In The NoCo

The Palisade peach might be one of Colorado's best-kept secrets.  

Those grocery store peaches from California or Georgia are perfectly fine. But a good peach from Western Colorado is often juicier, sweeter and bigger than its out-of-state competition.  

As peach season winds down for the year, the In The NoCo team wanted to find out: What makes the Palisade peach such a singular treat?  

It turns out, much of it has to do with the microclimate in Palisade and other fruit-growing areas of Colorado’s Western Slope.  

“Oftentimes we don’t have those massive temperature swings like you do over in the Front Range,” says Jeff Pieper. He’s a commercial horticulture specialist with Colorado State University Extension who helps growers in Palisade with everything from irrigation advice to dealing with insects. 

He shared some of the science behind what makes Palisade peaches such sought-after Colorado produce with ITN host Erin O’Toole.
 
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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 SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

The Colorado Tourism Office recently published a report outlining the economic benefits of travel in different regions around Colorado. And the numbers show that tourism is growing.  

The report labeled one region the ‘Rockies Playground’ – that's an area that includes parts of Summit, Eagle, and Pitkin counties. And visitor spending in that region grew by about 50 percent between 2013 and 2023.  

But that surge in visitors -- and the ‘playground’ label from the tourism office -- caught the attention of Scott Fitzwilliams. He’s the supervisor of the White River National Forest,  the most visited national forest in the country, which includes land near Breckenridge, Aspen and Vail.  

Fitzwilliams joined host Erin O’Toole to discuss how this surge in tourism signals a moment where Coloradans need to decide: What’s the right balance between treating public lands as a playground, or as places that need to be protected? 

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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.

Weld County’s Clerk and Recorder Carly Koppes has a noticeable online presence. She posts lots of informational videos around election time telling voters how to cast a ballot or get ready for election day 

But here’s something that keeps Koppes -- and a lot of other election officials -- up at night. Artificial intelligence is developing so quickly that a bad actor could take one of those videos and convincingly alter her voice, so that it sounds like she’s saying something misleading... such as giving the wrong hours when polls are open. 

Koppes and other clerks from Colorado’s 64 counties recently gathered to talk about those scenarios that give them nightmares as the November election approaches. She joined host Erin O’Toole to discuss how election officials like her are gearing up to respond to misleading emails, deepfake videos, and other social media misinformation.  

 
Not sure if your voter registration is up to date? Check it at GoVoteColorado.com:  

Read more about Mesa County clerk Tina Peters’ verdict 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
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.

Wildfires, like the ones that hit Colorado’s Front Range this summer, rip through communities. They torch homes and disrupt lives.  

But wildfires can also cause some surprising -- even uplifting -- things to happen. They strengthen the bonds between neighbors. They make people more resilient. And those stronger connections help people prepare for future emergencies.  In fact, there’s a whole field of study that examines and documents those silver linings after a disaster. 

Lori Peek is a professor of sociology and the director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder.  She joined ITN host Erin O’Toole to discuss how communities come together during and after natural disasters. 

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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.

On Colorado’s Western Slope a single sign represents a mining town that was once there. The town helped provide the uranium in the first atomic bomb. The town was called Uravan. 

Journalist Alec Cowan has long been fascinated by stories of Uravan. Cowan grew up in nearby Grand Junction and remembers hearing urban legends about Uravan. Officials closed and buried the town in the 1980s due to radiation concerns.  

Cowan set out to record interviews with former residents of Uravan, and recently turned his research into a six-part podcast series. It's called Boom Town: A Uranium Story.  

In The NoCo’s Brad Turner talked with Cowan to hear about this largely forgotten corner of Colorado. 

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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 Colorado, there are approximately 3,000 search and rescue incidents each year, according to the state's Search and Rescue Association. And when someone goes missing in the backcountry, every hour counts.

Heat, dehydration and exposure to the elements make a person's survival less likely as time ticks by. Rescuers in our state also deal with rugged mountains, steep canyons, dense tree cover, and extreme temperatures at high elevations. All this makes it more difficult to locate someone quickly. 

But new technology could give search and rescue teams a powerful new tool.   

It's called Lifeseeker – and it effectively turns a helicopter into a moving cell phone tower, able to detect a missing hiker’s mobile phone. A Durango-based company, Colorado Highland Helicopters, is testing the new technology as it seeks FCC approval in the United States. 

Dr. Tim Durkin coordinates search and rescue programs for them. He joined host Erin O'Toole in June to explain how Lifeseeker works, and the potential impact it could have in Colorado. We're listening back to that conversation today.

*Note: This is an encore of our podcast that originally ran on June 18, 2024.

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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 year ago last summer, a young bicyclist named Magnus White was struck and killed by a driver on Highway 119 near Boulder. A memorial ride for Magnus earlier this month drew more than 2,000 participants, with hundreds more joining virtually.  

His parents spoke to the crowd and called for measures that would make roads safer for cyclists – including better bike lanes and stiffer penalties for careless driving.   

And they also called for a more unusual measure: a federal requirement that all new vehicles be equipped by the year 2029 with Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) systems that can sense bicycles. For example, if your car drifts into the shoulder where a bicyclist is riding, the car would automatically brake or be nudged back into its lane.  

Data shows roads across the U.S. are becoming more dangerous for cyclists. In 2022, just over 1,100 pedalcyclists were killed in vehicle crashes – an increase of about 13% over the previous year, and more than 46,000 were injured. Here in Colorado, 20 traffic-related cyclist fatalities were recorded in 2023 – a 33% increase over 2022. 

All of this got us wondering – how well do advanced safety systems like AEB or V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) work? And how feasible are they right now?   

We reached out to Bryan Reimer with the Center for Transportation and Logistics at MIT to learn more. He researches driver behavior, and how humans interact with automatic braking systems and other advanced vehicle technologies. 

Reimer spoke with host Erin O’Toole about the potential for this new technology, and its limitations.  

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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 

Grasshoppers are everywhere along Colorado's Front Range right now. They blanket the sidewalks and lawns – which makes them a pest. But they also devastate crops, which makes them a real problem for farmers. 

Our friends at the Colorado State University Extension run a sort of hotline for folks with questions about gardening and lawncare. They confirmed that this is an extraordinary summer: They say grasshopper-related calls are up 600 percent in recent weeks as dozens of people call in with their hopper-related concerns. 

Host Erin O’Toole got some explanation about why grasshoppers are so bad this year – and what to do about it – from Karim Gharbi, a horticulture expert and entomologist with the CSU Extension. 

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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 SessionsIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

A team of scientists, including a CSU seismologist, recently spent years peering beneath the largest mass of ice on Earth. 

The unique study yielded fascinating insights about the relationship between the massive glaciers that cover much of Antarctica’s surface, and the ground underneath the ice. And the findings may help scientists better predict how climate change will affect sea level in the decades ahead. 

Researchers discovered that the rock beneath Antarctica’s ice sheets actually rises and sinks under the weight of the continent’s glaciers. That geologic movement will likely affect how much sea level rises as the planet warms in the decades ahead. 

Dr. Rick Aster, a professor of geophysics and the head of the Department of Geosciences at Colorado State University, gathered seismological data from underneath the continent’s surface. The results were published earlier this month in the journal Science Advances.  

Aster joined host Erin O’Toole to share more about what his team discovered. 

You can read more about the project here. And for fun -- check out this poem inspired by the team’s research. 

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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.

If you read the Colorado Sun, you might be familiar with the comic strip called ‘What’d I Miss?’ It follows conversations between Ossie – a young Black man – and Myra – an older white woman – who has awakened from a long coma.   

Together they struggle to understand modern day politics and culture. Ossie and Myra talk about issues like artificial intelligence, disinformation on social media and more recently, the attempted assassination of Former President Donald Trump. 

‘What’d I Miss?’ is written by Denver resident R. Alan Brooks. He also writes graphic novels and teaches graphic novel writing at Regis University. This weekend, he will be a featured guest at Fort Collins Comic Con.  

Host Erin O’Toole spoke with Brooks to talk about his work and life in comics. 

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.