ALSSI News
October 2025
Hello!
October saw the end of our book signing events for the year. Thanks for everyone who generously helped us put on these events, and came out to support us. Whew! 2025 has been a busy one at ALSSI!
We wrapped up in high style by spending a weekend together at the Center for Action and Contemplation’s ReVision conference in Albuquerque in the company of a few old friends and many new ones, pondering the question: “What do we do with Christianity?” It was a perfect reward at the end of what has felt like a long race.
Another October Highlight …
was recording a conversation called The Spiritual Practice of Speaking Up with Aubrey and Tim Chaves, for an episode of their Faith Matters podcast.
From the episode intro: “For the past six years, Susan and Cynthia have been inviting women into conversations that began as honest exchanges between friends about big ideas and the real tensions of belonging to a church they both love and feel challenged by. What they’ve learned is that talking about hard things can be its own kind of faith practice—a way to bring your whole heart to your faith and your community, a way of being known.”
What a beautiful description! We couldn’t have described our goals and hopes for this whole project any better.
(You can revisit our very first Embracing Your Journey episode, which was a conversation with Aubrey Chaves, here!)
Speaking of watching/listening—
We’re finally dipping our ALSSI toe into the YouTube waters. We’re not going to begin adding video to our podcast; however, this does give you another place to listen, and we’re working on adding some short video introductions to a few previous episodes. There’s also a cache of shorts from previous episodes, like the one below.
Follow us on YouTube here, and watch for more content to be added soon!
Call for volunteers
Got a little space in your schedule, and a passion for the ALSSI community?
Many thanks to all of you who help out in so many ways, whether it’s showing up to support us and each other, or volunteering when we call for help!
Right now, we have a few things we could use additional help with:
We’re looking for new transcript volunteers. Helpers will receive a transcription of an episode that could use a little TLC to check for errors and correct as needed. If you have time and would like to adopt an episode transcript to polish up, please send us an email.
This one’s bigger, and we can offer a small stipend: We’re in need of ongoing social media help. Do you have a flair for creating eye-catching posts? How about slides and/or reels? We’d love to talk to you!
Call for Contributors
Got a story to share?
We have a place you can share it! We want your voicemails, and your Say More contributions too. To get you thinking, here are a few possible ideas from our Say More submission guidelines:
Any topic we’ve done a podcast episode on
We Don’t Believe Our Own Stuff: (fill in the blank)
Reflections on your personal faith journey
Reviews of books that are personally meaningful
Scriptures reimagined through a feminist lens
Insights on upcoming CFM lessons
Why you stay/Why you can’t
The complexity of raising kids
Things you wish you’d hear at church
Living with presence
Anything else you can think of!
Send submissions and queries to: atlastshewritesit@gmail.com
Voicemails are included at the end of every episode and are 90 seconds, so it helps to plan what you want to say before you hit record so you can be sure to get it all in. You can leave a voicemail by clicking here.
Questions? Ask us at: atlastshesaidit@gmail.com
At Last She Read It Book Club
Time to get these dates on your calendar for next year! Our first quarterly meeting will be:
Thursday
January 22, 2026
7:00 pm Mtn
Start reading now, and stay tuned here and on our website for upcoming registration info!
Friday Live Chats!
While you’ve got your calendar open, pop in these dates for our Friday Live Chats! These Zoom gatherings are for all paid subscribers, and we drop the link in our regular Substack chat space right before the meeting starts at 10:00 am Mtn.
No need to register!
Fridays:
November 7
November 21
10:00 am Mtn
Remember, we don’t want anyone to miss out! If you can’t swing a subscription now, drop us an email—no need to explain! no questions asked!—and we’ll gladly hook you up.
Upcoming Episodes:
Believe it or not, we’re getting ready to wrap Season 10 at the end of November. We’ve loved all our conversations focused on change and navigating transitions! We hope you’ve loved them too. Here’s what’s still ahead:
11/4 Embracing Your Journey | A Conversation with Whitney Call
11/11 What About the Word of Wisdom? | A Conversation with Linda Hamilton
11/18 Let’s Talk About Some Stuff (still a working title!)
11/25 On Curiosity (Season Finale)
Thanks for being here!
We just can’t say it enough. 🧡🍁🧡🍁🧡
—Susan and Cynthia
Such a great season! Thanks for bringing us all this wonderful wisdom and such a fulfilling community ❤️
"Saturday night’s session of Stake Conference (7pm) will be a unique experience / opportunity. As a Stake Presidency, we have felt impressed to hold a “Question / Answer” session. Potential questions might revolve around a myriad of things including the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Prophet Joseph Smith, priesthood keys, the fascinating history of the Church, the current role of the Church in society today, the gathering of Israel, ordinances and covenants, discipleship, the doctrine of the family, the Second Coming, etc. There are so many things we could potentially discuss that would be edifying and faith promoting."
I have to admit, this email from the Stake President got me interested in attending the Saturday night session. Would it actually be anything like this? I sent them two questions... one involving women and patriarchy and one regarding Prophets, Seers and Revelators. I told them I was biting and would attend. No I didn't expect them to answer my questions.
Disappointed that the first two questions involved preparing our young men for missions (and that it is their duty) and strengthening marriages and took up the bulk of the time. And then this question went up on the screen. "With the ongoing restoration of the Gospel, how can we amplify women's voices?" And the response was to listen to sisters in ward councils. BUT one sister in the congregation pushed back, and asked a follow-up question "is it doctrine or just because it has always been this way that there are no women answering these questions tonight... only men?" They did step back and say that there was no doctrine preventing that, to which she said, "but there are no women doing it tonight." Bravo! And they quickly went to the next question.
My wife has correctly described what happens at Church as mostly "Charlie Brown's teacher blah, blah, blah and blah." Nothing new or exciting. While I was disappointed in the questions they addressed (other than this one), I hope the Stake Presidency takes the time to really ponder the 100+ questions they said they received... and I hope some of them were the meat of what we should be discussing.