In The NoCo

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 recent 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 in late 2024. 

The documentary is available on Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video, and will be screened this Sunday, April 26 at the Arvada Center - along with a new art exhibit running through May 10. 

You can watch the film’s trailer here. 

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Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: [email protected]
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Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
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 bill being discussed at the state capitol has lawmakers sounding like a bunch of Swifties – or at least has them talking about Taylor Swift’s music. 

State Sen. Jeff Bridges referenced the pop superstar’s album 1989 when he threw his support behind a proposed law that would make it easier for artists in Colorado to do business and help protect the rights to their creative work.  

Bridges told the Colorado Sun that the bill would avoid situations like what happened to Swift when her former record company sold away the rights to 1989 and other albums she’d created. 

Parker Yamasaki covers arts and culture and wrote about the bill for the Colorado Sun. She spoke with Erin O’Toole about the idea behind it, and how it could help Colorado artists trying to support themselves through their creative work.  

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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
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.

Mountain Plovers are a celebrated bird species in parts of Colorado. But if you’ve never seen one, you’re in the majority.  

Mountain Plovers nest on Colorado’s eastern plains and are sometimes referred to as the “prairie ghost” because their sandy-colored plumage makes them hard to spot.  

The annual Mountain Plover Festival in Karval – which begins this Friday – celebrates this bird.   

The festival draws hundreds of visitors each year, and owes much of its success to support from local ranchers, who have gotten involved in preserving Mountain Plover habitat. 

Angela Dwyer is a manager for the stewardship program of the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. She joined Erin O’Toole last year to talk about the ranchers, the festival and the plovers — including why this prairie-loving bird has “mountain” in its name. We’re revisiting their conversation today. 

The sound of Mountain Plovers used in this episode can be found in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Macaulay Library.  

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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
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.

When a natural disaster strikes, we often think of children as the most vulnerable of victims. Picture families forced to evacuate during a wildfire, or kids forced to take remote classes for months during the pandemic. 

A University of Colorado researcher says this thinking may be too simplistic – that it overlooks the ways children help out during and after a disaster, and the importance of letting kids help respond to a chaotic world. 

Lori Peek is a sociology professor and director of the Natural Hazards Center at CU Boulder. She studies how communities respond to natural disasters, and she's particularly focused on how children help out.  

She’s giving a talk on the topic Wednesday in Boulder. Ahead of that, she spoke with Erin O’Toole about her research.  

If you enjoyed this interview, check out our previous In The NoCo conversation with Lori about how surviving a wildfire can make a community more resilient. 

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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
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.

Colorado has been a magnet for businesses over the past two decades. In the past seven years, the state attracted dozens of companies and more than 40,000 jobs, according to the governor’s office.   

But that trend appears to be shifting.   

Nearly a hundred companies are thinking about leaving Colorado – or have already done so. That’s according to a recent report from the Colorado Chamber Foundation.   

And earlier this month, a group of business and tech leaders signed an open letter to Gov. Jared Polis and other state officials.  

The letter warned that Colorado’s business climate is heading in the wrong direction. They pointed to too many regulations on businesses – and especially companies that use AI to do things like set prices.  

Axios Denver reporter John Frank recently wrote about what’s driving the departures. He joined Erin O’Toole to discuss the details, and what business leaders think might help reverse the trend.   

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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
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.

Colorado author Collin Irish writes science fiction and fantasy. And while his new book includes imaginative storylines set in space, its inspiration came from a more personal place: Collin’s writing drew from his work as a volunteer youth mentor.   

Collin works with some young men to help them better understand themselves through the use of storytelling and fairy tales. It’s part of a program based in Boulder called Rocky Mountain Rites . 

His new novel Messenger grew out of that mentoring work. It blends fairy tale, fantasy, and science fiction to explore the challenges of growing up in a modern world filled with uncertainty.   

Collin, who lives in Lakewood, spoke with Erin O’Toole about how his experience as a mentor shaped Messenger, and his approach to writing. 

Read an excerpt from Messenger that appeared in the Colorado Sun. 

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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
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.

Just days after the Artemis II astronauts returned to Earth, we’ve got a different lunar exploration story today – one that hasn’t gotten as much attention.    

Scientists have known for years that the moon holds traces of water. That water could be invaluable for future space exploration, as ingredients for rocket fuel, or perhaps by providing water for a colony on the moon one day.  

But exactly where that water is remains something of a mystery.   

A new study led by University of Colorado researchers is helping to solve part of that mystery, by pinpointing where frozen water might be.   

Paul Hayne is a planetary scientist at CU Boulder's Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics. He’s part of the research team, which published their findings earlier this month in the journal Nature Astronomy.   

Paul joined Erin O'Toole to help explain what we know about the moon’s hidden water, how his work ties into NASA’s Artemis program, and how the research might one day help establish a base on the moon.  

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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
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.

For centuries, the Arapaho have called Colorado and Wyoming home. The tribe gave names to places like the Kawuneeche Valley, the Never Summer Mountains, and Mount Blue Sky.   

But the language the Arapaho have spoken for centuries is at risk of disappearing, as fewer members of the tribe have learned the language.  

A team of language experts at the University of Colorado Boulder is working to change that. They’re compiling an online database that includes recordings of the Arapaho language and can be used as a learning and teaching tool.  

Andrew Cowell is a linguistics professor at CU, and faculty director of the Center for Native American and Indigenous studies. He helped launch this project more than two decades ago.   

He spoke with Erin O’Toole in January  about how he hopes the digital database helps future generations learn and continue to speak the Arapaho language.  We’re listening back to that conversation today. 

You can access the Arapaho Language Project 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
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’s been a tough winter for skiers and snowboarders in Colorado. And that’s also rippling through the local economy of nearby resort towns.  

Workers in bars and restaurants, backcountry gear shops, and hotels that depend on busy ski seasons are feeling the pinch. Many businesses are coping by cutting employee hours, not hiring some seasonal workers, or cutting back on overall spending.  

Journalist Steve Knopper wrote in 5280 Magazine about the economic ripple effects this low-snow season is creating beyond the ski resorts. His article is a snapshot of how a historically dry year is affecting the lives of the people who live and work in Colorado’s mountain towns.  

Steve talked with Erin O'Toole about what he learned, and why he wanted to write this particular story now.    

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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
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 position on the ski patrol at a Colorado resort is a dream job for many people – even in a dry winter like this one. They get paid to spend their days on some of the best terrain in the U.S. And they help thousands of skiers and snowboarders have a great time in the High Country.
 
But that work can also take a toll. Aside from the physical demands of skiing as a full-time job, there are downright traumatic moments -- like when a patrol team responds to a skier who's badly injured or gone missing. 
 
Winter Park's ski patrol set out in recent years to make sure its patrol members are properly equipped to handle the toughest incidents. Working with a nonprofit called Responder Alliance, they got their patrol team talking about stress and resilience. The story was featured in a recent Colorado Sun article. 

Zachary Akselrad is in his 16th season as a ski patrol employee, and he's assistant director of Winter Park’s ski patrol. He talked with In The NoCo’s Brad Turner in January about how the new approach has made the patrol team better. As a particularly tough ski season winds down in Colorado, we’re listening back to that conversation today. 

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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
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.