The Atlas Obscura Podcast

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2025 in Review: Our Travel Reflections Dec 31, 2025

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The new year is just around the corner. And the Atlas Obscura staff look back on the lessons and experiences they learned this year throughout their travels.

Plus, we want to hear about your New Year's travel resolutions. What are you hoping to change about the way you travel or move through your existing world? What inspired this resolution? 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 better yet, you can record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com.

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The Pompeii of Nebraska Dec 30, 2025

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In 1971, a paleontologist discovered an animal graveyard in northeastern Nebraska. It was crammed with species that lived in North America millions of years ago: camels, rhinos, and three-toed horses… Excavating this site, two things immediately became clear: something had drawn all these animals to this particular spot – and something very bad had happened to them.

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Minneapolis’s Giant Pencil Dec 29, 2025

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When a 180-year old bur oak tree collapsed during a rainstorm, a couple in Minnesota made a new life for it.

Plus: How many U.S. states have you visited? Join the AO community and create your own U.S. state tracker map here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/my-state-map

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Maine’s Burning Blueberry Fields (Classic) Dec 26, 2025

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Travel to Penobscot, Maine, where one farmer maintains the tradition of burning his crop each year to rejuvenate it the next.

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Maine Week: All Lighthouses Have Ghosts (Classic) Dec 25, 2025

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Over the course of its 200 year history, the lighthouse on Wood Island in Maine has been home to a celebrity dog, a grisly murder, some mischievous ghosts, and a monster storm that may or may not have been brought on by a pickpocket’s curse.

Learn more about Wood Island Lighthouse on their website (here’s Richard’s book.)

Want to hear more stories of mega storms, heroic sea rescues, and maybe even some more lighthouse ghosts? Here’s some information about Maine’s 60 historic lighthouses.

It's Maine Week on the show, so every day we're introducing you to someone from that great state — people who live, and work, and get inspired by Maine’s rugged beauty. This episode was produced in partnership with the Maine Office of Tourism.

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Maine Week: Chef Jason and The Well Dec 24, 2025

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A couple decades ago, Jason Williams was working at a local restaurant in Portland, Maine. One day he was driving around to farmers markets looking for ingredients, when he found a special place. And it gave him a big idea…

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Maine Week: Hanako Nakazato’s Pottery Studio Dec 23, 2025

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Since settling down in the small town of Union, Maine, the Japanese-born ceramicist Hanako Nakazato has shaped her pieces around her endlessly surprising, largely untouched environment.

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Maine Week: Captain Becky’s Wind-Powered Boat Dec 22, 2025

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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.

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We want to hear your travel resolutions! Dec 20, 2025

Show notes

We're working on a listener-powered episode about travel resolutions and we want to hear yours!

What are you hoping to change about the way you travel or move through the world? What inspired this resolution? Maybe you wanna travel to a new continent. Maybe you are learning a new language for an upcoming trip. Maybe you are planning to be more adventurous and less organized about where you’re going. Or maybe you’re planning to travel less internationally and explore your city or town more. Whatever it is, we want to hear about it.

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 in 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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12 Days of Wonder: World's Quietest Room Dec 19, 2025

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Experience the Orfield Anechoic Chamber: a room inside a concrete bunker that was once known as the quietest place on earth.

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