RadioWest

The writer Leslie Jamison said she had bought into the story that booze and a dark temperament were ingredients of beautiful art. So when she sobered up she had to ask herself whether you can write compelling stories about happiness.

Legend says the Pearl of Lao Tzu was found in 1934 after a diver drowned trying to pry it from the mouth of a giant clam. The writer Michael LaPointe has traced the pearl's unbelievable story through a tangled web of fact and fiction.

Summer’s here, and for a lot of people that means it’s time to get to a river and fly fish. A panel of guests joins us to explore the joys, challenges, and the art of fly fishing.

Monday, we’re talking about the roots of the resurgent white power movement. In a new book, historian Kathleen Belew traces the movement’s consolidation back to the 1970s, when some soldiers returned from Vietnam feeling betrayed by their government.

Are you bored enough? Because it turns out that boredom and creative thinking go hand in hand. Manoush Zomorodi says that by redefining our relationship with digital gadgets, we can rediscover boredom’s hidden benefits and unlock our creativity.

We wrap up our series on the 40th anniversary of the LDS Church lifting its priesthood ban on black members. We'll talk about what happened within Church hierarchy that led to the change and the role black members played.

What if we were living through the next Watergate? That’s the idea of the podcast Slow Burn, about the scandal that brought down President Nixon. Host Leon Neyfakh joins us to talk about a precarious political chapter and its implications today.

We continue our series on race and Mormonism, and Tuesday, historian Max Perry Mueller joins us to talk about Joseph Smith and the early church's complicated views on race.

The population in St. George, Utah could triple in the next 40 years, so leaders are planning a 140-mile pipeline to deliver water from the Colorado River. But is that the best plan for a desert city?

This month marks 40 years since the LDS Church extended the priesthood to black men of their faith. Friday, we’re talking about what it’s like to be black and Mormon in 2018.