Finding Joy After Mormonism w/ Sharon Beesley | Ep. 2079
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.6 • 5.2K Ratings
🗓️ 3 November 2025
⏱️ 153 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Mormon Stories, John and Margi Dehlin sit down with Sharon Beesley, a therapist, writer and former Mormon “mommy blogger,” to explore the evolution of her faith journey in Mormonism.
Sharon was brought into the church as a child in Florida when her mother chose to convert. She discusses the warmth and community she found in her ward there, and the early testimonies that grounded her. Yet her story also weaves through deep loss with the death of her mother, and how that grief initially drew her closer to the Church.
Sharon attended BYU, got married, and set out to live the ideal Mormon lifestyle. Their family ultimately ended up in New York city, where Sharon began to find relationships with people outside the church. With this move, her worldview began to shift as she encountered new ideas about faith, feminism, and authenticity.
Topics Include:
-Growing up Mormon in Florida
-Coping with grief through faith
-Marriage, motherhood, and mixed-faith relationships
Feminism
This episode offers a gentle, wise, and grounding perspective for anyone navigating faith transitions, loss, or rediscovering joy beyond belief.
___________________
At Mormon Stories we explore, celebrate, and challenge Mormon culture through in-depth stories told by members and former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as scholars, authors, LDS apologists, and other professionals.
Our overall mission is to:
1. Facilitate informed consent amongst LDS Church members, investigators, and non-members regarding Mormon history, doctrine, and theology
2. Support Mormons (and members of other high-demand religions) who are experiencing a religious faith crisis
3. Promote healing, growth and community for those who choose to leave the LDS Church or other high demand religions
🤝Help us continue to deliver quality content by becoming a donor today
One-time or recurring donations: https://donorbox.org/mormon-stories?default_interval=m
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mormonstories
Venmo: https://account.venmo.com/u/mormonstories
Paypal: https://paypal.me/mormonstories
Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx6OgmoqJbOVRq-Lv1P7SzA/join
Our Platforms:
🌐Mormon Stories Blog: https://www.mormonstories.org/episodes
🎙️Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mormonstories
✳️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4sDzk7dRjODTSEqzZKZJzk?si=148b0efc1ccc4404&nd=1
🍎Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mormon-stories-lds/id312094772
🖼️Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mormstories
📱TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mormonstoriespodcast
🎮Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kuX5p6yyjF
Contact us:
📬PO Box 171085, Salt Lake City, UT 84117
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone and welcome to another additional Mormon stories podcast. I am your co-host for today, |
| 0:04.6 | John DeLinn. It is October 22nd, 2025. And the title for today is Gardens After Eden. Is that |
| 0:14.0 | intriguing? I hope it is. You know, a lot of times people ask for kind of an everyday Mormon story. |
| 0:22.1 | And I don't think there's such thing as an everyday Mormon story. But today we have a fun, thoughtful, interesting |
| 0:28.6 | Mormon story. And we have Sharon Beasley in the house. Hey, Sharon. Hi. Thanks for joining us. |
| 0:34.7 | Thanks for having me. She lives in, let's just say, the New York, New England kind of area. |
| 0:41.1 | I won't be specific. |
| 0:42.4 | I'll let you be specific if you want to. |
| 0:45.1 | She happens to be a therapist, but also we discovered her from a cool blog that Margie was reading. |
| 0:50.9 | Do you want to tell that story, Margie? |
| 0:52.6 | Yeah. |
| 0:53.4 | So occasionally I, uh, |
| 0:56.4 | read a blog called Cup of Joe and one morning. I think it was the, was it the style, you know, |
| 1:05.3 | like the uniform? Yes. Or the, anyway, she has like, Joe Mormon blog or not a Mormon blog? |
| 1:11.2 | No, no. |
| 1:11.6 | What is the, |
| 1:12.2 | just described? |
| 1:12.8 | She's a very popular, uh, kind of daily blog. |
| 1:16.5 | She's been around for a long time. |
| 1:19.1 | Check it out. |
| 1:19.8 | We're very pro Joanna Goddard around here. |
| 1:22.8 | But anyway, it was just, um, serendipity really. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 3 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr. John Dehlin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Dr. John Dehlin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.