A famous movie actress from the 1920s left the world a lasting piece of art — a remarkable miniature home that could be considered Chicago’s cutest piece of real estate. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS https://www.atlasobscura.com/videos/see-chicago-s-million-dollar-fairy-castle

It roamed the seas, served an evil dictator, survived a war, and ended up in a New Jersey auto-repair shop bathroom.

We step into the shoes of the miners who once labored in the Nevada mountains, via a trip to the Tonopah Historic Mining Park. This episode was produced in partnership with Travel Nevada.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tonopah-mining-park

LEARN MORE about the Tonopah Historic Mining Park and Travel Nevada 

A race is on to save this world heritage site that straddles the border of Togo and Benin. It’s home to remarkable earth tower homes called Takienta, and the Batammariba people, whose existence is threatened by climate change and migration.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/koutammakou-batammariba

We go to Sweden, where some people are intent on making a woman a permanent symbol of resistance, whether or not she would have wanted it. Check out some of Samuel Merrill’s research work on the photo here.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/woman-with-the-handbag-statue

We go to Statesboro, Georgia to the US National Tick Collection to learn what ticks, often thought of as little monstrosities, can teach us.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/us-national-tick-collection

The Flagg Grove School in Brownsville, Tennessee has become a museum dedicated to its most famous student. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tina-turner-museum

Take a trip to Micropia, the world’s only museum dedicated to microscopic organisms, and learn about our invisible life companions.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/micropia

The story of the unimaginable destruction of the American Chestnut tree and the group of scientists, academics and tree lovers who are desperately trying to bring them back from the edge of extinction.

LEARN MORE: Visit https://acf.org/ to find out more about this massive conservation effort

A spinning furnace tucked under the football stadium at the University of Arizona is building giant telescope mirrors. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/richard-f-caris-mirror-laboratory

Sun cannons have been around since the 1600s. But as far as we know, there’s only one left that’s still up and running. We pay it a visit. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/atvidaberg-sun-cannon

Habaneros!  Jalapenos! Green! Red! These days, an appreciation for chiles is pretty mainstream. But that wasn’t always the case. We head to New Mexico to learn how this food became such a huge part of our culture, and visit an institute dedicated to its continual improvement. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/chile-pepper-institute

A North Carolina town has become a draw for people who want to see the wreckage of the train wreck from the movie “The Fugitive.” But a more interesting – and true – story happened just a pistol shot away.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-fugitive-train-wreck-sylva-north-carolina

A once-blacklisted Hollywood star created a magical theater in Topanga Canyon, California, that still endures and inspires today.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/theatricum-botanicum

One of the oldest books in the world is also the most misunderstood. A medievalist tells us about the Voynich, which is in the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/beinecke-rare-book-manuscript-library

She’s about 8 feet wide and 500 pounds. And her history spans all the way from the stockyards of Chicago... to a nuclear test during the Manhattan Project...to a stadium at the University of Texas at Austin. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/big-bertha-drum

We dig through more than 1,000 years of dirt, history,  colonialism, and myth on the Swahili Coast.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kilwa-kisiwani-ruins

Where can you find the smoothest, most scrumptious edible art? If you ask our host, Dylan, it’s in the Minnesota State Fair butter sculpture room. He’s joined in this episode by Gastro Obscura writer Sam O’Brien, who got the scoop on the yummy centerpieces.
 

We all dream of the perfect vacation when everything goes right. This episode is about the opposite. Hear stories of people having near death travel experiences.

TELL US YOUR STORY: We want to hear your stories too! Give us a call at (315) 992-7902, and leave a message telling us your name, and about your own near-death travel experience. You can also record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Elusive patches of land in America’s Midwest can show us what the environment was like 150 years ago and tell us about the future.

We spend time with the world’s foremost poo enthusiasts, who operate a museum in England where poo is elegant, elevated and celebrated.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/national-poo-museum

A walk through this scale model has you feeling like a giant, and striding from Baton Rouge to Omaha in an hour. LEARN MORE about the model and the group trying to revive it, here: https://friendsofmrbm.org/

The next time you go out on a road trip, keep your eyes peeled for a peanut-shaped car that got its start as an advertising play during the Great Depression

Nestled in a hospital courtyard in Kumasi, Ghana, you’ll find the strength of the Asante people: the sword of Okomfo Anokye, planted in the ground over 300 years ago. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sword-of-okomfo-anokye

We go on a bumpy ride with the Hurricane Hunters – the government’s team of scientists who fly into storms so the rest of us can have accurate info and research about massive weather events. Our guide is Nick Underwood, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

At a food truck in Austin, tried and true barbecue favorites meet unexpected spices and flavor profiles. Here, chef Damien Brockway’s journey into family history led him to weave the flavors of the African diaspora into his food. This episode was produced in partnership with Travel Texas. 

LEARN MORE about Distant Relatives and Travel Texas.

In 1986 an unknown natural disaster at Lake Nyos in Menchum, Cameroon left more than 1700 people dead in one night - and puzzled scientists. Listen to learn how they solved the mystery. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lake-nyos-the-deadliest-lake-in-the-world

How far would you go to find the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake in the United States? 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/moose-boulder-debunked

The variety of apples we enjoy today have a common ancestor that lies in the forests of Kazakhstan, where scientists are studying the wildest version of the fruit.

Welcome to the Judith A Basset Canid Education & Conservation Center, where a California couple has dedicated their lives to showing folks man has even more best friends than previously thought.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-jab-canid-education-and-conservation-center-jabcecc

Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team bring us stories about the trees that have witnessed history. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: Read the story of Emancipation Oak in Hampton, VA and the Travel Log from California. 

It’s easy to dismiss Bigfoot, the yeti, the Loch Ness monster, and other cryptids as far-fetched X-Files fodder. But the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine aims to show that when investigations into unknown creatures are done right, they involve real science, and have real scientific value.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/international-cryptozoology-museum 

In the Adirondacks of northern New York sits John Brown's Farm, a monument to the famous abolitionist, and the last vestige of Timbuctoo, an ambitious but failed settlement that some hoped could help African Americans secure the right to vote. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/john-brown-farm

In Atlanta, on this historic Auburn Avenue, sits a small bookstore and reading room that’s been called “an interactive art museum of Black Thought.” 

LEARN MORE: https://www.forkeepsbooks.com/

Ross Jennings, aka the First Piper, has been on a world-spanning quest to play the bagpipes in every country of the world. 

LEARN MORE: https://www.thefirstpiper.com/

We go to Northern Ethiopia and learn about an ancient King who left a great legacy to his people and the world: the rock hewn church known as St. Giyorgis, where religious services are held to this day. See a virtual rendering of all the rock hewn churches of Lalibela at the Zamani Project.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bete-giyorgis-lalibela

This stunning geological marvel just north of Dahab, Egypt has been called the deadliest dive spot in the world. But is that reputation deserved?

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/red-sea-blue-hole

Author Mary Roach takes us into the hidden corners of the scientific world. From training to poop in space to the surprisingly pleasant Common Cold Unit, all the way to the inside of Elvis’s colon. If you want to check out her work, we recommend starting with Packing for Mars. 

We head to the Namib Desert in Africa, where the landscape is dotted with mysterious, pimple-like indents known as fairy circles. Where do these things come from? Scientist Walter Tschinkel has spent the last several years studying and experiencing a natural occurrence so enchanting, locals describe it as “The footprints of the gods.”

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/fairy-circles-southern-africa

For decades, the Ashley House in Sheffield, Massachusetts preserved and promoted the story of Col. John Ashley, a wealthy businessman who opened his home to those fighting against British rule on the eve of America’s war for independence. But in this episode we hear a new narrative, about an enslaved woman and true patriot who tested the rhetoric of the revolution.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ashley-house

Hear tales of our team’s most memorable family trips – like going on vacation with Thomas Jefferson, getting thrown in the ocean and meeting Klingons. 

TELL US YOUR STORY: We want to hear your stories too! Give us a call at (315) 992-7902, and leave a message telling us your name, and about your own memorable family trip. Whatever it is, wherever you went, we want to hear about it. You can also record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Photographer and author Paul Koudonaris brings listeners to this Ethiopian Church and explores ossuaries, jeweled skeletons, and death practices throughout the world. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/yemrehana-krestos-church

In 1986, something really weird happened in Pennsylvania – a replica of The Statue of Liberty mysteriously appeared through the fog on the Susquehanna River. We unravel the mystery. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mini-statue-of-liberty-harrisburg

A 50 square mile patch of Yellowstone National Park in Idaho might just be the perfect place to commit a crime. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/yellowstones-zone-of-death

An adventurous couple sets out to document and unearth the arrows of America’s past, once used to help pilots find their way across the skies. You can learn more about Charlotte and Brian’s journey – and see photos of the arrows they’ve documented – at their website: dreamsmithphotos.com

A tidy little story from Pocatello, Idaho, home to the Museum of Clean 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/museum-of-clean

Trailblazing computer scientist Grace Hopper shaped the way people use and talk about computers. Her actual computer bug is preserved at the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/grace-hoppers-bug

 This San Francisco museum, curated by a super-fan of the Beats, is a shrine to an incredibly influential cultural movement and a destination for folks keeping it alive today. *An earlier version of this episode contained a mispronunciation and a misattributed quote. Both have been fixed and we regret the error.
 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/beat-museum

Filmmaker and writer Cheuk Kwan takes us for a round-the-world meal. Three courses, three incredible places. Three stories of Chinese immigration.

LEARN MORE: Cheuk Kwan’s new book is called “Have You Eaten Yet?” You can also check out “Chinese Restaurants,” his documentary series that started it all, on youtube https://www.youtube.com/@cheukkwan/featured

Dylan chats with Rowan Jacobsen, a food journalist and host of the podcast called OBSESSION: Wild Chocolate. And he takes us on a journey that follows his multiyear quest into the Amazon rainforest to learn more about a mythical chocolate that has a dark history and the potential to save parts of the rainforest.

LEARN MORE: Check out Rowan's podcast here.

Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team bring us stories about the biggest balls of twine. Plus, a special guest adds an additional tangle to the tale. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/world-s-largest-ball-of-twine

Tonopah, Nevada is home to the Clown Motel - an inn on the edge of the desert that’s packed with statues and figurines of Clowns. The eerie and fully-functioning inn is also a labor of love.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/clown-motel

The deep woods of Pennsylvania hold a phenomena that has drawn attention from scientists and people around the world, and was almost recently destroyed. To learn more about the Pennsylvania Firefly Festival visit https://www.pafireflyevents.org/.

We visit a park in Palo Alto, California, home of the world’s most famous donkey. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-donkeys-of-barron-park-palo-alto-california

A massive 19th-century reservoir under the city of Copenhagen has been repurposed as a contemporary art cave. We venture inside to learn more about its history, and bask in the incredible acoustics of the space.

Visit Cisternerne and Frederiksberg Museerne: https://frederiksbergmuseerne.dk/da/

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cisternerne

A swath of land in Northern France still bears scars of the destruction of World War I. Destruction so bad that, in some cases, humans have never been allowed to return.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/zone-rouge

As part of Women’s History Month, we're sharing some episodes from the archive including this story about mysterious doors scattered throughout Atlanta. They dare you to imagine what might be found on the other side.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tiny-doors-atl

Writer Stacy Horn tells us about a period in American history when the study of psychic phenomena and the paranormal was serious business at places like Stanford and Duke University. And she reveals the story of J.B. Rhine and Louisa Rhine, a scholarly couple who attempted to find the line where science ended and the unbelievable began. Horn is the author of  Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory.

We go to Tokyo, to a particular place that is both nemesis and best friend to all those procrastinators out there. (Yes, we’re looking at you :) 

LEARN MORE: The Manuscript Writing Cafe is open Saturdays and Sundays and you can reserve your seat online. 

https://koenji-sankakuchitai.blog.jp/ManuscriptWritingCafe/

Producer Abigail Keel takes us on the most strange, wonderful and beautiful potty break. And tells us how – and where – you can do it too. 

Writer Jessica Leigh Hester joins us on a deep dive into the sewer, the subject of her new book. We’ll talk about some of the interesting (and disgusting) things she found there … like fatbergs.

FIND OUT MORE: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/sewer-9781501379505/
 

As part of Women’s History Month Atlas Obscura will be sharing some episodes from the archive, including this story about the origins of a Swedish holiday tradition which evolved from sinister pagan lore to a celebration of light, warmth and music.

Here the podcast team shares stories of wonder and curiosity that lies just outside your doorstep. Stories feature a troll bridge, a cemetery, natural methane vents, and more.

Tell us about a wonder in your backyard. Record a voice memo and send it to hello@atlasobscura.com or leave a voicemail at 315-992-7902.

The Dedan Kimathi Post Office played a notable role in Kenya’s struggle for Independence.

The Ouija Board went from a tool for communicating with the dead to a sleepover party game. This trip through the Ouija Board’s past features a pit stop at the Ouija 7-Eleven.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ouija-7eleven

This restaurant in Jackson, Mississippi was a haven for Civil Rights leaders and has stood for four generations, 83 years, and a whole lotta pig ear sandwiches.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/big-apple-inn

As part of Women’s History Month Atlas Obscura will be sharing some episodes from the archive including this story about a forest in Oslo, Norway that will provide the trees for paper as part of a century long art project featuring famed contemporary authors. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/forest-of-the-future-library

This architectural oddity in Hartford, Connecticut looks like a mansion… but is only one room deep. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/a-everett-austin-facade-house

California's longest-running tourist attraction is a stump that helped spark a conservation movement.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-discovery-tree

This simple brick building in Chicago, Illinois was the boyhood home of Civil Rights icon, Fred Hampton Sr. and a continued site for community organizing.

Nellie Mae Rowe decorated her home in Vinings, Georgia with homemade dolls and shiny bottle caps and placed paper streamers, pieces of colored glass and improvised sculptures throughout her yard.  

As part of Black History Month Atlas Obscura will be sharing some episodes from the archive including Producer Baudelaire Ceus’s journey to Leimert Park, a unique neighborhood in Los Angeles characterized by its historical relationship to Black liberation.

This little house in New Haven, Kentucky is where Thomas Merton aka profit-poet aka the rebel monk tried to get away from the world.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/thomas-mertons-hermitage

This tiny stone cabbage has a big backstory stretching from the rich, treasure-laden halls of Beijing’s Forbidden City...through a harrowing wartime escape...to its prized place at the National palace museum in Taipei, Taiwan.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/jade-cabbage

One man in Brooklyn, New York - armed with a homemade boat and an artistic vision - helped transform one of the most polluted industrial waterways in the US.

To listen to the Newtown Creek Audio Guide: http://www.newtowncreekfieldguide.com/

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/newtown-creek-nature-walk

Chiseled out of a stone cliff, one farmer's unfinished art project in Yoshimi, Japan lies in ruins. And an architect and a photographer are working to keep his legacy alive.

Email us about buying a copy of Arai-san and Karasaki-san’s photobook at hello@atlasobscura.com

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gankutsu-hotel

As part of Black History Month Atlas Obscura will be sharing some episodes from the archive including the history of this paddleboat that gave some Black children a place to learn even when they were denied formal education on land.   

This site in Boonarga, Australia honors the cactoblastis - a humble moth that traveled across the globe, and became the hero of a continent. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cactoblastis-memorial-cairn

The story of how famous Russian author Alexander Pushkin once faced a duel by The Black River on the outskirts of St. Petersburg features high drama, society scandals, a weird foot joke, and pistols at dusk.

For Valentine's Day, the Atlas team would like to bring you this tale of the heart….literally. The Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw, Poland is the final resting place of famed composer Frédéric Chopin’s heart - smuggled there by Chopin’s sister after his death. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/chopin-s-heart

This site is “not a Library where you can borrow books” nor “a memorial with dusty relics” but still aims to honor the spirit of American author Henry Miller. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/henry-miller-memorial-library

As part of Black History Month Atlas Obscura will be sharing some episodes from the archive including this journey to famed Jazz musician Louis Armstrong’s House in Corona, Queens in New York.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/louis-armstrong-house

The killing of a British pig on an island off the coast of Northwestern Washington almost started a war between two of the world’s greatest military powers. 100 years later, a local artist commemorated the Pig War with a one-woman show, a troupe of mannequins, and a taxidermied pig. 

Learn more about Steve Lyons’ play: https://www.lyonswrites.com/plays.html#

This relic of roadside attractions in Creston, South Dakota is believed to be the first of its kind in North America

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/creston-dinosaur

Professional rainmaker Charles Hatfield was either a scientist or a con man who had a particular influence on San Diego, CA.  

Curious about cloud seeding? Learn more from our earlier podcast on the Lynmouth Flood: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/podcast-lynmouth-flood-memorial-hall

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lower-otay-reservoir

Marchand Dessalines, Haiti is a town named after Jean Jacques Dessalines one of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution and one of the country’s founding fathers.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/dessalines-revolution-battle-haiti

As part of Black History Month Atlas Obscura will be sharing some episodes from the archive including this story about a gigantic public square dedicated to Ghanaian independence - and producer Baudelaire Ceus’s introduction to soursop.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/black-star-square

Rico Gagliano, host of the MUBI podcast, takes listeners to The Westgate Movie Theater in Minneapolis for a story about a movie that flopped terribly when it was released that changed the course of the theater’s history.

Listen to the MUBI Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mubi-podcast/id1569229544

Sigmund Freud’s famous psychoanalytic couch is preserved in his final office in London, England.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/freud-museum-london

Host Dylan Thuras leads listeners on a journey that leads to the preserved middle finger of Galileo Galilei, astronomer, physicist and engineer.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/galileos-middle-finger

This building in Tangier was one of the first pieces of land owned by the United States Government outside of the country, and was a gift from “America’s first friend.”

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tangier-american-legation-museum

This Ecuadorian cave has captured the attention of  government officials, scientists, and professional cavers and is home to a particularly rare creature.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cueva-de-los-tayos

Rae Wynn-Grant, Ph.D. is a wildlife ecologist specializing in large carnivores. And in this episode she unfolds a mystery for listeners. 

To hear more about her encounter with a lion: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/podcast/not-your-average-field-trip/

Empress Anna’s Ice Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia was the site of an incredibly strange wedding. Was it a cruel joke? A strategic power move? Or something else?

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/russia-anna-ioannovna-ice-palace-castle

Lee's Legendary Marbles & Collectables in York, Nebraska is a pilgrimage of sorts for serious collectors and a curiosity for the casual passerby.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lees-legendary-marbles-collectables

This intricately carved church in Luster is one of Norway’s great treasures of architecture.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/urnes-stave-church

The Luray Caverns in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia are home to an instrument that draws out the secret sounds of millenia-old stone.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-great-stalacpipe-organ-luray-virginia

The José María Azael Franco Guerrero Cemetery in Tulcán, Ecuador is a topiary anomaly and a lush green paradise for the dead.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tulcan-municipal-cemetery

This abandoned lodge in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique has been reclaimed by local lions - a story deeply enmeshed in the larger history of the country.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-lion-house-gorongosa-mozambique

Further Reading: 

S is for Samora (book by Sarah Lefanu)

Let My People Go (poem by Noémia de Sousa)

Apartheid’s Contras: An Inquiry Into the Roots of War in Angola and Mozambique (pdf book by William Minter)

The Mozambican Civil War (1977-1992) (article by Samuel Momodu, BlackPast.org)

Mozambique History Net (Resource)

A Year in Gorongosa (film by Augusto Bila, narrated by Gabriela Curtiz)

In Mozambique, a Living Laboratory for Nature’s Renewal (article by Natalie Angier, The New York Times)

Narrative Fortresses: Crisis Narratives and Conflict in the Conservation of Mount Gorongosa, Mozambique (article by Christy Schuetze)

White Man's Game: Saving Animals, Rebuilding Eden, and Other Myths of Conservation in Africa (book by Stephanie Hanes)

Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team bring you stories of how sometimes giant monuments built for a specific site need to go on a journey. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/yakhchals

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/snowflake-bentley

This internationally recognized jazz lounge has been running for more than a century. Its guests have included Frank Sinatra, Charlie Chaplin and less reputable icons like Al Capone.

Host Dylan Thuras visits a Staten Island mansion with a dubious and vitriolic past, only to learn the site’s curse may not be as obvious as it seems. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kreischer-mansion

Barnali Ghosh and Anirvan Chatterjee take us on a walking tour of Berkeley, CA, where they share their community's legacy of radical South Asian activism.

Learn more about the Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour: https://www.berkeleysouthasian.org/

This railway was built for one purpose and one purpose only: to keep the London’s mail coming on time. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-mail-rail-london-england

Drawbridge operators in Chicago, IL used to live at these specific homes nestled at the base of their bridges.

Venture into the mind of Sky Hopinka, member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient. He and host Dylan Thuras discuss his work, his past and what he’s still searching for out on the road.

Visit Sky's website to watch Jáaji Approx. and to learn more about his work: http://www.skyhopinka.com/jaaji-approximately

We visit Vanuatu in the South Pacific and go underwater to visit a very strange place from a very strange episode at the end of World War II. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/million-dollar-point

The history of medical clowning extends back to Ancient Greece and the time of Hippocrates and is taught in workshops throughout the world.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/medical-clowning-program-at-haifa-university

This former meat-packing plant in Chicago, Illinois is now a site where people work to create a new kind of community in the city’s post-industrial remains. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-plant-chicago-illinois

Post Office Bay on the Galapagos Islands is a post office that runs on luck and the goodwill of visitors. It has a knack for bringing strangers together. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/post-office-bay

Experience the Orfield Anechoic Chamber: a room inside a concrete bunker that was once known as the quietest place on earth.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/orfield-labs-quiet-chamber

We explore the power luck has on us all, rational or not, through the unlikely places people go to re-up.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/lists/lucky-places-good-luck-charms

This secluded museum beats the drum for the preservation of Nepal's musical heritage.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/nepali-folk-musical-instrument-museum

A renegade art project in Vancouver galvanized a small community, pitted residents against city government, and ultimately resulted in a new name for a chill park.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/dude-chilling-park

An industrial water tank-turned-concert hall in the high deserts of Colorado is nothing less than a sonic wonder of the world. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-tank-rangely-colorado

About 400 miles south of New Zealand, on the subantarctic Campbell Island / Motu Ihupuku, stands a Sitka spruce whose nearest neighbor is 170 miles away.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/worlds-loneliest-tree

This unique installation in Sydney, Australia combines art and ornithology, commemorating the calls of the city’s lost birds. Plus, bin chickens!

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/forgotten-songs-sound-sculpture

Urban planner Moses Gates shares his unlikely experience with the residents of the 61st floor of one of New York City’s most iconic buildings.

Updated December 2022. Built by indigenous people thousands of years ago, the Newark Earthworks are part cathedral, part cemetery, and part astronomical observatory. But today, this ancient ceremonial site is part of a golf course in Ohio.

Read Cedric Rose’s article: https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/will-ohios-earthworks-become-a-world-heritage-site/

Learn more about the Newark Earthworks: http://worldheritageohio.org

The story of Thomalind and Priscilla is 300 years in the making and brings listeners to Bunce Island, off the coast of Sierra Leone.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bunce-island

Chandler, Arizona creates a Christmas Tree made entirely of the diaspore of this Western plant. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tumbleweed-christmas-tree

Home is where the grudge is. We survey a special kind of architecture that is both petty and personal.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/lists/spite-houses-around-the-world

Atlas contributors bring listeners stories of getting lost on transit, on romantic getaways, or while just trying to get home, and the joy that comes from finding yourself somewhere unexpected.  

Artist Duke Riley has turned trash into a medium, like clay or paint, and an indictment.  His exhibit DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash will run through April 23, 2023 at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. 

Discover how Tarpon Springs, Florida became known as the Sponge Capital of the World. This “Small Town, Big Story” episode is produced in partnership with GoUSA TV.

To watch the video, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZShrVCpUK0

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/tarpon-springs-florida

In honor of Lucia Day on December 13, we’re diving into the origins of a Swedish holiday tradition which evolved from sinister pagan lore to a celebration of light, warmth and music.

Tune into SVT’s Lucia broadcast: https://www.svtplay.se/video/e3vGxaR/luciamorgon-fran-grafsnas

We go to the Westman Islands off the southern coast of Iceland and meet the heroes who save young birds that have wandered from their nests every summer.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/worlds-largest-puffin-colony

The story of the Fendika Cultural Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is the story of Melaku Belay and his journey from homelessness to international acclaim as a community leader.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/fendika-azmari-bet

This abandoned hospital outside Boston, Massachusetts was originally conceived as a place to help people with mental health issues. But it wound up doing a lot of harm.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/medfield-state-hospital

This collection, preserved by the United States Library of Congress, features locks of hair from cultural icons from Ludwig van Beethoven to General Ulysses Grant. 

One of Australia’s greatest stories of escape and survival centers around this rock formation in Point Lonsdale. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/buckleys-cave

How To! Host Amanda Ripley goes in search of the answer to the question “how to set up a roadside attraction that will bring visitors to your town” with expert Erika Nelson - the founder of the World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Things.

The Flagg Grove School in Brownsville, Tennessee has become a museum dedicated to its most famous student.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tina-turner-museum

The Sterling Hill Mine in Ogdensburg, New Jersey is the site of a geological marvel that can’t be found anywhere else in the world.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/flourescent-rocks-of-sterling-hill-mine

This radical puppet collective has shaped the small New England town of Glover, Vermont for decades. This “Small Town, Big Story” episode is produced in partnership with GoUSA TV.

To watch the video, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUrbyGqQDtc

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bread-and-puppet-museum-and-theater

These trees sprang from seeds that were brought to outer space.  

Moon Tree Website: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/moon_tree.html

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/categories/moon-trees

The Sporkful team dives deeper into the history of the unknown whiskey bottle and the lives of those it touched. 

Dan Pashman and the Sporkful team attempt to unravel the history of a bottle of whiskey found at an estate sale when the brand seems to not exist. 

Under the forests of Nyack, New York lays a series of dark and decrepit tunnels with militaristic roots but now attract graffiti artists and plenty of teen lore.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/claus-land-mountain-tunnels

This site, and the enormous telescope that sits on it, is loved and lost to both scientists and everyday Puerto Ricans.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/arecibo-observatory

Our team goes on a quest to find Prospect Park’s elusive -- and perhaps most magical -- resident rodent.

A carefully curated collection of miscalculations in Edinburgh, Scotland serves as a warning for our gullibility, especially when it comes to money.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/library-of-mistakes

This beautiful beach made of sand and worn down coral is covered in the wreckage of tanks once used by the U.S. military for target practice.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-tanks-of-flamenco-beach-culebra-puerto-rico

Larry Spring’s Museum of Common Sense Physics in Fort Bragg, California begs the question: what do you do with a science museum where the science preserved inside is a kind of folk art?

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/larry-spring-school-common-sense-physics

Thousands of sheep take over downtown Ketchum, Idaho during the annual Trailing of the Sheep Festival. This “Small Town, Big Story” episode is produced in partnership with GoUSA TV.

To watch the video, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwlilGi6k7s

The African Heritage House in Mlolongo, Kenya is one of the greatest collections of African art in the world - and it has an unusual backstory.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/african-heritage-house 

The story of how humans desperate for water created a lake the size of the city of Los Angeles. And then, how that thirst turned toxic.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/salton-sea

Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team bring you stories of how sometimes giant monuments built for a specific site need to go on a journey.  

To view the Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse move: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPa8b1WlbaI&t=3s

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/church-of-agios-sostis and https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/rubjerg-knude-lighthouse

A voicemail from a listener takes us out on the Appalachian trail, where we ford rivers, climb mountains, and work our way across one of the most storied backpacking routes in North America.

Listen to our episode about your summer adventures: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/podcast-summer-adventures-22

Send a voice memo to hello@atlasobscura.com or call (315) 992-7902 to leave a message about your own travel quest. 

The Wren’s Nest in Atlanta is both a museum and former home of journalist Joel Chandler Harris and a hub for modern storytellers.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-wrens-nest

A toxic lake high in the Andes mountains in Argentina is home to microbes that provide a window to our planet’s past — and a key to securing its future.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/laguna-del-diamante

Real Good is a podcast with the mission to highlight real people out in the world - trying to make it better. This excerpt features the Real Good hosts and Goalsetter CEO Tanya Van Court discussing financial literacy. The show is powered by US Bank.
 

Visit https://www.stitcher.com/show/real-good to listen to the show's fourth season.

Kasanka National Park in Zambia hosts one of the largest – and most mysterious! – animal migrations on the planet.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kasanka-bat-migration

Medellín Cartel founder Pablo Escobar built himself a sort of Jurassic Park-meets-Disney World resort with drug money. He called it Hacienda Nápoles. Now it’s overrun by Hippos.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hacienda-napoles

Thompson’s Ice House in Bristol, Maine is one of the only places in the United States where people gather every winter to take part in the age-old process of harvesting ice from a frozen pond. This “Small Town-Big Story” episode is produced in partnership with GoUSA TV.

To watch the video, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqxWG55-Mf8

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-thompson-ice-house-harvesting-museum-south-bristol-maine

Atlas contributors bring listeners stories from spooky locations they’ve visited and which continue to haunt them. 

These cakes had a particular ingredient that some believe protected them from witchery - and sparked one of the best-known witch hunts in United States history. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-are-witch-cakes

With Halloween just around the corner Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team bring you two spooky legends of The Mothman from Point Pleasant, West Virginia and a potentially ghoulish forest in the Transylvanian Region of Romania.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mothman-museum-2 and https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hoia-baciu-forest

The Finnish Museum of Natural History in Helsinki has been home to an infestation of Chilean recluse spiders for more than 50 years.

Producer Johanna Mayer visits Houdini’s grave in Queens, NY and goes searching for evidence of the great beyond. To hear another take on Spiritualism check out our earlier episode - Cassadaga with Jamie Loftus.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/houdinis-grave

The Atlas Obscura Podcast is launching a week of spooky-themed stories ahead of Halloween. We begin with Jamie Loftus’ newest podcast about Cassadaga, a small town in central Florida that is one of the last great bastions of a Victorian era religion called Spiritualism.

Check out some of Jamie’s work:

GHOST CHURCH

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ghost-church-by-jamie-loftus/id1619557591
My Year in MENSA -https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-year-in-mensa/id1492147103

And check out AO’s podcast on Lily Dale, another contemporary spiritualist community

LILY DALE

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/podcast-lily-dale-spiritualist-community

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cassadaga

The fossils of Wadi al-Hitan (Valley of the Whales) in Egypt give us a glimpse of a remarkable evolutionary history. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/wadi-al-hitan

Producer Johanna Mayer travels to Times Square in NYC,  in search of a particular sound that may sometimes go overlooked.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-times-square-hum-new-york-new-york

This memorial marks the life of a pup who sparked riots over animal rights issues in London, England. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/brown-dog-statue

This giant limestone cave outside of St. Louis, MO. is home to a combination of kitsch and world-class scenery.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/meramec-caverns

The San Diego Automotive Museum in California contains one man’s dream...of creating the ultimate road trip car. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/louie-mattars-fabulous-car

Some say this little burbling creek is “The deadliest body of water on Earth.”

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bolton-strid

In 1820 a group of Black Americans set off to make a home in Africa. They landed in Providence Island and set the stage for the development of the country Liberia.

The Burger King in Kayenta, AZ is home to a small museum dedicated to a group of Native American veterans who developed an unbreakable secret code during WWII.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/burger-king-navajo-code-talkers-display

Science communication superhero Emily Graslie shares how a pair of severed wolf heads helped her fall in love with science, about the road trip she took back to the beginning of time, and why she’s now looking for wonder in her own backyard.

Learn more about Emily Graslie (and watch her bug videos!): http://www.emilygraslie.com/

This former limestone mine in Kansas City, MO has been turned into a 55,000,000 square-foot industrial park and storage facility.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/subtropolis

A mind-tripping place where the art stands out not because of what's on  them but what's in  them. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/institute-illegal-images

Iconic musician Fela Kuti declared his home in Lagos, Nigeria, an independent state. He called it Kalakuta - and in 1977 it was invaded by the Nigerian Army. 

A map in the archives of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library in Portland, OR may be the key to finding buried treasure that has yet to be found. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/buried-treasure-portland-oregon

The history of this 150-year-old immersive painting at the Atlanta History Museum features a scheming promoter, the cast of Gone with the Wind, Atlanta’s first Black mayor,  and the voice of Darth Vader himself - and shows how our interpretations of art reflect the time in which we live.  This episode is produced in partnership with Discover Atlanta.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/atlanta-cyclorama

The Endangered Wolf Center in Eureka, Missouri was founded by zoologist and wildlife TV host Marlin Perkins and was home to an extraordinary wolf who gives us hope for the future of wolf survival. 

A listener takes us to a town on the edge of the longest undefended border in the world.

US-Canada border regulations have been updated since this episode first aired: https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/services/covid/menu-eng.html

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/uscanada-border-slash

For more than 40 years Selma Miriam and Noel Furie have maintained the Bloodroot Feminist Vegetarian Restaurant and Bookstore as a place where women from all over the world can gather, share ideas, and share meals.

Visit Bloodroot: https://www.bloodroot.com/about

Learn more about the Feminist Restaurant Project: http://www.thefeministrestaurantproject.com/

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bloodroot-feminist-vegetarian-restaurant

Oyotunji is an African Village with real homes and real community founded in the 1970s and located in the US - just an hour south of Charleston, South Carolina. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/against-the-odds-a-40year-old-west-african-village-in-south-carolina-has-thrived

The 1980s birthed a gleaming creature that spread its wings of scrap wood and glass over the intersection of two iconic Brooklyn, NY neighborhoods for thirty years. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/broken-angel

Steve and Amy Hartbauer have turned their home in residential Denver, CO into a massive mosaic and decade’s long expression of inner inspiration. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/enchanted-hart-haus

An Indian village is home to one of the world’s oldest and greatest ornithological mysteries.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/jatinga-bird-suicide

Luz Flemming explores the home where he grew up, Libre - one of the longest lasting intentional communities still exists.

Green Bank, West Virginia is free of wifi and cell signals due to the massive telescope nearby that requires radio silence.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/town-for-wi-fi-refugees

Today, a sampling of listener-submitted stories of summer adventures from the wild, strange and wonderful world in which we live. 

Forty-two school buses have been buried in Horning’s Mills, Ontario - covered in concrete, they’re house up to 500 people in case of nuclear fallout. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ark-two-shelter

This ancient temple complex in Northern Lebanon is one of the most well-preserved Roman ruins on earth, and one of the most overlooked. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/baalbek-trilithon

One of the world’s tallest waterfalls is nestled In Northwestern Peru, right where the Amazon rainforest crashes into the Andes Mountains.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gocta

This ranch in Sanger, Texas trains people in jousting and sword-fighting with the goal of making them knights of the highest order - for the Medieval Times dinner theater chain. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/behind-the-scenes-at-medieval-times-where-knights-battle-and-pepsi-is-plentiful

Whiting Writer’s Award, Best Literary Criticism award winner, and author of several critically-praised books, Lucy Sante speaks with host Dylan Thuras about digging into place and how our relationship to places can shape our identities. 

To check out Lucy Sante’s work, please visit: 

https://lucysante.com/

Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team are on a mission to grow the Atlas community and include more wonderful and curious locations from Africa, Asia and South America.  Two recent entries that caught their eyes include a market in Medeber, Eritrea and a women’s center in Kigali, Rwanda. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/medeber-market

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/nyamirambo-womens-center

On the outskirts of Oslo, Norway, there’s a mausoleum some say is the city’s “best kept secret.” It’s the underrated masterpiece of a mostly unknown artist -- an artist who was overshadowed his whole life by his more successful brother.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/emanuel-vigeland-museum

Like a lot of historic neighborhoods, the sidewalks of Fairhaven in Bellingham, WA, are studded with small plaques commemorating local history. But unlike other neighborhoods, the markers in Fairhaven are a little bit darker, and a little bit weirder.
Thanks to Bellinghistory with the Good Time Girls. Learn more about their walking tours here: https://bellinghistory.com/

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/harris-avenue-fairhaven

At one time thirty thousand Africans per year were forced through Elmina Castle in Ghana, before they were taken across the world as part of the trans-atlantic slave trade.

Built on a tiny island in Antarctica, the “loneliest post office in the world” got its start as a top-secret British military outpost during World War II—and became beloved by stamp collectors around the world.

Learn more about the British Antarctic Survey: bas.ac.uk

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/loneliest-post-office-antarctica
 

These Argentinian parrots have made an unlikely home in a Brooklyn, NY cemetery. 

A disaster in a seaside town got locals wondering about government conspiracies, weather control, and if human beings could actually, truly for real, make it rain.

The Coney Island Mermaid Parade isn’t linked to a holiday, religious affiliation or corporate celebration – it’s a celebration of having fun and getting a little weird.   

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/coney-island-mermaid-parade

In 1954, two groups of boys thought they were going to summer camp. But they’d been recruited for a different kind of summer experience.

This garden in Lynchburg, Virginia is the key to unlocking the writing and mind of Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer.

In Mitchell, South Dakota there stands a massive building covered in murals that are made completely from… corn! 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-corn-palace-mitchell-south-dakota

On the tiny Kinmen Island, a bow-tie-shape strip of land between China and Taiwan, sits a giant weaponized wall of sound that still stands--and still broadcasts--today.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/beishan-broadcast-station-art

This elaborate architecture throughout Iran served a very unique purpose - gathering pigeon guano. 

Take a virtual tour of a Pigeon Tower: https://ati3d.com/virtual_tour/pigeon

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pigeon-towers-iran

Atlas Obscura's Gemma Tarlach shares what it's like to step inside a relic from the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, and to find traces of a famous lost party of explorers.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/discovery-hut

This collection of ceramic eggs records the personal makeup designs of clowns around the world - and to some extent a clowning code of conduct. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/clown-egg-register

Today we hear from an Atlas Obscura user who, when he isn’t aboard an icebreaking warship for the Canadian Navy, spends weeks at a time road-tripping with his dog.

Check out Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/puppercycle/?hl=en

A graveyard in the “Granite Capital of the World” pays tribute to stone cutters and artisans who are buried amongst the sculptures they created.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hope-cemetery

Atlas Obscura reporter Sarah Durn ventures deep into the Louisiana swamp in search of the legendary monster that prowls it.

Learn more about Jessica’s Honey Island Swamp & Kayak Tours:  https://www.honeyislandkayaktours.com/

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/honey-island-swamp

Civil war in Sierra Leone brought this beautiful island to the brink of destruction - now it’s making its comeback.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tiwai-island

Matt Farley has written dozens of songs about cities and towns across the United States. Why?

Trailblazing computer scientist Grace Hopper shaped the way people use and talk about computers. Her actual computer bug is preserved at the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/grace-hoppers-bug

Gigantic pieces of the United States Capitol rest in Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC - waiting for anyone willing to step off the beaten path. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-capitol-stones-washington-dc

Every Sunday, there’s a binational church service at Friendship Park, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border. We sent two reporters to attend the church service — one on the U.S. side and one in Mexico — to learn more about how changes to the U.S. border have affected the park and the community.

Learn more about The Border Church: https://www.friendshippark.org/borderchurch

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/friendship-park

The world’s largest random, assorted key collection located outside Denver, CO, was inspired by a literary infatuation and includes keys to danger and memory.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/baldpate-inn-key-collection

MacArthur Genius Grant winner, artist, and experimental geographer Trevor Paglen and host Dylan Thuras discuss documenting government surveillance, AI, and place.  

Las Vegas, Nevada was once the preferred tourist destination for watching weapons of mass destruction  explode.   

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/national-atomic-testing-museum

The world's oldest rose is so tough it survived being bombed in World War II. 

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-thousand-year-rose-hildesheim-germany

Catoosa, Oklahoma is the site of a massive landlocked whale - and possibly the greatest anniversary gift ever

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/catoosa-whale

These miniature mansions and luxurious homes were built for the feathered residents of Istanbul. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ottoman-bird-palaces

Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team bring listeners two stories where sculpture meets the depths: The Sunken Crosses of Malpique and a harbor in Odense, Denmark. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sunken-crosses-of-malpique

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hans-christian-andersen-odense-harbour

Producer Abbey Perreault gives listeners an introduction to the long-unknown creator behind the widely known concrete fauna of Mexico’s urban playscapes. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/concrete-animal-cemetery

A listener in Lawrence, Kansas takes us on his journey of discovering the secrets of his hometown.

This archaeological landscape in Phonsavan, Laos is one of the most mysterious, important, and dangerous prehistoric sites in Southeast Asia. 

Learn more about the Plain of Jars Archaeological Research Project: https://plain-of-jars.org/

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/plain-of-jars

The Smallest Mollusk Museum in New York City is part of a fleet of tiny museums that might just have a big impact on the world.

This mechanical boy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was a mystery - until it began to write. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/maillardets-automaton

Space Cowboy Buck Atom stands watch over an old gas station in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a link to the glory of Route 66’s Muffler Men. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/buck-atom

We're sharing with you a new Witness Docs show: Welcome to Provincetown, a documentary podcast in the vein of reality television about a small town on the Cape with a strong LGBTQIA+ history.  Warning: The episode does contain explicit language. Find out more about Welcome to Provincetown and other Witness shows at: https://www.witnesspodcasts.com/

The voice announcement at Embankment Station in London is unlike any other announcement on the Tube.  

The hunt to memorialize Rhode Island’s founder created one of the state’s strangest and most enduring myths.

To Learn more about Roger Williams relationship to local indigenous tribes: http://library.providence.edu/encompass/narragansett-history/secondary-sources/the-landing-of-roger-williams/

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/roger-williams-root

Legends and troubled history lay beneath Lake Lanier in Forsyth County.

The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea has become an accidental bird sanctuary for one of the world’s most endangered crane species.

Learn more about the International Crane Foundation: savingcranes.org

Occasionally the podcast team requests messages about the strange and wondrous places you experience. These are some of first responses we received last year regarding our request to hear of wonders from listeners' backyards. Stories feature the world’s largest tin soldier, the home of the first public beach and a phone connecting us to people we’ve lost.
 

Tell us about a wonder in your backyard. Record a voice memo and send it to hello@atlasobscura.com or leave a voicemail at 315-992-7902.

Producer Baudelaire Ceus brings listeners to Accra, Ghana and a gigantic public square dedicated to Ghanaian independence.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/black-star-square

This small town in Ecuador was thought to hold the fountain of youth and drew the curiosity of scientists and wellness practitioners alike. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/vilcabamba

Sets from the original 1960’s Star Trek have been recreated for fans and actors alike in Ticonderoga, New York.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/star-trek-original-series-set-tour

Syren Nagakyrie set out to make a whole world of incredible beauty more available to millions of people with disabilities - starting with the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

Learn more about Disabled Hikers: https://disabledhikers.com/
Olympic National Park Trail Guides: https://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/physical-mobility-accessibility.htm

An abandoned Russian mining village is literally frozen in time.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pyramiden  

Congo Square in New Orleans is the heart of where African drumming found its way into American music and the birth of Jazz.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/congo-square

Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team bring listeners stories of two of their favorite places that can be found in the Atlas - on in Washington, DC and one in Scotland.

Amir Siraj was a sophomore in college when he discovered what may be the first documented interstellar object to hit earth. 

Anna Swan had an adventurous life before settling in Seville, Ohio and building a house large enough to fit her large life. 

A rapidly disappearing glacier holds the key to a forgotten species, a century-old entomological mystery,  and… an opera. This episode previously aired in 2021. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/grasshopper-glacier

This paddleboat gave some Black children a place to learn even when they were denied formal education on land.   

This meteorite is one of the very few on record to have hit a human being. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-hodges-meteorite-tuscaloosa-alabama

A public health crisis plagued the Midwest until a simple solution was introduced to a ubiquitous cooking ingredient.

A number of tiny, mysterious doors scattered throughout Atlanta, Georgia ask viewers to imagine what might be found on the other side.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tiny-doors-atl

Join host Dylan Thuras and producer Harry Huggins as they visit the unruly architecture of The House on the Rock - one of the inspirations for Atlas Obscura. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/house-rock

The strange story of Catalina Island’s herd of bison, and the harrowing story of producer Sarah Wyman’s encounter with these intimidating residents.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/catalina-island-bison-herd

Eight rare vehicles at the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky vanish, thanks to a massive sinkhole.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/national-corvette-museum-sinkhole

All summer we’ve been asking you to send us your summer travel stories. In this installment we hear a listener’s tale of a theological dispute that became a real money-maker known to some as “Old Hoaxy.” 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cardiff-giant

Producer Baudelaire Ceus travels to Leimert Park, a unique neighborhood in Los Angeles characterized by its historical relationship to Black liberation.

An audio postcard from the desert of Badain Jaran in China, home of the Booming Dunes, and possibly the coolest sand sounds you’ve ever heard.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/booming-dunes-badain-desert

This sculpture in Spokane, WA was created by a"welding nun" decades ago. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/garbage-eating-goat-statue

For a brief period the small frontier city of Sioux Falls, South Dakota drew in socialites and celebrities who were desperate to end their marriages.

For more stories from the Divorce Colony, check out April White's book: The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier.

https://thedivorcecolony.com/

There are two miles of abandoned tunnels beneath the streets of Cincinnati, OH. A relic of an attempt to establish underground transportation in the city. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-cincinnati-subway-cincinnati-ohio

Atlas Obscura listeners share stories from places they love so much they keep going back.

In the busy, traffic-packed capital city of Bolivia, we meet the zebras who keep the streets of La Paz safe for its citizens.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/la-paz-cebritas

Atlas Obscura’s resident food and death reporter Sam O’Brien takes us to Smithfield, Virginia, where we meet a 120-year-old ham, and the people who love it.

Learn more about the Isle of Wight County Museum: www.historicisleofwight.com/

Let Sam eat the ham: hamtruther.com

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/worlds-oldest-edible-ham

This social and architectural experiment in Tokyo, Japan was once the leading building in a movement attempting to pair construction and biological growth. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/nakagin-capsule-tower

The City Hall in Lincoln, Illinois has an unusual architectural appendage with a curious history. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/phone-booth-on-a-roof

The founders of this prison in Philadelphia, PA aimed to revolutionize incarceration for the better - and unintentionally created new horrors.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/eastern-state-penitentiary

We take you to East Detroit, where an artist transformed a largely abandoned street into an immersive, living museum -- which grew into something even bigger.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/heidelberg-project

San Juan Sound is an iconic studio where musicians, engineers, and quite possibly a music-loving ghost carry on the Island’s musical traditions, which date back hundreds of years. This episode is produced in partnership with Discover Puerto Rico. 

Dylan Thuras braves one of New York’s most touristy sites to bring listeners the lesser-known history of Madame Tussaud’s origins.

Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team bring listeners the stories of two mummies - one preserved in a bog in Jutland, Denmark and another at a monastery in Palermo, Italy.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/haraldsk-r-woman

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/capuchin-monastery

An orchard of metal poles sits on a hill overlooking Lake Washington. And when the wind blows, this musical sculpture "sings the world into existence" with its unique sound.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/a-sound-garden

In the depths of Northeastern India, centuries-old bridges are not built, they are grown.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/root-bridges-cherrapungee

The pigs once plopped on an uninhabited Auckland Island known for capturing castaways now play an important role in modern medical research. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-lives-on-auckland-islands

This experimental automotive replica of Stonehenge has become a symbol of the town of Alliance, Nebraska. But residents haven’t always been fans.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/carhenge

Producer Baudelaire Ceus searches for the resting place of famed author Richard Wright among the graves of other cultural icons like Gertrude Stein, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and Sadegh Hedaya.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pere-lachaise-cemetery

Niles, Illinois is home to an exact replica of Italy’s leaning tower of Pisa - only it’s half the size of the original structure.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/leaning-tower-niles

Brendan Francis Newnam, the host of the new podcast Not Lost, and Dylan Thuras discuss how getting lost is the best way to find yourself. And Brendan shares a great scene from his podcast where he and his co-host travel to the Umbrella Cover Museum on Peaks Island in Maine.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/umbrella-cover-museum

Atlas Obscura contributors take listeners to some of the places they loved so much they keep going back.

Got your own place that calls you to return again and again? Submit a voice memo to hello@atlasobscura.com

This funicular in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania used to offer coal and steel workers a respite from the smog of industry.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/monongahela-incline

Today the story of how a street lamp, a tangle with municipal government, and a love of the stars led a man to Goblin Valley, Utah a “dark sky certified” place for lovers of the night sky.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/goblin-valley-state-park

Take a trip to a hostel in Iceland to visit the country’s last Big Mac, where the burger’s existence unfolds a story about economics and national identity.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/iceland-mcdonalds

A river in the Amazon is so hot that anything that falls into it will die … but how did it get this way?

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-boiling-river-of-the-amazon-puerto-inca-peru

This garden park in Paris, France contains the ruins of a colonial exhibition from 1907.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/le-jardin-d-agronomie-tropicale

Thousands of years ago, a young woman named Ko-kwal-alwoot crouched over a set of tide pools, looked into the water, and saw a face looking back at her that wasn’t her own. Today, her descendants are still telling the story of what happened next. 

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-maiden-of-deception-pass

Learn more about the Samish Indian Nation: https://www.samishtribe.nsn.us/

Scientists in Denver, Colorado store and conduct tests on miles of ice core samples dating back hundreds of thousands of years. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/national-ice-core-lab

This underground oasis in Fresno, California is a winding maze of rooms and passageways filled with lush citrus trees. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/forestiere-underground-gardens

A grand library in Portugal has some unexpected nighttime caretakers -- tiny bats. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mafra-palace-library-bats

Noah Purifoy was a pugilistic LA artist who eventually filled a 10 acre plot of land in Joshua Tree, CA with his of-kilter art. 
 

Noah Purifoy’s Outdoor Museum: http://www.noahpurifoy.com/joshua-tree-outdoor-museum

Learn more about Dale Davis: https://dalebdavis.com/

Listen to our episode about Leimert Park: https://pod.link/1555769970/episode/1a593d4fba52c8d48fd9e62728a2a16f

Listen to our episode about the Watts Towers Art Center: https://pod.link/1555769970/episode/18849745a4259a207da75f53dfa6e657

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/noah-purifoy-s-outdoor-desert-art-museum

An underground chamber in Upton, MA puzzled some New Englanders while others long knew its ancient origins.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/upton-chamber

Thousands of masks from the former Kingdom of Benin are spread throughout museums across the world.  Is that where they belong?

Hashima Island in Japan was once the most densely populated place on Earth. Until – almost overnight – everyone left. 

Typically, space junk ends up deep in the Pacific Ocean. This is the story of when it plunged back to earth … onto a street in small-town Wisconsin.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sputnik-crash-site

This forest in Oslo, Norway will provide the trees for paper as part of a century long art project featuring famed contemporary authors. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/forest-of-the-future-library

The Last Tenement in Boston’s old West End has come to represent everything that can go wrong with urban planning.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-last-tenement

These documents highlight the intellectual legacy of an ancient civilization based in Timbuktu, Mali.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/timbuktu-manuscripts-mali

Writer and island-hopper Anna Marlis Burgard takes us on a tour of three of the 135 strange, incredible, and wondrous islands she’s explored in the United States.

Learn more about Anna's Islands of America adventure: http://www.islandsofamerica.com/

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-united-islands-of-america

CORRECTION: A previous version of this episode misidentified the name of the Skete on Nelson Island. It is the St. Nilus Skete, not the St. Nicholas Skete.

We dig into the tales of TWO whales washing ashore along the southeastern coast of Brazil. And learn how one became a scientific marvel and the other, a local landmark.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ubatuba-whale

This island between Missouri and Illinois was a preferred meeting place for duels to the death in the early 1900’s.

Famed Jazz musician Louis Armstrong’s house in Corona, Queens in New York is now a museum preserving his legacy.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/louis-armstrong-house

A community of kitschy lawn gnomes have taken over an Australian roundabout.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gnomesville

Science writer Peter Brannen takes listeners on a tour of the world’s five major mass extinctions. 

We venture out to Long Island, not for the beautiful beaches, or an Islanders game, or to hang with Billy Joel. We're here to explore the fraught history of a gigantic, ominous sea foam-green nuclear power plant.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/shoreham-nuclear-power-plant

Last month we asked listeners about your encounters with the unknown, and boy did you all deliver! This presents two stories we received from listeners Maggie and Melissa.

The only remaining operational Rotary Jail, found in Crawfordsville, Indiana, shows visitors how inmates were once locked within the building’s walls. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/rotary-jail-museum

One of the United State’s most famous pieces of self-built architecture consists of seventeen interconnected towers that rise like inverted ice cream cones from the ground - the tallest reaching over 100 feet. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/watts-towers

This museum built of memories in Istanbul, Turkey was created in a book before it was created in real life. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-museum-of-innocence-2-istanbul-turkey

Host Dylan Thuras confronts the good and the bad ways travel changes as you move through different life stages. At the end of the episode stay tuned for a conversation with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Lake Natron in Monduli, Tanzania can leave welts and burns on human skin but is a bit of a paradise for another animal.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lake-natron

Learn how a group of indegnous women in Puerto Misahuallî, Ecuador fought “machismo” to become entrepreneurs and build an eco-friendly getaway. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sinchi-warmi-amazon-lodge

This treacherous path cut through a stretch of the Pyrenees Mountains in France may have played a key part in one nation’s quest for international influence and possibly helped foment a revolution.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/chemin-de-la-mature

Explore a modern landmark in a medieval city. The Corpus Clock in Cambridge, England honors both the past and future of telling time.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/corpus-clock-corpus-christi-chronophage

Atlas Obscura presents Gastropod’s episode “Buried Treasure: Weeds, Seeds, and Zombies.” Gastropod Hosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley examine a scientific quest – and one of the world’s longest running experiments - to see how long weeds can survive.  They find zombie seeds, a treasure hunt, and more. 

Gastropod: https://gastropod.com/buried-treasure-weeds-seeds-and-zombies/

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/dr-beals-seed-viability-experiment

As part of Women’s History Month Atlas Obscura will be sharing some episodes from the archive including this tour of the world's oldest living things - with artist Rachel Sussman who’s been documenting these ancient things for 10 years.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/womens-history-month
READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/lists/worlds-oldest-living-things

 As part of Women’s History Month Atlas Obscura will be sharing some episodes from the archive including this conversation with Jessica Oreck who has spent the last 30 years collecting odd and forgotten objects. Now, they’re all beautifully curated and on display in the Office of Collecting and Design in Las Vegas.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/womens-history-month
Follow the Office of Collecting and Design on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/office.of.collecting/?hl=en
READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/office-of-collecting-and-design

 As part of Women’s History Month Atlas Obscura will be sharing some episodes from the archive including this story of the women who stepped up to produce thousands of guitars during World War II, only to be written out of the history.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/womens-history-month
Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-old-gibson-guitar-factory-kalamazoo-michigan

As part of Women’s History Month Atlas Obscura will be sharing some episodes from the archive including this story of a national park in Southwest Uganda that is home to nearly half the world’s population of endangered mountain gorillas. They and the local community rely on each other to survive.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/womens-history-month
Learn how to help the Bwindi Mountain Gorillas: https://ctph.org/
Sound of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and the mountain gorillas was recorded by Nick Penny. To see more of Nick’s work, visit: https://www.nickpennyphotography.com/
READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bwindi-impenetrable-forest

As part of Women’s History Month Atlas Obscura will be sharing some episodes from the archive including this story of how herdswomen in Northern Sweden have lured cows home with haunting melodies.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/womens-history-month
 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-kulning

Criminal and This is Love host Phoebe Judge brings us to the ancient ruins of Torre Argentina in Rome - the site of Julius Caesar’s assasination,  which also happens to double as an enormous sanctuary for cats.  
READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/torre-argentina-roman-cat-sanctuary

Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team bring listeners two Atlas Obscura locations developed as the result of a life-changing decision - to embark on a massive art project and live.
READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hercules

Travel to the world’s oldest intact pyramid in Egypt - and learn about the genius who also influenced the fields of architecture, astronomy, and medicine.
READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pyramid-of-djoser

AirBnB founder and CEO Brian Chesky discusses how design experiences, like those found at the Edna Laurence Nature Lab, shape his work.

As part of Women’s History Month Atlas Obscura will be sharing some episodes from the archive including this museum’s buzzing collection which honors vibrator history.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/womens-history-month

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/good-vibrations-antique-vibrator-museum

A giant abandoned dam in Sudbury, Massachusetts, marks the inglorious failure of America’s champion of industry to triumph over nature. 
READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/fords-folly-water-dam

Farmers in Yorkshire, England take years to coax their rhubarb plants into a world-renowned delicacy using a century-old technique.
READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/rhubarb-triangle
 

The Haitian Monument in Savannah, Georgia was built to commemorate the Haitian soldiers who came to the rescue of Patriots fighting in the Revolutionary War.

Eight thousand years ago, this land’s first inhabitants built a village around a sacred spring. And today, in what is now Los Angeles, CA, their descendants still work to protect the site.

Learn more about the Gabrielino-Tongva Springs Foundation: http://gabrielinosprings.com/wpsite/

As part of Women’s History Month Atlas Obscura will be sharing some episodes from the archive starting with the story of how a 30-foot-tall mural on the side of a house in West Oakland is teaching an often left out part of the history of the Black Panther Party-- the women who fueled the movement. 

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/black-lives-matter-murals

Learn more about this project and sign up for a tour of the mini-museum here:  http://www.westoaklandmuralproject.org

Wausau, Florida’s monument and annual festival celebrate this furry critter’s contributions to the community. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/possum-monument

The Elephant Clock, a replica of an ancient invention, sits in Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai, surrounded by stores like The Gap, and H&M. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/elephant-clock

The Hotel Theresa in Harlem, New York played a pivotal role in the influential neighborhood’s cultural identity. 

Gigantic pieces of the United States Capitol rest in Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC - waiting for anyone willing to step off the beaten path. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-capitol-stones-washington-dc

Members of the Atlas Obscura team share their experiences with unknown phenomena.  

The grooves cut in this road outside Lancaster, CA play the finale of the William Tell Overture. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/civic-musical-road

St. Brigid’s well in Clare, Ireland is site integral to the story of how a pagan goddess became a Christian saint. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/st-brigid-s-well

This office, established by the founder of the American Red Cross, changed the lives of thousands of Civil War soldiers and their families.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/clara-barton-missing-soldiers-office-museum

This folk art dinosaur was almost pushed to extinction due to lack of a building permit. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/vermontasaurus

Lake Karachay in Ozersk, Russia is the site of a former secret Soviet Union nuclear facility - that’s inspired art despite the little that’s publicly known of the site.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lake-karachay

Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team bring listeners two Atlas Obscura locations created by people compelled by visions - the East West Peace Church in Munich, Germany, and the Source du Nil in Musenyi, Burundi.

Lincoln, Massachusetts is home to one of the strangest pony herds you’re likely to see - and it’s been growing for more than a decade. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ponyhenge

Producer Johanna Mayer takes a trip to the last Sears in New York City, a Brooklyn landmark, with two people whose lives were shaped by the department store. 

Host Dylan Thuras speaks with Dave Seminara, author of the book Mad Travelers, about extreme travel and the people who love it.  

The Panorama of the City of New York a star of the 1964 World’s Fair where it competed for attention with new technology like touch-tone phones and the Ford Mustang. The artwork now lives in the Queens Museum.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/a-panorama-view-of-new-york-city

Nicola Twilley takes us to suburban London, where a 1000 square meter greenhouse is all that stands between us and the chocapocalypse. 

Listen to the Malta Lazaretto episode: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/podcast-quarantine-at-malta-lazaretto

Listen to Gastropod: https://gastropod.com/

Read Until Proven Safe: 

https://untilprovensafe.com/

Join host Dylan Thuras, a satellite scientist, and a ship captain in search of gigantic swaths of bioluminescence that can radiate up from the surface of the sea over thousands of square miles. 

Step inside the Theater of Electricity in Boston and learn about the World’s Largest Air-Insulated Van Der Graaf Generator.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/worlds-largest-airinsulated-van-de-graaff-generator

Producer Baudelaire Ceus travels to Leimert Park, a unique neighborhood in Los Angeles characterized by its historical relationship to Black liberation.

Writers Geoff Manaugh and Nicky Twilley take us inside a crumbling, centuries-old quarantine facility, and we explore the history and future of quarantine.

Read “Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine”: https://untilprovensafe.com/

Learn more about the Malta Lazzaretto: https://www.midimalta.com/en/the-lazaretto

Boulders Beach in Simon’s Town in South Africa, is a destination where sunbathers, tourists, and penguins share both the beach and parts of the town.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/boulders-beach-penguin-sanctuary

Monkey Island, Cayo, Santigo is an island off the coast of Puerto Rico where more than 1500 imported monkeys have lived and been studied by researchers for decades. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cayo-santiago-monkey-island

The Citadelle Laferriere in Haiti was built to ensure the island remained free after Haitians defeated French colonizers.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/citadelle-laferriere

Boston’s Old North Church was cemented in American History by Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride. But now the ringers who play these bells in a centuries-old style are adding a twist.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bell-ringing-chamber-at-old-north-church

In 1993 Bob Cassilly began to turn an old shoe factory into a massive interactive museum that now includes a plane fuselage, caves, and a ten-story slide. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/city-museum

Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team find beauty and fascination at the sites of warped and bizarre statues in Nuremberg, Germany and Urgnano, Italy.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/der-hase

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-grotesques-of-urgnano-castle

The Musk Ox Farm in Palmer, Alaska aims to domesticate a species that used to roam the earth at the same time as the sabretooth and wooly mammoth.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/musk-ox-farm

The Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw, Poland is the final resting place of famed composer Frédéric Chopin’s heart - smuggled there by Chopin’s sister after his death. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/chopin-s-heart

Razzouk Tattoo in Jerusalem has given Christian pilgrims permanent souvenirs from their travel for centuries.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/razzouk-ink

Visit the ruins of an ancient economic powerhouse’s capital city, Great Zimbabwe in the nation of Zimbabwe and learn how a colonial empire was determined to rewrite its story.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/great-zimbabwe

Reporter Sam O’Brien takes us to Lily Dale, the world’s largest surviving community of spiritualists, where she learns (even if you don’t believe in ghosts) there’s more than one way to connect with the dead.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lily-dale-spiritualist-community

There’s an everlasting lightning storm in Northwestern Venezuela that appears in the night sky nearly every night.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/relampago-del-catatumbo

A massive 19th-century reservoir under the city of Copenhagen has been repurposed as a contemporary art cave. We venture inside to learn more about its history, and bask in the incredible acoustics of the space.

Visit Cisternerne and Frederiksberg Museerne: https://frederiksbergmuseerne.dk/da/

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cisternerne

Reporter Eric Grundhauser recounts a memorable visit to an unusual museum in Iceland, where he explored the ancient lore of the occult, learned how to steal milk from his neighbors, and laid his eyes upon a pair of pants… made of human flesh.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-museum-of-icelandic-sorcery-witchcraft-holmavik-iceland

The largest theater pipe organ in the world lives in a restaurant in Mesa, Arizona. Phenomenal musicians play requests while diners feast on pizza.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/organ-stop-pizza

The Alnwick Poison Garden in England is a place where stopping and smelling the flowers could actually kill you. The garden is dedicated entirely to plants that are narcotic or deadly.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/alnwick-poison-garden

The Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama bills itself as “the nation’s only retailer of lost luggage.” If you’ve ever lost a bag during air travel, it probably wound up there - along with many other treasures and oddities. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/unclaimed-baggage-center

John Milkovisch spent 18 years covering his Houston home in beer cans. The house has been preserved for visitors since John’s death in 1988. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/beer-can-house

Resident food and death correspondent, Sam O’Brien, returns to tell us about a grave with a nut roll recipe engraved on it and the layered and touching story behind the treat.

Know of a recipe grave in your local cemetery? Email us at hello@atlasobscura.com, and include “Recipe Graves” in the subject line.

A national park in Southwest Uganda is home to nearly half the world’s population of endangered mountain gorillas. They and the local community rely on each other to survive.

Learn how to help the Bwindi Mountain Gorillas: https://ctph.org/

Sound of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and the mountain gorillas was recorded by Nick Penny. To see more of Nick’s work, visit:

https://www.nickpennyphotography.com/

https://www.instagram.com/nickp.pics/

Read more in the Atlas: 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bwindi-impenetrable-forest

 In this two-part series, we venture towards frozen graves tied to an infamous Arctic expedition. We follow two groups of adventurers, separated by more than 170 years, and play witness to the disasters that befell them all.

Read More in the Atlas:https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/graves-of-beechey-island

In this two-part series, we venture towards frozen graves tied to an infamous Arctic expedition. We follow two groups of adventurers, separated by more than 170 years, and play witness to the disasters that befell them all.

Read More in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/graves-of-beechey-island

After a profound show of devotion for his master, a dog becomes the symbol of loyalty for an entire nation. 

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hachiko-hachi-shibuya-station

The crumbled ruins of the world’s largest flour mill became one of Minneapolis’ most prominent graffiti-writing locations, and later a museum.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mill-city-museum-site-great-mill-disaster

In Kongthong, India, every person’s name is a unique song, composed by their mother within a week of their birth, part of a centuries-old tradition.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/where-indian-villagers-have-musical-names

A listener’s voicemail sent us searching for the story of a very special -- and giant -- oak tree Peoria, Illinois, and the family of arborists who cared for it. 

The oldest (maybe) swimming pool in Iceland is a stunning oasis built into the side of a lush hill.  

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/seljavallalaug

This old cement mine in Rosendale, New York, has been used as everything from a mushroom farm to a recording studio.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/widow-jane-mine

The Atlas production team would like to share some of their favorite holiday places as 2021 comes to a close.  This episode will be followed by a series of re-listen episodes from the past year, published over the next two weeks. 

In 2006 a massive haul of Doritos was shipwrecked on Hatteras Island on the Outer Banks, leaving its mark on the town forever.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/shipwrecked-doritos

Professional Adventurer George Kourounis knew he needed to visit the Cave of the Crystals, located nearly a 1000 feet beneath northern Mexico, the moment he saw a photograph from inside the cave.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/giant-crystals-naica