Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

707 - Where did the term 'Chicagoland' come from?

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

707 - Where did the term 'Chicagoland' come from?

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

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Curious City

Episodes

Where did the term 'Chicagoland' come from?

How did Hollywood Beach become Chicago’s ‘gay beach’?

Why does Chicago use Comic Sans on some elevator inspection certificates?

Does Chicago have a Filipino neighborhood?

Why are there helicopters flying over my neighborhood every night?

Why does Chicago have a monument named for fascist leader Italo Balbo?

Standing on history: Who built Chicago’s WPA sidewalks?

‘This is how I speak’: The influence of the Black Chicago accent

How has the Black Chicago accent retained its Southern roots?

The story of the Lady Elgin, the deadliest shipwreck in Great Lakes history

What are Chicago area lighthouses used for?

How early Black Chicagoans used photography to redefine their image

What was Chicago's first art gallery?

Chicago came under martial law after the Great Fire. Did it help?

The ‘windmill capital of the world’ used to be down the road from Chicago

Why aren’t there wind turbines in Lake Michigan?

No cars, no road salt: How one Midwestern community avoids salt all winter

How does a mild winter affect Chicago’s economy?

What was it like for women working in Hoover’s FBI?

Why did the FBI recruit girls from Catholic high schools?

How Ella Jenkins’ Chicago childhood shaped her iconic children’s music

What's the first Chicago public school named in honor of a Black person?

Why did Chicago widen Ashland Avenue?

Why is Ashland Avenue sometimes Ashland Boulevard?

We can’t name ‘em all, but here are some of Chicago’s greatest films

From ‘The Fugitive’ to ‘The Dark Knight,’ what’s the best movie filmed in Chicago?

‘Weather is cool’: Weird Chicago weather, from northern lights to water spouts

When is it no longer ‘cooler by the lake’?

‘It felt like a secret’: Remembering Chicago’s Berlin nightclub

What’s the story behind Berlin nightclub’s huge mural?

Krampus is coming: The Christmas demon’s Chicago connection

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

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

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

How one organization is transforming Englewood’s vacant lots

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

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

A monkey on the loose: Odd animal sightings in Chicago

Beyond the settlement: Helping Chicago’s many survivors of police torture

What impact do big payouts have on survivors of police torture and misconduct?

Two-and-a-half minutes: Pilot John Ginley’s dance with disaster

‘Mayday, mayday, mayday’: How many planes have landed on Lake Shore Drive?

A Curious City Halloween: Scary stories from spooked Chicagoans

Gone and nearly forgotten: Lincoln Park’s High Bridge

The unsung legacy of Margaret Burroughs: ‘We called her mama’

Chicago is a jazz city, but where are the jazz radio stations?

How a group of volunteers saved a rare Illinois wildflower

What’s that dead zone in the 19th Ward?

The tale of the two-flat

‘Women adrift’: How single women lived independently in early Chicago

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