WARD RADIO

Elder Ronald A. Rasband stood up at a BYU devotional and announced the number.95,400 missionaries. A new record. Third new record in three months.- Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, sick in the wagon, still rose up and shouted “Hurrah for Israel.”- The room stood up and did it three times.- Up from 88,500 in July. Up from 90,000 last month.- The surge is the sisters. Age lowered to 18. Now over...

Alright Ladies and Gentlemen... Polygamy is officially BACK! And its NOT the Latter-Day Saints doing it this time! Meet Isaiah Ford and his two ministering wives, or "sisters in marriage", Shakayla and Lydia Ford. Introduced in front of a large graphic that says "Kingdom Marriage", this viral video is making WAVES online and we are here to surf them!

This one was heart-warming. Recently a friend of the show, Troy Sariah, also known as "Black Blessed LDS" on X, tagged Elder Gerrit W. Gong on a post he made, and Elder Gong responded! This wholesome reminder that we will leave the 99 for the 1 is the true "feel good" video of the week! #LDs #mormon #apostles

Ken LaCorte, host of "Elephants in Rooms" just released an interesting video analyzing why members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints are "winning". In this episode, Carodn Ellis, director and host of Ward Radio, reacts to what Ken LaCorte got right (and maybe a little wrong) in his analysis. Thank you to Ken LaCorte for obviously attempting to be "fair&quo...

In a Massachusetts political campaign, a Latter Day Saint candidate, Elizabeth Dionne, is claiming to be the victim of anti-Mormon bigotry and targeted religious discriminatory remarks. We analyze her claims in this episode!

A gruesome attack upon the Saint George Greek Orthodox Church in Karak, Jordan has prompted an official statement from the Church of JEsus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In this episode, Bart Marcois, ex-diplomat and Arabist for the United States and member of the church provides details and insight to host, Cardon Ellis. Articles cited in this video: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/24/who-wa...

Lol. Every year we get a new rendition of Hamlet, "To celebrate Halloween or NOT to celebrate Haloween... THAT is the question!" This time, the prominent nay-sayer is Allie Beth Stuckey, but she isn't just coming for your favorite little holiday, she is after horror movies and true-crime drama herself! But, in the words of John Crist, "That's a tricky theology" right? W...

A proposed data center in Liberty, Missouri sits on the old Michael Arthur plantation. That’s where several Book of Mormon witnesses are buried. Christian Whitmer. Peter Whitmer Jr. Others nearby. Same ground holds slave burials, Mormon refugee graves, and the spot where pieces of Zelph were reburied after Zion’s Camp. John Haya-Czech walked into the Liberty City Council and told them. They said t...

Pope Leo just made an announcement against the Death Penalty, and Trevor Tomesh and Kai Schwemmer were on board! Here's the conversation and THIS is how they almost changed my mind.

Pope Leo just called the death penalty an attack on the dignity of the human person. Catholics are already fighting. Trads say Chicago went woke. Others say finally. Trevor Tomesh  @realdrtt  (Catholic, former atheist) and Kai Schwemmer  @kaischwem  walk into the wigwam with Cardon.- Not new. Catechism changed in 2018 under Francis. The word is **inadmissible**.- Respect Life Month: conception to...

Jackson Washburn — ASU, Harvard Divinity, UCLA PhD, Armenia mission — called into James White’s show and asked one question. Name a single work in Mormon studies you actually keep up on. White’s answer: a guy he knew who left, Blake Ostler from the late 90s, and “a lot of Dan McClellanism.”That’s the episode.- 2017 outside the Mesa Temple. Apologia cut the part where the 18-year-old kept up.- Calv...

Charlie Chaplin smuggled the raw negatives of **The Kid** into Salt Lake City inside **coffee cans** — hiding them from his estranged wife Mildred — and finished the picture in a rented room at the **Hotel Utah**.That building is now the **Joseph Smith Memorial Building**.This episode:- Plays the *Great Dictator* speech first- Then the 1920 Salt Lake edit job- Rodney Dangerfield’s *My Five Wives*-...

A real Joseph Smith signature still exists — on a piece of paper closer to tissue than a dollar bill.**Kirtland Safety Society.** January 1837. Anti-banking notes. Joseph and Sidney. $15,000 forty years ago. North of $500,000 now. This episode is a live comparison:- Early notes: almost always Joseph’s own hand- Later notes: secretarial — big S, too slow, too pretty- Same paper. Different hand.- Ho...

27 July 1842. Joseph Smith dictates a revelation to Newel K. Whitney. Those are the words Whitney uses to seal his daughter **Sarah Ann** to the Prophet. It’s on the Joseph Smith Papers. Typed later. Verified by the Whitneys. In the Church History Library. This episode reads the ceremony out loud — then follows her life:- Parents in the room. Not a barn.- “So long as you both shall live” *and* thr...

On this episode, Joshua Carr joins us to talk about the recent interview he gave to Prager U regarding the darndest of LDS strengths!

Rylan, from Ether's Elephant, joins Cardon Ellis of Ward Radio in order to talk the good and the bad and the not-so-ugly stats on LDS attendance from Pew Research!

Jerry Grover walks in with a theory meant to end the shouting match. Joseph and Oliver said they used the **interpreters** the whole time. Emma, David Whitmer, and others talk about the **brown seer stone** after the 116 pages. Historians pick a side. Jerry’s riff: **maybe both were in the hat.**In this episode with Chris Blythe and Brad Whitbeck:- Interpreters first, curtain first — then the hat-...

Ryan Wood read the Joseph Smith Papers as they came out. Buried in the Revelation Books — the same books printers used for the Doctrine and Covenants — is a song given by the gift of tongues in the **Adamic / “pure” language**, then translated into English. With **Dr. Christopher Blythe** (Joseph Smith Papers), Brad Whitbeck, Adam Whitbeck, and Kwaku:- The 1833 “Song by the Gift of Tongues”- Why i...

Tonight Lisa Keller, community organizer from Idaho, joins Cardon Ellis and Brittany Ellis in the Ward Radio Wig-Wam to update us on the latest from Idaho!

Patrick Bet-David and Tony Robbins sat down to talk about America’s future — and walked straight into Mormon missions. Robbins: a **belief is a poor substitute for an experience.** PBD: send the kids out so they stop taking America for granted. This reaction episode is about why that only works when it’s undergirded by faith.- Not a weekend orphanage trip. Two years. Local currency. Local food. Lo...

1869. The Salt Lake Temple is barely out of the ground. And the Saints are printing **First Nephi in a brand-new alphabet**.The **Deseret Alphabet** was Brigham Young’s phonetic rewrite of English — no silent letters, no exceptions. *Tough* is just **TUF**. Immigrants were supposed to learn English faster. Schoolchildren got primers. Apostles like Parley P. Pratt were on the committee. It flopped....

**Exclusive.** We walked the actual studio where *Brother Joseph Again* was built — black walls, plaster busts, death masks, and a replica of the Smith-Larson daguerreotype locket the Church now owns. Joseph Smith is the only latter-day Church president with **no confirmed photograph**. For 182 years the face has been paintings, a death mask, and arguments. These filmmakers say they can finally an...

Adam Whitbeck left. Then he came back. Then, in one month, he got his patriarchal blessing, drove 15 young men to camp, was ordained an elder, and went to the Payson Temple. This episode is for the person who already knows the Church is true on paper — and still can’t feel it. We talk about:- Why an *intellectual* testimony can keep you from leaving… and still not make you act- The blessing that n...

This is a **touchy** conversation. Treat it that way. Latter-day Saints believe we have a Mother in Heaven. That part is real. What is *not* revealed is whether she is the Holy Ghost, whether there is one Mother or many, or how the Godhead is structured beyond what the scriptures already say. We are speculating. We say that out loud. In this episode:- Kwaku’s case: divine wisdom / Sophia / feminin...

Before *A New Hope*, George Lucas wrote **five complete scripts**. They are not the movie you know...In the early drafts:- The heroes weren’t Jedi. They were the **Dai Nogas**- The Force was the **Force of Others** — split into **Ashla** (good) and **Bogan** (evil)- A holy man called **the Skywalker** found the Force and trusted it to his **12 children**- Those children became the Jedi Bendu — *se...