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PODCAST

Latter Day Struggles

Valerie Hamaker

The Latter Day Struggles Podcast addresses beliefs and issues within the LDS faith that are challenging to talk about but vital to discuss for those trying to navigate their relationship in or around the church. Valerie and her guests invite psychological maturity, theological health, and institutional integrity.

health & fitness mental health

All Episodes

48:50

361: I'm Sharing My Life with This Stranger?

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/09/01

Send us a Positive Review! In this heartwarming episode, Val is the guest on the Therapy Brothers podcast hosted by brothers & fellow relationship therapists Brannon and Tyler Patrick. The topic is navigating the choppy waters of a marriage in distress due to the faith journey of one of the partners--a demographic of couples that is multiplying rapidly. The bottom line? A faith transition can (and has) weakened or destroyed many a marriage. But guess what? ...

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49:18

359: Holy Betrayal: When Men Betray Patriarchal...

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/08/25

Send us a Positive Review! In this episode Valerie is the guest on the podcast Black & White & Gold hosted by Carly and Rob Allred where they engage in a compelling conversation on gender and faith. Valerie is becoming the prominent voice for the LDS Church advocating for educating men around the harms of patriarchal indoctrination on male development. This work is yielding good results as more and more LDS men are becoming feminists in their own right and are declining traditio...

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78:15

357: Hands Off My Soul!

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/08/18

Send us a Positive Review! In this episode Valerie is guest on the Parrish the Thought podcast where Brian Parrish interviews Val on the resistance she experienced from local priesthood leaders as a mental health worker tending to the complex issues of faith crisis in an institution that has yet to understand either the faith journey itself or widespread mental/relational/spiritual health issues that come from pathologizing the faith journey. As we all know—fear of church leaders did n...

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63:46

355: Finding Myself in the Wilderness of LDS: A Tale...

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/08/11

Send us a Positive Review! In this episode, Valerie shares an inspiring journey of self-discovery and spiritual growth with The Wholeness Network. The theme was Brene Brown's exploration of the concept of "Braving the Wilderness" and on the heels of three years of learning to live & love one's truth at a potentially high social cost, Val felt that she had a couple of things to say about this. This episode is a sharing of history, emotion on both ends of the spectrum and...

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58:47

353: Introducing Latter Day Struggles 2.0:...

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/08/04

Send us a Positive Review! In this exciting solo episode, Valerie reflects on the profound personal growth she has experienced over the past few months and shares her plans for what she is informally dubbing the "Latter Day Struggles 2.0" era. In some ways, you will continue to get what you have come to expect--a respectful & honest conversation about all things Mormon through the lens of healthy psychology. Where 2.0 is going to shine is in several upcoming "Transcendi...

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58:41

351: Mormon Momma Turned Maverick

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/07/28

Send us a Positive Review! In this episode Val is a guest on the Join Latter Day Digest podcast & what unfolds is the very unlikely story that led to Val's and Nathan's eventual 'outlaw' status within the LDS church. Why is this so odd? Because this couple could not have been more traditionally believing for the majority of their lives--including spending most of their marriage following all of the traditional scripts of Mormonism...which in some ways worked and in other ways ...

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65:10

349: LIVE Q&A Recording: Val Talks Politics,...

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/07/21

Send us a Positive Review! Missed the LIVE Q&A where Val recently answered the flood of questions that have come in on the heels of her & Nathan's brave series venturing into the realm of politics, polarization & human/cultural evolution of consciousness? In this Q&A Val takes some very challenging questions and walks you through ways in which politics & religion are reflections how people make sense of some of their ultimate concerns about themselves & others.&n...

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72:08

347: Public Voices: Navigating an LDS Culture of...

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/07/14

Send us a Positive Review! In this episode Valerie is the guest on the thought-provoking Inside Out Podcast, one of the first podcasts to interview her following the dramatic events that led up to the Hamakers' decision to resign from the LDS church rather than collude in an excommunication process that they did not endorse as ethical, legitimate, or appropriate. This episode takes you through Val's early life and path leading to her current work and delves into the challenges she...

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66:50

345: Heavenly Momma Drama: Navigating Fear &...

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/07/07

Send us a Positive Review! In this episode Val is a guest on the wonderful In Her Image Podcast to discuss the complex emotional journey of awakening to the divine feminine. They explore common emotional responses to one's realization that s/he has been estranged from half of deity for one's whole life, awakening to the power that many of us give away in allowing others to define who the Divine is, and how this journey almost always leads to the need to redefine one's relationship with the LD...

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53:25

343: Not Fragile Like a Flower, Fragile Like a Bomb

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/06/30

Send us a Positive Review! In this episode Valerie is interviewed by her good friends and fellow podcasters Susan Hinckley and Cynthia Wynward and the three talk about what it is like to be outspoken women in a 21st Century church that is not so sure what to do with this kind of woman. They are candid in their experiences, struggles, and insecurities as they figure out their own faith journeys somewhat in the public eye while walking with thousands of others through their own complex experien...

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44:50

341: Candid Conversation about Current LDS...

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/06/23

Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: In-depth Exploration of Patriarchy & its Correlation to Violence & Abuse [Part VIII of X] Join Val & Nathan as they respectfully lean into specific risk factors associated with formalized patriarchal religious institutions (including the LDS church) & how these vulnerabilities play out in very real ways. They also explore how our children can eventually become safer as their caregivers become educated & reach a critical mass o...

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51:59

339: Patriarchal Church Structures & Heightened Risk...

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/06/16

Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: In-depth Exploration of Patriarchy & its Correlation to Violence & Abuse [Part VIIof X] In today's episode, Val & Nathan walk through the layered risk factors around spousal violence/abuse that married couples are exposed to when belonging to a formalized institutional patriarchal church. Reinforcement of male authority, inadequately trained clergy offering counseling services, isolation from external oversight/support, and tendencies to pr...

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48:15

337: Patriarchy & its Connection to LGBTQ+ Violence...

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/06/09

Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: In-depth Exploration of Patriarchy & its Correlation to Violence & Abuse [Part V of X] In this episode Val & Nathan walk through a series of other very common communities where men-on-men violence is normalized--culminating in a discussion that shows clearly that it is not a coincidence that patriarchal structures enforce strict rules on both women & LGBTQ+ people for the same underlying reason. They will walk you through the "rul...

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44:58

335: Patriarchy and the Deeply Embedded "Female Fear...

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/06/02

Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: In-depth Exploration of Patriarchy & its Correlation to Violence & Abuse [Part III of X] In this jaw-dropping episode (at least it was jaw-dropping for Val & Nath to prepare and produce) Val & Nathan talk about the "Female Fear Factory" which is a phrase intended to communicate the implicit rules that girls and women worldwide are taught to follow in order to be safe in this world where patriarchy is treated as a "given" that must be ma...

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30:29

333: Patriarchy & Harm: Proven Connections to Abuse &...

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/05/26

Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: In-depth Exploration of Patriarchy and its Correlation to Violence & Abuse [Part I of X] In this opening episode of this incredibly important series, Val & Nathan offer an overview of what is to come in the episodes that follow. This series has been a labor of love for this couple who care deeply about their Latter-day Saint and surrounding loved ones and want to spread the word far and wide that all patriarchy is harmful but we live in day and...

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41:08

331: Why Very Few Shout: "The Emperor Has No Clothes!"

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/05/19

Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Living in a World of Hypernormalization [Part I of II] In this episode Val shares an update about how she is processing the recent events of her and Nathan's forced resignation in the face of excommunication by looking at this both as a personal issue for them but also plays with the idea that they are playing a symbolic role in a much larger narrative that is unfolding and colliding in both conservative Christian AND conservative political spaces and ...

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57:22

329: The Official Faith Crisis Report: A Backstage...

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/05/12

Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: The 21st Century LDS Church's Ongoing Struggle to Respond to the Realities of Faith & Trust Crisis [Part I of II] Join Val and friend, colleague and returned guest, Dr. Greg Prince as they talk about Greg's involvement in the profoundly important document "The Official Faith Crisis Report". A document that was the first of its kind, it compiled data about struggles in faith and trust that was sweeping the LDS church just after the turn of the centu...

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40:05

327: Jesus Eats with "Outcasts" to Embody that HE...

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/05/05

Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Transcending Church Rules on the PathTowards Genuine Christlike Discipleship w/Russ Hinckley Part III of IV What do you think Jesus would desire that we focus on in our worship services and within our larger lives? In these last two episodes of this series Val invites Russ to share his thoughts on his "Christ Creed", or his "rewrite" of what he thinks Jesus would want his followers to focus on. In this episode they focus their conversation on Jes...

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29:04

🔒 326: People Never Leave Churches Drenched in Jesus...

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/05/02

Subscriber-only episode Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Transcending Church Rules on the Path Towards Genuine Christlike Discipleship w/Russ Hinckley Part II of IV People are leaving religion in higher numbers than ever before, especially following the Covid pandemic. Although there are many factors involved in this phenomenon, Russ and Valerie explore the possibility that people are not feeling that church invites or encourages deep inner transformation--and this is what they ...

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38:34

325: Why Jesus Likely Couldn't Care Less about Church...

Latter Day Struggles ·

2025/04/28

Send us a Positive Review! Series Title: Transcending Church Rules on the Path Towards Genuine Christlike Discipleship w/Russ Hinckley Part I of IV Welcome to a beautiful series featuring guest author Russ Hinckley (who doesn't mind being referred to as Mr. Susan Hinckley of the "At Last She Said It" podcast) where Val and Russ explore his book "Beyond Belief" a radical reinterpretation of what Jesus likely would have those who gathered in his name focus on. In this episode Russ ...

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312 results

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