Curious City

By WBEZ Chicago

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

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FAQs about Curious City:

How many episodes does Curious City have?

The podcast currently has 783 episodes available.

Curious City episodes:

February 19, 2026 What was it like for women working in Hoover’s FBI?
For decades, the FBI was a man’s world. Anybody else was just living in it, especially the administrative staff.
In the last episode, we learned how the bureau recruited high school girls for clerical work during the 1940s. But for decades women were explicitly prohibited from becoming special agents.
Western Springs resident Jane McCarty was hired out of high school in the late 1960s to work as a stenographer for the FBI. She held several positions during her more than four decades at the organization. Today, the former president of the Society of FBI Alumni talks about the ebbs and flows of women’s access to leadership and autonomy within the bureau. She endured a sexist work environment but later witnessed the first women become FBI special agents.
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9min
February 18, 2026 Why did the FBI recruit girls from Catholic high schools?
For a few decades starting in the 1940s, the FBI recruited high school girls for clerical work. A Chicago Catholic school was a go-to spot to make new hires.
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7min
February 12, 2026 How Ella Jenkins’ Chicago childhood shaped her iconic children’s music
From school assemblies to “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood,” Ella Jenkins was a rhythm specialist and children’s music pioneer. Her childhood in Chicago was her launching pad. In our last episode, we learned that the first Chicago public school named after a Black person was DuSable High School, in honor of Chicago’s first nonindigenous settler, Jean Baptiste Point DuSable. It turns out some of the most notable Chicagoans graduated from DuSable, including Mayor Harold Washington, historian Timuel Black and Jenkins. Today, we bring you a conversation about this music icon, who harnessed curiosity, life experience and charisma to create some of the most unique and prolific art of the 20th century. Jenkins forged a path in the music industry during a time when children’s musicians didn’t really exist. She persevered through the civil rights era, took ownership of her music in an industry that often took advantage of women and made the focus about children.Professor of American studies at George Washington University Gayle Wald sat down with Curious City Editor Susie An at the 2025 Evanston Folk Festival to talk about Jenkins’ life. Wald is the author of “This is Rhythm: Ella Jenkins, Children’s Music and the Long Civil Rights Movement.”
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22min
February 11, 2026 What's the first Chicago public school named in honor of a Black person?
Many of Chicago’s oldest schools are named after white men. The first named after a Black person goes back to the 1930s, and it came with some controversy.
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7min
February 05, 2026 Why did Chicago widen Ashland Avenue?
If you pay attention to street signs in Chicago, you’ll notice imperfections and many quirks. Paul Durica of the Chicago History Museum said a coworker informed him that North Avenue becomes North Boulevard when you’re east of Clark Street.“And I was like, what?” Durica recalled. “And it does! And it's because here we are, now in the park.”One of Chicago’s major arteries, Ashland Avenue, has a rich history of its own. In our last episode, we looked at why streets like Ashland are occasionally labelled boulevards (like North Boulevard, sometimes the answer is because the street is adjacent to a park). Today, we’re looking closer at the history of Ashland Avenue, including how it became a major thoroughfare and why the city widened it at great expense 100 years ago. (The short answer? To accommodate car traffic.) Contributing are Durica and Northwestern Professor Bill Savage, author of a forthcoming book on the anomalies and politics behind Chicago’s grid system.
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11min
February 04, 2026 Why is Ashland Avenue sometimes Ashland Boulevard?
Ashland Avenue is one of the longest and oldest streets in Chicago, but sometimes it’s a boulevard. Is this a misprint? Or is this part of the city’s history to promote park land?
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8min
January 22, 2026We can’t name ‘em all, but here are some of Chicago’s greatest films
From high-speed chases to preposterous parades, Chicago dazzles on the silver screen. Last episode, we attempted to uncover the best movie ever filmed in Chicago. What we found was that it was impossible to name a definitive best, let alone name every movie that deserves recognition.

Today, we dive deeper into movies that resonate with Chicagoans with two film critics: Marya E. Gates, author of Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words and Robert Daniels, associate editor of RogerEbert.com. They argue that the city doesn’t just look good on screen, it also helps tell stories that are reflective of its residents. Gates and Daniels talk about Chicago movies that highlight crime and political tropes (like “The Untouchables,” “Medium Cool,” and “Call Northside 777”), movies that bend space and time to navigate through Chicago’s geography (like “The Fugitive” and “Blues Brothers”), and movies that follow teenagers as they romp around the city (like “Cooley High” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”). Plus, they’ve got recommendations for Chicago movies that may have flown under your radar.

Music in this episode:
“Do You Know Where You're Going To” from the film “Mahogany” by Dianna Ross
"Somewhere in My Memory" from the film “Home Alone” by John Williams
Main Theme from “The Dark Knight” by Hans Zimmer
“Hopeless” from the film “Love Jones” by Dionne Farris
“She Caught the Katy (And Left Me a Mule to Ride)” from the film “The Blues Brothers” by The Blues Brothers
“Rawhide” from the film “The Blues Brothers” by The Blues Brothers
“Boom Boom” from the film “The Blues Brothers” by John Lee Hooker
“Stairway Chase” from the film “The Fugitive” by James Newton Howard
“Twist and Shout” from the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” by The Beatles
“Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (Instrumental)” from the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” by The Dream Academy
“Baby Love” from the film “Cooley High” by The Supremes
“Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” from the film “Cooley High” by The Four Tops
“We Slept In” from the film “Home Alone” by John Williams
“Run Rudolph Run” from the film “Home Alone” by Chuck Berry
Original music from the film “A League of Their Own” by Hans Zimmer
Original music from the film “Compensation” by Reginald R. Robinson
Original music from the film “We Grown Now” by Jay Wadley and Attacca Quartet
“The Float” from the film “Hoop Dreams” by Ben Sidran
“Oh Yeah” from the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” by Yello
“Doing It Again” by Lincoln Grounds and Thomm Jutz
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23min
January 21, 2026 From ‘The Fugitive’ to ‘The Dark Knight,’ what’s the best movie filmed in Chicago?
It’s awards season. Time to look at some of the best movies filmed in Chicago.
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7min
January 15, 2026 ‘Weather is cool’: Weird Chicago weather, from northern lights to water spouts
Thanks to the powerful force that is Lake Michigan and the urban heat island that is Chicago, the city has witnessed some unusual and extreme weather events.
Last episode was about lake-effect snow and a phrase you hear all the time: “Cooler by the lake.” But Chicago weather definitely gets stranger than that.
We’re talking thundersnow, water spouts and even space weather. Why do these weather events happen, what makes them unusual and how can you have a little fun (safely!) when they come around? We talk with Jeff Frame, a teaching professor in the Department of Climate, Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
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13min
January 14, 2026 When is it no longer ‘cooler by the lake’?
You’ve heard it in the Chicago weather forecast time and time again: “cooler by the lake.” But how close to Lake Michigan do you need to be to feel that dip in the temperature? And why doesn’t Chicago get the same lake effect snow as Northwest Indiana? We look into the powerful force that is Lake Michigan.
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7min

FAQs about Curious City:

How many episodes does Curious City have?

The podcast currently has 783 episodes available.