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‘Mormon Land’: The Atlantic’s McKay Coppins explores the LDS Church’s quest for approval, its future, and his interview with President Russell Nelson

The reporter touches on issues ranging from politics to race, community to missions, the Word of Wisdom to the “Book of Mormon” musical .

In a lengthy essay in The Atlantic posted online Wednesday, reporter McKay Coppins examines The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its history as “The Most American Religion.”

In a subtitle, the article states: “Perpetual outsiders, Mormons spent 200 years assimilating to a certain national ideal — only to find their country in an identity crisis. What will the third century of the faith look like?”

Coppins looks backward and forward, not as a dispassionate observer, but through his own lens as a practicing Latter-day Saint. He talks with scholars and politicians, insiders and outsiders, leaders and laypersons, even church President Russell M. Nelson.

In this week’s podcast, Coppins discusses a host of issues — from politics to race, community to missions, the Word of Wisdom to the “Book of Mormon” musical — and his Nelson interview, which began with a prayer.

All of this and more as Coppins explores the path Mormonism has followed and what steps the Utah-based faith could — and should — take as it treads into its next hundred years.

Listen here: