Pocket Guide to Hell
Pocket Guide to Hell
Lumpen Radio
Pocket Guide to Hell is a series of free, interactive talks, walks, and reenactments focused on Chicago history. Featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic Cities, Chicago Tribune, and elsewhere, Pocket Guide to Hell treats the past as a public space, open and accessible to all where everyone has a story to contribute. // LP FM radio station in Chicago for weirdo people everywhere-- 105.5 FM WLPN LP Chicago, Lumpen Radio. Download our iOS app here: https://appsto.re/us/NdeV7.i
Pocket Guide to Hell • S1 E1: A Great Drama
Elliot and Paul discuss the centennial of women's suffrage and its legacy with the Chicago League of Women Voters' Anne Jamieson and learn about the Parkway Community House and the Vivian G. Harsh Collection with Chicago Public Library's Beverly Cook.
Dec 15, 2021
55 min
Pocket Guide to Hell • S1 E4: Building, Breaking, Rebuilding
Preservation Chicago's Ward Miller talks with Elliot and Paul about the challenges facing architectural preservation in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and 25th Ward Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez shares his thoughts on a proposed landmark district in the Pilsen neighborhood.
Dec 15, 2021
48 min
Pocket Guide to Hell • S1 E2: The Lost City
Graffiti artist Gloria Talamantes and historian Carl Smith help Elliot and Paul understand what Chicago's built environment reveals about our shared past.
Dec 15, 2021
54 min
Pocket Guide to Hell • S1 E3: This City’s Not Ready for Reform
Elliot and Paul explore corruption on the ballfield and in the city council with author Bill Savage and journalist Paul Dailing.
Dec 15, 2021
53 min
Pocket Guide to Hell • S2 E4: Chicago's 7 Most Endangered
Paul talks with Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, about the nonprofit's annual list of the seven most endangered structures and spaces in Chicago.
May 15, 2021
55 min
Pocket Guide to Hell • S2 E3: Get Caponi!
Paul talks with Elliot about efforts the find the earliest references to Al Capone and then with John Corbett and Julia Klein about a “lost” encyclopedia of the Chicago underworld, Bullets for Dead Hoods.
May 1, 2021
47 min
Pocket Guide to Hell • S2 E1: The Sound of Heaven and Hell
Journalist Sam Cholke joins Elliot and Paul to talk about the first synthesizer, created here in Chicago, while Cultural Historian emeritus Tim Samuelson suggests that the city’s most significant musical contribution isn’t what you might think.
Apr 30, 2021
41 min
Pocket Guide to Hell • S2 E2: Ever Evolving Bastion of Freakdom
Elliot and Paul talk about Chicago zine history and culture with zinesters Eric Bartholomew of Junk Drawer, Joe Mason of Chicago Gets 4 Stars, and Liz Mason of caboose and Quimby's bookstore.
Apr 30, 2021
50 min
Pocket Guide to Hell • S1 E6: Small Pieces of the Past
Button Power authors Christen Carter and Ted Hake talk with Paul and Elliot about the history of button-making in Chicago and the role these small objects play in preserving our past, while Nance Klem gets our hosts thinking about the past beneath our feet and how close study of the soil itself helps us understand our city and communities.
Feb 4, 2021
54 min
Pocket Guide to Hell • S1 E5: The Day Will Come
The Illinois Labor History Society's Larry Spivack and Alma Washington talk with Elliot and Paul about the legacy of activist Lucy Parsons and the significance of the 1886 bombing in Haymarket Square, while in the second half of the episode journalist Aimee Levitt lays out the history of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #7 and how its past is impacting our present.
Feb 2, 2021
59 min