Off the Path

Off the Path

For seven years, Off the Path has explored spots from New York to Boston and beyond — everything from quirky roadside attractions to eccentric oddities to places with deep historical significance. This season, Davis Dunavin is going to sea. We’re telling stories of submarines, lighthouses, white whales, sea monsters, and — of course — pirates. In fact, you’ll hear about quite a few pirates in this series, which is why we decided to call it Off the Plank.

Dunavin has always been fascinated by ships and the sea — maybe because he grew up in the landlocked parts of Middle America. From old sailing ships to lighthouses, there’s just something special about the places that tell the nautical history of New York and New England.

There are stories of famous pirates — Captain Kidd, Black Sam Bellamy, William Fly. There’s a female lighthouse keeper who performed heroic rescues and became a national celebrity. And there’s the story of Moby-Dick — with its deep ties to New Bedford, Massachusetts, once the whaling capital of the world.

As for the music, each podcast episode will end with a traditional song of the sea chosen and performed by the Ranzo Boys, a New York City-based folk trio. Some are shanties, some are ballads, but all of them tell sailors’ stories or celebrate aspects of life on the high seas.

Subscribe to Off the Path on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn or Google Play.

Know of a great story for Off the Path? Email us!

Sponsored by Webster Private Bank & Au Pair in America

Latest Episodes

On the left: Goody Bassett's Ice Cream Shop; on the right: the Twisted Vine Restaurant.

Riley Buyskes

WSHU

Off the Path

On CT's Haunted History Trail

For years, Davis Dunavin has hosted a special Halloween episode of Off the Path, but this year, he hands the reins to WSHU intern Riley Buyskes. She visits two stops on Connecticut's brand-new Haunted History Trail — an ice cream shop named after an accused witch and a restaurant with a reputation for ghostly activity.

Revolutionary: NYC's Fraunces Tavern, where Washington toasted and the cabinet met

The Sons of Liberty, the activists who helped start the American Revolution, liked to frequent a watering hole on the tip of Manhattan Island called Fraunces Tavern.
Revolutionary: The only intersection that predates 1776 and survived a British burning

There’s only one known intersection in America where the buildings on all four corners were built before the American Revolution.
Revolutionary: the war heroine who disguised herself as a man to fight

The first woman in American history to get an honorable discharge or a military pension served almost 250 years ago. Her name was Deborah Sampson.
Revolutionary: 250 years later, the 'Liberty Tree' blooms again

Long before the first shots of the American Revolution were fired, there was — a tree. An elm tree in a grove in Boston, where some say the Revolution truly started.
The Twice-Lost City of Dura-Europos

It’s believed that some of the oldest preserved depictions of Jesus Christ are from a town in Syria, abandoned nearly 2000 years ago. The paintings, on a rough stone wall, can be seen at the Yale Art Gallery in New Haven.
Vampires! 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.
Looking for the Original "Podunk Town"... In Connecticut

The origins of the word "podunk" are shrouded in history. In the Algonquin language, it most likely meant a boggy place, a swamp or a junction of streams and rivers. But we now use it to mean a small, unimportant, and isolated place. There was also a tribe called the Podunk, one of many who lived and fished on the Connecticut River.
Off the Path Revisited: Where the Appalachian Trail Began

The Appalachian Trail stretches more than 2,000 miles from Maine to Georgia. It was the brainchild of an idealistic forester who drew inspiration from a mountain top in Vermont.
The Making of Theodore Roosevelt

We like to picture Theodore Roosevelt as this vigorous, energetic, hyper-manly guy. And he was. But he didn’t start that way. He began as a bedridden, asthma-stricken boy in New York’s East Village. He went through a lot to become the guy who led the charge up San Juan Hill and served as our 36th president.
Andre the Giant Has A Posse

Back in the summer of 1989, a lot of weird little stickers appeared on the streets of Providence, Rhode Island. They were on walls, trash cans and utility poles. You’d find them outside bars, record stores and skate shops. They were all the same, a grainy black-and-white picture of a bulky scowling man, with the words: “Andre the Giant has a Posse.”