WHY IT RATES: Curious listeners are able to discover interesting places around the globe through this new podcast. —Codie Liermann, Senior Editor

Stitcher’s Witness Docs unit has teamed with the award-winning travel and experiences company Atlas Obscura to launch a new daily podcast that celebrates the world’s strange, incredible and unexpected places. The Atlas Obscura Podcast launched on March 15.

Atlas Obscura’s mission is to inspire wonder and curiosity about the incredible world we all share. With its new podcast, Atlas Obscura co-founder and host Dylan Thuras takes listeners on an audio quest to discover new and hidden places; perhaps on the other side of the world, or perhaps in one’s own backyard. Once there, listeners hear stories and history from the incredible people who make these places special.

With each richly produced episode clocking in at under 15 minutes, The Atlas Obscura Podcast serves as a daily escape at a time when we need it most. Destinations around the globe include The Gates of Hell in Turkmenistan, The National Science Museum of Japan in Tokyo, The Oldest Swimming Pool in Iceland, The Dead Sea Scrolls Ruins in the West Bank—as well as U.S. sights like a Memorial to The First Monkey Sent to Space in Huntsville, AL, National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, MD, Institute of Illegal Images in San Francisco, CA, and Grasshopper Glacier in Park County, MT.

“We've all spent much of the last year at home, and I think everyone is eager for a chance to experience a bit more of the world. This podcast is an invitation to travel to some of the world’s most interesting and surprising places, to hear their stories, and meet the people behind them,” said Atlas Obscura Co-Founder Dylan Thuras. “From communist mummies to the living root bridges, the show is an auditory tour of the world’s hidden wonders and the sometimes extraordinary ways they connect to our own lives.”

“The Atlas Obscura Podcast” is produced by Dylan Thuras, Doug Baldinger, Chris Naka, Kameel Stanley, Sarah Wyman and John DeLore. The theme and end credit music is by Sam Tyndall, and the show is mixed by Luz Fleming.

You can listen to the trailer and subscribe to “The Atlas Obscura Podcast” on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all major podcast apps.

SOURCE: Atlas Obscura press release.