Victorian Death Experiences is a Halloween attraction with a historic twist.

The program takes place in the historic home which houses the Center for Colorado Women’s History in Denver. Visitors see rooms decorated for mourning. They hear stories of death in the Old West. And they see fascinating artifacts, like hair jewelry made partly from the hair of a deceased loved one.

Above all, the program highlights the central role that women have traditionally played when a loved one died – preparing bodies for burial, hosting wakes, and other acts that allowed people to mourn at the end of life.

“Death, for Victorian women, was a deep and sacred act. Women, regardless of race or class, have long been the arbiters of life and death,” said Cat Jensen, education coordinator for the center.

Cat spoke with In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole last October about the program, which is now in its third year. We’re listening back to that conversation today.

Victorian Death Experiences takes place on selected Thursday and Friday evenings throughout October. Find more information and tickets here.

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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.

Denver composer Nathan Hall’s new album of percussion music focuses on some unique instruments: They’re hand-carved from stone and date back several millennia.

Lithophones are polished, resonant rocks shaped like baguettes. Archaeologists say that Indigenous people used the stones somewhere between 2,000 and 6,000 years ago near what’s now Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Nathan wrote a series of pieces to be performed on the stones and recorded the music with a Colorado group called Perc Ens. The resulting album, called Gentle Worship, is out now.

Nathan talked with In The NoCo's Erin O’Toole about collaborating with Marilyn Martorano, the Colorado archaeologist who studied the lithophones. The music he wrote combines the ancient stone instruments’ sounds with modern instruments like woodblocks and timpani.

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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.

When school leaders in Colorado work to prevent shootings and other violent incidents – like the one last month at Evergreen High – they have a tool that officials in many states don’t have.

Under Colorado’s so-called “red flag” law, teachers and other educators are among those who can request that someone’s access to firearms be suspended if they appear to be a threat to themselves or others.

But as Chalkbeat reported recently, there’s little evidence that educators have used this tool in the two years since Colorado lawmakers gave it to them. And that lack of use is striking, given that police say that the shooter at Evergreen High showed warning signs months before he shot two other students, and then died by suicide, using a gun he got from home.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser thinks part of the problem is that teachers don’t know about this tool – or how to use it. So he is launching new training courses for teachers to help them better understand how and when to use what are called Extreme Risk Protection Orders.

Weiser – who is running for governor, but launched this initiative in his current capacity as attorney general – spoke with In The NoCo’s Erin O’Toole about why he’s optimistic this new teacher training will make a dent in the problem.

This conversation contains mentions of suicide.

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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.