Shows
Off the PathVampires! On a Boat! In New York City!Every Halloween, WSHU’s Off the Path gets a little .... spooky. Visits to Lizzie Borden’s house, a haunted pirate cave, and Sleepy Hollow, to name a few. This year, reporter Davis Dunavin finds himself on a boat in the middle of New York Harbor — surrounded by creatures of the night — for New York City’s 5th annual vampire cruise.The Gothic Vampire Cruise on the Hudson is co-hosted and features music by The Sedona Effect
2025-10-3106 min
Off the PathTrailer: Where It All BeganThis season on Off The Path, Davis Dunavin digs deep to explore the origins of things that are ubiquitous, Teddy Roosevelt, the tuxedo, the first video game, as well as those stories we think we already know, like the first airplane flight or stories that aren't as well-known, like the beginnings of the artist behind the Barack Obama “Hope” poster. But every single episode involves an element of surprise, an ironic twist or a fascinating connection you might not expect when the story begins.
2025-05-2202 minOff the PathOff the Plank: The Ranzo Boys are Young, Queer and Here to Sing Sea ShantiesThis season of "Off the Path" has featured music from the Ranzo Boys, a New York City-based traditional folk music trio. In this episode, Davis Dunavin sits down with the Ranzo Boys to learn more about the stories behind the songs.
2024-08-2214 minOff the PathOff the Plank: TrailerHost Davis Dunavin previews his upcoming adventure at sea! Among other things, you’ll hear about quite a few pirates in this series, which is why we decided to call it Off the Plank.
2024-05-0601 minOff the PathChicken Farmer I Still Love YouThere are six words spray painted on a rock along a highway near Newbury, New Hampshire. How they got there is still a mystery. Davis Dunavin took a drive up Route 103 to see the mystery rock — and maybe get some answers.
2023-07-0612 minOff the PathOff the Path: TrailerHost Davis Dunavin is back on the road as he previews his next set of adventures on a new season of Off the Path!
2023-05-2402 min
Still NewtownStill Newtown: TrailerIn this deeply compelling and thoughtful podcast, WSHU’s Davis Dunavin asks: How does a community come out the other side of tragedy?
2022-11-1602 minOff the PathFolk Songs: Opening up traditional music to new audiencesMusician Nicole Singer, the organizer of Youth Traditional Song Weekend, which took place online this month due to the pandemic, is trying to bring young people and non-traditional audiences into folk music.
2022-01-1805 minOff the PathFolk Songs: Sea Shanties are the sound of New England's nautical historySea shanties have enjoyed some renewed attention on social media. A lot of them have strong ties to New England’s maritime culture and whaling industry.
2021-12-1607 minOff the PathFolk Songs: An 'Exceedingly Good' Night of MusicA group singalong has hopped from bar to bar in New York City for years — and in the age of the pandemic, it lives on Zoom. It’s called Exceedingly Good Song Night.
2021-11-2307 minOff the PathFolk Songs: A folk dancing camp for the peopleThere’s a camp in the woods of Massachusetts where traditional styles of folk music and dance from around the world are kept alive. It’s the oldest continuously operated folk dance camp in the United States. It’s called the Pinewoods Camp.
2021-11-0406 min
Off the PathBeyond Salem: New England's other witch hunts were in ConnecticutAt least 11 people were executed for witchcraft in Connecticut. And they’re far less remembered than the victims of Salem.
2021-10-2109 minOff the PathOff the Path — Garden State: The Institute Of 'Useless Knowledge'The Institute for Advanced Study doesn’t have any students or classes. There’s no regular daily agenda full of meetings and conferences. The scholars here don’t even have to research any specific topic.
2021-09-3011 minOff the PathOff The Path - Garden State: The House Where Sinatra Still SingsIt’s not unusual to hear music on a boardwalk in New Jersey on a nice summer day. But there’s one house where the music has played all day, every summer, for 20 years.
2021-09-1505 minOff the PathOff The Path — Garden State: The Secret Behind the Monopoly BoardHow did Atlantic City end up as the inspiration for all those place names in Monopoly — Marvin Gardens, Park Place, the Boardwalk? It’s a tale of race and social conflict you’d never suspect when you sit down to play one of America’s most famous board games.
2021-08-2609 minOff the PathOff the Path Revisited: The Love Shack is For SaleInterested in a kitschy, kooky and cool Catskills motel? How about one previously owned by B-52s singer Kate Pierson? Kate listed her motel for sale this summer. Revisit Davis's 2018 trip to "Kate's Lazy Meadow" and decide if you'd like to visit a real-life Love Shack — or maybe own it outright.
2021-08-1307 minOff the PathOff the Path Revisited: America's Favorite Viewing MachineIf you're on the road this summer, you may find yourself looking at a scenic vista through one of those coin-operated viewing machines. You know the ones — binoculars on poles, encased in a metal shell. And if you do, there's a good chance you're looking through a machine assembled in a small factory in Norwalk, Connecticut.
2021-07-3005 minOff the PathOff The Path Revisited: ‘The Little Prince’ On Long Island‘Off the Path’ is taking a summer break, but we’re revisiting a few of our favorite episodes. In 2019, Davis visited Long Island to learn the story of a French classic — ‘The Little Prince’ — written not in France, but on Long Island’s North Shore.
2021-07-1606 minOff the PathOff the Path: Revisited — Manhattan's Wild CornerThere’s a place in Manhattan that makes you feel like you just took a trip on the Wayback Machine — to the 1600s, when European settlers first arrived. And you can find it all the way up on the northern tip of Manhattan Island in Inwood Hill Park.
2021-06-1407 minOff the PathOff The Path: Breaking The Tiffany Glass CeilingTiffany lampshades — made of leaded glass — are icons of American art. Louis Comfort Tiffany showed them to the public for the first time in the 1890s. It was always assumed Tiffany designed all his lamps. But it took a century to recognize the contributions of the women who designed many of them — thanks to some long-lost letters.
2021-04-2908 minOff the PathOff The Path: What's In America's First Cookbook?The tradition of American cooking can trace its origin to a single cookbook — published less than a decade after the U.S. Constitution. It was the first to present recipes of the new world, instead of just copying English and French dishes. And it’s called — simply — American Cookery.
2021-04-1507 minOff the PathOff The Path: Mr. Vanderbilt's Wild RideA dashing young heir to one of America’s most famous families had a dream. He loved to race expensive cars, and he wanted a road tailor-made to do it. He built his speedway on Long Island in 1908. It was the first road in the country designed just for cars. He called it the Long Island Motor Parkway — also known as the Vanderbilt Parkway. For more information on the Vanderbilt Cup races and the Long Island Motor Parkway — and to read Vanderbilt's wild speech in its entirety — visit vanderbiltcupraces.com.
2021-03-2508 minOff the PathOff The Path: Stars Fell On ConnecticutA meteorite fell from the sky into a field in rural Connecticut more than 200 years ago. It didn’t cause much damage, but it did put American science on the map. And it's preserved at Yale University’s Peabody Museum.
2021-03-1106 minOff the PathOff The Path: Why Are So Many Great Authors Buried In Concord, Massachusetts?Four of America’s greatest authors lived in the same small town in the mid-1800s. Now they're all buried there together, just a few steps away from each other.
2021-02-2508 minOff the PathOff The Path: Why Is This Field Full of Rocking Horses?There’s something weirdly unexpected along a drive down a winding country road in Lincoln, Massachusetts. You round a corner and there, in a field, is a herd of children’s rocking horses. The locals call it Ponyhenge.
2021-02-1106 minOff the PathOff The Path: You Could Own Lizzie Borden's HouseFor sale: a charming New England Bed & Breakfast in Fall River, Massachusetts. Victorian style, three floors, eight bedrooms. A little pricey at $2 million. But it’s a rare find — because it's the site of one of the most gruesome murders in American history.
2021-02-0307 minOff the PathOff The Path: How Did A Connecticut Town Take On The Nazis?American Nazis built dozens of youth camps around the U.S. in the years leading up to World War II. The purpose was to indoctrinate German-American kids into the Nazi ideology. There’s only one place we know of that stood up to them and ran them out of town: Southbury, Connecticut.
2021-01-2107 minOff the PathOff The Path: John Oliver vs. Danbury — A Very 2020 SagaFor Off the Path's last episode of 2020, Davis takes us to a place that may be the perfect symbol for the year — a sewage treatment plant in Danbury, Connecticut. This unlikely tourist attraction ended up on the map this year thanks to comedian John Oliver, host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight.
2020-12-3007 min
Community PulseRegional differences in COVID-19 responses and reportingDavis Dunavin, WSHU news reporter
2020-12-2331 minOff the PathOff The Path: America's First Pet CemeteryThousands of animals — and not just dogs and cats — have their final resting place in the oldest pet cemetery in the United States. It’s a family-owned business, lovingly cared for on a five-acre hillside just outside New York City.
2020-12-1706 minOff the PathOff The Path: Weird Atomic Beasts Who Live Off Human Blood! It Came From Stamford.The 1964 movie "The Horror of Party Beach" has been called one of the worst films of all time. And yet it’s become a cult classic. It was filmed — on a beach — in Stamford, Connecticut.
2020-11-2508 minOff the PathOff The Path: Freedom from FearThe Norman Rockwell museum in Stockbridge, Mass., has welcomed back four old friends. They were touring the country for two years. The “friends” are illustrations called the “Four Freedoms” that Rockwell based on a speech given by President Roosevelt before the US entered World War II. They still hold a lot of resonance today.
2020-11-0212 minOff the PathThrilling Tales of Terror: Why We Love To Be ScaredA headless horseman roams a sleepy hollow. Unearthly sounds echo out of a small mountain in Connecticut. The spirit of a lovesick woman haunts a lake on Long Island, where she lures men to their deaths.
2020-10-291h 10Off the PathOff The Path: The Mysterious Moodus NoisesSome of the first European settlers in Connecticut heard mysterious rumblings that came from a small mountain in the town of East Haddam. Those sounds have inspired centuries of spooky tales about witches, ghosts, demons and a mysterious wizard. Davis Dunavin reports as part of the WSHU series Off the Path from New York to Boston.
2020-10-2209 minOff the PathOff The Path: Life In The RuinsThere’s an old abandoned hospital on Roosevelt Island in New York City. It was built for smallpox patients in the mid-1800s, but no one's used it for more than half a century. Today, its ruins loom over the southern edge of the island, looking out on the East River. And it’s become a playground for wayward cats.
2020-10-1006 minOff the PathOff The Path: Murder on Smuttynose IslandThere’s a tiny 27-acre island off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire called Smuttynose Island. The population in 1873 was six. So it shocked the country when two of them were brutally murdered — an event that led to the publication of the book "Mystery on the Isles of Shoals," by J. Dennis Robinson. WSHU’s Davis Dunavin brings us the story as part of the podcast ‘Off the Path from New York to Boston.’ And a caution — this story contains disturbing details about two murders.
2020-09-1709 minOff the PathTaylor Swift and the 'Last Great American Dynasty'Pop star Taylor Swift’s songs often draw from her own life. For her new album, Folklore, Swift turned to a new muse: an eccentric heiress who once owned Swift’s multi-million-dollar beachfront mansion in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. WSHU’s Davis Dunavin brings us the story as part of the podcast Off the Path from New York to Boston.
2020-09-0306 minOff the PathLGBTQ Stories: Harlem's 100-year-old drag showsThe oldest drag shows in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood may date back to 1869 — four years after the Civil War and a century before the Stonewall Riots.
2020-08-1407 minOff the PathOff the Path Revisited: The Voynich ManuscriptIt’s one of the world’s great literary mysteries: a 15th century book full of bizarre illustrations of imaginary plants, astrological signs, surreal figures and landscapes. Its origins are unknown, its creator anonymous. And it’s written entirely in an unknown language that’s stumped the world’s greatest codebreakers.
2020-07-3107 minOff the PathOff the Path Revisited: Touro SynagogueThis story first aired in 2018. It was inspired by a line from the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “Hamilton,” now streaming on Disney Plus. It's a real line from a letter written by George Washington: "Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid."
2020-07-0307 minOff the PathThe People's Food, Cooked The Feminist WayUntil we get fully back on the road again, I’m checking in with a few establishments that are a little closer to home. Here's one just down the road from me. Bloodroot is a vegetarian restaurant and feminist bookstore on the banks of Long Island Sound in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
2020-06-1906 minOff the PathOff The Path Revisited: The Elephant ManOff the Path is slowing down a bit for the summer (as are we all.) In the meantime, we're revisiting some classic stories. This episode originally aired February 1, 2018.
2020-05-2908 minOff the PathA Garden Of BooksI don’t say this lightly – The Book Barn might top my list of all-time favorite establishments.
2020-05-0805 minOff the PathBehold The Mechanical MessiahThirteen brothers and sisters made up the Hutchinson Family Singers. They toured the United States and Europe. And they drew crowds of thousands of people.
2020-04-1708 minOff the PathBe(a)manCesar Beman marched and fought with black and white soldiers during the Revolutionary War up and down the Hudson River. But he wasn’t supposed to be there.
2020-04-0307 minOff the PathThe Man Who Defied GravityAn economic genius is remembered for predicting the 1929 stock market crash that led to the Great Depression. His last words of wisdom live on – stenciled on a series of boulders in a Massachusetts ghost town.
2020-03-2008 minOff the PathA Quirk Of The Map And A Wild PrizefightNote: The area today known as “Boston Corners” was once known as the singular “Boston Corner” – no “s.” To avoid confusion, this story refers to the area by its contemporary name throughout.
2020-02-2806 minOff the PathDrinking The Ale That Never Lets You Grow OldMcSorley’s Old Ale House opened in the 1850s – it’s one of the oldest bars in New York City.
2020-02-1407 minOff the PathSearching For The Lost LimnerTravelling portrait painters were common in the 1800s, but many didn’t even sign their work. There are hundreds of these paintings attributed to one artist: a man named Ammi Phillips.
2020-01-2408 minOff the PathYes Virginia, There Still Is A Santa ClausIt’s probably the most reprinted newspaper editorial in American history, written over 120 years ago. Francis P. Church responded to a question from an 8-year-old who wanted to know if Santa Claus was real, writing famously, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” And the spirit of the letter lives on in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
2019-12-2408 minOff the PathThe Full Story Goes Off The Path: ReduxDavis Dunavin joins The Full Story host Ron Ropiak to talk Dylan, Casablanca and Alice’s Restaurant, plus previews of upcoming stories and more.
2019-12-2328 minOff the PathSherlock Holmes Builds His Dream CastleWilliam Gillette was one of the most famous stage actors in America in the late 19th and early 20th century. He brought Sherlock Holmes to the theatre. Gillette was an eccentric man with an unusual house – actually, a castle full of theatrical flairs. It towers on a cliff overlooking the Connecticut River.
2019-12-1306 minOff the PathYou Can Get Anything You Want At Alice's RestaurantFor the Vietnam War generation, one song has become a thanksgiving staple: “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” by Arlo Guthrie, commonly known simply as “Alice’s Restaurant.”
2019-11-2208 minOff the PathHat City, USA!Danbury, Connecticut, calls itself Hat City, USA. It was the biggest hat manufacturer in America for more than a hundred years. The industry eventually left Danbury, but you can still see bowlers and fedoras on signs and billboards all over its streets. Those hats also left behind another – more complicated – legacy.
2019-11-0809 minOff the PathGrave Of The VampireThere are lots of beautiful historic cemeteries in New England. The oldest headstones date back to the 1600s. Many are faded and mossy. And a few harbor a dark secret. Some people used to believe these were the resting places of the malevolent undead.
2019-10-2508 minOff the PathCasablanca In CambridgeThe enduring legacy of Humphrey Bogart – and his most famous film – is deeply entwined with the story of a one-room theater not far from Harvard Square.
2019-10-1108 minOff the PathThe View That Launched American ArtTwo 19th century artists defined American landscape painting. Their art took them all over the world. But they always returned to the mountains and valleys around New York’s Hudson River.
2019-09-2008 minOff the PathEmmalyn Rides The Flying HorseToday’s story idea came from a listener – 7-year-old Emmalyn Paulsson. She wanted to show me her favorite place: Watch Hill in Westerly, Rhode Island, with its famous merry-go-round.
2019-09-0607 minOff the PathNikola Tesla Dreams of ElectricityNikola Tesla spent years obsessed with a dream to bring wireless communication to the world. He built a laboratory and a huge tower to harness the earth’s energy — but he eventually lost it all — in the village of Shoreham, on Long Island.
2019-08-2307 minOff the PathBob Dylan's First GigBob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Jimi Hendrix have something in common – aside from being music legends. They all performed as unknowns on a small stage in a basement club in Greenwich Village.
2019-08-0207 minOff the PathA Look Ahead To Season 3Off the Path host Davis Dunavin speaks with WSHU Morning Edition host Tom Kuser for a sneak preview at some upcoming stories in the next season.
2019-07-3004 minOff the PathA Look Back At Season 2's Best MomentsOff the Path host Davis Dunavin speaks with Morning Edition host Tom Kuser about the funniest, weirdest and most poignant moments from season two of the podcast.
2019-07-1604 minOff the PathStrawberry MoonDozens of indigenous tribes once lived in the Northeast. And there are places that still share their music, storytelling and agricultural traditions. In Washington, Connecticut, a group of native people celebrate the festival of the Strawberry Moon in mid-June.
2019-06-2704 minOff the PathMark Twain’s Final GiftMark Twain lived all over the country – but spent his last years in the small town of Redding, Connecticut. One of his final acts before he died was to set aside a little money to build the Mark Twain Library.
2019-05-3107 minOff the PathThe Highest Point In Rhode IslandThe highest point in Rhode Island isn’t very high. It’s more like a slight incline. But it was a tricky point to reach for many years. You can find it in a small clearing just off a state road – at a place called Jerimoth Hill.
2019-05-1706 minOff the PathHoly Land USAA 60-foot cross looms on a hilltop above the city of Waterbury, Connecticut. It once welcomed visitors to a popular religious tourist attraction. It was abandoned and decrepit for decades. But there are still people who want to rescue Holy Land, USA.
2019-04-2607 minOff the PathThe Mystery of Dighton RockFor centuries, people have tried to translate the markings on a 40-ton boulder found on the banks of a New England river. That rock, with its mysterious message, is now housed in a small museum in Berkley, Massachusetts.
2019-04-1206 minOff the PathCrossword Geeks Unite!Hundreds of crossword puzzle enthusiasts from around the world gather once a year for two days of intense puzzle solving. And it happens in a pretty unassuming place – a Marriott hotel in Stamford, Connecticut.
2019-03-2904 minOff the PathShakespeare's StarlingsAn eccentric 19th-century New Yorker had a strange fascination -- he wanted to bring every bird mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays to North America. He was very successful with one of them. A little too successful.
2019-03-2207 minOff the PathThe Sunken Towns Underneath The Quabbin ReservoirThe ghostly remains of four towns can be found at the bottom of Boston’s drinking supply. The townsfolk were forced to leave in the 1930s when the state of Massachusetts flooded the area to create a reservoir. But there are many who keep alive the memory of the Swift River Valley.
2019-03-0806 minOff the PathThe Bone WarsTwo 19th century paleontologists spent decades in a bitter feud to find as many new dinosaur species as possible and destroy each other in the process. Their rivalry led to the discovery of many important dinosaur species we know today.
2019-02-1507 minOff the PathThere Shall Be No PainA young dentist in the 1840s is believed to be the first doctor to use nitrous oxide – laughing gas – to dull pain. But the father of anesthesia met a tragic end. His story begins in Hartford, Connecticut, and ends in New York City.
2019-02-0107 minOff the PathManhattan's Wild CornerThere’s a place in Manhattan that makes you feel like you just took a trip on the Wayback Machine – to the 1600s, when European settlers first arrived. And you can find it all the way up on the northern tip of Manhattan Island in Inwood Hill Park.
2019-01-1806 minOff the PathThe Full Story Goes Off The PathIn this special crossover episode, Davis spends some time with Ron Ropiak, host of WSHU’s The Full Story, to share some of his favorite stories, including the history behind the folk song "Charlie on the MTA," the Connecticut connection to "The Great Gatsby" and the notorious Lizzie Borden's Massachusetts home...that's now a B&B.
2019-01-0928 minOff the PathHow 'The Little Prince' Landed On Long Island“The Little Prince” is one of the best-selling books of all time. It was written by a Frenchman, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and translated into 300 languages since its publication in 1943. But the author didn’t write “Le Petit Prince” in his native France – he wrote it in New York. And there’s a wonderful story about a statue of the Little Prince outside a library on Long Island’s North Shore.
2018-12-1406 minOff the PathThe World's Smelliest FruitThe durian is said to be the world’s smelliest fruit. It’s a delicacy in Southeast Asia, but many also find the smell too disgusting – even unbearable. You have to search out places in the U.S. to find durian. On the East Coast, a good bet is New York City’s Chinatown.
2018-11-3004 minOff the PathThe Story Behind The Iconic American Viewing MachineYou’ve probably seen them – and maybe even dropped in a quarter to look through them at some scenic overlook. They’re at the top of the Empire State Building, next to the Golden Gate Bridge and Niagara Falls. Essentially, they’re binoculars on poles. The factory that’s made them longer than anyone else is in Norwalk, Conn. And its employees crisscross the country to service the machines and collect those quarters.
2018-11-0906 minOff the PathLizzie Borden Took An Axe...One of the most notorious crimes in American history was memorialized in a grisly playground chant — Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks. And when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one. The Borden family home, the scene of the crime in 1892, is now a bed and breakfast — not for the faint of heart — in Fall River, Massachusetts.
2018-10-2607 minOff the PathThe Real-Life Love ShackKate Pierson spent decades on tour as one of the vocalists of the legendary rock group the B-52s. You know – the big hairdos? The surf guitars? Love Shack? Turns out, at the same time, Pierson also collected art, antiques and other decor. That collection is now part of her offbeat side project. A cute little roadside motel – a real-life “Love Shack” – just outside Woodstock, New York.
2018-10-0507 minOff the PathEveryone Shall Sit Under Their Own Vine And Fig TreeThe musical "Hamilton" has a lot of catchy music and memorable lyrics. Some of the most memorable come from President George Washington. They’re taken almost verbatim from a letter Washington wrote to the oldest synagogue in America, in Newport, Rhode Island, in which he rebuked bigotry.
2018-09-2106 minOff the PathT.S. Eliot's Seaside ChildhoodT.S. Eliot chose four places to write about in his poem “Four Quartets.” Three of them are in England, but one is a nondescript cluster of rocks off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Eliot’s childhood vacation home is now a retreat for writers. The T.S. Eliot Foundation says it hopes other writers can be inspired by the same idyllic seaside setting that inspired Eliot.
2018-09-0707 minOff the PathWestport Stakes Its Claim To ‘The Great Gatsby’F. Scott Fitzgerald set his novel The Great Gatsby on Long Island’s North Shore – with its opulent mansions, beautiful gardens and decadent parties. But some people think Fitzgerald might have been inspired by another location – across Long Island Sound in Westport, Connecticut.
2018-08-2407 minOff the PathThe Great Boombox ParadeThere might be only one Fourth of July parade that has no live music accompaniment. That’s not to say there isn’t music though. And you can find this parade every Independence Day in Willimantic, a neighborhood in Windham, Connecticut.
2018-07-0606 minOff the PathMorbid AnatomyCemeteries are not places where you’re likely to find a library – except perhaps one that deals with death. This library is the result of one woman’s quest to change how we think and talk about the subject of death. And you’ll find it – at least for now – in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
2018-06-2106 minOff the PathBut Did He Ever Return? No, He Never ReturnedLots of songs have been used as anthems for particular causes or movements. But probably only one for a transit system. The song is the story of Charlie, a hapless commuter who finds himself trapped on the Boston subway.
2018-06-0708 minOff the PathInside Samuel Colt’s 19th Century Tinkerers’ PalaceThe National Park Service has awarded a $750,000 grant to historic Colt Park in Hartford, the factory Samuel Colt started in the 1800s to make his iconic gun. But in 2018, being a gun manufacturer is not so easy. Remington Firearms recently filed for bankruptcy. But the making of guns has been an intricate part of our history. Back in the mid-1800s, one gun maker went beyond just the making of firearms. He wanted to create a workplace utopia at his factory in Hartford, Conn.
2018-05-2506 minOff the PathThere Is A Donald Trump State Park, Believe Me!Most people have no idea there’s a state park named for Donald Trump. It’s a patch of untended weeds and brush that’s been described as an abandoned wasteland in Westchester County, New York. And it’s pretty hard to find.
2018-05-0405 minOff the PathSkull And Bones, And Other Yale Secret SocietiesThere are lots of stories and rumors about secret societies at elite colleges. Skull and Bones is the oldest and most notorious secret college society in America. Not much is known about what goes on at Skull and Bones, but you can easily find its headquarters on the campus of Yale University in New Haven.
2018-04-1805 minOff the PathThe 600-Year-Old Mystery Of The Voynich ManuscriptIt’s one of the world’s great literary mysteries: a 15th century book full of bizarre illustrations of imaginary plants, astrological signs, surreal figures and landscapes. Its origins are unknown, its creator anonymous. And it’s written entirely in an unknown language that’s stumped the world’s greatest codebreakers.
2018-04-0506 minOff the PathThe Man Who Met The Men In BlackMost people think of the Men in Black as the cool, stylish heroes of the movie franchise. They kept the world safe from aliens. But among the UFO subculture, the Men in Black are entirely different. They’re shadowy figures who come after people who claim to experience paranormal activity. The idea of these Men in Black started in the 1950s – and one of the most notorious encounters happened in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
2018-03-2209 minOff the PathThe Haunted 'Annabelle' Doll Of Horror Movies Is Real - And She's In ConnecticutAnnabelle is an ordinary Raggedy Ann doll. But some people believe she’s possessed by a demon, and terrorized a bunch of college students in the 1970s. Movies like Annabelle and The Conjuring tell this story.
2018-03-1006 minOff the PathA Scene From Stephen King’s Childhood In ConnecticutStephen King’s novels usually take place in small town Maine. But one of King’s most famous novels might contain a call-back to his childhood in Fairfield County, Connecticut.
2018-02-2203 minOff the PathThe Elephant ManThe first circus elephant in America didn’t start with Barnum & Bailey. It was more than a generation earlier. And it ended in bloodshed – not once, but twice. The saga began in the early 1800s with a man who came from the town of Somers, New York.
2018-02-0108 minOff the PathSee The Cosmic Ballet In An MIT HallwayYou probably know about the phenomenon of Stonehenge – an ancient alignment of giant slabs that acts as a cosmic calendar. There’s something like that here in the U.S. too. It’s called MIThenge. And yes, it’s at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT – in Cambridge.
2018-01-1807 minOff the PathLovecraft: Providence’s Weird, Troublesome Native SonThe city of Providence, Rhode Island, mostly celebrates the legacy of author H. P. Lovecraft – one of the fathers of horror fiction and, increasingly, a pop culture icon. But there’s a lot to grapple with – and his bleak, wordy prose about incomprehensible interstellar monsters is far from the most difficult thing about Lovecraft.
2018-01-0206 minOff the PathAn American Love Story, From Litchfield Hills To The Trail Of TearsIn the early 1820s, a pair of Native American students fell in love with two white women in the hills of northwest Connecticut. Their parallel lives ended in personal and national tragedy. In this episode, WSHU reporter Davis Dunavin travels to Cornwall, Connecticut, for the story of the Foreign Mission School.
2017-12-2007 minOff the PathTake That, Bob DylanMatt Farley may be one of the most prolific recording artists of all time – that you have never heard of. He has produced hundreds of albums you can stream on iTunes and Spotify, all from his basement in Danvers, Massachusetts.
2017-11-3007 minOff the PathLiving On An Island Ruled By BirdsThere’s a tiny island off the coast of Connecticut. Its residents are more than ten thousand little white seabirds called terns. They have long orange beaks and sometimes ominous black tufts on their heads. There might be more terns on this island than anywhere on earth. And for fifty years, one woman has served as steward and caretaker.
2017-11-1506 minOff the PathA Visit With Phineas Gage And His Legendary SkullA grisly construction accident in New England in 1848 left railroad worker Phineas Gage with severe brain damage – but gave scientists valuable clues about how the brain functions. Gage survived the metal spike that went clear through his head and has since become an icon of both science and pop culture. His skull is on display at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
2017-10-3005 minOff the PathWhy Is America’s First Country Music Superstar Buried In Bridgeport?There are questions that might stump even the most dedicated country music fan: Who kickstarted the country music industry in the 1920s, even before big names like Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family? And why is this Texas musician buried in Bridgeport, Connecticut?
2016-08-1714 min