Colorado’s Oil and Gas Stranglehold and the Lessons of Machiavelli

On Tuesday, October 7, 2025, Kim Monson examined how Colorado’s regulatory apparatus stifles natural resource development with Laramie Energy CEO Bob Boswell, welcomed board game entrepreneur Mark Monson, heard from personal injury attorney Jon Boesen on workers’ compensation protections, and hosted a spirited Machiavelli book discussion with Luke Cashman and Producer Joe on the second anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attack. Entrepreneurship and the Power of Disconnecting to Reconnect Start listening at 21:00 – Hour 1 Mark Monson describes his five-year journey from a spark of creativity to a fully funded Kickstarter campaign and a finished board game, Legend of the Eight Isles. Monson handled every aspect of development himself, from writing rules to managing overseas manufacturing in China. When tariffs hit midway through production, he absorbed the added costs as a solo publisher rather than abandon the project. The game pits one player controlling the villains against a team of heroes across multiple maps, with characters inspired by animals and even Monson’s own dog. Designed for ages eight and up, sessions can last 15 minutes or stretch across an entire evening. Monson argues that board games pull people away from screens and force genuine face-to-face interaction, something he sees as increasingly rare and vital. “When you don’t talk directly to people, you don’t really treat them as people.” Mark Monson, Creator of Legend of the Eight Isles Colorado’s Regulatory War on Natural Gas and Data Center Development Start listening at 32:39 – Hour 1 Bob Boswell, CEO of Laramie Energy, breaks down how Colorado’s regulatory environment has choked off natural resource development in a state ranked sixth nationally in oil and gas reserves. Boswell points to the ECMC’s shift toward environmental priorities over constructive resource development, and the layering of duplicative, unnecessary regulations that have pushed data center investment to Virginia and Texas while Colorado has attracted a handful at best. He notes that 70 percent of Colorado’s land is federally owned, and the state’s administration has fought development of those public minerals to the detriment of its own citizens. Boswell explains the critical distinction between baseload power, the consistent energy supply needed for daily demand, and peak load capacity required during extreme weather events like Winter Storm Uri in Texas. Wind and solar serve as supplements, he stresses, not replacements for reliable natural gas generation. Lithium battery storage can sustain only one to two days of demand, making an all-renewables grid by 2040 physically impossible with current technology. He predicts the federal government will renegotiate its memorandum of understanding with Colorado to allow hydrocarbon development on public lands, potentially overriding the state’s restrictive posture. “What we’ve had in Colorado is a administration that has consistently fought development of our natural resources in the state to the detriment of the people of the state.” Bob Boswell, CEO of Laramie Energy Workers’ Compensation and the Cost of Waiting Start listening at 63:09 – Hour 2 Jon Boesen warns that the most common and costly mistake injured workers make is failing to report workplace injuries when they happen. Defense counsel routinely argues that unreported injuries occurred outside work, at the gym or on a hiking trail, destroying a work...