Access Utah

On Thursday’s Access Utah our theme is farming. In the first half of the program we’ll talk about the AgrAbility program, which helps farmers, ranchers and their family members remain in agriculture when facing limitations due to aging, disease, injury, illness, or other disability. In the second half we’ll talk about an exhibit now showing at the USU Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art called “American Farmer,” which features photographic portraits in addition to interviews with farmers from across the United States, telling the inspiring stories of the stewards of this land.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed in the face of global climate breakdown. So how might we develop the inner resolve to confront it? Full Ecology, a collaboration between social-cultural psychologist Mary Clare and longtime science writer Gary Ferguson, suggests a path forward. Breaking the modern impulse to see humans as separate from nature, Clare and Ferguson encourage us to learn from the “supremely methodical and highly improvisational” natural systems that touch our lives. True change, they argue, begins with us stopping and questioning assumptions about our place in the world.

Of the roughly 120,000 people forced from their homes by Executive Order 9066, around 5,000 were able to escape incarceration beforehand by fleeing inland. In her new book, “Forced Out: A Nikkei Woman’s Search for a Home in America” Judy Kawamoto offers insight into “voluntary evacuation,” a little-known Japanese American experience during World War II, In the book, she addresses her personal and often unconscious reactions to her parents’ trauma, as well as her own subsequent travels around much of the world, exploring, learning, enjoying, but also unconsciously acting out a continual search for a home.

When Kate Washington and her husband, Brad, learned that he had cancer, they were a young couple: professionals with ascending careers, parents to two small children. Brad’s diagnosis stripped those identities away: he became a patient and she his caregiver. Brad’s cancer quickly turned aggressive, necessitating a stem-cell transplant that triggered a massive infection, robbing him of his eyesight and nearly of his life. Kate acted as his full-time aide to keep him alive, coordinating his treatments, making doctors’ appointments, calling insurance companies, filling dozens of prescriptions, cleaning commodes, administering IV drugs.

On Access Utah, we’ve checked in with arts organizations a couple of times during the pandemic. Today we’ll do so again. We’ll see how these organizations have fared in difficult circumstances, what creative new ideas might become standard practice, and what the future looks like. And we’ll ask you how your habits have changed during the pandemic and what you’re most looking forward to attending as things ease a bit.

We do this periodically. Today we’re doing another non-profit spotlight. There are many needs in our communities, especially during these extraordinary times. We’d love to shine a light on your favorite non-profit or individual doing good in your community.

The Deseret News reports “Guns once again were a contentious issue on Capitol Hill during the Legislature’s 45-day session that ended March 5, and after several tries through the years, lawmakers succeeded in ending the permit requirement for carrying a concealed weapon in Utah. HB60 lets any Utah resident who is 21 years or older and can legally possess a firearm to carry their weapon concealed without needing a permit.”

There’s a recurring line in the musical Hamilton that George Washington says to Alexander Hamilton: “You have no control over who lives, who dies, who tells your story.” Today we’ll feature an episode of the podcast This Is Her Place, which tells the stories of Utah women, past and present. In this episode we talk about two women who were determined to take control and make sure the true story of their people was told: Mae Timbimboo Parry, historian and matriarch of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone; and Betty Sawyer, Community Engagement Coordinator in Access and Diversity at Weber State University and an activist on issues of racial justice in Utah for more than 40 years. We’ll also be talking to podcast co-host Naomi Watkins.

This week in Utah news:

Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson recently issued a challenge for more women to get involved in their communities and in politics. Utah Governor Spencer Cox and Lt. Gov. Henderson have issued a 500 Day Roadmap, which includes a section on Equality and Opportunity. Today, we’ll talk about the Roadmap and issues such as the gender wage gap, women in public office, and opportunities for women in leadership in the private and public sectors.

By the time he turned nineteen, Derek Black was regarded as the "the leading light" of the white nationalist movement. While at college he started to question his worldview. Then he decided to confront the damage he had done. In the book, Rising Out of Hatred,” the author, Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Eli Saslow, asks what Derek Black's story can tell us about America's increasingly divided nature.

Russ Beck, an author and a Senior Lecturer in the USU English Department, recently spent some time in southeastern Utah researching the history of uranium mining and milling and talking with local residents about the after-effects of the uranium boom in the Moab/Monticello/Blanding area.

Clinical therapist Em Capito spoke with us in October, ahead of her presentation at the Fall speaker series from the Utah Women’s Giving Circle.Titled “Triaging Resilience in the Midst of Crisis,” Em Capito shared “a research-based tangible framework for triaging our personal resilience along with the strategic shifts that deepen our roots, for ourselves, our families and our teams, toward the collective resilience that will lead our communities into the reinvention and renewal ahead.” We spoke with her about her personal history and why she defines resilience as a skill, rather than a trait.

It’s UPR’s Spring Member Drive. On Access Utah that means some very special programming, including some Best Of segments from favorite episodes and some great new conversations. On Wednesday’s Access Utah we’re talking about bridging racial and political divides. How do we talk to each other, understand each other, connect with each other when the divides only seem to be deepening? Our guest for the hour is Jason Gilmore, Associate Professor of Global Communication at Utah State University.

It’s UPR’s Spring Member Drive. On Access Utah that means some very special programming, including some Best Of segments from favorite episodes and some great new conversations. On Tuesday we’ll be talking with emergency room doctor, writer and UPR member Marion Bishop. We talked with her last year as a part of an episode featuring pandemic frontline workers. We’ll check back in to see how she’s been dealing with the pandemic, professionally and personally, since we talked last. We’ll also talk about the roll out of the vaccines and what the future might look like. And we’ll talk about grieving and loss during the pandemic.

It’s UPR’s Spring Member Drive. On Access Utah that means some very special programming, including some Best Of segments from favorite episodes and some great new conversations. Today we’re talking about food and food culture and folklore with Lael Gilbert, one of the hosts of UPR’s Bread & Butter feature; and Lynne McNeill, folklorist and Associate Professor in the USU English Department. We’ll hear some Bread & Butter segments and a portion of our Access Utah conversation from October with the editors of the book This is the Plate: Utah Food Traditions.

All of us—people, fish, and many other creatures—depend on the water in Utah’s rivers. The choices we make about how to develop water resources have big impacts on river habitats. In “Decisions Downstream,” an exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Utah, watershed scientist Sarah Null teams up with artists Chris Peterson and Carsten Meier to explore new ways of seeing river habitats. Critical water decisions are being made in Utah. “Decisions Downstream” highlights the water development tools, trade offs, and alternatives that can guide our choices.

January 2021 was the 125th anniversary of Utah statehood. Utah women have always made history, but they’re often missing in our textbooks, history classrooms, and public art. Better Days 2020 said to young people “We need your help to change that!” So they appealed to Utah students grades 4-12 to create an original essay or piece of art to tell us about a woman in Utah history who made a difference in their community, and to include what they are inspired to do today to follow in her footsteps. On the next Access Utah we’ll talk with some of the winners of the essay contest and hear them read their essays.

Latinx representation in the popular imagination has infuriated and befuddled the Latinx community for decades. These misrepresentations and stereotypes soon became as American as apple pie. But these cardboard cutouts and examples of lazy storytelling could never embody the rich traditions and histories of Latinx peoples.

Donald Trump has forged a unique relationship with American exceptionalism, parting ways with how American politicians have long communicated this idea to the American public.