Society and Community
In 1997, after a difficult divorce, Utah rancher Heidi Redd was able to resist the temptation to sell off her land to developers. To preserve it, she sold it to the environmental group The Nature Conservancy in exchange for a promise that she would be allowed to keep working the place. Now that they've paved the road it will take you about an hour's drive south of Moab to get to the Dugout Ranch. Heidi has said as soon as she first saw the Dugout more than forty years ago she knew it was home.
READ MORE »
You can never get enough love can you? So this Friday, on Utah NOW, we're offering an extended version - a special edition of our program on love. We'll explore that powerful bond that draws one person to another by way of science and art, and of course, stories. Here's the working question..."Just what is love?" (rebroadcast)
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW we're profiling the StoryCorps Project. It's a venture that's been traveling the country collecting stories. They've been in Salt Lake since March and as they head out of town we'll take the opportunity to play some stories and talk about the model that drives the project...listening is an act of love. (rebroadcast)
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW - National Public Radio's Diane Rehm. We're broadcasting our conversation with the popular radio host recorded live at the Rose Wagner Center in Salt Lake City. We talked about her compelling personal story, which includes a condition that threatened to take her voice. She also discussed the changing media landscape and tells a few stories along the way. (rebroadcast)
READ MORE »
It goes without saying that a lot happened over the last year. A faltering economy, a tussle over healthcare, a popular governor moves on, a Utah sports icon dies, a frightening strain of flu emerges. This week on Utah NOW, we're reviewing the year, the figures, the stories, the twists and turns of 2009.
READ MORE »
Last summer federal agents raided the homes of sixteen residents in Blanding, Utah. They were arrested for plundering ancient Indian artifacts. This week on Utah NOW we're exploring the story and the complicated role pot hunting has played in the culture of the region.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW, a conversation with Peter Danzig, the organizer of an effort to get the LDS Church to reconsider its relationship with the gay community. Danzig's story is a personal journey of conscience. He'll talk about it and about the effect of Mormon policies on gay people in and out of the church.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW, we offer an inside look at The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Brent Jeffs, nephew of jailed FLDS leader Warren Jeffs has written a memoir of his experience growing up in the polygamous sect. The story is about power and sex and the dark consequences of religious extremism. (Rebroadcast)
READ MORE »
It's been eleven years since Judy Shepard's son Matthew was brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming. The story touched off a national movement focused on gay rights and prevention of hate crimes. This week on Utah NOW, Judy Shepard will join us to set the record straight about Matthew and reflect on the role she's had to play in the wake of his death.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW, we're exploring the fate of the Snake Valley groundwater and the proposal to pipe it to Las Vegas. Recently, Utah and Nevada announced an agreement to share the remaining aquifer water. But in this arid desert landscape, some see it as a water grab, not a water share. Join us for a closer look at the future of water in the west.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW, we are re-airing our conversation with author and animal scientist Temple Grandin. Grandin's autism gives her unique insights into the way we treat the creatures we kill for food. We'll talk about her ideas for creating the best life for animals.
READ MORE »
The uproar over a gay couple detained for allegedly refusing to leave after kissing near the Main Street Plaza last week revealed a lingering resentment about the involvement of the LDS Church in the fight over Proposition 8 in California. This week on Utah NOW: the fallout of Prop 8... how are the faithful dealing with and talking about gay rights?
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW the writer Carol Lynch Williams will join us to talk about her popular new book for young adults. It's the story of a thirteen-year-old girl coming of age in a polygamist community that has presented her with an impossible choice.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW...reflections of America, on July 4th. It's a program of stories and images and art that express the experience of a wide range of people who call themselves "Americans."
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW we offer an inside look at The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Brent Jeffs, nephew of jailed FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, will be joining us. He has written a memoir of his experience growing up in the polygamous sect. The story is about power and sex and the dark consequences of religious extremism.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW - Is torture in a time of war immoral if not illegal? The use of harsh interrogration techniques in the war on terror has forced this country to confront some difficult questions. Retired Brigadier General and Utahn, David Irvine will join us to explore the nature, the limits and the costs of torture.
READ MORE »
The families of those killed in the Crandall Canyon mine disaster settled civil lawsuits against the mining company this week. It's given us an opportunity to re-broadcast our profile of Huntington, Utah, a community still coping with the news that came early in the morning of August 6, 2007. (re-broadcast)
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW we're looking at the questionable future of the American newspaper. As papers around the country are failing, we'll assess the prospects of the newsroom in Utah. We'll talk about the challenges from the Internet and ask about the implications of all of this on the state of journalism, on democracy and on the community.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW, we ask the question...what is sacred? A recent episode of HBO's "Big Love" portrayed a private and sacred temple ceremony practiced by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We'll look at the struggle between the spiritual privacy of religion and the expressive freedom of art.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW we're profiling the latest production from the Plan-B Theatre Company called "Block 8". It's the story of Ken, a young Japanese-American imprisoned by his country in an internment camp and expected to prove his loyalty. The play explores the boundaries in a society's drive to feel secure.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW we're exploring the fate of the Common Ground initiative. It's an effort to secure legal protection at the state legislature for gay and transgendered Utahns. Gay rights advocates hoped that a backlash over the passage of Proposition 8 in California would create an opening for the initiative... but it seems lawmakers are having second thoughts.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW, we're looking back at 2008. We'll be joined, among others, by political cartoonist Pat Bagley to talk about the highlights and the characters who made '08 one of the most interesting years - in years.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW, we're repeating our profile of Moab as a community and as a model for the "new west". Environmentalists had hoped the city would be a new economic model for the rural American West, that it would shift away from industries like mining and cattle and instead use as its centerpiece the beauty of the land and its remarkable terrain. A few decades into this experiment and we'll see how it's working out.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW the activist and former talk show host Phil Donahue discusses the film he made about the true costs of war. It's an intimate portrait of the daily struggle for a young soldier paralyzed by a bullet in Iraq. Donahue says the film explores the fullest meaning of the word "harm" in "harm's way."
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW, the aftermath of the disaster at Crandall Canyon. In Huntington, Utah, the community is still coping with the news that came early in the morning of August 6th, 2007. Our show is a profile of a place, a people and a memorial. Join us at our new time - Friday night at 7:30 pm.
READ MORE »
After more than six years of research, three Mormon historians have now published their long-awaited book on the Mountain Meadows Massacre. It's just the latest telling of the story and among the critical questions is the role high-ranking Mormon leaders played in the slaughter at the time and the level of responsibility and candor they've taken since. Join us for part two of Massacre at Mountain Meadows.
READ MORE »
After more than six years of research, three Mormon historians have now published their long-awaited book on the Mountain Meadows Massacre. In 1857, one hundred and twenty members of a wagon train were murdered in an upland meadow in southern Utah. This week on Utah NOW the authors will join us to talk about the questions they've answered and those that remain.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW the historian Susan Sessions Rugh will be with us. In her new book, "Are We There Yet?" she traces the evolution of the family vacation from its beginnings in the forties to it's decline in the seventies. We'll talk about the changing patterns of family life and the tradition of the American road trip.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW, we're profiling Moab as a community and as a model for the "new west".
Environmentalists had hoped the city would be a new economic model for the rural American West, that it would shift away from industries like mining and cattle and instead use as its centerpiece the beauty of the land and its remarkable terrain. A few decades into this experiment and we'll see how it's working out.
READ MORE »
The Mormon practice of proxy baptism, or baptism for the dead, is back in the news. In April, the Vatican sent a letter to Catholic Dioceses around the world asking them to stop giving parish records to Mormons for genealogy. This week on Utah NOW, we're exploring the issue. We'll look at the practical and the symbolic issues at play.
READ MORE »
You may not have heard of her, but in cyber-space, Heather Armstrong is practically an A-List celebrity. She's a blogger - and she makes a pretty healthy living at it. This week on Utah NOW Armstrong will join us to talk about what it's like to share her personal life with cyber-strangers in the blogosphere.
READ MORE »
What did Mormon founder Joseph Smith really look like? It turns out that's a pretty complicated question. The portraits that have been painted tend to offer an idealized version of a real man. But what if there were a photo, a real image of Joseph Smith, would that change things?
READ MORE »
Along with snow or maybe polygamy, Utah's liquor laws are right up there with the characteristics outsiders associate with the state. But have you ever wondered where they came from or how we got to this point?
This week on Utah NOW we're talking about the history and logic of Utah's liquor laws and the current effort to reform them.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW - we're exploring the latest development in the evolving issue of polygamy.
We'll compare the recent raids of a Fundamentalist community in Texas with the raids on Short Creek in 1953. It will help us explain what's new, what it means, and what's next.
READ MORE »
It wasn't so long ago that Utah lawmakers created a progressive series of policies designed to accommodate the reality of illegal immigrants in the state. But now legislators are having second thoughts.
This week on Utah NOW we are exploring the latest in the debate of illegal immigration and asking how you balance the rule of law with compassion.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW - we'll remember Gordon B. Hinckley, one of the most influential presidents in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Hinckley directed an era of unprecedented growth and openness for his church. We'll talk about his life, his gifts as a leader and the future challenges for the faith without him.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW - Has Mitt Romney's presidential campaign unmasked a subtle form of religious bigotry in American culture?
Take the question further by bringing it back home - is there a sentiment of anti-Mormon intolerance here in the capitol of Mormonism?
READ MORE »
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was actually trying to resolve questions in his recent speech on religion. Instead, he may have raised more.
This week on Utah NOW we're exploring some of those questions. Among them, does freedom really require religion? And in a so-called enlightened 21st century, is our political system still rife with religious bigotry?
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW -- we continue our conversation with filmmaker Ken Burns.
Burns' latest series premiers next week on PBS stations around the country. It is a deeply personal chronicle of World War Two and like all of Burns' work, it's history brought to life through stories.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW--as the state prepares to celebrate its pioneer history, we're talking about the legacy of Utah's early settlers in the artifacts they left behind.
What did their houses, buildings and furniture tell us about their lives and their communities? And what are the challenges to preserving this history?
READ MORE »
All the dust from the Sean Hannity Rocky Anderson scuffle has settled by now, and it's given the people a chance to think clearly about what really happened in the debate. This week on Utah NOW we're asking not who won, but what did the spectacle tell us about the condition of America's culture war?
READ MORE »
A new PBS series profiling the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will again bring Mormonism into the national spotlight. On an hour-long edition of Utah NOW, we're talking about the series and gauging the reaction to this latest portrait of the faith. Find out what Utahns say after viewing the documentary. Did it clear up misconceptions or reinforce them? Join us for a balanced, considered response to the national broadcast. In a unique collaboration between KUED and KBYU, Utah NOW: Viewing THE MORMONS will be simulcast on both channels Friday at 8 pm.
READ MORE »
For some, Sunday is a day of worship. For others the day is less about devotion as - a day off. This week on Utah NOW we're talking about Sunday; how people have observed it over time and just what the day has become, today.
She's a household name in the extreme ski industry, and he's the CEO and president of a successful financial firm. Kristen Ulmer and Kent Cannon spend their Sundays quite differently, but what do their Sundays reflect about the day as a whole?
Our studio guest is author Craig Harline. The History professor from BYU talks about his new book, "Sunday: A History of the First Day from Babylonia to the Super Bowl."
READ MORE »
In cities throughout the state there's a critical conversation going on about how you preserve the character of a place; that's the question at the center of a story developing in Salt Lake's Sugar House area. This week on Utah NOW we're talking about the conflict that always comes with change.
Studio guests include Soren Simonsen, a Salt Lake City Councilman, and Keith Bartholomew, an assistant professor of urban planning at the University of Utah's College of Architecture and Planning.
READ MORE »
With a $1.6 billion budget surplus, Utah Lawmakers are in a position to reform Utah's public education system, but what exactly does that mean? This week on Utah NOW we're asking what it's really going to take in money and political will to make fundamental change.
Studio guests include Elisa Peterson, Executive Director of Parents for Choice in Education, Janet Cannon, Vice Chair of the Utah State Board of Education, and Andrea Rorrer, Director of the Utah Education Policy Center at the University of Utah.
READ MORE »
Doris Baizley's new play, "SEXSTING," which has just opened at the Salt Lake Acting Company, is more than a simple indictment of an internet predator. This week on Utah NOW we're talking about the questions of ethics and privacy in an effort to police the relationships of a virtual world.
Studio guests include playwrights Susan Raffanti and Doris Baizley.
READ MORE »
In 1970 Angela Davis was on the FBI's most wanted list, more than three decades later she remains a vocal witness to the struggle for civil rights. This week on Utah Now, Davis will join us to discuss the legacy and the current condition of social justice in America.
READ MORE »
It was one particular incident that prompted Holly Mullen to resign from the Salt Lake Tribune recently, but at the heart of it is a boarder concern for trends she sees in the newspaper industry. This week on Utah NOW, a conversation about the future of newspapers in a changing media universe.
Guests include veteran journalists John Hughes and Holly Mullen.
Also Holly Mullen joins the ranks of our Speak Out editorialists.
READ MORE »
Months after promising to release its financial records, Real Salt Lake has finally given the public a glimpse at its plans for building a new stadium in Sandy - but the blueprint is raising even more questions. This week on Utah NOW we're asking, what's next in the effort to keep professional soccer in Utah?
READ MORE »
Over the next five years, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is going to be re-making a significant part of downtown Salt Lake City. This week on Utah NOW we're asking, whose interests will define the character of downtown? Can a project designed and built by a private religious entity be the foundation for a vibrant city center?
Editorialist Ben Fulton of the Salt Lake City Weekly comments on the future look of downtown.
READ MORE »
There was a time in American life when faith was a private matter. In his new book, The Holy Vote, journalist Ray Suarez examines how religion has come out into the open. This week on Utah NOW, Suarez will join us to talk about the role of God in modern politics.
Former member of Congress Karen Shepherd, is our new Speak Out Utah Essayist.
READ MORE »
In Utah more than 300,000 people have no health insurace. This week on Utah Now, we are asking why...just who are these people? What are the strategies they use to care for themselves and their families? And what are the costs to them...and you?
READ MORE »
It’s been five years now, since the attacks of September.
At the time—the country wondered how we would react and if it would change the way Americans thought about the world outside its borders. This week on Utah NOW—we ask—how have we changed—and what have we learned…
READ MORE »
Mormons have become recognizable enough to be a part of the way popular culture depicts people of faith. This week on Utah NOW we’re asking how the perception of Latter-day Saints is changing, and how it’s different when the work comes not from the outside, but from believers themselves.
READ MORE »
Last week as crowds celebrated the arrival of one of the world’s high profile teams - an eleventh hour deal promised a new stadium for Real Salt Lake. This week on Utah NOW we’ll explore the deal and what it means to spend public money on private venture.
READ MORE »
This week on Utah NOW we’re exploring the legal and social dynamics in the debate over gay marriage. What does this national conversation reveal about Utah? Our fears…our values…our judgments…and just what’s at stake? This week’s “In Focus” segment profiles a lesbian and heterosexual family.
READ MORE »
The most recent example of disharmony in the usually unified Republican Party came in the latest dispute between Governor Jon Huntsman and Utah Lawmakers during the special session – But did it also expose some movement in Utah 's political culture? As moderates throughout the country are rethinking their loyalties are Utahns revising the values that influence their vote?
READ MORE »
So what makes a family? Is it a shared last name and a place at the head of the table for Dad? Or is it a bond that doesn’t involve a marriage license? Kanab, Utah has adopted a resolution defining the natural family, and as a result people within the state—and even the nation are focusing on Kanab. The Utah NOW team traveled down South to get answers, and to flush out the bigger issue, what makes a family?
In our “Speak Out Utah” segment we debut a new editorialist, Enid Greene, talk show host on AM820 and former U.S. Representative.
READ MORE »
What does it mean to be a citizen? Twelve million nationwide, 100,000 in Utah. They are the new faces of immigration…people who risk their lives to come to this country illegally for the chance to help themselves and their families. Their presence…their culture…their impact are forcing us, as a nation, to redefine what it truly means to be a contributing member of the society of the United States of America…in other words, what it means to be a citizen.
In our "Speak Out Utah" segment we debut a new editorialist, Tom Barberi, talk show host on 97.5 FM TALK and Utah’s self-proclaimed "Voice of Reason."
READ MORE »
What’s to be done with the tradition of Polygamy? Polygamy is on Utah’s mind again. In the midst of a series of statewide forums and an HBO drama built around the practice – generations old questions are re-emerging. At the heart of it all are these: could plural marriage ever be accepted into the mainstream of American culture or is the very nature of polygamy coercive, abusive and corrupt?
