In The NoCo

In 2025, chatbots are part of our everyday 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 an associate professor in the Department of Information Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, 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 in November about what a visit with the generative ghost of a dead loved one would feel like. We’re listening back to that conversation today. 

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. We spoke with him about it earlier this year.

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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.

A tiny, green insect that bores under the bark of ash trees is spreading in Colorado.  

The emerald ash borer has been making its way around the Front Range for the last decade. It damages ash trees and often kills them. And this year it’s been spotted in Denver.  

Ash trees make up about one in every six trees in the urban forests along the Front Range. So what can we do to protect ash trees and even fight back against this pest? 

Karim Gharbi is a horticulture specialist with the Colorado State University Extension who’s been on our show before. Karim joined Erin O’Toole to talk about the emerald ash borer and give a more specific idea of what this so-called “green menace” looks like. 

CSU Extension offers guidance on fall and winter watering to keep ash trees strong. If you’re looking for an arborist, Trees are Good offers suggestions.  

For more info on Front Range pests, listen to In The NoCo conversations about Japanese beetles and miller moths. 

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.

How does a community heal from the shock and grief of a mass shooting? And how can people who have lost loved ones find a way to move forward?  

That’s the subject of a new podcast called Senseless. In it, journalist Erika Mahoney explores the aftermath of the mass shooting at a Boulder King Soopers grocery store in 2021. And it’s a deeply personal show, because Erika's father, Kevin Mahoney, was one of the ten people killed in that shooting. 

Over the course of the eight-part series, Erika speaks with others who lost loved ones that day, as well as police, prosecutors, and members of the community.  

Erika has been a guest on In The NoCo before to talk about the trial – which ended in guilty verdicts and ten consecutive life sentences for the gunman.  

She spoke with Erin O’Toole about why she felt driven to make this podcast, and about some of the impacts of gun violence that linger after the news coverage has faded away.

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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.

In the months ahead, leaders across the West will wrestle with a proposal to use federal land as a remedy for housing shortages. 

You may remember that a few weeks ago, Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah wanted to sell off thousands of government-owned acres in Western states, including some parts of Colorado. That plan died when some key Republican senators refused to support it. 

But a similar, and more focused, proposal may still move forward under the Trump administration. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has offered a plan to sell or lease federal land to Western communities that are facing housing shortages.? Interior Department officials will meet with local leaders about it in the months ahead. 

So how will this idea be received in places like Summit County — which face severe housing shortages, but are also defined by the picturesque public lands that surround them? 

Rachel Cohen is a reporter for the Mountain West News Bureau, which KUNC is part of. Rachel's been reporting on this issue. She spoke with In The NoCo’s Brad Turner about how it might lead to some difficult choices for towns in Colorado and around the West.

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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.

A solar panel that collects energy from the sun – while also helping farmers grow bigger, tastier tomatoes and other crops. 

A team of scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden (NREL) say that’s exactly what they’ve developed. And this new type of solar panel could lead to better produce and more widespread solar power generation.  

Some farmers already place solar panels on their land and grow crops alongside them. It’s a practice called agrivoltaics.  

But the new panels designed by NREL are translucent – meaning they allow certain frequencies of light to pass through and reach crops planted beneath the panels. In fact, NREL scientists used the solar panels as the roof and walls of a greenhouse during their experiments. 

Bryon Larson is NREL’s principal researcher on this study. He talked with In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole about the solar panels and how they might be used in the future. 

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.

For a lot of veterans, Independence Day can be a hard day.   

Celebrating America’s birthday typically comes with loud, colorful blasts of fireworks. We don’t talk about it a lot, but for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, that can be a struggle. It can remind veterans of combat or other traumatic experiences from their time in the military.  

Helping veterans cope with PTSD is the specialty of Dr. Mandy Rabenhorst-Bell. She is the PTSD program manager with the VA healthcare system serving Eastern Colorado.  

Mandy spoke with Erin O’Toole ahead of Independence Day last year about what the holiday can be like for those with PTSD, and how friends and family can help support them. We’re listening back to that conversation today. 

Find more information and resources for PTSD from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

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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.

Travelers making their way through Denver International Airport this summer may notice 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 earlier this year with Erin O’Toole about what inspired his new art at DIA – and some of the stories behind the luggage. We’re listening back to that conversation today. 

You can see even more photos from the installation on  Detour’s website at https://www.iamdetour.com/. 

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.

Like a lot of people nowadays, Colorado artist Rick Dallago is very invested in selfies. But Rick, who’s a painter, thinks about selfies differently than someone who just snaps a quick self-portrait with their phone.  

Rick paints key moments in history and then paints a cell phone into the image. In one painting, a man takes a selfie in front of the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001. In another, a man uses a selfie stick to capture the moment when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. And other paintings show iconic images, like Michelangelo’s sculpture David, reduced to a snapshot on a tiny cell phone screen.   

Rick’s work is on display in a new show called “Thirst Traps.” It’s on display in Denver at The Lab on Santa Fe through July 19. 

Rick Dallago joined In the NoCo’s Brad Turner to talk about the ideas behind his paintings.

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 few weeks back, Colorado saw three moose attacks on people in just three days. The incidents were reported in the Coloradoan.  

The attacks left three people injured. One of the incidents led to a cow moose being shot in self-defense, and her calf being euthanized.  

So, as more people head out to hike in the state’s moose territory this summer, we wondered: What are you supposed to do if you encounter an aggressive moose? And how do you avoid a moose attack in the first place?  

Bridget O’Rourke who is a Public Information Officer with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. She spoke with host Erin O’Toole about how to be safe around moose – and what makes them such dangerous animals.

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.

Back in April, a commercial flight carrying 159 people had a major scare as it took off from Denver International Airport: The United Airlines flight struck an animal, which crippled one of the plane’s engines and forced the crew to make an emergency landing. 

As it turns out, the threat to aircraft from birds, rabbits and other animals is something DIA officials work hard to manage. Scott Franz, who’s an investigative reporter here at KUNC, recently got his hands on documents that show just how widespread the problem is.  

Scott found that last year 878 planes had reported animal strikes while taking off or landing at DIA. And the airport killed or relocated tens of thousands of birds and other animals to limit the potential damage to aircraft. 

So: How vulnerable are planes at DIA, and is there a better solution? Scott talked about his story with In The NoCo's Brad Turner.

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.