Is This Your Card? A Brief History Of Chicago-style Magic
Chicago-style magic is close up, funny and usually performed at a bar or restaurant. We learn about its history and talk to several magician...
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Curious City
Ask questions, vote and discover answers about Chicago, the region and its people. From WBEZ.
Curious City Podcast Guide
Listen to Curious City, a Arts podcast by WBEZ Chicago. Stream 654 episodes in English, follow new audio stories, and play episodes online on Radio and Podcast.
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20 of 654 episodesWhere did the term 'Chicagoland' come from?
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 qu...
How did Hollywood Beach become Chicago’s ‘gay beach’?
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...
Why does Chicago use Comic Sans on some elevator inspection certificates?
Comic Sans often signals levity or sarcasm. The font is occasionally used for a key phrase in some official city elevator inspection certifi...
Does Chicago have a Filipino neighborhood?
A concentrated Filipino community area is not as easy to spot as neighborhoods like Chinatown or Little Village. In this episode, we’ll look...
Why are there helicopters flying over my neighborhood every night?
Curious City listeners wondered if helicopters they heard buzzing around their Chicago neighborhoods at night were part of the federal gover...
Why does Chicago have a monument named for fascist leader Italo Balbo?
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...
Standing on history: Who built Chicago’s WPA sidewalks?
Have you ever noticed a branded stamp in the sidewalk? Keen-eyed Chicagoans have found some that date back to Depression-era infrastructure...
‘This is how I speak’: The influence of the Black Chicago accent
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 cente...
How has the Black Chicago accent retained its Southern roots?
How have Black Chicagoans kept so many features of the Southern dialect? To answer starts with the Great Migration.
The story of the Lady Elgin, the deadliest shipwreck in Great Lakes history
The Lady Elgin left Chicago for Milwaukee on a stormy September night in 1860 with around 400 passengers aboard. Another vessel was also out...
What are Chicago area lighthouses used for?
Lighthouses were manned by keepers until automation took over. Now, preservationists are working to restore Chicago’s most iconic one.
How early Black Chicagoans used photography to redefine their image
At the turn of the 20th century, Black photographers were starting to make a name for themselves. Photographers like William E. Woodard, Jam...
What was Chicago's first art gallery?
What was Chicago's first art gallery? Curious City investigates. Nowadays, it’s easy to see and experience art all over Chicago. But where d...
Chicago came under martial law after the Great Fire. Did it help?
The mayor of Chicago declared martial law after the Great Fire in 1871. The military occupation ended days later, after the death of a civil...
The ‘windmill capital of the world’ used to be down the road from Chicago
Suburban Batavia, just 30 miles west of Chicago, used to be known as the windmill capital of the world. But eventually, technological advanc...
Why aren’t there wind turbines in Lake Michigan?
Strong and consistent winds that sweep across Lake Michigan could provide significant electricity generation. But there are no wind turbines...
No cars, no road salt: How one Midwestern community avoids salt all winter
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 wi...
How does a mild winter affect Chicago’s economy?
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 mil...
What was it like for women working in Hoover’s FBI?
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 lea...