PODCAST
Conversations and stories from Chicago's neighborhoods.
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Reading the Season: Inside Bridget’s Intuitive Guidance Process
Aug 29, 2026 · 01:35:13 · S4E26
There’s a quiet moment that happens between seasons. It’s not marked on a calendar, and you won’t find it on a weather app. It’s that subtle shift when something in your life feels ready to turn, evolve, or reset. For Bridge Rose, founder of Intuitiv…
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The Fields Studios: Inside Chicago's Largest Sound Stage
Aug 22, 2026 · 12:04 · S4E25
There’s a particular Chicago irony baked into The Fields Studios, and it’s this: the city that gave the world The Blues Brothers , Ferris Bueller , and a Michael Mann filmography’s worth of skyline shots has spent decades watching its own productions…
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Gordon Charles MacLean on Discipline, Collapse, and the Art of Waking Up
Aug 15, 2026 · 24:06 · S4E25
There’s a certain Chicago rhythm to reinvention. It hums beneath the L tracks, flickers in glass towers along Wabash, and lives in the quiet second acts of people who’ve lost everything and decided that wasn’t the end of the story. Gordon Charles Mac…
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How Bloodshot Records Founder Rob Miller Built an Indie Music Empire in Chicago
Aug 8, 2026 · 39:28 · S4E23
Most entrepreneurs don’t fail because they lack great ideas—they fail because they move too fast. Rob Miller built a legacy by doing the opposite. As the founder of Bloodshot Records, the iconic Chicago-based indie label that helped redefine alternat…
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The Sheet Show: Logan Square’s Paul Gees Five-Foot Pizza Flex Just Got Bigger
Aug 2, 2026 · 09:36 · S4E22
There are big pizzas, and then there’s The Sheet Show . Paulie Gee’s Logan Square, fresh off its 10-year anniversary lap, is going full spectacle mode with what might be the largest pizza currently coming out of an Illinois kitchen. We’re talking a g…
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Inside America’s Ballparks: The Hidden History of Class, Race, and Power in Major League Baseball
Jul 25, 2026 · 49:21 · S4E21
There’s a long-standing myth stitched into the seams of baseball: that the ballpark is a great American commons, a place where the country exhales together under summer skies. It’s a comforting image, one painted in hot dogs, scorecards, and seventh-…
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Submerged Futures: Alison Ruttan’s “The Paradox of Inaction” Floods Hyde Park Art Center
Jul 18, 2026 · 08:03 · S4E20
At Hyde Park Art Center, the gallery floor becomes a shoreline after the tide has already claimed everything. In The Paradox of Inaction , interdisciplinary artist Alison Ruttan constructs a haunting, slow-motion catastrophe, an immersive installatio…
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Grant DePorter’s Cancer Battle Fuels A Chicago-Style Comeback Through Gilda’s Club
Jul 11, 2026 · 21:39 · S4E19
In a city that measures resilience the way it measures winters, long and unforgiving, Grant DePorter’s story lands with weight. The CEO of Harry Caray’s Restaurant Group has spent a lifetime building institutions rooted in Chicago tradition. But his …
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Ike Reilly and Shane Reilly Carve a Bruised, Beautiful Family Anthem on Blind and Surrounded
Jul 4, 2026 · 34:12 · S4E18
There’s always been a voltage running through the songs of Ike Reilly, a current made of busted streetlight poetry, half-healed bruises, and characters who keep moving even when the map gives up. On his tenth studio album, Blind and Surrounded, that …
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Pop’s Italian Beef at 46: The South Side Institution That Built a Chicago Classic
Jun 27, 2026 · 13:38 · S4E17
There are origin stories, and then there are Chicago origin stories—the kind that begin with smoke so thick you can’t see the counter and end with a line out the door that never really stops. At Pop’s Italian Beef, the legend starts exactly that way.…
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Straight Outta Skokie: Al Krockey’s Wild 1968 Journey Through Chicago’s Counterculture, Hustle, and Rock ‘n’ Roll
Jun 20, 2026 · 32:50 · S4E16
Here’s a story you don’t embellish—you just light a cigar, pour a whiskey, and let it ride. In 1968, Al Krockey was 18 years old, coming of age at the exact moment America seemed to crack open—politically, culturally, and musically. It was a year of …
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Paul Natkin: The Chicago Lens That Captured Rock ‘n’ Roll Immortality
Jun 13, 2026 · 01:13:00 · S4E15
he kind that starts under the dim lights of Chicago Stadium—where a kid tagging along with his father realizes the perks of photography aren’t just free parking and great seats… they’re front-row access to history. The kind that ends—if it ever reall…
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Doorways of Chicago: A Photographer’s Intimate Journey Through the City’s Hidden Entrances
Jun 6, 2026 · 17:59 · S4E14
There’s a certain magic to Chicago—a city where history doesn’t just live in museums, but quietly lingers in the details: carved stone archways, weathered brass handles, and hand-painted signage that has outlived generations. For local photographer R…
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How Night of the Living Dead Shaped a Life: Daniel Kraus on Trauma, Horror, and the Art of Survival
May 30, 2026 · 47:07 · S4E13
There are films we admire, films we revisit—and then there are films that rearrange us. For Daniel Kraus, Night of the Living Dead was never just a movie. It was a language, a mirror, and, at times, a lifeline. In his haunting and deeply introspectiv…
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Unlocking the Secrets of Chicago's Architectural Heritage: A Deep Dive into Residential Design
May 23, 2026 · 33:33 · S4E16
In a place famous for its skyline showdowns and architectural swagger, a quieter story unfolds at street level—inside the homes that truly define Chicago. This episode dives into “Chicago Homes,” a richly illustrated guide that unpacks the residentia…
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Chicago’s Next Act: Inside Downstage Arts, Where Access Meets Ambition
May 16, 2026 · 22:17 · S4E15
In Chicago, there’s a conversation happening beneath the spotlight—one that has nothing to do with opening nights or donor galas, and everything to do with who actually gets the chance to step on stage. This episode dives into that reality with Isabe…
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October Café Chicago: A Cozy Fall Escape Families Will Love All Year Long
May 9, 2026 · 09:53 · S4E10
Step inside October Café and you’re instantly wrapped in the feeling of a perfect fall morning—no matter the season. In a city like Chicago, where families are always on the hunt for inviting, all-ages spaces to gather, this charming café delivers so…
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Belmont Tavern Reopens in Avondale: Inside Chicago’s Grittiest Cocktail Comeback
May 2, 2026 · 19:36 · S4E9
On the corner of Belmont and Kimball, where Chicago’s Northwest Side still hums with ghost stories and factory echoes, something long dormant is breathing again. Belmont Tavern is back. Set inside a 135-year-old building in Avondale, the bar returns …
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Justin Townes Earle’s Chicago Legacy Lives On at Old Town School of Folk Music Tribute Night
Apr 25, 2026 · 30:10 · S4E8
There’s something haunting about the way Justin Townes Earle still lingers in the DNA of American roots music—like a half-finished lyric scribbled on a bar napkin in a dimly lit Chicago dive. On April 16, that spirit returns to center stage at the Ol…
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Easy Honey Talks ‘Plaid,’ DIY Chaos, and Indie Rock Alchemy Ahead of Chicago’s Schubas Show
Apr 19, 2026 · 22:17 · S4E7
There’s something gloriously unpolished about Easy Honey—and that’s exactly the point. In a scene oversaturated with algorithm-chasing sameness, the Charleston-bred indie rock band is carving out a lane that feels lived-in, sunburnt, and just a littl…
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Drag Race Experience Chicago - An Immersive RuPaul’s Drag Race Turns Logan Square Into A Runway
Apr 11, 2026 · 11:04 · S4E6
Chicago’s fall lineup just got a whole lot louder, prouder, and unapologetically extra. The Emmy-winning World of Wonder is bringing its first-ever immersive fan activation, Drag Race: The Experience , to the city—transforming a stretch of Logan Squa…
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Free Pizza in Chicago With March Madness Giveaway at Tortorice’s | Pizza Boy Billy Goes Big
Apr 4, 2026 · 11:17 · S4E5
There’s a certain kind of confidence you need to remix a Chicago staple. Not arrogance—something closer to instinct. The kind that tells you a pastrami-topped pizza might actually work, especially if you grew up eating both sides of that equation. Bi…
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How Night of the Living Dead Shaped a Life: Daniel Kraus on Trauma, Horror, and the Art of Survival
Mar 28, 2026 · 47:07 · S4E4
There are films we admire, films we revisit—and then there are films that rearrange us. For Daniel Kraus, Night of the Living Dead was never just a movie. It was a language, a mirror, and, at times, a lifeline. In his haunting and deeply introspectiv…
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David Davis: The Power Broker Who Helped Make Abraham Lincoln President
Mar 21, 2026 · 29:32 · S4E4
History tends to spotlight giants. But every so often, you find the figure just outside the frame—the one making things happen. That’s David Davis. In conversation with Chicago writer Tom Barnas, author Raymond J. McKoski brings Davis into focus in h…
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Manny’s Deli Chicago Serves Up St. Patrick’s Day Corned Beef and Passover Traditions — A Taste of Two Celebrations
Mar 14, 2026 · 06:07 · S4E2
In Chicago, few food institutions carry the weight of tradition quite like Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen . Since 1942, the West Loop deli has served as both a neighborhood gathering place and a culinary landmark — where towering sandwiches, steami…
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