In The NOCO

KUNC
  • 4.8 (40)
  • DAILY NEWS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

KUNC's In The NOCO is a daily look at the stories, news, people and issues important to you. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show explores the big stories of the day, bringing context and insight to issues that matter. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we explore the lighter side of news, highlighting what makes this state such an incredible place to live.

  1. 3D AGO

    In a warm, dry springtime, your lawn may need extra care. Here’s where to start – and what not to do

    Last week, the In The NoCo team gathered some plant experts from CSU Extension and interviewed them about caring for the plants in our lives as we move from a warm, dry winter into what looks to be a hot, dry summer. It was part of In The NoCo’s first live episode, taped in front of an audience in Fort Collins.  Today, we share one of the conversations from that night, about lawn and turf triage. Alison O’Connor, a horticulture specialist with CSU Extension, shared tips with Erin O’Toole about why you may want to skip aeration and fertilization this spring, and why it’s OK to let your yard look a little browner this year.   We’ll share excerpts from these timely interviews in the coming weeks.    If you’re considering planting new turf to withstand a warmer, drier Colorado climate, check out this list of recommended turf grasses from CSU Extension.  * * * * * 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!  Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Executive Producer: Brad Turner  Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

    9 min

  2. 4D AGO

    A unique mission to save coral from a devastating disease – and the Coloradans helping to make it happen

    It's one of the more unusual exhibits on display at the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster.  Stroll past the colorful butterflies and other insects, and you'll find a 250-gallon saltwater tank. It houses part of a nationwide collaboration to save a badly damaged coral reef found off the coast of Florida.  The rescue project began in 2020 after a coalition of zoos and aquariums teamed up to house and grow coral in response to a disease that spread across the underwater habitat off Florida.  The Butterfly Pavilion stepped up to be part of the project. Six years in, we wanted to hear how a coral colony ended up in Colorado and what challenges its handlers overcame along the way.  Sara Stevens is a marine biologist who manages the coral ark project for the Butterfly Pavilion. She spoke with Erin O’Toole about this unusual rescue mission.  * * * * * 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!  Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Executive Producer: Brad Turner  Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

    9 min

  3. 5D AGO

    This CU professor looked into how political news on TikTok shapes young voters’ views. Here’s what he found

    TikTok has become a go-to source for news, especially for younger audiences.   But short-form videos on the social network don’t look or sound much like traditional journalism. Users see a stream of bite-size videos that favor strong opinions and controversy over nuance and depth.  So, how does consuming political content on TikTok actually affect young people?  Michaelangelo Landgrave is a political scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, and co-author of a new study that looked into that question. He and his fellow researchers found that TikTok may not change young voters' political views – but it does tend to make them feel more angry, sad or anxious about the world.   They recently published their findings in the journal Political Studies Review.   Michaelangelo spoke with Erin O’Toole about the study, which he said was partly inspired by seeing his students use TikTok and other social media far more than traditional news outlets.  * * * * * 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!  Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Executive Producer: Brad Turner  Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

    9 min

  4. 6D AGO

    State lawmakers scaled back rules for paying overtime to Colorado farm workers. Here’s why

    Democrats tend to position themselves as champions of workers: pro-union, pro-labor. But a bill that passed recently at the Colorado statehouse called some of that into question – and caused a split among Democratic state legislators.    Earlier this month, lawmakers voted to scale back overtime rules for farm workers. The vote followed several days of intense debate before 11 Democrats ultimately sided with Republicans to pass the bill.   Supporters argue that existing overtime laws in Colorado hurt farmers by forcing them to pay steep overtime wages for farm labor. Supporters also say the rules often have the effect of reducing how much work seasonal farm laborers can get.    But opponents of the bill say this move weakens protections designed to prevent the exploitation of farm laborers.   So why did 11 Democrats split from their caucus to support the bill?    Rae Solomon covers the state capitol for the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. She spoke with Erin O’Toole about how the bill will affect people who work in Colorado's farming industry – and what the vote reveals about labor issues at the statehouse this year.  * * * * * 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!  Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Executive Producer: Brad Turner  Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

    9 min

  5. APR 24

    What Rocky Flats meant to the workers who helped create nuclear weapons there during the Cold War

    If you visit the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge northwest of Denver, you see different types of wildlife, miles of hiking and biking trails and acres of rolling prairie.   But you don’t see any trace of the astonishing history of what happened there during the Cold War: Rocky Flats was the site of a plant that made plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons until it was shuttered in the early 1990s.   Officials removed later removed the buildings used in processing plutonium and cleaned up the area. And after a series of sometimes contentious public hearings, the wildlife refuge opened to the public in 2018.  Filmmaker Jeff Gipe explores that history in a recent documentary, Half-Life of Memory: America’s Forgotten Atomic Bomb Factory. Gipe grew up in nearby Arvada. His father worked at the plant in the 1980s.   Gipe says he made the film to remind people of the hazards buried beneath the wide-open spaces of the wildlife refuge, and to share the voices of workers whose lives were affected by the dangerous materials processed at Rocky Flats.   Today we’re listening back to Gipe’s conversation with Erin O’Toole, recorded ahead of the film’s premiere in late 2024.  The documentary is available on Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video, and will be screened this Sunday, April 26 at the Arvada Center - along with a new art exhibit running through May 10.  You can watch the film’s trailer here.  * * * * * 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!  Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Executive Producer: Brad Turner  Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

    9 min

  6. APR 23

    This proposed state law could make it easier for Colorado artists to support themselves. Here’s how

    A bill being discussed at the state capitol has lawmakers sounding like a bunch of Swifties – or at least has them talking about Taylor Swift’s music.  State Sen. Jeff Bridges referenced the pop superstar’s album 1989 when he threw his support behind a proposed law that would make it easier for artists in Colorado to do business and help protect the rights to their creative work.   Bridges told the Colorado Sun that the bill would avoid situations like what happened to Swift when her former record company sold away the rights to 1989 and other albums she’d created.  Parker Yamasaki covers arts and culture and wrote about the bill for the Colorado Sun. She spoke with Erin O’Toole about the idea behind it, and how it could help Colorado artists trying to support themselves through their creative work.   * * * * * 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!  Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Executive Producer: Brad Turner  Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

    9 min

  7. APR 22

    Why hundreds of bird lovers will head to eastern Colorado this weekend to spot the elusive Mountain Plover

    Mountain Plovers are a celebrated bird species in parts of Colorado. But if you’ve never seen one, you’re in the majority.   Mountain Plovers nest on Colorado’s eastern plains and are sometimes referred to as the “prairie ghost” because their sandy-colored plumage makes them hard to spot.   The annual Mountain Plover Festival in Karval – which begins this Friday – celebrates this bird.    The festival draws hundreds of visitors each year, and owes much of its success to support from local ranchers, who have gotten involved in preserving Mountain Plover habitat.  Angela Dwyer is a manager for the stewardship program of the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. She joined Erin O’Toole last year to talk about the ranchers, the festival and the plovers — including why this prairie-loving bird has “mountain” in its name. We’re revisiting their conversation today.  The sound of Mountain Plovers used in this episode can be found in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Macaulay Library.   * * * * * 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!  Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Executive Producer: Brad Turner  Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

    9 min

  8. APR 21

    How kids quietly lend a hand after a wildfire or flood – and how it helps their neighbors

    When a natural disaster strikes, we often think of children as the most vulnerable of victims. Picture families forced to evacuate during a wildfire, or kids forced to take remote classes for months during the pandemic.  A University of Colorado researcher says this thinking may be too simplistic – that it overlooks the ways children help out during and after a disaster, and the importance of letting kids help respond to a chaotic world.  Lori Peek is a sociology professor and director of the Natural Hazards Center at CU Boulder. She studies how communities respond to natural disasters, and she's particularly focused on how children help out.   She’s giving a talk on the topic Wednesday in Boulder. Ahead of that, she spoke with Erin O’Toole about her research.   If you enjoyed this interview, check out our previous In The NoCo conversation with Lori about how surviving a wildfire can make a community more resilient.  * * * * * 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!  Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole Executive Producer: Brad Turner  Theme music by Robbie Reverb Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.

    9 min
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Trailer

4.8
out of 5
40 Ratings

About

KUNC's In The NOCO is a daily look at the stories, news, people and issues important to you. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show explores the big stories of the day, bringing context and insight to issues that matter. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we explore the lighter side of news, highlighting what makes this state such an incredible place to live.

Information

  • Creator
    KUNC
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    891
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2024 KUNC
  • Show Website
    In The NOCO

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