Whitmer Cast

In this episode, Joseph DuWors speaks with Natalie Brown about After Happiness, a thoughtful challenge to the idea that faithful living should reliably produce happiness, success, or a neatly ordered life. Brown reflects on suffering, grief, and disappointment, arguing for a faith capacious enough to include lament, uncertainty, and experiences that resist easy explanation. The conversation explores what it means to remain in relationship with God and a faith community when inherited formulas no longer seem adequate. Rather than making happiness the goal of discipleship, Brown invites readers to center love, goodness, honesty, and faithfulness amid life’s unresolved complexity.

In this episode, first-time host Joseph DuWors, PhD candidate in Mormon Studies, interviews retired Prof. Thomas Murphy about his provocative new book that seeks to center Indigenous connections to the Book of Mormon, both in its origin and in how modern readers receive it.  We are joined by New Zealand Latter-day Saint and author Ganesh Cherian, whose own book Joseph Smith: The Architect of Mormonism, shares some overlap with Prof. Murphy’s, and whose experience in traditional Māori lands sensitizes him to histories of colonialism and post-colonial discourse.

In this episode, host Katherine Pollock talks with Kyle Beshears about his new book, 40 Questions about Mormonism, as well as the history of Mormon and Evangelical dialogue.

About the book:

https://www.kregel.com/theology-and-religious-studies/40-questions-about-mormonism/

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https://www.patreon.com/JohnWhitmerHistoricalAssociation

In this episode, Katherine Pollock interviews Nancy Ross, one of the authors of Mormon Garments: Sacred and Secret from University of Illnois Press. From the publisher:

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints requires that adult members wear garments under their clothes day and night. Though a central practice, the wearing of garments exists behind a wall of silence, as Church authorities and LDS culture discourage discussion of such a sacred matter.

Nancy Ross, Jessica Finnigan, and Larissa Kanno Kindred draw on a survey of over 4,500 Church members and their own backgrounds to explore the multifaceted meanings and experiences of Mormon garments. As the authors show, garments also function as a tool of social control that shapes behavior and reinforces conformity around sexuality. The diverse lived experiences of Latter-day Saints reveal how belief and gender intersect with feelings of secrecy, shame, and obedience while creating complexities for LDS members as they navigate questions of faith, identity, and agency. In addition, the authors call for greater understanding of the people grappling with tensions between personal customs and religious expectation.

Insightful and rich with detail, Mormon Garments sheds light on an intimate practice in the lives of Latter-day Saints."

https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=c049545

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https://www.patreon.com/c/JohnWhitmerHistoricalAssociation/posts

In this episode, host Katherine Pollock talks with Dr. Matthew Bowman, Howard W. Hunter Chair of the Mormon Studies Program at Claremont Graduate School.

Find out more about the program at:

https://mormonstudies.cgu.edu/

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https://www.patreon.com/c/JohnWhitmerHistoricalAssociation

In this episode, host Katherine Pollock sits down with Stephen O. Smoot and Brian C. Passantino, editors of Joseph Smith's Uncanonized Revelations, published by BYU Religious Studies Center.

About the book:

https://rsc.byu.edu/book/joseph-smiths-uncanonized-revelations

Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/c/JohnWhitmerHistoricalAssociation/posts

In this episode, we bring you a recording of a recent author meets critics session from the 2025 JWHA annual meeting in Independence, Missouri. In this session, John G. Turner, author of Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet, is joined by David J. Howlett and Stephen C. Harper to discuss the book. The session was moderated by Matthew L. Harris.

In this episode, host Katherine Pollock talks with Rebecca Williamson of the Nauvoo Historical Society.

https://nauvoohistoricalsociety.com/

In this episode, host Jason R. Smith talks with Matthew Bowman, author of Joseph Fielding Smith: A Mormon Theologian - published by University of Illinois Press.  The book focuses on the thought and writings of long-serving LDS Apostle, Church Historian, and Church President, Joseph Fielding Smith.

About the Book:

https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p088056

In this episode, host Jason R. Smith talks with W. Paul Reeve and Christopher B. Rich, two of the authors of This Abominable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah, published by Oxford University Press.  This important book details the legal and theological debates of mid-19th century Utah over race and labor.

About the Book:

https://academic.oup.com/book/58151

This Abominable Slavery - Online Document Database

https://exhibits.lib.utah.edu/s/this-abominable-slavery/page/welcome