Postmormon Postmortem

Hannah and Jess
  • 4.7 (28)
  • Religion & Spirituality
  • Updated Weekly

Mormonism gave you a complete universe, with charts, diagrams, and a plan for everything. Leaving can dismantle all of it at once. Postmormon Postmortem is hosted by Hannah and Jess, two women who left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and wanted more honest conversations about what comes after. We cover Mormon history, doctrine, culture, true crime, institutional harm, religious trauma, and the messy work of rebuilding a life outside the church. Whether you're freshly out, years removed, or trying to understand someone you love, you're in the right place.

  1. 16h ago

    The Mormon Photographer Who Sold Erotica

    Brigham Young’s son-in-law built a career photographing church leaders, prominent Mormon families, and the Salt Lake Temple. Alongside that work, he sold erotic stereo views to customers across the country. Charles Ellis Johnson photographed Mormon prophets… and sold erotic photographs by mail from his Salt Lake City studio. His church portraits and “spicy pictures of girls” carried the same business stamp. Source: Mary Campbell's "Charles Ellis Johnson and the Erotic Mormon Image" (2016). The photographs discussed in this episode come from Campbell’s book. TIMESTAMPS00:00 Invocation 00:31 The Life of Charles Ellis Johnson01:28 Family Background and Polygamy02:48 Growing Up in a Polygamous Family05:34 Charlie Johnson's Early Career07:21 Transition to Photography09:24 The Role of Charlie as Church Photographer15:00 The Shift in Faith and Personal Life17:18 The Emergence of Risqué Photography19:06 Exploring the Boundaries of Erotica21:47 Marketing Mormon Erotica24:13 BenedictionSHOW NOTES, including all sources mentioned in this episode, are available on Patreon with a FREE membership:https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem FREE members also get our monthly newsletter. Paid memberships start at $2/month for AD-FREE listening.TO SUPPORT THE SHOW (Thank you!) Venmo: https://venmo.com/postmormonpostmortem Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem FIND US HERE Website: https://postmormonpostmortem.comYouTube: @postmormonpostmortem TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@postmormonpostmortemInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/postmormonpostmortemFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/postmormonpostmortemTheme song | Vocals: Hannah W. | Guitar: Dr. Dave | Audio: Mick

  2. 2d ago

    Mormon Monday: The 25-Minute Gospel (Or, The Church's New 25-Minute Sunday School

    On September 6, the Mormon Church rolled out a new worldwide Sunday schedule: 60-minute sacrament meeting, then just 25 minutes each for Sunday School and Relief Society, elders quorum, Young Women, or Aaronic Priesthood. Sunday School and quorum meetings now happen every week instead of alternating. In this Mormon Monday, we look at what the Church says the change accomplishes, and what it might cost. We trace how LDS meeting schedules have changed over time, from the standalone auxiliary meetings of the early 20th century to the 1980 three-hour block to the 2019 two-hour “Come, Follow Me” model. Then we ask: What happens to community when the hallway time disappears? Who does “home-centered, Church-supported” religion work for, and who does it leave out? What does 25 minutes mean for Relief Society, once one of the largest women’s organizations in the world? Venmo: @postmormonpostmortem Buy Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem Patreon (ad-free from $2/month, full source list, early access): patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem

  3. 3d ago

    "You Won't Be Needing Those": The Mormon Secret Council of Fifty

    In 1922, Mormon Church president Heber J. Grant pointed to a box of records and told his new secretary, “You won’t be needing those.” Inside: the Council of Fifty. The Council of Fifty was Joseph Smith’s secret 1844 political body in Nauvoo, Illinois, and its members voted to accept him as “Prophet, Priest & King.” Jess and Hannah go through the minutes: the secrecy vow, the April 25 revelation “ye are my constitution,” Smith’s presidential campaign, William Clayton burying the records in his garden, and Brigham Young’s move west. The records stayed in church custody, including a 1981 look during the church’s dealings with Mark Hofmann’s documents, until the Joseph Smith Papers published them in 2016. Historians call the theory theodemocracy. Religious liberty sounds different when the people guaranteeing it believe revelation outranks the rules meant to restrain them.

  4. 4d ago

    The Murder of Janet Abaroa: The Raven Abaroa Case

    In April 2005, Raven Abaroa called 911 from his Durham, North Carolina home and told the operator his wife had been shot. Janet Abaroa, 25 and pregnant, had been stabbed three times while their six-month-old son slept in the next room. Hannah and Jess follow the case from a temple marriage in Washington, D.C., through embezzlement charges, a $500,000 life insurance policy, an exhumation that recovered a contact lens from Janet’s eye, an 11-to-1 hung jury, and the Alford plea that let Raven maintain his innocence. The episode closes with Doctrine and Covenants 132 and the eternal marriage Janet was determined to keep. 0:00 Invocation 04:53 Pregnancy and Relationship Dynamics 05:54 The Descent into Darkness 08:32 The Investigation Begins 09:21 Raven Aberoa's Behavior and Control Issues 13:06 The Night of the Incident 16:34 The Aftermath and Reactions 20:01 Raven's New Life and Relationships 25:48 The Investigation and Exhumation of Janet 30:11 Trial and Evidence Presentation 40:39 The Plea Deal and Its Implications 45:33 Life After Sentencing 48:50 Benediction SHOW NOTES, including all sources mentioned in this episode, are available on Patreon with a FREE membership: https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem  FREE members also get our monthly newsletter.  Paid memberships start at $2/month for AD-FREE listening. TO SUPPORT THE SHOW (Thank you!)  Venmo: https://venmo.com/postmormonpostmortem  Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortem  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem  FIND US HERE  Website: https://postmormonpostmortem.com YouTube: @postmormonpostmortem  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@postmormonpostmortem Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/postmormonpostmortem Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/postmormonpostmortem Theme song | Vocals: Hannah W. | Guitar: Dr. Dave | Audio: Mick

  5. Oct 7

    What Do You Know Wednesday: How Mormonism Became McDonald's

    Jess explains Church Correlation to Hannah, and the closest comparison she could find is McDonald's. Before 1960, Relief Society, Primary, and Sunday School ran their own curriculum, magazines, conferences, and administrative structures. Missions published their own magazines. One Mexican mission spent around 360 missionary hours every month producing one of them. Lessons written in Utah landed strangely abroad, and the Relief Society schedule covered only eight months of the year until 1980 because it was built around North American summer vacation. Then headquarters built a system, complete with master curriculum charts. Correlation solved real logistical problems for a church going global. It also moved decisions about curriculum, publications, and programs toward the center. In 1970, Relief Society reported about 338,000 members and roughly 301,000 magazine subscriptions. The Relief Society Magazine ended that year anyway. Five years later, Belle Spafford said women were still writing to ask for it back. Plus: Harold B. Lee's "program of defense," a 1962 article titled "Elimination of the Insignificant," and Hannah's case for the Mc Haggis. SUPPORT THE SHOW Venmo: @postmormonpostmortem Patreon: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortem

  6. Oct 5

    Mormon Church Tells Members to Oppose Idaho and Nevada Abortion Ballot Measures

    On September 16, the Mormon Church sent a letter to all 1,300 congregations in Idaho telling members to oppose the Idaho Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act, an abortion ballot measure. Five days later, 339 congregations in Nevada got a letter with the same instruction and the same wording about voicing opposition "in a respectful manner." Missouri and Virginia also have abortion measures on the November ballot. The Church has not weighed in on either one. This Mormon Monday, Jess and Hannah go through both letters, including the Idaho sentence that cites the Church's own 2024 neutrality statement. Then they go back to October 2016, when First Presidency letters told members in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Colorado how to vote on recreational marijuana and physician-assisted suicide, and set each one beside the Republican Party position on the same issue. You'll also hear about Prop 8: the 2010 California FPPC finding that the Church reported $36,928 in non-monetary contributions late, and the $5,539 fine that followed. Plus the legal line between the Johnson Amendment (candidates) and IRS lobbying limits (ballot measures), and what changes when one letter is read from the pulpit in 1,300 congregations. Is the Mormon Church politically neutral? Jess and Hannah leave that one with you. Support the Show: venmo: @postmormonpostmortem buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.com

  7. Oct 4

    Adam-God: When Mormon Revelation Becomes False Doctrine

    Brigham Young said God revealed that Adam is our Father and God. In 1976, Mormon president Spencer W. Kimball denounced the Adam-God theory as false doctrine. How do you know which prophet to trust? In April 1852, Brigham Young told General Conference that Adam is "our Father and our God." Wilford Woodruff and Hosea Stout both recorded it in their diaries, and Heber C. Kimball and apostle Franklin D. Richards backed it up. Orson Pratt told the Twelve it contradicted scripture, and the pressure to defer followed. In 1873 Brigham said God had revealed the doctrine to him, and related teaching appeared in the St. George temple's Lecture at the Veil. Then Mormon theology changed, Mark E. Petersen said Adam was not our God, and Spencer W. Kimball denounced the idea in 1976. This episode traces the Adam-God theory from the Journal of Discourses to General Conference and asks what happens when a prophet is wrong about whether something came from God. Support the show: venmo: @postmormonpostmortem buymeacoffee.com/postmormonpostmortemAd-free listening from $2/month: patreon.com/postmormonpostmortemTikTok & Instagram: @postmormonpostmortempostmormonpostmortem.com New episodes every Sunday at 9 AM — just in time for sacrament meeting.

  8. Oct 3

    Mormon MTC Sex Abuse Scandal: Who Gets the Benefit of the Doubt?

    Former Mormon MTC president Joseph Bishop became the subject of a sex scandal after a former sister missionary, McKenna Denson, secretly recorded him in 2017. Denson has accused Bishop of raping her at the Provo Missionary Training Center in 1984. We follow her reports to Mormon leaders, the recording, the police investigation, and the lawsuit that ended without a trial. This episode includes discussion of childhood sexual abuse, rape, and sexual misconduct. Sources for every episode are available in the receipts archive on Patreon. SELECTED SOURCES for this episode include: Denson’s secret recording of Joseph Bishop. Radio Free Mormon’s coverage: Church Sex Scandal Cover-up — Part 1 Church Sex Scandal Cover-up — Part 2 The McKenna Denson Interview — Part 1T he McKenna Denson Interview — Part 2 MTC Sex Scandal: The Recordings — Part 1, Denson’s police interview #postmormon #ldschurch #mormon #churchabuse #exmormon

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4.7
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About

Mormonism gave you a complete universe, with charts, diagrams, and a plan for everything. Leaving can dismantle all of it at once. Postmormon Postmortem is hosted by Hannah and Jess, two women who left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and wanted more honest conversations about what comes after. We cover Mormon history, doctrine, culture, true crime, institutional harm, religious trauma, and the messy work of rebuilding a life outside the church. Whether you're freshly out, years removed, or trying to understand someone you love, you're in the right place.

Information

  • Creator
    Hannah and Jess
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    116
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Hannah and Jess
  • Show Website
    Postmormon Postmortem

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