July 31, 2026: Celebrate Colorado's 150th with comedy, current affairs and quizzes

Summary

Colorado Matters – July 31, 2026 Episode Summary: Celebrate Colorado's 150th with Comedy, Current Affairs, and Quizzes

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Episode Overview

This special episode of Colorado Matters (hosted by Ryan Warner and Chandra Thomas Whitfield) celebrates Colorado's 150th birthday with an innovative twist: CPR hands over the mic to "Colorado Saves the World," a new Denver-based live podcast that fuses current affairs, comedy, and quiz show antics. Inspired by NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” and led by host Jeanne Vo, the debut features local comedians, surprising news stories, and a playful interview segment with Ryan Warner himself.

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Key Segments, Discussions & Insights

1. Introducing Colorado Saves the World (00:00–01:28)

• Ryan Warner teases the episode’s collaborative spirit and sets a playful tone:

  “If you like it, we’re sorry to say, it wasn’t produced by us. If you hate it, it definitely wasn’t produced by us.” (00:42, Ryan Warner)

• The panelists—comedians Jen Sutherland, Warren Hammond, and Dan Weflin—are introduced, blending comedy with Colorado trivia and news (01:40–03:39).

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2. Round 1: Colorado News Quizzes (“I Said What I Said”) (03:39–09:04)

• Potato Truck Fire: A semi loaded with potatoes burned on C470 (04:11).
  • “The driver got out safely. The potatoes did not. By all accounts, the whole rig turned into an unscheduled batch of tots.” (04:11, Jeanne Vo)
• Gubernatorial Race Scandal: Candidate Victor Marx’s childhood confession of killing his stepdad and the political optics of such history (05:08–06:28).
  • Satirically explores the acceptability of body count in politics.
  • “He’s playing up the number of people he killed for the primary, and then he’ll play down the number [...] for the general.” (05:47, Dan Weflin)
• Missile Silo Rescues: Teens rescued from abandoned Arapahoe County missile silos now face a $5000 rescue fee (07:31–08:44).
  • “Can you get like a punch card for that? Like your 11th rescue is free.” (08:44, Warren Hammond)

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3. Round 2: Who Did What Now? (09:04–11:41)

• Bat Infestation in a Denver Hotel: A United Airlines pilot wakes to bats in his hotel room, suffers a bite, and faces a $100,000 rabies treatment bill (10:02).
  • Comedians riff on plausible explanations to one’s family for mysterious injuries.
  • “Maybe they had that talk.” (11:21, Jen Sutherland)
  • “The overall message is, be safe, people, no matter what your kink is.” (11:36, Jen Sutherland)

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4. Interview: Ryan Warner Joins the Show (12:28–29:55)

Background & Career Path

• Ryan describes being inspired by Peter Jennings and the 1986 Challenger disaster:

  “I could be someone who perhaps guided people through the best and worst times of our world and nation.” (14:02, Ryan Warner)

• Recounts career stops: Missouri, Sioux City, FL, and Denver. Shares fun about airport code SUX (16:12).

Why Stay in Colorado?

• Loves diversity of work, weather, city size, outdoor access, and advocacy for the lesser-lauded plains. (16:47–17:41)
• “It has kept me here for 20 years because no two days are the same.” (16:49, Ryan Warner)

Best Interview Moment

• Details a trip to Colorado’s lowest point with a historian, a geologist, and a bass singer—who delivers “the lowest note in the lowest spot.” (18:56–19:40)
• “Even when we’re low, we’re high.” (19:40, Ryan Warner)

Climate Change: Personal vs. Systemic Responsibility

• Ryan upends the “what should we do personally” framing:

  “We are made to carry the burden individually of climate change when it is a national and international question.” (20:54, Ryan Warner)

  • Shares that “carbon footprint” was invented by BP’s PR team to shift blame from industry to individuals (21:25–21:48).

Recycling Headaches

• Discussion on personal recycling struggles leads to humor about batteries stacking up at home and blue jeans insulation at the downtown Alliance Center (23:15–23:27).

“Would I Date This Building?” Game

• Ryan shares his Instagram series critiquing Denver buildings as potential dates (25:26–29:42).
• E.g., National Jewish Hospital: “A Jewish doctor? Hell, yeah. And my Jewish mother approves.” (27:15, Ryan Warner)
• On Clayton College: “He has a volunteer’s heart. Absolutely.” (29:18, Ryan Warner)
• Light teasing about feet pics and monetization (24:54, 25:00).

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5. Quiz Segment: Two Lies, One Truth (AI Edition) (30:45–37:53)

• Contestants guess which outlandish Colorado AI story is true (31:10–35:59):
  • Fake: AI baby bots for parental leave
  • Fake: Slam poetry generated by AI
  • True: AI-powered chatbots (griefbots) at CU Boulder for processing loss

    “The University of Boulder is using these programs to create, quote, unquote, AI ghosts that chat with bereaved people in the voice of their deceased loved one.” (35:59, Jeanne Vo)

• Banter about historical oddities (snorting mummies), the ethics of digital resurrection, and bleak jokes about political legacies (37:11–38:18).

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6. Lightning Round: Colorado Side Icon (39:10–44:43)

• Killer Cat in the Eisenhower Tunnel: Bones the cat survives a highway escape and is found in a major tunnel (39:52–40:32).
• Mike D Rhyming Quiz:
  • Marijuana vaporizer recall (41:24–41:45)
  • Open primary ballot reminder (42:11–42:51)
  • “Glyzilla” – Coors Field’s 2ft-long hot dog (42:51–44:23)

    “Like, that’s the size of a four month old baby.” (43:31, Jeanne Vo) “Could you juggle five Glazillas?” “No, but fun fact, Five Glazillas was my nickname in high school.” (44:07, Jeanne Vo & Warren Hammond)

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7. Colorado-Only Oddities & Final Games (45:07–47:40)

• BASE Jump Blunders: Grand Junction man injures himself BASE-jumping—refuses rescue chopper likely due to cost. (45:37–46:39)
  • “Universal healthcare does include helicopters in other countries.” (46:39, Warren Hammond)
• Seasonal Fad: Adult Summer Camp: Grown-ups pay for camp nostalgia—lanyards, cabins, “awkward fumbling,” and all. (47:14)
  • “Because apparently paying to relive middle school social anxiety is the new self-care.” (47:40, Jeanne Vo)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On News Headlines:

  “So if he was doing something on tour that his wife was gonna get mad about, he was definitely doing it with bats.” (00:19, Dan Weflin)

• On Climate Change Responsibility:

  “It was to blame us for their greed.” (21:48, Ryan Warner, referencing BP PR campaign)

• On Dating Buildings:

  “Eyebrows like Eugene Levy ordered an egg white cocktail on our first date... Yes, I would date this Denver building.” (28:15–28:48, Ryan Warner)

• On BASE Jumping:

  “If I can’t get a pap smear, at least give me a helicopter.” (46:47, Jeanne Vo)

• On Colorado Pride:

  “I love that our lowest point is higher than the highest point of many other states. So even when we’re low, we’re high.” (19:40, Ryan Warner)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening & Podcast Handoff: 00:00–01:40
• Quiz Game 1 (I Said What I Said): 03:39–09:04
• Quiz Game 2 (Who Did What Now): 09:04–11:41
• Interview with Ryan Warner: 12:28–29:55
• Two Lies, One Truth (AI Quiz): 30:45–37:53
• Colorado Icons & Mike D Rhymes: 39:10–44:43
• Final Games & Closing: 45:07–47:40

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Conclusion

Combining news, humor, and local flavor, this episode is a festive, fast-paced reflection on Colorado’s quirks, challenges, and deep sense of place. From wild news stories and playful games to a thoughtful critique of individual “carbon footprints,” and unique traditions (like “dating” local architecture), listeners are invited to laugh, learn, and celebrate 150 years (and counting) of life in the Centennial State.

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Transcript

[Ryan Warner]

From cpr news, this is colorado matters.

Kids stuck in a missile silo. A cat stuck in the Eisenhower tunnel. A man stuck in a hotel room with bats. When the news gets strange, a new podcast quiz show gets to work.

[Dan Weflin]

So if he was doing something on tour that his wife was gonna get mad about, he was definitely doing it with bats.

[Jen Sutherland]

He really had that talk.

[Warren Hammond]

Or vamp.

[Dan Weflin]

Or vampires. Little vampires.

[Warren Hammond]

The miniature ones.

[Dan Weflin]

Yeah, yeah.

[Warren Hammond]

Teacup vampires.

[Dan Weflin]

Right. Which also carry rabies.

[Jen Sutherland]

The overall message is be safe, people, no matter what your kink is.

[Ryan Warner]

Today I join the debut of Colorado Saves the World. If you like it, we're sorry to say, it wasn't produced by us. If you hate it, it definitely wasn't produced by us. Current affairs, comedy and quizz. This is Colorado Matters from CPR News and KRCC. I'm Ryan Warner. Our state is turning 150. We're gonna celebrate with party favors and Colorado Saves the World. It's a new podcast recorded in Denver inspired by. Wait, wait, don't tell me. That means Comedians, headlines and quizzes. They were kind to make Colorado Matters a part of their first episode.

[Jamie]

Get ready for an hour of the wildest, weirdest and most important news that's happening right here in Colorado. Here to bring you that news is our host, Jeanne Vo.

[Jeanne Vo]

Thank you, thank you. Welcome to Colorado Saves the World, your monthly news quiz for the greatest state west of the Mississippi. I am your host, Jeanne Vo and I'm here tonight with our talented panel of regional news experts. Please welcome to the stage Jen Sutherland. We have Warren Hammond. And we have Dan Weflin. Give you a little intro. Jen Sutherland is a Denver comedian whose comedy style is quote unquote, desperate to relate, but like in a cute way. When she's not hosting Mutiny Info Cafes, comedy open Mic or co hosting, I don't know what that means. Post podcast, she can be found making sketch comedy with bedtime worldwide. In the hot seat. In the middle, we have Warren Hammond. Warren is a 20 year veteran of the entertainment industry. Highlights from his career include multiple gold, silver and bronze medals in international juggling competitions, receiving the Excellence in Education award from the International Jugglers association, and last but definitely not least, being featured on the Late show with David Letterman's Stupid Human Tricks segment. Speaking of last but definitely not least, we have Dan Weflin. Dan has been doing stand up in the Colorado comedy scene for over a decade, including his recurring slot doing corrections at the close of Science Riot's comedy series. He has a background in physics and Linux development and would like everyone to know there's actually a lot of crying in grad school. So to get started tonight, we're going to play a game called I Said what I Said, where we get a quote of someone saying something about an event in the news, and then we ask you a question about it. We will need one audience member volunteered as tribute to come up here and be our featured contestant.

[Jamie]

We get Susie backer,

[Jeanne Vo]

Susan.

[Jamie]

Drivers passing by spotted the flames and called 911.

[Jeanne Vo]

This quote refers to a semi truck that crashed on C470. We might say tottered into a crash while hauling what, all American comfort food to a starchy and toasty end.

[Jen Sutherland]

Mashed potatoes.

[Jamie]

Scorekeeper, that is.

[Dan Weflin]

We'll accept that.

[Jeanne Vo]

All right. Yes. Yeah. A semi truck loaded with potatoes caught fire on C470 near Morrison, closing the highway for two hours, which tragically prevented the arrival of the truck carrying the sour cream and chives. The driver got out safely. The potatoes did not. By all accounts, the whole rig turned into an unscheduled batch of tots and the highway was closed for two hours, even though the spuds were done in 20 minutes. All right, moving on to our next story. Jamie, whenever you're ready.

[Jamie]

I'm still proud of the campaign we ran. And for the record, I still haven't killed anyone.

[Jeanne Vo]

That was Republican gubernatorial candidate Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer, who is conceding the primary race. To which of her opponents and to which of his actions was she alluding?

[Jen Sutherland]

It's Victor Marx.

[Warren Hammond]

Right.

[Jen Sutherland]

And he killed his stepdad. And then like lots of other people,

[Jeanne Vo]

it is open ended whether or not he has killed who he says he may have killed. He says that he killed someone when he was a child and then has dodged questions about whether or not he has killed anyone as an adult.

[Dan Weflin]

Is it good for his, like, electoral chances that he did kill someone or that he killed like a bunch? Like, what is the right number of people to have killed?

[Jen Sutherland]

I think it depends on the voter.

[Jeanne Vo]

Well, I mean, it depends.

[Warren Hammond]

Yeah, you gotta play your constituency.

[Dan Weflin]

Yeah, well, it's, you know, he's playing up the number of people he killed for the primary, and then he'll play down the number of people he killed for the general.

[Jeanne Vo]

He always gotta swing towards the center in the general election. Yeah. Yeah. So this is a really interesting guy in Republican politics, even for Republican politics, he leads a ministry that does. And I am not making this up over the phone exorcisms. And I really want to know what's going on with that because presumably the demon that's possessing the person predates the technology of a landline. Right? So, like, think about it, Think about it. Does a demon have a receptor to hear the phone call from the exorcist?

[Dan Weflin]

I think that just makes it more effective. Right, because the demon now is, in addition to being frightened, is also confused.

[Jen Sutherland]

No, it's like a Gen Z person calling me chopped. I'm like, I don't care what that means. I'm going about my business.

[Jeanne Vo]

I mean, whenever I get a call on a landline, I do run away. So it makes sense. Yeah.

[Jamie]

Enough is enough.

[Jeanne Vo]

All right. That was an Arapahoe county official declaring an end to endless free rescues when for the second time in a week, Colorado first responders had to pull out of the exact same abandoned cold war era hole in the ground. What kind of hole?

[Audience Member]

Yeah,

[Jeanne Vo]

I'll read that again because you look like you're a little confused.

[Dan Weflin]

Okay.

[Jeanne Vo]

An Arapahoe county official declared an end to endless free rescues when for the second time in a week, first responders had to pull people out of the exact same abandoned cold war era hole in the ground. What kind of hole in the ground was it?

[Jen Sutherland]

Bomb shelter.

[Jamie]

We're in the neighborhood. What if a ballistic object and a farm had a baby? It was a missile silo.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yes. An abandoned missile silo in Arapahoe county has become the hottest unofficial nightlife destination in Colorado. For the second time in one week, deputies had to fish trespassers out of it. An 18 year old fell in. Later on, a 19 year old and a 28 year old fell in 60ft down. Yeah, one of them managed to climb out and get rescuers to come and get the one who remained in the pit. Both got trespassing summonses, presumably delivered with the tone of a disappointed parent. The sheriff's office, in a heroic feat of understatement, noted that underground confined spaces are extremely dangerous. So these rescues used to be free, but having so many trespasses in such a short amount of time, Arapaho county is now charging you $5,000 per rescue for any missile silo related incident.

[Warren Hammond]

Can you get like a punch card for that? Like your 11th rescue is free.

[Jen Sutherland]

I'm saying your second one is not free. So I don't know how effective that's gonna be.

[Jamie]

Thank goodness I have 50 grand lying around for my first 10 missile silo falls.

[Jeanne Vo]

That's financial wellness right there. And on that note, thank you to our first contestants. Susie back. All right, it's time for our next game called who did what now where I'll ask a panelist about a story and then they tell me the rest of that story. Dan. A pilot checked into a downtown Denver hotel while on a business trip and woke up to a full blown home invasion of the rabies carrying variety. What happened and what did it cost him?

[Dan Weflin]

Well, if it's rabies, it's probably either a bat or a raccoon. And it, I don't know, probably cost him, I don't know, an arm and six or seven shots in the stomach.

[Jeanne Vo]

Scorekeeper. I'm.

[Jamie]

Oh, yes, that is correct. It was a swarm of bats.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yes. A United Airlines pilot staying at the Sheraton downtown Denver, which tells you everything you need to know about the rest of the story. Woke up at 2:30am to what he described as a commotion, which turned out to be a swarm of bats doing laps around his 22nd floor room. One of the bats bit him on the foot before making its exit through a gap under the AC unit. He asked to switch rooms and the hotel staff said, no, thanks. He then spent nearly $100,000 on rabies treatments because understandably, maybe I have. Rabies is not a risk you want to take. So my question on this is like, I believe this guy's story. I think he's telling the truth. But if I thought he wasn't, it would make me wonder. You go away on a business trip and you come home to your wife and you've got a bite mark on your toes and you can't say, oh, I was doing foot stuff on my business trip. So, like, no, it was a swarm of bats, honey. It was a swarm of bats.

[Dan Weflin]

I mean, like Batman teeth look really different from human teeth. Right? So if he was. If he was doing something on tour that his wife was gonna get mad about, he was definitely doing it with bats.

[Jen Sutherland]

Maybe they had that talk.

[Warren Hammond]

Or vampires.

[Dan Weflin]

Or vampires. Little vampires. Right?

[Warren Hammond]

Just tiny. The miniature ones.

[Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Warren Hammond]

Teacup vampires.

[Dan Weflin]

Right, Which. Which also carry rabies, but teacup rabies.

[Jen Sutherland]

The overall message is, be safe, people, no matter what your kink is.

[Audience Member]

Oh, boy.

[Ryan Warner]

We've been taken over today by the new podcast, Colorado Saves the World.

It's inspired by.

Wait, wait, don't tell me. We are airing the debut to celebrate Colorado Day and specifically our state's 150th birthday. After a break, I come face to face with the comedians. This is Colorado Matters from CPR News.

[Warren Hammond]

Ryan.

[Ryan Warner]

It's Colorado Matters from CPR News. I'm Ryan Warner. August 1st, Colorado Day marks when we became a state to celebrate the 150th. We're listening to a new podcast called Colorado Saves the World. CPR doesn't produce it, but we got to take part and wanted you to hear the first episode.

[Jeanne Vo]

Here at Colorado Saves the World, we are firm believers that the squarest state in the west is also the coolest state in the West. When I was putting together this episode, none of this is made up. It's all true. I reached out to many different organizations that contribute to how wonderful this place is through infrastructure, through media, municipal services, et cetera. I cold called, among many others, the library. I called the Parks and Rec, I called Denver Waste Management, and I called Colorado Public Radio. Denver Waste Management did not call me

[Jen Sutherland]

back,

[Jeanne Vo]

but Colorado Public Radio did. So we welcome to the stage today our special guest, Ryan Warner.

[Ryan Warner]

If Waste Management had replied, would you have taken them over me?

[Jeanne Vo]

That's not a question I'm willing to answer in public. I'm so glad to have you here, Ryan. I'm genuinely shocked and delighted that you showed up to do this.

[Ryan Warner]

I'm grateful to be part of the inaugural episode. I've started shows myself, so I understand what the need is when you're building something from scratch.

[Jeanne Vo]

Awesome. So I'll just go ahead and get started with a quick little interview here. So your undergraduate degree was in French and political science. Yeah. And your master's is in broadcast journalism. So you switched from a different undergrad to a different graduate major. So was there a point in this process where you're like, hey, journalism is pretty cool, and I think I could actually do it?

[Ryan Warner]

Well, the journalism came long before my mother, who's in the audience tonight. My mom was in public relations, and we would drop press kits off at television stations and radio stations and newspapers. And I got hooked on the idea and of perhaps being a journalist. And then we had a shuttle launch piped into our classrooms in 1986, and Peter Jennings was anchoring special coverage of the Challenger mission, which became the Challenger disaster. And I looked to Peter Jennings of ABC News as my hero. And I think the seed was planted then that I could be someone who perhaps guided people through the best and worst times of our world and nation.

[Jeanne Vo]

And you fulfilled that. Were you not one of the reporters covering a hurricane? Hurricane Charlie, was it?

[Ryan Warner]

Oh, I covered Hurricane Charlie In Florida in 2004, I think it was. And it was a season of so many hurricanes in Florida that prompted me to apply for a job at 5280 elevation. And there were so many hurricanes that year in Florida. We had A story about what happens when you run out of the Alphabet to name them. And at the time, you used the Greek Alphabet, you know, so it was going to be like a fraternity, you know, hurricanes, Delta, Delta Delta. And now they have an ancillary list of names. If you exceed the Alphabet, you've been many different places.

[Jeanne Vo]

You've worked in Missouri, you've worked in Iowa. My uncle was a professor at Dort University in Sioux Center, Iowa.

[Ryan Warner]

Whoa.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yeah. Sioux Center, Sioux Center. So I spent time there when I was a kid.

[Ryan Warner]

That is like the heart of Dutch Reform, Iowa.

[Jeanne Vo]

So many blonde people.

[Ryan Warner]

Yes.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yeah.

[Ryan Warner]

And my. Yes. That's.

[Audience Member]

Wow.

[Ryan Warner]

No one ever mentions Sue Santa, including people who are from there. I indeed worked in Sioux City, Iowa, in television. And when people say, how was it to live there? I would say the airport code is a warning because it's S, U, X.

[Jeanne Vo]

And then you went to Florida, and then you came here to Colorado.

[Ryan Warner]

Indeed.

[Jeanne Vo]

Nice. Well, we're so glad you're here.

[Ryan Warner]

That's kind.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yeah. And jumping on that question, what makes you stay here in Colorado? And forewarning, if you do not answer something that includes the word bicycles, I will be disappointed.

[Ryan Warner]

Well, my bike is parked outside this studio, so excellent bikes are part of it. You know, my job is different every day, and so it has kept me here for 20 years because no two days are the same. So for sure, hosting Colorado Matters keeps me here, and it's the perfect city. I just think, you know, la, where I grew up, is a little too big. New York is a little large and tough to live in and expensive. Denver is just the perfect size. It's the perfect weather. You know, Chicago's a great town, like, three days a year. And then the access to the mountains, to the. I love the planes, by the way. They never get enough attention, but those are the elements that have kept me here.

[Jeanne Vo]

What's your best or worst interview experience in these years that you've been doing? Colorado Matters.

[Ryan Warner]

I will go with my best experience.

[Jeanne Vo]

Let's hear it. Yeah, I'd love to hear it.

[Ryan Warner]

Let's focus on the positive. You know, there is so much focus on the elevation and on the 14ers, and I thought, we know what the highest spot in Colorado is. Where is the lowest? So we looked this up, and it's on the Arikaree river near the Nebraska Kansas line, and we identified the spot. The thing is, it was in private hands, and that's a part of the state where maybe you don't want to trespass. Maybe you want to Call ahead. I traveled then to the lowest spot in Colorado, having identified the landowner through property records. And I brought just a motley crew with me.

I brought a historian to tell us

about the first peoples, the Arikara peoples. I brought a geologist to tell us why it was the lowest spot. And then I brought sort of a wild card. Shall we listen to a bit of this?

[Jeanne Vo]

I believe we can. I think we have a clip queued up.

[Ryan Warner]

When did you learn that your property included the lowest point in Colorado? Did you know that all the time.

[Warren Hammond]

No.

[Jeanne Vo]

When you called me a month ago.

[Jamie]

Seriously?

[Jeanne Vo]

Seriously.

[Ryan Warner]

Watching all this unfold, is Boulder singer Forrest Kelly. As for why he's here, Forrest is a bass and we asked him to sing his lowest note in the lowest spot.

[Jeanne Vo]

Are we doing this?

[Ryan Warner]

Well, it's not we. You're going to do this, but yeah, it's time. It's go time.

[Jeanne Vo]

All right, I'm doing it. Rocky Mountain High, Colorado. Beautiful. So much fun.

[Ryan Warner]

I love that our lowest point is higher than the highest point of many other states. So even when we're low, we're high.

[Jeanne Vo]

Absolutely.

[Ryan Warner]

On my job interview for cpr, they flew me out and I didn't think about the altitude and we went out for dinner and I had a glass of wine and I was coming from Florida and I still got the job despite my tipsy interview dinner.

[Jeanne Vo]

It was fate. It was meant to be that you were supposed to be here in Colorado. So Waste management did not call back on that job interview either. All right, so one more hard hitting interview question for you. You're known for your engagement with topics regarding climate change in this drought and heat wave that we have going on. I'm sure that's sitting at the top of all of our minds of all the topics that you discuss in climate change, things that we can do personally to mitigate these effects, such as getting solar panels or green transits moving away from fossil fuels. Which of those mediations do you think is the easiest for us to implement and which do you think is the most challenging?

[Ryan Warner]

I am going to reject the premise of the question. Is that okay?

[Jeanne Vo]

Yeah, please.

[Ryan Warner]

I think that we are made to carry the burden individually of climate change when it is a national and international question. So I brought a fact for Claus

[Jeanne Vo]

line on that one.

[Ryan Warner]

I brought a fact for you to marvel at because it made me marvel. Do you know the origin of the term carbon footprint?

[Jeanne Vo]

I do not know.

[Ryan Warner]

Carbon footprint is this idea that we all individually are responsible for climate change. And when our carbon footprint is large, then we feel Shame. The carbon footprint term was created by the advertising firm Ogilvy and Mather for the oil company British Petroleum, BP.

[Jeanne Vo]

Those guys.

[Ryan Warner]

It was introduced in 2004 during a $200 million PR campaign that popularized the concept of measuring individual emissions. As the Guardian put it, it was to blame us for their greed. I just want us to think about the fact that we have individual decisions, decisions to make. No doubt I rode my bike here for a reason, but there is something more sinister at play that we have trouble affecting.

[Jeanne Vo]

I 100% agree with that statement. 100%. One more round of applause on that one. Yeah. In a very similar kind of parallel idea, I'm a recycling nerd, which is why I contacted Waste Management.

[Ryan Warner]

Can you stop bringing up the guests that said no?

[Jeanne Vo]

Am I making you feel insecure, Ryan?

[Ryan Warner]

It's easily done, by the way.

[Jeanne Vo]

Well, I am making a visible effort to stuff down my impostorism as I try to interview an award winning interviewer. But yeah, I'm a recycling nerd. And it is incredibly hard to actually responsibly recycle all of the things it is possible, theoretically possible to recycle. Yeah. Just like take alkaline batteries, for instance. There is one place in Denver that will take alkaline batteries for recycling and it's the alliance center downtown on 15th and Wincoop.

[Ryan Warner]

Oh, yes. Whose insulation is blue jeans.

[Jeanne Vo]

I didn't know that, like shredded denim is. Oh, that's amazing.

[Ryan Warner]

Insulates the Alliance Center.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yeah, good to know. But yeah. So I collect dead alkaline batteries from myself and my friends and I warehouse them in bags on my living room floor until I have enough to ride my bike down there, drop them off. But they're only open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. So if you have a regular job, good luck getting down there during those hours. And I'm like, how are we supposed to do this? Like, seriously, how are we supposed to responsibly take care of these recyclable items when they're being pushed downstream from big corporations into my living room floor to go down the Alliance Center? And I don't have a good answer. But I feel what you're saying on that the corporate action is pushing the responsibility for mitigation onto and I don't have the resources to adequately handle that.

[Ryan Warner]

And yet you keep going.

[Jeanne Vo]

I do. And on that note, since I could not top that joke, thank you again, Ryan, for being here. I did a little deep dive into your Instagram, which was kind of fun.

[Ryan Warner]

I'm sorry

[Jeanne Vo]

Will, do you have the next slide? So some of it's absolutely adorable. This is your cat Bob.

[Ryan Warner]

That's my tuxedo cat Bob.

[Jeanne Vo]

And then this is you and your dad.

[Ryan Warner]

That's. That's my dad. We're in matching pirate wear. French pirate wear.

[Jeanne Vo]

Would that we all had matching French pirate wear. I will say, Ryan, you had more feet pics on your Instagram than I expected.

[Warren Hammond]

Now, do you wish weight management had been the interview?

[Ryan Warner]

Are you saying I shouldn't give them out for free?

[Jeanne Vo]

I mean, you have celebrity status to monetize that if you want, but I fully support them being on the Public channel. Yeah.

[Ryan Warner]

If you give to Colorado Public Radio

[Warren Hammond]

now,

[Ryan Warner]

You can see Nina Totenberg's big toe.

[Jeanne Vo]

Probably the most effective fundraising campaign that public radio has had in quite some time. But you have a fun little series called Would I date this building in Denver? I have a couple examples up here. This is a.

[Ryan Warner]

This is Tom's Diner, which is now Champagne Tiger on Colfax. It's kind of a Googie masterpiece and reminds me of Palm Springs, California, where I went to middle and high school.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yeah. And another example up here, this is

[Ryan Warner]

a senior housing project on Federal that reminded me of where the Jeffersons moved on up.

[Jeanne Vo]

Okay. And you friend zoned this one.

[Ryan Warner]

I have said that it hasn't seen heated rivalry or severance, but can sing the entirety of the mod theme, that this is a building or a man who smokes Virginia Slims, drinks wine spritzers and wears caftans around the house.

[Jeanne Vo]

And you would. Friend zone. That I.

[Ryan Warner]

Friend zone. Yeah. I don't. Yeah, the smoking is tough for me.

[Jeanne Vo]

Oh, yeah, good point, Good point. So anyway, since this is a little game you already have on social media, I thought maybe you'd play around with us tonight. If we gave you a couple buildings, you could evaluate whether or not you would date them.

[Ryan Warner]

Sure. And these are buildings I haven't evaluated before.

[Jeanne Vo]

These are villages I did not find in your feed, so they should be new to you. So here we go. This is the historic National Jewish Hospital in Denver, opened as National Jewish Health and was a tuberculosis sanatorium way back when. And it is still a leading a leader in respiratory care nationwide.

[Ryan Warner]

National Jewish, in fact, began as the Jewish Consumptive Relief Society on East Colfax because of tuberculosis. My assessment of this one is pithy. A Jewish doctor?

[Jeanne Vo]

Hell, yeah.

[Ryan Warner]

And my Jewish mother approves.

[Jeanne Vo]

All right, enough said. What's next? This is the original St. Joseph Hospital building. Fun fact, St. Joseph Hospital was the first place I worked when I moved here to denver. Yeah. Over 10 years ago as a medical technologist.

[Ryan Warner]

Okay.

[Jeanne Vo]

So do you know what medical technology. Okay, yeah, nobody knows. It's just, like, this mysterious profession. So I work in a hospital in the laboratory, doing diagnostics and instruments, experimentation.

[Ryan Warner]

So, yeah, centrifuges.

[Jeanne Vo]

Centrifuges and microscopes and blood smears on glass slides and, like, all that stuff.

[Ryan Warner]

Very Dexter.

[Jeanne Vo]

Well, I still haven't killed anyone.

[Ryan Warner]

Well, don't run for governor.

[Jeanne Vo]

So, yeah, the original nurse's home. What do you think?

[Ryan Warner]

I can't believe I haven't assessed this building yet. Because I love it. It's got these sort of clumps of brick that feel playful. Here was my assessment of the nurses home at 18th and Franklin Eyebrows. Like Eugene Levy ordered an egg white cocktail on our first date. Fastidious, probably spillover from sterile procedure at the hospital where he works. Makes me take my shoes off when I walk into his place. Yes, I would date this Denver building.

[Jeanne Vo]

All right, two out of two for two so far. All right.

[Ryan Warner]

Even if the Jewish doctor doesn't work

[Jeanne Vo]

out, if he doesn't call you back. All right, next slide. What do you got next? Okay, this is the old Clayton College. This was a school and an orphanage that was established about 100 years ago. Would you date this building?

[Ryan Warner]

Let's make a joke about an orphanage.

[Jeanne Vo]

It is no longer an orphanage. It is now an early learning child center.

[Ryan Warner]

My assessment of Clayton College. Most of his jackets have elbow pads, bow ties over neckties. He sings in a barbershop quartet. He has a volunteer's heart. Most weekends he's picking up trash or serving meals. Absolutely.

[Jeanne Vo]

All right, three out of three. Yeah. This is.

[Ryan Warner]

This is gonna be a poly thing, I think.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yeah. Yeah. There's no reason we have to, like, lock this down into exclusivity. Exactly. All right, well, Ryan Warner, thank you so much for coming out tonight and joining our show. We couldn't be happier to have you.

[Ryan Warner]

You are listening to the debut of Colorado Saves the World. It's a news quiz recorded in Denver and available on Spotify and Apple. I ought to have said West Colfax earlier. Our Colorado Day fun continues shortly. I'm Ryan here with Colorado Matters from CPR News and KRCC. You're back with Colorado Matters from CPR News and KRCC. I'm Ryan Warner. How are you celebrating Colorado's 150th birthday? My bestie is making a peach pie in Denver. Folks will eat pancakes in the street outside history, Colorado. Saturday. I thought we'd bring a festive feel to the airwaves today with a new quiz show. Let's return to the debut of the podcast Colorado Colorado Saves the World.

[Jeanne Vo]

For our next game, we need another audience contestant Dottie. Dottie, who's where? We got Dottie. All right, Dottie, we have our three lovely panelists over here. Each of our panelists is going to read you a story on a certain topic for the night. Two of those stories are false and one of those stories is true. Pick which one of those stories is the true story?

[Jamie]

Artificial intelligence.

[Jeanne Vo]

All right, let's hear three stories about AI. Go ahead, Jen.

[Jen Sutherland]

All right. Jackie Mann, a data analyst, requested maternity leave to welcome a new puppy she and her partner adopted from Max Fund. She was denied on the grounds that her adoption did not fit the parameters of the benefit. So she's developing AI babies. Mann quit her job, and while she was potty training her pup, she started developing what she calls baby bots. The models were initially trained to help with dog training, but man realized quickly she could use the data to make an AI agent that helped helps new pet parents get the leave she needed. These bots can scream and burp, and the plan is to make accessory AI agents like doctors, midwives, and adoption agencies that can call a worker's employee, send emails, generate sonograms, and whatever else might be needed to corroborate that a worker needs parental leave. Being child free shouldn't mean benefit free, asserts man.

[Jeanne Vo]

Thank you, Jen. We have a story about baby bots. Next up, we have Warren. Warren, what's your AI story for tonight?

[Warren Hammond]

From taking our fast food orders to denying insurance claims, AI has become a thorn and mainstay in our lives. What could be left, you ask? Surely my local coffee shop is safe, right?

[Audience Member]

Wrong.

[Warren Hammond]

CU Boulder computer science grad student Ben Chambers is the pioneering mind behind the new AI software Slam GPT. That's right. The next slam poetry night you attend may now feature spoken word generated by the same kind of program that doesn't know how many fingers humans have. One of the holy grails in AI research is to make it seem more human. And what better way to do that than by getting it to do useless tasks that contribute nothing to society, says Ben. Sure, large language models can stream words together in intelligent ways and have started solving some of society's ongoing problems. But can they string words together in ways that don't really say anything while sounding self important and arguably making the world a worse place to live? He goes on, while some may think that making AI spew nonsense really isn't that hard, as evidenced by many, if not most Google searches. It's about making it spew the right nonsense, argues Ben when asked if he could show us where the slam poetry hurt him. Ben declined to comment.

[Jeanne Vo]

Thank you, Warren, for a story about a slam bot. And I can tell you lived in Boulder for a long time. Last up, we have Dan. Dan, what's your story about AI?

[Dan Weflin]

In a new study done at CU Boulder, participants who had lost a loved one chatted with one of two kinds of AI ghosts of the deceased. They were randomly assigned to speak to an AI representation which spoke about the loved one in the third person, or as a reincarnation, which spoke in the first person as if they'd been resurrected into a hellish existence as a chatbot, but politely asked not to speak about it. Some participants were recruited off social media because of course, they were. The rest of the subjects were recruited by snowball sampling, which sounds fun, but it's actually just a way to mess up your results with sampling bias. People in general reacted better to their reincarnation chatbots, although there were exceptions. One participant was called Champ and reacted the way any sensible person would when called Champ, immediately ending the session.

[Jeanne Vo]

All right, thank you, Dan. I also love that Dan really wanted sampling bias to be a punchline.

[Warren Hammond]

I also noticed.

[Jeanne Vo]

And it was.

[Warren Hammond]

I also noticed the two grad students I know in the audience laughed at that.

[Jeanne Vo]

There is both crying and laughing in grad school. All right, Dottie, which of these three do you think is the real story? Is it Jen with the baby bots? Is it Warren with the slam bot? Or is it Dan with the grief bottom?

[Audience Member]

Well, I think the baby bot is just too far out there. I don't think it was that. Sorry. Okay, so no baby bot by process of elimination. Now, the other two, I can't remember what it actually was, but the guy in the middle,

[Jeanne Vo]

so more and trustworthy face.

[Warren Hammond]

I'm glad I'm so memorable. Honorable Daddy.

[Audience Member]

I think that's the one that's true.

[Jeanne Vo]

Okay, so you think Warren's story about the slam poetry bots was the true story? Well, it was actually Dan and the griefchat bot.

[Audience Member]

Oh, I can't believe it.

[Jen Sutherland]

I can't believe it.

[Jeanne Vo]

No, but you did win a point for Dan. So you won for Dan. But yeah. So the Universe University of Colorado Boulder is working with tech platforms that. And I am not making this up. Seance AI. And yeah, and hereafter AI, The University of Boulder is using these programs to create, quote, unquote, AI ghosts that chat with bereaved people in the voice of their deceased loved one. The CU researchers are conducting the first publicly known user experiment studies of these simulated AI ghosts to see if these tools could help alleviate and process grief. Users tend to love it unless, as Dan mentioned, the hologram breaks the illusion and uses slang or a nickname that they wouldn't use in real life. Worries remain. This could actually be a disservice as users get addicted to the AI ghost. What do you think? Would you use an AI bereavement chat?

[Dan Weflin]

When you said addicted to the ghost, it sounded to me like they were, like, snorting them.

[Jeanne Vo]

Snorting the cremains?

[Dan Weflin]

Well, no, just snorting the ghost. Not the. That's. That's not where the ghost is. Right.

[Jen Sutherland]

Just do a rail of grandpa and then text him.

[Warren Hammond]

Okay. Okay. So, weird bit of knowledge that I have.

[Jen Sutherland]

Oh, God.

[Warren Hammond]

Is that was apparently, like, a thing in the 1920s with mummies. People used to like. Yeah, like, rich people used to, like, I don't know, Snort mummy. No, this is legit.

[Jeanne Vo]

I. I read it on media. For what purpose was this intended?

[Warren Hammond]

I don't remember.

[Jeanne Vo]

Like, it was recreational or it was medicinal?

[Warren Hammond]

Well, probably both.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yes, it was the 20s. Everything was like that.

[Jamie]

That's why it was roaring.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yeah. So for me, this part of the story that's the worst part of the story is that can't we just let the dead be dead? Do we have to resurrect them into this eternal social media torment of an AI chatbot hologram? Like, But I'm sad.

[Warren Hammond]

I think what I'm most worried about is when Mitch McConnell's family finds out about this.

[Ryan Warner]

Comedians have their way with the news in Colorado Saves the World. The new quiz show is inspired by NPR's Wait, Wait, don't tell me. CPR News didn't produce it, but we thought we'd air the debut for Colorado Day. More to come on Colorado Matters.

[Jamie]

Welcome back to Colorado Saves the World. Our host, Jeanne Bow, and our panelists, Dan Weflin, Jen Sutherland, and Warren Hammond.

[Jeanne Vo]

All right, it is time for our next game, which we are calling Colorado side Icon, where I'll ask a panelist about some goings on with one of Colorado's iconic features, such as, but not limited to Royal Gorge, the big blue bear, Red rocks, Green chile, et cetera. Something iconic in Colorado. Jen, this story goes to you.

[Jen Sutherland]

Ooh la la.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yeah. After surviving a leap from a pickup truck traveling up to 70 miles per hour on Interstate 70, Bones, the killer cat wandered into what famous Colorado landmark?

[Jen Sutherland]

Which highway?

[Jeanne Vo]

I 70.

[Jen Sutherland]

I hope it was the Pet Food Building. I would be so hungry after that.

[Jeanne Vo]

I think Bones the cat also wished it was the Pet Food Building.

[Jen Sutherland]

Oh, God. Is it a tunnel?

[Jeanne Vo]

It is a tunnel.

[Jen Sutherland]

Is it the Eisenhower?

[Dan Weflin]

It is.

[Jen Sutherland]

I've only lived here my whole life. Don't worry, it's fine.

[Jeanne Vo]

You are correct. It is the Eisenhower Johnson Tunnel on I70. So here's Bones.

[Jen Sutherland]

Okay, first of all, like, please tell me.

[Jeanne Vo]

Well, since we went through the orphanage joke already, we ran out of like, sad jokes for tonight, so. Yes, Bones, the cat is alive and well. He came to no harm whatsoever.

[Jen Sutherland]

Yeah, I would have needed a chatbot. You guys,

[Dan Weflin]

it's actually really easy to build chatbots for cats, right? You just take it so that every time you finish the line it just says meow. Right,

[Jen Sutherland]

but it has to say at like 5am not when you asked it.

[Jeanne Vo]

All right, so Bones, quote, unquote, the killer cat, a seven year old house cat, escaped from a car trip somewhere between Silverthorne in Denver and made his way to the Eisenhower Tunnel, where he was spotted and captured by tunnel authorities, who immediately posted his adorable cat self to social media. Yeah, traffic was shut down for about eight minutes. No injuries reported. All right, our next section is called Mike D. Yeah, do you remember the 90s? We had the Beastie Boys and Mike D, our scorekeeper, will read a hint in the style of Mike D. This is Jamie's favorite game to our contestant. And that contestant will finish the last rhyme. Alright, Jillian, Jamie's gonna perform a rhyming couplet for you, and you have to finish the last rhyme to complete the story.

[Jamie]

If you use marijuana as a form of escape and you blow rad smoke rings or another shape, you can get them in cherry or melon or grape. But you should know there might be pesticide in your vape. That is correct.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yes. A line of cannabis vaporizer products has been recalled from a dispensary in Idaho Springs on July 2. A health and safety order from the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division. The real fun people in the weed world. They tested positive for the pesticides bifenazadine and metalaxal. I will get corrections on the Internet for my pronunciation for that. Both of which are banned in cannabis cultivation.

[Jamie]

Unregistered voters, please heed my advice. In primaries, you might have to pay a big price. Two ballots you'll get, and you might think it nice, but return only one. Don't try to vote twice. Oh, that's two for Two

[Jeanne Vo]

on fire. Yes. Because Colorado has an open primary voting system, unaffiliated voters are sent two ballots. One for the Republican and one for the Democratic set of candidates. Here's the catch. You're only supposed to fill out one. If you fill out both, you disqualify yourself and the vote is not counted.

[Jamie]

It's not a chinchilla that fell off a log. It's not old Godzilla all lost in the fog. No. It might just kill ya. Says one. Local blog. Meet two Foot Glyzilla, Coors Field's new hot dog. That's three for three.

[Jeanne Vo]

Awesome. Thank you, Jillian. Coors Field has a new item on the menu this year. It's the Glazilla. It is a two foot long hot dog weighing over a pound, sold in a baguette bun. And yes, it is the size of a four month old baby.

[Dan Weflin]

Like the same size. By what? By volume? By weight? By.

[Jeanne Vo]

By mass? Yeah, yeah. No, by length. So it's the. Oh, by length. Two feet long is like how big a four month old?

[Dan Weflin]

Well, like fruit by the foot's that long and you can eat. Maybe it's a real skinny hot dog.

[Warren Hammond]

I'm just realizing how throwable babies are. Like, that's not very big.

[Jeanne Vo]

Warren, it's a good thing you are not a father.

[Dan Weflin]

But he is a juggler.

[Jeanne Vo]

Professional question, Warren. Could. Could you juggle five glazillas?

[Warren Hammond]

No, but fun fact, Five Glazillas was my nickname in high school.

[Jeanne Vo]

So a two foot long hot dog is like four regular hot dogs.

[Jen Sutherland]

Right.

[Jeanne Vo]

Like a six inch hot dog is a regular hot dog. So it's still smaller than the 999 challenge, right? You guys know the 999 challenge? Yeah. If you remember that. It's when you eat nine hot dogs and drink nine beers over nine innings of baseball. Yeah.

[Jen Sutherland]

Or a fun Sunday, if you ask me.

[Dan Weflin]

This is job security for the people whose job it is to clean the stadium.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yeah, custodial services is the one thing that AI is not replacing anytime soon. All right, time for our next game. This game is called Low Oxygen Environment. This is where I ask a panelist about something that happens only at high elevation. Warren, this story goes out to you.

[Warren Hammond]

Ooh, goody.

[Jeanne Vo]

Recently, a Colorado man came not to grief, but at least to embarrassment when attempting to parachute off of a cliff. Doing what? Extreme sport ironing. As a comedian, I do consider ironing to be an extreme sport. But I'll give you a hint. This sport uses the acronym to represent the four jump off categories. Off of buildings, antennas, spans, and earth.

[Warren Hammond]

BASE jumping.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yes. BASE jumping. That's what it stands for. Yeah.

[Warren Hammond]

Learned something tonight.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yeah. BASE jumping is what you do when jumping out of a plane is not scary enough. This story comes to us from western Colorado, where a man from Grand Junction completed a BASE jump, injured himself about six miles away from Bridal Veil Falls in the Columbine Basin. He called for help using SOS and after the emergency helicopter arrived, said, no, thanks.

[Jamie]

What?

[Warren Hammond]

Did they ever explain why he didn't want help?

[Jeanne Vo]

He did not make a statement as to why he did not want any help. They suspect it's because he didn't want to get charged for the helicopter ride.

[Warren Hammond]

Oh. How is that compared to, like, a silo rescue?

[Jeanne Vo]

Exponentially more. Yeah. So, best part of the story. This was not this man's first rodeo. Ten years ago, he got himself stuck in the Swiss Alps and had to call a helicopter for evacuation out of that accident.

[Jen Sutherland]

He took that one, though, because Universal healthcare, right?

[Warren Hammond]

I. I love that. Universal healthcare does include helicopters in other countries.

[Ryan Warner]

That's.

[Warren Hammond]

That's the kind of healthcare I want.

[Jeanne Vo]

I mean, if I can't get a pap smear, at least give me a helicopter. Our next game is called Seasonal Produce. This is where we ask a panelist about something that only happens in our current season. Colorado adults are lining up to pay real money for a weekend that includes lanyards, color wars, and mandatory fun with strangers. What weekend experience is this?

[Dan Weflin]

Oh, adult summer camp.

[Jeanne Vo]

Yes, adult summer camp. Grown adults, although perhaps not mature adults across Colorado are shelling out cash to attend summer camp. The whole deal. Cabins, campfires, awkward fumbling behind the archery shed, and maybe some dry humping if you're lucky. Because apparently paying to relive middle school social anxiety is the new self care.

[Jamie]

Colorado Saved the World is written by Jeanne Vo in collaboration with Anders Lankford, Dave Ness, Paul Backer, and Will Nestle. And we're recording at Dude Idk Studios in Denver, Colorado. Please join us again next time on Colorado Saves the World.

[Ryan Warner]

Indeed.

You heard Colorado Saves the World here on Colorado Matters. If you like it, we didn't produce it. If you hated it, we definitely didn't produce it. You can find the podcast on Spotify and Apple. You can also attend a future taping. I'm Ryan Warner.

Thanks for spending time with us.

Happy birthday, Colorado. You don't look a day over 92. This is CPR News and KRCC.

[Jen Sutherland]

Sa.