Apple has expanded the Apple Maps experience by embedding episodes of the Hidden Histories podcast directly into its Guides feature. When users browse a landmark in the app, a dedicated panel appears, providing a one-tap shortcut to a curated audio story about that location. The rollout covers a handful of major American cities, turning a simple map view into a portable audio tour.
Integration of podcasts into Apple Maps Guides
The new panel lives alongside the usual place details—hours, photos, reviews—and acts as a bridge between the Maps and Apple Podcasts ecosystems. Tapping the panel opens a compact interface that lists every linked podcast guide for the current city, allowing listeners to start an episode instantly or queue several for later. Because the guides are built on the existing Guides architecture, they inherit familiar functions such as saving, sharing, and automatic updates when Apple adds new content.
City-by-city podcast selections
San Francisco
In the Bay Area, the guide spotlights the 1863 “Egg War” on the Farallon Islands the ruins of the historic Sutro Baths and the acoustic art installation known as the Wave Organ. Each episode delves into the quirky origins and cultural impact of these lesser-known sites, giving listeners a deeper sense of the city’s maritime heritage.
Los Angeles
The Los Angeles collection includes a narrative about the Hollywood Sign’s birth as an advertisement for the “Hollywoodland” real-estate development, plus stories behind the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame and the glamorous history of Rodeo Drive. The podcasts blend celebrity anecdotes with urban development history, providing a richer context for tourists and locals alike.
New York City
New York’s guide covers a broad spectrum: from the bustling energy of Times Square and the solemn grandeur of the Statue of Liberty to the green expanse of Central Park and the historic Grand Central Terminal. Additional episodes explore the cultural heartbeat of Tin Pan Alley the symbolism of the Charging Bull and the legendary nightlife of Studio 54. Each story is anchored to a specific site, turning a walk through Manhattan into a narrated museum tour.
Chicago
Chicago listeners can hear about the engineered reversal of the Chicago River—a massive civil-engineering feat—as well as anecdotes surrounding the city’s architecture and public spaces. The podcasts also touch on the surprising history of 19th-century bathtubs that once adorned the U.S. Capitol, linking the Midwestern capital to federal lore.
Washington, D.C.
In the nation’s capital, the guide includes an episode on the Library of Congress’s comic-book collection, described by the Library as the world’s largest publicly available archive with more than 165,000 original print issues. Other stories detail the hidden vaults beneath the Brooklyn Bridge built before its opening, as well as architectural details of the U.S. Capitol.
Saving and revisiting your audio guides
Users can add any podcast guide to their personal collection by tapping the + icon within the panel. Saved guides appear in a “Your Guides” section that slides up from the bottom of the Maps app, making it easy to return to favorite episodes later or to share them with friends. Because the guides are synchronized across devices, a listener can start a story on an iPhone, continue on an iPad, and finish on a Mac without losing their place.
