Transcript:

[00:00:43] OK. Well it's Thursday it's 3:00 p.m. and you're here in the studio and this is the apex hour. My name is Lynn Vartan and I'm so excited today excited two of my most favorite people in the studio with me and we are celebrating because our season is officially done for the spring semester which is totally awesome. But the fun doesn't end here. Those of you have been enjoying the radio show. I'm going to stay in my 3 p.m. slot here live and throughout the summer I'll be on air every couple of weeks and then that means that the podcast will also be active all through the summer. Just a reminder that we're subscribable on iTunes and on Google Play or wherever you get your podcast. And just do the search for SUU APEX. All right so let's get talk in here to my guests. I've got two of my favorite ladies and what we're doing today is we're kind of doing a behind the scenes with APEX for the spring semester. Those of you who know me well know I love me some TV and I love watching series where there's this after show or the behind the scenes or the looking behind the curtain of sort of the inner workings of things and that's what we're doing with the show. I'd like to kind of do it every semester and kind of talk with some of my great great great awesome staff and friends about how we make this thing work and some memorable moments from the season. So what I'd like to do is for you guys to introduce yourselves and maybe talk a little bit about what you do for APEX Who'd like to go first.

[00:02:28] I can start my name is Roxane Cailleux and I graduated last year from SUU with a communication degree and now I work for Lynn and I am the event planning assistant and I just work alongside Lynn and we organize everything. So for me what I do is from social media to managing the class because we have a convocation class so grading the students and making sure they are fine. I also take care of the food orders, catering facilities, all of that.

[00:03:14] She does everything. Let me tell you this whole thing would not run without her. We like to say that she's like my right and left hand. I mean assistant is not even the word to describe it. You're definitely our producer and really you have a hand in every single aspect of what we do. Yeah a lot of e-mails every day that is true. What is your favorite aspect of your job.

[00:03:39] I like the day of. Everything from in the morning when we get there to the end when we wrap up. It's my favorite thing to do because there's adrenaline I like seeing people in the audience react. And I like meeting the speaker who we've been working to get here for so long. And yeah just like that day. But I like everything that I do.

[00:04:03] But yeah yeah we definitely like our office time together.

[00:04:08] Mondays Greek Fries

[00:04:10] Yeah. Greek fries in the office while we get everything done. Yep yep. Thanks Roxie.

[00:04:17] All right. Katie tell us about yourself.

[00:04:19] Hello my name is Katie Englert and I teach in the ESL program here at the American Language and Culture Center. And for APEX I take pictures so I do all the photography during the event. Some of you out there might have seen me trying to be nonchalant as I walk around and take pictures.

[00:04:42] But I love having you with APEX because you have a really artistic eye. You know and I'd like to know like everybody to know a little bit about your background because you have an anthropology background so when you're looking at a subject you're looking with a very specific kind of lens.

[00:05:00] Yeah my background is in both anthropology and photojournalism so I kind of started my career as a photojournalist and then moved into visual anthropology and culture anthropology and my master's studies. But yes so I'm I'm definitely looking observing. I try to keep that camera up to my eye 24/7 when I'm sure an event like apex. And I'm just trying to find that moment that will tell the story. So it's always a challenge because sometimes people who are speaking can be kind of hard to shoot because it's often just someone speaking at a podium. So I'm just trying to catch that moment that's in between to kind of give some humanity to the person that's speaking and tell the story. That's so cool

[00:05:50] If I can add something. You've really elevated it from my point of view since I do social media. You've really elevated the social media aspect of APEX. Oh wow thank you. But it's become really nice looking. Every week we have really good pictures to post so I think people enjoy that.

[00:06:08] Yeah I think one of the things that's so cool is that in addition to kind of the standard shots you know you're really going for some interesting and different shots and I really love that. I mean can you talk about some of those.

[00:06:20] Yeah that's that's especially what I'm trying to find those those moments before the event happens. One of my favorite moments I think was with her when Jeff Bradybaugh was here and it was a moment while you were speaking introducing him and he was kind of to the left of you in the frame and he's like looking up at the PowerPoint. But it's just this nice light coming on his face and and the moment the composition just worked. And for me that was my favorite shot of the whole event even though it wasn't focused on him it was just the sense of him talking about him. But I'm just always looking for that kind of behind the scenes moment and because that adds to what he is talking about or the speaker is talking about in what everybody sees. And so thanks for the Yeah that's really nice.

[00:07:14] You're really able to get kind of the feel of the event that way and that's one of the things that I've really enjoyed about your work. You know I had no idea that that photo was your favorite. And for those listening I mean we're talking about photographs but you can definitely check out all of our photographs by going to our Facebook page which is SUU APEX Events or just search for SUU APEX or they're all on the website which is suu.edu/apex and all of Katie's photos from the event.

[00:07:45] So there and I had no idea that was one of your favorites

[00:07:49] One of my favorites from like like before the actual event. And just because I felt like it came together in just a nice little moment that you know only maybe I saw. And yeah but hopefully it tells a bit about the scene.

[00:08:03] Oh my gosh. So do you have any other favorite photos? That one of Susan Casey...

[00:08:08] Yeah that was good. I like that. That was a nice moment too. She was interacting with someone that was buying her book. And again just trying to be in the right place at the right time. That's my goal. That's my job. And when I can do it successfully I'm happy. So got that one stands out. Some of lemon. ANDERSON Yeah and just performing. Those were always fun to shoot because again you're trying to get that emotion and that intensity from what the person is doing.

[00:08:45] Was there anyone that was particularly was there any particular event that was more challenging to shoot from a from a fit of graphics and we'll talk about content later but from a photographic standpoint was there one that was more challenging the business.

[00:08:59] One was a little bit of a challenge but I liked the challenge. Those are my favorite because I'm try again trying to get the best shot. But that was a challenge because it was a panel. So I was trying to move around and trying to get everybody in the same shot without it being boring or you know like a missed moment. So just waiting waiting and waiting for that moment to happen with five or six people in the same shot. So that can be tricky. And also just the lighting can be sometimes pretty dark in our room a lot of time.

[00:09:31] What do you use. What kind of equipment. I mean I don't know much about this kind of thing.

[00:09:37] My cameras rather old. I was just telling someone earlier today it's about 12 years old. Why did I use a Nikon 80. So for those of you photographers out there it's pretty old but I have an idea. 200 that is the lens I usually use especially when I'm far back and then 50 or 35 I think. So yeah I could definitely use some better gear but it'll you know it'll happen and you can do a lot. I've had those two lenses for 20 years and then they work pretty well.

[00:10:10] Definitely working for us. How about you Roxy what's maybe more challenge. Is there a particularly challenging part of the day or of the event or something that you always know you have to kind of manage.

[00:10:24] Probably the lunch Yeah I was going to say the lunch invites and I really try throughout the week because we get our RSVPs and everything so I try to make sure that we have everyone and then it's just a little it's a little scary for me to actually get to a lunch and then I'm just scared that someone is going to show up and be like. I RSVPd But I don't have them on my list and I have to make room for them. I have to tell them you have to go home. That's a little stressful for me. And then I try to anticipate as much as I can but I'm always nervous about just last minute problems like Chartwells is great but you know I'm always like is the team going to be there you know and stuff like that. Yeah.

[00:11:12] Chartwells is our catering man. We've really had such great experiences with them this semester. We've tried some new different kinds of foods for the lunches and things like that and that's just been really fun. So yeah but you always want to make sure you know you do such a great job of anticipating my every need and sometimes I'm about to say and how about. And she's heard did it which is great.

[00:11:37] So yeah it's easier if you just anticipate everything that could happen. That's what I learned from what I from I've been planning since I've started. And you just have to anticipate what could happen what's the worst that can happen that day. And then you always already have a backup plan. So if it actually happens then you know what to do and you don't have to freak out about it. And we don't need backup plans. So really really great. There's not a lot of times where something happens.

[00:12:08] Yeah. I've been really thrilled with everything that way. OK. Going to a more sort of global thought Why do you think. You know we really believe in this series and I know you guys really believe in this series. But you know maybe talk a little bit about why do you think this series in particular or any speaker series like this is important to have on campus or why is it important to why do you think it's important to this community.

[00:12:40] I think it's important for the students because we're in a university and it's all about learning and discovering new things and not staying in your comfort zone. So I think we're very lucky to have so many great people come to campus. And we're a rather small school and the fact that we can bring this type of people is is really impressive and it's really we're really lucky so the fact that the students can just show up for free every week and have a chance not only to hear what they have to say but also interact with them make connections. I mean I've seen students talk to the speakers and you know get their information. And so it's a really great thing to have on campus. I think it's very important to keep doing it.

[00:13:30] That actually happened quite a bit just a couple of days ago with Dr. Bert Tisbury. You know she was giving out her phone number and you know all kinds of connections were happening and that's that really makes me happy. Katie what do you think.

[00:13:44] I agree with everything you just said and just the diversity of this past year of the speakers that have come for Apex has just been truly remarkable and I feel really lucky. I mean I feel like to be a part of it as a shooter but I really feel lucky just to be a part of the audience and hear all of the different experiences that the speakers bring to the event and especially the diversity like like you said. And I like that we have people who are former alumni. We have people in the community. We have people from all walks of life all ethnicities diversity jobs. And I think it's just one of the best things about you that I just love. So it's very exciting to be a part of it.

[00:14:30] Yeah that's definitely the diversity component has been something that we've been really from the design process really focusing on. And you know it it's not just bringing in a diverse environment from around that's certainly a key aspect of it. But like you said you know once a year we're featuring and then alumni and then we're bringing people from our community and our environment like off the cuff or the superintendent for design National Park and I think that you know continuing to showcase the just everything that's around us.

[00:15:03] And then couple that with bringing people in is definitely a passion of mine and a goal for the series so I'm glad that that's been a meaningful part of it for you. Yeah that's great. Well I think what we'll do is we'll play a song now so I've got in my typical style Yeah. All kinds of things. I've been digging deep into this playlist. That's a bunch of kind of I guess emerging artists or perhaps new mostly new artists from the South by Southwest 2018 festival so I've got a few more from that. This first song is going to be called thanks 4 nothing. And it's by Nilufer Yanya and it's the title track from the album. Thanks for nothing. And again it was one of South by Southwest features and you can find it on Spotify or wherever you listen to music. You're listening to KSUU thunder ninety one point

[00:19:03] Ok well welcome back. And this is Lynn Vartan and you're listening to KSUU ninety one point one and this is the apex hour and this is our kind of behind the scenes for this season's show. And I've got Katie and Roxie joining me and we're just kind of talking about how the season went down and some standout moments and just you know a little bit more about the inner workings of Apex the band. So welcome back Roxie and Katie Hello.

[00:19:33] So what I'd like to do is kind of just talk about we had 11 events 11 or 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 11 11 events this spring and just kind of I'd like to just sort of remember them and maybe get a couple sentences from you about like your reflection or something you remember about it. We began the season the way our season works for anybody who doesn't know it's a weekly event series. During the course of the academic school year in the fall we start about the second week of September and run all the way up until Thanksgiving. Then we take a little break for the holidays retool. We begin in about the second week of January 2nd or third week and then go all the way through till the first week of April which is when we finish which is this week. So we began the season with our distinguished faculty lecture. What this event is is that there is opportunity for faculty members on campus to submit a written a paper presentation. That is original and that is adjudicated by a faculty committee that has nothing to do with APACS I'm not on the committee or none of our team is on the committee it's an internal university committee who goes over all of these proposals and then chooses one to be our faculty distinguished lecture and then we host that event where the faculty member reads their lecture. You may remember last year was Dr. Marbeck an art history and then this year our event was Dr. Ravi Roye and his talk was titled rebuilding public trust and democratic governance. The great political paradox you guys have any memories from that or thoughts about that one.

[00:21:26] I know for me that the key that he brought up that I was really interested in was his opinion of the state and of democracy and where we move forward with democracy and that he's a little nervous about kind of the process of where we're going with democracy. Did you guys have any memories from that one. Yeah I remember I remember that although January seems like a long time ago now. But I remember thinking at the time when I was shooting it how great to hear what he's researching and what I remember as who is working on and just being really excited about that and not realizing at the time which again is why I think APECs is so amazing and that it brings speakers like Ravi to discuss the research and for the public to understand what they're working on. Yeah I think that's cool because I mean I you know you you see people's names and maybe you're on a committee with them. That's actually then really see what or hear what they're discussing is amazing anybody wants to know more about Dr. Roy's presentation. He was also our very first radio guest on the show. So you can definitely check out his talk with me on the podcast and we go over a lot of the things that he mentioned and and his thoughts. So yeah I'll move on to the next one.

[00:22:57] Did you have anything to say about

[00:22:59] Just for me. It was kind of a special one from an event standpoint as you said. You know we had our first radio show with him and I think that's when we changed the seating to theater. And I just I really liked that and yeah just the first one of the season is always kind of special. So.

[00:23:19] That's right. That was when we did the seating change and other behind the scenes tidbit wearing a very large conference hall and it's a really cool room but we always had just one aisle down the center. And actually we changed it so that we had multiple aisles so there's actually four different entry points kind of four aisles the two on the outer edges and then two in the middle which makes it really easy for people to kind of get in and get seated especially late comers. You don't have to feel like you're climbing over everybody in the movie theater that type of thing so cool. All right our next one was the SUUSA roundtable was a state of the Union and I called it where we had several of our Southern Utah University centers and just discussing different topics on campus and just kind of seeing what our young leaders are doing. This one. You know I'm not sure if we're going to make it an annual event or not. You know but it was really important I think to have the senators there and to kind of hear what their what the topics of interest to them are and kind of how they're looking at leadership. Did you guys have any memories from that one.

[00:24:28] I can't believe this was the second event that we did. It feels like yesterday. It's so weird that it was the second. Yeah. But I thought it was a different event than what we usually do. And I liked having them there. And for me when I was a student I never really knew what SUUSA was doing. So I think it's really good for everyone to have been able to listen to them and see what they're actually working on. And yeah and I was really happy about the turnout attendance wise because I was a little worried about it. Some people just don't show up but it was really I think we got about 100 people a little bit less but that was really that's a surprise too I think to everybody and it turned out really well so yeah.

[00:25:18] And that one within our smaller room we sometimes do events in the waiting room which is a smaller room and it's about a 100 120 capacity and yeah we had quite a few people at that one.

[00:25:29] Just to add to what Roxie said. I think it was just great to have them their presence in a forum like APEX and how articulate everyone on that panel was really impressed with the panel and again it just made me really appreciate you and the students that are here and representing Southern Utah. And yeah I just was really impressed with without having gone.

[00:25:58] Well that was January and then we move on to February and we began our event with our meet the business building which is you know a real special event for this year. It's kind of one of these once in a lifetime once because I mean new buildings don't go up every day on campus and we have this amazing brand new business building that's that's coming up. And this event was all dedicated to the making of that building. We had facilities we had the architects coming here the the contractors the business Dean spoke and that was kind of a roundtable discussion and one of the things that really stood out to me and maybe you guys feel the same way as the artist was I didn't

[00:26:41] There was going to be some really cool art in that building that really reflect our natural landscape. Glasswork that's going to reflect off of the light and all these things and there's going to be a lot of social areas in that building and outdoor areas. I was really excited learn about that.

[00:27:00] Yeah it was really amazing to see all those parts come together in that one for. And they had slides to kind of show what the business building is going to look like both inside and I think outside. Yeah and Yeah. Again another kind of local event that's very much a part of who you and the future of us which is just exciting. I was really excited to be a part of it. Roxie do anything about that. You don't have I mean you guys don't have to talk on every single one. Just say no if you don't that's fine

[00:27:32] just the fact that I mean our office is right next to it. We see the construction every day and we just want to see it it's going to be in there and I was never a business like student. But I our current one can have some improvements. I'm really happy that students will have that opportunity to study somewhere like that. And it's it looks great. I mean I'm excited.

[00:27:55] Yeah yeah. Well moving along on February 8th we had Emily Graslie and wow what a treat she was. I mean Emily Graslie has a youtube channel called The Brain scoop and it's just the absolute YouTube sensation and she she works the brains Scroope out of the Field Museum in Chicago. One of the big natural history museums in the nation and her story from from art painter in Montana to YouTube sensation scientist who goes all over the world you know inspecting fossils and dissecting animals and everything was just amazing and her talk was titled The value of curiosity. Memories from that one.

[00:28:43] Yeah for me I really liked her because when we prepared the events we only have like a couple of pictures of the speaker and I can't help just making my own opinion and just expecting some kind of personality or like the way they're going to be. And she really surprised me because she always looks so sweet in her picture. And she is really sweet but I was pleasantly so surprised, she was very confident and she's very kind of feisty and I we she was really fun and I really enjoyed her talk. And the fact that she came from a completely different background than what she's doing now I thought that was crazy and also the fact that she's on YouTube is a really cool thing because it's become a really big platform especially for my generation and students here at SUU So it was really nice to have someone who comes from there.

[00:29:35] Yeah I agree. I think what really stood out to me about her aside from what she actually does for her living is that she was a painter and then just was interested in going to the museum on her campus that the museum was like a very small room like things just packed up. And she made that into a career and it was really like inspiring and I thought like I thought if I was a student I mean as a as a grown adult professional I was really inspired and it just shows how you might start out somewhere in your career or in your major. And then how it can lead into other things and how exciting and successful she was and again very articulate strong passionate woman.And we had a lot of those was exciting to be around

[00:30:28] Until March really started. but let's get a guy in there. February 15th we had our day in the life series where we bring someone in to talk about what their life is like. And this was Jeff Bradybaugh who is currently the Zion National Park Superintendent. And I just thought he was a delight one really just delightful delightful person and packed event in our smaller room and we were overflow we had like project we had to have the audio in the lobby so that the overflow could hear. That was just amazing. Yeah anything to add.

[00:31:05] I think so. I know a lot of teachers in the ALCC we try to bring our students over to the apex events and that was a big one for students I think because they know where Zion is they can go there and to to hear someone from Taiwan it's involved with what goes on in Zion speak and talk was really great for them as well as myself like being relatively new to southern Utah. It was just great to hear his perspective and kind of how his journey came to be at Zion and some of the things that they're looking forward in the future. So it was really really great. And I love that picture I took.

[00:31:45] It was well and then moving on we'll get one more before we take our next break. We could talk all day now and this was a very special event and it may maybe some people's favorite of the season. This was our Claudia Bradshaw event. Claudia Bradshaw is just a wonderful mother figure to us all is kind of how we came out of that and her talk was titled My journey into a new world and it was really about. She is the St George P. flag founder and a real ally to our LGBTQ plus family and it was just her story and special treat that her son was able to travel here from Chicago. So I'm sure you have something to say. Yeah I loved this one too. I loved that both her son and daughter were there and got to comment on when her son came out to her and kind of that family journey that they went through. And hell being in southern Utah that was hard and some of the pushback they got. But the thing that really stood out to me about Claudia is she is all about love and and that's it. Like I think of her and I remember leaving that event and just thinking she didn't have a negative thing to say about anything or anyone. And that is remarkable. Like you I haven't come across a lot of people in my life that doesn't have something negative to say everyone's right. So yeah right.

[00:33:22] So it was just amazing to be in her presence and hear her talk talk about her family's story and her son and her daughter being there and being a part of that. So that was a real treat. And I loved shooting them. They were for tugger photo photographing them I should watch my verbiage when I say shooting out the way through and then before we go to break I asked our journalist Billy Clouse our journalist and blogger and those of you who follow us on online and and look at our archive. You see his reflections every week of the event. I asked him did one event stand out to you. And if so why. And here's what he had to say.

[00:34:08] A lot of really cool things that APEX had. And I remember Emily Graslie especially fun for me because she started out as a Fine Arts major and they kind of transitioned into science fulling her passions. And I think it's really cool to be involved in so many different things. But I think my favorite of all the events really had to be the keynote address given by Dr. Perry. She's such a driven person. She was so happy and fun and they couldn't stop smiling throughout the event and to her story is just so inspirational.

[00:34:43] Yes so that was Billy's opinion and you heard him mention Emily and we'll definitely talk about Dr. Berry I think a little bit more but time for some more music. And I have to apologize because the last song that you heard was not thanks 4 nothing. It was actually causing trouble by Saint sister. Now you're going to hear. Thanks 4 nothing. And again just our station I.D. This is KSUU Thunder ninety one point one and you are listening to the APEX hour.

[00:37:57] All right we'll I'm going to bring you back here to the apex hour because we were just talking in the studio about how much more we all have to say. So this is KSUU thunder ninety one point one. My name is Lynn Vartan and I am joined in the studio with Roxie and Katie and we're talking about APEX. We left off at the beginning of March. And from you know these last five events that we had were just amazing. March 1st was Elizabeth Churchill who is one of the directors of user experience at Google. And she talked about human interactions human computer interaction over the ages. And it's hard to say a favorite but I don't know. She was like my she's like my hero sister yes soul sister. That's totally. I wasn't expecting to connect with her on the level. I mean I'm a musician and she works at Google but man that's and that's one of my favorite of the radio shows and the podcast too. Would you guys think I was excited about her because she's one of the biggest ones. Like she's I think one of the first marginality that we got.

[00:39:07] I just was a little I don't know I didn't know what to expect but she was so sweet and so I just loved how generous she was with everyone that she interacted with and for people who only go to the lecture listen to the radio may not know but we also do class visits with the speakers usually. And she came. She went to so many and she was so she just shared a lot with people and she was just willing to help and I just really liked her. I like how she interacted with students. Especially Yeah yeah.

[00:39:43] Yeah I agree I got to sit in one of her classes and she just seemed really at ease and able to communicate with anybody and got students talking and it was good. It's good to hear that.

[00:39:56] So true she got she. I felt like I could put her in a group of anyone and come out with some amazing thing that just happened. So that was really cool. On March 8th we had Jen Marlowe another you know somebody who I did not know at all. Both Dr. Churchill and Jen Marlowe were were ones that were brought by other faculty members to me to have as guests. And so I didn't know what to expect with Jen and she's a film maker playwright her reflections on resistance from Palestine to Darfur to death row and man was there. There was not a dry eye. There was an intensity her event needed to be to. Like she showed three different projects that she had worked on and yeah she was amazing. I think again just so great that our students have access to people like Jen and Elizabeth and all of these speakers. Yeah yeah.

[00:40:58] Powerful Yeah we had are in a different venue than usual and I think we were all a little nervous about the turnout but I think it just worked perfectly for her because it was so intimate. And she was able to really connect with the audience. And yeah I talked to her afterwards and I was like I don't know how you talk about this on a daily basis and like just do this for a living. And she was just like you have to focus on the positive that comes out of it. And I think that was a really nice thing and I just really like her and I I did cry a lot.

[00:41:32] Her presentation is in the archive and up and unavailable so if you want to check it out and see what we're talking about it's definitely there. Then we had kind of our final push we had spring break in there so we had a week off and then and then we moved to the end of our like power to the end and we had Susan Casey come in and wow.

[00:41:54] I was so impressed with her and I love those. I have probably three images of the brains because I just was so fascinated by the brains of there were whales and dolphins dolphins and what she was talking about just the science behind that was just amazing and how passionate she was about the topic it just really was inspiring like ice and passion and you know her books are so good so good. Yes

[00:42:24] She was kind of like Emily in a sense that she didn't come from you know a science background. She's a writer. But I really like the fact that she just followed what she wanted to do and just decided to live from her passion and that was really inspiring. Also my favorite shot from you is the one you took when she was book signing.

[00:42:45] Her expression it's just such a perfect blend of her and how she. I mean the passion and then the innocence then let

[00:42:53] It just captured exactly who she is and how I saw her love it.

[00:42:58] I really appreciated to like because we were able to talk to her at the lunch and she talked a lot about her next projects and how much research goes into that and just gave you a little bit more information. Also a great podcast everybody can listen to. She was great on the radio. And then our last two which which is just barely happened we had our art students roundtable and that was just a really fun probably going to be an annual event for us. We always have a big senior art show in our museum in town.

[00:43:32] And to have a few of those seniors and talking about their art and what inspires them and how they do what they do and what they want to do in the future as artists I think that was really fun. So very very much so. It's always good to hear from students when they're working on and their ideas behind their art projects and finals. So yeah.

[00:43:54] And last but not least was our keynote speaker. Very very. And Mandy you know where everybody had their emotions on their sleeve. This one was just laughing and smiling the whole time. I mean and another big message of love yeah yeah yeah go ahead.

[00:44:14] I just I mean the thing that really stood out amongst many things with parties was that she talked about her life in a way that was funny. And she was able to talk a laugh and get people to laugh. And I always think that presenters or comedians are really if they can look at their own life experiences and laugh and get the audience to laugh about them but not in a negative way. It's just a positive thing and she just did that the whole time and again so inspirational a great way to end a packed series. Yeah. Yeah I just yeah.

[00:44:54] I thought she was great for the festival of excellence. There's one thing she said that I wrote down when you walk with purpose you collide with destiny. And I thought I was like whoa. And I just think she impersonates that and she's like the living example that you can actually do that because everywhere everyone she would talk to even after she was like working with them.. purposeful. Yeah.

[00:45:17] When you walk with purpose you collide with destiny. That's definitely an amazing part. That is her mission and that's her vision statement and it absolutely works. Well speaking of quotes I asked Billy one of the questions I asked Billy was that is there something that someone said that was particularly memorable to you that you still remember now. And here's how he answered that question.

[00:45:42] Anderson was talking about success. He said that you have to love the process of what you're doing because you don't always get results you necessarily want. So you really have to love what you're doing. If you like as a student especially someone studying graphic design that can happen where there's a particular project that you love but nobody else really gets that they think you should take out. And even though the end result may not be exactly what you envisioned the press is going from nothing and creating a project is really fun. And that's kind of helped me just whenever there's criticism or things don't quite go as planned. Remember the process that I love what I'm doing and that makes it better in the end.

[00:46:25] That was Billy Clouse our journalist and blogger talking about something that someone said this year that really had a powerful impact on him and he was speaking about. Lemon Anderson who was our first guest in the fall talking about the process.

[00:46:41] Other memories do you guys have or maybe we should say. Do you have a favorite. Could you identify or is that just too hard to do.

[00:46:49] I think it's really hard to point to one specific event that stands out. I thought they all were amazing. I'm really glad that we had the 1491s I had followed them. I've been following them for years so to see them in person was amazing. And off the cuff comedy was really great. The performance ones really seem to stick out to me. Lemon there indefinitely. And then all these the spring all these spring women in particular that. And that just happened by accident. You know somebody asked me you know did you really intend to have a very female centric spraying. And I mean with everything that's going on right now you know in terms of women's rights and me too and pay equity and all of these things it actually was not intentional you know I look at as a good thing. It was just this was this this connection of this collection of topics that we wanted at this time and it just so happened that it happened to be that way with which I was happy about you know but it wasn't an intentional thing but it ended up being powerful nonetheless.

[00:48:00] Do you have a favorite Roxy.

[00:48:01] It's really hard. But I think my favorite still is Glen and Loire from last fall. They were just so amazing and just loved their duo and their vibe and how warm they were with everyone and all their class visits were very special and they loved sharing with student I think it was their favorite part of their trip and I just loved every single part of of their visit here.

[00:48:30] I'm so glad you mentioned them because they were one of my favorites too. They were my favorite one of my faves to shoot. Yeah I listen to. Oh yeah. And you can definitely check them out in the archive. There are videos posted so feel free to have a look. I love their music.

[00:48:46] I don't think I can even say a favorite because I just fell in love with everybody I think so. On that note let's play my last little song that I have for you today. This song is called Dia D and the group is Gato Preto and the album is called Tempo. This is KSUU ninety one point one

[00:51:15] All right so I could totally listen to that song all day. But we've got things to say here. This is Lynn Vartan. Welcome back to the apex hour. That song that you were just listening to is called Dia D Gato Preto on the album tempo we're talking about our apx season and I want to come back with a question for Roxie and Katie. Is there just another memory or another moment that you would like to share with us.

[00:51:44] I think for me and I think we touched on this a little bit already but I think my favorite part of all of APEX was just laughing and crying during the last one during her tierces just it was a very emotional experience. And I just I love laughing and I'm just I think the more laughter in my life. I think a lot of people need a lot more laughter in their life these days. And it was just great to end with with her and to just very personable.

[00:52:19] Roxy

[00:52:19] It's not as deep as you but this one time. So Jordan who's on tour in Southern Cal yeah he's amazing. I just loved working with him. Yeah like in general but this one time Maria Hinojosa was doing her soundcheck and she was just like very comfortable and he was putting the mic on her and she was just like oh yeah just clip it to my bra

[00:52:48] And we should say Jordan is a music major does graphic design for us. And then pitches in on sound so you know putting my guess is not exactly his day to day. He's very uncomfortable and that is just really cute. His cheeks got very red. Well I also asked Billy this question and here is what he had to say throughout this season.

[00:53:11] I was kind of shocked by how much fun everything was. I'm not a very outdoorsy person but I still enjoyed those events that talked about that. And I really enjoyed the arts events because that's something I'm interested in. But I feel like no matter what was going on it still was interesting because it never really went to the extreme details of whatever section that topic was on it was enough to kind of you know cover something that everyone was interested in. So even when there was detailed stuff they always made an effort to make it accessible to the entire audience which I thought was really cool.

[00:53:54] All right that was Billy Clouse our journalist and blogger talking about what was a memory of the season for him. It's time for us to do our favorite part of the show and everybody loves it. What is turning you on this week so Roxy what is turning you on this week

[00:54:13] For me. I love Netflix it's a little addiction of mine but

[00:54:17] I think all of us have it.

[00:54:19] I've been obsessed with narcos the show on Netflix. Yeah it's amazing. And I just I started it because I wanted to practice my Spanish. Yeah I'm very just interested in like the whole narco trafficking it's kind of weird but I really like that and it's just I was taken aback by how good it is and it's very high quality. The actors are really good and it's just a lot of action and passion

[00:54:52] And are you all caught up to date.

[00:54:54] Finished last night actually last night I.

[00:54:58] Oh well we'll definitely check that out. I'm only in the first season on that one Katie. How about you. What's turning you on.

[00:55:05] Well anybody who has touched me in the last two months knows I'm really into chickens right now. So we got seven chickens about a month and a half ago. And so my favorite thing in the world is at the end of the day or in the afternoon when I go home and just sitting out in the yard watching the lives of these seven little chickens and what they're doing and chasing worms and grapes and so that's so that's where my head is when I'm not here. What a beautiful way to spend the afternoon. It is nice weather.

[00:55:39] That's great. Well I want to say thank you. We're out of time I want to say thank you so much to both of you to Katie who takes amazing photos for us and it's just such a great supportive part of our team. So thank you so much for being here today and for everything you've done for us. My pleasure and I love I love working with Apex. Can't wait till next season. Me too I can't wait. We'll probably have to do a teaser in the summer and then Roxy. Both of my hands not just my right hand but my right hand and my left hand and most of my brain most of the time. Thank you for being here today and for everything that you do for me.

[00:56:16] It's a pleasure always to work with you I love it all. Thank you.

[00:56:22] This has been the APEX hour. This is KSUU Thunder ninety one point one. And now that our season is over you still can find us on the radio. I'll just be here every two weeks on Thursdays and then we'll also have the podcast still going into our podcast feed so check us out online. Thanks for listening and we'll get you back to the music from ninety one point one. Thanks so much for listening to the apex hour here on Thunder ninety one point one come find us again next Thursday at 3:00 p.m. for more conversations with the visiting guests at Southern Utah University and new music to discover for your next playlist. And in the meantime we would love to see you at our events on campus to find out more. Check out suu.edu/apex Or email us at [email protected]. Until next week. This is Lynn Vartan saying goodbye from the apex hour here. Thunder ninety one point one.

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Eccles APEX Website: https://www.suu.edu/apex

Full details from this roundtable event on campus and audio transcript of the radio show are available on the event page on the SUU website.

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Eccles APEX Website: https://www.suu.edu/apex

Full details from Ms Casey's presentation on campus and audio transcript are available on the event page on the SUU website.

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Eccles APEX Website: https://www.suu.edu/apex

[00:00:01] You were listening to the apex hour on KSUU Thunder ninety one point one. In this show you get more personal time with the guests who visit Southern Utah University from all over. Learning more about their stories and opinions beyond their presentations onstage. We will also give you some new music tools into and hope to turn you on to new genres. You can find us here every Thursday at 3pm on the web at suu.edu/apex or email us at [email protected]. But for now welcome to this week's show here Thunder ninety one point one. OK. Well we have one more best of show for you this week. This week I'm traveling one last time for the semester I'm all up in Salt Lake recording some videos for some music educational shows but I promise we'll be back live next week but in the meantime we have a great best of show for you this week. We're going to start with part of our talk with Dr. Elisabeth Churchill when she was visiting campus earlier in the semester. She had some amazing things to say about psychology about teamwork and just about her work with Google in California. So listen in. Best of Show last of the semester. Enjoy.

[00:01:27] The human condition and human interaction has just been it's kind of a part of your DNA it seems you're just always observing it and aware of it and very interested in have in cohabiting with it. Can you talk a little bit more about how psychology maybe influences your current work and that might be a great sort of introduction to what human computer interaction is for you today.

[00:01:51] So psychology's a vast area. So back in the day we used to talk about it as sort of the biological and perceptual which is what does the body do. How do you see how do you hear that psychology. But then there's developmental. How do you develop from a child. But how do you develop in learning. And there's more social. So you know how do you interact with others and how do others affect you and how you part of groups. So in the work that I currently do with material design for Google you know everything from what does an interface look like. So think about your phone. You know what can you see. What are the colors do what stands out for you. That's perception. You know if you swipe and move something how do you perceive that how does the voice sound to you. That's psycho acoustics the sound of a voice and how it makes you feel. And then we go to things like problem solving and reasoning you know is the information presented in a way that you can read it and you can understand it to know what you're trying to do is the task clear. Have you ever picked up your phone and you got an app and you open it and then you're like I do not know what to do next. Right. Psychology will tell you a little bit about what information you need to know in order to do the next thing. So there's perception and invitation and problem solving. And then of course we go to the social so you know if this app doesn't work and you don't get to talk to the person you want to think about social media how is that changing the way you interact with people. Do you do you speak to them more frequently less frequently. How do you feel about yourself and your identity. Do you think that your social media presence puts pressure on you or gives you joy. So we go all the way up to really thinking about the deep psychological emotional states which is what most people think of when they say psychology but actually psychology is all about from seeing to hearing to listening to meaning to problem solving and how all of that affects your emotional space as well.

[00:04:02] It's just amazing. I mean I've you know I use my phone all the time I think about my phone all the time I think about social media all the time but really I mean you are just looking at all of it from so many different angles and all of them are psychological. It's it's fascinating to think of it from that.It must be so exciting on a day to day for you I'm sure.

[00:04:23] Oh absolutely absolutely is and you know people who kind of go to bed with their phones and it's like their pet and their best friend. And if you've ever lost a phone there's losing the phone because the information on it but so many people feel like they've lost a friend and it's that deep crisis. Amazing.

[00:04:41] I'd like to turn to some of the positions that you've held and so our listeners can kind of get a little more of a trajectory of some of the companies that you work for of course we know you currently work for Google as one of the directors of user experience. And can you maybe talk a little bit more about the specifics of that position. I know we just kind of went over the concepts but what does a Director of User Experience do and how has that position evolved. I know it's evolved quite a bit.

[00:05:09] Yes so what we do what I do most of the time is I have a fantastic group that works for me with many different skill sets from software engineering to design to experimental to anthropology and ethnography because we want to deeply understand this experience of using apps and phones and other devices. But my job is really to come in make sure everybody is clear about what they need to do to partner with it manages to work with my V.P. to see where we're going to work with the director of the material design system to see where the strategy is so we build that together and to think about the long term future and then to help the people in my team understand what they need to do next get the resources for them to help my boss understand why I need additional resources maybe more people to do certain things and to basically prioritize it was a huge amount of my work is just listening watching understanding where we are with regard to goals looking at goals and seeing whether they're realistic or not at all or in certain timeframes. I mean readjusting is needed if the resources are available or not available but also just real people development. So for me a big part of my job is making sure every single person on my team understands what they're doing why they're doing it that it's important that it's part of their career trajectory as well as part of the product success and Google's success so that part of a bigger thing in the corporation even if what they feel they're doing is small and it's really critical but also part of we are part of their career and their life going forward. So it has to be mutually beneficial and growth on both sides. And my best people my best people are going to grow and they're going to go on. And that is sad but it's also exactly what needs to happen right. It's a little bit of that. I know you've had some path in academia. It's a little better that academia and that mentor ship creeping back and it sounds like I really believe in I believe it's. It's a manager's role to amplify the people that work for them and to learn from the people that work for them. It just that's what you should do and have to do and at a place like Google you are resourced to do. Google is very very very supportive of managers and manage developing management developing people. The Director of User Experience position is relatively new and has expanded. If I have heard correctly. Can you tell us a little bit about that. Yes so we had a lot of really great user experience professionals but the director level there's only been a couple there were a couple of people appointed to director level which is the highest level you can get and user experience. A couple of years ago when I came in as the first person from the outside to get that position and now I think we're up to 5 now maybe even more because we're just you know we had a round of promotions. But Google is investing enormously in this user angle in the human centered angle and recognizing that what we need is to bring leadership in from other companies and grow our own leadership. So it might be more than five now. Last time I looked it was 5 but it's really exciting for me to see that Google is promoting people and hiring people into this role at very senior levels.

[00:08:45] That's fantastic. Well it's time for a musical break but when we come back I'd like to continue the conversation about team building teams managing teams. I've been I've been eating this information up because I'm really interested in management and leadership and teamwork. So stay tuned to continue for that. Again you're listening to thunder ninety one point one. This is Lynn Vartan and I've got a few songs to play for you today. The first one is called Me Voy. And it's this amazing group called Ibeyi that I'm really turned on and passionate about. And so this is Me Voy by Ibeyi. And this is the apex hour here on Thunder ninety one point one.

[00:12:28] All right well welcome back. This is the apex hour. I'm Lynn Martin. This is Thunderer ninety one point one and we are joined in the studio by the amazing Dr. Elisabeth Churchill. Welcome back. And one of the things I'd like to talk about was one of the topics we touched on before which was teamwork a lot of what you do is building teams managing teams supporting teams and then working of course with teams to make amazing things happen. Can you talk a little bit about your style of leadership and I know you've been saying it may be a little different than the average Joe but it sounds amazing to me. And so the kinds of things you think about in terms of your leadership and your team and how that all works.

[00:13:15] Yeah sure. I tend to bring people into my team who are very curious and who are self starters in some way that they're desperate to learn and they want to learn. I also really emphasize collaboration. So I want you to be really good at what you do and I'm going to support you to develop. We have a job to do for Google but I also want you to give you an assist to your teammates. So I strongly foster collaboration and my sort of way of thinking about things is that you know you have a portfolio of work that you do and say 60 percent of the work is very immediate product focused. And we don't really have impact we're going to get something done 20 percent should be things that are a little bit further out for you and 20 percent should really be about you know you're developing skills and the sensibility and the perspective that will be the future for you and for us potentially. So always about growing and I try to have the team be as diverse as possible and bring their ideas in. I love to talk and I can be a bit loud so I always tell my folks you know you get to tell me to simmer down. I like to encourage independence but collaboration and encourage the idea that you work on my team and you develop and you develop but if you get to the point where you feel you've grown beyond your interests have changed. Then we're all going to work together to get you into the next space. The next thing you want to do. So I really believe in the team but I try to keep a focus on the individual and the team so that they feel they belong and they can grow and they are strongly contributing. I love the duality that you foster with confidence and curiosity. I just think that as a teacher I really connect with that I really love that as a message for leadership. I know the communication component is also a big aspect of things for you. Can you talk about how that manifests itself in your team and how you helped to lead that. So a lot of people come in and they're very good at what they do and they think that their job is to do what they do and they then get surprised that actually they need to spend you a big chunk of that job actually communicating. So you know you might come in You're a great designer and you know your preference might be to design all day and you know you want to not talk to other people because that's who you are. And I respect that but I'm going to try and push you to start talking to others about your craft and sharing your rationale for what you do. Sharing your rationale will allow you to be reflective but sharing it will also give you confidence when you see others appreciate it. It will develop your rhetorical skills when you see what lens and what doesn't. And it will help the whole team to get more reach if you like. Now you could be the kind of person who comes in and you're like hey I only want to do the design work 40 percent time and that is great. I will help you figure out where you want to communicate and how and where you can bring your skills to the communication design as well. So people are different but the biggest challenge with you know young folk coming in is often they think they've got the job to do the thing they're trained in and they have. But they've also got the job to communicate what they're trained in and help level others up and to share the products of their labor and to get those out. And that's the way your team will have big reach. You know I can't be the only spokesperson for my work and for the team's work the team you know the junior people are going to be having lunch with others. They're going to be you know having opportunities to spread the work in other cohorts in other social situations they can go to you know happy hour mixes and spreading the word and knowing that they're an ambassador for their work but also for the team's work amplifies our presence and effectiveness. So helping them build confidence that that is their role.

[00:17:28] Them have the skills to do the communication and the rhetorical skills to make sure that their great ideas land is beneficial to all. That's fantastic. I love it. I'd like to revisit the end of our we had a luncheon today and we were doing a little bit of talk back and you had this great I asked you a question about qualities or traits that you look for in team members or things that you think that undergraduates were mostly an undergraduate institution here but things that you think that undergraduates or even graduate school grad students could be developing. And I loved and I know some of it's an overlap from the previous question but I loved these four words that you hope for you remember I can remind you but these four qualities I thought were really special if you could share them with our audience. Sure. So it's curiosity and confidence yeah vanity and voyeurism. Love it. And so the curiosity is you know always keep curious. Often you know when you've had great teachers and you really respect them you know you can think that what they say is the answer and that can dull your natural curiosity because you think the answers are laid out for you. You have to bring your curiosity your you know alternative perspective feed that curiosity always ask questions. Don't think you have to know you know. Be curious. Confidence is related to that because I find a lot of young people come in and they're very very good but they don't have the confidence to own that curiosity and the skill and to be able to say to me a much more senior person that is interesting. Why do you think that. Can you help me understand that or here's a thought that I had. What do you think of that. So you know every encounter needs to be another opportunity for you to learn so you're curious you get to learn your respectful you're thoughtful and you're not treating the other person no matter how senior as if they have all the answers that you have to run away and execute on. You know I want you to be able to bring challenge in the best sense of the word to things. And the vanity and voyeurism is you know people we have to care about ourselves. We have to have some self nurturing. We have to celebrate our achievements. Yes. And you know it's called sort of vanity I mean back in the day in Britain it was like if you talked about yourself you were vain by vanity. I mean take pride in yourself and care. Don't be prideful but you know be be proud of your achievements and let others be proud with you. Yes. And you take away a little bit of a hey high five me you know really kind of lovely humble and bracing way and voyeurism is all human beings are curious about others so watch others see who you want to emulate and who you admire. You know watch how they do what they do try and emulate try and learn from them. You know nobody in the world is the first person to do pretty much anything. You don't have to be the lone rugged individual. You can learn from others celebrate their achievements and take on some kind of doppelganger ness of them and build yourself and learn and then carve your own path from what you've learned from them. And so I think vanity is sort of nurturing self voyeurism is observing and nurturing others and learning from others. Yeah I love those four. I just love those traits like this. I'm definitely going to steal them and use those words in my teaching because of course it's crossed up discipline. I mean that can just as easily apply to music instruction which is what I do. And as it as it can to what you do in your discipline as well.

[00:21:26] So thank you so much for those concepts. Absolutely. I like to now talk a little bit. I know. I understand that you have had a fantastic experience with eBay and you think very fondly of your time at eBay. Tell me a little bit about that time and about what made it so special for you.

[00:21:44] Well it was about people really so closely you know the team I worked with was there were amazing but also you know eBay was the first social platform. It was the first place it was the first marketplace it was the first social platform right. And eBay was putting people in touch with each other around goods you know the circulation of goods things that you don't want anymore. But I do. So it's about value and it's about honoring things it's about valuing materiality and a really good way. So all of the sort of sustainability stuff all of the values stuff you passed something on that had value to you. Now it has value to someone else. EBay is also you know it's allowed a lot of people who otherwise would not have been able to have businesses create businesses. There are a lot of wonderful stories of you know single moms who sold stuff on eBay and made a little bit of money and kept themselves going as a real mom and pop stores who basically you know they were maybe in some way very rural but they got to have outreach and a customer base way beyond. So you know eBay has seen its ups and downs but as a value system as a company that really is trying to circulate goods that exist and have meaning for people and put people in touch with people. I just found it really exciting to be part of that. Yeah. Do you have a favorite memory from your time there or a favorite story. I'm sure there are many. So I have a favorite story which was about somebody hit create something great game of thrones is a big thing. I personally don't watch it. It is a big thing. And so somebody had created a chain Almah guinea pig where hamsters guinea pigs hamsters suit the day for the actual animal for the animal. And they put it on eBay and somebody picked this up and it became a meme that just went around because it was so well made and so silly and so fun that somebody picked it up and it went in for charity. And so it started to snowball and snowball and I think they made like 20000 dollars for this guinea pig chain mail outfit which went to charity Fantasma and there were things like that happening on ebay every day all day quirky things fun things and stories about you know I found a plate that you know my mom would have had. And now I have the plate. And it reminds me of my mum. And you know I'd never thought I'd see a plate like that again. So it's really deeply emotional as well as super practical. And it's those stories that really warms my heart.

[00:24:29] That's just beautiful and you have just such wonderful memories from there it sounds like your. I think it was your first major position was at Fuji Xerox. Can you tell us a little bit about how how that was and the transition from being a student into that position or into your first sort of full time thing.

[00:24:52] Well I started well my studentship went on to be a postdoc. So did my Ph.D. then I did my postdoc and then I really wanted to go into academia. But Fuji Xerox as a company had a research lab called effect's pal affects ph L in Silicon Valley and I knew people who sort of were affiliated to it. And so I was all set to go into academia. But I'd been working on virtual environments and remote communication and eFax Powell had a role they wanted to try and build communication between researchers in California and researchers in Japan just outside Tokyo. And so I was one of the few people at that time who had been thinking about these virtual environments and chat spaces and so forth for communication and collaboration. And so they asked me to come over and I came over and built a research team and worked with the most senior researchers to build communication tools to allow collaboration between researchers in California and in Japan. That was how that all started. My intention had always been to go back into academia. But I've was very supportive and they allowed me to keep publishing and doing work with students and I continued to do classes here and there and supervised students. So I kind of got the best both worlds.

[00:26:13] That was Elizabeth Churchill here on the apex hour. This is the best of show. I'm out of town this week. But you're listening to the apex hour on KSUU Thunder ninety one point one and I'm your host Lynn Vartan. We have another clip from our Best of the spring and that is when we have the wonderful conversation here in the studio with several members of our allies on campus community are LGBTQ plus community. Just talking about all the different resources that were available. It came from a wonderful live event where Claudia Bradshaw who is one of the founders of the flag chapter here in Utah came and talked about her experience with her son and her family's story. And we just open that conversation up later on in the outer talk about all the different things that are facing our LGBTQ plus friends on campus and in our community. Listen in. Again this is the best of show. Lynn Vartan here talking to you for the Apex hour KSUU thunder ninety one point one.

[00:27:14] I've kind of like to continue that as as we go on into this next segment and that conversation is today we've been really celebrating all of the resources and the projects and the programs that are available. But that's not the whole story. I mean there's still a long way to go and there are still a lot of difficulties facing the LGBT community here in Cedar City at SUU and in Southern Utah in general. What concerns you guys or what are the things that you feel were is the growth needed. What are the concerns. What are the things you have on your mind with regards to where we need more growth.

[00:28:00] I think the largest I see looking at increasing racial diversity with the pride and equality club here on campus and then looking at you know LGBTQ plus communities of color in Utah looking at that double isolation of living in a state where the predominant population is white and it is also culturally not accepting of LGBTQ plus identities. Right. So I think those who do live at those intersections I think uplifting those voices are also really important in providing them with services that will validate those two identities not just that that transgender identity or the gay identity. They're not monoliths that when you also add this cultural background that adds a different layer to that experience. And I know that there's been a lot of work with immigrant advocate groups up in Salt Lake. Like many of us Utah they do a lot of work to also ensure that when they're doing undocumented outreach they're also looking at if you have LGBTQ I.A. plus identify partner. The process might look different a little different for sponsorship or things like that. So ensuring that those people who live in those different intersections are also being uplifted and we're not overgeneralizing populations right. Great isolation. John I know you feel pretty strongly about that part of the top part. That piece of the puzzle as well. Yeah and you know a tragic consequence a lot of the isolation is the extremely high suicide rate among the LGBT population especially trans people and gay men in particular. And one of the things we're trying to do in a larger sense beyond issue you just with a Southern Utah developing a larger southern Utah community is trying to break down that isolation where we aren't quite as isolated as it might seem. I mean we are culturally isolated we're geographically isolated but there are more people here than you might realize and we're trying to get the word out that there are more people here. There is a larger community that maybe people don't realize. And so we're trying to establish a larger community in that sense. We have a Facebook page. Discover pride Southern Utah. We're working on another Web site. There's always a Pride event every year. But establishing more community events throughout the year not just a once a year pride festival. I mean it's obviously great but we're trying to do more throughout the year. And these are all things being developed right now kind of with that Claudia Bradshaw just walked in.

[00:30:30] I know we have more to add to the conversation. Our guests from earlier today has joined us in the studio. Welcome Claudia. Thank you. And we're so glad that you were here. Thank you so much for your time today. I've loved doing everything. It's been wonderful. We say and maybe this is what we've been talking about lots of resources. Maybe you could give our listeners I know you talked a little bit about it this morning but also give our listeners the opportunity to understand a little bit about what flag offers and the St. George chapter. OK.

[00:31:07] Pflag was started years and years ago. But the main three main purpose is to educate and to support and to advocate for equal treatment. That's great. And how is how is that chapter doing today. How are things going. Who. It's been a little bit hard for me lately because my husband passed away and so I haven't been having meetings like I should so I still want to I'm glad to see we have someone up here. They're going to do that to have some meetings and I'll be glad to come up for those. Absolutely. We've been breaking all kinds of news today right we broke the news about the programming for Pride Week and about the showing of The Believer film and earlier today we also sort of broke the news. It's brand new that the flag chapter and again this is parent more of a parent support group but really can be anyone. Come on come all. And that that flag chapter is in the works to be started started here in Cedar City. And my understanding is that their first official meeting is going to be two weeks or a week from next Monday. So that would be like March 4th somewhere around there if anybody has and I believe it's March 7th the first Wednesday first Wednesday.

[00:32:30] Wednesday will be in the library from 8 till 9 that evening. Okay perfect. And that's going to be at the Cedar City Library the SU library. OK. Oh wait. No I'm not sure.

[00:32:40] Cedar City

[00:32:42] Oh I'm not sure. Let me double check yeah. And so again I get everything we've talked about today is going to be on on the Allies website on this center for diversity inclusion. But that's another opportunity that's coming up. And that group is going to be meeting at either the library or the Cedar City library might be Cedar City Wednesday March 7th at 8:00 7:00 p.m. 8:00 p.m.. OK great. So that's a brand new thing that started. So we've got that momentum going in Cedar City for the Pflag chapter which is awesome. That is awesome. I would like to have some time. One of these times when there's a meeting to discuss coming out and maybe a procedure that would help some. I noticed there's some who are still not out to their families. Yes. And hopefully that what I could do it in a way that could help them so that the family can stay together. That's one of my main goals anyway. Personally I hate to see families be torn apart and that's really been one of your main platforms in your work and that's one of the things that's been so amazing is really keeping that love that the love in the family is strong.

[00:34:00] Do you have any advice for anybody listening who may not be able to get to these events or any resources that you'd like to share or even just thoughts and ideas about how to start that conversation.

[00:34:15] They're welcome to call me I'm going to give I give them my telephone number is 4 3 5 3 1 3 3 3 6 6 and I would be glad to have a conversation with them and maybe recommend books. There's a book that's called coming out an act of love. That means if your child comes out to you he loves you enough he wants to make sure that he's part of the family. That's pretty big. Yeah that's that's an amazing part of it. Well your story has been so powerful and it was so powerful again today. Do you want to share any particular bits that you've been thinking about or that you want our listeners to know. Because this is part of the podcast series which will be available on the Web site after the event and I'd love to give you the opportunity to just say more. I would also like to say to to the families to decide if they if their child comes out to them give it gives them a chance to to learn and to get educated. I have books available and some that I could recommend for the parents so that they can read read them and not and they don't want to destroy their relationship with their child. Vice versa so good education on how to do it. My son was so well-prepared when he came out to me it helped me. I'm not sad I didn't make some stupid comments that I did. But he was patient and I think Brian is here to talk to us. He has something to say.

[00:36:06] So I'm from Chicago and we arrived here on campus. There is a lot of competing events. Mitt Romney being one of them. And I was staggered at a completely full conference room yeah diverse with both allies faculty students racial gender. It was all there. Yeah. So impressive. And all of these people care and are engaged and wanted to talk about this even if they weren't part of the LGBTQ. Well they are part of the community. Yeah but it's just very impressive that you know there is a strong community here. And I think it's pretty galvanized it seems or at least has a lot more potential but very very impressive and people shouldn't feel alone. And I think that's kind of been one of the themes today that we were just sort of getting into before you arrived. And that is that that fighting that the hardest part which is that isolation and and you you came on campus today as you said from Chicago and you came away with hey you're not alone. We have. There is a vibrant community so anybody listening we just want to you know make sure that that you know that that you're not alone and there is a community here and there's events and there's all kinds of things going on. And if you if you want to get involved or you want to check it out. You know we we everybody wants you there and you're not alone and there's plenty of love and plenty of compassion awesomeness going on and everything and as I said just to reiterate the places you can find information. The Center for diversity and inclusion.

[00:38:01] The Allies web page and they all have social media associated with it. So just googling Suu allies or center for diversity and inclusion. And we're going to take one last musical break. I've got one more song to play for you. And this song is called Tiger and the artist is John moon. And the album is called Moonshine corner. Check it out and you are listening to the APX hour right here on Thunder ninety one point one screen round how many fans cameo cameo for much that sense is close enough that go dancing around the shots all right well welcome back everyone. We are super excited to have you back here for our last break. We were just chatting over the break about how much things have changed and how awesome that is that things have changed so much Claudie. You were just sharing that story about that was graduation. Here you were just talking about and how different it's been and how. Now you know you're really enjoying what you're seeing. I hope on campus. Awesome yeah handsome to see the change. Well I wish we had hours and hours and hours spent. But in our last little bit of time here we're going to do our our what's turning you on this week. Everybody's favorite segment and everybody's kind of giggling here. And this is the time where we talk about what's making you excited and just to kind of share things and it can be anything it could be a movie or a TV show a podcast a book or something else. So who would like to start. Chris do you have yours.

[00:43:59] I'm going to give a very literal answer to the question that you pose so I'm going to say Gus Kenworthy are gay Olympian Sochi medalists and now Pyeongchang competitor. That's my answer. That's perfect. And what's this event again. Does it matter. He's extreme skiing. Oh yes stream winter sports. I love it. Ok cool. Great.

[00:44:23] And how are you John what's making you what's turning you on this week.

[00:44:27] Well now the Chris took mine I'm going to go with a more academic response and thanks to Johnny McClain for the recommendation. But there's a book called Whistling Vivaldi that is just amazing. It's a great but it's really incredible. It's about it's stereotype threat and just the background of how it works when you are a marginalized or minority group. How the stereotypes that follow your group affect your performance in the real world and it's really just a fascinating book that's been actually getting quite a bit of press and the title again is whistling Vivaldi and I can't remember the author's name. Do you remember. Steele I think that sounds about right but whistling Vivaldi is really a great book. And it's been on a lot of the list and I know it's been talked about on NPR and all these kinds of things so definitely check that out. Great Braden How about you.

[00:45:25] My mom. Ah filthy. But it's true she's a rock solid rock star so it makes me really happy to see her get that credit because I know what she's the work she's done how much it matters and then also just being here. I see you today I mean staggering what's going on and there are so many resources and good stuff happening. Wonderful to see you. I love it. Yeah I see the diversity is sexy. I love that much new bumper stickers sounds are new center motto city I love it. Hashtag diversity.

[00:46:08] Claudia how about you. What's making you excited this week. This today was so wonderful because we had so many people who did come to to listen and to speak and share. And it was all about love. And so that always is a turn on for me. Love is eternal.

[00:46:26] That's wonderful. Well I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you Claudia and Braden and John and Chris for spending the hour with me today on the apex hour. As you all know where we are subscribe lable on iTunes the podcast you can just google suu apex or do the search on the podcast and subscribe. Leave us a review. We'd love to hear it. We'd love to see the podcast go into the ratings and get some traction. Also we just want to recap a few of the resources. The Center for Diversity and Inclusion is right here on campus in the Sharwan center room 101 and also on their website you can find everything calendars social media pages and everything like that. Also on the Allies page which is Su dot edu slash allies. We want to remember that there's that. Ask us anything button. So get on there it's completely anonymous if you have questions or you're looking for resources or anything like that. And then early in the show Claudia gave you her phone number which you know if you really are looking for some support she is a loving mother to us all. So thank you guys so much for taking the time and spending the hour with me today. It was really great. Thank you.

[00:47:46] Well that does it for our last best of show the semester and next week we will be back in the studio live. And this is the apex our every Thursday 3 p.m. KSUU ninety one point one. Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the apex hour here on Thunder ninety one point one can find us again next Thursday at 3:00 p.m. for more conversations with the visiting guests at Southern Utah University and new music to discover for your next playlist. And in the meantime we would love to see you at our events on campus. Find out more. Check out suu.edu/apex Or email us at [email protected]. Until next week. This is Lynn Vartan saying goodbye from the apex hour thunder Ninety one point one.

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Eccles APEX Website: https://www.suu.edu/apex

[00:00:03] Hey everyone. This is Lynn Vartan and you're listening to the apex hour on SUU's Thunder ninety one point one in this show you get more personal time with the guests who visit Southern Utah University from all over. Learning more about their stories and opinions beyond their presentations on stage. We will also give you some new music to listen to and hope to turn you on to new genres. You can find us here every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. on the web at suu.edu/apex or email us at [email protected]. But for now. Welcome to this week's show here Thunder ninety one point one

[00:00:50] Hi everyone. So this is Lynn Vartan and I am still in Los Angeles so that means this is another best of show. It's actually spring break on campus. But never fear. I have some clips for you. We're going to start with Emily Graslie the great scientist and YouTube sensation who was on campus in February. Listen in. Here you go.

[00:01:11] I Want to start by kind of spending this first bit talking about how you came to be who you are today which is such a great story and I know you talked a little bit about it earlier but if you could kind of give us another version of that painter turned scientist story. I would love to hear it. Yeah. So I won't go into all of the details but essentially I was studying landscape painting at the University of Montana in Missoula.

[00:01:37] I enrolled in 2007 and for the first about three years that I was there was really heavily focused on landscape painting as my as my source of inspiration and what I was going to do my senior thesis project on for my BFA. And it wasn't until I learned about the campus Zoological Museum which is known as the Philip Allwright Zoological Museum that I really started to turn my attention toward why these museums exist why these research collections are a part of a campus like that who they serve what their role is and then how I could become involved in. So essentially I turned my last semester of college into an internship where I could draw the specimens within the collection and then just gradually became more and more involved in the day to day operations of the museum learning about how the specimens were cataloged and organized but also how how he obtained them you know what research projects they were associated with. And then I was volunteering the preparation lab to actually help process and prepare some of these specimens for the research collection which was a pretty interesting experience going from you know just landscape painting to you know dissecting roadkill for Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks. Did it ever gross you out because I mean I know some people I mean you came from a painting background so maybe it's the cause I know you also grew up on a farm or near farmland that did it ever. Gross You Out. I think it's just been more of a morbid fascination more than anything. Especially when you know a lot of the gross out factor associated with things like specimen preparation. It's more of like a cultural stigma than it is like a natural thing so.

[00:03:26] So what we've learned through the program that I do now my YouTube show the brain scoop is actually the younger the viewers are the less biased they have toward these sort of things. It's more of like a cultural and societal pressure that we put on kids girls especially once they're past the age of 8 or 9 to really enforce that gross factor. Don't touch that or that's nasty. Like a lot of the natural inquisitiveness is kind of stifled and so you know once I started learning about the value of these research collections and how I could contribute to growing them and making having a small role in a significant scientific discovery it just. I mean yes sometimes it smells kind of bad and you're dealing with like gross hydrogen peroxide and dealings overkilled but if you can get a sight all those things get really interesting. Yeah. I mean did you did you learn the process. I mean I didn't mean to initially start talking about dissection so much but I'm kind of fascinated by it as the day goes on. Did you have to learn like the exact procedures because it's very tough. I mean that's very step by step right. Or mean how did all that knowledge come. Did somebody show you. Did you read it. Yeah. So so I started volunteering in this museum after I did my internship. I graduated from college and I kept volunteering in the museum and it was a friend of mine who introduced me to the collection who was actually one of the first people to help train me in specimen preparation.

[00:04:57] And it happened because the day she showed me to this research collection which I should also clarify. This museum does not have public exhibits purely behind the scenes 24000 specimens mostly northern Rocky Mount Rocky Mountain mammals and birds and and so there was a number of Montana natural heritage projects and Fish and Wildlife projects that they would collect about your specimens and then deposit them in this museum for preparation and volunteers who were part of the wildlife bio programs or the ecology programs at the University Montana would help prepare them. And so she was one of these volunteers in the prep lab and she brought me in. We walked into the prep lab and she handed me this Ziploc bag that had like a soggy mouse in it. The mouse the mouse story the mouse story with the label this informational label about where it was collected when what time of year what the habitat was like the sex of the animal. And this was all part of a larger study looking at the distribution of rodents across western Montana to see at what point of elevation they were occurring. And if that that point of elevation was changing were they going higher you know due to climate change impacting the average median average temperatures of the northern Rocky Mountains. Anyway she hands me this this western jumping mouse Zappa’s princeps is the scientific name and she she asked Do you want to prepare this. And I said Oh no. you know me I deal with paint brushes like this is not my thing. And she's like No I’ll teach you how to do it.

[00:06:32] She's like you know did you ever take homework in middle school and I was like yeah she's like you know you do a sewing project where you stitch things together. And I was like yeah she's a guest the same thing. And I was like that remains to be seen but OK. But she walked me through the process of making the first incision and separating the skin from the muscle tissue and removing the bones in a specific order. And you know after about 30 minutes I had I had skin this mammal and had the body separated from the rest of it from the tide. And then you create a little armature out of cotton and wire and a little small dowel and essentially put that back inside of the body and then you pin it onto a board. And it's it's called a study skin. So it's not meant to look like a live taxidermy animal like it was in life but it now it's a research specimen and that to me the most important part of that whole process was that I got to sign my name on the label for this specimen as a source of accountability mostly of a scientist in the future was going to look at this mouse and be like this thing is prepared really weird who's responsible for this. Emily Graslie no Christian name but to me it was almost like I guess I felt a stronger sense of gratification signing my name on that mouse than I ever had signing my name on a piece of artwork. No way. Fascinate was it. It was overwhelming. And I think it's because I mean the seemingly inconsequential mouse was going to be part of a larger history is going to be bigger than myself.

[00:08:00] It's part of a research project that's been going on for decades. You know I contributed to science and it wasn't just this whole like kind of existential moment for me where I was like art you seems so selfish and self you know interested and yet here was the way I felt like I could make some kind of tiny positive contribution to my community I could be a part of the history of western Montana. And this all you know from a dead man. And it was really an it came from a Ziploc bag and I came from a Ziploc bag you know and it was really a moment of revelation for me because I went home that night and I didn't tell anybody what I had done. I I I don't think I talked to any my friends for a week because I thought for sure I was so like a sociopath like sociopath or something like a psychopath. Like what kind of person is so fascinated in like taking an animal inside out. And so I really didn't want to talk about it for a long time and started just you know continuing to volunteer in the museum and becoming more and more interested in it. And that's partially why I started documenting the process is almost like seeking validation from anybody. Right. Like my friends or family and they're like Emily that's weird like you don't want to see your dead animal pictures on our Facebook and so instead I started posting them on tumblr and which was a blog site.

[00:09:18] I don't know if people still use tumblr today but I had started a blog after that documenting not just the preparation process but a lot of the artwork I was creating in the museum and some of the other projects we were doing and I found an online community like I found a digital community of other museum volunteers or other art majors who wanted to find their own museum collection to volunteer or even people who were you know amateur taxidermists who wanted to help bring some of these animals back to life. And so I built up a following of about 10000 people who started regularly reading my blog about the museum and eventually that that blog helped to develop the web series that I have now with the Field Museum in Chicago. Yeah that is amazing that that moment that you discuss with the changeover and feeling about putting your name on it. Do you does find it to be an artistic project process or do you feel that it's different than the artistic process. Well I would say creating study skins. It helps if you have a background in art. I think you know if you ask any or look at any of the volunteers or interns that we have at the Field Museum specifically a number of them have backgrounds in our. And I think a lot of that has to do with hand eye coordination right. Attention to detail. I ended up teaching or being the teacher for the vertebrate Ostalgie class for graduate students at the University of Montana for a semester because as an art major you're taught to hone your observation skills.

[00:10:43] And so when you're teaching graduate archaeology students how to differentiate certain kinds of animal bones whether they're trying to identify them from a faunal assemblage of you know a native tribe that lived in that area 10000 years ago or if it's sometimes we would work with the Montana crime lab and the police department and they would find a Barebone or someone would bring them a limb bone and they find in the middle of the woods and sometimes these hikers would think like I think this is a human arm or did this belong to a child or something and so they take it to our comparative collection and I got to work with the Montana crime lab to as of like a forensic geologist to help them identify where this animal was coming from and we never had a human. It was always like a ham bone. Yeah a bear bone or something like that but I was able to do that because of my background in art and being able to understand that you know morphological differences or the shape or the size differences between different vertebrate species. That's amazing. That's fascinating. I love it. Ok cool. So you got to kind of be like a forensic scientist in a way also like a sleuth. Yeah kind of. You know I was mostly just a facilitator. I was working with the curator of the museum at the time Dave Dyer who was you know really had the background in mythology and asked geology but he taught me a lot. And you know it was really fun to look at some of these cases and he would put out quizzes and you know kind of test your knowledge. It was a really fun game but it was also you know had important educational implications to it as well. That's so interesting.

[00:12:14] I know that also in the dissection of animals used to be a requirement in a lot of school programs and then sort of went away and maybe is how do you feel about that being in schools now do you think that's a really important part of the science pedagogy. Well I think it depends on the learner. Ultimately it depends on who it is you're working with as a student. I know from myself personally had I had more opportunities to do more hands on learning experience experiments when I was in middle and high school. I might have felt a little bit more empowered to think that oh science is something that I can do or I can use my observational skills in this way whereas in my educational background growing up in rapid city South Dakota you know we just a lot of it just immediately went to like standardized tests. Right. And now you know naming diagrams and really took a lot of the creativity out of it. From my perspective so I think there's a true value in getting kids to be hands on especially when it comes to things like that. Gross out stigma sort of thing like if you can perpetuate a culture of curiosity and inquisitiveness rather than one that is just wanting to you know make things from the natural world seem as though there are other foreign or alien or bad or gross or weird you know anything that just fosters the the genuine question asking and answering seeking motivations behind it I think is worth supporting. All right well that's a little bit about your back story.

[00:13:47] We're going to take a little musical break and when we come back we'll talk a little more about brain scoop with the awesome Web show that you have and also your work at the field museum. So you know me on the show I like to introduce you to different music. The first song we're going to listen to is called Eye to Eye. And it's by Jordan Rakei on the album Wildflower and you are listening to KSUU thunder ninety one point one.

I'd like to turn our discussion to the brain scoop. Can you tell us a little bit about how it got started. I know you talked this morning but just for anybody who's listening to just a quick bit of how it kind of got started and then the transfer over to Chicago.

[00:18:34] Yes so after I started this blog where I was posting kind of our day to day work on and on about the Zoological Museum at the University of Montana I ended up meeting this man named Hank Green and he's probably best known for being half of the YouTube series vlogbrothers he and his brother John Green are they've been making videos on YouTube for well over ten years now and Super fame. Yeah yeah. I mean it's kind of ridiculous to try and summarize like everything they do because they're such important roles and like the Internet education and just like positive support network community online. But anyway Hank happened to live in Missoula Montana where I was living at the same time. And we ended up getting connected because he was launching a new educational series called Crash Course and they were doing a video about the vertebrate skeleton. So it made a lot of sense for him to come. Actually he reached out to see if he could come film it in the collection. I was volunteering it and I was over the moon are so excited. And so that's how I met Hank and he and I kind of talked on and off over a couple of months and eventually he came back to the museum in sort of long story short I gave him a tour of the collection which he uploaded on there Vlogbrothers channel. You can still watch it today. It's called. Oh she what is that video called thoughts from dead animals. That's what it's called. It's the thoughts from places they do the series called thoughts from places and this was thoughts from the museum so he called it thoughts from dead animals. But anyway you know the response to it was so overwhelming it's nothing like I've ever seen.

[00:20:04] I mean in a couple of days it had been watched a quarter of a million times and the overwhelming majority of comments on the video were just like you know we want to see more of Emily and we want to see more the museum and you should give her only her own channel and so just a couple days later he he emailed me and I'll never forget getting that email because he just basically said well people like this would you want to me would you want to have your own YouTube channel I'd help you get it started and I was completely blown away because at that time you know I was recently unemployed like didn't really wasn't the right thing wasn't going super well for me and I would just kind of trying to get into like a Masters museum studies program and figure out what I wanted to do and this was a I thought a great opportunity. I had no expectation for what would happen with it. Had you ever been on the radio or TV or performed. I mean I know you play the violin but had you ever done any of that kind of thing like been on my before. Well not not to that degree no. I mean I took children's theatre you know and I did some drama performances in high school but I was also like a nerdy kid with a mouthful of braces so act like I'd mostly like ran the lights because I couldn't enunciate on stage at all.

[00:21:23] And I had done some promo video stuff from the museum but like never really was coached in it you know and and so Hank came to me and he's like wow you know all you can work with one of our producers Michael Aranda and we'll get you started with some basic equipment but then he left the country for a month to go on tour with his brother John to promote the fault in our stars so that John's Young Adult author and so Hank just kind of left me and Michael and left us to our own devices and when he got back like our channel had just blown up. That's amazing. To what do you attribute. I mean you're so comfortable and so charismatic onscreen.

I mean is it just the passion for your subject is it just the curiosity to what do you attribute it. Well I would say the passion and the curiosity certainly but like that has to be fostered and just the vote of confidence from somebody like Hank Green. Like someone who has done this who has been doing this who has like founded in established educational programs that had millions of subscribers and he and his brother were then and are still now some of the best known names in like online education for that person to just email you after knowing you for a week and say like I think you'd be good at this and just knowing that they probably don't tell other people that everyday. Yeah it was like you know. AFT I'm a big Hamilton fan now but it's sort of one of those things where you like I'm not throwing away my shot and I just decided like I don't know what this is going to go but I know I'm not going to take just half ass. So we went I just gave it my all and and just kind of went for it.

[00:23:03] It sounds like you are that way as a person though. I mean when you do something you go all in. Like you're not just going to volunteer in a museum and bide your time you're going to try to organize the collection. And I mean that kind of. Go get it. This must also be intrinsically and you I do have a lot of grit and that was definitely the case with me and my art program like you know you're supposed to start working on your senior thesis painting before your spring semester right. And and I was already conceptualizing what I wanted to do like the summer before my senior year. And so you know I've just always I've just always had a lot of pride in being a hard worker. Like when I was in high school I got my first job when I was 14 and so I've always worked hard at and I've always put in the hours. But to me like that's what's so gratifying about it is knowing that you really have done your best and put your best foot forward. And so working on a YouTube channel that had an audience that had potential that was going to help me bring this museum that I'd already spent two years trying to bring to the public just like I'm going to go for it. I love it. That's awesome. So now it went before and before I get to Chicago.

[00:24:17] For anybody who may be listening and not familiar with the brain scoop how would you describe how would you describe the brain scoop in like two sentences if you had to the brain scoop is an educational YouTube channel that aims to share the behind the scenes work in collections and research with anybody with the world so perfect. Yeah that's great. Well and of course for those of you who may be interested and not familiar with it just google it and you can find tons and tons of videos in a wide variety of different types of subjects and different angles different locations and we can get into that too. So now the brains group is how's the back brain scoop is housed in Chicago in the field museum and tell me about what life is like there. Yes we've been doing the brain scoop for a couple of months before we started to receive quite a bit of media attention. So we'd been written about by NPR Scientific American. There was like a no in a blog from now geographic like is it incredible for me. And eventually we gain the attention of the Field Museum in Chicago and I got invited out to kind of do some videos with them and after a couple of days they just sat me down in this conference room and basically I said like we'd like to bring you on board here and bring your channel with you. And that was amazing to me as someone who just aspired to work in a museum someday in any capacity to have this new position created for me. I mean I have the job title now as chief curiosity correspondent. So that was an amazing experience and so we brought the brain scoop to the Field Museum in July of 2013 and I've been there ever since so about four and a half years now. That's so cool yeah.

[00:26:04] What's a typical day in the life like for you.

Well to be honest the typical day is not that exciting because you don't believe it. Well it's a lot of like there's so much planning involved and there's so much like production timelines and scheduling and like there is quite a bit of paperwork and budgeting and you know that kind of back and stuff. But but the really special days are when we get to go out in the field or when we get to interview scientists and so just a couple of weeks ago we ended up filming in Berlin Germany at the Museum of Natural History there. And so it was three months of planning and organizing and everything. But once we're there I mean I got to you know got to see one of the best most iconic fossils of all time the Archaeopteryx specimen which is most of the famous most of the transitional species between birds and dinosaurs like it is wow a famous fossil. I got to be in the historic bird collection at the museum there and the museum for Netter kinda was established in 1814 so this museum is over 200 years old and has endured two world wars so isn't it one of the oldest. It must be it's one of the oldest collections. Yeah and certainly you know the building itself was built in the 1980s. But a day like that is just like you're looking at specimens and a collection that are simultaneously Lake scientifically important but also the witnesses to history like the whole eastern wing of this building was completely destroyed by allied bombing in 1945.

[00:27:39] And so you're standing in a reconstructed wing of this institution and just thinking about those decades and centuries of history. I mean those are the kind of moments that are really live for and it doesn't matter that I had to spend three months of like paperwork and figuring out import permits for camera equipment or whatever else like you know once you're there you really try to appreciate those moments. Sounds pretty magical. It's it's pretty cool. Well it's time for another musical break. The next piece that I'd like to show you is a piece called Nomada and that's by Kaleema and it's on the album Nomada. And you are listening to the apex hour on Thunder ninety one point one Suu welcome back. This is Lynn Vartan and you're listening to the apex hour here on KSUU you thunder ninety one point one. Today's show is a best of show that bit that you were just listening to was from February and that was when we had the awesome scientist and YouTube sensation and founder of the coolest YouTube channel Brain Scoop Emily Graslie was here with us in February talking about her life and all of her awesome activities and travels. But now we're going to turn our attention to the outdoors. SUU is outdoors nation. And so in the studio. Also in February I was joined with Bridget Eastep and Kevin Koontz talking about all the awesome possibilities that we have here on campus for students faculty staff and community members that have to do with the outdoors. Have a listen. And I want to rejoin our conversation talking about our cool partnership program that's called semester in the park.

[00:33:02] So Kevin I think you're going to tell us about that this semester in the parks program. It's again pretty unique to Southern Utah University. I like to think of it as kind of a study abroad but rather than going abroad the students get to live at Bryce Canyon. They get to work at one of the resorts close to there and during the course of the semester they're able to visit all of our surrounding parks and monuments and different public lands. And they have a course load that kind of incorporates the theme the themes of public lands and preservation conservation stewardship and just kind of kind of honing those outdoor skills altogether. It's 15 credit. So it's an entire. I mean as we said it's semester in the park. So how does that work in terms of their normal course start. So you said it's like a study abroad. So does it do they just kind of take that semester. And this is that semester. So it sort of replaces a semester in a way. Yeah. All of the classes are taken like I said as a cohort to all the students have all the same classes together. And yet they spent the whole semester with that group of students and kind of visiting these different amazing places but it's really fun because the professors actually come to you and you have a classroom in Bryce Canyon right off the room. That's amazing.

[00:34:36] And from there a lot of the professors are like OK let's go out into the parking and look at the different aspects that the park offers to learn about the content in the courses and they stay where exactly they stay at Ruby’s in which is just right outside the entrance to Bryce Canyon there and they also work right. And it's part of the it's part of the course load really as as the. There's the hospitality kind of portion of that and the students earn a certificate in interdisciplinary Park studies. Oh that's great. So what's an example of the kind of work that they're doing. I mean they're there waiting tables or they're doing it. It does depend on really the student and the experience that they bring in. But again most of the students end up working in hospitality. That's the fancy way of saying you get trained out of bed. Ah I'm doing those pieces of it. But Beason is really also dedicated to the learning experience. So one they do need that work to be done and part of the reason this experience works is because we're able to help them with the shoulder season. So we provide those workers to do the hospitality work that they need to do. But on top of that they're like OK let's give you some experience with guiding tours or you know we've had students that have had hospitality backgrounds so they end up. She also spoke French so that helped. But she also says she ended up working at the front desk. Now there are different things you can do within it but most of them end up changing a lot of that. Yeah. And then how often how many hours a day are they in class. How long is a typical day in this semester in the park parks students of typical days you wake up normal time.

[00:36:33] And then you go to work and you work in the morning. OK you get a break and then you go to class in the afternoon and the classes have a different class focus each day. So you'll have English one day and then you'll have suddenly a top floor the next day you'll have criminal justice the next day you'll have Americans in the outdoors the next day and then every other weekend you have to feel blab time with those courses and you'll go and visit Lake Mead or Gold Butte or Zion or great bass bass. So you really get to know the different parks within it but you don't just visit them because you're looking at it through those different lenses and trying to understand the parks like. All right. How does criminal justice help conserve this park. And then how do how in American and the outdoors are really looking out like what's the value of the parks to our society and how can the parks offer that experience to the visitors in the best way. And what's the visitor experience and how are those visitors managed. A lot of the same kind of challenges that Superintendent Jeff Brady spoke about today during his presentation and how the faculty for semester in the parks comes from. Specifically the faculty in the outdoor education area or is it across the boards across the board. So in 2018 in the fall of Laura Walker from English we have Samwell as from Buyology we have Kelly Akunin from outdoor recreation. We have Brian Burton from criminal justice. And then we have Ann Smith also from Alto recreation and then I get help with the field trips.

[00:38:14] Cool. And then they cut to weekends there. There were there exploring and learning and then and do they. Is there free time said. I mean do they come back into town. Do you know how they handle the rest of their time I'm just it. It does become again downtime. Well I guess the best way is safe downtime for them to have wives. Right. Which when you're doing an emergency master. Right. Is really appreciated. And it's just time to do your homework to catch up with friends to take the time that you need to make sure that you're rejuvenated and healthy. It's one of the parks likes to do the fun things that are out there. Yeah. Yeah. Such a cool concept. And this this concept we've been doing this for how long. Two years two years. We're going to be offering our third year and it's each fall semesters or just the fall fall or fall semester only. Yep. And again if you my favorite way to do things on the web is just to google it. So if you Google actually use mastering the parks it will take you to that home page and applications are due mid March. So again have been accepted yes. Now's the time right. This is the time to be looking if you're interested in this. I mean totally go check it out. It's only our Kappus 15 students to be able to give the experience that we want to you. So we do need people to actually apply.

[00:39:35] But on time so that we can make sure that we get the best cohort possible. Right. So if you're out there and you're feeling super passionate about it get on it right away. Google semester in the parks. See you and take a look at the application. But time is running out it seems like you're probably getting pretty close to having that locked down. So that's such a cool program and I think probably the maybe the only one there maybe something similar but not to this extent. I mean this is just such a special opportunity to have a study abroad but yet also nearby. But yet in a completely different environment in Bryce Canyon. So and earn a certificate in a single semester which is also kind of unique. That's great. And how do you guys feel about it. Some of the topics that we were talking about today do you have any comments on. We were talking about conservation preservation. Do you have any suggestions or thoughts about anything that students or our listeners and I think we should be aware of that we should be doing or advice that you have that you'd like to impart. Oh Bridgette don't talk about the sustainability. Oh yep. Actually you does have a sustainability miner and we've just worked with a group of faculty to rework it but it is a unique lens. And I guess the way that I look at majors and minors is it gives you a perspective to interact with the world.

[00:41:04] Some of them you just dedicate to your profession but otherwise you can take the sustainability minor add it to the major that you're doing and just see the world through a different lens. And so you'll be looking at and asking the questions is like how can we help our society be sustainable. And in that it's not just I guess the scarcity part of it but it's being sustainable in here and really being like a healthy society and that is going to be looking at the ways that we use energy the ways that we interact with the outdoors the ways that we build things and utilize resources so that it's not just for our generation but for future generations as well. That's amazing that we have that as well. All right. I'm going to play one last song and then we're going to come back with what is fast turning into everybody's favorite part of the radio show which is asking you guys about what's turning you on right now. Books TV movies all that kind of stuff getting into the nitty gritty and getting some inspiration for our listeners. But before we do that I have one last song and this one is not Valentine related but it's maybe Olympics related. I've been watching a lot of the winter of Olympics and this is a group that I mentioned last week called Grand tapestry that I think is really interesting from their album titled Grand tapestry. And this song is called Champion. And once again you were listening to the APEX hour on Thunder ninety one point one KSUU.

[00:47:05] Well welcome back. This is Lynn Vartan you're listening to the apex hour here on KSUU Thunder ninety one point one. That song that you just heard is olympic inspired it's called Champion by grand tapestry on the album Grand tapestry.

[00:47:22] We have just a few minutes left here for the Apex Hour this week and we're going to do the thing that everybody seems to be loving which is what's turning you on this week. Some to start with you. Bridget what's turning you on and it couldn't be books movies TV podcasts. What's something you'd like to share that you're really excited about. Well I am going to say that the book that has gotten me to think the most in the last six months is Florence Williams the nature effects and in that I get to talk about my soapbox because it's all about how the outdoors is good for people. Our brains are wired for it. It makes you a better thinker. It makes your body work better it helps you create social bonds it helps you create meaning for your life and so it actually takes the time to go through the research and tell the stories that we all need to be connected to the natural world. And can you tell us the title and author of that book again. Yep it's Florence Williams and that's the nature facts. You were not the first time I've heard of this thing this week. And stay tuned. We may be researching trying to get her out to see you as an apex future speaker. So let's fingers crossed for that. But I also have to say that I really my passion in this world is to connect people to the outdoors and especially for learning and I really have seen it time and time again.

[00:48:51] If you're a stressed out student in the library take the time walk around a beautiful campus because we have a park for our campus so I can guarantee you that your brain is going to work better and you're going to be able to focus and and actually enjoy what you're doing and just being stressed out. Midterms are coming up so everybody get outside and take a look around. That's great. Great advice. Thank you Kevin. How about you. What's inspiring you right now. I've been reading glory land by Shelton Johnson. The story of a buffalo soldier who serves in Yosemite National Park before the Park Service existed in the parks were kind of being overseen by the cavalry and kind of regulated that way. So it's a it's a very interesting perspective on early early park maintenance so to speak. That's amazing. Tell us the name and the title and author of the title is Gloryland and author Shelton Johnson. And again another sort of Apex plug right. This has been one that's come down the pike as a suggestion for future events so we may see what we can do to find these people on campus. Well that is so cool. Do you have any final words or any final things you'd like to promote or announce. There are so many great opportunities here and Su you know students often get bogged down with classwork. They feel like oh I wanna go on a trip I just don't have time or I want to go to the park. I just can't get away from this project or this paper or his presentation that I'm working on.

[00:50:30] You got you got to make the time really you gotta make the time to do the things that you want to do otherwise you'll never find it. And all up the ante for that is one of the reasons that actually you has the program especially the outdoor ads put in is for people to actually say I want to learn and then you fill in the blank and you create a project to do it and the outer edge projects are the ones that I love so much because it's people that really want to learn or do something and then they figure out how to do it. So we have people that are one of my favorites as he builds a new and in that he wanted to learn woodworking skills so that he could go out and be a better theater teacher. Perfect in it so there's projects like that. And so I think that you find what you want to do and you can turn it into your project. Get that requirement out of the way by doing something that you love while I love it. Thank you guys so much for your time today. I really appreciate getting to know everything we have to offer here for us. Yeah. And so you heard it all if you want to even think from going camping come down and check out the Outdoor Center here in the Sharwan Smith Center right across in the welcome center or if you want to look at class offerings online or get involved with the internship program or semester in the parks. Get busy with your Google and find out ways to get outside and experience our awesome landscape.

[00:51:58] Well that wraps up another show for us here at the apex hour on KSUU thunder ninety one point one. That was a best of show you heard past moments from February of 2018 because we are on spring break and I am in Los Angeles saying hello and looking forward to getting back in the studio for more action to come. Thanks for listening until next week. This is Lynn Vartan saying goodbye from the apex hour here on Thunder ninety one point one.

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Eccles APEX Website: https://www.suu.edu/apex

Photos, reflection, video from the event and a transcript of this podcast are available on the SUU website.

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Eccles APEX Website: https://www.suu.edu/apex

Photos, reflection, and a transcript of this podcast are available on the SUU website.

***

Eccles APEX Website: https://www.suu.edu/apex

Photos, video, reflection, and a transcript of this podcast are available on the SUU website.

***

Eccles APEX Website: https://www.suu.edu/apex

Photos, reflection, and a transcript of this podcast are available on the SUU website.

***

Eccles APEX Website: https://www.suu.edu/apex

Photos, reflection, and a transcript of this podcast are available on the SUU website.

***

Eccles APEX Website: https://www.suu.edu/apex