The Atlas Obscura Podcast

A special journey told in two parts, beginning with the world’s largest conveyor belt in the Western Sahara and ending on your dinner plate.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-world-s-longest-conveyor-belt-system-bou-craa-morocco

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Today we flip the focus from the memorable places we visit to the memorable people we meet on our adventures.

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A listener takes us to a town on the edge of the longest undefended border in the world. Our theme and end credit music was composed by Sam Tyndall.

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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

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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

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A Canadian community comes together to save its slithering neighbors... the largest single concentration of harmless garter snakes in the world

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/narcisse-snake-dens

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Humans have a primal need to honor their dead. We take you on a tour of our favorite communist mummies.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/atlas-obscura-s-guide-to-communist-mummies

Our theme and end credit music was composed by Sam Tyndall.

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Giant busts of U.S. presidents are slowly crumbling in a field in Virginia.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/president-heads

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A spectacular art installation is hidden inside an all-luxury shopping mall in Las Vegas.

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

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Six tiny houses built for working class people form the largest intentional cluster of Wright homes anywhere.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/frank-lloyd-wrights-burnham-block

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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

Our theme and end credit music was composed by Sam Tyndall.

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A rapidly disappearing glacier holds the key to a forgotten species, a century-old entomological mystery, and… an opera.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/grasshopper-glacier

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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

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An abandoned Russian mining village is literally frozen in time.

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

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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

Our theme and end credit music was composed by Sam Tyndall.

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For centuries, herdswomen in Northern Sweden have lured cows home with haunting melodies.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-kulning

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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

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How an English party animal turned 1620s-era Quincy, Massachusetts into the world’s least likely party town.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/americas-first-banned-book

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A South Carolina ghost story is a harbinger of hurricanes and a window into history.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/south-carolina-hurricane-ghost

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Visitors leave bananas on the grave of “America’s First Lady of Space,” an early astronaut whose incredible life was forgotten.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-grave-of-miss-baker-huntsville-alabama

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The world’s biggest treehouse was inspired by a message from God.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ministers-tree-house

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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

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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.

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A listener from Riverside, California, reminisces about his hometown's history as a star-studded WWII camp.

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A basement museum in Somerville, Massachusetts is dedicated to collecting awful artwork. But what makes art bad, really?

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/museum-bad-art

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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

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A gigantic crater of fire in Turkmenistan has been burning for nearly fifty years.

Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-gates-of-hell-turkmenistan

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Coming March 15: A new audio guide to the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

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