Nathan Fernando-Frescas

Senior Host, All Things Considered

@heffeln[email protected]

Nathan Fernando-Frescas (Heffel) is a host for All Things Considered on CPR News.

Professional background:
Nathan returned to Colorado Public Radio in 2022, bringing years of on-air experience with radio stations across Colorado. From 2015 to 2018, he was a host and producer for CPR News' daily interview show, Colorado Matters. In 2018, he left CPR to work as an editor for NPR’s All Things Considered in Washington, D.C., before returning to Colorado to become the station manager for KRVG FM, a commercial music station in Western Colorado. Nathan was a host and reporter for KUNC in Greeley, Colo., with an emphasis on coverage of transportation, public infrastructure and LGBT issues. Prior to that, he was news manager for KUVO and began his radio career as an assistant producer for KYGO, both Denver stations.

Nathan's work has been featured on national and international radio shows including PRI's The Takeaway, NPR's Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, All Things Considered, Here and Now, and ABC's Victoria Statewide Drive. In print, The Denver Post, U.S. News and World Report and numerous other local newspapers around Colorado.

Education:
Bachelor’s degree in government, Lawrence University.

Awards:
Nathan's work in journalism has been recognized by the Associated Press, the Colorado Broadcasters Association, the Society of Professional Journalists and Public Radio News Directors Incorporated.

Colorado Matters

Colorado’s Outdoor Recreation Industry, A Veteran’s Dance, Voting Memories, And The Band Lost Walks

Colorado’s outdoor recreation industry brings in more than $13B dollars a year, and includes a company, Voormi, that calls itself “the microbrew of apparel.” Then, a new dance performance in Denver captures the darkest days of Todd Bilsborough’s life, when he came back from the Iraq War. The veteran wrote the music for the show. And, the new Denver band “Lost Walks” thought their concept album would resemble a Disney musical, but they ended up with something more like Goth. Plus, long-time voters remember their first time filling out the ballot.
By Nathan Fernando-Frescas
Colorado Matters

Hickenlooper Wants To Flip The Senate, Friends Rally To Publish Works Of Late Denver Writer

Gov. John Hickenlooper says he’s never recorded campaign ads for state legislative candidates. But, with Republicans opposed to his signature budget policy, he hopes to flip control of the Senate. That would mean total Democratic control of the legislative and executive branches. Then, a Denver man wrote more than 20 novels, but died before any were published. So his friends are stepping up. And, a web series about people’s complex relationships with food, including a vegetarian who married a Colorado cattle rancher.
By Nathan Fernando-Frescas
Colorado Matters

Juror Bias, Solar Storms, A Mission To Catch An Asteroid, Colorado’s Changing Geography

The United States Supreme Court is considering a Colorado case about a juror who made racist comments during deliberations. The verdict could change a longstanding legal bedrock. Then, a big development in how scientists predict weather in space. And a conversation about asteroids, comets and space probes with our regular contributor astronomer and director of Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium, Doug Duncan. Plus, a Colorado man has documented the state’s changing geography using sketches from the 1870s.
By Nathan Fernando-Frescas
Colorado Matters

Removing Slavery From Colorado’s Constitution, Campaign Ad Spending, and Tesla’s Legacy

While slavery is banned in Colorado, the state’s constitution allows for it in one circumstance: as a form of punishment for a crime. That doesn’t sit well with Denver’s faith and community leaders who back a ballot measure called Amendment T, which would remove that provision. Then, Colorado voters aren’t seeing nearly the same number of campaign advertisements this election year as they did in 2012. And a new documentary looks at the life of Nikolas Tesla, whose name might be more associated with the car than the man who invented the precursor to the modern electrical motor more than 100 years ago.
By Nathan Fernando-Frescas
Colorado Matters

Tina Griego Returns, DCPA Has A New Leader, Kratom Ban Raises Hackles, Greensky Bluegrass Jams

The drastic jump in Denver home prices shocked former Denver Post columnist Tina Griego when she returned to Denver recently after moving to Virginia four years ago. She’s now on the staff at The Colorado Independent. And, we hear from the new head of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts — the first woman to run the organization. Also, the federal government might ban an herbal substance that’s now legal in Denver and the eclectic sounds of an award-winning Colorado bluegrass band.
By Nathan Fernando-Frescas
Colorado Matters

Police Try ‘Shoot-Don’t-Shoot’ Simulator, A Refugee’s Story, Dining In The Dark

The Denver Police Department prepares officers for the most difficult scenarios by putting them in the middle of a new wraparound video simulator called “Shoot-Don’t-Shoot.” CPR’s Andrea Dukakis tried it. Then, an Aurora high school student from Eritrea shares his refugee story. Plus, eating in complete darkness with strangers might not seem ideal, but the founder of the Blind Cafe says its the perfect social experiment.
By Nathan Fernando-Frescas
Colorado Matters

Colorado’s Oldest Synagogue Closes, And This Man Could’ve Been The First Black Astronaut

The holiest days of the Jewish year are coming up, but a synagogue in Trinidad, near the New Mexico border, won’t hold services for the first time in 127 years. It’s been operating longer than any other synagogue in Colorado, but has been sold and is closing. Then, an online petition wants Colorado’s Ed Dwight Jr. to become an honorary astronaut. He was the first African-American candidate for the U.S Space program, but following the death of President John F. Kennedy, Dwight was cut from the program. Plus, how budget cuts have hurt one Colorado school district, and an upcoming closure on a main road into Rocky Mountain National Park.
By Nathan Fernando-Frescas