Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Atlas Obscura Podcast

All week, host Kelly McEvers surfaces some of her favorite episodes from the archive. Here's today's story: 

This episode will break your heart. And that’s a good thing.

PLUS: Do you have a favorite episode we should bring back to the top of the feed? Tell us what it was and why you picked it. 

Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Our mailbox will cut you off after three minutes so please call in if you get disconnected. Or you can record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com

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All week, host Kelly McEvers surfaces some of her favorite episodes from the archive. Here's today's story: 

In August 1953, airstrip operator George van Tassel claimed he was woken up in the middle of the night by an intelligent lifeform from outer space named Solganda. George says Solganda told him to build an energy rejuvenation machine – so that’s exactly what he spent the rest of his life doing…

For more information on visiting the Integratron check out their website. Plus, take a look at some photos from one of George van Tassel’s UFO conventions. 

If you want to learn more, George tells his version of the “encounter with Solganda” in a 1964 interview.

PLUS: Do you have a favorite episode we should bring back to the top of the feed? Tell us what it was and why you picked it. 

Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Our mailbox will cut you off after three minutes so please call in if you get disconnected. Or you can record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com

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All week, host Kelly McEvers surfaces some of her favorite episodes from the archive. Here's today's story: 

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 just published.

PLUS: Do you have a favorite episode we should bring back to the top of the feed? Tell us what it was and why you picked it. 

Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Our mailbox will cut you off after three minutes so please call in if you get disconnected. Or you can record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com

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All week, host Kelly McEvers surfaces some of her favorite episodes from the archive. Here's today's story: 

James Baldwin’s former home in the South of France is a site that many visit hoping to feel the essence of the great African-American writer. But should it be?

PLUS: Do you have a favorite episode we should bring back to the top of the feed? Tell us what it was and why you picked it. 

Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Our mailbox will cut you off after three minutes so please call in if you get disconnected. Or you can record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com

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All week, host Kelly McEvers surfaces some of her favorite episodes from the archive. Here's today's story: 

One of the many objects that went down with the ship during the sinking of the Titanic was a beautiful, jewel-encrusted edition of a poetry book called the “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.” The Rubaiyat was probably the most famous work of poetry in the English-speaking world at that time…which was somewhat unusual, as the book was written by a Persian mathematician 800 years before.

For more information about Omar Khayyam and the Rubaiyat, check out the books “Persian Presence in Victorian Poetry” by Taher-Kermani Reza, “The Wine of Wisdom: The Life, Poetry and Philosophy of Omar Khayyam” by Mehdi Aminrazavi, and the BBC documentary “The Genius of Omar Khayyam.” 

PLUS: Do you have a favorite episode we should bring back to the top of the feed? Tell us what it was and why you picked it. 

Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Our mailbox will cut you off after three minutes so please call in if you get disconnected. Or you can record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com

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Alton, Illinois has been called the most haunted small town in America. It’s a place where practically every building has its own ghost story, from an old penitentiary, an eroding island, and even an old 1920s resort. And bubbling underneath all this lore is the fascinating history of a town shaped by the wild and unpredictable waters of the Mississippi River. We’ll explore some places with their own ghostly lore …and we’ll learn how these stories (and the people who like to tell them) are helping to keep the town’s history alive. Visit EnjoyIllinois.com for more information on booking a hair-raising trip to America’s most haunted small town.

More links:

• Check out our guest Troy Taylor’s book “Haunted Alton” (He also leads ghost tours, hosts his own podcast, and runs the American Oddities Museum in Alton)
• For more on the history of penitentiaries in America, revisit our episode on Eastern State Penitentiary 
• …and queue up this episode too for more on the history of duels on Bloody Island!
• For additional information on the places we discussed today check out the Routes & Rivers guides to Alton Prison, Bloody Island (also called Sunflower Island and Smallpox Island) and the McPike Mansion.  

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From opera singers to strange noises emitting from air conditioners, listeners share stories about their unusual neighbors. 

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We share stories about our neighbors – from an unusual pet in Maryland, to an out-of-place front yard in Brooklyn, to a beekeeper with a secret. 

Plus: We want to hear YOUR neighbor stories! Tell us about your neighbors’ yards, their house decor, their habits – and what you like about them. Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and favorite story about your neighbors. Or you can record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com

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Dive into the invisible world of seeds, Sefra Alexandra, the self-titled “Seed Huntress.” She tells us about her global mission to preserve our planet's diverse seeds and protect our future food security by uncovering the stories of culinary and cultural significance rooted in these tiny powerhouses.

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Today we venture (with flashlights on) into the TNT area, a vast abandoned munitions factory in Point Pleasant, West Virginia – where, in the 1960s, people started reporting sightings of a strange, winged creature with red glowing eyes. The creature became known as “the Mothman,” and these sightings generated a legend that has since inspired books, movies, an annual culture, and a thriving Mothman subculture in Point Pleasant. This episode is brought to you in partnership with West Virginia Tourism. 

For more information on the annual Mothman festival: https://www.mothmanfestival.com/ 

Trying to see the Mothman yourself? Our guest today Sherri Brake has you covered: https://www.hauntedhistory.net/mothman-haunted-history-walk-of-point-pleasant.html 

In the mood for scary stories and places? We’ve got a list for you: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/guide-to-halloween-travel 

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Olney, Illinois is your quintessential Midwestern small town. It’s in the middle of farm country - a place you might drive right past. But people do stop, and they come for one thing: squirrels. But for how long?

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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. 

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Ross Jennings, aka the First Piper, has been on a world-spanning quest to play the bagpipes in every country of the world. 

LEARN MORE: https://www.thefirstpiper.com/

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Producer Manolo Morales is not a fan of cats. But he may just change his mind after taking a walking tour in Brooklyn Heights dedicated to cat history called Cats About Town. 

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Producer Jerome Campbell shares two stories about how far animals will go for their meal. 

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Deep in the Australian Outback, on the bank of the Finke river, stands a modest two-room house. Albert Namatjira built it for his family as his fame grew, but their time there was cut short. Today, the rise, fall, and enduring legacy of one of Australia’s most important artists.

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School is back in session for many. So all week, we're bringing you stories from our archive about schools with a little something extra -- unusual traditions, ceremonies and customs. Students at Reed College study things like philosophy, history and English. But for the past 50 years they’ve also had access to a scientific instrument many people have never seen. We visit the World's only nuclear reactor operated by liberal arts undergraduates. 

If you have stories about schools with strange, unusual or wondrous traditions or ceremonies tell us about it. Give us a call at (315) 992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Or better, you can record a voice memo and give it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com.

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School is back in session for many. So all week, we're bringing you stories from our archive about schools with a little something extra -- unusual traditions, ceremonies and customs. In the 1980s, a group of friends on the track team at Sul Ross State University hauled a discarded dorm room desk to the top of a mountain. They left a notebook there to keep track of their run times and leave little notes for each other. Then… other people found it. And then… it started a tradition. 

If you have stories about schools with strange, unusual or wondrous traditions or ceremonies tell us about it. Give us a call at (315) 992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Or better, you can record a voice memo and give it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com.

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School is back in session for many. So all week, we're bringing you stories from our archive about schools with a little something extra -- unusual traditions, ceremonies and customs. The Flagg Grove School in Brownsville, Tennessee has become a museum dedicated to its most famous student.

If you have stories about schools with strange, unusual or wondrous traditions or ceremonies tell us about it. Give us a call at (315) 992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Or better, you can record a voice memo and give it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com.

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School is back in session for many. So all week, we're bringing you stories from our archive about schools with a little something extra -- unusual traditions, ceremonies and customs. For years, students at Bennington College snuck into a locked room for a glimpse of strange and magical instruments created by professor Gunnar Schonbeck. Today, we join his orchestra. 

If you have stories about schools with strange, unusual or wondrous traditions or ceremonies tell us about it. Give us a call at (315) 992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Or better, you can record a voice memo and give it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com.

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School is back in session for many. So all week, we're bringing you stories from our archive about schools with a little something extra -- unusual traditions, ceremonies and customs. In this episode, producers Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy have stories from the campuses of Gallaudet University and Cornell University .

If you have stories about schools with strange, unusual or wondrous traditions or ceremonies tell us about it. Give us a call at (315) 992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Or better, you can record a voice memo and give it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com.

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Thor Pedersen is the first person to visit every country in the world without flying. That is 203 countries by land and sea. He sits down with Kelly to unpack his epic quest, which he chronicled in his book, The Impossible Journey.

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We meet Becky Sigwright, who captains a wind-powered boat that’s been sailing around Maine since before the invention of the telephone. This episode was produced in partnership with the Maine Office of Tourism.

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We asked you to send us your stories inspired by Brad Ryan’s quest to travel to all 63 U.S National Parks with his grandmother. And some of you had some really interesting things to say. 

Plus, we wanna hear your stories about the unusual, distinct or memorable tours you’ve taken anywhere in the world. Tell us what the tour was about. What did you learn? How did it go? Who was the tour guide? Where in the world was this tour? Did you enjoy it? Was it worth it? If not, why so? 

Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Our mailbox will cut you off after three minutes so please call again if you get disconnected. Or better yet, you can record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com. 

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We head to the cliffs of Balneario El Condor in Argentina to visit a parrot city… and the parrot suburbs. And we meet the biologist who risks his life to study them. 

Learn more about the parrot colony and Juan Masello’s work. 

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For thousands of years, a massive bat colony has lived in a cave about 30 minutes from San Antonio, Texas. Ryan Huling, author of the Book "The Hidden Nations of Animals," tells us all about it. 

If you want to hear about Ryan’s journey to visit other animal colonies, check out our episode titled: “The Animal Worlds We Rarely See."

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Producer Talon Stradley takes us on a tour of three skinny houses – each with a big story inside. Do these skinny houses have you curious about spite houses? 

Check out that episode here. 

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We will always love Dolly Parton, who installed a “dreambox” time capsule at her amusement park. In it, there’s a secret song that no one will hear until the legendary artist turns 100. Dolly Parton died this week at age 80, sparking a global outpouring of grief and tributes. 

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In the 1700s, a farmer plowing his fields near the English town of Silchester uncovered a very large gold ring dating back to Roman times, inscribed with the name “Senecianus.” Seventy miles away, in the remains of an old Roman temple complex, a curse tablet was discovered targeting a man named Senecianus who made off with a ring. Coincidence? 

Another possible coincidence: one of the academic experts brought in to the excavation of the Roman temple site was J.R.R. Tolkien – who later became famous as the author of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” which involve, of course, a cursed ring.  

Related Atlas entries:

• The Vyne, the English country house that is home to the ring https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-vyne
• Lydney Camp, the remains of the Roman temple where the curse tablet was found https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lydney-camp
• If you’re into this whole curse table thing, we recommend an older episode of the show about the Complaint Tablet of Ea-Nasir

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For decades, the sailing stones of Death Valley were a mystery. They'd show up in lists of the world's unexplained phenomena, alongside the Bermuda Triangle and ball lightning. But then, two cousins came along and decided to ruin everything by solving this mystery once and for all.

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A new dream and effort has arisen to re-envision Hogan's Alley, a predominantly Black community in Vancouver.

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We asked, you answered. Hear listener stories of near death travel experiences.

PLUS: We wanna hear from you! Tell us about your intergenerational travel stories. Who did you go with?  Where did you go? What did you learn about traveling with this person of a different age? How did the trip go? What are some stories you brought back? We want to hear it all. 

Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Our mailbox will cut you off after three minutes so please call again if you get disconnected. Or better yet, you can record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com. 

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We all dream of the perfect vacation when everything goes right. This episode is about the opposite. Hear stories of people having near death travel experiences.

PLUS: We wanna hear from you! Tell us about your intergenerational travel stories. Who did you go with?  Where did you go? What did you learn about traveling with this person of a different age? How did the trip go? What are some stories you brought back? We want to hear it all. 

Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Our mailbox will cut you off after three minutes so please call again if you get disconnected. Or better yet, you can record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com. 

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Cal Flyn is the author of Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape. She also has a new book, called The Savage Landscape: How We Made the Wilderness. On today’s show, she and host Kelly McEvers explore the allure of places that humans have abandoned.

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Producers Amanda and Glydel bring you stories of places, spanning from the Ozark mountains to a cave in Portugal, where death is not as final as it seems. 

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We visit a museum in Montana that’s a dream for dinosaur nerds, and home to bones that are the real deal, locally sourced and sustainably foraged.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/great-plains-dinosaur-museum

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We wanna hear from you! Tell us about your intergenerational travel stories. Who did you go with?  Where did you go? What did you learn about traveling with this person of a different age? How did the trip go? What are some stories you brought back? We want to hear it all. 

Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Our mailbox will cut you off after three minutes so please call again if you get disconnected. Or better yet, you can record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com. 

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A race is on to save this world heritage site that straddles the border of Togo and Benin. It’s home to remarkable earth tower homes called Takienta, and the Batammariba people, whose existence is threatened by climate change and migration.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/koutammakou-batammariba

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Emily Zarka is the host of the PBS digital series Monstrum, a show that tries to  figure out how monster mythology was created and shaped through oral storytelling, literature, and film.

Today she tells us about the Flatswoods monster in West Virginia, a legend that dates back to the 1950s.

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Author and Ossining town historian Caroline Curvan helps unpack the story of how a castle ended up in the upstate New York woods. And how one wealthy family’s dream home was struck by subsequent tragedies and ultimately abandoned. 

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Casa Cueva was completed in 1958 by artist Juan O Gorman. But in 1969, he sold the house to artist Helen Escobedo. She set off a controversy, which still sparks passion today, after she demolished parts of the house.

Valentina Di Liscia, a journalist and senior editor at Hyperallergic, was determined to get to the truth of the matter. Read here to read more about Casa Cueva. 

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Host Kelly McEvers and producers Jerome and Amanda answer your questions about traveling while sick, memorable souvenirs and their best detours.

If you have a question for our next mailbag episode, give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message. You can also record a voice memo and email it to us at Hello@AtlasObscura.com, or simply email your question.

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From alchemy to doomsday prophecies, we delve into the lore of Johannes Kelpius, a mystic believed to have started a cult in the Wissahickon Valley near Philadelphia.

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In 2007, excavators dug 70-odd years’ worth of trash and debris from a cave in Hoboken, New Jersey. It had once been a popular recreation spot, and home to a natural spring that was supposed to have healing properties. But then in 1841 everything changed when the body of a young woman – a beautiful young “cigar girl” well-known in Lower Manhattan – turned up by the cave. The murder shocked and fascinated the people of New York and New Jersey and activated fears about many social issues of the day. It also caught the attention of one guy you’ve definitely heard of... Edgar Allan Poe, who used the story as inspiration for one of the first detective stories ever written. 

Sibyl’s Cave… a hidden wonder...and the possible birthplace of “true crime”?

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Brad Ryan has traveled to all 63 U.S National Parks. But he’s not done it alone. He traveled with his grandmother, who was in her mid-80s when they first started. Now, he’s got a book out all about it titled Grandma Joy and Me: A Journey of Healing One National Park at A Time. 

Plus, we’d like to hear from you. Tell us your stories about visiting the U.S National Parks. Which ones have you been to? Which ones are you looking forward to? Did everything go as planned? Did anything surprising happen? Tell us all about it. Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message with your story and your name. You can also record a voice memo and email it to us at Hello@AtlasObscura.com. 

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We meet the robot saints – sculptures made of wood and wire, of cams and pulleys during medieval times – that might just help us understand this new AI age we all find ourselves living in.

LEARN MORE about these inventions by reading City University of New York Professor Christopher Swift’s 2015 paper about these automated figures.

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Today, we're visiting the World Erotic Art Museum in Miami, a place that shattered the line between fine art and our deeply held taboos.

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Mary Maschal set out to document women’s history, unintentionally becoming part of it herself. Learn more about the Women's Museum of History here.

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For decades, people have been addressing love letters to an oak tree deep in the Dodauer Forest in Germany called the Bridegroom’s Oak. The hope is that a passerby might find their letter, write back and form a connection. Journalist Elliot Stein visited this romantic post office box and talked to the mail carrier who used to deliver these letters and who one day, found a letter that was addressed to him. 

If you would like to address your own love letter to the Bridegroom’s Oak, the mailing address is: 

Bräutigamseiche,

Dodau 99 Dodauer Forst,

23701 Eutin, Germany

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“Stockholm Syndrome” is a term in pop psychology that’s come to mean situations where hostages develop emotional bonds with their captors. But it comes from an actual hostage situation back in the 1970s, when a botched bank robbery in downtown Stockholm turned into a six-day long stand-off between the would-be robbers and police. Today, the bank is a hotel – and you can still see evidence of this incident inside.

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