Kunc's Colorado Edition

Nuclear energy is now clean energy in Colorado. That’s according to a new law recently signed by Gov. Jared Polis.  The law adds nuclear power to a list of clean energies like wind and solar. Colorado leaders have set a goal of using only clean energy to power the state by 2040.    The law didn’t pass without pushback from critics who point out that nuclear energy produces radioactive waste. But in the end, the Democratic-controlled state legislature approved it.  So, what’s behind these shifting attitudes toward nuclear power in Colorado – which currently has no nuclear plants?  Parker Yamasaki wrote about this for The Colorado Sun. She joined Erin O'Toole to explain how the new law could change Colorado’s energy sources in the decades ahead. This isn’t the only recent development in nuclear energy in Colorado. KUNC investigative reporter Scott Franz has reported extensively on a proposal to store the nation’s nuclear waste near Craig, in northwest Colorado. You can find his series here. * * * * * Sign up f

There are many types of mental health therapy you can access these days: talk therapy, art therapy, even music therapy. Jen Ikuta leads sessions in what's called cuddle therapy. It’s a growing field.  Jen works with clients who want to learn to be more comfortable with another person’s touch. Many of her clients have experienced physical trauma, and many have autism.  Jen usually works with clients in one-on-one sessions but also organizes what she calls “community cuddles” for groups at her Arvada office.  Erin O’Toole talked with her about the emerging field of cuddle therapy and what Jen remembers about her first experience as a cuddle therapy participant.  Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: NOCO@KUNC.orgLike 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'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie ReverbAdditional m

Researchers have proposed a plan to transform empty high-rise office spaces into living spaces to reduce the housing shortage in the Denver metro area. Denver is one of many American cities with a tight housing market and a glut of unused office space. A recent study by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the architecture firm Gensler calls for converting high rise offices to shared residential spaces similar to a college dorm.  Tenants would share kitchens, bathrooms and workspaces with people in neighboring units. And some real estate developers also see opportunity. Earlier this week, a development company announced it purchased two office buildings in downtown Denver in hopes of converting them into affordable housing. Alex Horowitz is the Project Director of Housing and Project Initiatives at Pew Charitable Trusts who oversaw the study.  He spoke with In the NoCo’s Brad Turner last November about why he thinks these low-cost, dorm-style units in skyscrapers could help cities where attainable housing is hard to

Egg prices in Colorado and across the nation remain stubbornly high. If you’ve been grocery shopping lately, it won't come as a surprise that the cost of eggs shot up 40 percent over the last year. Some experts have blamed outbreaks of avian flu, which forced farmers to cull millions of chickens and turkeys across the country. And while that is certainly one factor, a Colorado professor says that the systems we use to produce and deliver eggs are actually the root of the problem.  Jack Buffington teaches supply chain management at the University of Denver. In a recent article, he wrote that those high egg prices are an avoidable problem – but fixing it will require the U.S. to think differently about egg production. He spoke with Erin O’Toole about why we’re seeing cracks in the U.S. egg supply chain – and what a more resilient system might look like. * * * * *Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: NOCO@KUNC.org Like what you're hearing? Help more pe

A few weeks back we talked about how many Coloradans are planting native plants in their yards. And about how native plants are hardier, use less water, and can support bees and other pollinators in our ecosystem.  We also invited you and other listeners to share your questions about native plants. And you sent us loads of responses. In this episode of In the NoCo, Erin O’Toole visits again with native plant expert Tommy Roth. He’s a home horticulture coordinator from the Colorado State University Extension, which advises homeowners on landscaping and many other plant-related matters.  You can find lists and fact sheets about native plants and grasses at CSU Extension’s website here.  Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: NOCO@KUNC.orgLike 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'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by

If you spend time in the mountains, you’re probably familiar with sitting in traffic on I-70. That congestion is annoying – and costly.  Colorado officials estimate the state lost nearly $320 million in revenue last year from delays on I-70. Some leaders in mountain towns blame these losses on semis that cause accidents or hold up traffic.  So one veteran railroad employee has pitched an idea he thinks will eliminate much of the aggravation and economic losses. He calls it “truck-by-train.”  Truckers would load their tractor-trailers onto a train on one side of the Rockies and ride the railway over the mountains, keeping the I-70 corridor less congested for other travelers. It’s the brainchild of retired Amtrack conductor Brad Swartzwelter. He played a role in reviving the ski train from Denver to Winter Park a few years back.  Brad told Erin O’Toole about how his “truck-by-train" vision would work – and why taxpayers should consider supporting the idea.  Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org

The trial of a driver accused of hitting and killing a promising young competitive cyclist has made headlines in recent days. Seventeen-year-old Magnus White was struck and killed in 2023 while riding his bike on Highway 119 between Boulder and Longmont. Today we’re sharing a conversation about technology that might prevent similar tragedies. Magnus White’s parents and other cycling safety advocates have called for more regulations to make bicyclists safer on our roads – including better bike lanes and stiffer penalties for careless driving.  Their demands also include 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. All of this got us wondering – how well do advanced safety systems like AEB or V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) work? And how feasible are these technologies righ

An extraordinary Colorado athlete gets some much-deserved recognition.  Libby James, a runner from Fort Collins, has a slew of accomplishments under her belt. She’s run 10 marathons – including Boston, Tokyo and Pikes Peak. She’s the most dominant female runner in the history of the Bolder Boulder 10k, having finished in the top 20 for her age group an incredible 28 times.  And she did most of those things after she turned 40. Never Too Old is a short documentary co-directed by Colorado filmmaker Patty Jen Arndt, who’s part of Libby’s extended family. The film provides a glimpse into Libby’s running career, which didn’t start until she was in her mid-30s, raising four children. She retired from competitive running in 2020, at the age of 83.   The film will be screened on Sunday at the Lyric Cinema in Fort Collins, as part of Colorado State University’s ACT Human Rights Film Festival.  Patty joined Erin O’Toole to talk about directing the film – and how Libby’s accomplishments grew out of her ability to balanc

Gluten free foods are everywhere nowadays.  They’re designed for people with celiac disease and gluten intolerance – people who get sick if they eat gluten, which is a kind of wheat protein.  But our guest today thinks many of those products miss the mark. So, she did something about it. Chennelle Diong and her husband, Justin Beaver – both of whom have celiac disease – founded GoodLove Foods. The company, which is based in Longmont, makes gluten-free comfort food, which customers buy frozen and bake at home. The company’s products include buttermilk biscuits and cinnamon rolls. Chennelle says business at GoodLove Foods is taking off. A recent appearance on the TV show Shark Tank landed the company a $150,000 investment deal.   Erin O’Toole talked to Chennelle about why she started the company and where the idea came from. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: NOCO@KUNC.orgLike what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the

Coloradans who struggle with anxiety or depression will soon have access to a different kind of treatment option.  At the start of 2025, a new law took effect that opened the door to psychedelic-assisted therapy offered by licensed treatment centers in Colorado. State officials had projected April as the date these centers could begin offering therapy sessions using psilocybin, the psychoactive compound found in some mushrooms. We wanted to understand what this kind of therapy entails. So in January, we reached out to Scott Shannon, founder of the Wholeness Center in Fort Collins. The center has applied for a license, and has offered psychedelic therapy in the past, following the old laws that existed until this year. Scott and other therapists who support access to psychedelics say it could change the way we treat mental health issues in Colorado. As the rollout of these treatment centers gets underway, we’re listening back to his conversation with Erin O’Toole. He began by walking her through what happens i

Some state lawmakers in Denver are using the term “education deserts” to sound the alarm around underperforming schools. It refers to a ZIP code where at least two-thirds of the students attend a school with subpar math and reading scores. One estimate says about 123,000 public school students in Colorado fall into this category.  Some Democratic lawmakers have recently proposed an unprecedented solution: Colorado Senate President James Coleman – along with support from Governor Jared Polis – want to make it easier for charter schools to open in education deserts. They say the status quo isn’t working, and the state needs charter schools’ innovative approaches in the effort to boost academic success. And here’s the unprecedented part: Coleman wants to introduce a bill that would let those charter schools bypass getting approval from local school boards, which traditionally can endorse or torpedo a new charter school. Erica Breunlin covers education for The Colorado Sun. She joined Erin O'Toole to talk about C

Homeowners in Colorado’s foothills are used to the threat of wildfire. But after the Marshall Fire hit Louisville and Superior in 2021, some are taking wildfire mitigation more seriously. And how you landscape your yard is a big part of that work. The good news is you can landscape your yard to be fire-resistant and beautiful at the same time. Tommy Roth is a home horticulture coordinator for the Colorado State University Extension who has been fielding a lot of calls from people with questions about how to do this. “They really need a lot of information to make sure that they're creating a defensible space to prevent another wildfire,” he said.  And with spring planting season around the corner, Roth shared some advice with Erin O’Toole about what to plant and where. CSU Extension put together a guide to fire-resistant planting, which you can find here. And you can explore your wildfire risk zone here.  Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: NOCO@KUN

Around the globe, thousands of languages are considered endangered – that's according to the language reference website Ethnologue. In many cases the people who speak them are passing away, and younger generations aren’t learning them. But a pair of language scholars from the University of Colorado are working to stop these endangered languages from slipping away. Zapotec is a family of languages that originated in Southern Mexico and Central America. Today, it’s spoken mostly in Oaxaca, Mexico. And even though about 500,000 people speak a form of Zapotec, it’s in danger of being lost. Professor Ambrocio Gutierrez grew up speaking Zapotec and now leads this effort at CU Boulder along with his colleague Professor Rai Ferrelly. Their work focuses on a particular version of the language, spoken in the town Teotitlán del Valle.  They spoke with Erin O’Toole about their work – which includes writing a kind of dictionary for the language, as well as teaching others to speak Zapotec. Sign up for the In The NoCo news

On November 1, 1955, a man planted a bomb aboard a United Airlines plane shortly before it departed from Denver. The plane exploded in midflight over beet fields in Weld County, killing all 44 people aboard.   It was a mass murder that grabbed headlines across the country. And viewers saw footage of the trial on TV – which was unusual then. If you've never heard of this crime, though, you're hardly alone. There's no marker at the site of the crash, near what is now Firestone.  But as the 70th anniversary approaches, people are talking about Flight 629. A local nonprofit, the Flight 629 Memorial Committee, is working to create a memorial to those who lost their lives, as well as the nearby residents who turned out to try to search for survivors.  And a new exhibit at History Colorado honors those lost in the tragedy and looks at how it happened. Andrew J. Field is a retired Staff Attorney for the Colorado Supreme Court, where he specialized in criminal law. He’s the author of Mainliner Denver: The Bombing of F

Colorado is a tough state to be a restaurant manager in right now. Every day seems to bring news that another local favorite is closing.  It's expensive to run a restaurant. Costs for food and real estate have been on the rise. And for restaurants along Colorado’s Front Range, there’s one especially thorny issue: – employee pay. For the last few years, Colorado’s minimum wage has been $14.81 an hour for non-tipped employees – more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25.  And the local minimum wage in cities like Denver and Boulder is even higher than the state’s.  That’s a challenge that many restaurateurs say makes it more difficult to stay afloat. KUNC reporter Emma VandenEinde has been exploring this story. She joined Erin O’Toole to talk about how a proposed law aims to help restaurant owners, and the community fallout when a favorite local eatery shuts down. * * * * * Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: NOCO@KUNC.org Like what you're

The Hayman Fire burned through a huge swath of forest southwest of Denver in 2002. It left behind a massive burn scar. Workers quickly replanted thousands of trees to reestablish the forest.  But more than two decades later, large areas of the Hayman burn scar still resemble a moonscape, with some scraggly young trees here and there.  Burn scars that take decades to heal are becoming a fact of life throughout the West. It’s partly due to climate change, which is shifting which types of trees will grow naturally in mountain forests.  Camille Stevens-Rumann – assistant director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Insitute at Colorado State University – studies reforestation efforts after a wildfire. In a recent Scripps News story, Stevens-Rumann argues it’s time for a new approach to how we replant forests after wildfires.  She spoke with Erin O’Toole last November. We’re listening back to that conversation about what she thinks Colorado’s forests should look like in the future – and why trees that have historic

Tourists love the sight of a moose with their long noses, large sloping antlers, and gangly legs.  But Rocky Mountain National Park biologists say the growing moose population appears to be harming wetlands in the park. That’s according to a recent story in the Fort Collins Coloradoan. And state wildlife officials say they also want to make sure a ‘moose boom’ doesn’t threaten the willows, aspen and other plants that moose feed on in wetland areas.  The moose population is a big shift from a half-century ago when there were basically no moose in Colorado and wildlife managers introduced 24 of them, in 1978. Andy Holland is Colorado Parks and Wildlife Big Game Manager who oversees the state’s moose population – which now numbers 3500. Erin O’Toole asked him how officials keep the size of the herd from overwhelming the habitat – or “overbrowsing,” as wildlife officials might say. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: NOCO@KUNC.orgLike what you're heari

A massive reservoir project that will eventually clear the way for a half-million new residents in Northern Colorado is now a step closer to breaking ground.  The $2 billion water project will create two new reservoirs that will feed 15 towns and water districts in Northern Colorado. Advocates for NISP, the Northern Integrated Supply Project, say it’s essential to ensure that these fast-growing communities in Larimer and Weld counties have the water they need as development booms.  The project has been tied up in planning, permitting and opposition for more than two decades. But it cleared a final hurdle recently, after an environmental group that had sued to stop the project agreed to settle the case. Alex Hager covers water issues for KUNC. He joined Erin O’Toole to explain how NISP could help transform Northern Colorado.  * * * * * Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: NOCO@KUNC.org Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo

A bill under consideration at the state capitol would allow religious organizations to use their properties to build housing developments. It's an idea some state lawmakers see as an opportunity. Supporters say it would help alleviate Colorado's housing shortage, using thousands of acres of available church-owned property around the state. KUNC's Stephanie Daniel has been reporting on this issue. She spent time visiting a church in Fort Collins that created a version of this idea – a development that they hope will foster a sense of community for future residents and church members. Stephanie joined host Erin O’Toole to share the story of how Heart of the Rockies Church got into the real estate business, and how viable the idea might be for other faith-based groups.  * * * * * Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: NOCO@KUNC.org Like what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks! 

March is Colorado’s snowiest month. Which means lots of us will be looking to make fresh tracks on that deep powder this time of year.  And if you live in Colorado, you know that amazing powder brings with it truly astonishing sunburns for skiers and snowboarders.  There are scientific reasons that your friends come home from the slopes with goggle marks scorched onto their faces. And one scientist wants to make sure people understand why.   Steven Fassnacht is a Professor of Snow Hydrology at Colorado State University. He recently published an article about the intense reflectivity of fresh snow. He spoke with host Erin O’Toole about why Colorado powder is conducive to sunburn. Sign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.orgQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: NOCO@KUNC.orgLike 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'TooleProducer: Ariel LaveryExecutive Producer: Brad TurnerTheme music by Robbie