In The NoCo

Every year on Thanksgiving, radio stations around the country play Arlo Guthrie's 1967 track "Alice's Restaurant." But how did this 18-minute satirical song about littering and the Vietnam War become a Thanksgiving classic?   

The song, based on a true story, is about Guthrie and fellow musician Rick Robbins.

“They were home for Thanksgiving, and they were hanging out with their friend Alice and they had a big Thanksgiving dinner at this church where Alice lived,” says Margot Chobanian, program director for The Colorado Sound. A series of absurd events ensues, and the resulting song is both a chronicle of those events and a scathing rebuke of bureaucracy and “the Man.”

A few years ago, Margot unraveled the mystery of “Alice’s Restaurant” for host Erin O’Toole. In the spirit of the most (and least!) Thanksgiving song we know, ITN revisits that conversation today.

For a holiday centered on gratitude, Thanksgiving is also a recipe for tension. If you’re among the 60 percent of Coloradans traveling for the holidays, you’re likely navigating congested roads or chaotic airports. (Yeah, we're looking at you, DIA!) If you’re hosting dinner, you’ve got a whole other set of concerns, like catering to an array of dietary needs, and getting a hundred different dishes to come out of the oven at the same time.

OK, so you did it — you made it to grandma’s, or you cooked the turkey just right. Now the wine is flowing like water and it’s time to relax. But not so fast… even in the kindest of families, with the best of intentions, friendly dinner table discussions sometimes sour. And we’ve all got plenty of opinions, whether it’s on the war in the Middle East, reproductive rights, or the upcoming presidential election. But with some thought and intention, you don't have to dread the holiday dinner discussion. 

“Sometimes when you have a pretty good conversation with someone, the main thing you realize is, wait, we don't disagree nearly as much,” says Martín Carcasson, a communications professor at Colorado State University and director of CSU's Center for Public Deliberation. “I'm not saying we're all going to agree … but normally the disagreement is much more manageable than we think it is when we have a good conversation."

Ahead of the holiday season, Carcasson gave us some guidance on how to have healthier conversations at the dinner table. And for more tips on how to navigate the holiday dinner conversation, Carcasson recommends this Monica Guzman TED talk, or the discussion guides at Living Room Conversations.

Colorado has made multiple strides toward representation and equality for queer residents. The Movement Advancement Project, an independent think tank, gives our state high ratings for a range of policies that protect sexual orientation and gender identity. This marks a big change from a few decades earlier, when Colorado was dubbed the 'Hate State' after voters approved a 1992 ballot initiative, Amendment 2, that prohibited state and local governments from granting protections for LGBTQ residents. Activists responded by organizing a successful boycott against Colorado, steering tourists and businesses away from the state. Amendment 2 was eventually struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Still, being queer in Colorado doesn’t come without anxiety or very real fears for your physical safety. Nearly one year ago, the mass shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, revived and deepened some of those worries. 

Susy Bates, campaign director at One Colorado, says it’s critically important we hold onto the memory of the victims, the survivors, and of what happened at Club Q. She and her colleagues just wrapped up a monthlong statewide listening tour that stopped in more than a dozen communities across the state. We sat down with her to learn what she heard at those meetings — and why she remains hopeful through it all.

Across the state, people are struggling to find and keep affordable housing. That’s especially true in Colorado’s mountain towns. KUNC managing editor Stephanie Daniel recently pulled back the curtain on this issue with the latest season of her podcast The Colorado Dream Season 3: Housing Wanted. 

What separates these mountain towns from other communities confronting the state’s housing shortage is “that it is hard for people at all income levels to find housing,” Daniel said. “I'm talking about restaurant servers, police officers, nurses.”

Meanwhile, certain factors are intensifying the problem, particularly in the communities Stephanie and her team visited —  Routt, Eagle and Summit counties. For one, they are all home to world class ski resorts. “Visitors flock to these communities throughout the year, and tourism really drives the local economies. And that leads back to one of the challenges, which is the huge increase in short term rentals,” Daniel said.

The pandemic and a subsequent increase in remote workers drove up home prices and made this problem even worse. But, there is a lot happening to try and keep community members housed. The third season of The Colorado Dream podcast lays this all out for us — and it’s now available in its entirety — so we brought Stephanie on the show to get some final thoughts about what she learned.

In communities across Northern Colorado, people are struggling with their mental health, while also struggling to get the care they need. And the problem is widespread – around a quarter of residents reported having poor mental health in the most recent Colorado Health Access Survey. Of the 1 in 6 Coloradans who were unable to get needed care, nearly half said they had a hard time getting an appointment, while nearly 60% were concerned about cost.

Over the past few months, KUNC’s Senior Editor & Reporter Leigh Paterson has been reporting on the barriers residents face in getting help, despite laws in place to ensure insurance coverage. She joins host Erin O’Toole to break down what you need to know about mental health parity laws.

A lot of Coloradans love the idea of recycling. But our recycling habits are in the dumps. In 2020, the rate of recycling statewide was just 15 percent — less than half the rate nationwide. That’s according to a report from the Colorado Public Interest Research Group and Eco-Cycle. Perhaps that's because the actual practice of it can be confusing. It seems like the rules are often changing – and let’s not forget that recycling is expensive, both for residents and municipalities.

Ahead of America Recycles Day on Wednesday, we're doing a little recycling of our own, revisiting our conversation with Mark Snedecor, director of recycling services for Waste Management (WM) of Colorado. He shares some of the big recycling blunders we're making, and why you don't have to worry too much about those little numbers within the “chasing arrows” recycling symbol.

The Boulder County Recycling Center is marking America Recycles Day this Wednesday evening with a "Reduce & Reuse" showcase, self-guided tours, and more. 

NOTE: This is an encore of our podcast from Oct. 3, 2023. We'll be back in your feed with a brand-new episode on Wednesday!

There’s so much going on behind the scenes when you sit down at a restaurant. In the back of the house, cooks are rushing to prep, cook and plate your food. Dishwashers are trying to keep pace with those cooks — and hungry diners. In the front of the house, the servers are sweating, too. They’re deciphering complex requests, running through mazes of tables, chairs, and people, to deliver your dish without a hitch. And finding people to do this work has gotten tough. Beyond the frenzied nature of the job, long hours and physical demands, inflation is hitting the industry hard. In August, Colorado saw the sharpest restaurant inflation in the country. 

Laura Shunk, president of the nonprofit Colorado Restaurant Foundation, says this is stressing almost every aspect of the restaurant industry. “If you've noticed that menu prices are going up, it's because every cost in the restaurant is going up,” Shunk said. A key part of Shunk’s work is helping restaurateurs find solutions to these challenges. She told us about Colorado ProStart, a program bridging the gap between an industry hungry for good people and students who want a career in food and hospitality, but might not have the means or knowledge to get there.

We mention a tasting event in Fort Collins on Wednesday, November 15 with Northern Colorado restaurants and breweries that benefits Colorado ProStart programs in Weld and Larimer counties. 

We’re sifting though some of the results from Tuesday’s election, which brought roughly 42% of registered voters to the polls. 

Loveland resident Lee Rhodes visited a dropbox in Fort Collins this week to weigh in on Proposition HH. “That was important. I like the idea of the government keeping to a budget,” he told In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole. 

The complicated measure, which intended to address a looming spike in property taxes, was defeated. KUNC’s statehouse reporter Lucas Brady Woods explains why on this episode. We also discuss Proposition II, which voters approved. That measure allows the state to use more of the taxes it gets from tobacco and nicotine products that previously went back to manufacturers and distributors.

We talk about Boulder’s mayoral race, where voters for the first time made the call on who should lead the city, and we set the stage for some upcoming conversation on school board elections and their increasing politicization.

And you can find more KUNC election coverage here.

Today we’re turning back the pages of Colorado’s not-so-distant past to better grasp the problems of the present with a discussion about Indian boarding schools. The U.S. government established hundreds of these schools across the U.S. to forcibly dismantle the cultural identities of young Native Americans. 

A recent 140-page state report that is the result of a 2022 state law uncovers the trauma, abuse and death that occurred at these schools in Colorado, like Fort Lewis Indian Boarding School — now the site of Fort Lewis College. Heather Shotton, a citizen of the Wichita and Affiliated tribes, and also Kiowa and Cheyenne, is vice president for diversity affairs at the college. She joined host Erin O'Toole to discuss the hard truths that this report has uncovered — and how many descendants of the students who attended the schools continue to navigate intergenerational trauma.

Young people in Colorado continue to struggle with their mental health. KUNC senior editor and reporter Leigh Paterson has helped us to understand the complexities of this problem. She joins In The NoCo to discuss some of her recent reporting, which looks at a new law that will provide statewide mental health screenings for kids. She tells us how this effort holds promise — and why some experts remain skeptical. And, she takes us to Glenwood Springs High School, where the school has already spearheaded its own mental health screenings and services. 

Meanwhile, Election Day is here and that means voters are hitting the polls and KUNC reporters are on the move. We’re watching the races and speaking with voters as they cast their ballots. In the coming days, we’ll be hearing from Northern Coloradans about what matters to them this election. We’ll also sit down with our statehouse reporter Lucas Brady Woods to make sense of the results later in the week.