The Virtual Jewel Box

Writing and Memory, with Jesmyn Ward and Kase Johnstun

Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward speaks with Kase Johnstun of Utah Humanities about the craft of writing, resilience, and historical memory, in anticipation of her 2025 David P. Gardner Graduate Lecture in the Humanities and Fine Arts. Ward’s lecture is hosted by the Tanner Humanities Center and the Salt Lake City Public Library, and is part of the Utah Humanities Book Festival. 
This episode is a collaboration with the Utah Humanities podcast, Check Your Shelves. 
Books by Ward include:
Let Us Descend 
Sing Unburied Sing (Winner, National Book Award) 
Salvage the Bones (Winner, National Book Award) 
Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University. 

Humanities perspectives on AI, with Lizzie Callaway and Rebekah Cummings

The leaders of the University of Utah summer institute Humanities Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence, Elizabeth Callaway and Rebekah Cummings, join Scott Black to discuss the human limitations of AI, as well as the points of contact between AI and the humanities. 
Links:
Marriott Library, The ARPANET Project 
Brigham Young University, Office Digital Humanities 
Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein, Data Feminism — MIT Press 
Claire Wardle, “The Science of Misinformation” — SciLine 
Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power — PublicAffairs 
(Episode image: modified detail from Caspar David Friedrich, Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer/Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818.) 
Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University. 
 

The humanities and public life, with Jodi Graham and Scott Black

What are the humanities, and how do they function in our daily lives? It might be that they’re primarily academic disciplines studied in universities and cultural institutions. Or some say they're the everyday conversations and reflections that make us fully human—like discussing a movie with friends or questioning our assumptions. In this episode, Jodi Graham, Executive Director of Utah Humanities, discusses how both formal programming and informal human interactions serve the humanities mission.
With host Scott Black, she explores why face-to-face connection remains irreplaceable in our digital age, how community-driven programming strengthens Utah’s cultural infrastructure, and why the humanities’ role is to ask probing questions rather than provide predetermined answers.
They also examine how fifty years of state humanities work has evolved from simple grant-making to comprehensive community engagement, and why this work is especially urgent in a culture of mistrust and division. 
Episode image: Detail from Victor Arnautoff, City Life, mural in Coit Tower, 1934. 
Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University. 

Authenticity work, with Kate Bowler and Gretchen Case

Kate Bowler joins Gretchen Case to discuss authenticity in academic, spiritual, and medical life; the limits of toxic positivity; and how joy can be both a surprise and a discipline. Reflecting on her own experience, Bowler examines what it means to seek truth and integrity within imperfect systems and bodies. Kate Bowler is Associate Professor of American Religious History at Duke Divinity School. Her books include:
Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day!: Daily Meditations for the Ups, Downs & In-Betweens
Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved 
No Cure for Being Human: (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) 
Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel 
The Preacher's Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities 
Gretchen Case is Director of the Center for Health Ethics, Arts, and Humanities and Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at the University of Utah.
Episode artwork: Detail from Edward Hopper, Soir Bleu, 1914, Whitney Museum of American Art. 
Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University. 

Race, Religion, and Slavery in Antebellum Utah - Paul Reeve and Jordan Watkins

Historians Paul Reeve and Jordan Watkins discuss This Abominable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah (by Reeve, Christopher B. Rich, Jr., and LaJean Purcell Carruth), published by Oxford University Press in 2024.
Their discussion explores the origins and transcription of primary sources integral to the book, the legislative stance on slavery in 1850s Utah, the nuanced differences between various forms of unfree labor, and the perspectives of both white lawmakers and the enslaved people in the region. They also touch on the broader political and religious implications of these debates, offering listeners a comprehensive understanding of a complex and contentious period in Utah’s history.
W. Paul Reeve — Simmons Professor of Mormon Studies and History at the University of Utah  
Jordan T. Watkins — Associate Professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University 
The documents analyzed in This Abominable Slavery are available at thisabominableslavery.org, hosted by the University of Utah. 
Episode album art, left to right: Green Flake, Brigham Young, Pidash or Kah-peputz, and Orson Pratt. 
Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University. 

Aesthetic experience, with Bryan Counter and Nathan Wainstein

This episode features Bryan Counter (Framingham State University) discussing his new book Four Moments of Aesthetic Experience: Reading Huysmans, Proust, McCarthy, and Cusk (published by Anthem Press) with Nathan Wainstein (Department of English, University of Utah). Counter theorizes aesthetic experience as something that mediates between subjective judgment and objective art, emphasizing the role of chance, atmosphere, and embodied encounters with literature. Rather than focusing on formal analysis, he examines moments within texts where characters grapple with aesthetic experience, arguing that our experience of reading often transcends the content itself. 
Episode artwork: detail from Clara Peeters, Still Life with Cheeses, Almonds and Pretzels, c. 1615, Mauritshaus, The Hague.  
Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University. 

Abolitionist, Saint, Queen: Balthild of Francia - Isabel Moreira and Scott Black

 A slave becomes Queen and later is sainted for her work as an abolitionist.
A new book by Isabel Moreira (Distinguished Professor of History, University of Utah) explores not only the life of Balthild of Francia (c. 633-80), but also the methods of late-medieval historical research. Professor Moreira discusses Balthild of Francia: Anglo-Saxon Slave, Merovingian Queen, and Abolitionist Saint (Oxford University Press, Women in Antiquity series) with Tanner Humanities Center Director, Scott Black. 
See also: Isabel Moreira’s Tanner Conversation with Chris Jones 
 
Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University. 

Freedom, kindness, and beauty: The legacy of Obert C. Tanner - Mark Matheson and Scott Black

This episode explores Obert C. Tanner’s life and legacy, which includes the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center and the Tanner Lectures on Human Values.
Mark Matheson, Lecturer in English at the University of Utah and Director of the Tanner Lectures on Human Values, discusses Obert’s remarkable journey from poverty to philanthropy, including his upbringing by his extraordinary mother, Annie Clark Tanner, who used J.S. Mill’s On Liberty as a parenting guide.
 
Links: 
Obert C. Tanner, One Man’s Journey: In Search of Freedom
Annie Clark Tanner, A Mormon Mother: An Autobiography 
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty 
The Tanner Lectures on Human Values 
 
Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University. 

Mistrusting the news, with Jake Nelson and Robert Carson

Under what conditions do people trust the news, if at all? How did Covid lockdown change news consumption? What are we to think of journalists who leave establishment news organizations and build their own following on platforms like Substack?  And does our mistrust of news organizations mirror mistrust of other professional sectors, like health care and higher education? 
Jake Nelson, Associate Professor of Communication at the U and former journalist, discusses these issues and more, based on his extensive interviews with news audiences. With Seth Lewis (University of Oregon), he is working on a book project, Why We Distrust: American Skepticism toward Media, Medicine, and Higher Education. 
Sources mentioned in this episode: 
Jeff Bezos on X, about the editorial mission of The Washington Post 
Glenn Greenwald, on Locals 
Bari Weiss, The Free Press 
Ken Klippenstein, Substack 
Taylor Lorenz, User Mag 
Jake’s recommended media:  
City Cast Salt Lake 
Axios 
The Hollywood Reporter
Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University. 

Dr. Strangelove, the Cold War, and American culture - Matt Basso and Megan Weiss

Matt Basso and Megan Weiss discuss the iconic film, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. They explore the film’s historical context, its satirical take on Cold War politics, and its depiction of gender. The Red and Lavender Scares, consumerism, and militarization all helped set the stage for the Cold War culture lampooned in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film. 
Matt Basso is Associate Professor of History and Gender Studies, and Megan Weiss is a doctoral candidate in History, at the University of Utah. 
This episode was recorded in anticipation of the Tanner Humanities Center’s screening of the London National Theatre’s production of Dr Strangelove, starring Steve Coogan. You can find out more about the Center’s NTL screenings, and other public programming, at tanner.utah.edu. 
Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University.