Pandemic

Five years after the initial COVID-19 lockdown, the AO team reflects on the places that brought them joy, comfort, and connection during a difficult time.

Atlas Obscura Podcast listeners called us to share their stories about the places they explored during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What does it take to run your abandoned town?

When medicine and folklore collide, strange things happen.

We don't know if they'll ever sing their old songs again.

Amid COVID-19, some have swapped urban bustle for rural nostalgia.

To get to know a new town, start with its charming local oddities, like a herd of toy horses in a field.

It was all thanks to a gardener, a wagon, and a sense of pandemic-era camaraderie.

Meet Koronon—cute, cuddly, and a big fan of masks.

More than a year into the pandemic, scientists are seeing the impact of disposable gloves and masks on ecosystems.

From popping in for a pint to putting on the green, erratic lockdowns have left locals in limbo along the English-Welsh border.

They whiled away the dark months with poetry, banjos, and Russian grammar—and you can, too.

Here's how the scrappy Enchanted Forest is struggling to survive the pandemic.

It's not quite curtains for the "panto" tradition.

A Dutch science museum was set to showcase the horrors of contagion. Then came coronavirus.

Researchers are hoping to use the opportunity to get a better handle on their language.