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‘The Strange Sessions’ and ‘Locations Unknown’

We take a lot of drives as a family, usually with hiking or camping as the destination.

I don’t know about all families, but with our children a road trip without some sort of distraction eventually dissolves into who can annoy each other the most.

Which makes me, the mom, cranky.

For many years we’ve listened to audiobooks to pass the time on long vacations. I love it when we find a book so captivating that one of the kids pleads to keep driving just so we can hear a little bit more. On one trip around Oregon, we listened to one of the longer Harry Potter books and finished it just two blocks from our house. We deemed that quite the accomplishment.

Over the last 18 months we haven’t taken any long trips. Instead, we’ve stayed fairly close to home, within two hours or so. Podcasts have turned out to be our choice for these car rides, and two in particular rank as our favorites.

Both cover cases of disappearances, mysteries, or odd happenings that remain unsolved.

“The Strange Sessions” features Kurt and Krista from Wisconsin. These two cover all sorts of strange topics. They often start the podcast by tasting strange foods (often of a pickle variety), and their conversational dialogue makes me feel like I’m visiting with these two in a backyard around a campfire. Some of our favorite episodes detail strange happenings in various states, such as ghost stories, local legends and funny laws.

Our other favorite podcast is “Locations Unknown,” also based in Wisconsin. The two guys — Mike and Joe — describe it as “chronicling unexplained disappearances in America’s wilderness.” They are avid hikers, and it’s fun to hear about all the places they visit around the United States. Although, considering that the majority of their topics are about people disappearing in these wild places, it does give our kids fodder to argue against extensive backcountry hiking in national parks (which we don’t really do anyway, but that doesn’t stop them from voicing their opinion).

Both podcasts release episodes several times a month. Find them wherever you like to get your podcasts.

— LISA BRITTON, EDITOR, GO! MAGAZINE