Curious City

Election judges don’t usually count votes for cartoon mice or celebrities, but there was one exception. We took a peek.

One Chicagoan wants to know what people who moved to Chicago love about the city. From fireflies to marathons, here’s what they have to say.

The Dill Pickle wasn’t just any old 1920s nightclub. It opened its doors to queer Chicagoans and other marginalized groups.

The story of one Chicago grocery store tycoon’s dream for jazz music, movie stars, and bygone glamour.

From boycotts to hashtags, Curious City traces the history of a 150-year-old message urging the black community to support black businesses.

Curious City spends a night at The Warehouse club through the memories of teens who danced there in the 1980s.

WBEZ’s Tony Sarabia talks with people who came out later in life about how that affected their closest relationships.

A recent episode from VPR’s podcast for curious kids features reporting from Curious City about what happens after you flush the toilet.

The city's top recipe sleuths share their secrets as we recreate a divine, but elusive, fried chicken dish.

Hint: If you want a Chicago street named after you, it helps to know a real estate developer — or be married to one!  

Candidates need to gather and then defend stacks of petition signatures. We break down who this helps and hurts.

Sure, they pass laws and vote on city budgets. But there’s so much more. Think: Pregnancy tests and pigeon poo.

The CTA consults lots of sources to decide how to pronounce street names. Take our quiz to find out how your pronunciations match up.

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.

The beef sandwich and slushy drink are sold together all across the South and West sides. We track down the guy who put the two together.

The story of Irish-American draft resisters, African-Americans who defied the odds in order to fight, and women who found alternate ways to support the war.

Dominic Pacyga shares his encyclopedic knowledge of Chicago history and answers questions about everything from “gin joints” to stockyards.

We unearth the business model behind these seasonal shops, and get the scoop on what costumes will be most popular this season.

We learn that, despite the current paucity of food co-ops, the city actually has a strong food co-op history — and there may be more on the horizon.

Chicago once had a booming commercial fishing industry. Lawrence’s Fish and Shrimp is one of the last vestiges of that industry.

Billy Sunday was an influential preacher within the American evangelical movement. How'd he end up in a song sung by Sinatra?

Chicago continued to use lead pipes long after many cities banned them. We look at the politics and personalities behind it.

Why did Richard J. Daley push for the UIC campus to rise from the heart of a long-standing ethnic neighborhood? In this special Curious City presentation, reporter Monica Eng examines the pervasive suspicion that the mayor’s choice rose from a political spat or — even worse — from disdain for the Italian-American community.  Click here for the full story.

Here’s a peek at what goes on inside some of these “mystery buildings” and how their architectural disguises have evolved over the decades.

We trace one synagogue’s migration, from the Maxwell Street neighborhood to North Lawndale to West Rogers Park.