Boulder Valley Frequency: King Soopers shooting, 5 years later

We're excited to announce that Boulder Valley Frequency, a local news podcast from longtime Boulder reporter Shay Castle, is joining the Mountain-Ear Podcast family.

On today's show, we sat down with Shay to talk about the importance of local news, and how her show is bringing you everything you need to know to stay informed on your community in an accessible and unintimidating package.

We feature the lates episode of BVHz, where Shay sat down with the daughter of a King Soopers shooting victim on grief to talk about healing and the power of storytelling.

Erika Mahoney, a Boulder-born journalist, lost her father, Kevin Mahoney in the 2021 King Soopers shooting. She created Senseless, an 8-part podcast, to explore the impact of losing her father in such a sudden, violent and public way.

If you liked today's show, you can subscribe to BVHz here: www.boulderfrequency.com.

To get in touch with Shay, you can email her here: shay@themountainear.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:34

If you're like me, odds are you get a lot of your news from podcasts. It's easy to pop a show on during my commute, listen while I make dinner, or when I get ready for my day. It's also easy to get national or even state news in my headphones. The options are endless. But when it comes to hyperlocal coverage, the amount of quality audio journalism drops off pretty quickly. For my taste. There's one that really sticks out though. It's dependable, digestible, and most importantly, it doesn't make you feel totally hopeless every time you listen to it. So I'm excited to announce that Shay and the Frequency are officially joining the podcast team here at the Mountaineer Podcast. They'll still have their own show, covering their own news, but we'll be working pretty closely together to bring you the best local journalism in the peak to peak in Boulder County that you can ask for. To give you a little taste of what's to come. I'm in the studio with Shay today to introduce Boulder Valley Frequency into the family. And then we'll tune into her latest episode. Welcome to the show, Shay. How's it going?

SPEAKER_03 1:58

It's going good. Thanks for having me. Or it's going well. Sorry, that's proper grammar.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Yeah, yeah. I'm excited to be in the studio with you together. It's exciting to be working kind of alongside one another with this. Before we get into it, I thought uh the only person that could introduce your show is you. So I just wanted to hear from you why Boulder Valley frequency and and why a news podcast for the Boulder Valley area.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

Yeah, great question. Um, you know, as you know, we were both on Boulder Weekly when that fell apart over the summer and I was sort of in between things. It was not my intention to ever start my own outlet again. I ran Boulder Beat for five years. And while that was a lot of fun and I learned a lot, it was pretty isolating, which is why I joined Boulder Weekly initially. Um, but then a reader of mine from Boulder Beat, he'd been a supporter like since day one. He probably even followed my work at the Daily Camera. He approached me with a neighbor and friend of his. Um, Jeff Rosick was the listener, and Kelly Gary was his friend. And Kelly is he is the audio expert at the Boulder Valley Frequency, and he is just so incredibly talented. He has worked on Emmy Award-winning television shows. He worked on an Oscar-winning documentary. I was kind of humbled that someone with that much talent would want to work with me. They approached me with the idea of doing a local news podcast because, to your point, there's a lot of national news podcasts, and that's how they both get their national news, and they really wanted to see something local. And it was their passion and enthusiasm and skill that convinced me, like, okay, sure. I'd never done any podcasting. I've been on KGNU a couple of times, but I've never recorded and produced any audio segments. And I just felt like a good time to expand my skills. And I'm always trying to reach new people in Boulder County and convince them of like, hey, local journalism is important. And Kelly was in some ways my target audience because he is tuned in, he is engaged, but not on a local level. And Mike Spiel is always like, dude, you can have so much more of an impact if you pay attention locally. And it's also less stressful because we're not talking about like bombing children and things like that. We're talking about like transportation projects and um local tax measures and things. So yeah, they just they were so excited about it that I kind of like caught their enthusiasm, was like, all right, let's let's try something new.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah, and I think an important point you make is that a lot of people don't get their local news from podcasts. Um and that's how a lot of us get our news in general is from podcasts. There's like a convenience factor to it. You can consume it while you're doing other things. So I wanted to ask you who exactly is this show for? What's like the person that you would expect to be listening to Boulder Valley Frequency?

SPEAKER_03 4:57

Well, I'm hoping that we're converting some national news podcast listeners to local news. It's like for the first time, like Kelly, like, hey, love what you're doing with this habit, maybe make it local where you can have more of a difference. I also know that, you know, a lot of listeners are people who were my readers at Boulder Beat and are interested in local news. Um, but when I keep it manageable, you know, like the days of like reading your local paper at the table every morning, that might still happen for sure, but not a lot of people have that time. So I'm really keeping in mind folks who might be like dropping their kids off at school or have a shorter commute of 20 to 30 minutes so you can listen to an episode. I'm really trying to fit it into lives of people who want to know what's going on, who want to be good citizens and residents, but want to do so in like a low effort way that meets them where they are. So that's who I'm hoping to get is like you can listen to this in 15 to 20 minutes, know high level what's going on in your community. And that way, if it like catches your ear of like, okay, the council in Lama is gonna vote on this issue in a couple of weeks, then you can like dive in more if you want to. So I wouldn't say it's necessarily for like hardcore local news junkies. So you probably are gonna know everything already that you're hearing about, but it's it's definitely for that like tangentially aware person who wants to become a little bit more engaged in a way that works for them.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Yeah, that's awesome presenting those options to people as a way to stay involved and stay informed without having to feel like they have to subscribe to every newsletter and local news outlet and consume them voraciously, I think is what I appreciate most about audio journalism and your show.

SPEAKER_03 6:40

So I like the word consume because that is kind of what we do to the news. But I think with the 24-hour news cycle, the news consumes us sometimes. And that's kind of my thing is like, no, you consume the news. It doesn't consume you, make it like manageable and put little boundaries around it, just a few minutes, and then like move on with your life and make sure it's from a source that's not trying to stress you out or like pull you in.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Absolutely. What can a Boulder Valley frequency listener expect when they turn it on every Wednesday?

SPEAKER_03 7:12

So you're definitely gonna get the latest headlines. I spent, you know, several hours a week reading the work of other incredible local journalists and reading government documents to see what your elected officials are voting on. So you're gonna get a quick roundup of the headlines, usually, you know, five minutes or so. And then you're gonna get a deeper dive on something, an issue or person or topic that's um relevant and that's interesting, at least to me in the area. So, you know, we've we've done deeper dives on minimum wage and homelessness. Uh, we did an episode recently on time banking, which is like an alternative local economy. So you're gonna meet an interesting person or hear and learn more about something that is happening in your community.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Yeah. Um, and we're gonna hear a little bit more of that today when we go to your episode. We're very, very excited to have you. And I am personally very excited to be working with you as a journalist again, because that makes me better at my job. And I'm always learning something when we get to work together. So super excited to have you.

SPEAKER_03 8:20

I say that feeling is mutual. Of all the people we worked with at the weekly, I'm like most excited to work on a project with you. Like if you ever do anything, I'm like, please call me. I hope they'll call me. I would gladly work for you any day.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Yeah, awesome. I think a lot of exciting things are gonna come uh from from this new um addition to the show. So with that, we're gonna dive into Shay's latest episode now, and I will let her take it from here.

SPEAKER_03 8:49

BEHD, the frequency. Good morning, Boulder County. It's Wednesday, March 18th. I'm your host, Shay Castle. And this is the Frequency, a weekly local podcast covering the news, events, and voices shaping the Boulder Valley. This podcast is made possible by listeners and local businesses. You can sponsor an episode of The Frequency. Reach our growing audience of highly engaged listeners. Email boulderfrequency at gmail.com. Today, we'll hear from Erica Mahoney, a Boulder-born journalist and daughter of Kevin Mahoney, one of the 10 people killed in the King Super Shooting that took place five years ago this week. We want to give plenty of time and space for that conversation. So let's get through the headlines quickly. Here they are. Boulder will seek a new operator for its license plate cameras after community pushback. The city announced March 13th. Boulder's contract with Flock expires this month. Longmont, Denver, and other cities have ended or scaled back their Flock contracts after public concerns over security and the sharing of data with federal immigration authorities. An existing agreement with Flock has been amended to allow Boulder to cancel its contract with 30 days' notice, with no financial penalties. The surprise announcement said a competitive bidding process will begin this month. The city is also working to establish a task force of data and technology experts to guide Boulder's policies. 30 Flock cameras currently operate on arterial roadways in Boulder. Listen to past reporting on Flock on the Frequencies February 18th and March 4th episodes, or at patreon.com slash Boulder Frequency Pod. Longmont okayed three agreements that will eventually bring a new transit hub and college campus at First and Main Streets, one of the city's largest redevelopment deals in recent history. The City of Longmont and Front Range Community College will jointly pursue and fund plans for a downtown campus, with RTD and the state of Colorado pitching in a combined$20 million to build a bus station and five-story, 600-space parking garage. Read more from the city and the Longmont Times call at links in our show notes. Local municipalities cannot regulate noise from regional airports. A court ruled recently in upholding a dismissal of Superior's lawsuit against Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport. The town is evaluating next steps, including further escalation to the state Supreme Court, officials said in a press release. One part of Superior's lawsuit related to lead fuel lives on, with the appellate court reversing an earlier dismissal. That portion of the case will return to district court for further consideration. Find that full story from the Daily Camera. Lions will elect a new mayor and six trustees next month. Ballots are being mailed this week. The Lions recorder has questionnaires from each of the candidates, plus summaries of local forums. Find those at the links in our show notes. Colorado has purchased more than 3,000 acres next to the Aldoro ski resort to protect critical wildlife corridors and expand hunting and fishing. Tolland Ranch has been privately owned since the late 1800s. The property allows access to the ski area and a mountain bike trail. That access will continue unabated, Colorado Sun reported. The purchase will be funded by revenue from hunting and fishing licenses and the Colorado Lottery.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Trelona Bartkoviak, Suzanne Fountain, Terry Liker, Kevin Mahoney, Lynn Murray, Jodie Waters, and Officer Eric Talley.

SPEAKER_03 12:59

Five years ago, ten people were killed in a mass shooting at King Supers in South Boulder. The gunmen would go on to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Today, we are joined by Erica Mahoney, daughter of Kevin Mahoney, whose name you heard just a moment ago, along with those of nine other people who died at the grocery store on March 22nd, 2021. A boulder-born journalist, Erica produced an eight-part podcast about losing her father that day and the grief and healing that followed. Senseless debuted in June 2025. As the five-year anniversary of the tragedy approaches, Erica sat down to talk about how the podcast evolved her grief and her life. Here she is.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

And it's, yeah, it's just really evolved my life and my understanding of what it is to be human.

SPEAKER_03 14:39

How did or did it uh producing the podcast and kind of you know making this narrative and presenting your grief in this very public way, how did that change your healing process?

SPEAKER_02 14:52

It changed it so much. I don't think I ever imagined doing a project like this. Um, right, I certainly did not imagine doing something like this in those first initial years after the shooting. What ended up happening was my family moved back to the Boulder area in 2024. And at that time, things were moving forward with the trial and the court proceedings were ramping up. And it was this moment of is this finally going to go to trial? Because there was a major delay. I just remember going to these events, sitting in the in the courtroom and doing the anniversary with everyone who was affected by the shooting, and realizing that there were these incredible people all around me who had incredible stories from this one single incident. And as a journalist, I wanted to be the one to tell those stories. It ended up being incredibly healing for me. It was really challenging. It was really emotional and it was a lot of hard work. But I think what it allowed me to do is get it out of my body to um digest it in the way that I know best, which is through journalism. And like I said, grief demands to be processed. So if you're a painter, maybe you would turn to art to process your grief. In my case, being a journalist, I turned to the craft of storytelling. And I'm so glad that this audio documentary, if you will, exists in the world because, you know, the news cycle is so fast and so wild now that we tend to move on from big stories quickly without giving them like the full attention that they deserve. And so this podcast, senseless, was really about telling the story of the long shadow of gun violence that we don't always hear about.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

I I loved your exploration of the concept of safety in the podcast. And I'm so curious like, how did you or did you regain your sense of safety? How did your relationship with the concept of safety change? How has it continued to change?

SPEAKER_02 17:18

You know, growing up, I was in third grade when the shooting at Columbine High School happened, which, you know, isn't far from Boulder, um, from my house and my elementary school. And that was so devastating. I think that that was probably the start of me feeling, and I was so young, I was nine. That was the start of me feeling like something really terrifying can happen in a place where I feel safe. And, you know, we were told like that would never happen again. But it was the start of so many horrific mass shootings in this country. And life trudged forward, and this just seemed to keep on this problem, it seemed to just keep crossing paths with my life and everyone's lives. Um, my mom's student was killed in the mass shooting at the movie theater in Aurora. Um, that was so hard on our family. In 2019, I was working as a journalist at the NPR station here in California. And I covered a mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival live for NPR. And that was so that really shook my sense of safety. I felt really terrified after that to go into like fairs and um big outdoor gatherings. And then, you know, the pandemic happened, and that just shut everything down. And we were in our homes, and I'll never forget having a conversation with my mom. And I said, Well, at least with more people home and less people out in public spaces, there have been less small shootings. Two weeks after that conversation, and she agreed with me. And two weeks after that conversation, um, she was calling me about an active shooter at King Supers and that dad was there. It's like despite all of all of that happening throughout my life, I still never thought it would happen to our family. I was completely crushed. I mean, I was frozen. I couldn't leave the house. I was pregnant. I remember the first time we went, my husband and I went grocery shopping after the incident, and I was actually like hiding behind one of the shelves. And just to think back, and I just want to give that younger version of Erica a hug because man, that those were some tough days. Like my nervous system was off the charts. I yeah, you just think about so much life like lost. Like I couldn't go to the farmer's market, I couldn't enjoy these things, I couldn't go to the movies. I was so terrified. I was particularly terrified of going to a grocery store and like lingering too long in the parking lot because that's where my dad was. And so, in the trauma brain, I'm thinking, you know, get in and get to the back of the store. Um, because my dad was returning a shopping cart, or how for years, like I would just leave the shopping cart by my my car and I would feel so bad, like I was being a bad Samaritan, but I just couldn't return the shopping cart because I thought, you know, I'm vulnerable now. And it took a lot of, it took a lot of work to get over that fear. My therapist helped me, you know, through a visualization process. She would say, okay, go when you go to the store and you get into the front of the store, you're gonna look for the exit signs and you're gonna acknowledge that of course I will be feeling this way, who wouldn't, and then to let it go. And that was the hardest thing was to work on that, was to like, okay, I've done my due diligence, I've done the best I can. Some things really are out of our control. And I'm gonna enjoy, you know, pushing my beautiful one-year-old daughter through the store and accepting all the cute conversations that I'm gonna have with strangers about how cute she is. And what I think move the needle on it was just practice and doing it over and over and over again until I felt like, okay, I can do this. When scary things happen and your sense of safety is broken. Um yeah, you want to become a hermit and you want to hide away and you want to go in your cave. And I did that for so long. But there becomes a point in life where you're like, wait, now I'm I'm losing time, I'm losing moments of joy, and I'm just gonna go out and do it, and I'm gonna be brave. And that was such a breakthrough for me because life started to get better then. And that came with some acceptance of surrendering to what may be. And we go through our lives, we never know what's gonna happen. But if we're constantly worrying about it. Then we're ruining all the good moments that we are walking through day to day.

SPEAKER_03 22:41

Again, your podcast did a wonderful job of exploring how difficult the word strong can be when applied to survivors of trauma. What's your relationship with that word today?

SPEAKER_02 22:52

Today, I feel wonderful about the word strong. In the beginning, I found it to be really overwhelming. I'll never forget standing in front of the beautiful memorial that formed in front of King Supers almost immediately after the shooting. And I went maybe two or three days later. And I just remember standing in front of that beautiful, it was like a piece of art with all of these messages. And it was so surreal to see my dad's name everywhere that I looked. That it was like part of me wanted to just fall to my knees and scream out, like, my dad, that's my dad. My dad was killed in this. Um, but just in that moment, I was more part of the community and witnessing this beautiful memorial. And and in addition to seeing my dad's name everywhere, I saw the word strong everywhere. And I just felt like I can't be strong. I don't want to be strong. Why should I have to be strong? And people say, you know, you're so strong. I you you don't have a choice. It's not a choice. It's I'm doing the best I can. I'm still alive and I'm here and and I'm not strong. I'm actually crying in the corner in the fetal position, unable to go to the farmer's market. That's the truth. So as time went on, I started to just kind of feel like that. I kind of felt like we label these communities um Boulder strong, Uvaldi strong, Boston strong in that way. And is it really like the best choice of word? But as time has gone on, I do respect the word strong because it's strength and love, it's strength and showing up, it's saying like you can do this. And it's kind of like the word resilient. I used to really not like it when people would say, Oh, you're so resilient. For some reason in my head, when I think of the, when I thought of the word resilient previously, it was like a brick wall. Like you're strong and you're a brick wall. And only recently did I learn resilient means to flow with life. And it kind of took on this like rubber band energy in my mind. And now I love the word resilient because it's not saying you're always like strong and whatnot, but it's that you bend and you flow. And I love so I'm I'm starting to love the word strong in a similar way that I've re-related to the word resilient. But I think for survivors, it's a really complex word. And if you're having a conversation with a survivor or with someone who's experiencing loss, um, think critically about the word strong when you use it.

SPEAKER_03 25:49

Is there anything else I um should be asking you? Is there anything else you want to share about your dad or your family or with the community? I know you you no longer live in Boulder, but obviously you'll always have connection here.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Big, big love to Boulder. What a beautiful, beautiful community who showed up for us. And um no community is ever prepared for this type of tragedy, but I think that our community did a really beautiful job in responding. I'm so grateful. Five years, wow, it just feels surreal that it's been five years. Like I said, this really does feel like it still happened yesterday for me. Life has changed so much, and I really hope that on this fifth anniversary there's time to just pause and reflect and honor the people we were and honor the people we are now. I honor my dad on the death anniversary. I honor all of the victims, and that is a more sad day. But also there is the knowing that the Boulder community held us, showed up for us, continues to do so. And um, yeah, it's a somber day, but a sombre day filled with love. You know, I've learned in life that grief and joy exist at the same time, and life and death exist at the same time. I was pregnant when this happened, so I gave birth three months after the shooting. So I really had to navigate like life and death and grief and joy all at once. And my therapist said maybe a year later, like, two things can be true at once. You can be extremely sad and extremely happy at the same time. And that was so freeing of a message. My friend David has this lovely metaphor for grief, which is that grief never shrinks, but life grows around it. I think that's so beautiful because it doesn't minimize the grief. It just shows that you continue to grow around it. And in that, it does start to feel a little bit more like something you can wrap your hands around. This one incident affected so many people in so many different ways. So if you were there that day or you live in that area, or you knew someone who was killed, whatever it may be, you shop there. I'm sending you so much love. My dad is sending you so much love, and love is stronger than hate. And I'm just I'm proud. I'm proud of myself for moving forward and I'm proud of the community. And um, yeah, just big appreciation. And, you know, for the fifth anniversary, if anyone wants to go honor my dad, um, go take a beautiful hike and pick up any litter that you see along the way that is 100% honoring my dad, Kevin Mahoney. And um, I'm sure he'll be shining down on you.

SPEAKER_03 29:07

Thank you again to Erica Mahoney. Listen to Senseless wherever you find your podcast. You can find the full version of our interview at patreon.com slash Boulder Frequency Pod. Attend the Boulder Strong Day of Remembrance on Sunday, March 22nd, from 4 to 4.30 p.m. at the Museum of Boulder, 2205 Broadway. Next week, Frequency Co-Founder Jeff Rosick interviews award-winning storyteller and national geographic photographer Andy Mann ahead of his April 23rd show at Chautauqua. Before you go, here's one more thing.

SPEAKER_01 31:30

Go check it out. It really is a one-stop shop for Boulder Area News. As always, if you like today's show, please subscribe to both our show and Boulder Valley Frequency. It's the best thing you can do to support us. Is is the Mount Mear Podcast. I'm Tyler Aikman, and we'll be back next week with more news. We'll see you next time.