Curious City

For over a century, the Midwest had been defined by what we made, including cars, steel, and beer. But during 75 years of deindustrialization, Chicago lost over half a million manufacturing jobs. Milwaukee lost almost 100,000 jobs. And for some in Detroit, it feels like the whole city was lost.  Curious Midwest is a collaboration between Curious City, WUWM’s Bubbler Talk and WDET’s CuriousiD. We’re answering listener questions about the connections between these cities.  This week, WUWM’s Jimmy Gutierrez looks at how de-industrialization hit the Midwest and why recovery wasn’t the same for everyone.

In Chicago, it’s the Chicago dog. In Milwaukee, the bratwurst. In Detroit, the Coney dog.  Each is a little different, but their origin stories are connected.   In a limited series we’re calling “Curious Midwest,” Curious City teamed up with WUWM Milwaukee’s Bubbler Talk and WDET Detroit’s CuriosiD to explore our midwestern links (pun intended).  Today, why are these hyper-specific encased meats associated so strongly with these three cities? And which is the best?

From school assemblies to “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood,” Ella Jenkins was a rhythm specialist and children’s music pioneer. Her childhood in Chicago was her launching pad.  Jenkins forged a path in the music industry during a time when children’s musicians didn’t really exist. She persevered through the civil rights era, took ownership of her music in an industry that often took advantage of women and made the focus about children. Today, we bring you a conversation about this music icon, who harnessed curiosity, life experience and charisma to create some of the most unique and prolific art of the 20th century.  Professor of American studies at George Washington University Gayle Wald sat down with Curious City Editor Susie An at the 2025 Evanston Folk Festival to talk about Jenkins’ life. Wald is the author of “This is Rhythm: Ella Jenkins, Children’s Music and the Long Civil Rights Movement.”  This episode was originally published on Feb. 11, 2026.

The Frustration Room appeared in a Chicago motel in 1962 and offered visitors the opportunity to smash objects — like a lamp base, a lightbulb or an ashtray — in a space dedicated to relieving frustration. One Curious City listener remembers visiting three times and wanted to know: who thought of this place, why, and what ever happened to it? We look into the Frustration Room’s origins and its next of kin — including a local “rage room” and a “scream club” — to ask if this kind of venting really works.

Thismia americana enjoys near-cult-status among Chicago botanists, ecologists and plant enthusiasts. The tiny, bell-shaped flower hasn't been seen since the early 1900s, but that hasn't stopped believers from trying to find Chicago's most elusive plant once more. A reporter and a team of scientists went hunting for thismia americana to see if, over a hundred years later, it could be re-discovered.

Bynum Island was once a gem in Chicago’s Washington Park, but now it’s abandoned, overgrown and inaccessible to the public. Curious City looks into why, and whether the island will ever reopen.

Former Chicago Public Schools students say school lunch used to be delicious decades ago. That comes as a surprise to current CPS students, who give lunchroom offerings mixed reviews. Also missing from the menu is a once popular butter cookie. What happened to tasty school lunches and this iconic cafeteria cookie?

One of the world’s largest scuba organizations was founded in the Chicago suburbs by Portage Park pool swim instructor Ralph Erickson. Decades later and Chicago still has a small but mighty scuba diving scene, driven in part by Lake Michigan’s many well-preserved shipwrecks. So Curious City jumped into Lake Michigan and talked with people in the local diving community who are carrying on the area’s surprisingly-robust scuba legacy.

Block club signs are all over the city, usually welcoming you to the neighborhood or telling you what you should or should not do while you’re there. A Curious City listener said they often see these signs on their way to work, and they wondered about the story behind them. What is a block club, what’s their history and who are the people involved? We visited two: the Ada United Block Club of 61st and 62nd and The Westside Block Club Association.

Once summer hits, local cover bands are busy working Chicago’s many street festivals. What’s life like for cover band musicians? Curious City spoke with three bands that are regulars on the local festival circuit: The Gingers, Too Much Molly Band, and Dancing Queen: An ABBA Salute.

It’s an invasive species that doesn’t seem harmful at first glance. But if they go unchecked, these little things can disrupt local ecologies.

The Museum of Science and Industry was renamed in 2024 in recognition of megadonor Ken Griffin. The museum’s original founder, Julius Rosenwald, did not want to put his own name on the institution.

For a brief moment in the 1990s, Lake Champlain was known as the sixth Great Lake. The lake wedged between Vermont and New York doesn’t quite measure up to the five Great Lakes. So how did this happen? Curious City partners with the Points North podcast from Interlochen Public Radio to bring you the story.

The name Aaron Montgomery Ward might sound familiar, either from the chain of now-defunct department stores that once bore his name or as the catalog guy who revolutionized mail-order shopping over 150 years ago. His lesser-known legacy, perhaps, is his drawn out fight over Grant Park. Ward spent 22 years and upwards of $1 million in today’s dollars fighting to keep Chicago’s premier downtown park “forever open, clear and free” from buildings. But why did he do it? And why isn’t he celebrated more for his crusade?

Chicago-style magic is close up, funny and usually performed at a bar or restaurant. We learn about its history and talk to several magicians who are part of the tradition. This episode was originally published in 2024.

There’s no New York-land or Boston-land, so why does the Chicago metropolitan area have its own unique name? It turns out this has been a question on the minds of many Curious City listeners. To learn more, we looked at the origins of this term, how its meaning has changed over time and the media mogul — or Colonel — behind it all. This episode originally aired in 2023.

The stretch of beach that starts where DuSable Lake Shore Drive ends wasn’t always as vibrant or as ‘gay’ as it is today. Its transition was spearheaded by Jerry Marcoccia, who was searching for a sense of belonging in the 1990s. "You can't talk about this beach being gay without including me,” he said.

Comic Sans often signals levity or sarcasm. The font is occasionally used for a key phrase in some official city elevator inspection certificates. That’s caused concern for some Chicagoans, including at least two Curious City listeners. Stand-up clips in this episode were from comedian @EricSchwartz.

A concentrated Filipino community area is not as easy to spot as neighborhoods like Chinatown or Little Village. In this episode, we’ll look at the long history Filipinos have had in Chicago stretching back to the early 1900s. We’ll also look at how Filipino restaurants have made a mark across the city in recent years, from Jefferson Park to Pilsen. Originally published in February 2025.

Curious City listeners wondered if helicopters they heard buzzing around their Chicago neighborhoods at night were part of the federal government’s immigration enforcement. There is some truth to that, but it turns out odd helicopter flights have been a curiosity long before Midway Blitz.

There’s an ancient Roman column in Chicago hidden in plain sight near Soldier Field. It was a gift given by Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini during the 1933-1934 Chicago World’s Fair, commemorating a daring transatlantic flight to the fair by Italian Air Marshal Italo Balbo. In a time when controversial monuments get removed, why does this one still stand? (0:26) Balbo Monument Written sources: “Italo Balbo: A Fascist Life” by Claudio Segré “Broken Icarus: The 1933 Chicago World's Fair, the Golden Age of Aviation, and the Rise of Fascism” by David Hanna “Genocide in Libya: Shar, a Hidden Colonial History” by Ali Abdullatif Ahmida “Italo Balbo's Flight to the 1933 Chicago World's Fair” by Don Fiore  “The meaning of monuments : Remembering Italo Balbo in Italy and the United States” by Nick Carter “Italian Colonialism” edited by Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Mia Fuller

Have you ever noticed a branded stamp in the sidewalk? Keen-eyed Chicagoans have found some that date back to Depression-era infrastructure projects by the Works Progress Administration. Who were the workers behind the WPA and why did they brand Chicago sidewalks? We explore the labor history under our feet.

A person’s accent can influence the way they are perceived. When it comes to broadcast journalism, the way a person talks is front and center and can open the door to both praise and unsolicited criticism. In our last episode, contributor Arionne Nettles looked at the Southern roots of the Black Chicago accent. It goes back to the Great Migration. Even though many Chicagoans are generations removed from their Southern relatives, some aspects of the accent persist for three main reasons: Black Chicagoans tend to live close to each other, they maintain relationships with family in the South and they like how the accent sounds. Today, we get personal with Nettles, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side. She’s a journalism professor at Florida A&M University, a culture reporter and author. As a person with the Black Chicago accent, she considered changing the way she spoke to pursue a career in broadcast journalism. She talks about what the accent means to her, and why she ultimately decided not to change it.

How have Black Chicagoans kept so many features of the Southern dialect? To answer starts with the Great Migration.

The Lady Elgin left Chicago for Milwaukee on a stormy September night in 1860 with around 400 passengers aboard. Another vessel was also out in the storm — a small lumber schooner called The Augusta — which crashed into the Lady Elgin a few hours later. “The Lady Elgin was lit, but not well enough for the unlit Augusta to see it,” said Madeline Crispell, the curator at the Chicago Maritime Museum in Bridgeport, home to an exhibit on the Lady Elgin. “Neither ship was able to get out of the way in time.” The Lady Elgin cracked in half a few miles off the coast of Highland Park, Illinois. About 100 people managed to reach the shore, but around 300 lost their lives. “It's the deadliest shipwreck in Great Lakes history,” Crispell said. You may be familiar with the Eastland disaster, which killed over 800 people in 1915 while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. But Crispell said the wreck of the Lady Elgin was even more consequential. She said the Lady Elgin was key to the development of new requirements for lighting ships at night, in the creation of the U.S. Life-Saving Service in 1871, and in the opening of Evanston’s Grosse Point Lighthouse in 1873. In our last episode, we explored what area lighthouses like Grosse Point are used for now, since automation made keeper jobs obsolete. Today’s episode is about the reasons these lighthouses were built in the first place. “By the 1880s, if your ship were to sink off the coast of Highland Park, there would be a whole different system in place to help rescue you,” Crispell said. “And perhaps that's why the deadliest shipwreck in Lake Great Lakes history happened all the way back in 1860: because changes were made as a result of it.” Crispell told Curious City the story of why the Lady Elgin chose to disembark on such a stormy night, how a lighthouse could have helped its stranded passengers, and why the discovery of the wreckage over 125 years later was consequential, too. Music in this episode: Lost on the Lady Elgin by Lee Murdock

Lighthouses were manned by keepers until automation took over. Now, preservationists are working to restore Chicago’s most iconic one.

At the turn of the 20th century, Black photographers were starting to make a name for themselves. Photographers like William E. Woodard, James Van Der Zee and Miles Webb were opening and running their own studios. In African American art history, the Harlem Renaissance in New York is often celebrated. But Chicago played a role in that as well. Photographs of Black life circulated in local and international publications at the time, and the photographers behind those images focused on the community, intentionally. “The photographers know of each other and are in some ways competing, yet they're also really supportive of each other's work,” said Amy Mooney, art history professor at Columbia College Chicago. In our last episode, we explored the first art galleries in Chicago. Many of those “established” spaces were owned by white people who exhibited works by white artists. But that didn’t mean skilled and prolific artists of color were scarce. Today, Mooney tells us more about the early Black photographers who opened up their studios to everyone.

What was Chicago's first art gallery? Curious City investigates. Nowadays, it’s easy to see and experience art all over Chicago. But where did it all begin, and who was allowed to show their art?

The mayor of Chicago declared martial law after the Great Fire in 1871. The military occupation ended days later, after the death of a civilian. We look back at that history and get the help of legal experts to answer these questions: Was Operation Midway Blitz — the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement campaign in Chicago — an example of martial law? What is martial law, anyway?

Suburban Batavia, just 30 miles west of Chicago, used to be known as the windmill capital of the world. But eventually, technological advances took the wind out of the industry’s sails. In our last episode, we looked into why there are no wind turbines in the Great Lakes even though conditions are favorable. Legal and political hurdles continue to challenge the offshore wind energy business in the Midwest. Today, we’re going to take an historical look at the wind industry in our region. In modern times, Batavia is known for Fermilab, America’s particle physics and accelerator laboratory. But long before that, Batavia was on the map for hosting six windmill factories. Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke and City Clerk Kate Garrett dive into the town’s history. They take pride in the past, but look forward to the future.

Strong and consistent winds that sweep across Lake Michigan could provide significant electricity generation. But there are no wind turbines in the lake or any of the Great Lakes. This Curious City story is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

Chicago — like so many other frigid American cities — can’t seem to kick its dependence on road salt.In our last episode, we learned how winter weather on both ends of the thermometer can impact the local economy. Some businesses come out on top during the coldest winters: auto mechanics repairing cars when they hit a pothole, snow plow companies shoveling out small businesses and rock salt providers when the roads get icy.But chloride from salt is harmful to both our natural and built environments. You’d be hard-pressed to find a cold-weather community that avoids road salt altogether, but we found one! In this encore presentation, we visit a place way up north, Mackinac Island, Michigan. Dominick Miller, chief of marketing at the Mackinac State Historic Parks, tells us about how the island deals with snow and ice in the winter without laying down a single grain of salt. And it has a lot to do with the fact that cars have been banned on Mackinac Island for over a century.

Each Chicago winter’s wintery-ness has big implications for your sanity and your wallet. That led one Curious City listener to ask us if mild winters have a noticeable effect on the local economy.

For decades, the FBI was a man’s world. Anybody else was just living in it, especially the administrative staff. In the last episode, we learned how the bureau recruited high school girls for clerical work during the 1940s. But for decades women were explicitly prohibited from becoming special agents. Western Springs resident Jane McCarty was hired out of high school in the late 1960s to work as a stenographer for the FBI. She held several positions during her more than four decades at the organization. Today, the former president of the Society of FBI Alumni talks about the ebbs and flows of women’s access to leadership and autonomy within the bureau. She endured a sexist work environment but later witnessed the first women become FBI special agents.

For a few decades starting in the 1940s, the FBI recruited high school girls for clerical work. A Chicago Catholic school was a go-to spot to make new hires.

From school assemblies to “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood,” Ella Jenkins was a rhythm specialist and children’s music pioneer. Her childhood in Chicago was her launching pad. In our last episode, we learned that the first Chicago public school named after a Black person was DuSable High School, in honor of Chicago’s first nonindigenous settler, Jean Baptiste Point DuSable. It turns out some of the most notable Chicagoans graduated from DuSable, including Mayor Harold Washington, historian Timuel Black and Jenkins. Today, we bring you a conversation about this music icon, who harnessed curiosity, life experience and charisma to create some of the most unique and prolific art of the 20th century. Jenkins forged a path in the music industry during a time when children’s musicians didn’t really exist. She persevered through the civil rights era, took ownership of her music in an industry that often took advantage of women and made the focus about children.Professor of American studies at George Washington University Gayle Wald sat down with Curious City Editor Susie An at the 2025 Evanston Folk Festival to talk about Jenkins’ life. Wald is the author of “This is Rhythm: Ella Jenkins, Children’s Music and the Long Civil Rights Movement.”

Many of Chicago’s oldest schools are named after white men. The first named after a Black person goes back to the 1930s, and it came with some controversy.

If you pay attention to street signs in Chicago, you’ll notice imperfections and many quirks. Paul Durica of the Chicago History Museum said a coworker informed him that North Avenue becomes North Boulevard when you’re east of Clark Street.“And I was like, what?” Durica recalled. “And it does! And it's because here we are, now in the park.”One of Chicago’s major arteries, Ashland Avenue, has a rich history of its own. In our last episode, we looked at why streets like Ashland are occasionally labelled boulevards (like North Boulevard, sometimes the answer is because the street is adjacent to a park). Today, we’re looking closer at the history of Ashland Avenue, including how it became a major thoroughfare and why the city widened it at great expense 100 years ago. (The short answer? To accommodate car traffic.) Contributing are Durica and Northwestern Professor Bill Savage, author of a forthcoming book on the anomalies and politics behind Chicago’s grid system.

Ashland Avenue is one of the longest and oldest streets in Chicago, but sometimes it’s a boulevard. Is this a misprint? Or is this part of the city’s history to promote park land?

From high-speed chases to preposterous parades, Chicago dazzles on the silver screen. Last episode, we attempted to uncover the best movie ever filmed in Chicago. What we found was that it was impossible to name a definitive best, let alone name every movie that deserves recognition. Today, we dive deeper into movies that resonate with Chicagoans with two film critics: Marya E. Gates, author of Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words and Robert Daniels, associate editor of RogerEbert.com. They argue that the city doesn’t just look good on screen, it also helps tell stories that are reflective of its residents. Gates and Daniels talk about Chicago movies that highlight crime and political tropes (like “The Untouchables,” “Medium Cool,” and “Call Northside 777”), movies that bend space and time to navigate through Chicago’s geography (like “The Fugitive” and “Blues Brothers”), and movies that follow teenagers as they romp around the city (like “Cooley High” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”). Plus, they’ve got recommendations for Chicago movies that may have flown under your radar. Music in this episode: “Do You Know Where You're Going To” from the film “Mahogany” by Dianna Ross "Somewhere in My Memory" from the film “Home Alone” by John Williams Main Theme from “The Dark Knight” by Hans Zimmer “Hopeless” from the film “Love Jones” by Dionne Farris “She Caught the Katy (And Left Me a Mule to Ride)” from the film “The Blues Brothers” by The Blues Brothers “Rawhide” from the film “The Blues Brothers” by The Blues Brothers “Boom Boom” from the film “The Blues Brothers” by John Lee Hooker “Stairway Chase” from the film “The Fugitive” by James Newton Howard “Twist and Shout” from the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” by The Beatles “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (Instrumental)” from the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” by The Dream Academy “Baby Love” from the film “Cooley High” by The Supremes “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” from the film “Cooley High” by The Four Tops “We Slept In” from the film “Home Alone” by John Williams “Run Rudolph Run” from the film “Home Alone” by Chuck Berry Original music from the film “A League of Their Own” by Hans Zimmer Original music from the film “Compensation” by Reginald R. Robinson Original music from the film “We Grown Now” by Jay Wadley and Attacca Quartet “The Float” from the film “Hoop Dreams” by Ben Sidran “Oh Yeah” from the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” by Yello “Doing It Again” by Lincoln Grounds and Thomm Jutz

It’s awards season. Time to look at some of the best movies filmed in Chicago.

Thanks to the powerful force that is Lake Michigan and the urban heat island that is Chicago, the city has witnessed some unusual and extreme weather events. Last episode was about lake-effect snow and a phrase you hear all the time: “Cooler by the lake.” But Chicago weather definitely gets stranger than that. We’re talking thundersnow, water spouts and even space weather. Why do these weather events happen, what makes them unusual and how can you have a little fun (safely!) when they come around? We talk with Jeff Frame, a teaching professor in the Department of Climate, Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

You’ve heard it in the Chicago weather forecast time and time again: “cooler by the lake.” But how close to Lake Michigan do you need to be to feel that dip in the temperature? And why doesn’t Chicago get the same lake effect snow as Northwest Indiana? We look into the powerful force that is Lake Michigan.

Berlin nightclub in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood closed permanently in November 2023, after four decades in business. The closure happened amid stalled negotiations between the bar’s owners and its unionizing employees. Today, the space remains empty, and it’s unclear what will take its place.In our last episode, Curious City looked into a mural that was a staple at Berlin for much of its existence. Today, we revisit an episode of WBEZ’s The Rundown podcast from just after the club closed. In asking some of the people who worked there, danced there and made memories there, it’s obvious that Berlin was more than just a bar. “It felt like a secret almost,” said All The Way Kay, who DJed at Berlin for over 15 years. “It felt like something that you wanted to hold very, very close to you because spaces like that really don't exist.”We talked with Kay, queer historian Owen Keehnen, DJ Greg Haus and several listeners who called The Rundown podcast to share what Berlin meant to them and what they hope for the future.

The large mural hung over the main bar at Berlin. Painted in the Art Deco style, the masculine and feminine figures in the painting watched over the nightly revelry at the storied nightclub until it closed in 2023.

On the morning of St. Nicholas Day, good kids rush downstairs to see what kind of gifts might be in their shoes. The bad kids? Unfortunately they might get a visit from Krampus, an ancient monster that has naughty children praying for a lump of coal instead.The origins of this half-goat, half-man folklore character date back centuries, largely to German-speaking countries in Europe. But these days, Krampus is more popular than ever — especially in America, with parades, festivals, Hollywood horror films, Ocean Spray commercials and endless amounts of merchandise. That popularity is largely attributed to Chicagoan Monte Beauchamp, who first published images of Krampus in his alternative comic magazine, Blab!, in 2000. “I can't believe what's taken place since I introduced Krampus in the pages of Blab! Magazine, which led to a book, and then from there it just exploded,” Beauchamp told Curious City.In our last episode, we looked at a long-running holiday tradition in Chicago, Goodman Theatre’s rendition of “A Christmas Carol.” In today’s episode, we explore the origins of this very different kind of Christmas tradition and its curious local connection.

The Christkindlmarket, the CTA holiday train and “A Christmas Carol” at the Goodman Theatre. Chicago is full of holiday traditions. In this episode, we get an intimate look at the annual theater production through the eyes of our Chicago Sun-Times colleague, Stefano Esposito as he takes to the stage.

The Robbins Airport, just southwest of Chicago, was the first Black-owned and -operated airport in the country. Its founders were pivotal to Black aviation.

Lake Shore Drive has served as a makeshift runway for emergency landings. But it’s also been an intentional runway for planned arrivals. We go back to 1983 to get the story of how a Chicago institution helped turn our lakeside expressway into an airstrip, at least twice.

The city of Chicago owns thousands of vacant lots, and more than 80 percent of those parcels are in communities where the population is at least 80 percent Black. That’s according to a report from the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University. Residents and organizations are investing in these lots to improve the community. Last episode, we learned about how complicated it can be for individual homeowners to buy a vacant lot in their neighborhood. Today, we focus on an organization that is acquiring these types of spaces. Anton Seals, Jr. is the co-founder of Grow Greater Englewood, an organization that is doing innovative work on abandoned areas on the South Side. In the name of land sovereignty and building lasting community, he and his colleagues are transforming vacant lots into urban farms, a farmers market and a nature trail.

Buying a city-owned lot seems like a simple process, but buying one might take longer than expected. The city puts a limited number of parcels up for sale each year.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one: A hedgehog, a river otter and an iguana walk into a local exotic animal hospital …Whether intentional or otherwise, exotic pets like sharks, macaws and pythons have made Illinois their home. But finding medical care for these animals isn’t as simple as visiting the neighborhood vet.Last episode, we explored some of the out-of-place animals that’ve been found in Chicago, including a peacock, an alligator and a 20-pound vervet monkey. Today, we’re asking, what happens when they get sick? Take a trip with us to the Chicago Exotics Animal Hospital in Skokie to meet Gomez Addams the tegu lizard and a few of his friends. Plus, hear some wild stories from the people who care for them.

Animal control is used to dealing with stray cats and dogs. But what happens when there’s a peacock strutting down the alley? Curious City explores strange animal sightings in Chicago.

Chicago passed a reparations ordinance 10 years ago for the survivors of police torture committed under the direction of disgraced Chicago police commander Jon Burge.As we learned in our last episode, monetary reparations alone cannot heal decades of trauma. In this episode, we take a closer look at the limits of monetary settlements and what else survivors need to heal. We also take a look at how Chicago’s reparations ordinance is looking 10 years later with Aislinn Pulley, the executive director of the Chicago Torture Justice Center, which was established as part of the reparations ordinance.

This year marks a new record, as Chicago city leaders have so far agreed to pay more than $266 million to resolve a wide range of police misconduct lawsuits. After the city washes its hands and the TV news cameras move on, what happens next? Do these payments help bring survivors closure or a sense that justice has been served?

While flying over downtown Chicago on July 18, 2018, a World-War-II era single-engine Ercoupe airplane suffered “complete mechanical failure.”“The throttle cable completely broke off of the carburetor,” said pilot John Ginley. “There was no way to control the engine.”Still, Ginley and his co-pilot — his then-girlfriend and now-wife Ally Ginley — managed to land in the southbound lanes of DuSable Lake Shore Drive, successfully avoiding cars, humans, and the 35th Street pedestrian bridge.In our last episode, we heard about the history of forced plane landings on Chicago’s scenic, multilane expressway. Today, we hear Ginley’s story of escaping imminent disaster from the pilot himself.

A couple of pilots have made forced landings on DuSable Lake Shore Drive. What makes a road or any other non-airport spot the best option in an emergency?

Three stories from Chicagoans who endured a terrifying experience that they couldn’t explain, couldn’t get over, or couldn’t escape. Karen Holt tells the story of her haunted childhood home on Chicago’s Southeast Side. Was her house simply saturated with “residual energy”? Or was the ghost of a lost boy wandering the halls? Rachel Shuki tells the story of the haunted, now-closed school she taught at on Chicago’s West Side. A tragic disaster from the past could be the reason behind unexplained occurrences in the building. Ben Astrachan and Jackson Zinn-Rowthorn tell the story of their Northwest Side apartment complex, the ritual site they found in the basement, and the friend that messed with it. Have they disturbed a spiritual realm they aren’t equipped to handle? Get cozy, dim the lights and press play.

A bridge constructed for sightseeing during the turn of the century soon became known as a place for death. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Margaret Burroughs was a force to be reckoned with. An artist and a poet in Chicago from the 1920s until her death in 2010, she was also a teacher, an organizer, and the founder of the DuSable Black History Museum. Her birthday is November 1. Curious City and the Burroughs Legacy Project at the Invisible Institute tell the story of one of her lesser-known passions: educating people incarcerated in Illinois.

The city is home to a vibrant jazz scene and the Chicago Jazz Festival. But WDCB is the only all-jazz radio station in the region. Why isn't there more jazz programming on the local radio dial?

The Kankakee mallow is one of the rarest plants on the continent, according to the Smithsonian Garden in Washington D.C. It’s a pink flower that grows on tall stalks and is native to just one small island in the middle of the Kankakee River, about an hour south of Chicago. But when botanist Rachel Goad paddled over to take a look back in 2014 with a group of native plant enthusiasts, instead they found an island overgrown with invasive honeysuckle.Was this special native plant gone for good?Perhaps, if not for the efforts of a small group of volunteers, initially led by conservationist Trevor Edmonson.“Hearing the phrase that the Kankakee mallow only grows on this island — anywhere in the world, like that is the extent of its remaining natural habitat — is such a draw for anybody, especially someone early on in their career,” Edmonson said.Today, reporter Claire Keenan-Kurgan from the Points North podcast at Interlochen Public Radio guides us on this floral rescue mission.Points North is a podcast that tells great stories from the Great Lakes. For more stories like this one, go to pointsnorthpodcast.org.

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.

You know the building: Two stories, an apartment unit on each floor, usually with bay windows and a facade of brick or greystone. But how did the two-flat become so popular, and who was it originally built to serve? In our last episode, we looked at the types of places Chicago’s single women lived in at the turn of the 20th century. In today’s episode, we explore the Bohemian origins of the humble Chicago two-flat. As it turns out, the advent of the two-flat mirrors the development of the city’s middle class. “Our design No. 144 is a two-family flat designed for a money making proposition,” begins a 1915 ad enticing homebuyers to build a two-flat. “Anyone wanting a comfortable home and at the same time a good income on the investment will do well to consider this proposition.” Plus, we answer another housing-related listener question: why are Chicago fire escapes distinctively wooden (read: flammable) and are they actually effective during fires? This episode was reported by Chris Bentley and was originally published in 2014.

At the turn of the century in Chicago, single women without a husband or family were considered to be "adrift," but they weren’t drifting at all. They were making choices that took them to different addresses.

It’s a Thursday night and a group of folks in Washington Heights do-si-do to the bassline from “Shake Your Groove Thing” by Peaches & Herb. Square dancing has a reputation as more of a hobby for white people set to country music. But social clubs like the Southside Squares are turning that image on its head. Last episode, we heard how square dancing was once a booming hobby. Today, we hear from one social club that’s working to keep it alive in the 21st century. But square dancing’s African and African-American roots often get lost in popular accounts. Some of the first callers and musicians were enslaved Black people. Since then, square dancing has continued to be a part of African-American communities, including a long-running social club that meets up in Washington Heights every week to get down. Today, we hear from members of the Southside Squares. And you can’t have a dance without a caller. We also talk with a living legend in square dancing: world-renowned caller Sandie Bryant. She’ll show us the ropes and tell us what it’s like being one of the few Black women callers today.

Square dancing was once so popular that a center opened in the suburbs dedicated to the hobby. Today, veteran dancers are trying to recruit new fans.

Malls hold a special spot in the hearts of many Americans of a certain age. One may have been the setting for your first date, the place you caught a now-classic summer blockbuster, or even a daycare of sorts after mom dropped you off with a few friends (and maybe a few bucks).In our last episode, we looked back at the history of Chicago’s Ford City Mall and the heyday of mall culture in America: the 1980s and 1990s.In this episode, we look at how malls are doing today with Stephanie Cegielski, vice president of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). She says reports of the death of the mall are overblown, that malls are adapting to a new era by offering experiences, and that Gen Z is playing a large role in malls’ resilience. Cegielski cites an ICSC survey of over 1,000 people aged 16-26 that found 60% of respondents say they visit malls just to socialize or meet friends, even if they don’t need to purchase something specific.“We just asked them blankly, ‘Do you still go to the mall?’” Cegielski said. “And the short answer was yes.”

Vacant shops and faded signs, Ford City Mall is in the process of being sold. But this shell of a shopping center was once a bustling hub, especially for young people.

The year 2023 was a deadly one at the Cook County Jail. Eighteen people died in custody, “for many reasons,” said reporter Carlos Ballesteros, who reported on the record year for Injustice Watch. His reporting cited drug overdoses, lapses from jail staff and failed oversight.In our last episode, we learned about a group of volunteers who set up outside Cook County Jail to hand out free supplies to people after they get released. Today, we’ll hear about a few people who never were released, the conditions and circumstances that led to some of their deaths, what changes have been made and what changes may still be needed at the Cook County Jail. “Ultimately, it's jail, right?” Ballesteros said. “But the things we hear from people inside and their families is really disturbing.”The number of deaths at the jail has decreased since the 2023 report. We get an update from the Cook County Sheriff’s Department, which oversees the jail.

Almost every night, a group of volunteers sets up a table of supplies. Their goal is to assist everyone who is being released; from bottled water to a ride home. But sometimes, it’s a challenge when people are released well after midnight.

Apple slices were a favorite Chicago pastry decades ago. Not many bakeries sell them today, but the dessert still has avid fans who hold on to its nostalgic flavor.

The story of Pigasus, who unknowingly accepted the Youth International Party (Yippie) nomination for president in Daley Plaza in 1968, shows that sometimes pigs need rescuing. “My heart hurt for the pig,” said April Noga, executive director of Chicagoland Pig Rescue, of Pigasus’s run for president. “Because I put myself in the pig’s shoes of being pulled around a rally and then detained and not knowing what's going on. And used as, not entertainment but used as a prop. Because the pig is a sentient being.”In our last episode, we dispelled a rumor that Pigasus was barbecued. Reporter Andrew Meriwether searched Grayslake and Libertyville for the farm where she lived out her days following the ‘68 campaign. In today’s episode, Noga tells us why pigs still need rescuing. She explains that Chicagoland Pig Rescue gets as many as 20 calls a month, from overwhelmed people in need of rehoming a small-breed pet pig, to concerned citizens who have spotted an injured, large-breed pig on the side of the road. “Every case is a little different,” Noga said. Noga explains how she started Chicagoland Pig Rescue and how pig rescuing and fostering works. She also introduces us to Ramona, a three-year old potbelly mix who was rescued from a home where she was neglected. Noga described Ramona — who is one of six pigs in Noga’s “house herd” — as an "automatic foster fail."

During the demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in 1968, activists trotted out a pig named Pigasus for president. Her campaign was cut short after she and protesters were arrested by the Chicago Police. Rumors swirled that Pigasus was barbecued, but what really happened to her?

Curious City went out to find the oldest book in circulation at the Chicago Public Library. Turns out, the title is over 200 years old, and you can still check it out.

Summer is coming to an end, and it’s time to go back to school. Today, the number of Chicago Public School students complaining about school lunch might only be matched by the complaints over homework assignments. So it may come as a surprise that decades ago CPS students actually looked forward to eating cafeteria lunch. In our last episode, WBEZ’s Sarah Karp found that privatization of food services and revamped health guidelines shifted the menu for CPS students. During Karp’s reporting, many alumni kept mentioning an old lunchtime staple, the famed CPS butter sugar cookie. This was a cookie served district wide and baked fresh by lunchroom staff during the 1960s-1980s. The cookie has long been discontinued in schools, but there’s still a cult following. Dozens of copycat recipes pop up on a simple internet search, and one woman even turned it into a business. Curious City decided to put this cookie to the test. With the help of CPS culinary instructor Jeffrey Newman and a dupe recipe, we re-created this classic lunchroom treat. Is it worth all the hype? Will current CPS students like it? Or is this merely a dose of childhood nostalgia?

Some Chicago Public School alumni say school lunch used to be delicious, which might shock current students. How did school lunch go from delicious to disappointing?

Chicago is known for crime bosses like Al Capone, but the city is also home to two Chinese gangs that were once fierce rivals. This story first aired in 2018.

A courageous Chicagoan once helped foil a robbery by men in butcher smocks — a little-known gang from a bygone era of crime in the city.

Community organizations are helping Chinatown residents preserve what long-standing family associations helped build.

Family associations were once the backbone of social and economic organization for Chicago’s Chinatown. Their evolution over the decades tells the history of the community.

What is it about softball? “What is it not about softball?” replies Megan Faramio, a star pitcher for the Talons in the all-new Athletes Unlimited Softball League, or AUSL. “I can literally talk about softball for days.” The AUSL is about to wrap up its first season with a three-game playoff series in Alabama between Faraimo’s Talons and the Bandits, a team name that Chicago softball fans know well. The Chicago Bandits were based mainly in Rosemont and played in the National Pro Fastpitch league from 2005 to 2019 until the league disbanded during the COVID-19 pandemic. The AUSL said it was “re-introducing” the Bandits brand “to make new history.” AUSL league commissioner Kim Ng acknowledged that pro women’s softball leagues in the U.S. have a “spotty” history, but she says this league will be different. In this inaugural “barnstorming season,” AUSL teams like the Talons and Bandits are not yet attached to specific cities, so The Stadium in Rosemont has hosted every team in the small league for many of the regular season’s games. Next year, the AUSL plans to attach six teams to six to-be-determined cities, and Ng says Rosemont is on the short-list. “Absolutely, you have to consider somewhere that has a Jennie Finch Way,” Ng said, a reference to the team’s legendary former player and the street named after her where Rosemont’s pro softball field is located. In our last episode, we looked back at Chicago’s first professional women’s softball league from the 1940s and ‘50s — one that featured business-sponsored teams like Parichy’s Bloomer Girls or Brach’s Kandy Kids. That softball league rivaled the pro women’s baseball league featured in the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own.” Today, we’re exploring this new chapter in professional women’s softball history. What’s going to give the AUSL staying power? And what’s all the hype about? We asked Talons star Megan Faraimo, Commissioner Ng, and — at a sellout crowd on a hot day in Rosemont — the fans.

There was the Rockford Peaches, women’s pro baseball team of the 1940s that was celebrated in the movie "A League of Their Own." But there was also a pro softball league at the time that had Chicago fans going wild.

What would win in a race between a car, bike and the Chicago Transit Authority? Over the past few years, Chicago has been abuzz with road construction projects. There are more protected bike lanes, pedestrian refuge islands and curb bump-outs across the city. As we learned in our last episode, that also includes the installation of miniature traffic circles in residential areas. It’s all in service to make the roads safer by slowing cars down. Safer streets is a win, but it doesn’t necessarily satisfy the urge to get somewhere fast. Cycling and public transportation are viable alternatives, but sometimes it’s hard to separate yourself from the convenience of driving somewhere. In this episode, the Curious City team puts the different modes of transportation to the test in a good old-fashioned transit race. From the Garfield Park Conservatory to Navy Pier, who will win? Car, bike or public transportation? Plus, Midwest correspondent for The Economist, Daniel Knowles makes the case for why we should rethink our relationship with cars, and answers why the fastest isn’t always the best. “People will always drive if it's the most convenient or the quickest way,” said Knowles, author of “Carmageddon: How Cars Make Life Worse and What to Do About It.” “You can't exhort people to change, you have to kind of change the incentives.”

Mini traffic circles at the intersections of residential streets might annoy drivers because they force cars to slow down. But their safety features outweigh the inconvenience.

Swami Vivekananda is credited with introducing Hinduism to the West. His work earned him an honorary street sign on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, but it went missing.

Early LGBTQ+ history can be hard to find. Photos, letters, literature and other artifacts have been destroyed or hidden away, in acts of homophobia, out of a fear of repercussions, and even by witting and unwitting family members. “I think a lot of LGBTQ people, when they were passing away, their materials were being destroyed by family members that didn't understand them,” said Jen Dentel, the community outreach and strategic partnerships manager at Gerber/Hart, a large LGBTQ+ library and archive in Chicago. “And so having a space by us, for us, where we would collect and preserve the history became really important.” As we learned in our last episode, some queer women boldly operated sapphic establishments in Chicago during the 1920s and ‘30s. However, there was very little written about these places. Often, the only evidence of their existence came in the form of old newspaper articles reporting on the sudden closure of these businesses at the hands of Chicago police. In this episode, Dentel and Erin Bell, Gerber/Hart’s operations director, take us on a tour of this LGBTQ+ library and archive. They uncover archival treasures of the past, reveal unexpected moments in local gay history and explain the mission of the archive: to preserve queer history as a means of achieving justice and equality.

It’s not hard to find the LGBTQ+ hangouts in Chicago these days, but at one point it was. There’s a history of lesbian nightlife that goes back more than 100 years.

One Curious City listener was skeptical about whether real people actually win WBEZ’s pledge drive giveaways. They do. But there’s a little more to that answer. Plus, an economist who studies fundraising explains why people give money during pledge drives in the first place. This episode was originally published on March 3, 2022.

An on-air spot soliciting car donations is a fixture of public radio, but do people actually donate? Yes, about 50 cars are donated a month.

“Forest bathing” is the exceptionally simple Japanese practice of taking a walk — or a seat — in the woods. Why? For your health, of course! In our last episode, we learned about Chicago’s urban forest — including the $416 million in benefits all those trees provide, in terms of energy cost savings, stormwater mitigation and air purification. Today, we’re taking advantage of that urban forest by taking a bath in it. (And no, there is no soap or water required.) Our guide is the co-founder of The Spiritual Guidance Training Institute, Jeanette Banashak, who’s also a faculty member at Erikson Institute downtown. Banashak has been leading forest bathing and nature companionship experiences for four years. She took Curious City to the Jarvis Bird Sanctuary on the North Side for what she called “a playful, slow, mindful, joyful walk [and] sit in the natural world.” The goal of forest bathing is to disconnect from urban life, de-stress and connect with nature. Banashak said the practice is rife with health benefits, from lowering blood pressure to improving immune function and calming your parasympathetic nervous system. And although the practice does not require a guide, Banashak has a dream of training facilitators of these experiences to offer weekly sessions, year-round, on every side of the city. Lucky for us, Chicago has plenty of parks, bird sanctuaries, and natural spaces in which you can forest bathe. So join us. All you need to do is make the time and press play.

Some Chicagoans have noticed city workers cutting down seemingly healthy trees. Who is responsible, and why are they cutting down these trees?

Tammy Gibson wants you to visit the gravesites of your deceased relatives. “Have you checked on your ancestors?” said Gibson, the founder of Sankofa TravelHer, an organization dedicated to honoring the legacy of African-Americans who were often denied dignity in death. As we learned last episode, Chicago’s long history of segregation affected both the living and the dead, as many area cemeteries once offered burial space “for the exclusive use of the Caucasian race.” So where did African-Americans bury their loved ones in the 19th and early 20th centuries? “From my research, African-Americans could not get buried in Chicago,” Gibson told Curious City. Instead, she said many African-Americans buried their dead in the South Suburbs, at cemeteries like Mount Glenwood in Glenwood, Ill., and later Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill. In this episode, Gibson tells us about the people who first started these cemeteries and the notable people buried there. She talks about the work she does to continue honoring the deceased, including offering a reinterment ceremony years after the 2009 grave-stacking scandal at Burr Oak Cemetery. Gibson also works to get headstones for notable Chicagoans who do not have them. This includes Eugene Williams, whose death sparked the 1919 Chicago Race Riot, and journalist Ethel Payne from Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, who was known as the First Lady of the Black Press.

Mayor Harold Washington is buried in a cemetery that was once for “whites only.” Protests and legislative fights desegregated area cemeteries.

Lakeview once had a thriving Japanese community, but it fell victim to a push for assimilation. As one Japanese-American puts it: “You had to basically be unseen.”

If you’ve had your car towed in Chicago, there’s a decent chance you had to journey down to Lower Lower Wacker Drive — likely not in the best of moods — to open your wallet and recollect your vehicle. “It's supposed to be a happy process,” said Michael Lacoco, the deputy commissioner of the city’s bureau of traffic services. In our last episode, we answered some of your many questions about Lower Wacker Drive, a.k.a. Chicago’s basement. Today, we try to demystify a notorious Chicago landmark within: the Central Auto Pound. Lacoco is a 33-year veteran of this department, the perfect person to help us on this journey. He explains why you shouldn’t try to steal your own car from the lot, why that white inventory number they draw on your window is so hard to wash off, and what you can do if you think you were wrongfully towed.

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

Nuclear fallout shelters are still among us, though they are not exactly ready for the apocalypse. These remnants of Cold War-era infrastructure do exist across Chicago, often in places you might not expect. This episode originally aired in 2015.

Tucked in the city’s municipal code is a law that prohibits the production, storage and launching of nuclear weapons in Chicago. We find out why the city decided this law was necessary.