Program 684: Obscure Museums; Peloponnesian and Mythical Greece

Release Date: 08-06-2022

Description

Rick checks in with Dylan Thuras from Atlas Obscura to discuss a few of their favorite small, sometimes eccentric museums around the world. Then author Peter Fiennes describes some of the real sites where Greek myths were set, and how they can speak to us today. And two historian tour guides share some of their top reasons to visit the Peloponnese, the giant peninsula just an hour's drive south of Athens.

Guests

  • Dylan Thuras, co-founder of Atlas Obscura
  • Greek tour guide Anastasia Gaitanou
  • Tour guide and Greece specialist David Willett 
  • Peter Fiennes, author of "A Thing of Beauty" (One World) 

Additional Info

  • Dylan Thuras is the co-founder of Atlas Obscura, and co-authors their "Atlas Obscura" and "Gastro Obscura" books. 
  • Obscure small museums that Dylan Thuras and Rick discuss include La Specola Anatomical Collection in Florence, Italy, the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb Croatia, the Third Man Museum in Vienna, The Institute of Illegal Images in San Francisco, Electric Lady of Fluorescent Art in Amsterdam, the Museum of Bad Art in Boston, Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne Switzerland, the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland Maine, the Loch Ness Centre and Exhibition at Inverness Scotland, and the Sausage Museum in Holzhausen Germany. 
  • Anastasia Gaitanou, based in Thessaloniki, and David Willett, based in New South Wales Australia, are tour guides and experts in ancient Greece.
  • More about Anastasia and David.
  • Rick writes about the Peloponnesian Peninsula as "Greece's Unspoiled Escape."
  • Peter Fiennes writes about his journeys to connect Greek myths to the issues of today, in his latest book "A Thing of Beauty."
  • Peter wrote about visiting the sites mentioned in Greek mythology for the Daily Beast.

Haiku Awards

Memories won't fade
August 6, Hiroshima
Bells toll all the day
— Barbara Geraghty, West Chester, Pennsylvania 

 

One month in Munich
Around every corner
History unfolds
— Lisa Mighetto, Seattle, Washington 

 

A horse and buggy
The South is always healing
The whip is for show 
— Daniel Roberts, Lambertville, New Jersey 

 

Sir Christopher Wren.
Romans, Normans, Saxons, Kings.
London, my true home.
— Kathy Seifert, Santa Clarita, California 

Program Extras

More with Peter Fiennes - Rick asks Peter Fiennes, author of "A Thing of Beauty," what he thinks we can learn from the Greek people, to help us cope with the challenges of today. (runs 1:29)