White Gold Fever What’s rich, buttery, and tastes like opportunity? Callo de Hacha. The shellfish delicacy that gave one Sinaloan town… “White Gold Fever. Read More Map to the Disappeared A woman in Veracruz, Mexico receives a map from a pair of anonymous strangers that leads her on a search to solve a mystery that’s haunted her for years. And a psychiatrist brings together three men who believe they are all Jesus Christ, hoping to... Read More In Mexico, shuttered cemeteries mean financial ruin for thousands of flower farmers Day of the Dead is usually one of the most profitable times of the year. Families buy dozens of flowers to build altars at the graves of their deceased loved ones. But in October, news broke that many cemeteries in Mexico would be closed to... Read More The Children of Smithfield Last March, while the country grappled with stay-at-home orders, meatpacking plants across the nation quickly became invisible hotspots for the coronavirus. Maira Mendez, a high school administrator in Lincoln, Nebraska, worried her parents might contract coronavirus from their jobs at Smithfield Foods, a massive pork... Read More In Rural Colorado, Advocates Travel Far To Serve Undocumented Immigrants Inside a small mobile home in rural Colorado, dark brown curtains are pulled tightly across the windows, locking out light from outside. A woman who we'll call "A" lives here with her husband and three young children. We're not using her real name to protect... Read More In The San Luis Valley, Lettuce Has Shaped The Land and Local Culture Farmers had been growing lettuce in the San Luis Valley for decades, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that the crop started to take off, thanks to advances in farming and vacuumed sealed shipping containers. At the time, locals referred to lettuce as “green gold,”... Read More It's Late Summer And Thousands Of Tarantulas In Southeastern Colorado Are On The Move Late summers in southeastern Colorado are usually synonymous with golden honeydews and cantaloupes, as the Rocky Ford melon harvest gets underway. But as evening temperatures cool, another lesser known ritual begins — the annual tarantula migration. KUNC’s Esther Honig traveled south hoping to catch a... Read More Seven Years After Legalization, Colorado Battles An Illegal Marijuana Market Earlier this spring, police in Fort Collins seized 420 marijauna plants (yes, 420) that had been illegally grown inside area homes. Also recovered: processed weed, weed concentrate, guns and approximately $110,000 in cash. Read More Denver To Decriminalize Psychedelic Mushrooms Denver voters made history last night with the first popular vote in the U.S. to decriminalize hallucinogenic mushrooms. Final unofficial results show the measure barely passing by just a couple thousand votes. The initiative tells police to treat enforcement of laws against mushrooms as their... Read More With Fewer Refugees, Who Will Work At Greeley's Meatpacking Plant? At his one-room apartment, 35-year-old Abul Basar made a tight fist with his right hand. As he opened his palm, his ring finger remained bent and rigid. "It's locked my finger, (it) doesn't work," he said. Basar came to the area as a refugee in... Read More Farmers' Need For Temporary H-2A Visa Workers Grows There's an ongoing shortage of farmworkers in the U.S. The federal H-2A visa program allows farmers to temporarily bring in workers from foreign countries. The visas are expensive and the process is time-consuming. But as Esther Honig (@estherhonig) of Harvest Public Media reports, the number... Read More As Economy Grows, Colorado Companies Rely Increasingly On Foreign Workers In early November 25-year-old Jose de Jesus Gallegos Alvarez mopped the wood floor of a pilates studio at The Club at Flying Horse, a private country club in Colorado Springs, Colorado. For him and the rest of the housekeeping staff, a day's work involves a lot... Read More Lumber trade dispute and tariffs boost U.S. wood products Back in 2012, one of the major employers in Montrose, Colorado, a sawmill, was in receivership and on the brink of collapse. At the time, local media reported that the cost of logging timber had become prohibitively expensive, and the log yard was nearly empty. Read More The Workaround Our prison population has been rapidly aging for years, and the additional care these elderly inmates require is expensive. But some prisons have created a surprising way to work around these costs. Read More My interview with Rob Rosenthal Esther Honig says she had a “hot coal” inside her when she wrote The Time Traveler’s Ark. And no wonder. The story was about a challenging family issue. And, she only had 24 hours to write and produce the story. Actually, make that 18. Read More You Might Be Eating Halal Meat And Not Even Know It Wearing a heavy smock and rubber boots, Amadedin Eganwa stands over a large conveyor belt that's carrying unconscious lambs. He faces east, toward Mecca, gently lifts the animal's head in the same direction and under his breath he quickly says a prayer — bismillahi allahu... Read More Shortage Of Large-Animal Vets Leaves Markets Vulnerable To Disease Outbreaks Large-animal vets ensure the health of cows, pigs and horses, but they're also the first line of defense against diseases that can spread from animals to humans — so a shortage leaves producers, and global markets, vulnerable to devastating outbreaks. Read More Unfictional - Belle of the Ball As any former high schooler knows, homecoming is a big deal. That was especially true for Landon Patterson, whose bid for queendom at her Missouri high school came complete with a wave international media attention – and a visit from the haters. Read More Radio Race For the past three years KCRW has hosted a 24 hour RadioRace: one day, one short documentary. This year, we teamed up with independent producers/reporters Esther Honig and Patrick Quick. The theme for the race was "time change". Our piece was recently selected as a... Read More
