2025 year in review with Deseret News editors Doug Wilks and Sarah Jane Weaver
Church News
Church News
4.8 • 873 Ratings
🗓️ 30 December 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
2025 was a year of milestones, mourning and inspiration for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Celebratory stories included President Dallin H. Oaks becoming the 18th President of the Church, the announcement of 55 new missions opening around the world, and the 175th anniversary of the Deseret News (from which the Church News began as a section in 1931). These stories were offset by stories of loss, including the death of President Russell M. Nelson at the age of 101, a deadly attack on a Church meetinghouse in Michigan, and the death of members of the Church in an auto accident in southern Africa.
For Deseret News executive editor Doug Wilks and former Church News editor and current Deseret News editor Sarah Jane Weaver, the gospel of Jesus Christ has helped them find personal comfort as they covered the news for their readers. They join Church News editor Jon Ryan Jensen to discuss the events of 2025.
The Church News podcast is a weekly podcast that invites listeners to make a journey of connection with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints across the globe. Hosts Jon Ryan Jensen, editor of the Church News, and Church News reporter Mary Richards share unique views of the stories, events, and people who form this international faith. With each episode, listeners are asked to embark on a journey to learn from one another and ponder, “What do I know now?” because of the experience. Produced by KellieAnn Halvorsen.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In every story that we do, as we describe something that's happened, we look for a solution. |
| 0:13.0 | Is there something else that can happen, whether it's with the environment or with policy? |
| 0:17.0 | And you just keep trying to do what the Lord wants you to do. |
| 0:21.6 | And in whatever capacity you have, whether it's being a BYU student and going forth to serve, |
| 0:27.6 | being a great football player and, you know, seeking excellence in whatever you're doing, |
| 0:32.6 | or trying to chronicle the events that are taking place currently, |
| 0:36.6 | whether it's in a more secular |
| 0:38.8 | vein or through the eyes of the church. And we try to do both. So the lesson that I take |
| 0:44.7 | is everything is personal. Every single story is personal. This is John Ryan Jensen, editor of the Church News. |
| 0:57.2 | Welcome to the Church News podcast. |
| 0:59.4 | Today we're taking you on a journey of connection as we discuss news and events of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. |
| 1:21.2 | In our final church news podcast of 2025, we want to take a look back at some of the events of the year as they relate to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other events that happened around the world. |
| 1:28.8 | And we're excited to be joined today by the executive editor of Deseret News, Doug Wilkes, and the editor of Deserette News, Sarah Jane Weaver. |
| 1:31.8 | Thank you both for being here today. Thanks for having it. Good to be here. Thank you. |
| 1:41.1 | I want to start first by congratulating the two of you for 175 years that was celebrated this year by the Deseret News of journalistic excellence. |
| 1:49.1 | What a great year to be at the Desiret News. Yeah, it's sometimes we feel like we've been here for all 175 years, but clearly we haven't. |
| 1:54.4 | But it started in 1850. We had a celebration. We had Arthur Brooks here to help us commemorate really the efforts and just the many, many changes. But I don't know if there's |
| 2:00.6 | another newspaper that has had the same ownership since its foundation. really the efforts and just the many, many changes. But I don't know if there's another |
| 2:01.3 | newspaper that has had the same ownership since its foundation as the Desert News has. |
| 2:06.4 | And I love contemplating the 175th anniversary of the Desert News because it helped me |
| 2:11.9 | understand why we have the Desert News and what we're trying to accomplish today. Because |
| 2:16.6 | in 1847, when Brigham Young and Saints came to this valley, one of the first things |
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