Access Utah

Hyperpartisanship is as old as American democracy. But now, acrimony is not confined to a moment; it’s a permanent state of affairs and has seeped into every part of the political process. So say political scientists Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein. When their book “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism” was published a few years ago, it stirred up considerable controversy and altered the debate about why America’s government has become so dysfunctional. Now, at the end of the Summer of Trump, we’ll check back in with Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann. We’ll talk about political extremism and polarization, another possible government shutdown, Utah’s caucus and convention system, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on Arizona’s redistricting commission, Australia’s carrot and stick approach to increasing voter turnout, and much more.

Parenting techniques continue to fuel online debate: do we protect our children? Prepare them? Research suggests our communities are increasingly safer than ever before, but the average citizen assumes otherwise - how do we navigate ourselves through these colliding perspectives and realities? Furthermore, how can we both protect and prepare our children, and do we need a self-identifying label to declare our techniques as parents? Tuesday on Access Utah we invite author Julie Lythcott Haims ("How to Raise an Adult") and Lenore Skenazy ("Free Range Kids") to discuss our options and to review varying perspectives on how to parent present-day.

Today's broadcast of "Access Utah" originally aired in 2011.

Dixie State University and the DOCUTAH International Documentary Film Festival offers three screenings of "Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot," the true story of the forgotten heroes in the fight for voting rights — the courageous students and teachers of Selma, Alabama, who stood up against injustice despite facing intimidation, arrests and violence. 2015 is the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act which was a direct product of this movement. By organizing and marching bravely, these "ordinary heroes" achieved one of the most significant victories of the civil rights era. The film is narrated by Oscar winning actress Octavia Spencer and includes music from Mavis Staples, Ry Cooder, The Roots and Blind Boys of Alabama. It has been submitted for consideration for an Academy Award. Today on the program we speak with the director and producer of the film, Bill Brummel.

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.

Today's Broadcast of "Access Utah" is an encore presentation from 2012.

Today's broadcast of "Access Utah" is an encore presentation from April 2015.

“My whole childhood, I never had a bed.” That’s how Elva Trevino Hart opens her memoir “Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child.”

In his new book “Ways to the West” (Utah State University Press) Tim Sullivan embarks on a car-less road trip through the Intermountain West, exploring how the region is taking on what may be its greatest challenge: sustainable transportation. Combining personal travel narrative, historical research, and his professional expertise in urban planning, Sullivan takes a critical yet optimistic and often humorous look at how contemporary Western cities are making themselves more hospitable to a life less centered on the personal vehicle.

“In our region fire is to dry forests as rain is to rainforests; both are important in the life of a forest to provide clean water, climate stabilization, hunting and fishing, outdoor recreation and wildlife habitat. A fire does not destroy a forest; rather, it simply resets nature’s clock as it has been doing for millennia,” said Chad Hanson, Director and Ecologist with the John Muir Project, Earth Island Institute, and co-editor of “The Ecological Importance of Mixed-Severity Fires: Nature’s Phoenix”