Faith Matters

Today we're delighted to share a conversation with Robin Ritch about her new book, Using Friction to Grow: Stories of Strength and Resilience. Many of us spend our lives trying to avoid friction. We want our faith to feel clear, our communities to feel supportive, and our spiritual lives to move forward without too much tension or uncertainty. But today Robin's asking, "What if our deepest growth comes not in spite of friction, but because of it?" And that's at the heart of her book. Through ...

One of the real challenges of studying the Hebrew Bible is figuring out how to make sense of stories of divine violence—where a God of love seems hard to find. These passages raise real questions about the nature of God and what it means for us as we try to live faithfully. Our guest today is Riley Risto, director of Latter-day Peace Studies, who joined the Church after a powerful mystical experience while praying about the Book of Mormon, an experience that centered his faith on Jesus and sh...

Today we’re grateful to share a conversation with our friend Tucker Boyle—a longtime seminary and institute teacher and the founder of Harmony Road Retreats, a nonprofit creating safe, supportive spaces for people in faith crisis. As a young missionary, Tucker fell in love with teaching the gospel and knew he wanted to become a full-time seminary teacher. He stepped into that role with his whole heart, and years later pursued a PhD, hoping to become an even better, more thoughtful teacher. Bu...

Today we’re so excited to share our conversation with Bruce Tift, author, psychotherapist and longtime practitioner of Vajrayana Buddhism. This summer, our friends at Uplift Kids introduced us to Bruce’s fascinating book Already Free, and we’ve been thinking about it ever since. In this conversation, Bruce dives into some of the ideas in the book. He explores how to make peace with being human. He looks at two seemingly opposing paths—both Western and Eastern wisdom—and shows how each offers ...

Hey everyone, this is Aubrey Chaves from Faith Matters. Today I’m excited to share my conversation with Katie Ludlow Rich and Heather Sundahl about 50 Years of Exponent II, their new book tracing the history of a space where Latter-day Saint women have engaged the most urgent questions of their time—while also honoring the dailiness of life. The roots of this effort go back to 1872, when women began publishing the Woman’s Exponent to speak for themselves and stay connected across distance. A ...

Today we’re joined by our friend Patrick Mason and filmmaker Robert Reynolds. Rob is the director and producer of the new docu-series An Inconvenient Faith—a project that’s already opening hearts and starting some long-overdue conversations. This series is raw and honest. It takes on some of the most difficult and tender topics in our faith tradition—things like women and authority, LGBTQ belonging, race and the priesthood, and lots more. And it brings together voices from across the spectrum...

Today we’re sharing a conversation with writers and filmmakers Sarah and Josh Sabey about their new project, The Bible Storybook, a two volume collection of 50 stories from the Old Testament. You might remember their Book of Mormon Storybook. Like those earlier volumes, this new project is guided by a simple and beautiful idea: “These are stories about a real God who loves real people”—people who are complicated, wounded, and doing their best to understand how God is working in their lives. F...