The Atlas Obscura Podcast

• Theatricum Botanicum (Classic)

  A once-blacklisted Hollywood star created a magical theater in Topanga Canyon, California, that still endures and inspires today.READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/theatricum-botanicum

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• Sweden’s Last Night Watchman

  In Ystad, Sweden, every night at 9pm a night watchman scans the horizon for fires from the tower of St Mary’s Church, and sounds his trumpet to let the city know it is safe. This tradition goes back to the Medieval Ages. The Night Watchman of Ystad is one of the last keeping his tradition, and today his role has taken on an even bigger significance. Author and journalist Eliot Stein takes us through the evolution of the night watchman. Read more in Eliot’s book, Custodians of Wonder.

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• Who Put a Crack in The Glen Canyon Dam?

  Utah bookseller Ken Sanders has spent his life fighting the Glen Canyon Dam. Inspired by a band of cowboy ecoterrorists in his favorite Western novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang, Ken's used his own blend of hijinks and illegal actions to free the Colorado River. For years he thought he'd failed. But these days, he sees a glimmer of hope that something big is about to change. 

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• Fordlandia

  In the 1920s, Henry Ford decided to create a rubber plantation in the Amazon rainforest, and alongside it, a tidy little town for his workers: Fordlandia. With its classic American homes and yards, sidewalks and electric streetlights, Fordlandia was a Midwestern anomaly in the Brazilian jungle, one that dazzled American visitors. And it might have actually been a decent place to live – if it weren’t governed by Henry Ford’s rigid and peculiar rules for a wholesome society.Read more in Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin.

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• Dylan’s Mailbag: Work Travel, What to Read, and Solo Travel at 60

  Dylan and producers Amanda and Johanna take listener questions. If you have a question for our next mailbag episode, give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message. You can also record a voice memo and email it to us at [email protected], or simply email your question.

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