In the Hive

This year marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of a once very famous Utah native. Today, though, the name Bernard DeVoto may not be familiar to you. Indeed, few people inside of his native state really know the story of DeVoto and the significant role he and his wife Avis played in thwarting plans…

Over the past few years, you have undoubtedly seen signs that say “Salt Lake needs a food co-op” on lawns in front of houses or businesses or at the downtown farmers market. The Wasatch Cooperative Market, an enterprise that is now 13 years in the making, aims to bring a member-owned-and-operated food co-op to the…

If you live in Salt Lake City, you’ll see on your November ballot an $85 million bond proposal. If approved, it would allow for the largest single expenditure on park and open space improvements in the city's history and would fund eight projects across Utah’s capital city identified through the city’s Reimagine Nature Public Lands Master […]

In a white paper published this week, a logistics expert said his analysis showed that there is no market in Salt Lake City and its surroundings for a key part of the Utah Inland Port. Dr. Robert Leachman is a professor of industrial engineering and operations research at the University of California, Berkeley. His paper, […]

Whether on rock or vegetation, lichen can be found all around us and play surprising and complex roles. Steve Leavitt, an evolutionary biologist at Brigham Young University, is the curator of the lichen collection at BYU's Life Science Museum. We talk with Steve about what lichen are composed of and why we should care about […]

The Salt Lake City Council is considering a suite of changes to zoning ordinances. The proposed changes include amending rules for areas of the city zoned as “RMF-30,” in an effort to increase so-called “missing middle housing” in certain residential zones (“RMF” stands for “residential multi-family” and “30” refers to the maximum allowed building height […]

This week, a Utah court heard a request by state attorneys to throw out a lawsuit challenging the way the legislature redrew political boundaries through a contentious redistricting process. The suit, filed by the League of Women Voters of Utah and the Mormon Women for Ethical Government, argues that maps drawn by the legislature are an […]

Today on In the Hive, we have a conversation with NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador to Utah Patrick Wiggins about something that is generally seen but not heard. Most meteors are so small and so far away that they don’t make any sound whatsoever. But that wasn’t the case with a meteor that interacted with earth’s atmosphere […]

In early July, Dr. Daron Duke, an archaeologist who does field work on the the U.S. Military’s Utah Test and Training Range was driving inside the base with a colleague, a research scientist from Cornell University named Dr. Thomas Urban. As they slowly crossed the dry playa in their truck, the two were discussing the […]

Today on In the Hive, we piggyback on some coverage provided this week by City Cast Salt Lake on the local spread of monkeypox. To date there have bee 42 cases of the viral disease in Utah, the bulk — 33 cases — in Salt Lake County. The virus primarily spreads through close physical contact involving skin-to-skin […]

Evan McMullin is running as an independent in a bid to oust Republican Sen. Mike Lee this November. He faults the incumbent for working with the Trump Administration to try to find a pathway to overturn the 2020 presidential election — something he says would have “ended our democratic republic.” If elected, McMullin says that instead […]

The Great Salt Lake has again dropped to a new historic low.   The U.S. Geological Survey and the Utah Division of Natural Resources report that measurements gathered Sunday showed an average daily surface water elevation of 4,190.1 feet — a new low in the lake’s recorded history dating back to 1847. The lake is predicted […]

“Is this the toxic lake dust?” That’s a question many people in northern Utah are now asking themselves when the air turns brown with particulate pollution during windstorms. The human health and environmental risks posed to our region by the drying up of the Great Salt Lake are well documented, and are now garnering national […]

“While I respect what the delegates did, I don’t think it was good for Utah, I don’t think it was good for our party, and I think that there is a missing voice in the Senate race right now.” Kael Weston was the presumptive Democratic nominee in the race for the Senate seat currently held […]

All of Utah is in extreme or exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. A recent study from UCLA identified the current drought as the deepest dry spell the American West has experienced in more than 1,200 years. Climate change is exacerbating the problem; that same study attributed 42% of the drought to global […]

In the two and a half months since Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, nearly 1,000 companies have curtailed operations in Russia beyond the minimum required by international sanctions – as a form of boycott. Yale University’s School of Management maintains a list of companies that have (or haven’t) withdrawn from Russia in opposition to the […]

In the early 1960s, a man named Ammon Hennacy started up a shelter and aid center for homeless people and railroad tramps who needed a place to stay. The Joe Hill House of Hospitality and St. Joseph Refuge provided a roof, food, storage for day laborers and camaraderie for Salt Lake City’s unsheltered. A new […]

On this week’s episode of “In the Hive…” A new exhibit on the third floor of the Utah State Capitol features stories of the survivors of the Topaz War Relocation Center, the concentration camp in central Utah that housed more than 11,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. The exhibit, sponsored by the San Franciso-based […]

Today on “In the Hive,” the latest of our periodic conversations with Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall. We’ll talk to the mayor about pedestrian safety, homeless shelters, the deal the city struck on the Utah Inland Port, and even about the whale — a contentious new public art piece in the city’s 9th & […]

For Muslims in Utah and around the world, the holy month of Ramadan — which began with the sighting of the crescent moon on Friday — is a period of fasting, prayer and community. This week, the new local podcast City Cast Salt Lake offered a guide to being a good neighbor to Utah Muslims […]

A recent investigative report from the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica examines the ways Utah's powerful water lobby has worked to undermine water conservation measures proposed by state lawmakers. Utah is the fastest-growing and second-driest state in the nation, but it lags behind its neighbors in instituting meaningful reforms to conserve water, even while it pursues expensive […]

Park City has a strong labor history. In the late 19th and the early 20th century, the miners who lived in the town and who worked underground were often part of a union. The sometimes-militant Western Federation of Miners had a strong presence in the mining camp and helped negotiate better wages and working conditions […]

This week on In the Hive, the continuation of last week's conversation about homelessness in northern Utah. Host Roger McDonough sits down with Salt Lake City mayor Erin Mendenhall to get her thoughts on the outsized role Utah's capitol city plays in providing services for those who find themselves without shelter. Plus, an infectious disease […]

Last week, Salt Lake City leaders reluctantly agreed to host a temporary winter overflow shelter at what was previously a Ramada Inn on North Temple and Redwood Road. The announcement came after the Salt Lake Valley Coalition to End Homelessness said that they considered locations in other cities, but each option ended up being unworkable. […]

Today on “In the Hive,” we look at where things stand in the planning process that aims to change how transportation is done in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The Utah Department of Transportation released a draft Environmental Impact Statement earlier this year and identified two preferred alternatives to relieve congestion in the canyon: an enhanced bus […]

During a special session of the legislature, Utah lawmakers gave the green light to electoral maps that critics say represent textbook gerrymandering. Today on the program, we examine the recent history of redistricting in Utah and ask why lawmakers ignored the maps created through a painstaking and transparent process by the Utah Independent Redistricting Commission. […]

Two years ago, the late, great western historian Will Bagley helped KCPW relate what is perhaps the quintessential Utah Halloween story — the sordid tale of grave robber Jean Baptiste. In 1862, pioneer Salt Lake City was up in arms over the revelation that the grave digger at the city cemetery had been unearthing corpses […]

On this edition of “In the Hive,” we hear about the plan to cut Utah air pollution in half by 2030. The proposal, by Sen. Kirk Cullimore, would implement a series of incentives for cleaner vehicles and buildings and create a cap-and-trade program for industrial polluters in the state. Salt Lake Tribune columnist Robert Gehrke […]

A week ago, Pfizer asked the federal government to authorize use of its COVID-19 vaccine in children aged 5-11 and earlier this week the White House told governors to get ready for that eventuality. Today on “In the Hive,” we hear about what the vaccine rollout to younger children will look like in the beehive […]

Seventy years ago, the U.S. Government began a series of above-ground atomic and nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) about 60 miles northwest of Las Vegas. From 1951 until 1962, at least 100 devices were detonated into the atmosphere at the facility. The blasts were visible to residents of many parts of southern […]

In March of 2020, “In the Hive,” kicked off a string of conversations with medical experts and researchers about the pandemic. Things have changed, substantially, since that first Q&A on March 19th of 2020. At the time, Utah had seen only about 100 coronavirus cases and there had been zero deaths. Eighteen months later, the […]

(Original air date Sept. 16, 2020) Today on “In the Hive,” the ongoing western wildfire season has challenged the literal meaning of the proverb “where there's smoke there's fire.” Because, as Utahns have come to understand very well this summer, smoke can travel a long way from its point of origin. Climate scientist Peter Gleick […]

Today on In the Hive, an update on the Utah Inland Port — the giant distribution hub slated for Salt Lake City's northwest quadrant that some have called “the largest economic project in the history of the state of Utah.”  On Wednesday, the Inland Port board met to discuss creating a new entity – a Public […]

President Joe Biden has set an August 31st deadline to finalize the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Biden says he will stick to that deadline and to the deal president Donald Trump made with the Taliban last year – a deal that committed the U.S. to leaving in a quick timeframe and that included promises by […]

Humans are warming the planet, that warming is triggering extreme weather events and other detrimental outcomes, and “unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions” in greenhouse gas emissions, things will get much worse. Those are among the findings of the latest United Nations report assessing the scientific knowledge on climate change. The document, titled […]

Today on “In the Hive,” we feature a conversation with Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. Last week, Gill announced that he would not be filing criminal charges against West Valley City Police Sgt. Tyler Longman in the shooting death of Michael Chad Breinholt. On August 23, 2019, Sgt. Longman shot and killed 31-year-old […]

Today on “In the Hive,” we venture into the forest with Dr. Bryn Dentinger, curator of mycology for the Natural History Museum of Utah and associate professor of biology at the University of Utah. Dentinger says that fungi, as a category, are probably most easily defined by what they are not: neither plants nor animals. […]

Today on “In the Hive,” we take a look at the situation for the millions of migratory birds that rely on the Great Salt Lake for their survival. The Utah Department of Natural Resources says the lake's water level will likely reach an all-time low in the coming days as drought conditions grip our region. […]

A shortage of donated blood is impacting hospitals around the country. The Salt Lake Tribune reported yesterday that one of Utah's largest hospitals came close to running out of blood and even delayed a surgery as a result. The American Red Cross says the pandemic is partly to blame for the shortage, with a surge […]

Earlier this week, medical researchers and doctors from the University of Utah held a press conference to talk about an uptick in coronavirus infections in Utah, and to draw attention to the arrival in the state of the more-contagious Delta variant of the virus. The variant, first identified in India, was recently classified as a […]

Last week, a preservation-minded activist chained himself to the doors of a building on Salt Lake City's Main Street. Michael Valentine wants to see the 103-year-old Pantages Theatre saved from demolition after the city inked a deal with real estate giant Hines and the Utah-based Lasalle Group to replace the aging structure with a luxury apartment […]

On this episode of “In the Hive,” we continue the conversation we started last week about drought in Utah. Today, we speak with Brian Steed, head of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, an agency that has a great deal of control over water in the state. Steed says that we can do a lot […]

Scientists say a swath of the western United States is in the midst of a persistent, decades-long ‘megadrought.’ Utah is far drier today than it was one year ago at the start of the record-breaking 2020 fire season. Researchers with the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service say that water managers in the state “should prepare […]

After a 42-year career in broadcasting, local jazz music host Steve Williams has retired. Again. Williams was a beloved jazz DJ in Utah long before he landed at KCPW back in October of 2015. He first worked as a jazzman at KRCL in 1979 and then spent several decades at KUER before landing at KCPW […]

On this week’s “In the Hive” we try to get to the bottom of the question “why do all of the new apartment buildings going up have to look like that?” The short answer is that building codes were adjusted in the early 2000s allowing developers to expand the use of so-called “podium and stick” […]