In this rediscovered interview from the WTTW series “Our People,” host Jim Tilmon gets the Chicago comedian to tell one of his signature stories.

Sea shanties are suddenly all the rage thanks to TikTok but Chicago’s long been a hub for shanty singing. We explore the city’s connection to the musical tradition — and its undeniable staying power.

Last summer, three Christopher Columbus statues were removed after violent altercations between police and protesters. For months, the sites sat empty. But last fall, a display of Italian American pride banners appeared in place of the former statue in Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood.

A new film airing this weekend on WTTW draws parallels between the fight against apartheid in South Africa and injustice in Chicago.

Bicycle sales in Chicago have surged over the past year as the pandemic has forced more and more people outside for exercise and recreation. But it’s hardly the city’s first “bike boom.” Geoffrey Baer takes us back to when Chicago was called “the Detroit of bicycles.” 

The comedian and actor known for his sardonic take on culture and society shares his thoughts on policing and crime in Chicago in this interview with Jim Tilmon from the WTTW show “Our People.”

Located roughly 7 miles southwest of the Loop, many of Gage Park’s bungalows were built between 1924 and 1927. 

Geoffrey Baer explores the past, present and future of a historic West Side garden in North Lawndale.

Rennie Davis, one of the “Chicago Seven” activists who was tried for organizing an anti-Vietnam War protest outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago in which thousands clashed with police in a bloody confrontation that horrified a nation watching live on television, has died.

The Invisible Institute, a journalism nonprofit based on the city’s South Side, has published an online archive documenting former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge’s "violence against more than 100 Black men, from the 1970s to the 1990s.”

From 1968 to 1972, WTTW aired a groundbreaking weekly show hosted by the late Jim Tilmon. Until recently, we thought all but a couple of episodes had been lost. Chicago author, photographer and architecture critic Lee Bey helps us blow the dust off five of the interviews we recently rediscovered.

The Northwest Side community of Jefferson Park is known as the gateway to Chicago, in part because it’s a transit hub. The area’s thought of by some as typical “bungalow belt” Chicago. It’s predominantly middle class, but recently there’s been an uptick in homelessness. 

The red brick two-flat in Woodlawn is now protected from demolition and any significant changes to its exterior. The vision is to transform the home into an international heritage pilgrimage site.

We kick off the first installment of our Black Voices Book Club series with a new biography on a Black woman whose legend looms large in Chicago. And it’s written by Michelle Duster, her great-granddaughter. 

A museum honoring the “father of modern Chicago blues” is headed to North Kenwood. Family members of the late musician Muddy Waters tell us what’s in store for the MOJO Museum.

From the pandemic to protests to the power of nature, 2020 has been a year for the history books. We take a look back at the year that was — warts and all.