Chicago
Engineering, ego, sewage
Chicago made its river run backward.
The city moved an entire river away from Lake Michigan to protect its drinking water—then spent years explaining the consequences to everyone downstream.
Audio Walking Tours
The city is the show.
Just press play.
Mostly true audio tours about the people, disasters, schemes, and impossible decisions that made each city what it is.
See routes before buying Mostly true Walk whenever you want
Same city. Very different tour.
Most audio tours read like a textbook. Ours feel like a story with a point of view.
A typical audio tour
"The Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower, was completed in 1973. At 1,450 feet, it held the record as the world's tallest building for 25 years. The building was designed by the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and contains 104 elevators."
A Bad Historian tour
"The Willis Tower — and if you call it that to a local, they will correct you — was the world's tallest building for 25 years. That's 25 years of pure, uninterrupted bragging, which in Chicago is basically the entire point of building anything."
No group. No schedule. Mostly true. Much harder to forget.
Stories from the tours
History is already entertaining.
We find the ambition, disasters, feuds, scams, and strange little decisions hiding behind familiar places—then tell them like stories, not plaques.
New Orleans
Power hides in plain sight
The Voodoo Queen knew everybody’s secrets.
Marie Laveau worked as a hairdresser for wealthy families. The job gave her access, gossip, and a remarkably useful map of who owed what to whom.
New York
A park built like a conspiracy
Central Park was never “just there.”
It was engineered, blasted, drained, landscaped, and politically fought over. Even the wilderness had a construction schedule.
Mostly true. Slightly mischievous. Built to make the city memorable.
Start here
Chicago is ready when you are.
Walk into bootleggers, skyscraper egos, a backward river, buried bodies, and the midnight bulldozer raid that built a stadium. Compare the routes, choose your story, and start on your schedule.
Chicago
5 ways into the city
How it works
Your afternoon, sorted.
1
Pick a city and a story
See the route, length, stops, and price before you start.
2
Put your phone away and walk
GPS-triggered audio meets you at each stop. Download ahead for offline use.
3
Choose the access that fits
Buy one tour, every tour in a city, or the complete catalog.
Choose your depth
One tour
One complete route and story
$9.99
One city
Every available tour in that city
$14.99
All access
Every available tour and city
$24.99
Purchases are handled by Apple.
Pick a City
Where are you headed?
Each city has its own stories, characters, and surprises.
Popular Tours
Good places to start
Pick a city. Pick a tour. The stories do the rest.
A better way to spend an afternoon
Travel day
Turn “we have three hours” into a plan.
Pick a neighborhood, press play, and let the route reveal the city without joining a crowd or watching the clock.
Date or friend day
Have something better to discuss than dinner.
The stories give you characters, scandals, and genuinely strange choices to argue over while you walk.
Your own city
Make familiar streets surprising again.
Look past the landmark names and meet the builders, grifters, rivals, and accidents hiding underneath them.
See what the fuss is about
Download the app, compare the routes and prices, then choose the city story you want to walk.
Get the App