Postmormon Postmortem

Jess and Hannah

Mormonism gave you a complete universe — with charts, diagrams, & a plan for everything. Leaving dismantles all of it at once. Postmormon Postmortem is hosted by Jess and Hannah, two women who left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints & didn't find nearly enough people talking honestly about what that actually takes. We cover Mormon doctrine & the damage it does, Mormon true crime, the nervous system science of religious trauma, and the messy road to recovery. Whether you're freshly out, years removed, or just trying to understand someone you love — you're in the right place.

  1. 1 day ago

    Lying for the Lord: The Documented Pattern Behind Mormon Denials

    A church president was asked a direct question about core Mormon doctrine — and answered like it didn't exist. There's a name for that pattern, and it goes back to Joseph Smith himself. Jess and Hannah trace "Lying for the Lord" from Joseph Smith's 1835 denial of polygamy to Gordon B. Hinckley's 1997 TIME interview dodging a direct doctrinal question — with the King Follett Discourse, the Lorenzo Snow couplet, and three Gospel Topics Essays (polygamy, Race and the Priesthood, First Vision accounts) laid out as the paper trail. They also cover "milk before meat" missionary training and the 1993 excommunication of historian D. Michael Quinn. The pattern repeats: deny, control the narrative, publish the essay decades later. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Wednesday.

  2. 3 days ago

    LDSforTrump and the Trademark Double Standard

    The Church sued a podcast over a logo. A group called "Latter-day Saints for Trump" used the actual Salt Lake Temple in a campaign ad and got a press release. Twice. Two election cycles. The actual First Presidency's photos on a campaign website. The actual Family Proclamation as a mission statement. No cease-and-desist, no trademark claim, no lawsuit. Meanwhile Mormon Stories — run by an excommunicated critic — gets sued in federal court over a blue light-ray logo. Neutrality is the claim. Selective enforcement is the pattern. Harsher on dissent, softer on power — every single time. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew Mormon Monday episodes, well, every Monday. :)

  3. 4 days ago

    The LDS Committee That Tracked Its Own Members

    The LDS Church denied this committee existed for years. Then it admitted the committee tracks members' speech, feeds files to bishops, and — the church says — never judges or punishes anyone itself. Jess and Hannah trace the Strengthening Church Members Committee (SCMC) from its 1985 founding to 2023: the 1992 First Presidency statement confirming it, Doctrine and Covenants 123 as its scriptural citation, Boyd K. Packer's 1993 address naming scholars, feminists, and gay members as threats, the September Six disciplinary councils, Jeffrey R. Holland's on-camera BBC interview, and Lavina Fielding Anderson's excommunication, thirty years attending her ward as a non-member, and the restoration the First Presidency blocked until after her death. The committee was built so no one at the top would ever answer for what happened at the bottom. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem Ad-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem TikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortem postmormonpostmortem.com New episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

  4. 8 Jul

    The 1911 Salt Lake Temple Photo Scandal

    In 1911, Gisbert Bossard secretly photographed the inside of the Salt Lake Temple, and Max Florence tried to sell the images back to the LDS Church. Joseph F. Smith refused to pay. Then the photos hit the front pages. This week on What Do You Know Wednesday, Hannah tells Jess the story of the Salt Lake Temple photo scandal: unauthorized temple images, attempted blackmail, a gardener with access, newspaper drama, and the church’s rush to take control of the story.

  5. 6 Jul

    Why Young Latter-day Saints Are Leaning Liberal

    Four young Latter-day Saints say their liberal politics came from their faith, not despite it — and it exposes the gap between Church neutrality and ward culture. A Salt Lake Tribune piece profiles Riley Cooper, Eric Biggart, Laine McPherson, and Jayden Weekes — four young, liberal members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — on how missions, ward welfare service, and Relief Society moments shaped their politics. Jess and Hannah break down YouGov data showing the GOP's shrinking advantage among Latter-day Saints, the Church's official political neutrality policy, and why "love thy neighbor" gets uncomfortable fast once you apply it to real immigration, health care, and LGBTQ policy. The old assumption that faith and one party are the same thing is doing more cultural work than doctrinal work. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting. SOURCES Tribune article: We asked four young Latter-day Saints why they lean liberal. Here’s what they said. Axios Study: GOP losing ground among Latter-day Saints “Political Neutrality and Participation” (2023) newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org The Church of Jesus Christ, General Handbook of Instructions, 38. Church Participation  00:00 Political Identity Among Young Latter-day Saints 04:46 The Shift in Political Leanings 09:01 Personal Stories of Young Liberal Mormons 13:42 Cultural Tensions and Family Dynamics 17:43 Moral Language and Political Identity 22:38 Conclusion and Future Implications

  6. 5 Jul

    Joseph Smith, Freemasonry, and the Temple Apron

    The apron Lucifer wears in the LDS temple ceremony isn't in Genesis — it's Masonic. Joseph Smith became a Master Mason in 1842, and seven weeks later, the endowment appeared using the same signs. Hosts Jess and Hannah trace Joseph Smith's rushed 1842 Masonic initiation under Grand Master Abraham Jonas, the pre-1990 temple penalties and their exact Masonic parallels, the Five Points of Fellowship at the veil, the Grand Hailing Sign of Distress and its link to Joseph's last words at Carthage, the Hiram Abiff legend, and the 1826 disappearance of William Morgan — whose widow later became one of Joseph's plural wives. The apron was never decoration. It's the ceremony's own lesson in spotting a borrowed credential, aimed everywhere except at the man who wrote it. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem Ad-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem TikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortem postmormonpostmortem.com New episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

  7. 1 Jul

    The Bear River Massacre and the Mormon History Behind Washakie Ward

    The Bear River Massacre is the deadliest massacre of Indigenous people by the United States military in American history, and most of us were never taught about it. This week on What Do You Know Wednesday, Jess walks Hannah through the history behind the LDS Church’s new digital resource, Native Saints: The Washakie Ward, and the much older history underneath it. On January 29, 1863, Colonel Patrick Edward Connor and roughly 200 California volunteers attacked a Northwestern Shoshone winter village near Bear River, killing somewhere between 250 and 400 Shoshone men, women, and children. Mormon settlers had moved into Cache Valley, taken land and water the Northwestern Shoshone had lived on for generations, and territorial officials called in the military when the Shoshone fought back. Ten years later, Chief Sagwitch and many surviving members of his band converted to Mormonism. They helped build the Logan Temple on land they considered sacred, paid tithing, held callings, built homes, raised families, and lived for decades in the Washakie settlement. Then, in the 1960s, church representatives decided the settlement was abandoned and burned homes to prepare the land for sale. Some of those homes were still occupied. We talk about Bear River, Washakie Ward, Mountain Meadows, the church’s persecution narrative, and what gets remembered when the institution controls the archive. Sorry for what we said when we were Mormon. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem TikTok and Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.com

    The Bear River Massacre and the Mormon History Behind Washakie Ward

  8. 28 Jun

    Mormon Exclusion Is Structural — Temple Recommends, Shunning, and Love Bombing Explained

    The LDS Church doesn't need anyone to be cruel. The recommend interview, the ministering grid, and the love bombing cycle do the work — and they were built to. Jess and Hannah break down three structural practices built into LDS institutional life: temple recommend gatekeeping (and what the tithing declaration actually does inside that interview), passive shunning through record removal and ministering reassignment, and love bombing as a retention tool that uses real warmth to close real distance. They also name — and forward — the LGBTQ conditional belonging episode, because that architecture is categorically distinct and needs its own space. If you've ever tried to explain to someone why leaving felt like losing everything, not just your faith, this is the framework you've been looking for. The harm doesn't need cruelty. It was designed in. Support the show: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.comNew episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

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About

Mormonism gave you a complete universe — with charts, diagrams, & a plan for everything. Leaving dismantles all of it at once. Postmormon Postmortem is hosted by Jess and Hannah, two women who left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints & didn't find nearly enough people talking honestly about what that actually takes. We cover Mormon doctrine & the damage it does, Mormon true crime, the nervous system science of religious trauma, and the messy road to recovery. Whether you're freshly out, years removed, or just trying to understand someone you love — you're in the right place.

Information

  • Creator
    Jess and Hannah
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    58
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Jess and Hannah
  • Show Website
    Postmormon Postmortem

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