Access Utah

As the 2024 session of the Utah Legislature enters its second week there are many organizations advocating for their causes. We’ll talk to several of these groups today.

Today we talk cats. Our guest is Jonathan Losos, and on this episode we discuss his book The Cat's Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa.

On this episode we talk speech. We revisit our conversation with Valerie Fridland, professor of linguistics in the English Department at the University of Nevada, Reno and author of Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English.

The year 2023 marked the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act. It was also another year in an ongoing crisis of biodiversity loss, species extinctions, climate change, and natural disasters. On this episode we talk with Lowell Baier about the new books: The Codex of the Endangered Species Act, volumes 1 & 2.

We revisit our converstaion about music in the movies! We're joined by Frank Lehman, Associate Professor of Music at Tufts University. He is author of Hollywood Harmony: Musical Wonder and the Sound of Cinema and recent essay, How to Write Music for Rolling Boulders.

We continue our tradition of bringing you poetry in the New Year. This year we feature conversation with and poetry from Utah Poet Laureate Lisa Bickmore, along with poets Michael Sowder and Ben Gunsberg.

We're once again joined by USU English professors Jeannie Thomas and Lynne McNeill to talk about folklore. On this episode we focus on the most popular memes and digital trends of last year.

Today we’ll spotlight the William A. Burnard Warming Center in Logan. We’ll also talk about the causes of homelessness in Cache Valley and how those differ from other areas of the state.

Today we’ll talk with Deborah Kasdan about her new book ROLL BACK THE WORLD: A Sister’s Memoir. Threaded throughout this love letter to her older sister are stories of four siblings and their parents. As the second sibling, Deborah Kasdan struggled for decades with painful emotions of grief, shame, and survivor’s guilt before deciding to share her story, and her family’s.

Where can you find a chunk of the Matterhorn enshrined at a Utah ski resort? What is the origin of Iosepa, the Hawaiian ghost town in the desert? And why is Utah called the Beehive State?

"To Boldly Grow" allows us to journey alongside Tamar Haspel as she learns to scrounge dinner from the landscape around her and discovers that a direct connection to what we eat can utterly change the way we think about our food — and ourselves.

"Time to Think Small" examines ways we can leverage the growing power of smartphones and other technologies to protect threatened species, reduce the risk from climate change and stop ocean plastic.

Today we’ll talk to two reporters participating in the Great Salt Lake Collaborative who recently traveled to Las Vegas to learn what that water-starved city is doing and what Utah might learn from them.

We revisit our conversation with Rabbi Steve Leder about life, death, and the concept of writing an ethical will.

On this episode we talk about math. We're joined David Brown who recently delivered the 47th Annual Honors Last Lecture on the USU Logan Campus, which was entitled: Our Sixth Sense: Math.

On this episode we're joined by zoologist Bill Schutt to talk about the origins of circulation, still evident in microorganisms today, to the tiny hardworking pumps of worms, to the golf-cart-size hearts of blue whales.

We revisit our conversation with Jim Enote to talk about the different ways that western scientists and Native people understand the world, Bears Ears National Monument, challenges facing the Colorado Plateau, Native response to rock art and more.

On this episode we talk folklore and music with Steven Hatcher, the Idaho Folk Arts Coordinator, and Damian Rodriguez, a Tejano musician who performed as part of the 2022 Fife Honor lecture.

On this episode, we discuss how Utah’s trigger law (SB 174) went into effect briefly following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision earlier this year, but is now being appealed and an injunction is in place.

On this episode we talk with Katherine Corcoran about her new book: In the Mouth of the Wolf: A Murder, a Cover-Up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press.

On this episode we're joined by Temple Grandin to talk about her new book Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns and Abstractions.

On this episode we recap the 2022 midterm election with Utah State University Political Science Professor Damon Cann.

On this episode we feature another episode in our periodic series of programs about the internet and social media, and our guest today is Scott Cleland.

Today’s program is all about man’s best friend. In the first half of the program we talk with Alexandra Horowitz about her new book "The Year of the Puppy: How Dogs Become Themselves." In the second half, Jules Howard joins us to talk about his new book "Wonderdog: The Science of Dogs and Their Unique Friendship with Humans."

In his new book Indivisible, historian and law professor Joel Richard Paul tells the fascinating story of Daniel Webster. Joel Richard Paul joins us to discuss.