Access Utah

Nearly every US city would like to be more walkable—for reasons of health, wealth, and the environment—yet few are taking the proper steps to get there. The goals are often clear, but the path is seldom easy. Jeff Speck’s follow-up to his bestselling Walkable City is the resource that cities and citizens need to usher in an era of renewed street life. Walkable City Rules is a doer’s guide to making change in cities, and making it now.

We’re compiling another UPR Community Booklist and we want to know what you’re reading. What’s on your nightstand or device right now? What is the best book you’ve read so far this year? Which books are you suggesting to friends and family? We’d love to hear about any book you’re reading, including in the young adult & children’s categories. One suggestion or many are welcome.

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 there must also be something substantial to place within that revised framework. There must be essential evidence to lend weight to the hypotheses, and counter the critics’ various aspersions. I was once confronted by a colleague, who declared, ‘After all, these are just stories.’ My response: ‘Stories that apparently leave tracks, shed hair, void scat, vocalize, are observed and described by reliable experienced witnesses. Hardly just stories.’”

Thi Bui was born in Vietnam three months before the end of the Vietnam War, and came to the United States in 1978. She will present a lecture "Finding Home," based on her debut graphic memoir, “The Best We Could Do,” a beautifully illustrated and emotional story about the search for a better future and a longing for the past. The lecture is Thursday, November 7, at 7:00 p.m. in the Nancy Tessman Auditorium at The Salt Lake City Public Library. The main sponsor/organizer is the Asia Center and the University of Utah along with The Office for Equity and Diversity.

Bill Lipe is professor emeritus of anthropology at Washington State University. He has spent much of his more than 50 year career in Utah archaeology beginning with the archaeological salvage of Glen Canyon before the dam construction and on into Cedar Mesa where he became a leading scholar in the early Basketmaker agricultural societies of southeastern Utah. Dr. Lipe began his work at a time when there was little federal legislation protecting archaeology or guiding preservation efforts. He became a leader in the development of what we now know of as Cultural Resource Management archaeology. Because of his involvement in CRM and his work in Cedar Mesa, he remains one of archaeology's main voices in the Bears Ears controversy.

We know the elements of erosion: wind, water, and time. They have shaped the spectacular physical landscape of our nation. In her new book “Erosion: Essays of Undoing” Terry Tempest Williams explores the many forms of erosion we face: of democracy, science, compassion, and trust. She asks: "How do we find the strength to not look away from all that is breaking our hearts?" And she says what has been weathered, worn, and whittled away is as powerful as what remains. Our undoing is also our becoming.

Crystal Marie Fleming, Ph.D.is an author, public intellectual and expert on white supremacy and global racism. She is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Stony Brook University with affiliations in the Department of Africana Studies and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Dr. Fleming is the author of two books: the critically-acclaimed How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy and the Racial Divide and Resurrecting Slavery: Racial Legacies and White Supremacy in France. Additionally, her scholarship appears in journals such as The Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Poetics,Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race and Mindfulness.

From the tempestuous fight for statehood to the evolution of Utah voters from Democrats to Republicans, Rod Decker analyzes the intersection of politics and faith in the complex political culture of modern Utah. Beginning with the state’s roots as a communal theocracy, Utah Politics deftly examines how Mormon morality influenced and continues to shape conflicts on both the local and federal levels.

"Eight years ago, Bob Inglis ran for a seventh term in the U.S. House of Representatives and didn’t even make it out of the Republican primary. He lost by nearly 3 to 1. His estrangement from South Carolina voters ran deep, friends-gone-missing and allies-turned-enemies deep.

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

An unusual and significant event is happening today at Utah State University. The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the courts just below the U.S. Supreme Court and based in Denver, is in session at the Performance Hall on the USU campus. They are hearing oral arguments in two sessions and then will take questions from the audience.

This workshop is a one-day event, open to novice biographers, seasoned family historians, as well as more experienced writers who might hope to someday win a prize like the Evans Biography Awards. There will be four workshop sessions (two concurrent sessions in the morning and two in the afternoon). Space is limited, so register early.

David Maisel (b. 1961, New York) is an artist working in photography and video, and the recipient of a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship in the Creative Arts. Among his chief concerns are the politics and aesthetics of radically human-altered environments, and how we perceive our place in time via investigations of cultural artifacts from both past and present. His work focuses on power and the production of space by examining landscapes and objects that are off-limits, quarantined, or hidden from view. We are also joined in the studio by Katie Lee-Koven, Director and Chief Curator of the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art.

The United States Marine Corps has a unique culture that ensures comradery, exacting standards, and readiness to be the first to every fight. Yet even in a group that is known for innovation, culture can push leaders to fall back on ingrained preferences.

For those who go in search of the isolation, silence and adventure of wild places it is―perhaps ironically―to the man-made shelters that they need to head; the outposts: bothies, bivouacs, cabins and huts. In his new book “Outpost: A Journey to the Wild Ends of the Earth,” Dan Richards says that part of their allure is their simplicity: enough architecture to shelter from the weather but not so much as to distract from the immediate environment around.

David Brown is Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Utah State University. A while back he gave a talk in the Science Unwrapped series from the College of Science titled “Artificial Intelligence: Too Late to Stop the Robot Apocalypse?” Professor Brown says “Perhaps ironically, salient technology superstars, like Elon Musk and Bill Gates, and publicly known geniuses, like Stephen Hawking, have spoken out and warned us about the advent of artificial intelligence (AI). On the other hand, doing so won them the Luddite Award from CNET, and 'alarmist' labels from WIRED and E & T magazines. What's the truth? Is AI the next atomic bomb and are AI research labs the next Los Alamos? If Yes, are there nevertheless compelling reasons to pursue AI? What distinguishes AI from generic computer science or programming or robotics?” We’ll talk about it today on the next Access Utah.

Until ten years ago, geneticist Don Tillman had never had a second date. Then he developed The Wife Project and met Rosie, 'the world's most incompatible woman'. Now, having survived 3,653 days of marriage, Don's life-contentment graph, recently at its highest point, is curving downwards.

It’s anecdotal. But I think it’s a thing. I’m hearing from a growing number of people that they’re disengaging from the news and, in some cases, from politics. We’re going to talk about it next time on Access Utah. My guests will include USU Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Jason Gilmore; and University of Utah Law Professor RonNell Anderson Jones. And I’d love to get your perspective on this. You can email me right now to upraccess@gmail.com.

The Rocky Mountain Anthropological Conference is happening today through Saturday in Logan and will cover such topics as Japanese Railroad Worker Archaeology in Central Utah and Historic Filming Locations of Utah. We’ll talk with archaeologists Ken Cannon, Craig Lee, and Larry Todd about melting ice patches and the race to document thawing artifacts; the long-term presence of humans in current wilderness areas and how that affects our understanding of wilderness; how archaeology informs public policy decisions; and much more.

Eric Kuhn, retired General Manager of the Colorado River Water Conservancy District, will speak about his new book “Science Be Dammed.” The talk was held in ENGR 201 at 3:30p on Wednesday, October 2.