Sunstone Firesides Podcast

Sunstone Firesides Podcast

In 1935, Lowell L. Bennion, at the University of Utah’s LDS Institute of Religion introduced “fireside chats” as inspirational talks for students. Featuring a weekly evening podcast, join a range of incredible hosts as they chat with diverse guests from across the Mormon spectrum.

Episodes

Episode 4: An Inside Look at the Foster Care System

July 25, 2025 • 58 mins
Trigger Warning: This episode contains descriptions of abuse and severe neglect. The foster care system is something we might hear a lot about, but seldom understand the details. In this episode, Malia interviews Ashley, a CPS worker, and Belinda, a woman who was raised in the foster care system to offer an inside look at …
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Episode 25: Making Room: A Conversation with Cristina Cole

July 25, 2025 • 71 mins
Blaire Ostler gets to know Cristina Cole, one of the co-hosts of the Sunstone Firesides Podcast. She’s a single mother and health care worker who calls herself “brown and bi-sexual”—giving her a unique perspective on LDS Church culture. Listen to this episode here.
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Episode 16: Mayoring While Female: A Conversation with Donia Jessop

July 25, 2025 • 42 mins
Donia Jessop is the first woman—and first non-FLDS person—to be elected mayor in Hildale, Utah. Shirlee Draper interviews Jessop about her campaign and about the difficulties and successes of her time in office. Listen to this episode here.
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Episode 31: From Asylum Seeker to Soldier to Advocate: A Conversation with Marta Vázquez

July 25, 2025 • 61 mins
Marta Vázquez came to the United States from Honduras at 17 years old, pregnant and with a small daughter in tow. Her goal was to join the U.S. Army. Now she is an advocate for asylum seekers in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Vázquez talks with Sara Bybee Fisk about her fascinating life. Listen to this …
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Episode 6: A Look at the Legal and Social Aspect of Polygamy

July 25, 2025 • 55 mins
Join Shirlee as she interviews Vicki Darger, a fundamentalist Mormon and practicing polygamist. In this interview, Shirlee and Vicki offer an inside look at the legal and social implications of living the practice and how these implications affect fundamentalist communities.   Listen to this episode here.
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Episode 18: Indigenous and Mormon

July 25, 2025 • 61 mins
Roni Jo Draper has made it her mission to train BYU education students in the art of welcoming and supporting queer students in their classrooms. Blaire Ostler and Roni Jo talk about how she journeyed from the edge of a reservation to the LDS Church, then to a Ph.D., and finally to a BYU professorship. …
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Episode 33: LDS Theology and the Transgender Experience: A Conversation with Kelli Potter

July 25, 2025 • 62 mins
The latest LDS Handbook update about transgender members shows promise for the future but also has some theological and scientific problems. Blair Ostler talks with philosophy professor Kelli Potter about the complexities of gender and how it can affect LDS theology and practice. Listen to this episode here. 
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Episode 5: Jana Riess on Millenial (Former) Mormons

July 25, 2025 • 40 mins
In this episode, Cristina interviews Jana Riess, author of Millenial Mormons: How Millennials are changing the LDS Church. Jana discusses some of the particularities of Millenials who leave the LDS Church and how this generation is different than the ones that came before. Listen to this episode here. 
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Episode 21: Standing as a Witness: An Analysis of the Leadership Session of the October 2019 General Conference

July 25, 2025 • 86 mins
A lot happened during the leadership session of general conference, from changes in who can be an official witness for a baptism to an official interpretation of the word “gender” in church policies. Blaire Ostler and her husband Drew Ostler analyze the session talk by talk. Listen to this episode here.
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Episode 14: Lifting Up the Hands that Hang Down: A Conversation with Kathy Carlston

July 25, 2025 • 48 mins
A Columbine shooting survivor, Kathy Carlston is a self-identified queer woman who was raised within Mormonism and became married to her wife Berta Marquez. In this podcast she discusses candidly and with raw honesty her battles with conversion therapy, depression, her own suicidality, and the death by suicide of her beautiful wife ‘Bear’. Kathy shares …
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Episode 27: Mormonism, Nietzsche, and the Ostlers

July 25, 2025 • 77 mins
Two hundred years before John Fowler’s Stages of Faith, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had already come up with a few stages his own. And the best part is, he represented them with animals! Join Blair Ostler and Drew Ostler as they talk about why you might be a camel, a lion, or a child. Listen …
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Episode 9: A Trans-Masculine/Asexual Mormon Experience

July 25, 2025 • 60 mins
Trigger Warning: This episode contains reference to self harm and suicidal ideation. In this episode, Blaire Ostler interviews Kris Irvin, a trans-masculine, asexual Mormon about their experience in the Church, coming out, and living their life in a heterosexual marriage. Listen to this episode here.
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Episode 15: The Last Manti Pageant

July 25, 2025 • 75 mins
Join Firesides host Blaire Ostler as she and her husband Drew recount their experiences attending the last run of the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti, Utah. They discuss an overview of the experience, the doctrinal and cultural implications, and the history of the pageant itself. Listen to this episode here. Links mentioned in this episode: …
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Episode 22: Saundra Merth: Community of Christ LGBTQ Activist

July 25, 2025 • 78 mins
Hosted by Kimberly Anderson, this episode features Saundra Merth giving a personal perspective on the growth of the LGBTQ community in the Community of Christ and how they eventually gained the priesthood. Listen to this episode here.
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Episode 24: Spirituality after the Checklist: A Conversation with Mette Ivie Harrison

July 25, 2025 • 64 mins
She loves Mormonism, but doesn’t believe in the LDS Church—just one of the surprising things about author Mette Ivie Harrison. Kimberly Anderson and Harrison talk about writing, grieving, and spiritual growth. Listen to this episode here.
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Episode 12: Mystic Mormon Women

July 25, 2025 • 79 mins
Firesides host Kalani Tonga interviews three mystic Mormon women about their current spiritual practices including tarot, Lotería and Kabbalah. Jennifer Gonzalez, Sara Katherine Staheli Hanks, and Kimberly Lewis each discuss their mystical practices and how it intersects with their collective Mormon upbringings. Listen to this episode here.
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Episode 13: Mixed-Orientation Marriages

July 25, 2025 • 78 mins
Gay individuals who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and who wish to remain in good standing have two options as it relates to romance and marriage. Pursuing a same-sex relationship is considered a grievous sin and is contrary to as-of-yet revealed doctrine. Celibacy during this life is one option. …
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Episode 23: Grateful but Gone: A Conversation with Wendall Hair

July 25, 2025 • 82 mins
Wendall Hair converted to the LDS Church while living in North Carolina and served a mission in St. George, Utah, where he returned almost immediately to continue life as a Mormon. But being African-American and gay led to challenges in Wendall’s faith in Church leadership. Kimberly Anderson talks with Wendall about the Mormons who helped …
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Episode 30: Race and Divorce in the LDS Church: A Conversation with Laura Ruiz

July 25, 2025 • 50 mins
The stresses of race, patriarchy, politics, and sexual shame all contributed to the collapse of Laura Ruiz’s marriage. Cristina Gonzalez Cole talks with Ruiz about her journey. Listen to this episode here. 
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Episode 17: An Introduction to Flourish Counseling Services

July 25, 2025 • 70 mins
Flourish Counseling Services is a pioneer in providing therapy especially tailored to the LGBTQ community in Utah. Though it has never been an easy road, it has always been a rewarding one. Blaire Ostler talks with Lisa Hansen and Laura Skaggs Dulin about their experiences. Listen to this episode here.
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