

The Atlas Obscura Podcast
SiriusXM and Atlas Obscura
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 11, 2024 • 14min
Black Cultural Archives
We visit a London neighborhood that’s the epicenter of Caribbean culture and a place that aims to be the home for Black British history. Learn more about the Black Cultural Archives here.

Jun 10, 2024 • 15min
The Secret Nazi Weather Station Named Kurt
During the 1970s, archaeologists and fishermen stumbled across an abandoned military weather station on the coast of Labrador. It was labeled “Canadian Meteor Service.” The problem was: the Canadian Meteor Service didn’t put it there. In fact, the Canadian Meteor Service didn’t even exist.MORE: You can visit Weather Station Kurt at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, which is only about 980 miles from its original location!

Jun 8, 2024 • 11min
The Rotary Jail Museum (Classic)
The only remaining operational Rotary Jail, found in Crawfordsville, Indiana, shows visitors how inmates were once locked within the building’s walls. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/rotary-jail-museum

Jun 7, 2024 • 17min
Ruins of Le Jardin d'Agronomie Tropicale (Classic)
This garden park in Paris, France contains the ruins of a colonial exhibition from 1907.READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/le-jardin-d-agronomie-tropicale

Jun 6, 2024 • 29min
Controlled Cold with Nicky Twilley
We get a crash course in the fascinating temperature-controlled ecosystem we’ve created to keep our food fresh – and available – all year round. Our guide is Nicky Twilley, co-host of the Gastropod podcast and author of the new book called Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves.

Jun 5, 2024 • 18min
Welcome To Wall Drug
In the South Dakota badlands, a small pharmacy employed an ingenious marketing gimmick, and boomed into a business that draws millions of visitors every year. It’s a story that involves giant dinosaurs, a mythological jack rabbit, and lots and lots of donuts.

Jun 4, 2024 • 24min
Traveling With Kids: Please Send Help
We’ve got a fun collaboration with podcasters SuChin Pak and Kulap Vilaysack, hosts of Add to Cart. Hear them chat with Dylan about traveling with kids – the good, the bad, and the vomit-y times. Pick up tips if you’re about to make your first or 10th trip with young people this summer.

Jun 3, 2024 • 14min
Blue Spring State Park
We head to Florida, the wintertime refuge for many, for a glimpse of a rehabilitation effort aimed at some very distinct creatures known for being gentle giants – manatees. This episode was produced in partnership with VISIT FLORIDA.

May 31, 2024 • 16min
The Last Sears in New York City (Classic)
Producer Johanna Mayer takes a trip to the last Sears in New York City, and a Brooklyn landmark, with two people whose lives were shaped by the department store.

May 30, 2024 • 26min
Looking Toward the Sky with Summer Ash
Telescope tourist, rocket scientist and STEAM educator Summer Ash gives us the nitty gritty on the V.L.A. - a 22-mile telescope in New Mexico whose formal name is literally “Very Large Array.” We talk about how this observatory works and what cosmic wonders it’s detected.