The Atlas Obscura Podcast

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.  

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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. 

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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. 

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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

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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. 

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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

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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

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 

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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

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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.  

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

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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. 

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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