In The NOCO

Yes, winter is just around the corner. But today, let us take just a moment to appreciate flowers — one of the best souvenirs of summer — as we look forward to next year's garden. Many of the annual flower varieties you'll find in garden stores in the spring have just endured a rigorous, real-world testing process at the Annual Flower Trial Garden at Colorado State University. KUNC’s Emma VandenEi...

Moviegoers in Northern Colorado helped fuel the Barbie phenomenon , not only for big cinema chains, but also infusing mom-and-pop theaters with massive revenue from ticket sales. The Lyric - a local indie theater in Fort Collins - said Barbie was its number one grossing film of all time. Colorado State University professor Karrin Vasby Anderson has been watching this craze unfold. The feminist sch...

Dozens of Native people have gone missing in Colorado since the state activated a new alert system in late December of last year. But advocates say some of those alerts aren’t going out fast enough. Raven Payment, who is Ojibwe and Kanienkehaka, is on the task force that helped set those alerts in motion through a recent law. She works closely on the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous peopl...

Author and journalist Rachel Louise Snyder has spent her career shining a light on social justice issues, violence against women and domestic abuse, and human rights across the globe. In addition to several novels, she’s published work for NPR, in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Yorker. Years ago, her experience in the Semester at Sea program helped set in motion a worldview th...

Journalism wasn’t always in the cards for NPR’s Lori Lizarraga , until one day she found herself in the wrong classroom at Southern Methodist University. Lizarraga says she “stepped into Narnia” when she walked into the studio where journalism students were broadcasting the school’s daily newscast. The Latina journalist has been telling stories ever since – and a lot of that work is informed by he...

The housing crunch is getting a lot of attention these days, but how it's affecting college students is less talked about. Recent data shows it’s a big problem. In a 2020 survey [pdf], more than half of college students said they were struggling to meet basic needs, like finding stable housing. It was a period of uncertainty given the ongoing pandemic, but the numbers point to a persistent problem...

The newest season of KUNC's The Colorado Dream podcast is exploring how our state's housing crunch is affecting mountain communities. In Summit County, the situation is especially dire . Housing was already in short supply there due in part to the region's high construction costs and relative shortage of buildable land. Meanwhile, the recent explosion in short-term rentals, like Airbnb and Vrbo, h...

Many of Colorado’s healthcare workers are burned out, as we heard from Kaiser Permanente staff who walked off the job last week. Staffing shortages are largely to blame — and this is an issue that’s also affecting first responders. KUNC statehouse reporter Lucas Brady Woods recently reported on the dire state of Colorado’s ambulance services . He sat down with In The NoCo's Robyn Vincent to discus...

For the last several decades, a small but growing number of states have begun observing Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a holiday to honor Native Americans and celebrate their histories and cultures. In some communities, like Boulder , it's celebrated in lieu of Columbus Day. In other places, both are observed on the second Monday of October. It is not currently a federally recognized holiday, though in...

Thousands of Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers in Colorado and other states have walked off the job for three days. They say they are stretched thin amid a serious employee shortage and want better pay. Meanwhile, the Fort Collins Symphony celebrates a century of music that began with a group of volunteer musicians back in 1923. Host Erin O'Toole talks with the organization's longtime music dir...

KUNC’s The Colorado Dream podcast captures the struggles and successes of residents determined to make a life in Colorado. They are striving for the so-called American Dream – and overcoming huge hurdles in the process. Their stories also reflect host and creator Stephanie Daniel’s longtime focus in the KUNC newsroom. Her work often unravels the barriers to thriving in America. "I grew up in Denve...

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...

We're celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with conversations featuring Hispanic and Latino changemakers, innovators and creators. Today's episode is about music - specifically, mariachi . The style is rooted in Mexico's history, dating back to colonial times, and started to grow in the United States around the 1930s, when people began hearing it on radio stations and in films.  These days, it's sh...

A new exhibit opening this weekend at the Museum of Boulder promises to illuminate the stories of Black Coloradans, highlighting their influence on the region's history and their impact on the future. " Proclaiming Colorado's Black History " centers on places like the once-bustling farming community of Dearfield ; and notable people like businessman Barney Ford and philanthropist Julia Greeley . ...

On June 25, 1953, a group of librarians and publishers issued a statement affirming the right of Americans to read freely. But that right has been challenged continually over the decades, including right now. Within the last several years, there’s been a surge in efforts across the country to challenge and remove books from library shelves. According to an analysis by PEN America , a free speech a...

All eyes are on an Aurora courtroom as trials get underway in the Elijah McClain case. Mclain, a 23-year-old Black man, died four years ago during a violent encounter with Aurora police and paramedics. His death has had major reverberations in Colorado and far beyond. The first of three trials involves two police officers charged in his death — Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt. They have pleaded...

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 Gonzales to pay tribute to her family’s legacy and inform her own identity. Gonzales’s work has helped to provide us with a fuller picture of Colorado’s cultural landscape, uncovering state history and acknowledging its problematic details....

Colorado's housing crisis is impacting residents in different ways. Recent survey responses point to housing affordability and homelessness as top concerns. And the data reflects those concerns. In Denver County alone, there were around 1,200 eviction filings in August – nearly double the number a year earlier. And for people who are displaced, either by eviction or because they simply can't affor...

Fall officially begins on Saturday, September 23. After a long, hot summer, many of us are eagerly anticipating what the change of season brings: enjoying cool evening air, getting your favorite sweaters out of storage, and visiting the nearest pumpkin patch or corn maze. And for thousands of tourists, this time of year means an annual trip into the high country to marvel at the beautiful changing...

The impacts of wildfires are something Northern Colorado homeowners are increasingly confronting. A recent report from the company CoreLogic shows 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. These statistics position Colorado in the number two slot nationwide —...

We’re kicking off Hispanic Heritage Month with a series of conversations highlighting Hispanic changemakers, innovators and creators in Colorado. Democratic Representative Yadira Caraveo knows a lot about duality, about the different cultural identities many people try to balance and preserve as they navigate life. “It’s really been a lifetime of being ‘the first’ or ‘the only’ in a lot of rooms,”...

Summer may be winding down, but many northern Colorado farmers' markets are still humming, with people lining up to buy crates of Palisade peaches, Olathe sweet corn, Pueblo chiles, and other locally grown produce. But growing in Colorado can be challenging – the growing season is short, the sun is scorching, and the rainy season can be very unpredictable.  Coloradans seem to appreciate how diffic...

In September 2013, a large storm parked itself over the mountains and foothills of Northern Colorado – where it lingered for days, dropping a lot of rain that eventually made its way down into a number of Front Range communities, washing out roads, bridges, and dams - and forcing thousands to evacuate.  The KUNC newsroom is marking the anniversary of those devastating floods in a special series ,...

Coloradans recently approved the legalization of certain plant-based psychedelic substances, including psilocybin and psylocin found in so-called magic mushrooms – paving the way for licensed healing centers where people can legally obtain these plant medicines in the coming years. Indigenous people have long been the historical facilitators of this kind of medicine, leading ceremonies in lesser-k...

Northern Colorado is a fascinating and fast-growing part of the Front Range. It's a region brimming with its own history, culture, food and music; and opportunities abound in education, civic life, and outdoor recreation. Of course, life here isn't without its share of challenges - from health and safety to housing and the environment.  KUNC's new podcast In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, p...