Billions of people read the Christmas story in the Bible each year. The Gospel of Luke in particular tells the oft-repeated story of Joseph, Mary, and the nativity. In this New Testament interview, S. Kent Brown discusses the events leading up to the Christmas story in Luke.
Emmeline B. Wells was one of the most important Latter-day Saint women in Utah’s early history. She knew the prophet Joseph Smith, served with Eliza R. Snow, and was friends with Susan B. Anthony. In this interview, Cherry Silver and Sheree Bench talk about their work on the Diaries of Emmeline B. Wells, and share insights from the pioneer suffragist’s life.
The plural wives of Joseph Smith are the focus of Todd Compton’s book, In Sacred Loneliness: The Documents. As a sequel to his 1997 volume, The Documents provides the primary sources Compton used in his book about Joseph Smith’s polygamous marriages. In this interview, Todd Compton discusses his new publication, shares thoughts about reactions to his research, and provides highlights from his book.
Nineteenth century Latter-day Saint missionaries preached to many different cultures, including Europeans, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders. At the same time, their home lives were complicated by the practice of polygamy and the long absences of the men as they served missions abroad. In this interview, Imperial Zions author Amanda Hendrix-Komoto discusses the complicated intersections of race, family, respectability, and settlement that Latter-day Saints experienced in Utah and abroad in service of their religion.
After attending a Relief Society meeting in 1857, Wilford Woodruff recorded in his journal that “the house was full of females.” As someone who practiced plural marriage instituted by the Prophet Joseph Smith, the comment could have applied to Woodruff’s home life. In this interview, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich discusses how early Latter-day Saint sources shed light on female authority and plural marriage.
Susa Young Gates was one of the first members of the church to learn about the vision of the redemption of the dead. Joseph F. Smith told her about his revelatory experience before it was publicly known. In this interview, historian Lisa Olsen Tait tralks about the relationship between Susa Young Gates and the prophet—and what happened the night she learned about the vision.
Clare Middlemiss was one of only two women to serve as secretary to a president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She sometimes went to extremes in her role as a gatekeeper to President O. McKay, but also had an active influence on the First Presidency—and Church bureaucracy as we know it today. In this interview, Greg Prince explains how Clare Middlemiss left her mark.
Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI) is known as America’s first department store. Founded by Brigham Young in 1869, the store played a central role in the early Utah economy. Nineteenth pioneers saw ZCMI as a tool to eliminate poverty—and it was a requirement for Latter-day Saints to shop there. In this interview, Jeffrey Paul Thompson explains the fascinating history of the ZCMI department store in Salt Lake City.
Most Latter-day Saints know about Truman G. Madsen. His Joseph Smith tapes continue to influence the rising generation—and it’s hard to talk about Latter-day Saint theology without mentioning his influence. But his wife, Ann Madsen, is every bit the disciple-scholar that he was. In this interview, she describes the bookend years of their lives—including the three things Truman told her just before he passed away.
Faith and science are often seen as conflicting approaches in the search for truth—including within the Latter-day Saint community. For example, Joseph Fielding Smith and B. H. Roberts disagreed about whether science or scripture should take priority in the debate over evolution (see the story in Saints 3). In this interview. Dr. Jamie L. Jensen explains that faith and science are symbiotic pathways to truth.