Your friendly neighborhood emu loving history nut, Kara, teleports us back to Mrs. O'Leary's cow that supposedly knocked over a gas lamp and caused one of the worst BBQ disasters in American history. In 1871 Chicago was like any other booming American city, replete with enough combustible materials and a grossly deficient fire brigade, that one has to wonder how Chicago made it this far without burning down prior. Kara will explore why Mrs. O'Leary was blamed for the disaster; what happened prior to that fateful day; how the city actually burned; how the rich faired better than the poor (just like any other disaster); and how the city rebuilt itself from the ashes. Yet no one thought to rename the city Phoenix...

Warning: a lot of super creepy 1870's children's dolls were destroyed in the fire and to be honest I'm ok with that