Podcasts about curious city

Curious City has gotten several questions about Wacker Drive over the years. We head down to the lower levels in search of some answers.

In our last episode, Curious City question-asker Emily Porter sent us on a quest exploring the world of local fashion designers, all after she found a thrift shop sweater with a tag that reads: “Maria Rodriguez Chicago.” Who is Maria Rodriguez? How did she get into the industry? And what is it like to be a fashion designer in Chicago? To answer those questions, we take a trip to the basement of the Chicago History Museum, where collection manager Jessica Pushor has archived several Maria Rodriguez ensembles and a case file of news clippings, photos and look books. We also stopped by El Nuevo Mexicano, a Mexican restaurant in Lakeview that Rodriguez now owns and operates, to get the story from the fashion designer herself.

Folk music surged in popularity across America in the late 1950s through the ‘70s, including here in the Chicago area. Last episode, we looked at how a few area coffeehouses catered to many patrons in their teens and early twenties. These were alcohol-free spaces where people could listen to live music and hangout for hours. Curious City host Erin Allen looks at one of those beloved coffeeshops of the 1970s: Amazingrace, which was born out of Vietnam War protests on the campus of Northwestern University and later moved to the heart of downtown Evanston. She was joined by a panel of Amazingrace founders, performers and patrons at last year's Evanston Folk Festival. WBEZ is a programming partner of the Evanston Folk Festival, which is taking place this year Sept. 6-7, 2025. A pre-sale is happening now through April 22. Enter the code EFFWBEZ to access the sale.

Extremism in America has been on the rise. Last episode, we looked at extremist groups in Chicago and how they terrorized select groups of people and influenced housing policy in the city during the 1950s. But what does extremism look like today? Curious City host Erin Allen talks with Odette Yousef, a national security correspondent focusing on extremism at NPR, about why it's less about fringe groups and more about ideology that has permeated our culture. “January 6 was a good example of how everything has changed,” she says. “That to me was really a milestone in terms of how extremism looks in this country, because I think we have long expected it to come out of small cells or groups. And here it was just everyday Americans who had gotten really kind of radicalized until the point where they participated in the violence that day.” She also talks about how extremism has shown up in Chicago and how the city compares with other large American cities.

As many as 40,000 people have come to see this downstate roadside attraction: a metal dragon, as big as a school bus, with a flamethrower in its mouth. Curious City takes a road trip out of Chicago to get the story behind this dragon.

Chicago is a city of pubs and taverns with a robust drinking culture. During the holiday season, that might mean sipping on some warm Swedish glögg, or, as we heard in our last episode, grabbing a Tom and Jerry at Miller's Pub. But what about a Chicago-specific cocktail? “People really want us to have a cocktail,” said Liz Garibay, executive director of the Beer Culture Center. “It's like, you go to New Orleans and there's a Sazerac. You go to New York, there's Manhattan.” So is there a quintessential Chicago cocktail? Curious City host Erin Allen talks to Garibay as well as Greg Shutters, owner of Cohassett Punch Liqueur to see what they think. Garibay says either way, the city's drinking culture is shaped by its immigrant and working class roots. We talk with Garibay and Shutters about Chicago's drinking scene, past and present.

If you've ever shown up to a bar on a Sunday afternoon or listened to a concert at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, you've experienced firsthand the lasting impact of German culture in the city. Last episode, we went to Christkindlmarket, one of the most prominent examples of German culture in Chicago. There are key organizations like the Goethe Institute and DANK Haus. But there are also more subtle, everyday activities we participate in that would be different had German immigrants never settled in this area, centuries ago. Curious City host Erin Allen talks to two experts on German language and culture. They discuss how it has shaped Chicago's history and present, from the products we consume to the rights and freedoms we enjoy.

A Curious City listener collects Christkindlmarket mugs. But there's one mug in her collection without a year on it. We go in search of that lost year.

One Curious City listener wrote in and asked, “Why are there so many birds in O'Hare?” So, the Curious City team took to the airport to find out. Reset checks in with Erin Allen, host and reporter, WBEZ's Curious City. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.

November is National Native American Heritage Month, a time to celebrate and recognize the history, culture and contributions of Indigenous people in our country. If you look around Chicago, you see echoes of Native American history in names like Washtenaw, Skokie and Wabash. But Indigenous history is often presented from a settler or non-Native perspective. Today, we get into a project out of the Newberry Library called “Indigenous Chicago.” Through art, education and collaboration, its goal is to change the dominant narratives about Chicago's history with the overarching message: Chicago is, and always has been, a Native place. It all began a few years ago with conversations within the Native community. “One of the things we heard over and over again was this issue of invisibility,” said Rose Miron, director of the D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies. “Native community members found that there were far too many people who didn't understand the long history of Chicago as an Indigenous place, but also didn't realize that there was a large contemporary community here today.” “Indigenous Chicago” is a collaboration between representatives of tribal nations and includes multimedia art, oral histories, public programs, educational curriculum and an exhibition. Curious City's Erin Allen spoke with curators Miron and Analú María López, the Ayer Librarian and assistant curator of American Indian and Indigenous Studies.

Chicago histories usually start in 1830, but Native Americans were already settled in the region long before that. Curious City fills you in on what some history books are missing.

When you think of a family business, one of two images probably comes to mind: either the mom and pop shop around the corner or the dysfunctional family from “Succession.” But actually, “it could be anything,” says Jennifer M. Pendergast, family enterprise consultant and professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. Last episode, we looked into the oldest family business in Chicago. And this got us thinking about family enterprise in general: Why do family members end up in business together? What happens when they do? Should they? Curious City's Erin Allen sat down with Pendergast to talk about this, plus why she says family business is the “backbone of the economy.”

A Curious City listener wanted to know about the decline of frogs in our area. We looked into what's been happening with these species over the last couple decades in Chicago. It turns out, frogs are some of the animals we call “indicator species.” How well or poorly they're doing in their habitat can tell us about the health of our own. And they're not the only ones; there are numerous plants and animals that serve as nature's alarm system, so to speak. Erin Allen talks with conservation researcher, Dr. Allison Sacerdote-Velat, about the indicator species that are most vital to us in the Chicago area and why we should be paying attention.

We think of the Great Lakes as shark-free, but as legend has it, a young boy named George Lawson was attacked by a shark while swimming in Lake Michigan near Chicago in 1955. Is this story true or just a bunch of bull shark?

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.

Chicago's school board recently voted to prioritize neighborhood schools and de-emphasize selective enrollment schools, but board members are not ending school choice. Reset dives into the history of how selective schools came to be — from the space race to integration efforts. We talk with WBEZ education reporter Sarah Karp, who recently reported on this history for Curious City. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.

Jennifer Brandel is a co-founder of Hearken, which she'll talk about extensively today, but she's also behind Zebra's Unite, Civic Exchange Chicago, Democracy SOS and WBEZ Chicago's Curious City. She joins Carrie Fox for a conversation on approaching the most challenging problems with an open and curious perspective in this rebroadcast from season 7. She is a serial entrepreneur and innovator who works between industries to address how to design better systems for listening, responding, and evolving with their stakeholders. She is a co-founder of Hearken, which she'll talk about extensively today, but she's also behind Zebra's Unite, Civic Exchange Chicago, Democracy SOS and WBEZ Chicago's Curious City. Now that we have her bona fides out of the way, here's the real reason Jennifer is special to us: there are so few people able to clearly create an environment that makes the complicated approachable, and the messiest of problems solvable. Even the problems we face today, problems many believe to be impossible.  “We're coming to a moment in which many more people are recognizing that collaborations and the interdependencies of sectors, of organizations, even departments within a company need to be in better and closer communication with one another. And the more we divide and silo ourselves and separate the work, it's at our peril. We're missing insights. We're missing opportunities to leverage one another's work. We're being less efficient. All of these things translate into the workplace of making our lives harder and also making us  keep doing things the same way over and over again, rather than evolving at the speed at which we could be.”How does she approach these intractable problems at Hearken? Curiously. She's an enthusiastic observer with inexhaustible energy to face hard things and try to make them better. If you've never heard of Jennifer or her work, we're thrilled and honored to be able to present her worldview to you on this show. Thank you to Jennifer for joining us on the show this week. (00:00) - Welcome to Mission Forward (03:40) - Introducing Jennifer Brandel (09:55) - Hearken (13:02) - Addressing Systems & Institutions (19:40) - Name and Ideal System (25:21) - Addressing Division (28:57) - Hearken's Next Steps

In 1913 Chicagoan William Foster became the first Black director to make a film with an all Black cast. Yet most people have never heard of him. Join Arionne Nettles as she tells Foster's story, the story of Black filmmaking in Chicago, when our city was the pre-Hollywood movie capital of the world. It's the first of 3 Curious City podcasts in a row celebrating Black History Month 2024!

The weather outside is frightful, but our answers to 5 Chicago winter-related questions are delightful.

As you prepare to gather around the dinner table, Curious City brings you a couple of delicious food stories. First, we visit some Mexican bakeries around the city. Then, we go hunting for a long lost fried chicken recipe.

Thousands of newly arrived migrants are sleeping in tents or shelters in Chicago. But with winter approaching, some residents are offering space in their homes. Curious City takes a look at the small scale housing alternatives migrants are taking.

In October, Curious City teamed up with the Chicago Brewseum to talk about important bar scenes in film and television. The Brewseum's Liz Garibay and writer Mark Caro join Curious City's Jason Marck for some of the highlights of the evening that revolved around Chicago bars.

Curious City asked listeners for their paranormal experiences, and it turns out Chicago is pretty spooky. We explore the supernatural in one family's home in Pilsen. Is that the sound of a house settling, or could it be spirits?

Each year tens of thousands of people take part in 5ks, 10ks, marathons, half-marathons and more in Chicago. But how does one get permission? And what's it like to navigate the process and work with the various city departments to put on an event like this? As we get ready for the 46th annual Chicago Marathon this weekend, Curious City talked to one race director who organizes ultramarathons to find out. And of course, as you might imagine, there's just a little bit of bureaucracy involved.

This story of sibling rivalries, suicides, arson, missing heiresses, and murder was originally presented at a members-only event at the Chicago History Museum.Thanks to my co-writer and co-host for this episode, Anna Mason (@annadotmason). Anna's piece on the Medinah Temple for WBEZ's Curious City can be found here.Show your support of the show for the cost of a coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/chicagohistoryLeave me a voice message - just click on the microphone in the lower right corner here: https://www.chicagohistorypod.comUp your cocktail or Sodastream game with Portland craft syrups!https://portlandsyrups.com/collections/all?sca_ref=1270971.MO4APpJH1kAffiliate Links (anything you buy - not just this stuff - through these links helps benefit the show at no additional cost to you):Unbridled Rage: A True Story of Organized Crime, Corruption, and Murder in Chicago by Gene O'Sheahttps://amzn.to/3ryg96ESuspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification by Simon A. Colehttps://amzn.to/43Edju7Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases by Paul Holeshttps://amzn.to/3Nb8q6EThinking about outdoor movies? Here's the gear I use:Epson 1080p Projector:https://amzn.to/3qfGvcI120" Projector Screenhttps://amzn.to/3BWDmRpChicago History Podcast Clothing, Mugs, Totes, & More (your purchase helps support the podcast):https://www.teepublic.com/user/chicago-history-podcasthttps://teespring.com/stores/chicago-history-podcastChicago History Podcast (chicagohistorypod AT gmail.com):https://www.chicagohistorypod.comhttps://www.facebook.com/Chicago-History-Podcast-107482214277883https://twitter.com/chicago_podhttps://www.instagram.com/chicagohistorypod/Chicago History Podcast Art by John K. Schneider (angeleyesartjks  AT gmail.com) and on https://www.instagram.com/angeleyesartjks/Gear used in the recording of this podcast:Shure SM-58 Microphone: https://amzn.to/3uDmji9Zoom H6 Recorder: https://amzn.to/3y0wWh0Support the show

Dom Flemons is on a mission to uncover, preserve and push forward America's musical past — particularly Black musical traditions.The world renowned singer-songwriter and folklorist sits down with Jason Marck, host of WBEZ's Radio Z and senior producer of Curious City, to talk about some of the big ideas that run through his work.

Chicago is a deep dish and tavern-style town, but there's good pizza by the slice available if you know where to look. Join Reset and Curious City as we go on the hunt for delicious single slices around the city.

In April, Carol's Pub was packed with Curious City fans eager to learn about the history of Uptown saloons and the importance of beer and tavern culture to Chicago. Knowledge flowed from the stage, brews flowed from the taps and great music flowed from the Hoyle Brothers. We'll take you inside the event on this week's episode of Curious City.

Jennifer Brandel is a serial entrepreneur and systems change worker. She's the founder of Curious City, Hearken, Civic Exchange Chicago, Zebras Unite and Election SOS.---What do you do to safely release your anger? Lemme know @ 844-935-BEST or ZAK@bestadvice.show---Finding Catharsis with Megan Stielstra---Support TBAS by becoming a patron!!!! - https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Call Zak with your advice @ 844-935-BEST---IG: @bestadviceshow & @muzacharyTWITTER: @muzacharybestadvice.show

Curious City is joined by Reset's Claire Hyman who went on a search for Swedish Egg Coffee in Chicago. Along the way she discovers its history, finds multiple recipes, and enlists a barista to brew up a batch.

Jennifer Brandel is a serial entrepreneur and innovator who works between industries to address how to design better systems for listening, responding, and evolving with their stakeholders. She is a co-founder of Hearken, which she'll talk about extensively today, but she's also behind Zebra's Unite, Civic Exchange Chicago, Democracy SOS and WBEZ Chicago's Curious City. Now that we have her bona fides out of the way, here's the real reason Jennifer is special to us: there are so few people able to clearly create an environment that makes the complicated approachable, and the messiest of problems solvable. Even the problems we face today, problems many believe to be impossible.  “We're coming to a moment in which many more people are recognizing that collaborations and the interdependencies of sectors, of organizations, even departments within a company need to be in better and closer communication with one another. And the more we divide and silo ourselves and separate the work, it's at our peril. We're missing insights. We're missing opportunities to leverage one another's work. We're being less efficient. All of these things translate into the workplace of making our lives harder and also making us  keep doing things the same way over and over again, rather than evolving at the speed at which we could be.”How does she approach these intractable problems at Hearken? Curiously. She's an enthusiastic observer with inexhaustible energy to face hard things and try to make them better. If you've never heard of Jennifer or her work, we're thrilled and honored to be able to present her worldview to you on this show. Thank you to Jennifer for joining us on the show this week. (00:00) - Welcome to Mission Forward (02:15) - Introducing Jennifer Brandel (08:31) - Hearken (11:38) - Addressing Systems & Institutions (18:16) - Name an Ideal System (23:57) - Addressing Division (27:33) - Hearken's Next Steps

Made in Chicago: Stories Behind 30 Great Hometown Bites Presented by Monica Eng and David Hammond Chicago food shows its true depth in classic dishes conceived in the kitchens of immigrant innovators, neighborhood entrepreneurs, and mom-and-pop visionaries. Monica Eng and David Hammond draw on decades of exploring the city's food landscape to serve up thirty can't-miss eats found in all corners of Chicago. From Mild Sauce to the Jibarito and from Taffy Grapes to Steak and Lemonade, Eng and Hammond present stories of the people and places behind each dish while illuminating how these local favorites reflect the multifaceted history of the city and the people who live there. Monica Eng is a reporter for Axios Chicago and co-host of The Chewing Podcast. Before joining Axios, Monica was food, health and Curious City reporter for WBEZ. For 16 years Eng was a food, culture and watchdog-investigative reporter at the Chicago Tribune. She has been nominated for the James Beard Award five times for her good writing. David Hammond, born in Chicago, is a father of three, a former college professor and corporate communications consultant. He has written food reviews for Chicago Reader and TimeOut, as well as the Food Detective column for the Chicago Sun-Times; he is a co-founder of LTHForum.com, the Chicago culinary chat site, and he has produced and hosted the Sound Bites series on Chicago Public Radio. He is currently Dining & Drinking Editor at Newcity, Chicago, a regular contributor to Oak Park's Wednesday Journal, Chicago Tribune, Better, and a number of other local and national publications. Recorded via Zoom on April 6, 2023 CONNECT WITH CULINARY HISTORIANS OF CHICAGO ✔ MEMBERSHIP https://culinaryhistorians.org/membership/ ✔ EMAIL LIST http://culinaryhistorians.org/join-our-email-list/ ✔ S U B S C R I B E https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Y0-9lTi1-JYu22Bt4_-9w ✔ F A C E B O O K https://www.facebook.com/CulinaryHistoriansOfChicago ✔ PODCAST 2008 to Present https://culinaryhistorians.org/podcasts/ By Presenter https://culinaryhistorians.org/podcasts-by-presenter/ ✔ YOUTUBE https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Y0-9lTi1-JYu22Bt4_-9w ✔ W E B S I T E https://www.CulinaryHistorians.org

Natalie Dalea is a Creative Writing Fellow who is working on a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Minnesota with a focus on creative nonfiction writing. She also worked as an intern for Curious City, a podcast from Chicago Public Media that answers questions about Chicago, the surrounding region, and its people.

Curious City takes a look at the growing popularity of car window tinting in Illinois. We find out what the state law says about how dark automobile windows can be, who enforces these laws -- or not -- and why some people have safety concerns about them.

The uncertain fate of a hand-lettered memorial wall in the Far South Side Altgeld Gardens community has Curious City digging into how such memorials and other valued local murals and artwork might be saved from destruction, even if they are not officially national landmarks.

In the spirit of our show, and our inquisitive listeners, we decided to ask some about ourselves and Curious City's humble beginnings, with founder Jennifer Brandel.

We've been experiencing some warm days in and around Chicago. But winter is coming. This week, we've got a couple of classic Curious City stories about staying warm. One features folks who work outside during the bitter Chicago winters, the other features some furry friends from the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Former WBEZ host Tony Sarabia produced an audio documentary titled “Unlocking The Closet'' back in 2000. Tony, who came out later in life, wanted to share the stories of others who'd also finally felt ready to take this step. The documentary recounts the coming out stories of queer people who grew up in the 1950s and early ‘60s. While a lot has changed, many queer Americans still don't have a safe space to come out. Curious City pulls this documentary out of the archives to recognize October 11 – National Coming Out Day.

A listener noticed her garden didn't seem to have as many bees as usual buzzing about this summer. She wondered if the population in Illinois was on the decline. Curious City reporter Adriana Cardona- Maguigad finds out how the bees are doing and why experts are worried about the bees.

We teamed up with WBEZ's Curious City to answer a listener's question about how librarians always seem to know what we want to read before we do.

Curious City takes a deep dive into how Chicago's powerful white institutions – from the police and the politicians to the banks and the realtors – used the 1919 race riots to cement a more segregated city.

Each year tens of thousands of people take part in 5ks, 10ks, half-marathons and all kinds of walking and running events in Chicago. But how does one get permission? And what's it like to navigate the process and work with the various city departments to put on an event like this? Curious City talked to one race director who organizes ultramarathons to find out. And of course, as you might imagine, there's just a little bit of bureaucracy involved.

For more than a century, Chicago's Polish community has celebrated Polish unity and identity at the annual Polish Constitution Day Parade. This year, the parade has a new theme and anti-war message. Curious City's Adriana Cardona-Maguigad tells us the history of the parade and what it has meant to the Polish diaspora in the Chicago area

The video that surfaced months ago showing teens asking each other “what race wouldn't you date, and why?” raises questions about how stereotypes affect students and how schools can help improve relationships among students across races. Reset checks in with two WBEZ education reporters who did a deep dive to understand what's behind these videos.

Students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds may go to the same high school, but this doesn't guarantee they won't cling to stereotypes about one another. That became painfully clear a few months ago when a student at Chicago's Lincoln Park High School made a video asking classmates what race they wouldn't date and why. Most of the answers were offensive, with many kids laughing and talking comfortably about how people of other races smell — all of it right in the school hallways with other students watching. That video was made public and got a lot of attention. But this kind of thing happens pretty regularly. Curious City reporter Adriana Cardona-Maguigad and WBEZ education reporter Susie An teamed up to talk to Chicago area teens about race and relationships and what they think schools should do to help kids move beyond stereotypes.

A Curious City fan asked us about an odd detail on an old Chicago map. Was it really a Native American burial mound? Producer Jesse Dukes went on a quest to find the answer.

The Free Theater was an ensemble group that put on non-traditional, avant-garde theatrical productions in Chicago from 1968 to 1974. Like its name suggests, the shows were free and no auditions were required. Productions took on the politics of the time. Curious City reporter Adriana Cardona-Maguigad digs into the group's history and looks at what low cost and accessible theater looks like nowadays in Chicago.

Scott Smith, a writer and raconteur known as Our Man In Chicago, joined Leah and Jocelyn to keep working through the chocolate brackets. We had so much fun and so many tangents, that this interview will be split into two weeks and each includes a Canadian candy taste test. With Scott, we talk about... Banana Babies Rainbow Cone Rainbow Cone partnership with Buono Beef Robert Loerzel's Curious City about Uptown entertainment district Model Ts and Horses Origins of Half Day Road The Big Cookie (chocolate pollution) We battle the brackets for Clark Bar vs Almond Joy Snickers vs Hershey's Bar Maple Creme vs Ghirardelli Mallo Cups vs Nutrageous Canadian Taste Test Crispy Crunch Big R Turk Follow Jocelyn: @smussyolay on Tik Tok and Instagram Follow Leah: @ChicagoLeah on Twitter and @ChiLeah on Instagram Follow Candy Chat Chicago Podcast on Twitter, Tik Tok and Instagram Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and rate 5 stars!

To listen to the latest news, visit WBEZ.org/newscast You can also find our Local Newscast over the WBEZ and NPR One mobile apps. For listeners in the Chicago area, find briefings like this one from WBEZ every weekday on Consider This from NPR. You can also check out some of our other news podcasts too, like Reset or Curious City, just by searching WBEZ wherever you listen. Questions or comments about WBEZ's Chicago News Update, reach out to us at WBEZ.org/contact and let us know what you're thinking.

My guest today is Monica Eng. Monica is the co-host of the Chewing podcast, along with Chicago Tribune reporter Louisa Chu. Get it, CHU-ENG? Brilliant. Having also spent years at the Tribune, Monica is currently a reporter with Curious City in Chicago on public radio's WBEZ with a primary focus on food, culture, health and the environment. Needless to say, she's been rather busy. Apart from fantastic and timely topics and interviews on their podcast  - yes, go subscribe NOW - Monica and Louisa have this regular segment on Chewing called Will She Eat It, in which they challenge one another to sample seemingly absurd foods and drink. Oreo Spam Burgers, Chinese Baijiu, Sweet Steak Sandwiches, Filipino duck embryos, uh, you get the picture. I've been a guest of theirs twice and thank goodness they keep that ritual to themselves! Here's our chat.