Check Your Shelves

The Utah Humanities Program Staff joined the Check Your Shelves Podcast to share, in depth, what we do statewide and what we stand to lose if Utah Humanities does not survive DOGE's cuts and the attack on the humanities. I think you'll be enlightened by how far we reach across the state, how we are amazing precise and responsible stewards of our federal and local funding, and how much Utah stands to lose. If you love wheat we do, please considering donating to keep Utah Humanities' doors open:

https://utahhumanities.org/donate

Author Karin Anderson and publisher Torrey House Press join us on this episode of Check Your Shelves. This was a great conversation about writing, about publishing, and about Utah and the west. 

Find Torrey House Press and Karin's work here:

https://www.torreyhouse.org/what-falls-away

Vengeance is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath - Barbara Jones Brown

Barbara Jones Brown, co-author of Vengeance is Mine, and Executive Director of Signature Books joined us to talk about aftermath of The Mountain Meadows Massacre. 

Utah Humanities Executive Director Jodi Graham and Special Projects Manager Emily Grubby joined Kase on the first 2025 Check Your Shelves Podcast. 

This year, we will focus on two things during our podcasts. We will continue to focus on literature and the power of writing in the first half of the episode. In the second half of the episode we will focus on Utah Humanities wide reach across the state and how our partnership model multiplies that reach. 

On this podcast, Grubby discussed the This Watershed Moment project and Graham talks about the origins of Utah Humanities and the partnership model. 

You can find out more about This Watershed Moment and Utah Humanities at the link below. 

https://utahhumanities.org/programs/special-projects/this-watershed-moment

Kevin Fedarko, A Walk In The Park - Check Your Shelves Ep. 13

Amazing talk with Kevin Fedarko. You can catch him at the Moab weekend of the Utah Humanities Book Festival.

10/11/25: Back of Beyond Books, conversation with Chris Cokinos.

10/12/25; Star Hall: 159 E. Center St. Moab, Utah.

Daria Peoples - Check Your Shelves Ep. 12

We are so lucky to have Daria Peoples join us in Cedar City for the Southern Utah Book Festival, as part of the 2024 Utah Humanities Book Festival.

Peoples is the keynote guest during the week of 10/14-10/19 in Cedar City and St. George. 

Jack Carr, Targeted: Beirut - Check Your Shelves Ep. 12

Check Your Shelves had the amazing opportunity to chat with Utah Humanities Book Festival Keynote Speaker Jack Carr. We talked about his new book Targeted Beirut. What a great half hour. 

Please join Carr in Utah in October for a free event and book signing:

October 26th: 2:00pm, Park City Library Auditorium

Michael Finkel, The Art Thief - Check Your Shelves Ep. 11

Such a great interview with author Michael Finkel about his new book: The Art Thief!

Michael Finkel's dates for the Utah Humanities Book Festival when he'll tell you exactly how to steal famous art.

10/19/2024: 6:30pm, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art

10/21/2024: 6:00pm, Park City Library, Auditorium

Check Your Shelves Ep. 10 - Artes de Mexico

We had such a great opportunity to chat with the Executive Director of Artes de Mexico, Fanny Guadalupe Blauer, and poets Aaron Garcia and Lina Vega-Morrison on the show. We had a ball but ran out of time!

Check Your Shelves Ep. 9 - Christopher Cokinos Still as Bright

Chris Cokinos, author of Still is Bright, joined the Check Your Shelves to talk about the book, to talk about the sky, to talk about time in a simulator, and to talk about life and writing and research. This episode is so full of interesting insights into all of these things that you have to listen.

NOTE: Chris' Moab date will be 10/10 and 10/11 (not 10/12 as noted in the podcast).