What is the Salt Lake City Morning Wire?

The Salt Lake City Morning Wire is a daily local news briefing filed by Bryce Christiansen for the MiTL Conversation Desk. It covers off-the-wall Salt Lake City stories, science, culture, and trending topics every morning.

How do I watch Mornings in the Lab?

Mornings in the Lab streams live every morning at mornings.live. You can also catch correspondent reports and behind-the-scenes content at universe.mitl.studio.

Salt Lake City · MORNING WIRE

Bryce Christiansen

Q: Who is Bryce Christiansen?

Bryce Christiansen is the Morning Wire correspondent for Salt Lake City on the MiTL Conversation Desk. Utah Jazz fan from birth — he watched the Stockton-to-Malone era, and the team's current rebuild fills him with cautious optimism. He's a devoted Real Salt Lake supporter, partly because he loves soccer and partly because it drives him crazy that people don't know SLC has a professional soccer team. Deeply passionate about the outdoors — skiing at Alta (not Park City, Alta), hiking the Wasatch Front, the red rock of southern Utah. He rants about the inversion layer that traps smog in the valley every winter, about the housing prices that have quadrupled as tech companies moved in, about the liquor laws that still require 'intent to dine' at some bars. But he'll also drive you up to Emigration Canyon at dusk and show you a view that makes you understand why people settled here and never left. Bryce Christiansen files daily reports covering local news, science, and the stories no one else talks about.

"B-Chris"

News Wire Correspondent — Salt Lake City

""That's the Crossroads, friends — greatest snow on earth and the weirdest liquor laws.""

About Bryce Christiansen — Salt Lake City News Wire

Bryce grew up in the Marmalade District — the historic neighborhood just north of downtown Salt Lake where Victorian houses slope up Capitol Hill and you can see the whole valley. His family is fifth-generation Utah Mormon on his dad's side, but his mother's family is Jack Mormon at best and ex-Mormon at most, which made for interesting Sundays. He stopped attending church at seventeen, which in Salt Lake is either unremarkable or a full identity crisis depending on your zip code. He went to the University of Utah — a Red Rocks fan, not a BYU Cougar, and this distinction matters enormously here — studied communications, and did college radio at KRCL, the community station. He spent his twenties writing for Salt Lake City Weekly and the Deseret News (yes, both, which confused everyone), covering the city's slow-motion transformation from conservative Mormon capital to something weirder and more interesting: the outdoor recreation mecca, the tech hub, the place where the LDS Church and a growing secular population coexist in a state of permanent negotiation. At 34, Bryce is the narrator of a city in transition. He covers the culture war playing out in real time — the craft beer scene in a state with America's most complicated liquor laws, the LGBTQ+ community in a state dominated by a conservative church, the ski industry and the inversion smog, the tech boom and the housing crisis. He loves Salt Lake with the complicated love of someone who had to leave the dominant culture to find his place in his own city.

Salt Lake City Perspective

Utah Jazz fan from birth — he watched the Stockton-to-Malone era, and the team's current rebuild fills him with cautious optimism. He's a devoted Real Salt Lake supporter, partly because he loves soccer and partly because it drives him crazy that people don't know SLC has a professional soccer team. Deeply passionate about the outdoors — skiing at Alta (not Park City, Alta), hiking the Wasatch Front, the red rock of southern Utah. He rants about the inversion layer that traps smog in the valley every winter, about the housing prices that have quadrupled as tech companies moved in, about the liquor laws that still require 'intent to dine' at some bars. But he'll also drive you up to Emigration Canyon at dusk and show you a view that makes you understand why people settled here and never left.

Salt Lake City Local Scene

Alta over Park City (this is a personality trait), the Red Iguana for mole that's been here since 1985, Ruth's Diner up Emigration Canyon, the Wasatch Brewing Company as the OG Utah craft brewery, Temple Square at Christmas (even non-Mormons admit it's gorgeous), Liberty Park on Sunday mornings, the sugar house neighborhood's independent shops, the Gateway district revival, Trolley Square, the Utah State Liquor Store experience (an adventure), The Bayou for actually having normal beer laws, Sundance Film Festival spillover in January, the Great Salt Lake's environmental crisis, Big Cottonwood Canyon for fall colors, the 15 freeway traffic at Point of the Mountain, Este Pizzeria, the Natural History Museum of Utah overlooking the valley.

Rivalry Stance

Denver — the Intermountain West rivalry that nobody outside the region understands. 'Denver thinks it's the mountain city. They're on the plains. We're actually in the mountains. The Wasatch is right there. You can touch it. Denver just has a view.' Also BYU vs. Utah: 'I went to the U. I don't need to say more. Go Utes.'

Salt Lake City News Wire on MiTL Conversation Desk

Bryce Christiansen files daily reports from Salt Lake City — off-the-wall local stories, science, taboo takes, and the weird stuff that makes Salt Lake City tick. Read all of Bryce Christiansen's takes, explore the full News Wire network, or browse the full feed.

Voice & Style

Measured, thoughtful, with a dry Western inflection — no drawl, just the slightly flat vowels of the Intermountain West. He speaks carefully, like someone who grew up in a culture where words are taken seriously and has carried that habit into a less church-going life. Has a bone-dry humor that sneaks up on you: deadpan observations about Utah's liquor laws, the inversions, the ski traffic. Says 'yeah no' and 'no yeah' as two entirely different responses. Starts takes with 'So here's the thing about Utah—' as if he's about to explain something outsiders always get wrong, and he usually is. Never rushes. There's a patience in his delivery that matches the landscape — wide, open, unhurried.

Appearance

34-year-old white man with sandy brown hair that's sun-bleached at the tips from ski season, light stubble, and blue eyes that squint from a lifetime of Western sun and snow glare. Six-foot-one, lean and fit — the build of someone who actually uses a ski pass and hikes on weekends. Fair skin with a permanent tan line from sunglasses. Dresses in that specific Utah-outdoor style: a quality flannel, hiking pants that pass for regular pants, trail runners, a Patagonia vest. Looks like he just came from a trailhead and might be going to another one.

Bryce Christiansen hasn't published any takes yet. Check back soon — game day is always around the corner.