Let's Find Out

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 understand more about lichens and their place in Edmonton's conservation scene. 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 understand more about lichens and their place in Edmonton's conservation scene. And we were guided into the Larch Sanctuary by Meghan Jacklin, a conservation coordinator with the Edmonton and Area Land Trust.

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 spaces meet. But Zulima's question got us to peel back the layers a bit and see that many of the shapes and spaces we move through every day… are influenced by decisions made by land surveyors and farmers and land speculators almost a hundred and fifty years ago.We met Zulima in Emily Murphy Park (on the site of the old Riverlot #3) on a bright but smoky day. We consulted two books about local river lots to begin answering her question: Tom Monto's Old Strathcona, Edmonton's Southside Roots and Jan Olson's Scona Lives: A History of Riverlots 13, 15, & 17.Next, we spoke to two local history researchers who have looked at the overlap between the old riverlots and the map of modern-day Edmonton. Connor Thompson is a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta, focusing on Western Canadian history. He wrote an article in 2020 for the Edmonton City as Museum Project, "Edmonton's River Lots: A Layer in Our History". Dylan Reade is a local documentary filmmaker and history researcher who has traced back many of the individual family stories and land sales on Edmonton's riverlots through archival documents and maps.

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 Lake, which mostly dried up a decade later, leading the organizers wind down the festival. A die-hard group of goose admirers planned those bus tours - the Snow Goose Chase - to catch them in wet farm fields instead.The first story was interesting to us because it demonstrated how quickly we can get used to big changes, and accept new normals – something called shifting baselines. Imagine our surprise and delight when we found out the festival was coming back for 2023.How is that possible? What does it mean? Is Beaverhill Lake back?In this episode, Chris took a field trip out to Tofield, because he sensed this would be kind of a good news story, of people who remembered the lake, remembered this celebration of birds, and wanted to breathe new life into it. The actual story was more complicated than we imagined.

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 huts in the winter. That got us curious about warming huts in parks, so we met up with Danielle Soneff — an industrial and social designer in Edmonton who created warming huts for a pilot project to bring them into city parks. She's now an MA student at the University of Alberta, studying winter city design and governance. We talked about why she feels that pilot project failed, and what good winter design principles could be brought to the new Warehouse Park (final name TBD) downtown. Finally, we spoke with Isla Tanaka, a winter city planner for the City of Edmonton. We asked her how its winter city strategy has evolved over the years, and how it might change now after the first decade of implementation. Full show notes

Soni Dasmohapatra asks: Who is Sohan Singh Bullar? Why is there a park named after them?

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?

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 … Continue reading 60 – A Beautiful Ex-Garbage Dump →

Shelley Jodoin-Chouinard asks what Edmonton's smallest park is.

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.

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 … Continue reading 57 – About Parks →

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? Join Let's Find Out host Chris Chang-Yen Phillips and producer Trevor Chow-Fraser for a live podcast recording at the Aviary, … Continue reading Sep 29 Live Show – Let's Find Out About Parks →

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 … Continue reading 56 – We Made It →

Great news! Our first Let's Find Out live show in a while is coming up this weekend. We're as surprised as you are. Thanks to the great folks at the Alberta Podcast Network, we'll be at Calgary Expo this weekend. Have you ever taken a picture of all the pretty bubbles under the ice at … Continue reading April 24: Live Recording at Calgary Expo →

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 … Continue reading 55 – Making Space for Fossils →

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 … Continue reading 54 – Roadblocks →

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 … Continue reading 53 – Right to the Source →

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 … Continue reading 52 – With Intent to Destroy a Group →

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.

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 … Continue reading 50 – A Community of Scholars →

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).

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 … Continue reading 48 – Back to School →

Chris and Trevor rifle through listener questions and messages.

Updates on some pod stuff coming up: A mailbag episode next week! Email your messages to chris@letsfindoutpodcast.com by September 7 and as long as they require absolutely no research, we’ll try to read them out on air. Back by popular demand, we’ll be doing another Ritchie historical walking tour this September, in collaboration with the … Continue reading Garden Update →

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?

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 … Continue reading 45 – A Feast for Veterans →

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 … Continue reading 44 – Salad Days at Mirama →

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.

Starting July 8, we’re going to be starting a summer miniseries about Edmonton’s lost Mirama Restaurant. The series will be produced by Nathan Fung, and episodes will be out every two weeks.

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.

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

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.

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 … Continue reading 41 – How We Make Nature →

Dylan Hall and Chris Chang-Yen Phillips take a road trip to the Rockies, to figure out whether Jasper National Park is a wild place.

Join us for an afternoon of short talks at a live recording of Let’s Find Out. Throughout this season of the podcast, we’ve answered listener questions about how humans and nature have shaped each other in Edmonton. At this event, we’ll share stories that’ll really make you think about how we create nature where we … Continue reading December 1 Live Show: How We Make Nature →

Marlena Wyman asks what wildlife species are so adapted to city life that they depend on the city to survive. We decided to answer with a gameshow, pitting a cockroach, a magpie, an elm, and a hare against each other to claim the title of The Most Edmonton Species.

Dustin Bajer asks whether we have a responsibility to help local species adapt to climate change by helping them migrate.

Brooklin Schneider asks us to help her find out who planted the Capilano apricots – three apricot trees growing beside the road on 75 Street.

Coming up on Sunday, September 8 we’re offering another historical walking tour of Edmonton’s Ritchie Neighbourhood. This year’s walk will be led by Oumar Salifou. Grab your free tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ritchie-historical-walking-tours-tickets-66142380641

Denise Chang-Yen (yes, Chris’ mom) asks whether climate change will end up being a net benefit for farms in our area.

Shelley Jodoin-Chouinard asks if the proliferation of lawns in Edmonton has anything to do with the absence of bears in the city. More on this story: http://letsfindoutpodcast.com/2019/06/26/episode-35-bear-country/

Allan Farrell asks what’s up with a picture of a gold dredge he saw on a plaque downtown, and where the gold in the North Saskatchewan River comes from.

Alison Brooks-Starks asks how folks from Ukraine settled where they did in Canada – was it because the landscapes here looked like places in the Ukraine? To explore her question, we dug into a stack of academic research. We also went to the University of Alberta’s Pembina Hall to meet Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies … Continue reading 33 – Kalyna Country →

Amandah van Merlin asks how have dams changed our relationship with the North Saskatchewan River. To explore her question, we brought Amandah to the Provincial Archives of Alberta, to dig for files on the two dams upstream of Edmonton: the Brazeau Dam and the Bighorn Dam. We also met up with local writer Billie Milholland, … Continue reading 32 – Dam Complicated →

This year, we’re embarking on a new season of Let’s Find Out, exploring these ideas. We kicked things off with a live show at The Almanac this February. It featured short talks about humans and natural history in the Edmonton area, and games for audience members to play. In this episode, you’ll hear from Marlena … Continue reading 31 – How Nature Shapes Us →

From clearing the prairies with fire to planting elm trees along our streets, humans have been shaping the land in the Edmonton area for millennia. And it’s been shaping us right back. Join us Saturday, February 9 at 2 PM for an afternoon of short talks and a live recording of Let’s Find Out! Ever … Continue reading Live Event Feb 9 – How Nature Shapes Us →

In our second episode, we wondered about the name of a black student in an Edmonton Technical School class photo from 1932. In this episode, Kyle Muzyka explains how he found out the answer.

Earlier in 2018, we hosted a live panel dedicated to one of the most important questions in Edmonton’s food history: how the heck did green onion cakes get so popular in Edmonton? These delicious, flaky, greasy little circles of fried goodness didn’t just magically worm their way into our hearts. This episode, we’re getting a … Continue reading 29 – About the Green Onion Cake Man →

Back in 2017, Sheila Thomas asked why there was no headstone to mark the grave of Frank Beevers – the first Edmonton police officer killed in the line of duty. This episode, we find out what it’s like to actually see your idea turn into cold, hard, granite reality.

With geese flying south in August and snow in September, it sometimes feels like winter in Edmonton spills far outside its season. What if instead of getting frustrated with the weather though, we tweaked the way we measured the year? Ben Freeland learned that the Cree calendar divides the year into six seasons. So he … Continue reading 27 – The Cree Calendar →

How is the proliferation of tall buildings in Edmonton affecting training and planning by Edmonton Fire Rescue? Susan Padget asked that question on Taproot Edmonton‘s story garden. Finding out the answer taught us about a surprisingly tangible transition the city is making.

How did Edmonton come to be known as a prairie city? Dustin Bajer asked that question on Taproot Edmonton’s story garden. Finding out the answer – and figuring out whether this area is aspen parkland, or prairie, or forest – challenged our ideas about the land we live on.