CSU's The Audit

Colorado State University researcher Jaclyn Stephens is the director of the College of Health and Human Sciences BRAINSTORM Lab, where she studies adolescents and adults with sports-related concussion, along with more severe forms of traumatic brain injury. She recently spoke to CSU's The Audit about the short and long-term impacts of concussion, what we’re learning about the recovery process, and how yoga might play a key role in rewiring the brain.

Agriculture is big in Colorado, and a recent survey from the Colorado Department of Agriculture shows that Coloradans care a lot — not only about how their food is grown, but where it’s grown. CSU agricultural economist Dawn Thilmany spoke to The Audit about why the buy local movement matters so much to consumers.

CSU researcher Megan Mueller talks about the impact that restaurants and our food environment can have on our food choices and our health. 

As we head into Pride Month, The Audit revisits an episode in which CSU's Tom Dunn talks about the creation of the Queer Memory Project, an online archive dedicated to preserving LGBTQ+ history.

An encore episode featuring CSU Distinguished Professor, writer and poet Camille Dungy speaking about using her garden to explore issues of history, race, sustainability and motherhood in her book "Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden."

Imagine being a sailor in the 1700s and suddenly in the pitch black of the night, the sea begins to glow a fluorescent green, illuminating the ocean like a giant nightlight. Today, this peculiar occurrence is known as “milky seas,” but more than 300 years later researchers still don’t know much more about the phenomenon than those sailors did.Now Colorado State University researcher Justin Hudson is using centuries worth of sea captain diaries and deck logs, coupled with satellite imagery, to help solve this maritime mystery. 

From making hip implants that stick to heart valves that slip, CSU biomedical engineering researcher and inventor Sue James talks about her career path, working to pave the way for other women engineers and her many patents along the way. 

CSU food scientist Caitlin Clark explains what makes us love chocolate, why "healthy" chocolate isn't necessarily all it's cracked up to be and how much that chocolate bar should actually cost.

In 2020, after burning for three months, the Cameron Peak Fire scorched more than 200,000 acres, making it the largest wildfire in Colorado history. Five years later, and more than a thousand miles away, a series of devastating wildfires continues to burn in Los Angeles. Anne Mook, senior team scientist at CSU's Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, along with Pilar Morales-Giner, a postdoctoral researcher at Spain's University of Granada, spoke with The Audit about their recently published research on the deeper impact wildfires can have on communities using the Cameron Peak Fire as a test case. The researchers explore how - for better and for worse - wildfires can reshape both our emotional and practical connections to our communities along with what lessons the Cameron Peak Fire could hold for LA.

It may not be considered "polite conversation," but Jordan Kraft Lambert thinks we all need to be talking more about poop. In fact, the director of ag innovation at CSU’s Spur campus has made it her mission to bring this and other “icky” topics to the table – figuratively and literally. Lambert spoke with CSU's The Audit podcast about how poop is actually a pretty powerful commodity, and why liver gets such a bad (and largely undeserved) rap.

Since the COVID 19 pandemic began in 2020, same day/next day delivery — something that was previously considered a premium service — has become a normal, and even expected, way to shop, largely thanks to Amazon.In this encore episode of CSU's The Audit, associate professor of operations and supply chain management Zac Rogers shares how this model of shipping works, why brick-and-mortar stores will never go away and the surprising reason all those Amazon returns might not be as bad as you might think. (Originally aired Nov. 2023)

Fifty years ago, the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons was created, and despite some initial controversies, it has endured to become a beloved pastime and cultural touchstone for many. But for Colorado State University political science instructor James “Pigeon” Fielder, it’s much more than that.To Fielder, D&D — as it’s more commonly known — is a master class in political strategy, everything from diplomacy to alliance forming to conflict resolution. Fielder recently spoke to CSU's The Audit about what a fantasy game filled with sorcerers, warlocks and wizards can teach our political leaders and how it might benefit them — and us — if they started to wage a very different kind of campaign. 

From voters saying no to hosting the Winter Olympics to the Earth Liberation Front's attack on Vail ski resort, Colorado State University Associate Professor and author Michael Childers says it hasn't been all powder for Colorado's snow business. In this encore episode, Childers talks about Colorado's bumpy path to becoming a ski haven. (Originally aired March 2023)

Most people have experienced déjà vu at one time or another, that eerie feeling that you've been in a situation before when you know that you haven't. But what is déjà vu? And why does it happen? Colorado State University Psychology Professor Anne Cleary, who researches human memory and specifically déjà vu, says the reasons are a lot more normal than paranormal. Cleary recently spoke with The Audit about what actually happens when you experience this memory phenomenon. 

In 1983, Spirit Halloween stores began popping up with a very unique business model — rent out a large, vacant store front; fill it with Halloween costumes and temporary employees for about eight to 10 weeks; and then as of Nov. 1 — poof! They vanish like a ghost. Colorado State University College of Business Associate Professor Zac Rogers researches the financial impact of supply chain sustainability, emerging logistics technologies, as well as purchasing and logistics issues. Rogers recently spoke with The Audit about how the Spirit store model has influenced how we do business and whether its latest endeavor to enter the Christmas market will be a success.