Meet Janessa Handschiegel, owner of Janessa James Interiors. In this episode, Janessa talks about the ins and outs of interior design in Chicago, calls out the Ugg wearing amongst us and shares her personal adventures in preparing wild game from Czimers.

You can find Janessa and all her beautiful designs on Facebook.

Meet Natanya Rubin company manager for Kiss Kiss Cabaret and the associate producer for the Belmont Burlesque Revue. In this episode, Natanya reveals the glittery, feather laden, tease that is burlesque, shares her experience as a burlesque dancer and how the Chicago scene has grown over the years, directs us to check out the magical Architectural Artifacts and suggests we start filling potholes with used Trader Joe’s bags…

Meet Amy Sumpter, member of the She’s Crafty Chicago’s all female Beastie Boy’s tribute band. In this episode, Amy talks about what it takes to create a successful tribute band, how to bring Chicago out of the deficit by taking care of the poop and the pee (you really just have to listen) and reveals the hidden dining gem that is Sabatinos where they serve you soup AND salad.

Meet Elliott Serrano, the evil mastermind behind the Red Eye’s Geek to Me blog. In this episode, Elliott helps us celebrate our 50th episode (!!!) by sharing orgasmicly delicious donuts from Glazed and Infused and talking geek. We learn about Chicago’s vibrant geek culture, find out about some of the best events to get your geek on in Chicago, complain about walking and texting and confess the moment when each of us cried during the Doctor Who anniversary special.

Find Elliott all over the interwebs! Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

And of course, a special thank you to all of our wonderful listeners. We’ve enjoyed the last 50 episodes and can’t wait to bring you 50 more!

Meet Don Hall, Director of Live Events at WBEZ, Board Member of Chicago Slam Works, host of The Moth, the angry white guy behind the popular Angry White Guy blog and co-host of the General Admission podcast. Got all that? In our bluest episode yet, Don tells us – among many things – about the many hats he wears, calls out the city of Chicago for our unabashed marginalization of the South and West sides and invites us to check out Experimental Station

If you like Don’s vest, check out Ishi Vest.

And the campaign to bring Tom Skilling onto the show continues. Don says he can put us in touch…will this be the moment when our dreams come true?

Meet Joseph Vourteque, a founding member of Steampunk Chicago and also a founder of Rouge as well as a DJ and music producer (and also possibly Batman?). In this episode, Joseph talks about the world of Steampunk and his work supporting Chicago’s own flavor of Steampunk culture, lambastes the infamous Wicker Park Annex, Chicago drivers in the snow and the tradition of dibs and gives an entire list of great spots to check out around the city including, but not limited to, a shipwreck you can swim out to (?!?).

Meet Jessica Galliart, Social Media Manager for the Red Eye. In this episode, Jessica talks about juggling Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, even Jelly for the Red Eye, shares the amazingly simple yet shockingly unknown Lollapalooza el trick and explains purse etiquette on the CTA.

Find Jessica @jessicagalliart, @redeyechicago and @mistakesweremade_

Meet Jason Chin, author, director, writer, performer, teacher, coach, blogger, king of the twitters, bon vivant and veteran of the improv wars. In this episode, Jason shares stories and insights from his place at the forefront of the Chicago comedy scene for the last two decades, gave us the depressing stats for the privatization of Chicago’s meter and public transit system, points out that cabbies should probably be required to know where they’re going in order to drive a cab and shares the secret menu item at Salt and Pepper Diner.

You can find Jason on Twitter and WordPress

Can you believe it? It’s already time for our anniversary/end of the year episode! Per the Your Chicago tradition, we celebrate by looking back at the good, the bad and the ugly from the last year. The Podcasting Gods, clearly jealous of our success, chose to test us with technical difficulties but we prevailed…however, you may notice some strange pops and volume changes throughout the episode.

Meet Adam Selzer, ghost tour guide and, in his spare time, author, podcaster and honorary Scooby Doo gang member. In the episode, Adam talks about his work investigating Chicago’s dearly departed, shares an 1893 World’s Fair gem that most people don’t know about and brings back a Listen Up favorite.

For more information about Adam and his many projects, books, podcasts and the like, visit www.adamselzer.com

Interesting fact: the photo we took with Adam disappeared. Coincidence or angry spirit? Clearly the latter.

Want to share a Chicago secret? Want to lodge a complaint on Listen Up Chicago? Write to us at [email protected] or call 773-234-5573.