The Atlas Obscura Podcast

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

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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

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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.

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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/

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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. 

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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/
 

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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.

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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.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.  

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.   

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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#

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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/

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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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.

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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

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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/

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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

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

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