Access Utah

Philosophy professor Hugh LaFollette says that he was raised in a gun culture. Later, he was struck by the very different policy responses to the killing of children in Dunblane, Scotland and Newtown, Connecticut. He says “my dis-ease at having no settled view of the topic nagged at me for several years before I decided that agnosticism on this topic was neither intellectually tenable nor morally responsible. I was impelled to examine the arguments and the evidence to reach a fair and informed view.” In his book “In Defense of Gun Control” (from Oxford University Press) LaFollette says that “the public debate about the private ownership of guns is contentious, often nasty, and rarely insightful” and grotesquely oversimplified. In the book he reviews the various philosophical perspectives on gun control; explains why Americans have a culture of guns not found elsewhere in the developed world; discusses armchair arguments on both sides; and examines empirical evidence relating to guns and gun control.

Kip Stephen Thorne (born June 1, 1940) is an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate, known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. A longtime friend and colleague of Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan, he was the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) until 2009 and is one of the world's leading experts on the astrophysical implications of Einstein's general theory of relativity. He continues to do scientific research and scientific consulting, most notably for the Christopher Nolan film Interstellar.

Coral reefs around the world are vanishing at an unprecedented rate. We’ve lost 50% of the world’s coral in the last 30 years. Scientists say that climate change is now their greatest threat and it is estimated that only 10% can survive past 2050. In a new documentary film, “Chasing Coral,” a team of divers, photographers and scientists set out on a thrilling ocean adventure to discover why coral are vanishing and to reveal the underwater mystery to the world.

Gregory Pardlo's father was a brilliant and charismatic man--a leading labor organizer who presided over a happy suburban family of four. But when he loses his job following the famous air traffic controllers' strike of 1981, he succumbs to addiction and exhausts the family's money on more and more ostentatious whims. In the face of this troubling model and disillusioned presence in the household, young Gregory rebels. Struggling to distinguish himself on his own terms, he hustles off to Marine Corps boot camp. He moves across the world, returning to the United States only to take a job as a manager-cum-barfly at his family's jazz club.

President Donald Trump has nominated appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court. William Cummings, writing in USA Today sums up the coming nomination fight: “Conservatives argued that Democrats were prepared to oppose anyone Trump nominated but that Kavanaugh is such a strong nominee that their efforts to block him are certain to fail. Liberals said Kavanaugh would shift the court sharply to the right and that he would ensure a vote in Trump's favor if issues tied to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation ever came before the Supreme Court.”

How did we get here?

Moving through the settings of her life—red rock canyons, aspen forests, mountains, and cities—Jana Richman probes the depths of her internal landscape and asks how we can find stillness in our noisy world. In essays both personal and universal, Richman eschews quick and easy answers for quiet reflections on these questions: In a culture demanding that every voice be heard, how do we make sense of the resulting roar? Where do we seek solace when the last quiet places are sacrificed to human hubris? How do we shed the angst thrust upon us to create lives of peace?

Hospital intensive care units have changed when and how we die--and not always for the better. So says medical researcher and ICU physician Samuel Brown. In his new book “Through the Valley of Shadows: Living Wills, Intensive Care, and Making Medicine Human” (Oxford University Press) Dr. Brown uses stories from his clinical practice to outline a new way of thinking about life-threatening illness.

Volcanoes have been much in the news of late, with eruptions in Hawaii, Guatemala, and most recently, in Bali. You may know that Yellowstone National Park sits on a “supervolcano,” 44 miles wide. An eruption of this caldera volcano, as scientists call it, is very unlikely, but potentially catastrophic. We’ll talk about volcanoes in general and the Yellowstone supervolcano specifically today. Our discussion will include the different types of volcanic eruptions and different kinds of dangers; predicting volcanic eruptions and earthquakes; and the latest science of volcanoes and earthquakes. We’ll also talk about Yellowstone geysers and hot springs. Our guests include Michael Poland, Scientist-in Charge at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory and a Geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey; and Jamie Farrell, Assistant Research Professor in the University of Utah Department of Geology and Geophysics, and Chief Seismologist with the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

Travel writer Porter Fox’s latest adventure is a quest to rediscover America’s other border—the fascinating but little-known northern one, a journey he recounts in his new book “Northland.”