What was your favorite toy as a kid? Do remember the excitement of finally getting that one you wanted or playing with it for hours on end?  Tuesday, we're gathering a panel of experts to talk about our favorite toys: why we love them, how they've changed over time and what they tell us about ourselves. Among our guests is Jordan Hembrough of Travel Channel's "Toy Hunter," who says that even for collectors there is one important thing to remember: toys are about having fun. 

Monday, we’re talking about a new work by local playwright Jenifer Nii. It’s called “Suffrage,” and it looks at the complicated history between women’s right to vote and polygamy in 19th century Utah. Utah was the second territory in the US to grant suffrage, but in less than two decades, the right was stripped away as part of a national effort to eradicate plural marriage. Nii joins us, along with the director and cast of Plan B Theatre Company’s production to talk about the social and political roles of women.

When photographer James Balog first headed to the Arctic for National Geographic in 2005, he says he was a skeptic about climate change. What he saw there though put his career on a new course. Balog is the founder of the Extreme Ice Survey – a project that captures visually dramatic manifestations of climate change. Friday, Doug talks to Balog and filmmaker Jeff Orlowski about the stunning documentary "Chasing Ice." It follows James Balog as he risks his life to document the impact of warming temperatures on the world's glaciers. (Rebroadcast)

Wednesday, Governor Gary Herbert announced he would not sign the Snake Valley Water Agreement. The agreement was the result of 4 years of negotiations between Utah and Nevada over how they would share water in an aquifer along their border.  Las Vegas' water demands are outpacing existing resources, but critics say drawing down the water would mean disaster for fragile watersheds, for ranchers and for Utah's air quality. Thursday, we're talking about the Governor's decision and about the next steps for protecting Utah's water.

Wednesday, we're telling the story behind one of America's most enduring tales. Our guest is the journalist Evan Schwartz, author of a book about L. Frank Baum. Before publishing "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" in 1900, Baum failed at acting, selling castor oil and running a toy shop. But along the way, he was collecting ideas that would find their way into his parable of the American Dream. Schwartz joins Doug to talk about the personal turmoil and spiritual transformation that led Baum to Oz.

Everybody eats, and we more or less know what that’s about. What happens after we eat – the transformation of food as it passes through our bodies – that’s more of a mystery, and a gross one at that. In her newest book, the science writer Mary Roach explores the interesting and kind of disgusting science and stories of our digestive tracts. Roach joins us on Tuesday to answer some age old alimentary questions: Why is crunchy food so appealing? How much food can you eat before your stomach bursts? And of course, did constipation kill Elvis?

There's a conflict in the era of emails, texts, tweets, tags, pokes and posts. It's our struggle between that desire to be connected and the impulse to be left alone. Media critic William Powers says it's always been this way. Monday, Powers joins Doug to talk about our technological past. His book is about how you master the art of disconnecting. It's called Hamlet's BlackBerry. (Rebroadcast)

Friday, Doug is live with filmmakers Sarah Burns and David McMahon for a conversation about their new PBS documentary "The Central Park Five." In 1989, a white woman was brutally raped and beaten in New York's Central Park. Five black and Latino teens from Harlem were pilloried by the press and convicted by the criminal justice system. But then in 2002, the real rapist confessed and DNA evidence helped exonerate the five men. Next week, we're screening the film as part of our Through the Lens documentary series.

Poet Katharine Coles has pushed the boundaries of her known world since she was a child. Three years ago, she left the comfort of the Wasatch Front to journey farther than she ever had before. She spent a month living at Palmer Station in Antarctica where she hoped to explore science, life and nature. Coles joins us on Thursday to talk about her trip and the poems it inspired. They meditate on Antarctica’s bafflingly vast land- and seascapes, on the continent’s animal life, and on the people, both historic and contemporary, she encountered there.

Wednesday, Doug’s joined by the science writer David Quammen. Twelve years ago, Quammen began researching the concept of “spillover,” the sudden transfer of disease from one species to another. He traveled around the world, investigating the science, history and human impact of diseases like AIDS, SARS and Ebola. In his newest book, Spillover, Quammen says that what he’s learned makes clear “the old Darwinian truth that humanity is a kind of animal, inextricably linked with other animals: in origin and in descent, in sickness and in health.” (Rebroadcast)