By Doug Fabrizio

Salt Lake City, UT – The Utah Humanities Book Festival opens Wednesday, so we're using it as an excuse to sit down with Utah writer Jana Richman. Her debut novel is called The Last Cowgirl, and it follows Dickie Sinfield back to the family ranch she had fled 30 years ago. Richman joins us to talk about the politics and the desolate landscape of the West desert and about finding your way back home.

By Doug Fabrizio

Salt Lake City, UT – In "Bargaining for Eden," author Stephen Trimble can be tough in his assessment of how billionaire Earl Holding acquired public land for a ski resort and made a deal to host the 2002 Winter Olympics there. But Trimble's own environmental philosophy was put to the test when he became a landowner and developer himself. (Rebroadcast)

By Doug Fabrizio

By Nkoyo Iyamba

Salt Lake City – Nkoyo Iyamba reports on the unique problems the homeless face in voting and the effort by different groups to get them registered to vote.

By Jenny Brundin

By Doug Fabrizio

By Doug Fabrizio

Salt Lake City, UT – On October 1st, a moratorium blocking the development of US oil shale expired. Some 1.8 trillion barrels is thought to be concentrated in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, but how to extract it - and if it's worth it - remain the questions. Tuesday on RadioWest, Doug talks to energy reporters about the politics, the technology and the impact of "squeezing oil from a stone."

By Doug Fabrizio

Salt Lake City, UT – When Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic in 1492, Spain was in the midst of the Inquisition and the battle for Islamic Grenada. Historian James Reston Jr.'s Dogs of God deals with the complex interplay of government, religion and popular opinion of the 15th century. Reston joins Doug to explain what that meant for the "Great Age of Discovery." (Rebroadcast)

By Jenny Brundin

By Doug Fabrizio

Salt Lake City, UT – Jeff Metcalf is a writer, so when he discovered he had prostate cancer, that's how he worked his way through the experience. He set about organizing a clear story out of the more abstract jumble of desperation, humiliation and revelation. Today on RadioWest, we're playing excerpts from the latest incarnation of Jeff's story, it's a piece of radio theater. Jeff will join us to talk the work - it's call "A Slight Discomfort." (Rebroadcast)