Access Utah

Enchanted by electricity as a boy, William Kamkwamba wanted to study science in Malawi's top boarding schools. But in 2002, his country was stricken with a famine that devastated his family's farm and left his parents destitute. Unable to pay the eighty-dollar-a-year tuition for his education, William was forced to drop out and help his family forage for food as thousands across the country starve...

When it was published in 1997, The Wall Street Journal called Terryl Givens' “The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy” "one of the five best books on Mormonism." Now, in the wake of a tidal wave of Mormon-inspired artistic, literary, and political activity--ranging from the Broadway hit The Book of Mormon, to the HBO series Big Love, to the political campaign of Mit...

According to a study from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 28 percent of Americans have no confidence they will have enough money to retire comfortably -- the highest figure in the study's 23-year history. 41 percent do say they are at least somewhat confident. How confident are you? Until recently most of our attention has focused on accumulating assets for retirement; now as baby boomers...

Moab resident Steph Davis is a superstar in the climbing community. But when her husband made a controversial climb of Delicate Arch, the media fallout and the toll on her marriage left her without a partner or an income. Accompanied by her beloved dog, Fletch, she set off in search of a new identity and discovered sky diving. Though falling out of an airplane is antithetical to a climber’s contro...

For decades, Walter Cronkite was known as "the most trusted man in America." Millions across the nation welcomed him into their homes, first as a print reporter for the United Press on the front lines of World War II, and later, in the emerging medium of television, as a host of numerous documentary programs and as anchor of the CBS Evening News, from 1962 until his retirement in 1981.

A mother talks about the gap between when her son is seen as "normal," and when he's seen as "not normal." She's talking about his invisible disability - a disability which at first glance isn't readily apparent, and includes intellectual impairments such as autism. Given the misperceptions and mistaken judgments people with invisible disabilities frequently encounter, a film, “Invisible Disabilit...

Are GMOs or Genetically Modified Organisms beneficial or dangerous to global health? Are GMOs critical to sustainability or a danger to the environment? Should companies have the right to patent seeds? Can GMOs co-exist with organic farming? We’ll seek answers to your GMO questions from Jennifer Reeve, USU Associate Professor of Organic and Sustainable Agriculture; David Hole, USU Professor of Pla...

Eastern Utah’s Uintah Basin has seen sharp increase in economic development in recent years with oil and gas extraction leading the way. Uintah County has grown by 29% in the last decade. With this growth has come an increasing air quality problem. A coalition of public health and conservation groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency last year, saying the agency is failing to protect the Ui...

Young people in the United States are entering the youth justice system in shocking numbers, and many seem to come out worse than when they went in. More than half of incarcerated kids are likely to re-commit crimes after being released. Some wonder whether exposure to the system itself could be perpetuating a life of crime. On the other side of the world, a New Zealand youth court has incorporate...

For two days each year in August, county, municipal and state leaders and other stake holders gather in Cedar City for the Utah Rural Summit. They come from throughout Utah to explore issues that impact rural life, to hear from experts the latest information pertaining to rural life, and to discuss policies necessary to maintain and expand the political, cultural and economic relevance of rural co...

Thomas Jefferson called farmers “the chosen people of God” and claimed that they were inherently virtuous, the best citizens for the new republic. Evelyn Funda, author of “Weeds: A Farm Daughter’s Lament,” says that “the American imagination has endowed farming with profound and enduring symbolic significance. ...no other occupation —with perhaps the exception of motherhood—so fully spans the imag...

Has Alzheimer’s Disease has touched your family? There are 50,000 Utahns affected by Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Utah has the nation’s highest growth rate of AD (127%). There are more than 5 million cases of AD in the US today and by 2050, that number is expected to nearly triple to 13.8 million and care costs will reach over $1.2 trillion. There is no known cure and the impact on afflicted indiv...

Rich Cohen writes in National Geographic magazine's August cover story titled “Sugar Love (a not so sweet story)” that sugar was the oil of its day. The more you tasted, the more you wanted. In 1700 the average Englishman consumed 4 pounds a year. By 1900 he was up to 100 pounds a year. Today the average American consumes 77 pounds of added sugar annually, or more than 22 teaspoons of added sugar...

Chip Ward writes in The Nation: “At this very moment, [TrekWest adventurer John] Davis is walking, biking, paddling and horseback riding 6,000 miles through a chain of mountain ranges that stretches like a spine across North America from the Sierra Madres of Mexico through the Rockies of the American West up into Canada. He started this winter in the Sonoran desert we share with our southern neigh...

Ophthalmologists Dr. Geoffrey Tabin (based in Salt Lake City) and Dr. Sanduk Ruit have dedicated their lives to restoring sight to blind people in some of the most isolated, impoverished reaches of developing countries in the Himalayas and Sub-Saharan Africa. Drs. Ruit and Tabin founded the Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP) in 1995. Geoffrey Tabin was a high-achieving Harvard Medical School student...

Legendary lyricist Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof, She Loves Me, Fiorello!) is in Logan for events with the Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theater. He is Tom Williams' guest for the hour on Access Utah. Monday 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.

Ceiridwen Terrill writes about how, at a particularly sad and frightening time in her life, a wolf dog was the kind of companion she was searching for. In her book, "Part Wild: Caught Between the Worlds of Wolves and Dogs," she talks about an animal whose heart is divided between the woman she loves, and the desire to roam free. In the end, Terrill realizes she must confront the reality of taming...

Brigham Young was a rough-hewn craftsman from New York whose impoverished and obscure life was electrified by the Mormon faith. He trudged around the U.S. and England to gain converts for Mormonism, spoke in spiritual tongues, married more than 50 women, and eventually transformed a barren desert into his vision of the Kingdom of God.

Animal welfare activists filed a lawsuit Monday, challenging Utah’s “Ag Gag” law. We'll revisit a debate from May when, in the first test in the nation of an “Ag Gag” law, a Utah woman was charged for using her cell phone to film a slaughterhouse. Charges against Amy Meyer were subsequently dropped. Under Utah’s law (H.B. 187) passed in 2012, it is illegal to film an agricultural operation while t...

What’s on your Utah bucket list? What adventure have you always wanted to do? What activities have you crossed off your Utah Bucket List and can suggest to us? We’d love to share your list with others. We’d also love to share your photos. You can share your list & photos on our Utah Public Radio Facebook page and call 1-800-826-1495 Monday 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. A film, “The Utah Bucket List,” premier...

According to a BBC report from July 16, “a new interim Egyptian government has been sworn in, with army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the ousting of Mohammed Morsi, becoming deputy PM as well as defence minister. ... The swearing in followed another night of violence between security forces and Morsi supporters that left seven dead. A spokesman for Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood called th...

Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman was recently acquitted of all charges in the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. More than 150 people marched in protest of the verdict in Salt Lake City. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, some of the protesters said that the trial’s outcome will increase racial profiling and open the door for “trigger-happy” vigilantes. We’re going to open up...

Paul Bogard, author of the new book, “The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light,” spent his childhood summers in a cabin on a lake in northern Minnesota, where shooting stars cut across swaths of countless stars, the Milky Way reflected off the lake, and the woods were so dark he couldn’t see his hands in front of his face. In our modern world of nights as brig...

Pastor Don Mackenzie, Rabbi Ted Falcon and Imam Jamal Rahman -- known as the Interfaith Amigos --are co-authors of “Getting to the Heart of Interfaith:The Eye-Opening, Hope-Filled Friendship of a Pastor, a Rabbi & a Sheikh.” Known for their unique blend of spiritual wisdom and humor, they openly address the usual taboos of interfaith dialogue — the “awkward” parts of each tradition — in order to c...

We continue a series of conversations with authors whose books are featured on our UPR Book List. Today: Kevin Fedarko talks about his new book, “The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon.” Here’s how the publisher, Simon & Schuster, describes the book: “In the spring of 1983, a massive snowmelt sent runoff racing down the Colorado River...