Podcasts about Colorado, United States

In late April, the Colorado Sun's audio edition reads out a scene from the state's southwest corner. A man drives his pickup past the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation and does the arithmetic aloud: "I believe we're going to have maybe 900 fields that are fallowed." The tribe's farm and ranch enterprise expected less than 14 percent of its usual water. Earlier that month, Ryan Warner of Colorado Matters went up to 9,600 feet to meet Breckenridge's town manager and summed up the season this way: "Winter was pretty much a bust for skiers and for ski towns."

Listen to Colorado's podcasts this year and that missing snow turns up in places you would not file under weather: a town's construction schedule, a reservoir's water supply. In September 2026, the legislature's economic staff described the drought as among the state's most severe historically and linked it to limits on water use and damage to crops. The shows add what a forecast cannot. You hear the sums and the town official deciding which project waits a year.

The rest of the listening is louder. Denver restaurant owners argue over a report on the tipped minimum wage. Ranchers argue with the state wildlife agency over wolves. Talk-radio hosts argue over the arithmetic of unaffiliated voters, and sports hosts argue over nearly everything, including who is reportedly buying a piece of the Rockies.

What Colorado is

Colorado is a U.S. state that spans much of the Southern Rocky Mountains and reaches into the Great Plains. It has 103,637 square miles of land and an estimated 6,012,561 residents as of July 1, 2025. Its economy includes ranching, farming and mining alongside aerospace, biotechnology, clean energy, technology manufacturing and software. For the national picture, see the United States page.

Water, money and the dry year

The Colorado Sun feed is produced by Aftersight for people with barriers to print, and it asks listeners to confirm they have that need. Its readers keep the newspaper's structure intact, including bylines, datelines and spoken descriptions of photographs. Colorado Sun, Monday 04/27/26 explains the rule underneath the drought. In dry years the oldest water rights take priority and more recent rights are cut off early, and one district's irrigators expected about 60 percent of their normal supply. The same edition covers road-surveillance cameras and the people who stood beside traffic poles in Firestone and Golden to protest them.

Colorado Matters, CPR News' daily interview show with Ryan Warner and Chandra Thomas-Whitfield, takes the drought to a ski town. In April 10, 2026: Snow-starved Breckenridge strategizes for summer; Colorado Springs bagelry in the national spotlight, town manager Shannon Haynes calls it "a really tough winter" and explains which work is cut back or slides into 2027: some of the town's fiber network and a joint project with the county and CDOT. The same episode lightens up with a Colorado Springs bagel shop bound for Bagel Fest West.

WEcast has Brock Benson read the San Miguel Basin Forum aloud, bylines and quotations included. In San Miguel Basin Forum V76 i08 7/2/25, he reads how thunderstorm outflow winds pushed the Deer Creek fire three miles into Utah before it settled at the rim above Paradox Valley. A district ranger is quoted: "We know this landscape. We know this community." Later in the issue come the cake winners. San Miguel Basin Forum V76 i10 08/06/25 reports concerns that the West End "continues to feel the burden" of the nearby resort economy. It also reports a speaker's estimate that the state's wolf program has cost $8 million, against an original budget of about $1 million. Those are her figures, reported as hers.

Who decides, and who pushes back

Next with Kyle Clark, from 9NEWS, shows its method in Split on tips; Next with Kyle Clark full show (4/16/26). A report written by restaurant owners prompted Council member Daryl Watson to say he was drafting legislation to lower the tipped minimum wage. Other owners question the report, and the Denver auditor says parts of it rely on outdated or incomplete data. The authors deny any policy push. When the reporter asks Watson's office whether he still supports the change, the office has no comment. In a different register, Largest pileup in years; Next with Kyle Clark full show (4/14/26) visits 88-year-old Clint Egan, who opened his Thornton barbershop in 1964.

Colorado Matters handles a national claim from inside the state. In April 9, 2026: A historical mystery in Grand Junction; The appeal of Colorado's most diverse city, Aurora Sentinel editor Dave Perry answers the portrayal of Aurora as taken over by gangs: "It was totally false. It was, you know, extremely exaggerated." The same episode follows the search for a burial ground at Grand Junction's former Teller Institute, a boarding school for Indigenous children.

Rush To Reason, afternoon talk on KLZ 560, argues from the right. In HR2 Colorado’s Unaffiliated Voters: The Math Problem Colorado Republicans Can’t Ignore. (4-14-26), the host argues that Greg Lopez's candidacy will draw votes from the right. He guesses that "at least 65, if not 70%" of unaffiliated voters vote left, and co-host Andy puts it at 62. Both are the hosts' own estimates, and the host tells listeners to check the Secretary of State's registration totals themselves.

KCSU News is a newsroom in Fort Collins covering campus and northern Colorado. In Fort Collins flower shop prepares for Valentine's Day rush, CSU professors try to keep AI out of classrooms, Weld County aims to increase growth with AI data centers, a florist says, "If I had a nickel for every person that said the smell brought them in from the sidewalk." Getting around gets its own show in Driving You Crazy, where host Jayson Luber admits in E397 - Everything is trying to distract you from driving that his 2014 Chevy Volt, past 170,000 miles, "is the best car I've ever owned." He then asks a General Motors engineer how long an older-car driver needs to learn the new assist features.

Small towns, close up

Living in Salida, Colorado is hosted by Monica McCarthy, a local realtor who mentions her services in the show, so treat its enthusiasm accordingly. Her guests are good company all the same. In S3 EP4: Monica McCarthy talks with Robbie Balanger, Owner of Shavano Restaurant and Preparing to Open a new Italian Restaurant, Balanger describes spending about five years running across the United States before returning to restaurants. In S2 EP: 15 Monarch Mountain Expansion 2025 | What It Means for Life in Salida, general manager Chris Haggerty walks through 377 acres of new terrain and a development plan that includes no real estate.

Colorado Soul Stories, hosted by Mama Jill, moves more slowly. John King: Traversing the Colorado Rockies on Nordic Skis, 1978 sits with John and Sally King in Lyons and recalls a trip with little checking in, where broken boots meant someone bringing replacements to Aspen. Chris White: Building a Sustainable Community visits an earthship built of tires at Poncha Pass near Salida. More with Chandler Romeo & Reed Weimer: Denver's Beatnik Barbie & Ken traces an arts district's move out of Denver to Lakewood. Colorado Business Podcast talks shop. We Switched to a 3-Day Work Week (And Built a 35-Year Legacy) explains how a glass company that worked from a family ranch benefited from warehouse space: suppliers were more likely to deliver.

The teams, argued at close range

Some of the sports shows are about Denver's teams, and the Denver page is worth a visit. Between the Pipes reacts to Avalanche games as they end. Game 82: Avs End Season with Franchise-Record 121 Points finds its hosts sizing up the bracket before the playoffs. For the bench's view, Jared Bednar Avalanche Coach Show has the coach saying of Cale Makar's injury, "Nothing serious, though." On the Nuggets, Jeff Morton of CSG Podcast uses CSG #918: Nuggets win their 10th in a row and a rumination on spacing in the NBA to link soft-tissue injuries to how much floor defenders now cover.

The baseball talk is wry. In Colorado Rockies Sweep Astros, Swept by the Padres on 20th and Blake: The Rockies Podcast, a speaker draws on his own pitching days to credit Don Baylor with understanding how baserunning pressure unsettles pitchers. Broncos Country Tonight relays a report that Broncos ownership is buying about 40 percent of the Rockies. After the Horn sets old Denver hands loose on all of it, down to a joke that "You'll never run out of gas at Dick's Sporting Goods Park." For Colorado State, KCSU Sports gets Kapri Bibbs explaining that Colorado State was the only school to offer him a scholarship as a high-school junior. Holding The High Line, a Colorado Rapids Podcast catches Rob Holding saying, "I come from a long line of center backs."

Where to start

• For civic news with follow-up questions: Next with Kyle Clark, Split on tips; Next with Kyle Clark full show (4/16/26).
• If you want rural texture: WEcast, San Miguel Basin Forum V76 i08 7/2/25.
• For a patient conversation: Colorado Soul Stories, John King: Traversing the Colorado Rockies on Nordic Skis, 1978.
• If the dry winter has you curious: Colorado Matters, April 10, 2026: Snow-starved Breckenridge strategizes for summer; Colorado Springs bagelry in the national spotlight. Listen for what a town chooses to postpone when the snow does not come.
• For hockey nights: Between the Pipes, Game 82: Avs End Season with Franchise-Record 121 Points.

The Colorado feed on this page plays clips from these shows.