Episode 308 – Airplane Bathrooms

Our guest was unable to come but is already rescheduled! So, this week we’re going to wrap up our review of City Weekly’s Best of 2021 (part II) this week.

Jeremy does math to figure out Chris and I have been doing the podcast for almost as long as we’ve been a couple. Then we do some personal planning that is quite thrilling and talk about the lifting of the Federal travel mask mandate, there’s a lot of pee talk and we discuss the reclassified COVID endemic. Chris talks about his new lunchtime getaway and the loot he’s gotten and shared.

BEE UPDATE: As promised, Jeremy gives us an update on the bees after last week’s snowstorm. He checked on them all week and the bees were protecting the queen and on the 16^th Jeremy discovered the queen is out and after that the bees have been out and about looking for food sources.

If you felt something that was like an earthquake and are in the Salt Lake and Tooele valley area, the Tooele Army Depot was ‘blowing shit up!” Bre is disappointed that she didn’t get to see the small helicopter crash at Airport II.

We start with Media & Politics and are reminded that many of the 2021 picks are COVID related and/or influenced. We move along to Arts & Entertainment and finish up with Goods & Services. For Restaurants, Food & Drink and Nightlife, go listen to episode 295, Floppy Fries.

I was excited to learn that Dave Cawley with Cold put out another investigative, unsolved murder podcast about Joyce Yost. Senator Mike Lee wind both Best Political Scandal and Worst Utahn and we feel both were greatly earned. I also learned that Traeger is a local company, who knew?! (Don’t tell me if you did). Please listen to hear about our thoughts and opinions along with our personal alternatives to some of the places listed.

Prior TNUP guests/topics who won awards, Demolished Salt Lake, Cat Palmer (Best Visual Artist), Gia Bianca Stephens (Best Drag Entertainer), Spiral Jetty (Best Public Art), The Monarch (Best Ogden Cultural Pollinator), Olio Skin & Beard Co (Best Tattoo Oil), Fillings & Emulsions (Best Minority-Owned Business), and the Alpine Loop (Best Scenic Drive).

If you’d like to be on the show, have an idea or comment, please reach out to us on our socials, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can also email us at thenewutahpodcast@gmail.com.

The New Utah Podcast · 308 – Airplane Bathrooms

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Episode 304 – Pirate O’s

This week Jeremy and Julia tells us all about Julia’s collaboration with Alexi at a Cocktail Collective event. Folks who attended made spells jars and learned how to make cocktails. This will be an ongoing thing between the two each month so check out their websites for dates, times, locations, and ways to register. Additionally, Julia will be at Pride Fest, West Fest, Herriman Town Days and Riverton Town Days, if you want to stop by and support her. When you do, mention you heard about her on the podcast, and you’ll earn a free crystal!

Chris talks about the craziness of Orlando and how strange it is there. If you want a theme park, that’s where you should go because it’s not all Disney!

Voting for Best of Salt Lake has begun and goes through April 6^th. Our friends at K9 Design, Kudos 2 Canines, Ruby Snap, Olio, etcetera, will be there to vote for, so go do the thing!

This week we’re super excited to have had Orian Collinsworth the owner and proprietor of Pirate O’s Gourmet Market on the show. To those of you who know, you know and to the rest of you, let’s learn. We start out learning that our guest was born in Yukohama, Japan while his dad was there for the military. After traveling all over and losing his mother, his family ended up on Spokane, WA where his father was decommissioned right before Vietnam and became a Baptist minister.

Orian ended up in Idaho where he attended Boise State College and was the first graduating class of Boise State University. There begins he illustrious travels to play foosball and him landing in Utah where he started working for a natural foods’ distributor. He survived several sales to larger companies until he ended up working for Walmart. That didn’t last long and after losing his job, he worked with another retailer to start a store modeled after Trader Joe’s. Evolution has created what has now become Pirate O’s. A fantastic gourmet grocer who also sells fun and exotic candies, has a special hot sauce wall and pasta room. Where else can you easily buy a $200 bottle of hot sauce?!?!

Orian said customers used to come in for ‘that one thing’ but now his customers come in for regular shopping. And don’t forget the deli. While dining in is still not an option, carry out is. The number one seller is #15, so go in and enjoy it. As a side note, the building was built in 1976 as the Fort Douglas Theater and moved to its current location where Orian plans to keep expanding and maybe even open a second location. We also learned about a POW’s first right of refusal and many other stories he had to share. Take a listen to the episode and hear about a fantastic person’s journey to create a fantastic place that can only be found in Utah!

Orian’s favorite thing is Snowbird and powder from the past. Skiing may not be what it once was, but it’s something that is still enjoyable and fantastic and uniquely Utah.

The New Utah Podcast · 304 – Pirate O’s

Episode 301 – Fireball

This episode we sit down and talk with Alexi Fisher, the owner of Hammered Copper, a local bartending company. We talk through a ton with Alexi, from where she started, all the way to how she has become so successful as a business woman of color, in the booze business, all while in a white conservative state like Utah.

We take a deep dive into her experiences as a black woman growing up, and how they have had an impact on her business and her choices. She has been through a pretty insane life, and has come out on top. She is very inspiring for anyone, but especially empowering for other people that want to do something in their lives and stand up for themselves.

She has been expanding her business, and now has an educational setting, The Cocktail Collective, where she teaches everything from how to make glorious cocktails to pairing drinks. She has relationships with other local businesses that make the experience for her students even better. She offers group courses, online classes and will even customize for your needs. She’s a great mixologist, and you won’t be disappointed taking one of her courses.

She also has a podcast, The History of Drinking. So needless to say she knows her stuff in terms of liquor. It makes for good conversation about Utah liquor laws and how they have influenced her. We really had a blast with her, and hope that you enjoy the conversation as well.

The New Utah Podcast · 301 – Fireball

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

Episode 290 – Utah Ugandan

This episode we find out Chris and Bre likely have a mouse in the house. We also get a full recap on the annual ugly sweater competition and the white elephant gifts that ensued. This may become an annual recap, who knows. Lastly before our amazing guest, Julia tells us about getting suckered into a time share on her vacation. It took about 2 seconds before Chris called what it was, and the team listens and gives advice on time share purchases.

The meat of the episode though, is our discussion with Jermain Magandazi, a Ugandan immigrant to Utah, and the owner of Bombini’s Own a local Utah business, specializing in candles, lip balm, perfume and other locally sourced care products.

We get to dive deep into his story in our discussion. Growing up in Uganda with his Aunt, and then moving to the UK, and finally making it to America. At age 11, he essentially met his parents for the first time in his life. They had spent all that time setting up a proper life for their children here in America.

Of course we get to have a long conversations about the different things he thought of and experienced moving from place to place with such big culture differences. We hear about the first thing he ate in America, and you will be surprised by the reaction.

He came to Utah for college, attending the University of Utah. He talks about how he started the business, on a whim, because he was tired of always having to replace lip balms he lost. So he learned how to make them, testing on his friends. Eventually someone told him to sell them and next thing you know he has an Etsy shop, an Amazon store and now a Brick and Mortar location at 7700 Maple Street in Midvale, Utah.

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 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

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