Tonight on Mormonism Live, we tackle one of the most persistent and uncomfortable questions in modern Mormon scholarship: What does DNA actually say about the Book of Mormon? Our guest is Dr. Thomas W. Murphy, anthropologist, award-winning scholar, and author of Unsettling Scripture: Iroquois and the Book of Mormon. Dr. Murphy’s latest presentation, “DNerAsure: Unsettling Science & Scripture” DNerAsure – Unsettling Science, challenges both apologetic narratives and oversimplified dismissals of the DNA debate.

What We Discuss
The acknowledged lack of Middle Eastern DNA in ancient and modern Indigenous American populations
Why the science is not “settled” in the way many assume
The apologetic argument that Book of Mormon DNA may have “disappeared” over time
Why autosomal DNA makes total genetic erasure extraordinarily implausible
The limited geography model and why it does not solve the DNA problem The ethics of Indigenous DNA collection — including BYU’s controversial accumulation of Indigenous genetic samples
The concept of a “Galileo Event” and whether Mormonism is approaching one How racialized readings of scripture intersect with real Indigenous identities

The post Book of Mormon DNA appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

In this episode, we step into one of the most provocative and uncomfortable chapters ever written about Joseph Smith — “The Don Juan of Nauvoo,” from Dr. W. Wyl’s 1886 exposé. These are not modern critics looking backward with hindsight. These are men and women living in Utah in the late 1800s — people who lived through Nauvoo, who knew Joseph personally, who saw the culture firsthand, and who were willing to share their memories of Joseph’s behavior with women. Their recollections paint a portrait very different from the sanitized image often presented today. We will read their words directly. Their observations. Their accusations. Their recollections of Joseph’s charisma, his influence, and his interactions with women in Nauvoo. This episode isn’t about speculation. It’s about historical memory — and how Joseph Smith’s contemporaries understood him.

You’ll hear:
• How Joseph was perceived by those who lived in Nauvoo
• The reputation he carried among insiders
• What Utah Saints privately said decades later
• Why these accounts were preserved and published
• And how charisma, authority, and attraction intersected in Nauvoo

Whether you see Joseph Smith as prophet, fraud, or something in between, these firsthand recollections provide a window into how he was experienced by those who lived in his shadow.

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The post The Don Juan of Nauvoo appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.

When did Fanny Alger actually come to live in the Prophet Joseph Smith’s home and why? This episode takes a careful, historically grounded look at one of the most misunderstood turning points in early Mormon history. Rather than starting with scandal or theology, we begin with something far more mundane and far more revealing: household labor, family obligation, and timing. By reconstructing the sequence surrounding Levi Hancock’s marriage to Clarissa Reed, the sudden death of Mary Beal Johnson, The Mosiah Hancock account, and Emma Smith’s precarious condition, we examine the most plausible reasons Fanny Alger was brought into the Smith home in the first place. From there, we explore how later memories, compressed timelines, and evolving theology reshaped those early events into something very different from how they likely began. This episode does not assume intent where the evidence doesn’t require it—but it also does not look away from where the evidence eventually leads. We examine competing interpretations, the role of Levi Hancock, the question of a later “sealing,” and why the scandal likely emerges years after Fanny first enters the home. If you’ve ever been told this story started with polygamy, secrecy, or divine command, this conversation invites you to slow down and ask a more basic—and more important—question: What problem was being solved when Fanny Alger first arrived?

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The post Why & When Fanny Alger Entered the Prophet Joseph Smith’s Home appeared first on Mormon Discussion by Bill Reel.