The week hit hard: reports of a gunman targeting Imam Shuab Din, a fresh wave of controversy over Prop 4 signatures, and courts signaling the redistricting fight is nearly done. Add a new constitutional court fast-tracking hot-button cases, measles exposures popping up locally, a 3.5 quake near Magna, and avalanche danger rising with new storms, and you can feel the ground of civic life and literal earth shifting at once. We pull those threads together without panic and ask the only question that matters: what kind of place are we becoming?

Then we pivot to joy and design. I sit down with Brendan Nicholson, the creative director at Momentum Climbing, the mind behind the problems that humble you on Tuesday and make you feel like a hero on Saturday. Brendan breaks down how route setting blends geometry, storytelling, and risk to serve every climber in the gym—beginners learning body tension on V2s, veterans solving dynamic sequences on steeps, and everyone chasing that quiet moment of flow. We get into the details: how hold selection shapes movement, why forced beta usually backfires, what makes a comp-worthy boulder exciting instead of gimmicky, and how community feedback loops keep a gym vibrant.

Throughout, we connect city-scale themes to gym-scale craft. Trust erodes fast when signatures go sideways; trust builds slowly when problems are fair and repeatable. Policy choices rewire institutions; route choices rewire how people move, meet, and belong. As storms line up and headlines crowd the feed, this conversation offers a reset—proof that thoughtful design can turn friction into progress and strangers into partners on the mat. If you care about Salt Lake’s identity, or just love a good send, you’ll find a lot to hold onto here.

If the show resonates, follow, rate, and share with a friend who needs both the context and the stoke. What problem—on the wall or in the city—are you working on this week?

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What happens when a fifth-generation ranch kid earns a PhD in molecular biology and decides to rebuild the bridge between land and table? We sit down with Keven Johnson to unpack how a century-old Wyoming ranch now feeds Utah families and top restaurants through a modern, transparent, and surprisingly intimate supply chain.

Keven grew up branding calves and rolling hay near Lusk, Wyoming, then dove deep into lab life, grants, and postdoc work. Along the way, he noticed what most of us miss: the farther we get from our food, the more we lose in flavor, nutrition, and trust. After his family’s ranch earned a centennial recognition, he felt a responsibility to carry it forward—e-commerce, farmers markets, and direct-to-consumer beef that tells you exactly where it came from. His dry-aged steaks and ground beef quickly earned a following, from Wheeler Farm regulars who text orders to chefs who judged the product by taste, texture, and consistency.

Scaling real beef takes patience and planning. Keven explains the 18–24 month timeline behind every pound, the careful balance between restaurant sourcing and market customers, and the choice to grow without compromising quality. We get into big ag versus small ranching, why minimal processing matters, and how dry aging transforms flavor. Then, a curveball rooted in both tradition and science: beef tallow. Keven leveraged his lab background to create cooking fats, balms, soaps, and more, tapping tallow’s skin-compatible lipids for products that feel as good as they perform.

This conversation is a blueprint for anyone curious about local food, farm-to-table sourcing, and sustainable growth without the buzzwords. If you’ve wondered whether you can taste the difference when you shorten the food chain, this is your sign to find out. Subscribe, share this story with a friend who loves great steak, and leave a review with your favorite cut—we might help you discover a new one.

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A hard choice came first: I pulled a planned conversation after learning about alleged misconduct tied to the guest. That accountability moment set the tone for a brisk, honest tour through a week when Salt Lake City felt alive in every direction—tremors underfoot, signatures under scrutiny, bills moving from talk to consequence, and a long-overdue storm finally pointing our way.

We start with the Magna-area quake and what geologists say it does—and doesn’t—mean for the Wasatch Fault. From there, we dig into the Prop 4 repeal effort and the growing reports of people finding their names on petitions they don’t remember signing. I share the exact tool to search and remove your name and why petition accuracy is about more than politics; it’s about trust in redistricting, fair maps, and the systems that shape representation across Utah.

Mid-session at the Capitol, energy turns into outcomes: renewed Great Salt Lake funding debates, a tug-of-war over street control between the state and the city, and social policy fights that move from committee rooms into family conversations. On the street level, there’s bright news too: snow returning after a warm stretch, Ava reopening on Main as a small but vital win for local dining, Westminster’s castle-like residence hitting the market, and the aquarium’s expansion quietly pushing us into top-five territory nationwide. It’s the kind of week that reminds us how infrastructure, culture, and civic life braid together.

We close with a preview I’m thrilled about: Kevin Johnson, a PhD biologist turned Wyoming rancher whose beef shows up on some of your favorite Salt Lake menus. It’s a ranch-to-table story built on soil science, genetics, grazing practice, and a deep respect for local food systems. If you care about what’s on your plate and how it gets there, you’ll want to hear where science meets flavor.

Tap play, stay curious, and if this resonated, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a quick review. Your support helps more neighbors find thoughtful local news, policy context, and food stories that actually matter.

www.Burrn.org <= Check to see if your name is included in signatures to repeal prop 4

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Ever wonder how a single week can reveal what a city wants to become? We unpack a fast-moving stretch for Salt Lake—where your dinner plate, your commute, and your sense of home all tie back to choices on the hill and stories on the ground. We start with a challenge to the “who cooks Sysco best” mindset by spotlighting Moonshadow Farms and its CSA model, a simple way to get seasonal produce delivered to your door while keeping dollars and flavor local. That everyday act of eating becomes a lens for bigger questions: who we support, what we value, and how we hold onto place in a changing market.

From there, we track the pulse of the legislative session. The Great Salt Lake takes center stage as lawmakers consider serious funding and new water paths to rebuild the lake’s levels. Recent moves add real water back, yet the shortfall remains steep—proof that incremental wins matter but won’t carry us alone. Social policy also shapes the mood, with gender-affirming care proposals testing how we show up for one another. And a bill that could shift control of Salt Lake City street design raises deeper questions about safety, mobility, and who decides what our roads are for.

Life at ground level keeps humming. We look at unusual winter weather, a nudge from Solitude to keep skiers engaged, and a promising plan to convert the old downtown police building into nearly 200 affordable units. Local pride pops as a Food Network favorite returns and a Park City reality series leans into our Olympic DNA. Then we pivot to craft and identity with our upcoming guest, Winnie the Drew, a tattoo artist whose journey and style have drawn attention far beyond Utah. His story reminds us that culture is built by hands and choices, not slogans. If you care about where Salt Lake is headed—ecologically, politically, creatively—this update connects the dots between policy and personal life, between water levels and dinner tables, between street lines and storylines.

Join us, share it with a friend who cares about this place, and leave a quick review so more locals can find the show. Subscribe for weekly updates that keep you close to the decisions shaping our city.

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What if your favorite restaurant’s best dish started as a quiet decision at dawn—harvest now, while the sugars are high? We sit down with Andrea Morgan, the farmer behind Moonshadow in Hoytsville, to explore the winding path from ballet shoes to biodynamic soil, from student activist saving UBC’s farm to Utah landowner supplying kitchens like Urban Hill and High West. Her story pulls you into the real engine of “farm to table”: relationships, timing, and the stubborn will to grow food that tastes like the place it’s from.

Andrea opens up about the years she spent learning on diversified farms across British Columbia, the business reality of small market gardens, and the craft of serving chefs who write menus around the field. Then everything changes—a devastating road cycling crash and traumatic brain injury force her to rebuild reading, balance, and memory. The farm becomes therapy: hours of weeding, crew support, and the slow return of rhythm. A sabbatical follows, then a surprise chance to buy the historic Ranui property. With grit, settlement funds, and a vision for soil, Ranui’s “abundant sunshine” evolves into Moonshadow—a new chapter rooted in biodynamics, stewardship, and flavor.

We dig into practical takeaways you can use tonight. Learn how to ask better sourcing questions at restaurants, why terroir makes greens and carrots taste unmistakably local, and how CSAs give farms winter cash flow while giving you peak-season produce all summer. Get names of Utah restaurants that truly partner with growers, hear what’s in season and why, and discover how organic practices—certified or not—protect water, soil, and our bodies.

Hungry for food that tastes like where you live? Hit play, then share this with a friend who loves great meals. Subscribe, leave a review so others can find the show, and if you’re ready to back local agriculture, join a CSA and tell us what you cooked first.

Moonshadow Farm Webite and CSA: http://www.moonshadowutah.com

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Local stories rarely arrive one at a time, and this week proves it. We kick off with a new narrative series exploring Salt Lake lore through the Billboard Queen, Julia Reagan—how one woman’s image turned into a citywide mirror for grief, money, curiosity, and the power of attention. The tale blends mystery with media mechanics and shows how public fascination can pull private lives into the spotlight, lawsuits and all.

From there, we switch gears to community energy you can feel: Post Malone and Jelly Roll just announced a tour finale in Salt Lake City, and we’re lining up a ticket giveaway to celebrate. It’s the kind of hometown moment that turns a national tour into a local victory lap, reminding us why ease of access, passionate crowds, and a growing creative scene keep SLC on the map. Meanwhile, the internet is buzzing with new Epstein document chatter touching Utah‑adjacent names and institutions. We walk through what’s claimed, what’s verified, and how to navigate the space between rumor and reality without losing curiosity or accountability.

Culture takes another turn as Sundance signals its exit from Utah. Some see a loss of a defining pillar; others see breathing room to build a film culture that serves locals year‑round. We compare the Park City advantage to Boulder’s logistics and consider whether history will repeat like Outdoor Retailer. At the Capitol, Speaker Mike Schultz’s push to tilt the sentencing commission toward more law enforcement voices sparks a debate over balance and outcomes, while immigration protests downtown underline how national issues land on local streets. We also unpack why the Prop 4 repeal effort is stalling and what sustained support for independent redistricting says about voters’ appetite for fairness over party control.

To close, we preview our upcoming conversation with Andrea Morgan of Moonshadow Farm, whose journey from Park City to farms across North America and back home shows how thoughtful agriculture can root community in a shifting cultural landscape. If you care about how a city defines itself—through art, policy, protests, and food—you’ll feel right at home here. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend, and drop a review so more Utahns can find us.

Juliea Reagan Deep Dive

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A single image. A simple line. And then that face was everywhere. We dig into the story of Julia Reagan—how a quiet memorial spread across Utah and into multiple states, why it captured national attention, and what it reveals about the collision of grief, power, and public narrative. Julia wasn’t a celebrity or a politician. She was the wife of Bill Reagan, whose company, Reagan Outdoor Advertising, shapes skylines across the West. When hundreds of memorial billboards appeared with no URL, no ask, and no context, curiosity filled the vacuum. Drivers posted, the algorithm amplified, and a personal loss turned into a cultural moment.

We walk through the reported timeline of Julia’s health challenges, her admission to University of Utah Hospital, and the wrongful death lawsuit that alleges preventable failures—claims that remain unproven and will be decided in court. Once that lawsuit surfaced, the billboards read differently. Was this pure remembrance, or did visibility also serve to shape public sentiment and apply pressure to one of Utah’s most powerful institutions? We unpack how minimal creative, massive reach, and yearly recurrence around Memorial Day can transform memorialization into ritual—and ritual into influence.

This is a Utah story with national stakes, where a family’s mourning meets the mechanics of media. Two things can be true: a husband can honor his wife on the largest canvas he knows, and he can understand exactly how attention moves hearts, headlines, and history. Hear the facts, consider the strategy, and decide for yourself: were those billboards love, leverage, or both? If this deep dive challenged your assumptions, subscribe, share with a friend, and drop your take—we want to hear where you land.

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A week of Utah headlines rarely lands with this much force. Downtown protests over the killing of Alex Pretti brought thousands into the streets and sent a charge through the Wasatch Front, while Sundance wrestled with the pressure of politics, safety, and a looming move to Colorado. We unpack the stories behind the scroll: how a rumor about an ICE detention facility erupted and was shut down by the owners, why Park City’s Marquee venue suddenly canceled all Sundance screenings over fire and safety issues, and what it takes to keep a festival running when compliance falters.

We also head to the Capitol, where the legislative sprint puts housing, zoning reform, and homelessness front and center. The governor’s call to avoid becoming a state of renters meets the budget reality of classrooms, with pushback brewing over proposed cuts to early literacy software. Layered on top is a slower, high-stakes fight: the push to repeal Proposition 4, the voter-approved independent redistricting initiative, as organizers struggle to meet signature targets. These decisions won’t just shape headlines; they’ll set the terms for rents, schools, and representation across Utah.

Not everything is heavy. Dinofest at the Natural History Museum offered a joyful reset, and The Lake documentary at Sundance sharpened public focus on the fate of the Great Salt Lake—where water policy, dust risk, and economic health collide. We also launch our new weekly segment, Great Salt Takes, to connect the dots across culture, politics, and community, and we preview a new format drop: a focused profile on the so-called Queen of Salt Lake, Julia Reagan, digging into her ubiquitous billboards and the lawsuit connected to the University of Utah.

If this kind of clear, local context helps you navigate the noise, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more Utahns can find it. And sign up for the Small Lake City newsletter at smalllakepod.com to stay ahead of the next wave of stories.

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