Curious City

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Why does Chicago have a monument named for fascist leader Italo Balbo? May 13, 2026

Show notes

There’s an ancient Roman column in Chicago hidden in plain sight near Soldier Field. It was a gift given by Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini during the 1933-1934 Chicago World’s Fair, commemorating a daring transatlantic flight to the fair by Italian Air Marshal Italo Balbo. In a time when controversial monuments get removed, why does this one still stand?

(0:26) Balbo Monument

Written sources:

“Italo Balbo: A Fascist Life” by Claudio Segré
“Broken Icarus: The 1933 Chicago World's Fair, the Golden Age of Aviation, and the Rise of Fascism” by David Hanna
“Genocide in Libya: Shar, a Hidden Colonial History” by Ali Abdullatif Ahmida
“Italo Balbo's Flight to the 1933 Chicago World's Fair” by Don Fiore
“The meaning of monuments : Remembering Italo Balbo in Italy and the United States” by Nick Carter
“Italian Colonialism” edited by Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Mia Fuller

Standing on history: Who built Chicago’s WPA sidewalks? May 06, 2026

Show notes

Have you ever noticed a branded stamp in the sidewalk? Keen-eyed Chicagoans have found some that date back to Depression-era infrastructure projects by the Works Progress Administration. Who were the workers behind the WPA and why did they brand Chicago sidewalks? We explore the labor history under our feet.

‘This is how I speak’: The influence of the Black Chicago accent Apr 23, 2026

Show notes

A person’s accent can influence the way they are perceived. When it comes to broadcast journalism, the way a person talks is front and center and can open the door to both praise and unsolicited criticism.

In our last episode, contributor Arionne Nettles looked at the Southern roots of the Black Chicago accent. It goes back to the Great Migration. Even though many Chicagoans are generations removed from their Southern relatives, some aspects of the accent persist for three main reasons: Black Chicagoans tend to live close to each other, they maintain relationships with family in the South and they like how the accent sounds.

Today, we get personal with Nettles, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side. She’s a journalism professor at Florida A&M University, a culture reporter and author. As a person with the Black Chicago accent, she considered changing the way she spoke to pursue a career in broadcast journalism. She talks about what the accent means to her, and why she ultimately decided not to change it.

How has the Black Chicago accent retained its Southern roots? Apr 22, 2026

Show notes

How have Black Chicagoans kept so many features of the Southern dialect? To answer starts with the Great Migration.

The story of the Lady Elgin, the deadliest shipwreck in Great Lakes history Apr 09, 2026

Show notes

The Lady Elgin left Chicago for Milwaukee on a stormy September night in 1860 with around 400 passengers aboard. Another vessel was also out in the storm — a small lumber schooner called The Augusta — which crashed into the Lady Elgin a few hours later.

“The Lady Elgin was lit, but not well enough for the unlit Augusta to see it,” said Madeline Crispell, the curator at the Chicago Maritime Museum in Bridgeport, home to an exhibit on the Lady Elgin. “Neither ship was able to get out of the way in time.”

The Lady Elgin cracked in half a few miles off the coast of Highland Park, Illinois. About 100 people managed to reach the shore, but around 300 lost their lives.

“It's the deadliest shipwreck in Great Lakes history,” Crispell said.

You may be familiar with the Eastland disaster, which killed over 800 people in 1915 while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. But Crispell said the wreck of the Lady Elgin was even more consequential. She said the Lady Elgin was key to the development of new requirements for lighting ships at night, in the creation of the U.S. Life-Saving Service in 1871, and in the opening of Evanston’s Grosse Point Lighthouse in 1873.

In our last episode, we explored what area lighthouses like Grosse Point are used for now, since automation made keeper jobs obsolete. Today’s episode is about the reasons these lighthouses were built in the first place.

“By the 1880s, if your ship were to sink off the coast of Highland Park, there would be a whole different system in place to help rescue you,” Crispell said. “And perhaps that's why the deadliest shipwreck in Lake Great Lakes history happened all the way back in 1860: because changes were made as a result of it.”

Crispell told Curious City the story of why the Lady Elgin chose to disembark on such a stormy night, how a lighthouse could have helped its stranded passengers, and why the discovery of the wreckage over 125 years later was consequential, too.

Music in this episode: Lost on the Lady Elgin by Lee Murdock

What are Chicago area lighthouses used for? Apr 08, 2026

Show notes

Lighthouses were manned by keepers until automation took over. Now, preservationists are working to restore Chicago’s most iconic one.

How early Black Chicagoans used photography to redefine their image Mar 26, 2026

Show notes

At the turn of the 20th century, Black photographers were starting to make a name for themselves. Photographers like William E. Woodard, James Van Der Zee and Miles Webb were opening and running their own studios. In African American art history, the Harlem Renaissance in New York is often celebrated. But Chicago played a role in that as well. Photographs of Black life circulated in local and international publications at the time, and the photographers behind those images focused on the community, intentionally. “The photographers know of each other and are in some ways competing, yet they're also really supportive of each other's work,” said Amy Mooney, art history professor at Columbia College Chicago. In our last episode, we explored the first art galleries in Chicago. Many of those “established” spaces were owned by white people who exhibited works by white artists. But that didn’t mean skilled and prolific artists of color were scarce. Today, Mooney tells us more about the early Black photographers who opened up their studios to everyone.

What was Chicago's first art gallery? Mar 25, 2026

Show notes

What was Chicago's first art gallery? Curious City investigates. Nowadays, it’s easy to see and experience art all over Chicago. But where did it all begin, and who was allowed to show their art?

Chicago came under martial law after the Great Fire. Did it help? Mar 18, 2026

Show notes

The mayor of Chicago declared martial law after the Great Fire in 1871. The military occupation ended days later, after the death of a civilian. We look back at that history and get the help of legal experts to answer these questions: Was Operation Midway Blitz — the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement campaign in Chicago — an example of martial law? What is martial law, anyway?

The ‘windmill capital of the world’ used to be down the road from Chicago Mar 12, 2026

Show notes

Suburban Batavia, just 30 miles west of Chicago, used to be known as the windmill capital of the world. But eventually, technological advances took the wind out of the industry’s sails. In our last episode, we looked into why there are no wind turbines in the Great Lakes even though conditions are favorable. Legal and political hurdles continue to challenge the offshore wind energy business in the Midwest. Today, we’re going to take an historical look at the wind industry in our region. In modern times, Batavia is known for Fermilab, America’s particle physics and accelerator laboratory. But long before that, Batavia was on the map for hosting six windmill factories. Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke and City Clerk Kate Garrett dive into the town’s history. They take pride in the past, but look forward to the future.

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