In The NOCO

Five years ago this month, the coronavirus pandemic upended life in Colorado and around the world. More than 14,000 Coloradans died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the state saw more than 1.7 million COVID-19 cases. It was a global health crisis that also reshaped the state’s economy in an instant. Businesses and air travel largely shut down for a time. Remote work, online grocery ordering, and meal delivery services became familiar parts of everyday life. Richard Wobbekind is a senior economist with the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business. If his name sounds familiar, it’s likely because lots of media outlets turn to him for his analysis. Five years after the pandemic began, we wanted to hear his perspective about how the event changed the state’s economy in ways large and small. He spoke with Erin O’Toole about COVID-19's impact on Colorado’s housing market, outdoor industry, and other facets of business in the state. Read more from NPR on the legacy and impact of the COVID pandemic. * * * * * Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

State wildlife officials will pay nearly $350,000 to reimburse ranchers in Colorado’s high country who saw their livestock killed or harmed by wolves last year. The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted to approve those claims recently. It’s a key part of the state’s program to reintroduce wolves. And it gets less attention than photos of newly released wolves turned loose by wildlife officials. It’s an acknowledgment that while voters support wolf reintroduction, actual wolves make life harder for ranchers. We wanted to look at these reimbursements, so we reached out to KUNC’s very own wolf reintroduction expert, Scott Franz. He has been covering the wolf reintroduction for KUNC since they were first released on Colorado’s Western Slope in December of 2023. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

A handful of Colorado schools monitor their students with cameras that use facial recognition software. It’s a security measure: An administrator with access to the technology can upload a student’s photo and then the system can use cameras around the school to pinpoint the student’s location. More school districts across the state have been exploring whether to adopt this technology, the Denver Post has reported. A bill at the state legislature would regulate how the technology can be used in the state’s schools at a time when more districts have considered adopting the technology. The debate underlines a conflict between supporters who say it helps make schools safer and opponents who call it a violation of students’ civil rights. Today we’re revisiting a conversation between NoCo’s Brad Turner and Denver Post education reporter Elizabeth Hernadez, who covered the topic. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

An estimated 13 percent of the construction workforce in Colorado is made up of immigrants without legal status, according to the American Immigration Council. These workers often handle lower-paying jobs at construction sites like installing drywall or laying bricks. Colorado has a housing shortage. So we wondered what is likely to happen to Colorado’s construction industry as the Trump administration imposes sweeping deportation policies and threatens mass raids? We reached out to Chloe East, who has studied the effects of deportation policy on the construction industry, for answers. East is an associate professor of economics at the University of Colorado Denver. She has been investigating the economic impacts of detaining and deporting immigrants without legal status since Trump first took office in 2016. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

It’s one of the first concepts you learned in science class: Trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. It’s part of why forests play such a critical role in reducing carbon in the atmosphere. Which is why a recent report on Colorado’s forests sounds a bit alarming. Researchers set out to gauge how many tons of carbon are taken in by Colorado’s nearly 23 million acres of forest – and also how much carbon is emitted by those forests. They found that forests in Colorado are actually releasing more carbon than they’re storing – which is surprising if you think back to those early science lessons and expect a forest to have the opposite effect. Colorado Sun reporter Tracy Ross recently dug into the research. She joined Erin O’Toole to talk about why this is happening – and whether we should be worried. * * * * * Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

The Trump administration announced recently it’s terminating hundreds of jobs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The announcement sparked protests, including one in Boulder in which NOAA supporters and employees took part. The threat of layoffs at NOAA also led our guest to write a defense of the work the organization does. Kari Bowen is an atmospheric scientist at the University of Colorado who works closely with, and has her work funded by, NOAA. Before working at CU, she spent 11 years as a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, which is part of NOAA. Bowen argues that even if you don’t know what NOAA does, you might miss NOAA’s services if they’re slashed or privatized. She says NOAA, and the data from its weather satellites, are something many of us use every day. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Wildfires are an ever-present threat in Colorado. And those that grow and spread quickly are becoming more common – and more destructive. But there’s a piece of technology that could help spot a blaze in the earliest stages, before it spreads. Cameras equipped with artificial intelligence can detect plumes of smoke in the air – even in remote areas – and alert firefighters nearby. This makes AI cameras a valuable tool for the few fire departments that already use them. But the cameras are expensive. Each one costs about $50,000 dollars per year. And so far, Colorado lawmakers have been hesitant to fund wider use of the cameras. The Aspen Fire Department began using AI detection cameras in 2021, after a donor supplied money to buy them. There are now nine of these cameras in the surrounding Roaring Fork Valley – and Aspen Fire Chief Rick Balentine thinks Colorado firefighters should be using more of them. He recently testified at a hearing for the most recent bill state legislators are considering, which would help fund more of these cameras throughout the state. Rick joined Erin O’Toole to explain how the technology works, starting from the moment when a camera thinks it might have spotted a plume of smoke in the distance. * * * * * Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Crowds of sandhill crane admirers gather in Southern Colorado each spring to watch these birds – which have recovered after nearly being wiped out a century ago. The birds’ admirers are fascinated by the cranes’ calls, their mating behaviors, and the fact that the species has existed for 2.5 million years. Scott Weidensaul is a writer and ornithologist who has also found inspiration from the sandhill cranes. He is the keynote speaker at this year’s Monte Vista Crane Festival, in the San Luis Valley, which starts this Friday. Scott talked with Erin O’Toole about the role these birds play in our imagination, and why he has found them so inspiring. Thank you to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Macaulay Library for letting us share recordings from their sandhill crane audio archive. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Colorado has ambitious goals around renewable energy. Governor Jared Polis is aiming for 100 percent of the energy in the state to come from renewable sources by the year 2040. But there’s an obstacle: Colorado doesn’t have enough power lines to deliver all that renewable energy from where it’s produced – often in rural parts of the state – to where it’s needed. A new study from the state’s Electric Transmission Authority found that Colorado needs at least $4.5 billion in transmission investment over the next decade or two, just to keep up with demand. Which is why clean energy advocates, and Gov. Polis, are intrigued by an unusual business model from a San Francisco-based company called SunTrain. The plan involves loading train cars with massive batteries filled with renewable energy. The trains would haul batteries from solar and wind farms in rural areas of Colorado to the cities and towns that need that electricity. SunTrain’s President Christopher Smith and CEO Jeff Anderson have been working with Xcel Energy to pilot their idea. They hope to demonstrate the concept in Pueblo in 2026. They spoke with Erin O’Toole about how “trainsmission” works, and how much of an impact it could have on Colorado’s energy landscape. * * * * * Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Democrats in Colorado control the governor’s office and both houses of the state legislature. Many of them openly oppose the Republican Trump administration’s actions to ramp up arrests and deportation of immigrants without legal status in the state. And those Democratic lawmakers have heard from many constituents in recent weeks who also oppose immigration raids. But more than a month after Trump took office and sweeps began in places like Denver and Aurora, Colorado Democrats still haven’t determined how they plan to push back. KUNC politics and legislature reporter Lucas Brady Woods spoke with Erin O’Toole to help explain what state legislators can – and can’t – do in the face of federal immigration enforcement. You can find more of KUNC's statehouse coverage from the Capitol News Alliance here. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Challenging anti-trans legislation – and finding a way to laugh about it. That’s the idea behind a new national comedy tour created by a transgender comedian who lives in Gunbarrel, outside of Boulder. Ren Q Dawe is the organizer of the tour – called “Here to Pee” – which launches this Saturday at Junkyard Social in Boulder. The comedians have stops planned in all 50 states. And some of the comedy, which is performed by trans comics, revolves around literal potty humor. That’s significant in an era when public bathrooms can be contentious spaces for trans folks. Ren joined Erin O’Toole to talk about why comedy is his way of standing up for his community. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

A piece of U.S. immigration law allows some people who have entered the country illegally to be detained and quickly deported – without typical legal proceedings and a hearing before an immigration judge. Until recently, this policy applied to people without legal status who had been in the country for less than two weeks, if they were detained near the U.S. border. But on the first day of his new term, President Trump dramatically expanded that policy, known as expedited removal. Now, immigrants without legal status who’ve been in the country for up to two years can be deported more quickly. And Trump’s revised version of the policy applies to the entire U.S. – not just the border region. This shift potentially affects thousands of noncitizens here in Colorado, at a moment when immigration officials have been ramping up raids in cities like Denver and Aurora. To better understand expedited removal, we reached out to Violeta Chapin, a professor of immigration law at the University of Colorado School of Law in Boulder, where she teaches the Immigration Defense Clinic. She spoke with Erin O’Toole about the potential impact of this policy change. Read a fact sheet and advice for members of the immigrant community from the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. * * * * * Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Dozens of childcare and preschool centers in Colorado are run by companies backed by private equity funding. Private equity firms use investor money to buy companies with a goal of improving them and selling them for a profit. This kind of investment can help a small childcare business grow and make upgrades, which could be useful in a state like Colorado that has a childcare shortage. But many private equity firms have a reputation for cutting staff and raising prices. And that’s concerning to some Colorado lawmakers – especially since more public money is going to childcare and preschool after the state launched its universal pre-K program a few years ago. Several legislators at the state Capitol have introduced a bill that aims to establish some guardrails for private equity-backed centers. The proposed rules include requirements to notify parents about upcoming enrollment changes or staff layoffs. Journalist Ann Schimke has reported on this issue for Chalkbeat Colorado. She talked with Erin O’Toole about some of the concerns that led to the legislation. Chalkbeat found 170 childcare centers in Colorado run by chains that are owned or backed by private equity firms. You can read the reporting and see a list of those facilities here. * * * * * Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

In 2018 the City of Boulder and Boulder County filed an unusual lawsuit: they sued Exxon Mobil and Suncor Energy for contributing to climate change. Climate change, the lawsuit argued, has caused a plethora of problems like flooding, road damage, and an increase in wildfires. The city and county have spent millions of dollars reacting to these problems. And they wanted help paying for it. Since the case was filed, more communities around the country have followed Boulder’s lead and brought similar lawsuits against fossil fuel companies. Earlier this month, the Colorado Supreme Court held a hearing to determine the fate of this case. So, while we await a decision, we wondered: What are the odds of this lawsuit moving forward? And how might it affect other communities dealing with climate change? Erin O’Toole spoke with Colorado Sun reporter Parker Yamasaki, who’s been covering the case and the recent hearing, to learn more. * * * * * Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Nuclear Waste is piling up at power plants around the country, and we have no idea where to put it. Many states are aggressively fighting plans for new storage facilities. But northwest Colorado is quietly opening the door. KUNC’s investigative reporter Scott Franz recently traveled around rural Colorado talking with people about what nuclear waste storage could do for the local economy – and also interviewing folks who are dead set against that idea. On this special edition of In The NoCo, we’ve combined all of Scott’s reporting from the past few months into a single episode. You can also see photos and check out more on this investigation. Scott’s reporting was edited by Leigh Patterson.

Over the past few months, crews have worked on an unusual firefighting operation near Boulder. They extinguished a blaze that has burned underground for more than a century. The work happened at Marshall Mesa near an open area that's popular for hiking. A fire in a a coal seam there had smoldered beneath the surface for years. It was a remnant of a time when coal mining thrived in the area. And it was a hazard: Heat from underground blazes can sometimes set fire to grass and other brush nearby. So crews have spent the winter digging up combustible material and bringing it to the surface. Then they mixed in cooler dirt to prevent future fires. Work at the site wrapped up recently, and officials held a celebration at the site on Thursday. So today, we’re revisiting a conversation with Jeff Graves recorded back in October, as the work was getting started. Jeff is director of Colorado’s Inactive Mine Reclamation Program, and he managed the job. He talked with In The NoCo's Brad Turner about how Marshall Mesa is one of at least 38 sites in Colorado where coal is burning underground – and some of the others are even more challenging to deal with. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

After the recent death of President Jimmy Carter, many of the tributes mentioned his environmental legacy and push for energy-efficient development. And one unusual part of his plan was focused here in Colorado. Carter’s administration had backed the design of some experimental homes along the Front Range. They were warmed by the sun and fueled by renewable sources – an exciting idea in the late 1970s. John Avenson was paying attention back then, and wanted to live in one of those homes. He got the plans, hired a contractor and built his very own Carter home in Westminster in 1981 – even as Carter’s successor in the White House, President Ronald Reagan, scaled back renewable energy development. Avenson still lives in that home today. It’s featured in an episode of the PBS series Heart of a Building, which focuses on innovative building construction. The episode will be shown at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival in Golden on Feb. 23. Erin O’Toole spoke with Avenson and Heart of a Building host Paul Kreischer to learn about life in one of Colorado’s first energy-smart homes. Find the full schedule for the Colorado Environmental Film Festival here. * * * * * Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

A note: Today’s episode deals with issues around suicide and firearm violence. Over the past decade, Colorado has seen more than 7,000 deaths by suicide that involved a firearm. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, guns are involved in more than half of Colorado’s deaths by suicide. A bill making its way through the state legislature could help reduce those numbers. The proposal would allow Coloradans to place a voluntary freeze on their own access to buy a gun. Someone who’s concerned about their mental health could add their own name to a database of people who are ineligible to purchase a firearm. Colorado’s proposal is based on a national campaign called Donna’s Law. If approved, the bill would make Colorado the fifth state to set up what's known as a Do Not Sell registry. So, how effective are voluntary programs like this at reducing the risk of suicide with a firearm? Erin O’Toole spoke with two KUNC colleagues: editor and reporter Leigh Paterson, and Chas Sisk, editor of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance, to learn more. * * * * * Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Ask a teacher about the hardest part of their job, and you might expect them to cite long hours or low pay. But there’s another, less visible challenge that educators face: exposure to student trauma. Students may confide in a teacher about not having enough to eat at home, or an abusive family member. And exposure to those problems takes a serious toll on teachers. According to a new study out of the University of Northern Colorado, about 9 in 10 teachers and other classroom educators deal with what’s called secondary traumatic stress from helping students with their problems, or simply hearing about them. And of those teachers, 42 percent had secondary traumatic stress that was considered severe. Breanna King, a graduate student in UNC’s School Psychology program, designed and led the study. She spoke with Erin O’Toole about how high levels of secondary traumatic stress may contribute to teachers leaving the field – and she shared ideas about how to help teachers cope. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

In 2025, many of us are on social media – and lots of us are hunting for a new job. If that sounds like your situation, a University of Colorado researcher says be thoughtful about what you post online. Because what you do on Facebook or Threads or BlueSky can change your odds of landing that new gig. Jason Thatcher has been studying how hiring managers use social media to make decisions about candidates. And he found 60 percent of hiring managers decide who to interview or who to hire, in part, by checking out applicants’ social media accounts. So how do your Facebook posts about politics affect your chances of landing your dream job? And is there anything you can do to make your social media accounts more appealing to a hiring manager? Thatcher recently spoke with Brad Turner about what he’s observed. We’re listening back to that conversation today. You can also check out his previous In The NoCo interview on how to keep “technostress” from driving you crazy at work. * * * * * Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Researcher Caitlin Clark has a job a lot of people would envy. Clark is a food scientist who oversees a new laboratory devoted to the study of chocolate – how it’s made, what makes it taste so good, and how to make new and better varieties of it. She and her team, based at the Colorado State University Food Innovation Center in Denver, work to dream up new confections that hopefully will end up on grocery store shelves or, maybe, in your box of Valentine’s Day chocolates. Clark talked with Erin O’Toole about her work in the new laboratory, and how her expertise in fermentation helped pave the way for her to become a chocolate researcher. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

In February of 1942, not long after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military removed thousands of Americans of Japanese descent from their homes. Most of them were full citizens who had been born and raised in the United States. Families had just a few days to get their affairs in order before reporting to relocation centers, mostly in Western states. Roosevelt’s order affected about 120,000 Japanese Americans, including 17,000 children. Writer and poet Brandon Shimoda, who is fourth-generation Japanese American, says the impact of incarceration didn’t end with the war. Shimoda, who lives in Colorado Springs and teaches at Colorado College, is a descendant of several family members who were incarcerated in internment camps. He says his family’s stories helped inspire his newest book, The Afterlife Is Letting Go. He spoke with Erin O’Toole about the legacy of Japanese American incarceration, and why the impacts still resonate today. Brandon Shimoda will be part of a discussion on untold histories, this Saturday, Feb. 15 during Fort Collins Book Fest. Find the full lineup of Book Fest authors and events here. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

In the late 1960s, a new movement of Black music grew out of the end of the civil rights era. Black artists declared their “Black power” and rocked the airwaves with the sound of funk. Funk music was more than just a genre with excellent grooves. It had deeper social and political meaning. Funk began as a reaction to tumultuous times and would ultimately lay the foundation for the hip0hop and R&B we listen to today. This is the argument in the new book by Reiland Rabaka, called The Funk Movement: Music, Culture, and Politics. Rabaka is a professor of African, African American, and Caribbean studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is also the founder and director of the Center for African American Studies at CU, and hosts a podcast called The Cause. He joined Erin O'Toole to talk about the importance of funk, and why it deserves respect for its singular impact on music and culture. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

If you grew up in the 80s, you might remember a famous anti-drug public service announcement from TV. There was a frying pan, a sizzling egg and an ominous warning: “This is your brain on drugs.” Josh Gowin, a researcher with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, remembers that ad quite well. Anti-drug PSA's like that one inspired him to study the effects of marijuana use on the brain and find out if that fried egg analogy is accurate. Gowin, a neuroscientist, looked at more than 1,000 scans of people’s brains. And he saw something notable in the brains of frequent cannabis users: a reduction in their working memory, which is the brain function that helps people keep track of what they’re doing. Gowin recently published his research. He joined Erin O’Toole to explain what his findings mean for cannabis users – and what kinds of tasks might suffer if someone’s working memory deteriorates. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

A vaccine against weight gain could be on the horizon, according to new research from the University of Colorado Boulder. The research shows that a particular strain of bacteria known as M. vaccae could help prevent obesity by reducing inflammation. Chris Lowry is a professor of integrative physiology at CU and led the research. His study found that he could prevent mice from becoming overweight even when they were raised on the equivalent of an all-McDonald’s diet. When his team injected mice with M. vaccae, the junk food mice gained no more weight than mice with healthy diets. Lowry spoke with Erin O’Toole about this research, and why he thinks it’s a promising solution for weight gain. Correction: An earlier version of this episode gave the incorrect last name for Chris Lowry’s colleague who helped with the research. The colleague’s name is Luke Desmond.* * * * * Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Producer: Ariel Lavery Executive Producer: Brad Turner Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Travelers making their way through Denver International Airport can experience a colorful, distinctive new art exhibit. The project, called “It’s Not What You Take, It’s What You Bring Back,” was created from 183 pieces of used luggage, suspended over a walkway in Concourse B. They’re painted in the vibrant colors of the Colorado sky – turquoise, baby blue, ruby red – and they form a shape resembling the infinity symbol. That painted baggage is part of a new installation by Colorado artist Thomas Evans, better known as Detour. He’s well known around Denver for his colorful murals of local sports legends like Denver Nuggets Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic. Detour talked with Erin O’Toole about what inspired his new art at DIA – and some of the stories behind the luggage. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

For many people, being stopped by police can produce a wave of anxiety. But that sense of stress and uncertainty is even worse for people with conditions like autism spectrum disorder, hearing loss, Tourette’s syndrome, or dementia. Boulder’s Police Department recently rolled out a new initiative called the Blue Envelope Program to help people with disabilities communicate when they encounter an officer. It allows a person to get an official blue envelope and fill it out with information that an officer might need to know to communicate with them. Then if they’re stopped by Boulder Police, they hand over the envelope. The program is used by agencies in a handful of states, but Boulder’s Blue Envelope Program is the first in Colorado. Alistair McNiven, Chief of Staff for Boulder Police, helped launch the program in January. He spoke with Erin O’Toole about why he thinks the envelopes may be a transformative tool for law enforcement. McNiven said people can email [email protected] to request an envelope or get one in person at the front desk of the Boulder Police Department. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

If you visit the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge northwest of Denver, you see different types of wildlife, miles of hiking and biking trails and acres of rolling prairie. But you don’t see any trace of the astonishing history of what happened there during the Cold War: Rocky Flats was the site of a plant that made plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons until it was shuttered in the early 1990s. Officials removed later removed the buildings used in processing plutonium and cleaned up the area. And after a series of sometimes contentious public hearings, the wildlife refuge opened to the public in 2018. Filmmaker Jeff Gipe explores that history in a new documentary, Half-Life of Memory: America’s Forgotten Atomic Bomb Factory. Gipe grew up in nearby Arvada. His father worked at the plant in the 1980s. Gipe says he made the film to remind people of the hazards buried beneath the wide-open spaces of the wildlife refuge, and to share the voices of workers whose lives were affected by the dangerous materials processed at Rocky Flats. Today we’re listening back to Gipe’s conversation with Erin O’Toole recorded ahead of the film’s premiere at the Denver Film Festival in November. The documentary is now available for streaming on Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video, and will be screened Feb. 23 at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival in Golden. Find the complete lineup and schedule for the festival here. You can watch the film’s trailer here. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

You likely haven’t heard the word ‘bipartisanship’ used much lately when it comes to news out of Washington. Republicans control the presidency and both chambers of Congress – and they’re making big policy moves. But Democratic Congressman Jason Crow still sees value in members of the two parties working together. Crow represents Colorado’s 6th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which includes Aurora and parts of the Denver metro area. He has served for six years on the For Country Caucus – a group of Republican and Democratic military veterans in the House – and recently wrapped up a two-year term as the group’s co-chair.Rep. Crow spoke with Erin O’Toole to share what he sees happening in Washington – and why he thinks the veterans caucus is an important group in Congress, particularly in this moment. Looking for more In The NoCo interviews with Colorado lawmakers? We recently spoke with Rep. Brittany Pettersen about her effort to change strict in-person voting rules for new parents in Congress. And State Rep. Kyle Brown talked with us about how legislators are working to keep homeowner’s insurance viable in Colorado, despite the growing risk from natural disasters. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Manipulating the clouds to make it rain or snow sounds like the stuff of science fiction. But the technology behind cloud seeding is nothing new: It dates back to the 1940s. That science got a new look recently when lawmakers ordered the Government Accountability Office to re-examine the possibilities of cloud seeding as water becomes a more precious resource in the U.S. The newly published report calls cloud seeding promising, but also says more research is needed. That got Alex Hager – KUNC's in-house water reporter -- thinking about how cloud seeding might affect what’s probably the biggest water story in the nation: the drought-stricken Colorado River. Alex wrote about it recently, and joined In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole to talk about what he learned. For more on the Colorado River, check out KUNC’s award-winning podcast Thirst Gap. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

JBS is one of the largest meat producers in the world. The company – which is headquartered in Greeley – reportedly earned $76 billion last year. And the company relies on immigrant labor to keep their meatpacking plants, like the one in Greeley, operating. A new story from the Food and Environment Reporting Network and the investigative journalism show Reveal offers a look at the community of immigrant workers at the Greeley plant. Many of them are Haitian, and many of them are here legally under what’s called TPS, or temporary protected status. Now, their future is uncertain as President Trump’s administration plans to take a harder line on immigration issues. Investigative journalist Ted Genoways reported the new audio documentary for Reveal. He spoke with Erin O’Toole to share insights about the lives of JBS workers in Greeley, and the grueling work of slaughtering hundreds of cattle per hour on what Ted calls the “disassembly line.” The Reveal episode hits podcast feeds this Saturday, and airs Sunday at 6:00 p.m. on KUNC. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

The recent news stories about wildfires in California seem all too familiar to Coloradans. We see homes destroyed by wildfires here every year. But we’ve also been hearing reports of a second, slower-moving disaster in news reports out of California: insurance companies pulling out of high-risk areas, leaving thousands of homeowners with no ability to get coverage. That kind of crisis is something Colorado lawmakers are working to avoid here. Democrat Kyle Brown represents House District 12, which includes Louisville and Superior, in the state house. He knows about natural disasters firsthand, since that area saw hundreds of homes destroyed by the Marshall Fire three years ago. Brown and other legislators are working on ways to limit these insurance problems in Colorado – even as natural disasters become more common and severe. He joined host Erin O’Toole to discuss some of the bills he’s introducing at the state Capitol. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Clinicians who treat patients with eating disorders have endured a perfect storm of challenges in recent years. Specialists say the pandemic, and the years that followed, saw more people developing eating disorders and often taking longer to seek help. On top of that, treatment for these conditions is expensive. At the same time, lawmakers have heard terrible stories of patients being mistreated at clinics in Colorado. Jennifer Brown has been covering this issue for the Colorado Sun. She remembers hearing from parents who tried to help their kids by finding a clinic where they could get help. "It was just heartbreaking to hear from these moms saying that they thought they were doing the best they could for their kid, and, come to find out, their kid was feeling abused,” she said. So how does Colorado – a national hub for this kind of treatment – address these issues? Erin O’Toole spoke with Brown about the severity of these problems and how new measures might offer patients better care in Colorado. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Parents worry about getting parenting right: limiting screen time, teaching responsibility, helping with homework. It’s a lot of pressure. Author Deborah Winking is an elementary school educator in Fort Collins. And she found her fears about raising a well-rounded child magnified after one of her children, Jack, was diagnosed with Sotos syndrome, a rare neurological disorder. Doctors weren’t optimistic that Jack would be able to live a full life. But Deborah figured out how to support her son through childhood and school. Along the way she developed some guidelines for what it means to be a supportive parent. Her newest book, Raising Capable Kids, distills years of her research and experience into a set of 12 habits for parents. She wrote it with families of neurodivergent kids in mind, but says she hopes her book is useful to any parent or teacher who wants their kids to grow into strong, curious and independent human beings. Deborah spoke with host Erin O’Toole about some of the advice she offers to parents. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

A new vending machine opened for business recently in Boulder. Instead of snacks or soda, customers who visit the machine can grab safe containers for needles ... fentanyl testing strips... or condoms. And all the items are free. Health officials call it a "harm reduction vending machine." It’s funded by restitution money from lawsuits against manufacturers of prescription opioids. Supporters hope it reduces the spread of HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and helps prevent overdoses. Amanda Wroblewski with Boulder Community Health works with people who deal with opioid addiction and chronic pain. She helped set up the machine, which is the first of its kind in the Boulder area. Amanda spoke with host Erin O’Toole about the vending machine, which opened to the public in November.* * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Members of Congress are required to show up in person to vote on any measures. That creates challenges for representatives who are in the final weeks of pregnancy, or who just gave birth. U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Democrat from Lakewood, understands these rules from experience. And she says they’re unfair. She’s due to give birth to her second child in a few days – which means she’s under travel restrictions, and unable to be in Washington to cast votes. But Pettersen -- and several other representatives -- have proposed a solution. Pettersen wants the House of Representatives to pass a resolution that would allow new or expectant parents to vote by proxy when they can’t be in Washington. That means they’d appoint another person to vote in their place. But there’s been some pushback to the plan – including from House Speaker Mike Johnson, who says the proposal is unconstitutional. Pettersen talked to host Erin O’Toole from her home in Lakewood about being an expectant mother in Congress – and the details of her proposal. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

As President Donald Trump begins his second term, one of his promises to supporters has been to carry out what he calls the largest deportation in U.S. history. This has a number of Colorado communities on edge, especially in places where immigrants without legal status make up a large part of the population. It has also prompted education leaders across Colorado to prepare for how their students might be affected by immigration enforcement. The effort took on new urgency this week, after the Trump administration cleared the way for immigration arrests at schools and other sensitive locations, like churches. Steve Joel was the superintendent of schools in Grand Island, Nebraska, when immigration officers raided a meat packing plant there in 2006, detaining about 250 workers without legal status. Those arrests in Grand Island rattled the community. And the experience taught the now-retired administrator many lessons, which he recently shared with education leaders at a conference of the Colorado Association of School Boards. Steve Joel joined host Erin O’Toole to discuss his advice for school leaders in the months ahead. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Old firehoses. Used forklifts. Two-thousand sheets of acrylic plastic. These are the kinds of things you can find at repurposedMATERIALS in Lafayette. The company acquires discarded industrial materials and products and resells them instead of sending them to a landfill. Damon Carson founded the business in 2011 after running two trash companies. The repurposedMATERIALS location in Lafeyette is one of six locations across the country where he stores his unusual inventory and then ships it off once he finds the right buyer. Damon Carson talked with In the NoCo’s Brad Turner about how he built the company. Check out a recent profile of the business in The Denver Post. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Coloradans who struggle with anxiety or depression will soon have a new treatment option. Psychedelic treatment with a licensed therapist– will be as legal in Colorado as prescription antidepressants. Colorado voters approved this. Starting in April, licensed healing centers can offer psychedelic therapy using psilocybin, the psychedelic component in some mushrooms. We wanted to understand what psychedelic therapy looks like before it becomes more widespread. Dr. Scott Shannon founded the Wholeness Center in Fort Collins, which offers an array of treatments for mental health, including for anxiety and depression. He’s offered psychedelic therapy for eight years and treated thousands of patients. (He’s worked with psychedelics while following the old laws that existed until this year.) Scott and other therapists who support access to psychedelics say it could change the way we treat mental health problems in Colorado. He walked host Erin O’Toole through a typical psychedelic therapy session. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

When Colorado writer X. Ho Yen was a kid, he loved to read science fiction. X. Ho Yen is autistic. He liked how some sci-fi stories, like the Star Trek series, depicted a more enlightened future society where neurodivergent people were treated equally. Eventually he began writing his own science fiction novels. His newest release is titled Space Autistic Author’s Puzzling Innerverse. It’s different from his other books: It’s a series of puzzles that reveal the plot of a story as you solve them. X. Ho Yen spoke with ITN’s Erin O’Toole about the new book, his influences and how science fiction resonated deeply with him as a child. Check out a recent profile of the author from The Colorado Sun. Correction: An earlier version of this episode gave the incorrect city of residence for X. Ho Yen. He lives in Centennial. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

If you think of Baroque music, it might bring to mind ornate-sounding pieces by composers like Bach, Vivaldi or Handel. But a pair of concerts in Denver this weekend will offer listeners a different flavor of Baroque music – one that blends European-style harmonies with rhythms and percussion from Mexico and other Latin American countries. The performances, by the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, focus on Latin American Baroque. The program will explore on the writings and music of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, an artist who lived in Mexico in the 1600s. University of Denver musicologist and viola da gamba player Zoe Weiss will lead the concerts at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Denver. Zoe talked with host Erin O’Toole about why she’s eager to play this music in Colorado. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Visitors to Colorado ski resorts can ride to the top of the mountain in a sleek gondola, or take a high-speed, four-person chairlift. Or, if they head to one of the state’s smallest resorts, they can ride up in a trailer pulled by a snowcat. Cuchara Mountain Ski Park in southern Colorado operates on weekends without a functioning ski lift, and serves just a few dozen skiers per day. They charge $40 for a daily pass when many of their gigantic competitors charge more than $200. Cuchara recently received a $250,000 grant from the state to help with operating costs. We wanted to know more about how a small, nonprofit ski resort sustains itself in a state where behemoth ski resorts are the norm. Ken Clayton is with the Panadero Ski Corporation that manages Cuchara. He talked with Erin O’Toole about why he believes the place has a bright future and what makes it special. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

You may have heard the recent news of a scandal involving state lab technicians who falsified some test results of drinking water. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment suspended further testing for now, saying the results couldn’t be trusted. You may also have heard about bogus test results in monitoring for water contamination near oil and gas wells around the Front Range. On top of that, you might also recall hearing about tainted DNA test results at the state crime laboratory earlier this year. The issue potentially may have affected hundreds of criminal cases. Colorado has multiple investigations into mishandling of data at several state labs. These scandals might make you wonder if you should be concerned about your health and safety. “The thing that really connects them is that they all involve some element of science, and some element of the scientific process being subverted,” says John Ingold, reporter with The Colorado Sun who focuses on health and healthcare coverage. He’s been following these stories and joined host Erin O’Toole to offer some answers, and a bit of reassurance. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

When it’s time to get a good night’s rest, women have it harder than men. Women are more likely than men to have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the treatments that doctors prescribe for sleep disorders, like medication or different bedtime routines, may be based more on data about male sleep patterns than female sleep patterns. That's a key takeaway from a new study out of the University of Colorado. The findings could eventually lead doctors to rethink how they treat sleep problems -- especially in women. Rachel Rowe is Assistant Professor of Integrative Physiology at CU, and she worked on the study. Rowe joined Erin O’Toole to explain her research and how sleep medicine as we know it may be short-changing women who experience sleep problems.* * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Have any of your New Year’s resolutions included to live a happier life this year? If you said yes, one recent study suggests you’re probably not alone. Americans feel less happy than in previous years, according to the recent World Happiness Rep, which collects data on happiness from countries around the world every year. The U.S. finished 23rd, behind countries like Kuwait and Slovenia. So we wanted to find some expert advice on how to be happy in 2025. Luckily, the University of Colorado has its own happiness expert. Dr. June Gruber is Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at CU Boulder and she teaches a class on happiness. Erin O’Toole talked with Gruber to get her best advice on being happy. She said it starts with shifting your perspective a little. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

The start of a new year often involves making changes in pursuit of a healthier life. For many of us, that means fewer processed foods, more veggies, and – maybe – a few more trips to the gym. Or perhaps your resolution is to work on relationships – to make new friends or reconnect with existing ones. After all, friendships are a key part of our well-being. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says loneliness is an epidemic that harms mental health and even physical health. But what’s the best way to make friends? How do you rekindle a relationship that’s gone quiet? And how do you nurture your current friendships? For answers, we reached out to Natalie Pennington, assistant professor of communication studies at Colorado State University. She studies the importance of friendship in our lives, and co-leads the American Friendship Project, an ongoing study of the state of connectedness in the U.S. She joined host Erin O’Toole to share practical tips on how to build new friendships – or reconnect with friends we haven’t seen in a while. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

When someone dies nowadays, their online accounts and social media profiles can become a poignant online memorial. Or sometimes, those accounts can become a hassle for grieving loved ones. For many people who have recently lost someone, knowing what to do with a loved one’s online accounts is a mystery. Sometimes an account gets deleted by the organization that manages them. Sometimes the account gives the impression that the dead person is still alive. Or th account might simply sit unused. A new clinic set up by a University of Colorado researcher provides guidance and aid in handling digital accounts after someone passes away. It’s a free help desk called the Digital Legacy Clinic. Professor Jed Brubaker founded the clinic and oversees its operation. Brubaker joined Erin O’Toole to discuss the unusual task of managing our online accounts for after we’re gone. He said it’s a reflection of how we mourn in a more digital age. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

Colorado teachers say their students are missing something that helps determine their academic success. Call it grit. If a student who struggles with math studies hard and performs well on their math test, that’s grit. If they complete a homework assignment that was tough to finish, that's also grit. Erica Breunlin covers education for The Colorado Sun. Since the pandemic, she says teachers have told her they’re seeing less grit in the classroom. And that’s leading to lower test scores for K-12 students. Breunlin recently wrote about grit, and the strategies some educators and parents have developed to build more of it in their kids. She joined host Erin O’Toole to share what she learned. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

An electrical grid on the moon. It’s an idea that could eventually power a small lunar colony and help take space travel to a new level. And research by two Colorado School of Mines graduate students may help make it a reality. Chris Tolton and Ken Liang built a prototype of that lunar grid and presented it during a recent competition run by NASA. The prototype worked – and Chris and Ken won a half-million-dollar prize to continue developing their idea. Their vision ultimately includes mining minerals found on the moon to fuel lunar habitats, rovers, and spacecraft heading to more distant points in the solar system. They’ve also launched a company, Orbital Mining Corporation, to pursue their goals. Tolton and Liang joined host Erin O’Toole to share more about their work, and how the future of space travel may be just a step closer than we think. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

These shorter, colder days over the midwinter holiday are the perfect time to break out that bag of roasted Pueblo chile peppers some of us have kept stashed in the freezer since the fall. They're just waiting to be turned into a big batch of spicy green chile. And for many pepper aficionados, only the Pueblo chile will do. But the popularity of these Colorado-grown peppers is a relatively recent phenomenon. Farmers in Pueblo and other parts of Colorado have been growing different kinds of peppers for decades, but the state didn’t really have its own signature variety of chile until the early 2000s. That’s when Dr. Michael Bartolo, an agriculture professor with Colorado State University, developed the unique Mosco variety of the Pueblo chile. And in a few short years, they’ve become a regional rival to New Mexico’s more famous Hatch chiles. Host Erin O’Toole spoke with the now-retired Bartolo earlier in the year to learn more about why chiles are such a point of pride for some people. It was one of our favorite science-related interviews of 2024, which we’re revisiting this week. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected] what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!Host and Producer: Erin O'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional music by Blue Dot SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.