Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

4.6 (649)
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UPDATED WEEKLY

Ask questions, vote and discover answers about Chicago, the region and its people. From WBEZ.

6D AGO

Krampus is coming: The Christmas demon’s Chicago connection

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.

12 min
DEC 17

“A Christmas Carol”: An amateur actor’s journey into a Chicago holiday tradition

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.

8 min
DEC 11

The first Black-owned airport in the U.S. was in Robbins, Illinois

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.

20 min
DEC 10

A museum, a mayor and a road: How Lake Shore Drive became a runway ... intentionally

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.

6 min
DEC 4

How one organization is transforming Englewood’s vacant lots

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.

12 min
DEC 3

Want to buy the vacant lot next door? It might take awhile

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.

7 min
NOV 20

Does your iguana need x-rays? A local exotic animal hospital can help

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.

13 min
NOV 19

A monkey on the loose: Odd animal sightings in Chicago

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.

6 min

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4.6

out of 5

649 Ratings

Interesting Episodes

Jan 20

BCguy94

I love how these short episodes delve into an aspect of Chicago history/culture!
What about now?

Oct 8

Bedpost#4

The city is currently having its citizens kidnapped en mass. ANY Chicago-centric show should be featuring this!
Can do better

Mar 23

Klauski57

Show has interesting topics but averaging 7 minutes a show, 2 and a half of which are ads or plugs for other shows, not really worth my time.
Curiously Void of Information

Jan 22

Bluefinkillie

Overall, it’s been enjoyable listening to the various aspects of this wonderful city, however the show lacks so much detail now! The shorter episodes, and in particular this last one on traffic are a complete waste of time. Never did the episode go into the history of Chicago traffic or highway systems, touched on the backstory of the application and its development, or really explained how it works. It fell short in so many ways- there was a depth of info that could have been useful and quirky. Nope, they inserted nearly a minute of music as fluff at the end because the journalist did a horrible job on this story. Ai could do better.