In September 2005, after finding reasons to stay a member of the LDS Church despite a crisis of faith, John Dehlin created the podcast as an open discussion of Mormon issues with the intention of giving listeners reasons to remain in the church. Through interviews, Mormon Stories focused on varying Mormon experiences and perspectives, including antagonistic, apologetic, intellectual, gay, black, fundamentalist, feminist, and dissenting. Several notable Mormon figures were guests on Mormon Stories, including Gregory Prince, Todd Compton, Grant H. Palmer, Darius Gray, Margaret Blair Young, Richard Bushman, and Margaret and Paul Toscano. Mormon Stories has been featured in many venues, including being broadcast on KVNU in Logan, Utah. In June 2007 John Dehlin was quoted for stories by The New York Times and Good Morning America, discussing Mitt Romney and Mormonism. At times personally conflicted about continuing Mormon Stories, Dehlin stopped and restarted the project a few times. In January 2010 Dehlin resumed the blog and podcast, focusing on faith crises, mental illnesses, and notable guests, beginning with interviews of Joanna Brooks and John C. Hamer. Among numerous other regular hosts who have joined Dehlin in conducting interviews for the podcast were Dan Wotherspoon, former editor of Sunstone magazine, and Natasha Helfer Parker, a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist. In 2015, Dehlin said Stories episodes had "tens of thousands" of listeners and that the webcast's "goal has always been to alleviate suffering. It's an act of love." Dehlin was excommunicated for apostasy by the LDS Church in 2015. In 2016 the Open Stories foundation reported Dehlin's 2017 salary and bonus was $82,500 and $27,000 respectively. Mormon Stories content focuses on the criticism of LDS Doctrine and Practices and advertises for Dehlin's faith transition workshops and life coaching services.
Criticism
In 2013, a critical review of Mormon Stories by Gregory L. Smith was published in . In the review, Smith alleges that "Dehlin is frequently uninformed of the often controversial material he discusses with interviewees, and that he promotes views hostile to the foundational beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". The pending publication of the piece catalyzed within the Mormon studies community a discussion about the roles of apologetic and non-faith-based scholarship, respectively, within the academic study of Mormonism by Mormons.
Guests
Featured guests of the podcast include Latter-day Saints considered orthodox, "curious," doubters and heretics. These have included: Guests have also included a number of "NeverMos" and former Mormons who have either backgrounds in "comparative religions/cults" or histories of being associated with the Church of Latter-day Saints without ever becoming members. These include:
