NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty Visits USU and Logan

National Public Radio’s Religion Correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty will be in Logan July 17 for multiple activities, including an appearance on Utah Public Radio’s “Access Utah” program and multiple activities in downtown Logan. Hagerty’s visit focuses on the publication of her first book, Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality.

The public will have three opportunities to hear about her book and her work at NPR, as well as time to interact with the author and public radio correspondent.

 

Hagerty’s visit and activities are hosted by UPR and are made possible in part by the Department of History and the Religious Studies Program at Utah State University and Cache Valley Unitarian Universalists. All of the events are free and open to the public.

 

First, Hagerty will be the featured guest on Utah Public Radio’s locally produced program “Access Utah,” a live, hour-long broadcast 9-10 a.m. with a call-in format. During that time, listeners are invited and encouraged to phone or email questions and comments to Hagerty and program host Tom Williams.

 

Later in the day, Hagerty will give a public talk and book signing from 4-6 p.m. at the Cache Valley Center for the Arts Ballroom (Bullen Center, upstairs), 43 S. Main, Logan. Activities include a question and answer period, and copies of the book will be available for purchase.

 

From 6-9 p.m., Hagerty will be the featured guest of Utah Public Radio at its Main Street studio in conjunction with Logan’s downtown Gallery Walk. Visitors are welcome to meet the author and enjoy the artwork of contemporary artist Trent Gudmundsen which is on display. Refreshments will be served, and acoustic guitar music will be provided by Robert Linton.

 

Hagerty has been the religion correspondent for NPR since January 2003. She reports on the intersection of faith and politics, law, science and culture. Before that, she was NPR’s Justice Department correspondent and covered legal affairs and crime. Her stories ranged from the impeachment hearings of President Clinton to the Florida election to the DNA revolution.

 

At NPR, Hagerty was the lead correspondent covering the investigation into the September 11 attacks. Her reporting was part of NPR’s coverage that earned the network the 2001 George Foster Peabody and Overseas Press Club awards. She has appeared on the PBS programs Washington Week in Review and The Lehrer News Hour. In her capacity as religion correspondent, she received the 2004 Religion Newswriters Association award for radio reporting.

 

In Fingerprints of God, Hagerty delves into the discoveries science is making about how faith and spirituality affect us physically and emotionally as it attempts to understand whether the ineffable place beyond this world can be rationally — even scientifically — explained.

 

Hagerty interviews some of the world’s top scientists to describe what their groundbreaking research reveals about our human spiritual experience. From analyses of the brain functions of Buddhist monks and Carmelite nuns, to the possibilities of healing the sick through directed prayer, to what near-death experiences illuminate about the brain and consciousness, Hagerty reaches beyond what we think we know to understand what happens to us when we believe in a higher power.

 

Utah Public Radio programming can be heard in Cache Valley at 91.5 and 89.5.  More information, including a complete list of station frequencies, is available at the UPR Web site.

 

 

Source: Utah Public Radio
Contact: Cathy Ives, (435) 797-3215, cathy.ives@usu.edu