
Hosted by Lyman Hafen · EN

Gail Smith has lived and served all around the world. She and her late husband Hyrum Smith founded Franklin Quest which became Franklin Covey and their philanthropy has blessed southern Utah in countless ways. But Gail’s beginnings were in the little town of Washington, within the orbit of Utah’s Dixie and the gravitational pull of […]

On January 16, 2025, more than 50 year after Lionel Hollins lit up the basketball court in the old Dixie College gym, Lyman sat down with the NBA champion, and with Dixie’s legendary coach Doug Allred. The conversation that followed is one for the ages. *Our annual benefit dinner will be April 12, 2025 and […]

Visiting with special guests Steve Snow, Denny Drake, and Warren Brooks, Lyman elicites stories about Walt Brooks, the legendary football coach and Spanish teacher at Dixie High School during the middle years of the Twentieth Century. Steve and Denny played on Walt’s 1967 State Championship team, and Warren, Walt’s grandson, is the current principal of […]

President Jeffrey R. Holland, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, continues his visit with Lyman about his love for St. George and how his life here launched him on the path of his marvelous world-wide apostolic ministry. His son, Elder Matthew S. Holland, […]

President Jeffrey R. Holland, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, reminisces with Lyman about his boyhood and formative experiences growing up in the red sand of Utah’s Dixie. He shares intimate stories of the people, the place, and what the Dixie Spirit means […]

It began to rain as St. George’s first Latter-day Saint settlers gathered under a tent to celebrate Christmas. Rather than return to their soaked wagon boxes, they danced until dawn on the salt grass floor. The episode ends with the debut of a new song written exclusively for this podcast, “They Danced Until Dawn.” Original […]

Lyman shares the story of John M. Macfarlane and the classic Christmas carol “Far, Far Away on Judea’s Plains.” He joins in a a discussion with composer/arranger Ricky Valadez (who is also the producer of this podcast) about the creative process and how this beloved carol was born in the pioneer village of St. George, […]

Through his essay “Where All Our Scattered Forces Might Gather,” Lyman considers the idea of having a sense of place, and what it means to really belong to a place… how special places and the stories that go with them are at the heart of the Dixie Spirit.

A tongue-in-cheek look back at the story Lyman Hafen and Donna Leavitt Gentry wrote 40 years ago about “Speech Dixie Style,” and how all the diversity of voices of the settlers who came to live in southern Utah in the 1850s and 60s (English, Welsh, Scottish, Scandinavian, Swiss, Canadian, East Coast, Southern States) contributed to […]

The story of Judd’s Store from Lyman’s writings, along with interviews with Lisa Whitehead Shaw, Donna Leavitt Gentry, Kevin Willard, and Randy Judd… each remembering from their own perspective what the store meant and still means to them.