It&#8217;s time for another episode of The Cultural Hall! This week, we&#8217;re sitting down with Chad Nielsen. Trent over at Kofford Books pitched him to us as a &#8220;true Renaissance man,&#8221; and honestly, the shoe fits. By day, Chad works at a biotech research company in Salt Lake, but his real passion is geeking out over Latter-day Saint history.
We&#8217;re talking about his new book, A Barn Full of Angels, a project that was 13 years in the making. It’s a deep dive into the life of his ancestor, Zerah Pulsipher. Even if you don&#8217;t immediately recognize the name, you know his impact: Zera is the guy who chopped through river ice in New York in the dead of winter to baptize Wilford Woodruff.
Chad walks us through Zerah&#8217;s wild life, from his time leading the Kirtland Camp to trying to run a cattle operation out in the harsh, unpredictable terrain of Southern Utah&#8217;s Shoal Creek. We also don&#8217;t shy away from the messy stuff—we get into Zerah’s ecclesiastical trial with Brigham Young over an unauthorized plural marriage that ultimately led to his release from the First Quorum of the Seventy.
Links & Resources:
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Grab your copy of <a href="https://gregkofford.com/products/a-barn-full-of-angels?srsltid=AfmBOopLoR1Tgv5kfl5WL1cKyrViwbivr_S5Qn0UMft8z_dlNq3GS95_&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss">A Barn Full of Angels by Chad Nielsen</a> over at Kofford Books.
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Got a guest idea or a story we need to hear? Shoot us an email: contact@theculturalhall.com.
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As always, if you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review and share it with a friend. We’ve saved a seat for you on the back row of The Cultural Hall!
The post <a href="https://theculturalhall.com/2026/08/11/a-barn-full-of-angels-the-life-of-zera-pulsipher-with-chad-nielsen-1058/">A Barn Full of Angels: The Life of Zera Pulsipher with Chad Nielsen 1058</a> appeared first on <a href="https://theculturalhall.com">The Cultural Hall Podcast</a>.

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