Small Lake City
Small Talk, Big City
Join host Erik Nilsson as he interviews the entrepreneurs, creators, and builders making Salt Lake City the best place it can be. Covering topics such as business, politics, art, food, and more you will get to know the amazing people behind the scenes investing their time and money to improve the place we call home.
Follow along for more!
Episodes
217 episodes
Wildfires Surge As Salt Lake Preps For July 24
Utah summer can feel like two stories happening at once: the mountains and red rock are calling, while wildfires and heat keep raising the stakes. We start with a clear update on the state’s biggest blazes, including the Babylon Fire in San Jua...
S2, E21: More Than Dinosaurs, Inside Utah's Most Fascinating Museum with Jason Cryan
A museum director who still gets asked “What’s your favorite dinosaur?” might sound like a dream job, but Jason Cryan’s story is more surprising than that. Jason leads the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City, and his path runs from...
Cottonwood Fire Updates And What To Do Before July Fourth
The biggest story in Utah right now is fire, and it’s changing how all of us should think about summer. We break down the latest on the Cottonwood Fire near Beaver, now stretching across an area that puts it in the conversation with the most si...
S2, E20: How Eli McCann Became Utah's Favorite Story Teller
A lot of people leave a high-demand religion and end up with either a scorched-earth break or a lifetime of quiet resentment. We wanted a third option, so we called up Eli: a gay, ex-LDS writer and lawyer who somehow keeps deep, loving ties wit...
Utah Wildfires, Air Quality Warnings, And What’s Still On For July 4
Smoke is hanging over the Salt Lake Valley, the mountains are barely visible, and it’s not just “summer haze.” We break down what’s behind Utah’s rough early wildfire season, which major fires are driving the worst of the air right now, and wha...
S2, E19: How Tom Wallisch Changed Freeskiing Forever
A lot of people see the highlight clip and assume the rest is luck. Tom Wallisch doesn’t. From lapping small hills outside Pittsburgh to becoming one of the defining names in modern freestyle skiing, Tom breaks down the unglamorous parts that m...
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Salt Lake City Budget Hikes Explained With Gondola Land Shock
Your costs in Salt Lake City are changing fast, and the numbers are finally on the table. We walk through the newly adopted Salt Lake City budget and translate it into what residents actually feel: a 12.5% increase to the city’s portion of prop...
S2, E18: Building A Fantasy Tavern In Salt Lake, Thieves Guild
S2, E18: Thieves Guild Cidery - Max Knudsen & Jordy KirkmanA fantasy tavern where you can grab a tankard of cider, play a board game you’ve never seen before, and watch a Dungeons and Dragons campaign unfold at the next table sounds ...
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How A $200,000 Lego Fight Turned Into Arrests
A $145 million warehouse near the Salt Lake City airport was supposed to become an ICE “megacenter” holding thousands of people and now the story is shifting fast. We walk through the new joint lawsuit from Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County a...
S2, E17: Thayne Rich - From Utah Local to Professional Skier
A 40-hour scramble to Argentina with a dead computer and zero Spanish. A Japan train sprint with ski bags, closed ticket counters, and strangers translating “three stops” into pure stress. And back home in Utah, a kid getting towed into illegal...
Real Salt Lake Lawsuit, New 400 South Trail, And Utah’s June Proclamation
A 16-year-old signs with a pro club, steps into an adult locker room, and says the people in charge never built basic protections around him. That’s the heart of the biggest Salt Lake City story we’re unpacking this week: a major Real Salt Lake...
S2, E16: Celeste Edmunds - From Trauma To Legacy At Christmas Box International
A lot of people talk about “networking,” but we wanted to get honest about what actually holds a life together when things get hard: reciprocity, loyalty, and the people who show up when you have nothing to offer. We start with the awkward trut...
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Utah’s Drought Reality Check
Utah’s leaders are telling all of us to conserve water, fix leaks, and rethink thirsty lawns, and they’re right to. But the same week Governor Spencer Cox declares a statewide drought emergency, he also publicly admits the Stratos data center r...
S2, E15: Rosie Card
Once someone working for the LDS church and creating temple dresses became a voice for womens rights. Rosie Card, a Utah creator and writer whose path through Mormonism is about as classic as it gets: BYU, a mission, church work, and even runni...
The Great Salt Lake Data Center Fight
A project pitched as “the future” is running straight through the most sensitive nerve in Utah: the Great Salt Lake. I break down the latest developments in the proposed O’Leary Digital data center campus in Hansel Valley, including the procedu...
Vault Episode 13: Adam Barker
He built a life around skiing, then rebuilt his identity around a camera and now he’s rebuilding it again as a startup founder. Adam Barker joins us to talk about the real mechanics behind an “overnight success” in outdoor photography: the grit...
The Jazz Land No. 2 And The State Finally Gets A Bit Of Good News
The Utah Jazz just got the kind of lottery luck that should feel like a party, and somehow it still stings. We break down what it means to jump to the No. 2 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, why losing out on BYU star AJ DeBanza hits a nerve ...
S2, E14: Dan Benshoff & AJ Nielsen - Volunteers of America, Utah
Homelessness in Salt Lake City gets treated like a debate, but on the street and inside shelters it’s a web of housing costs, addiction, trauma, mental health, and the gaps between systems. We sit down with AJ and Dan from Volunteers of America...
A Giant Data Center Plan And The Fight Over The Great Salt Lake
A single vote in Box Elder County just set off one of the biggest Utah fights in years: a proposed mega data center campus on the northern edge of the Great Salt Lake, backed by O’Leary Digital and shepherded by MIDA. The numbers are staggering...
S2, E13: Tyler Glenn - Neon Trees
Tyler Glenn (Neon Trees) has lived a version of the Utah story a lot of people only whisper about: growing up Mormon, feeling out of place, and using music as the safest room in the house. We talk about what it’s like to build an identity when ...
Salt Lake City Feels Like A Real Sports Town Now
Salt Lake City is moving fast and the headlines prove it. One week we’re celebrating a first-ever NHL playoff win on Utah ice, and the next we’re asking bigger questions about what kind of city we’re becoming and who gets to shape it.We...
S2, E12: Guy & Debbie Perry - Salt Lake Running Company
You can buy running shoes anywhere, but you can’t buy real guidance, community, and confidence from a dropdown menu.We’re joined by the people behind Salt Lake Running Company, a Salt Lake City run specialty store that’s spent decades p...
Utah Wants To Grow Fast But The Tradeoffs Are Getting Loud
Utah can feel like it’s changing by the hour, and this Tuesday update is a quick tour through the stories that reveal what’s really behind that momentum. We start with the AI shift that’s changing how people search for answers and how businesse...
S2, E11: Dustin Crump - Found for AI
Google trained all of us to hunt through links. AI is training your customers to ask one question and take one recommendation. That shift is already changing who gets the call, who gets the booking, and who gets ignored even with a beautiful we...
