Curious City

Around Chicago, there are ribbons of paint on utility boxes that look like little doodles. But there’s much more to these paint splotches. The street artist and graffiti writer behind this and much larger work says painting has been a lifesaver.
This story first published on Feb. 22, 2024.

Chicago has a rich and sometimes sordid past, making it ripe for creepy, perhaps paranormal activity. In that spirit, Curious City recently hosted a live event at the Empty Bottle called “Tales from the Curious Crypt,” where storyteller Jonathan Pitts told an eerie tale of working late nights at the Athenaeum, Vocalo’s Nudia Hernandez talked about the ghost that haunted her family and storyteller Lily Be explained why things were vanishing during a particularly difficult time in her life.

Nuclear power is Illinois’ biggest source of energy — over 50% — and nukes are once again in the spotlight as AI data centers jack up the demand for energy. What does this massive spike in demand mean for consumers in Illinois? Why are our electric bills continuing to rise? And are we at risk of major blackouts, the kind Chicago experienced in the 1990s?

There’s a hole in the map of Chicago. It turns out, it’s a cemetery. But there are many other cemeteries in Chicago that don’t show up as holes on the map, so what’s up with this one?  We take you to the 19th Ward and explore the history of this dead zone.
This story was first published April 11, 2024. Mt. Greenwood Cemetery is now owned by Troost Cemeteries.

In Chicago, it was house. In Detroit, it was techno. The two genres ushered a new electronic sound into the dance music world. Despite their proximity and shared roots in disco, some consider them rivals. But are they? And what about their adjacent dance cultures, Detroit jit and Chicago footwork?

Curious Midwest is a collaboration between Curious City, WUWM’s Bubbler Talk and WDET’s CuriousiD. We’re answering listener questions about the connections between these cities. 

WBEZ’s Erin Allen and WDET’s Bre’Anna Tinsley focus on Detroit and Chicago, the two cities that became ground zero for electronic dance music and footwork from the Midwest.