Kunc's Colorado Edition

A national childcare shortage has its grip on Northern Colorado. It is affecting not only parents trying to hold down jobs, but also communities more broadly and local economies. The need is so great, in fact, that in February,  Larimer County had to freeze enrollment in its state-subsidized childcare program because it ran out of funds.“Childcare is this cyclical, community issue, where we need a workforce for the childcare sector and we need the childcare sector for our workforce,” said Joy Sullivan, president of the United Way of Larimer County. “So it's this, mutually symbiotic relationship, so to speak, that we hear from employers all the time who cannot hire good staff because they can't find childcare.”Sullivan is working to raise awareness about the cascading effects of the local childcare shortage and what needs to be done to ease the problem. In the first of a two-part series, Erin O’Toole sat down with Sullivan to get a better grasp on the issue. 

People of color in Denver breathe some of the area’s worst air. New research from the University of Colorado Boulder not only shows that the air in some neighborhoods is more polluted than others, it also links that disparity to an outlawed practice called redlining. In the 1930s and 40s, lenders and governments used color-coded maps to identify areas where people of color lived and deny those residents mortgages. The practice was outlawed in the 1960s but many of the social, health, and economic impacts persist today.Lead researcher Alex Bradley, a chemistry doctoral student, sat down with In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole to discuss the connection between redlining and poor air quality in Denver neighborhoods.

Today is Super Tuesday — traditionally the biggest day for primary elections and caucuses across the nation. In Colorado, unaffiliated voters can cast a ballot for either the Republican or Democratic candidates.For more on the election and how KUNC is working to engage Coloradans in the democratic process, KUNC statehouse reporter Lucas Brady Woods joined In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole. In today’s episode, we also hear from Nick DeSalvo, student body president at Colorado State University. DeSalvo is studying political science at CSU and already has experience running for local office. When DeSalvo was 17, he ran for the Pueblo West Metro Board of Directors. Now he is helping to inform some of KUNC’s election engagement efforts with young voters. Spoiler — he says there is a lot of work to be done to get more young people to participate in the democratic process.

In the West, two elements play an outsized role in our quality of life — fire and water. We know wildfire is part of the natural cycle of life here, yet climate change has intensified fires, making them deadlier, more destructive and more frequent. Meanwhile, our Western snowpack determines just how much water we have available to sustain our people, plants and animals. The relationship between the two is actually complex and it is central to Professor Anne Nolin’s work at University of Nevada, Reno. She joined In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole to unravel some of those complexities and what they mean for us in Northern Colorado.

Just off Highway 34 outside of Greeley sits a ghost town dotted with a couple of deteriorating buildings and a sign. In the early 1900s this area was home to Dearfield. The thriving agricultural community founded by O.T. Jackson was Colorado’s largest Black homesteading site. Settlers grew corn, winter wheat, melons and strawberries and the community enjoyed great prosperity until drought, the Dust Bowl, and the Great Depression forced most to leave and seek work elsewhere.“I think it's been very, very important to have Dearfield be an example of what Black people could do and have done – and the future of what Black people could do,” said George Junne, a professor of Africana Studies at University of Northern Colorado who has studied Dearfield for decades. Junne sat down with In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole to discuss Dearfield’s significance. Their conversation comes on the heels of an announcement by the National Park Service that it is studying Dearfield for potential inclusion in the park system.

Wolves are a contentious topic in the West, especially in Colorado where they were recently reintroduced. They are also central to a new 20-year study looking at their removal and reintroduction in Yellowstone National Park and what that means for disruptions to the food web. Tom Hobbs and his research team at Colorado State University found that reintroducing apex predators like wolves failed to restore the ecosystem to its original state. Still, he cautions against drawing certain conclusions from the research.“I really don't want our work to be cast as sort of anti-wolf, to use it to say, ‘Well, it wasn't a good idea to reintroduce wolves.’ That's not what we're showing at all. What we're showing is that the benefits of a complete food web — that includes large carnivores like wolves — can take a long time to be realized.”Hobbs joined In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole to discuss his research – and what it could mean here in Colorado.

In 2021, Nicki Gonzales became Colorado’s first Latina state historian. History is a lifelong vocation for the Regis University professor – one that has helped to inform her own identity, and honor her family’s legacy."When I was state historian, I would dedicate my presentations and my activities to my paternal grandmother, who I never met, but who was a single, mother of three boys here in Denver,” Gonzales said. “Her family, they were miners and they worked in the agricultural fields of Northern Colorado, Boulder County. And I think the most satisfying thing has been being able to honor my family's history."Gonzales’s work has helped to provide us with a fuller picture of Colorado’s cultural landscape, uncovering state history and acknowledging its sometimes problematic details. She will give remarks at an event Wednesday, Feb. 28 at History Colorado, during the launch of a new curriculum for K-12 students focused on Denver's Chicano movement. That starts at 2:00 p.m.Gonzales joined In The NoCo's Erin O'To

One in 27 students in Poudre School District is experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity. That’s a statistic that KUNC senior editor and reporter Leigh Paterson recently stumbled on. Her reporting on youth mental health had suggested there was a problem, but this number told her the issue was more urgent than she’d thought.“It is on the radar of all of the school districts that I interact with and it is just a very difficult problem to solve because it involves so many overlapping social and systemic issues,” Paterson said.She directed the new KUNC series “Unseen but Everywhere,” airing Mondays on KUNC this month. It brings together the lived experiences of unhoused and housing-insecure students. The reporters who spent time with those students — Rae Solomon, Emma VandenEinde and Lucas Brady-Woods — joined In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole to discuss what they learned.

Museum curator Acoma Gaither has been a student of Black history for as long as she can remember. She’s pored over rich historical accounts of Black life in America’s North, South and East. But she says a lot of the history of Black life in our state still needs to be uncovered.    “And that's what really drew me to Colorado,” Gaither said. “I think there's so much opportunity and learning about that Western lens in terms of Black history. It's rich with a lot of hidden stories and I think the spirit of Black folks who came out here to farm and homestead — it takes a certain personality. So that kind of story and spirit really drew me out here.”Gaither recently moved to Denver from Minnesota to work as History Colorado’s associate curator of Black history. She sat down with In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole to discuss some of the untold stories she wants to uncover here.

Health care is a fast-growing industry in Colorado, but finding people to work these jobs is a constant struggle amid the state’s ongoing worker shortage. State leaders are hopeful that a new bipartisan bill will alleviate some of the pressure. It would fund healthcare training across the state, including a new medical school — the College of Osteopathic Medicine — at the University of Northern Colorado.That move would have a big impact, said Angie Paccione, executive director of Colorado’s  Department of Higher Education. Nearly two-thirds of osteopathic doctors are primary care physicians, and there’s a big need in this area.The model for this new medical college also includes placements, addressing a reason why people may start a program but not finish, because they can't get the placement for another year, Paccione explained.She expects a domino effect on nursing “and on all different kinds of positions where we have great shortage areas.”In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole spoke with Paccione about this and other

One of Cary Morin’s guitars is proudly displayed at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery. That black Fender electric speaks to his musical legacy here in Northern Colorado as an Americana artist — or rather, "Native Americana," as some have dubbed his musical style. It is a style with deep Indigenous roots that Morin brought with him from Montana and replanted in Fort Collins four decades ago."The people that I grew up around influenced the songs that I write and the music that I play, just like any songwriter is influenced by the people that they grew up around,” Morin said. “My Crow heritage is definitely rich in unique music and culturally unique. So that provided a different backdrop for me."Morin’s new album Innocent Allies, is inspired by the paintings of Charles Marion Russell, whose work conjures vivid images of life in the Old West. In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole met up with Morin at the museum to talk about this new project.This is an encore of our podcast from Jan. 5, 2024. 

As a teen, author Oscar Hokeah was an avid reader. He devoured dark fantasy novels and envisioned writing Native American versions of those stories. His studies drew him on a more literary path — but it took a long time to get there.  "So the last grade I completed was sixth grade, and then I got a GED when I was 17," Hokeah said. "And so I didn't even think of myself as being [a writer] even though I read all the time and I would write all the time. I just never thought of myself as being someone who would go to college." At the age of 29, Hokeah returned to school and began studying literary fiction. He was determined to bring his perspective as an Indigenous person to a field that has only a small percentage of novelists from tribal communities. Now Hokeah, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, is headlining the Fort Collins Book Fest with his award-winning debut novel “Calling for a Blanket Dance.” He joined In The NoCo's Erin O'Toole to discuss the book, and the powerful cultu

Forced prison labor is widespread across the U.S. and a recent investigation by the Associated Press details a large, complex web linking some of the world's largest food companies to work performed by incarcerated people. The two-year investigation featured data from Colorado State University’s Prison Agriculture Lab."The signal from the prison system is that you don't deserve more than this, that you are simply a labor input to help us save costs and to help us produce profits," said Joshua Sbicca, who directs the lab. "And that has a social psychic toll on people. This is why people refer to what goes on in prison as prison slavery."Sbicca and lab co-director Carrie Chenault sat down with In The NoCo’s Robyn Vincent to discuss prison labor in Colorado and beyond.

In Colorado, the water that comes from our taps and keeps our fields growing can be in limited supply. That means heated debates over water – who gets to use it and how money should be spent to keep it flowing – are constant. That is evident right now, after a Colorado water agency announced plans to buy nearly $100 million of water from the Colorado River, even without plans to change how that water is used. “The purchase represents the culmination of a decades-long effort to keep Shoshone’s water on the west side of Colorado’s mountains, settling the region’s long-held anxieties over competition with the water needs of the Front Range, where fast-growing cities and suburbs around Denver need more water to keep pace with development,” explained KUNC reporter Alex Hager. He joined In The NoCo host Erin O'Toole to tell us more.

During Jim Crow, and even after those laws were overturned in the late 1960s, green book sites were safe places where Black Americans could stop when they were traveling. The sites bear the namesake of what’s known as the Green Book. It contained listings for hotels, restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores and more. Terri Gentry says her grandparents never left home without that book. “We were traveling around the country, we were out exploring. We wanted to go see family members,” she said. “We felt like as citizens and with the National Park Service, we wanted to start engaging in different places and spaces around the country, but we had to navigate it very differently.”Gentry is with History Colorado. She and her team are working to register green book sites throughout the state. For Black History Month, we're listening back to a conversation with Gentry about this chapter of Colorado’s recent past. She spoke with In The NoCo’s Robyn Vincent.

Estes Park resident Jason Van Tatenhove used to live a very different life than the one he has now. The former spokesperson for the Oath Keepers had an inside view of the far-right militia group and its subversive strategies. His skepticism of government and a need for adventure initially drew him to the Oath Keepers – but when he became an insider, he knew he had to leave. Since then, he has expanded our understanding of these groups with his book The Perils of Extremism. His testimony before Congress during the January 6th committee hearings contained a warning…“All we have to look at is the iconic images of that day with the gallows set up for Mike Pence — for the Vice President of the United States,” he said. “I do fear for this next election cycle because if a president that's willing to try to instill and encourage — to whip up a civil war amongst his followers, using lies and deceit and snake oil, regardless of the human impact, what else is he gonna do if he gets elected again?”In The NoCo’s Erin O’To

Sean Short at Blooming Health Farms runs what he calls a working aquaponic chicken farm. First things first, what does that even mean?“It's a great question,” Short laughed. “I've put a few of those words together.”The farm uses aquaponics, “a fancy way of saying that we have some fish, and we use the fish water to grow plants.” In other words, aquaponics combines fish farming with hydroponics. Short is also using that fish water to grow chicken feed. He said that system helps him clean up wastewater from the messy process of producing the feed. All of this is connected to Short’s organic egg production, too — “really yummy eggs,” he said.Beyond sustainability — hydroponic farming conserves water and land, and reduces pesticide use — what is also notable about Farmer Sean’s operation is the people involved. He is bringing at-risk kids into the fold and helping them to learn new skills and carve paths away from the criminal justice system. In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole sat down with Short to talk about this work

One of NPR’s founding mothers, Linda Wertheimer, is leaving the mothership, as we public radio nerds like to call NPR. Wertheimer is a senior national correspondent and her five-decade career marks a lot of firsts – she was the first director for All Things Considered when it debuted in 1971. Five years later, she became the first woman to anchor an election night as presidential candidate Democrat Jimmy Carter beat Republican incumbent Gerald Ford.Her political prowess and reporting chops then took her deeper into the halls of power as the first person to broadcast live from inside the chambers of the U.S. Senate “and the men at first, you know, they might call her little lady,” said author Lisa Napoli. “And she would say, ‘hey, big Senator.’ And she'd playfully push back at them and, you know, she showed she knew her stuff. And that's really, in the end, what mattered and what got them the acceptance." Napoli is the author of Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of NPR's Founding Mothers.

Funeral homes in Colorado have been operating like they exist in a Wild West time capsule. The lack of regulations has been center stage after authorities recently discovered almost 200 bodies that had been improperly stored at a funeral home in southern Colorado. That shocking discovery wasn't the only example of funeral home improprieties. Now lawmakers are looking at ways to regulate the industry – and hopefully bring some closure to distraught families. KUNC investigative reporter Scott Franz has been examining the issue for months. He sat down with In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole to explain what he has learned.Scott mentioned a database in this episode where you can research whether a funeral home has been investigated or disciplined by the state. Here’s his reporting on that.

When the Colorado Rockies’ official scorer Jillian Geib talks America’s favorite pastime, even baseball neophytes catch the excitement. The game is pretty central to her life.“I have watched thousands and thousands of baseball games in my lifetime, so that in itself was training — just watching games and seeing all sorts of situations that could occur because I still feel like every time I watch a game I learn something new,” she said.Many of those thousands of games Geib has watched have included Todd Helton. The first baseman spent 17 seasons with the Rockies and was recently elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. She sat down with host Erin O’Toole to talk about Helton’s storied career — and her own. Geib is the first woman to score for the Rockies, and among only a handful of women to ever have this role in the league.