Jewish Never-Mormon Obsessed with Mormonism? - KB Olsen | Ep. 2022

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2025

⏱️ 265 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Katherine Bernard (KB) Olsen is a never-mo (never Mormon) — but also one of the most devoted fans of Mormon Stories Podcast. A queer, secular journalist with deep Jewish roots and a high-fashion pedigree, Katherine has spent over 20 years captivated by the LDS Church — despite never being religious herself. In her first-ever full-length interview about her life story, she opens up about her lifelong curiosity with Mormonism, identity, belief, and American culture.

KB's impressive journalism career includes work at Vogue, New York Times, and other top-tier New York publications. After moving from Maryland to attend NYU for journalism, she found herself drawn not only to art and culture — but also to spirituality, history, and the paradoxes of organized religion. Over the years, her interest in Mormonism became a deep and serious intellectual pursuit.

What You'll Hear in This Interview:

-Her upbringing in a secular household in Maryland

-Her exploration of Jewish identity and eventual conversion

-Her first exposure to Mormonism through South Park, Big Love, and The Book of Mormon musical

-Her emotional journey coming out as gay in a non-supportive environment

-Her reflections on shame, logic, identity, and community

-Her nuanced take on Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and Mormon reality TV

-Her insights into conditioning, religious extremism, and spiritual seeking

This episode is a masterclass in curiosity — how someone with no personal ties to the LDS Church became one of its most thoughtful outside observers. KB explores Mormonism not as a critic or a believer, but as a seeker with a journalist’s eye.

Watch this episode on YouTube here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories Podcast. I'm your host,
0:03.8	Sean DeLinn. It's April 23rd, 2025, and Margie and I are super stoked for today's interview.
0:10.3	Is that right, Margie? Absolutely. As many of you know, we are at Mormon Stories Podcast,
0:16.0	bizarrely, over half of our viewers and listeners have never been Mormon. So we've been trying to feature never Mormons on Mormon stories podcast.
0:23.3	We want to do more.
0:24.6	So apply if you are a never Mormon and want to be on the show.
0:27.6	But today, in her own words, we possibly have the neverest, nevermo that we've ever had on Mormon stories.
0:35.4	Is that right, K.B?
0:36.7	I think so. And I carry that mantle very proudly.
0:41.4	KB. is a freelance journalist and a screenwriter.
0:45.6	She lives in New York City-ish.
0:48.7	She is written for The New York Times.
0:50.5	She's written for Vogue Magazine.
0:52.3	She currently writes for Elle Decor.
0:57.1	And she is freakishly,
1:03.8	as she might say, into Mormons, as awkward as that might sound. Did I do I go too far?
1:09.0	We haven't figured out how else to say it, but hopefully over the course of this conversation, we can have an identity for us, never Mormons, who need a life.
1:15.1	But yeah, but she's never really been, not only never been Mormon, never been married to a Mormon.
1:20.5	She has no Mormon kids, no Mormon extended family or in-laws, never lived in Utah, and has never been really a member of a high demand religion.
1:30.9	So why would this fascinating, thoughtful human be like a Mormon story superfan?
1:39.2	And I don't want to like overstate that.
1:41.3	Like, is that?
	...

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