The Atlas Obscura Podcast
An audio guide to the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places. Co-founder Dylan Thuras and a neighborhood of Atlas Obscura reporters explore a new wonder every day, Monday through Thursday. In under 15 minutes, they’ll take you to an incredible place, and along the way, you’ll meet some fascinating people and hear their stories. Our theme and end credit music is composed by Sam Tyndall.
Episodes
We visit southern Benin to hear the story of the Temple of Pythons and clear up some misconceptions about one of the world's most misunderstood spiritual systems.
READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-temple-of-pythons-ouidah-benin
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 ...
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