LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories

How does Jesus Christ make up the difference when life feels unfair, overwhelming, or beyond our ability to fix?

In this week’s episode of Latter-Day Lights, Scott and Darla Brandley sit down with BYU professor and author, BJ Allen, to explore the concept of “the compensating power of Christ,” and how these unique revelations led him to write and publish his Praiseworthy Award-winning book. What started as a mere desire to better un...

How can small acts of understanding make a big difference in someone’s spiritual journey?

In this week’s episode of Latter-day Lights, Scott Brandley sits down with father-daughter duo — Robert Johnson and Liberty Kepford — to share the inspiration behind their book, “Autism in Christ’s Church.” Drawing from their extensive experience working with, interviewing, and studying the behaviors of individuals on the spectrum, they explore...

What do you do when God’s plan for your life looks completely different from the one you carefully mapped out?

In this week’s episode of Latter-day Lights, Scott and Emily sit down with author and special guest — Tayma Johnson — to share her journey from never planning to serve a mission, to feeling unmistakably called by the Lord to step into the unknown. Through moments of prayer, spiritual prompting, and unexpected mundane confir...

What have we learned after four years and nearly 200 stories of faith?

As the show passes the four-year mark, long-time co-host Alicia Coakley shares why she is reluctantly stepping away, and together she and Scott revisit several moments of hope, healing, and inspiration that have changed their lives and those of the Latter-Day Lights community.

From heart-wrenching accounts of pain, loss, and difficult trials ...

How do you keep pursuing your dreams when rejection, discouragement, and life’s responsibilities seem to stand in the way?

In this week’s episode of Latter-day Lights, Scott and Darla Brandley sit down with U.S. Today’s bestselling author, Heather B. Moore, to hear how she built a full-time writing career through perseverance, prayer, and years of steady effort, despite the mountain of rejections as a new name to the publi...

What happens when everything you’ve built your life on falls apart in the blink of an eye?

In this week’s episode of Latter-day Lights, special guest Clint Huston shares his deeply personal journey from being raised in the Church and appearing to do everything “right” on the outside, to an affair that led to divorce, a battle with pornography addiction, excommunication, and the painful loss of identity that followed. Until, at his l...

What opportunities are possible like when faith, creativity, and technology collide later in life?

In this week’s episode of Latter-day Lights, Scott and Emily sit down once again with former Bering Sea Captain and guest, Jake Jacobsen, to explore a life-changing chapter of his journey—using AI and modern technology to bring decades-old lyrics, spiritual reflections, and life stories to life through music and video.

After spending ne...

How do we build spiritual resilience and encourage the youth of today to do the same?

To celebrate the anticipated release of her latest book, “Covenant Power,” Scott and Emily sit down with author, seminary teacher, and temple ordinance worker Sharla Goettl to explore what spiritual resilience really means, and how it’s formed over time.

Drawing from her first book, “Spiritual Resilience,” and leading into three years of wrestling w...

How do you keep your faith in God when grief keeps rewriting the life you always dreamed of?

In this week’s episode of Latter-Day Lights, Scott and Emily sit down with author, mother, and Praiseworthy Award Winner Anneka Walker, to explore how faith, loss, and creativity brought about healing and renewed purpose into her journey as a writer.

When multiple miscarriages and high-risk pregnancies crushed her dreams of becoming a mother ...

When life feels uncertain and stakes are high on the operating table, how do we learn to trust in the Lord’s plan?

On this week’s episode of Latter-Day Lights, Scott and Emily sit down with Dr. Mark T. Saunders, a semi-retired OB/GYN whose quiet, faithful listening opened the door to dozens of sacred and miraculous stories. While conducting his routinely in-home medical visits, Mark found that his patients—often without pr...

When depression shapes the life of the person you love the most, will your faith hold—or begin to break under the pressure?

In this week’s episode of Latter-Day Lights, Scott and Emily sit down with Amanda Harms — a counselor, mother of six, and newly minted PhD in social psychology — to share her personal journey through supporting a spouse living with chronic depression.

With mental illness and frayed communication leading to years...

How does Jesus reach for us when we’re convinced we can never return back to Him?

In this week's episode of Latter-Day Lights, Tyler Christen—a returned soldier and lifelong Latter-Day Saint who spent years in and out of the Church—shares his raw, unfiltered journey through addiction, isolation, spiritual darkness, and repeated attempts to walk away from the Gospel.

From battling the temptations of pornograph...

How can the ancient Hebrew language unlock a deeper way of listening to Christ with our whole heart, soul, and might?

In this week’s episode of Latter-Day Lights, Scott Brandley and guest co-host Emily Hemmert sit down with Dr. Trina Boice—university professor, longtime author, avid scripture educator, and Hebrew enthusiast—to explore the “Via Dolorosa,” more commonly known as the sorrowful path Christ walked from condemnation to cr...

What if the trials in your life were actually invitations to hear God more clearly?

In this episode, Leilani Speck shares her touching story—from being adopted and growing up in a foster home, to early encounters with real spiritual darkness, sacred moments with angels, and a life of service that included a rare stake mission pilot program and the Hill Cumorah Pageant.

Along the way, she faced some incredibly hard...

How do you hold onto faith when life takes a turn you never expected?

On this week’s episode of Latter-day Lights, early-returned missionary Kenley Broadbent opens up about the day everything changed on her Peru Lima East mission. What started as occasional migraines spiraled into debilitating dizziness, nausea, and unexplained symptoms that eventually sent her home just nine months into her service.

Kenley shares the heartbreak of f...

What if God called you to build something far bigger than yourself?

In this inspiring and educational episode of Latter-Day Lights, former plastic surgeon-turned-sculptor and painter Steve Neal shares how a lifetime of small artistic promptings—and a powerful temple experience—led him to an unexpected divine calling: building The Monument of The Americas, a large-scale Book of Mormon and American covenant sculpture park in Heber Val...

What happens when divine identity collides with self-doubt—Can our fears become the doorway to purpose?

This week on Latter-Day Lights, fellow author, podcaster, and life coach Cassidy Beck shares her deeply personal journey through imposter syndrome. After interviewing her father during his final moments on Earth, in an attempt to write his life’s story, she found herself creatively blocked after his passing, in doubt that she woul...

When tragedy strikes not once but twice, how do you keep your faith — and your loved ones — from falling apart?

In this deeply moving episode of Latter-Day Lights, Lawrence and Melissa Stone open up about the unimaginable loss of their children due to a driving accident and miscarriage. But from the heartbreak, take us through a journey of rebuilding faith, marriage, and hope through grief. From heartache to healing and He...

What do you do when the people who were supposed to protect you… become the source of your deepest wounds?

In this unforgettable episode of Latter-Day Lights, author Calvin Bagley shares his extraordinary journey from isolation, abuse, and “no-schooling” in the Utah desert to faith, healing, and freedom. Once a boy who hid from the school bus, Calvin now helps others overcome trauma and reclaim their lives through faith, t...