Access Utah

Eric Kuhn, retired General Manager of the Colorado River Water Conservancy District, will speak about his new book “Science Be Dammed.” The talk was held in ENGR 201 at 3:30p on Wednesday, October 2.

USC Professor Tara McPherson recently gave a lecture in the Tanner Talk series at USU titled "Platforming Hate: The Internet and the Rise of Hate Online." In her talk Professor McPherson examined the ways in which platforms like Discord, Reddit, YouTube, and Facebook are used by various groups to spread hate and white supremacy both on- and off-line. She detailed the active recruitment of white teenage boys in online environments and considered the relationship of these more recent developments to the early digital presence of neo-confederates on the web more than twenty years ago. And she argued that the internet has changed in key ways that help support the spread of white supremacy online.

We’re heartened by all the good being done in our communities by dedicated individuals and nonprofits. They sometimes don’t get the recognition they deserve, and you may want to help but don’t know where and how. Today we’re opening the phone lines, email and Twitter to give you the opportunity to spotlight a nonprofit or individual doing good in your community.

Craving Supernatural Creatures: German Fairy-Tale Figures in American Pop Culture analyzes supernatural creatures in order to demonstrate how German fairy tales treat difference, alterity, and Otherness with terror, distance, and negativity, whereas contemporary North American popular culture adaptations navigate diversity by humanizing and redeeming such figures. This trend of transformation reflects a greater tolerance of other marginalized groups (in regard to race, ethnicity, ability, age, gender, sexual orientation, social class, religion, etc.) and acceptance of diversity in society today. The fairy-tale adaptations examined here are more than just twists on old stories—they serve as the looking glasses of significant cultural trends, customs, and social challenges. Whereas the fairy-tale adaptations that Claudia Schwabe analyzes suggest that Otherness can and should be fully embraced, they also highlight the gap that still exists between the representation and the reality of embracing diversity wholeheartedly in twenty-first-century America.

From Wikipedia: “Sylvia Mendez (born June 7, 1936) is an American civil rights activist of Mexican-Puerto Rican heritage. At age eight, she played an instrumental role in the Mendez v. Westminster case, the landmark desegregation case of 1946. The case successfully ended de jure segregation in California[1] and paved the way for integration and the American civil rights movement.[2]

Barrie Gilbert's fascination with grizzly bears almost got him killed in Yellowstone National Park. He recovered, returned to fieldwork and devoted the next several decades to understanding and protecting these often-maligned giants. He has spent thousands of hours among wild grizzles in Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks, Alberta, coastal British Columbia, and along Brooks River in Alaska's Katmai National Park, where hundreds of people gather to watch dozens of grizzlies feast on salmon. His research has centered on how bears respond to people and each other, with a focus on how to keep humans and bears safe.

We’re answering your questions about Electric Vehicles today. Our guests include USU student and EV owner Samuel Bona; EV owner and early adopter John Loveless; EV and Electric Bicycle owner and USU Associate Professor of Computer Science Nicholas Flann; and Rep. Raymond Ward, who is working to develop an EV charging infrastructure in Utah. Originally aired on 9-10-19

John DeVilbiss writes in USU Magazine, "It flashes like a beacon to millions of birds on migratory marathons. It is a sea in the sand that shimmers lavender in one glance and pale turquoise in another. A place you can go for an entire day without seeing a single soul, yet where two million people live within an hour's drive. It is a lake of paradoxes, said historian Dale Morgan, a liquid lie, said Terry Tempest Williams. The salty truth, however, is that the Great Salt Lake, the largest saline lake in the Western hemisphere, is drying up."

On Thursday's Access Utah, Richard White, Stanford University historian and lecturer, joins us to talk about the transcontinental railroad’s impact on Utah’s environment, culture and political atmosphere. We preview his talk Thursday, Sept. 19, at 7 p.m., at the Logan Tabernacle as part of Utah State University Libraries’ 25th annual Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture.

On this pledge drive edition of Access Utah, we're joined by Dean Joseph Ward of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at USU. We’ll feature segments from our conversations with Nathan Richardson and Renée-Noelle Felice, Jeannie Johnson, and a conversation on community trauma and resilience.