One Great History

It's February, which means it's time for another deep dive into advice columns of years past! For Valentine's Day 2022, we're focusing on Virginia Vane Says (briefly called The Women's Forum) - a column that ran in the Winnipeg Tribune from 1933-1944. Pressing issues include: how do I stop my husband from wearing a hat I hate, should I tell my mother I secretly married a soldier, and how do I conv...

On this episode we take a leisurely stroll through the history of Assiniboine Park and the Zoo. Alex tells us about decades of underfunding, a crooked gardener, a completely unsurprising fire, and the German animal-lover who made our zoo what it is today.

Alex, Sabrina and Nick dust off their sleigh bells, pointe shoes, and bottles of (non-alcoholic) champagne to talk about more festive Winnipeg stories. Sabrina talks about the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's The Nutcracker and it's lengthy legacy, while Alex takes us on a pub crawl through New Years party's past.

Winnipeg's Gingerbread City Hall was, for many years, a distinctive local landmark. It was demolished in 1962 amidst safety concerns and a larger push to modernize Winnipeg. Sabrina's not here to talk about that, though. Instead, we're talking about the construction of the Gingerbread City Hall and the many, many scandals that plagued it throughout the 1880s.

In May of 1967, amateur geologist Stefan Michalak was looking for quartz in the Whiteshell when he saw something bizarre. Was it an alien spacecraft? An experimental rocket ship? A hoax? In this episode, Alex interviews UFOlogist Chris Rutkowski and we talk through the UFO sighting known as the Falcon Lake Incident as well as its aftermath and a few theories. Plus: a special guest who may or may n...

After almost a year out of the studio, Sabrina, Alex and Nick are back to recording in person! To kick us off, Sabrina recaps the unusual and unpredictable story of Harlequin Romance - a publishing house founded in Winnipeg that is now one of the largest romance publishers in the world. Their start, as it turns out, was not nearly as romantic.  Also of note - One Great History will now be released...

In an attempt to be topical, Sabrina goes through the storied history of polio in Manitoba - from the early epidemic era, through bizarre treatment ideas and wonky science, to one of Canada's largest vaccination initiatives. We promise, we didn't want this episode to feel quite as relevant as it does.   Content Warning: This episode was recorded over a month ago, before the discovery of the bodies...

What even is an archive? Do we even really need them? Sabrina and Alex tackle these questions and talk to archivist Tom Nesmith and filmmakers Jesse Green and Vanda Fleury-Green about the importance of the City of Winnipeg archives and the less-than-ideal situation they're in.

In 1914, Nellie McClung and a delegation of her fellow suffragettes went to the provincial legislature to be heard on the topic of women voting. While they presented their best arguments in favour of suffrage, McClung found herself half-hoping that Premier Roblin would not be swayed. If he somehow changed his mind, after all, it would make her biting impression of him the very next night somewhat...

Sabrina and Alex explore an uglier side of Winnipeg's history in this episode, namely, the rise of fascism and Nazism in Winnipeg in the 1930s. We discuss the rise and fall of the various parties (yes, there were more than one) and the countless ways Winnipeggers fought back against them, including a large riot called the Battle At Market Square. Warning: this episode does contain discussion of an...

Between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Winnipeg had not one, but three red light districts. Over and over, we debated over how best to deal with the existence of sex work. Create a "segregated district" for ease of policing? Shut down the district (again) to preserve the morality of the city? Find out what happened on this new episode of One Great History!

It's finally time for Sabrina to talk about her favourite garbageman: Robert "Ginger" Snook! From city scavenger, eccentric electoral candidate,  and absurd local celebrity, Ginger Snook was everywhere in the early 1900s and was remembered (not fondly, but remembered) by many who knew him.

Prohibition is always a fun topic - speakeasies, Al Capone, bootlegging! Alex is here to tell you that none of that exciting stuff happened in Manitoba. Believe it or not, Manitobans demanded prohibition. And then we changed our mind. Were temperance-advocates just middle-class busybodies? Did bootleg liquor really taste like old boots? Listen to find out!

In part two of this episode, Sabrina continues to take Alex and Nick through the wonderful world of vaudeville in Winnipeg with the help of vaudeville performer Grant Simpson, focusing on performers young, old and famous! Learn all about how Charlie Chaplin was almost tricked into coming here, how Buster Keaton ran for his life from his own family, and so much more.

Sabrina takes Alex and Nick through the wonderful world of vaudeville in Winnipeg with the help of vaudeville performer Grant Simpson. Vaudeville held a major place in Winnipeg's heart at the turn of the 20th century as one of North America's most popular forms of theatre, with a handful of theatres and hundreds of exciting acts - including Harry Houdini, Charlie Chaplin, and more!

Is it proper to walk arm-in-arm with your sweetheart? Should you sue a man for 'wasting your kisses'? You should probably tell you fiance about your secret child, right? Find out the answers to these not-so-pressing questions as Sabrina and Alex explore Problems of the Heart, a 1920s advice column published in the Winnipeg Tribune.

In our season one finale, Sabrina debunks and discusses some Winnipeg urban legends! 

This week, Alex talks about how Winnipeg Beach became city-dwellers’ favourite summer spot – especially for dating – in the early 20th century.

Sabrina and Alex were feeling so festive, they just couldn’t help themselves from recording this bonus Christmas episode! Alex goes through some charming and bizarre Christmas anecdotes through the years and traces the origins of the Eaton’s Fairytale Vignettes. Sabrina tells us a truly horrifying story about Santa’s reindeer, and then caps it off with the tale of Punkinhead, Rudolph’s less popula...

How do you make a population care about something that is literally on the other side of the world? If you're Winnipeg, you stage a fake Nazi invasion. This week on One Great History: If Day.

Is Winnipeg haunted? Alex and Sabrina take a spirited visit to Hamilton House to discuss staged seances, questionable photographs, and more!

Sabrina and Alex go through Winnipeg's hockey history (it's more than just the Jets)!

Occasionally employed historians Sabrina and Alex talk about Winnipeg's wonderful and weird history in broad strokes. A "thesis episode", if you will.