The Atlas Obscura Podcast

Rico Gagliano, host of the MUBI podcast, takes listeners to The Westgate Movie Theater in Minneapolis for a story about a movie that flopped terribly when it was released that it changed the course of the theater’s history.

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

Host Dylan Thuras leads listeners on a journey that leads to the preserved middle finger of Galileo Galilei, astronomer, physicist and engineer. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/galileos-middle-finger

This building in Tangier was one of the first pieces of land owned by the United States Government outside of the country, and was a gift from “America’s first friend.” READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tangier-american-legation-museum

This Ecuadorian cave has captured the attention of government officials, scientists, and professional cavers and is home to a particularly rare creature. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/cueva-de-los-tayos

Rae Wynn-Grant, Ph.D. is a wildlife ecologist specializing in large carnivores. And in this episode she unfolds a mystery for listeners. To hear more about her encounter with a lion: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/podcast/not-your-average-field-trip/

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 something else? READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/russia-anna-ioannovna-ice-palace-castle

Lee's Legendary Marbles & Collectables in York, Nebraska is a pilgrimage of sorts for serious collectors and a curiosity for the casual passerby. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lees-legendary-marbles-collectables

This intricately carved church in Luster is one of Norway’s great treasures of architecture. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/urnes-stave-church

The Luray Caverns in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia are home to an instrument that draws out the secret sounds of millenia-old stone. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-great-stalacpipe-organ-luray-virginia

The José María Azael Franco Guerrero Cemetery in Tulcán, Ecuador is a topiary anomaly and a lush green paradise for the dead. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tulcan-municipal-cemetery

This abandoned lodge in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique has been reclaimed by local lions - a story deeply enmeshed in the larger history of the country. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-lion-house-gorongosa-mozambique Further Reading: S is for Samora (book by Sarah Lefanu) Let My People Go (poem by Noémia de Sousa) Apartheid’s Contras: An Inquiry Into the Roots of War in Angola and Mozambique (pdf book by William Minter) The Mozambican Civil War...

Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team bring you stories of how sometimes giant monuments built for a specific site need to go on a journey. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/church-of-agios-sostis and https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/rubjerg-knude-lighthouse

This internationally recognized jazz lounge has been running for more than a century. Its guests have included Frank Sinatra, Charlie Chaplin and less reputable icons like Al Capone.

Host Dylan Thuras visits a Staten Island mansion with a dubious and vitriolic past, only to learn the site’s curse may not be as obvious as it seems. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kreischer-mansion

Barnali Ghosh and Anirvan Chatterjee take us on a walking tour of Berkeley, CA, where they share their community's legacy of radical South Asian activism. Learn more about the Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour: https://www.berkeleysouthasian.org/

This railway was built for one purpose and one purpose only: to keep the London’s mail coming on time. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-mail-rail-london-england

Drawbridge operators in Chicago, IL used to live at these specific homes nestled at the base of their bridges.

Venture into the mind of Sky Hopinka, member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient. He and host Dylan Thuras discuss his work, his past and what he’s still searching for out on the road. Visit Sky's website to watch Jáaji Approx. and to learn more about his work: http://www.skyhopinka.com/jaaji-approximately

We visit Vanuatu in the South Pacific and go underwater to visit a very strange place from a very strange episode at the end of World War II. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/million-dollar-point