Part 1 of An Interview with Brian C. Hales “Joseph’s Smith’s Polygamy” (Episode 19)

Summary: Brian C. Hales, board-certified anesthesiologist in Layton, Utah, graduated from Utah State University with a B.S. in biology and from the University of Utah, College of Medicine. This book is his seventh. His Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism: The Generations after the Manifesto (Salt Lake City: Kofford Books, 2007) was awarded the "Best Book of 2007" prize from the John Whitmer Historical Association. He authored Setting the Record Straight: Mormon Fundamentalism (2008) and The Priesthood of Modern Polygamy: A Lds Perspective (1992). Hales has published articles in Mormon Historical Studies, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and the Journal of Mormon History. He also contributed a chapter to The Persistence of Polygamy: Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormon Polygamy, edited by Newell Bringhurst and Craig L. Foster (2010). He is also webmaster of www.MormonFundamentalism.com and www.JosephSmithsPolygamy.com. In addition to a fulltime LDS mission in Venezuela (1976-78), he has served as a music missionary (1999 -). Hales has also served as president of the Medical Staff at Davis Hospital and Medical Center. He is the father of four adult children. In Part one of this interview Kirk and Brian discuss why Brian studies polygamy, what is different in these volumes from work previously done on the subject, the Fanny Alger situation, and why some people accuse the church of secretiveness surrounding polygamy.