Laurie Lee Hall was a promising college student studying architecture, and she was known to the world as a man. When she encountered The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints she saw a well-defined path that fit the gender she was assigned at birth. So she buried her past to become the perfect Mormon man. 

Wearing her male disguise, she married, had children, and rose to the position of chief architect for the LDS Church, overseeing its most sacred building projects. But her past refused to stay buried. Could she become who she really was without risking her family, her career, and her church membership? Her whole world?

Laurie Lee Hall is author of "Dictates of Conscience: From Mormon High Priest to My New Life as a Woman." She managed design and construction programs for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as its chief architect. She was excommunicated following her gender transition. Since then she has served on the executive committee of Affirmation: LGBTQ Mormons, Families & Friends. She and her partner, Nancy Beaman, live in Kentucky and have nine children and twenty-­four grandchildren.

Trump's 2018 zero tolerance policy which separated immigrant children from their parents at the border with no plan for reuniting them shocked the American conscience. And even though he claimed to cease the practice within weeks, zero tolerance is rooted in American law that dates back 100 years and remains on the books today. It can easily happen again. 

Efrén Olivares was on the front lines defending immigrant families, and the work was personal. Efrén himself is an immigrant, and he joins us to talk about his incredible book, My Boy Will Die of Sorrow: A Memoir of Immigration From the Front Lines.  

Tara Boyce says parenting with hope is more complicated than she anticipated.

Ross Gay says joy is something like what we feel like when we help each other carry our sorrows.

As a silent epidemic of chronic illnesses afflicts tens of millions of Americans, Meghan O’Rourke calls for revolution.

A transgender scholar makes history writing about transgender history.

The word “heathen” has fallen out of use, but the racist ideas behind it persist in the White American imagination.

A Métis woman reflects on the violence enacted on the bodies and lands of Indigenous people, especially women, in the United States.

A philosopher and prospective father wonders if things in the world are hopeful enough to bring children into it.

A Black Christian writer discovers the sacredness of rage.

An immigrant falls back in love with her culture and yearns to pass it along to her children.

When fighting monsters, we risk becoming monstrous.

After Rachel Held Evans died, Jeff Chu was there to finish her final book.

Reading scripture from the margins can change everything.

Vanessa Zoltan wanted to know if her childhood favorite ‘Jane Eyre’ stands the test of time. What she found can breathe new life into our favorite books.

Alex Zamalin shows how civility has been used to perpetuate oppression in the United States.

Ayala Fader examines the lives of hidden heretics within ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities.

Anna Sale knows how to talk about hard things like death, sex, money, family, and identity.

Taylor Petrey traces the development of doctrine about gender and sexuality within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Lauren Sandler shines a light on homelessness in America through the experience of a young pregnant mother in New York City.