Access Utah

There’s a recurring line in the musical Hamilton that George Washington says to Alexander Hamilton: “You have no control over who lives, who dies, who tells your story.” Today we’ll feature an episode of the podcast This Is Her Place, which tells the stories of Utah women, past and present. In this episode we talk about two women who were determined to take control and make sure the true story of their people was told: Mae Timbimboo Parry, historian and matriarch of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone; and Betty Sawyer, Community Engagement Coordinator in Access and Diversity at Weber State University and an activist on issues of racial justice in Utah for more than 40 years. We’ll also be talking to podcast co-host Naomi Watkins.

This week in Utah news:

Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson recently issued a challenge for more women to get involved in their communities and in politics. Utah Governor Spencer Cox and Lt. Gov. Henderson have issued a 500 Day Roadmap, which includes a section on Equality and Opportunity. Today, we’ll talk about the Roadmap and issues such as the gender wage gap, women in public office, and opportunities for women in leadership in the private and public sectors.

By the time he turned nineteen, Derek Black was regarded as the "the leading light" of the white nationalist movement. While at college he started to question his worldview. Then he decided to confront the damage he had done. In the book, Rising Out of Hatred,” the author, Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Eli Saslow, asks what Derek Black's story can tell us about America's increasingly divided nature.

Russ Beck, an author and a Senior Lecturer in the USU English Department, recently spent some time in southeastern Utah researching the history of uranium mining and milling and talking with local residents about the after-effects of the uranium boom in the Moab/Monticello/Blanding area.

Clinical therapist Em Capito spoke with us in October, ahead of her presentation at the Fall speaker series from the Utah Women’s Giving Circle.Titled “Triaging Resilience in the Midst of Crisis,” Em Capito shared “a research-based tangible framework for triaging our personal resilience along with the strategic shifts that deepen our roots, for ourselves, our families and our teams, toward the collective resilience that will lead our communities into the reinvention and renewal ahead.” We spoke with her about her personal history and why she defines resilience as a skill, rather than a trait.

It’s UPR’s Spring Member Drive. On Access Utah that means some very special programming, including some Best Of segments from favorite episodes and some great new conversations. On Wednesday’s Access Utah we’re talking about bridging racial and political divides. How do we talk to each other, understand each other, connect with each other when the divides only seem to be deepening? Our guest for the hour is Jason Gilmore, Associate Professor of Global Communication at Utah State University.

It’s UPR’s Spring Member Drive. On Access Utah that means some very special programming, including some Best Of segments from favorite episodes and some great new conversations. On Tuesday we’ll be talking with emergency room doctor, writer and UPR member Marion Bishop. We talked with her last year as a part of an episode featuring pandemic frontline workers. We’ll check back in to see how she’s been dealing with the pandemic, professionally and personally, since we talked last. We’ll also talk about the roll out of the vaccines and what the future might look like. And we’ll talk about grieving and loss during the pandemic.

It’s UPR’s Spring Member Drive. On Access Utah that means some very special programming, including some Best Of segments from favorite episodes and some great new conversations. Today we’re talking about food and food culture and folklore with Lael Gilbert, one of the hosts of UPR’s Bread & Butter feature; and Lynne McNeill, folklorist and Associate Professor in the USU English Department. We’ll hear some Bread & Butter segments and a portion of our Access Utah conversation from October with the editors of the book This is the Plate: Utah Food Traditions.

All of us—people, fish, and many other creatures—depend on the water in Utah’s rivers. The choices we make about how to develop water resources have big impacts on river habitats. In “Decisions Downstream,” an exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Utah, watershed scientist Sarah Null teams up with artists Chris Peterson and Carsten Meier to explore new ways of seeing river habitats. Critical water decisions are being made in Utah. “Decisions Downstream” highlights the water development tools, trade offs, and alternatives that can guide our choices.