KnoWhy App

The new KnoWhy app from Book of Mormon Central is generating favorable response from many people. It debuted at BYU Education Week two days ago. KnoWhys are frequently published brief essays about some interesting aspect of the Book of Mormon. Each essay has a Know portion explaining insights from the text, and a Why portion explaining significance or personal application. Well-illustrated, KnoWhys draw on the best LDS scholarship from the last 60 years to engage students in an immersive learning experience. Each KnoWhy starts with a question about a passage and provides one or more faithful answers in an attractively-packaged format including an audio podcast and a short YouTube video.

We began publishing KnoWhys on January 1, 2016. Today we published #169 about the Levitical laws of vessel impurity which shed light on Alma 60:23. The organizing principle behind KnoWhys in 2016 is one essay per chapter. We are working our way through the Book of Mormon, roughly following the Gospel Doctrine lesson sequence.

KnoWhys begin in brainstorming sessions. Ideas that show promise are then worked into a draft which is reviewed by John W. (Jack) Welch, generally regarded as the foremost Book of Mormon scholar of our generation. Drafts are then polished, edited, and formatted, at which time they are reviewed by a panel of volunteers who provide feedback which often gets incorporated into the final product. A script is written summarizing each KnoWhy. Illustrations are gathered. Professional voice talents record each full-length essay as a podcast and each short script as the voice track for a video. Each KnoWhy then goes into video and meme production and on the appointed day gets published in about a dozen social media channels.

A KnoWhy is like a gold brick in a Fort Knox vault. Eventually there will be thousands. Collectively they constitute a veritable treasure trove of information about the Book of Mormon. Go to your app store, search for "knowhy" and download your free key to the vault from the Apple iTunes Store or the Google Play Store.

KnoWhy App Icon on Android

After launching the app, the first thing you see is a list of KnoWhys.

List of KnoWhys

Tapping on a KnoWhy downloads its content, including the live YouTube link.

KnoWhy Content

Book of Mormon Central was built to help people come unto Christ by feasting on His word. The KnoWhy app is one way this is happening.