This week I discuss my friend Jason Veitzer and our plans to see Sun Ra at the 1988 Chicago Jazz Festival.

This episode is the first in a trilogy about the 1988 Chicago Jazz Festival. I discuss the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

In this week's episode, I discuss an incident that took place near the University Apartments in Hyde Park leading to my appearance in a Chicago courtroom.

This week I discuss the desegregation of Minnesota schools in the 1970s. I also describe the open school design of Longfellow Elementary in St. Paul. Finally, I highlight the recent initiative by Mayor Melvin Carter to eliminate fines at St. Paul public libraries.

In this episode I examine the history of telemarketing and robocalls--from a 1942 Popular Mechanics article describing an auto-dialer to efforts by the FCC to address the recent resurgence of robocalls.

This episode recalls the old Maxwell Street Market and the first night game at Wrigley field.

In this episode I recall my time writing for the Grey City Journal and discuss the hymn that inspired the title of GCJ. The lyrics by Edwin H. Lewis were inspired by Chicago's 1893 Columbian Exposition and became the University of Chicago's alma mater.

This week’s episode leads me to discuss the “ship of fools” allegory from Michel Foucault’s History of Madness, a brief history of Illinois Central Railroad and the nineteenth century California writer Bret Harte.

Joel's first message leads me to discuss South Chicago's AACM and the 1987 World Series win of the Minnesota Twins.

This episode contains a message from my mom. Since last week was my explainer episode, this is the first actual message I play. The twenty second message provides a nice insight into my mom's personality.