Have you ever had the urge to sneak behind the cordoned off areas of a museum?

Or roam the halls after closing time?

The Smithsonian's flagship podcast, Side Door, will sneak you behind the scenes of the world's

largest museum and research complex.

Come learn about the ghosts that supposedly walk the museum halls after dark.

How a train robbery gave rise to criminal forensics,

why leeches are actually the coolest thing ever,

and how to get away with murder in the Arctic.

Maybe.

You'll discover stories of history, science, art, and culture you won't find in a display case.

You can listen to Side Door wherever you get your podcasts, or find us online at s.edu.

You slash Side Door.

Your first thought is that the trees don't look familiar.

There are no towering pines shedding their needles or red-leafed maples swaying gently in the breeze.

You can't see any spiky-looking palms or acorn-covered oaks either.

Instead, the trees around you have leaves that are shaped like tongues, longer than they are wide and gently

rounded or slightly pointed at the tip. Today we call these leaves glossopterus, and they're

an important clue in figuring out where and when you are. Their presence means you're probably

in Gondwana, the southern part of Pangea, and you're probably in

the Permian period, the final act of the Paleozoic era. Dark times are ahead. For now, though,

this place is calm. The ground under your feet is damp with horsetails and ferns poking up

here and there. You're on a floodplain in what will eventually be the

...