{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"In The NoCo","title":"A new film explores the history of Rocky Flats, from nuclear weapons plant to wildlife preserve ","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":525,"description":"If you visit the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge northwest of Denver, you see different types of wildlife, miles of hiking and biking trails and acres of rolling prairie.  \n\nBut you don’t see any trace of the astonishing history of what happened there during the Cold War: Rocky Flats was the site of a plant that made plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons until it was shuttered in the early 1990s.  \n\nOfficials removed later removed the buildings used in processing plutonium and cleaned up the area. And after a series of sometimes contentious public hearings, the wildlife refuge opened to the public in 2018. \n\nFilmmaker Jeff Gipe explores that history in a new documentary, Half-Life of Memory: America’s Forgotten Atomic Bomb Factory. Gipe grew up in nearby Arvada. His father worked at the plant in the 1980s.  \n\nGipe says he made the film to remind people of the hazards buried beneath the wide-open spaces of the wildlife refuge, and to share the voices of workers whose lives were affected by the dangerous materials processed at Rocky Flats.  \n\nToday we’re listening back to Gipe’s conversation with Erin O’Toole recorded ahead of the film’s premiere at the Denver Film Festival in November. \n\nThe documentary is now available for streaming on Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video, and will be screened Feb. 23 at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival in Golden. Find the complete lineup and schedule for the festival here. \n\nYou can watch the film’s trailer here.\n* * * * *\nSign up for the In The NoCo newsletter: Visit KUNC.org\nQuestions? Feedback? Story ideas? Email us: NOCO@KUNC.org\nLike what you're hearing? Help more people discover In The NoCo by rating the show on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!\nHost and Producer: Erin O'Toole\nProducer: Ariel Lavery\nExecutive Producer: Brad Turner\nTheme music by Robbie Reverb\nAdditional music by Blue Dot Sessions\nIn The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/deJ82RY9r1q1D4I5ARzsuuMZw17RvtIT7PwnQQPLPzk/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzI5MDcyLzE2OTUw/NzA5NjEtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}