Did you know that Elk Island National Park used to have a bison abattoir? Have you ever heard of the national parks in Alberta that were dissolved? In this live podcast recording, we explore the wild history of making national parks in our area, and what it can teach us about the current plans to build a new urban national park in Edmonton’s river valley. Ever see wardens feeding the animals in Buffalo National Park near Wainwright, or see the pronghorn in Nemiskam and Wawaskey National Parks ne...
Oct 04, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 84
Kathryn Gwun-Yeen 君妍 Lennon asks: what is the best playground in Edmonton? We crawl and swing through the past and present of playgrounds in our city to help her and her toddler on their quest. Kathryn and her family find themselves easily visiting 4 playgrounds in a weekend lately, and she estimates she visited around 30 different playgrounds last summer. So she’s been curious about finding the best one in town. She’s been thinking about how much shade and gathering space that playgrounds have,...
Sep 06, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 83
You may be tired of parks named after dead white men. Kyla Tichkowsky? She's railing against a different kind of tyranny. We have parks named for: Elk. Wood Buffalo. Aspen Beach. Cypress Hills. Dinosaurs even! And yet, not one single lichen. Why not? Lichen are, in fact, fantastically diverse and fascinating organisms. From a conservation standpoint, they are excellent bioindicators. So for conservation organizations, a lichen preserve would make a lot of sense. Together with Kyla, we set out to...
Jul 05, 2023•54 min•Ep. 80
Zulima Acuña noticed that some of Edmonton's old riverlots are highly developed, and some not at all. She asked us to help her learn why some of them became parks and others didn't. Zulima is a mom, teacher, and artist who has lived in Edmonton for the last ten years, and is eager to know as many stories about the land in Edmonton as her old hometown. It’s easy to take our spaces for granted: the way our roads are laid out, how big our parks are, where they are, the funny angles where some space...
Jun 07, 2023•53 min•Ep. 79
Back in 2016, the very first episode of Let’s Find Out was about a festival in Tofield, a town about 45 minutes southeast of Edmonton: The Snow Goose Festival. In that episode, we set out to find out how this big festival that started in the 90’s with thousands of bird watchers coming to Tofield to admire the geese migrating through in the spring became a convoy of school bus tours run by the Edmonton Nature Club. In that episode what we found out was that the festival was centred on Beaverhill ...
May 03, 2023•39 min•Ep. 78
Edmonton calls itself a winter city, which partly means we’ve got a lot of wintery festivals. This episode, our producer Trevor Chow-Fraser asks: what does that mean for our parks? How are they changing to live up to the winter city ideal? Trevor started out by taking his daughter Eliot to Victoria Park to take advantage of its free snowshoeing and fort building. He spoke to activity leader Ryanne Osguthorpe. Victoria Park is one of a few parks in Edmonton that now feature geodesic dome warming ...
Apr 05, 2023•57 min•Ep. 77
Soni Dasmohapatra asks: Who is Sohan Singh Bullar? Why is there a park named after them?
Mar 01, 2023•43 min•Ep. 76
Mathew Thomson asks: what’s the process for naming a park in Edmonton? We investigate: who has authority, how much do names mean, and what happens when someone goes rogue on Google Maps?
Feb 01, 2023•52 min•Ep. 75
Karen Unland asks: When did we stop dumping garbage into river valley spaces and start turning them into parks? In this episode, former historian laureate Shirley Lowe walks us through three stories: how the Grierson Hill dump became Louise McKinney Park, how the Strathcona dump and gravel mine became Hawrelak (aka Mayfair) Park, and how the Beverly Dump became Rundle Park.
Jan 04, 2023•43 min•Ep. 74
Shelley Jodoin-Chouinard asks what Edmonton’s smallest park is.
Dec 08, 2022•53 min•Ep. 73
Kay Rollans asks who hung two effigies from the 142nd Street Bridge amid 1965 protests against a freeway slated to be built through MacKinnon Ravine. This episode is part of our season exploring the history of parks and natural areas in Edmonton.
Nov 03, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 72
Edmontonians take a lot of pride in our parks and natural areas. But how did they come to be the way they are, and how well do they make space for humans and other species? On September 29, Let’s Find Out hosted a live podcast recording at the Aviary, with short talks and activities about parks. At the end, listeners had a chance to submit a question for our upcoming season about parks and natural areas in and around our city. Guest speakers on the episode include Marilyn Dumont, Tara Russell, a...
Oct 05, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 71
As Chris wraps up year one of his history master’s degree, Chris and Trevor do one last regular check-in about the pile of essays, grantwriting, and paddling. After this episode, we’ll be back to doing another season of listener questions! Send us your questions about parks and natural areas around Edmonton. What are you curious about? Email us at chris@letsfindoutpodcast.com or drop us a line on social media.
May 31, 2022•35 min•Ep. 69
In this episode, we travel to the Burgess Shale: a set of incredible fossil beds in Yoho National Park, preserving 500-million-year-old soft-bodied sea creatures. Today, it is part of a huge World Heritage Site: it has expanded to encompass all of Yoho National Park here in BC, Jasper and Banff, Kootenay, and three BC provincial parks. But back in 1980, the Burgess Shale sites at the Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds and the Walcott Quarry became the first little nucleus of that World Heritage site. ...
Mar 29, 2022•23 min•Ep. 67
In this episode, Chris tells Trevor about some of the comic (and cosmic) roadblocks on the road to learning about paleontology and power in Yoho National Park, and just generally the challenges facing students right now. Trevor offers some advice (and a hug). Guest co-host Eliot joins us for hot tips about the best songs from Encanto.
Feb 28, 2022•40 min•Ep. 66
What’s the difference between a library and an archive? Why might you want to go into one versus the other? In this episode, Chris talks about some heartbreaking and complicated diary entries he read in the City of Edmonton Archives, what it’s like getting into libraries and archives right now with Omicron, and why it matters that it’s so tough.
Jan 25, 2022•40 min•Ep. 65
This December, Dr. Andrew Woolford delivered the Western Canadian Lecture, presented by the University of Alberta’s Department of History, Classics, & Religion the 2021 Western Canadian Lecture. Dr. Woolford is a prominent scholar in Genocide Studies who has worked on the history of Indian Residential Schools in Canada. His talk was titled: “With intent to destroy a group: Genocide’s past and present in Canada.” In this episode, Chris and Dylan Hall ask Dr. Woolford about his work, about def...
Dec 15, 2021•39 min•Ep. 64
How do you form a good historical question? In this episode, Chris and Trevor talk about trying to do that for a very specific reason: a Canada Graduate Scholarship grant application.
Nov 30, 2021•31 min•Ep. 63
Chris just started a masters in history at the University of Alberta. In this episode we wanted to give you a peek into his day to day life studying to be a historian. Hopefully you’ll understand a little more what it’s actually like in the fall of 2021 to go to grad school when the pandemic’s still on, the university’s open, and most of your classwork and job are actually in person on campus.
Nov 01, 2021•42 min•Ep. 62
Chris talks to Trevor about what it’s like being on campus in a pandemic (surprisingly great), feelings of FOMO picking classes, and studying with John Acorn the Nature Nut. Plus, a little bit about Tacitus and a lot of thoughts on what we owe each other (and/or the state).
Sep 28, 2021•43 min•Ep. 61
The next chapter for Let’s Find Out (and Chris). Trevor Chow-Fraser asks Chris Chang-Yen Phillips to talk through his days as a wee student starting school, what the purpose of a university education is, and why he’s headed to the University of Alberta to pursue a Masters’ degree in history. In the next phase of Let’s Find Out, Chris will be sharing what he’s learning, and how. We won’t be taking listener questions at the moment, but we are inviting you to send in audio clips for a new segment: ...
Aug 31, 2021•49 min•Ep. 60
Chris and Trevor rifle through listener questions and messages.
Sep 10, 2020•37 min•Ep. 59
Part 4 of our miniseries about the Mirama Dining & Lounge dim sum restaurant: what exactly happened at the 2004 fight in the restaurant and what is there to know about Asian gangs in Edmonton around the early 2000s?
Aug 26, 2020•49 min•Ep. 57
Part 3 of our miniseries about the Mirama Dining & Lounge dim sum restaurant: Mike Tulley is a former sound engineer with CJSR. Reporter Nathan Fung talks to Mike about his time working at fundraising events held at the Mirama restaurant, which were organized to help out Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) veterans in Edmonton.
Aug 12, 2020•27 min•Ep. 56
Part 2 of our miniseries about the Mirama Dining & Lounge dim sum restaurant: How does Mirama fit in the wider history of Edmonton’s Chinatown? How did business go for Mirama after the alleged gang incident in 2004? And why did Mirama eventually shut down? Reporter Nathan Fung asks Lan Chan-Marples and Games Choi for their insights.
Jul 22, 2020•36 min•Ep. 55
Reporter Nathan Fung asks Grace Law what she remembers of the old Mirama restaurant on 94 St. and Jasper Ave, and what did this old dim sum place mean to her and possibly other Chinese Canadians living in Edmonton. Part 1 of a miniseries about the Mirama restaurant.
Jul 08, 2020•22 min•Ep. 54
With Covid-19 rolling through all of our lives right now, we had a really basic question: how are you holding up? For this bonus episode, we held a live call-in show to find out. Karen Unland, Marlena Wyman, Jaya Chauhan, and Allan Farrell called in.
Apr 02, 2020•46 min•Ep. 52
How are you doing? We’re hosting a live call-in show this week to find out. It’ll be Thursday March 26 from 10 AM – 11 AM Mountain Time, and we’ll share it later on the podcast. Join by clicking the Zoom meeting link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/897659176
Mar 24, 2020•1 min•Ep. 51
We’re back with another historical walking tour of Edmonton’s Ritchie neighbourhood, presented by the Ritchie Community League. In this bonus episode, we explore the history of meatpacking, German immigration, and iconic local species in the neighbourhood.
Jan 29, 2020•58 min•Ep. 50
The way we think about a thing can totally change the way we behave. We talk about nature as if it’s something outside of us. Separate from us. In this live episode wrapping up our season on humans and nature, we present three short talks to help you shake up your ideas about what’s natural and what’s not. Luke Wonneck, Emily Riddle, and Stephen Raitz share three different lenses on how we build nature where we live: both the idea of nature, and the physical manifestation of those ideas. And the...
Dec 11, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 49
