In The NoCo

Maybe you’ve tried yoga to de-stress and found it’s not for you. Maybe you’ve tried foam stress balls. Or a hundred other ways to unplug or relax. 
 
Today, we’re talking about a practice that uses nature – and the five senses – to help people slow down and reset. Forest bathing is a restorative practice with roots in Japan that sends people into the woods to immerse themselves in nature.

Darlene Rooney-Keller is the owner of Nature Heals Forest Therapy in Longmont. She’s a forest bathing guide who takes clients into nature for immersive, guided sessions. 

She spoke with Erin O'Toole about why she finds the practice restorative – and she shared some tips for newcomers who want to try it. And although winter is approaching, Darlene says you can use these techniques in any season. 

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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.

An innovative new prosthetic foot dreamed up by students at Colorado State University could offer new options to amputees and other people with limb differences.  

The team behind it calls it the “Goldilocks foot” because it serves as a middle option. It’s more comfortable than cheaper prosthetics but costs less than prosthetics built for running and other competitive sports. The design team says the Goldilocks foot is especially useful for walks and light exercise.  

Garrison Hayes worked with a team of engineering undergrads to create the design while he was a senior at CSU. And he drew on his personal experience: His leg was partially amputated to remove cancer when he was a kid.   

Hayes graduated from CSU in May with dual bachelor’s degrees in biomedical and mechanical engineering. He spoke with In The NoCo’s Brad Turner earlier this year about why he wanted to create a prosthetic that was affordable, but also durable and comfortable. We’re listening back to that conversation today. 

You can also check out our conversation around another innovative idea being tested in Northern Colorado: an experiment in warm-weather cloud seeding that uses an electrical charge instead of chemicals to make it rain.  

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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 stolen idea for a novel, an angry social media post and an online backlash that engulfs the main characters:

These are the elements of an intriguing new novel by Colorado author R.L. Maizes.   

The writer says it draws on some of her own experiences. And the novel raises thorny questions about who gets to own an idea, who has the right to tell a particular story, and the tension of writing a novel in an age of social media tirades.  

 A Complete Fiction was released earlier this week.  Maizes, who lives near Boulder, joined Erin O’Toole to share the real-life challenges of being a writer in our chronically online society. 

Maizes will speak about her new book at Boulder Bookstore this Wednesday, and at Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins on Thursday. 

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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.

Seventy years ago, on November 1, 1955, a man planted a bomb aboard a United Airlines plane shortly before it departed from Denver. The plane exploded in midflight over beet fields in Weld County, killing all 44 people aboard.   

It was a mass murder that grabbed headlines across the country. And viewers saw footage of the trial on TV, which was unusual then.  

If you've never heard of this crime, though, you're hardly alone. Until recently, there had been no marker to commemorate the tragedy.  

That changed this past weekend when, 70 years after the tragedy, supporters and families of those killed gathered for the unveiling of a new memorial.  

The granite marker engraved with the names of the 44 victims is placed at the base of FlyteCo Tower, the former control tower for Stapleton International Airport in Denver, from which Flight 629 departed. 

Erin O’Toole spoke last year with Andrew J. Field, author of the book Mainliner Denver: The Bombing of Flight 629, to get a sense of the bombing’s legacy and why this new memorial is so meaningful. Field is a retired staff attorney for the Colorado Supreme Court, where he specialized in criminal law. 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.

Owls are symbols of wisdom, and heroes of literature – from Greek mythology to Harry Potter.  
 
But a leading conservation agency says owls are in trouble along Colorado’s Front Range. They’re losing critical habitat as cities and suburban areas expand. 

The Bird Conservancy of the Rockies is about to launch what it calls the Urban Owl Nest Box program. It’s an unusual project that asks Front Range residents to create nesting spaces for eastern screech owls in their backyards. 

Marion Clément is a senior avian ecologist with the Bird Conservancy. She spoke with Erin O'Toole about why owls are so important to our ecosystem, and why the organization says it’s prioritizing these nocturnal birds with the new program.  

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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 a snapshot of climate change in action: Plants and pollinators on the slopes of one of Colorado’s most famous mountains are falling out of sync with one another.  

Researchers say rising temperatures and early snowmelt atop Pikes Peak are causing some noticeable shifts in the ecosystem and throwing off some important life cycles.   

Wildflowers on the mountain are blooming earlier, and pollinators like bees and butterflies are emerging at different times. And that’s concerning because we rely on pollinators to make our crops grow.  

Julian Resasco, an associate professor of ecology and biology at the University of Colorado Boulder studied these cycles with a team of researchers. The findings were published last month in American Naturalist.  

He joined Erin O’Toole to discuss what they found, and how the work began with a study from a century ago looking at flowers and bees in the same area of Pikes Peak. 

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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.

The world’s largest wildlife overpass will soon be open for use in Colorado.  

Wildlife overpasses allow animals to safely cross over highways. And Western states are building more of them to cut down on the number of crashes between vehicles and animals.   

The Greenland wildlife crossing is being built over a section of I-25 between Denver and Colorado Springs, just north of Monument. Some 80,000 drivers pass through this area daily. But elk, mule deer, and pronghorn also use that area to move between the mountains and the plains. And this stretch of highway averages one vehicle crash involving wildlife per day.   

So, how could this overpass help reduce these dangerous and costly crashes?   

Nicki Frey is a wildlife specialist with Utah State University Extension. She studies wildlife overpasses in the West, but was not involved in planning this one. She joined Erin O’Toole earlier this year to explain how they work – and why they’re important to both wildlife and drivers. We’re listening back to that conversation today.  

For more on interactions between humans and Colorado wildlife, check out this series from KUNC News. 

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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 was a mystery that haunted Colorado search and rescue groups for almost two decades.  

In September 2005, a 35-year-old woman named Michelle Vanek went missing while hiking on Mount of the Holy Cross, a challenging fourteener in Eagle County. Vanek had been hiking with a friend, but they split up after Vanek grew tired and decided to take an easier trail down the mountain. 

She was never seen again, although hundreds of people searched for her in the days after she disappeared.  

All of that changed a few months ago.  An all-women group of rescuers used new technology to revive the search. They used digital maps and drones that conducted searches from the air – and ultimately discovered her remains.  

Reporter Jason Blevins wrote about the search for the Colorado Sun. He spoke with Erin O'Toole about how searchers solved this mystery, and how their work could reshape the way Colorado's search and rescue teams approach similar cold cases.   

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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.

An innovative cancer therapy inspired by the gripping power of geckos might be on the horizon.   

Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder recently studied the microscopic structures on gecko toes that allow the tiny reptiles to climb walls and cling to slippery surfaces like windows.  

That work inspired the development of a new material that could help chemotherapy drugs cling onto tumors, enabling less frequent and more effective treatment – potentially with less discomfort and fewer side effects for patients. The researchers described the technology in the journal Advanced Materials. 

The research began with a focus on bladder cancer, which affects about 85,000 people in the U.S. each year. It’s been in the headlines recently after CU football coach Deion Sanders announced that he’d been treated for it. 

Wyatt Shields is assistant professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at CU Boulder, and part of the team that developed the gecko-inspired material.  

Wyatt spoke with Erin O’Toole earlier this year about the material – and its potential to change how we treat other diseases in the future. We’re listening back to that conversation today. 

Curious about other medical research involving reptiles? Check out our interview with a CU scientist studying how python eating habits could one day lead to better treatment of heart disease in humans. 

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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 drive through the mountains of Colorado comes with breathtaking views, occasional glimpses of wildlife and plenty of steep, winding roads. Sometimes that becomes deadly, especially for truck drivers. 

Even in good weather, mountain highways like Interstate 70 can be uniquely challenging for professional truck drivers. And there’s no specialized training required for them to drive in the mountains.   

That didn’t sit well with professional drivers Joe Trussell and Scott Maurer. A few years ago, they founded CDL 303, a trucking school based in Commerce City. They’re the only commercial driver’s license school in the country that offers a training program focused on mountain safety.   

They spoke with Erin O’Toole earlier this year about how they train drivers to understand the unique physics of mountain driving, and how to make the journey safely.  We’re listening back to that conversation today. 

Check out our conversation with a retired Amtrak conductor with an unusual idea to help get semis safely through Colorado’s mountains – by loading them onto a train.  

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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.