The Atlas Obscura Podcast

For thousands of years, a massive bat colony has lived in a cave about 30 minutes from San Antonio, Texas. Ryan Huling, author of the Book "The Hidden Nations of Animals," tells us all about it.

If you want to hear about Ryan’s journey to visit other animal colonies, check out our episode titled: “The Animal Worlds We Rarely See."

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Producer Talon Stradley takes us on a tour of three skinny houses – each with a big story inside. Do these skinny houses have you curious about spite houses?

Check out that episode here.

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We will always love Dolly Parton, who installed a “dreambox” time capsule at her amusement park. In it, there’s a secret song that no one will hear until the legendary artist turns 100. Dolly Parton died this week at age 80, sparking a global outpouring of grief and tributes.



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In the 1700s, a farmer plowing his fields near the English town of Silchester uncovered a very large gold ring dating back to Roman times, inscribed with the name “Senecianus.” Seventy miles away, in the remains of an old Roman temple complex, a curse tablet was discovered targeting a man named Senecianus who made off with a ring. Coincidence? 

Another possible coincidence: one of the academic experts brought in to the excavation of the Roman temple site was J.R.R. Tolkien – who later became famous as the author of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” which involve, of course, a cursed ring.  

Related Atlas entries:

The Vyne, the English country house that is home to the ring https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-vyne

Lydney Camp, the remains of the Roman temple where the curse tablet was found https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lydney-camp

If you’re into this whole curse table thing, we recommend an older episode of the show about the Complaint Tablet of Ea-Nasir

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For decades, the sailing stones of Death Valley were a mystery. They'd show up in lists of the world's unexplained phenomena, alongside the Bermuda Triangle and ball lightning. But then, two cousins came along and decided to ruin everything by solving this mystery once and for all.

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