The Atlas Obscura Podcast

Listeners share their stories of places that made them feel at home, from the beaches of Australia to a ubiquitous coffee shop.WE WANT YOUR STORIES! We’re working on a new slate of episodes that will feature listener stories, and want to hear yours. Tell us about your hometown’s weird or unique local tradition. Walk us through what goes down—who’s there and what’s happening? Is there an interesting history behind it? What was your relationship to this tradition like when you were growing up—did you partake? What’s your relationship to it now? Did/does it play a role in how you think about the world, or the corner of it you come from?Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message telling us your name and story. Just so you know, our mailbox will cut you off after two minutes so please call in if you get disconnected. You can also record a voice memo and email it to us at Hello@AtlasObscura.com. 

The Hotel Theresa in Harlem, New York played a pivotal role in the influential neighborhood’s cultural identity.

The founders of this prison in Philadelphia aimed to revolutionize incarceration for the better - and unintentionally created new horrors.  READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/eastern-state-penitentiary

A producer revisits her hometown (Houston) and goes to the Buffalo Soldiers Museum, learning about the contributions of Black members of the armed forces and one man in particular, who started the collection years ago in his garage. 

This giant rock has been used in the coronation of every English monarch since the 1300s, but is it authentic? Or could the real one be in a Scottish bar? We parse through the evidence and debate!READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/glasgows-stone-of-destiny

We visit the misnamed “world’s loneliest house” and visit the flocks of puffins who live there. Some people want to eat them, some want to protect them. And these two groups collide here. If you want to learn more about the puffin situation in the Westman Islands, check out our episode called Puffin Patrol – about a community that sweeps the streets each night looking for lost pufflings and helping them find their way back to the beach.READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ellidaey-island-lodge

We take a hike up Great Blue Hill in Boston and get more than a stunning view of the city. A visit to the peak reveals the story of a weather observatory with the longest continuous daily weather record in the United States.

A public health crisis plagued the Midwest until a simple solution was introduced to a ubiquitous cooking ingredient. 

A mysterious religious community founded by an insurance agent-turned spiritual leader in northern Italy spent 15 years constructing an underground temple covered in intricate paintings, mosaics, trippy colors and images inspired by Roman, Greek and Egyptian mythology. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/temple-of-damanhur

Award-winning chef Sean Sherman, aka the Sioux Chef, has dedicated his Minneapolis restaurant to decolonized food and honoring indigenous meal traditions READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/owamni