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This is our special Halloween Edition of the Hidden Utah Podcast. On today’s program, we visit Utah's most haunted shop.  We have done a few stories on Utah Book and Magazine and Pete and his ghosts, today we are revising his shop where he shows the latest antics of his ghosts. And they will surprise you! Also, we will be examining a few important Utah headlines. These are a combination of headlines from our daily newspapers, blogs, magazine stories and other places we find things online. It’s what we are calling “Utah Tidbits”. What we do is span the Utah news universe to bring you the most interesting, compelling and culturally representative Utah stories. Also, we will be talking about how haunted houses are surviving despite Covid-19. If you are new to Utah you might notice how completely obsessed people here are with Halloween. People here, I think it’s mostly Mormons, go completely nuts over Halloween. They love the gore, the costumes, the horror, the macabre-- I think when you live in a culture, anything that is allowed they will do to a maximum level. But anyhow, we will check out what Utah’s most famous haunted houses are doing to stay open despite Covid.

Green energy: it’s become a topic of political contention because everyone especially on the right is fearful of how we are going to pay for it and how it might be a trojan horse to usher in socialism or fascism. The far left believes that if we don’t embrace green energy now, we will destroy our planet due to climate change. The right believes that the risk of destroying our economy in hopes of mitigating the effects of climate change makes no sense because there is no conclusive evidence if we lower carbon emissions even significantly that that will make a significant impact on climate change. Who is right? Visit us at UtahStories.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook.            

This episode of Utah Stories show focuses on: —The huge destruction around the city caused by the 100 MPH winds from a hurricane —Zoom meeting depression and the lack of authentic connectivity due to COVID —Millennials finding creative ways to have fun during COVID: Having fun protesting Visit us at www.UtahStories.com Follow us on Instagram  Utah Stories. Subscribe to our online newsletter www.UtahStories.com

It's clear that we currently live in a divided state concerning COVID policy. School districts are divided as to how we best manage students' return to schools. How we handle our children returning to school might be one of the most important debates we are currently we are concerned with. To shift the focus away from politics we begin with a few facts for consideration.

If you love eating out, local food, and appreciate how much great local restaurants add to our communities you will be interested to hear from owners of Yoshi's and Caffe Molise regarding the impact of COVID on their businesses.

One of the most difficult, competitive and ever shrinking professions is local journalism. With the rise of social media, blogs, fake news and YouTube— competing for viewer/reader interest is incredibly difficult. But there are a few courageous souls out there who still love local stories and news and want to share the greatness of their local community in print and online. Claire McArthur is a local journalist in Salt Lake City who has worked for several newspapers, magazines and who says she has known since before she entered college that her dream was to be a local journalist and to write for magazines and newspapers. For McArthur, all of the ancillary positions such as Public Relations, content marketer or blogger just don’t compare to going out and finding great stories to share; as well as being paid to satisfy her natural curiosity and questions about the world around her.

Darlene McDonald is a member of Salt Lake City’s new Racial Equity in Policing Commission and a Black community leader in Utah. Similar to most Black Lives Matter supporters, McDonald believes that America is an inherently racist country and that "institutional racism" is a fact of life in Utah and America and major reform is required. Darlene McDonald was present for the Cottonwood Heights police protest that was held on Sunday evening (August 2nd). She was invited to speak. In this interview, we discuss police reform in Utah.

Mark Morris started WorkHive in 2012 He says it was an accident. One friend was a landscape architect like himself and another was a traditional architect. All three of them needed a workspace. "We had a little bit more room than we needed. We had a few empty desks. And we had six desks, and those filled up pretty quickly. It was an accident that we backed up into the coworking world. It started at the CRANE building on 200 South and 200 West. Morris now has four employees and Workhive has moved just west of Squatters in downtown Salt Lake City.. "One of the best things about coworking spaces is that you can have a lot of the social advantages if you want it. You can bounce ideas off people. But at the same time you don't have to interact with everyone. You can mind your own business and do your own thing." said Tim Sullivan who owns Township + Range, a transportation planning company inside of Workhive.

Salt Lake City residents overwhelmingly do not want the inland port. We invited on the Executive Director Jack Hedge to address all of the questions concerning: pollution, environmental damage, antiquated jobs and how nobody who lives along the Wasatch Front other than developers and political leaders believes that the inland port is a good idea. We gave him the quotes from the toughest critics including Bryan Moench Director of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and he answered each question as best he could. We are grateful for Mr. Hedge coming on the program.     SHOW LESS      

Utah Stories was founded on the principle that all people deserve a voice and all opinions count if the final aim is to find the truth. Diversity of thought is just as important or more important than the diversity of skin color. So why are leftists deciding to cancel those who don't conform with politically correct ideologies? We dive into this movement by examining Marxist thinking and where this movement could end up if it isn't squashed.

Your Comments Visit UtahStories.com to read all the comments we mention in this story. Visit the other podcast episodes to see the details from each episode.

Risking life to witness nature's most furious moments. Craig Childs is a writer for Outdoor Magazine, New York Times, and is the author of numerous books including The Secret Knowledge of Water. Learn about desert survival, how to find water, survive flash floods, and freezing temperatures.

The New York Times is endorsing the actions of protestors tearing down statues of figures such as Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Will history now rewrite our founding fathers as racist white supremacists? The same man who insisted be written in our Constitution that "All men are created equal." and the same man who abolished slavery should now be forgotten the idea behind the 1619 project. We also discuss an idea in a city outside of Dallas, Texas that shows promise in providing inner-city food, jobs, and much greater hope than any of the other ideas that are coming out of the current political storms. In these troubling times, we call for sanity, better judgment, and thoughtful discussion. 

Eric Moutsos is a former Salt Lake City Police officer who has lead a series of peaceful demonstrations and gatherings supporting local small businesses. In this discussion, we talk about Eric's attempts to hold peaceful demonstrations as part of his Utah Business Revival Group. The same day the Salt Lake City Police and the Salt Lake City's Mayor's office was allowing huge demonstrations in the city in opposition to police brutality (which resulted in rioting), Eric's gathering to promote the opening of local businesses wasn't permitted by any city and he was issued a court order to stop. This double-standard in which local leaders allow or prohibit gatherings due to COVID-19 is clearly hypocritical and is in violation of our basic Civil Liberties. The first amendment allows for the peaceful gathering of citizens and our local leaders don't have the authority to tell us to

We talk to Dr. Reid Robinson about use of psychedelics in psychiatry. According to Dr. Robinson, "Psychedelic medicine is here, and as a psychiatrist, I think it’s long overdue. We are in the midst of a mental health crisis, with over a million lives lost in the world each year to suicide. This is especially tragic, because depression is treatable, even if the individual can’t see a way out at the time. About 1 in every 8 Americans takes an antidepressant medication every day, but this hasn’t lowered our depression rates – these meds just don’t work that well for too many people, and modern life is just making things worse. We’re evolutionarily adapted for the stone age, but we’re living out our lives in a sedentary, indoor, screen-addicted modern age, and that doesn’t sit well with our souls. To top things off, many of our natural remedies are disappearing, such as good sleep, deep friendships, real food, and physical activity."     SHOW LESS      

Pasture-raised beef, dairy, chickens, and lamb are viable in the suburbs.   Utah’s Natural Meat might be the most innovative farms in all of Utah. It’s located amongst one of the fastest-growing areas along the Wasatch front: in South Jordan. Here homes are popping up like daisies all around Shayn and Kristen’s Bowler’s ranch/dairy/farm/store and home in the suburbs. South Jordan’s home prices are rising but the Bowlers have no intention of selling.   Shayn Bowler takes the best from the old world by using draft horses to plow fields and to haul large amounts of hay and feed. But he also utilizes state-of-the-art technology to feed his animals. All his animals eat rich, nutritious, sprouted grass. He uses large shipping containers to grow sprouts. In this way, he compensates for the lack of ground his farm sits on. “Rather than putting animals on pasture, I bring the pasture to the animals.”      

Greg Hughes has been involved in Utah politics for more than twenty years. He was Utah State House speaker for four years and has had a long track record for being involved in some of the most important decisions in Utah Politics and policy.   Hughes' track record for spearheading the move of the State Prison; Spearheading the Operation Rio Grande Project (to move the homeless); serving on the board of UTA; and launching the concepts of the "inland port" has made him a political leader who is highly involved in reshaping Utah.   But as a developer/politician can he really serve the best interests of Utahns while ignoring his own interests? We point out this conflict to Hughes in our conversation, that he and many other Utah politicians have. We also ask Hughes directly about the "Good ol' boy club" that seems to exist for Republican, LDS members and land developers in Utah, in what seems to be their efforts to monopolize the buying public, especially in the fastest growing areas such as Herriman and Draper.     SHOW LESS      

Utah is one of the fastest growing states in the nation. In the last twenty years, our population doubled due to the beauty of the state and the quality of life. Utah is surrounded by canyons. We have the best skiing on Earth, pristine mountain wilderness, and some of the most diverse landscapes.  However, if this trend of doubling the population every twenty years continues, can we possibly preserve our quality of life? Envision Utah, a Utah nonprofit organization is dedicated to answering this question. Their mission is to help build communities in a manner which will maintain both quality of life and create a more harmonious balance between suburban or urban living and the environment.  We talk to its president and CEO, Ari Bruening on the Utah Stories Show and discuss what we can do to build the better Utah for tomorrow.

The downtown Salt Lake City protesters were peaceful until a mysterious group of four individuals (three of which were white) and likely one leader (holding a megaphone) decided to turn over a police cruiser that was parked on 400 South and 200 east (just North of the library).  Who were these people? Why was this police cruiser seemingly left directly in the path of the protesters? Why did the officer leave the scene who owned the cruiser? And where were the police when this all happened?