The Atlas Obscura Podcast

In the late 19th century, the small rural community of Exeter, Rhode Island, found itself at the center of a chilling tale that blurred the lines between folklore and medical mystery. Tim Harford, host of the Cautionary Tales podcast, joins us in this episode to unravel it all. This is the story of Mercy Lena Brown, a young woman whose death brought upon a legend that would endure for centuries

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The Atlas Obscura podcast team is from all over America. So, in celebration of Atlas Obscura’s upcoming book, “America Obscura,” members of the AO team recall their favorite places and traditions from their home state. We hear about everything from a miniature panorama of NYC, to a diving competition, to an unsettling relic in a chapel.

Preorder your copy of America Obscura today: https://www.atlasobscura.com/hubs/america-obscura

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On Fridays this October, we're surfacing strange, incredible and sometimes spooky stories.. At Denmark’s largest haunted house attraction, it’s not just about the screams. Researchers are studying the effects – good and bad – that fear has on humans

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-science-of-horror-fear

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TheJames J Walker Park is a local New York City park in Greenwich Village. But what people might not know is that there are 10,000 dead bodies buried underground. In today’s episode, writer and tour guide Christina Ray Stanton tells us how a cemetery becomes a park, reveals some of the disturbing things that’ve happened there and gives us the story of the man who made sure we remember it all.

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This museum in Stone Mountain, Georgia is home to thousands of chairs – not for sitting, and not dollhouse furniture, but miniature chairs “with a different purpose,” as the museum’s founder describes them.

Check out their website: https://museumofminiaturechairs.com/

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The Atlas Obscura team answers the question:

If time travel were possible, what time period would you visit and what place would you like to see most?

We also want to hear from you. Tell us your answer to the question above. Why do you wish to be there? What do you imagine it was like? Who, if anyone, would you have taken? How would you spend your time there? This can be anywhere in the world.

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.

Or you can also record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com

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Today we’re diving into the illustrious history of tattooing in Long Beach, California. Once the headquarters of the US Navy’s Pacific fleet, Long Beach (and its infamous entertainment zone, The Pike) became home to a veritable renaissance of tattoo art between the 1920s-1970s. We’ll visit Outer Limits, a spot that’s been home to an active tattoo parlor since the ‘20s and is likely the oldest tattoo shop in the US. Owner and legendary tattoo artist Kari Barba tells us the story of the shop, which will be celebrating its 100th anniversary in April 2027.

For more info, check out:

• Outer Limits Tattoo
• The Tattoo Heritage Project in Long Beach (Kari tells us they hope to open an exhibit in time for the LA Olympics)
• Want more stories of the old Pike? Check out our old episode on Elmer McCurdy, the funhouse mannequin who turned out not to be a mannequin at all
• Outer Limits has a strong claim on being the oldest tattoo shop in the US – we’ve also done an episode on the oldest tattoo shop in the world, Razzouk Ink in Jerusalem!

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On Fridays this October, we're surfacing strange, incredible and sometimes spooky stories. In this episode, reporter Sam O’Brien takes us to Lily Dale, the world’s largest surviving community of spiritualists, where she learns (even if you don’t believe in ghosts) there’s more than one way to connect with the dead.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lily-dale-spiritualist-community

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Co-host Kelly McEvers has lost her passport – more than once. A lot more than once, actually. And all those mistakes led to some big life moments. And if you want to hear more about Kelly’s encounters with Zora, check out her story from This American Life.

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A plot of old-growth forest in the Bronx is the largest surviving remnant of New York City's original woodland. This episode was produced by Nora Ritchie.

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Kelly, Jerome, and Amanda answer some questions from a very autumnal mailbag – from visiting the LA version of a classic pumpkin patch (80 degrees, full sun, in a parking lot) to the best ways to get some chills and thrills ahead of Halloween.

Places mentioned in this episode:

• TheLA Natural History Museum Spider Pavilion, Los Angeles, CA
• Paranormal Activity on Broadway, NYC
• Loved To Death Oddities, San Francisco, CA
• The Griswold Inn, Essex, CT

If you have a question for our next one, give us a call, 315-992-7902, and leave a message. You can also record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com or email us your question!

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We step foot into the Haines Shoe House, a famous shoemaker’s ambitious advertising experiment. Then, we trek to the World Famous Giant Shoe Museum, a giant collection from a man’s giant fixation.

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On Fridays this October, we're surfacing strange, incredible and sometimes spooky stories. This episode centers on cakes with a particular ingredient that some believe protected them from witchery - and sparked one of the best-known witch hunts in United States history.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-are-witch-cakes

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Today we're powering up our metal detectors and keeping a very close eye on the surface of the earth as we set out in the hunt for meteorites with Steve Arnold, who’s been in the game for more than three decades. If you want to learn more, check out Steve’s website, and read this profile of the meteorite hunting community.

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There’s an organ in Halberstadt, Germany that began to play in 2001 and will continue to play until the year 2640. This is the John Cage Organ Project Halberstadt.

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We go to Fayerweather Island, off the coast of Connecticut, and get the story of Kate Moore, one of the first recorded woman lighthouse keepers. Over several decades, she poured her heart and soul into a task and defied common expectations of what a keeper should be.

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The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has a very unusual artifact in its collection: an object that’s been called “the world’s most dangerous toy.” It’s a science kit from the 1950s, designed to teach kids about the atom and atomic energy, but the twist is…it contains real samples of uranium. We explore the kit’s contents, and the context in which it was made.

• Check out the Atlas Obscura video of the kit, and our past episode on Atomic Las Vegas
• Explore the archival material mentioned in this episode:“Duck and Cover” (1951), “A is for Atom” (1953), and President Eisenhower’s“Atoms for Peace” speech

Did you have one of these Atomic Energy Lab kits or other atomic toys? Or how about toys that would be considered dangerous today? We want to hear from you: Drop us a line at hello@atlasobscura.com or call us 315-992-7902 and leave a message.

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On Fridays this October, we're surfacing strange, incredible, sometimes haunted and sometimes spooky places. This episode takes us back to1976, when a television crew filming an episode of the show “The Six Million Dollar Man” descended on a rundown funhouse in Long Beach, California. While filming, they accidentally broke the arm off a wax dummy. Except...it wasn't a wax dummy. It was a real body. The body of a notorious train robber from the early 1900s, named Elmer McCurdy. Check out the Atlas entry for Elmer McCurdy’s grave.

For more information on Elmer, we recommend Mark Svenvold’s book “Elmer McCurdy: The Misadventures in Life and Afterlife of an American Outlaw.”

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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.

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Today, we go to the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, and meet the two historians who are working to better connect us to the mysteries and beauty of the human body.

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