Rae Wynn-Grant, Ph.D. is a wildlife ecologist specializing in large carnivores. And in this episode she unfolds a mystery for listeners. 

To hear more about her encounter with a lion: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/podcast/not-your-average-field-trip/

Empress Anna’s Ice Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia was the site of an incredibly strange wedding. Was it a cruel joke? A strategic power move? Or something else?

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/russia-anna-ioannovna-ice-palace-castle

Lee's Legendary Marbles & Collectables in York, Nebraska is a pilgrimage of sorts for serious collectors and a curiosity for the casual passerby.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lees-legendary-marbles-collectables

This intricately carved church in Luster is one of Norway’s great treasures of architecture.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/urnes-stave-church

The Luray Caverns in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia are home to an instrument that draws out the secret sounds of millenia-old stone.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-great-stalacpipe-organ-luray-virginia

The José María Azael Franco Guerrero Cemetery in Tulcán, Ecuador is a topiary anomaly and a lush green paradise for the dead.

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tulcan-municipal-cemetery

This abandoned lodge in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique has been reclaimed by local lions - a story deeply enmeshed in the larger history of the country.  

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-lion-house-gorongosa-mozambique

Further Reading: 

S is for Samora (book by Sarah Lefanu)

Let My People Go (poem by Noémia de Sousa)

Apartheid’s Contras: An Inquiry Into the Roots of War in Angola and Mozambique (pdf book by William Minter)

The Mozambican Civil War (1977-1992) (article by Samuel Momodu, BlackPast.org)

Mozambique History Net (Resource)

A Year in Gorongosa (film by Augusto Bila, narrated by Gabriela Curtiz)

In Mozambique, a Living Laboratory for Nature’s Renewal (article by Natalie Angier, The New York Times)

Narrative Fortresses: Crisis Narratives and Conflict in the Conservation of Mount Gorongosa, Mozambique (article by Christy Schuetze)

White Man's Game: Saving Animals, Rebuilding Eden, and Other Myths of Conservation in Africa (book by Stephanie Hanes)

Jonathan Carey and Michelle Cassidy of the Atlas Places Team bring you stories of how sometimes giant monuments built for a specific site need to go on a journey. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/yakhchals

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/snowflake-bentley

This internationally recognized jazz lounge has been running for more than a century. Its guests have included Frank Sinatra, Charlie Chaplin and less reputable icons like Al Capone.

Host Dylan Thuras visits a Staten Island mansion with a dubious and vitriolic past, only to learn the site’s curse may not be as obvious as it seems. 

READ MORE IN THE ATLAS:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kreischer-mansion