Access Utah

Dr. Marcella Runell Hall is a social justice scholar and author specializing in Diversity Education/Training, Spirituality/Religion, Race/Ethnicity, Hip-Hop Education, Social Justice and Critical Pedagogy.

“Underground,” a new play by award-winning Utah playwright (and University of Utah Law Professor,) Debora Threedy, will have its World Premiere in Southern Utah, October 3-5 in the Kayenta Outdoor Theatre in Ivins. “Underground” addresses an especially important topic for many Utahns: the moral and spiritual dilemma of excavating Ancient Native American ancestral grounds and selling the excavated artifacts for financial gain. A similar scenario occurred a few years ago in Blanding, where many local residents were indicted for selling stolen Native American artifacts on the black market.

Wednesday is World Reading Day. It’s one day, held once a year, where people of all ages are encouraged to turn off the TV, log off the net, put away the video games & ignore all the other myriad distractions of modern life and enjoy the simple pleasure of reading a book instead.

21 years ago in St. Louis, six correctional centers and juvenile detention centers began a program featuring incarcerated adults and children called Prison Performing Arts. Hardened criminals performing classic plays have provided fascinating insights into theater and life. As “This American Life” said of the Prison Performing Arts’ production of Hamlet in a St Louis penitentiary, “It’s a play about murder and its consequences, performed by murderers, living out the consequences.”

In his book, “The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States,” Mark Fiegere-frames the canonical account of American history based on the simple but radical premise that nothing in the nation's past can be considered apart from the natural circumstances in which it occurred. Among the historical moments he revisits under this new framework: a revolutionary nation arises from its environment and struggles to reconcile the diversity of its people with the claim that nature is the source of liberty.

For decades, politicians and business leaders have told us that today’s challenge is growing the economy, and that environmental protection can be left to future generations. Amy Larkin, in her book “Environmental Debt: The Hidden Costs of a Changing Global Economy,” says that in the wake of billions of dollars in costs associated with Hurricane Sandy, wildfires across the West, and groundwater contamination from drilling, it’s clear that yesterday’s carefree attitude about the environment has morphed into a fiscal crisis of epic proportions. She argues that the costs of global warming, extreme weather, pollution and other forms of “environmental debt” are wreaking havoc on the economy.

Based on David Abrams’ own experiences serving in Iraq and the diary he kept there, his new novel, “Fobbit,” takes us into the chaotic world of Baghdad’s Forward Operating Base Triumph. The Forward Operating Base, or FOB, is like the back-office of the battlefield—where the grunts eat and sleep between missions, and where a lot of Army employees have what looks suspiciously like an office job. The FOB contains all the comforts of home, including Starbucks and Burger King, but there’s also the unfortunate possibility that a mortar might hit you while you’re drinking your Frappucino. A lot of what goes on at the FOB doesn’t exactly fit the image of war that the army and the government feed us:

There has been a lot of debate recently about how to get the right health care for you and your family, but what about one of the most important members of the family, your pet? Dr. Melinda Hillegass from Mountain View Veterinary Health Center in Logan will answer your pet health & care questions. We’re also inviting you to share a picture and message about your pet on our Utah Public Radio Facebook page. We’ll share your message during the program and invite listeners to view your picture on Facebook.

Photojournalist Paola Gianturco says that an unheralded grandmothers' movement is changing the world & that insurgent grandmothers are using their power to fight for a better future for grandchildren everywhere. Her book, “Grandmother Power: A Global Phenomenon” features 120 activist grandmothers in 15 countries on five continents. Grandmothers in Canada, Swaziland, and South Africa are collaborating to care for AIDS orphans. Grandmothers in Senegal have convinced communities to abandon female genital mutilation. Grandmothers in India are becoming solar engineers to bring light to their villages while those in Peru, Thailand, and Laos are sustaining weaving traditions.

In the inaugural Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture, Arrington himself was the speaker. His topic: “Faith and Intellect as Partners in Mormon History.” Joining us today is the 2013 lecturer, Dr. Gregory Prince, who adapts Arrington’s title, calling his lecture “Faith and Doubt as Partners in Mormon History.” A scientist by profession, Prince is also a published historian of Mormonism.

Ivan Doig, acclaimed author of “This House of Sky” & “English Creek” is out with a new book, “Sweet Thunder,” the third novel in a trilogy of tales following the life of wordslinger Morris Morgan. With the backdrop of a conflicted America during the roaring Twenties, Morrie finds himself back in the brawling city of Butte in the middle of a conflict between miners and the Anaconda Copper Mining Company.

Education reform is a hot topic right now from congress to communities across the country. On today’s show we will be discussing new solutions and ways of thinking about education with three guests who are at the forefront of education research.

Nicole Walker, writing about her new book “Quench Your Thirst With Salt,” says that “Utah is a strange place, especially Salt Lake City. A dominant culture encloses the valley in a kind of protective and paternalistic bubble. A sharp and active subculture attempts to pop that bubble...My father tried to single-handedly subvert the dominant, abstinent, culture by drinking a lot. With every drink, he banged his head against the Mormon granite. With every drink, he hurt his head, never making a crack in that granite. Sometimes the mountains win.

Today we revisit one of the most popular programs from our archives. Mother George was a black midwife who practiced her art in a small southeastern Idaho town for 40 years. When she died around 1919, the women dressing her for burial discovered that she was man.

Saturday, September, 21, will mark a historic moment for members of the LGBT community in Utah: the first Provo Pride Festival is planned for that day. Utah has held an annual, 3 day long, pride festival in Salt Lake City since 1983. Utah Pride started quite small but has grown to include national headliners and recent attendance has reached to well over 20,000 people.

Dorthea Lange and Ansel Adams are two of the most well-known photographers of the 20th century. Lange humanized American's struggle for economic and social justice through her documentary photography, while Adams' landscapes spurred environmental protection of the wild places of the American West. These two household names had already defined Western portraiture and landscape when Adams and Lange undertook a joint venture to document the changing ways of life in three Mormon towns (St. George, Toquerville, & Gunlock.)

In the spring of 1985 the Museum of Modern Art held an international exhibition of the year's most significant artists. Out of 169 artists showcased, only 13 were women. Infuriated, a group of women found themselves protesting the museum and created The Guerrilla Girls.

Several days a year Cache Valley’s air quality is worse than the air in big cities such as Beijing, China. Today on the program Utah State University environmental engineer Randy Martin, joins us to talk about what’s causing the pollution in cache valley and the State strategies to clean it up so everyone can breathe easy.

Frontiersman, colonizer, missionary to the Indians, and explorer of the American West, Jacob Hamblin has long been one of the most enigmatic figures in Mormon history. In a new biography “A Frontier Life: Jacob Hamblin, Explorer and Indian Missionary” Todd Compton disentangles many of the myths and controversies surrounding Hamblin and presents a portrait of a true pioneer who lived life at the geographical, cultural, and spiritual boundaries of his era.

“Self” has many definitions. Science has demonstrated that 90 percent of the cells in our bodies are bacteria—we are in many respects more non-self than self. In “Lousy Sex: Creating Self in an Infectious World” Gerald Callahan explores the science of self, illustrating the immune system’s role in forming individual identity. Blending scientific essay with deeply personal narrative, he uses microbiology and immunology to explore a new way to answer the question, who am I? Through stories about the sex lives of wood lice, the biological advantages of eating dirt, the question of immortality, the relationship between syphilis and the musical genius of Beethoven, he creates another way, a chimeric way, of seeing ourselves.