Let’s Get Real with Stephen Jones

Many people think faith is declining.

Ben Hancock has worked behind the scenes on one of the world’s top podcasts, alongside voices like Chris Williamson of "Modern Wisdom" and interacting with some of the most influential thinkers in media.

From the inside, he noticed something unexpected.

Not open hostility, but a quiet dismissal of faith in certain elite circles.

At the same time, he is seeing something very different on the ground, especially among young people.

Not decline.
A quiet return.

In this episode, we explore:
• What it is like being a Latter-day Saint inside high-level media circles
• The gap between elite perception and lived reality
• Why the “faith is dying” narrative does not tell the full story
• What might actually be happening right now

If you have ever wondered whether faith is really disappearing, this conversation will challenge what you think you know.

Temple changes don’t just appear overnight. They are often preceded by thoughtful conversations in leadership councils where perspectives are shared and revelation is sought.

In this episode of Let’s Get Real, former Relief Society General President Jean B. Bingham offers a rare glimpse into those councils, including discussions that helped refine temple language to reduce misunderstandings and better reflect gospel truths.

She also shares what it was like to work with apostles and prophets, and how revelation unfolds through careful deliberation, unity, and spiritual insight.

The conversation explores how Church leaders, including President Dallin H. Oaks, have emphasized the value of women and helped deepen understanding of priesthood power in the lives of all covenant keepers.

This episode offers a thoughtful look at how the Lord leads His Church, how sacred decisions are made, and why the voices and contributions of women matter.

Which chapter of scripture includes a vision of God, an attempted human sacrifice, and a phrase many believe justified a racial priesthood ban?

And have we been reading it wrong?

When Abraham 1 describes Pharaoh as “cursed as pertaining to the priesthood,” what did that actually mean? Was it about race? Was it restriction? Or have later generations read their own assumptions back into the text?

Latter-day Saint historian, Don Bradley, explores how Abraham 1 reshapes our understanding of Abraham’s story, why he was nearly sacrificed, and what Joseph Smith may have understood about Pharaoh’s “curse” that radically challenges modern interpretations.

What if the passage that has caused so much confusion and pain was never saying what we thought it was?

The prophet Brigham Young did not become controversial because he was simple. He became controversial because we stopped allowing complex people from the past to be understood as human beings.

In this conversation, Dr. Dan Peterson, noted Latter-day Saint scholar and historian, helps us follow one question from beginning to end: What do we lose morally, culturally, and spiritually when we replace understanding with judgment?

Brigham Young is often reduced to labels. Authoritarian. Racist. The “fall guy.” A symbol to argue over. But history is rarely that tidy. As the discussion unfolds, Brigham shifts from being a lightning rod in modern debates to a real human life shaped by faith, pressure, frontier leadership, blind spots, loyalty to Joseph Smith, and deep devotion to building Zion.

But this conversation is not only about Brigham Young. It is about us. About how we judge. About how we interpret the past, and what's lost when we're quicker to judge than to understand.

What if the Bible’s most dangerous distortions don’t come from bad intentions, but from skipping its preface?

Many people experience faith as exhausting. Commandments feel heavy. Scripture feels fragmented. And belief slowly collapses into rules.

This conversation challenges a core assumption: that the Bible explains itself from page one.

Without a restored frame of identity—without knowing who you are before being told what to do—the Bible can be misunderstood, misused, and even weaponized.

This episode reframes the Old Testament through a single, often-overlooked key that changes how scripture reads, how God is understood, and why faith so often turns into burnout.

If you’ve ever felt tension between obedience and relationship, this conversation may change how you read everything that comes next.

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