Access Utah

Julie Berry was inspired to write her new historical novel, “The Passion of Dolssa,” while listening to a college lecture she found online about medieval France. Fascinated, Berry began a two-year dive into research on the era, learning about the lives of several medieval female mystics like Clare of Assisi, Marguerite Porete, and Catherine of Siena, women who rejected marriage, almost unheard of at the time, and bucked the authority of the church with their own religious visions. “The Passion of Dolssa” is set during the 13th Century in southern France (the area now known as Provence), in the aftermath of the Albigensian Crusade.

"Oceans are a sonic symphony. Sound is essential to the survival and prosperity of marine life. But man-made ocean noise is threatening this fragile world.” So say the producers of a documentary film, “Sonic Sea,” which takes us beneath the ocean’s surface to uncover the consequences of increased ocean noise pollution, including the mass stranding of whales around the planet, and looks at what can be done to stop it.

On Wednesday’s Access Utah we’ll talk with acclaimed law professor and historian, Annette Gordon-Reed, as a part of the Pulitzer Prizes Centennial Campfires Initiative.

In the mid-1840s, Warner McCary, an ex-slave from Mississippi, claimed a new identity for himself, traveling around the nation as Choctaw performer "Okah Tubbee". He soon married Lucy Stanton, a divorced white Mormon woman from New York, who likewise claimed to be an Indian and used the name "Laah Ceil". Together, they embarked on an astounding, sometimes scandalous journey across the United States and Canada, performing as American Indians

Jessica Lahey’s The Gift of Failure focuses on the critical school years when parents must learn to allow their children to experience the disappointment and frustration that occur from life’s inevitable problems so that they can grow up to be successful, resilient, and self-reliant adults.

Today we speak with Jessica Luther, author of "Unsportsmanlike Conduct." Jessica Luther is and independent writer and investigative journalist living in Austin, Texas. Her work on sports and culture has appeared in the Texas Observer and the Austin Chronicle, and at Sport Illustrated, Texas Monthly, Vice Sports, Guardian Sport, and Bleacher Report. Luther's work gained national attention in August 2015 when writing for Texas Monthly; she and Dan Solomon broke open the story about a Baylor football player on trial for sexual assault, a case known by only a few in the community and not reported in the media for nearly two years.

Today we discuss the results of the 2016 Presidential Election. Our listeners call in and share their post election feelings. We are also joined in studio by Dr. Damon Cann and Dr. Michael Lyons, Associate Professors from the Utah State University Political Science Department. To join in this conversation, you can still email us at [email protected].

In 2015 the number of visitors to Yellowstone exceeded four million for the first time. David Quammen, writing in the May 2016 edition of National Geographic magazine, asks "Can we hope to preserve, in the midst of modern America, any such remnant of our continent's primordial landscape, any such sample of true wildness-a gloriously inhospitable place, full of predators and prey, in which nature is still allowed to be red in tooth and claw? Can that sort of place be reconciled with human demands and human convenience? Time alone, and our choices, will tell. But if the answer is yes, the answer is Yellowstone."

Today on Access Utah we discuss the companion volume to the international bestseller Letters of Note. It’s an assortment of correspondence that spans centuries and place--and an array of human emotions--written by the famous, the not-so-famous, and the downright infamous. Among this selection are an Egyptian customer complaint (written on a clay tablet); a hungover Jane Austen’s report on a ball; an American intelligence officer’s letter to his young son on Hitler’s letterhead; an invitation from John Lennon to Eric Clapton to join his band; and Albus Dumbledore’s rejection of a Muggle’s application for a teaching position at Hogwarts.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump rises above Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and independent candidate Evan McMullin in Utah, according to national polls. Incumbent Republican Gov. Gary Herbert holds nearly a 40-point lead over Democratic challenger Mike Weinholtz as election day approaches. And Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz says he's received death threats over comments made about a new FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails.