Searching for Chicago’s cable car tunnels
Chicago was once home to the world’s largest and most profitable network of cable cars. With some help from Forgotten Chicago, we go looking for the system’s built remnants.
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Chicago’s illicit pleasures, circa 1893
First issued in 1892, Chicago by Day and Night guided visitors to the World’s Fair through to the city’s entertainment offerings. Now reissued with annotations, the book is a time capsule for vice.
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ListenWhat it took to rehab the Viceroy
An historic West Side hotel with a squalid past is transformed into a model of green, affordable housing.
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ListenWater everywhere in young Chicago, but not enough to drink
Historian Carl Smith explores how Chicago’s first planners dealt with the city’s lakeside conundrum.
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ListenArchitect’s Pilsen vision is green, fashion friendly
Patricia Saldaña Natke wants to rethink Pilsen’s industrial heritage. Where others see abandoned buildings and an unused railroad, she sees a linear park and a textile incubator.
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ListenPoems for my father(s)
Chicago-born poet Edward Hirsch explores bittersweet childhood memories of the two men who had a hand in raising him.
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ListenBioluminescent creatures put on a show
Living things that make their own light exist across the natural world, from fireflies to dinoflagellates to glow-in-the-dark mushrooms. We explore the point of all that light with the help of a …
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ListenHainey: Chicago is ‘my old country’
Rachel Shteir still got you down? Forget the drubbing she gave Chicago and consider this love letter to the city from another writer, GQ’s Michael Hainey.
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ListenMaid’s memoir gives glimpse at real life ‘Downton Abbey’
You may have heard of Anna and Mr. Bates, but have you heard of Margaret Powell? Her 1968 memoir about servants’ life below the stairs was a direct inspiration for shows like Downton Abbey.
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ListenMinnie Minoso’s first game
As baseball season gets underway, Mr. White Sox recalls his favorite moment from his career: His first at bat in the major leagues.
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