Utah Stories Show

Nobody has a wonderful and easy life now. But we can all take this as an opportunity to face our own soul and now is the time that the seeds are sprouting and the trees are blooming. It’s time for new beginnings, new growth. Yes, I know how corny and trite that sounds, but get outside and watch how fast nature renews. That clear example must show us we can also renew and regenerate and very likely we will all emerge stronger by facing our own souls and making the darkness conscious.

The Olympia Hills Development in Herriman is Daybreak 2.0. It's a "Master-planned -- live, work, play walkable community." It hits all of the right buzz-words, like Daybreak it even has a proposal for a lake and future sites for restaurants and retail and a Utah State University campus. The concept conjures a wonderful new town where everyone can just hang out all of the time.

But there are just three big problems: location, location, location.

Owners of Sugar House Distillery and New World Distillery talk about measures they have taken to pivot and adapt to COVID closures. Dina Blaze Regional Director for Salt Lake County offers recommendations.

As Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson and Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall decided to extend restaurant and bar closures to at least May 1st, State Liquor stores have long lines as customers wait for their essential remedies for staying home.

Liquor is deemed by the state as essential if bought at state liquor stores. But not essential if the livelihoods of small business owners are in question. Why is this?

In this episode of the Utah Stories podcast I discuss this issue with local restaurant owner Eddee Johanson, who owns Yoshis Japanese Grill.

We spoke to Bridget Gordon from the Green Pig Pub and the Harp and the Hound in Ogden to see how she is navigating her business closures and the 90 employees that work between her two establishments. No bars in downtown Salt Lake City decided to remain open for curbside delivery. Gordon said this was because the cost of maintaining the kitchen staff they have is far too large to merit what they would likely receive in return for curbside delivery. 

What we should be asking our government leaders concerning the Coronavirus.

The other day I was watching Rachel Maddow on MSNBC and Shawn Hannity, switching back and forth between the two, trying to get a basic understanding of what is actually going on concerning the Coronavirus and how my family and I should be responding. 

The truth of course, as always is somewhere in the murky and blurry middle. But how can we know what the truth is?

While this is almost certain to be a massive emerging market in Utah, it’s become clear that most Utah farmers and entrepreneurs are simply not qualified to compete in medical cannabis.

Jordan Lams is a man who has jumped through the hoops and leaped over the hurdles many times before, and he was able to win one of the coveted medical cannabis pharmacy licenses.

In this podcast episode we talked to Elizabeth Converse,  the Director of Operation for Silicon Slopes Commons. Her job is to assist in the growth and development of Utah tech companies providing them assistance in building the jobs of the 21st century.

Here we talk about 5 new and major things that every Utahn should be aware of when it comes to medical marijuana, such as access and distribution.

In this video, we talk to Eric Peterson, the Executive Director of Utah Investigative Journalism Project. Eric has been an investigative journalist, private detective, and writer for over 10 years.

We analyze statewide corruption, taking Cottonwood Heights and Utah state Senate as perfect examples. We also discuss the Utah phenomenon of many of the leaders of our state legislature being developers and the role special interests play in making campaign donations to lawmakers.

We talk about the challenges of investigative journalism and point out that journalism when it’s produced in its greatest form, is the greatest counterbalance to corruption and cronyism.