City Cast Denver

Burnout is hitting nurses hard as we barrel toward the pandemic’s second anniversary. Nearly one in five nurses in Colorado plans to quit their job in the near future, according to an American Nurses Foundation survey. Hospitals across the state are already strained by the number of COVID patients they’re seeing, and staff shortages could make the situation worse. Nurse Tara Rynders talks with guest host Avery Lill about the pressures nurses face and how they could be better supported. Rynders shares that her organization, The Clinic, is helping nurses at hospitals across Denver through art and play-based workshops.If you want to watch the full performance of “COVID Stories” by The Clinic click here: https://www.theclinicperformance.com/covid-storiesWant to know more about your city? We’ve got a newsletter for you: https://denver.citycast.fm/newsletter/ We’d love to hear from you on Twitter! @citycastdenver

So apparently Denver International Airport just needs a billion more dollars to finish the construction project that’s already over-budget, overdue and over the top with its new, sparkly white floors that look like snow. The Great Hall renovation project has been a headache for more than four years now, but it’s supposed to make the travel experience… better? Somehow? Denver Post reporter Jon Murray has been covering the project since the beginning, and he’s back on the show with guest host Avery Lill to explain why the project has taken so long, where all that money is supposed to come from, and who all of this hoopla is really for. For more details on next steps for the Great Hall project, here's Murray's latest for the Denver Post: https://www.denverpost.com/2021/12/10/denver-airport-terminal-project-completion/ Wanna know what’s on Peyton’s Plate this week? Subscribe to our weekday morning newsletter, and get personal restaurant recs and food news in your inbox every Thursday. https://denver.citycast.fm/newsletter/]Don’t you wanna be Twitter friends? Hit us up @citycastdenver

For a long time, schools have been used to erase Indigenous identities. Take the boarding schools of the 19th and 20th centuries where children were forced to shed their culture and assimilate into a Euro-Christian one. And the erasure can still be seen today in curricula and the staggeringly low graduation rates for Indigenous students. But a new charter school in southwest Denver hopes to reclaim what’s been lost and invest in the future of Denver’s 200 different Indigenous tribes. On a recent visit to the American Indian Academy of Denver, City Cast Denver guest host Avery Lill met the school’s founder, Dr. Terri Bissonette.Want to feel even more connected to your city? Sign up for the CCD newsletter: https://denver.citycast.fm/newsletter/Hey are you on Twitter? We are too! @citycastdenver 

Former Denver Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas died last Thursday at the age of 33. He last played for the Broncos in 2018, but he left an enduring legacy here in Denver, where teammates, sports reporters, and fans alike spent the weekend swapping stories of Thomas’s kindness and quiet pursuit of “everyday greatness,” as ESPN reported. Our friends at the DNVR sports network recorded a raw conversation sharing some of their and their listeners’ experiences with Thomas, and we loved it, so please enjoy this bonus episode today. Here’s how they described it: It is a hard day for Broncos Country, the NFL, and anyone who had the pleasure of meeting or just watching Demaryius Thomas. The impact DT left on the world is being felt by the thousands of messages pouring in of what he meant to them.. We spent this episode remembering our favorite memories of Demaryius Thomas, looking back at all the good times and we also asked and share some of the moments our listeners and community had with DT. It’s a hard episode but one that we needed to have to truly remember the man DT was on and off the field.RIP Bay-Bay, you’ll always be remembered.You can subscribe to The DNVR Sports Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google, Pocket Casts, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts. 

Christmas lights have been a tradition for so long, it’s hard to imagine December without them. We heard a rumor that Denver was the birthplace of these magical twinkling bulbs — so we called up Colorado history expert Dr. William Wei to find out more. Guest host Avery Lill chats with Dr. Wei about his latest book, Becoming Colorado, which traces the state’s history using the backstories of one hundred objects, including a box of Christmas lights. We also went on a mission to find the folks behind the brilliant light displays at Denver’s City and County Building and connected with Nate, Madeline, and Heidi Webb . The Webbs have run their event lighting company Blazen Illuminations in Colorado for more than two decades and they share the secrets to what makes those holiday light shows so fun to watch. Find out about more fun holiday stuff going on in Denver by subscribing to our weekday newsletter: https://denver.citycast.fm/newsletter/Have a favorite local Christmas lights display you think we should know about? Tell us on Twitter: @citycastdenver

Where does Denver’s power come from? It’s a deceptively complex question, loaded with all kinds of personal, political, and global implications. But one thing is certain, less and less of the electricity that powers our city is coming from coal. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, coal-fired power plants provided 36% of Colorado’s electricity in 2020, down from 68% in 2010. So this weekend on the show, we’re bringing you a little perspective from outside the city. Our friends at the Institute for Science & Policy at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science are producing an eight-part podcast exploring the transition away from coal in one of the most coal-reliant cities in the state — Craig, Colorado. This episode includes the first part in that series. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and click here to learn more: https://coalatsunset.orgHere’s their description for this first episode: There's a popular saying in Craig: "Coal keeps the lights on."But in 2020, the electrical utility Tri-State announced that it would close its coal-fired power plant and coal mines in Craig by 2030. The news was like an earthquake. Hundreds of jobs would be lost. The town now faces the prospect of massive economic disruption as its primary industry disappears.In our first episode, we travel to Craig to hear from coal workers who are bracing for change and one local business owner who's already looking for ways to reinvent the town's identity. Plus, we'll talk with the CEO at the center of the decision that changed everything. What will Craig do now?

One RTD driver recently described Union Station as a “hellhole,” and concerns with safety, drug use, littering, and public urination are mounting. The city’s response? More policing. Today on the show, Producer Xandra McMahon chats with host Bree Davies and producer Paul Karolyi about other possible solutions to social issues that don’t involve more versions of law enforcement. Plus, the crew tackles a horrific editorial the Denver Gazette ran this week that targeted our unhoused neighbors. Oh, and we’re joined by a special guest whose voice you’ll be hearing more often on the show!A note: On the show today, we read part of a response from Benjamin Dunning from Denver Homeless Out Loud, regarding the Denver Gazette’s editorial. Here’s the full version of the statement he sent to us: “Peoples ignorance when it comes to homelessness is amazing as evidenced by the editorial 'Denver’s drifters glamp on taxpayers’ tab.' from the Denver Gazette. The article has no declared author. We take this as evidence of them being unable to accept responsibility or accountability. The shaming sentiment they put on our homeless communities with their coined word is disrespectful. Their stupidity and lack of insight is evidenced by statements like “It’s bad for the unfortunate soul who chooses that life as well as for the neighbor who has to put up with it.”No one, and I mean no one chooses to be homeless. To sit behind a locked door and call the police on folks stuck in homelessland, over and over and over only makes things worse. 70% of calls to the STAR program are for unwanted persons and not for emergencies. Apparently there is a person who alone has called emergency services 500 times. It is sicking the disrespect we show our homeless communities. And this anonymous author is no different.The SOS camps do a great job offering help with dignity and respect. So when folks are offered some help with dignity, are we to shame them as grifters? Makes you wonder what kind of grift this author is manufacturing.Here is a bit of what enduring homelessland actually looks like. Glamping my A**- Being chased from street to street by city officials week after week, month after month. No rest, never sleeping with both eyes closed. Asking for housing and being told there is none. Asking where you could go and being told an “overcrowded emergency shelter during a pandemic”. Not a safe place at all.How about housing? Efforts to address homelessness should emphasize housing. Housing ends homelessness. Shelters do not work, they never have. Is the anonymous author willing to accept housing vouchers at their properties? Trust me the anonymous author owns property. (remember the grift they were on we mentioned earlier) Many folks on the streets have housing vouchers that private landlords refuse to accept. Making a problem even worse. People who have housing being denied the right to access the housing they have been granted. Only then to be shamed by Karen's excessively calling the police on them. But then that is what stupid people do. Make their problems worse and then blame it on someone else.”And here’s the Denver Gazette’s “Denver Drifters Glamp on Taxpayer’s Tab” Find Peyton Garcia’s best of local gift guides in today’s newsletter: https://denver.citycast.fm/newsletter/  Tell us what you thought of the Denver Gazette piece on Twitter: @CityCastDenver

A traditional holiday celebration in Spain and Latin America, La Posada has never really taken root here in Denver. But maybe that should change? Miguel Aviña certainly thinks so. He and his band, iZCALLi, put on an annual concert commemorating the event, and this weekend it’s going to be bigger and better than ever, with a jam-packed line-up taking the stage at Meow Wolf’s Perplexiplex Saturday night. Host Bree Davies sits down with Aviña to talk about the meaning of La Posada, his favorite Christmas music to perform, and what to expect at iZCALLi’s big bang of an end-of-year show. Looking for a little more local holiday music for your weekend? One of the acts joining iZCALLi on stage for La Posada, Kayla Marque, live-streamed a set of holiday tunes on PBS12 last year. Catch “How COVID Stole Christmas” here: https://www.facebook.com/PBS12.CO/videos/1357156864622162/The songs we featured in this episode include: “Corriendo Con Todo” off of iZCALLi’s 2018 album “IV” “Villain” off Kayla Marque’s 2020 record “Left Brain” We’ve got plenty more recommendations for your Denver weekend in our newsletter. All you’ve got to do is subscribe: https://denver.citycast.fm/newsletter/We promise to send you some really good tweets today: @citycastdenver

Did you know that today is actually a holiday here in Colorado? Happy Margaret Coel Day! So we thought, what better way to celebrate than to share this audio documentary our producer Paul Karolyi made last year featuring Coel and her work? She’s best known for her Wind River mystery novels, but before she got into fiction, she published a historical biography of Arapaho Chief Left Hand, who famously uttered these famous words about Boulder Valley: “People seeing the beauty of this valley will want to stay, and their staying will be the undoing of the beauty.” Or did he? This is a story about exactly that uncertainty, as well as the nature of storytelling itself and land acknowledgements.This audio doc originally appeared on the podcast Range & Slope, where you can hear a couple of Paul’s other audio docs, like this one about Beau Jo’s so-called Colorado-style pizza or this one about Fort St. Vrain, Colorado’s first and still only nuclear power plant. 

The LoDo nightclub Beta was once one of the top EDM clubs in the country, if not the world. But after a few high-profile violent incidents over the summer, a couple of undercover police raids, and one off-the-wall Von Miller party, Beta is on the verge of losing its liquor license, which would effectively shut it down for good. So what happened? Host Bree Davies sits down with Westword reporter Conor McCormick-Cavanagh to break down the story and the self-proclaimed “made man” at the center of it all — Beta’s owner, Valentes Corleons. Plus, Producer Paul Karolyi called up Corleons to get his side of the story. For more on the Beta situation, here’s McKormick-Cavanagh’s latest for Westword.Every Thursday in our newsletter, Peyton is reviewing a Denver restaurant and sharing the inside scoop on Denver restaurants. Subscribe now to make sure Peyton’s Plate hits your inbox tomorrow morning: https://denver.citycast.fm/newsletter/Have you ever been to Beta? Let’s talk: @citycastdenver