The Atlas Obscura Podcast

1000 Places with Caroline Mazel-Carlton

12 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Caroline Mazel-Carlton has visited over 1000 Atlas Obscura Places. But the project was about more than ticking off a list – she says it helped save...

Man’s Best (Stiff) Friends (Classic)

09 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team bring us two charming stories of some very special canines who have been (literally) pres...

Finding Freedom in the Bay Area

08 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In July of 2024, Greg Eskridge was released from San Quentin Rehabilitation Center after 30 years in prison. We hear what it’s like to see the Bay A...

100 Years of Motels

07 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On December 12, 1925, the first motel in America opened its doors. It had Spanish Mission style architecture, a red roof, and an orange tree outside e...

In Search of the Ghosts of the Forests

06 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In California, a rare specimen of sequoia produces ghostly white leaves. Reporter Alexa Lim ventures into the forest to get a look at albino redwoods....

Our New Year’s Travel Resolutions

05 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The staff of Atlas Obscura share their new year’s travel resolutions – the things we want to change about how we travel or see the world this year...

Newtown Creek Nature Walk (Classic)

02 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Sea View Hospital and the Black Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis

01 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

 Today, Sea View Hospital on Staten Island is largely abandoned. But it was here, in this forgotten place, staffed by people who were shunned and seg...

2025 in Review: Our Travel Reflections

31 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The new year is just around the corner. And the Atlas Obscura staff look back on the lessons and experiences they learned this year throughout their t...

The Pompeii of Nebraska

30 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1971, a paleontologist discovered an animal graveyard in northeastern Nebraska. It was crammed with species that lived in North America millions of...

Minneapolis’s Giant Pencil

29 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When a 180-year old bur oak tree collapsed during a rainstorm, a couple in Minnesota made a new life for it. Plus: How many U.S. states have you visi...

Maine’s Burning Blueberry Fields (Classic)

26 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Travel to Penobscot, Maine, where one farmer maintains the tradition of burning his crop each year to rejuvenate it the next. Hosted by Simplecast, an...

Maine Week: All Lighthouses Have Ghosts (Classic)

25 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Over the course of its 200 year history, the lighthouse on Wood Island in Maine has been home to a celebrity dog, a grisly murder, some mischievous gh...

Maine Week: Chef Jason and The Well

24 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A couple decades ago, Jason Williams was working at a local restaurant in Portland, Maine. One day he was driving around to farmers markets looking fo...

Maine Week: Hanako Nakazato’s Pottery Studio

23 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Since settling down in the small town of Union, Maine, the Japanese-born ceramicist Hanako Nakazato has shaped her pieces around her endlessly surpris...

Maine Week: Captain Becky’s Wind-Powered Boat

22 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We meet Becky Sigwright, who captains a wind-powered boat that’s been sailing around Maine since before the invention of the telephone. It's Maine ...

We want to hear your travel resolutions!

20 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We're working on a listener-powered episode about travel resolutions and we want to hear yours!What are you hoping to change about the way you travel ...

12 Days of Wonder: World's Quietest Room

19 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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

12 Days of Wonder: The Unclaimed Baggage Center

18 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama bills itself as “the nation’s only retailer of lost luggage.” If you’ve ever lost a bag during air tra...

12 Days of Wonder: Puffin Patrol

17 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 summ...

12 Days of Wonder: Slowjamistan

16 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We get out our passports and visit The Republic of Slowjamastan, a nation built on good vibes, good music and a dream of eliminating one very popular ...

12 Days of Wonder: Chacaltaya

15 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Hear from the caretakers of a ghost town in Bolivia that was once the world's highest ski resort.  READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura....

12 Days of Wonder: Luciadagen

12 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 celeb...

12 Days of Wonder: World's Loneliest Tree

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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

12 Days of Wonder: Return to Recipe Graves

10 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Gastro Obscura’s senior editor Sam O’Brien returns to the podcast to go deeper with us on her strange beat – recipes etched into gravestones. We...

12 Days of Wonder: Hot Ale Flip

09 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We visit the taverns of colonial America to take a frothy sip of the hot ale flip and how it helped pave the way for contemporary mixology.  Hosted b...

12 Days of Wonder: Empress Anna's Ice Palace

08 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 s...

12 Days of Wonder: Toy Story

05 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Mexico City is known for its museum and art scene. The collection at El Museo del Juguete Antiguo – The Antique Toy Museum – encourages visitors t...

12 Days of Wonder: Tumbleweed Christmas Tree

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is how you do Christmas in the desert. Every year, the city of Chandler, Arizona creates a Christmas Tree made entirely of the diaspore of this W...

The Last Seltzer Factory in Brooklyn

03 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Seltzer has been around for thousands of years. And one factory in Brooklyn, New York called the Brooklyn Seltzer Boys is preserving the history of th...

Fasnacht

02 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Around 60 people live full time in the town of Helvetia, West Virginia. But once a year, the population swells to 20 times its size – when masked re...

A Blue-Green Glow in Orange, New Jersey

01 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1920s, walking around Orange, New Jersey at night, you might have seen young women coming out of a factory, with hair, skin and clothes s...

Coqui Snacks

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When you think of Orlando, Florida and the area around it, a certain cartoon mouse might come to mind. But in recent decades the area has also become ...

The Hand Collection (Classic)

28 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

You can learn a lot about a person from their hands. In this episode, we hear the story of a doctor who made it possible for us to hold onto the stori...

Thanksgiving Special: Church of Turkey

27 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Gastro Obscura writer Sam O’Brien takes co-host Kelly McEvers on a tour of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous tributes to the turkey –...

Weaving Together the History of Carpets

26 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Carpets are everyday objects we rarely stop to think about. But they’re far more than decoration or something soft to step on. Each one holds an ori...

The Bottle Tree Ranch

25 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Elliott Long’s dad started planting a forest of “bottle trees” with trunks of steel and old bottles for leaves, Elliott immediately underst...

Frozen Dead Guy (Classic)

24 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Atop a mountain in a picturesque Colorado town is the frozen corpse of a Norwegian grandpa. We get the tale of how this came to be, from the person wh...

The Atlas Obscura Podcast Presents: The Detour

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we’re sharing an episode from The Detour: a show about going places, that actually goes places. Host Sam O’Brien and geologist Becky Nesel ...

Italy’s Bomb Squad (Classic)

21 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We chat with writer Alessio Perrone about what he learned from the people who hunt for Italy’s unexploded bombs, leftover from times of war. READ M...

The Revolutionary Life of the Black-Owned Bookstore with Char Adams

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Char Adams is the author of Black Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore. She chronicles Black-owned bookstores in America – from Davi...

The Museum of Yogurt

19 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1905, a Bulgarian named Stamen Grigorov made a discovery. Inspired by a wave of researchers studying the secret to long life, he decided to put und...

The Chinampas in Xochimilco

18 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Reporter Teresa de Miguel joins host Kelly McEvers to talk to her about these floating gardens called Chinapas in Xochimilco, Mexico City. Today, many...

Snake Island (Classic)

17 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A tiny island off the coast of Brazil is known for being a dangerous place … purely because its inhabitants are, well, snakes. But we speak to a res...

Mr. Kaor’s Letters (Classic)

14 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We visit a quaint Dutch fishing village and attempt to unravel the mystery that unfolded there… a mystery that involved strange and curious letters ...

The Mythical Panda with Nathalia Holt

13 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1920s the world was small. This was an exciting time for scientists and explorers. And among these explorers were Ted and Kemit Roosevelt who t...

Invasion of the Lampreys

12 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

About 100 years ago, the Great Lakes were inundated with an unwelcome visitor – the leech-like, blood-sucking, creepy-looking sea lamprey. For deca...

Toronto’s Musical Robot

11 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Artist and architect Danny Shaddick and the rapper Shad have known each other since high school, and they both wound up in Toronto making art together...

Manuscript Writing Cafe (Classic)

10 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 :) LE...

The Beat Museum (Classic)

07 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

The Living Libraries of West Africa

06 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist Eliot Stein explores the tradition of the djeli – African storytellers who memorize and pass down oral histories – tracing it all the ...

More Things We Collect

05 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A while ago, we asked you to send us stories about your collections – and we got so many great responses, that we decided to make another episode a...

Baseball’s Muddy Little Secret

04 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On the heels of the World Series, Kelly and Amanda discuss an unusual tradition in baseball: the fact that, before each game, every single ball is rub...

Freud Museum London (Classic)

03 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sigmund Freud’s famous psychoanalytic couch is preserved in his final office in London, England.READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com...

Luomus Spiders (Classic)

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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

Local Legends Corner with Colin Dickey: LaLaurie Mansion

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There’s a mansion in New Orleans with a truly horrific past. Author Colin Dickey, who has joined us every Thursday this month, reveals the real life...

How Buffalo Changed City Parks Forever

29 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When the city of Buffalo, New York invited landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to town in the late 1860s, they were hoping he’d replicate the ...

Your Stories of Traveling with Kids

28 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From long flights to strenuous trips, listeners share stories about traveling with their kids for the first time. Plus, we want to hear stories about...

Moynaq (Classic)

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A city in Uzbekistan used to be the site of one of the world’s largest seas. Now it’s a dusty reminder of one of the largest and most forgotten en...

Gregynog Hall (Classic)

25 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We go to the former estate of the Davies sisters, two unusually wealthy Welsh women who traveled the world, fell in love with art, served their countr...

The Wishing Tree (Classic))

24 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There’s a special tree in Portland that’s full of a city’s hopes, dreams, and wishes.READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places...

Local Legends Corner with Colin Dickey: Moundsville

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville, West Virginia was once a home to thousands of prisoners. Today, it’s a tourist attraction. But its pa...

The Glass Flowers

22 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Over the course of 50 years, a father and son team made exquisite glass botanical models that would transform our understanding of the natural world. ...

Pinball Hall of Fame

21 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Maybe you associate Las Vegas with slot machines more than with pinball machines. But what you might not know is that pinball, today found in every fa...

Plain of Jars (Classic)

20 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This archaeological dig in Phonsovan, Laos is one of the most important and dangerous prehistoric sites in Southeast Asia. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: ht...

Star Trek Original Series Set Tour (Classic)

17 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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.a...

Local Legends Corner with Colin Dickey: Mustang Ranch

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Colin Dickey is no stranger to dubious ghost tales. But when he went to Nevada to report at a brothel called the Mustang Ranch, he experienced somethi...

The Burning of Zozobra!

15 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the months leading up to Labor Day, a dedicated team of craftspeople and volunteers gather in the Santa Fe Plaza Mall to build…a puppet. Not just...

The Last Chinese Town in America

14 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1915, a devastating fire destroyed the Chinatown in Walnut Grove, California. In its aftermath, a group of Chinese immigrant residents founded the ...

Rites of Passage (Classic)

13 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Atlas Places Team bring two stories - one from the campus of Gallaudet University and the other from Cornell University to tell us about usual tra...

Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame (Classic)

10 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A basketball fan goes to the hall of fame – and no, it’s not the big one in Massachusetts that you may be thinking about. Hear the story behind a ...

Local Legends Corner with Colin Dickey: Tommyknockers

09 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Deep in the Phoenix Gold Mine in Idaho Springs, Colorado, a strange noise inspires a legend.Every Thursday this month, writer Colin Dickey joins us to...

Famous Last Words

08 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Today, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk is viewed as the founder of the modern Czech state – a George Washington-like figure. When he died in the 1930s, his...

The Zither King of Missouri

07 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We learn how a small town in Missouri became a world capital for a unique instrument – and how one man would go from being a down-on-his-luck furnit...

Atlas Obscura Goes Off Assignment: To the Bear We Didn't Find

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A girl and her father take a walk in the woods. This essay was written by Emily Lowe and edited by Tusshara Nalakumar Srilatha, and originally appeare...

Aurora Alien Gravesite (Classic)

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A small town in Texas has embraced the story of the visit and demise of an otherworldly being from the 1800s… and what many say is America’s only ...

They Had Submarines During the Civil War?

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Probably when you think of submarine warfare, WWI or WWII comes to mind. Not… the American Civil War. But oh, they had them back then! Or rather, th...

Thomas Paine’s Bones

01 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“Founding Fathers” like Washington or Jefferson have gigantic monuments in Washington, statues galore and palatial house-museums. But what about…...

The Miraculous Staircase

30 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico has a pretty unusual spiral staircase – it winds round and round like a DNA helix, and has no visible cen...

What You Collect

29 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Listeners share stories about their most treasured collections.Plus: We want to hear your stories about traveling with kids! Give us a call at 315-992...

Under Our Feet: The Mail Rail

26 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We go underground in London, where there is a railway built for one purpose and one purpose only: to keep the city’s mail moving on time. All this w...

Under Our Feet: Damanhur

25 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We visit northern Italy, where a mysterious religious community founded by an insurance agent–turned–spiritual leader spent 15 years constructing ...

Under Our Feet: Upton Chamber

24 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We visit an underground chamber in Upton, Massachusetts, that’s puzzled some New Englanders – while others long knew its ancient origins. All thi...

Under Our Feet: Forestiere Underground Gardens

23 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We visit an underground oasis in Fresno, California, that’s a winding maze of rooms and passageways filled with lush citrus trees. All this week, we...

Under Our Feet: Exploring the Underworld With Jessica Leigh Hester

22 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jessica Leigh Hester joins us on a deep dive into the sewer, the subject of her appropriately-titled book, Sewer. She and Dylan talk about some of the...

Priscilla’s Homecoming (Classic)

19 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 T...

Traveling Grannies with Ellie and Sandy

18 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Inspired by the novel and movie Around the World in Eighty Days, Eleanor Hamby and Dr. Sandra Hazelip (Ellie and Sandy) ventured out and took the worl...

Portland’s War of the Roses

17 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The International Rose Test Garden in Portland, Oregon is a rose-lover’s paradise: there’s over 10,000 bushes and 625 varieties from all over the ...

Exploring Edinburgh’s Deserted Tidal Island

16 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Since his childhood, Nick Dawson has been fascinated by Cramond Island, a deserted tidal island off the coast of Edinburgh, Scotland, which became for...

Goodbye, Summer

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As the summer travel season officially closes, we share our favorite memories of the warm months – from minor league baseball games with unique tra...

Theatricum Botanicum (Classic)

12 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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

Sweden’s Last Night Watchman

11 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In Ystad, Sweden, every night at 9pm a night watchman scans the horizon for fires from the tower of St Mary’s Church, and sounds his trumpet to let ...

Who Put a Crack in The Glen Canyon Dam?

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Utah bookseller Ken Sanders has spent his life fighting the Glen Canyon Dam. Inspired by a band of cowboy ecoterrorists in his favorite Western novel,...

Fordlandia

09 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1920s, Henry Ford decided to create a rubber plantation in the Amazon rainforest, and alongside it, a tidy little town for his workers: Fordlan...

Dylan’s Mailbag: Work Travel, What to Read, and Solo Travel at 60

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dylan and producers Amanda and Johanna take listener questions. If you have a question for our next mailbag episode, give us a call at 315-992-7902 an...

NYC’s Favorite “Folk Sandwich”

06 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We journey into New York City’s delis and bodegas, in search of a famous – and controversial – sandwich: the chopped cheese. This sandwich has...

Fenway Victory Gardens (Classic)

05 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

One of the last remaining World War II Victory Gardens in the U.S is quietly growing across from Boston’s Fenway Park.  Hosted by Simplecast, an Ad...

A Tour of Human Anatomy With Mary Roach

04 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Mary Roach is an author of several books including Stiff and Fuzz. And her newest book, Replaceable You, explores the incredible advances and tough ...

The Things We Collect

03 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Here at Atlas Obscura, we’re big on collections. From rare jerseys to popular ‘90s plush toys, our staff shares the things we collect – and what...

Atlas Obscura Goes Off Assignment: To the Hiker Carrying Two Backpacks

02 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A backpacker on the Inca Trail encounters a fellow hiker who is inexplicably carrying two bags. This essay was written by Maggie Downs and edited by A...