Access Utah

In the wake of U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell’s recent visit to the area being proposed by some for designation as Bear’s Ears National Monument, we’ll consider anew public lands issues in Utah. Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz have released their Public Lands Initiative legislation for consideration by the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Chris Stewart has introduced an amendment to the Interior Appropriations Bill that would restrict the president’s ability to create national monuments in Utah and other areas, under the Antiquities Act. And the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition is pushing for President Obama to create a national monument in southern Utah.

In December 2015, Paramount and CBS sued the producers of a proposed fan-supported feature length movie called "Axanar" which was to be set in the Star Trek universe. Included in the issues at dispute was the question: who owns the Klingon language and can a language, albeit an invented one, be copyrighted?

The banjo is emblematic of American country music. It is at the core of other important musical movements, including jazz and ragtime, and has played an important part in the development many genres, such as folk, bluegrass, and rock. The instrument has been adopted by many cultures and has been ingrained into many musical traditions, from Mento music in the Caribbean to dance music in Ireland. Virtuosos such as Bela Fleck have played Bach, African music, and Christmas tunes on the five-string banjo, and the instrument has had a resurgence in pop music with such acts a Mumford and Sons and the Avett Brothers.

It’s been several months since we got together as a community and compiled a UPR book list. Public radio listeners are famous as avid readers. We want to know what you’re reading. What’s on your nightstand or on your device right now? Fellow listeners may not know about it and may love it.

In several cases this summer, efforts to fight wildfires have been hampered because of drones in the area. Utah lawmakers recently voted to allow authorities to disable or damage unauthorized drones near wildfires. The bill would also impose harsher penalties on people caught flying the aircraft. Tuesday on AU we’ll discuss this legislation, and talk about fighting wildfires in general. We’ll also look into the future of fighting wildfires. We’ll be joined by Scott Bushman who is a former hotshot who trains firefighters. We’ll also speak with Sam Ramsey, Regional Aviation Officer U. S. Forest Service Intermountain Region, about this year’s wildfires in the west.

Award-winning author Brad Watson is a native of Mississippi who now teaches at the University of Wyoming. In his new novel “Miss Jane,” drawing on the story of his own great-aunt, Watson explores the life of Miss Jane Chisolm, born in rural, early 20th-century Mississippi with a genital birth defect that would stand in the way of the central “uses” for a woman in that time and place—namely, sex and marriage.

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.

Science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist Cory Doctorow joins us for Tuesday’s AU. In a recent column, Doctorow says that “all the data collected in giant databases today will breach someday, and when it does, it will ruin peoples’ lives. They will have their houses stolen from under them by identity thieves who forge their deeds (this is already happening); they will end up with criminal records because identity thieves will use their personal information to commit crimes (this is already happening); … they will have their devices compromised using passwords and personal data that leaked from old accounts, and the hackers will spy on them through their baby monitors, cars, set-top boxes, and medical implants (this is already happening)...” We’ll talk with Cory Doctorow about technology, privacy, and intellectual property.

NPR reporter Kirk Siegler recently visited UPR while in Logan working on a story for the NPR elections desk. He sat down with Tom Williams for a wide-ranging conversation including discussion of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s Mormon problem; the potential designation of a Bear’s Ears National Monument; Seigler’s interview with Cliven Bundy and reporting on the stand-off at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge; how Seigler got started at NPR and his life as a reporter for NPR’s national desk; and parallels between Australia and the American West.

“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.