Curious Louisville
Have you ever had a question about the Derby City that you just can't answer? That's where Curious Louisville comes in. Listeners submit their questions, the public votes on which questions to investigate, and 89.3 WFPL finds the answers.
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The United States prides itself on a kind of rugged individualism. We like to think we do things our own way here.
So while the rest of the world uses the metric system, here in America, we use a system based on inches, feet, yards and miles.
Except on a particular stretch of Louisville highway. Lots of you asked us why. On this episode, WFPL's Ashlie Stevens finds out.
Curious Louisville wouldn't be possible without you! Click her...
Woody Woodpecker. Donald Duck. Iago from “Aladdin." Louie, the U of L cardinal. All these birds have something in common: at various points in their histories, they have been depicted with a full toothy grin.
Which leads to our latest Curious Louisville question from Rachel Peterson: “Why does the U of L cardinal mascot have teeth?”
“Birds don’t have teeth,” Rachel said. “I get that it’s trying to look fierce, but it’s just bi...
Nadeem Saddiqui and his family recently moved to Valley Station, in the southeastern part of Louisville. "It's stereotypically not the most multi-cultural area of Louisville," he said. So it surprised him to see a street named Omar Khayyam Blvd. "It was a medieval Persian poet," he said. "Growing up my parents had a lot of books of his poetry."
Nadeem wanted to know how this street came to be, in this ...
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Curious Louisville is all about you. You send us your questions, and we take you along with us on a search for the answer. It's people-powered. In fact, our whole organization here is people-powered -- it's because of your support that we can do the work we do. Join us with a pledge today, and we pledge in return to keep letting your curiosity be our guide! Click here to give. Thank you!
History i...
Is it art? Is it crime? A little bit of both? Whatever it is, it's part of your morning commute.
"Every morning when I commute to work, no matter which way I go, I started to see more and more graffiti on the back of the signs," Joe Sullivan reported. "I saw it and I thought, I hope they take that down, because if they don't take it away, it's just going to embolden people to do more. And it seems to have."
Joe ...
Every year at the beginning of Lent, (the period in the Christian calendar between Ash Wednesday and Easter) WFPL publishes a guide to all the fish fries in Louisville. It's always one of our most popular stories of the year.
There are Facebook groups dedicated solely to rating the different fish fries around town. And hundreds upon hundreds of people line up in our city's churches every Friday night to eat fried fish, hush puppies...
Louisville is a city of neighborhoods. For a lot of people, where they live is a big part of their identity.
And Curious Louisville listener Evan Patrick wondered about how one neighborhood developed an identity of its own.
WFPL’s Ashlie Stevens looked into the answer.
In the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, a young Muhammad Ali -- then called Cassius Clay -- defeated three-time European boxing champion Zbigniew Pietrzykowski.
He returned to Louisville with a gold medal, which he wore around his neck for days afterwards; some biographers say he even slept with it around his neck.
But then, the medal disappeared, and its fate has long been the topic of sports media speculation (despite the fact that ...
It was supposed to be Louisville’s answer to the St. Louis arch. But in the press, it was eventually called ugly. A turkey A good idea gone bad. It’s been gone since 1998, but not entirely forgotten.
In fact, it’s been on Curious Louisville listener Mark Friedland’s mind: Whatever happened to the Falls Fountain?
In this edition of Curious Louisville, we find out the answer.
If you're driving downtown near the river, you can't miss it: a brand new paint job in progress on the Clark Memorial Bridge.
We've heard it compared to a school bus, a canary, and butter. Curious Louisville listener Allan Steinberg wanted to know how the color was chosen. (Allan's not a fan: "I was hoping it was only the primer!")
WFPL's Amina Elahi went to Rebecca Metheny, the director of the Louisville Downtown Partner...
In a park off of River Road, nearly hidden by scrubby grass is a mystery: an about 50-foot wide stone circle marking long-ago infrastructure.
This ring intrigued Curious Louisville listener Jim Turner, and he asked about it.
“I heard [the circle] was a wading pool administered by the Louisville Water Company in the late 1800's. Is that true?” he wrote.
Turner grew up in Louisville, not far from the stone circle. He remembers riding...
In the middle of the Ohio River, visible from I-65 and Louisville’s Portland neighborhood, is a tiny island called “Shippingport.”
You can drive to the base of the island, but you’ll be met with an array of “no trespassing” signs and wire gates.
And Curious Louisville listener Ruby Fields wanted to know what was behind them.
If you’re driving down I-64, and happen to look out over the Ohio River, you may catch a glimpse of a house-like structure on top of the 14th Street Bridge.
It’s small -- barely noticeable -- but a lot of people have questions about it. Including our latest Curious Louisville listener.
WFPL’s Ashlie Stevens has more.
Over the last couple years, WFPL's Curious Louisville has received nearly a dozen questions about Louisville recycling. People want to know what happens after it leaves the curb, where it all goes, and how a 2017 Chinese policy impacts recycling in Kentucky.
In this installment of Curious Louisville, WFPL’s Energy & Environment Reporter Ryan Van Velzer visits the largest recycling center in Louisville to answer one of our most ...
Traffic signals: you barely notice them until they’re not working.
But what actually causes them to malfunction?
That's what a Curious Louisville listener wanted know; As WFPL's Amina Elahi found out
the culprit is often power, or -- more accurately -- the lack of it. Here's more:
What do Paul McCartney, Betty White and Muhammad Ali have in common?
All three, along with about 100,000 other people, have been given the title “Kentucky Colonel.”
But how does one gain the honor? That was listener Patrick Grantz’s question for Curious Louisville -- and our resident Kentucky Colonel, broadcast managing editor Rick Howlett, has the answer:
If you listen to our sister station WFPK, or attended Forecastle in 2016, you’ve probably heard of Pokey LaFarge
He’s an artist whose music, as NPR’s Stephen Thompson once said, “evokes the old-timey spirit of a thousand crackling 78 RPM records.”
LaFarge is based in St. Louis, but lived in Louisville for a time, which is what inspired his 2015 song “Home Away From Home” -- and our latest Curious Louisville question from listener T...
Earlier this month, Curious Louisville asked what questions you have about the JCPS audit and possible state takeover. You sent us more than 50 in the first 24 hours, and we realized we’d need to dedicate some extra time to answer them all.
Here's our hour-long news special, hosted by Kentucky Public Radio’s Ryland Barton and WFPL education reporter Roxanne Scott.
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