Maya Expert vs. Book of Mormon - Dr. Michael Coe (Re-Broadcast Pt. 2) | Ep. 2142
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.5 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2026
⏱️ 185 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome back to part 2 of Dr. Michael Coe week here on Mormon Stories Podcast, where we are re-releasing some on the most important episodes in the history of this channel.
The original description for this episode reads:
"We are excited to revisit Dr. Michael Coe at his home in New Haven, Connecticut, to discuss some of the challenges facing Mormon archaeologists attempting to prove the historical truth of their central scripture.
Dr. Michael Coe is the Charles J. MacCurdy Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Yale University and Curator Emeritus of the Division of Anthropology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History. He is an expert on the Maya, who inhabited the same part of Mexico and Central America where Mormon scholars say the events of the Book of Mormon took place."
This episode was released in April of 2018.
___________________
At Mormon Stories we explore, celebrate, and challenge Mormon culture through in-depth stories told by members and former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as scholars, authors, LDS apologists, and other professionals.
Our overall mission is to:
1. Facilitate informed consent amongst LDS Church members, investigators, and non-members regarding Mormon history, doctrine, and theology
2. Support Mormons (and members of other high-demand religions) who are experiencing a religious faith crisis
3. Promote healing, growth and community for those who choose to leave the LDS Church or other high demand religions
🤝Help us continue to deliver quality content by becoming a donor today
One-time or recurring donations: https://donorbox.org/mormon-stories?default_interval=m
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mormonstories
Venmo: https://account.venmo.com/u/mormonstories
Paypal: https://paypal.me/mormonstories
Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx6OgmoqJbOVRq-Lv1P7SzA/join
Our Platforms:
🌐Mormon Stories Blog: https://www.mormonstories.org/episodes
🎙️Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mormonstories
✳️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4sDzk7dRjODTSEqzZKZJzk?si=148b0efc1ccc4404&nd=1
🍎Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mormon-stories-lds/id312094772
🖼️Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mormstories
📱TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mormonstoriespodcast
🎮Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kuX5p6yyjF
Contact us:
📧 MormonStories@gmail.com
📬PO Box 171085, Salt Lake City, UT 84117
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone, and welcome to a very special week on Mormon Stories podcast. |
| 0:05.3 | This week on Mormon Stories podcast, we are going to be featuring one of the most important interviews or series of interviews ever in the history of Mormon stories. |
| 0:15.5 | And we're talking about over 2,000 interviews and over 10,000 hours. |
| 0:19.8 | This week, we're going to be focusing on the interviews with |
| 0:23.9 | Dr. Michael Coe. If I had to have a top five or even top three, most important episodes of all |
| 0:31.7 | time, most important interviewees of all time, Dr. Michael Coe, would definitely be in the top three, if not |
| 0:38.1 | number one. So Dr. Michael Coe, who has passed away, he passed away in 2019, but he was the Charles |
| 0:46.3 | J. McCurdy Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Yale University. And he was the world's leading expert on the Mayan, the Mayan civilization, |
| 0:59.0 | you know, those who inhabited Mexico and Central America during the time that the |
| 1:04.9 | Book of Mormon took place. |
| 1:07.4 | I first learned about him when he was featured on a PBS documentary about the Mormons in the |
| 1:14.5 | mid-2000s, and we just took a chance and reached out to him and asked if he'd be willing to |
| 1:21.2 | come on Mormon stories, and he was. |
| 1:23.4 | So I interviewed him twice for Mormon stories. |
| 1:26.8 | The first time was episodes 268 through 270. |
| 1:31.4 | It's audio only, so be warned. |
| 1:35.2 | And in that series, it was just basically, it was called Dr. Michael Coe, an outsider's view of Booker Mormon archaeology. |
| 1:43.8 | So basically, we just wanted to have an outsider like Dr. Book of Mormon archaeology. |
| 1:48.3 | So basically we just wanted to have an outsider like Dr. Robert Riddner with the Book of Abraham. |
| 1:49.0 | It was the first episode like this where we just said, what does the world's leading scholar |
| 1:54.1 | on, you know, the Mayan, you know, civilization say about the prospects of the Book of Mormon being a historical document |
| 2:03.0 | from an anthropological and an archaeological perspective. And so I did three episodes with him. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr. John Dehlin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Dr. John Dehlin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.