Chris just started a masters in history at the University of Alberta. In this episode we wanted to give you a peek into his day to day life studying to be a historian. Hopefully you'll understand a little more what it’s actually like in the fall of 2021 to go to grad school when the pandemic’s still on, the university’s open, and most of your classwork and job are actually in person on campus.

50 - A Community Of Scholars

How do you form a good historical question? In this episode, Chris and Trevor talk about trying to do that for a very specific reason: a Canada Graduate Scholarship grant application.

51 - That's A Good Question

What's the difference between a library and an archive? Why might you want to go into one versus the other? In this episode, Chris talks about some heartbreaking and complicated diary entries he read in the City of Edmonton Archives, what it's like getting into libraries and archives right now with Omicron, and why it matters that it's so tough.

53 - Right to the Source

As Chris wraps up year one of his history master's degree, Chris and Trevor do one last regular check-in about the pile of essays, grantwriting, and paddling. After this episode, we'll be back to doing another season of listener questions! Send us your questions about parks and natural areas around Edmonton. What are you curious about? Email us at chris@letsfindoutpodcast.com or drop us a line on social media.

56 - We Made It

We're planning a new season of the podcast, all about parks history. What Edmonton park is your hidden gem, and why? Reply to us on Twitter or Instagram and let us know, and we'll send you a cute lil pin.

Just Around the Corner

Edmontonians take a lot of pride in our parks and natural areas. But how did they come to be the way they are, and how well do they make space for humans and other species? Join Let’s Find Out host Chris Chang-Yen Phillips and producer Trevor Chow-Fraser for a live podcast recording at the Aviary, with short talks and activities about parks and a chance to meet fellow listeners.

At the end, you’ll get a chance to submit a question for our upcoming season about parks and natural areas in and around our city.

September 29, 2022
Doors at 6:30 PM
Event at 7:00 PM
The Aviary – 9314 111 Avenue NW, Edmonton AB

Special guest speakers:

    Sarah Delano
    Marilyn Dumont
    Tara Russell

Buy tickets online in advance: $17
At the door: $20

This venue has a step-free entrance at the back and step-free bathrooms inside. This event is all ages, and drinks will be available at the bar.

Let’s Find Out is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network.

Sep 29: Let's Find Out About Parks

Edmontonians take a lot of pride in our parks and natural areas. But how did they come to be the way they are, and how well do they make space for humans and other species? On September 29, Let’s Find Out hosted a live podcast recording at the Aviary, with short talks and activities about parks. At the end, listeners had a chance to submit a question for our upcoming season about parks and natural areas in and around our city.

Guest speakers on the episode include Marilyn Dumont, Tara Russell, and Sarah De Lano.

57 - About Parks

Kay Rollans asks who hung two effigies from the 142nd Street Bridge amid 1965 protests against a freeway slated to be built through MacKinnon Ravine. This episode is part of our season exploring the history of parks and natural areas in Edmonton.

58 - The MacKinnon Ravine Mystery

Shelley Jodoin-Chouinard asks what Edmonton's smallest park is. The answer may surprise you. 

This episode continues our series on the history of parks and natural spaces in Edmonton.

59 - The Smallest Park

Karen Unland asks: When did we stop dumping garbage into river valley spaces and start turning them into parks? In this episode, former historian laureate Shirley Lowe walks us through three stories: how the Grierson Hill dump became Louise McKinney Park, how the Strathcona dump and gravel mine became Hawrelak (aka Mayfair) Park, and how the Beverly Dump became Rundle Park.

60 - A Beautiful Ex-Garbage Dump

Mathew Thomson asks: what's the process for naming a park in Edmonton? We investigate: who has authority, how much do names mean, and what happens when someone goes rogue on Google Maps?

61 - How A Park Gets A Name

Soni Dasmohapatra asks: Who is Sohan Singh Bullar? Why is there a park named after them?

62 - About Sohan Singh Bhullar Park

Edmonton calls itself a winter city, which partly means we've got a lot of wintery festivals. This episode, our producer Trevor Chow-Fraser asks: what does that mean for our parks? How are they changing to live up to the winter city ideal?

Trevor started out by taking his daughter Eliot to Victoria Park to take advantage of its free snowshoeing and fort building. He spoke to activity leader Ryanne Osguthorpe. Victoria Park is one of a few parks in Edmonton that now feature geodesic dome warming huts in the winter.

That got us curious about warming huts in parks, so we met up with Danielle Soneff -- an industrial and social designer in Edmonton who created warming huts for a pilot project to bring them into city parks. She's now an MA student at the University of Alberta, studying winter city design and governance.

We talked about why she feels that pilot project failed, and what good winter design principles could be brought to the new Warehouse Park (final name TBD) downtown.

Finally, we spoke with Isla Tanaka, a winter city planner for the City of Edmonton. We asked her how its winter city strategy has evolved over the years, and how it might change now after the first decade of implementation.

Full show notes: https://letsfindoutpodcast.com/2023/04/05/episode-63-a-park-for-all-seasons/

63 - A Park for All Seasons

Episode 0

This episode: The Story of the Sheppard House. Christy Boulter asks what exactly is the story behind her home, and its original owner William Sheppard.

Investigating that question gave us a surprising look at booze, the behind-the-scenes machinations around prohibition, and what your dining room says about you.

3 - The Story Of The Sheppard House

What has archaeologist Haeden Stewart been digging up in Mill Creek Ravine? I followed him down to the dig site itself. And along the way, I learned about a neighbourhood you might never have known existed, how Edmonton industrialized in the early 20th century, and what caragana can tell you about where to dig.

5 - The Ravine Reveal

This episode: The Great Apartment Caper. Pamela Learmond asks me to help her verify whether her grandpa really had an entire apartment building moved down 97 Street.

[Editor's note: This episode has been slightly edited to remove some personal details]

6 - The Great Apartment Caper

This month, I have something a little different for you. It’s a one-off podcast I did in June 2016 to capture a little taste of the 2016 Edmonton Chinatown Conference. The 2016 Edmonton Chinatown Conference ran from June 11-12 at the University of Alberta. It was a gathering of city planners, business people, history nerds, young artists, folks from Chinatowns in other cities, and just generally Edmontonians with a strong bond to Chinatown here. The goal: to learn more about Chinatown's cultural and historical roots, and do some visioning about its future.

This podcast was originally presented on the Chinese Benevolent Association's website:
http://www.cbaedmonton.com/chinatown-conference

Find past episodes of Let's Find Out:
http://letsfindoutpodcast.com

And send me your questions at chris@letsfindoutpodcast.com.

The Talking Teacup

Have you been digging listening to Let's Find Out? Then come bring your history questions to an all-ages live taping!

We've got an amazing panel of speakers coming out to The Needle Vinyl Tavern in Edmonton on March 11:
- Dr. Kisha Supernant (Métis Anthropology Professor & Archaeologist)
- Dave Cournoyer (Writer/Political Watcher at daveberta.ca)
- Sarah Hoyles (Producer behind the Edmonton City as Museum Project podcast on Edmonton history)

I'll be asking them how they know what's true in their field. And you'll have a chance to submit your questions about how they do their research too!

Tickets are $15 in advance, available on yeglive.ca: http://yeglive.ca/artists/h5p11432/lets-find-out-podcast

March 11 - Let's Find Out Goes Live At The Needle!

What are paleontologists digging up at Edmonton's Danek Bonebed? We head down into the ravine to answer that question and a whole lot more questions about dinosaurs from Edmonton kids.

10 - The Dinosaurs At Danek

Ritchie is a beloved older neighbourhood near Mill Creek Ravine. In this episode, we gathered residents' questions about a school, a meatpacking plant, and some trees in the area. And then we took a walk to find out the answers together.

11 - About Ritchie

Tess Dehoog asks whether it's true that the German Nazi party came to Edmonton to learn about Alberta’s eugenics program.

13 - The Multiplication Of Evil

Lauren Crazybull asks what parallels we can see between broken treaties and gentrification in Edmonton. Our journey starts on a hill at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery with Papaschase First Nation's Chief Calvin Bruneau.

14 - The Land At Hand

Raymond Matthias asks if he's found the remains of John Walter’s ferry.
We take a live history walk into the river valley to examine the debris he found and get to the bottom of his question.

15 - The Sign Of The Ferry

Nicole and Jason Harcus ask whether the hill in Gallagher Park used to be a dump once upon a time.

17 - The Avalanche Of Garbage

Glen Carlson asks us to help him figure out whether the Bay store downtown really used to have a Christmas train on the rooftop.

Get the full story on our website: https://letsfindoutpodcast.com/2018/01/31/episode-18-the-case-of-the-christmas-train/

18 - The Case Of The Christmas Train

Rasha Chebli and Nuha Taha help us investigate whether climate change is affecting wildfires in Alberta.

We’ve been working with a group of students from Hazeldean Elementary and Queen Elizabeth high school. They gave us some questions about climate change in our area. Then we brought them to CJSR (Edmonton's campus and community radio station) for a radio camp to teach them how to use radio and podcasting to find out the answers.

This is the first of two episodes we’ve adapted for the podcast from that camp.

Find out more and listen to the full, unedited broadcast from radio camp: http://letsfindoutpodcast.com

--

In this episode we mention the Alberta Podcast Network's April 7 workshop, "How to start a podcast: From notion to reality". Click this link to grab your ticket and support Let's Find Out:
http://podnow.eventbrite.ca/findout

19 - And I Would Have Gotten Away With All Those Wildfires Too...

When Kelsey Chief took an orientation tour at the University of Alberta in 2015, one of the stops took her to a mural in Rutherford Library: Henry Glyde's painting, "Alberta History." In this episode, Kelsey talks about the anger she felt seeing that mural. And University of Regina artist and professor David Garneau shares a different take on the mural.

22 - The Glyde Mural

How did Edmonton come to be known as a prairie city? Dustin Bajer asked that question on Taproot Edmonton's story garden. Finding out the answer - and figuring out whether this area is aspen parkland, or prairie, or forest - challenged our ideas about the land we live on.

25 - The City That Wanted To Be Prairie

Amandah van Merlin asks how have dams changed our relationship with the North Saskatchewan River. To explore her question, we brought Amandah to the Provincial Archives of Alberta, to dig for files on the two dams upstream of Edmonton: the Brazeau Dam and the Bighorn Dam. We also met up with local writer Billie Milholland, author of Living in the Shed: Alberta's North Saskatchewan River Watershed.

32 - Dam Complicated

Alison Brooks-Starks asks how folks from Ukraine settled where they did in Canada - was it because the landscapes here looked like places in the Ukraine?

To explore her question, we dug into a stack of academic research. We also went to the University of Alberta's Pembina Hall to meet Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Director Jars Balan.

That inspired us to try making some juice from kalyna - aka high bush cranberry - berries.

Come say hi before NorthwestFest's May 4 screening of The Trouble With Wolves at 12 PM at Metro Cinema. Use the offer code APN2019 and you'll get 10% off general admission.

33 - Kalyna Country

Allan Farrell asks what's up with a picture of a gold dredge he saw on a plaque downtown, and where the gold in the North Saskatchewan River comes from.

34 - The Dredge Report

Denise Chang-Yen (yes, Chris' mom) asks whether climate change will end up being a net benefit for farms in our area.

36 - The Climate-Proof Farm

Brooklin Schneider asks us to help her find out who planted the Capilano apricots - three apricot trees growing beside the road on 75 Street.

37 - The Case Of The Capilano Apricots

Dylan Hall and Chris Chang-Yen Phillips take a road trip to the Rockies, to figure out whether Jasper National Park is a wild place.

40 - Is Jasper A Wild Place?

The way we think about a thing can totally change the way we behave. We talk about nature as if it’s something outside of us. Separate from us. In this live episode wrapping up our season on humans and nature, we present three short talks to help you shake up your ideas about what’s natural and what’s not.

Luke Wonneck, Emily Riddle, and Stephen Raitz share three different lenses on how we build nature where we live: both the idea of nature, and the physical manifestation of those ideas. And then we let the audience build and play to see how we can make more space for the rest of nature in our city.

41 - How We Make Nature

We're back with another historical walking tour of Edmonton's Ritchie neighbourhood, presented by the Ritchie Community League. In this bonus episode, we explore the history of meatpacking, German immigration, and iconic local species in the neighbourhood.

42 - Icons Of Ritchie

Reporter Nathan Fung asks Grace Law what she remembers of the old Mirama restaurant on 94 St. and Jasper Ave, and what did this old dim sum place mean to her and possibly other Chinese Canadians living in Edmonton. Part 1 of a miniseries about the Mirama restaurant.

43 - Mirama Memories

Part 4 of our miniseries about the Mirama Dining & Lounge dim sum restaurant: what exactly happened at the 2004 fight in the restaurant and what is there to know about Asian gangs in Edmonton around the early 2000s?

46 - Marriage And Murder At The Mirama

Answering questions about Edmonton history with Historian Laureate Chris Chang-Yen Phillips.

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