Let's Find Out podcast

#History #Chris Chang-Yen Phillips #Edmonton #Heritage #Taprootyeg #Podcasting Education #YEG

28:52

Retailers are facing a rapidly evolving landscape where consumer expectations, AI advancements, and social media platforms like TikTok are redefining engagement. It feels like the holiday shopping season just ended, but when do retailers start planning for the next one, and some retailers already behind the curve for this season? Joining us today is Carey Cockrum, Director of Consulting at Cella by Randstad Digital, where she helps major brands and marketing teams optimize their strategies with data-driven insights, AI-powered content creation, and cutting-edge retail marketing trends. With the holidays just around the corner, she’s here to share what’s next for retail marketing, campaign optimization, and how brands can stay ahead in a hyper-competitive space. ABOUT CAREY COCKRUM Carey has been a part of the Creative Agency space for nearly 30 years. She has served as Designer, Creative Director, Creative Operations Lead and Agency Lead in both internal and external agencies (big and small). Carey has worked directly with C-suite stakeholders to understand organizational strategies that inform effective creative solutions. She is a bit of a data nerd and loves demonstrating results. Brands she’s supported include Fruit of the Loom, Wendy’s and Humana. In her free time, she enjoys going back to her creative roots through painting and drawing. She also spends her time improving upon the house she lives in today in Southern, MI - inside and out. RESOURCES Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Boston, August 11-14, 2025. Register now: https://bit.ly/etailboston and use code PARTNER20 for 20% off for retailers and brands Don't Miss MAICON 2025, October 14-16 in Cleveland - the event bringing together the brights minds and leading voices in AI. Use Code AGILE150 for $150 off registration. Go here to register: https://bit.ly/agile150 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.show Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company…

Let's Find Out

Series home•Feed

We take questions from curious Edmontonians about local history. Then we find out the answers together.

78 episodes

Let's Find Out

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updated 2 years ago

Series home•Feed

We take questions from curious Edmontonians about local history. Then we find out the answers together.

78 episodes

#History #Chris Chang-Yen Phillips #Edmonton #Heritage #Taprootyeg #Podcasting Education #YEG

All episodes

Let's Find Out

1
68 - How to Make a National Park 1:06:17

2 years ago1:06:17

1:06:17

Did you know that Elk Island National Park used to have a bison abattoir? Have you ever heard of the national parks in Alberta that were dissolved? In this live podcast recording, we explore the wild history of making national parks in our area, and what it can teach us about the current plans to build a new urban national park in Edmonton’s river valley. Ever see wardens feeding the animals in Buffalo National Park near Wainwright, or see the pronghorn in Nemiskam and Wawaskey National Parks near Medicine Hat? Probably not, because they were all dissolved in the 20th century! Listen in as public historian Lauren Markewicz reveals how national parks have been made and unmade in Alberta. Then hear as Taproot’s Mack Male and Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations’ Miranda Jimmy give us the inside scoop on building a new national urban park here in Edmonton. What are the Confederacy’s hopes and dreams for a potential new park? Will you have to pay to get in, and will you be able to pick saskatoon berries? We dive into all that and more, and questions from listeners like you. This episode was recorded on September 21, 2023 at the Alfred H. Savage Centre in Edmonton, or Amiskwaciwâskahikan. It is the culmination of our season driven by listener questions about the history of parks and natural areas in Edmonton.…

Let's Find Out

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67 - The Best Playground Ever 1:03:22

2 years ago1:03:22

1:03:22

Kathryn Gwun-Yeen 君妍 Lennon asks: what is the best playground in Edmonton? We crawl and swing through the past and present of playgrounds in our city to help her and her toddler on their quest. Kathryn and her family find themselves easily visiting 4 playgrounds in a weekend lately, and she estimates she visited around 30 different playgrounds last summer. So she’s been curious about finding the best one in town. She’s been thinking about how much shade and gathering space that playgrounds have, how close they are to other amenities, and how much her kid Yassin can challenge himself on equipment designed for a variety of ages. First, we spoke to Vancouver Island University professor Laura Suski, who’s been exploring the possibilities and limits of seeing playgrounds as heritage spaces. She’s been exploring questions like whether it’s more important to protect specific equipment or a space itself. Playgrounds, she points out, are one of the only public spaces where children are universally accepted as belonging in North America. Next, we met up with local playground afficionado Jill Footz, who runs the Edmonton Playgrounds website and social media accounts with her kids. During the pandemic, she started cataloguing their experiences, and they’ve now written about 380 playgrounds in and around the city. Jill told us about modern efforts to make playgrounds more accessible to all kids, from rethinking surfaces to building low-sensory spaces. We met at the Inglewood Rocketship Park ( which she has reviewed, of course ). Jill highlighted the Clareview Inclusive Playground and Borden Park. Listeners chimed in to recommend spots like Meadowlark Park and Gold Bar Playground, and we talked about Chris’ mom’s work on the committee rebuilding the Westbrook Elementary School’s playground. Finally, we met Sierra Club Edmonton & Area Wild Child Project Coordinator Paulina Retamales. Her master’s research at the University of Alberta looked at the history of the Gyro Club playgrounds in Edmonton between 1922 and 1950 . Some of Edmonton’s very first playgrounds were built by this club, including Tipton Park and Kitchener Park . She told us about the very structured activities and informal river valley play opportunities kids had there, the men who supervised play at the parks, and the parades. Tipton Park still has information panels about its origins as a Gyro Club playground. We had a lot of kids to help us playtest Dermott District Park. This episode is brought to you in part by the Edmonton Community Foundation. Every year, Edmonton Community Foundation produces a report called Vital Signs to measure how the community is doing, in partnership with Edmonton Social Planning Council. This year’s report focuses on food security, how it’s changed over the last 10 years, and where we are today. You can see the latest report at ecfoundation.org/initiatives/vital-signs .…

Let's Find Out

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66 - Manifesting Peltigera Park 53:54

2 years ago53:54

53:54

You may be tired of parks named after dead white men. Kyla Tichkowsky? She's railing against a different kind of tyranny. We have parks named for: Elk. Wood Buffalo. Aspen Beach. Cypress Hills. Dinosaurs even! And yet, not one single lichen. Why not? Lichen are, in fact, fantastically diverse and fascinating organisms. From a conservation standpoint, they are excellent bioindicators. So for conservation organizations, a lichen preserve would make a lot of sense. Together with Kyla, we set out to understand more about lichens and their place in Edmonton's conservation scene. Why not? Lichen are, in fact, fantastically diverse and fascinating organisms. From a conservation standpoint, they are excellent bioindicators. So for conservation organizations, a lichen preserve would make a lot of sense. Together with Kyla, we set out to understand more about lichens and their place in Edmonton's conservation scene. And we were guided into the Larch Sanctuary by Meghan Jacklin, a conservation coordinator with the Edmonton and Area Land Trust.…

Let's Find Out

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65 - The Riverlot Revisions 53:22

2 years ago53:22

53:22

Zulima Acuña noticed that some of Edmonton's old riverlots are highly developed, and some not at all. She asked us to help her learn why some of them became parks and others didn't. Zulima is a mom, teacher, and artist who has lived in Edmonton for the last ten years, and is eager to know as many stories about the land in Edmonton as her old hometown. It’s easy to take our spaces for granted: the way our roads are laid out, how big our parks are, where they are, the funny angles where some spaces meet. But Zulima’s question got us to peel back the layers a bit and see that many of the shapes and spaces we move through every day… are influenced by decisions made by land surveyors and farmers and land speculators almost a hundred and fifty years ago. We met Zulima in Emily Murphy Park (on the site of the old Riverlot #3) on a bright but smoky day. We consulted two books about local river lots to begin answering her question: Tom Monto's Old Strathcona, Edmonton's Southside Roots and Jan Olson's Scona Lives: A History of Riverlots 13, 15, & 17 . Next, we spoke to two local history researchers who have looked at the overlap between the old riverlots and the map of modern-day Edmonton. Connor Thompson is a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta, focusing on Western Canadian history. He wrote an article in 2020 for the Edmonton City as Museum Project, "Edmonton’s River Lots: A Layer in Our History" . Dylan Reade is a local documentary filmmaker and history researcher who has traced back many of the individual family stories and land sales on Edmonton's riverlots through archival documents and maps.…

Let's Find Out

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64 - Return of the Snow Goose Festival 39:28

2 years ago39:28

39:28

Back in 2016, the very first episode of Let’s Find Out was about a festival in Tofield, a town about 45 minutes southeast of Edmonton: The Snow Goose Festival. In that episode, we set out to find out how this big festival that started in the 90’s with thousands of bird watchers coming to Tofield to admire the geese migrating through in the spring became a convoy of school bus tours run by the Edmonton Nature Club. In that episode what we found out was that the festival was centred on Beaverhill Lake, which mostly dried up a decade later, leading the organizers wind down the festival. A die-hard group of goose admirers planned those bus tours - the Snow Goose Chase - to catch them in wet farm fields instead. The first story was interesting to us because it demonstrated how quickly we can get used to big changes, and accept new normals – something called shifting baselines. Imagine our surprise and delight when we found out the festival was coming back for 2023. How is that possible? What does it mean? Is Beaverhill Lake back? In this episode, Chris took a field trip out to Tofield, because he sensed this would be kind of a good news story, of people who remembered the lake, remembered this celebration of birds, and wanted to breathe new life into it. The actual story was more complicated than we imagined.…

Let's Find Out

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63 – A Park for All Seasons 57:08

2 years ago57:08

57:08

Edmonton calls itself a winter city, which partly means we’ve got a lot of wintery festivals. This episode, our producer Trevor Chow-Fraser asks: what does that mean for our parks? How are they changing to live up to the winter city ideal? Trevor started out by taking his daughter Eliot to Victoria Park to take advantage of its free snowshoeing and fort building. He spoke to activity leader Ryanne Osguthorpe. Victoria Park is one of a few parks in Edmonton that now feature geodesic dome warming huts in the winter. That got us curious about warming huts in parks, so we met up with Danielle Soneff — an industrial and social designer in Edmonton who created warming huts for a pilot project to bring them into city parks. She’s now an MA student at the University of Alberta, studying winter city design and governance. We talked about why she feels that pilot project failed, and what good winter design principles could be brought to the new Warehouse Park (final name TBD) downtown. Finally, we spoke with Isla Tanaka, a winter city planner for the City of Edmonton. We asked her how its winter city strategy has evolved over the years, and how it might change now after the first decade of implementation. Full show notes…

Let's Find Out

1
62 – About Sohan Singh Bhullar Park 42:40

2 years ago42:40

42:40

Soni Dasmohapatra asks: Who is Sohan Singh Bullar? Why is there a park named after them?

Let's Find Out

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61 – How a Park Gets a Name 52:28

2 years ago52:28

52:28

Mathew Thomson asks: what’s the process for naming a park in Edmonton? We investigate: who has authority, how much do names mean, and what happens when someone goes rogue on Google Maps?

Let's Find Out

1
60 – A Beautiful Ex-Garbage Dump 43:18

2 years ago43:18

43:18

Karen Unland asks: When did we stop dumping garbage into river valley spaces and start turning them into parks? In this episode, former historian laureate Shirley Lowe walks us through three stories: how the Grierson Hill dump became Louise McKinney Park, how the Strathcona dump and gravel mine became Hawrelak (aka Mayfair) Park, and how the Beverly Dump became Rundle Park.…

Let's Find Out

1
59 – The Smallest Park 52:36

2 years ago52:36

52:36

Shelley Jodoin-Chouinard asks what Edmonton’s smallest park is.

Let's Find Out

1
58 – The MacKinnon Ravine Mystery 1:06:16

2 years ago1:06:16

1:06:16

Kay Rollans asks who hung two effigies from the 142nd Street Bridge amid 1965 protests against a freeway slated to be built through MacKinnon Ravine. This episode is part of our season exploring the history of parks and natural areas in Edmonton.

Let's Find Out

1
57 – About Parks 1:12:12

3 years ago1:12:12

1:12:12

Edmontonians take a lot of pride in our parks and natural areas. But how did they come to be the way they are, and how well do they make space for humans and other species? On September 29, Let’s Find Out hosted a live podcast recording at the Aviary, with short talks and activities about parks. At the end, listeners had a chance to submit a question for our upcoming season about parks and natural areas in and around our city. Guest speakers on the episode include Marilyn Dumont, Tara Russell, and Sarah De Lano.…

Let's Find Out

1
56 – We Made It 34:35

3 years ago34:35

34:35

As Chris wraps up year one of his history master’s degree, Chris and Trevor do one last regular check-in about the pile of essays, grantwriting, and paddling. After this episode, we’ll be back to doing another season of listener questions! Send us your questions about parks and natural areas around Edmonton. What are you curious about? Email us at chris@letsfindoutpodcast.com or drop us a line on social media.…

Let's Find Out

1
55 – Making Space for Fossils 23:03

3 years ago23:03

23:03

In this episode, we travel to the Burgess Shale: a set of incredible fossil beds in Yoho National Park, preserving 500-million-year-old soft-bodied sea creatures. Today, it is part of a huge World Heritage Site: it has expanded to encompass all of Yoho National Park here in BC, Jasper and Banff, Kootenay, and three BC provincial parks. But back in 1980, the Burgess Shale sites at the Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds and the Walcott Quarry became the first little nucleus of that World Heritage site. We find out how these fossil sites ended up on that list, what kind of information and evidence and argument were used to lobby for a spot, how it changed this space, and what it all means. This episode is a recording of a short talk Chris gave on March 25, 2022, called Making Space for Fossils: How the Burgess Shale Claimed a Spot on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The presentation was part of the History, Classics, and Religion Graduate Students Association’s annual conference. This year’s theme was Recovery: Promises and Pitfalls.…

Let's Find Out

1
54 – Roadblocks 40:03

3 years ago40:03

40:03

In this episode, Chris tells Trevor about some of the comic (and cosmic) roadblocks on the road to learning about paleontology and power in Yoho National Park, and just generally the challenges facing students right now. Trevor offers some advice (and a hug). Guest co-host Eliot joins us for hot tips about the best songs from Encanto.…

Let's Find Out

1
53 – Right to the Source 40:04

3 years ago40:04

40:04

What’s the difference between a library and an archive? Why might you want to go into one versus the other? In this episode, Chris talks about some heartbreaking and complicated diary entries he read in the City of Edmonton Archives, what it’s like getting into libraries and archives right now with Omicron, and why it matters that it’s so tough.…

Let's Find Out

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52 – With Intent to Destroy a Group 39:09

3 years ago39:09

39:09

This December, Dr. Andrew Woolford delivered the Western Canadian Lecture, presented by the University of Alberta’s Department of History, Classics, & Religion the 2021 Western Canadian Lecture. Dr. Woolford is a prominent scholar in Genocide Studies who has worked on the history of Indian Residential Schools in Canada. His talk was titled: “With intent to destroy a group: Genocide’s past and present in Canada.” In this episode, Chris and Dylan Hall ask Dr. Woolford about his work, about defining genocide in Canada, and about some of the innovative ways Indigenous scholars and communities are moving beyond settler colonial definitions of group destruction. This interview was recorded the day after the lecture. If you listen and you find yourself needing support, consider calling the National Indian Residential School Crisis line at 1-866-925-4419. You can also reach the National Indian Residential School Text Line for free by texting 68 68 68. 24/7. You can also call the Canadian Mental Health Association, toll free, 24/7, at 1-833-456-4566 (In Quebec: 1-866-277-3553) or visit crisisservicescanada.ca.…

Let's Find Out

1
51 – That’s a Good Question 31:13

3 years ago31:13

31:13

How do you form a good historical question? In this episode, Chris and Trevor talk about trying to do that for a very specific reason: a Canada Graduate Scholarship grant application.

Let's Find Out

1
50 – A Community of Scholars 42:12

4 years ago42:12

42:12

Chris just started a masters in history at the University of Alberta. In this episode we wanted to give you a peek into his day to day life studying to be a historian. Hopefully you’ll understand a little more what it’s actually like in the fall of 2021 to go to grad school when the pandemic’s still on, the university’s open, and most of your classwork and job are actually in person on campus.…

Let's Find Out

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49 – First Day(s) in Class 43:29

4 years ago43:29

43:29

Chris talks to Trevor about what it’s like being on campus in a pandemic (surprisingly great), feelings of FOMO picking classes, and studying with John Acorn the Nature Nut. Plus, a little bit about Tacitus and a lot of thoughts on what we owe each other (and/or the state).

Let's Find Out

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48 – Back to School 48:51

4 years ago48:51

48:51

The next chapter for Let’s Find Out (and Chris). Trevor Chow-Fraser asks Chris Chang-Yen Phillips to talk through his days as a wee student starting school, what the purpose of a university education is, and why he’s headed to the University of Alberta to pursue a Masters’ degree in history. In the next phase of Let’s Find Out, Chris will be sharing what he’s learning, and how. We won’t be taking listener questions at the moment, but we are inviting you to send in audio clips for a new segment: Fact Finders. Send us an audio recording and tell us about one of your favourite resources for learning about local history! It could be a book, a grandma, an old souvenir from a festival in the ’60s, a local museum, whatever is filling your local history boots these days. We’ll feature some of them on future episodes.…

Let's Find Out

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47 – The Adventure of the Golden Mailbag 37:26

5 years ago37:26

37:26

Chris and Trevor rifle through listener questions and messages.

Let's Find Out

1
46 – Marriage and Murder at the Mirama 49:09

5 years ago49:09

49:09

Part 4 of our miniseries about the Mirama Dining & Lounge dim sum restaurant: what exactly happened at the 2004 fight in the restaurant and what is there to know about Asian gangs in Edmonton around the early 2000s?

Let's Find Out

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45 – A Feast for Veterans 26:45

5 years ago26:45

26:45

Part 3 of our miniseries about the Mirama Dining & Lounge dim sum restaurant: Mike Tulley is a former sound engineer with CJSR. Reporter Nathan Fung talks to Mike about his time working at fundraising events held at the Mirama restaurant, which were organized to help out Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) veterans in Edmonton.…

Let's Find Out

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44 – Salad Days at Mirama 35:57

5 years ago35:57

35:57

Part 2 of our miniseries about the Mirama Dining & Lounge dim sum restaurant: How does Mirama fit in the wider history of Edmonton’s Chinatown? How did business go for Mirama after the alleged gang incident in 2004? And why did Mirama eventually shut down? Reporter Nathan Fung asks Lan Chan-Marples and Games Choi for their insights.…

Let's Find Out

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43 – Mirama Memories 22:14

5 years ago22:14

22:14

Reporter Nathan Fung asks Grace Law what she remembers of the old Mirama restaurant on 94 St. and Jasper Ave, and what did this old dim sum place mean to her and possibly other Chinese Canadians living in Edmonton. Part 1 of a miniseries about the Mirama restaurant.

Let's Find Out

1
The Covid Call-In Show 46:21

5 years ago46:21

46:21

With Covid-19 rolling through all of our lives right now, we had a really basic question: how are you holding up? For this bonus episode, we held a live call-in show to find out. Karen Unland, Marlena Wyman, Jaya Chauhan, and Allan Farrell called in.

Let's Find Out

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Mar 26 – Live Call-In Show 1:26

5 years ago1:26

1:26

How are you doing? We’re hosting a live call-in show this week to find out. It’ll be Thursday March 26 from 10 AM – 11 AM Mountain Time, and we’ll share it later on the podcast. Join by clicking the Zoom meeting link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/897659176

Let's Find Out

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42 – Icons of Ritchie 58:25

5 years ago58:25

58:25

We’re back with another historical walking tour of Edmonton’s Ritchie neighbourhood, presented by the Ritchie Community League. In this bonus episode, we explore the history of meatpacking, German immigration, and iconic local species in the neighbourhood.

Let's Find Out

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41 – How We Make Nature 1:02:53

5 years ago1:02:53