Access Utah

You've probably heard his name associated with regular listener challenges during our fund drives. Now a chance to meet long-time UPR friend Alberto Brizolara on this fund drive Access Utah special.

Today we talk with former UPR student reporters who have gone on to great things. Our guests will include: Aimee Van Tatenhove, and Clarissa Casper.

National Geographic says that tree canopy ecologist Nalini Nadkarni "has spent four decades dangling among the branches to study how forests inform our daily lives.”

We talk with several of the hosts of Eating the Past about a variety of food and history topics, including a food quiz.

In the 2026 Fife Honor Lecture at USU, professor Katherine Borland of Ohio State University's Center for Folklore Studies, focused on miracle narratives. She joins us for the hour.

Intermountain Song Trails is a new oral history project exploring how songs travel across generations, families, and migration routes, from lullabies to work songs to church or scouting traditions.

Gardening expert and UPR friend Dan Drost joins us. Whether you've got a large backyard garden, participate in a community garden, or have a small box near your window, Dan can help.

On this episode we talk with Wil Wood, author of “And It Was Beautiful” and Zack Garner and Rachel Quillen Garner, writer and illustrator, respectively, of “Half Moon on the Moon.”

In his book Three Revolutions: Steering Automated, Shared, and Electric Vehicles to a Better Future, Dan Sperling says transportation is on the cusp of revolutionary change. He joins us for the hour.

We revisit our conversation from October 2025 with Gary Ferguson, talking about his book "The Twilight Forest."

As a result of childhood learning disabilities and educational neglect, Oliver James graduated from high school and became one of approximately 45 million functionally illiterate Americans.

We revisit our conversation from October 2025 with Gary Ferguson, talking about his book "The Twilight Forest."

We talk with Sarah Stein Lubrano about her book "Don't Talk About Politics."

Terry Tempest Williams says the Glorians are not distant deities, but ordinary presences — animal, plant, memory, moment — that reveal our vulnerability and interconnectedness with the natural world.

Today we're doing another nonprofit spotlight. Amy Anderson, regional coordinator for A Bolder Way Forward joins us, and we hear from representatives of other nonprofits throughout the hour.

We revisit our conversation from October 2025 with Deseret Magazine reporter Natalia Galicza, talking about her essay titled "Breaking a Language Barrier Brought My Family Together."

We're joined by Nick and Melanie Herrmann. We tell Nick's story, including living with a brain injury, neuroplasticity, vocational rehabilitation, low level light therapy, and more.

Lonnie Anderson of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is known as the "King of Valentine's Day." Every year for nearly 30 years, he has staged a grand gesture for his wife. This year he's doing it in Logan.

William Shakespeare wrote his plays more than 400 years ago. They're still being performed today, along with adaptations in film and opera and more. On this episode, we explore why.

Our guest is Great Salt Lake Commissioner and Great Salt Lake Strike Team Co-Chair Brian Steed. We talk about the current state of the lake and look at next steps in trying to restore it to health.

We check in with Utah State University President Brad Mortensen. We get his reaction to the Utah Legislature's audit of USU, the university's strategic reinvestment plan, and more.

We're joined by Molly McCully Brown, author of the essay collection "Places I've Taken my Body" and the poetry collection "The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics and Feebleminded."

We talk with USU alum Peter McChesney about his new book "Quinto's Challenge," which poses the question: What if science and religion collided and resurrection became a present reality?

We broadcast live from the State Capitol in Salt Lake City on the opening day of the 2026 session of the Utah Legislature.

We talk with Utah author Gabriel Tallent. His new novel is called "Crux." Dan and Tamma are two teenagers in their last year of high school in the southern Mojave Desert

On this year's poetry roundup, we feature conversation with and poetry from Utah Poet Laureate Lisa Bickmore, along with poets Danielle Dubrasky and Olivia Dudding Rodriguez.

Larry Morris recounts the 19th-century experience of the Arikaras, Crows, Cheyennes, and Arapahos by detailing their interactions with four legendary survivors of a fight with the Arikaras in 1823.

We talk with medical anthropologist Emily Mendenhall about her new book, "Invisible Illness: A History, from Hysteria to Long COVID."

Once again we present great music and funny and heartwarming stories for the holidays. Guitarist Mike Christiansen plays music and playwright Tim Slover performs readings for the season.

We talk with USU researchers Beth Fauth and Heather Kelley. They are directors of the new Dementia Resource Ambassador program.

We talk with Travis Franks about his article "The Elusive John Rollin Ridge: The Afterlives of ‘An Indian's Grave' and His Ambiguous Literary Legacy" and much more.

Our guest is Bob Inglis. He is a former Republican congressman from South Carolina and executive director of RepublicEn.

We talk with Amy Bowers Cordalis about her new book "The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family's Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life."

We talk with Tim McGrath, author of "Three Roads to Gettysburg: Meade, Lee, Lincoln, and the Battle That Changed the War, the Speech That Changed the Nation."

A terminal cancer patient rises from the grave. A medical marvel defies HIV. Two women with autoimmunity discover their own bodies have turned against them.

In honor of World Philosophy Day, which is this week, USU philosophy professors are inviting you to "Ask Us Anything!" The event is at the Logan Library Thursday at 5:00 p.m.

On this episode of Access Utah, a conversation with new Utah State University President Brad Mortensen, who is in the first week of his administration.

We talk with Todd Goddard, author of "Devouring Time," a new biography of Jim Harrison — one of America's most beloved writers and author of "Legends of the Fall," "Dalva," and "True North."

Colin Woodard, a bestselling author, historian, and award-winning journalist, directs the Nationhood Lab at Salve Regina University's Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy.

Martha Barnette has spent two decades as the co-host of "A Way with Words," lauded by Mary Norris in The New Yorker as “a virtual treasure house” and “‘Car Talk' for Lexiphiles.”

We revisit our conversation from November 2013 with Val Holley about his book "25th Street Confidential."

It's time again for us to compile another UPR community booklist. So we want to know what you're reading. What's on your nightstand or device right now?