Episode 299 – The Metaphysical

Hello loyal followers & patrons, this is Jeremy giving you the synopsis of this weeks exciting Podcast. We start out discussing this year’s super bowl, it was a close game, and the halftime show was one of the best… EVER. Julia got a new car to replace the one she destroyed. We all decided that we spent way too much time together recently AND Bre gives us the 411 on how messed up women’s health is.

This week we interviewed Julia and her shop the Pleiadian Alter. (You can see her bio at the end of this article). We have actually interviewed Julia the person, about a year ago so if you want to know more about her (when she was born, where she was raised, etc.) go check out episode 253 Cleany Wipey Things

In this interview we get the lowdown on why, how, and what the name of her shop is and means. Most people can’t say or spell Pleiadian, but it does have significant meaning. Julia has been interested in art from a young age (she gets that from her father) She was also raised in an entrepreneurial atmosphere. From mowing lawns, to planting gardens, and raising chickens, the Gates family has always had a more self-sufficient attitude towards life in general.

Julia began doing art commissions around 13 years old and arts and crafts her entire life. In June of last year (2021) she started her business which is an eclectic collection of crystals, herbs, rocks, spell jars, and her own personal sellable art.

Julia is the owner of The Pleiadian Altar, which is an ethically sourced metaphysical pop-up shop with an emphasis on community education to reduce the stigma around witchcraft. She offers a wide variety of fair trade products including crystals, handmade spell jars, organic body care, and alternatives to closed practices such as white sage. Julia first created the shop as an income-producing outlet for her artistic abilities. Now she regularly teaches spell jar classes and is gearing up to host workshops for anyone who would like to learn more about witchcraft.

You can visit her at one of her markets throughout the valley or shop her website and Etsy. (Use the code UTAHWITCH for 10% off!)

The New Utah Podcast · 299 – The Metaphysical

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Episode 287 – Dugway

Hey everyone, it’s Jeremy here and this is the last podcast week of November, so ya’ll know what that means…Historically Significant Utah! The gang is short Julia this week because she headed out early to start her Thanksgiving shenanigans. Chris and Bre went to the Alton Brown show (I’m actually quite jealous) and afterwards they ate at the new Pretty Bird location. Go back a few years and you can listen to our interview with Chef Viet at the grand opening of Pretty Bird. Jeremy and Julia went to the Herriman Holiday Market, and we encourage everyone to shop local this holiday season.

This month we went down a deep rabbit hole and discussed the infamous Dugway Proving Grounds located 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Dugway Proving Ground is where the Army develops and tests biological and chemical weapons, tactics, and defenses, what are often called NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) hazards. DPG was established in 1942, shortly after the US was suddenly drawn into World War II. The Great Salt Lake Desert was an excellent location for this weapons development, being remote, thinly populated, and easy to secure.

In March 1968, 6249 sheep died in Skull Valley, an area only 30 miles from the Dugway testing site. The sheep were found to have been poisoned by a never agent ‘VX’ that had been developed at the proving grounds. The official claim was for 4,372 “disabled” sheep, of which about 2,150 were killed outright by the VX exposure. Another 1,877 sheep were “temporarily” injured or showed no signs of injury and but not marketable due to their potential exposure and put down by veterinarians.

From 1985 to 1991, Dugway Proving Ground was home to the Ranger Schools short-lived Desert Training Phase. It was first known as the Desert Ranger Division (DRD) until redesignated the Ranger Training Brigades 7th Ranger Training Battalion in 1987, and taught students basic desert survival skills and small unit tactics. The program was later moved back to its original site at Fort Bliss, Texas in 1991, where it was deactivated in 1995

We discuss some of the military tests involved human exposure to biological and chemical agents with intriguing titles like:

“The Consequences of Ingestion by Man of Real and Simulated Fallout”
Cluster bombs
Soil spores
“Operation Night Train”
Weteye Chemical Bomb
Birds to Tularemia
“Big Jack”
“Elk Hunt”
“Autumn Gold”
“Data report for DORK”
Incapacitating Darts
Entomological Munitions

“Entomological Munitions” was an experiment conducted at Dugway called “Operation Bellwether” which appears to study weaponized mosquitos. They took mosquitoes with an inert disease, and inert bacteria, and an inert virus and released them on civilian populations in the United States.

Following the public attention drawn to Area 51 in the early 1990’s, UFO hunters claim that numerous UFOs have been stored and reported in the area around Dugway. Dugway is being hailed as the new Area 51 (or) Area 52 to the diehard UFO Hunters.

The New Utah Podcast · 287 – Dugway

Episode 284 – Self, Community, World

I guess Jeremy will always be plagued with rats. On this episode he regales us with more tales of tails. We also talk about Halloween in Utah and the Saturday vs Sunday trick or treating dilemma. Last year, Chris and I started a new tradition of heading over to Jeremy’s for trick or treating since no one does it in our neighborhood. For the record, we went to the movies on Saturday and had four folks stop by for candy but Jeremy and Heather had lots on Saturday and again Sunday. Our Halloween celebration was cut short though by a family emergency and maybe that was a good thing since Chris and I found out we contracted COVID! Don’t worry, all is well and we are on our way to full recoveries.

Enough about us though. This week we are joined by the delightful Nikki Nelson with Cousin Ross Productions and CR Effects. Cousin Ross is a full service, ecofriendly, print shop that focuses on recycled products and CR Effects is working on making the world a better place through small changes.

Nikki comes to us through partnership with the Neighborhood Hive. She was born here in Utah and grew up in Bountiful until she moved to LA when she was 15 to live with her sister. After LA, she attended Northwestern University where she majored in mechanical engineering. Nikki was attending university on scholarships and then those ran dry, she stayed in Chicago as a nanny for a time. She was very athletic but discovered she has a degenerative disc disease, needed surgery and lost six discs. She ended up back in Utah where she finished religious studies and then became a physical and massage therapist. She is also a yoga instructor and a nutritionist. Because of her love for people and life, Nikki used her education to start up CR Effects where helps immunocompromised folks as well as folks with special issues. She also works to improve the world through kindness and passion. She proclaims it to be a life-long passion that she will never stop doing.

Cousin Ross Products started when Nikki lost her printer. She had been providing her environmentally friendly products to the prison to print for her but they ended up moving that process out of the valley. That’s when Nikki discovered HP and their recycled printers that use recycled products. Welcome in the birth of a fantastic new printing company that can pretty much do whatever you need! Nikki works with the general public but also works with several artists on the reg.

Nikki’s most interesting/unique things about Utah are Evermore and Capital Reef National Park. She likes that in Utah, you can still go places where no one has walked.

Follow Nikki through CR Effects on Facebook @creffects and on Instagram @cr-effects. You can also follow her and Ross on Facebook and Instagram @cousinrossproductions. Listen to the episode to hear more about her and Ross and how to be involved with these two great Utah businesses.

The New Utah Podcast · 284 – Self, Community, World

Episode 283 – Religious Architecture

It’s the last week of the month, and for October we are focusing in on 2 religious buildings that have a lot of historical significance for the State of Utah; The LDS Temple in Salt Lake City and The Cathedral of The Madeleine also in Salt Lake.

The show begins though, with some grumbles from Jeremy and Chris about the small election this coming week, and how folks continue to be running unopposed in the state, especially in local elections. We also complain about the need to mail ballots for a single position in a district, that is unopposed. A real barn burner of a choice who to vote for if you ask us.

Now into the good stuff, where we start with the LDS temple, in Temple Square, Downtown Salt Lake City. While not the first Mormon temple built, it is the largest in the world. It stands 210 feet tall, is covered in Utah granite as thick as 9 feet at the base and took 40 years to build.

The land the temple would be built on was recognized quickly and snatched up. A wall went up in 1852, to conceal the area to be built within. On April 6, 1853, the cornerstone ceremony occurred and work began in earnest. Local sandstone was initially used in the construction, which took years in foundation work. 14 years before walls appeared above ground to be exact.

In 1857, the site was buried, and hidden, in an effort to prevent the US Army from identifying that a temple was being built. When work resumed on the temple, after the military left and the Utah War was all but over, it was discovered that sandstone was just not the right material. So in 1860, the builders swapped to granite, which had been recently discovered in the nearby canyons.

In the episode we talk about the design of the temple, the symbolism used within and outside and many of the structures in temple square itself. It took 40 years to the day to complete, and on April 6, 1893 the temple was officially dedicated. Today, the temple is undergoing a massive renovation, and visiting it is not possible for the next 4 years.

We then move to a much quicker project, but equally significant to the State of Utah. The Cathedral of The Madeleine in downtown Salt Lake, just a few blocks form the LDS Temple, is a bastion of Catholic presence in the Salt Lake Valley. Built in 1/4 of the time, the Cathedral features similar architectural greatness.

Built on land purchased and donated by the first Bishop of Utah, Bishop Scanlan, it features tons of beautiful stained glass, sandstone and granite. With a very gothic interior the cathedral is open for all to see. Bishop Glass, the bishop that took over when Bishop Scanlan died, really added a lot of his flair to the cathedral after it was complete.

The cathedral was completed in 1909, but consecrated after it was paid off, during the Great Depression in 1936. The masses in the cathedral were all in Latin until 1965, when the first English mass was celebrated. The Cathedral also has slivers of what is supposed to be the cross that Jesus Christ was crucified on inside.

Hopefully you enjoy this episode, we had a good time making it.

The New Utah Podcast · 283 – Religious Architecture

Episode 266 – Buchanan’s Blunder

This week is historically significant Utah week, and we dive deep into the Utah War and its ties to the creation and subsequent destruction of Camp Floyd. It all started in the mid 1850s when the federal government had a growing concern for the Utah territory’s growing obstinance for federal law. Brigham Young had been declared governor, much to the chagrin of then President James Buchanan. See the Mormon’s had eyes for creating their own country in the middle of the United States, and given the rising tensions with the South, the feds didn’t want an excuse for them to grow stronger and have a better case for secession. So President Buchanan ordered troops to head to Utah.

Courtesy of wikipedia and Tricia Simpson

The Mormon militia at the time, known as the Nauvoo Legion, was directed by Young to harass the approaching army. They succeeded in delaying the army for a year, entrance into the Salt Lake Valley. Burning fields and wagons, scattering the army’s livestock and stopping supply trains turned out to be an effective tactic. But the US Army finally marched into Salt Lake City on June 26, 1858, just a month shy of when they set out to stop the Mormon uprising in Utah.

The army ends up setting up a camp between Salt Lake and Provo, and Brigham Young agrees to give the governance to a federally supported man, Alfred Cumming. But the story doesn’t end there, Camp Floyd was built, and infused money into the very economy and people that the army was sent to stop. Sadly all that stands today is small outline of the fort and the cemetery.

It’s easy to learn more, simply check out the Issuu.com story, its perhaps the most comprehensive we found. There are some other great sites to get quick factoids, over at AmericanHistoryCentral.com.

We also discuss the Utah drought at length. Most of the state is in an Exceptional Drought state. The drought is worse than the dust bowls of the 1930s. We urge everyone to please not light fireworks this year. Go to a planned show and enjoy fireworks your money couldn’t buy anyways. You can check out Unified Fire for a current restriction map of the Salt Lake Valley. We also encourage you to visit Slow The Flow and learn how to conserve water as best you can.

Please don’t forget to check out the Food Truck Passport, courtesy of the Food Truck League, 30 local food trucks and other sponsors. It’s a great way to support a bunch of local charities. Lastly a huge shout out to our friends at The Neighborhood Hive. They managed to fully fund their Kickstarter and are well on their way to a fantastic new opportunity for them and other small businesses around town.

The New Utah Podcast · 266 – Buchanan's Blunder

Episode 265 – Juan Valdez

This episode we sit down with Nick Nelson, the sole proprietor of Logos Coffee, a local Utah coffee roaster. Nick is a Utah native, that got to experience the world through a true backpacking trip through Europe and South America. It wasn’t this trip that sparked his love for coffee though. No it was his time spent as a city planner in Denver of all places. Being surrounded by good coffee, he was inspired to learn as much as he could about it.

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A post shared by Logos Coffee Company (@logoscoffeeco)

So he brought his new found love back to Utah, and decided why not open a business right before a global pandemic is going to hit. Wanting to stay true to the bean, so to speak, he decided to invest in and open his own roasting company. He still operates an espresso cart to show off his roasts and it can be rented out if you want, along with Nick of course. You can find Nick’s coffee at both the Wheeler Farm and Daybreak Farmers Markets all summer long.

We also dive into where you can see all the fireworks shows this year. In typical Utah fashion, the majority of public displays will actually be on July 3 and not the 4th, since it’s the lords day or something. You can find a good list here. We can’t stress enough how important it is to not light off your own fireworks. We have had way too many fires and it is simply too dry in Utah right now.

Don’t forget to support our friends at The Neighboorhood Hive as their Kickstarter is closing soon. Helping local businesses is what we are all about on this show.

The New Utah Podcast · 265 – Juan Valdez

Episode 263

Hey! Bre here and this is the episode where we go onsite at The Neighborhood Hive to support our longtime friends Derek and Jennifer Williams and their wonderful business Olio Skin & Beard Co and our new friends Jed Matthews and Tiffany Rainwater with The Bean Whole and Jamaica Trinnaman with Hello!Bulk Markets. The Neighborhood Hive is located at 2065 E 2100 S in Salt Lake City, Utah and is just starting renovations on their new building. You can donate to their Kickstarter if you’d like to help the three locally owned and operated businesses along with many other local businesses that they will be nurturing.

The Neighborhood Hive (left to right: Jamaica, Derek, Jennifer, Tiffany, Jed)

This project has been a long time in the making with the idea just over a year old, The Neighborhood Hive was officially started in September of 2020, space procured in May of 2021 and the buildout started this month with the hope that Phase I will be ready in September. You will hear from Derek, Jennifer, Jed, and Jamaica regarding this exciting venture!

Derek and Jennifer with Olio were first on TNUP in episode 36 where they convince Chris to start using beard oil and he has never turned back. You’ll hear from them again in episode 71 where we are recording onsite at their old location. We first met them when they were running a very successful booth at the Salt Lake Farmers Market (which starts up again this weekend). They were so successful, in fact, that they started a brick-and-mortar business in which they have been extremely successful. Olio provides a full line of skin care, beard care, tattoo care and handcrafted soap. Ingredients are fresh and organic, and they use no preservatives. Derek and Jennifer are very involved in the community and strive to make a positive impact.

Jamaica Trinnaman has been in the grocery business for many more years than the three years Hello!Bulk has been in business. She was born in Logan and went to school there. After some traveling, she ended back in Utah and has made quite the splash! After working with Wild Oats, Whole Foods, Sunflower and Sprouts, Jamaica realized she wanted to flip the story of the traditional grocery store that has a small bulk items area and mostly sells pre-packaged products. Her idea to create a place where consumers could shop in bulk for body care items and household cleaners in addition to traditional bulk food items. The idea was to bring in your own reusable container (because we all have plenty of containers we don’t know what to do with) and fill them with a much product as you needed, no more, no less. You end up paying for what you use instead of wasting your money on the package and stale product that eventually ends up in a landfill.

Hello!Bulk is currently run from 355 N 500 W in Salt Lake City and is open seven days a week. They started out with help from the Give Group that provided help with leasing. Now that Hello!Bulk is a community staple, Jamaica is able to start work on consolidating her warehouse and on opening her second location at The Neighborhood Hive. Like Derek and Jennifer, she too is involved in the community and wants to encourage walkable neighborhoods that can help lower are carbon footprints and encourage positive growth.

The Bean Whole started out as a passion project in a garage. Jed Matthews was brewing coffee and just giving it away. His then girlfriend and now wife, Tiffany Rainwater, encouraged him to start selling his tasty concoctions. The Bean Whole concentrates on small batch roasting and making a quality product. Jed was once a baker, and he knows about sugars and conversions of malts and grains and knows about how small batch coffee can change due to growing seasons. He and Tiffany travel a lot to gain new sources and discover new coffee opportunities. They were a business for six years before they got a brick and mortar. Jed has a Diedrich Roaster and took a course to learn how to make the most of it. The Bean Whole also started at the Salt Lake Farmers Market and about four bags of coffee beans. His favorite beans are from Papua New Guinea. The Bean Whole provides organic coffee beans for Hello!Bulk, which makes them another great partner for The Neighborhood Hive. The Bean Whole used to be housed in the same building as Olio and when the property was purchased for redevelopment, they also lost their space and were looking for a new home.

Now we’re back at The Neighborhood Hive (TNH). As their Kickstarter page says, “. . . we are creating a harbor we hope small businesses outgrow.” This place will create a place where small businesses share expenses and more importantly, share risk. TNH is a small business incubator that can give new ventures a place to see if they are ready for brick and mortar. They will have the support and foot traffic generated by the three anchor businesses. These businesses have already been working together and now, in addition to supporting one another, they will be helping others to follow in their footsteps. They will also start hosting the Wild Earth Market, which helps support local artists and teaches about the current environmental issues facing Utah. 10% of the proceeds go to support their non-profit partner, TreeUtah. Saying that this group of entrepreneurs wants to help their community is an understatement, they are making a difference and keep thinking of new ways to continue creating a positive change.

“We have experienced the highs and lows of running our small businesses over the years. We’ve seen the pain points firsthand, uniquely so through COVID and we hope to address these pain points in this new, collective model. We also passionately believe that local small businesses bring a vibrancy and value to our neighborhoods!”

In the second phase of the build, TNH plans to build a commissary/commercial kitchen that would be available to the community. This means for folks who need one for food trucks or to create product for farmers markets. The businesses might sell their goods at TNH or anywhere in the community. The kitchen would be available 24/7. Additionally, the space will be used for educational classes and will be rentable for events. They plan to have rallies with food trucks and eventually provide local entertainment. When they say ‘hive’, they really do want a place filled with people and buzz!

Saying that this group of entrepreneurs wants to help their community is an understatement, they are making a difference and keep thinking of new ways to continue creating a positive change. The Kickstarter opened June 4^th and phase I is set to close June 26^th. Their goal is $47,500 to complete the original build out. Their stretch goal is an additional $24,00 for kitchen equipment. Please go to the Kickstarter page to see the levels of donation available and the rewards you can reap for those levels. Of course, these fantastic people will accept anything you can give, including just sharing this great news with your friends and family in hopes that they might be able to help.

TNUP started this podcast to highlight how fantastic Utah is and if this group of folks is anything, they are the embodiment of why we love our state so much! Support local!

The New Utah Podcast · 263 – Blight Bits

The New Utah Podcast

The Utah you really want to know about.

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