Skip to content
How hippies rode an asteroid into Boulder episode artwork

EPISODE · Feb 26, 2026 · 22 MIN

How hippies rode an asteroid into Boulder

from The Mountain-Ear Podcast · host The Mountain-Ear Staff

Send us Fan Mail Before the days when Boulder, Nederland and Ward were considered a safe haven for beat poets, rockstars and acid heads, there wasn’t a whole lot of love for weird. Then the 1960s happened, and a near-earth asteroid drove a swath of paranoid hippies to Boulder and its mountain towns. Today, Maryann Rosen takes us on a long strange trip through the migration of hippies to the area, and how the art, drugs and attitudes they brought with them changed this place for good. Also Demolition process begins at Caribou Shopping Center Boulder v. Big Oil lawsuit heading to Supreme Court Nederland library celebrates 25 years Links The Hippie Temptation, CBS News report, 1967 Jack Kerouac on the Steve Allen Show, 1959 Oral history with Robert F. Raikes, Boulder Public Library, 2011 "Sail On" by Zephyr, track one on Zephyr, 1969 Leftover Salmon in Boulder, 2012 Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record Better off Dead here. Support the show Thank you for listening to The Mountain-Ear Podcast, featuring news and culture from peak to peak! Additional pages are linked below. If you want to be involved in the podcast or paper, contact: Barbara Hardt, our editor-in-chief, at [email protected] Tyler Hickman, multimedia producer, at [email protected] Jamie Lammers, podcast host, at [email protected] General inquiries: [email protected] Head to our website for all of the latest news. Subscribe to The Mountain-Ear in print and online. Submit local events to promote them in the paper and on our website. Find us on Facebook @mtnear and Instagram @mtn.ear Listen and watch on YouTube today. Share this podcast by scrolling to the bottom of our website home page or by heading to our main hub on Buzzsprout. Thank you for listening!

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Feb 26, 2026

Embed this episode

Send us Fan Mail Before the days when Boulder, Nederland and Ward were considered a safe haven for beat poets, rockstars and acid heads, there wasn’t a whole lot of love for weird. Then the 1960s happened, and a near-earth asteroid drove a swath of paranoid hippies to Boulder and its mountain towns. Today, Maryann Rosen takes us on a long strange trip through the migration of hippies to the area, and how the art, drugs and attitudes they brought with them changed this place for good. Also Dem...

Distinct summary based on available episode metadata or transcript content.

Ready to play

How hippies rode an asteroid into Boulder

0:00 22:56

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

No similar episodes found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of The Mountain-Ear Podcast?

This episode is 22 minutes long.

When was this The Mountain-Ear Podcast episode published?

This episode was published on February 26, 2026.

Can I download this The Mountain-Ear Podcast episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.
URL copied to clipboard!