Erin Allen

Chicago

Digital Anchor at WBEZ-FM (Chicago, IL)

Host, producer @wbez ig & TikTok: @erinallen.show

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Articles

Maria Rodriguez: From fashion designer to restaurateur

18 hours ago | wbez.org | Erin Allen

In our last episode, Curious City question-asker Emily Porter sent us on a quest exploring the world of local fashion designers, all after she found a thrift shop sweater with a tag that reads: “Maria Rodriguez Chicago.”Who is Maria Rodriguez? How did she get into the industry? And what is it like to be a fashion designer in Chicago?
Like NYC and Paris, Chicago was once a hub for fashion designers

1 day ago | wbez.org | Erin Allen

WBEZ’s Curious City answers questions from listeners about Chicago and the region. We include the public in our storytelling, making journalism more transparent and interconnected. When teacher Emily Porter showed up at Mount Sinai Resale Shop in Lakeview, she was looking to shake up her classroom wardrobe of simple blouses and slacks.
How sweet the sound: The history of Evanston folk coffeehouse AmazinGrace

1 week ago | wbez.org | Erin Allen

Folk music surged in popularity across America in the late 1950s through the ‘70s, including here in the Chicago area. Last episode, we looked at how a few area coffeehouses catered to many patrons in their teens and early twenties. These were alcohol-free spaces where people could listen to live music and hangout for hours.
Is extremist ideology still fringe?

2 weeks ago | wbez.org | Erin Allen

Extremism in America has been on the rise. Last episode, we looked at extremist groups in Chicago and how they terrorized select groups of people and influenced housing policy in the city during the 1950s. But what does extremism look like today? Curious City host Erin Allen talks with Odette Yousef, a national security correspondent focusing on extremism at NPR, about why it’s less about fringe groups and more about ideology that has permeated our culture.
“Enemy Alien”: How Chicago photojournalist Jun Fujita avoided Japanese internment camps

4 weeks ago | wbez.org | Erin Allen

Jun Fujita is the Japanese-American photographer behind some of the most recognizable photographs taken in Chicago in the 20th century, including his shots of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929, the Eastland passenger boat disaster of 1915, and the 1919 Chicago race riots. Fujita was also a published poet and something of a regional celebrity, known for socializing with William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway.
How does honoring the dead impact the environment?

1 month ago | wbez.org | Erin Allen

How should we decide what happens to our bodies when we die? And what implications does that decision have for the living? It’s common to think a burial at a cemetery is the final resting place for a loved one. But as we heard in our last episode, sometimes the need to progress as a society is in direct conflict with the desire to honor the dead. Today, we talk to one of the leaders of the Green Burial Council, funeral director Samuel Perry.
How one Midwestern community avoids road salt all winter

1 month ago | wbez.org | Erin Allen

Chicago — like so many other frigid American cities — can’t seem to kick its dependence on road salt. Last episode, we talked about why chloride from salt is harmful to both our natural and built environments. So we spent some time looking around for a cold-weather community that avoids using it altogether. And we found one! A little community way up north: Have you ever taken a ferry — or a plane — to Mackinac Island?
Road salt is bad for the environment, so why doesn’t Chicago stop using it?

1 month ago | wbez.org | Erin Allen

From white stains on your shoes to blue pockmarks in freshly fallen snow to long lines at the car wash, winter in Chicago means using road salt — a lot of road salt — to keep streets and sidewalks safe. But research shows road salt doesn’t keep plants, waterways and animals safe. In fact, it actively harms the natural and built environment. So, why can’t Chicago and other snowy cities end their love affair with road salt? It’s complicated, scientists say.
“It’s too complicated”: The state of cannabis record expungement in Illinois

2 months ago | wbez.org | Erin Allen

When Illinois legalized recreational use of marijuana five years ago, it came with a goal to right the wrongs of the war on drugs. “We’re addressing the past harms of discriminatory prosecution of drug laws,” Governor J.B. Pritzker said at the time. Many low level cannabis charges would automatically be expunged and legal aid would be made available.
Lawmakers promised cannabis funds would right many wrongs, but results are mixed

2 months ago | wbez.org | Mary Hall |Erin Allen

Pashae Johnson found her courage to change her life not in one exciting moment, but in the mundane and routine. “I had my laptop in this chair … bingeing myself to death on a weekend, unless I had to work,” she recalled, standing in a bedroom just big enough for a dresser, twin bed and west-facing window. Johnson is a bright and soft-spoken woman, but you get the feeling she will accomplish whatever she’s determined to do. “I learned that about myself,” she said. “I’m a homebody.