Living Faith

Diversity of guests on Church News podcast brings context to the ongoing Restoration

From Church leaders to historians and from family members to topical experts, the Church News podcast covers a lot of ground in 129 episodes

By Ryan Jensen March 28, 2023 2:34 p.m. EDT

Living Faith

Diversity of guests on Church News podcast brings context to the ongoing Restoration

From Church leaders to historians and from family members to topical experts, the Church News podcast covers a lot of ground in 129 episodes

By Ryan Jensen March 28, 2023 2:34 p.m. EDT

After 2 ¹⁄₂ years, 129 episodes and millions of downloads, the Church News podcast has featured interviews with many Church leaders and others who have given unique perspectives on the ongoing restoration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Typically hosted by Church News Editor Sarah Jane Weaver, the podcast publishes each Tuesday and can be subscribed to on all major podcast platforms. Many of the podcasts also include supplementary articles published on TheChurchNews.com and in the Church News app to give additional context to the topic and people discussed.

Below is a list of five podcasts from recent months that illustrate the diversity of topics and guests who have appeared on the show.

1. Three of President Nelson’s children celebrate his 5 years as prophet

To mark the fifth anniversary of President Russell M. Nelson becoming the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Weaver spoke in Episode 118 with three of President Nelson’s children about the lessons they learned from their father as they were growing up.

One daughter, Laurie Marsh, said that she’s never surprised by what he accomplishes.

“You know, nothing that my dad does surprises me. Nothing. Everything amazes me, but nothing surprises me,” she said.

“He doesn’t look for anybody’s approval, but the Lord’s.”

Marsh was joined by her sister Gloria Irion and their brother, Russell Nelson Jr.

Episode 118: Three of President Russell M. Nelson’s children celebrate his 5 years as prophet, offering a glimpse into his role as a father

2. Elder Ronald A. Rasband and Elder S. Mark Palmer on the growing and influential Church in Africa

For the 100^th episode of the Church News podcast, Sheri Dew, executive vice president of Deseret Management Corp. and a former member of the Relief Society general presidency, spoke with Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Elder S. Mark Palmer of the Presidency of the Seventy about the growth of the Church in Africa.

Elder Rasband spoke about the happiness of the people of Africa and why he feels they have found such happiness.

“They truly can focus on things that matter most. They can focus on our Savior, Jesus Christ. They can focus on the messages of the Prophet. They have a tendency to order in their lives the things that matter most, and that gives them great happiness, is what I’ve learned,” he said.

Episode 100: Elder Ronald A. Rasband and Elder S. Mark Palmer on the growing and influential Church in Africa, with guest host Sheri Dew

3. The Young Men general presidency on how the new ‘For the Strength of the Youth’ guide helps youth choose Christ

President Steven J. Lund, Young Men general president

During the October 2022 general conference, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles announced a new “For the Strength of Youth: A Guide for Making Choices.”

The following week, Weaver was joined in studio by the Church’s Young Men general presidency to talk in Episode 106 about the new guide, For the Strength of Youth conferences and the 2023 youth theme.

President Steven J. Lund shared his perspective on the unique mission that today’s youth have been preserved for, as taught by President Nelson.

“You are a generation that’s been preserved to come to this time where you have the capacity to be the most influential in this world, because you’re a child of God and God has a work for you to do,” President Lund said of the youth. “That work is the gathering of Israel. So if that is the backdrop we’re looking at, how can I best accomplish that work for which I was preserved to come in this age to perform, the reason of the timing of my existence? So how should I behave?”

Episode 106: The Young Men general presidency on how the new ‘For the Strength of the Youth’ guide helps youth choose Christ

4. What members today can learn from ‘powerful’ early Latter-day Saint women leaders

In Episode 111, Church historians Jennifer Reeder, Lisa Olsen Tait and Cherry Bushman Silver talked about the lives and influence of Eliza R. Snow and Emmeline B. Wells.

Reeder said the process of studying the lives of these early Latter-day Saint women has given her some strong experiences.

“I’ve had a really personal experience — many really personal experiences — with these women,” she said.

“I think it was the year 2001, 2002 I think, where I was reading the Nauvoo Relief Society minutes and I felt their voices whispering to me from their pages. And that is when I think my passion and my sense of mission and purpose in my career and in my life arose — to find and produce and make accessible the words of these great Latter-day Saint women. And that I belong to a heritage of incredible women that have understood their place and role in the kingdom of God. And whatever it is that we contribute, it is vital and it is important.”

Episode 111: What members today can learn from ‘powerful’ early Latter-day Saint women leaders

5. Rabbi Meir Soloveichik on connecting to other faiths through scripture and shared principles

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik shares insights into the Hebrew Bible, religious liberty and being light kindlers in this episode of the Church News podcast.

Members of the Church around the world studied the Old Testament in 2022. In the 107^th episode of the Church News podcast, Rabbi Meir Y. Soloveichik, senior rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel, offered scholarly and spiritual insight into the importance of scriptural records, religious freedom and connecting across faiths.

“In the midst of some very distressing aspects of what is occurring in our society, this is one of the wonderful phenomena that we can really celebrate, which is that precisely as much of larger culture has grown hostile to a great deal of what people of traditional faith hold dear, different faith communities have found each other,” Soloveichik said. “And they found each other, not by denying the real differences between them, but on the contrary, in the realization that we truly believe that truth, capital ‘T’ truth, matters. And that visionary belief of truth is one of the most profound agreements that we can have.”

Episode 107: Rabbi Meir Soloveichik on connecting to other faiths through scripture and shared principles