Access Utah

Heading into the Thanksgiving holiday, when you may have some extra time for books, we’re compiling our latest UPR booklist. I’ve recently jumped headlong into the history of the Civil War. I’ll tell you which books I recommend on that subject. Elaine Thatcher, our usual co-host for these episodes, always has several fascinating books on her nightstand. She’ll share her list with us. We’ll also ge...

Our guest for the hour today is visual artist Sam Vernon. This episode is a part of our ongoing series of programs focusing on Utah State University’s Year of the Arts. Sam Vernon earned her MFA in Painting/Printmaking from Yale University in 2015 and her BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 2009. Her installations combine xeroxed drawings, photographs, paintings and...

Today we talk with scientific researcher and historian Gregory Prince, who earned his graduate degrees in dentistry (DDS) and pathology (PhD) at UCLA. He pursued a four-decade career in pediatric infectious disease research. His love of history led him to write three books: “Power on High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood,” “David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism,” co-authored with Wi...

The extraordinary story of the Russian slave girl Roxelana, who rose from concubine to become the only queen of the Ottoman empire

From tedgenoways.com: For forty years, Rick Hammond has raised cattle and crops on his wife’s fifth-generation farm. But as he prepares to hand off the operation to his daughter Meghan and her husband Kyle, their entire way of life is under siege. Confronted by rising corporate ownership, encroaching pipelines, groundwater depletion, climate change, and shifting trade policies, small farmers are o...

A.J. Jacobs, author of the new book: “It’s All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree,” joins us for the hour on Monday’s Access Utah.

Martin Luther's posting of the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517 is one of the most famous events of Western history. It inaugurated the Protestant Reformation, and has for centuries been a powerful and enduring symbol of religious freedom of conscience, and of righteous protest against the abuse of power.

Today's discussion is on the importance of science communication. We are joined by the Director of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University Laura Lindenfeld, Improv Program Leader of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science Valeri Lantz-Gefroh, Phd candidate and UPR Science Reporter Daniel Kinka, and Aimee Tallian and Director Nancy Huntly of the USU Ecology C...

Jeff Meldrum is Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology at Idaho State University. He is author of “Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science.” He is a leading expert on Bigfoot or Sasquatch, or the term he prefers: “Relict Hominoid.” He says “...[I]t is one matter to address the theoretical possibility of a relict species of hominoid in North America, and the obligate shift in paradigm to accommodate it, but...

From Torrey House: Pursued by a hired killer after they protested at a mining site gate, Luna Waxwing and Hip Hop Hopi seek refuge in the remote Southwest village of Stony Mesa where they start over as micro-farming restaurateurs with a dangerous secret. With their rodeo princess partner Kayla and a colorful cast of unlikely allies, they struggle to find common ground between coyote-killing cowboy...

Tom Paxton says folk music is lumber with the bark still on. His legendary career spans six decades of traditional music and topical songs. He says today's political climate presents an embarrassment of riches to the song writer. He hasn't penned a Trump song yet, but that will come.

Both George Orwell and Winston Churchill came close to death in the mid-1930's—Orwell shot in the neck in a trench line in the Spanish Civil War, and Churchill struck by a car in New York City. If they'd died then, history would scarcely remember them. At the time, Churchill was a politician on the outs, his loyalty to his class and party suspect. Orwell was a mildly successful novelist, to put it...

"Remember that you will die..."

A new sexual revolution is sweeping the country, and college students are on the front lines. Women use fresh, smart methods to fight entrenched sexism and sexual assault even as they celebrate their own sexuality as never before. Many “woke” male students are more sensitive to women’s concerns than previous generations ever were, while other men perpetuate the most cruel misogyny. Amid such appar...

One month after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, 3 million Puerto Ricans, or 80%, are still without power. More than a third of households are without reliable drinking water at home. The death toll may be in the hundreds. CNN reports that “much of the island feels like it was hit by a storm yesterday.” And some Puerto Ricans are expressing the worry that the news cycle will turn and the is...

Before men ruled the earth, there were wolves.

For thousands of years, tracking animals meant following footprints. Now satellites, drones, camera traps, cellphone networks, and accelerometers reveal the natural world as never before. Where the Animals Go offers a comprehensive, data-driven portrait of how creatures like ants, otters, owls, turtles, and sharks navigate the world. Based on pioneering research by scientists at the forefront of t...

In her first year of eligibility, Gailey was nominated for a Hugo Award for her critique and celebration of the women of Harry Potter, in a category alongside legendary fiction writer Neil Gaiman and the late Carrie Fisher.

Bestselling author Ted Stewart explains how the Supreme Court and its nine appointed members now stand at a crucial point in their power to hand down momentous and far-ranging decisions. Today's Court affects every major area of American life, from health care to civil rights, from abortion to marriage.

Fairy tale expert Jack Zipes says that the tales "serve a meaningful social function, not just for compensation but for revelation: the worlds projected by the best of our fairy tales reveal the gaps between truth and falsehood in our immediate society."

Robert Zellner is a civil rights activist and original Freedom Rider. The Alabama-born son and grandson of Ku Klux Klan members, Zellner has devoted his life to building relationships across color lines. In 1963, he was a young organizer of the March on Washington, which gave us Martin Luther's King "I Have a Dream" speech. He describes his 50-plus year career in the memoir The Wrong Side of Murde...

A gunman opened fire on the crowd at a country music festival in Las Vegas on Sunday evening, killing at least 59 and wounding hundreds.

Dying in Vein is a deeply personal exploration of opiate and heroin addiction through a cinéma vérité style that drops you directly into the lives of an addict in recovery, a couple trying to get clean, a family grieving the loss of their son, and an Emergency Room Physician trying to save one patient at time. Through these stories, the film explores the contemporary belief of 'living life pain fr...

Opera comes in all shapes and sizes. Considered an elitist art form by many, it is capable of touching souls from pioneers and farmers to apostles and politicians. While it may be an acquired taste, we are lured to it via recitals, concerts, oratorios, and even Broadway musicals and anecdotal tales.

On Monday’s Access Utah, beloved folk singer Dar Williams joins us to talk about her latest book, described as “an impassioned account of the fall and rise of the small American towns she cherishes.”