Unleashing Sister Saints

Last week on this podcast I talked about what Elder Renlund said about the Church needing to do better for women, and I argued for a policy change and for all of us to believe women, particularly when bad things have or are happening. I also mentioned some research, so I want to focus this episode on telling you about this research. I published pieces of this in a Forbes article in February this y...

In March of 2025, an article in the Salt Lake Tribunesaid this: Speaking at a women’s conference this month in Arcadia, California, apostle Dale Renlund tackled head-on a question about the church’s lack of gender equality and representation. He observed that church leaders "haven't done as good a job as I think we can" to address existing imbalances "within the bounds that God...

In this special episode, I'm joined by Dr. Jenet Jacob Erickson who is a fellow of the Wheatley Institute and a professor in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University. She is also a faculty member in the Department of Church History and Doctrine too. She and I discuss some new research on women’s wellbeing. It explored marital status and how itimpacts happiness, enjoyment, belongin...

In the last episode, I shared a chunk of what I taught to YSAs in my breakout session recently at the 2025 Regional YSA Conference. I was so inspired by these young people and optimist for the future. In this episode I want to finish sharing some of the concepts I taught in my workshop titled “Becoming a Leader.” Thanks for listening in!

Recently, I did breakout session for the Regional YSA Conference at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. I enjoyed teaching them about "Becoming a Leader: Developing and Unleashing Your Potential". This this episode, I share my thoughts about our rising generation as I felt their positive influence, and I also share some of that I taught them about becoming leaders. I hope you find this 15...

This 10-minute episode welcomes you to the 4th season of Unleashing Sister Saints by highlighting its' purpose, audience, and why I chose the title I did for this podcast. Also, I reflect on keeping our hearts soft and the impact of a hymn we sang in Church titled "I Stand All Amazed." It is a little bit of this and that, which I hope you appreciate!

Welcome back to my next season of Unleashing Sister Saints. I'm starting out this season with a special episode titled "Healing After Sexual Abuse: A Latter-Day Saint Perspective," which is the title of a new book released by Deseret Book. I interviewed the two authors of this book for this episode: Shirley Washenko and Sage Williams. This episode has such profound insights we need t...

This is the last in a 5-part series I've been doing on unconscious bias. These are made up of episodes 121, 122, 123, 124, and 125. I wanted to share some of the content of my in-person/Zoom three-hour unconscious bias workshop. In Episode 121, I provided an introduction, and in 122, I did most of the background section, in 123 I finished the background and then talked about unconscious bias p...

If you are just joining and haven’t listened to Episodes 121, 122, and 123, I’d recommend listening to those first, as I’m in the middle of sharing the content of my unconscious bias workshop. The face to face or Zoom versions are very interactive and are 3 hours, but I’m condensing it, but still wanted to share it. In Episode 121, I provided an introduction, and in 122, I did most of the backgrou...

If you are just joining and haven’t listened to Episodes 121 and 122, I’d recommend listening to those first, as I’m in the middle of sharing the content of my unconscious bias workshop. It is 3 hours when I do it in person or on Zoom, but I’m condensing it for this podcast. In Episode 121, I provided an introduction, and in 122, I did most of the background section. In this episode I finish that...

This is the second in a series I'm doing that is part of a training I do on understanding unconscious biases. Episode 121 was the first in a series and this is Episode 122. This is information on understanding ourselves and our own biases and is 100% aligned with becoming a human being and becoming less judgmental. 121 provided an introduction and now 122 provides some background information,...

For a long while, I’ve been thinking that I should provide you as listeners some of my unconscious bias workshop in chunks because I think it is more important than ever before. I’ve taught this for years, and before that I worked on my deeper understanding of myself and actually how to teach it is a way that could be effective. I’m a better person for digging deep into how unconscious bias works...

I just finished reading a report that came out a few months ago titled “The Connection Opportunity: Insights forBringing Americans Together Across Difference” by a group called “More in Common.” I had such interesting insights come to me from reading it, and I wanted to read sections of the introduction and the key findings as I think this are important to understand. Humans are wired to connect....

In this 119th episode of Unleashing Sister Saints, I want to share some of my thoughts as I listened to President Camille Johnson’s talk during one of the sessions of the April 2025 General Conference. Her talk was titled “Spiritually Whole in Him.” She said, “Wholeness does not necessarily mean physical and emotional restoration in this life. Wholeness is born of faith in and conversion to Jesus...

As most of you who have been listening to this podcast for a while already know, in 2023, my team and I launched A Bolder Way Forward as an initiative within the Utah Women & Leadership Project. The mission of a BWF is to ensure that more girls, women, and their families thrive. In this episode I do a quick overview of BWF and then provide a few updates and insights on where we are at and some...

As you know if you have glanced at with the title, I love the new book titled “Changemakers: Women Who Boldly Built Zion.” This is new from Signature Books and was written by my friends McArthur Krishna and Anne Pimentel – Illustrated by Jessica Sarah Beach. I’ve had McArthur as a guest a few times on this podcast a year or so ago. In this episode, I want to talk about what I love about this book...

I recorded this episode the week after International Women's Day, and I had done 9 speeches in one week. In many of them, I brought up the topic of status quo and power. The topic and wrestle with "power" was on my mind, so I decided to do an episode focused on power and even the types of power there are. I end of course with the need for us as women to embrace the power we have, and...

In this podcast episode I am very candid about some of my frustrations particularly the last few weeks but then shift and focus on the confirmations from the Spirit that came to me during General Conference last weekend. I choose to believe! I hope you appreciate my journey.

Last month, ago, an article was published on the Exponent II by Linda Hamilton titled “Mormon Microfeminisms”. I smiled while reading it and wanted to share some of the content. The Exponent does use the word “feminism” in their subtitle for their forum: Exponent II is “A feminist forum for women and gender minorities across the Mormon spectrum.” I share some of my experiences as well. If you have...

In the last few episodes, I’ve shared thoughts from sisters who have been listening to this podcast. In this episode I continue sharing women's thoughts and stories. Storytelling "is our religious heritage and essential to our future of bringing others unto Christ." One woman responded to a question about how women in the church can accomplish what President Kimbal stated about women...

In this episode of Unleashing Sister Saints, I share some additional thoughts from others who have been listening to the podcast for the past year or two. Each brings out important elements that I would like to emphasis. The first is one woman's thoughts and struggle with the patriarchy. The second woman made some comments about an older episode about patriarchy and presiding and she had learn...

A few weeks ago, on an episode of Unleashing Sister Saints, I read an editorial I wrote for the Salt Lake Tribune on the illusion of choice. Basically, by the time a young woman reaches 18, her choices are often the culmination of years of social conditioning with strong messages given to her that she should do certain things – then we blame women for their choices. I received a powerful email fro...

In this podcast episode, I come back to the topic of sexism. I used to avoid using the word “sexism” because it made people uncomfortable, including me, a women’s leadership scholar. But as I began digging deeper into the research, my perspective changed. Now I use the word often because I realized that most people don’t understand the term and how it plays out in families, communities, and workpl...

In this episode, I talk about the importance of seeing and serving differences. I refer lightly to things going on in my own state and in my own country related to public policies and actions that are happening related to removing safe spaces for women (and others) in the vein of quote “stoppingdiscrimination.” The research that has shown for decades that when you truly see differences and design...

Recently I wrote and published an editorial in The Salt Lake Tribune called “ In Utah, a woman’s choice can often be an illusion .” I read and comment on this piece during this episode. So much of this relates to how we are socialized more generally, and particularly in the Church. I believe you'll appreciate what I'm trying to teach here. Of course, I would also appreciate hearing from yo...