Episode notes
Alex Schmidt, Katie Goldin, and special guest Jason Pargin explore why ghost towns are secretly incredibly fascinating.
Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.
LINKS FOR JASON PARGIN:
- PRE-ORDER the about-to-be-published new novel by Jason Pargin: There Are No Giant Crabs in This Novel: A Novel of Giant Crabs
- BUY the new paperback edition of I’m Starting To Worry About This Black Box Of Doom
- Jason Pargin guesting on ‘Go Fact Yourself’ Ep. 135 (Maximum Fun)
- Jason Pargin on Tiktok
- “Bigfeets” (1900HOTDOG and Apple Podcasts)
- Jason’s website
- Jason’s Substack
LINKS FOR KATIE GOLDIN:
- Katie Goldin on Bluesky
- @ProBirdRights on Bluesky
- ‘Creature Feature’ podcast (iHeartRadio)
- When Is a Bird a ‘Birb’? An Extremely Important Guide (Audubon)
RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
- native-land.ca
- U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
- The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland (Smithsonian)
- “Finding Lenapehoking” (YouTube / Hudson River Maritime Museum)
- Why Do They Call It Beacon? (The Highlands Current)
- Dutch & Native American Heritage In The Hudson River Valley (National Park Service)
RESEARCH SOURCES:
- Arizona Ghost Towns and Mining Camps: A Travel Guide to History by Philip Varney
- Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee Newitz
- The History-Rich Ghost Town of Cairo, Ill. (NumismaticNews.net)
- Inside the abandoned city of Pripyat, 30 years after Chernobyl – in pictures (The Guardian)
- Chernobyl: Chapter III. Reactions of national authorities (Nuclear Energy Agency)
- The Rebirth of Pennsylvania’s Infamous Burning Town (Atlas Obscura)
- This Mine Fire Has Been Burning For Over 50 Years (History.com)
- ‘Special day’: Detroit hits population growth milestone, beats all other Michigan cities (CBC News)
- Detroit’s population shows increase for third year in a row, Census data shows (CBS News)
- 10 Ways Philadelphia Has Changed in 75 Years (Pew Foundation)
- MacArthur Foundation, UIC report examines population shifts in Chicago, metro area (University Of Illinois Chicago)
- McGill Drugstore Museum (Atlas Obscura)
- Bodie State Historic Park (California State Parks)
- Place: Bodie Historic District (U.S. National Parks Service)
- Bodie State Historic Park (World Monuments Fund)
- The California Gold Rush (U.S. National Parks Service)
- A Guide to a Delightful Weekend in Old-World Walhalla (“Traveling Tam” travel blog)
- The ghost town that electrified the US (BBC News)
- Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark (U.S. National Parks Service)
- See eerie pictures inside a Namibian ghost town (National Geographic)
- Kolmanskop Ghost Town — Namibia (Atlas Obscura)
- An Old Box Factory Is a Haven for New Art (The New York Times)
- Looking Back at Beacon’s 100 Years (The Highlands Current)
- As Fiat stalls, Italy’s Turin struggles to stave off decline (Reuters)
- text of Colin Powell speech at the United Nations, February 5th 2003, hosted by website of George Washington University
- Former mines: Radium Hill mine (Government of South Australia)
- Elliot Lake (The Canadian Encyclopedia)
- Elliot Lake: The City that “Shocked” Me (Population and Place Research Lab Canada)
- Mining: How yellowcake shaped the West (High Country News)
- Jeffrey City’s Not Dead: The Voices Of A Modern Wyoming ‘Ghost Town’ (Cowboy State Daily)
- Explore the haunting remains of an Antarctic whaling boomtown (PBS News)
- Deception Island — Antarctica (Atlas Obscura)
- Abandoned in Antarctica (Atlas Obscura)
- Red Zone: France’s Zone Rouge is a lingering reminder of World War I’s Battle of Verdun. (National Geographic)
- Zone Rouge — Fleury-devant-Douaumont, France (Atlas Obscura)
- You Can Still Die From World War I Dangers in France’s Red Zones (Atlas Obscura)
- Oradour-sur-Glane: Martyred Village (U.S. National WWII Museum)
- Oradour-sur-Glane (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)
- History of Hydropower: When Was Hydropower Invented? (U.S. Department Of Energy)
- A Ghost Town Drowned 88 Years Ago. Now, It’s Rising Again. (Popular Mechanics)
- The Lost Town of Proctor — Bryson City, North Carolina (Atlas Obscura)
- This Canadian Lake Hides an Underwater Ghost Town (Smithsonian Magazine)
- The Underwater Ghost Towns of Appalachia (“The Wandering Appalachian” travel blog)
- Old Kernville aka Whiskey Flat — No. 132 California Historical Landmark (SierraNevadaGeotourism.org)
- Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Copper
- Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Glow-In-The-Dark Stuff
- Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Antarctica
- Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: U.S. Minor Outlying Islands
In this episode...
Guests
- Jason Pargin
About the show
A weekly podcast about the history, science, lore and surprises that make everyday things secretly incredibly fascinating. Hosted by comedy writer, emoji creator, and ‘Jeopardy!‘ champion Alex Schmidt. Join Alex & his co-host Katie Goldin for a joyful deep dive into seeing the world a whole new way!
Get in touch with the show
@sifpod
@sifpod
SIF on Discord!People
How to listen
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