Access Utah

No Man’s Land is dedicated to the author’s grandfather. Not unusual in itself, but Simon Tolkien has a somewhat unusual grandfather, JRR Tolkien, whose experiences in the Somme inspired his grandson’s fifth novel, published to mark Friday’s centenary of the battle.

About 123 people die of suicide every day in the U.S. It’s the 10th-leading cause of death for Americans and the No. 2 killer of teens. According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some 45,000 Americans died by suicide in 2016 and the vast majority of states saw increases in the rates of suicide between 1999 and 2016. Suicide is the leading cause of death in Utah for youths ages 10 to 17. The state’s suicide rate for all ages is more than 60 percent above the national average. Recent celebrity deaths have also shone a spotlight on the problem. We’ll talk about it with Jane Pearson, a suicide research expert at the National Institute of Mental Health in Maryland; and Craig Bryan, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology and Executive Director of the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah.

The editors of The Atlantic write: “The election of Donald Trump … [has] driven many Americans to rummage through history in search of context and understanding. Trump himself has been compared to historical figures ranging from Ronald Reagan to Henry Ford, and from Andrew Jackson to Benito Mussolini. His steps have been condemned as unprecedented by his critics, and praised as historic by his supporters.”

After oil was discovered beneath their land in the 1920's, the richest people per capita were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. They rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions and sent their children to study in Europe.

James A. McLaughlin grew up in rural Virginia and lives in the Wasatch Range east of Salt Lake City. His debut novel “Bearskin” is getting rave reviews. He joins us for the hour next time on Access Utah.

President Trump has signed an executive order allowing families to be detained together under his “zero tolerance” immigration policy. This comes amid a furor over the separation of children from their parents at the border. In the meantime, Congress continues to search for a fix to the immigration system. We’ll talk about the crisis at the border today on Access Utah. Our guests will include Pastor Steve Klemz of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Salt Lake City; Erika George, Samuel D. Thurman Professor of Law in the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah; and Sonia Nazario, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Enrique’s Journey.

From USU's College of Humanities and Social Sciences:

Both George Orwell and Winston Churchill came close to death in the mid-1930's—Orwell shot in the neck in a trench line in the Spanish Civil War, and Churchill struck by a car in New York City. If they'd died then, history would scarcely remember them. At the time, Churchill was a politician on the outs, his loyalty to his class and party suspect. Orwell was a mildly successful novelist, to put it generously. No one would have predicted that by the end of the 20th century they would be considered two of the most important people in British history for having the vision and courage to campaign tirelessly, in words and in deeds, against the totalitarian threat from both the left and the right. Thomas Ricks writes in his new book “Churchill & Orwell: The Fight for Freedom” that In a crucial moment, they responded first by seeking the facts of the matter, seeing through the lies and obfuscations, and then they acted on their beliefs. Together, to an extent not sufficiently appreciated, they kept the West's compass set toward freedom as its due north.

The King’s English Bookshop (TKE) has published a collection of Ann Cannon’s Salt Lake Tribune columns. It’s titled “I’ll Tell You What.” Ann Cannon joins us for the hour on Monday’s Access Utah.

In his new book “Back Cast: Fly Fishing and Other Such Matters” Jeff Metcalf writes: “These waters have been my home, and I fish them more than most. In truth, they have saved my life on more than a few occasions. I seek refuge in the quiet solitude of rivers, and in dark hours of my life—including this particular year—I need desperately to be fly-fishing." Metcalf’s play “A Slight Discomfort,” is a humorous take on his battle with prostate cancer. And a previous award-winning collection of essays, “Requiem for the Living,” resulted from a challenge Metcalf gave himself when presented with a dire prognosis with his cancer: writing one essay each week for a year. Metcalf volunteers with Reel Recovery, an organization that conducts retreats for men living with cancer. He says that it’s important for men to learn to talk about their cancers and their lives.