In The NoCo

Have any of your New Year’s resolutions included to live a happier life this year? If you said yes, one recent study suggests you’re probably not alone.  

Americans feel less happy than in previous years, according to the recent World Happiness Rep, which collects data on happiness from countries around the world every year. The U.S. finished 23rd, behind countries like Kuwait and Slovenia.  

So we wanted to find some expert advice on how to be happy in 2025. Luckily, the University of Colorado has its own happiness expert. Dr. June Gruber is Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at CU Boulder and she teaches a class on happiness.  

Erin O’Toole talked with Gruber to get her best advice on being happy. She said it starts with shifting your perspective a little. 

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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.

The start of a new year often involves making changes in pursuit of a healthier life.  For many of us, that means fewer processed foods, more veggies, and – maybe – a few more trips to the gym.   

Or perhaps your resolution is to work on relationships – to make new friends or reconnect with existing ones. After all, friendships are a key part of our well-being. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says loneliness is an epidemic that harms mental health and even physical health.   

But what’s the best way to make friends? How do you rekindle a relationship that’s gone quiet? And how do you nurture your current friendships?   

For answers, we reached out to Natalie Pennington, assistant professor of communication studies at Colorado State University. She studies the importance of friendship in our lives, and co-leads the American Friendship Project, an ongoing study of the state of connectedness in the U.S. 

She joined host Erin O’Toole to share practical tips on how to build new friendships – or reconnect with friends we haven’t seen in a while. 

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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.

When someone dies nowadays, their online accounts and social media profiles can become a poignant online memorial. Or sometimes, those accounts can become a hassle for grieving loved ones.   

For many people who have recently lost someone, knowing what to do with a loved one’s online accounts is a mystery.  Sometimes an account gets deleted by the organization that manages them. Sometimes the account gives the impression that the dead person is still alive. Or th account might simply sit unused.  

A new clinic set up by a University of Colorado researcher provides guidance and aid in handling digital accounts after someone passes away. It’s a free help desk called the Digital Legacy Clinic. Professor Jed Brubaker founded the clinic and oversees its operation. 
 

Brubaker joined Erin O’Toole to discuss the unusual task of managing our online accounts for after we’re gone. He said it’s a reflection of how we mourn in a more digital age. 

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.

Colorado teachers say their students are missing something that helps determine their academic success. Call it grit.  

If a student who struggles with math studies hard and performs well on their math test, that’s grit. If they complete a homework assignment that was tough to finish, that's also grit.   

Erica Breunlin covers education for The Colorado Sun. Since the pandemic, she says teachers have told her they’re seeing less grit in the classroom. And that’s leading to lower test scores for K-12 students.  

Breunlin recently wrote about grit, and the strategies some educators and parents have developed to build more of it in their kids. She joined host Erin O’Toole to share what she learned.

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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.

An electrical grid on the moon. 

It’s an idea that could eventually power a small lunar colony and help take space travel to a new level.  

And research by two Colorado School of Mines graduate students may help make it a reality. 

Chris Tolton and Ken Liang built a prototype of that lunar grid and presented it during a recent competition run by NASA. The prototype worked – and Chris and Ken won a half-million-dollar prize to continue developing their idea.  

Their vision ultimately includes mining minerals found on the moon to fuel lunar habitats, rovers, and spacecraft heading to more distant points in the solar system. They’ve also launched a company, Orbital Mining Corporation, to pursue their goals. 

Tolton and Liang joined host Erin O’Toole to share more about their work, and how the future of space travel may be just a step closer than we think.

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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.

These shorter, colder days over the midwinter holiday are the perfect time to break out that bag of roasted Pueblo chile peppers some of us have kept stashed in the freezer since the fall. They're just waiting to be turned into a big batch of spicy green chile.  

And for many pepper aficionados, only the Pueblo chile will do.   

But the popularity of these Colorado-grown peppers is a relatively recent phenomenon. Farmers in Pueblo and other parts of Colorado have been growing different kinds of peppers for decades, but the state didn’t really have its own signature variety of chile until the early 2000s.  

That’s when Dr. Michael Bartolo, an agriculture professor with Colorado State University, developed the unique Mosco variety of the Pueblo chile. And in a few short years, they’ve become a regional rival to New Mexico’s more famous Hatch chiles. 

Host Erin O’Toole spoke with the now-retired Bartolo earlier in the year to learn more about why chiles are such a point of pride for some people. It was one of our favorite science-related interviews of 2024, which we’re revisiting this week.

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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.

The Denver Museum of Nature and Science made an exciting announcement this year: A new species of cave-dwelling pseudoscorpion had been discovered in the foothills outside Boulder. Researchers named it Larca boulderica – a nod to the city of Boulder – and say the only place on the planet where you’ll find it is in just two caves near the Boulder Flatirons.    

We reached out to David Steinmann, the research associate with the Museum of Nature and Science who found the new species. We thought he’d want to talk about his once-in-a- lifetime discovery. Instead, he told us that for him, it wasn’t a singular event at all. In fact, he kind of specializes in hunting for new species, and says he’s found at least 50 of them.  

Steinmann joined host Erin O’Toole to talk about his unusual work, and what exactly a pseudoscorpion is. As we listen back to some of our favorite science-related interviews of 2024, we’re revisiting this one 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
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.

Scientists have found a promising new way to break down harmful “forever” chemicals.  

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, are found in many household products including nonstick cookware or waterproof clothing. They’ve also found their way into our drinking water, our food and our bodies. 

They’re called forever chemicals because they were designed and manufactured to never break down – which means, after they’ve been used in manufacturing or in our homes, they’ll continue to circulate in the environment for thousands of years. Studies have linked PFAS exposure to conditions like decreased fertility, cancer and a higher risk of obesity. 

But researchers at Colorado State University and the University of Colorado Boulder say they’ve found a way to break down PFAS – using light. The process is similar to the way plants use photosynthesis to make energy from sunlight. 

“We need to be able to produce these chemicals in a way that doesn’t compromise our future generations,” says CSU professor Garret Miyake, the lead researcher on the study.  

Miyake joined host Erin O’Toole to share more about the results, which were published recently in the journal Nature.

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 wasn’t that long ago that some doctors would use lobotomies as a treatment for mental illness, or insomnia, or severe headaches. That wouldn’t happen now – but modern medicine has made some weird, often tragic turns to get to where it is now.  

Similarly, our modern roadways are designed with what amounts to junk science, according to author Wesley Marshall . He says it’s time for a wake-up call.  

Marshall, who teaches civil engineering at the University of Colorado Denver, thinks the way our streets and highways are built contributes to tens of thousands of unnecessary crashes and deaths each year.  

He recently published his research and ideas in a book, provocatively titled “Killed by a Traffic Engineer.”  

In the third installment of In The NoCo’s Holiday Book Club, we’re listening back to a conversation between Wes Marshall and In The NoCo’s Brad Turner.

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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 unique retelling of the holiday classic ‘The Nutcracker’ explores the history and cultural importance of Denver's Five Points neighborhood.   

The Five Points Nutcracker replaces the story’s traditional characters with significant figures from Denver’s African American community. Five Points was once known as the “Harlem of the West.”  

Duke Ellington’s jazz version of the music is the backbone of the production, and was the inspiration for the show’s director, Larea Edwards.  

The production features actors and dancers from the performing arts group LuneASeas. Musicians from the Boulder Philharmonic will join jazz artist Tenia Nelson to perform the Ellington score.  

Edwards spoke with ITN’s Erin O’Toole about the production. Performances take place Friday through Sunday at the Savoy Denver.

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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.