Jonquilyn Hill

Soda.

It's very interesting.

And there's a pretty good likelihood you'll run across a woman affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I'm Jonqulyn Hill.

And this week on Explain It to Me from Vox, what's behind the Mormon momentum and what happens when pop culture and religion collide?

Okay, so in your latest piece, you write about the rise of Mormon influencers and TV stars, and you talk about a woman who really helped pioneer influencing as we kind of know it today.

Who is she?

Yeah, it's interesting that Mormon women have been pioneering these trends and kind of the way social media works.

We go to church every Sunday with our girls, and we really do plan to kind of just carry on.

Does this influence really feel new?

So Mormons have hit the mainstream.

And it's been nearly 200 years in the making.

That's next.

I'm J.Q., back with Explain It To Me.

Mormonism is at the forefront of American culture, but it wasn't always that way.

To find out how we got here, I called up McKay Coppins.

He's a staff writer at The Atlantic.

He's also Mormon, and he says that members of his church weren't always embraced by the mainstream like they are now.

Yeah, it's interesting.

You know, you write in this piece back in 2020 that Mormonism is kind of the most American religion.