RadioWest

Activist and podcast host Brittany Packnett says that social justice is her ministry. Packnett spoke about her faith and activism, and how we all can create a more equitable future.

If trees could speak, what might they say? In Richard Powers’ Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Overstory , a tree tells a woman, “Your kind never sees us whole.” Powers joins us to talk about his book and how to see trees as more than “amputations.”

Director Aaron Schimberg’s new film Chained for Life examines society’s perceptions of and obsessions with beauty in a sometimes artificial, often funny and always unsentimental way. Schimberg is coming to Salt Lake for a screening of Chained for Life and a Q&A with Doug as part of our Through the Lens series with the Utah Film Center on Wednesday, Nov. 13.

You know who just about everyone loves? Dolly Parton. But journalist Jad Abumrad’s podcast Dolly Parton’s America isn’t just about how amazing Dolly is; it’s a deep exploration of a great American icon “at the crossroads of America’s culture wars.”

The American Prairie Reserve ’s goal is to create a wildlife conservation area on approximately 3.2 million acres of land in northeastern Montana, with the aim of reviving the land’s ecosystem. If this group of wealthy investors finds a way around their problems, the country may see the creation of what some people are calling the next Yellowstone.

Are you obsessed with true crime? Maybe you identify with the victim or the detective—or possibly even with the killer. The journalist Rachel Monroe says that women are the most ravenous consumers of true crime. In Savage Appetites , she sets out to learn why.

Queer Eye's Tan France takes fashion seriously. It impacts how your carry yourself and your self-esteem. He joins us to talk about growing up, why fashion matters, his love of Salt Lake City and everything else that makes him Naturally Tan .

Lee Hale says faith is complicated. In his podcast Preach , he talks to people in the messy middle of belief — not fully bought into religion, not out of it either. At age 19, he served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and now his relationship to Mormonism is, well, messy, too.

Christopher McDougall says we used to work with animals all the time. But not any more. In Running with Sherman , he sets out to re-forge that bond — by teaching a donkey how to race. It’s a story about the lost art of human-animal partnerships.

Does college still work like it's supposed to? That's the question at the heart of journalist Paul Tough's latest book, The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us .