Stay Salty: Lakefacing Stories

Sep 28 2024 11 ep. 36 mins 4

Stay Salty: Lakefacing Stories Podcast artwork

The Great Salt Lake is drying up, and Utah’s major cities and towns could turn into a toxic dust bowl. This is making some Utahns ask: can we stay here? On Stay Salty: Lakefacing Stories hosts Meisei Gonzalez and Olivia Juarez explore what it means to stay in the Great Salt Lake Basin as we face an environmental and public health crisis. We talk with youth activists, moms, Indigenous leaders, people with disabilities, farmers, brine shrimpers, people who are incarcerated, and more. We ask, Why stay? How do we stay? And who gets to stay (or leave)?

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Shifting Culture: Honoring Relationships at Pia Okwai

Sep 28 2024 48 mins

Pia Okwai, often referred to as the Jordan River, is one of Great Salt Lake's (or Pia'pa's) major tributaries. For generations, the river has been stigmatized and polluted, but in this episode we explore how people are reclaiming and honoring relationships with the river. We talk with Daniel Hernandez (Wīnak/Urban Diasporic Highland Maya), also known as Arcia Tecun, who is the fo

Healing the Watershed: How the Northwestern Shoshone are Restoring Wuda Ogwa

Sep 04 2024 45 mins

The Northwestern Shoshone have called Great Salt Lake and the Bear River home for time immemorial. In 2018, the tribe bought back their land at the Bear River Massacre Site, where the U.S. Military murdered an estimated 500 Shoshone people in 1863. Now, the tribe is reclaiming their land and leading a massive restoration effort, including repairing the waterways and planting thousa

Working Waterscape: Agriculture

Aug 09 2024 45 mins

This is part two of our exploration of the working waterscape and landscapes of Great Salt Lake. In this episode, we turn to farming. Farms across the watershed grow alfalfa, fruits, vegetables and raise livestock for meat and dairy that eventually end up on grocery store shelves. These farms use about 80% of the water that is diverted from the Bear, Weber and Jordan Rivers, Great

Working Waterscape: Brine Shrimping

Aug 09 2024 42 mins

This is part one of a two-part exploration into Great Salt Lake as a working waterscape. In this episode, we learn about brine shrimping! We dive into the ways the lake and brine shrimp contribute to our global food system. Great Salt Lake contributes over 40% of the global supply of brine shrimp, which are fed to larger shrimp, like prawns, and other fish cultivated through aquacu

Recreation in the Face of Ecological Collapse

Jul 09 2024 41 mins

Recreation opportunities are a big reason why people live in Utah. Our mountains and waterways are ideal places to ski, bird watch, bike and refresh oneself. But as we face drought, these activities that bring many of us joy are under threat. In this episode of Stay Salty, we talk with Lulu Avila, a snowboarder, and Frances Ngo, a wildlife biologist and birder, about the ways they

How to Stay: Disability Justice Lessons for Dust Bowl City

Jun 05 2024 35 mins

If the Great Salt Lake dries up, toxic dust from the exposed lakebed will reach the lungs of millions of Utahns. This would be a public health disaster. People with disabilities will be disproportionately impacted by this crisis, but they also have knowledge, experience and solutions to help us navigate our uncertain future. In this episode, we talk with Flor Isabel, a mom and acti

When You Can't Leave: Incarceration on the Lake's Shore

May 06 2024 24 mins

People who are incarcerated at the Utah State Correctional Facility face the impacts of the drying Great Salt Lake firsthand. While some of us may have the choice to leave if Great Salt Lake dries up, those who are incarcerated don't have such freedoms. For this episode of Stay Salty, co-host Meisei Gonzalez talked with Tea, a person incarcerated, and Sunny, a mental health adv

'You Can't Erase Us': Shoshone and Ute Connections to Great Salt Lake

Apr 24 2024 53 mins

For time immemorial, the Goshute, Paiute, Shoshone, and Ute people have called the Great Salt Lake Basin home. In this episode of Stay Salty, we learn about Shoshone and Ute connections to Great Salt Lake. We talk with Rios Pacheco, the cultural and history advisor for the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, and Forrest S. Cuch, a member of the Ute Indian Tribe and former dir

Making Love for the Lake Visible

Apr 09 2024 37 mins

Great Salt Lake is an excellent place for a date. But chances are the lake herself will steal your heart. Two Utahns who outspokenly love Great Salt Lake are Nan Seymour and Sarah May. You may have seen them walking waves or dancing on the capitol steps in brine shrimp and bird costumes EVERY DAY during the Utah State legislative session this year. They also stayed with Great Salt

What It Means to Stay

Mar 25 2024 25 mins

Welcome to Stay Salty: Lakefacing Stories! In our first episode, co-hosts Meisei Gonzalez and Olivia Juarez share their personal Great Salt Lake stories and explore their shared identities as queer, Mexican Americans who grew up on the west side of the Great Salt Lake Basin. Meisei talks with his best friend Zakary Cobia, and Olivia chats with their mom Cynthia Lucero. Together, th