Content note: this episode discusses death in detail, including infant and perinatal loss and a reference to suicide. Listener discretion advised.

In this episode of Latter Day Bridge Builders, Mitch, Juliet, and Ashton sit down for one of their most personal conversations yet: death. What did they each believe happened after we die, back when they were fully believing? How has that changed, and did losing that belief change how they grieve?

Juliet shares the experience of caring for her mother through six weeks of home hospice, and her work in high-risk obstetrics, where she cares for grieving families after perinatal loss.

Mitch talks about his years working in healthcare, seeing death up close for the first time, and his own daughter processing her grandfather's death.

Ashton, still active in the church, brings the believer's perspective on grief, hope, and the framing that a good, long life is "graduating" rather than something to mourn.

We dig into questions like:

- Is it possible to stay connected to someone who died without believing they're literally still somewhere?

- Does something have to last forever to matter?

- If there's no afterlife, what actually remains?

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Ashton returns for a deep, personal follow-up to our episode on his unique mission call to the Family and Church History Headquarters mission in Salt Lake, a mission staffed almost entirely by young elders with anxiety, autism, bipolar disorder, and other conditions.

He opens up about the good: lifelong friendships, a moving story about scripture memorization, and discovering a long-lost aunt through Ancestry DNA. He also gets into the complicated, including the church's $60 million data deal with Ancestry.com and questions about who really benefits from missionary labor.

Ashton shares two regrets he still carries: moments where his authority as a leader shut down a companion's doubts instead of making room for them. Juliet pushes back with sharp questions throughout.

The conversation lands on a reflection from Elder Bednar: don't be a specialist, be a generalist, and what that means for building bridges across belief.

🌐 More episodes & links: https://linktr.ee/latterdaybridgebuilders📸 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/latterdaybridgebuilders 🎥 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@latterdaybridgebuilders☕ Support the podcast: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/LDSBridgebuilders👕 Merch Store:https://ldbb-shop.fourthwall.com

Andy Newman, a licensed therapist, ex-Mormon, and creator behind @andynewmanlpc joins us to role-play through real scenarios we hear constantly in the ex-Mormon and nuanced-member space: coming out to a believing spouse, dressing/behaving differently while still going to church, family members who won't stop sending conference talks, and parents scared their kid is leaving the faith.

We also get into the difference between a faith crisis, a faith transition, a faith expansion, and religious trauma — and why those aren't the same thing, even though they often get lumped together.

Work with Andy as a therapist: https://www.collectivecounselors.com/andy-newman-lpc

Follow Andy on TikTok and Instagram: https://www.tiktok.com/@deconstruction_therapy https://www.instagram.com/andynewmanlpc/

🌐 More episodes & links: https://linktr.ee/latterdaybridgebuilders📸 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/latterdaybridgebuilders 🎥 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@latterdaybridgebuilders☕ Support the podcast: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/LDSBridgebuilders

👕 Merch Store:https://ldbb-shop.fourthwall.com