On this week's "Mormon Land" podcast, Latterday Saint scholars discuss church founder Joseph Smith's polygamy and those who increasingly deny he ever participated in the practice.

In 2014, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints published an official essay detailing Joseph Smith’s marriages to multiple women. After decades of insisting otherwise, the Community of Christ, formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has since conceded that the faith founder did participate in polygamy. Highly regarded scholarly works have documented Smith had at least 33 wives, and most historians widely accept that the church leader preached — albeit privately — and practiced plural marriage.

So why is this issue gaining increased attention in various Mormon circles and why are socalled polygamy deniers arguing that Smith had but one wife, Emma, while pinning the practice instead on perhaps the Western world’s most famous polygamist, Brigham Young, and his associates?

What does the evidence really show? Why is this debate springing up now? And what do the competing factions stand to win or lose?