All In

Latter-day Saint Nate Checketts hopes that positive messages on men’s apparel might help shape the future of boys, including the little men he and his wife are raising.

When Andrea felt prompted to start a podcast, she felt unqualified. Tribe of Testimonies is her effort to follow through on that prompting.

It was an unexpected note in the life of someone who had otherwise been a devoted member of the Church his entire life. But even while he worked toward being re-baptized, Steadman never missed a Sunday of church.

Cotopaxi’s eyepopping color-blocked jacket and “ugly-cute” slippers are favorites of CNN’s editors this month. Find out how the company’s Latter-day Saint founder created the company to make good on a promise he made to himself as a boy growing up in Latin America.

Katie Kortman is a designer on season 19 of Project Runway, Relief Society president, and a mother of four children. She was also taught that being different is good.

The 'All In' podcast is closing in on its third anniversary and currently has over 10 million downloads. If you’re a new listener wondering about the best place to jump in, or if you just want to revisit some highlights, look back with us at our top 20 episodes.

On this week’s episode of All In, Garett explains that God gives us all many chances, though it’s up to us to use our agency to accept them.

A new TV special aired in between sessions of conference highlights the popular LDS Living podcast, which has garnered over 9.5 million downloads in the less than three years since its launch.

The Osmond family has been expected to answer very personal religious questions in very public settings. On this week's All In podcast episode, Marie makes it very clear that she remains a firm believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Nadia Cates wasn’t always proud of her Hispanic heritage. It was not until she was an adult that she felt a desire to connect to her roots.

Jess Kettle grew up in the Church. She always found joy in her faith and loved being a member, but when people she loved and trusted began to turn away from the Church, she began to experience anxiety regarding her faith. A young mother, she decided to go for a drive one night after her kids were in bed.

Tony Finau was named to the United States 2021 Ryder Cup team on Wednesday but he was also the guest on this week's All In podcast. Finau is one of the premier golfers in the world, recently notching his second PGA Tour win, but there was a moment in Finau's career where it seemed he had a choice to make between honesty and risking everything he had worked toward. He shared this experience as he illustrated how the game of golf has taught him the value of integrity.

Polygamy can sometimes feel like a taboo topic among Latter-day Saints. Some might feel obligated to defend the religious practice and others might feel that they have to accept it. So how do we deepen our understanding of this part of Church history—and more importantly, those who lived it?

Receiving one's patriarchal blessing often carries with it great anticipation and great expectations. Will the blessing mention the things we've always dreamed of having in our lives? And what if it doesn't? As a young girl, Makenna Myler's life revolved around running so when she received her patriarchal blessing, she expected it to talk about the role running would play in her life moving forward. When it didn't, she was confused and, for years after, she wrestled over whether she should be running or not.

At the beginning of her new book, One Breath at a Time, Gabrielle Shiozawa writes of her confidence that her dad would be healed as his body began to experience heart failure.

After being called as a bishop at just 28 years old and with a desire to learn how to better lead and serve, Kurt Francom has interviewed hundreds of people over the past decade about their service within the Church. In this week’s episode of All In, Kurt talks about what he has learned from Church leaders serving in various callings all over the world, including how to recognize the needs of those you serve and the difference between motivation and ability when it comes to serving in leadership positions.

Thurl Bailey didn't come to Utah looking for religion. He came because he was drafted by the Utah Jazz as the seventh pick in the 1983 NBA Draft. He was just happy to play anywhere, but it was there that he was first introduced to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And growing up in a Baptist home laid the groundwork for his spiritual journey later in life and his future relationship with Jesus Christ.

While it’s impossible to choose just one favorite episode, several of the people behind All In shared one of their favorite episodes.

“Morgan, I don’t know if I can do this.”

What does it mean to be “all in” the gospel of Jesus Christ in the latter days?

On June 5, 2020, Christopher Clark passed away after a four-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Just days before, he and his wife, Lisa Valentine Clark, celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. Now, she feels her husband’s absence every day and was so overwhelmed with grief and sorrow that she just wanted to “marinate in it”. In this week’s episode of All In, Lisa discusses what she has learned from the process of grief and how to comfort those who stand in need of comfort, even if they may not want it.

Mauli Bonner is on a mission—a mission to have a monument built to honor Black Latter-day Saints. It all began with a desire to learn more about his heritage as a Black member of the Church. Thus, he began a journey that many would’ve thought would shake his testimony. But instead, he found his testimony being strengthened. His study led him to learn about Black Latter-day Saints from the early church and to be introduced to a Latter-day Saint slave named Green Flake, one of the first Latter-day Saints to arrive in the Salt Lake Valley on July 22, 1847.

Over one in three women and nearly one in four men have experienced sexual assault at some point in their lives, according to the CDC. About one in four girls and one in 13 boys experience sexual abuse at some point in childhood. The statistics are staggering, but we may feel paralyzed by our inexperience and unfamiliarity with the topic. But is it possible that, simply by mentioning it as something someone in the room may have encountered, we could aid in the healing of sexual abuse victims?

We’ve all heard them—stories that are widely circulated without a known origin that are frequently told over the pulpit. They are told and retold in hopes of building faith, but is it possible that these stories could be dangerous? On this week’s episode of All In, Keith Erekson, director of the Church History Library and author of the new book Real vs. Rumor, issued a word of caution regarding stories we hear and assumptions we make in relation to faith-promoting stories.

The final step of the Church’s Addiction Recovery Program states, “Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, share this message with others and practice these principles in all you do.” On this week’s All In podcast, Keith and Brooke Meyer shared their story. Keith came into the Church in part due to his participation in the Addiction Recovery Program. The program changed his life and for 11 years following his participation in the Addiction Recovery Program, Keith remained sober. But last year, amidst the pandemic, Keith began to experience depression. That depression ultimately led to a feeling of despair. The despair led him to return to a bottle that he knew had taken pain away, albeit temporarily, earlier in his life. And he drank.

There are a couple of uses of the word “dropped” in Preach My Gospel, the handbook used by Latter-day Saint missionaries:

Can someone who doesn’t believe in God be an instrument in His hands? Can orange chicken serve as proof of God’s awareness of us? On this week’s episode of All In, Angie Balfour, former head of HR at Instagram and director of human resources at Facebook, shared that while awaiting the details of a cancer diagnosis, she experienced a miracle in an unexpected way.

In 2 Nephi 2, we read, “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.”

Editor's note: This article was first published in February 2021.

In 2011, ESPN Staff Writer Dan Graziano wrote, “You’ve made up your mind on John Beck.” He went on to share many of the criticisms of the former BYU quarterback who at the time had been in the NFL four years.

Have you ever had a mental flashback to something that happened years earlier? For me, these flashbacks often include a singular moment from my time as a missionary. It is often something I hadn’t thought about in years, but all of the sudden I will be taken back to that time and place. I had one of these moments last week when I was seemingly transported back to an apartment in Pasco, Washington, into the home of a family I came to love. The mother’s name was Alma, and one night we were teaching her about the Great Apostasy. We explained to Alma that when Christ was on the earth, He gave His Apostles the priesthood—the authority to bless and baptize, among other things—but that this authority was eventually taken from the earth.

After losing her mother last year to COVID-19, one listener of the All In podcast who is not a member of our faith expressed interest in hearing the Latter-day Saint perspective about the pandemic. So, while there are certainly many perspectives and we are unable to represent every Latter-day Saint, we decided to reach out to one Latter-day Saint doctor, Dr. Candace Mcnaughton, who has not only treated those with COVID-19 in the emergency room but whose colleagues are researchers working diligently to eradicate COVID-19.

Of this week’s All In podcast, host Morgan Jones wrote the following:

Despite a pandemic that forced the majority of interviews this year to be done remotely, the All In podcast never missed a beat, producing and releasing 55 interviews that were downloaded over 4 million times over the course of the year. The show’s conversations covered a wide range of both timely and timeless topics such as parenting, dealing with a faith crisis, racism, anxiety, and meditation. Here is a brief look at the 20 most-downloaded episodes of 2020 as of December 7, 2020, through one powerful quote from each of those episodes.

One thing that immediately becomes apparent as you look at Eva Timothy’s “The Lord Is My Light”collection is that there are hands to lift and feet to wash but very few faces. It is without a doubt an interesting creative decision—so what caused Timothy, a fine art photographer who grew up behind the Iron Curtain, to omit faces in many of her pieces? And after years of photographing more secular collections that have been displayed in places like the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, what has it meant to Timothy to share the light of Christ in her most recent collection?

When two-time GRAMMY award winner Lauren Daigle was a teenager, she contracted a debilitating virus that led to her being homebound for two years in high school. On this week’s episode of the All In podcast, Daigle shared how that period of isolation ultimately served as an “incubation” of sorts and led to the song that has become an anthem for many Christians.

The Nashville Tribute Band’s Jason Deere is the son of two converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His father joined the Church after noticing something different about a man who had a desk across from him at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma. The man was a Latter-day Saint from Idaho named Gary Cox.

Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life is a Christmas staple for many families. Jimmy Stewart’s portrayal of George Bailey has captured the hearts of generation after generation since the film’s release in 1943, and on this week’s episode of All In, author and speaker John Bytheway shares one of his favorite lessons learned from the movie. Bytheway also explains how the story of George Bailey powerfully illustrates what President Spencer W. Kimball once articulated in a beloved quote.

Tara Bench, perhaps best known as Tara Teaspoon, was still a student at Utah State University when she flew out to New York City for a cooking interview with Martha Stewart Living. The interview didn’t go great and as Tara recalls she “messed up a lot.” But at the end of the day she assured those interviewing her that she was a fast learner. She got the internship and started at the bottom of the barrel in the Martha Stewart test kitchen running errands and going to the grocery store for last minute ingredients but when her internship was over, they offered her a position as “recipe developer.”

Editor’s note: This All In excerpt from the episode that was released October 28th shares the decision one mother faced of whether or not to abort her pregnancy due to her own health concerns. We feel it important to note that the Church’s official statement on abortion is as follows:

What is the goal behind your use of social media? It is a question that, if you are like most people, you likely haven’t thought about. But how might approaching social media with clear objectives and goals change who you follow or how you spend your time online? This is what entrepreneur Becky Higgins answers on this week’s episode of the All In podcast.

Fans of ESPN likely recognize Chad Ford’s face or at the very least his name. For years, Ford was an NBA Draft expert for the television network, but what many didn’t know was while simultaneously working in many people’s dream career, Ford was pursuing his true passion teaching conflict resolution and peacebuilding at BYU–Hawaii. In his new book, Dangerous Love, Ford teaches principles he has taught about the transformative effects of changing the way we view conflict. He teaches that we can either approach conflict with love or fear and illustrates how the path we choose can make all the difference.

Eric Dyches and Leslie Huntsman Dyches both lost spouses to mental illness. Emily Cook Dyches, Eric’s first wife had just given birth to her fifth child when she began suffering from severe postpartum anxiety, which ultimately took her life in 2016. Chad Huntsman battled depression for 14 years before his death on April 7, 2015. Now, they are sharing their stories in hopes of bringing comfort to others who are suffering from similar circumstances. In both cases, their spouses’ deaths were called suicide, but the couple emphasizes that when we speak of suicide, we are speaking of unique circumstances and the passing of one individual.

Editor’s note: “This week from the pulpit” highlights recent messages by General Authorities, General Officers, and leaders of the Church.

The night before she was called as Relief Society General President, Jean B. Bingham contemplated the purpose behind a meeting that was scheduled between her and President Thomas S. Monson the next morning. “What could he possibly want to talk to me about?” she remembers asking herself.

All In host Morgan Jones spoke with Elder Lund about what he believes experiences today mean in regard to the Second Coming.

During her five years as a brand strategist for Bonneville Communications, Neylan McBaine was a part of the team behind the “I’m a Mormon” multimillion-dollar advertising and outreach campaign for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. McBaine caught the eye of Boncom, the marketing agency behind not only “I’m a Mormon” but Light The World and other Church campaigns, because of a website she had started, The Mormon Women Project. Unbeknownst to them, McBaine carried with her extensive marketing experience, having worked for years in the Silicon Valley with multiple successful companies, making her an incredible asset to the campaign. On this week’s episode of All In, McBaine reflected on what made the campaign impactful.

Heidi Swinton was a young journalist with big dreams when she felt led to start a family, but five years passed and she and her husband still had no children.

Each of us have little quirks that others likely notice about us and are perhaps even annoyed by. Laura “Laurie” Wilcox loved jewelry, especially bracelets, and frequently could only find one of two earrings in a pair. But do those little annoyances matter when the people we love are gone? Or would we give anything to search for a missing earring one last time?

Randal Wright is a beloved author and speaker. He is also a lover of stories. If you’ve ever talked with him or heard him speak, you likely noticed how frequently he references his life experiences, either his own or someone’s else’s that he has learned from. But what is his motivation for sharing stories?

“You win some, you lose some.” “Hope for the best, expect the worst.” These are two clichés we’ve all heard, but on this week’s episode of All In, Olympic silver medalist Noelle Pikus Pace shared that she has made her own adjustments to both sayings. The changes to the traditional phrases reflect the skeleton athlete’s optimism and drive that carried her over hurdles and past setbacks onto the Olympic podium.

McArthur Krishna, co-author of the Girls Who Choose God series, faced a big decision: Whether or not she should marry someone who was not a member of the Church and move to India. As she sought guidance from God, she received clear confirmation that she should move forward and marry her now-husband, but the decision was anything but easy as it went against McArthur’s plan for herself and what she thought God would’ve wanted for her. At 37 years old, she sought to understand why her path to marriage had been so difficult. The answer? She believes it strengthened her relationship with God.

All In host Morgan Jones had the latest podcast episode on her mind while attending church on a recent Sunday. She was touched when the sacrament meeting speaker shared how Jesus is the perfect example of mourning with those that mourn. The speaker explained that when Lazarus died, Jesus went and wept with Mary and Martha—even though He knew that Lazarus would soon rise from the dead. He stopped to recognize and share in the mourning women’s emotions. Jones saw it as a beautiful reminder to the message Michalyn Steele would be sharing in a podcast episode that aired this week.

For two decades, Lisa O’Neil raised her daughters in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a part-member family, until her husband, Scott O’Neil, joined the Church.