Via Podcast

Just in time for Halloween, here’s your star map to haunted Hollywood: On this ghost tour of Los Angeles, you’ll spy Marilyn Monroe’s spirit in a hotel mirror, step inside the grand hotel lobby where the Black Dahlia was last seen alive, and breathe in the lingering perfume of the 1930s starlet (and Kirsten Dunst doppelgänger) who haunts the Hollywood sign. Go beyond tourist territory—Tinseltown’s haunted hotels, mysterious mansions, and celebrity-filled cemeteries are jam-packed with unsolved mysteries and creepy chronicles from on and off the silver screen.   Historian and journalist Hadley Hall Meares joins our hosts to discuss Hollywood’s spookiest lore, with plenty of celebrity ghost sightings around each shadowy corner. Learn how to respectfully visit sites of real-world tragedy and treat victims’ stories with sensitivity, and discover why ghost stories can sometimes teach us more about a place and its culture than official records. You’ll never see—or sense—L.A. the same way again.  Haunted hot spots include: Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Downtown Los Angeles: The hotel where the Black Dahlia was last seen alive—and where guests still spot her riding the elevator.  Sowden House, Los Feliz: Lloyd Wright’s Mayan Revival mansion, tied to a dark theory about the Black Dahlia case.  Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel: Marilyn Monroe checks her reflection in a full-length mirror here, and Montgomery Clift’s ghost runs lines—and practices the bugle—in Room 928. Hollywood Sign and Beachwood Canyon: Haunted by Peg Entwistle, the 1930s starlet whose signature gardenia perfume drifts over the trail at night. Hollywood Forever Cemetery: Judy Garland, Rudolph Valentino, and David Lynch rest here, a weeping specter keeps vigil by the lake, and the peacocks are the real menace. Guest: Hadley Hall Meares Hadley Hall Meares is a Los Angeles-based journalist, historian, and expert on Hollywood lore. She spent over a decade leading tours to haunted hotels, saloons, and alleys throughout L.A., and now writes about old Hollywood for a variety of publications, including Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, and Los Angeles Magazine. She’s also the co-writer of the Adam McKay-hosted podcast Death on the Lot, which explores 1950s Hollywood and the untimely deaths of stars like James Dean and Hattie McDaniel. Meares makes frequent media appearances as an expert on Discovery, NPR, CNN, History, and the Travel Channel. Her book about Maria Rasputin (daughter of famed Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin) is forthcoming in 2027.  In addition to her work as a Hollywood historian, she was also Amy Poehler’s stand-in on Parks and Recreation, a job she describes as being “a crash test dummy with a working mouth.” 

Dia de los Muertos is a celebration of life, and we’re stopping by its liveliest festivals. We’ll board a boat to Janitzio, a sacred island in Mexico’s Lake Patzcuaro, where fishermen light the way with giant butterfly nets and a candlelit cemetery glows like a field of stars. In Mexico City, we’ll squeeze in to watch thousands of costumed participants at the world’s largest Dia de los Muertos parade. Back in the West, we’ll feel the rattle of Aztec dancers at a street party in Oakland, California, peek into northern New Mexico’s chapel-like home altars (or ofrendas), and admire runway-worthy skeleton costumes (think corn-husk gowns and massive marigold crowns) at a parade in Austin, Texas. Our guide, folklorist Rachel González-Martin, grew up celebrating Day of the Dead in Oakland and now teaches courses on Latino cultural arts at the University of Texas at Austin. Along with taking us to some of the best Day of the Dead celebrations in the West, she’ll share how to honor the holiday at home, including what belongs on an ofrenda (and how to make a portable one with an Altoids tin), the meaning behind sugar skulls and other traditional symbols and treats, and why the dead arrive so thirsty. Celebrations you’ll visit in this episode: Isla de Janitzio, Mexico: In the indigenous Purepecha culture, the surrounding lake is considered the gateway to the heavens. Mexico City: The city closes a main downtown thoroughfare for the world’s biggest Day of the Dead parade. Oakland, California: Danza Azteca invocations, artist-built altars, and a sprawling street festival in the city’s Fruitvale neighborhood. Northern New Mexico: Tour ornate home altars and hand-painted retablos rooted in Spanish Catholic tradition. Austin, Texas: At the Viva la Vida Festival and Parade, dress en calavera and join the procession. Guest: Dr. Rachel V. González-Martin Rachel V. González-Martin is an associate professor of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches courses on cultural arts like quinceañera birthday celebrations, Dia de los Muertos commemorations, and Latine monster story traditions. Her book Quinceañera Style: Social Belonging and Latinx Consumer Identities won the 2020 Emily Toth Award for best book in women’s studies and popular culture. Her current book project  chases tales of witches and shape-shifting owl women (or Lechuzas) in south Texas.  Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Rachel grew up attending Day of the Dead celebrations at the Oakland Museum of California and the Oakland public library where her mother worked as a librarian. She currently lives in Austin, where her ofrenda includes a Seagram’s Seven and Seven and a beer for her grandfathers and a photo of Martha the Magnificent, her beloved late dog.  

An Arizona museum devoted entirely to fossilized poop. A collection of more than one million items that washed up on one Washington beach. A Montana exhibit starring Old Brass Brains, a 116-year-old computer. These quirky stops are unlikely candidates for a must-see list, and that’s entirely the point. They deliver what marquee attractions can’t: genuine surprise, a glimpse into a universe you never knew existed, and a little bit of magic—all without a throng of tourists. Our guest, Atlas Obscura cofounder Dylan Thuras, returns to share six of his favorite one-of-a-kind museums, each one a “strange love letter” to the curator’s personal obsession. Along the way, we’ll encounter a fungus that turns ants into teeny zombies, mushroom cloud–watching parties on Las Vegas rooftops, and the Poozeum’s prize specimen: a 20-pound Tyrannosaurus rex poop. As Dylan puts it, these places are a testament to people’s weirdness—and their wonderfulness. Oddball museums we’ll wander: Museum of Jurassic Technology, Culver City, California: Where fact and fiction are displayed with equal care. National Atomic Testing Museum, Las Vegas: Explores the cultural impact of Nevada’s 900-plus nuclear tests, from rooftop viewing parties to the Miss Atomic Bomb pageant. American Computer and Robotics Museum, Bozeman, Montana: “Inch for inch, the best museum in the world,” said biologist E.O. Wilson. Houses a working replica of a 2,000-year-old computer. John’s Beachcombing Museum, Forks, Washington: Features “washed-up” treasures sorted by type, including a mammoth tooth and part of a Boeing 747 jet engine.  Aftel Archive of Curious Scents, Berkeley, California: Open the many drawers to inhale rare fragrances like real ambergris. Poozeum, Williams, Arizona: The world’s largest collection of coprolites (fossilized poop), includes insect farts trapped in amber, too. Free to visit, right on Route 66. Guest: Dylan Thuras Dylan Thuras is the cofounder of Atlas Obscura, an online guide to the world’s hidden wonders, and coauthor of three New York Times bestsellers: Atlas Obscura, Gastro Obscura, and The Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid. As the host of the series Small Town, Big Story, he traveled to local festivals across the country, including a lumberjack championship, pepper-eating contest, and a Texas sandcastle competition (he took third). He’s currently the head of storytelling and creative at Miles Partnership. This is Dylan’s third appearance on the Via Podcast: In our first season, he toured the West’s quirkiest roadside attractions; in season two, he took us off-road to the Southwest’s monumental land art. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with his wife Michelle, and two kids, Phineas and Jean.

Grab your helmet and your grip tape for a ride through the surprising past and thrilling present of skateboarding, a sport that’s indelibly shaped West Coast slang, fashion, and urban landscape design. Our hosts are joined by former pro skater and current Olympic judge Alex White for a journey through the drained swimming pools, Costco curbs, and other surprising locales that nurtured some of the world’s best skaters. Learn about the rebellious origins of skateboarding, as “sidewalk surfing” among the bored teens of suburban Southern California in the 1960s; the sport’s mainstream crossover with the X Games and rise of stars like Tony Hawk in the ‘90s; and the present, when city councils and urban planners are embracing a sport once viewed as criminal and fans gear up to watch world-class athletes catch air at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles—right where it all started.    Roll into these historic skate spots: Pacific Beach, San Diego Linda Vista Skate Park, San Diego Venice Skate Park, Los Angeles Dogtown, Los Angeles The Santa Monica Courthouse Skate Plaza, Los Angeles Rip City Skates, Santa Monica Sergeant Derby Park, Santa Cruz NHS Skateboard Museum, Santa Cruz Embarcadero and U.N. Plazas, San Francisco Burnside Skate Park, Portland, Oregon Guest: Alex White Alex White is a lifelong skateboarder and self-described skate nerd who grew up skating in unsanctioned spots in Los Angeles during the late ’90s boom. After spending her youth dodging mall security, she grew up to be a professional skateboarder.  She’s now a skateboarding brand manager, co-host of the skateboarding podcast “Good Luck With That,” a certified Olympic judge and Olympic skateboarding commentator, and chairperson of the board at Skate Like a Girl, a nonprofit that creates opportunities and advocates for skateboarders of all ages, abilities, and gender identities. Alex lives in Monterey, California with her two sons and two cats.

Sporting a sparkling sky-blue tail, Rachel Smith goes to work every day as a professional mermaid. It turns out, you can find mermaids swimming all over the West—if you know where to look! Every May, they congregate at the California Mermaid Convention, the longest-running mermaid event in the West (which Smith co-founded), to parade through the cobblestone streets of Old Sacramento. In this episode, Smith dives into the colorful history of a cultural movement that dates back to the early 1900s. Learn about the craft required for their elaborate costumes and how they gracefully perform underwater without looking like “flappy fish.” For Smith, mermaiding offers more than just her job as head mermaid at the Dive Bar in Sacramento: It’s where she’s found a community of fellow merfolk. Get an inside look at some unlikely, landlocked destinations where mermaids swim in bars, casinos, and motel pools. Splashy mermaid spots include: Dive Bar, Sacramento, California: Nightly mermaid shows in a 40-foot saltwater tank. The California Mermaid Convention, Sacramento: A weekend of mermaid magic, including the Promenade of Mermaids through Old Town. Silverton Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada: Mermaids swim in a massive aquarium you can walk all the way around. Sip ’n Dip Lounge, Great Falls, Montana: A 1960s tiki bar where mermaids glide past porthole windows behind the bar. Guest: Rachel Smith Rachel Smith has been the head mermaid at the Dive Bar in downtown Sacramento since it opened in 2011. There, she trains, schedules, hires, and performs with a team of mermaids and mermen who swim nightly in a 40-foot saltwater aquarium. Born in Hawaii to two professional hula dancers, she’s one half of Mermaid and Mom, a company she runs with her mother, Laurie, bringing mermaid entertainment to events across Northern California and creating a fully swimmable line of fabric mermaid tails. Since becoming a professional aquatic entertainer, Mermaid Rachel has performed across the United States and internationally—at corporate events, mermaid conventions, and festivals, and as a featured performer in documentaries and films. In 2019, she and her business partner Mermaid Ashley produced the first-ever California Mermaid Convention, which now draws hundreds of merfolk to Sacramento each summer. She is also lifeguard certified—so yes, this mermaid could save your life.