On the Cover

BY Michael Place

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August 1, 2017

They will learn what we teach them. Imagine ordering a car from a ride-sharing app on your smartphone and selecting a driverless option. As you approach a blind turn on a narrow street in your neighborhood, you come upon a stopped school bus. Children …

BY Anna Zumwalt

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August 1, 2017

How and why you should see the Great American Eclipse this month. Where were you when…?” is a question that usually refers to a shock that binds humanity. One such event will be the solar eclipse occurring across the U.S.A. on August 21. Referred to by …

BY Katherine Pioli

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August 1, 2017

A turn-of-the-century real estate investment becomes a beloved landmark, only to face its original fate. Mary Kimball Johnson was not the first person to own the pioneer-era brown brick bungalow at 1432 South and 1100 East. The home’s first owners were …

BY Staff

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August 1, 2017

An experiment in living (and sometimes working) together for six Salt Lake City performing arts organizations. In January 1994, Repertory Dance Theatre leased the old Restaurant Equipment Supply building at 138 West Broadway. We put a portable dance fl …

BY Austen Diamond

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August 1, 2017

Artists draw inspiration from their curated living spaces. The artist’s role is to take that which we can’t say or express and present it in a fresh way, be it beautiful or provocative. Taking in myriad reference material from the news, conversations, …


BY Anna Zumwalt

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August 2, 2017

You could watch the reflection in water (like the ancients did!), or a reflection from a mirror cast on a wall (don’t look at the mirror), or use an old pair of binoculars to cast light on a paper and make sure no one looks at the sun through binocular …

BY Diane Olson

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August 1, 2017

A monthly compendium of random wisdom for the home, garden & natural world. August 1 Dawn breaks at 4:35 am. Sun rises at 6:25 am and sets at 8:42 pm. August 2 Vit. D deficiency is on the rise, thanks in part to our obsessive use of sunblock (an SP …

BY Suzanne Wagner

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August 1, 2017

We are finally at the month of two eclipses with a Mercury retrograde between them. To say there’s about to be monumental change would be an understatement. Leo does not do anything small. Osho Zen Tarot: Guilt, The Burden Medicine Cards: Deer, Squirre …

BY Amy Brunvand

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August 1, 2017

The National Audubon Society has based a new Saline Lakes program out of Salt Lake City in order to prioritize protection of Great Salt Lake—the single most important inland shorebird site in North America. Salty lakes in the Great Basin are remnants o …

BY Staff

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August 1, 2017

Why Conquering Fear Won’t Work and What to Do Instead. Tons of books (and many teachers, gurus and coaches) tell us how to conquer fear, imploring us to ask what we would do without it. But one thing is true: Despite all those books, fear is on the ris …

BY Amy Brunvand

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August 1, 2017

One reason that the Audubon society is concerned about Utah water is that existing state water plans could spell catastrophe for migrating shorebirds. Envision Utah has released a 50-year plan for Utah’s water based on the assumption that Utah’s popula …

BY Staff

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August 2, 2017

Solar panels, insulation, double-paned windows. You already know these things will make a house more “green,” more energy efficient, but what should you start with? How much will it cost? Who should you hire to install a system or upgrade something alr …

BY Amy Brunvand

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August 1, 2017

A beloved book inspires a place-based dance. When I arrived at Bend-in-the-River Park by the Jordan River, Liz Ivkovich and Ashley Anderson were busy unrolling a huge bolt of white fabric along the Jordan River trail. The two women were deep into a cre …

BY Amy Brunvand

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August 1, 2017

At the end of June, satellite images showed a toxic algal bloom spreading in Utah Lake. By July a health advisory warned the public to avoid dark green areas with scum, foam or other visible signs of algae, and by July 14 toxin levels had risen so that …

BY Amy Brunvand

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August 1, 2017

The Seven Canyons Trust and Salt Lake City have raised $1.2 million to restore a 6-acre open space in the Glendale neighborhood where Red Butte Creek, Emigration Creek and Parley’s Creek flow into the Jordan River. Currently, the confluence is paved ov …

BY Greta Belanger deJong

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August 2, 2017

We don’t usually write product reviews, but here is something I seriously appreciate: Mom’s Stuff, made in Spring City, Utah by artist Lee Bennion (her work has appeared on CATALYST covers several times) and her three daughters. Lee calls it superfood …

BY Jane Lyon

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August 1, 2017

Awareness improves dietary carbon footprint. Three years ago, as a new intern at CATALYST Magazine, one of my first assignments was to track my “food mileage” for a day. Tracking food mileage is just like making a food diary, but instead of calories yo …

BY Amy Brunvand

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August 1, 2017

Mia Love (R-UT-4) has received a Climate Leadership Award from Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) for “extraordinary leadership and bold commitment to environmental stewardship.” In January, Love joined the Congressional Climate Solutions Caucus, a bipartis …

BY Charlotte Bell

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August 1, 2017

Simple greeting or divine salute? Few positions are more ubiquitous in yoga practice than Anjali Mudra (Prayer Position). We often practice Anjali Mudra to begin and end a class. We begin and end Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) in Anjali Mudra. On sile …

BY Amy Brunvand

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August 1, 2017

In June and July the Brianhead fire in the Dixie National Forest burned more than 71,000 acres and racked up over $34 million in firefighting costs. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has authorized federal funds to cover 75% of firefightin …

BY Charlotte Bell

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August 1, 2017

Simple greeting or divine salute? Few positions are more ubiquitous in yoga practice than Anjali Mudra (Prayer Position). We often practice Anjali Mudra to begin and end a class. We begin and end Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) in Anjali Mudra. On sile …

BY Amy Brunvand

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August 1, 2017

In 1909, President Taft used the Antiquities Act to designate Mukuntu-Weap National Monument in southwest Utah—the place we now know as Zion National Park. The park is a national treasure, but it’s too popular. Over the past 10 years, visitation at Zio …

BY Staff

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August 1, 2017

“Migration simply happens to some people. Maybe a restless, spring-loaded gene keeps us on the move, or an alignment of perceptual coincidences pushes us from place to place.” —Craig Childs, House of Rain Over the course of a year and a half, my partne …

BY Amy Brunvand

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August 1, 2017

The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has released a Final Environmental Impact Statement for the West Davis Corridor, 19 miles of new freeway that slices through human communities and bird habitat near Farmington Bay. The EIS states that the pr …

BY James Loomis

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August 1, 2017

The peak heat of August in our Salt Lake City summer brings with it some of the most uncomfortable and stressful weeks for our gardens and the gardeners that inhabit them. While one may catch a bit of reprieve from the hostile sun in the shade under th …

BY Amy Brunvand

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August 1, 2017

Government spending on walking and biking can have big paybacks in the form of health benefits, tourism, sales of goods and services, increased real estate values and greenhouse gas reduction, according to a study commissioned by the Utah Transit Autho …

BY Amy Brunvand

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August 1, 2017

Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah) is looking for a new executive director. Matt Pacenza, who has directed the organization since 2011, is moving on to teach high-school. With Pacenza in charge, HEAL Utah helped keep an EnergySolutions ex …

BY Ralfee Finn

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August 2, 2017

Welcome to August 2017, where just about every day for at least the next forty days feels more like an episode from the Twilight Zone than any previously known reality. We’re under the influence of a double-eclipse effect—there’s a lunar eclipse on Aug …

BY Amy Brunvand

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August 1, 2017

First we pollute the wilderness, then we pollute our minds with the belief that we’ve done the right thing. — Mark Strand Audubon to focus on saline lakes, Colorado River The National Audubon Society has based a new Saline Lakes program out of Salt Lak …

BY Dennis Hinkamp

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August 1, 2017

Like everything that makes America great, we tend to take dogma several steps too far. We can’t just have less gluten; we need to be gluten free. We can’t just build a fence; we need a wall. We can’t just have spring-cleaning; We need to become a minim …

BY Austen Diamond

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August 9, 2017

Despite Austen Diamond’s extensive experience working as a journalist and editor, he’s notoriously ter­rible at Scrabble—even worse at Bananagrams. Some think that’s why he mostly takes pictures these days. As a photographer, he specializes in candid a …