Eleanor Bennett
Morning Edition Host, Reporter, and ProducerGrowing up in the valley listening to KAJX in her parents’ car on the way to school, Eleanor learned the power and urgency of community storytelling. She was further captivated by the medium while interning at APR after graduating from Middlebury College in 2015.
From there, Eleanor moved to New York where she covered issues of climate justice and women's empowerment for SiriusXM Radio and launched several podcasts from soup-to-nuts. Eleanor recently finished a project interviewing hundreds of New Yorkers about their dreams and fears for an interactive audio-visual exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum by the photographer and muralist, JR.
Making these kinds of personal connections with people from all walks of life and creating empathic spaces for them to tell their stories fuels her work. Eleanor is delighted to be back home in the Rocky Mountains working with the Aspen Public Radio team and local residents to shine a light on the critical issues that shape our valley.
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The new mask mandate comes on the heels of the fifth recorded death from COVID-19 in Pitkin County since the pandemic began. Eagle County has recorded 30 deaths since the pandemic began, and Garfield County has recorded 57 deaths. -
Monitoring over the last decade has shown that air quality in the Roaring Fork Valley has been good overall, but that’s changing as the human-caused climate crisis intensifies the size and frequency of wildfires across the West.
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This summer, a small group of local teens spent eight weeks learning how to grow vegetables at Highwater Farm in Silt. For most of the students, this was the first time they had ever worked on a farm.
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With summer tourism peaking and the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, Aspen and the Valley are seeing an uptick in COVID-19 cases and local health officials are concerned.
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Polis says it may take weeks to reopen I-70 after mudslides trapped more than 100 motorists on the interstate last week.
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The Colorado Department of Transportation says heavy rains in the Grizzly Creek burn area sent large mudslides and debris flows across the interstate late last month.
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The influx of hikers and campers in the Roaring Fork Valley is causing the U.S. Forest Service to expand their permitting system and propose a new overnight fee to better manage crowds in the iconic Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness. But some environmentalists are concerned that requiring backpackers to purchase a permit might further exclude people who already face barriers to accessing wild places.
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Catherine de Medici Jaffee is a storyteller and writer who grew up on the W/J Ranch in Woody Creek. She now runs a podcast production company in Denver called House of Pod. For nearly two years, Cat and her team have been working with National Geographic and the Wild Bird Trust to create “Guardians of the River.” Although set in southern Africa, this eight-episode podcast resonates with local water issues here and across the West.
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Domestic violence has been called the “pandemic within the pandemic.” Research has shown that in times of stress and isolation, abuse increases, and yet, local groups like Response know that domestic and sexual abuse is not new to Aspen and the Valley.
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Local psychologist and executive coach Mac McShane recently published his first book, called, “Me in Relationship to You.” He started writing poetry as a way to survive after losing his son, Ben, in a backcountry ski accident.
