In The NoCo

Using bees to gauge the health of an ecosystem. 

Scientists in Boulder are testing out an unusual plan to use bees to gauge how  plants and other species in the city are thriving.  

It works like this: A neighborhood group hosts a few hives on their property. Thousands of bees fly around the neighborhood collecting pollen and returning it to the hive.  Then, researchers can test the different types of pollen that bees bring back to paint a picture of the different plants in the area. Or tests may reveal traces of pollutants that show what could be harming the ecosystem. 

Brett KenCairn manages nature-based solutions for the City of Boulder. He's overseeing the bee project, which launched recently. And he says the data being collected by the bees would take a huge amount of human effort to gather. He spoke with Erin O’Toole about it.

If you’re interested in hosting your own “biomonitor” beehive, read more about the program.  

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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.

In recent weeks, Colorado has seen record-high numbers of bears roaming in places where they clash with humans: neighborhood streets, trash bins, cars – even people’s homes.  

Severe drought conditions across the state, along with a late-spring freeze, have decimated the supply of berries and fruit that bears rely on. So, the animals head into town looking for other food. 

And it turns out these encounters aren’t just jarring in the moment. For bears, they can have ripple effects that determine how many offspring they can produce, and their chances of survival.  

It’s part of a concept biologists call an ecological trap – and it’s especially relevant this fall, as many bears struggle to survive.  

Kara Van Hoose, a spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, joined Erin O’Toole to explain the science of why bears foraging in urban areas puts both the animals and humans at risk. 

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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.

This summer left yards across the Front Range devastated. Brown, dry patches of grass are everywhere – and so are yards that have been taken over by bindweed, thistles, and spurge.  

Experts at Colorado State University Extension say they've been getting lots of calls from anxious homeowners with similar problems. And they say fall can be a great time for some lawn rescue projects to help get the yard ready for next year – which, hopefully, will be a little kinder to our landscapes. 

Alison O'Connor is a horticulture specialist with CSU Extension. She joined Erin O’Toole with answers to some of our most pressing lawn questions, and advice for how and when to start a fall yard project. 

If you enjoyed this interview, check out a few of our other conversations with CSU Extension experts, including how to care for trees during a dry year, how Colorado law is on your side if you want to xeriscape your yard, how to protect your plants from pesky bugs, or why an aspen tree might not be the best choice for your yard.

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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 new lawsuit takes aim at the business model of some major Colorado ski resorts.  

For years, skiers and snowboarders have watched the price of a one-day lift ticket climb by hundreds of dollars, while more expensive season passes have become the industry’s central product. 

Now, a group of skiers has filed a lawsuit in Colorado’s federal court, arguing that the country’s largest ski resort companies have been operating like a cartel – working together to artificially inflate prices. Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company, which both run several Colorado resorts, are named as defendants. 

The lawsuit, filed in August, claims the country’s largest ski resort operators shared confidential business information and coordinated their prices to drive up the cost of lift tickets and season passes – and in doing so, violated antitrust laws. It’s the second antitrust lawsuit that skiers have filed this year in U.S. District Court in Denver. 

Reporter Jason Blevins covers the ski industry for The Colorado Sun, and spoke with Erin O’Toole about the 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.

It's one of the more unusual exhibits on display at the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster. 

Stroll past the colorful butterflies and other insects, and you'll find a 250-gallon saltwater tank. It houses part of a nationwide collaboration to save a badly damaged coral reef found off the coast of Florida. 

The rescue project began in 2020 after a coalition of zoos and aquariums teamed up to house and grow coral in response to a disease that spread across the underwater habitat off Florida. 

The Butterfly Pavilion stepped up to be part of the project. Six years in, we wanted to hear how a coral colony ended up in Colorado and what challenges its handlers overcame along the way. 

Sara Stevens is a marine biologist who manages the coral ark project for the Butterfly Pavilion. She spoke with Erin O’Toole in April about this unusual rescue mission. 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.

A small nuclear reactor proposed by the Pentagon may be a reality soon in Aurora.  

The proposed microreactor would power Buckley Space Force Base and give the site a steady source of electricity.   

But it would look different – and operate at a smaller scale – than the nuclear reactors built a few decades ago. Rather than a large energy plant with cooling towers that jut into the sky, this small reactor would fit inside a semi-trailer.   

The Buckley project is one of three microreactors proposed for military bases around the country. Even so, nuclear energy, and the radioactive byproducts associated with it, make many people uneasy.   

So we reached out to Thomas Albrecht for some context. He's a professor at Colorado School of Mines who studies the chemistry of nuclear materials and the long-term storage of nuclear waste. 

He spoke with Erin O’Toole back in May about how microreactors operate, and why nearby Aurora residents shouldn’t be worried.  We’re listening back to that interview 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.

E-bikes and e-scooters are having a moment right now. Battery-powered, motorized transportation is becoming more common on streets and bike paths.  

E-bikes and e-scooters are considered green transportation, since they don’t emit the exhaust that cars produce. And some cities, including Denver, offer rebates for e-bikes to encourage more people to buy them. 

But today we’re digging into some pretty jaw-dropping numbers around kids getting injured on e-bikes. Children’s Hospital Colorado reported that, from 2024 to 2025, traumatic injuries related to e-scooters nearly doubled – an 84% increase. And kids treated for traumatic injuries related to e-bikes nearly tripled – up 184%.
 
Health reporter John Ingold of the Colorado Sun wrote about these trends. He joined Erin O'Toole to share more about them. 

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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.

TikTok has become a go-to source for news, especially for younger audiences.  

But short-form videos on the social network don’t look or sound much like traditional journalism. Users see a stream of bite-size videos that favor strong opinions and controversy over nuance and depth. 

So, how does consuming political content on TikTok actually affect young people? 

Michaelangelo Landgrave is a political scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, and co-author of a new study that looked into that question. He and his fellow researchers found that TikTok may not change young voters' political views – but it does tend to make them feel more angry, sad or anxious about the world.  

They recently published their findings in the journal Political Studies Review.  

Landgrave spoke earlier this year with Erin O’Toole about the study, which he said was partly inspired by seeing his students use TikTok and other social media far more than traditional news outlets. We’re listening back to their 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.

Melissa Strong didn't set out to be a writer. In her twenties she was an accomplished rock climber. In her early forties, she was working on a new chapter in her life: opening and running her own restaurant in Estes Park, called Bird & Jim.  

But in 2017, a devastating accident threw all of her plans into chaos.  

Melissa details her experience in a new memoir is called Climbing Through: A Courageous Story of Grit, Healing, and Second Chances. In it, she traces not only her physical recovery from the accident, but also how building a sense of resilience in one part of your life can help you through a challenge in another part. 

Melissa spoke with Erin O’Toole onstage at the Historic Park Theatre in Estes Park on Tuesday as part of a live edition of In The NoCo. We’re listening to highlights from that live interview.  

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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 voters have a right that many Americans don’t. Colorado, and 25 other states, allow residents to collect signatures and put questions on the ballot, rather than relying solely on lawmakers to decide whether an initiative goes before voters.

And Colorado has been putting that tool to use. Only Oregon and California use the referendum process more.

But in recent years, some unusual proposals have made their way onto ballots – including one that will ask voters this fall to guarantee your constitutional right to use natural gas for cooking and heating.   

Some political observers question whether Colorado's initiative process is out of hand – especially when the November ballot might contain more than a dozen items referred by voters.   

Reporter Colleen Slevin recently took a deep dive into the past and present of Colorado’s citizen initiative process for The Colorado Sun. And as state election workers comb through scores of collected signatures to decide what will make it onto the ballot, she joined Erin O’Toole to talk about it. 

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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.