Author: Shelley Schlender

 

A heart attack forced Boulder community leader and journalist Sam Fuqua to need emergency care.  While being wheeled into the operating room, Sam hoped to soothe his anxiety by hearing some favorite music.  His hope had scientific merit.  Studies like this indicate that surgery patients who get to choose what music plays during surgery, require fewer painkillers and have an easier recovery.

Music might seem a simple and easy comfort to offer surgery patients, but when How on Earth’s Mac Hebebrand asked some local surgery centers about their views on music, almost all declined the interviews . . . all, except for Boulder Heart Cardiologist Nelson Trujillo.

Stay tuned to hear Cardiologist Nelson Trujillo‘s discussion about music during surgery, and to find out what happened to Sam.

Host: Mac Hebebrand
Show Producers: Shelley Schlender & Mac Hebebrand
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:20 — 33.4MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Colorado River Water (starts 1:00)   Steep cuts are ahead in the use of Colorado River water by Arizona and California.  But what about Colorado?  For answers, we talk with CU-Boulder’s Doug Kenney, water law expert and  chair of the Colorado River Project.

Ghostbots (starts )  AI apps offer to help people  “talk” with the dead.  CU Boulder Information Scientists  Jed Brubaker and Jack Manning and Boulder Unitarian Church Community Outreach minister Jeremy Nichol share research and insights about how these apps work and user responses.

Executive Producer: Beth Bennett
Show Producer/Engineer:  Shelley Schlender

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:45 — 34.0MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Poking the Squid –  Good Reads calls author and illustrator Perrin Roosevelt Ireland’s new book a brilliantly funny, beautifully illustrated graphic nonfiction book that shatters our puritanical and binary notions of nature..

Hosts/Producers/Engineers: Shelley Schlender, Joel Parker
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:07 — 37.3MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Global conflicts are revealing vulnerabilities in the global reliance on imported fossil fuels and centralized power.  Energy Analyst Kyle Datta says energy security needs may speed the adoption of renewables and “as a side effect,” reduce the rise of global warming.

For Datta’s full speech, which he presented with videos at the 2026 Gold Lab Symposium, go here.

Host/Show Producer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Susan Moran

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:55 — 37.0MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Protest It, Respect It, Defend  It, Use It (starts 1:00) Friday at Denver Patagonia and Saturday at Boulder Patagonia environmental activists Annie Leonard and André Carothers discuss their new book

Silent Sky (starts 2:00) Viva Theater celebrates the unsung heroism of female astronomer Henrietta Leavitt.  Silent Sky runs April 22 – June 7th at Boulder’s Dairy Arts Center

Gold Lab Symposium (starts 6:26) Thursday and Friday, this all day health and science symposium shares dialogues with Nobel Prize Winners, Indigenous Knowledge Holders, Computational Scientists and more, at CU-Boulder’s  Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building  Register On Line.  for live sessions or remote.

Executive Producer: Susan Moran
Show Producer: Shelley Schlender
Engineer: Abby O’Brien

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:50 — 36.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The Loneliness Epidemic – Social media fuels extra risk.  Especially vulnerable are people undergoing transitions . . . such as college students, who today share what can lead loneliness and how to heal from it.  CU-Boulder senior Lorraine Healey also talks with Colorado State University “Friendship Researcher” Natalie Pennington about why times of transition can trigger loneliness but also be important times for growth.

Hosts: Mac Hebebrand, Benita Lee and Lorraine Healey
Show Producers: Lorraine Healey and Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Susan Moran

Additional Music by Lynn Patrick

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:55 — 37.0MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Buy Now Pay Later – is this lending service simply enticing, or is it addictive?  For the GenZ 20 somethings that are its biggest users, is Buy Now Pay Later a danger or a deal?  CU Boulder student and Howonearth volunteer Juliana Krigsman  speaks with students about this, plus Adam Brown – director of New Schools Center for Global Mental Health,  Renee Shannon Hickey – Mindful Creation Counseling in Colorado, and Harvard Business Economics Researcher Justin Katz. 

Hosts: Joel Parker
Show Producers:  Juliana Krigsman and Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Susan Moran

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:58 — 37.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Water your trees!  This warm, dry winter means urban trees need extra water to stay healthy.  City of Boulder foresters Patrick LaPhilliph and Andrew Holt, and City of Longmont forester Brett Stadsvold share how and why the cities waters trees once a month during dry winter months, how citizens can properly water winter trees, and resources in both cities for helping trees stay healthy.   And no . . . last week’s dusting of snow was NOT enough — trees still need water!

Show Producer/Engineer Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:33 — 29.2MB)

Subscribe: RSS

We speak with experts about how artificial intelligence combined with Police Body Camera footage improved professionalism in the Aurora Colorado Police Department.  Guests include Anthony Tassone, CEO of Truleo and Ian Adams, Criminologist at the University of South Carolina and co-author of a new study about this tech in the journal Criminology

We also discuss with these experts the difference between professionalism in law enforcement, and the fatal shooting by ICE agents of Renee Good in Minneapolis.

Hosts: Jack Armstrong, Lorraine Healy
Show Producer/Engineer Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:58 — 37.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Critical Earth Minerals  Hiding in Plain Site – Colorado School of Mines professor Elizabeth Holley shares  how the US could break its dependency on critical earth mineral imports, and lead the world in environmentally safe ways to do it.

Show Producer/Host/Engineer: Shelley Schlender
Executive Producer: Beth Bennett

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:58 — 37.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS