RadioWest

Thursday, we’re talking about the real-life Laura Ingalls Wilder and how her story compares to the mythic American history many of us absorbed through her wildly popular series The Little House books. (Rebroadcast)

A lot of people hate bugs, but even most bug haters have a soft spot for bees. The biologist Thor Hanson has written a new book that explores the natural history of bees. It's about where they come from, how they work and how we can help them.

Playwright JT Rogers joins us to talk about his award-winning Oslo. It's about the 1993 negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Rogers says theater, like diplomacy, works when it’s personal.

Journalist Allison Yarrow says in the 90s a woman reaching for power or just in the public eye was often labeled a "bitch." And that word became a weapon used to hold women back.

Friday, we're talking about the film 2001: A Space Odyssey . It's such a weird and mysterious film, and it's considered Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece. When it was released 50 years ago it drove the critics crazy, but audiences loved it.

In a new book, the philosopher Scott Samuelson offers seven ways of looking at suffering. He pulls wisdom from the lessons of ancient Greek myth, the horrors of the Holocaust, and the beautiful pain of blues music.

Wednesday, proponents of medical cannabis in Utah join us to make their case. They say medical marijuana is a low-risk treatment for Utahns suffering serious illness, and that it will curb the use of narcotics.

Tuesday, scholar Stephen Greenblatt joins us to talk about Shakespeare's tyrants. In many of his tragedies, he grappled with this question: why would anyone be drawn to a leader unsuited to govern?

Monday, we’re broadcasting the second conversation in our Realities of Diversity speaker series. Our guest is Negin Farsad. She uses comedy to confront the tough stuff, like racism, bigotry and ignorance.

Friday, we're talking about what advice columnists have had to say over the years about life and love. Author Jessica Weisberg says our questions are the same, it’s the answers that have changed.

Stephen Groo has made hundreds of DIY movies in an oddball style that has earned him big-name fans and a crowd of haters. A new documentary film follows Groo’s efforts to make his dream project: an elf-human romance flick.

Last month, the LDS Church joined a coalition against Utah's medical marijuana ballot initiative. They say they’re O.K. with medicinal use, but worry about unintended consequences of this initiative.

The writer Michael Pollan is with us to talk about his book on psychedelics. It’s about their potential to heal mental illnesses, and to explore the subject, Pollan took a few trips himself.

The wild horse is a majestic, beloved, and federally protected icon of the American frontier with a history as epic as the land it inhabits. It’s also the subject of heated controversy and dispute.

Physicist Jim Al-Khalili joins us to explain what life on other planets could like, where it could be, and what would happen if we found it - or it found us.