The First Vision: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast

Cover art for a Joseph Smith Papers Podcast featuring the First Vision.
The First Vision: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast is a six-part miniseries from the Joseph Smith Papers Project that explores the history and legacy of Joseph Smith’s first vision. Series host Spencer W. McBride interviews historians and other scholars in a documentary-style podcast about this pivotal event in the history of the Restoration. Released in the bicentennial year of Joseph Smith’s vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ, the podcast recreates the world in which Joseph Smith was seeking answers to the pressing questions of his soul. Listeners will be invited to understand the First Vision from the perspective of historians.
Sep 16, 2023

Prologue: Introducing The First Vision

Listeners will hear a story that is simultaneously familiar and new as they learn little-known details of the story of Joseph Smith's first vision--details that illuminate the event and its relevance today.
Trees in a forest. The sun is shining
Sep 16, 2023

An Unusual Excitement

What caused the "unusual excitement on the subject of religion" in Joseph Smith's community? This episode explains how social, cultural, and economic changes created an environment in which Americans were actively engaged in conversations about the state of their souls.Guests: Rachel Cope, Christopher Jones, Brent Rogers
Lithograph of a ca. 1829 religious camp meeting. Revival picture. A typical camp meeting about 1830-35.
Sep 16, 2023

What Is to Be Done?

In 1820, Joseph Smith was seeking answers to the pressing questions of his soul. He wanted to know which church was the church of Jesus Christ, but that was not his only question. This episode examines Joseph Smith's search for eternal answers. It reveals how his search was influenced by--and ultimately differed from--the search of his friends and neighbors.Guests: Rachel Cope, Steven Harper, Christopher Jones
The beginning of the Book of James taken from an old worn Bible.
Sep 16, 2023

I Retired to the Woods

What did the place that came to be called the Sacred Grove look like when Joseph Smith entered in early spring 1820? What did it sound like? What did it smell like? In this episode we examine the environment in which Joseph Smith prayed and ask how that compares to the artistic depictions that are common today.Guest: Mark Staker
Trees in a forest. The sun is shining
Oct 26, 2023

A Pillar of Light

Have you ever heard the story of Joseph Smith's first vision told using all the surviving accounts of the event? That's the focus of this episode. Here, the nine different accounts from Joseph Smith's lifetime are woven together. You will hear the story in an illuminating way, a way that is simultaneously familiar and new.
Linoleum block print, "First Vision" by Warren Luch. The print pictures Joseph Smith kneeling in the woods. Joseph is in a shaft of light surrounded by trees. The print is signed by the artist on the lower right corner. This is the same print as LDS 91-26 but on different paper.
Sep 16, 2023

It Caused Me Great Reflection

This episode explores the immediate aftermath of the First Vision and Joseph Smith's recounting of the event throughout his life. How did the events and developments of Joseph Smith's life influence the way that he told others about his vision? Learn the circumstances in which each of the accounts of the First Vision was recorded.Guests: Steven Harper, Robin Jensen, Matthew Godfrey, Brent Rogers, Christopher Jones
The sun is setting behind the Sacred Grove on the Smith Farm in Manchester, New York.
Sep 15, 2023

I Had Seen a Vision

Why does the story of Joseph Smith's first vision--a story about a teenage boy in western New York during the early nineteenth century--still resonate with people around the world today? This episode examines the role of the First Vision in the growth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since Joseph Smith's death in 1844.Guests: Elder LeGrand R. Curtis Jr., Jenny Lund, Mark Staker, Steven Harper
Joseph Smith, Jr. kneeling in the Sacred Grove as he prays. The Prophet is seen in the background with large trees around him. The image depicts the First Vision.