Colorado In Depth

Rick Williams’ Cheyenne ancestors were pushed out of Colorado along with members of dozens of other Indian tribes. They were forced onto reservations out of state, and today, little sign remains of their time living on Colorado’s busy Front Range corridor.  Williams is leading an effort to document what was lost, recommend how to restore some of it, and account for atrocities against Indian people...

The first 100 days of President Trump’s second time as president is seen by many as a good indicator of what is to come. Early on, he set out his agenda to be tough on immigration, reduce the size of government and overhaul education. How has this affected Coloradans so far? CPR News  journalists explain how Trump’s policies are changing lives in Colorado. Hosted by Caitlyn Kim.    Reported by Cai...

A quirky pair of entrepreneurs want to make electricity using hot water from a mile underground. Hank Held and Fred Henderson have a dream to build Colorado’s first geothermal plant in an idyllic stretch of the central Rockies. The plant could power more than 6,000 homes and lay the groundwork for a renewable energy boom in Colorado. But after the pair has spent years studying old maps and applyin...

In the search for longevity and how to live well, it helps to get advice from your elders. In this episode, four Coloradans who have each lived more than 100 years share their wisdom. The beginning of the year is a particularly good time to hear these life stories, because it's a time to evaluate what's going well, and what you want to change. These centenarians will remind you what's most importa...

Colorado is home to one of the largest medical trials for psilocybin, the compound in magic mushrooms. One young mom in Denver, who has cancer, is among the first wave of patients to see if the therapy can help her reduce her anxiety and face the prospect that her illness may be terminal. What she and the researchers discover could help people with depression, PTSD, addiction and other conditions....

Tina Peters goes on trial in February. The former Mesa County clerk faces criminal charges for using her position overseeing local elections to empower a movement that falsely believes U.S. voting systems are rigged to steal elections. Peters' scheme and her evolution from trusting the election system to trying to subvert it from the inside is a warning sign for 2024. This is an installment of Col...

Colorado is remembering the five people killed at Club Q a year ago. Dozens more survived that night, and have been trying to figure out life in the aftermath. Stories from four people in their own words remind us that there is no going back to “normal,” and that for each of us, survival has its own meaning. This is an installment of Colorado In Depth, a podcast featuring special reporting and inv...

Elijah McClain was a son, a brother, a healer and a musician. In 2019, police stopped him during a peaceful walk home. He hadn’t done anything wrong, but they violently subdued him. Now, officers and paramedics face criminal charges in his death. McClain’s story has brought about reforms to the rules for police in Colorado, and it has put law enforcement in Aurora under state oversight, to stop a...

The idea of drinking recycled wastewater, even if it's highly treated, grossed people out for a long time. But increasingly, it's part of the answer for how we can live in the West as the region and its rivers dry out. This episode goes to two Colorado cities, and a home in California, to show how we can reuse more of the water we already use, to make our Colorado River supplies go further. It's p...

Today's episode is an introduction to a CPR News podcast called Parched. Hosted by climate reporter Michael Elizabeth Sakas, it's about how we can continue to live in the American southwest as it dries out. A two decade drought is sapping the Colorado River and other water supplies. But there are things all of us who live in the region can do to control how much this drought changes our lives and...

For decades, the name William Richardson symbolized hope and opportunity in a close-knit northeast Denver community. But Richardson had lived an extraordinary life even before that. This is the never-before-told story of a Colorado family who uncovers their dad’s contributions to sports history, Black history, and American history while playing in the Negro Baseball League, a league born out of a...

Is your vote secure, and properly counted? Since November 2020, election integrity has been under public scrutiny. It’s questioned in the news, by family and friends, and candidates themselves. This episode takes you behind the scenes of Colorado’s elections, to meet the people and systems designed to prevent fraud and count every vote. This is an installment of Colorado In Depth, a podcast featur...

One in five Americans has dealt with chronic pain. It can be physically, mentally and financially draining. It can lead to addiction, death and even thoughts of suicide. But some Coloradans have found new solutions to manage their pain, like brain therapy and medications other than opioids. We talk with people who experience pain, and physicians, to uncover these solutions and provide hope for pai...

CPR News correspondent Caitlyn Kim travels to Estonia to see Colorado National Guard troops conducting military training exercises with allies, just weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. She found there is a lot at stake for Estonians in the Ukrainian war; a lot at stake for U.S. security and the NATO alliance; and a lot at stake for Coloradans who don't expect to find themselves on the doorstep of...

Today’s episode is a crossover from CPR News' podcast Purplish. Reporters Bente Birkeland and Andrew Kenney explain that Colorado was the first state to legalize abortion, before Roe v. Wade. They talk to people who have shaped the legal landscape for and against abortion access here. And they explain why this issue is never really settled. To hear other episodes of Purplish, follow this link: htt...

Today’s episode is a special preview of another CPR News podcast called Ghost Train. Hosted by reporter Nathaniel Minor, it’s about building a greener transportation system in Colorado – and whether the plans of decades ago should still be setting our course for the future. Denver-area taxpayers have made a massive investment in rail transit over the last 17 years. But these billions of dollars ha...

For a long time, a common refrain has been that more than half of restaurants close before even making it a year. Now think of the chances of survival if you opened one right before the pandemic — right before restaurants around the world had to shut down their in person business. As the virus has ebbed and flowed, the number of customers coming in has fluctuated wildly, but some of these business...

Some of the biggest wildfires in Colorado have cost lives and caused millions of dollars in damage. But without knowing how they started exactly, Coloradans can’t change policies to try to prevent new ones. And no one gets held accountable. CPR reporters Ben Markus and Veronica Penney explain what they found when they analyzed eighteen years of federal wildfire data, and talked to nearly a hundred...

Reporters at CPR News cover Colorado: its trends, its people, its places. Beyond the headlines of the day, we explain the news to help you understand its relevance and connect you to this community. We want to make it easier for you to find and enjoy our deepest work about big issues in Colorado.  So we have a new podcast for you. You’ll hear documentary news, investigations and special reporting,...