Lmst

Balancing Rock on the Digby Neck in Tiverton, Nova Scotia

This bell has chimed around 10 billion times: one of the longest-lasting scientific experiments in the world. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/oxford-electric-bell
#AtlasObscura #Oxford #science

@BasementDweller3000 I'd start with #AtlasObscura to identify the big wacky spots that you havent seen in #Boston https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/boston-massachusetts/places

@sfpl Cohen Place is now the Tenderloin National Forest.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tenderloin-national-forest

#SanFrancisco #Tenderloin #AtlasObscura

The Real ‘Survivor’ Island That Changed Reality TV Forever – Atlas Obscura

Pulau Tiga, best known as the original ‘Survivor’ island, was as much of a character on the show as the contestants were.

by The Podcast Team July 25, 2025

The Original ‘Survivor’ Island Changed Television Forever

In This Story

Dylan Thuras: I want to ask you a question before we get to any of this meatier stuff. If you had to be a contestant on any reality TV show, what would it be?

Emily Nussbaum: The problem is, if you write a book about the history of reality TV, you are much less prone to want to be a contestant on any reality television show. This isn’t because I hate reality TV. The book is like, you know, talks about the ugly parts and the beautiful parts and, you know, the sort of punk, creative provocations. But I’m trying to think if there’s any show.

Dylan: You have to choose. There’s gotta be one.

Emily: Real Housewives of The New Yorker.

Dylan: This is Emily Nussbaum. Emily is the staff writer at The New Yorker. And although she may not want to star in reality TV, she has written one of the most insightful, interesting books on the subject that I’ve ever read. It’s called Cue the Sun! So would you not, you would not go on Survivor?

Emily: I would just be terrible on Survivor. I’m a weakling. They cast for resilience, and that is not my strongest quality, but I think this is probably true of many nonfiction writers. You know, there are exceptions. I would not go on Survivor, but I do think Survivor is a fascinating show. And I’ll say up front, when I wrote this book, of course I knew I was going to write about Survivor. When it came out, it blew people’s minds.

Dylan: As you know, this podcast is about place. And in Survivor, place is very important. The contestants are actually kind of competing against the place as much as they are each other. It is the island which can really get you. It’s filled with creepy crawlies, there’s no food, it feels like everything is trying to take you down. But Survivor is also a reality TV show. So while the island is a very real place, it’s also a TV set. Much of it is constructed. So there’s always this question: How much of this is real? How much of it is artificial? How much are the contestants actually trying to survive the island? Or are they just trying to survive the show’s producers? I’m Dylan Thuras, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places. Today, we are taking a trip to the island of Pulau Tiga. Emily Nussbaum takes us there, and she takes us back in time to the very first season of Survivor. It’s a story about making up an entire genre of reality TV as you go, and about the many, many mistakes you make along the way. It’s complete with styrofoam sets, producers sleeping on the beach with thousands and thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment, and of course, a grub eating contest. Turns out, grubs are kind of tasty.

This is an edited transcript of the Atlas Obscura Podcast: a celebration of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places. Find the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps.

Aerial view of Pulau Tiga Bfyhdch / CC BY SA-4.0

Continue/Read Original Article Here: The Real ‘Survivor’ Island That Changed Reality TV Forever – Atlas Obscura

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