In The NOCO

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. And many of us are dreading the moment when someone brings up politics at the dinner table.   

Family members might want to debate how Harris performed as a candidate or the merits of who Trump picked for his cabinet. Or a hundred other post-election topics that might make you feel a little bit less than thankful to be with your family on Thursday.  

Natalie Pennington, an assistant professor of communication studies at Colorado State University, studies the dynamics of friendship and relationships – and the challenges of maintaining connections across the political divide. She spoke with ITN’s Erin O’Toole to share some simple strategies to help you avoid Thanksgiving dinner drama.

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Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected]
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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.

One of the most unusual stories in recent memory about Colorado’s oil and gas industry popped up in the town of Erie. It was actually about what happens underneath Erie.  
 
A company wanted to access some underground oil and gas located beneath the town. But Erie has more than 30,000 residents. So putting a fracking operation in the middle of neighborhoods and schools wasn’t going to be very popular.  

Instead, the company, called Extraction Oil and Gas, proposed a plan to do what’s called horizontal drilling. They would set up their equipment on the outskirts of Erie – in unincorporated Weld County – which has fewer restrictions on drilling.  Then they would drill horizontally for as far as five miles to the west – to tap into the oil and gas beneath the town.  

But some residents in the town pushed back, saying they don’t want to live on top of an oil and gas operation.  And now state regulators have had to get involved. 

KUNC’s Rae Solomon has been following this story. Solomon spoke with In the NoCo’s Brad Turner and explained what might happen next – and what it could mean for how fracking is regulated at the local level. 

For more on this issue, check out stories by the Boulder Reporting Lab and The Colorado Sun, which cover a recent hearing and decision by the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission about the proposed drilling site.

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 2024, chatbots are part of ordinary life. They pop up on your screen while you’re checking your bank account or making an online purchase.  

But a few years from now it may be just as easy to have a conversation with a chatbot who recreates a dead loved one.  That’s the idea behind a kind of technology called a generative ghost. 

Jed Brubaker is associate professor at the University of Colorado and one of the people leading the development of generative ghosts. Jed is part of a team that recently received $75,000 from Google to study how generative ghosts could become part of our lives.  

In the NoCo’s Brad Turner spoke with Jed about what a visit with the generative ghost of a dead loved one would feel like. 

By the way, Jed also leads the Digital Legacy Clinic – a free clinic at CU to help people who want to get a deceased loved one’s digital affairs in order.

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.

It may not feel like it right now, but winter is coming. And before it arrives...  it’s time to think about extra care and nurturing for your trees. 

Because on Colorado’s Front Range, the coldest season can be especially tough on the trees in our yards. Damage can take many forms: Sun scald, dry roots, or cracks in the bark from extreme temperature swings.  

Fortunately, there’s hope. The tree specialists at Colorado State University Extension say they get lots of calls about cold-weather care for your trees so they’re ready to shine when spring returns.  

CSU horticulture specialist John Murgel spoke with ITN’s Erin O’Toole to share some helpful tips for helping your trees make it through the winter.   

You can learn more about wrapping your trees here. And find helpful tips for winter watering and using mulch to help insulate your trees here.

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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.

Millions of kids in the US will suffer a concussion during childhood, according to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Concussions are brain injuries that cause headaches and dizziness and nausea. And it can take weeks to fully recover.   

 In recent years doctors have changed the way they treat them. Instead of avoiding activity, doctors now recommend light physical activity while a child recovers from a concussion.  

Julie Wilson is a pediatric sports medicine physician at the Sports Medicine Center, and co-director of the Concussion Program at Children’s Hospital Colorado. She says doctors and school nurses in Colorado have kept up with the new guidance   –  and the state Department of Education formally adopted those guidelines recently. But Wilson says some parents and caregivers haven’t gotten the message.  

Host Erin O’Toole talked with Wilson about why she’s made it her mission to educate the public to think differently about kids and concussions.

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’ve spent even a little time outdoors in Colorado, you’ve most likely heard the song of the mountain chickadee. These adorable, chubby little birds are commonly found in higher-elevation forests in the Rocky Mountains. 

And they have a close relative – the black-capped chickadee, which tends to live at lower elevations. But in areas like Boulder County, the habitats of these two types of chickadees overlap.  

Historically, the two types of chickadees had identical birdsongs. Which could create a problem. 

When birds from these two distinct species want to find a mate, it’s important that they can identify a bird of their own kind, and avoid getting mixed up with their close cousins.  

But researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder say the birds found a clever solution. The mountain chickadee has changed its tune so it’s not the same as the song of the black-capped chickadee.  

And new findings from the CU study suggest that the changed birdsong is a small example of how human activity and urban development can impact wildlife’s evolution.   

Olivia Taylor is one of several researchers at the University of Colorado who have been studying this adaptation. She and fellow CU researcher, associate professor Scott Taylor (no relation) joined ITN’s Erin O’Toole to talk about their findings, which were recently published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.  

You can learn more about Scott Taylor’s work with the Boulder Chickadee Study here.

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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.

Of all the responses to the results of last week’s presidential election, one of the most unusual involves something called the 4B movement.  

 
It calls for women to cut off or limit their contact with men. That includes dating, marriage, childbirth – and physical affections. 
 
The 4B movement started a few years ago in South Korea, but gained attention on social media in the U.S. after Election Day. Some women equated president-elect Donald Trump's victory to a low point for women's rights — and said they’re cutting off relationships with men.

But women withholding physical contact from men is not a new idea. It's the subject of the Greek comedy Lysistrata by the playwright Aristophanes, which was first staged more than 2,400 years ago. The female characters in the play withhold their affections to protest a war, and it ultimately leads to peace and harmony. 

Lysistrata is being performed through Sunday at the Ed Beaty Hall Theater on the Aims Community College campus in Greeley.

The show's director, Benjamin Kessler, spoke with ITN’s Erin O’Toole about why this production is a conversation starter that taps into the current political mood in potent ways.

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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.

Researchers have proposed a plan to transform high rise office spaces into living spaces to reduce the housing shortage in the Denver metro area. Denver is one of many American cities with a tight housing market and a glut of unused office space. 

A recent study by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the architecture firm Gensler calls for converting high rise offices to shared residential spaces similar to a college dorm.  Tenants would share kitchens, bathrooms and workspaces with people in neighboring units. 

Alex Horowitz is the Project Director of Housing and Project Initiatives at Pew Charitable Trusts and he oversaw the study.  

In the NoCo’s Brad Turner spoke with Horowitz about why he thinks these low- cost, dorm-style units in skyscrapers could help cities where attainable housing is hard to find and even dramatically reduce the rate of homelessness in the U.S.

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 Hayman Fire burned through a huge swath of forest southwest of Denver in 2002. It left behind a massive burn scar. Workers quickly replanted thousands of trees to reestablish the forest.  

But more than two decades later, large areas of the Hayman burn scar still resemble a moonscape, with some scraggly young trees here and there.  

Burn scars that take decades to heal are becoming a fact of life throughout the West. It’s partly due to climate change, which is shifting which types of trees will grow naturally in mountain forests.  

Camille Stevens-Rumann – assistant director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Insitute at Colorado State University – studies reforestation efforts after a wildfire. In a recent Scripps News story, Stevens-Rumann argues it’s time for a new approach to how we replant forests after wildfires.  

Host Erin O’Toole spoke with Stevens-Rumann about what she thinks Colorado’s forests should look like in the future and why trees that have historically thrived in Colorado’s mountains don’t grow back quickly after a wildfire.

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 $20 boiler maintenance fee. A $60 fee to drive your garbage to the dump. A $1 monthly pest maintenance fee.  And a $6 fee to add up those other fees. 

These are actual charges billed to renters by landlords in Denver, according to a recent article by the Denver Post. The fees are tacked onto a tenant’s monthly bill on top of their rent.  
 
Critics call them junk fees – and say they usually aren’t clearly outlined in rent agreements or even mentioned to a renter before the first monthly bill arrives. Junk fees can sometimes add hundreds of dollars to what a tenant pays each month. 

But the Colorado Attorney General’s office has taken note, resulting in lawsuits against some landlords and management companies who charge these fees. So what effect will those lawsuits have for the renters who fall victim to this? 

In the NoCo’s Brad Turner spoke with Denver Post reporter Elizabeth Hernandez who’s been covering the issue. She’s spoken with dozens of renters who have horror stories about junk fees. 

If you believe your landlord has charged you junk fees, you can reach out to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office for help.

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.