At Last She Said It

Dr. Jana Riess of Religion News Service published an article recently asking, "Why are young women leaving Mormonism?" It's a great question, and one we could ask about every age group of Latter-day Saint women. Some answers seem very obvious; some may be harder to pin down. So how many women are actually leaving, and might institutional and/or cultural changes reverse the trend? In Episode 272, Jana joins Cynthia and Susan for a conversation about women and church, touching on 3 potential "P" (problem) areas: politics, purity culture, and powerlessness.

Do Latter-day Saints believe our own stuff about faith? How does it differ from all the other words we sometimes get it tangled up with? What role is it meant to play in our lives and discipleship? Where and how might it intersect with love? In Episode 271, Susan and Cynthia are back for ALSSI Season 12 with a conversation exploring one of the biggest ideas in Christianity: Faith.

What do women do with Christianity? While some experiences may be specific to Latter-day Saints, when we talk to women in other churches we find a surprisingly big overlap: our sisters from other denominations describe so many common themes and similar challenges in their institutional religious experiences and personal spiritual lives. In Episode 270, Cynthia and Susan welcome Dr. Carmen Acevedo Butcher, Dean of Core Faculty at the Center for Action and Contemplation, for a conversation about women and Christianity. Don't let the "bonus" in the title fool you—this one's a don't miss!

One of the hallmarks of a Big Idea is that there's always more to say about it! In bonus Episode 269, Cynthia and Susan have conversations with 3 women from the ALSSI community—Lisa, Brooke, and Michelle—exploring a few ideas they had in response to Season 11 topics.

One of the hallmarks of a big idea is that it's connected to so many others. In Episode 268, Susan and Cynthia revisit the Big Idea episodes that formed the theme of ALSSI Season 11. After discussing these topics, If there's one thing we're sure of it's that we only scratched the surface.