New Joseph Smith Papers Podcast

The First Vision: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast. This six-part miniseries explores the history and legacy of Joseph Smith’s first vision, as series host Spencer W. McBride, PhD, interviews historians and other scholars in this documentary-style podcast about this central event in Latter-day Saint history. Released in the bicentennial year of Joseph Smith’s 1820 vision, the podcast recreates the world in which Joseph Smith sought answers to the pressing questions of his soul and helps listeners understand the vision from a historical perspective.

“Listeners will hear a story that is simultaneously familiar and new,” McBride said of the podcast. “I think listeners will hear details of the story of Joseph Smith’s first vision that are new to them, details that will illuminate the event and its relevance to their lives.”

In early spring 1820, Joseph Smith later recorded, he had a vision in the woods near his family’s home in western New York, in which God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. That vision was a formative moment for Joseph Smith and a pivotal event in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Joseph Smith recounted the vision several times during his lifetime, and he and his fellow church members recorded a number of these instances. This new podcast explores all the original accounts of the First Vision and demonstrates how the different accounts, when examined together, reveal a more complete portrait of the event. The podcast also analyzes how the 1820 vision continues to resonate with people around the world.

Scholars featured in the podcast include Matthew Godfrey, Steven Harper, Rachel Cope, Christopher Jones, Robin Jensen, Jenny Lund, Brent Rogers, and Mark Staker. Also featured is Elder Legrand R. Curtis Jr., a General Authority Seventy and the Church Historian and Recorder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

All six episodes of The First Vision: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast will be released on January 5, 2020, and available on the Latter-day Saint Channel and on other podcast platforms such as iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher.