Today’s episode kicks off our five-part series Unpacking Polygamy—a deep dive into one of the most complex and sensitive topics in our church’s history. We hope you’ll listen to the full series, where you’ll hear from a variety of voices and perspectives that help illuminate this part of our shared story.
To start us off, we’re honored to bring together two remarkable thinkers. Patrick Mason is a historian, author, and Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University and host Proclaim Peace, another Faith Matters podcast. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, and author of A House Full of Females, a groundbreaking book on early Mormon women and plural marriage.
In this episode, Patrick and Laurel explore what we actually know—and how we know what we know—about Joseph Smith’s involvement in plural marriage, how the practice evolved in early Utah, and the theological, social, and gender dynamics that shaped it. Laurel also shares reflections from teaching a comparative polygamy course at Harvard, and how the echoes of plural marriage still reverberate today in our doctrine, culture, and hearts.
We’re so grateful to both Patrick and Laurel for their with honesty, curiosity, and compassion.
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