As you are likely aware, we here at The Rachel Maddow Show (particularly one area of the cube farm over near the coffee machine) are big fans of virtual travel by interactive map. Whether watching the ships sale across MarineTraffic.com or finding our way through Geoguessr (Or hey, remember that time we spied on North Korea?), there’s something about a click-and-go-there map that is stragely fulfilling.
And so here’s the Radio Aporee map, too old to be a candidate for Best New Thing, but certainly best enough. The way the site works is people around the world record natural audio around them and upload it to the map, pegged to that location, so web tourists can travel the world with their eyes closed and their butts planted.
It does also comes in non-map flavor if pot-luck is more to your liking.
My first login started me in Japan, but naturally, the first thing I did was try to find my house. (Everyone does that, right?) In this case the closest I could get was this 2007 audio of the guy who still plays the guitar and sings songs in Spanish at the L train’s Bedford Avenue stop.
The site also comes with an app. I expected it would just be an interface for uploading audio, but in fact it’s mostly for listening to the audio that is tagged to your location, including taking audio walks that play the nearest upload.
I know what I’m doing this weekend.
