A unique retelling of the holiday classic The Nutcracker explores the history and cultural importance of Denver's Five Points neighborhood.

The Five Points Nutcracker replaces the story’s traditional characters with significant figures from Denver’s African American community. Five Points was once known as the “Harlem of the West.”

Duke Ellington’s jazz version of the music is the backbone of the production, and was the inspiration for the show’s director, Larea Edwards.

The production, which is now in its third year, features actors and dancers from the performing arts group LuneASeas. Musicians from Denver jazz artist Tenia Nelson’s band will perform the Ellington score.

Larea Edwards spoke with Erin O’Toole last December about the production. We’re listening back to that conversation today.

Performances take place Dec. 26 – 28 at the Savoy Denver.

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Questions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: NOCO@KUNC.org
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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.

A diagnosis of chronic depression or bipolar disorder can be scary. These conditions can come with feelings of sadness or despair, or intense mood swings.

But a researcher at the University of Colorado says we might be thinking too simplistically about these disorders.

June Gruber is a professor of psychology and neuroscience who runs the Positive Emotion and Psychopathology Lab at CU Boulder. She specializes in research around happiness.

She recently looked into silver linings — or side benefits — of some common mood disorders. And what she found is encouraging — both for folks with these conditions, and those close to them.

June and her research team found those potential advantages can include a greater ability to cope with life's stresses, a tendency toward creativity and a richer social life.

June joined Erin O’Toole to talk about her research, which was partly inspired by watching her father deal with life with bipolar disorder.

If you enjoyed this conversation, check out this previous interview with June on her tips for living a happier life.

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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.

The CU-Anschutz medical campus in Aurora recently agreed to pay $10.3 million to settle a lawsuit over vaccine mandates during the pandemic.

A group of 18 students and faculty claimed that the school violated their religious liberties by requiring them to receive COVID vaccinations to be on campus in person. CU ultimately settled the case through mediation.

The Thomas More Society, which specializes in religious liberty cases, represented the students and staff. The organization says this is one of the only cases in the country so far in which a defendant paid out money in a lawsuit over COVID vaccinations.

So, why did CU settle? And what does the case say about vaccination policies in Colorado going forward?

Reporter John Ingold covers public health and wrote about this settlement for The Colorado Sun. He joined Erin O’Toole to unpack those questions.

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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.

Writer Cassondra Windwalker’s new horror novel uses fiction to highlight a real-life crisis that often goes ignored.

Ghost Girls and Rabbits touches on the thousands of unsolved cases of Indigenous American and Alaska Native women who were missing or murdered. More than 4,000 cases fit that description, according to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The novel tells the story of two Indigenous American women: one who has lost her daughter, and the other who has herself been kidnapped. Windwalker is originally from Oklahoma, spent time in Alaska and now lives in Berthoud.

Ghost Girls and Rabbits was released on May 5, which is also a day of awareness to call attention to the issue.

Windwalker spoke with Erin O'Toole earlier this year about her influences, and how she hopes the book raises awareness about an urgent problem. We’re listening back to that conversation as part of In The NoCo’s Holiday Book Club – our annual look back at some of the year’s most fascinating titles by Colorado authors.

Find more information and links to the 2025 collection of author interviews 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.

When Colorado writer X. Ho Yen was a kid, he loved to read science fiction.

X. Ho Yen is autistic. He liked how some sci-fi stories, like the Star Trek series, depicted a more enlightened future society where neurodivergent people were treated equally.

Eventually he began writing his own science fiction novels. His newest release is titled Space Autistic Author’s Puzzling Innerverse. It’s different from his other books: It’s a series of puzzles that reveal the plot of a story as you solve them.

X. Ho Yen spoke with ITN’s Erin O’Toole earlier this year about the new book, and how science fiction resonated deeply with him as a child.

We’re listening back to that conversation as part of In The NoCo’s Holiday Book Club – our annual look back at some of the year’s most fascinating titles by Colorado authors.

Find more information and links to the 2025 collection of author interviews 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.

Kindergarten teacher Ellen Javernick has published over twenty illustrated children’s books. The Loveland resident’s first book, What If Everybody Did That? has sold more than a million copies.

She just published her newest book titled Awesome of the Day. It tells the story of a boy named Andrew who has one bad day after the next – until he learns to change his outlook.

Ellen teaches at Garfield Elementary School in Loveland. She says she wants her books to inspire positive behavior in kids without getting overly sappy.

She joined Erin O’Toole earlier this year to talk about what inspired her newest book and how – at age 87 – she continues to find energy that matches that of her young students.

We’re listening back to that conversation today as part of In The NoCo’s Holiday Book Club – our annual look back at some of the year’s most fascinating titles by Colorado authors.

Find more information and links to our 2025 list of books 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.

In February of 1942, not long after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military removed thousands of Americans of Japanese descent from their homes. Most of them were full citizens who had been born and raised in the United States.

Families had only a few days to get their affairs in order before reporting to relocation centers, mostly in Western states. Roosevelt’s order affected about 120,000 Japanese Americans, including 17,000 children.

Writer and poet Brandon Shimoda, who is fourth-generation Japanese American, says the impact of incarceration didn’t end with the war.

Shimoda, who lives in Colorado Springs and teaches at Colorado College, is a descendant of several family members who were incarcerated in internment camps. He says his family’s stories helped inspire his newest book, The Afterlife Is Letting Go.

He spoke with Erin O’Toole in February about the legacy of Japanese American incarceration, and why the impacts still resonate today. We’re listening back to that conversation as part of the In The NoCo holiday book club – our annual look back at some of the year’s most fascinating titles by Colorado authors.

Find more information and links to the 2025 collection of author interviews 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.

For people in much of the world, snakebite is a life-threatening condition.

We don't think about it much in Colorado, where a nasty rattlesnake bite might send the occasional hiker to the emergency room. But the World Health Organization estimates that, around the globe, as many as 138,000 people die from venomous snakebites each year. And while antivenom can be used to treat snakebite, it’s often costly and difficult to produce.

An expert at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley hopes to change that.

Biology professor Stephen Mackessy is part of an international team that recently announced a breakthrough in the production of antivenom. The new technology could save lives by making antivenom cheaper to manufacture — and available in larger quantities.

Mackessy and his team recently published their findings in the journal Nature. He spoke with Erin O’Toole about the important research happening at his lab in Greeley that led to the breakthrough.

If you like this interview, check out this In The NoCo conversation with a CU researcher who studies pythons to find a cure for heart disease in humans.

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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.