Memoir
Now it’s time to leap: Greta says goodbye (1982-2020)
“You can type. You can get a job with the phone company!” My dad, troubled that his almost-40-year-old daughter was making minimum wage at a job with no traditional benefits, was t …
Memoir
One last (print) run: reader comments on the news of Greta’s retirement and the end of CATALYST in print
In mid-October we launched our campaign inviting you, the reader, to help us financially to bring this final issue to print. We also invited readers to leave memories and reflectio …
Memoir
Soul sisters: Greta Belanger deJong and Kate Edwards
Greta and I have certainly been soul sisters since before time began, but in terms of this particular lifetime, we actually did manage to find our way to be born on the very same b …
Nature
Sacred places and protected land: The Utah Bioregional Reader series, Part Three
I came to realize that one factor in particular—the search for something beyond normal experience—characterizes life in the Great Basin. Many people don’t just find themselves livi …
Community Profiles, Memoir, Nature
Obituary for Great Salt Lake: Even lakes are not immortal.
Great Salt Lake experienced her final glimmering sunset today, succumbing to a long struggle with chronic diversions exacerbated by climate change. She was born 13,000 years ago to …
Psychology, Think
What we have in common: Laying the groundwork for exploring our differences
Talking about our differences is urgent, exciting, and even dangerous. But our commonalities appear to be so numerous as to be beside the point, part of the status quo, or so obvio …
Memoir
Our millennial speaks: What feels like the end is really a beginning
Sophie wearing the same pants as Greta on the front cover of the December 2020 issue. The last time I took a giant leap like this, I was 23 years old and had just started working f …
Memoir
Catalyst art director’s farewell: 28 years behind the mouse
In 1992 when my years working in the adventure travel world came to a close, my Aunt Greta hired me to help CATALYST with ad sales and collections. A few months into my new job, mi …
Community Profiles, Connect
Whispers of wonderful melodies: Community radio DJ Sohrab Mafi hopes to elevate human consciousness through music
The door to the former bank vault is slightly ajar. In the adjoining, low-ceilinged room, Sohrab Mafi stands below a pair of light-box pictures of bright blue skies partly clouded, …
Community, Environmental Politics
Why are some communities still struggling? Tax rates, climate gentrification and affordability
In the two previous articles in this series we discussed how environmental justice is geographically driven and how redlining established some of these disparities. In this article …
Heal, Health, Psychology
Stress Less, Accomplish More: Emily Fletcher’s meditation technique built for stressed-out, high-performing overachievers
I was heading out for some quick exercise, scanning the library audio books for something good when I saw it: Stress Less Accomplish More, Meditation for Extraordinary Performance …
Local Harvest
Your brain on gardening: Nature’s way of boosting those feel-good chemicals
T here has been no better teacher during my time as a human on planet Earth than the garden. To be fully immersed, connected and involved with the secret world of creation has bee …
Memoir
A writer’s home
The story of how I became a writer starts with Greta deJong and the first time I walked through the door of a big pink house and into her editor’s office. But before I start there …
Heal, Health, Move, Yoga
Four decades of yoga in Salt Lake City: Reflections on the history and changing landscape
I n January of 1982 I decided—out of curiosity—to try a yoga class. In a pink-carpeted room in the back of the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, I experienced my first post-asana high. My …
Memoir
Memories and reflections: Diane Olson, former Catalyst staffer and contributing writer
I think I can write,” I said. I had been working at CATALYST for some time as the office manager. “Ok,” Greta replied, and gave me an assignment on the spot. Granted, it was a smal …
Memoir
MO-UT How this Missourian came to Utah and why he stayed
I’ve been writing columns for 40 years with the Salt Lake Tribune, The Event, the Logan Herald Journal, NEO, Utah Magazine, Network, a bunch of weeklies, long forgotten internet-on …
Environmental Politics
Utah Bioregional Reader #4: Where Does Our Garbage Go?
If you’ve got pollution, we’ve got the solution Just ship it to Utah, we’ll keep it for you. We’ll take plutonium, depleted uranium It’s a no-brainium, we’ll keep it for you. –Kev …
Environmental Politics
Environews
Mourning our fallen: Wind storm topples urban forest An intense wind storm that hit northern Utah on September 8 toppled thousands of big, old trees, decimating historic groves in …
