Climate change has become wildly political and seems to spur intense responses across the political spectrum. But we're curious if it really needs to be this way. On this week's episode of The Ampersand, Erika Randall sits down with environmentalist and researcher Amanda Carrico to challenge the way we talk about climate change. While Amanda’s work focuses on the complex ways humans impact the environment, her vision for the future is remarkably hopeful.

Amanda covers questions like, why we might consider shifting focus from individual responsibility to massive structures driving climate change, how she finds common ground, especially with her family, and have productive conversations across differing political opinions, and how we might craft a narrative that offers the next generation genuine hope for a healthy, thriving future.

More on Amanda Carrico.

Check out the Carrico Lab's current research projects.

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Written and produced by Erika Randall and Tim Grassley.

Original music composed by Nelson Walker.

Recorded at Interplay Recording and Multimedia.

The Ampersand is a production of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Artists have often turned to old stories to make sense of new truths. On today's episode of The Ampersand, Hip Hop choreographer and artistic director Rennie Harris gives insight into that process. Known for works like Lazarus and Rome & Jewels—retellings that play with familiar stories to reveal new understanding—Harris was praised by the New York Times in 2025 as an artist who "has done more than any other choreographer to reveal and develop the metaphorical and narrative expressivity of American street dance."

In this conversation, he traces the personal experiences that catalyzed one of his first commissioned works, Endangered Species, and how they shape a creative process that turned lived trauma into something audiences have called transcendent.

Learn more about Rennie Harris Puremovement.

For more about Harris’ scholarship and teaching, visit his CU Boulder faculty profile.

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Written and produced by Erika Randall and Tim Grassley.

Original music composed by Nelson Walker.

Recorded at Interplay Recording and Multimedia.

The Ampersand is a production of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Institutions of higher education frequently work to understand its purpose and values. This process of shaping identities can often be seen in their buildings, where the choices of style and substance reflect what leaders hope to accomplish. This week on The Ampersand, Erika walks CU Boulder’s Quad to explore how our institution’s self-understanding shifted from its founding at Old Main to the Ivy-informed Hale; from Macky’s conglomeration of style to the library’s cohesion under the Tuscan Vernacular. Our guest is also our guide—Paul Chinowsky is a professor emeritus of civil, environmental and architectural engineering at CU Boulder. He is deeply invested in documenting our campus’ architecture to preserve the stories that shaped this institution and remember the traditions that came and went within these halls.

As noted in the prologue, the history discussed in today’s episode begins in 1876. However, CU Boulder is located on the traditional territories and ancestral homelands of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Ute and many other Native American nations. Their forced removal from these territories has caused devastating and lasting impacts. While CU Boulder can never undo or rectify the devastation wrought on Indigenous peoples, we commit to improving and enhancing engagement with Indigenous peoples and issues locally and globally.

More information on the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Tribes and the Northern Arapaho Tribe.

More information on the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.

To further engage in reconciliation and learning, visit CU Boulder’s Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies.

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Paul Chinowsky’s biography.

Follow Paul on LinkedIn.

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Written and produced by Erika Randall and Tim Grassley.

Original music composed by Nelson Walker.

Recorded at Interplay Recording and Multimedia.

Additional content recorded at the Fiske Planetarium.

The Ampersand is a production of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.