The Midway

482 Studios
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In the spring of 1891, two construction projects began on the south side of Chicago. One was the World's Columbian Exposition — 630 acres of classical architecture, electric light, and designed experience on the edge of Lake Michigan. It drew 27 million visitors. It changed how Americans understood what a city could look like. It was the most beautiful thing the country had ever made. The other was a building on 63rd Street that its owner said would be a hotel. The Midway is a narrative history podcast about World's Fairs — the spectacle, the ambition, and everything the official version left out. Season One goes inside the 1893 Chicago World's Fair: the architects who built it, the city that hosted it, and the thing that was hiding two miles away while 27 million people looked the other direction.

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Episodes

  1. You Might Like: Black Sunday

    6D AGO • 482+ ONLY

    You Might Like: Black Sunday

    Walt Disney spent thirty years building Disneyland before anyone would lend him the money to do it. Every bank said no. His own brother said no. He mortgaged his life insurance, sold his vacation home, and made a deal with a television network the rest of Hollywood considered an embarrassment. Black Sunday is a documentary podcast about the making of Disneyland — the vision, the financing, the construction chaos, and the catastrophic opening day that somehow launched the most visited tourist destination on earth.

    6 min

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In the spring of 1891, two construction projects began on the south side of Chicago. One was the World's Columbian Exposition — 630 acres of classical architecture, electric light, and designed experience on the edge of Lake Michigan. It drew 27 million visitors. It changed how Americans understood what a city could look like. It was the most beautiful thing the country had ever made. The other was a building on 63rd Street that its owner said would be a hotel. The Midway is a narrative history podcast about World's Fairs — the spectacle, the ambition, and everything the official version left out. Season One goes inside the 1893 Chicago World's Fair: the architects who built it, the city that hosted it, and the thing that was hiding two miles away while 27 million people looked the other direction.

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