Curious City

The Ike was the city’s first superhighway. In this special presentation, people affected open up about how it scattered ethnic neighborhoods and changed many lives forever.

While the Curious City Scavenger Hunt: Chicago Eats Edition continues to take you all across the city, we’re pulling stories from our archive that dive into the history of Chicago’s neighborhoods.  This week, a story from 2017 takes us to Lake View, which 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...

With the “Curious City Scavenger Hunt: Chicago Eats Edition” now underway, we’re revisiting a story about foods created right here in Chicago.

A listener noticed an odd detail on an old map. Curious City investigated whether it was the site of an ancient burial mound.

As statues are removed in cities across the United States, we revisit a story about what it takes to get one put up in the first place.

Folk singer Steve Goodman grew up going to Cubs games, and this diehard fan had a lifelong goal—to write a hit song about baseball.

From office use to wearing them outdoors, we clear up some of your lingering confusions about face masks.

Plywood boards on storefronts became canvases during the protests over the killing of George Floyd. One Chicagoan wonders what will happen to the art now.

A rising population, developing landscape and evolving entertainment all helped form a need for the Chicago music venues we know today.

As new parents to twins, Ricardo and Marcela Serment wonder if it could finally be time to invite some helping hands into their home.

In this episode we speak with comedians Ashley Ray, Josie Benedetti and artistic performer Angela Oliver about how systemic racism has impacted Chicago’s improv and comedy scene, what they’ve experienced onstage and off and what it will take to change things.

As Chicagoans respond to the death of George Floyd, WBEZ’s Natalie Moore, Monica Eng, Chip Mitchell and Sarah Karp take us through the moments that defined this historic week.

Since the pandemic began, people have been concerned about food—how safe it is, how to get it, whether it would be available. We answered many of those questions a couple of months ago. But now, with new state and local regulations coming out for how to reopen, things are slowly beginning to change. And Curious Citizens have asked us what it means for things like Chicago area farmers markets, take...

As the state and the city take new steps to reopen life during COVID-19, we're releasing our last episode of Life Interrupted, a weekly series about daily life in Chicago during the pandemic. On this last episode, we meet Kate Huffman, a sixth generation farmer. Despite the economic uncertainty right now, she says farmers will come through.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, a global public health crisis hit Chicago—a widespread outbreak of tuberculosis. The highly contagious respiratory disease spread easily from person to person and attacked the lungs. Without a vaccine or a cure, doctors attempted to treat positive cases with sunshine, fresh air and by quarantining the sick away from the general public. Chicagoans who couldn’t...

In today's episode of Life Interrupted: Deanna Othman looks forward to sharing meals with friends and family during Ramadan. Now, she’s relying on faith to get her through isolation.

The Illinois stay-at-home order was supposed to slow the spread of COVID-19. So one Curious Citizen wonders how so many people are still getting sick.

In today's episode of Life Interrupted: A first pregancy is normally filled with a lot of excitment but also a lot of anxiety. So what's it like to bring a baby into the world during a global pandemic?

With less traffic on the roads and some businesses shut, one Curious Citizen wonders if the air we’re breathing is any cleaner.

Life Interrupted is a new weekly series from Curious City about daily life in Chicago during the pandemic. In today's episode, a s their daughter treats COVID-19 patients in intensive care, Suzie and Bob Pschirrer wonder if military families feel the same mix of pride and fear.

Around the turn of the century, the great American wilderness was disappearing. That’s when an architect named Dwight Perkins devised an ambitious plan to save Chicagoland’s natural treasures — by creating the state’s first forest preserves. . Over the next 15 years, Perkins would weather legal battles and partisan squabbling in pursuit of his vision.

Life Interrupted is a new weekly series from Curious City about daily life in Chicago during the pandemic. In today's episode, Lucy Keating first learned to sew on her grandmother’s Singer sewing machine. Today, she’s reviving her skills to make masks for COVID-19.

Two Albany Park chefs turned a Chinese-Korean chicken dish into a signature Chicago food. Listen to the history, then go to wbez.org/curiouscity for recipes to make at home.

Whether you’re single or in a decades-long relationship, it’s likely coronavirus has had an impact on your love life. With Illinois’ “stay-at-home” order and new social distancing rules in place, the pandemic has fundamentally changed how we’re supposed to interact with one another, and that can include our romantic partners. Now, some couples are unexpectedly navigating long distance because of q...

As many Chicagoans celebrate Passover, we’re sharing a story about the history of Chicago’s Jewish community through one congregation.