Tom Williams

Philosophy professor Hugh LaFollette says that he was raised in a gun culture. Later, he was struck by the very different policy responses to the killing of children in Dunblane, Scotland and Newtown, Connecticut. He says “my dis-ease at having no settled view of the topic nagged at me for several years before I decided that agnosticism on this topic was neither intellectually tenable nor morally responsible.

Kip Stephen Thorne (born June 1, 1940) is an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate, known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. A longtime friend and colleague of Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan, he was the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) until 2009 and is one of the world's leading experts on the astrophysical implications of Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Coral reefs around the world are vanishing at an unprecedented rate. We’ve lost 50% of the world’s coral in the last 30 years. Scientists say that climate change is now their greatest threat and it is estimated that only 10% can survive past 2050. In a new documentary film, “Chasing Coral,” a team of divers, photographers and scientists set out on a thrilling ocean adventure to discover why coral are vanishing and to reveal the underwater mystery to the world.

Gregory Pardlo's father was a brilliant and charismatic man--a leading labor organizer who presided over a happy suburban family of four. But when he loses his job following the famous air traffic controllers' strike of 1981, he succumbs to addiction and exhausts the family's money on more and more ostentatious whims. In the face of this troubling model and disillusioned presence in the household, young Gregory rebels. Struggling to distinguish himself on his own terms, he hustles off to Marine Corps boot camp.

President Donald Trump has nominated appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court. William Cummings, writing in USA Today sums up the coming nomination fight: “Conservatives argued that Democrats were prepared to oppose anyone Trump nominated but that Kavanaugh is such a strong nominee that their efforts to block him are certain to fail.

How did we get here?

In this sweeping, eloquent history of America, Kurt Andersen shows that what’s happening in our country today—this post-factual, “fake news” moment we’re all living through—is not something new, but rather the ultimate expression of our national character. America was founded by wishful dreamers, magical thinkers, and true believers, by hucksters and their suckers. Fantasy is deeply embedded in our DNA.

Hospital intensive care units have changed when and how we die--and not always for the better. So says medical researcher and ICU physician Samuel Brown. In his new book “Through the Valley of Shadows: Living Wills, Intensive Care, and Making Medicine Human” (Oxford University Press) Dr. Brown uses stories from his clinical practice to outline a new way of thinking about life-threatening illness. 

Volcanoes have been much in the news of late, with eruptions in Hawaii, Guatemala, and most recently, in Bali. You may know that Yellowstone National Park sits on a “supervolcano,” 44 miles wide. An eruption of this caldera volcano, as scientists call it, is very unlikely, but potentially catastrophic. We’ll talk about volcanoes in general and the Yellowstone supervolcano specifically today.

Travel writer Porter Fox’s latest adventure is a quest to rediscover America’s other border—the fascinating but little-known northern one, a journey he recounts in his new book “Northland.”

  No Man’s Land is dedicated to the author’s grandfather. Not unusual in itself, but Simon Tolkien has a somewhat unusual grandfather, JRR Tolkien, whose experiences in the Somme inspired his grandson’s fifth novel, published to mark Friday’s centenary of the battle.

About 123 people die of suicide every day in the U.S. It’s the 10th-leading cause of death for Americans and the No. 2 killer of teens.  According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some 45,000 Americans died by suicide in 2016 and the vast majority of states saw increases in the rates of suicide between 1999 and 2016. Suicide is the leading cause of death in Utah for youths ages 10 to 17. The state’s suicide rate for all ages is more than 60 percent above the national average. Recent celebrity deaths have also shone a spotlight on the problem.

The editors of The Atlantic write: “The election of Donald Trump … [has] driven many Americans to rummage through history in search of context and understanding. Trump himself has been compared to historical figures ranging from Ronald Reagan to Henry Ford, and from Andrew Jackson to Benito Mussolini.

After oil was discovered beneath their land in the 1920's, the richest people per capita were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. They rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions and sent their children to study in Europe. 

James A. McLaughlin grew up in rural Virginia and lives in the Wasatch Range east of Salt Lake City. His debut novel “Bearskin” is getting rave reviews. He joins us for the hour next time on Access Utah.

President Trump has signed an executive order allowing families to be detained together under his “zero tolerance” immigration policy. This comes amid a furor over the separation of children from their parents at the border. In the meantime, Congress continues to search for a fix to the immigration system. We’ll talk about the crisis at the border today on Access Utah. Our guests will include Pastor Steve Klemz of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Salt Lake City; Erika George, Samuel D. Thurman Professor of Law in the S.J.

From USU's College of Humanities and Social Sciences:

"If you’re 12, Slender Man lurks in the woods beyond the playground fence, faceless, taller than a slippery slide, arms and legs weirdly long, black-suited and silent.

"If you're Lynne McNeill, an assistant professor of English, Slender Man is a living, evolving, endlessly fascinating example of folklore in the making.

"And plus, 'he is pretty creepy,' she says.

Both George Orwell and Winston Churchill came close to death in the mid-1930's—Orwell shot in the neck in a trench line in the Spanish Civil War, and Churchill struck by a car in New York City. If they'd died then, history would scarcely remember them. At the time, Churchill was a politician on the outs, his loyalty to his class and party suspect. Orwell was a mildly successful novelist, to put it generously.

The King’s English Bookshop (TKE) has published a collection of Ann Cannon’s Salt Lake Tribune columns. It’s titled “I’ll Tell You What.” Ann Cannon joins us for the hour on Monday’s Access Utah.

In his new book “Back Cast: Fly Fishing and Other Such Matters” Jeff Metcalf writes: “These waters have been my home, and I fish them more than most. In truth, they have saved my life on more than a few occasions. I seek refuge in the quiet solitude of rivers, and in dark hours of my life—including this particular year—I need desperately to be fly-fishing." Metcalf’s play “A Slight Discomfort,” is a humorous take on his battle with prostate cancer.

Luma Mufleh was raised in a wealthy family in Jordan, but left that life behind to come to school in America. After graduating from Smith College, she moved to Georgia to begin a life for herself. She did not have family support and was struggling on her own. One day she made a wrong turn and came across a group of refugee boys playing soccer. She says they were barefoot, playing with an old ball, and having the time of their lives. Mufleh continued to watch the boys play, and on her third visit, joined them.

Cache Valley residents Roy and Kathleen Sneddon have been living with their son’s disappearance since 2004. 24-year-old David Sneddon was last seen hiking in China, leaving no physical trace. The Sneddons and several sources in Asia believe David was kidnapped by North Korea. The Sneddons believe their son is likely one of many who have been abducted and held captive in North Korea.

  It’s Summertime! The kids are out of school and life slows down for some of us and speeds up for others. Trips to favorite vacation spots and into the backcountry ramp up. On Monday’s Access Utah, we’ll come together as a UPR community to share ideas for summertime trips, activities, traditions and stories.

Julie Hollist Terrill, director of the Cache Valley Visitors Bureau, will join us to talk about arts venues, hikes, campsites, vacations, staycations, fun and adventure.

The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny.

Frank Montoya, Jr. is a retired FBI special agent and senior executive. In addition to running FBI field offices in Honolulu and Seattle in the course of his career, from February 2012 to May 2014, he served in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as the National Counterintelligence Executive, in which role he was head of national counterintelligence for the United States government.

Jeff Meldrum is Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology at Idaho State University. He is author of “Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science.” He is a leading expert on Bigfoot or Sasquatch, or the term he prefers: “Relict Hominoid.” He says “...[I]t is one matter to address the theoretical possibility of a relict species of hominoid in North America, and the obligate shift in paradigm to accommodate it, but there must also be something substantial to place within that revised framework.