One of the biggest museum collections of Russian art in the United States is found right here in Utah, and its curator will soon become a recipient of one of Russia’s most prestigious fine art awards.

Vern Swanson is a leading expert on Soviet-era impressionist paintings. He’s visited Russia 36 times, written several books and articles on the topic and was director of the Springville Museum of Art in Utah County for 32 years.

  The once quiet field of epigenetics is now making big waves in the biological sciences.  Laboratories across the world are filling up with researchers studying the human epi-genome.  It literally means above the genome.  On the program, producer Sheri Quinn explores this paradigm shift in biology with German scientist Wolf Riek, recognized as a world leader in the field of epi-genetics.  

  A few months ago we explored the culture of hunting with Stephen Rinella author of “Meat Eater.” He asserts, as does Michael Pollan who wrote “The Omnivore’s Dilemma & Cooked,” that Americans are losing their connection with the way their food finds its way to their tables. Hunting, Rinella argues, is intimately connected with our humanity; and assuming responsibility for acquiring the meat that we eat, rather than entrusting it to proxy executioners, processors, packagers and distributors, is one of the most respectful and exhilarating things a meat eater can do. Thursday we explored this idea from the other direction, talking about vegetarian and vegan culture with a panel of vegetarians & vegans and a former vegetarian. 

A rare planetary alignment will treat sky watchers to a spectacular sunset later this month. Utah residents with an unobstructed view of the Western horizon will be able to see the formation which NASA is calling the “Sunset Triangle.” A YouTube video about the unique event explains what to watch for.

NASA says the triple conjunction is fairly rare. The last time it happened was May 2011 and it won’t appear again until October 2015.

  The United States’ rate of incarceration is the highest in the world. Why and how did this happen? Marc Mauer’s “Race to Incarcerate,” first published in 1999, has become an important text for understanding the growth of the US prison system and a canonical work for those active in the US criminal justice reform movement. Now Sabrina Jones, a member of the World War 3 Illustrated collective and an author of politically engaged comics, has collaborated with Mauer to adapt and update the original book into a comics narrative designed to reach new audiences. 

  Aired: 5/10/13 We hear about the war in Afghanistan from the perspective of one of the nation's leading industrialists there until the 1980s.  Author Nasser Shansab joins us to talk about his experience growing up in Afghanistan within one of the nation's most prominent families and how his forced exile influenced his unique role in the u.s us government.  

An important piece of World War II history is in Salt Lake City. UPR’s Stephen Tanner tells us how you can be a part of it.

At the South Valley Regional Airport in West Jordan, the buzz of small planes can be heard all around. But the roar of a different plane’s engines is making people around the Salt Lake Valley look up toward the sky.

This week the World War II era B-17 bomber named “Memphis Belle” is stopping in Salt Lake City. The non-profit Liberty Foundation helped restore the plane and is flying it around the country in its Salute to Veterans tour.