Curious City - podcast cover

Curious City

WBEZ Chicago•www.wbez.org
Arts
Education
Society & Culture
Ask questions, vote and discover answers about Chicago, the region and its people. From WBEZ.
Follow on
Metacast
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Youtube
RSS

Episodes

“Spooky and salacious:” Do we need to rethink prison tourism?

It’s spooky season, a time when we often visit haunted houses and think about the paranormal. And if you live in the Chicago area, you’ve probably seen billboards and ads for the Old Joliet Haunted Prison. But at one point, it was an actual prison. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, questions about the paranormal can serve as an entry into the historical context of a place. Last episode, we visited the Old Joliet Prison to look into a lister’s question about whether it’s haunted. And that got...

Oct 31, 2024•19 min

Who Or What Haunts The Old Joliet Prison?

The Old Joliet Prison has been around since the 1800s. Some visitors swear they’ve experienced the paranormal there. But do ghost stories detract from the specter of a truly dark history?

Oct 30, 2024•7 min

This Episode Is Garbage

Chicago collects thousands of tons of garbage each year. We answer some questions about garbage, and follow an all-women collection crew on the job.

Oct 17, 2024•12 min

The Legacy Of Margaret Burroughs

Margaret Burroughs is well known as the founder of the DuSable Museum. Perhaps lesser known is her decades long work teaching art to incarcerated men. In collaboration with the Burroughs Legacy Project at the Invisible Institute, we hear reflections from Burroughs' former students.

Oct 03, 2024•7 min

Not Their First "Roadeo"

CTA workers compete against each other to see who is the best bus driver, train operator, mechanic and janitorial staff. The annual competition dates back to the early 1980s.

Sep 12, 2024•7 min

The Case Of The Chicago Mothman

There have been reports of a strange winged creature around the Chicago area. We try to find out what the heck is going on.

Sep 05, 2024•7 min

How Does Sound Travel In The City?

Listening to an outdoor concert is a typical Chicago summer activity. But hearing that concert a few neighborhoods away? We look at how sound travels in the city.

Aug 29, 2024•7 min

Chicago Once Had An “Ugly Law”

Many cities around the country once had a so-called ugly law that targeted poor and disabled people. Chicago’s law stayed on the books until the 1970s.

Aug 22, 2024•6 min

"Radium Girls" Had A Tragic Glow

In the 1920s, young women working at a radium dial company in Ottawa, Illinois were being poisoned. Surviving "radium girls" would go on to participate in studies at Argonne National Laboratory.

Aug 15, 2024•6 min

Did Soccer Have A Golden Age In Chicago?

Soccer is popular in Chicago, but it falls behind the popularity of sports like football, baseball and basketball. But in the 1920s, the popularity of soccer rivaled that of baseball.

Jul 25, 2024•5 min

What's Up With All The Fake Lakes?

Cook County has a lot of artificial lakes. Many of them were once large pits left behind by major construction projects. Now, they serve as habitats for wildlife and recreation for residents.

Jul 18, 2024•5 min

Why Are There So Many Irish Pubs In Chicago?

Many Irish immigrants settled in Chicago in the late 1800s, and opened up pubs to make a living, but for a sense of community. We explore the history and why there are so many Irish pubs today.

Jul 11, 2024•7 min

Why Is The Only North American Baháʼí Temple In Wilmette?

The huge, gleaming Baháʼí House of Worship for North America definitely stands out from its suburban lakefront surroundings. It’s the oldest Baháʼí temple in the world, and it’s also known as the holiest. But why is it in Wilmette, Illinois?

Jun 27, 2024•5 min

Reflecting On More Than 10 Years Of Curious City

As Curious City goes through some changes, we take some time to look back and reflect on more than a decade of answering listeners' questions and lessons learned over the years.

Jun 20, 2024•5 min

Did Dinosaurs Ever Live In Chicago?

We went digging for dinosaur bones in Chicago and found a bunch of other fossils along the way. We explore the region's prehistoric activity, and we’ll hear about that one time a federal judge found a mastodon in his yard.

May 30, 2024•17 min

What Happened To Chicago’s Native American Neighborhood?

Chicago has enclaves for numerous communities throughout its 77 neighborhoods. In the mid-20th century, Uptown was the nucleus for Native Americans who relocated to the city. Learn how Uptown became a cultural hub and what happened to that enclave.

May 23, 2024•19 min

Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery: History, Hauntings, and Preservation

Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery in Midlothian is rumored to be haunted with alleged sightings of a woman in white. But there’s more to this place than spooky stories. Learn about the early settlers who called this place home and why a historian worries the ghost stories are overshadowing the history here.

May 16, 2024•18 min

The Curious Case Of The Swami Vivekananda Way Street Sign

Kids in India learn about Swami Vivekananda like kids in the U.S. learn about Abraham Lincoln. So how is it that he has his own honorary Chicago street sign? Find out about the monk who introduced Hinduism to the West, his deep ties to the city, and...what exactly happened to that sign.

May 09, 2024•23 min

What's That Dead Zone In The 19th Ward?

There’s a hole in the map of Chicago. It turns out, it’s a cemetery. But there are many other cemeteries in Chicago that don’t show up as holes on the map, so what’s up with this one? We take you to the 19th Ward and explore the history of this dead zone.

Apr 11, 2024•14 min