The cult-like following of Roma Pizza and other made-in-Hamilton stories
6 things you might not have known were made in Hamilton
Ever wondered about the true Hamilton staple, the ubiquitous bread-and-sauce slab pizza from Roma Bakery that has a devoted following?
Did you know there's a lab of scientists at McMaster University mapping genomes of ancient mammoth relatives and wrestling with whether to bring them back to life?
CBC Hamilton's live event, "Made in Hamilton," Thursday featured six speakers using quick-moving, visual presentations about things, people and ideas that have been forged in Hamilton.
The speakers each chose 20 images that were displayed for 20 seconds each. The automatically advancing slides kept the speakers and the audience on their toes.
Made in Hamilton CBC happening on James St. Innovative look at what makes this city great! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/madeinhamont?src=hash">#madeinhamont</a>
—@AudreyHensenLearn more about creativity in our city by watching the videos of the presentations below.
Roma Pizza's cult-like following
Dave Hanley is cofounder of "Pop Up Hamilton," a food and wine events company that geeks out on local chefs, local food, local brewers and winemakers and hosts them all in quirky event spaces, like a movie set jail, a greenhouse and a tugboat warehouse.
His passion for discovering the heart of Hamilton food compelled us to ask him: Dave, what's the deal with Roma Pizza?
A mammoth of a genome
Could a mammoth be brought back from extinction? Should it?
Emil Karpinski is a graduate student at McMaster University. As an undergrad studying molecular biology and genetics, he became obsessed with ancient DNA over the last couple of years and got a spot in Dr. Hendrik Poinar's lab at McMaster, in the ancient DNA centre.
Wonder women in Hamilton's past and future
Andrea Horwath was born and raised in Hamilton and began her political career as a Ward 2 councillor for three terms.
She was elected to Ontario legislature in 2004, and became the first woman to lead Ontario's New Democratic Party in 2009, a post she holds today as well as being MPP for Hamilton Centre. She's used to giving speeches at Queen's Park but we asked her to tour us through the stories of women wielding power in Hamilton's history – both those you may have heard of and some you haven't.
Artists of colour making photography, fashion, theatre and poetry
Kojo "Easy" Damptey is a musician born and raised in Ghana in West Africa, who moved to Hamilton when he was 17 to study chemical engineering. He fell into a whirlwind of school and music and learned to play piano and write songs.
He's a passionate advocate against racism and a cheerleader for the idea that Hamilton is better because of its diversity, and he's interested in using art to tell stories of marginalized peoples and communities.
Kojo amplified some of the people doing just that.
Steelmaking 101
We all know steel is made in Hamilton, but how many of us really understand what goes on on Burlington Street? Tom Kuhl definitely does — he'd better. He's been at Dofasco, now ArcleorMittal Dofasco for almost 30 years.
He's responsible for making the process work smoothly in cokemaking, ironmaking and steelmaking. He went to Mohawk College for metallurgical engineering technology. Tom took us into the blast furnace.
The 50-year legacy of a steelworker by day, hiker on the weekends
Those blue and white little stripes of paint you see, hiking around Hamilton?
Beth Gilhespy probably dreams about them when she's asleep. She loves hiking and geology and is a big fan of the green ribbon running through Hamilton, the Niagara Escarpment. Her former life was in treatment of toxic chemicals and now she breathes fresh air as the CEO of the Bruce Trail Conservancy.
Beth traced the trail's roots to a guy from Hamilton, Ray Lowes.
Have an idea for a topic or speaker we should feature at our next event? Send a note: kelly.bennett@cbc.ca