We begin this week's episode by asking if Gerrit is the reincarnated Apostle Matthias? (He’s not saying he is, but he is also not not saying it.)

Where did the thief on the cross go when he died? If Jesus went to “paradise,” why does Peter say He preached to “spirits in prison”? We read from theologian R.C. Sproul (because nothing says “good time” like Calvinism) and then pivot to Joseph Smith’s sermon teachings that reframe paradise, prison, and the afterlife in a way that resolves contradictions without doing interpretive backflips.

We would love to invite you to join us on Saturday, February 28th, at 6:30 for fun, faith, and frivolity as we make predictions for the 2026 Super Bowl that occurred three weeks earlier and likely talk about who is dead and in hell, part 73. Still not convinced? What if we told you that we combed through all of our litner data to find a venue central the the largest number of litners, but ultimately settled on a location based on how close it was to Richard's house? Click the link below for tickets:

We have had a couple of people cancel for the upcoming 2026 Summer Standard of Truth Tour scheduled for Kirtland/Palmyra, June 14th through the 20th

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After debating the college football national championship (with Richard very much not gambling… while also explaining the VIG in suspicious detail), Gerrit drops a sneak peek announcement: they might do another live event, likely in Davis County, with the goal of raising funds to help get more people to the temple in Kenya on the next Sweetwater Rescue trip.

What are the strongest, most legitimate arguments against faith, the Church, or God in general and how do you faithfully deal with them? Gerrit argues that the most serious challenge isn’t a niche historical complaint or a shallow “gotcha” claim, but the universal human problem: suffering. Why is the world so brutal if God is both good and powerful? He explores how Latter-day Saint doctrine reframes the question through the premortal life, moral agency, and a more expansive view of God’s work and purposes than classical Christian models often allow.

Finally, a listener from Southern Utah writes in with a gem of local folklore: Did Brigham Young really warn that “Gadianton robbers” still infest the area and are they out haunting the desert hills around St. George, Leeds, Apple Valley, and the Arizona mountains? That question kicks off the main theme for the next episode: the Latter-day Saint understanding of the spirit world.

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Standard of Truth Tour dates for the summer of 2027: ⁠ https://standardoftruth.com/tours

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Sign up for our free monthly email: ⁠ ⁠https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com⁠

If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠[email protected]

Standard of Truth Tour dates for the summer of 2027: ⁠ https://standardoftruth.com/tours

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If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠[email protected]

In this episode, we discuss the explosive nature of the Book of Moses and a mob tearing down baptismal dams and dragging a woman away from baptism using power of attorney, 1830s-style. To provide context for the environment in Colesville we talk about Joseph Smith’s narrow escape from violent vigilantes, a heroic constable with a musket, and the early Saints’ intense persecution.

Kristy’s KorneЯ (Last Minute Lesson Prep): the whole episode

Standard of Truth Tour dates for the summer of 2027: ⁠ https://standardoftruth.com/tours

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If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠[email protected]

Merry Christmas! 

In this episode our gift to the greatest litners in all of podcastdom is to bring a conclusion to a 10 part series on who is dead and in hell. We would like to ask that there are no more questions pertaining to Dr. Dirkmaat's dissertation, or a 10 part series on Zachary Taylor will be the shortest thing the podcast produces. 

Thank you for an incredible year. The podcast ends 2025 with a Gerrit's testimony of the Savior and peace that comes through His atoning sacrifice. 

It’s the end of the year, the Spotify “Wrapped” flexing is in full swing, and Richard LeDuc is fresh off hosting a Hanukkah party that looked suspiciously like a full-blown ward social. Gerrit trys to solve the greatest unsolved case of 2025: why Richard’s “most played song” is Massachusetts by the Bee Gees… a song he swears he has never listened to.

After a quick stop at the Phoebe Draper Palmer Brown Mailbag, they jump back into who is Dead and in Hell. Gerrit continues the story of Judge Perry Brocchus’s infamous Bowery speech in 1851, where what was supposed to be a simple patriotic appeal for a Washington Monument donation turns into a full-blown scolding of the Saints for criticizing the U.S. government. The discussion covers why Brocchus’s argument lands so badly with a people who had lived through Missouri and Nauvoo, how Brigham Young responds with one of his sharpest lines (“profoundly ignorant or willfully wicked”), and how the fallout gets weaponized in hostile newspaper coverage accusing the Saints of sedition and rebellion.

Standard of Truth Tour dates for the summer of 2027: ⁠ https://standardoftruth.com/tours

In this episode, Gerrit discusses the back and forth between Joseph Smith III and Joseph F. Smith (remember the F) on the topic of polygamy. The episode closes by setting the stage for the next installment of “Dead and in Hell,” as we return to Judge Brocchus, early Utah politics, and how one disastrously ill-judged conference speech helped light a fuse in territorial Utah.

Kristy’s KorneЯ (Last Minute Lesson Prep): Official Declaration 1

Standard of Truth Tour dates for the summer of 2027: ⁠ https://standardoftruth.com/tours

Our 2026 tours are sold out, but if you would like to join us in the future, here is a link to our 2027 tours: (https://standardoftruth.com/tours/)

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In this episode, we discuss D&C Section 137 and the lessons found in D&C 137:5-7, specifically the faith shown by Joseph Smith regarding the eternal status of his brother Alvin.

5 I saw Father Adam and Abraham⁠; and my father and my mother; my brother Alvin⁠, that has long since slept⁠;

6 And marveled how it was that he had obtained an inheritance in that kingdom, seeing that he had departed this life before the Lord had set his hand to gather Israel the second time, and had not been baptized for the remission of sins.

7 Thus came the voice of the Lord unto me, saying: All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God;

Kristy’s KorneЯ (Last Minute Lesson Prep): the whole episode

Standard of Truth Tour dates for the summer of 2027: ⁠ https://standardoftruth.com/tours

Our 2026 tours are sold out, but if you would like to join us in the future here is a link to our 2027 tours:

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Sign up for our free monthly email: ⁠ ⁠https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com⁠

If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠[email protected]

In part three we talk about some of the differing accounts surrounding just how and when Joseph Smith died at Carthage, including the less-well known William Daniels account that claimed Joseph had been executed by a firing squad after he hit the ground.

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If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: ⁠⁠[email protected]