Kunc's Colorado Edition

The risk of wildfire is a reality that is beginning to define life in Northern Colorado. This last weekend, tens of thousands of people in Boulder County were left suddenly without power for days when Xcel shut it off in anticipation of high winds and potential loose lines.   Today we’re listening back to an interview covering a 2023 report from the company CoreLogic, which showed that thousands of homes in Northern Colorado are susceptible to damage from wildfires. In Boulder, nearly 10,000 homes are at risk. In Fort Collins, that number rises to more than 14,000. Statistics in the report put Colorado in the number two slot nationwide for potential wildfire damage.  We discussed these risks and more with Jude Bayham, who researches wildfire management at Colorado State University.We mentioned the pay raise for federal wildland firefighters that's stalled in Congress. And you can learn more about protecting your home from wildfire here.

Have you ever wondered how NPR came to be? It certainly didn’t happen overnight. The history of National Public Radio is long and convoluted, starting in the early twentieth century with university-housed stations scattered across rural areas. These stations broadcast things like cooking lessons, and how to use indoor plumbing. But with the Communications Act of 1934 came the first congressional control over what was heard over the airwaves. With this, commercial media outlets enjoyed greater lobbying power than noncommercial broadcasters. This meant public media needed to evolve to meet the demands of a growing listening audience. This complex history is chronicled in a new book, Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting, by University of Colorado media history professor Josh Shepperd.“Public media is the last bastion in reporting upon communities from the community itself,” said Shepperd when reflecting on public media’s role today. “So I think we need to protect our local public medias, es

Northern Colorado’s unique weather patterns can be a challenge for backyard gardeners. The climate is dry; the growing season is hot and short. And of course, we’re no strangers to wind and hail events. But new research out of Colorado State University can help gardeners choose crop varieties that thrive in those conditions. KUNC's rural and small communities reporter Rae Solomon spoke to the researchers about what they learned. Just in time for early spring garden planting – she sat down with In The NoCo's Erin O'Toole to share intel on the best tomatoes and peppers to grow in Northern Colorado. See the results of the Larimer County in-ground tomato trials here and the container varieties here. See the sweet pepper trials here.And if you have a gardening question, share it with us! Email noco@kunc.org -- or send a text or voicemail to (970) 614-5323.

On Monday, April 8 a total solar eclipse will darken the skies over 13 states, from Texas up to Maine. While Colorado is not in the path of totality, in which the moon completely covers the sun, our region will experience a partial solar eclipse. A total solar eclipse over the U.S. is relatively rare – the last one occurred in August 2017. And cities and towns in the path have been gearing up for a massive influx of eclipse tourists for months. They might want to take a cue from an earlier time in Colorado's history. Back in 1878, a total eclipse over the Rockies helped lay the foundation for how to welcome flocks of curious visitors eager to witness a celestial event - and to get a first look at the Wild West. Steve Ruskin is a historian of astronomy based in Colorado Springs, and the author of America's First Great Eclipse."Colorado had just become a state in 1876 - so it was only two years old when they knew this eclipse was going to go over the Rocky Mountains,” said Ruskin. “Tourists came west, not only

Immigrants are the backbone of a lot of mountain communities in Colorado. That’s because many work in service industry jobs that keep these towns thriving. But for immigrants in these places, certain disparities are more pronounced, like access to transportation. In one part of Summit County, this particular issue had become dangerous in the snowy winter months.“We need to walk on the roads where cars are running all the time,” said Miriam Garcia, an immigrant and employee of an advocacy organization called Mountain Dreamers. “And then there was an issue with one of my neighbors, she was hit by a car. And the driver didn't stop.”Garcia led an effort through Mountain Dreamers to get shuttle service to people in her neighborhood who were navigating a mile of snow and ice to catch a bus. Host Erin O’Toole sat down with Garcia and founder Peter Bakken, to discuss this work and learn more about how - and why - they’re advocating for immigrants in Summit County.

It’s no secret there’s a crisis of shrinking local news across the U.S. And we know that in places where local news evaporates, democracy takes a hit. Government corruption tends to increase when powerful entities realize there's less media scrutiny on what they're doing.  "This year has been particularly difficult for the local media news business," says journalist Corey Hutchins. The co-director of the Colorado College Journalism Institute writes a weekly newsletter that goes behind our state’s headlines. He recently sat down with In The NoCo's Erin O'Toole to discuss the health of Colorado media, including a few happenings that could have far-reaching impacts on our democracy.You can subscribe to Corey Hutchins' weekly newsletter here.

Most people would agree that the immigration system in the United States is broken… but how it's broken – and how to fix it – are the real debate. As this debate persists, the stories of people caught in a messy immigration web continue to rise. The documentary film If I Could Stay tells the story of two such people, Jeanette Vizguerra and Ingrid Encalada Latorre, two undocumented mothers living in Colorado. When they faced deportation and being separated from their young children, they chose to take refuge in churches in Denver and Boulder. Ahead of the film's Colorado premiere at CSU's ACT Human Rights Film Festival in Fort Collins, In The NoCo's Erin O'Toole sat down with one of those two mothers who sought sanctuary in 2017, Ingrid Latorre, and Florencia Krochik, one of the film's co-directors.If I Could Stay screens during the festival's opening night, Wednesday, April 3 at Colorado State University's Lory Student Center theater.

Temple Grandin sees the world through a different lens. The Colorado State University professor of animal science is neurodivergent, and her differences as an autistic person have been foundational to her work – especially when it comes to advocating for the humane treatment of animals. She is also an advocate for neurodivergent thinkers of all ages. Her new book for children, “Different Kinds of Minds,” is an adaptation of her book “Visual Thinking.” Both explain the need for a diverse range of thinkers and how different minds can thrive.  Grandin recently joined In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole to discuss the book and much more. This is an encore of our podcast from Jan. 4, 2024.

Advocates say failing to invest in childcare is a missed opportunity to address inequity. And the lack of investment is hitting Northern Colorado families in multiple ways. For one, it leaves rising kindergartners unprepared to enter public schools.  “The achievement gap is present well before children enter kindergarten,” said Tarryn Morrisey, a professor of child and family public policy at American University. “And so if we were to invest early, we could narrow that before it even began.”In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole sat down with Morrisey to learn more about what is driving the high cost of childcare, and why it is critical to find solutions.This is part of our ongoing coverage on the childcare crisis in Northern Colorado. Find more episodes on the challenges and solutions here and here. 

The cash bail system continues to face scrutiny in the U.S. Activists say it subverts the long-held American ideal that a person is innocent until proven guilty. In other words, under the cash bail system, if you can’t afford to post bail, you could end up sitting in jail for days, weeks or months waiting for a trial regardless of your innocence. In Colorado, like other states, people of color are overrepresented in jails and prisons, making this a huge equity issue. State Rep. Elisabeth Epps recently won a seat in the statehouse in part because of her activism on this issue. She has been fighting to reform the justice system and eradicate cash bail in Colorado for several years and the documentary How We Get Free tells that story.  "It is incredibly challenging when you talk about folks who have been incarcerated, or even unjustly incarcerated, to get people to sit up and pay attention,” said co-director Geeta Gandbhir.  “But it's just the nature of the way that in our country, folks who are economically mor

The need to screen students for learning disabilities is on the rise in Northern Colorado and mental health providers are having trouble meeting the demand. Marybeth Rigali-Oiler, a child and adolescent psychologist with the Health District of Northern Larimer County, says finding answers isn’t always straightforward, either.“You also have to kind of throw a broad net to see, well, is it actually ADHD? Is it actually anxiety? Is it because this child fell behind during Covid and just hasn't had the intervention to catch up? Or is there an underlying learning disability?” Rigali-Oiler said. “And it could be a combination of all of those things. And so testing really should have a broad net that's looking at social-emotional factors, cognitive ability and achievement in order to really see where the puzzle pieces land.”When kids don’t get the screenings they need, questions about why they are struggling to achieve persist. Parents are also left to wonder when, say, kids are anxious about going to class, known a

Water – and how to manage it – is a perennial topic in the parched American West. So today on  World Water Day, we are looking at some of the most pressing water issues of the moment and how we in Northern Colorado can better appreciate and conserve this precious resource. "I just wish people would realize the foresight it took to build some of these water systems that we take for granted now,” said Jennifer Gimbel, a water scholar at Colorado State University’s Colorado Water Center. “Over 100 years old, many of them are, and just the engineering that was involved to get it here. And so – appreciate when you turn on that water, and clean water comes out, we are blessed. There are people in the United States, people on the Navajo Nation who can't say that. They have to haul their water. So we are blessed."In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole sat down with Gimbel to tap into what is happening with water in our state. 

Many of us have been told that our twenties are the best time in our lives. But some data suggests otherwise. At least one new report says 20-somethings in the U.S. are some of the most unhappy in the world. "I have yet to meet someone who's like, ‘Gosh, I wish I could be in my 20s again,’” said Meg Jay, a clinical psychologist who specializes in this formative decade of life. “You know, your 20s are not going to be the best years of your life. Thank God, right? I mean, what if they were -- and then it was all terrible from there?”Jay discusses her new book, The Twentysomething Treatment: A Revolutionary Remedy for an Uncertain Age, at Colorado State University on Tuesday, March 26. Ahead of her talk, In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole sat down with her to discuss the unique stressors 20-somethings face today and what she has learned about these pivotal years. 

Prisons in Colorado are severely understaffed and that is hitting workers especially hard. But the effects of this shortage stretch far past the staff.“You have not only the stress on the staff from the vacancy, you have the disruption of normal functionality for the department as a whole and, then of course, this incredible negative impact on the people who are incarcerated,” said Christie Donner, executive director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, which wants to see more money invested in community initiatives and less spent on the prison system.Donner and her colleagues recently released a report surveying hundreds of incarcerated Coloradans about their living conditions amid the staffing shortage. She sat down with In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole to discuss what incarcerated people said about their experience. 

In many communities across Colorado, teens say there are few things for them to do after school. In Summit County, as local leaders work on a long-term plan for the future, young people are asking for more affordable indoor spaces. KUNC senior editor and reporter Leigh Paterson sat down with local students to discuss why these hangout spots are so important to them and their well-being. She joined In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole to explain what young people had to say. 

The launch of a passenger rail line in Northern Colorado felt a smidge closer to reality last week at Union Station. That’s when the first passenger train in decades departed from Denver to Longmont. The passengers included state lawmakers, transportation pros and Governor Jared Polis, who did the honors of calling passengers aboard.We have been dreaming about a Front Range passenger rail since plans were released several months ago. And hearing about this demonstration trip fueled those dreams even more. So today we are indulging that obsession by listening back to a conversation with Andy Karsian, general manager for the Front Range Passenger Rail District. In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole sat down with him shortly after he and his team unveiled their plans last December.

Imagine keeping your cool with 10 crying babies in a classroom. Yes, childcare is hard work and it is crucial to our fast-growing community. “We're not just babysitters, we just don't show up in a warehouse and play with kids all day. The work that we do is essential so that children are ready for school. To enter kindergarten, they're ready at third grade reading levels, and they're ready to graduate high school,” said Anne Lance with Teaching Tree Early Childhood Learning Center, a Larimer County nonprofit that serves low- and middle-income families. It is among the childcare providers navigating a nationwide childcare shortage that is hitting Colorado hard. In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole visited her at the newly opened Loveland Youth Campus to learn more about how the landscape of care has changed and how the organization is hoping to make a dent in the rising need.

Author and activist St. Clair Detrick-Jules uses words and images to capture personal stories that celebrate and center Black liberation, the immigrant experience, and women's rights. “Historically in this country, Black people haven't been able to really control the narrative of our own stories, of our own lives and experiences,” she said. “And so I think that for us being able to share our first-person experiences and actually have a platform to be heard and to have our stories valued and appreciated is really empowering.”On Thursday at CU Boulder’s art museum, Detrick-Jules discusses her book My Beautiful Black Hair: 101 Natural Hair Stories. Ahead of her talk, Detrick-Jules sat down with In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole. She began by discussing a moment that inspired the book, when her 4-year-old sister, Khloe, was in tears after her white classmates bullied her about her afro.

When KUNC senior managing editor Stephanie Daniel journeyed into the mountains to work on her podcast The Colorado Dream, she met Javier Pineda, a snowboard instructor and Mexican immigrant. She was reporting on the housing crisis in Summit County, which has had a major impact on Pineda’s life. But as is often the case with journalism, telling one story led to the discovery of another. Daniel learned that Pineda had launched a new program called Oso Outdoors where he provides free snowboarding lessons to Hispanic and Latino residents, many of whom are immigrants. “Oso Outdoors is unique in that Javier is bilingual and bi-cultural and he can teach his snowboarding classes in Spanish. When we talk about diversity, oftentimes it's just around race and ethnicity. But language is also a barrier,” Daniel said.She sat down with In The NoCo’s Robyn Vincent to discuss her reporting that looks at how Oso Outdoors is helping to change the makeup of the slopes.

Although it is technically still winter — at least until March 19 — the flowers will soon be in bloom at Colorado State University’s Trial Garden. That is where many of the flower varieties hitting garden stores in the coming weeks undergo a rigorous, real-world testing process to see which varieties are resilient enough for Northern Colorado.The garden was started back in the 1970s on a small plot of land near the old stadium, with only around 100 plant varieties. It's now one of the largest university trial gardens in the nation – with hundreds of varieties and tens of thousands of plants."It's just rows of rainbows. There are so many different colors out there," said KUNC's Emma VandenEinde. She covered the final rounds of plant judging last summer.As spring approaches and sunny days wait in the wings, we are listening back to a conversation with VandenEinde about her time in the garden.