Access Utah

Gary Ferguson’s books include “Land on Fire: The New Reality of Wildfire in the West.” We’ll talk with Gary Ferguson about the wildfires burning now in the west. We’ll also talk about his latest book “The Eight Master Lessons of Nature: What Nature Teaches Us About Living Well in the World.”

Join us for Access Utah on Tuesday: the opening day of the 2021 session of the Utah Legislature. We’ll be talking to Governor Spencer Cox and legislative leaders, including House Assistant Minority Whip, Rep. Angela Romero; and Senate Majority and Minority Whips, Sen. Ann Milner and Sen. Luz Escamilla, respectively. And we hear some of the priorities of our listeners as we head into this legislative session.

Welcome to a special edition of Access Utah on Utah Public Radio. In this hour we’ll be highlighting L.A. Theatre Works, which can be heard on UPR on Friday evenings at 9:00. Susan Albert Loewenberg, founder, host and Producing Director of L.A. Theatre Works will join me to talk about producing theatre for radio and the role the arts play during these pandemic times and other topics. We’ll also hear sound clips from several productions.

The 2021 session of the Utah Legislature begins on Tuesday and we’re going to get a preview of possible priorities, key legislation and the key players today on Access Utah. The Utah Capitol building will be closed to the public on opening day due to security concerns. Issues likely to be addressed by the legislature include tax cuts, education, and the economic effects of the pandemic.

Our guest today on Access Utah is Selina Gallo-Cruz, Associate Professor of Sociology at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester Massachusetts. We’ll talk about the women’s suffrage movement, women's resistance in civil war, civics education and the ongoing movement for voting rights.

Today we look at the top Digital Trends of 2020, from the fun to the profound. Each year folklore students at Utah State University track digital trends. They then meet at the end of the year to prepare a ballot that goes out to a national panel of experts in digital folklore, which selects the winning trend. Top results for 2020 include #BreonnaTaylor and #GeorgeFloyd, as well as the meme: “How It Started/How It’s Going/How It Ended,” and gender-reveal, presidential election, and Zoom meetings memes.

Of the roughly 120,000 people forced from their homes by Executive Order 9066, around 5,000 were able to escape incarceration beforehand by fleeing inland. In her new book, “Forced Out: A Nikkei Woman’s Search for a Home in America” Judy Kawamoto offers insight into “voluntary evacuation,” a little-known Japanese American experience during World War II, In the book, she addresses her personal and often unconscious reactions to her parents’ trauma, as well as her own subsequent travels around much of the world, exploring, learning, enjoying, but also unconsciously acting out a continual search for a home.

Kevin Holdsworth’s new book is about the Uinta Mountains, Utah's loftiest range. “Red Stone Heart” celebrates the peak bagging experience and shares a little lore. The highest named peaks, The Notorious Nine, form a goal, but as with an Uinta stream, there is much meandering in the book through forest and meadow. Peaks and routes are pulled from a life's rucksack, and we are carried along as we watch a young fool somehow survive to a riper age.

Utah’s first female sheriff, Rosie Rivera, got some good advice when she became an officer: “Don’t try to be a man.” More than a century earlier, Utah’s first female deputy sheriff, Claire Ferguson, said to those who doubted her ability to handle danger, “Why should I fear more than the men?” Today we’ll broadcast a full episode from This Is Her Place, a podcast that tells the remarkable stories of Utah women past and present, in all their diversity. Podcast co-host Naomi Watkins will also join us.

Today Margaret Pettis will join us to talk about her new book of poetry titled “In the Temple of the Stars.” Her previous collection “Chokecherry Rain,” won the Utah State Poetry Society book award.