Caroline Ballard
All Things Considered HostCaroline Ballard is a central Virginia native and a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School. Ever since 2014 – to her delight and the dismay of her East Coast family and friends – she has steadily moved further west. For five years she served as Morning Edition host at Wyoming Public Radio, as well as its newsroom editor and host of the podcast HumaNature. She earned two PRNDI (Public Radio News Directors Inc.) awards for Best Podcast for her work as lead producer on episodes of the show. In 2016, her reporting project Women Run the West, which examined the representation of women in western politics, was selected to be a part of the first NPR Story Lab. Caroline became KUER’s All Things Considered host in August 2019. When she’s not behind the mic, you can find her spending time with her husband and her rescue pup Scrappy, and cooking recipes that are far too complicated for her skill level.
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It may be an understatement to say a lot happened in Utah in 2020, both on and off the Wasatch Front. KUER southern news bureau reporters Kate Groetzinger, based in Bluff, and Lexi Peery, based in St. George, spoke with All Things Considered host Caroline Ballard about some of the biggest stories they covered in 2020. -
From the pandemic to protests to elections, 2020 has been a year for the Utah history books. KUER political reporters Emily Means and Sonja Hutson joined All Things Considered host Caroline Ballard to recap the year in politics.
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Right now, the COVID-19 vaccine is being given to healthcare workers throughout the state. But there are a few other Utahns who have participated in vaccine trials, meaning they either got the vaccine or a placebo. Retired NPR investigative reporter Howard Berkes was part of the Moderna trial here in Utah.
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As 2020 comes to a close, KUER is remembering and highlighting the lives of some of the Utahns who died of COVID-19. Sione Ray Tuineau was 35-years-old and lived in West Valley City. He was a husband, father, one of eight siblings and — by all accounts — the life of the party.
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Shame can be a powerful tool when it comes to human behavior. But in a pandemic, shaming someone for contracting a disease can do more harm than good. Gretchen Case, chief of the program in Medical Ethics and Humanities at the University of Utah, spoke about the ways shame influences how we deal with illness.
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In 1969, the University of Wyoming football program kicked 14 Black players off the team for wanting to protest The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ policy at the time excluding Black men from the priesthood. Now, the Church has announced a partnership with the Black 14 Philanthropy to distribute food to various communities. KUER’s Caroline Ballard spoke with Dr. LaShawn Williams, a social worker, a church member and co-founder of the group Black LDS Legacy, about the move and what it means for racial justice in the Church.
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IHC Infectious Disease Expert: 'We Can’t Keep Asking For The Same Thing & Expect A Different Result'Utah is in the midst of its largest COVID-19 spike yet. Currently, masks are required when counties reach high levels of transmission, but there is no enforcement and no statewide mandate in place. Some say these measures are not enough. Among them is Dr. Eddie Stenehjem, an infectious diseases physician at Intermountain Healthcare, who is calling for aggressive action.
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2020 will set records for turning out more voters than ever in Utah. One group with a spotlight on it has been young voters. KUER’s Caroline Ballard spoke separately with two young organizers in the state to hear their perspectives.
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Utah’s 4th Congressional District race between Republican Burgess Owens and incumbent Democrat Ben McAdams is projected to be close. In fact, the Cook Political Report has rated it a “toss up.” Leah Murry, a political scientist and Academic Director at the Walker Institute of Politics & Public Service at Weber State University, explained more about the history and importance of this seat.
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Trump is predicted to win Utah relatively easily, but how much of the votes he can come away with could offer insights into how voters are thinking.
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This fall, Ballet West announced changes intended to make it a more equitable place for its Black and brown dancers, from eliminating skin-paling makeup to having the company take on the work of dyeing ballet shoes and straps to match different skin tones. Jazz Bynum, a Black dancer in Ballet West’s second company, helped shape some of these new policies.
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Living through a pandemic means thinking of viruses like COVID-19 as threats. But sometimes, these microorganisms can actually be beneficial to human biology. Nels Elde is an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Utah and this month he received a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called "genius" grant. He explained how some functions of our bodies come from our interactions with viruses.
