The Atlas Obscura Podcast

In Kongthong, India, every person’s name is a unique song, composed by their mother within a week of their birth, part of a centuries-old tradition. Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/where-indian-villagers-have-musical-names Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The story of the women who stepped up to produce thousands of guitars during World War II, only to be written out of the history. Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-old-gibson-guitar-factory-kalamazoo-michigan Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A listener’s voicemail sent us searching for the story of a very special -- and giant -- oak tree Peoria, Illinois, and the family of arborists who cared for it. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Grab your pickaxes, your shovels, and your code breaking supercomputers because today we’re going on a treasure hunt. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We dig through more than 1,000 years of dirt, history, colonialism, and myth on the Swahili Coast. Read more in the Atlas https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kilwa-kisiwani-ruins Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There are tens of thousands of entries in the Atlas -- today we meet the people who sift through them. Learn more about submitting to the Atlas here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/faq Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Writer and travel educator Tracey Friley tells the story of the glamorous life of entertainer, French Resistance agent, and civil rights activist, Josephine Baker and the pilgrimages women still make to her chateau. Learn more: www.traceyfrileytravel.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Typically, space junk ends up deep in the Pacific Ocean. This is the story of when it plunged back to earth … onto a street in small-town Wisconsin. Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sputnik-crash-site Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Where does space stuff go after it dies? To this spot deep, deep in the Pacific Ocean. Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/spacecraft-cemetery Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The strange story of Catalina Island’s herd of bison, and the harrowing story of producer Sarah Wyman’s encounter with these intimidating residents. Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/catalina-island-bison-herd Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This ancient temple complex in Northern Lebanon is one of the most well-preserved Roman ruins on earth, and one of the most overlooked. Read More in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/baalbek-trilithon Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Comedians Tess Barker and Babs Gray, who you might know from Lady to Lady or the now legendary Britney’s Gram podcast, are here to bring you a brand new investigative series about Britney Spears' conservatorship and the court system that's allowed it to persist. After launching the #FreeBritney movement, they started to dig… And what they found out, you won’t want to miss! Join Tess and Babs as th...

How an MIT fraternity pledge instituted a new, unique unit of measurement. Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/harvard-bridge-smoot-measurements Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The fossils of Wadi al-Hitan (Valley of the Whales) in Egypt give us a glimpse of a remarkable evolutionary history. Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/wadi-al-hitan Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Host Dylan Thuras convinces his family to stop at this most unusual attraction in Pennsylvania Read More in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/archbald-pothole Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode will break your heart. And that’s a good thing. Read More in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/museum-of-broken-relationships Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Host Dylan Thuras riffs on a subject that has long fascinated him: the world’s longest-running science experiments. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We venture out to Long Island, not for the beautiful beaches, or an Islanders game, or to hang with Billy Joel. We're here to explore the fraught history of a gigantic, ominous sea foam-green nuclear power plant. Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/shoreham-nuclear-power-plant Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection...

Mortician Caitlin Doughty gives us a dance lesson in the two-step we were all born to do. Check out Doughty’s ‘Ask a Mortitican’ series here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi5iiEyLwSLvlqnMi02u5gQ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this two-part series, we venture towards frozen graves tied to an infamous Arctic expedition. We follow two groups of adventurers, separated by more than 170 years, and play witness to the disasters that befell them all. Read More in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/graves-of-beechey-island Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our col...

In this two-part series, we venture towards frozen graves tied to an infamous Arctic expedition. We follow two groups of adventurers, separated by more than 170 years, and play witness to the disasters that befell them all. Read More in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/graves-of-beechey-island Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our col...

A few weeks ago we dropped an episode debating whether technology has helped or hurt our modern travel experience. It sparked a lot of reaction, and we hear some of that today. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We dig into the tales of TWO whales washing ashore along the southeastern coast of Brazil. And learn how one became a scientific marvel and the other, a local landmark. Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ubatuba-whale Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A 30-foot tall mural on the side of a house in West Oakland is teaching an often left out part of the history of the Black Panther Party-- the women who fueled the movement. Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/black-lives-matter-murals . Learn more about this project and sign up for a tour of the mini-museum here: http://Www.westoaklandmuralproject.org Hosted by Simplecas...