Travel Podcasts, Discovered
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.
100 most recent episodes displayed below
Visit website →A pay phone in Washington, D.C tells you jokes and affirmations.
This episode is part of our Weekend Road Trip Series, where we bring you stories of the strange, incredible, and wondrous places right here in the United States, that you can see from
Professional rainmaker Charles Hatfield was either a scientist or a con man who had a particular influence on San Diego, CA.
Co-host Kelly McEvers and producers Johanna and Amanda answer questions about books where the setting is transportive, travel in the Middle East right now, and how to handle sharing an Airbnb with five friends but only one bathroom.
If you have a qu
We visit an office building in Guadalajara, and learn how one man moved it – workers and all – exactly 40 feet.
This episode is part of our ongoing coverage of the soccer world championship. In each episode, we take you beyond the stadium, and to a
Nestled on North Carolina’s southern shoreline, the Kindred Mailbox keeps countless secrets and confessions left in the sand. This episode tells the story of mailbox and its dedicated keepers.
Eight thousand years ago, this land’s first inhabitants built a village around a sacred spring. And today, in what is now Los Angeles, CA, their descendants still work to protect the site.
This episode is part of our ongoing coverage of the soccer w
Today we visit the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which is home to 10,000 bobbleheads inspired by sports, pop culture, politics, and even some niche viral Internet moments. Some even date back hundreds of years.
How do we determine the time? Believe it or not, there is an official clock. It’s located in Boulder, Colorado at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and we go there to visit.
LEARN MORE: The institute doesn’t give public tours. But
Professional French horn player Kyra Sims tells us about a once-in-a-lifetime trip she took to Antarctica with a program called Polar STEAM, which pairs artists with scientists. She tells us about living on a research vessel, getting up close and per
This stone at Emory University is a marker of one millionaire's personal vendetta against gravity.
This episode is part of our ongoing coverage of the soccer world championship. In each episode, we take you beyond the stadium, and to a nearby wonder
The variety of apples we enjoy today have a common ancestor that lies in the forests of Kazakhstan, where scientists are studying the wildest version of the fruit.
One of Mexico’s oldest shoe stores holds a collection of more than 2,000 thousand shoes in a museum called el Museo Del Calzado. From booties worn by a rescue dog to slippers owned by Queen Elizabeth II, each pair tells a story.
This episode is part
It took Ross Ward more than 40 years to build Tinkertown, an indescribable array of carvings, figurines, and folk art. The project became both a source of inspiration for young artists, and an unexpected refuge for Ross himself.
This episode is part
We head to the Namib Desert in Africa, where the landscape is dotted with mysterious, pimple-like indents known as fairy circles. Where do these things come from? Scientist Walter Tschinkel has spent the last several years studying and experiencing a
The LA Central Library has always been unique. It doesn’t look like a typical big city library, many people didn’t want it to be built in the first place, and, in 1986, a fire affected more than one million of its books. But the library endured, and
Candy scholar Susan Benjamin brings us to her research-based historic candy shop, and introduces us to some surprising sweets that have shaped American history … from abolitionist sugars to WWI's chocolate energy bars.
Today's episode is brought to
War of the Worlds by Orson Welles is perhaps the most famous radio play on Earth. But what’s left out of the story is where the play was set — a real, little town in New Jersey. It took decades, but the people who live in Grover’s Mill have come to e
This sculpture in Spokane, WA was created by a"welding nun" decades ago.
The Bob Baker Marionette Theater is a beloved place in Los Angeles, California. The theater almost closed down when its founder, Bob Baker, died in 2014. But it has managed to survive.
Randel Metz is the director of the Storybook Puppet Theater in O
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.
Isaac Fitzgerald grew up taking long walks with his father in rural Massachusetts. And on those walks, his father told him stories about legendary figures like Johnny Appleseed. As an adult, Isaac decided to retrace his path, and learn the true story
When armed fighters captured his workplace during Syria’s civil war, Ali Shehadeh decided to pay them a visit. He was determined to save his life’s work: a massive collection of seeds.
We dive into the dirty history of the famed Paris sewer system, from its unorthodox cleaning methods, to a pneumatic postal service that ran via the sewer, to… a poop tax.
We always want to hear from you! If you have a question or a story for us, gi
Scientists in Denver, Colorado store and conduct tests on miles of ice core samples dating back hundreds of thousands of years.
In 1891, a knot of men murdered a 1,300-year-old tree to prove it wasn’t a "tall tale." We visit the Mark Twain Stump, a 16-foot-wide wooden stage that serves as a monument to early American hubris, the cost of disbelief, and the bittersweet birth of
We go to Wilmington, Delaware, to a 4-acre garden with characters and exhibits created using castoff materials and greenery that invites kids to drop screens and rules – and instead give in to a state of play.
This amusement park in Singapore holds the Ten Courts of Hell, a series of dioramas that depict the kind of horrible fates awaiting people who behaved badly on Earth.
Producers Jerome and Johanna join co-host Kelly McEvers to answer questions about souvenir-buying stress, multigenerational travel, and what to listen to on a road trip when you don’t have the same taste as your driving buddy.
Our next mailbag episo
Allen Woodall’s first lunchbox was a brown paper bag. Since then, he’s amassed a collection of over 5,000 lunchboxes, all housed in a museum in Columbus, Georgia.
The Lunchbox Museum is part of the Columbus Collective Museums. Learn more: https://ww
Producers India Rice and Morgan Johnson take you beyond this planet as they share two stories tied to the franchise Star Wars.
In Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood, there was once a revolutionary community for African Americans willing to do whatever it took to maintain their own freedom – and help others achieve theirs.
Historians have known about the strange passageway in the Merchant’s House Museum for decades, but they never knew what it was for… until now. And now that we know, it changes everything we thought we knew about why the Merchant’s House really matter
The townspeople of Manitou Springs, Colorado do something very interesting to celebrate the legacy.of a young woman who loved, lived and died there 130 years ago.
Co-host Kelly McEvers doesn’t usually return to places – she always wants to go somewhere new. But there’s one place that makes her break her own rule over and over again.
A listener shares a wonder from his backyard, this time in the small town of Aztec, New Mexico.
Plus, we want to hear from you. Tell us about the wonders in your backyard. Is there a strange, unusual or surprising place in your city or town? What ma
The José María Azael Franco Guerrero Cemetery in Tulcán, Ecuador is a topiary anomaly and a lush green paradise for the dead. This week, we’re celebrating the arrival of spring with classic and new stories about unusual gardens around the world.
Jason deCaires Taylor takes intentional art to another level with his sculptures that can be visited by humans and fish. This week, we’re celebrating the arrival of spring with new and classic stories about unusual gardens around the world.
Today we visit a hidden gem of Washington, D.C.: the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, an oasis of ponds filled with lotuses and waterlilies. This unusual National Park – the only aquatic gardens that are a National Park – were first dug in the 1800s by a
An orchard of metal poles sits on a hill overlooking Lake Washington. And when the wind blows, this musical sculpture "sings the world into existence" with its unique sound.
This week, we’re celebrating the arrival of spring with new and classic sto
The Alnwick Poison Garden in England is a place where stopping and smelling the flowers could actually kill you. The garden is dedicated entirely to plants that are narcotic or deadly.
This week, we’re celebrating the arrival of spring with new and
In the Soviet Union, x-rays didn’t just give you a look inside the human body. They also gave you a glimpse of the outside world, thanks to music that was imprinted onto this unassuming medical tool.
Plus: We always want to hear from you! If you hav
As a young adult, Paul "Barbs" Barbato gave himself perhaps the world's biggest social studies assignment: make a profile of every single one of the 193 UN-recognized countries in the world. Ten years later, he finally finished.
Check out Paul’s pro
In a storefront in Kearney, Nebraska, Morris Press Cookbooks Store houses a massive "Google of family recipes," chronicling nearly a century of American home-style cuisine. To test the archive, producer Jerome Campbell attempts to “bake his way back
We asked you to send us stories about a time you accidentally broke the rules while traveling… and some you really went there.
Plus, we want to hear stories about a place you love returning to. Where in the world is this place? What fond memories do
As a foreign correspondent, Kelly McEvers has found herself detained by the KGB, held up at ISIS checkpoints, and on the front line in Syria. But it was a much more mundane experience that left her feeling in over her head years later.
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. Plus: We always want to hear from you! If you have a question or story for us, give us a call at at 315-992-7902 and
In 1971, five hippies made a trek through the Amazon looking for rare psychedelic drugs. One of them was Terence McKenna, who, along with his brother Dennis, would go on to change the way Americans thought about “magic mushrooms” forever. We talk to
Producer Manolo Morales shares a story with co-host Kelly McEvers, about a legendary place in the backyard of our Canadian northern neighbors.
Plus, we want to hear from you. Tell us about the wonders in your backyard. Is there a strange, unusual or
We visit Jerry’s Hat Museum, where a retiree has turned to an old chapel to house a collection of thousands of hats, pens, odds, ends and other artifacts from his Illinois hometown.
Co-host Kelly McEvers and producers Johanna and Jerome answer questions about whether you should experience certain places with other people, the best movies to watch on an airplane, and the delicate etiquette of traveling to places where you know pe
A producer sits down with Dylan and recounts his trip to a place referred to as “The Venice of Africa.”
Marina Marchese is a beekeeper and trained honey sommelier. She explains how honey tastes like the place where it’s made… and guides co-host Kelly McEvers through a taste test of some of the world’s most unique and unusual honeys.
Today, we are celebrating the spirit of April Fools’ Day with two stories about hoaxes. One is about a mythical creature in Fouke, Arkansas and the other about a giant sea serpent in a small town of New York.
For one sixteenth century Austrian mayor, a long, luscious beard was both his claim to fame – and the cause of his downfall.
Daren Grover was on vacation near the top of New Zealand’s South Island when he got a call: some whales needed help. Hundreds of them had stranded on a spot so notorious for whale strandings, it’s cause for celebration when a year goes by without a s
Long before Joe Exotic got the country talking about big cats, there was Joe Taft – regular guy – who began raising and rescuing these types of felines in Indiana.
What drives a person to live in isolation? Meet Sue Aikens, who thrives in the icy expanse of the Arctic. She shares stories of survival, self-discovery, and the wild encounters that continue to shape her life. Her memoir, "North of Ordinary," was ju
Todd Lerew has spent a decade visiting every single museum in Los Angeles. He chronicled his journey in his book "Also on View: Unique and Unexpected Museums of Greater Los Angeles." Check out Todd’s map of the museums at Everymuseum.la. Plus, listen
In the 1950s, a journalist doing archival research at the Staten Island Historical Society came across a collection of images that stopped him in his tracks. These photos featured women from the 1890s smoking cigarettes, dressed in men’s clothing, sh
You may have heard the phrase 'third place' being used more often as the world started opening up post-pandemic. People were craving somewhere that was neither their home or work, but still a place to focus social connection. But the Barbican, in Lon
We wanna hear your stories about the times you’ve accidentally broken the rules somewhere foreign to you.
Maybe you went into a temple with your shoes on, when you weren’t supposed to. Maybe you had a drink at a sacred place and were forbidden to en
A producer takes a detour for a glimpse of what some call New York’s worst kept secret – a train station that’s been shut down and sealed away for nearly a century.
Cultural historian Kassia St. Clair tells the stories of two highly prized colors that are linked to specific places in the world: an exquisite, extremely expensive blue that crossed the globe and upended the European art world… and a shade of purple
Catia Lattouf has dedicated her life to nursing hummingbirds back to health – from inside her apartment in Mexico City.
Plus: We always want to hear from you! If you have a question or story for us, give us a call at at 315-992-7902 and leave a mess
Over the course of a century, the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan has grown to house over 26 million artifacts of innovative achievements. However, one quiet piece – prized by Ford above all others – curiously stands out among the collection:
We asked you to send us stories about your unforgettable spring break trips. From a U2 concert to a tornado in 1974, you delivered.
Plus, we want to hear your stories about the times you’ve accidentally broken the rules somewhere foreign to you. Tel
In the early 1900s, influential psychologist Carl Jung spent more than a decade documenting the strange images that popped up in his unconscious mind and documenting them all in a beautiful illustrated manuscript. After his death, his family thought
In 1978, a team of Soviet geologists working deep in the Siberian taiga came across something they never expected to see: a house. As it turned out, they had stumbled on a family that had lived in complete isolation for decades – they weren’t even aw
Co-host Kelly McEvers and producers Jerome Campbell and Manolo Morales answer questions about places they could live permanently, how to navigate travel as a Type B person when all your friends are Type A, and appropriate airplane attire.
If you hav
Marta Becket was an artist from New York City. Then in 1967, when she was on a road trip with her husband, she discovered an abandoned social hall in the California desert town of Death Valley Junction. She left New York and moved there to transform
In 2007, the beloved former mayor of Suwon, Korea, demolished the home he and his wife had lived in for 30 years and built them a new house shaped like a toilet: curved walls, a toilet seat roof, and a bowl-shaped courtyard in the middle. For many sp
We go to Deep River, Connecticut – where the story of a botched bank robbery more than 100 years ago has taken on a life of its own as an urban legend.
There is a mirror said to reveal the truest, most precise reflection of oneself. It’s called the Aranmula Kannadi. The tradition of mirror-making has been passed down for generations by self-taught artisans in a small village in India. Journalist Eli
The Dutch city of Utrecht is built around an iconic canal lined with historic homes. But for the fish of the city, the view isn’t quite so picturesque. Each spring, migrating fish get trapped in the mazelike waterways of the city. Ecologist Mark van
Daylight saving time is nearly upon us. Today, we’re visiting two places with very different approaches to harnessing the sun. One imposes rules on it, wreaking havoc on residents and travelers… and the other tries to physically manipulate it.
Plus:
We look into the story behind a regionally famous – and controversial – beer tap in Des Moines, Iowa.
Read Mandy Naglich’s article about Ruthie in Vice.
We always want to hear from you! If you have a question or story for us, give us a call at 315-
Lake Karachay in Ozersk, Russia is the site of a former secret Soviet Union nuclear facility - that’s inspired art despite the little that’s publicly known of the site.
This week, we’re bringing your stories of places that – for one reason you anoth
Dylan is joined by Marisa Scheinfeld, a photographer who has dedicated years to exploring the lost and abandoned properties of the Borscht Belt: a stretch of hundreds of hotels, resorts and summer camps where Jewish Americans would go to escape. Chec
How far would you go to find the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake in the United States?
This week, we’re bringing your stories of places that – for one reason you
This paddleboat gave some Black children a place to learn even when they were denied formal education on land.
This week, we’re bringing your stories of places that – for one reason you another – you can’t visit.
Plus: We want to hear from you! Wha
The world’s biggest treehouse was inspired by a message from God.
This week, we’re bringing you stories of places that, for one reason you another, you can’t visit.
Plus: We want to hear from you! What’s a place in your life that YOU can’t visit? G
We’re willing to bet that AO listeners didn’t go on the typical spring break trips. We want to hear your off the beaten track spring break travel stories. Where did you go? What made this trip so memorable? Did everything go as planned? Or did things
The Old Cahawba Archeological Park is perhaps one of Alabama's most famous ghost towns. But it once was the center of life in this southern state. We unravel the surprising tale of this onetime capital city.
Maybe when you think of Los Angeles you think of mega highways, gridlock traffic, and urban sprawl. But our guest today argues that it is actually an underrated destination for enjoying the outdoors. Rosecrans Baldwin, author of Everything Now: Lesso
A giant salamander has been lurking in the rivers and streams of Appalachia for more than a hundred million years. And in just the last few years – after surviving one of the worst hurricanes in decades – they've become a local symbol of pride.
Thi
We go to Tallahassee and learn the incredible civil rights history of Florida's capital city.
We asked you to send us stories about the places where you’ve stayed the night – some of you had some interesting experiences that live in your head forever.
Plus, we want to hear your stories about your unforgettable spring break travel stories. Wh
This museum in Kentucky is either your dream place or your nightmare, depending on how you feel about dummies. Because there are more than 500 of them there, resting in peace.
As we approach Valentine’s Day, Atlas Obscura co-host Kelly McEvers shares two stories about a state that has a special place in her heart: New Mexico.
The Chile Pepper Institute was produced by Baudelaire Ceus, and The Lightning Field was produced
Centralia, Pennsylvania has attained a sort of cult favorite status, often discussed as a place you cannot and should not visit. But in this episode, writer and friend of the show Colin Dickey has a different take on this ghost town. He says Centrali
Jane August has set a goal to visit every single one of NYC’s roughly 200 museums. She’s chronicling her journey on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram at @JaneAugust.
We want to hear from you! What is your favorite, underrated museum in your area? Tell
In honor of Black History Month, we are bringing you two stories about people who used nature to change their environment and communities.
Behind the Ben & Jerry's factory in Vermont sits a very peculiar graveyard... one dedicated to dearly departed ice cream flavors.
We visit a remarkable institution where people with Hansen's disease, or leprosy, learned to play music, had Mardi Gras parties, and published their own newspaper. Check out Wendy Chin-Tanner’s novel, King of the Armadillos, based on her father’s exp
In 1930, the King of Thailand gifted a tree to the University of Hawaii in Manoa for developing a treatment for leprosy. For decades, the tree has stood as a symbol of the groundbreaking scientific achievement. However, the woman who created the solu
In 1912, Piltdown, England wasn’t known for much. It was a quiet rural area with farms, winding tree-lined roads, and a pub. But then, a lawyer announced he’d made an incredible discovery in a local gravel pit: a skull that was part ape, part man. En
This story is about a heist that took place back in 2013 – not at a museum, or a gallery, or a royal palace, but at a garden. What these thieves were after… were Venus Fly Traps. We visit the Stanley Rehder Carnivorous Plant Garden in Wilmington, Nor
We're working on an episode about interesting places to lay your head -- and we'd love to hear YOUR story about the places you have stayed during your travels. Tell us why and how you picked that place, and what made the experience of staying there g
A one-room museum located in the basement of a church-turned-community arts center is crammed with mementos from a pretty spectacular period in history. We hang with some retired dancers who recall the time when Chinatown in San Francisco was filled
Decades before New York City’s subway system opened to the public, an eccentric inventor set about building his own underground system – IN SECRET – beneath Broadway. It wasn’t powered by steam engine…or electrical engine…or even horses. It was power