Pulitzer Prize winner Beverly Gage explains how a road trip to the places where history happened can renew your faith in American progress, without ignoring an honest assessment of the nation's past. And the good folks from Atlas Obscura share some of their favorite quirky and unique American roadside attractions.

• Yale University historian Beverly Gage, author of "This Land is Your Land" (Simon & Schuster)
• Atlas Obscura co-founder and author Dylan Thuras and author/editor Ella Morton

• Dylan Thuras is the co-founder of Atlas Obscura. Dylan also co-authors their "Atlas Obscura" and "Gastro Obscura" books.
• Ella Morton is now a freelance writer, specializing in history and culture.
• Unusual American sites that Dylan and Ella describe in today's interview include the "House on the Rock" in Spring Green, Wisconsin; the by-reservation-only City earthenworks sculpture in Garden Valley, Nevada; the Bishop Castle in Rye, Colorado; the stalagpipe organ at Luray Caverns in Virginia; and the 200-acre outdoor Mississippi River Basin model, in Buddy Butts Park, just outside Jackson, Mississippi.
• Beverly Gage teaches 20th-century American history at Yale University, and is the author of "This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History."
• Beverly is featured in many American history documentaries on C-SPAN, and is scheduled to appear at the National Book Festival at the Library of Congress on Saturday, August 22, 2026.