Access Utah

McKay Coppins is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of The Wilderness, a book about the battle over the future of the Republican Party. He appeared last week at a virtual event presented by USU’s Institute of Government and Politics and the USU Department of Journalism & Communication. The title of the event was “The 2020 Disinformation War: How Propaganda, Conspiracy Theories, and Fake News are Shaping the Presidential Election -- And What To Do About It” McKay Coppins will join us for the hour on the next Access Utah.

Next time on Access Utah, we’ll preview the upcoming election with Morgan Lyon Cotti, Associate Director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah. We’ll talk about the art and science of polling, vote by mail, projected voter participation rates, and what’s on your 2020 ballot, including several proposed constitutional amendments.

“There are few subjects that interest us more generally than the adventures of robbers and bandits.” That’s Scottish writer Charles MacFarlane, quoted in Charles Leerhsen’s new book. One such outlaw was Robert LeRoy Parker, born in Beaver, Utah and raised in Circleville, who became, of course, Butch Cassidy. Charles Leerhsen brings the notorious Butch Cassidy to vivid life, revealing the fascinating and complicated man behind the legend in the new book BUTCH CASSIDY: The True Story of an American Outlaw. Charles Leerhsen joins us for the program today.

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Jump the Moon Art Studio, which offers art-making opportunities to people with disabilities, along with the Cache Employment and Training Center (CETC), is working to bring attention to the strength and diversity that persons with disabilities contribute to our communities.

Whether the issue is a pandemic, vaccinations, or any number of other public health issues, a major challenge for advocates is communicating crucial information in a way that builds trust and changes behavior. Today we’ll hear an episode of the new podcast This Is Her Place which tells the stories of three women who rose to that challenge.

The Utah Women’s Giving Circle is presenting a series of events this month and next titled “Resilience 2020: From Susan B. Anthony to RBG: The History, Resilience, and Call to Community.” The first event is this week. Katherine Kitterman and Tiffany Greene from Better Days 2020 will discuss “The History of Women Reinventing the World.”

When the state of Colorado ordered its residents to shelter in place in response to the spread of coronavirus, writers Pam Houston and Amy Irvine—who had never met—began a correspondence based on their shared devotion to the rugged, windswept mountains that surround their homes, one on either side of the Continental Divide.

Christopher Gonzalez and Frederick Luis Aldama join us for the hour to talk about their book “Reel Latinxs” on Thursday’s Access Utah.

“Sky Songs: Meditations on Loving a Broken World” is a collection of essays that takes inspiration from the ancient seabed in which Jennifer Sinor lives, an elemental landscape that reminds her that our lives are shaped by all that has passed through. Beginning with the conception of her first son, which coincided with the tragic death of her uncle on an Alaskan river, and ending a decade later in the Himalayan home of the Dalai Lama, Sinor offers a lyric exploration of language, love, and the promise inherent in the stories we tell: to remember.

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.