In The NOCO

Every Tuesday at Central Park in Boulder, Jen Livovich offered food and support to people experiencing homelessness through a nonprofit she founded called Feet Forward. Livovich knew a lot of the people she was helping at the time — and still does. That’s because she also struggled with homelessness for several years. Then in 2018, she received a state voucher that helped her secure a stable home. It was a rocky transition.“I really grappled with the kind of survivor’s guilt that’s only familiar to homeless people. And I remember thinking I could move 40 people onto my floor and laid the tape out and knew that wasn’t gonna end well,” Livovich said.Homelessness has reached crisis levels in Colorado and the City of Boulder is facing a lawsuit for how its been handling the problem. The ACLU of Colorado sued the city for its so-called camping ban. It prohibits people from sleeping on the street. Police then issue tickets to those who do — even when the homeless shelter has been full. “We think that's a violation of the Constitution to criminally charge people for actions that they have to engage in as a part of being human, sleeping, laying down,” said Tim Macdonald, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado.A court date for that lawsuit was recently set for next August. Livovich, for her part, was originally one of the plaintiffs but she has since withdrawn. She says the larger issue is getting unhoused people access to social services, especially when it comes to addiction, and she has proposed a way for city leaders to do that. In The NoCo’s Robyn Vincent sat down with her to learn more.

Millions of people rely on water from the Colorado River, but there’s just not enough to quench everyone’s thirst. In other words, there's a big gap between the amount of water in the river, and the amount that people are using. It is a conundrum that policymakers across seven Western states continue to grapple with. Last week, more than 1,000 people with a stake in the river’s future met in Las Vegas, giving a peek behind the curtain of ongoing negotiations, and some clues as to just how hard it will be to find solutions that make everybody happy.KUNC’s Alex Hager was there to cover that conference. He told In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole about the potential for troubled waters ahead.

Colorado has a rich railroad history, from mining trains carved through the mountains to freight trains chugging across the city. A lot of us hear them — sometimes too often — but we rarely get the opportunity to actually ride the trains. But that might change soon. Last week, a plan to develop a passenger rail line using existing freight tracks along the Front Range was accepted into a federal grant program. That could help make a multi-city train line from Fort Collins to Pueblo a reality in the next decade. To see if this long-anticipated plan is on track, host Erin O'Toole sat down with Andy Karsian of the Front Range Passenger Rail District.

It’s a Christmas tale as old as the Bible.During a cold snap in Denver last December, Pastor Eddy Hopkins responded to an urgent call from Larimer County leaders. They told him Denver was overwhelmed with migrants who’d recently arrived in the city from the U.S. southern border. They asked if he could help. The pastor sprang into action and Peak Community Church in Fort Collins became a shelter for 16 migrants over the holidays.Pastor Eddy said the experience was “absolutely wonderful.” The people he offered temporary shelter to “brought a great deal of joy to us.”Still, it was a big undertaking. “We were wanting to provide the best space that we could,” the pastor said. “And so we spent a lot of time trying to figure out food, trying to figure out personal needs and and how people could be safe and clothed and all that kind of stuff.”People from Latin American countries and other nations facing turmoil continue to arrive in Colorado. It’s an especially tough time for them to make that journey — the weather is unforgiving and the holidays are in full swing. In Larimer County, leaders argue that logistics have prevented them from doing more when it comes to sheltering the influx of migrants. But Pastor Eddy is starting to make plans for the people who do end up near his doorstep. Host Erin O’Toole visited him at his church to learn more.

People tend to trust local and state leaders more than federal lawmakers. A recent Gallup poll found that 59% of Americans have faith in state government yet only a third of respondents trust federal legislators. But, as we’ve learned time and again from our reporting at KUNC, transparency is a problem at all levels of government. For the last year, KUNC investigative reporter Scott Franz has been uncovering an example of this at the Colorado statehouse. His reporting highlighted how Democratic lawmakers have been using a secret voting system to decide which bills to consider. Those lawmakers now face a lawsuit. And the first hearing in that suit happened last week. Scott joins us to explain some of the twists and turns of it all — and what’s next.

There’s a long history of Americans taking to the streets to make their voices heard. To march, and to protest has come to define one of the more powerful ways people participate in our democracy. Recently a group of local immigration activists embarked on a long-distance march that mirrored the multi-day marches of the Civil Rights Movement. Members of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition walked for four days on a 60-mile journey that began at the Colorado State Capitol. They slept in churches along the way and talked with community members before ending the march in Greeley at the district office of Rep. Yadira Caraveo, Colorado’s first Latina member of Congress. Activists want Caraveo, and Sens. Michael Bennett and John Hickenlooper, to sign onto what is known as the registry bill. The federal legislation would update a decades-old law, creating a pathway for citizenship for millions of immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for more than seven years.We heard from one of the people who marched — Omar Gomez, a Boulder County resident from Mexico — and Raquel Lane-Arellano of the Immigrant Rights Coalition. She helped organize the march and offered support to activists along their route.

Longmont-based author and journalist Stephen Robert Miller is fascinated by climate disaster stories. He says they’re often teachable moments.“There’s so much to be learned from looking in the past — environmental histories and instances of when people have tried to control nature and ultimately it's failed,” Miller says.In his new book, “Over the Seawall,” Miller examines the deeper impacts of some of these failures. He investigates how governments and people are using infrastructure to slow or stop the effects or the symptoms of climate change. For example, giant concrete barriers in Japan meant to stop tsunamis — or dams and canals in Arizona meant to make a desert move-in ready for lots of people. Government policies created to manage the Colorado River and distribute water among its unquenchable stakeholders are another example. In other words, Miller says people are keen to adapt and that seems great, “but it can also be tricky if it causes us to rush into rash decisions,” he said. He joined host Erin O'Toole to talk about his new book and some of humanity’s attempts to adapt to climate change that have ended badly.

Musician Domi Edson’s move from Seattle to Colorado wasn’t fueled by the typical cliched reasons. She came for the jazz. “I had heard really good things about both the size and the quality of the jazz scene here,” Edson told In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole. It is a scene defined by sense of place — Edson says the local jazz world has a quintessential “Colorado vibe.” “It’s just a very positive thing to be part of,” she said. Musicians challenge each other and clubs are committed to elevating local artists, she explained.Edson is a bass player who heads her own jazz trio. Her latest project hits just right for this time of year — a collection of traditional Hanukkah songs reinterpreted in her signature jazz style. So, with Hanukkah beginning tonight at sundown, she joined us to talk about the genesis of this project and more.You can hear the Domi Edson Trio perform an album release party Sunday, December 10 at The Muse in Lafayette. Find her newest album, A Jazzy Hanukkah, at domiedson.com.

Amid Israel’s intensifying military campaign in Gaza, more than 2,000 people gathered in Denver last week for the Jewish National Fund's annual Global Conference for Israel. The violence in Gaza follows an attack by Hamas militants in October that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel. Hamas took hundreds more hostage. Since then, Israel Defense Forces have killed more than 15,000 in Gaza and displaced roughly three-quarters of Gaza residents. As the conference got underway, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Colorado Convention Center to demand a ceasefire and call attention to Israel’s occupation of Palestine.“I've lost over 70 family members over the past two months in Gaza. I don't want my home to be destroyed,” said Abdullah Elagha, a Denver resident from Gaza.Some Jews attending the conference felt vulnerable amid the protesters' shouts and the heightened reports of anti-Semitism nationwide. “We're under attack as Jews and as Zionists, and I think we're so lucky to have this conference as a time to support one another,” said Cheris Kline-Berlinberg of Denver.Ian Sachs traveled from Arizona to attend the conference. He said the protesters didn’t bother him, that he felt safe, especially with the presence of Denver Police. Still, rising anti-Semitism is top of mind for him right now. “When it turns into Jews being targeted that aren't Israeli or have nothing to do with this, and I've got kids, and for me to have a military security guard at their Jewish day school … you know, my blood boils,” he said.Outside the conference, many of the protesters also happened to be Jews with many of the protests organized in part, by the local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. In the last few months, it has grown from 10 people advocating for Palestinian freedom to 120 activists, including 15 who were arrested on Sunday for blocking an intersection at Speer Boulevard and Champa Street. Across the country, more Jews are speaking out against the Israeli government and in support of a ceasefire. Protester Franny Alani from Denver says that was once taboo in many Jewish communities. “I went to a very conservative synagogue growing up, If you expressed, you know, any critique or dissonance around Zionism, you were immediately alienated, silenced,” she said.In The NoCo producer Mickey Capper spoke with protesters and people attending the conference about how the conversation is shifting in the Jewish community, including protester Allie Cannington. (Mickey was surprised to recognize them from his Jewish Day School.) “It tears me up that supporting Palestine is equated to being anti-Semitic,” Cannington said. “It is critical that we show up, as Jews, that we communicate they're unapologetic, uncritical stand with Israel is wrong.”Both inside and outside the conference, we heard people express that they want everyone —Jews and Palestinians —in Israel, Gaza, and beyond, to be safe. But it was difficult for them to agree on what safety looks like.“I am an American Jew, but Israel is still my home,” said Kline-Berlinberg. “Right now there's a lot of anti-Semitism in the world — and in Israel, we can be safe.”In Cannington’s eyes, it’s impossible to justify the loss of life in the name of Israel’s security and safety. “There is no way that our safety can be sustained if it comes at the expense of other people. We can't use our fear as a catalyst to murder other people.”We unpacked some of these perspectives with Ira Chernus, professor emeritus of religious studies at University of Colorado Boulder. He has been speaking out against the Israeli government's actions since Israel’s occupation of Palestine began in 1967. He shared with In The NoCo how the conversation about Israeli policies within American Jewish communities has changed over the decades.

The trauma of domestic violence is a scar that survivors carry with them for many years — and often silently. A recent report from the Colorado Attorney General’s Office tells us that more people in Colorado are enduring this kind of abuse, and not surviving it. It shows the number of domestic violence deaths in 2022 was roughly 1.5 times higher in comparison to the last seven years. A lot of factors seem to be intensifying this crisis. For one, in Colorado, as in many other states, a lack of affordable housing makes it especially difficult to escape an abuser. Firearms also play a major role. More than 80 percent of domestic violence deaths were the result of gun injuries. This tracks with recent research from Stanford University showing people who have a gun in the home face a much higher likelihood of dying from homicides, a risk of so-called second-hand gun ownership. “When we think about the second-hand risks of gun ownership, we're really talking about a population that is predominantly female,” said David Studdert, the lead researcher at Stanford. Studdert’s research was focused in California, though the threats of second-hand gun ownership can be observed in many other places, like Colorado. Given the holiday season is in full swing, we want to keep this issue front and center — because for people in domestic violence situations, this time of year can mean more time at home and more exposure to abusers.Dani Souza, outreach coordinator for A Woman's Place, Weld County's only domestic violence shelter, sat down with In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole to discuss what she’s seeing.RESOURCES: If you or someone you know is seeking help with a domestic violence situation, you can contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233); and A Woman's Place has guidance for creating a safety plan here.

The sugar beet industry began in Colorado right around 1900. Today it's only a small part of the state's economy, but through the early part of the 20th century, beets were the most significant agricultural product grown here. They were so important to the economy that people referred to sugar beets as 'white gold.' During this time, thousands of Hispanic and Mexican people came to Northern Colorado to work in the beet fields. Many of them eventually settled in Fort Collins - predominantly in what would come to be called the Tres Colonias – three neighborhoods that surrounded the Great Western Sugar Company.Betty Aragon-Mitotes is something of an expert on the legacy of the families who settled in this area. She has been a longtime community leader, advocating for Hispanic and Latino communities. She co-founded a cultural center spotlighting the Tres Colonias neighborhoods, and is the founder and president of the nonprofit Mujeres de Colores, which educates and provides support to working-class and low-income families. This October, she was awarded the 2023 Polly Baca Raíces Fuertes Community Leader Award from Rep. Joe Neguse in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. She sat down with host Erin O'Toole to share more about this piece of Northern Colorado history.Betty mentioned the Posada Christmas program, which is seeking donations of new, unwrapped toys, coats, hats, gloves and mittens. The event will take place Dec. 16, 2023.

Hollywood has long depicted Native Americans in the most problematic of ways. American Westerns are some of the biggest offenders. Their portrayals of Indigenous people as savagaes has only deepened the intergenerational trauma Native people face. But these portrayals and the film industry more broadly are changing, somewhat. “Killers of the Flower Moon” tells the story of a massacre that Osage people in Oklahoma faced in the 1920s. Its lead female character - Lily Gladstone who plays Molly Burkhart - is Blackfeet and Nez Perce. Her casting in the role is a huge deviation from what we normally see in popular films. A recent analysis by USC Annenberg found that Native women are nearly nonexistent in Hollywood movies. Still, representation is but one piece of this, and some Osage people who saw the film had mixed reactions. KUNC reporter Emma VandenEinde spoke with Osage citizens in Colorado to learn more. She joined the show to discuss some of her recent reporting.

During Jim Crow and even after those laws were overturned in the 1960s, green book sites were safe havens — places where Black Americans could stop when they were traveling without fear of discrimination or violence. The sites bear the namesake of what’s known as the Green Book. It contained listings for hotels, restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores and more. Terri Gentry says her grandparents never left home without that book. “We were traveling around the country, we were out exploring. We wanted to go see family members,” she said. “We felt like as citizens and with the National Park Service, we wanted to start engaging in different places and spaces around the country, but we had to navigate it very differently.”Gentry is with History Colorado. She and her team are working to register green book sites throughout the state and add to the list of 160 places so far. She sat down with In The NoCo’s Robyn Vincent to discuss Colorado’s recent past — and the ways that this history has touched her personally.

Colorado’s wine producing roots trace back to the 1800s, when Italian miners brought wine culture to the state. The grape-growing industry would later become a casualty of Prohibition, when grape vines were torn from the earth at the government’s behest. It wasn’t until the early 1970s that wine started to make a comeback in the state. Today, wine culture in Colorado is having a moment. A recent Colorado State University study suggests Colorado’s wine country could keep expanding into new parts of the state. KUNC’s Rae Solomon recently sorted through the grapes and vines of it all. She tells us more, just in time for your holiday menu planning.

Every year on Thanksgiving, radio stations around the country play Arlo Guthrie's 1967 track "Alice's Restaurant." But how did this 18-minute satirical song about littering and the Vietnam War become a Thanksgiving classic? The song, based on a true story, is about Guthrie and fellow musician Rick Robbins.“They were home for Thanksgiving, and they were hanging out with their friend Alice and they had a big Thanksgiving dinner at this church where Alice lived,” says Margot Chobanian, program director for The Colorado Sound. A series of absurd events ensues, and the resulting song is both a chronicle of those events and a scathing rebuke of bureaucracy and “the Man.”A few years ago, Margot unraveled the mystery of “Alice’s Restaurant” for host Erin O’Toole. In the spirit of the most (and least!) Thanksgiving song we know, ITN revisits that conversation today.

For a holiday centered on gratitude, Thanksgiving is also a recipe for tension. If you’re among the 60 percent of Coloradans traveling for the holidays, you’re likely navigating congested roads or chaotic airports. (Yeah, we're looking at you, DIA!) If you’re hosting dinner, you’ve got a whole other set of concerns, like catering to an array of dietary needs, and getting a hundred different dishes to come out of the oven at the same time.OK, so you did it — you made it to grandma’s, or you cooked the turkey just right. Now the wine is flowing like water and it’s time to relax. But not so fast… even in the kindest of families, with the best of intentions, friendly dinner table discussions sometimes sour. And we’ve all got plenty of opinions, whether it’s on the war in the Middle East, reproductive rights, or the upcoming presidential election. But with some thought and intention, you don't have to dread the holiday dinner discussion. “Sometimes when you have a pretty good conversation with someone, the main thing you realize is, wait, we don't disagree nearly as much,” says Martín Carcasson, a communications professor at Colorado State University and director of CSU's Center for Public Deliberation. “I'm not saying we're all going to agree … but normally the disagreement is much more manageable than we think it is when we have a good conversation."Ahead of the holiday season, Carcasson gave us some guidance on how to have healthier conversations at the dinner table. And for more tips on how to navigate the holiday dinner conversation, Carcasson recommends this Monica Guzman TED talk, or the discussion guides at Living Room Conversations.

Colorado has made multiple strides toward representation and equality for queer residents. The Movement Advancement Project, an independent think tank, gives our state high ratings for a range of policies that protect sexual orientation and gender identity. This marks a big change from a few decades earlier, when Colorado was dubbed the 'Hate State' after voters approved a 1992 ballot initiative, Amendment 2, that prohibited state and local governments from granting protections for LGBTQ residents. Activists responded by organizing a successful boycott against Colorado, steering tourists and businesses away from the state. Amendment 2 was eventually struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.Still, being queer in Colorado doesn’t come without anxiety or very real fears for your physical safety. Nearly one year ago, the mass shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, revived and deepened some of those worries. Susy Bates, campaign director at One Colorado, says it’s critically important we hold onto the memory of the victims, the survivors, and of what happened at Club Q. She and her colleagues just wrapped up a monthlong statewide listening tour that stopped in more than a dozen communities across the state. We sat down with her to learn what she heard at those meetings — and why she remains hopeful through it all.

Across the state, people are struggling to find and keep affordable housing. That’s especially true in Colorado’s mountain towns. KUNC managing editor Stephanie Daniel recently pulled back the curtain on this issue with the latest season of her podcast The Colorado Dream Season 3: Housing Wanted. What separates these mountain towns from other communities confronting the state’s housing shortage is “that it is hard for people at all income levels to find housing,” Daniel said. “I'm talking about restaurant servers, police officers, nurses.”Meanwhile, certain factors are intensifying the problem, particularly in the communities Stephanie and her team visited — Routt, Eagle and Summit counties. For one, they are all home to world class ski resorts. “Visitors flock to these communities throughout the year, and tourism really drives the local economies. And that leads back to one of the challenges, which is the huge increase in short term rentals,” Daniel said.The pandemic and a subsequent increase in remote workers drove up home prices and made this problem even worse. But, there is a lot happening to try and keep community members housed. The third season of The Colorado Dream podcast lays this all out for us — and it’s now available in its entirety — so we brought Stephanie on the show to get some final thoughts about what she learned.

In communities across Northern Colorado, people are struggling with their mental health, while also struggling to get the care they need. And the problem is widespread – around a quarter of residents reported having poor mental health in the most recent Colorado Health Access Survey. Of the 1 in 6 Coloradans who were unable to get needed care, nearly half said they had a hard time getting an appointment, while nearly 60% were concerned about cost.Over the past few months, KUNC’s Senior Editor & Reporter Leigh Paterson has been reporting on the barriers residents face in getting help, despite laws in place to ensure insurance coverage. She joins host Erin O’Toole to break down what you need to know about mental health parity laws.

A lot of Coloradans love the idea of recycling. But our recycling habits are in the dumps. In 2020, the rate of recycling statewide was just 15 percent — less than half the rate nationwide. That’s according to a report from the Colorado Public Interest Research Group and Eco-Cycle. Perhaps that's because the actual practice of it can be confusing. It seems like the rules are often changing – and let’s not forget that recycling is expensive, both for residents and municipalities.Ahead of America Recycles Day on Wednesday, we're doing a little recycling of our own, revisiting our conversation with Mark Snedecor, director of recycling services for Waste Management (WM) of Colorado. He shares some of the big recycling blunders we're making, and why you don't have to worry too much about those little numbers within the “chasing arrows” recycling symbol.The Boulder County Recycling Center is marking America Recycles Day this Wednesday evening with a "Reduce & Reuse" showcase, self-guided tours, and more. NOTE: This is an encore of our podcast from Oct. 3, 2023. We'll be back in your feed with a brand-new episode on Wednesday!

There’s so much going on behind the scenes when you sit down at a restaurant. In the back of the house, cooks are rushing to prep, cook and plate your food. Dishwashers are trying to keep pace with those cooks — and hungry diners. In the front of the house, the servers are sweating, too. They’re deciphering complex requests, running through mazes of tables, chairs, and people, to deliver your dish without a hitch. And finding people to do this work has gotten tough. Beyond the frenzied nature of the job, long hours and physical demands, inflation is hitting the industry hard. In August, Colorado saw the sharpest restaurant inflation in the country. Laura Shunk, president of the nonprofit Colorado Restaurant Foundation, says this is stressing almost every aspect of the restaurant industry. “If you've noticed that menu prices are going up, it's because every cost in the restaurant is going up,” Shunk said. A key part of Shunk’s work is helping restaurateurs find solutions to these challenges. She told us about Colorado ProStart, a program bridging the gap between an industry hungry for good people and students who want a career in food and hospitality, but might not have the means or knowledge to get there.We mention a tasting event in Fort Collins on Wednesday, November 15 with Northern Colorado restaurants and breweries that benefits Colorado ProStart programs in Weld and Larimer counties.

We’re sifting though some of the results from Tuesday’s election, which brought roughly 42% of registered voters to the polls. Loveland resident Lee Rhodes visited a dropbox in Fort Collins this week to weigh in on Proposition HH. “That was important. I like the idea of the government keeping to a budget,” he told In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole. The complicated measure, which intended to address a looming spike in property taxes, was defeated. KUNC’s statehouse reporter Lucas Brady Woods explains why on this episode. We also discuss Proposition II, which voters approved. That measure allows the state to use more of the taxes it gets from tobacco and nicotine products that previously went back to manufacturers and distributors.We talk about Boulder’s mayoral race, where voters for the first time made the call on who should lead the city, and we set the stage for some upcoming conversation on school board elections and their increasing politicization.And you can find more KUNC election coverage here.

Today we’re turning back the pages of Colorado’s not-so-distant past to better grasp the problems of the present with a discussion about Indian boarding schools. The U.S. government established hundreds of these schools across the U.S. to forcibly dismantle the cultural identities of young Native Americans. A recent 140-page state report that is the result of a 2022 state law uncovers the trauma, abuse and death that occurred at these schools in Colorado, like Fort Lewis Indian Boarding School — now the site of Fort Lewis College. Heather Shotton, a citizen of the Wichita and Affiliated tribes, and also Kiowa and Cheyenne, is vice president for diversity affairs at the college. She joined host Erin O'Toole to discuss the hard truths that this report has uncovered — and how many descendants of the students who attended the schools continue to navigate intergenerational trauma.

Young people in Colorado continue to struggle with their mental health. KUNC senior editor and reporter Leigh Paterson has helped us to understand the complexities of this problem. She joins In The NoCo to discuss some of her recent reporting, which looks at a new law that will provide statewide mental health screenings for kids. She tells us how this effort holds promise — and why some experts remain skeptical. And, she takes us to Glenwood Springs High School, where the school has already spearheaded its own mental health screenings and services. Meanwhile, Election Day is here and that means voters are hitting the polls and KUNC reporters are on the move. We’re watching the races and speaking with voters as they cast their ballots. In the coming days, we’ll be hearing from Northern Coloradans about what matters to them this election. We’ll also sit down with our statehouse reporter Lucas Brady Woods to make sense of the results later in the week.

Diversity isn’t exactly classical music’s strong suit. The work of white, European composers has been center stage for for centuries. Today, people of color comprise a small percentage of musicians in American orchestras, though that number appears to be growing. Black violinist and author Brendan Slocumb says representation plays a big role in this.“When I was a kid, had I seen someone who looked like me playing the violin, I would probably never put it down — ever, ever,” Slocumb said.Slocumb is a longtime music educator and when he goes into schools, students don’t believe he’s a violinist. He says he doesn’t fit the part for a few reasons. “If it's warm out, I usually have on a short-sleeved shirt and I've got tattoos. And, you know, I'm going to go ahead and say, I'm a, you know, muscular guy.” Then he picks up his violin and plays. “And they're just like, are you serious? You really do this?”Slocumb’s response is typically: “Yeah, it's for everybody. You don't have to live in a certain place or have a certain zip code or have a certain bank account.”His experiences as a young aspiring Black musician navigating the classical music world are central to his book “The Violin Conspiracy,” which is the selection for this year’s Fort Collins Reads. The citywide event brings residents together to read, discuss and celebrate one noteworthy book. He sat down to talk with host Erin O'Toole ahead of his talk in Fort Collins on Sunday, November 5.

Dia de los Muertos is an ancient cultural tradition that has strong roots in Mexico and is celebrated in many of our Northern Colorado communities. The holiday is celebrated from October 31 to November 2. Not to be confused with All Hallows' Eve — it is a way to honor friends and family who have died. People write and recite satirical poems about the dead, calaveras literarias, which translates to skull literature, and create intricate altars known as ofrendas, or offerings. The holiday is also an opportunity to contemplate heritage, identity, and the Indigenous people in Mesoamerica who first practiced this tradition to honor the cycle of life.We spoke with Justin Veach of the Longmont Museum, which, along with the City of Longmont, has a long-running tradition of Dia de los Muertos festivities. That includes this Thursday night's Noche de Museo at the Stewart Auditorium, an evening of live performances spanning the ages, from ancient Aztec dance to the contemporary Chicano funk of Denver-based Los Mocochetes.Patricia Moreno has created a number of ofrendas over the years that have been on display at the Longmont Museum. She discussed their significance with us.Other events we mention in this episode include an inaugural Día de los Muertos procession that begins at 5:15 p.m., November 2, at The New Local Annex in Boulder. And in Fort Collins, you can head to Old Town Square at 5 p.m., November 2, and watch the creation of a community altar.

Election Day is less than a week away and Coloradans are already casting their ballots with early in-person voting at dozens of voting centers. Others are using the hundreds of dropboxes throughout the state, or they’ve already mailed in their votes. All of this happens under the purview of Colorado’s top election official, Secretary of State Jena Griswold. She says she has embraced the mission of making Colorado elections secure and more accessible. And although she says she rarely encounters confusion about how voting works here, there is one misconception that occasionally crops up…"Maybe that there's just too many drop boxes at this point,” Griswold laughed.We invited Griswold on the show to discuss Colorado's ranking as one of the easiest states to cast a vote, and why there really can't be too many dropboxes.If you need to check your voter registration, find your polling location or locate one of those many dropboxes, GoVoteColorado.gov has you covered!

Ghost stories have been on Heather Kelley’s mind for a long time. Kelley is an actor and educator at University of Colorado Boulder where her research focuses on dark tourism, ghosts as manifestations of trauma, and haunted attractions, to name a few. Since the early days of her acting career, Kelley has heard no shortage of haunting tales about the theaters and venues where she’s performed, beginning with her time as an undergraduate student at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. “Before I even got there, I had been warned that the place was haunted, that there was a ghost there by the name of Lucy, and that all the people that had worked there for years not only believed in Lucy, but made decisions based off of like, what Lucy would or wouldn't like,” Kelley told In The NoCo. We sat down with Kelley on this All Hallow’s Eve to unwrap that strange feeling some of us get when we spend time in old theaters and other storied places.You can help Kelley deepen her research by filling out this theater ghost survey. And you can do your own research at one of the many Colorado theaters that Kelley says are believed to be haunted: the Boulder Theater, the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, the Dickens Opera House in Longmont, and the Rialto Theater in Loveland.

Colorado spends a lot of money on K-12 students, but the state allocates much less for adult education, in fact it's near the bottom of the list nationally. That means some of Colorado’s more economically vulnerable adults aren’t getting the support they need. Chalkbeat higher education reporter Jason Gonzales says some new laws are helping to shift the focus to adult education. He told us about those measures and how state lawmakers are scrambling to repair a problem that could jeopardize some access to adult education.

Nearly 200,000 undocumented people live in Colorado. It’s a life that comes with a lot of uncertainty, especially in accessing things like healthcare. A 2021 law expanded healthcare access for Coloradans regardless of immigration or documentation status. It paved the way for the creation of OmniSalud, which helped connect 10,000 undocumented low-income residents with affordable health insurance last year. With Colorado's open enrollment period right around the corner (Nov. 1), host Erin O'Toole spoke with Dale Whyte, program manager of Boulder County's health coverage enrollment center.

Water — we know it’s a precious resource; yet in many American households, it’s easy to take it for granted. We turn on our tap and expect a clean gush of H2O to always spill out. But our water supply is shrinking — and the infrastructure helping to quench our thirst is aging. All this could mean the price of our water bills is likely to increase. In some of his recent reporting, KUNC’s Alex Hager dives into some of the factors at play, like the state of the Colorado River and middle-aged utilities. He joins In The NoCo to explain.

Much of what we understand about Elijah McClain — both his life and his death in 2019 at the hands of Aurora police and paramedics — is thanks in large part to people like Candice Bailey. The Aurora activist led many of the protests that introduced Coloradans to McClain, a 23-year-old Black man described by friends and family as gentle, creative and a free spirit. Her work helped people honor McClain’s life and examine the practices of Aurora police and paramedics that led to his death. As trials continue for the officers and paramedics charged for McClain’s death, Bailey joined In The NoCo to reflect on her fight for racial justice.

Yes, winter is just around the corner. But today, let us take just a moment to appreciate flowers — one of the best souvenirs of summer — as we look forward to next year's garden. Many of the annual flower varieties you'll find in garden stores in the spring have just endured a rigorous, real-world testing process at the Annual Flower Trial Garden at Colorado State University. KUNC’s Emma VandenEinde covered the final rounds of plant judging at the end of the summer. She joins In the NoCo to sustain our summer dreams.

Moviegoers in Northern Colorado helped fuel the Barbie phenomenon, not only for big cinema chains, but also infusing mom-and-pop theaters with massive revenue from ticket sales. The Lyric - a local indie theater in Fort Collins - said Barbie was its number one grossing film of all time. Colorado State University professor Karrin Vasby Anderson has been watching this craze unfold. The feminist scholar was astounded when a film full of frills and pink turned out to be about feminism, and wrote about some of the backlash that provoked. She joins In The NoCo to unpack some of the messaging in the billion-dollar blockbuster.

Dozens of Native people have gone missing in Colorado since the state activated a new alert system in late December of last year. But advocates say some of those alerts aren’t going out fast enough. Raven Payment, who is Ojibwe and Kanienkehaka, is on the task force that helped set those alerts in motion through a recent law. She works closely on the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people, who face disproportionately high rates of violence. She sat down with In the NoCo to talk about recent strides and setbacks in addressing the problem.

Author and journalist Rachel Louise Snyder has spent her career shining a light on social justice issues, violence against women and domestic abuse, and human rights across the globe. In addition to several novels, she’s published work for NPR, in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Yorker.Years ago, her experience in the Semester at Sea program helped set in motion a worldview that powerfully informs her work today. Northern Coloradans have the chance to hear from Snyder at Colorado State University, where Semester at Sea is headquartered and celebrating 60 years. Ahead of that talk, host Erin O'Toole sat down with her to discuss the power of travel and language, and her new book — an evocative memoir about survival: "Women We Buried, Women We Burned."

Journalism wasn’t always in the cards for NPR’s Lori Lizarraga, until one day she found herself in the wrong classroom at Southern Methodist University. Lizarraga says she “stepped into Narnia” when she walked into the studio where journalism students were broadcasting the school’s daily newscast. The Latina journalist has been telling stories ever since – and a lot of that work is informed by her cultural identity. To wrap up our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, host Erin O'Toole spoke with the Code Switch host about how race, cultural identity, and lived experience are inextricably woven into the fabric of her work.

The housing crunch is getting a lot of attention these days, but how it's affecting college students is less talked about. Recent data shows it’s a big problem. In a 2020 survey [pdf], more than half of college students said they were struggling to meet basic needs, like finding stable housing. It was a period of uncertainty given the ongoing pandemic, but the numbers point to a persistent problem. Recent federal data shows 8% of undergraduate students experienced homelessness in the previous 30 days. Students of color are overrepresented in the data. In Colorado's rural mountain communities, helping students stay housed is a huge challenge. In today's episode, host Erin O'Toole talks with Matt Gianneschi of Colorado Mountain College to learn how they're approaching that problem.

The newest season of KUNC's The Colorado Dream podcast is exploring how our state's housing crunch is affecting mountain communities. In Summit County, the situation is especially dire. Housing was already in short supply there due in part to the region's high construction costs and relative shortage of buildable land. Meanwhile, the recent explosion in short-term rentals, like Airbnb and Vrbo, has drastically cut the number of homes that would be available as long-term rentals for locals. A recent survey of residents suggests the county will need more than 2,500 rental and for-sale units — at all price points — to meet the high demand for housing.In today's episode, we talk with Stephanie Daniel, host and creator of The Colorado Dream: Housing Wanted, about how Summit County officials are addressing the housing crunch there.

Many of Colorado’s healthcare workers are burned out, as we heard from Kaiser Permanente staff who walked off the job last week. Staffing shortages are largely to blame — and this is an issue that’s also affecting first responders. KUNC statehouse reporter Lucas Brady Woods recently reported on the dire state of Colorado’s ambulance services. He sat down with In The NoCo's Robyn Vincent to discuss how the situation is affecting some EMTs and paramedics.

For the last several decades, a small but growing number of states have begun observing Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a holiday to honor Native Americans and celebrate their histories and cultures. In some communities, like Boulder, it's celebrated in lieu of Columbus Day. In other places, both are observed on the second Monday of October. It is not currently a federally recognized holiday, though in 2021, President Biden signed the first presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples Day. To learn more about its significance, we reached out to Susan Faircloth. The former professor led Colorado State University’s School of Education and now runs a consulting company in Fort Collins focused on American Indian education. She's an enrolled member of the Coharie Tribe of North Carolina. Our conversation began with a land acknowledgment that included a deeply personal connection to her family.

Thousands of Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers in Colorado and other states have walked off the job for three days. They say they are stretched thin amid a serious employee shortage and want better pay. Meanwhile, the Fort Collins Symphony celebrates a century of music that began with a group of volunteer musicians back in 1923. Host Erin O'Toole talks with the organization's longtime music director, Wes Kenney, in today's episode.

KUNC’s The Colorado Dream podcast captures the struggles and successes of residents determined to make a life in Colorado. They are striving for the so-called American Dream – and overcoming huge hurdles in the process. Their stories also reflect host and creator Stephanie Daniel’s longtime focus in the KUNC newsroom. Her work often unravels the barriers to thriving in America."I grew up in Denver and Colorado is my home," Daniel says. "I’ve been working at KUNC for nearly six years and during that time I’ve gravitated toward covering issues that really impact people’s quality of life — alcohol addiction and treatment, higher education and jobs, access to health care, social justice, immigration, the list goes on."The Colorado Dream podcast releases its third season this week, which unpacks how Colorado’s housing crisis is affecting our mountain communities. Ahead of the launch, Daniel sat down with host Erin O'Toole to preview some of these stories and how they reflect the grit and resilience of Coloradans.

A lot of Coloradans love the idea of recycling. But our recycling habits are in the dumps. In 2020, the rate of recycling statewide was just 15 percent — less than half the rate nationwide. That’s according to a report from the Colorado Public Interest Research Group and Eco-Cycle. Perhaps that's because the actual practice of it can be confusing. It seems like the rules are often changing – and let’s not forget that recycling is expensive, both for residents and municipalities. To help sort through the confusion, host Erin O'Toole sat down with Mark Snedecor, who's the director of recycling services for Waste Management (WM) of Colorado. He shares some of the big recycling blunders we're making, and why you don't have to worry too much about those little numbers in the 'chasing arrows' recycling symbol.

We're celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with conversations featuring Hispanic and Latino changemakers, innovators and creators. Today's episode is about music - specifically, mariachi. The style is rooted in Mexico's history, dating back to colonial times, and started to grow in the United States around the 1930s, when people began hearing it on radio stations and in films. These days, it's showing up more often in Colorado schools' music programs, alongside the usual jazz, orchestra, or symphonic band options for students. That provides the opportunity for more culturally relevant programming to serve increasingly diverse student populations, says Ben San Martin Kellogg. Kellogg isn't from Mexico himself – he's of European and Peruvian ancestry – and he didn't grow up listening to or playing mariachi. But he fell in love with the style when he was brought in to play trumpet in a mariachi ensemble while a student at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He's now a music educator at Edgewater Elementary, where he guides students in learning several styles of music, including mariachi. In today's episode, he shares why it's so important to train more educators to teach different genres of music, and what we should pay attention to when we listen to mariachi.You can hear Ben perform with his ensemble for a Hispanic Heritage event on October 14 at Luki Brewery in Arvada. And he was featured in this 2017 KUNC story about the MSU mariachi program he went through. Colorado has an all-state youth mariachi ensemble, Mariachi Estelares de Colorado. And the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley has a new Bachelor of Arts in Latinx Music degree program that launched this year.

A new exhibit opening this weekend at the Museum of Boulder promises to illuminate the stories of Black Coloradans, highlighting their influence on the region's history and their impact on the future. "Proclaiming Colorado's Black History" centers on places like the once-bustling farming community of Dearfield; and notable people like businessman Barney Ford and philanthropist Julia Greeley. It's about sharing the lives and stories of people who aren't necessarily in Colorado's history books, said Adrian Miller, co-Project Director and lead curator for the exhibit. The project was several years in the making, and was shaped with a lot of community input and collaboration, Miller said. It includes a variety of installations, collections of oral histories, and an art display that delves into Afrofuturism. Miller joined host Erin O'Toole to discuss the origins of the project, how it came together, and why now is the right time to launch.Proclaiming Colorado's Black History opens Friday evening with a special kickoff event and tours. Saturday will feature a discussion with hip-hop scholar Adam Bradley, and music on the museum rooftop. Find details and tickets for the opening weekend events at the Museum of Boulder website.

On June 25, 1953, a group of librarians and publishers issued a statement affirming the right of Americans to read freely. But that right has been challenged continually over the decades, including right now. Within the last several years, there’s been a surge in efforts across the country to challenge and remove books from library shelves. According to an analysis by PEN America, a free speech advocacy group, book bans have been reported in more than 30 states. Many of the challenges commonly target books about race, racism, or with LGBTQ characters or themes – but in some places, those challenges have expanded to include titles that discuss grief and loss, violence, and adolescent health and well-being. Banned Books Week was developed as a way to celebrate the freedom to read, and to draw attention to efforts at censorship. For librarians and book fans alike, it feels especially weighty this year, the 70th anniversary of the issuing of the Freedom to Read statement.For Diane Lapierre, executive director of Poudre Libraries, the week is an important acknowledgement of our First Amendment rights, and the critical role of libraries in defending intellectual freedom and the right to read. She spoke with host Erin O'Toole ahead of Banned Books Week, October 1 – 7.Poudre Libraries will host programming and events throughout the week, including the Let Freedom Read Challenge (ages 12 and older). The Lyric in Fort Collins will host "Let Freedom Read: Uncensored" – which features live readings of passages from books that are frequently challenged. And Colorado Press Women will host a discussion on book banning and information suppression at the Columbine Library in Littleton on Oct. 7. You can find more information and resources here.

All eyes are on an Aurora courtroom as trials get underway in the Elijah McClain case. Mclain, a 23-year-old Black man, died four years ago during a violent encounter with Aurora police and paramedics. His death has had major reverberations in Colorado and far beyond. The first of three trials involves two police officers charged in his death — Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt. They have pleaded not guilty. Today we focus on what we know about police’s involvement in McClain’s death with KUNC reporter Rae Solomon. She covered his death and many of the developments that followed.In the episode, we mention a conversation host Erin O'Toole had with Elijah's mother, Sheneen McClain. You can listen to that here.

In 2021, Nicki Gonzales became Colorado’s first Latina state historian. History is a lifelong vocation for the Regis University professor, one that has helped Gonzales to pay tribute to her family’s legacy and inform her own identity.Gonzales’s work has helped to provide us with a fuller picture of Colorado’s cultural landscape, uncovering state history and acknowledging its problematic details. In 2020, she was appointed by Gov. Jared Polis to serve on the state's Geographic Naming Advisory Board, which helps replace the names of geographic features and areas bearing derogatory titles - something Gonzales says helps the state reckon with problematic elements of its racial racist past. She and board members recently took on the high-profile renaming of Mount Evans, the namesake of a disgraced Colorado territorial governor. The iconic 14er is now Mount Blue Sky. On today's episode, Gonzales reflects on her search for identity and deeper meaning, starting with her own family history.We're celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with a series of conversations featuring Hispanic and Latino changemakers, innovators and creators.

Colorado's housing crisis is impacting residents in different ways. Recent survey responses point to housing affordability and homelessness as top concerns. And the data reflects those concerns. In Denver County alone, there were around 1,200 eviction filings in August – nearly double the number a year earlier. And for people who are displaced, either by eviction or because they simply can't afford their rent and move out, there are very few affordable housing options to turn to. In today's episode, executive producer Robyn Vincent talks with eviction attorney Zach Neumann, who helped found the Community Economic Defense Project.