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Andrea Smardon is new at KUER, but she has worked in public broadcasting for more than a decade. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and news announcer for WGBH radio. While in Boston, she produced stories for Morning Edition, Marketplace Money, and The World. Her print work was published in The Boston Globe and Boston.com. Prior to that, she worked at Seattleââ

Josh Weathers grew up in Gilbert, Arizona where he enjoyed playing volleyball and guitar. After making a short video of a motorized couch with friends, a love for filmmaking was set in motion. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Media Arts (Film). When not making films, he enjoys hiking in the mountains with his wife and corgi, Sunny Weathers.

Lee Hale began listening to KUER while he was teaching English at a Middle School in West Jordan (his one hour commute made for plenty of listening time). Inspired by what he heard he applied for the Kroc Fellowship at NPR headquarters in DC and to his surprise, he got it. Since then he has reported on topics ranging from TSA PreCheck to micro-apartments in overcrowded cities to the various ways zoo animals stay cool in the summer heat. But, his primary focus has always been education and he returns to Utah to cover the same schools he was teaching in not long ago. Lee is a graduate of Brigham Young University and is also fascinated with the way religion intersects with the culture and communities of the Beehive State. He hopes to tell stories that accurately reflect the beliefs that Utahns hold dear.

Joel became KUER’s program director in 2018, following a westward journey from Chicago that involved a 14-year-old Chevy and a 17-year-old cat. (The car broke down. The cat survived.) He has spent most of his career producing talk shows and podcasts. His most recent project is American Fiasco, the 12-part WNYC Studios podcast about the meltdown of the U.S. men's soccer team at the 1998 World Cup. (If you love soccer, you will love it. If you hate soccer, you will absolutely adore it.) Joel has also worked in content roles for Slate Podcasts and WBEZ Chicago, where he executive-produced Making Oprah and helped launch Making Obama and The Trouble. He first joined WNYC in 2007 as a producer on the eclectic music program Soundcheck. Joel was born and raised in Minneapolis, where public radio is second nature and the Twins are never in first place.

A lifelong lover of the arts, Cristy Meiners got into journalism because she hoped she’d be able to read books, go to concerts and watch movies for work; surprisingly, she’s pulled off just that for much of her career. After completing her B.A. in English at the University of Utah and her M.A. in Humanities at Brigham Young University, she moved to Washington D.C. to intern with NPR’s Arts Desk, and then stayed for another two years to work in various capacities around the building. In 2007, she moved over to SiriusXM Satellite Radio to produce for The Bob Edwards Show and Bob Edwards Weekend, writing and producing interviews with many of her cultural heroes, including Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh, Julie Andrews, Doris Kerns Goodwin and many, many others. After nearly 10 years away from the West, she returned to Salt Lake to work as the arts and entertainment editor at the Deseret News before joining the team at RadioWest as executive producer. Perhaps thanks to her pilot father, Cristy is at her very best when traveling and exploring the world.

Natu Tweh, the son of Liberian immigrants, comes to Salt Lake City from Miami, Florida. He keeps his culture close and is always open to sharing it with anyone and everyone. Natu enjoys trying new activities, adding most of them to an ever-increasing list of hobbies. The top of this eclectic list includes music, reading manga, breakdancing, playing rhythm games and martial arts. During his time at the University of Florida, Natu focused on music journalism. He wrote reviews and interviewed bands for the now defunct blog LVL to the Room, and co-hosted Connect the Dots, a weekly radio show that focused on music and activism. After graduating from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s in journalism, Natu’s sense of adventure and passion for learning led him to Salt Lake City. He’s excited to work with RadioWest and soak in everything he can!

A Salt Lake native, Benjamin Bombard served numerous internships in the KUER newsroom before becoming a producer of RadioWest. He aspired to the position for years, and in his sometimes wayward pursuit of it he has worked as a print and radio journalist in Utah, Wyoming, and California, a horse wrangler, golf course “bag rat,” dishwasher, janitor, bookseller, children’s museum guide, barista, linecook, and a male nanny or “manny.” He has dished up gelato to Mafiosos in Rhode Island, and worked as a volunteer for a health NGO in Mali, West Africa, where he politely declined an offer to act as a blood-diamond mule. He values holistic personal fitness and good, honest food. Most of his free time is spent writing, reading, preparing for hunting season, hunting when it's hunting season, and otherwise pursuing an overabundance of diverse interests and passions.

Timothy Slover attended the University of Utah where he majored in English. One time he scored a cool RadioWest internship and after it was over he stuck around the station until some kind people found something else for him to do. He bounced around as a weekend host, did another internship in the newsroom, glued a few wires together, and did a stint as KUER's mid-day host. Nowadays he still does a bit of everything, as a producer.

Keri Watson graduated from the University of Utah. After college she interned everywhere from the Senate Republican Conference, to High Country News to KUER’s newsroom, where she fell in love with public radio. After navigating other stations and cities, producing a podcast about nuns and working on documentaries, she returned to KUER this year to explore all the amazing people and ideas with the RadioWest team.

Edgar Allan Poe as a detective? It's not just a Hollywood movie. In 1842, the real Poe set out to solve the murder of Mary Rogers, known in New York as…