In this episode of Coffee & Cocoa, the real-life mother and daughter dynamics come out. What starts as a lighthearted discussion about EFY and church youth culture triggers feelings and frustrations, and leads to a more emotional disagreement about deeper issues and conflicting values. What are the motivations behind church programs and policies? Are they achieving what the church would hope? Are they actually bearing good fruit?

They don’t agree on everything in the end, but they do something even harder. They lean in, call out the feelings and the disagreements, listen to each other, and end with saying “I love you” and meaning it. If you’ve ever had a conversation that unexpectedly turned into an argument, and you didn’t know what to do about it, you will want to listen to this episode.

Maintaining family relationships can be difficult in the best of times, but when one or more family members decides to leave the faith that the family once shared, it can be especially challenging.

This episode is part two of Kimberly and Kari sharing some of the specific lessons they have learned about rebuilding their relationship after they found themselves on different sides of the faith divide. Who goes first when it comes to reaching out? What can you do when you think it’s the other person who needs to change? And how do you learn to accept each other when you disagree about really important things?

If you really want to reconnect with someone you love who doesn’t believe the same things you do, don’t miss this episode.

If you are in the thick of trying to rebuild your family relationships after someone has gone through a faith transition, this is the episode you have been waiting for.

In this episode, Kimberly and Kari get down to the real “how to” of healing relationships. Drawing on their own ongoing experience, they describe what has worked for them and what they wish they could have done better. They talk about how to take care of your own emotional well-being, and why that is such a vital part of healing relationships. They share mistakes that they made, as well the things that made it possible for them to come back together, and to keep coming back.

Listen now and tune in next week for part 2, and then share this with someone who needs help reconnecting with someone they love.

What are we actually talking about when we talk about religion? Is it possible that we are just using different words to describe experiences we all have in common?

In this episode of Coffee & Cocoa, recorded shortly after Easter, Kimberly and Kari discuss the themes of death and renewal that are part of the Christian holiday, and how they are echoed in the pagan celebrations that came before. They consider how the stories we tell shape what we believe, and how we choose and change our beliefs.

Along the way they talk about new hymns, old family traditions, feeling the spirit at women’s hockey games, and what they believe is ultimately true.

You might come away from this episode reconsidering some of your own beliefs.

What actually changes people's minds about the queer community? Not arguments. Not policy debates. Not conference talks. It's the minute you know someone you love is queer.

In this episode, Kari and Kimberly discuss the intersection of the LDS church and the LGBTQ community and their journeys to allyship. They talk about the ways that the church culture felt incompatible with their experiences, about some of the people they knew, loved, and admired who identified on the queer spectrum, the inner conflicts they felt, and how each of them resolved those conflicts. They consider David Archuleta’s memoir about leaving the church, Charlie Bird’s recent account of how his bishop handled him moving into a new ward as a married gay man, and what Pres. Oaks meant when he recently said, “Surround yourself with people who believe” (spoiler: Kari doesn’t think that means excluding anyone).

This episode doesn't tell anyone what to do. It just asks the question: what happens when you actually open up and listen?

In this episode, Kari and Kimberly take on purity culture. They talk about what they were taught about sex growing up in the LDS church and the lasting damage that sexual repression does to individuals, relationships, and families.

They discuss the difference between protecting children and shaming them, the double standard between men and women, why repression doesn't work and what sexual integration looks like instead, and the real harm done when institutions neglect teaching about consent. Drawing on the work of LDS sex therapist Jennifer Finlayson-Fife, they explore what it might look like to raise children with a healthier, more honest relationship with their bodies and sexuality whether inside or outside the church.

If you have ever carried shame about your body, your desires, or your choices, and wondered if that shame was actually deserved, you will relate to this episode.

Just a note before you listen: we do use the word "Mormon" a lot. We both grew up using the word and Kimberly left the church before 2018 when President Nelson gave his landmark talk. While we mean no offense, we understand that it might be uncomfortable for some, so we invite you to take that into consideration before listening.

What does Twilight have to do with the afterlife? More than you'd think.

Kari and Kimberly turn a lighthearted conversation about vampires, eternal life, and Bella Swan's questionable life choices into a doorway into something deeper... what they actually hope is true about what comes after this life. Along the way they talk about Mormon funerals, "TK Smoothies", and how leaving the church meant Kimberly had to grieve goodbyes she'd once assumed were temporary.

They end up somewhere surprisingly tender. Not on certainty, but on what they'd actually want eternity to feel like if it exists. Not perfection, not an eternity of sameness, but continued relationships. More Thanksgivings. More inside jokes. More of each other.

This episode will make you want to hold your family close now and forever.

Content note: This episode contains references to sexual assault and suicidal thoughts. Please take care of yourself as you listen.

In this episode Kimberly tells her faith story in complete for the very first time. She traces her faith journey from a baptism interview at age eight where she first understood she had a choice, through a turbulent adolescence shaped by strict rules, broken trust, and a painful experience she couldn't talk to anyone about, to the moment her shelf finally broke and she decided she would never return to the church.

But this episode is about more than faith deconstruction. It's about what happens to a mother and daughter relationship when rule-following becomes more important than safety, when fear of a child leaving the church quietly destroys the very thing it was meant to protect, and what it takes to find your way back to each other.

Kari and Kimberly don't pull their punches. They don't pretend it was fine. And at the end, they say I love you and mean it.

If you are an LDS mother who is afraid of losing your child, this episode is for you. If you are an adult child who has never been able to find the words to help your mother understand, this episode might say them for you