The Priesthood Restored: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast

One painting, landscape, Susquehanna River.  Greens and browns.  Light blues for sky and river.
The Priesthood Restored: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast is a six-part miniseries from the Joseph Smith Papers Project that explores the events and circumstances that played a role in the restoration of the priesthood. Series host Spencer W. McBride interviews historians, researchers, General Authorities, and others in a documentary-style podcast about this defining topic in Latter-day Saint history.

Sep 16, 2023

Series Introduction

Listeners will hear the story of the Restoration of the Priesthood in a way that reveals how that restoration was a prolonged process and not simply a series of angelic visitations. With: Spencer McBride.
John the Baptist laying his hands on a kneeling Joseph Smith conferring the Aaronic Priesthood on him.  Oliver Cowdery is kneeling with him. They are in a grove of trees.

Sep 16, 2023

The Great Strife and Noise

This episode examines the religious landscape of the United States in 1829 and how debates among Americans over priesthood may have shaped the way that Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery considered their own questions about religious authority.
The Harmony, Pennsylvania area near the Susquehanna River where the Aaronic Priesthood was restored and baptisms of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were performed.

Sep 16, 2023

Days Never to Be Forgotten

This episode tells the story of John the Baptist’s conferral of the Aaronic priesthood to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery on May 15, 1829, in Harmony, Pennsylvania. It also considers what else was happening on that day that helps shape our understanding of the Joseph’s experience.
Joseph Smith's Journal

Sep 15, 2023

The Voice of Peter, James, and John

This episode explores what we know—and what we don’t know—about the restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood and the establishment of the church. We glean what we can from historical documents to learn more about the timing and location of the visitation of Peter, James, and John to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.
Peter Whitmer Log Home Fayette New York

Sep 16, 2023

The Fulness of the Priesthood

In this episode we examine the ways that Joseph Smith’s understanding of the priesthood and its role in the lives of Latter-day Saints expanded with time, experience, and additional revelation.
The Nauvoo Illinois Temple at sunset.

Sep 16, 2023

The Priesthood Organization

After Joseph Smith’s death in 1844, church leaders continued to develop priesthood organization in response to the needs of a growing church. This episode also explains how the temple and priesthood restrictions based on race came to be and how church leaders eventually ended those restrictions.
book covers in Brigham Young Winter Home

Sep 16, 2023

Sacred Sites and Ongoing Restorations

In this episode we discover how the Priesthood Restoration Site became a destination for thousands of people to visit each year and consider how the history of the priesthood restoration influences the religious devotion of Latter-day Saints today.
Exterior of a historic home near the site of the priesthood restoration.