Purplish
Colorado Public Radio
202 episodes
Purplish is a podcast about politics and policy and how they shape Coloradans’ lives, hosted by Colorado Public Radio’s public affairs reporter Bente Birkeland and reporters from the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. They break down the latest developments at the statehouse, in Congress and in local communities, to find the bigger picture behind the political headlines.
More about the show
Purplish is produced by CPR News with support from the Colorado Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Funding for the Alliance is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Episodes page 1 of 5
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Amid America’s most expensive election cycle, where’s the Colorado campaign cash flowing?
Much of the focus around Victor Marx’s campaign finance has been on the Republican gubernatorial candidate’s donations. But when CPR’s Ben Markus dug into Marx’s expenditures, it sparked a series of questions that…
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Israel-Gaza violence rattles Colorado Democratic politics, will protests and primary wins prompt policy change?
A political shift is starting to happen on America’s foreign policy in Israel, especially within the Democratic party. That came more into focus within Colorado politics following Melat Kiros’ win in the Democratic…
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From exorcisms to campaign finance violations, unpacking Colorado’s 2026 race for Governor
It's been an unusual campaign season as the two major party candidates vie for votes. They’ve never debated in a traditional, moderated setting. They’ve shared the stage only once, during a scripted forum in early…
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‘The Great Colorado Ballot-O-Rama’: Part II
We pick things up right where we left off with Purplish live: “The Great Colorado Ballot-O-Rama.” This week three more reporters sweat it out in the host seat, breaking down tricky ballot measures on topics like…
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‘The Great Colorado Ballot-O-Rama’: Part I
This year’s ballot is lengthy, very lengthy, and packed with thorny topics. To help you sort through such a dense ballot this fall, the Purplish team has a little fun explaining the complex and difficult questions…
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The Great Colorado Road Trip: voters share how they view the midterms
Purplish hit the road for a 1,600-mile-plus trip around the state, from Lamar to Greeley and Grand Junction, to rural areas and city centers. Voters shared what they’re worried about and what’s motivating them to head…
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What the ‘Buc’? Buc-ee’s back in Colorado headlines
For years, Buc-ee’s has been eyeing a parcel of land off Interstate 25 at Monument Hill to build its second Colorado location. The travel plaza chain, in late August, made a significant step toward realizing that…
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Rideshare safety in the spotlight and now on the books in Colorado
A state lawmaker shared her harrowing account of an alleged sexual assault during a Lyft ride. Her personal experience inspired legislation in 2025 to further regulate ride-hailing companies like Lyft and Uber in the…
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Colorado turns 150 and it’s always been a little bit ‘purple-ish’
Since it became a state 150 years ago, Colorado’s political identity has always been hard to pin down. It’s been a lot of things at once, a place of contradictions that, at times, puts the state at the forefront of…
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Did Colorado get hit with an anti-incumbent wave on primary night?
Progressives sailed through Colorado’s primary elections in late June, including a once-in-a-generation upset for a Democratic Socialist who ousted a longtime incumbent in Denver in a race that grabbed national…
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Colorado’s Capitol is a trove of histories, curiosities and controversies
The Colorado State Capitol Building opened its doors in November 1894. A grand neo-classical monument in the West, it used local materials to capture some of the feel of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Over the…
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The Republicans and Democrats who want to represent you in Congress
Congressional races across the state are heating up: with the gloves coming off in the Democratic primary for Colorado’s newest, and swingiest, district; other longtime Colorado Democrats facing challenges from more…
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Tina Peters is free, but the story is likely far from over
Colorado released former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters on parole June 1 from a women’s state correctional facility in Pueblo. She was less than two years into a nearly nine-year sentence for her role in tampering with…
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The Democrats and Republicans who want to be Colorado’s next governor
Colorado’s primary elections are just around the corner. And there’s a lot riding on them — all of the statewide constitutional offices are on the ballot — and thanks to term limits, all of those races are wide open,…
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Wrapping up the session: the policies, the politics... and the poetry
From speed cameras to vaccine policy to ketchup packets, which of the laws passed by the 2026 legislature will actually be affecting people’s daily lives, five or ten years from now. That’s the question that launches…
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ICE tactics have some Colorado Dems itching to respond. That’s easier said than done
Many of Colorado’s Democratic lawmakers came into this legislative session determined to push back against the Trump administration, especially on the president’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics. They…
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Should Colorado lawmakers get a raise? It’s a politically thorny topic
Colorado has a part-time, citizen legislature, driven by the notion that it’s important to have people from all kinds of professional backgrounds bringing their experience to lawmaking. So for four months every year,…
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Who’s on the primary ballot and what did it take for them to get there
Primary ballots will land in Coloradans’ mailbox in a few weeks, and now, voters know which candidates will be on them. Many got there by winning over party activists at the recent Democratic and Republican state…
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11 questions lawmakers hope could help prevent domestic violence killings
A bill advancing through Colorado's statehouse would require law enforcement officers to ask a set of 11 questions — 11 very specific questions, meant to measure someone’s risk of dying at the hands of their abuser.…
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Who should have the power to pump up the volume at Colorado’s venues
Decades ago, Colorado lawmakers set statewide limits on noise for different types of areas — lower limits near homes, louder away from them. But a recent court case has upended the status quo around which venues are…
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Colorado’s budget woes and the ballooning costs of Medicaid
The six lawmakers tasked with writing Colorado’s budget have an excruciating job this year — they must find about $1.5 billion in savings to keep the budget in balance, and understand that many of their cuts will have…
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Colorado’s prisons have a crowding problem
Colorado’s prisons have been filled nearly to capacity for months. And when the state has too many people in its prisons, difficult living conditions can quickly become intolerable. That’s got Colorado Department of…
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What the ‘Flock’ are you looking at? License plate readers and mass surveillance
Flock cameras, and other license plate reader systems, are installed all over Colorado. The technology gives law enforcement access to a new level of tracking, a reach they say has helped them solve all kinds of…
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A prescription for pesticides? Why lawmakers considered a novel approach to neonics
For a lot of farmers in Colorado, and across the country, insecticides known as neonicotinoids, or neonics, have been a game changer. But what’s been a breakthrough for some has been a nightmare for others. Neonics are…
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Will Colorado give data centers a warm embrace, or a cool reception?
Data centers, the infrastructure underpinning the artificial intelligence boom, are popping up in communities all across the country, including in Colorado. And with each new build, come more questions from residents…
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Colorado in Trump’s crosshairs
Again and again, President Trump has made it known he has a beef with Colorado, whether it's anger over his presidential portrait that was displayed at the State Capitol or the state’s policies on immigration,…
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Gov. Polis is a lame duck. What does that mean for Colorado policy and politics?
In his first seven years in office, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis had a lot of challenges and tragedies to contend with: the COVID-19 pandemic; the 2021 Marshall Fire and other climate disasters; shootings in Boulder,…
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Get ready for a new legislative session under Colorado’s Gold Dome
From another big budget shortfall to unsettled business over artificial intelligence to other pressing policy issues, like housing, the environment and surveillance, the 2026 legislative session kicks off in less than…
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Colorado’s homeowner’s insurance on shaky ground
Colorado, like the rest of the country, is experiencing more, and worse, climate disasters, wreaking havoc on people’s homes — and their homeowner’s insurance rates. In the wake of devastating hail storms and massive…
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Will Colorado join the redistricting war?
In statehouses across the country, the political playing field is being redrawn, as states wade into the murky waters of midcycle redistricting. President Donald Trump kicked off this effort, when he urged Republicans…
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Veterans Day Special: The battle of Iwo Jima, through the eyes of a Coloradan who lived it
On Purplish, our focus is usually on exploring the politics of the moment. But for Veterans Day, we're offering something different -- a chance to experience a defining moment in World War II from one of the last…
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Yes, yes, we just had an election, but It's never too soon to talk about the midterms
Anti-hunger advocates and education groups did a victory dance election night, celebrating the passage of Props. MM and LL, two statewide ballot measures to increase funding for Colorado’s universal free school meal…
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Portrait scandals and secret tunnels: Purplish tours the Colorado Capitol
The Colorado State Capitol Building opened its doors in November 1894, a grand neo-classical monument in the West, built of local materials, but with some of the feel of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.…
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Colorado’s ‘Healthy School Meals for All’ is at a crossroads. Voters will decide where it goes
There are just two statewide questions on the ballot this year, and both are related to a universal school meals program intended to feed all public school students in the state regardless of income. Three years ago,…
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Colorado banned conversion therapy for minors. A U.S. Supreme Court case could upend that
In 2019, Colorado Democrats had control of both the House and the Senate. That gave them the momentum they needed to push forward an issue that had repeatedly failed in the statehouse under Republicans: a ban on…
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How a possible Buc-ee’s travel plaza has divided one Colorado town
Last year, Buc-ee’s opened its first Colorado location, an expansive 74,000 square-foot outpost in Weld County filled with beaver-branded merch, brisket sandwiches and sweets. Not too long after that, the company began…
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Budget balanced (for now), AI decisions punted, relationships ruptured: What went down during special session
The giant tax-cuts-and-spending package passed by Congressional Republicans will have major ramifications for every state in the country, but Colorado is one of the first place it's really being felt. Thanks to the…
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Crude Signal chats, social media attacks, mistreated aides: lawmaker conduct is back in the headlines
House Republicans sharing locker room jokes about a Democratic colleague's outfit in a group chat. A former Democratic senator charged with a felony for allegedly forging letters of defense in an ethics probe. A…
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Why lawmakers have been eyeing Colorado's $2B in ‘unclaimed property’
There’s a secure room in the State Capitol filled with the lost treasures of generations of Coloradans: baseball cards, war medals, even a large yellow diamond ring. Unclaimed property that has come into the custody of…
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What Republicans' ‘One Big Beautiful Bill' means for Colorado
After a lot of back and forth, Republicans in Congress have passed President Trump’s mega tax and spending package, aka the “One, Big Beautiful Bill.” At almost a thousand pages, the law fulfills a range of Republican…
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Why is Douglas County so worked up about home rule?
Voters in Douglas County are deciding whether to become a home rule county. With ballots due June 24, the issue is stirring up a lot of strong feelings, amidst competing claims about what it would mean for this…
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When Colorado rewrote the rules for policing
2020 was an extraordinary year for the Colorado legislature. COVID-19 forced lawmakers to break halfway through session. They returned to work in May with a short list of priorities: balance the budget and respond to…
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Medicaid cuts, AI regs, special session chances: Colorado’s governor and legislative leadership weigh in
State lawmakers have bid adieu to the Colorado State Capitol — for now. But lots of questions remain. For example, what’s next for Colorado’s controversial artificial intelligence law? What about federal spending cuts?…
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That’s a wrap, for now. Here’s how the 2025 session ended up
State lawmakers took it right down to the wire on some of the biggest issues of the 2025 legislative session, including immigration, artificial intelligence, labor unions, rights for transgender Coloradans and…
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A rare veto showdown at the State Capitol
Lawmakers got behind a bill this session that would have required social media companies like Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram to do more about illegal activity on their platforms. It was a significant policy change,…
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100 days of Trump, in the eyes of two Colorado lawmakers from two different capitols
From tariffs to immigration, the Department of Government Efficiency, and an avalanche of executive actions and policies, President Donald Trump's first 100 days have been a whirlwind. In a special episode of…
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Colorado answers Trump's immigration crackdown with expanded protections
Colorado already has numerous laws in place to protect the rights of immigrants. But as President Donald Trump takes unprecedented steps to carry out his campaign promise of mass deportations, Democratic state…
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As the White House restricts trans rights, Colorado is poised to fortify them
At a time when the federal government is rolling back rights and recognition for transgender Americans, Colorado is moving to expand its protections in a number of areas, including medical care, harassment, death…
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Colorado's political parties navigate a changed political landscape
American politics are in a moment of major upheaval: a Republican president and GOP-controlled Congress are reshaping the federal government and expanding the limits of executive power. At the same time, federal…
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Colorado's budget hits crunch time with ‘painful’ cuts
A variety of factors have strained the state’s finances as of late, and that meant state lawmakers had to find more than a billion dollars in savings in order to balance the state budget this session. Many legislators…
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