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The purpose of this podcast is to help Latter-Day Saints better understand their history and increase their faith. The podcast hosted by Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat, associate professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU.
Episodes
34 minutes ago
34 minutes ago
Standard of Truth Tour dates for the summer of 2027: https://standardoftruth.com/tours
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: questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com
35 minutes ago
35 minutes ago
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
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: questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com
Thursday Dec 25, 2025
Thursday Dec 25, 2025
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.
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: questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com
Thursday Dec 18, 2025
Thursday Dec 18, 2025
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
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:
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: questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com
Thursday Dec 11, 2025
Thursday Dec 11, 2025
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/)
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: questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com
Thursday Dec 04, 2025
Thursday Dec 04, 2025
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:
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: questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com
Saturday Nov 29, 2025
Saturday Nov 29, 2025
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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Please visit our website at www.standardoftruth.com
If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com
Saturday Nov 29, 2025
Saturday Nov 29, 2025
In part two of our special podcast commemorating the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith we continue to discuss the events that led to the martyrdom. We read from a letter Joseph Smith wrote to Illinois Governor Thomas Ford and John Taylor’s detailed account of that tragic day. We also share the testimony John Taylor bore of Joseph Smith in 1854 on the 10th anniversary of the martyrdom.
Subscribe to our free newsletter - https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com/
Please visit our website at www.standardoftruth.com
If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com
Saturday Nov 29, 2025
Saturday Nov 29, 2025
We honor the anniversary of the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and the attempted murders of John Taylor and Willard Richards in Carthage Jail. In Part 1 we give an overview of some of the historical events that led up to the martyrdom. We discuss Joseph Smith’s attempts to get any presidential candidate, from either party, to pledge to help the Saints recover their stolen property in Missouri and protect their rights. We discuss his resulting presidential campaign. Apostasy from within the Church and political machinations and bigotry from without set the stage for that murderous day in Carthage.
Subscribe to our free newsletter - https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com/
Please visit our website at www.standardoftruth.com
If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com
Thursday Nov 27, 2025
Thursday Nov 27, 2025
Happy Thanksgiving! In this episode, we discuss how do we actually know Heavenly Father has a physical body and what Joseph Smith taught regarding every disciple facing a “trial of Abraham”. The episode closes with Daniel H. Wells’s powerful 24th July address: a reminder that early Latter-day Saints could be fiercely loyal to the Constitution and the United States while refusing to whitewash the murders, expulsions, and persecutions they suffered. We reflect on how the faith the Saints, who endured Missouri, Nauvoo, and the plains without knowing “why” can sustain modern disciples facing difficult trials.
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:
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: questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com