Let’s Get Real with Stephen Jones

Why did Joseph Smith receive the gold plates on September 22, 1827?Historian Don Bradley began asking that question while reconstructing the timeline surrounding the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. What he found was a striking sequence connecting the events that followed to the Jewish fall festival season.The first aligned with the Feast of Trumpets. The next with the Day of Atonement. Then came the Feast of Tabernacles.Three festivals. Three events. Three for three.As far as Bradley could determine, the pattern had been sitting unnoticed for nearly 200 years.But then the festivals ran out.Bradley kept counting.In this episode of Let’s Get Real, Don Bradley walks Stephen Jones through the historical sources, ancient Israelite traditions, and chronology that led him to one more unexpected connection hiding in the timeline.

Everyone knows the story: Joseph Smith went to a hill and found the gold plates. But historian Don Bradley believes we may have misunderstood what he actually found.In this episode, Don takes a closer look at the objects associated with the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and places them alongside the sacred patterns of ancient Israel.What begins as a familiar story about gold plates starts to look like something much older.From King Josiah to Moses, from the Nephites to Joseph Smith, Don traces a recurring pattern of lost scripture, sacred objects, covenant renewal, and restoration. And the deeper the parallels go, the harder they are to ignore.Was Joseph Smith simply recovering an ancient record?Or was the coming forth of the Book of Mormon part of a much older covenant story happening again?

What if poverty is not only a financial problem, but a spiritual one? President Brian Ashton explains why intelligence is widely distributed, but opportunity is not. He shares how BYU–Pathway Worldwide combines faith, education, practical skills, and employment to help people build lasting self-reliance instead of depending on temporary handouts.     From students surviving on one meal a day to returned missionaries coming home with nowhere to live, this conversation reveals how poverty can limit far more than income. It can suppress hope, confidence, leadership, and divine potential.     President Ashton shares why lasting change requires more than money. It requires opportunity, spiritual identity, education, work, and the belief that every person can become more than their circumstances suggest.

The woman who knew Joseph Smith better than anyone never stopped testifying that he was a prophet. So why has history remembered her almost entirely through controversy? In this episode of Let’s Get Real, historian Don Bradley takes a fresh look at Emma Smith, separating the historical record from the assumptions that have shaped her legacy for generations. Together, we explore some of the biggest questions surrounding Emma’s life: • Why didn’t Emma Smith go west with the Saints? • What did she really believe about Joseph Smith and the Restoration? • How did she navigate the challenge of plural marriage? • Why did she continue to bear a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon? • What can Emma’s life teach us about faith when we don’t have perfect answers? Rather than reducing Emma to a symbol in modern debates, this conversation reveals a faithful, intelligent, courageous disciple whose story is far more compelling than many realize. Whether you’re wrestling with questions about Church history or simply want to better understand one of the most important women of the Restoration, this conversation offers historical context, empathy, and hope.

For years, many Latter-day Saints have looked at declining activity rates and wondered the same thing:Is the Church failing?In this episode, I sit down with BYU Studies Editor-in-Chief Justin Dyer to examine what the data actually says about retention, religiosity, mental health, and why people leave faith. What we found surprised me.While religious participation has declined dramatically across the United States, the data reveals that Latter-day Saints continue to retain active members at higher rates than nearly every other Christian denomination. The question may not be, “What’s going wrong with the Church?” but rather, “What is happening to religion, community, and identity as a whole?”We discuss the four major groups of people who leave the Church, why many never completely close the door on returning, how politics increasingly shapes religious belief, and what predicts whether someone stays connected to faith over time.We also explore a striking idea found in Doctrine and Covenants Section 1: that God foresaw the challenges of our day and provided guidance for navigating them. According to Justin’s research, the strongest predictor of whether someone remains connected to their faith isn’t simply church attendance or religious habits. It’s whether they consistently experience God in their lives.Whether you are a parent worried about a child who has left the Church, someone wrestling with questions about faith, or simply trying to understand what is happening in our culture, this conversation offers both data and hope.