Historian, author of The Fourth Wife, and grad student Linda Hamilton joins Juliet for a deep dive into Mormon polygamy: how it actually worked, who it actually harmed, and why it's still baked into LDS theology today.

They cover the poverty most plural wives lived in, the myth that polygamy was created to protect widows, the chaos of Nauvoo and Winter Quarters (including Joseph Smith's sealings to already-married women), the rise of Joseph Smith polygamy-denialism online, and why Linda can't get through the Doctrine and Covenants in Sunday School anymore.

Linda's debut novel, The Fourth Wife, is out now. Her next book, The Glass Looker, about seer woman Sally Chase, releases for pre-order soon.

Purchase The Fourth Wife here: https://a.co/d/01B5gEE5Find Linda: https://www.instagram.com/lindahamiltonwriter

Exponent II blog: https://exponentii.org/blog-home/#

Substack: https://lindahamiltonwriter.substack.com/

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Two Converts, Two Paths: Temple Experiences, Polygamy, and Finding Your Place as an Outsider

Mitch and Ashton are out this week, so Stevie takes the host chair alongside guest Juliet for a rare two-convert conversation.

Both joined the Church as teenagers (Stevie at 19, Juliet at 16), and both have since gone through a faith crisis, landing in very different places: Stevie is still active and reconstructing her faith, Juliet has stepped away and now identifies as deconstructing/disaffiliated.

They dig into audience-submitted questions covering:

• Why they joined despite real concerns about prophets, Joseph Smith, and family pushback
• Their first time inside a temple: the culture shock, the "unremarkable" vs. "overwhelming" range of first impressions, and Juliet's "sandbox on a beach" metaphor for how her spiritual experiences have been recontextualized rather than erased
• Serving as temple workers, including baptistry and sealing-room escort duties, and the practical advice they both got to space out receiving an endowment from getting sealed
• Polygamy: how each of them made sense of it as converts, and why treating polygamist women (past and present) as simply brainwashed misses their own agency and reasoning
• Whether converts ever feel like they've "made it," and how never quite fitting the mold shaped both of their trajectories

A candid, generous conversation between two women who joined the same church from very different directions and still found a lot of common ground.

Stevie's first interview on LDBB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWRFkwwQw7U&t=274s

Stevie's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/s.t.e.v.i.e_j/

🌐 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

Abi Finny (@abi.finny) joins Juliet, Ashton, and Mitch to talk about the viral "temple to Taco Bell" video that got her labeled too crass by some and celebrated by others; and why a married Latter-day Saint talking openly about sex still makes people uncomfortable. As a nurse, Abi breaks down why comprehensive sex ed and body literacy matter regardless of your relationship status, and gets into purity culture, the pressure to be pretty but not know it, self-love vs. conceit, and the "check-mark" version of faithfulness (mission, temple marriage, etc.) that can leave you feeling disconnected from God anyway. She also talks about her "car conversations" series interviewing people across the belief spectrum, and why she'd rather build mutual respect than "flirt to convert."

Follow Abi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abi.finny🌐 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

What do Latter-day Saints and Evangelicals actually have in common and where do things go sideways?

In this episode, Mitch and Ashton sit down with Steven Pynakker of Mormon Book Reviews, an evangelical who has spent five years deeply immersed in the world of the Latter-day Saint Restoration. Steven shares why he considers himself pro-atheist, what he thinks drives people from Mormonism straight to atheism, and why he believes an unchallenged faith is a weak one. Ashton shares a meaningful personal experience with evangelical students at Biola University that reframed how he sees interfaith connection. And the three of them dig into the surprisingly wide and messy world of Restoration sects, from the Bickertonites to the Fundamentalists, and what it means to build bridges not just between faiths, but within the Restoration itself.

Steven's email: mormonbookreviews@gmail.com

🌐 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

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Madi Davis (Sisters on the Front Lines) joins Mitch, Juliet, and Ashton to talk about something the church rarely acknowledges: women and pornography use.

Madi shares how she found pornography at 13 while sitting through Young Women's lessons insisting girls didn't struggle with it and how that silence shaped years of shame.

The conversation moves through the "addiction" label and why Madi pushes back on it, the difference between guilt and shame, why abstinence-based accountability models often backfire, and the messaging both men and women got growing up about whose "problem" this even was.

Ashton and Juliet share their own experiences with 12-step programs, purity culture, and the disconnect between how bodies are talked about at church versus in real life.

Find Madi at sistersonthefrontlines.com or https://www.instagram.com/sistersonthefrontlines

🌐 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

What happens when you study Mormon history without an agenda? Dr. Benjamin Park — historian, author of American Zion and Kingdom of Nauvoo, and former Mormon History Association president — joins Mitch, Juliet, and Ashton to talk about what it means to approach faith history honestly.We get into why history is rarely the reason people leave the church (but often the permission), whether the church intentionally hid its past, what "hermeneutics of generosity" actually means, and how figures like Thomas Jefferson and Brigham Young force us to wrestle with judging historical figures on their own terms, or not.Whether you're in, out, or somewhere in between, this one's for anyone who's ever felt like the history didn't quite match the story they were told.🔗 Find Ben's work at BenjaminEPark.com YouTube: @BenjaminParkHistorian🌐 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

"Doubt Your Doubts." Is It Actually Good Advice?

In this episode of Latter Day Bridge Builders, Mitch, Juliet, and Ashton dig into one of the most well-known phrases in LDS faith crisis conversations: "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." A line from Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf's October 2013 General Conference talk, Come, Join With Us.

Is the advice itself bad? Or is it the way it gets deployed that's the problem? The three co-hosts explore the difference between a phrase that invites reflection and one that shuts conversation down entirely, as well as share personal stories about how this cliché landed (or didn't) in their own lives.

Topics covered:

- The full context of Uchtdorf's original quote and what he actually meant

- How "doubt your doubts" can function as a thought-stopping technique

- Juliet's experience teaching seminary under the instruction to "never plant doubt"

- Ashton's take on how doubting his faith actually strengthened it over time

- Why "doubt your concerns" and "doubt your legitimate questions" don't hit the same

- Mitch's wish for more spaces (inside and outside the church) where people can genuinely wrestle with hard questions

Referenced in this episode:

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Come, Join With Us (October 2013 General Conference): https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2013/10/come-join-with-us?lang=eng

Kelsey Sorensen, "Doubt Your Doubts: Is It Actually Good Advice for LDS Members?" — Exponent II: https://exponentii.org/blog/doubt-your-doubts-is-it-actually-good-advice-for-lds-members/

🌐 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

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What does it look like to stop believing in the Church but still show up every Sunday? In this episode, we sit down with Colton Scott. A born-and-raised Utah Mormon, returned missionary (Scotland & Ireland), and BYU grad who describes himself as a product of "the Utah factory." Colton shares the story of how his sister's faith transition in 2023 sent him down a rabbit hole of investigation that ultimately broke his shelf, and how he's navigated life as a PIMO (Physically In, Mentally Out) ever since.

In this episode, we discuss:

- Colton's background: mission, LDS Business College, BYU, and growing up in a deeply devout family

- How his sister's faith transition triggered his own investigation (CES Letter, LDS Discussions, and more)

- The things that had been on his shelf for years: the Book of Mormon, the SEC's $5M penalty against the Church, Brigham Young, and LGBTQ issues

- What it was like to tell his bishopric (in two different wards) that he no longer believes, and why both experiences went better than expected

- The tension of being PIMO: staying for community, family, and the 80% he still agrees with

- Baptizing his son while no longer believing, and the harder questions ahead (temple recommends, weddings, priesthood circles)

- Whether attending church as a non-believer means "feeding the beast" and how each person has to find their own tolerance level

- The Church's culture of "all in or all out," and whether that's changing- How Colton's moral compass and standards have stayed intact through his deconstruction

- The autonomic nervous system response to leaving behind lifelong religious habits

- Brian McLaren's four stages of faith: simplicity, complexity, perplexity, and harmony

- A discussion of Jeff Strong's book Torn and Elder Holland's circle moment

If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a review, and consider supporting the podcast financially — links are below.

You're not alone out there. 🌉

🌐 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

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