City Cast Denver
Join Host Bree Davies and the City Cast Denver crew every weekday morning as we celebrate, explore, and challenge an ever-changing Denver. It’s the daily news podcast for all Denverites — whether you’ve been here for six months or six generations. We’ll break down the news you need (and want) to know with journalists and culture makers; activists and artists; neighbors and ne’er-do-wells — and John Elway, if he ever returns our calls. Learn more and subscribe to our morning newsletter at citycast.fm/denver. *Named Westword's Best Podcast of 2021, 2023
Episodes
September 29, 2023 • 42 mins
It’s no secret — Colorado’s air quality is suffering, and last Friday regulators approved yet another new plan to address the state’s biggest polluters. But environmentalists and critics have already spotted several loopholes that could allow companies like Suncor Energy, Molson Coors, and Cargill Meat Solutions to “pay to pollute,” as our guest today explains. Producer Paul Karolyi and host Bree Davies are joined by Denver Post en...
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September 28, 2023 • 27 mins
As we wrap up a week of fall getaways, we wanted to leave you with an enticing list of delicious destinations — restaurants we’d go the extra mile (or hundreds of miles) for! Whether you are looking for perfect pizza a mere 45 minutes away or charcuterie so good it’s worth planning a weekend around, producer Paul Karolyi and newsletter editor Peyton Garcia have got you covered. Plus, stick around for a round-up of the coolest event...
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September 27, 2023 • 21 mins
What’s the most haunted place in all of Colorado? A lot of folks would tell you it’s the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, but is that place really haunted by anything other than Stanley Kubrick’s decision to film “The Shining” somewhere else? So to continue our weeklong celebration of Colorado’s best fall getaways, we called up Thad Mighell, curator of contemporary art at Understudy and paranormal superfan, to run down his list of the ...
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September 26, 2023 • 31 mins
Pickleball fever has swept the country, and after three years of explosive growth it looks like it’s not going anywhere (much to the neighbors’ chagrin). So how are Denverites learning to live with the distinctive dinks and thocks? Host Bree Davies and producer Paul Karolyi are talking through the latest pickleball battles in Denver, Glendale, and Centennial, plus the latest on Mayor Mike Johnston’s quest to end homelessness in his...
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September 25, 2023 • 25 mins
All this week, we’re celebrating the gorgeous season that is fall in Colorado. Today, we’re focusing on perfect weekend getaways — the best places to go, things to see and do in just one overnight stay. From mountain towns to chile country, we’ve rounded up all the most charming locales we love for soaking in this cool and colorful season. Host Bree Davies and producer Olivia Jewell Love are joined by returning fave, Denver Instagr...
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September 22, 2023 • 36 mins
More than ten thousand people with big dreams arrived in the Mile High City for this year’s Denver Startup Week, and AI was the talk of the town. So will Denver become a hub for this massive tide-changing trend in technology that has congress confused and tech folks energized? Adeel Khan founded his first startup earlier this year, and he was in the thick of networking-palooza all week long. So host Bree Davies and producer Paul Ka...
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September 21, 2023 • 26 mins
This weekend marks the tenth anniversary of what our guest calls “Comedy Christmas” — aka, the High Plains Comedy Festival. Returning fave Joshua Emerson, who also co-chairs the Denver American Indian Commission, is telling jokes on stage at High Plains for the second year running. He joins host Bree Davies and producer Paul Karolyi to share his High Plains hacks, recommend a few shows (with tickets still available), and dish on ho...
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September 20, 2023 • 30 mins
At the height of the racial justice protests of 2020, Denverites — like the rest of the country — reckoned with our past. Statues depicting bigots and racists were torn down, and quietly the City of Denver assembled a commission to examine, research, and reassess the names of our parks — green spaces like Jefferson Park, La Alma-Lincoln Park, but also some lesser known park names with potentially troubled pasts. Today host Bree Dav...
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September 19, 2023 • 29 mins
It’s Tuesday, so host Bree Davies and producer Paul Karolyi are breaking down all the local stories that matter. First, a report of a so-called “homeless bar” with “prostitution tents” at 23rd and Champa Street had the national tabloids looking Denver’s way. But what was really going on there anyway? Then, overdose deaths are making headlines again in Colorado, this time because more and more of these incidents are happening in pub...
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September 18, 2023 • 29 mins
With the opening of Yuan Wonton’s new shared brick-and-mortar restaurant in Park Hill, the food trend of the fall is officially the humble dumpling. But what can we consider to be a dumpling? Is it just a pocket of dough filled with … something? Or is it much more nuanced? 5280 Magazine’s assistant food editor Ethan Pan is a bonafide dumpling lover, digging into the hype and searching for Denver’s best in his new column for 5280 Ma...
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September 15, 2023 • 43 mins
U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert had a big night out at the theater in Denver this past weekend, complete with vaping, loud singing, and being escorted out. But is this just a case of Big Divorced Energy from the MAGA darling? Or a sign of something bigger? The story (and the surveillance tapes) exploded this week, just as Boebert was attempting to roll out a new image, so we’re breaking it all down. Newly elected state represent...
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September 14, 2023 • 31 mins
After months of anticipation and rumors, the Michelin Guide bestowed five local restaurants a Michelin star at an exclusive ceremony in RiNo on Tuesday evening. There were big winners and big snubs. But was this moment the validation for Colorado’s dining scene that we thought? Newsletter editor Peyton Garcia joins producers Paul Karolyi and Olivia Jewell Love to talk about who won, who lost, and talk through a revealing new report...
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September 13, 2023 • 20 mins
The humble user review — taken alone, is just one person’s opinion. But put a bunch together, and that aggregated star rating can make or break a local business. So today, we’re going inside the minds of the people leaving one-star reviews for some of our favorite Denver places. Producer slash quizmaster Paul Karolyi puts producer Olivia Jewell Love and returning fave JD Lopez to the test. Can they guess famous Denver landmarks bas...
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September 12, 2023 • 28 mins
It’s easy to walk down the streets of Denver and see the major issues facing our city — housing, homelessness, public safety, etc. It’s much less clear how Denverites really feel about those issues. A brand new nonprofit polling group, Colorado Polling Institute, has stepped forward to fill the gap, promising regular surveys of how Denverites feel about their mayor, city council, encampment sweeps, DIA, RTD, and more. Westword edit...
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September 11, 2023 • 20 mins
It’s easy to forget, but Denver is still a young city, constantly searching for an identity. So it’s confounding why there’s so little research on a characteristic as important as the way we speak. Do Denverites even have an accent? Or maybe there’s more than one? Fortunately, we found some researchers at CU Boulder who are working to cross the t’s and dot the i’s on the particulars of Mile High speech patterns. Host Bree Davies sa...
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September 8, 2023 • 33 mins
Mayor Mike Johnston is tackling Denver’s homelessness crisis head on, but the city might not be able to wait for long. When Denverite reporter Kyle Harris spent 21 hours at a calzone shop on Broadway, he met a business owner who’s been pushed past his limit and heard rumors of a possible violent revolt spreading through encampments. Host Bree Davies and producer Paul Karolyi sit down with Kyle to talk about what else he saw that ni...
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September 7, 2023 • 29 mins
When a brand new Denver restaurant landed on Bon Appétit’s most anticipated openings list, we were sooooo curious — what’s the big whoop about Sap Sua? Fast-forward to now and the contemporary take Vietnamese cuisine has got people talking. Host Bree Davies and producer Paul Karolyi dig into all the latest food and dining news with newsletter editor and resident foodie Peyton Garcia, who also gives us an update on what common consu...
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September 6, 2023 • 23 mins
For more than 100 years, the brick power plant at Zuni Street and West 14th Avenue generated electricity for Denver using steam. But now that the plant has been retired, it presents a conundrum: Should the crusty old building and its two smokestacks be demolished? Or somehow redeveloped into an asset for the Sun Valley neighborhood? Host Bree Davies and producer Paul Karolyi visit the defunct Zuni Generating Station with Denver’s f...
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September 5, 2023 • 27 mins
Denver’s a cool place, full of cool things to do each and every month — and September is no exception. But how do you choose what to fill your calendar with when the Mile High has so much to offer? Host Bree Davies and newsletter editor Peyton Garcia each picked four awesome September events to share, and producer Olivia Jewell Love has the harrowing task of picking the official City Cast Denver “Maybe” for your month — as in “mayb...
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September 1, 2023 • 30 mins
When State Senator Julie Gonzales wrote the Towing Bill of Rights last year, she had no idea that she’d have to get towed herself to find out just how badly tow companies have been skirting her law. The legislator took to social media last week to share a parking saga gone wrong that ended up exposing some shady towing practices. The senator joins host Bree Davies and returning fave, comedian and co-chair of the Denver American Ind...
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