Brooke and Terry Tempest Williams came across a copy of British nature writer Richard Jefferies’ autobiography “The Story of My Heart” in a small Maine bookstore. The beautiful volume intrigued them and inspired a journey: they traveled to England in order to learn more about the 19th-century nature essayist, to wander the countryside which so inspired and captivated him.

President Obama is demanding that the FCC reclassify the Internet as a public utility under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. He wants rules to ensure “that neither the cable company nor the phone company will be able to act as a gatekeeper, restricting what you can do or see online."

After nine years of keeping his prostate cancer at bay, the drugs were no longer working. The doctors told him his time was nearly up. So Jeff Metcalf dove deep into writing, tasking himself with writing one essay each week for a year. His new book “Requiem for the Living” contains the best of the resulting fifty-two essays by an author who continues to defy his medical prognosis. The essays form a memoir of sorts, recounting good times and critical moments from Metcalf’s life.

NPR Science Correspondent Joe Palca set out to become a college professor and ended up on the radio. He’s in Logan for several events for UPR and USU and he’s Tom Williams’ guest for the hour on Friday’s AU. They’ll talk about the art of reporting on science and the fascinating stories he has covered, including a story from Utah about the dangers of household sponges.

The Greater Sage-Grouse is an iconic symbol of the American West. They thrive in healthy sagebrush ecosystems in prime grazing land. Their population numbers are declining in states across the west. Utah has a population of roughly 20,000 Greater Sage-Grouse and efforts are currently underway to work with private land owners to help protect the bird and preserve the environments they inhabit. An international forum about wildlife management of the Greater Sage-Grouse is taking place in Salt Lake City today and Friday.

Jim Steenburgh says that for many who come to our state, powder is more than snow. It is a way of life.

What happens when newcomers from the suburbs move into farm country? Or when small-scale backyard farmers in cities or suburbs want to continue or begin operations against neighborhood opposition? Sometimes conflicts ensue. How should these be handled?

The Smithsonian Institution houses a vast collection of artifacts from across the nation and around the world. What can all of these items tell us about American culture and history? Friday on Access Utah, Richard Kurin, Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture at the Smithsonian, joins Sheri Quinn for a discussion about the stories they reveal. At 9:30 Science Questions explores marijuana policy through the lens of a theologian.

Today we recap the mid-term elections which saw control of the U. S. Senate return to the Republicans and a Republican clean sweep in Utah’s congressional races. One constitutional amendment passed in Utah and two were defeated. Several state school board incumbents were defeated.

From Farinelli, the eighteenth century castrato who brought down opera houses with his high C, to the recording of "Johnny B. Goode" affixed to the Voyager spacecraft, Elena Passarello, in Let Me Clear My Throat dissects the whys and hows of popular voices. There are murders of punk rock crows, impressionists, and rebel yells; Howard Dean's "BYAH!" and Marlon Brando's "Stella!" and a stock film yawp that has made cameos in movies from A Star is Born to Spaceballs. The voice is thought's incarnating instrument and Elena Passarello's essays are a deconstruction of the ways the sounds we make both express and shape who we are—the annotated soundtrack of us giving voice to ourselves.