Access Utah

Join us for Access Utah on Tuesday: the opening day of the 2021 session of the Utah Legislature. We’ll be talking to Governor Spencer Cox and legislative leaders, including House Assistant Minority Whip, Rep. Angela Romero; and Senate Majority and Minority Whips, Sen. Ann Milner and Sen. Luz Escamilla, respectively. And we hear some of the priorities of our listeners as we head into this legislative session.

Welcome to a special edition of Access Utah on Utah Public Radio. In this hour we’ll be highlighting L.A. Theatre Works, which can be heard on UPR on Friday evenings at 9:00. Susan Albert Loewenberg, founder, host and Producing Director of L.A. Theatre Works will join me to talk about producing theatre for radio and the role the arts play during these pandemic times and other topics. We’ll also hear sound clips from several productions.

The 2021 session of the Utah Legislature begins on Tuesday and we’re going to get a preview of possible priorities, key legislation and the key players today on Access Utah. The Utah Capitol building will be closed to the public on opening day due to security concerns. Issues likely to be addressed by the legislature include tax cuts, education, and the economic effects of the pandemic.

Our guest today on Access Utah is Selina Gallo-Cruz, Associate Professor of Sociology at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester Massachusetts. We’ll talk about the women’s suffrage movement, women's resistance in civil war, civics education and the ongoing movement for voting rights.

Today we look at the top Digital Trends of 2020, from the fun to the profound. Each year folklore students at Utah State University track digital trends. They then meet at the end of the year to prepare a ballot that goes out to a national panel of experts in digital folklore, which selects the winning trend. Top results for 2020 include #BreonnaTaylor and #GeorgeFloyd, as well as the meme: “How It Started/How It’s Going/How It Ended,” and gender-reveal, presidential election, and Zoom meetings memes.

Of the roughly 120,000 people forced from their homes by Executive Order 9066, around 5,000 were able to escape incarceration beforehand by fleeing inland. In her new book, “Forced Out: A Nikkei Woman’s Search for a Home in America” Judy Kawamoto offers insight into “voluntary evacuation,” a little-known Japanese American experience during World War II, In the book, she addresses her personal and often unconscious reactions to her parents’ trauma, as well as her own subsequent travels around much of the world, exploring, learning, enjoying, but also unconsciously acting out a continual search for a home.

Kevin Holdsworth’s new book is about the Uinta Mountains, Utah's loftiest range. “Red Stone Heart” celebrates the peak bagging experience and shares a little lore. The highest named peaks, The Notorious Nine, form a goal, but as with an Uinta stream, there is much meandering in the book through forest and meadow. Peaks and routes are pulled from a life's rucksack, and we are carried along as we watch a young fool somehow survive to a riper age.

Utah’s first female sheriff, Rosie Rivera, got some good advice when she became an officer: “Don’t try to be a man.” More than a century earlier, Utah’s first female deputy sheriff, Claire Ferguson, said to those who doubted her ability to handle danger, “Why should I fear more than the men?” Today we’ll broadcast a full episode from This Is Her Place, a podcast that tells the remarkable stories of Utah women past and present, in all their diversity. Podcast co-host Naomi Watkins will also join us.

Today Margaret Pettis will join us to talk about her new book of poetry titled “In the Temple of the Stars.” Her previous collection “Chokecherry Rain,” won the Utah State Poetry Society book award.

We hope you’ll join us on Thursday for the Access Utah Holiday Special. Lightwood Duo, Mike Christiansen on guitar and Eric Nelson on clarinet, will play music for the holidays and playwright Tim Slover, author of The Christmas Chronicles, will present readings for the season.

Today we talk with Heather Lende about her new book Of Bears and Ballots: An Alaskan Adventure in Small-Town Politics.

Today we present some readings for the season from a special holiday edition of The Zesty Garden from 2013. This gardening program, hosted by Bryan Earl, ran for several years on UPR and included a regular segment called Petals and Prose. Helen Cannon and Nancy Williams were regular contributors. Today we'll hear from Helen's husband, Larry Cannon, along with Nancy Willians and Bryan Earl with stories, memories and at least one holiday recipe.

In a world where rational, scientific explanations are more available than ever, belief in the unprovable and irrational–in the fringe–is on the rise. There’s a new book out called “The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained.” The author, Colin Dickey, will join me for the hour on Monday’s Access Utah. We’ll talk about everything from the great Kentucky Meat Shower of 1876 to UFOs to QAnon and Pizzagate.

Today on Access Utah we’re doing another non-profit spotlight. There are many needs in our communities, especially during this extraordinary year and this special time of year. We’d love to shine a light on your favorite non-profit or individual doing good in your community.

Katharine Coles, former Utah Poet Laureate and current Distinguished Professor in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Utah, joins us today for Access Utah to talk about her seventh collection of poems, Wayward, published last year.

USU Professor Emeritus Ross Peterson is among the most beloved American history teachers ever to step inside a college classroom. Several generations of students have voted him their favorite instructor, and a fair number became teachers themselves. Ross Peterson’s new book “Christmas in Montpelier” offers a look into his early life, where his wry humor, work ethic, and kindness were honed. Twelve Christmases come to life as he grows from a small boy in a hardscrabble farmhouse with no running water inside and a two-hole privy outside, to one of the nation's most honored educators.

With a surge in Covid-19 cases continuing in Utah and a vaccine on the horizon, we’ll look at the current situation and look ahead today. Our guest for the hour is Doctor Stuart Fischer, Medical Director of Bronx Gardens Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in New York City. We’ll talk about the impact of holiday travel on the spread of the virus, how people living with chronic conditions can stay healthy, and lessons learned from the pandemic, among many other topics.

Poet Ben Gunsberg will join us for Access Utah on Wednesday. He’s been writing poems for the pandemic. We’ll hear some of those poems today. His latest collection is “Welcome, Dangerous Life.” He writes about the vulnerability of being a parent.

Thursday on Access Utah we’ll spotlight the ongoing Moab Music Festival. We’ll talk with master fiddler Alasdair Fraser, cellist Natalie Haas, and violinist Charles Yang, all of whom are performing at the festival. We’ll also hear music performed by these artists.

The American Legacy Project is a nonprofit organization committed to helping American veterans and their families memorialize their time in service to the nation so that their legacies are never lost. Wyatt Frasier and Zachery Page, two Army Lieutenants and West Point graduates, started The American Legacy Project to help veterans preserve their stories of service for their families and the American public. Frasier and Page realized that incredible stories, especially those decorating the landscape of the American military, are too often lost, simply because these stories’ protagonists do not know how or where to tell them.