Mormon Land

Faithful Salt Lake Tribune readers know Eli McCann well. He’s the award-winning columnist who has them cracking up about coming out as a coffee drinker one minute and tearing up about the Latter-day Saint youth group in the western Pacific who won his heart the next.

Now his monthly humor columns have been compiled into one bright, breezy book. Titled “We’re Thankful for the Moisture: A Gay Guy’s Guide to Mormon Faith, Family, and Fruit Preservation.”

It’s a valentine of sorts to Latter-day Saint culture, containing classics like his first date with his future, non-Mormon husband at, of all places, the Kirtland Temple; his adventures — and misadventures — in the kitchen after unearthing a missionary cookbook; and the awkward — but somehow appropriate — chuckles he shared with a bishop when he signed his resignation letter from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A practicing attorney, Eli lives is Salt Lake City with his husband, physician Skylar Westerdahl, their toddler son, West, and, as Eli puts it, “two naughty (yet worshipped) dogs.”

On this week’s show, Eli and Skylar talk about his writings, their life and why Eli still finds laughter and love in the religious culture that bred him.

There is no shortage of documentaries detailing the crimes of Ruby Franke and Hildebrandt. On this ‘Mormons in Media’ crossover, we unpack the Netflix documentary ‘Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story’ and the Hulu docuseries ‘Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.’ Rebbie and Nicole are joined by Salt Lake Tribune columnist Eli McCann to talk child exploitation, manipulation, vulnerablity and critical thinking.

By all accounts, Richard Bushman could be considered the patriarch of Mormon history.

For more than nine decades, he has lived it, studied it, analyzed it, shared it with fellow believers and explained it to nonbelievers.

The soft-spoken scholar — with three degrees from Harvard and a drive toward understanding truth — has been writing about Mormonism for much of his academic career. He is a giant in his field and a mentor to many young historians.

He penned a seminal biography of Joseph Smith, founder The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and later published an examination of the importance of Smith’s “gold plates,” from which sprang the Book of Mormon.

To many, the emeritus history professor from Columbia University is a dream representative of the Utah-based faith — quiet, reasoned, faithful but open and willing to ask hard questions.

So what has he seen of the church in his 94 years? What eras were most difficult? Most satisfying? What struggles has he faced as a member and where does he see the church in the 21st century as compared to when he was born?

On this week’s show, Bushman, who is writing his memoirs, reflects on the past, ruminates on the present and imagines the future.

Daily life in and around Minneapolis has taken on a sharper edge since the federal government unleashed a mass deportation campaign in the city.

Raids on suspected immigrants have become a common occurrence, observers on the ground report. Gas-mask-wearing protesters take frequently to frozen streets. Twice federal agents have shot and killed U.S. citizens, 37-year-old Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Amid this chaos, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have sought to replace fear and isolation with faith and service — even as the church’s top leaders have remained largely silent on the issue.

On this week’s show, Cindy Sandberg and John Gustav-Wrathall talk about their experiences from the front lines in the beleaguered city.

For most of its nearly 200-year history, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints considered temple clothing — including what are known as “garments,” worn under everyday attire — too sacred to discuss, even within families or among friends.

That has slowly changed. In 2015, the Utah-based faith posted photos and videos of garments on YouTube to show the outside world that there is “nothing magical or mystical about temple garments.”

These days images of garments (especially the new sleeveless design) are posted on the church’s online store and by faithful Latter-day Saints themselves.

But how did the practice of wearing garments begin? What were early garments like? What did they signify to the wearers? And how have they evolved through the years?

On this week’s show, Nancy Ross and Jessica Finnigan, authors, along with Larissa Kanno Kindred, of a forthcoming book, “Mormon Garments: Sacred and Secret,“ discuss the history and purpose of this religious underwear.