At Last She Said It

Shadow Work is a phrase that gets a lot of airplay, but it can be hard to get your head around exactly what it means or how it can apply in your life. The "shadow" consists of unconscious, repressed, or hidden parts of our personality. So what might it mean to uncover, understand, and integrate our shadow self? How might this work affect our responses and relationships? "The human soul wants belonging, but the ego really doesn't know how to give it to us. It just...helps us fit in. It helps us show up and be acceptable—and it thinks that hiding the shadow is the thing that's going to do it," explains Jana Spangler. In Episode 256, Susan and Cynthia are joined by Jana for a conversation about the potential benefits of bringing the shadow to light through this specific inner work.

In Episode 255, Cynthia and Susan ask Aubrey Chaves, Debbie Squires-Coleman, and Darice Auston, "What Do You Say?" It's 3 wide-ranging conversations with wise Latter-day Saint women answering questions about their memories, insights, and beliefs through stories of their own lives and experiences.

Does piety serve anything besides the ego? Is our piety an asset or a liability? And what are we—individually and collectively—getting from it? In Episode 254, Susan and Cynthia consider these questions and more in a conversation examining the piety that is a cultural hallmark of our church. For Latter-day Saints and other Christians, is a focus on outward appearances or superficial "churchiness" sometimes a stand-in for real inner transformation?

When Latter-day Saints hear the phrase "Purity Culture," they may associate it more with evangelical churches than with our own. LDS talks and lessons focus on words like virtue, modesty, morality, and chastity to describe our ideals. But regardless of the specific words used, the messages are the same. Therapist C.A. Larson points out, "Purity culture is a moral control system that ties worth to sexual behavior, especially for women. [...] Purity culture in the LDS Church is institutional, enforced through interviews, modesty rules, and silence around consent." In Episode 253, Cynthia and Susan welcome C.A. back to ALSSI for a discussion about Purity Culture: what it is, its psychological and emotional impacts, and its systemic connection to sexual abuse. It's a conversation that makes space for grief and anger, and identifies healing paths. C.A. explains, "Healing is not about becoming more sexual or less sexual. It is about embracing our agency...relearning consent, trusting bodily signals, separating worth from obedience, reclaiming choice, going slowly and allowing ambivalence. You don't owe your body to doctrine, and you don't owe your healing to anyone else's timeline."CW: sexual abuse

Many Latter-day Saint women feel some constraint when it comes to using our voices at church, but it can even be hard to express what we think, feel, and believe in our own homes or personal relationships. Writing down thoughts that don't fit neatly in the box and hitting publish can bring consequences, but once a woman begins to speak, she's likely to find the repercussions she feared were much bigger than the ones she'll actually face. In Episode 252, Susan and Cynthia are joined by writer and independent scholar Katie Ludlow Rich for a conversation about her personal journey to reclaim her voice. It's a story about one woman speaking up, framed within a larger exploration of Mormon women's collective voices as reflected in 50 Years of Exponent II.