This episode focuses on the recent sister missionary age change from 19 to 18. I actually really love this for a number of reasons. I talk about those, and I also highlight results from a study I led several years ago about the leadership development gained by women serving full-time missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint. Listen in!

UWLP Mission Study: The Leadership Development Gained by Women Serving Full-Time Missions

In September of 2025, the Utah Foundation – a partnerorganization that I have respected for years – published a report titled, “Households and Heritages: How Family Health Hooks into Social Capital.” The report begins with a statement that aligns with Latter-day Saint beliefs: “Family is the basic building block of society and a core component of social capital. Stable families provide ways for children to socialize and develop emotionally and intrinsically. The larger community benefits from this stability, especially when family connections are strong.” This report provides some results that are a little surprising in terms of Utah's ranking in reading to your children, screentime, eating dinner together, and overall time spent with the family.

RESOURCES: https://www.utahfoundation.org/reports/households-and-heritages-how-family-health-hooks-into-social-capital-index-metrics/

Dr. Chelom Leavitt is an amazing person with a fascinating background, from attending law school at BYU to later earning a Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from Penn State. She now works as an associate professor at BYU where she studies healthy sexuality in committed relationships, including sexuality and mindfulness, and how women experience and contribute to sex differently than men. Sounds interesting? Well, I recorded this a year or two ago and felt it was a good time to re-release it again. You won't hear this type of conversation in the Church often, but it is so important! Listen in.