Let's Find Out

Oct 03 2023 78 ep. 39 mins 148

Let's Find Out Podcast artwork

We take questions from curious Edmontonians about local history. Then we find out the answers together.

History Education

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68 - How to Make a National Park

Oct 03 2023 66 mins

Did you know that Elk Island National Park used to have a bison abattoir? Have you ever heard of the national parks in Alberta that were dissolved? In this live podcast recording, we explore the wild history of making national parks in our area, and what it can teach us about the current plans to build a new urban national park in Edmonton’s river valley.Ever see wardens feeding

67 - The Best Playground Ever

Sep 06 2023 63 mins

Kathryn Gwun-Yeen 君妍 Lennon asks: what is the best playground in Edmonton? We crawl and swing through the past and present of playgrounds in our city to help her and her toddler on their quest.Kathryn and her family find themselves easily visiting 4 playgrounds in a weekend lately, and she estimates she visited around 30 different playgrounds last summer. So she’s been curiou

66 - Manifesting Peltigera Park

Jul 04 2023 53 mins

You may be tired of parks named after dead white men. Kyla Tichkowsky? She's railing against a different kind of tyranny. We have parks named for: Elk. Wood Buffalo. Aspen Beach. Cypress Hills. Dinosaurs even! And yet, not one single lichen.Why not? Lichen are, in fact, fantastically diverse and fascinating organisms. From a conservation standpoint, they are excellent bioindicators

65 - The Riverlot Revisions

Jun 07 2023 53 mins

Zulima Acuña noticed that some of Edmonton's old riverlots are highly developed, and some not at all. She asked us to help her learn why some of them became parks and others didn't.Zulima is a mom, teacher, and artist who has lived in Edmonton for the last ten years, and is eager to know as many stories about the land in Edmonton as her old hometown. It’s easy to take our spaces

64 - Return of the Snow Goose Festival

May 03 2023 39 mins

Back in 2016, the very first episode of Let’s Find Out was about a festival in Tofield, a town about 45 minutes southeast of Edmonton: The Snow Goose Festival. In that episode, we set out to find out how this big festival that started in the 90’s with thousands of bird watchers coming to Tofield to admire the geese migrating through in the spring became a convoy of school bus t

63 – A Park for All Seasons

Apr 05 2023 57 mins

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 … Continue reading 63 – A Park for All Seasons →

62 – About Sohan Singh Bhullar Park

Mar 01 2023 42 mins

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

61 – How a Park Gets a Name

Feb 01 2023 52 mins

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?

60 – A Beautiful Ex-Garbage Dump

Jan 04 2023 43 mins

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 … Continue reading 60 – A Beautiful Ex-G

59 – The Smallest Park

Dec 08 2022 52 mins

Shelley Jodoin-Chouinard asks what Edmonton’s smallest park is.