Access Utah

It’s a pledge drive special edition of Access Utah today. My special guest for the hour is Ken Sanders from Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake City. We’ll reach into the archives for parts of some of our favorite episodes of the program. We’ll hear from Evelyn Funda, Associate Dean of the USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences and author of “Weeds: A Farm Daughter’s Lament.” Evelyn Funda w...

It’s a pledge drive special edition of Access Utah today. My special guest for the hour is folklorist and USU Assistant Professor of English Lynne McNeill. We’ll reach into the archives for parts of some great episodes of the program. We’ll hear from Eric Nuzum, former Vice President of Programming at NPR and author of “Giving Up the Ghost: A Story About Friendship, 80s Rock, A Lost Scrap of Paper...

It’s a pledge drive special edition of Access Utah today. My special guest for the hour is former UPR Station Manager Richard Meng. We’ll reach into the archives for parts of some of my most memorable interviews. We’ll hear from explorer and educator Helen Thayer; indomitable Holocaust survivor Eva Kor; and singer-songwriter Rosalie Sorrells. And we’ll invite you to pledge your support to UPR to e...

It’s a pledge drive special edition of Access Utah today. My special guest for the hour is former UPR Program Director and Access Utah host Lee Austin. We’ll reach into the archives for parts of interviews Lee conducted with writer Gore Vidal and former Utah Poet Laureate Ken Brewer. We’ll also hear a portion of a special broadcast on the history of Capitol Reef National Park. We’ll talk about the...

Described by Fanfare Magazine as “one of the most talented and intriguing of living composers,” Lori Laitman has composed multiple operas and choral works, and over 250 songs, setting texts by classical and contemporary poets (including those who perished in the Holocaust). Her music is widely performed, internationally and throughout the United States, and has generated substantial critical accla...

We don’t know how. We don’t know when. But death comes for us all.

Physicist and futurist Michio Kaku says that moving human civilization to the stars, formerly the domain of fiction, is increasingly becoming a scientific possibility–and a necessity. Whether in the near future due to climate change and the depletion of finite resources, or in the distant future due to catastrophic cosmological events, we must face the reality that humans will one day need to leav...

Dr. Anne Spoerry treated hundreds of thousands of people across rural Kenya over the span of fifty years. A member of the renowned Flying Doctors Service, the French-born Spoerry learned how to fly a plane at the age of forty-five and earned herself the cherished nickname, "Mama Daktari"--"Mother Doctor"--from the people of Kenya. Yet few knew what drove her from post-World War II Europe to Africa...

Patty Rayman was born with the ability to communicate with animals and has helped thousands of people resolve many types of behavior, health, attitude and relationship issues with their animal companions. In working with all types of animals, she has developed techniques to help people move from conflict to cooperation in their relationships.

One month after seventeen people were killed in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Women’s March Youth Empower is organizing a national student walkout against gun violence. In most areas, including Utah, the walkout will happen at 10:00 a.m.local time on Wednesday, March 14.

Joseph Ward, Dean of the USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences, is the editor of a new book titled “European Empires in the American South: Colonial and Environmental Encounters,” which examines the process of European expansion into a region that has come to be known as the American South. After Europeans began to cross the Atlantic with confidence, they interacted for three hundred years...

Part elegy, part ode, part investigative science journalism, Jonathan Thompson’s new book “River of Lost Souls: The Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Disaster” (Torrey House Press), tells the gripping story behind the 2015 Gold King Mine disaster that turned the Animas River in southwestern Colorado orange with sludge and toxic metals for more than 100 miles downstream, wreaki...

Nashville, August 1920. Thirty-five states have ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, twelve have rejected or refused to vote, and one last state is needed. It all comes down to Tennessee, the moment of truth for the suffragists, after a seven-decade crusade. The opposing forces include politicians with careers at stake, liquor companies, railroad magnates, and racists who don’t want black women voti...

The Curies' newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.

Salt Lake Tribune religion reporter Peggy Fletcher Stack writes that “[s]ome Mormons — and plenty of others — were appalled to witness their church build a $1.5 billion mall in downtown Salt Lake City and hear their prophet proclaim, “Let’s go shopping.” Isn’t religion, they argued, supposed to be about feeding the hungry and clothing the poor? How is selling Tiffany jewelry, Nordstrom cocktail dr...

A formerly homeless man tries to help young people in Southern Utah. A transgender person in Brigham City finds community in a coven of witches. A gay Navajo man finally decides to leave the reservation to escape the loneliness. And in a suburb of Salt Lake City, a family turns a Mormon tradition on its head to find fellowship. Those are descriptions of episodes from the UPR original series “LGBTQ...

In 2012, photographer Matika Wilbur sold everything in her Seattle apartment and created Project 562, which reflects her commitment to visit, engage with and photograph all 562 plus Native American sovereign territories in the United States. With this project she has traveled hundreds of thousands of miles, many in her RV (which she has nicknamed the “Big Girl”) but also by horseback through the G...

“I began my writing career by exploring the tracks humans have left in nature. Now I’m mostly interested in the tracks nature leaves in us.” That’s author Gary Ferguson. He says that nature provides beauty, mystery and community, traits that each of us very much needs. He is the author of 25 books. We talked with Gary Ferguson a few months ago about his latest “Land on Fire.” Today we’ll talk with...

Lyndon Johnson's towering political skills and his ambitious slate of liberal legislation are the stuff of legend: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start and environmental reform. But what happened after the bills passed? One man could not and did not go it alone. Bill Moyers, Jack Valenti, Joe Califano, Harry McPherson and the other staff membe...

The Culture & Mental Health Lab, Merrill-Cazier Library, and Cache Refugee & Immigrant Connection have partnered to host a college and community screening of “Whose Streets?,” a documentary about the Ferguson uprising. The event is made possibly with funding from Utah State University's Diversity Council. Following the screening will be a panel discussion with scholars, organizers, and community l...

Several Utah-based organizations including the Rape Recovery Center and Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault recently hosted a town hall conversation focusing on the impact and future of the #MeToo movement. Organizers say “It is time for Utahns to come together to discuss the future of our community. To give survivors an opportunity to define what progress looks like for our community.” They hop...

It’s time again to compile our UPR community book list. We want to know what you’re reading. Maybe something for Valentine’s Day or Black History Month? Whatever’s on your nightstand or device, you can send us your list right now by email to upraccess@gmail.com. Or you can email us or call us during the program, next time on Access Utah. Elaine Thatcher, our usual co-host for these episodes, is al...

From the University of Utah:

It’s been six months since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico. The hurricane is regarded as one of the worst natural disasters in Puerto Rican history. Some Puerto Ricans expressed the worry at the time that the news cycle would turn and the island’s needs will be forgotten. We’ll try to counteract that tendency today. We’re going to focus on Puerto Rico and try to point you to good ways you c...

Renowned American political activist, scholar and author Ibram X. Kendi visited USU last fall for a keynote presentation on “How to be an Anti-Racist.” The presentation was sponsored by the USU Access and Diversity Center. Kendi, an award-winning historian and New York Times best-selling author, is professor of history and international relations and the founding director of the Antiracist Researc...