For more than 45 years, Sunstone has been exploring Mormonism in all its expressions through our publications and symposiums. The Sunstone Podcast gathers the best of these explorations, including compelling sessions from our worldwide symposiums as well as interviews, book reviews, and deep dives into all things Mormon. Hosted by Stephen Carter.
Listen to the Sunstone Podcast on iTunes or Spotify, or view and stream any of the episodes from this podcast on the Sunstone website.
E127: The Polygamy Explosion in Early Utah
During early Utah’s “Mormon Reformation,” LDS leaders whipped the Saints into a religious fervor. Along with this reformation came an unprecedented spate of polygamous marriages. Scholar John G. Turner tells …
Read MoreE126: Will You Have a Personality in Heaven?
Will the personality we develop in mortal life have any kind of staying power in the post-mortal life? Stephen Carter uses the television series “Severance” to explore the possibilities.
Read MoreE125: A Native View of Pioneer Day.
Who was living in Salt Lake Valley when the Mormon pioneers arrived? What relationships existed between the Mormons and the Natives during Utah’s settlement? Forrest Cuch talks about the role …
Read MoreE124: Post-Mormonism and the Witchy Worldview.
In this episode, Zina Bennion and Sara Hanks talk about their journeys from being Mormons to being witches, and how their upbringing still affects the way they practice and believe …
Read MoreE123: Why Latter-day Saints Should Embrace “Under the Banner of Heaven”.
It would probably surprise both the prophet Mormon and Dustin Lance Black to know how much they have in common. In this episode, Stephen Carter shows how the similarities …
Read MoreE122: Bug or Feature? Historical Inaccuracies in Under the Banner of Heaven.
How important is the “historical” in historical fiction? Three historians, Barbara Jones Brown, Bryan Buchanan, and Cheryl Bruno, talk with Stephen Carter about the historical inaccuracies in Under the Banner …
Read MoreE121: Mormon Fundamentalists Talk about Under the Banner of Heaven.
Mormon fundamentalism plays a shadowy, menacing part in Under the Banner of Heaven. This episode gathers Vicki Darger, Benjamin Shaffer, Shirlee Draper, and Moroni Lopez Jessop, all either current or …
Read MoreE120: Under the Banner of Heaven with Actors Tyner Rushing and Scott Michael Campbell
Lindsay Hansen Park interviews two actors who took on iconic Mormon roles for “Under the Banner of Heaven”: Tyner Rushing as Emma Hale Smith, and Scott Michael Campbell as Brigham …
Read MoreE119: An Ex-Mormon Temple Worker Tours the Washington DC Temple
Stephen Carter and his ex-Mormon brother walked into the Washington DC Temple open house, and what they saw on the walls changed the way they perceive the LDS Church forever. …
Read MoreE118: The LDS Proselytizing Mission as Hazing.
In this episode, S. Richard Bellrock argues that the LDS proselytizing mission hits all the right buttons at all the right times to be a bona fide instance of hazing, …
Read MoreAbout the Host
Stephen Carter stumbled into the Mormon Studies community in 1998 when he became Eugene England's administrative assistant at Utah Valley University, helping him establish the world's first Mormon Studies program. After earning an MFA in creative writing and a Ph.D. in narrative studies, Stephen joined Sunstone as its director of publications in 2008. Since then, he has had a front-row seat to everything from Proposition 8 to the Ordain Women movement to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign to the effects of COVID-19 on the the LDS Church. From all this, Stephen has found that Mormonism is most interesting where its tensions are greatest.
Stephen's tension-marked life in Mormonism can be encapsulated in two experiences. The first was when he was fired from being an early-morning seminary teacher for "raising more questions than he answered," but on his last day, receiving a letter from a student saying that her time in his classes had reactivated her interest in the Church. The second was the year he spent attending a Unitarian Universalist congregation on Sunday mornings before rushing back to his ward to fulfill his calling as Sunday school president. (He still attends both congregations.)