Mormon Stories Podcast

Why are so many young Mormons leaving the Church? Today, we're joined by Hailey Walker to explore that question through the lens of her own Mormon story.

Hailey was raised in the Church in Alaska, where growing up Mormon looked very different from the experience many members have in Utah. As a teenager, she began asking questions about feminism, Church culture, and the role of women, but still considered herself a committed believer. Hoping to strengthen her testimony, she chose to serve a mission and was called to serve in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

What followed would fundamentally reshape her relationship with the Church. Hailey was serving her mission when COVID-19 broke out, and was sent home. She was eventually allowed to return to her mission, but was then informed that her service would be extended by an additional six months. She describes feeling trapped by the decision, unable to simply return home on her own because missionaries do not control their own housing, transportation, or finances.

Throughout the conversation, we discuss why so many young members—particularly young women—are questioning or leaving the LDS Church today. From gender roles and institutional authority to diversity, politics, and personal autonomy, Hailey offers a thoughtful perspective on why an increasing number of young people no longer feel at home in Mormonism.
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YouTube

At Mormon Stories we explore, celebrate, and challenge Mormon culture through in-depth stories told by members and former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as scholars, authors, LDS apologists, and other professionals.  

Our overall mission is to: 
1. Facilitate informed consent amongst LDS Church members, investigators, and non-members regarding Mormon history, doctrine, and theology
2. Support Mormons (and members of other high-demand religions) who are experiencing a religious faith crisis
3. Promote healing, growth and community for those who choose to leave the LDS Church or other high demand religions

🤝Help us continue to deliver quality content by becoming a donor today
⁠One-time or recurring donations⁠
⁠Patreon⁠
⁠Venmo ⁠
⁠PayPal ⁠

Our Platforms:
🌐⁠Mormon Stories Blog ⁠
🎙️⁠Patreon ⁠
✳️⁠Spotify⁠
🍎⁠Apple Podcasts⁠
🖼️⁠Instagram ⁠
📱⁠TikTok ⁠
🎮⁠Discord ⁠

Contact us:
📧 MormonStories@gmail.com
📬PO Box 171085, Salt Lake City, UT 84117

On today's episode of Mormon News, Nemo the Mormon and Meggan Hayes break down another busy week of headlines involving The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We begin with new research identifying seven trends shaping the future of the LDS Church, including changing missionary priorities, evolving member behaviors, and what the data suggests about where Mormonism may be headed.

Link:
https://religionnews.com/2026/07/16/more-about-jesus-less-about-coffee-seven-lds-church-trends-according-to-data/

Next, we examine growing questions about whether the Church's rapid temple-building pace is outstripping its ability to staff those temples, as members continue raising concerns about volunteer shortages.

Link:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wUhf29KocOs

We'll also cover new developments in the Reese Riggin case, including newly released character letters submitted to the court, one of which was written by his LDS bishop, as prosecutors presented additional allegations while arguing he should remain in custody.

Links:
https://theelectricgf.com/2026/07/08/judge-denies-bail-reduction-for-riggin-based-on-new-allegations/
https://www.tiktok.com/@krtvgreatfalls/video/7657320783747878175?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
https://floodlit.org/a/b753/

We'll also discuss allegations against an AI executive and BYU adjunct professor accused of creating deepfake images of friends and children, and what this case says about the growing risks of AI technology.

Link:
https://www.ksl.com/article/51600979/ai-chief-technology-officer-accused-of-creating-deepfakes-of-friends-and-children

We'll also examine a widely shared faith-promoting miracle story involving Briel Adams-Wheatley and discuss some of the ethical questions surrounding how stories like these are presented and used.

Link:
https://youtu.be/uZKXCiAarBs?si=vrli_sl3967u1Bcf

Finally, we wrap up with two stories out of Rexburg Idaho that say a lot about Mormon Culture.

Link:
https://x.com/RealPlantBrah/status/2073394722219942098?s=20
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19G9xk7nbM/
___________________

YouTube

At Mormon Stories we explore, celebrate, and challenge Mormon culture through in-depth stories told by members and former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as scholars, authors, LDS apologists, and other professionals.  

Our overall mission is to: 
1. Facilitate informed consent amongst LDS Church members, investigators, and non-members regarding Mormon history, doctrine, and theology
2. Support Mormons (and members of other high-demand religions) who are experiencing a religious faith crisis
3. Promote healing, growth and community for those who choose to leave the LDS Church or other high demand religions

🤝Help us continue to deliver quality content by becoming a donor today
⁠One-time or recurring donations⁠
⁠Patreon⁠
⁠Venmo ⁠
⁠PayPal ⁠

Our Platforms:
🌐⁠Mormon Stories Blog ⁠
🎙️⁠Patreon ⁠
✳️⁠Spotify⁠
🍎⁠Apple Podcasts⁠
🖼️⁠Instagram ⁠
📱⁠TikTok ⁠
🎮⁠Discord ⁠

Contact us:
📧 MormonStories@gmail.com
📬PO Box 171085, Salt Lake City, UT 84117

Welcome to LDS Discussions Part 79, where we continue our deep dive into the Book of Abraham, examining one of the most popular apologetic arguments: the claim that Joseph Smith drew on ancient traditions about Abraham rather than translating the surviving papyri.

We begin by exploring the history of the Joseph Smith Papyri and the various theroies proposed to explain the Book of Abraham, including why so many copeting models exist. From there, we focus on the “ancient traditions” theory, looking at stories about Abraham preserved in later Jewish, Christian, and Islamic writings and askign whether they actually support Joseph Smith’s text.

Along the way, we compare the timelines of the Book of Mormon and Book of Abraham translations, disucss the implications of the Church’s Gospel Topics Essay, and examine whether Joseph Smith had access to contemporary biblical commentaries such as Adam Clarke’s. We then compare the Book of Abraham’s narrative --including Abraham’s calls, the famine in Chaldea, Terah, Haran, Abraham’s age, the attempted sacrifice of Abraham, Egyptian idolatry, human sacrifice in ancient Egypt, and Abraham’s knowledge or astronomy --with the historical sources often cited by apologists.

This episode evaluates whether these ancient parallels strengthen the Book of Abraham’s authenticity --or instead demonstrate that Joseph Smith was drawing from ideas available in his own time.

As always, we examine the historical evidence, compare the primary sources, and let the documents speak for themselves.

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Show Notes
YouTube

At Mormon Stories we explore, celebrate, and challenge Mormon culture through in-depth stories told by members and former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as scholars, authors, LDS apologists, and other professionals.  

Our overall mission is to: 
1. Facilitate informed consent amongst LDS Church members, investigators, and non-members regarding Mormon history, doctrine, and theology
2. Support Mormons (and members of other high-demand religions) who are experiencing a religious faith crisis
3. Promote healing, growth and community for those who choose to leave the LDS Church or other high demand religions

🤝Help us continue to deliver quality content by becoming a donor today
⁠One-time or recurring donations⁠
⁠Patreon⁠
⁠Venmo ⁠
⁠PayPal ⁠

Our Platforms:
🌐⁠Mormon Stories Blog ⁠
🎙️⁠Patreon ⁠
✳️⁠Spotify⁠
🍎⁠Apple Podcasts⁠
🖼️⁠Instagram ⁠
📱⁠TikTok ⁠
🎮⁠Discord ⁠

Contact us:
📧 MormonStories@gmail.com
📬PO Box 171085, Salt Lake City, UT 84117

Thomas Westbrook, creator and host of Holy Koolaid, joins Mormon Stories to share his remarkable journey from growing up in an intensely fundamental Christian environment to becoming one of YouTube’s leading voices for skepticism, science, and critical thinking.

Raised by missionary parents and immersed in evangelical culture from childhood, Thomas recounts life overseas, homeschooling, Youth With A Mission (YWAM), purity culture, sexual shame, biblical literalism, and the constant pressure to evangelize. He explains how years of indoctrination shaped his worldview –and how education, science and asking difficult questions gradually unraveled it.

Thomas discusses the pivotal experiences that led him to leave Christianity, including confronting Young Earth Creationism, discovering contradictions he had never been allowed to examine, and realizing that curiosity was viewed as a threat rather than a virtue. He also reflects on the personal cost of deconstruction, including strained family relationships, fear of hell, and learning to rebuild his identity outside of religion. 

This conversation also explores: growing up as a missionary kid and “third-culture kid”, sleep paralysis and supernatural beliefs, the role of science, evolution, and critical thinking in deconstruction, why Thomas started Holy Koolaid, exposing pseudoscience, misinformation, and religious grifters, Christian nationalism and religion’s role in modern politics, building secular community through the Faithless Forum, and what curiosity, uncertainty, and intellectual honest look like after faith.

Whether you’re questioning your beliefs, interested in religious deconstruction, or simply fascinated by how people change their minds, this episode offers an honest and thoughtful look at one man’s journey from certainly to curiosity. 

If you enjoy this conversation, please LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and SHARE to help support more long-form conversations about faith, doubt, and the pursuit of truth.

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YouTube
Show Notes

At Mormon Stories we explore, celebrate, and challenge Mormon culture through in-depth stories told by members and former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as scholars, authors, LDS apologists, and other professionals.  

Our overall mission is to: 
1. Facilitate informed consent amongst LDS Church members, investigators, and non-members regarding Mormon history, doctrine, and theology
2. Support Mormons (and members of other high-demand religions) who are experiencing a religious faith crisis
3. Promote healing, growth and community for those who choose to leave the LDS Church or other high demand religions

🤝Help us continue to deliver quality content by becoming a donor today
⁠One-time or recurring donations⁠
⁠Patreon⁠
⁠Venmo ⁠
⁠PayPal ⁠

Our Platforms:
🌐⁠Mormon Stories Blog ⁠
🎙️⁠Patreon ⁠
✳️⁠Spotify⁠
🍎⁠Apple Podcasts⁠
🖼️⁠Instagram ⁠
📱⁠TikTok ⁠
🎮⁠Discord ⁠

Contact us:
📧 MormonStories@gmail.com
📬PO Box 171085, Salt Lake City, UT 84117

On today's episode of Mormon News, Nemo the Mormon and Meggan Hayes break down another busy week of headlines involving The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We begin with the Church's announcement that more than 88,500 missionaries are now serving worldwide, which leaders say is an all-time record. We'll examine whether today's LDS missionary statistics are truly comparable to previous Church records.

Links:
Deseret News: https://www.deseret.com/faith/2026/07/14/new-record-88500-missionaries-latter-day-saints-why/
2014 Statistical Report: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2015/04/statistical-report-2014
Additional Missionary Statistics: https://news-pacific.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/church-provides-additional-missionary-statistics

We'll also discuss new research on how lowering the missionary age has affected sister missionaries and their educational outcomes.

Link:
https://www.abc4.com/news/religion/sister-missionary-age-change-womens-college-success-research/

Next, we'll cover new developments involving former LDS bishop Leo Lopshire and former Cache County teacher Patrick Alan Green, including investigators' requests for additional victims to come forward.

Links:
https://floodlit.org/a/b755/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/deputies-seek-additional-victims-spartanburg-204433996.html
https://www.hjnews.com/news/local/former-elementary-teacher-arrested-in-cache-county-for-child-sex-crimes/article_5bfc4b0e-d6e5-43e1-9f95-88b7880ed3cc.html
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-duncan-a404b3b0/

We'll examine BYU's connection to Monster Energy and how attitudes toward energy drinks have changed within Latter-day Saint culture.

Show notes can be found on the Mormon Stories blog here: https://www.mormonstories.org/lds-church-claims-record-88500-missionaries/

___________________

⁠⁠⁠Show Notes⁠⁠⁠
⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠

At Mormon Stories we explore, celebrate, and challenge Mormon culture through in-depth stories told by members and former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as scholars, authors, LDS apologists, and other professionals.  

Our overall mission is to: 
1. Facilitate informed consent amongst LDS Church members, investigators, and non-members regarding Mormon history, doctrine, and theology
2. Support Mormons (and members of other high-demand religions) who are experiencing a religious faith crisis
3. Promote healing, growth and community for those who choose to leave the LDS Church or other high demand religions

🤝Help us continue to deliver quality content by becoming a donor today
⁠⁠⁠⁠One-time or recurring donations⁠⁠⁠⁠
⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠
⁠⁠⁠⁠Venmo ⁠⁠⁠⁠
⁠⁠⁠⁠PayPal ⁠⁠⁠⁠

Our Platforms:
🌐⁠⁠⁠⁠Mormon Stories Blog ⁠⁠⁠⁠
🎙️⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon ⁠⁠⁠⁠
✳️⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠
🍎⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠
🖼️⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠
📱⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok ⁠⁠⁠⁠
🎮⁠⁠⁠⁠Discord ⁠⁠⁠⁠

Contact us:
📧 MormonStories@gmail.com
📬PO Box 171085, Salt Lake City, UT 84117