About this episode
It’s the end of the year, the Spotify “Wrapped” flexing is in full swing, and Richard LeDuc is fresh off hosting a Hanukkah party that looked suspiciously like a full-blown ward social. Gerrit trys to solve the greatest unsolved case of 2025: why Richard’s “most played song” is Massachusetts by the Bee Gees… a song he swears he has never listened to. After a quick stop at the Phoebe Draper Palmer Brown Mailbag, they jump back into who is Dead and in Hell. Gerrit continues the story of Judge Perry Brocchus’s infamous Bowery speech in 1851, where what was supposed to be a simple patriotic appeal for a Washington Monument donation turns into a full-blown scolding of the Saints for criticizing the U.S. government. The discussion covers why Brocchus’s argument lands so badly with a people who had lived through Missouri and Nauvoo, how Brigham Young responds with one of his sharpest lines (“profoundly ignorant or willfully wicked”), and how the fallout gets weaponized in hostile newspaper coverage accusing the Saints of sedition and rebellion. Standard of Truth Tour dates for the summer of 2027: https://standardoftruth.com/tours Our 2026 tours are sold out, but if you would like to join us in the future here is a link to our 2027 tours: Sign up for our free monthly email: https://standardoftruthpodcast.substack.com If you have any questions or possible topics of discussion for upcoming podcasts, please email us at: questions@standardoftruthpodcast.com