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‘Let’s Find Out’ digs deep into history – onion cakes and the Edmonton Fringe Festival

Published

6 years ago

6 minute read

A curious mind can lead you in all sorts of unexpected directions, as Chris Chang-Yen Phillips has discovered with his podcast, Let’s Find Out.

Chris Chang-Yen Phillips

He created the show in 2016 as part of his work as Edmonton’s historian laureate. He invites questions about local history and finds out the answers together with his curious correspondents.

“I’m not an expert about all things ‘local history,’ but I am curious and not afraid to ask questions,” he says. “With Let’s Find Out, I’m trying to turn that into a public good in giving people the tools to get to know their city better.”

When his term as historian laureate ended in 2018, he kept the show going, and it continues to earn accolades. The show received a silver medal at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards earlier this year, and it has been nominated for a Canadian Podcast Award in the Documentary category.

He also does live shows from time to time. The next one — Let’s Find Out: How Nature Shapes Us — will take place in Edmonton on Feb. 9, and will form the basis of the next season of the podcast.

Let’s find out a little more about the host of Let’s Find Out:

What will people get out of listening to your podcast?

A. We feature stories and characters you’ve probably never heard before. Whether you’re in the mood for a surprising look at the history of green onion cakes or a deep dive into Alberta’s past eugenics programs, we’ve got a big range of stories.

Listeners tell me all the time that because of our podcast, they now know how to offer protocol to elders, or which libraries and archives might be able to help them out down the road. And in the long run, my mission is to give people a stronger sense of ownership and belonging in this city.

What podcasts do you listen to?

A. I love listening to shows like Radiolab and HowSound because they teach me so much about the craft of good audio storytelling. I also love Terra Informa, an environmental news show based here in Edmonton, because they cover stories nobody else does. I used to help make the show, and I adore the team producing it now.

What is the most interesting comment you’ve received from a listener?

A group of archaeologists told me once that they listened to our episode A Lesson in Protocol in the car on the way to meet an Indigenous elder. The episode is about an illustrator from a settler background who makes a lot of history resources, who wanted to learn more about which food plants have been important to Indigenous peoples in this area. It was a really challenging episode to create and I ended up making one big mistake in real life: I offered tobacco at the end of our conversation with an elder, instead of at the beginning. I included my mistake in the episode, hoping it would be helpful to listeners. These archaeologists said that actually made it memorable, so they were able to pull it off correctly in their own meeting with an elder after listening! That was gratifying.

Do you have any unusual hobbies or talents that would surprise your listeners? 

A. I row! And I’m also an illustrator. I’ve recently started sharing comics with the world.

If you could have any guest on your podcast, who would you choose?

A. Someone who lived in this region a few thousand years ago, because people have lived here for so long and I’m just starting to understand how humans and this land have shaped each other over the millennia. Who did they love, what stories did they tell, what were they afraid of, what were their hopes and dreams?

What has been your favourite episode so far?

A. About Green Onion Cakes, because it was such a good excuse to talk about a snack we all love and the messy and complicated history of Chinese immigration and food culture in Canada. Also because it got so many people talking about this humble food and the chef who popularized it here, Siu To.

 

Be sure to connect with Let’s Find Out on Facebook and Instagram.

Todayville introduces you to members of the Alberta Podcast Network each week.  Click here to learn about more Alberta podcasts.

The Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB, is on a mission to:

  • Help Alberta-based podcasters create podcasts of high quality and reach larger audiences;
  • Foster connections among Alberta-based podcasters;
  • Provide a powerful marketing opportunity for local businesses and organizations.

Alberta Podcast Network Ltd. is pursuing this mission with funding from ATB Financial and support from other sponsors.

 

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Alberta

Premier Danielle Smith hints Alberta may begin ‘path’ toward greater autonomy after Mark Carney’s win

Published on April 30, 2025

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Alberta’s premier said her government will be holding a special caucus meeting on Friday to discuss Alberta’s independence.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith hinted her province could soon consider taking serious steps toward greater autonomy from Canada in light of Mark Carney and the Liberal Party winning yesterday’s federal election.

In a statement posted to her social media channels today, Smith, who is head of Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party, warned that “In the weeks and months ahead, Albertans will have an opportunity to discuss our province’s future, assess various options for strengthening and protecting our province against future hostile acts from Ottawa, and to ultimately choose a path forward.”

“As Premier, I will facilitate and lead this discussion and process with the sincere hope of securing a prosperous future for our province within a united Canada that respects our province’s constitutional rights, facilitates rather than blocks the development and export of our abundant resources, and treats us as a valued and respected partner within confederation,” she noted.

While Smith stopped short of saying that Alberta would consider triggering a referendum on independence from Canada, she did say her government will be holding a “special caucus meeting this Friday to discuss this matter further.”

“I will have more to say after that meeting is concluded,” she noted.

Smith’s warning comes at the same time some pre-election polls have shown Alberta’s independence from Canada sentiment at just over 30 percent.

Monday’s election saw Liberal leader Mark Carney beat out Conservative rival Pierre Poilievre, who also lost his seat. The Conservatives managed to pick up over 20 new seats, however, and Poilievre has vowed to stay on as party leader, for now.

In Alberta, almost all of the seats save two at press time went to conservatives.

Carney, like former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before him, said he is opposed to new pipeline projects that would allow Alberta oil and gas to be unleashed. Also, his green agenda, like Trudeau’s, is at odds with Alberta’s main economic driver, its oil and gas industry.

The Carney government has also pledged to mandate that all new cars and trucks by 2035 be electric, effectively banning the sale of new gasoline- or diesel-only powered vehicles after that year.

The reduction and eventual elimination of the use of so-called “fossil fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda – an organization in which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.

Smith: ‘I will not permit the status quo to continue’

In her statement, Smith noted that she invited Carney to “immediately commence working with our government to reset the relationship between Ottawa and Alberta with meaningful action rather than hollow rhetoric.”

She noted that a large majority of Albertans are “deeply frustrated that the same government that overtly attacked our provincial economy almost unabated for the past 10 years has been returned to government.”

Smith then promised that she would “not permit the status quo to continue.”

“Albertans are proud Canadians that want this nation to be strong, prosperous, and united, but we will no longer tolerate having our industries threatened and our resources landlocked by Ottawa,” she said.

Smith praised Poilievre for empowering “Albertans and our energy sector as a cornerstone of his campaign.”

Smith was against forced COVID jabs, and her United Conservative government has in recent months banned men from competing in women’s sports and passed a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.

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Alberta

Hours after Liberal election win, Alberta Prosperity Project drumming up interest in referendum

Published on April 29, 2025

By

News release from the Alberta Prosperity Project

Carney’s In. Now what?

You’ve been paying attention. You understand this is really bad. Worse than that, it’s dangerous. The country has somehow chosen several more years of a decade-long Trudeau Travesty…on steroids. Because this new Prime Minister has a three digit IQ, deep and questionable connections and a momentum to accelerate the further dis-integration of a nation we all once proudly belonged to. It’s untrue to say the country is dying. But it’s also not a stretch to say it’s on life support.

The era of Carney Carnage is here. While every province will experience it, there’s no secret he’s placed an extra big bulls-eye on Alberta.

It’s not personal, it’s financial.

His plan includes continuing to limit three of Alberta’s most prosperous sectors: energy, agriculture and, by extension, innovation. To acknowledge this requires we abandon our sense of romanticized national nostalgia. Nostalgia is a trap that prevents us from assessing the reality we exist in.

For instance, GDP is considered the financial heartbeat of a country. Over the past decade of Liberal Leadership, the national GDP has been an abysmal 1.1%. By relatable comparison, Mexico was 4%, the UK was 6%, Australia had 8% growth and the US was a whopping 19%.

That’s great information for an economist, but what does it mean to your pay cheque?

The everyday impact on the average Albertan —say, a teacher or mechanic— of 10 long years of 1% GDP means rent’s up at least 25%, a trip to the grocery store always stings, and driving an older car is the norm because an upgrade is out of reach. Does this sound like your reality?

We aren’t starving, but we’re not thriving, either.

Does this make sense for 4.5 million people living with the third most abundant energy deposits in the world? There’s an absurdity to the situation Albertans find themselves in. It’s akin to being chronically dehydrated while having a fresh water spring in the backyard.

The life you’ve invested for, the future you believed was ahead, isn’t happening.

If Alberta stays on this path.

So what can you, as an Albertan, do about it?

This Fall, we’ll be provided an opportunity. A life raft in the form of a referendum. It requires curiosity, imagination and courage to step into it, but the option will be there — a once in a lifetime shot at prosperity for you and your family: Alberta Sovereignty.

A successful bid means Albertans can finally paddle out of the perilous economic current that’s battered us for ten long years.

Alberta has the resources, talent and spirit of collaboration to create a prosperous future for our families and communities.
If you want your vote to finally mean something, if you feel you deserve more from your pay-cheque, grocery store visits and  need greater control over your family’s future, register your intent to sign YES to sovereignty now.

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

Click here to see all upcoming APP events.

WHAT CAN ALBERTANS DO?

Register Your Intent To Vote “YES”
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