Access Utah

This week, we are searching through the archives and bringing you the best of Access Utah. Today our theme is current events, and we have Teri Guy and Candi Carter Olson with us to revisit our episodes on the designation of Bears Ears National Monument, fake news and journalism, and Donald Trump's first executive order on refugees.

This week, we are searching through the archives and bringing you the best of Access Utah. Today our theme is race relations, and we have Dr. Jason Gilmore with us to revisit our episode on the Colin Kaepernick controversy and our discussions with Angela Pulley Hudson and Paul Reeve.

Historian and Harvard professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich was recently on the USU campus to give a talk presented by the USU History Department and sponsored by the Tanner Talks Series in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Public radio’s Dr. Zorba Paster is in Logan for several events presented by UPR and he’ll join us for the hour today to talk about healthy living, the latest medical science, and to answer your questions.

We’ll celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, a day early, with folklorist Lisa Gabbert, who says “Over time, St. Patrick’s Day has become a very American holiday; today, it is largely a festive rite of spring—green being the appropriate spring color—characterized by the performance of “Irishness” through the use of (often stereotyped) symbols. Many people, not merely those with ancestral connections to Ireland, enjoy “being Irish” for the day, as it is a way to celebrate Irish music and culture, along with better weather.” We’ll ask why is this unofficial holiday so popular in the U.S. And we want to know your St. Patrick’s Day traditions. Do you wear green? Do you eat corned beef and cabbage? What else do you do?

Republicans in Congress are attempting to keep their long-standing promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. They say the ACA is a disaster and likely to implode. Democrats warn that millions of people will lose access to affordable health care if the repeal passes. We’re going to talk about it on Access Utah today. What should our health care system look like? Is healthcare a right? Is the ACA a massive deficit-busting entitlement program? If you prefer a more market-based system how would that work? How do we promote a system that reduces costs and expands coverage?

Our guest for the hour is Kenneth Woodward, author of “Getting Religion: Faith, Culture, and Politics from the Age of Eisenhower to the Era of Obama” Kenneth Woodward edited Newsweek’s Religion section from 1964 until his retirement in 2002. He remained a contributing editor at Newsweek until 2009. Altogether he has written more than a thousand essays, articles and reviews for a variety of magazines, newspapers and scholarly publications. Getting Religion is a culmination of that work and tells the story of how American religion, culture, and politics influenced one another in the second half of the twentieth century and offers portraits of many of the era’s major figures and their impact on religion in America. Beginning with a reassessment of the fifties, the narrative weaves through the Civil Rights era and the movements that followed in its wake.

Our guest for the hour on Monday’s Access Utah is Cheryl Strayed, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir “Wild,” the New York Times bestsellers “Tiny Beautiful Things” and “Brave Enough,” and the novel “Torch.”

Our guest for the hour today is Brooke Williams, author most recently of Open Midnight:

A Republican party official in Wasatch County recently criticized a bill that addresses a pay gap in the workforce. According to the Washington Post, James Green “said that men have traditionally earned more than women and, citing ‘simple economics,’ argued that things should stay that way.” Green’s letter to the editor, published in two Utah newspapers, produced a backlash and prompted him to write an apology and resign as vice chair of the Wasatch County Republican Party.

Jennifer Sinor is the author of Letters Like the Day: On Reading Georgia O'Keeffe, a collection of essays inspired by the letters of the American modernist Georgia O'Keeffe and Ordinary Trauma, a memoir of her military childhood told through linked flash nonfiction. She teaches creative writing at Utah State University where she is a professor of English. She is also the author of The Extraordinary Work of Ordinary Writing: Annie Ray's Diary, a book about the diary of her great, great, great aunt, a woman who homesteaded the Dakotas in the late nineteenth century. All of her books work to reveal the extraordinary possibilities that arise in the most ordinary moments of our lives.

Natalie Andrews, a Wall Street Journal social media editor and reporter, will give a talk today at USU as a part of the Morris Media & Society Lecture Series, which is facilitated by Utah State’s Department of Journalism and Communication. Here’s how the department describes the talk: “It's now clear that we live in an era of fake news, troll tweets and email dumps. So what does that mean for media, our democracy and our future? Natalie Andrews will discuss the role of the press in the 2016 election — and what the results of that election portend for the intertwined futures of journalism and democracy. Andrews, who graduated from the Department of Journalism and Communication at Utah State University in 2006 and served as KSL's social media director from 2011 to 2014, will seek put the Donald Trump “phenomenon” into historical context en route a clearer understanding of the future.”

Representatives from the group New American Economy participated Tuesday in a National Day of Action and marked the launch of their Map the Impact project, highlighting the economic impact of immigrants, and calling for immigration reform.

Our guest on Wednesday’s Access Utah is Damion Searls, author of "The Inkblots," a scientific and cultural history of the Rorschach test and the first biography of its creator, Hermann Rorschach.

On this episode of Access Utah our guest is Pulitzer Prize-Winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. The website for the Half the Sky Movement, founded by Mr. Kristof and his wife Cheryl WuDunn, says: “The central moral challenge of our time is reaching a tipping point. Just as slavery was the defining struggle of the 19th century and totalitarianism of the 20th, the fight to end the oppression of women and girls worldwide defines our current century.” We’ll talk about this and some of the individuals profiled in their book “A Path Appears,” who are effecting positive change. We’ll also talk about President Trump, journalism in our new era, fake news, Women’s Marches, and the dangers of echo chambers on campus.

The Outdoor Industry Association has announced that after next year, Salt Lake City will no longer host the Outdoor Retailer show, which has called Utah home for 20 years. Some companies, like Patagonia, had said they would not participate in the shows because of the Utah Legislature’s opposition to the new Bear’s Ears National Monument and desire to shrink the size of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

For Meridian Wallace—and many other smart, driven women of the 1940s—being ambitious meant being an outlier. Ever since she was a young girl, Meridian had been obsessed with birds, and she was determined to get her PhD, become an ornithologist, and make her mother’s sacrifices to send her to college pay off. But she didn’t expect to fall in love with her brilliant physics professor, Alden Whetstone. When he’s recruited to Los Alamos, New Mexico, to take part in a mysterious wartime project, she reluctantly defers her own plans and joins him.

The confirmation battle over Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was riveting political theater, but it also highlights deep divisions regarding our K-12 education system. Quoting from the Washington Post: “Trump’s pick has intensified what already was a polarized debate about school choice. Advocates for such choice see in the Trump administration an extraordinary opportunity to advance their cause on a national scale, whereas teachers unions and many Democrats fear an unprecedented and catastrophic attack on public schools, which they see as one of the nation’s bedrock civic institutions.” We’re going to talk about education today. Our guests include UEA president, Heidi Matthews; Utah Association of Public Charter Schools, Communications Director, Cate Klundt; and Dr. Rich Kendell from Our Schools Now.

On Valentine’s Day 2017, we’re going to talk about the history, the idea, the cultural phenomenon of Valentine’s Day. It’s a wonderful day for some and painful for others. What do you think? Is Valentine’s Day an artificially-constructed minefield of expectations or a welcome opportunity to celebrate your romance? Has your view changed over time? What are your Valentine’s plans? We hope you’ll share your thoughts, your experience with us right now by email to upraccess@gmail.com

The tumult at Rep. Jason Chaffetz’ recent town hall meeting made national news, but it’s not unusual of late. Marches and protests continue in the early days of the Trump presidency. In addition to the women’s marches, and protests at airports, there is the Indivisible movement and unusual events on Capitol Hill, such as the recent controversy surrounding Senators Warren and McConnell. Some are comparing the current situation to the Tea Party movement or Occupy Wall Street. Some Trump supporters say that protesters are sore losers and that the president should be given the chance to implement the policies he ran and won on. John Oliver, from Last Week Tonight, warns against resistance and anger fatigue and urges protesters to not just march but to give financial support to organizations they believe in.