500 episodes listed below
Tender LDS stories about belonging.
Listen, Learn & Love gives guests room to tell careful, vulnerable stories from inside Latter-day Saint life. Recent episodes focus on LGBTQ members, parents, spouses, sexual shame, addiction recovery, betrayal trauma, and the hard work of making church feel livable for more people.
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Listen, Learn & Love is a long-running Latter-day Saint interview show shaped by patience, pastoral concern, and a willingness to sit with unresolved lives. It does not rush. Recent episodes linger with LGBTQ members, parents, spouses, returned missionaries, someone working with sexual shame, and families whose stories move through faith, identity, shame, addiction, and belonging. The show often begins with a plain introduction, then hands the room to a guest who has carried something tender for years. That structure matters. It lets a young person talk about being gay or lesbian inside an active LDS family without turning the story into a debate. It lets a mother describe two gay children and the fears that can distort religious communities. It lets someone name sexual shame, betrayal trauma, spiritual distress, and emotional intimacy as subjects LDS culture often avoids. The conversations are not polished into neat lessons. They keep the pauses, the small jokes, the prayers, the tears, and the awkward places where people are still finding language. LGBTQ Latter-day Saint life is a central thread, especially stories of coming out, missions, family support, church talks, and the ache of wanting to belong. Addiction recovery also appears with unusual tenderness, particularly when family members speak about being loved back toward connection. The show returns to Jesus, agency, fear, scripture, and local church culture as practical questions rather than abstract themes. Its moral center is listening before fixing. That makes the tone intimate without becoming sentimental. The best episodes feel like someone opening a family room, a bishop's office, or a car ride where a difficult truth was first spoken aloud. It suits people who need religious language to make room for queer lives and human pain. It also suits allies who want better words, slower reactions, and more courage in ordinary congregations.
Made for: For Latter-day Saints, LGBTQ members, parents, spouses, leaders, and allies who want careful conversations about faith, identity, family, and welcome. It also fits listeners drawn to vulnerable first-person stories rather than argument-driven religion talk.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by letting ordinary guests speak at length from inside LDS life, with pain, doctrine, family loyalty, and hope all kept in view. Its strength is not hot takes; it is sustained, compassionate attention.
Welcome to our podcast! My name is Richard H. Ostler and I am a native of Salt Lake City, small business owner, married father of six with several grandchildren. I believe in and am deeply committed to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and want it to work for a wider group.I am the author of three books: “Listen Learn and Love: Embracing LGBTQ Latter-day Saints” published in 2020 available at Amazon (amazon.com/dp/1462135773) “Listen Learn and Love: Improving Latter-day Saint Culture” published in 2022. The book explores who we can do better to help all Latter-day Saints feel more welcome, needed and a feeling of belonging in our congregations. Available at Amazon (amazon.com/d…
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Personal testimony turns questions of Mormon faith, sexuality, mental health, and family acceptance into patient, emotionally direct conversation.
Richard Osler gives first-person accounts room to carry the argument in Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler. His interviews center Latter-day Saints speaking about sexuality, faith, family relationships, mental health, and recovery, with questions that encourage guests…
Richard Ostler's guests make room for the ward conversation you keep rehearsing on the way home.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A steady, inside-out look at queer faith, mission life, and the cost of staying honest.
A gay Latter-day Saint talks through mission life, private attraction, and the effort of staying honest while still wanting to belong. Soren Nielsen's account stays personal rather than argumentative, and that gives the tension between faith, family, and self real weight.
A steady mother-son recovery story shaped by family strain, faith, and hard-won sobriety.
Richard Osler frames the conversation with care, starting from a mother and son who spent years in the same Sandy, Utah ward, then giving Cade Smith room to describe the harder stretch of his life in plain terms.
Candice Bithell reflects on the hard, faithful work of supporting her transgender son.
Candice Bithell's conversation with Richard Osler frames parenting a transgender child as a matter of faith, grief, and ordinary practice. An active Latter-day Saint mother of three, Bithell describes learning to listen and validate, shopping for boy clothes, and leaving church…
A faith-aware OCD conversation that makes exposure practice feel concrete, humane, and rooted in values rather than fear.
Douglas Williams is at his strongest when he moves OCD and scrupulosity out of abstraction and into lived practice. He frames exposure response therapy as learning to remain with discomfort rather than answer every demand fear makes, then ties that to rock climbing, where fear…
A patient conversation about Mormon feminism, belonging, and the discomfort that can keep community open.
Exponent frames Mormon community as something tested, and deepened, by members who do not all think the same way. The conversation turns on the friction between Mormonism and feminism, and on the pressure Mormon women can feel to keep their views within a narrow vein.
A lesbian Latter-day Saint reflects on family care, queer belonging, and spiritual uncertainty sharing the same hard-won space.
Gabby Rich's story sits in the daily work of finding queer belonging inside a life still shaped by family, faith, and place. A lesbian Latter-day Saint, she speaks from Utah County as a former Brazil missionary, BYU-Idaho child development graduate, and daycare teacher.
Two Bible translators unpack Scripture's hardest passages, from Revelation's 666 to the Witch of Endor.
Live sermons with Easter-shaped urgency.
Richard Ostler interviews Gabby Rich, a 28-year-old lesbian Latter-day Saint and daycare teacher.
Guest host Tanya Miller interviews Katie Rich and Heather Sundahl about their book '50 Years of Exponent II,' celebrating the Mormon feminist quarterly's 50th anniversary.
Host Richard Osler interviews therapist Eric Hales about his work with LGBTQ individuals, particularly within Latter-day Saint communities, focusing on his background and therapeutic approach.
Heather Sorensen discusses her journey of losing her daughter Hannah at age 15 and her new book 'Dandelion's Blessings' to help others navigate grief.
This episode features an interview with McKay Mayes, a gay Latter-day Saint, discussing his journey and offering hope to others navigating similar paths.
This episode features an interview with Lyric Kinard, a mother and Latter-day Saint who co-founded Gather Southeast, discussing LGBTQ support groups, allyship, and community efforts in the Raleigh area.
This episode features an interview with Barbara Higinbotham, an LDS mother sharing her experiences and perspectives on parenting three LGBTQ children while navigating faith and family dynamics.
Richard Ostler's Episode 942 recounts a 1970s bishop interview and his later work as a Hawaii bishop on masturbation.
Jake and Joe Sharp, twin brothers in Mesa, Arizona, return to Richard Ostler's podcast (they first appeared in episode 811) to talk about shame, which they call 'the biggest tool that Satan has.' They describe their 16-year-old brother Sam's struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder and 'toxic perfectionism' and say they did not know the extent of his suicidal thoughts while both were serving missions.
This episode features therapist Josh Otani discussing healing from sexual shame, betrayal trauma, and cultivating emotional intimacy within an LDS cultural context.
This episode features Andy Pedersen sharing his church talk about supporting LGBTQ members in the Latter-day Saint community, followed by a discussion with his wife Stephanie.
This episode features an interview with Emily Groves, an 18-year-old lesbian, blind, and active Latter-day Saint, discussing her personal experiences and how to better support people with similar identities.
Host Richard Osler interviews Gabby Rich, a 28-year-old lesbian Latter-day Saint and daycare teacher, about her personal journey and experiences as part of the LGBTQ community.
This episode features an interview with 18-year-old Magnum Davis, a gay Latter-day Saint who shares his coming-out story and discusses navigating his sexual orientation and faith to offer hope to others.
Soren Nielsen is introduced as a Michigan native, a University of Utah student, and someone who served his mission in Sacramento, California, speaking Spanish.
Richard Osler opens with Terry Smith and Cade Smith, who were in the same Sandy, Utah ward with him for about five years from 1993 to 1998 before the family moved.
Listen, Learn, and Love episode 872 centers on Laurie Reese, an LDS mother of five from Utah County, talking about two gay children and church life.
Richard Osler interviews Candice Bithell, a Salt Lake County mother of three who says she has three LGBTQ children, including a transgender son named Bones.
Douglas Williams returns to Listen, Learn, and Love to talk with Richard Osler about OCD and scrupulosity.