RadioWest

Steven Spielberg has been making movies about aliens since the 1960s, and his interest is key to understanding the ongoing American fascination with UFOs, too.

The journalist McKay Coppins wasn’t a gambling man. But when his employer The Atlantic staked him $10,000 to bet on the 2025 NFL season, he couldn’t say no.

To a lot of people, the political challenges facing the country today feel unique in American history, but the historian Greg Jackson says that’s just not true.

Jeff Strong was devastated when his son left the LDS Church. It was a familial rupture that led him to ask difficult questions about the experience of being Mormon today.

Summer is officially here, which means it’s time to gather our trio of local booksellers to hear their picks for what to read poolside, beachside or wherever else you’re spending time this vacation season.

“The Chosen” is a TV drama about the life of Jesus — and it’s grown into a worldwide phenomenon. Now it’s paving the way for other Christian entertainment.

In the future, artificial intelligence will make us either centaurs or reverse-centaurs. If that made no sense at all, Cory Doctorow is joining us to explain.

Enslaved African-Americans in Texas didn’t learn they’d been freed until weeks after the Civil War officially ended — when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston to break the news.

A massive data center proposed in Box Elder County received approval from county commissioners weeks ago, and yet the shape of the plan remains very much up in the air. Salt Lake Tribune reporter Megan Banta joins us to discuss where things currently stand.

Multilevel marketing is something of an American tradition. A new book tells the story of the money-making schemes that continue to ensnare people today.

Dogs have long stood beside us, not just in life, but in art as well. In a new book, cultural historian Thomas Laqueur explores why dogs, more than any other animal, so often figure in the way we picture ourselves.

College sports are getting more expensive. To meet rising costs, the University of Utah is doing something no other school has tried: a private equity partnership.

There’s a mismatch between what people say about marriage and what they really do about it. Stephanie Coontz’s book explains how we got here and where we could go.

Lewis and Clark’s expedition is the stuff of American legend. Craig Fehrman’s new book highlights the people who helped make the journey possible.

Justin R. Garcia is the director of the Kinsey Institute, the famed sex research institution. He’s joining us to talk about his new book, “The Intimate Animal.”

There are 48 data centers currently in operation across Utah. Few of them received public attention as they went through the public planning process. But the data centers currently in development are being put under the public’s microscope. Deseret News reporter Art Raymond and New York Times reporter Karen Weise join us to help understand why that is.

These days, we take the polarization of faith in America for granted: Christians are mostly conservative, and liberals are hardly religious at all. But it wasn’t always this way.

The Stratos Project, a massive data center planned for Box Elder County, has run up against equally massive public opposition, even as state officials champion its benefits. A panel of local journalists joins us to help make sense of the debate.

The chronically-online young men pushing Republicans further right are called “Groypers.” The journalist Antonia Hitchens explores their extremist agenda.

As big freighters go, the Edmund Fitzgerald was the biggest, the best and the most profitable ship on the Great Lakes. Then, on Nov. 10, 1975, facing gale-force winds and 50-foot waves, the ship sank, taking all 29 men aboard her down into the icy depths of Lake Superior.

This week, Box Elder County commissioners gave the green light to a 40,000-acre data center in remote Hansel Valley, Utah. Matteo Wong, a staff writer for The Atlantic, says the immense scale of the planned development is hard to wrap your mind around.

As big freighters go, the Edmund Fitzgerald was the biggest, the best and the most profitable ship on the Great Lakes. Then, on Nov. 10, 1975, facing gale-force winds and 50-foot waves, the ship sank, taking all 29 men aboard her down into the icy depths of Lake Superior.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints filed a lawsuit in April against “Mormon Stories Podcast” host John Dehlin, alleging trademark and copyright infringement. We’ll talk with Dehlin about the case, as well as with LDS scholars Matthew Bowman and Patrick Mason about what the suit tells us about the LDS Church and the influence of “Mormon Stories.”

Coltan Scrivner studies why some of us are drawn to look at gruesome things. He calls it morbid curiosity, and he says it’s not a bad thing.

If you grew up along the Wasatch Front, you’ve seen rapid change: farms to housing, low-rise to high-rise, more people. Taylor Anderson wants to know what that means, and for whom.

If you grew up along the Wasatch Front, you’ve seen rapid change: farms to housing, low-rise to high-rise, more people. Taylor Anderson wants to know what that means, and for whom.

Nate Blouin, a Utah State Senator and leading progressive Democratic contender for Utah’s new congressional seat, faces a setback as vulgar online comments he made years ago recently came to light. The controversy also raises questions about the clout of the progressive wing of the party in the lead-up to the Democratic State Convention.

The linguist Valerie Fridland says everyone has an accent, whether they think so or not. Her new book is about how the different ways we talk shape our lives.

Great Salt Lake normally doesn’t reach peak water level until late May. But after a record-low snowpack, the lake has already topped out, and experts warn it will likely brush up against its own record low. Could a sizable influx of federal dollars help save it?

There’s emerging evidence of the health benefits of getting hot and working up a sweat. Author Bill Gifford’s book makes the case.

Daryl Lindsey is a sustainable landscaping expert. With spring here, and a worrisome winter in the rearview, she joins us to talk about this year’s growing season.

The hunt for critical minable resources is heating up in Utah, and would-be extractors have found a legal loophole to get around federal mining laws. Journalist Lauren Steele shares her findings.

U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement recently purchased a warehouse on Salt Lake City’s west side, but the agency doesn’t intend to use the site for goods or merchandise: It will be a detention facility, part of the agency’s efforts to round up and deport a million people every year.

With Easter weekend approaching, we’re revisiting our 2025 conversation with Elaine Pagels about the real Jesus of Nazareth.

The Wild West has been the subject of much mythologizing in American culture. But for all the fantasy, at least one figure was real: the gunfighter.

It may seem like Mars is just a modern-day obsession, but we earthlings were nuts for the Red Planet more than a century ago. David Baron’s new book tells the story.

What weighs five pounds, hasn’t been seen in print for 20 years, but still shapes the way we think about language? Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary — and author Stefan Fatsis is here to tell us why it matters.

The journalist McKay Coppins wasn’t a gambling man. But when his employer The Atlantic staked him $10,000 to bet on the 2025 NFL season, he couldn’t say no.

Justin R. Garcia is the director of the Kinsey Institute, the famed sex research institution. He’s joining us to talk about his new book, “The Intimate Animal.”

The 2026 Utah Legislative Session concluded last week. We’re gathering a trio of reporters to talk about what passed and what failed.

Filmmaker Penny Lane’s 2023 documentary is about giving away one of her own kidneys. Although she didn't like the idea of calling herself a "good Samaritan," she eventually came around to the idea of calling her film “Confessions of a Good Samaritan.”

In 1856, Mary Ann Patten became the first woman to captain an American merchant vessel. She was only 19 years old. Historian Tilar Mazzeo’s book tells the remarkable story.

David Archuleta became famous at 17 years old, when he was a finalist on “American Idol.” He joins us to talk about his new memoir, coming out as gay and about leaving the LDS Church.