Atlas Obscura’s resident food and death reporter Sam O’Brien takes us to Smithfield, Virginia, where we meet a 120-year-old ham, and the people who love it. All week, we’re featuring the stories behind a few of our favorite things – from ancient hams to mummified fingers. Want to tell us about your own favorite unusual object? Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message, record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com. We may air your story on a future episode!

We visit the world’s oldest rose, which is so tough that it survived being bombed in World War II. All week, we’re featuring the stories behind a few of our favorite things – from ancient hams to mummified fingers. Want to tell us about your own favorite unusual object? Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message, record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com. We may air your story on a future episode!

We explore the unexpected combination of recipes and graves through the story of Naomi Odessa Miller Dawson’s spritz cookies. All week, we’re featuring the stories behind a few of our favorite things – from ancient hams to mummified fingers. Want to tell us about your own favorite unusual object? Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message, record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com. We may air your story on a future episode!

Dylan goes on a journey to examine the preserved middle finger of astronomer, physicist, and engineer Galileo Galilei. All week, we’re featuring the stories behind a few of our favorite things – from ancient hams to mummified fingers. Want to tell us about your own favorite unusual object? Give us a call at 315-992-7902 and leave a message, record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com. We may air your story on a future episode!

Created by a volcanic eruption in 2015, this island in the South Pacific no longer exists… but we chat with a person who got to see it before it disappeared.

We talk with anthropologist Manvir Singh, whose research on shamanism took him from the small island of Siberut to study current practitioners, to exploring prehistoric cave art in France. It’s the subject of his new book, “Shamanism: The Timeless Religion” – and in it he also argues that we can find elements of shamanism in our own lives. Find out more about Manvir Singh’s work: https://www.manvir.org/

Dylan has just returned from a month-long trip with his family, and he and the gang answer listener questions about traveling with kids and more. Have a question for Dylan? 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 Hello@AtlasObscura.com, or simply email your question.

Listeners share stories about how they commute to work and back home as they also reflect on how special their neighborhood is too. Plus: We wanna hear stories about your first time traveling with your kids. Tell us about that experience - where did you and your family travel to? And why there? How did your kids adjust to traveling? Did they love it? Or did they give you a hard time traveling? What memories did you make from that trip? Was this the right place for kids? What would you recommend to other parents traveling with their kids for the first time? 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 you can record a voice memo and email it to us at hello@atlasobscura.com Plus: The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide to Inventing the World is out now!

Earlier this year a geologist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science got a very unusual phone call. A construction crew ripping up the museum’s parking lot had found… dinosaur bones. We dig deeper and get a taste of what it would have been like to visit the Denver area during the Cretaceous Period. See the parking lot dino fossil: https://www.dmns.org/science/research/parking-lot-dinosaur/ Check out the rock slab that “shows” the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event: https://coloradosprings.dmns.org/dmnshomepage/catalyst/fall-2024/recorded-in-stone-single-worst-day-for-multicellular-life-on-earth//

For years, students at Bennington College snuck into a locked room for a glimpse of strange and magical instruments created by professor Gunnar Schonbeck. Today, we join his orchestra.