Local Motion

This week on Local Motion, KVNF's Gavin Dahl speaks with two reporters at nonprofit magazine High Country News about their latest stories focused on specific communities in Colorado.

This week we check out The Tactile Traveler, hosted by blind journalist Nick Isenberg and produced by Lucas Turner at KDNK. Today’s show explores PPE questions like how hearing impaired Americans who rely on lip reading can keep communicating effectively with so many people wearing masks, plus voting while blind, and making Amtrak more enjoyable for travelers with special needs. The show seeks to empower blind and low vision people to explore the world and help the sighted to see the world in a new way.

The RNA-based COVID-19 vaccine is a technology that has not been used with inoculations before. It is not, however, a new technology. KVNF's Kate Redmond speaks with Dr. Anuj Mehta, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Denver Health and chair of the Governor's medical advisory group on vaccine allocation, about the new vaccine. She also talks to molecular biologist and registered nurse Glen Courson about the structure and function of mRNA technology.

On this week’s show we have highlights from the 5th and 6th episodes of Wildish, a new podcast from High Country News.  Host Anna Coburn learns about federal mustang management in the not so wild West, introducing us to wildlife managers, landowners and wild horse advocates. Her guests provide various perspectives on how to work together to manage wild horse and burro populations.  Listen in to learn about a prison program where inmates train wild burros for adoption, and to meet a Montana couple who adopted a wild horse. 

Chad Reich is back on KVNF for this week's Local Motion to go deeper into the story of 'The North Fork Exception.' Mountain Coal Company wants to expand into lands on The Gunnison National Forest's roadless areas and environmental groups want to stop them. The story involves ongoing battles in the courts over roads and drilling pads. The mine hasn't responded to emails or phone calls since July so they couldn't be included in the story. Instead, Chad shares the voices of coal advocates, conservation groups, and government officials.

This week, KVNF's Gavin Dahl asked two Democrats, Representative Barbara McLachlan who lives in Durango, and Ian Silverii the executive director of Progress Now and a Denver Post columnist, to reflect on the Special Session, the 2020 election, and the coronavirus pandemic. Last week we heard from two Republicans.

This week on Local Motion, news director Gavin Dahl speaks with two Republicans about the 2020 Election, the Special Session, and COVID-19. Next week, we'll hear from two Democrats. State Senator Don Coram represents District 6 which includes Montrose County, Ouray County, and San Miguel County. Ray Langston is chair of the Montrose County Republican Party. 

On this week's Local Motion Gavin Dahl speaks with Chalkbeat Colorado bureau chief Erica Meltzer about how school districts are managing coronavirus outbreaks statewide. Plus, Kori Stanton speaks to Paonia Experiential Leadership Academy senior Liza Eller, who wrote and directed 2020 The Musical, produced with fellow students. 

On this week’s show, we have highlights from the third and fourth episodes of "Wildish," a new podcast from High Country News. Host Anna Coburn learns about federal mustang management in the not-so-wild West, introducing us to wildlife managers, landowners, and wild horse advocates. Her guests provide various perspectives on how to work together to manage wild horse and burro populations.

KVNF's Gavin Dahl explores broadband developments in rural Colorado with Virgil Turner, regional broadband project director for the nonprofit Region 10, and Colorado Sun reporter Tamara Chuang.

KVNF discusses the impacts of continuous hot and dry weather in Western Colorado with Reagan Waskom, Director, Colorado Water Institute, Colorado State University, Harrison Topp, Topp Fruits, Kate Greenberg, Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture, and rancher, Cynthia Houseweart, Princess Beef.

Gavin Dahl speaks with data journalist Sandra Fish about covering campaign spending for The Colorado Sun, and Colorado College professor Corey Hutchins who publishes a must-read newsletter each week that's available through

On this edition of Local Motion, we’ll discuss two Delta County ballot measures. Delta County residents are being asked to vote on a Back the Badge measure that would institute a special public safety tax to help fund law enforcement. And the  towns of Paonia and Cedaredge are each considering allowing sales of medical and recreational marijuana, and taxing those sales to create additional revenue. 

On this edition of Local Motion we hear a debate produced as part of Colorado Decides by PBS12, CBS4, and The Colorado Sun. Proposition 117 would establish a requirement of voter approval before the state can collect new enterprise funds of a certain size. 

On this week’s edition, we’re taking a look at how the school year is going so far. The COVID-19  pandemic has upended so much of our daily life, and that’s especially evident in education, where schools, teachers, parents and students have had to adjust to new procedures, changed expectations and different ways of learning.

On this week's edition of Local Motion we hear highlights from the first two episodes of Wildish, a new podcast from High Country News. Host Anna Coburn learns about federal mustang management in the not-so-wild west, introducing us to wildlife managers, landowners, and wild horse advocates. The Wild Horse and Burro Program could soon reach a breaking point. You can learn more about the series here.

Colorado’s North Fork Valley is well known for its small farms, producing some of the state’s finest fruits, vegetables, and meats. KVNF visited one such small farm earlier this summer,  DeerTree Farm near Hotchkiss. It’s owned by AJ and Nicole Carrillo, a couple in their early 30s.

Colorado's Commissioner of Agriculture, Kate Greenberg, talks with KVNF's Kori Stanton on August 26th, 2020. Greenberg gives KVNF listeners an  update on what's going on at the Colorado Department of Agriculture in the middle of the pandemic and answers questions from Western Slope farmers, ranchers and producers.

This week's program is a special documentary from Making Contact. In LA 50 years ago, 30,000 mostly Chicanos peacefully protested the disproportionate number of Latinos dying on the frontlines in Vietnam. They came from across the country to also protest substandard education, racism, police violence, and other issues negatively affecting Latinos. What started out as a peaceful march ended with an attack by riot-clad police, 400 arrests, and the deaths of four people. 

Passionate hyper-local reporting in the public interest can come at a cost.  For Erin McIntyre, co-publisher of The Ouray County Plaindealer, critical reporting on defiance of county health measures during the pandemic led to retaliation from a local business.

This week on Local Motion, KVNF's Gavin Dahl speaks with Delta County librarian Sarah Smith and Montrose County librarians Elizabeth Cook and Amy Dickinson about getting creative to serve kids this summer. Though libraries were forced to close for several months by the coronavirus pandemic, area libraries found ways to help kids keep busy, improve literacy, and stay connected.

This week on Local Motion we’ll hear interviews with a Black pastor from Lake City, Colorado and an ethnic studies professor from CU Boulder. The pastor, Brendan McMillan, is the only Black religious leader in his small mountain town, but he and his family were not invited to a recent Black Lives Matter protest. McMillan and associate professor Hillary Potter discuss the Black Lives Matter movement and racial issues with KVNF's Laura Palmisano.

This week's Local Motion is a special program from independent producer Katie Semro, Parenting During the Pandemic. It includes the voices of 20 parents on the highs, the lows, the unexpected, and the unforgettable of this time. Katie spoke with parents from all over the US as well as the UK, Mexico, and Singapore in this piece. 

More than three-quarters of Western Slope residents say that affordable housing is a serious problem in their community, ranking it above crime and infrastructure as a concern. In this edition of Local Motion, which originally aired July 15, 2019 and was updated in July 2020, we delve into the housing crisis, and talk about how it affects communities and families across the KVNF listening area.

This encore edition of Local Motion focuses on mental health. Originally aired Sept. 24, 2019, it was updated in July 2020 with information about mental health issues during the pandemic. Many Western Slope residents struggle with depression, anxiety, substance abuse and even thoughts of suicide. The Surgeon General of the U.S. has said that one in four people experiences some form of mental illness, and the rates of those illnesses are highest in the American West. KVNF's Jodi Peterson interviews various mental health experts about what assistance is available.

New KVNF reporter and news host Gavin Dahl speaks with KZMU Moab station manager Serah Mead about serving the public during a pandemic, new music discovery, and the uniqueness of freeform radio.

This program was originally aired on KDNK.

KVNF talks with Courtney Frazier from the Colorado Agritourism Association and Executive Director of the Colorado Dude & Guest Ranch Association, Suanne Miller from Western Slope Farmstead and Creamery in Paonia, CO and Jayme Henderson and Steve Steese from The Storm Cellar in Hothckiss, CO.

Mosquitoes aren't just annoying -- their bite can transmit diseases to humans and animals, including West Nile virus.

This edition of Local Motion was originally aired on KDNK's "Immigrant Stories" program. Host Walter Gallacher interviews John Goodwin, a career peace officer and retired professor of Criminal Justice at Colorado Mountain College. John reflects on his life, the death of George Floyd and the importance of community centered police work.

This is an encore presentation of a program that originally aired on May 29, 2019.  "Be a student of fire." That's just part of the advice that Colorado's first all-female wildland fire crew received at a training camp in late May, 2019. Last summer, the women worked on conservation projects and help fight forest fires in the area around Grand Junction.  KVNF spoke to several of the crew members, their instructors, and a couple of longtime female firefighters, and updated the program with a June 2020 interview.