Laura Harris Hales

Hales was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and grew up in Michigan and Minnesota.[2] Alfred, her father, was an agricultural engineer and her mother Margaret Harris (née Lewis) worked as a teacher.[1] She obtained a bachelor's degree in international relations from Brigham Young University in 1988[1] and a master's degree in professional writing from New England College in 2013.[1][3] In 2020, she obtained a master's degree in history with a focus on North American history from the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University.[1]

Hales and her second husband, Brian C. Hales, published extensively on Joseph Smith and his polygamy and maintain the website JosephSmithsPolygamy.org.[4] Hales edited a series of essays, A Reason for Faith: Navigating LDS Doctrine and Church History, that provide complex context and answers for troubling aspects of the LDS Church's past.[5] “There is a need for a broader discussion of 19th-century Latter-day Saint women who cry out for identities beyond a wife number or an age,” she said in an interview with the church's website From the Desk discussing the era of polygamy in the Latter-Day Saints. “Filtering their lives only through their relationships to their husbands does little to resolve the silences of women’s history.”[1]

In 2016, Hales created the Latter-day Saint Perspectives podcast that explores 'Latter-day Saint history, doctrine, and culture' through interviews with authors, scholars, and historians.[6] Episodes include interviews with Fiona Givens, Kate Holbrook, Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye, and Patrick Q. Mason. As of 2021 she served as the executive director and frequent host of the podcast.[7] In May 2021, Hales announced that the podcast would not be adding any new shows and Hales would be pursuing other projects.[8]

Hales was a member of the LDS Church. She was married to Brian Dursteler from 1988 until their divorce in 2005; the couple had five children.[2] She married Brian C. Hales in 2013; combined from their respective families, they had nine children.[9]

Hales died from pancreatic cancer at her home in Kaysville, Utah, on April 13, 2022, aged 54.[2][1]

• A Reason for Faith: Navigating LDS Doctrine and Church History (Editor) Deseret Book Company, 2016. ISBN 978-1944394011
• Joseph Smith's Polygamy: Toward a Better Understanding (with Brian C. Hales) Greg Kofford Books, Incorporated, 2015. ISBN 978-1589587236
• Viewing the Temple Through Wilford Woodruff’s Eyes (Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture Book 18) The Interpreter Foundation, 2015.

• Latter-day Saint Perspectives Website
• Joseph Smith’s Polygamy: Toward a Better Understanding, Fair Mormon Website