HEAL Utah Podcast

For the last 15 years, KRCL’s RadioActive has been a radio show for grassroots activism. This week, we turned the microphone around on the show’s host, Lara Jones, and co-host, Billy Palmer, to interview them on creating a safe place for community conversation and change. Lara and Billy are fully comfortable in uncomfortable situations and they want us, RadioActive listeners, to do the same. They bring local activists (including environmental activists like HEAL Utah) onto the show and give them a platform to pose hard questions, foster solutions, invite people to get involved, or simply have a conversation about hard topics. 

Listen for an inside look at one of Utah’s most influential radio shows and for their advice on how you can get involved with an issue you’re passionate about (hint: be willing to stink).

Thomas Quayle lives in a place that most people avoid or criticize: science communications. As the Education Program Specialist at the Clark Planetarium and a Solar System Ambassador for NASA/JPL, Thomas uses exploration to educate kids on topics like climate change. In this week’s episode, we chat about an astronaut’s view of the environment and the power of using experiments and the sense of discovery to teach children about climate change. Thomas also explains common climate change lingo (like the 2 degrees Celsius threshold) and gets deep with our host Michael Shea, who couldn’t resist Thomas’ NASA/JPL Ambassador title, about discovering life elsewhere in our universe. 

You can also listen to this podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or Podbean. Don’t forget to subscribe on one or all four platforms!

Bonus media!Part of this podcast was recorded live on the Clark Planetarium’s Facebook page. Watch it here.

We call it the Trojan Horse of the nuclear industry and a disaster for Utah, but everyone else calls it depleted uranium (DU). Join us this week as HEAL Utah’s Policy Associate Jessica Reimer tells the story of DU, which starts out as low-level waste but becomes increasingly radioactive over time. From Utah’s long history with toxic waste to why we are fighting DU today, it’s a story that’s core to our mission and one that we told almost a decade ago when EnergySolutions first tried to bring DU to Utah. Since DU becomes more radioactive over time, it’s also a story about our values, principles, and willingness to take action to protect the future of our children, grandchildren, and beyond. Plus, Jessica lets you know how you can make your voice part of the story.

*Please note that Jessica Reimer misquoted the isotopes of depleted uranium and has corrected it as follows: U-235 has 92 protons, 92 electrons, and 143 neutrons; U-238 has 92 protons, 92 electrons, and 146 neutrons.

With what lens do legislators look at a bill? Is it through a privileged one or an inclusive one that recognizes disproportionate effects that a bill could have on our communities? Representative Angela Romero (D-26) continually challenges her colleagues on the hill to enter that, sometimes uncomfortable, unknown in which privilege is recognized but utilized to help others. In the generally non-diverse environmental movement, these same challenges should be met. This week, Rep. Romero talks about environmental justice and equity, the fact that no injustice stands alone, whether that be environmental injustice, racial injustice, or gender injustice, and the importance of having conversations with people outside of your community where you listen and talk with, not down to, each other.

He’s a doctor, a grandfather, a cyclist, and the Bruce Springsteen of HEAL Utah: meet our Executive Director, Dr. Scott Williams. He came to the studio this week to give us a sneak-peak at his pre-HEAL life in the medical world and to explain how the transition from medicine to an environmental non-profit makes perfect sense.

In both fields, he is focused on our children’s future, vulnerable populations, and prevention and protection. In a campaign pop-quiz from our host Michael Shea, Scott sheds light on what HEAL is up to this summer and what’s coming up for us this fall. If you haven’t met our Executive Director yet, here’s your chance.

You can also listen to this podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or Podbean. Don’t forget to subscribe on one or all four platforms!

While some high school seniors were focused on prom, graduation, and spring break, Piper Christian spent a lot of her senior year at the State Capitol advocating for the climate change resolution. She spoke with us during a well-deserved vacation and unwrapped the evolution of the student-led climate change resolution, the power of the “inconvenient youth,” and the great mystery of whether or not our host, Michael Shea, is still part of the “younger generation.” We worked closely with Piper and her fellow students on the climate change resolution and are thrilled that she is an incoming freshman at the University of Utah, where we cannot wait to see where her relentless spirit takes her.

While he was in town to speak at the Clark Planetarium, we managed to grab Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, a professor at Yale University’s Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, for a chat about his (and our own Michael Shea’s) favorite topic: the economics of climate change. We dove in quickly, immediately getting to why we should care about climate change, the difference between traditional economics and environmental economics, sacrifices for the collective good, how climate change interacts or doesn’t interact with global markets. Plus, we reflected on what Dr. Mendelsohn would do about climate change if he was president of the world.

Every advocacy group believes, for good reason, that their campaign should be front page news. There’s no front page big enough to cover everyone’s work, unfortunately, so instead, we spoke with Emma Penrod, a former environmental reporter at the Salt Lake Tribune and a current freelance journalist, to get the inside scoop on how stories make the front page. In our conversation about environmental journalism, Emma also walked us through an ongoing conflict in niche journalism: keeping a story simple and digestible without losing the complexity that many issues have. It’s a balancing act, as is so much more in environmental journalism.

After finishing off her final legislative session as a representative, Representative Rebecca Edwards sat down with the HEAL Utah Podcast. In this episode, we chatted about the struggle not make James Bond jokes over House Concurrent Resolution 007 (the climate change resolution) and about the resolution itself, including what it took to get it through the legislature. Rep. Edwards also shared some simple advice, that many overlook, for getting things done: know the rules. By knowing the rules of the legislature, the world becomes your oyster. For example, knowing the rules can shed light on when a bill is dead and when a bill is not quite dead yet, which can allow it to come back to life and maybe even get passed!

Matt chats with Richard, who has written extensively (13 books!) on energy and economic issues, about climate change, energy trends and more. Richard, a senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, talks first about peak oil, a once popular theory about diminishing fossil fuel reserves which he believes will again soon rear its head, despite recent market trends. He also explains his pessimism about climate change solutions, including his belief that technological fixes won’t work absent broader social changes. For more information, check out the regular Museletters Richard puts out, his page at the Post Carbon Institute,  his Twitter feed, or his latest is a talk/performance at New England Conservatory of Music.