on why children inherit belief before they can evaluate it — by the time questioning is possible, you're not in neutral territory, you're defending the foundations of your self. Robert Cialdini on commitment and consistency — temple covenants, mission service, and decades of public testimony-bearing create enormous psychological resistance to contradictory information. Leon Festinger on cognitive dissonance. Ziva Kunda on motivated reasoning. Dan Kahan on identity-protective cognition: when belief is identity-constitutive, threatening the belief feels like threatening the self. The sunk cost architecture of Mormonism is not accidental — missions, tithing, callings, and family relationships are all deliberately built inside the institution. If the people you love haven't left, this episode is why. In this episode: Paul Harris on childhood belief inheritance and why questioning feels like self-betrayal; Robert Cialdini's commitment and consistency principle applied to temple covenants and missionary service; Leon Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory and how the church engineers it; Ziva Kunda's motivated reasoning research; Dan Kahan's identity-protective cognition framework; the sunk cost architecture of Mormonism — tithing, callings, missions, temple marriage — and why leaving feels financially, socially, and existentially catastrophic. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

Elder James E. Christensen was beaten for months and scalded to death in his bathtub by his mission companion in 1977. His killer, Douglas Beiger, served zero days in prison.  The case that made Hannah angry enough to start a podcast. James Christensen had permanent neurological damage from a childhood accident and desperately wanted to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His companion Douglas Beiger beat him repeatedly over months, then held him in scalding water until he died of a massive brain hemorrhage. Judge Michael O'Shea said "sometimes sending someone to jail is not the best thing" and sent Beiger home to his parents. Louisville mission president Reed Benson — son of apostle Ezra Taft Benson, future prophet — testified for the defense. Mission assistant Reed Smith later wrote publicly: "The most blame goes to Mormonism itself — the false cultish system that propagates these pressures." Full primary source documentation is available to Patreon supporters. In this episode: James Christensen's background and mission placement despite neurological disability; the pattern of abuse by companion Douglas Beiger over the course of their mission; the trial, Judge Michael O'Shea's sentencing decision, and the testimony of mission president Reed Benson; the institutional culture of mission obedience that made the abuse possible and intervention unlikely; Reed Smith's public statement on systemic blame; what the companion system structurally enables and what oversight it prevents. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

Your Mormon family isn't ignoring you because they don't love you. The church built three specific mechanisms that make hearing you institutionally impossible.  Jess and Hannah break down the architecture of institutional deafness in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The obedience-equals-morality framework means anyone reporting harm becomes the problem before they finish the sentence — Russell Nelson called doubters "lazy learners and lax disciples" in 2021 General Conference. The compelled certainty culture begins at age three at Fast and Testimony Meeting, where children are trained to say "I know" rather than "I believe" — Dallin Oaks literally taught that testimony is better gained on your feet than on your knees. And the systematic elimination of visible dissent, from the September Six in 1993 to Sam Young's 23-day hunger strike and subsequent excommunication in 2018, ensures that even when dissent works, the dissenter is removed. The exit looks sudden from the outside because doubt had to be processed in private — in secret browser tabs, in the dark, in your body. In this episode: the obedience-equals-morality doctrine and why harm reports are structurally impossible to process; compelled certainty training from childhood through Fast and Testimony Meeting; the September Six (1993) and Sam Young's excommunication (2018) as case studies in how the church eliminates visible dissent; Noah Kahan's "The Great Divide" and why thousands of ex-Mormon children recognized their parents in it; why the exit looks sudden from the outside when the internal process took years. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

The Mormon Psychiatrist Who Declared a Child Killer Cured — Then Visited a Sadistic Canadian Cult Leader In 1985, Dr. C. Jess Grosbeck declared Rodney Lundberg — who had stabbed his 11-month-old son as a test of faith — cured and ready for release. Then he flew to visit Moses Thériault's compound.  Hannah's solo bonus episode follows the Rodney Lundberg case into territory as disturbing as the crime itself. Dr. C. Jess Grosbeck was the clinical director of Utah State Hospital, an active Latter-day Saint with missionary service, a Jungian analyst fascinated by prophetic authority — and the psychiatrist who declared Lundberg recovered after three years and one month. What followed his Lundberg evaluation: a four-day visit to Roch "Moses" Thériault's rural Quebec commune, a plan to co-author a book, and a session in which Thériault described a dream about the wife he had murdered during an amateur surgery — which Grosbeck interpreted through Jungian archetypes of rebirth. Thériault left the meeting convinced he was spiritually pregnant with her soul. The central question of this episode extends far beyond any single case: what happens when mental health institutions share the theological framework of the patients they're meant to hold accountable? In this episode: Dr. C. Jess Grosbeck, Jungian analysis, and the clinical evaluation of Rodney Lundberg; the three-year-one-month timeline from infant murder to "cured" determination; Roch "Moses" Thériault and the Ant Hill Kids commune in rural Quebec; the four-day visit, the book proposal, and what Grosbeck did with Thériault's confession; institutional religion, mental health systems, and the problem of shared theological frameworks; why this episode should be listened to after the Rodney Lundberg episode. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

The New York Times Called Mormon Women "The Church's Best Export" — Here's Everything Wrong With That The New York Times published a trend piece on Mormon women in reality TV. A podcast host called them "the church's best export." The Times printed it. This episode is the follow-up they didn't do.  An export is something you produce, brand, and send out for someone else's consumption — it is not a person with agency. Jess and Hannah dissect the New York Times piece through the line Heather Gay actually gave them: "We've been trained our whole lives to spin it positive." The "elevated standards" praised by employers are a trauma response — what happens when worthiness has been evaluated since age three. The competition that "can't be named" has a name: Salt Lake City has the second-highest density of plastic surgeons in the country, ahead of Los Angeles. Utah leads the nation in antidepressant use, eating disorder rates, and anxiety diagnoses. The church itself declined to comment, saying these productions depict practices "blatantly inconsistent" with its teachings — which raises an obvious question about what the church actually teaches about women's appearances and worth. In this episode: the New York Times trend piece on Mormon women in reality television; Heather Gay's "trained to spin it positive" quote and what it reveals; the elevated standards myth and its origins in worthiness culture; Salt Lake City's plastic surgery density compared to Los Angeles; Utah's antidepressant, eating disorder, and anxiety statistics; the church's official non-comment and what it implies; why celebrating women monetizing their own oppression is a different story than examining why the oppression exists. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

On November 23, 1981, Rodney Lundberg placed his 11-month-old son on a table, gripped a butcher knife, and waited for God to intervene the way God intervened for Abraham. God didn't stop him.  This is not a story about one man's mental breakdown. It's a story about how an entire religious culture enabled, validated, and then returned a child killer to society in three years. The Abraham and Isaac narrative is not fringe theology — official LDS curriculum asks students what they would sacrifice if God demanded it. Doctrine and Covenants 42:48 teaches the sick shall be healed through priesthood blessings with sufficient faith, which is why four adults watched Justin Lundberg bleed for two hours and didn't call 911. The insanity plea meant no jury ever heard testimony about LDS doctrine. The psychiatrist who declared Lundberg cured after three years shared his patient's theological worldview. Lundberg's neighbor Brent Allen — who performed priesthood blessings while the child died — went on to teach Mormon youth in seminary. Full primary source documentation on Patreon. In this episode: the November 1981 stabbing of Justin Lundberg and the two hours before anyone called for help; Doctrine and Covenants 42:48 and faith healing doctrine in LDS theology; the Abraham and Isaac narrative in official church curriculum; the insanity defense and why LDS doctrine was never examined at trial; the psychiatric evaluation, the timeline, and the "cured" determination; Brent Allen's continued role in LDS youth education after the incident; why this case is a story about institutional theology, not individual mental illness. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

How does one religion consume so much of its members' time, money, mental energy, and social life? This episode answers that question systematically — and shows that every piece of it was deliberate.  The Mormon church is what sociologists call a totalizing institution. The calling system assigns — not asks — members to volunteer positions framed as divine appointment: you cannot say no to God. By 1930 the church had fully eliminated paid local clergy, shifting all teaching, administration, and maintenance to members while centralizing financial resources in Salt Lake City. The disciplinary council gives the accused no transcript, no legal representation, and no appeal outside the church; its decisions are considered divine revelation. The Correlation Program, launched in the 1960s, eliminated the Relief Society's independent magazine and centralized all curriculum under male general authorities. The ministering program tracks monthly welfare visits. Utah leads the nation in antidepressant use. Jess has been out of the church for over three decades and still catches herself asking "what's the right thing to do?" instead of "what do I want?" In this episode: the calling system — how it works, why it's framed as divine appointment, and why refusal is spiritually costly; the elimination of paid local clergy and the transfer of unpaid labor to members; the disciplinary council structure, the accused's rights, and what "inspired" decision-making means in practice; the Correlation Program's 1960s centralization and what the Relief Society lost; the ministering program as welfare visit KPI tracking; the financial model — tithing, fast offerings, and the $150 billion investment portfolio; Utah antidepressant statistics; the psychological residue of a totalized institution that follows you out the door. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

In Mormon theology, gender is eternal — it existed before birth and continues after death. Women were foreordained to be mothers. An 11-year-old boy holds more religious authority than your grandmother.  Jess and Hannah trace the theology, the history, and the real-world consequences. The motherhood doctrine intensified in the 1950s when leaders explicitly taught that mothers working outside the home was against God's plan. The 1995 Proclamation on the Family — released during same-sex marriage debates in Hawaii — codified these roles as eternal and unchangeable. The male-only priesthood is practical power, not ceremonial: only men can perform baptisms, blessings, temple ceremonies, and serve as bishops, stake presidents, or prophets. In early Mormonism, women did perform healing blessings; by 1946 the church told women to call the elders instead. The Relief Society, founded in 1842 as a semi-autonomous organization, lost its budget, its magazine, and its independence in 1971. Eternal polygamy remains current LDS doctrine — men can be sealed to multiple wives after a first wife's death; women cannot. In this episode: the eternal gender doctrine — what it means theologically and practically; the motherhood foreordination teaching and its 1950s intensification under church presidents; the 1995 Proclamation on the Family — its political context and its doctrinal weight; the male-only priesthood and what it controls at every level of church function; early LDS women's healing blessings and the 1946 ban; the Relief Society's 1971 loss of independence, budget, and magazine; the modesty culture, the Young Women's program, and the modesty blanket story; eternal polygamy as current LDS doctrine — sealings after death and what the asymmetry reveals. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

If someone in your life is Mormon — or post-Mormon — and you're not sure what that actually means, this is where to start. Golden plates, seer stones, three degrees of heaven, and the only true church on earth.  If someone in your life is Mormon or post-Mormon and you're not sure what that actually means, this is where to start. The Foundations series is built for never-Mormons who want to understand what the people they love are healing from. This first episode covers Joseph Smith's 1820 First Vision and the translation of the Book of Mormon (via a seer stone placed in a hat, not by examining the plates directly); the Book of Mormon's anachronistic contents and the DNA evidence against its central geographic claims; the Book of Abraham's debunking when the original papyri were found in the Metropolitan Museum in the 1960s; polygamy including Joseph's youngest wife Helen Mar Kimball at 14; the three-tiered heaven; the Second Anointing; and the one-true-church claim that places every other Christian denomination in 1,700 years of apostasy. In this episode: Joseph Smith's First Vision — the official account vs. the nine competing versions; the Book of Mormon translation method (seer stone in a hat) and what the church's own Gospel Topics Essays say about it; DNA evidence and the Book of Mormon's geographic claims; the Book of Abraham papyri identified as a common Egyptian funeral text; Joseph Smith's polygamy — ages, existing husbands, and the 1835 denial published while he was actively practicing it; the three degrees of glory borrowed from Emmanuel Swedenborg's 1758 Heaven and Hell; the Second Anointing and becoming gods; the one true church claim and the Great Apostasy doctrine. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

Why your Mormon coworker drinks Red Bull but won't touch coffee. Why Utah has dirty soda shops with cult followings among devout members. Why Mitt Romney's Diet Coke became a doctrinal crisis in 2012.  In 1833, Joseph Smith received a health revelation he explicitly said was "not by commandment or constraint" — while his own church stores sold coffee and tea, and while he smoked cigars and drank wine in Carthage Jail the night before his death. It became a temple worthiness requirement 70 years later under Heber J. Grant during Prohibition. The prohibition covers coffee and tea specifically, not caffeine — which is why Utah has one of the highest per-capita Diet Coke consumption rates in the country alongside one of the highest antidepressant prescription rates. BYU didn't sell caffeinated beverages until Mitt Romney was photographed with a Diet Coke in 2012 and confirmed he drank it. The dirty soda phenomenon — a large Diet Coke with cream, coconut syrup, and lime, more calories than a Big Mac, temple-worthy — is a Utah institution completely baffling to anyone outside the culture. In this episode: the 1833 Word of Wisdom revelation — its original framing as advice, not commandment; Joseph Smith's personal use of alcohol, tobacco, and coffee; how Heber J. Grant turned it into a temple worthiness requirement during Prohibition; why the prohibition is on coffee and tea specifically rather than caffeine; Utah's Diet Coke culture and the BYU caffeinated beverage ban; Mitt Romney's 2012 Diet Coke photograph and the BYU policy change that followed; the dirty soda industry — what it is, why it exists, and what it reveals about LDS health culture; the meat provisions of the Word of Wisdom and why they receive approximately zero enforcement. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

Dr. Gina Colvin's "Ordinary Mormon Trauma" — The Framework That Finally Names What Happened to You "Ordinary Mormon trauma" is not the dramatic incidents. It's the daily, invisible harm of growing up trained to be nice but not kind, obedient but not teachable, disciplined but not emotionally regulated.  Dr. Gina Colvin — former Mormon academic and host of A Thoughtful Faith — identified ordinary Mormon trauma as the everyday experience of living inside a culture that has never resolved its formative pathologies. Jess and Hannah apply her framework to their own childhoods: the contrasts that explain everything (service-oriented but not care-oriented; confident but not integrated; dependable but not safe), the theological contradiction of a church that preaches agency while eliminating it systematically, and how years of daily self-betrayal produce adults who cannot trust their own instincts. This is the episode for people who say "I had a fine Mormon childhood" and still can't figure out why they ended up in therapy. In this episode: Dr. Gina Colvin's ordinary Mormon trauma framework and the seven contrasts that define it; how LDS theology preaches agency while structurally eliminating it; the difference between service-orientation and genuine care; why decades of self-betrayal produce adults with broken instinct calibration; what it means to have had a "fine" Mormon childhood and still carry significant psychological harm. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

The LDS Church paid $350,000 to hide historical documents — and every single one was fake. Meet the returned missionary who forged Mormon history and built pipe bombs when the bills came due.Mark Hofmann spent five years selling forged documents to the highest levels of LDS leadership — the Anthon Transcript, the Salamander Letter, the Joseph Smith III Blessing — exploiting the Mormon Church's deep fear of its own history. He wasn't an outsider. He was temple worthy, mission returned, Eagle Scout. The perfect Mormon resume was his weapon. When debts caught up with him in October 1985, he built pipe bombs. Two people died. A third bomb exploded in his own car.Jess and Hannah trace how Mormon worthiness culture bypassed institutional skepticism, why the Salamander Letter was theologically plausible to leaders who knew their own folk magic history, and what the church's document-buying operation revealed about its relationship with truth.If a fake salamander letter almost unraveled a global religion, the foundation was always shakier than the testimony meeting suggested.Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem Ad-free listening: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem TikTok and Instagram: @postmormonpostmortem postmormonpostmortem.com

We're diving into Abducted in Plain Sight—the Netflix documentary.On the surface, it's a story about a child predator who kidnapped the same girl twice. But underneath? It's a devastating exposé of how religious trust, toxic niceness, and institutional denial create the perfect storm for abuse.We'll talk about grooming, the Mormon obsession with appearances, and why "He's such a good member of the Church" is the single most dangerous phrase ever uttered.

When Mormon teenagers come of age, an elderly man delivers a personal prophecy — their tribe from ancient Israel, blessings and life calling, all conditional on remaining faithful. When Mormon teenagers come of age, an elderly man places his hands on their head and delivers a personal prophecy about their eternal future. Almost everyone gets assigned to the tribe of Ephraim. Even the Korean convert. Even the Swedish immigrant. The patriarchal blessing is transcribed word for word and handed to the recipient as a lifelong personal document from God. Mormon theology teaches that tribal lineage is not metaphorical — members are literally re-lineaged at baptism. Every blessing includes a conditional clause (available if you remain faithful and endure to the end) that makes it permanently unfalsifiable: if the promised mission, marriage, or children don't materialize, the fault is never the prophecy — it's your faithfulness. Many members carry unfulfilled blessings as evidence of their own spiritual failure for decades. This episode also previews a true crime case in which a man's blessing foretold "wives, plural" — and became his justification for what followed. In this episode: who patriarchal blessings are, who delivers them, and what they contain; the tribe of Israel assignment and the LDS theology of literal blood lineage; the unfalsifiability clause and how it functions psychologically; what happens when the promises don't materialize; the emotional weight of carrying an unfulfilled patriarchal blessing into adulthood; Hannah's blessing, Jess's blessing, and what each of them was promised; the true crime case in which "wives, plural" became a justification — and why that episode comes next. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

Hundreds of thousands of young Mormons leave home for up to two years to knock on strangers' doors. Never alone. Can't call home most days. Sixteen-hour days. Hundreds of thousands of young Mormons leave home for up to two years to knock on strangers' doors, never alone, rarely able to call home, working sixteen-hour days in whatever city headquarters assigns them. The companion system pairs missionaries together and prohibits separation under any circumstances — framed as spiritual protection, it means you grieve in front of someone, process everything with a partner present, and have no privacy regardless of compatibility. Going home early carries significant shame and is treated as spiritual failure. Jess was on the other side of a Dear John letter — she simply stopped writing to Josh, thousands of miles away with no way to process the loss, and she reflects on it with genuine remorse. The "flirt to convert" strategy is documented in missionary letters. And the case of Elder James Christensen demonstrates what the companion system looks like when its structural vulnerabilities become catastrophic. In this episode: the mission call process — how assignments are made and what choice missionaries have; the companion system — its rules, its spiritual framing, and its structural vulnerabilities; why going home early is treated as spiritual failure; the demographics of LDS missionary service and how they've shifted; the "flirt to convert" strategy and its presence in missionary culture; Dear John letters and the emotional processing problem of the companion system; the Elder James Christensen case as the companion system's worst-case outcome; what missionaries are and are not allowed to do, watch, read, or discuss. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

Every religion has official doctrine and folk religion. Mormon folklore is particularly rich — and understanding it explains a great deal about the culture that official manuals never will.  Jess and Hannah cover the major examples: the Three Nephites, three immortal disciples who wander the earth rescuing stranded motorists and then vanishing without a trace — no official church verification, but constant cultural presence; Cain as Bigfoot, originating in an 1835 account by David W. Patten of a very tall hairy man who identified himself as the biblical fratricide condemned to walk the earth; temple garment miracles, in which the sacred underwear deflects bullets and prevents burns exactly where it covered skin; and Fast and Testimony Meeting as the primary cultural distribution channel for all of the above. The thin line between folklore and doctrine: many stories circulating now as unofficial legend were taught as authoritative truth by earlier leaders — blood atonement, the curse of dark skin, racial pre-mortal theories. The folklore preserves the ideological DNA of teachings the church no longer wants to claim officially. In this episode: the Three Nephites — the theological basis, the most common story types, and why the church doesn't confirm or deny specific accounts; Cain as Bigfoot — David W. Patten's 1835 account and its persistence in LDS culture; temple garment miracle stories and the theology behind them; Fast and Testimony Meeting as folklore transmission infrastructure; the difference between what is canonized and what is culturally enforced; blood atonement, the curse of dark skin, and racial pre-mortal theories as examples of doctrine that migrated to folklore after becoming embarrassing; why folklore is the place to understand what a religion actually believes. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

Your worthiness to enter God's house is determined by a volunteer with zero professional training asking you detailed personal questions in a private room. He might be your dentist. He has a handbook. The Mormon bishop interview system assesses members on sexual purity, tithing compliance, testimony, and sustaining church leaders — but in practice, questions about masturbation and pornography use are common, because Mormon theology frames sexual sin as second in severity only to murder. Hannah had to confess to her bishop for dry humping at age 13. Spencer W. Kimball's The Miracle of Forgiveness — which taught that masturbation could lead to homosexuality and that assault victims who didn't fight back bore some responsibility — served as the de facto bishop's manual for decades. Sam Young collected thousands of survivor testimonies, gathered 55,000 petition signatures, and went on a 23-day hunger strike to end one-on-one interviews with minors. The church excommunicated him, made policy changes, and framed them as inspired leadership. The worthiness paradox: Hannah's mother would answer yes to every recommend question honestly — and then no to the final one. In this episode: the structure and questions of a Mormon bishop worthiness interview; the theological basis for sexual sin ranking second to murder in LDS doctrine; Spencer W. Kimball's The Miracle of Forgiveness — its teachings, its reach, and its official status; the history of sexually explicit questions in bishop interviews with minors; Sam Young's Protect LDS Children campaign — the petition, the hunger strike, and the excommunication; the policy changes the church made and how they were framed; the worthiness paradox and what it means to fail a question you've never been able to honestly pass. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

Your Mormon friends disappear inside for hours doing ceremonies they can't describe to you. Non-members can't attend their own children's weddings. There's special underwear involved. This explains all of it. Your Mormon friends disappear inside the temple for hours doing ceremonies they cannot describe to you. Non-members — including parents — cannot attend their own children's temple weddings. And yes, there's special underwear. This episode explains all of it. Jess and Hannah walk through the two-stage worthiness interview required for a temple recommend; the washing and anointing ritual (which involved physical contact with temple workers until 2005, when internet exposure made the optics impossible to manage); the endowment ceremony including the secret name given to women and the covenants to give everything to the church if required; the handshakes called tokens; the sealing ceremony that excludes non-member family; and baptism for the dead, which has been performed for Holocaust victims without consent. In this episode: the temple recommend interview — two stages, the questions asked, and who asks them; the washing and anointing ceremony and the 2005 policy change; the endowment — secret names, tokens, penalties (pre-1990), and the covenant to consecrate everything to the church; why the woman's secret name is given to her husband but his is not given to her; the sealing ceremony and what it means for families with non-member parents; baptism for the dead — the theology, the practice, and the Holocaust victim controversy; the celestial room; why non-members can't attend weddings in countries where civil and religious ceremonies must be separate — and how the church handled that differently before 1999. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.