Mormon Discussion Podcast

RFM and Bill Reel are joined this week by Meggan Hayes from “Generally Unquotable” to break down several of the talks from this past FAIRMormon Apologetics conference. Many budding apologists came to hear some of the worst talks on defending Mormonism ever given! Apologetics wasn’t that great in the 1980s. But in the past forty-years, it has done nothing but go downhill! Come joi...

LDS Church Burying Zelph Under Data Center? | Mormon Newscast | October 19, 2026 Is the LDS Church preparing to build a massive data center over a significant piece of Mormon history? Tonight on The Mormon Newscast, we’re looking at the proposed development at Arthur Plantation in Missouri, a site connected to Zion’s Camp and the discovery of the bones Joseph Smith reportedly identifie...

Are Mormons Raising Their Kids Wrong? | Audra Phelps on Mormon & Post-Mormon Parenting What happens when you leave Mormonism and realize you must rethink not only what you believe, but how you raise your children? In this episode of Mormon Discussion, Bill Reel sits down with Audra Phelps for an honest conversation about Mormon parenting, religious conditioning, and raising emotionally healthy...

Bill Reel and RFM take a look at the recent FAIRMormon apologetic conference that took place last August. The amazing thing is that Mormon apologetics isn’t getting better with age. If anything, Mormon apologetics is getting worse. And that’s saying something! It’s like they’re not just trying to fool nonbelievers, anymore. They’re trying to fool each other! But rest...

What happened to the apostles who helped build early Mormonism—and then walked away? When the original Quorum of the Twelve was organized in 1835, these men were not fringe figures. They preached the gospel, served missions, worked directly with Joseph Smith, participated in the movement’s spiritual experiences, and occupied some of its highest positions of authority. Yet six of those original apo...

Tonight on Mormonism LIVE, Bill Reel and Radio Free Mormon are joined by special guest John Dehlin for an exhaustive examination of the LDS Church’s lawsuit against Mormon Stories. Instead of arguing about the case in the abstract, we take 30 specific claims made by the Church and its attorneys and put them side-by-side with the court record, the Church’s own filings, Mormon Stories’ responses, th...

On this episode of Mormonism Live, we sit down with Rachelle and John Moyer, the creators behind “Ex-Mormon: The Musical,” to talk about how the project came together, what inspired the songs, and why music can be such a powerful way to process faith, identity, loss, humor, and life after Mormonism. We’ll dig into the story behind the album, the creative process of turning the ex-Mormon experience...

Elder Bruce R. McConkie gave one of his most famous talks in history in 1980 named “The Seven Deadly Heresies.” RFM and Bill Reel break down this talk, exposing not only what Elder McConkie says, but why he says it; together with the things Elder McConkie doesn’t say at all! This one you won’t want to miss! Support Mormonism LIVE! and its hosts Bill Reel and Radio Free Morm...

Tonight on Mormonism Live, we examine a recurring pattern in Joseph Smith’s prophetic career: when he encountered something mysterious, incomplete, inaccessible, or simply unknown, he rarely seemed content to say, “I don’t know.” Instead, he supplied an answer—and often an extraordinarily detailed one. A skeleton becomes Zelph, complete with a name, identity, history, and ancient associations. Egy...

What happens when a religious system spends a lifetime teaching you to trust authority, obey, forgive, sacrifice, endure, distrust your own doubts, and fear the consequences of leaving? In this episode of Mormon Discussion, Teresa Hobbs leads Bill Reel and special guest Wendi Wilcock Jensen through a difficult question: Can LDS teachings and institutional structures unintentionally condition membe...

RFM and Bill Reel are joined by Dr. Thomas Murphy to discuss what the presence of Native American myths, individuals, and stories in the Book of Mormon means. Are these evidence the Book of Mormon is true? Or do they give us an insight into some of the creative grist Joseph was using to compile his narrative of ancient American inhabitants? World-renowned expert in the field Dr. Murphy helps us fi...

In June 1834, while marching with Zion’s Camp through Illinois, Joseph Smith and his followers came across an ancient Native American burial mound. Members of the group dug into the mound and uncovered a human skeleton—with what appeared to be an arrowhead among its ribs. According to multiple members of Zion’s Camp, Joseph Smith then received a vision revealing the identity of the dead man. His n...

Why do intelligent, sincere women remain loyal to systems that often ask them to suppress their own intuition? In this episode, Bill Reel is joined by three thoughtful women- Jana Spangler, Julie De Azevedo, and Teresa Hobbs; for an in-depth conversation about the psychology of high-demand religion—not to criticize individuals, but to better understand the powerful social and psychological forces...

RFM and Bill Reel host an august panel of Sunstone Symposium presenters and attendees, as they tell us fun and fascinating stories about what goes on behind the scenes of Sunstone! Join us! Mormon Studies were never so much fun! The post Find Out What REALLY Happened At Sunstone 2026! appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel .

What if one of the most important events in early Mormon history never actually accomplished what it set out to do? In 1834, Joseph Smith organized nearly 200 armed men and led them almost 900 miles across the American frontier with one stated objective: redeem Zion and restore the Saints to their lands in Jackson County, Missouri. They marched. They trained. They carried muskets and swords. They...

Jodi Hildebrandt is not just the story of one deeply harmful therapist. She is a warning sign about what can happen when mental health care stops being guided by professional ethics, evidence-based treatment, and client well-being—and instead becomes filtered through rigid Mormon beliefs about sin, obedience, sexuality, shame, and worthiness. In this episode, Bill Reel examines the broader problem...

What did the Nauvoo Temple endowment look like in its earliest form? In this episode of Mormonism Live, Bill Reel and Radio Free Mormon examine one of the earliest published firsthand accounts of the Nauvoo Temple ceremony: Catherine Lewis’s 1848 narrative. Written only a few years after the events it describes, Lewis’s account provides a…  Read More » Mormon Endowment’s Earliest Historical Form !...

RFM and Bill Reel are joined by a special panel of Black Mormons and ex-Mormons in this important episode. What is it like experiencing Mormonism through the lens of race? Especially when that race paints you as a second class citizen? Are discriminatory practices and beliefs about Black people a thing of the past in…  Read More » Black Mormons Speak Out! The post Black Mormons Speak Out! appeared...

We have shown in a prior podcast that the Book of Mormon answers all the important religious disputes of Joseph Smith’s day. In this episode we demonstrate that the Book of Mormon uses the language and expressions of other early 19th Century authors to do so! Using only publications from prior to 1830! The results are in! Whether you look at the Book of Mormon from the 20,000 foot level at t...

For decades, the historical consensus has been that Joseph Smith introduced and practiced plural marriage in Nauvoo. But a small group of researchers has argued for a very different conclusion: that Joseph Smith was not the founder of Mormon polygamy and that the historical evidence has been misunderstood. In this episode of Mormonism Live, we sit down with researcher Jeremy Hoop to explore that p...

Tonight on Mormonism Live, Bill Reel and Radio Free Mormon take a deep dive into one of the most talked-about Mormon history stories in recent memory: the recent leaking of the William Clayton journals. For years, the full Clayton journals have been a source of speculation, controversy, and anticipation. William Clayton was not a peripheral observer. He was in the inner circle of Joseph Smith’s Na...

Does the Book of Mormon fit better in the ancient world or in early nineteenth century America when it was created? Defenders of the book point to a handful of twisted and strained comparisons to the ancient world to make their case. Bill and RFM, on the other hand, demonstrate conclusively that the Book of Mormon is a much better fit for the early nineteenth century in which it was produced. Inde...

What if the most revealing thing about Mormon apologetics isn’t the evidence being presented… but the behavioral patterns behind the arguments? Tonight on Mormonism Live, Bill Reel and Radio Free Mormon sit down with Dawn McCarty who works in Forensic Criminology behavioral analysis. Can forensic criminology profile Mormon apologetics? Drawing from several of her recent forensic intell...

The Mormon Church keeps telling us it is growing. And not only is it growing, they say it is growing faster than it has ever grown in history! And yet faithful Mormon researcher Jeff Strong says the LDS Church has lost 40 % of its active membership in the last twenty-five years. How will the Church react now that its generation-long deception is being revealed? And what will the Mormon influences...

Tonight on Mormonism Live we tackle one of the most controversial and uncomfortable documents in LDS history: Joseph Smith’s 1832 First Vision account. Not the polished 1838 version members know from the Pearl of Great Price. Not the story that has been repeated in manuals and General Conference over a hundred years. We’re going back to Joseph’s own handwritten account—the one hidden away in a vau...