Changing Denver's favorite local historian returns. This is Phil Goodstein in conversation about the 1918 flu, how it affected Denver and how it could provide a roadmap for our future.  Phil and I didn't talk about this, but I know he normally makes money giving walking tours around the city. I doubt those are very popular right now, so I'd like to remind you that Phil has many books about Denver's history available for purchase on the internet, including the websites of your favorite local booksellers. I recommend Denver from the Bottom Up: Robert Speer's Denver or his new one, which is part one of a new series about the history of Denver Public Schools.  If you like Changing Denver and you haven't heard my latest piece about Land Acknowledgements and Arapaho chief Left Hand, I think you'd probably like it. It's on the Range and Slope feed or right here if you prefer to listen in a browser.  Also, if for whatever reason you're feeling alone and deprived of meaningful connection with other people, we're starting up a podcast matchmaking service at House of Pod. It's called LoveSick, and you might like to listen or even sign up for a custom designed video chat blind date.

Changing Denver

Phil on the Flu (1918 and 2020)

Longtime listeners of Changing Denver will be interested to hear about Range & Slope, a new podcast featuring sounds and stories from prairie to peak.  Range & Slope is a product of the R & S Collective, of which Changing Denver host Paul Karolyi is a proud member.  Subscribe wherever you listen to Changing Denver and learn more at rangeandslope.com.   

Introducing... Range & Slope

Our Rocky Flats series concludes with a look into the future. What does this summer's litigation mean for the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge? And what about the Rocky Flats of our collective imagination, has anything changed? Unclear Danger: The Colorado Story of Rocky Flats is presented in partnership with the Colorado Independent and the Denver Public Library. - Support the show! Our limited-time crowdfunding campaign is ending at the end of this month. If you loved the Rocky Flats series, and you want more Changing Denver, set up a pledge at www.patreon.com/changingdenver. - Our theme song is “Minnow” by Felix Fast4ward. The theme song for Unclear Danger is “Title Screen” by Aethernaut. Other music in this episode is by Lee Rosevere, Chris Zabriskie, and Aethernaut. - The photo that serves as the basis of the Unclear Danger logo was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by a user called AlbertHerring. We are using it under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License. The Colorado Independent’s Kelsey Ray designed the logo. - Follow us on Twitter @changingdenver for photos and more behind-the-scenes details from our investigation into Rocky Flats. Changing Denver is a proud member of the Denver Podcast Network. Thanks for listening!

Unclear Danger 5: Where the Wind Will Blow

The reactions to the most recent episode of Unclear Danger: The Colorado Story of Rocky Flats have been overwhelming. In the form of two interviews about health impact studies of communities surrounding Rocky Flats, this is our response. Unclear Danger is being produced in partnership with the Colorado Independent and the Denver Public Library. - Support the show! You can now support Changing Denver with a monthly pledge on our Patreon! A monthly pledge of $3 or more will get you access to transcripts of each episode of Unclear Danger and three Changing Denver stickers. A pledge of $10 or more will get you a shout out in the end credits of each Rocky Flats episode. Learn more about our new, limited-time crowdfunding campaign at www.patreon.com/changingdenver. -   Follow us on Twitter @changingdenver. Thanks for listening!

Unclear Danger 4B: A Rebuttal of Sorts

We take to the streets to hear from everyday Denverites on the big question besetting us all: How do you feel about the way Denver is changing? Host Paul Karolyi recently served as the Podcaster in Residence at the Denver Public Library. This episode documents the final program of his residency. - Support Changing Denver! Set up a monthly pledge on Patreon at www.patreon.com/changingdenver and rate/review us on Apple Podcasts. - You can learn more about Mile High Hustle: The Denver Startup Week Podcast here. Let us know what you think about it too. Feedback is always welcome. - Changing Denver is a proud member of the Denver Podcast Network. Follow us on Twitter @changingdenver.  Thanks for listening!    

BONUS: Pizza for a Story

Our Rocky Flats fiction series concludes with a story from local author Rebecca Aronauer, as read by her partner Bryon Quick. Also included in this episode is an interview with Taylor Dunne and Eric Stewart, the producers of an upcoming documentary and multimedia project called Off Country. Their project places Rocky Flats in the context of the nuclear weapons industrial complex's impact on local communities nationwide. - Support Changing Denver with a monthly pledge at www.patreon.com/changingdenver.com. Follow us on Twitter at @ChangingDenver. Thanks for listening!

Rocky Flash 4 and Off Country

Unclear Danger 4: Is it safe? In this fourth chapter of our Rocky Flats series, we set out to answer the central question in the recent controversy over the site: Will the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge be safe for visitors when it opens to the public? Unclear Danger: The Colorado Story of Rocky Flats is presented in partnership with the Colorado Independent and the Denver Public Library. - Support the show! Our conclusion in this episode is sure to draw some criticism, so we need your support more than ever. Set up a monthly pledge on Patreon and gain access to the transcripts of each episode in the Rocky Flats series and more! Start by clicking this link – www.patreon.com/changingdenver. - Our theme song is “Minnow” by Felix Fast4ward. The theme song for Unclear Danger is “Title Screen” by Aethernaut. Other music in this episode is by Soft & Furious, Chris Zabriskie, and Aethernaut. - The photo that serves as the basis of the Unclear Danger logo was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by a user called AlbertHerring. We are using it under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License. The Colorado Independent’s Kelsey Ray designed the logo. - Follow us on Twitter @changingdenver for photos and more behind-the-scenes details from our investigation into Rocky Flats. Changing Denver is a proud member of the Denver Podcast Network. Thanks for listening!

Unclear Danger 4: Is it safe?

Changing Denver's first guest producer Rae Solomon provides an update on recent developments in the campaign to change the name of the neighborhood at the site of the former airport. After this brief diversion back into Denver's history with the Ku Klux Klan, our Rocky Flats series will resume next week. - Our theme song is “Minnow” by Felix Fast4ward. The other music heard in this episode is by the Blue Dot Sessions, Monplaisir, and Blah Blah Blah. - Follow us on Twitter @changingdenver for photos and more. Changing Denver is a proud member of the Denver Podcast Network. Thanks for Listening!  

Return to St*pleton

Our Rocky Flats fiction series continues! This time, we've got short stories by local authors Sonia Christensen and Giles Hash.  You can find more stories from Sonia here and here. Giles is co-host of Beyond the Trope, our sister show on the Denver Podcast Network. - Support Changing Denver with a monthly pledge at www.patreon.com/changingdenver.com. Follow us on Twitter at @ChangingDenver. Thanks for listening!

Rocky Flash 2/3: "A Good Reason" and "The Forbidden Fields"

In this third chapter of our Rocky Flats series, we dive deep into the last few years of conflict between the government agencies responsible for the lands of the former nuclear weapons plant and the activists who want to keep it closed forever. Unclear Danger: The Colorado Story of Rocky Flats is presented in partnership with the Colorado Independent and the Denver Public Library. – Support the show! Unclear Danger is the product of countless reporting trips, numerous interviews, and many, many hours of research, writing, editing, and audio production. If you want to help defray the costs of all that work and send a message that you care about this kind of in-depth, local journalism, set up a monthly pledge to support Changing Denver at www.patreon.com/changingdenver. This is a limited-run crowdfunding campaign. We’re shutting it down after the Rocky Flats series concludes in a few months. That means time is running out to show us you care! www dot patreon dot com slash changing denver – Our theme song is “Minnow” by Felix Fast4ward. The theme song for Unclear Danger is “Title Screen” by Aethernaut. Soft and Loathing and Lee Rosevere created the other music heard in this episode. – The photo that serves as a basis for the Unclear Danger logo was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by a user called AlbertHerring. We are using it under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. The Colorado Independent’s Kelsey Ray designed the logo. – Follow us on Twitter @changingdenver for photos and more behind-the-scenes details from our investigation into Rocky Flats. Changing Denver is a proud member of the Denver Podcast Network. Thanks for Listening!

Unclear Danger 3: Sharing and Caring

Surprise! - You can read more of Lumans’ work on his website. - Support Changing Denver with a monthly pledge at www.patreon.com/changingdenver.com. Follow us on Twitter at @ChangingDenver. Thanks for listening!

Rocky Flash 1: “The Infinity Room” by Alexander Lumans

 Our story of Rocky Flats continues. In this second chapter, we share the people’s history of the site, from humble beginnings in the early 1970s to a resurgence of activism today. Unclear Danger: The Colorado Story of Rocky Flats is presented in partnership with the Colorado Independent and the Denver Public Library. — Support the show! If you’re loving this Rocky Flats series, we recently launched a new way to support the show. It’s a limited run crowdfunding campaign, and you can find it at www.patreon.com/changingdenver. Pledge at least $3 per month and you get access to the transcripts from each episode of Unclear Danger and 3 Changing Denver stickers sent to the address of your choice. Pledge at least $10 per month, and we’ll read your name (or a pseudonym of your choice) in the credits to each episode. patreon dot com slash changing denver — Recommended Reading: You can learn more about Kristen Iversen’s book Full Body Burden at her website. Follow along with the activists at Rocky Flats Downwinders, Candelas Glows, and Rocky Flats Right to Know, as well as the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center. Here’s a few links to documents mentioned in the episode: Rocky Flats Interagency Agreement of 1991, Rocky Flats Cleanup Agreement of 1996, and the Citizens Advisory Board’s legacy report. This episode includes extensive clips from several oral histories on file at the Boulder Public Library’s Maria Rogers Oral History Program. You can find each of the oral histories we excerpted here: Robert Card, Daniel Ellsberg, and Pam Solo. If you are a subscriber to Harper’s Magazine, you can read all of the Edward Abbey piece excerpted in this episode here. Nonsubscribers can find it in the published collection of Abbey’s work, Down the River. “One Man’s Nuclear War,” Edward Abbey. Copyright © 1979 Harper’s Magazine. All Rights reserved. Reproduced from the March issue by special permission. — Our theme song is “Minnow” be Felix Fast4ward. Denver’s premier chiptunes artists Aethernaut and Michael Zucker provided the score for this episode and all of Unclear Danger. Also heard in this episode are a few songs by a group called Soft and Furious and a couple of old Rocky Flats protest songs. Those were performed by Jesse Wooten. You can find more of his music under the names Black Balsam and New Hill. — The photo that serves as a basis for the Unclear Danger logo was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by a user called AlbertHerring. We are using it under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. The Colorado Independent‘s Kelsey Ray designed the Unclear Danger logo. — Follow us on Twitter @changingdenver for photos and more behind-the-scenes details from our investigation into Rocky Flats. Changing Denver is a proud member of the Denver Podcast Network. Thanks for listening!      

Unclear Danger 2: Local Hazard, Global Threat

 Welcome to the first supplemental, side episode in our Rocky Flats series. Herein you’ll find a recording of the panel we put on at the Denver Public Library on April 7, as well as an unprecedented plea. - You can now support Changing Denver with a monthly pledge on our Patreon! A monthly pledge of $3 or more will get you access to transcripts of each episode of Unclear Danger and three Changing Denver stickers. A pledge of $10 or more will get you a shout out in the end credits of each Rocky Flats episode. Learn more about our new, limited-time crowdfunding campaign at www.patreon.com/changingdenver. - Meet the Panelists: Len Ackland is an independent journalist and retired journalism professor. During his time as editor, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists won a National Magazine Award in 1987, and he went on to serve as the founding director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at CU Boulder. Of particular interest, Len is also the author of Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West. Murph Widdowfield has the unique distinction among our panelists of having spent time working at the Rocky Flats plant. Like many other former workers, Murph remained involved in issues surrounding the site. He is currently the president of the board of the Rocky Flats Cold War Museum, a museum that you cannot physical visit, despite years of effort from Murph and the rest of the board. Dorothy Ciarlo is a PhD and retired clinical psychologist. In the late 90s and early 2000s, she worked with the Boulder Public Library’s Maria Rogers Oral History Program to conduct more than a hundred interviews with former workers, activists, politicians, scientists, and contractors, some of which you heard in the first episode of our Rocky Flats series. Dorothy went on to publish a paper based on these interviews in the Journal of Peace Psychology. That paper is titled ”Secrecy and Its Fallout at a Nuclear Weapons Plant: A study of Rocky Flats Oral Histories” - Follow us on Twitter @changingdenver. Thanks for listening!

Unclear Danger 1B: Remembering Rocky Flats

Welcome to the fourth season of Changing Denver. It’s going to be a season-long series all on one topic. We’re calling it Unclear Danger: The Colorado Story of Rocky Flats. We’re proud to present this whole season in partnership with the Colorado Independent and the Denver Public Library. -- Next Week: We are hosting a panel, titled “Remembering Rocky Flats,” at the Denver Public Library on April 7. Three Rocky Flats historians—Len Ackland, Dorothy Ciarlo, and Murph Widdowfield—will be sharing their stories and unique perspectives on the Rocky Flats story. Find us on the 7th floor of the library’s central branch at 2 pm. Recording this kind of thing can be hit-or-miss, so come out on the 7th to make sure you hear what these three have to say. -- Recommended Reading: Len Ackland’s Making a Real Killing should be available at your local bookshop. Len will also be appearing at our April 7 event if you have questions for him. The Ambushed Grand Jury is available online as a free PDF. So is the full text of the Lamm-Wirth Task Force’s final report. For more on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s plans for Rocky Flats, check out their website here. This episode includes extensive clips from several oral histories on file at the Boulder Public Library’s Maria Rogers Oral History Program. You can find each of the oral histories we excerpted here: Ken Freiberg, Dick Lamm, Tim Wirth, William Cohen, and Jacque Brever. -- Our theme song is “Minnow” be Felix Fast4ward. Denver’s premier chiptunes artists Aethernaut and Michael Zucker provided the score for this episode and all of Unclear Danger. Also heard in this episode are a few songs by a group called Soft and Furious. Those are in the public domain. -- You can learn more about Changing Denver at our website www.changingdenver.com. Follow us on Twitter @changingdenver for photos and more behind-the-scenes details from our investigation into Rocky Flats. Changing Denver is a proud member of the Denver Podcast Network. Thanks for listening!

Unclear Danger 1: Project Apple and the Wind

Unclear Danger: The Colorado Story of Rocky Flats will begin on April 2. One week after the first episode is published, we'll be hosting a panel, titled "Remembering Rocky Flats," at the Denver Public Library. Find us on the 7th floor of the central branch at 2pm on April 7. Follow @changingdenver for more details.  -- Music for this trailer and for all of season four provided by Aethernaut, Denver's premier chiptunes artist. 

Season Four Trailer

Every month, we take a look at one of Denver’s neighborhoods, streets, parks, or other areas through a relevant political, cultural, or historical lens.

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Changing Denver

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