May 27, 2026: Julie Gonzales shares her vision for US Senate in primary bid; Colorado's Tiny Desk finalist

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Julie Gonzalez wants to make John Hickenlooper a one-term U.S. senator. The state lawmaker is running against him in the Democratic primary and shares what's on her to-do list. Medicare for All, universal child and elder care, housing first policies, and an end to dark money infecting our politics. Gonzalez lags way behind in fundraising and is up against one of the most recognizable names in Colorado politics. What's her path to victory? Then Denver musician Lauren Freehoff was a top five finalist in this year's tiny desk concert from NPR. I think I struggle with how much to get my own identity wrapped up in my career.

This is Colorado Matters from CPR News and KRCC. I'm Ryan Wynell. Warner. She's hoping for a political upset. State Senator Julie Gonzalez of Denver wants to join the U.S. Senate. To do that, she'll first have to beat incumbent John Hickenlooper in next month's Democratic primary. She is at a major money disadvantage. Gonzalez is our guest today. Senator John Hickenlooper declined, citing a full schedule. Senator, welcome to the program. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Let's start with some news. On Monday, ice pepper sprayed a sitting U.S. Senator, Andy Kim of New Jersey, outside a detention facility. On social media afterwards, he posted, instead of engaging with me and others about the poor conditions inside, I sent in an armored vehicle and a line of armed agents that only poured gasoline on the fire. If you were in the Senate now, what if any action would you take?

What is clear in this moment is that ICE is trampling upon the constitutional rights of immigrants, citizens, and now sitting members of the U.S. Senate. How bad is it going to have to get before we all recognize that this is not a tactic that can be reformed away? We're not going to body cam our way out of this agency's unaccountable actions. It is time to abolish ICE and replace it with a system that actually puts dignity, respect, and due process at the heart of the agency. Does that, well, the heart of the agency, and does that as well speak to you about broader immigration reform? Absolutely. We know what the solutions are. We know that comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship is the solution forward.

But ICE has been trampling upon the constitutional rights of people who are trying their best to navigate a deeply broken system and just acting with impunity as Donald Trump's private police force at this point. And so for me, what abolishing ICE and replacing it with the system that actually works looks like is ensuring a path to citizenship for undocumented people to have a line to get into. It means funding enough immigration judges and USCIS adjudicating officers so that people aren't languishing for years, if not decades, waiting for their case to be heard. It means making sure that immigrants and especially kids aren't being asked to navigate their immigration cases without the benefit of legal counsel. And above all, it means stripping out the profit motive that currently infects every step of the deportation machine, whether that's surveillance with corporations like flock and palatier profiting, the detention aspect of the deportation process, corporations like CoreC Civic and Geo, and at the removal aspect of the deportation process with corporations like Key Lime Air and certainly the bus companies who are profiting handsomely.

Are you glad that Palantir moved out of Colorado? Absolutely. I think that corporations who are profiting off of us and surveilling us, and surveilling us, have no place in Colorado. And look, five years ago, when Palantir first announced their move to Colorado, I was part of an unwelcome party. If there's a pathway to citizenship for folks who are in the country now, presumably the idea is that you'd like to keep them here during that process as they follow that path. Does that become a magnet for folks to cross and then find them? the pathway. What I believe is that immigrants make our communities stronger. And if there are

more folks who end up applying for the opportunity to be contributing members of our society, so be it. But what we really need to ensure is that there is a system that works, that can adjudicate, that gives judges and immigration officers that discretion to look at someone's potential equities, potential harms, and make a determination, as opposed to getting in the line that they are then asked to wait for years, if not decades, to have their case be heard. Would that mean more illegal crossings? Would that mean fewer? Look, to me, if you actually have a system that works, then you'd have less unauthorized immigration because people would know that there is a process that they could partake in that would reduce the need for crossing the border without that authorization. Not by what this administration is currently engaged in, which is where the violence and the cruelty and the, the breaking down of the very few and limited pathways that currently exist, make them impossible, and engage in a politics of attrition via cruelty.

Your opponent in this Democratic primary is a big political name, as big as you get, I suppose, in Colorado, former Denver mayor, former governor, incumbent U.S. senator. I want to explore some of the differences between you and Mr. John Hickenlooper. So let's start with policy. Name an issue, a vote perhaps, stance where you diverge. Certainly. First and foremost, I would have voted for zero of the Trump cabinet nominees, particularly in the second Trump administration. I think that, as the saying goes, right, fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice. Shame on me. We should have known that in the second Trump administration, administration, his cabinet picks were leaders who would bend the knee to Donald Trump, not stand up to him. And as those cabinet nominees have then wrought chaos and havoc on the lives of everyday Coloradans, whether those are snap recipients, whether those are federal workers. Even Senator John Hickenlooper just last week said, well, yeah, if I would have had to do it over again, And I think I would have not supported those nominees.

It's too little too late. He's made his position clear. And Coloradoans' lives have been upended as a result. How do you think you differ from him in terms of approach to the job or constituent services? Absolutely. First and foremost, I'd show up in order to meet Coloradoans where they're at. As we've been traveling the state as part of our, it's about, time tour, I've heard from Coloradans who are so excited to see a candidate who is willing to

show up and listen in person and not just phone it in. John Hickenlooper has $4 million cash on hand at last check. You had $114,000. Not enough to buy a house in Metro Denver these days, I'll point at. What's your path to victory here? Absolutely. Look, we've known from day one that we were never going to outraise the establishment. That was never the goal. Our path to victory has never been about out fundraising the establishment. Are you a non-establishment candidate? It's interesting, right? Like, you're one of the most powerful people in the state senate. Painting yourself as not establishment feels at least something I should question. Absolutely. Well, I appreciate your perspective on that because I'm sure that there are many of my colleagues and certainly many folks in the

lobby who would disagree. But with that being said, look, we're never going to out-fund raise Chuck Schumer's establishment pick in this race. Our path to victory has always relied on raising enough resources for us to go and meet Coloradoans across the state who feel like they have either been taken for granted by our politics as a or never taken into account at all. I'm talking about young people, renters, rural voters, voters of color, folks who know what it is to work, two jobs plus a side hustle just to be able to pay for housing, groceries, health care, and child care. Those are the folks who we are targeting and focusing on in our path to victory. And what has been really beautiful is that when we do that work of listening, of showing up, of meeting folks where they're at,

the reception that we have received has been energetic. The momentum is palpable. You mentioned the cost of things is part of the cost. conversation you have with voters. What does one person out of a hundred, that is, there are a hundred senators, what is one person out of a hundred able to do to make life less expensive? Do you have a policy? Do you have an idea? Let me be very, very clear on this point. Right now, corporations and the corporate lobby and billionaires control too much of our politics. I've seen it firsthand, how corporate PACs play both sides.

We support both the Republican and the Democrat and then work to maintain a politics that does as little as possible so that they can continue to rake in incredible profit. Now, my critique of the Democratic Party in this moment is that Chuck Schumer is effectively managing our dissent into. to fascism instead of standing up and leading the opposition to it. When I talk to unaffiliated and Democratic voters and also Republican voters who are just chagrined by the capture of the Republican Party by the MAG extremists, I think there is a real hunger for folks who will say what they mean and mean what they say and reflect those values and policy and leadership in Washington, D.C. And so as one of a hundred, what could I do? First and foremost, I would not support Chuck Schumer to continue on as the Senate Democratic leader. Also, I'll say that with both Amy Klobuchar and Dick Durbin stepping aside, that there is an opportunity for a whole new,

generation of Democratic leadership of our caucus to return our party to its roots of being by and for working people. And if you clear that path, what is a marquee policy you'd like to see that you think would be thwarted under the current leadership? Absolutely. Medicare for all, universal child and elder care, housing first policies, and an end to that dark money infecting our politics, right? Advance a congressional stock trading ban and the revolving door where legislators become lobbyists and rein in the corporate influence that infects so much of our politics. There's a whole list of policies.

We know what the solutions are. We just need leaders with the backbone to stand strong and get those policies done. Julie Gonzalez hopes to leave the Colorado Senate for the U.S. Senate. She's running against incumbent John Hickenlooper in the Democratic primary June 30th. The winner will face Republican Mark Bazley, who represents Douglas County also in the state's Senate. When we come back, the war in Iran and term limits for the Supreme Court, this is Colorado Matters from CPR News. It's Colorado Matters from CPR News. I'm Ryan Warner. Ballots for the June primary hit the mail any day now, and before they do, we're going in-depth

with candidates. Today, Democrat Julie Gonzalez, who's running for U.S. Senate, her opponent, the incumbent John Hickenlooper, declined to speak with us, citing his schedule. The war in Iran seems to change by the hour as we sit here Tuesday. NPR reports that hopes for an end of the conflict, quote, faded, as Israel said it was intensifying a in Lebanon against Iran-backed, and as the U.S. military struck Iranian boats and missile-loge sites. Where do you think we should go from here? It is so clear that Trump and Marco Rubio

in order to advance both the war powers resolutions and also to stand up for the survivors of Epstein and the Epstein files. It is clear that MAGA and the Republican Party is waking up. And our path out of this is for Congress to put an end to this war that there was no basis for, no justification or rationale. and no plan. When we are spending a billion dollars a day on this illegal war of choice, let us end that and let us instead reinvest those dollars into housing, health care, the basics. Would you expand the Supreme Court? Yes, I would. I believe that right now ensuring that we both expand the court, institute term limits and ensure that there are clear ethics and transparency measures that

apply to those justices with enforcement measures is paramount because we are witnessing bedrock principles that my generation, I'm a millennial here, I'm 43 years old, my generation grew up understanding to be fundamental protections. I'm talking Roe, the Voting Rights Act, and yet we are witnessing those bedrock protections just be eviscerated. And let me just put a finer point on this. Absolutely.

You look at Sonia Sotomayor, like Elena Kagan or a Ketanji Brown Jackson, and you believe they too should face term limits on the court. Absolutely. Of what length? You know, I've heard lots of different folks who think deeply about this sort of raised, should it be two terms or three terms of how many years, right? Like, those are all questions that we can negotiate and discern. But I think the ultimate question here is, should we have lifetime appointments or not?

And on that question, my response is clear. I believe in term limits. For the Senate, too? Absolutely. Absolutely. Look, and for members of Congress, in both the Senate and in the House, I believe, look, Colorado has term limits. And as someone who is just completing my eight years, two four-year terms in the state legislature, it absolutely made me think differently about my time because I knew that. that I had only four years to serve.

And if I was lucky enough to be elected a second time, I would only have eight years. It then changes one's perspective on how to approach the work. Do I want to spend my time adopting a politics of centrist incrementalism where we're just moving chairs on the Titanic? Or do we want to use that time to do the good work on behalf of everyday Colorans who need that broad structural reform to extract the profit motive out of health care, to get dark money out of our politics, to ensure that we're not only advancing policies that, you know, the oligarchs and, And the NASDAQ stock exchange demonstrate to be effective on behalf of our economy, but that instead judges the well-being of our society by how we're treating our babies and our elders. And so when it comes to the Supreme Court, when it comes to any congressional term limits, I believe that that will lead to less polarization and a healthier approach to how we serve the American people. Before we go, this is kind of a philosophical question, but Colorado has never elected a woman to the U.S. Senate. We have never had a woman governor.

Denver has never had a woman mayor. You know, that's in contrast to the state legislature, which is often very well represented by women and features women like you in leadership. How do you explain that contrast, Senator? Or do you? Yeah, no. No, it's been so fascinating because there are so many incredible leaders in our community who have run and not been successful. I said this in my speech at the Democratic State Assembly where, look, with so much respect to the women and the Latinos, who have stepped up to run before, to shatter those glass ceilings, I stand on their shoulders,

and my candidacy and campaign would have not been possible without their support and without their attempts in the past. What is fascinating as I talked to Coloradans and ask them to consider the fact that Colorado is one of but four states that has never elected a woman to serve either as governor or in the U.S. Senate, when I ask folks, oh, what do you, which states do you think that we find ourselves in the company in? And they'll say, oh, Texas. Like, nope, you're forgetting Ann Richard. They'll say, oh, and they'll throw out a bunch of other states. No, the other three states are Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Indiana. And when Colorado was a pioneer and a trailblaer. And a trailblaer. in granting suffrage to women.

What I find myself really fascinated by is that we seem to have never broken those glass ceilings here as the mayor of Denver, the governor of Colorado, or in the U.S. Senate. Those are all positions that Governor Hicken, I'm sorry, Senator John Hickenlooper, I'm sorry, Mayor Hicken, oh, wait, he's held all three of those positions. I see what you did there. Okay. Right? And so at a certain point, you know, I guess I could have sat around and waited for the men to say, you know what, I think it's time.

But I didn't do that. And I stepped up because I think that no one should ever be just granted an automatic return to a seat. I think that every election is an opportunity to present a vision forward for the next term. And look, I stand willing to debate Senator John Hickenlooper on my vision of what it is that we need to accomplish in the U.S. Senate for the next six years in order to improve Coloradoans daily lives. I stand ready to do that work. He has not engaged. He has opted to not participate in debates. So when it comes to Coloradoans making the decision of will we continue to engage in six more years of go along to get along politics or will we make history by electing the first woman in Colorado's history to serve in the U.S. Senate, only the second Latina ever in our entire 250 year history.

Catherine Cortez Mastewa, Nevada being the first, right? That is up to the voters of Colorado to decide. Senator, Senadora, thank you so much, as many people who work with you, call you. Thank you so much for being with us. Absolutely. State Senator Julie Gonzalez of Denver, she hopes to unseat U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper. The winner of the June 30th Democratic primary will face Republican Mark Basley come fall. he's a state senator from Douglas County.

Again, Mr. John Hickenlooper said his schedule couldn't accommodate an interview with us. He did answer questions earlier in the campaign for our digital voter guide. That publishes Friday at cpr.org.

And Colorado Matters continues in this next half hour with a college commensual. speech that reminds us to take it one day at a time. I'm Ryan Warner. You're with CPR News and KRCC. It's Colorado Matters from CPR News and KRCC. I'm Ryan Warner. The next time I'm struggling, I'm going to think about this year's commencement speaker at Front Range Community College. She began by sharing her high school GPA. My transcript said something very different about. my future. A 0.6 GPA. Yes, a 0.6. And I know you're probably wondering how someone with a record

like that is speaking at a place like this, but just hear me out. Looking back, it would have been really easy to give up, but life doesn't wait, and neither could I. Hi, I'm Vanessa Gonzalez, And speaking here is bigger than anything I could have imagined. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to give you all a small glimpse into my journey at Front Range. And of course, I do have to say thank you to my mom, my dad, and my family. If college teaches us anything, it's that life rarely waits for the perfect moment. Life is going to happen to us all. It happens in the middle of exams,

clinicals, night shifts, and alarms going off at 4 a.m. A huge part of my journey happened behind the scenes in offices across campus. I live with narcolepsy, a sleep disorder. Basically, my body doesn't know the difference between when to be asleep and when to be awake. It kind of just takes its best guess.

with like 10% accuracy. I can laugh about it now, but I have fallen asleep while taking my ACTs and in the middle of dinner at the Olive Garden. Because of this, I had to learn how to ask for help through things like disability support services. The academic advisors here helped me rebuild my transcript and plan a path to nursing school.

Somehow, somewhere along the way, I also became a person in recovery, and at the beginning of this semester, I celebrated one whole year of sobriety.

During my time in the nursing program, life certainly did not slow down. In the middle of nursing school, I experienced a miscarriage, a loss that deepened my understanding of the patients I will soon care for. Despite this loss in hardship and because I had already worked closely

with support services, I had learned something incredibly important, how to advocate for myself. That meant being honest with my instructors about what I was going through, asking for the support I needed, and allowing myself the space to keep moving forward. It also meant sharing my story with classmates and peers so they could learn how to utilize the same systems that helped me succeed. For the first time in my life, continuing forward seemed more. possible than just giving up. Every single person graduating today has a story like this.

Maybe it was working full-time, raising kids, navigating illness, caring for family, going through a breakup, or overcoming doubts nobody else could see. Front Range taught me that you don't have to solve the whole problem at once. You just have to learn the process. Sometimes, but rarely, progress can be defined by numbers like a GPA. Most of the time, though, it's not. Progress just looks like getting out of bed, showing up, trying again tomorrow, and doing the next right thing. Success is not about having a perfect path.

It's about continuing forward when that path takes an unlawful. unexpected turn or two, or three, or 20. With support, persistence, and a lot of one day out of time progress, that 0.6 eventually did become a 4.0. Thank you.

But mostly, I'm just honored to be graduating today as a licensed practical nurse. Some of Vanessa Gonzalez's remarks to her fellow graduates at Front Range Community College earlier this month. A problem is gnawing at Denver Parks and Recreation.

trees along the city's streams, creeks and rivers keep coming down. That's at the hands or teeth of some of our state's savviest engineers. And while it's a good sign that they are there, it is forcing city officials to get creative. So we're just trying to re-vegetate, but it's really challenging because they want to eat everything that we put in. Emily Zeller recently worked with volunteers to plant choke cherry trees along Sanderson Gulch in southwest Denver. She hopes the saplings will beef up a shoreline that's been chewed through and damned up by beavers.

This is another way that we protect the trees, but it doesn't always work. Denver writes, Palo Shalcala, reported this story and spoke with Arlo Perez-Eskinell of Colorado today. First of all, Denver has beavers. Denver has beavers. Denver Parks and Recreation told me that wherever we have flowing water, there's probably a beaver. Think Cherry Creek, South Platte River, Bear Creek, even the minor gulches we have.

And it doesn't take long to spot the signs. Trees that look like they've been gnawed on. And, of course, the beaver dam, which looks less like a grand architectural feat and more like a mound of mud and sticks. One of the reasons they've been so successful in the city is because there aren't any natural predators. Humans are basically the only thing that can keep their population in check in Denver. And it sounds like so far we really haven't. Fever said being a little too successful for the Parks Department's comfort. Yeah.

So in Ruby Hill, that's the neighborhood that butts up against Sanderson Gulch, residents are concerned about all the trees that line the trail, or used to line the trail. There are a lot fewer these days. Brandy Moe has lived there for more than a decade. We want them to stay around, but it just started getting like the, the distrable. construction of the trees was ramping up really quick. And that's left city departments searching for solutions. Vicki Vargas Madrid is a wildlife program manager with Denver Parks and Rec. And she said they don't want to physically relocate the beavers because...

They really are the land's ecosystem engineers. And they provide a lot of value to creating an ecological balance to our landscape. But that means officials need to figure out a way for people, and beavers to coexist. So then is the plan to plant more trees for beavers to chomp on? It's one of a few plans. They're trying to restore some of the tree canopy that the beavers down and protecting both mature trees and new saplings with metal wiring.

They've even covered some tree bases with paint that discourages beavers from chewing on it. And Denver Parks and Rec is also doing some plumbing to keep the creeks moving. At Sanderson Gulch, they installed a PVC pipe in a beaver dam to allow water. to pass through it. And Paolo, I understand that beavers aren't just the talk of Ruby Hill. Yeah, Vargas Madrid said beavers are a hot topic in Colorado. State wildlife officials are trying to do more to protect them. That includes a new beaver management plan from Colorado Parks and Wildlife to increase

their populations across the state, plus a million dollars for beaver habitat restoration, which the governor's office just announced. That is Dendorites, Paulo Shalceda speaking with Colorado today, co-host Adlo Perez Esquibel. Well, we are eager to see you June 12th. We're recording our show at Litfest in Denver. I'll speak with author Rachel Weaver about her new memoir, Dizzy. You're invited to read it ahead of time.

It's about Weaver's medical mystery, waking up one morning with her world spinning, a journey of medical and self-discovery. Get all the info and tickets at CPR.org, turn the page, and I'll hope to see you June 12th. When we come back, a Denver singer-songwriter lands a seat at NPR's Tiny Desk. This is Colorado Matters from CPR News. It's Colorado Matters from CPR News. I'm Ryan Warner.

NPR's Tiny Desk contest is a rite of passage for up-and-coming musicians. More than 6,000 artists entered this year. Denver Singer-songwriter Lauren Freehoff is a lot of. among them.

I even bother If you could spend you I've tried to bend down an answer To find out it don't really matter Freeha finished in the top five And she spoke with our Sandy Batulga Welcome Lauren, thanks for being here. Thank you for having me

Your Spotify bio says that you might be off somewhere looking at bugs. Is this true? Yes. Okay, so true. What kind of bugs? What's your favorite bug? Ants. Yeah, I have an obsession.

I've always been interested in looking at them and observing their behavior. Fascinating. Yeah. Have you learned anything cool about their behavior? They're always protecting the female ants, which are like deeper in the ant hills. and those have wings and like sometimes they'll like have a special occasion where they bring them out and if you move one aunt to another hill even if it's like the same kind of ant that they will murder it.

Whoa, intense, okay. That's so cool. I think I need to observe more ants. All right. And again back on topic. The song you submitted to the tiny desk concert this year is called One Thing Always Leads to Another.

The second verse goes, the older I get, the stranger I feel, well living for their climb. only keeps you high for so long. First, how old are you? I'm 22. Okay. Second, what was the motivation behind writing this song? I had the idea in my head for over a year for the chorus and verses, but I didn't really have maybe the story or experience to put all the pieces together until about a year ago. And I think the inspiration kind of comes with, or is inspired, by just my disillusionment with some of the rat race and I don't know maybe where we're headed. Yeah. Rat race of like being in music or just in general?

I think in general. I mean, it's in every line of work, but in my personal experience, it seems like there's a lot of pressure to be known or recognized or else you haven't necessarily made it or haven't been. successful, but I think that success is something personal, and I think that you can have success in everyday moments, even if you haven't made it to your final destination. Very wise. Well, I know this is actually your fifth time submitting to the contest. What do you think made this song stand out? I think it's the message behind it.

I've submitted a lot of different kinds of songs over the last few years. And I don't know. I think this one has an undertone of maybe acceptance and maybe, I wouldn't say, positivity necessarily, but it's not as sad as my past ones. Okay. So maybe that ring a little more, could resonate with more people or, yeah, I don't know. I think it's really the message. Got it. Okay.

Yeah. Do you have a favorite Tiny Desk concert? Oh, Emily King. I waited for years for that one. Yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh, of course. Is that like you rewatch it all the time, that sort of thing? I've watched that one multiple times, yes.

Hey, love, Domna, get up. I think you've been sleeping too long. My day started when you were still yawning. would root to sing enough when there's two folks trying to get along but it's hard to leave you alone ooh oh love is always better when we take time to get back to who we are when we are, oh boy distance makes the heart grow grow, Even when I'm lonely, happy knowing that your love is...

You grew up kind of near Denver on a farm in Byers. What music played in your house as you were growing up? A lot of different kinds. My brother listened to country, and then my other brother listened to heavy metal, and my parents kind of played a lot of Cheryl Crow and Journey and various classic rock fans, yeah. Do you think that influenced your personal music taste and style? Probably. looking back, I realized that I had quite a diverse set of music playing around me a lot of the

time. So it certainly did. Yeah. I know you also did School of Rock as a kid and you even did like the All-Stars band. You have to audition for it, right? Yeah. It's like the best of the best. Okay. What do you think the best thing you learned from that experience is? I think I got a lot of confidence performing. And it was really great experience playing with other musicians on a regular basis. And since it simulates the live gigging aspect, I think I was able to get a feel for what that was like. And it just made me hungry for it when I got older.

Yeah. Okay. It seems like you've known you've wanted to go all in on the music thing for a long time since you were young. I mean, you were on The Voice at just 16 years old in 2020, which is kind of a crazy time to do the show. Did you get to skip school while filming that? Well, I was homeschooled. Oh. And it was also over the summer, so I didn't have any online classes during that point, yeah. Were you nervous on this stage, or how did you feel when you're doing it? I was so nervous, but I feel like I was more grounded in some ways than I would be now.

maybe because I was just more naive. I got into meditation around that time. And so before every performance or rehearsal, I would just sit and have my headphones in and listen to this mindful app for probably 20 minutes to an hour every morning. Oh my gosh, I need to get on that level to start meditating. What do you think the hardest thing of doing music has been so far for you? That's a really good question.

For me personally, I think I struggle with how much to get my own identity wrapped in, or wrapped up in my career and like what my success or, you know, failure says about me as a person. And so that's something I'm constantly having to work through. And I feel like you alluded to that in the song, too. Yeah. Outside of music, what do you like to do with your time speaking? of being a person outside of your career? I really enjoy drawing and painting. I used to do it all the time as a kid and my partner now is an artist and so he's kind of gotten me back into it. And so I find

that to be a really good outlet for my creativity when I'm feeling kind of burned out with music. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. I was so curious about homeschooling. Will you homeschooling? Will you homeschooled your entire childhood? Since first grade. Okay. Yeah. And we, and we, Was it your parents who taught you? It was my mom and she had a curriculum. Got it. Yeah.

Do you ever miss having gone to high school or anything like that? At the time, I felt a lot of FOMO, but looking back, I wouldn't change it for myself. I think that it really helped me put my all into music and songwriting and, like, learn how to internalize and write down my feelings and, you know, put. that into art. Yeah. Yeah. In Denver and also just in colored in general, there's such a vibrant indie music scene. Do you have a favorite venue or festival to play around here? I really love Stone Cottage Studios in Boulder. Yeah. And in Denver, I love Dazzle. Oh, dazzle. Yeah. Okay. How many times have you played there? I've played there on my, with my own band twice and with some other friends, probably like three or four times.

Yeah. Well, I know you're in another project called Road Pony, which has like a much more country sound. How did you get involved in that? I sing backing vocals for my friend Megan Burt for a few years. And during one of her Christmas runs, she and I were in the car. And she had had this idea of like making a country band. And so it's the lineup, like it's the same lineup as her own band. But we just write. country music and it's become a very fun side project and we've we've written a lot of songs and are playing in a lot of places that we wouldn't have been able to with our own projects. Has there been like an outpouring of new fans after the NPR recognition? Yeah, yeah. It's been really sweet. I feel like it gave gave me a boost for sure not only and like listeners and stuff, but just people who really connect with my kind of music. And so I'm very grateful for that. How do you hope people feel when they listen to your music? I hope they feel

seen and inspired. Those are two words that come to my idea. Do you think you'll enter the Tiny Desk Contest again next year? Of course. Is it going to be until you win? Yeah, for sure. I'm in it to win it. Thank you so much, Lauren. Well, we'd love to have you play the song now. If that's

Great, of course. I'm looking around closing questions Rock my brain until I'm asking what I even bother Because you could spend you life Trying to bend down an answer To find out it don't matter

Denver. Denver singer-songwriter Lauren Freehoff spoke with CPR Sandy Batulga. Freehoff is a Tiny Desk contest finalist. She'll open for the winner, Dallas-based Cure for Paranoia, when the Tiny Desk Tour stops in Denver next month. And that is here.

If you go scouring the earth, looking for the end. And that is our tiny show for now with big thanks to the team. Sandy Butuga. Tyler Bender. Carl Beelick. Anthony Cotton. Pete Kramer.

Andrea Dukakis. Zan Huchmichoni, Matt Hurs, Tom Hess, Michael Hughes, Pedro Lumbraño, Shane Rumsey, Haley Sanchez, Shandra Thomas Whitfield. And I'm Ryan Warner. Thanks for spending time with us at CPR News and KRC.

Oh.