Stories

John Dehlin's original presentation, recorded before the survey. The talk that became this project.

Studying the historyOffended, lazy, or wanting to sin

The survey findings, presented against the five explanations believing members most often give.

Offended, lazy, or wanting to sin

The author of the standard biography of Joseph Smith, and a believing member, on which of the difficult claims are simply true.

Studying the historyJoseph Smith

How the Church came to publish its own account of the hardest questions, and why so few members know the essays exist.

Studying the history

The University of Chicago Egyptologist reads the papyri Joseph Smith translated, line by line.

The Book of Abraham

The anthropologist whose 2002 DNA paper nearly cost him his membership, on what the genetics show.

The Book of MormonScience and the Church

A careful walk through each account of the First Vision and what changed between them.

Joseph Smith

The poet and lifelong member on the doctrine that still shapes sealing policy and what it does to women.

Polygamy and polyandryWomen

Recorded within weeks of the Church's 2014 essays confirming Joseph Smith's plural and polyandrous marriages.

Polygamy and polyandry

A historian traces the priesthood ban from Brigham Young to the 2013 essay.

Race and the priesthood

One of the first Mormon Stories episodes. McKay's biographer on a prophet who wanted to lift the ban and did not.

Race and the priesthoodThe leaders

Side by side, what the endowment borrowed from the lodge and how it has changed since.

The temple and Freemasonry

Recorded days before the founder of Ordain Women was excommunicated for asking that women be ordained.

WomenThe leaders

The women who built the first large online community for Mormon feminists, on what changed and what did not.

Women

The policy that barred children of gay parents from baptism, the resignations it caused, and its reversal three and a half years later.

LGBTQ members

What the Church's counsel to gay members looked like from inside it.

LGBTQ members

A securities lawyer explains the SEC's order against the Church and Ensign Peak Advisors.

Money

The historian's last book, on how the Church's finances work and how they came to be secret.

MoneyThe leaders

A former bishop's campaign against one-on-one sexual worthiness interviews of children, and his excommunication.

Abuse and how it was handledThe leaders

How the Church's help line for bishops works, from a lawyer who has sued over it.

Abuse and how it was handled

A sitting bishop's shelf breaks. What he learned, whom he told, and what it cost.

The leadersStudying the history

A recent, ordinary, and representative account of the whole arc.

Studying the historyThe culture

A faith crisis explained to an audience that had never heard of one.

Not being fedGod, Jesus, and spiritual experience

For the 44% who kept attending. Why they stay, and how.

Not being fed

The single most requested topic in the survey's written comments.

The culture

The lawyer who has processed hundreds of thousands of formal resignations, on why people take that step.

The leaders