Access Utah

David Roberts has spent his career documenting voyages to the most extreme landscapes on earth. In his new book, “Limits of the Known,” he reflects on humanity’s—and his own—relationship to extreme risk; and he tries to make sense of why so many have committed their lives to the pursuit of adventure.

Some 200 years after her death, Jane Austen's books are still widely read and loved. Many film adaptations and spin-offs such as 'Pride, Prejudice and Zombies' are also adored by many. The BBC said this about Austen.

Fifty years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., just one in 10 African Americans think the United States has achieved all or most of the goals of the civil rights movement. That’s according to a recent poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. On Wednesday’s Access Utah, on the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s death, we’ll talk about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his legacy, and the future of the ideals he so eloquently articulated and strove for.

Last week USU’s Department of Languages Philosophy and Speech Communications hosted a panel discussion titled “Meaning and #MeToo.” Panelists discussed the #MeToo movement and provided historical, cultural, and legal analysis. On Tuesday’s Access Utah we’ll continue the discussion with the panelists: Erica Holberg, USU Assistant Professor of Philosophy; Mattie Burkert, USU Assistant Professor of English; and Nicole Vouvalis, Director of USU’s Institutional Review Board Office.

This episode of Access Utah is part of the “Democracy and the Informed Citizen” Initiative administered by the Federation of State Humanities Councils in partnership with the Pulitzer Prizes Board for a collaboration between UPR, Utah Humanities, and The Salt Lake City Library. The initiative seeks to deepen the public’s knowledge and appreciation of the vital connections between democracy, the humanities, journalism, and an informed citizenry. The initiative is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

It’s the final pledge drive special edition of Access Utah for our Spring drive today. My special guests this hour are some of the great people who have served as student interns and producers of Access Utah. We’ll be talking with Dani Hayes, Adison Pace, Katie Swain, Bennett Purser, Aimee Cobabe and Connor Rivers. We’ll reach into the archives for parts of some of our most memorable episodes. We’ll revisit discussions about lifting the ban on gay Boy Scouts, and about Sex Positivity. And we’ll hear some music from our program on the history of the Banjo. We’ll invite you to pledge your support to UPR to ensure that Access Utah continues strong on this last day of UPR’s Spring Pledge Drive.

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 will tell us the gripping story of her mother’s escape from communist Czechoslovakia. Then we’ll hear part of my conversation with Colin Dickey, author of the forthcoming book “The Unidentified,” about conspiracy theories. And Ken Sanders will read poems of Ken Brewer and prose of Edward Abbey. We’ll invite you to pledge your support to UPR to ensure that Access Utah continues strong.

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, and What It Means to Be Haunted.” We’ll also hear part of my conversation with National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen about global warming and rapid changes in the Arctic. And Lee Austin will introduce us to the soundscape of Zion National Park. We’ll invite you to pledge your support to UPR to ensure that Access Utah continues strong.

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 ensure that Access Utah and all the programming you value continues strong.

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 history of Access Utah and the public affairs programs that preceded this program. And we’ll invite you to pledge your support to UPR to ensure that Access Utah and all the programming you value continues strong.

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 acclaim. The Journal of Singing wrote “It is difficult to think of anyone before the public today who equals her exceptional gifts for embracing a poetic text and giving it new and deeper life through music.”

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 leave planet Earth to survive as a species.

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. Now, in the first comprehensive account of her life, Dr. Spoerry's revered selflessness gives way to a past marked by rebellion, submission, and personal decisions that earned her another nickname--this one sinister--working as a "doctor" in a Nazi concentration camp.

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 with one another, with the native people of the region, and with enslaved Africans in ways that made the South a significant arena of imperial ambition. As such, it was one of several similarly contested regions around the Atlantic basin.

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, wreaking havoc on cities, farms, and the Navajo Nation along the way.

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 voting. And then there are the “Antis”–women who oppose their own enfranchisement, fearing suffrage will bring about the moral collapse of the nation. They all converge in a boiling hot summer for a face-off replete with dirty tricks, betrayals and bribes, bigotry, Jack Daniel’s, and the Bible.

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.