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There’s the Mormon history you do know … and the Mormon history you don’t. Join Lindsay Hansen Park (Year of Polygamy) and historian Bryan Buchanan as they gossip about their ancestors and dig into all aspects of Mormonism’s astonishing 200-year past—uncovering the little-known stories that chronicle how a six-person church grew into a multi-billion-dollar religion. Episodes for this podcast are released every other week.

This podcast is heavily researched. For information on sources, and for additional reading for each episode's topic, click here.

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or stream episodes right here on Sunstone.org.

Episode 118: Believers and Skeptics panel

February 23, 2024

Join Bryan and Lindsay for a special bonus episode! We were honored to talk with professors (and students) from Montana State (and several other universities ) about how we do …

Episode 117: The Gunnison Expedition and Massacre

February 7, 2024

In this episode, Lindsay and Bryan discuss several expeditions, including the Stansbury Expedition and the Gunnison Expedition and Massacre. Each of these events had a profound effect on early Mormonism. …

Episode 116: Before They Were Famous: Emmeline B. Wells

January 25, 2024

Join Bryan and Lindsay for another episode of BEFORE THEY WERE FAMOUS, as they talk about an important (feminist) Mormon pioneer foremother, Emmeline B. Wells. SHOWNOTES: The Diaries of Emmeline …

Episode 115: BONUS EPISODE: History of the LeBaron Family

January 12, 2024

If you watched the recent Hulu hit, ABC’s Daughters of the Cult about the complicated LeBaron family legacy, check out today’s SMHP episode. In this special bonus episode, Bryan Buchanan …

Episode 114: The PEF (Perpetual Emigration Fund)

December 27, 2023

Want to come to Zion? Don’t have the cold, hard cash? No worries! Bryan and Lindsay will walk you through how to get there through the 1850’s Perpetual Emigration Fund. …

Episode 113: Mormon Thieves

December 13, 2023

Some historians claim that whenever Mormons moved into town, the crime rate went up. Is it true? Did Mormonism make some prolific thieves and robbers? Join Lindsay and Bryan as …

Episode 112: Wasters and Destroyers

November 29, 2023

In the early days of the Utah territory, Mormon leaders decided to exterminate anything that got in the way of their plans to build their Kingdom of God. This episode …

Episode 111: Before They Were Famous: Daniel H. Wells

November 14, 2023

It’s time for another episode of Before They Were Famous. This time we focus on the leader of the Nauvoo Legion, Daniel H. Wells and his role in many massacres …

Episode 110: The State of Deseret

November 2, 2023

In 1849 the Mormons in Utah territory had big, big plans. Too-big-for-their-britches kinds of plans. They called it the State of Deseret and it didn’t last long, at least in …

Episode 109: Gulls and the Crickets

October 10, 2023

  It’s the worst war in Mormon history: The Cricket War of 1849. Or is it 1851? (Wait, was it grasshoppers?) Lindsay and Bryan discuss the myth behind the famous …

About Our Hosts

Lindsay Hansen Park is host of the Year of Polygamy podcast and executive director of the Sunstone Education Foundation. A single-mom of three kids by day, and nerd researcher by night, Lindsay lives in Salt Lake City, Utah where she interacts with hundreds of different restoration branches, Latter-day Saints and Mormon fundamentalists. Her adventures have led her to some of the most isolated fundamentalist compounds in the America West where she interacts with modern day outlaws, inlaws and everything in between. Her goal is to widen the conversation about common and shared heritages within the larger Mormon diaspora.

Lindsay
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Bryan Buchanan works at Benchmark Books, surrounded by Mormon history. At night, he herds small children and works on umpteen book projects, some of which might even be published.