Speaker 1: Guess what, mango, what's that? Well, I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: you've ever been to the Secret Museum in New York City,
Speaker 1: there's a secret museum. Yeah, it's hidden in this elevator shaft,
Speaker 1: and it's pretty incredible. Each shelf has considered its own
Speaker 1: wing of the museum and they have all sorts of
Speaker 1: weird things in there, from vintage magazines to a gallery
Speaker 1: of weird toothpaste from around the world, to the shoe
Speaker 1: that was supposedly thrown at George Bush at that Iraqi presscout.
Speaker 1: It's so strange, and it's all hiding in this tiny,
Speaker 1: hidden museum that commuters just walked past all the time.
Speaker 1: It's strange how many like little museums and galleries there
Speaker 1: are hiding all around us. Like I feel like I
Speaker 1: only learned about this micro toy museum in my neighborhood
Speaker 1: when it showed up on my son's Pokemon Go So
Speaker 1: that thing did prove useful for very The crazy thing
Speaker 1: is they're actually more museums in the country than Starbucks
Speaker 1: and McDonald's combined. Like, according to the Washington Post, they're
Speaker 1: over thirty five thousand museums in this country and they
Speaker 1: cover every conceivable topic, from a forest fire museum in
Speaker 1: Idaho to a museum of maritime pets and a Naples
Speaker 1: Maritime Pets. I really want that museum to just be
Speaker 1: a giant gallery of parrots owned by famous bucking Pretty
Speaker 1: sure that's what it is. We have to check it out,
Speaker 1: but doesn't it feel like a waste? I mean, if
Speaker 1: there are that many museums hiding all around us, shouldn't
Speaker 1: we be taking advantage of them? So that's what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do in this episode. We're creating a weird summer
Speaker 1: travel guide filled with obscure places that deserve way more attention.
Speaker 1: What do you say we dive in? Y Hey, their
Speaker 1: podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson
Speaker 1: and as always I'm joined by my good friend mangesh
Speaker 1: Hot Ticketer, and today we're talking about finding ways to
Speaker 1: fit in a little weirdness into your summer. So, as
Speaker 1: you know Mango, a few weeks ago, while we were
Speaker 1: recording a few episodes, my wife and kids we're doing
Speaker 1: their annual trip with three or four other moms and
Speaker 1: a herd of kids the Great Smoky Mountains. They go
Speaker 1: in the camp there for three nights in Elkmont, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: And it's not just for the camping. It's because there's
Speaker 1: a species of firefly that light up in synchrony. That's right,
Speaker 1: synchronized fireflies, and it only happens for about two weeks
Speaker 1: in June. Just two weeks, like that's such a short
Speaker 1: window it is, but it sounds magnificent and it's one
Speaker 1: of the only places in the world where you can
Speaker 1: see them. There have been some others found in the
Speaker 1: swamps of South Carolina and some other areas of the Appalachians,
Speaker 1: but this has become such a big deal in the
Speaker 1: Smokies that the camp sites at Elkmont booked up a
Speaker 1: year and advance. But during the second week in June
Speaker 1: you can take a trolley up to the area and
Speaker 1: see the fireflies, even if you're not a camper. That's
Speaker 1: something I definitely want to see. Well, that's what got
Speaker 1: me thinking summer may have already started, but it's not
Speaker 1: too late to find lots of other unique and weird
Speaker 1: things to see and do around the country before the
Speaker 1: season ends. Definitely not and to help us find some
Speaker 1: of the most interesting off the beaten path places and
Speaker 1: events around the country. We turned to our ends at
Speaker 1: one of our favorite websites, Atlas Obscura. Now, if you
Speaker 1: don't know Atlas Obscura, you've got to check it out.
Speaker 1: And in a bit we'll be joined by Dylan Thuriss,
Speaker 1: one of the founders, to hear about some of his
Speaker 1: favorite spots. And I'm sure you've got a ridiculous quiz
Speaker 1: ready for two lucky people. Of course, who are we
Speaker 1: gonna have on the line today. Well, we've got a
Speaker 1: travel team, so we've got to travel agents from Virginia
Speaker 1: and they'll be joining us to play weird world laws. Okay, well,
Speaker 1: let's get started. So we know it can sometimes be
Speaker 1: tough to schedule around exact dates that we'll still get
Speaker 1: to a few awesome festivals later on in the episode,
Speaker 1: but let's start with some places you can go to
Speaker 1: pretty much any week. And because we love museums that
Speaker 1: are focused on very specific things, I think we should
Speaker 1: kick this off with a few of those. I see
Speaker 1: you've made a big list here, Mango. Yeah, I've got
Speaker 1: this list of a hundred thirty one must see museums
Speaker 1: around the country right now. Well, that's great, but I'm
Speaker 1: not sure we have time for a hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: one places, and in fact, you're moving from Brooklyn to
Speaker 1: Atlanta this summer, barely even getting a summer. So why
Speaker 1: don't you say, why don't we pick eight and we'll
Speaker 1: talk about those. I'm gonna cut my list off right here,
Speaker 1: and let's begin right here on the East Coast and
Speaker 1: start with the museum dedicated to one of my favorite instruments,
Speaker 1: the kazoo. I'm talking about the Kazoo Museum at the
Speaker 1: Kazoobi Kazoo Factory in Baufort, South Carolina. Did you know
Speaker 1: the kazoo is actually one of the only homegrown instruments
Speaker 1: in the US. All Right, Well, while I can't say
Speaker 1: I'm an expert on weird instrument history, I actually do
Speaker 1: know this one because of its origin. So a few
Speaker 1: episodes ago, you got to share lots of fun facts
Speaker 1: about your home state of Delaware. So I feel like
Speaker 1: it's my turn to recognize some of the very important
Speaker 1: facts about my home state of Alabama. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've noticed, but we come from some pretty influential
Speaker 1: states here, Mary. But I know this one because the
Speaker 1: kazoo was invented by an Alabama vest and clockmaker. Thaddius
Speaker 1: von Klegg almost two hundred years ago. That's right. And
Speaker 1: do you think we're going to be the first podcast
Speaker 1: to mention a clockmaker from Alabama? Probably? So? But did
Speaker 1: you know that the kazoo is also known as the
Speaker 1: down South summer? Good God, no, I didn't. Now I
Speaker 1: feel bad for running away from that man who asked
Speaker 1: if I wanted to check out his down South submarine.
Speaker 1: This sounds like a really fun museum. By the way,
Speaker 1: did you know the kazoo is sometimes called the most
Speaker 1: democratic of all instruments because they're cheap and approachable and
Speaker 1: basically anyone can just pick one up and play it immediately.
Speaker 1: There's this avant garde piece from the nineteen seventies called
Speaker 1: With a Hundred Kazoos, and audience members are given kazoos
Speaker 1: to accompany a little orchestra of real musicians, and they
Speaker 1: don't sound bad because kazoos are that easy. All right,
Speaker 1: But let's move on. Where do we go from Beauford,
Speaker 1: South Carolina. Let's head one state up to North Carolina
Speaker 1: to a museum. I have to admit I didn't even
Speaker 1: know existed when we went to college in the state.
Speaker 1: It's the Museum of the Alphabet in Waxhaw, North Carolina.
Speaker 1: And what happens at the Museum of the Alphabet, Well,
Speaker 1: it started out as a project intended to translate the
Speaker 1: Bible into as many languages as possible, But even if
Speaker 1: that's not your interest, it's a pretty fascinating project. It's
Speaker 1: really a celebration of the history of the written language.
Speaker 1: Their twelve galleries dedicated to individual languages or families, languages
Speaker 1: from Greek to Hebrew to African languages. But I think
Speaker 1: what's most interesting about it is the focus on minority
Speaker 1: languages that are only spoken by a small number of people,
Speaker 1: and they might be going extinct if they're not preserved.
Speaker 1: I remember seeing a fact somewhere that of the seven
Speaker 1: thousand languages in the world, about a third of those
Speaker 1: lack a written alphabet. So all of those would definitely
Speaker 1: be at risk of being lost completely if people stopped
Speaker 1: speaking them. Yeah, my family actually speaks a tiny dialect
Speaker 1: of a language called Cockney, which doesn't have its own script,
Speaker 1: and it was great growing up because it's basically like
Speaker 1: a secret language that I had just with my parents.
Speaker 1: There are so few speakers, but it's really not that
Speaker 1: useful if you're trying to get around India. But it's
Speaker 1: fascinating that the Museum of the Alphabet is really trying
Speaker 1: to preserve languages, and one of the ones they focused
Speaker 1: on is that of the Gala communities of South Carolina, Georgia,
Speaker 1: and Florida. It's a creole language of some of the
Speaker 1: African American populations in the coastal region, and it was
Speaker 1: developed out of several West African languages in the sixteenth
Speaker 1: and seventeen centuries as a way for slaves of different
Speaker 1: backgrounds to communicate with one another. It's so interesting. I
Speaker 1: definitely want to check this place out. Well. While you're there,
Speaker 1: you can also see how your name would look and
Speaker 1: cling on, so that's pretty cool too. Actually, that reminds
Speaker 1: me of the time you and I went to speak
Speaker 1: to the employees at Google and Mountain View, California. Remember
Speaker 1: this trip definitely. Because we'd heard they were so smart,
Speaker 1: we decided to put them to the test and had
Speaker 1: a few language experts create the world's geekiest crossword puzzle.
Speaker 1: So every answer was in a constructed language like cling
Speaker 1: on and Elvish and Esperanto, and we told them whoever
Speaker 1: completed it would get a free T shirt. Not only
Speaker 1: did we run out of T shirts because so many
Speaker 1: of them completed it, but they were correcting our grammatical
Speaker 1: mistakes and these constructed languages, so I guess they are. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's okay. So another fascinating spot. Where two next? Well,
Speaker 1: there are two other spots in the South before we
Speaker 1: head up to the northeast. The first is right here
Speaker 1: in Georgia, in Statesboro at the Georgia Southern Campus. It's
Speaker 1: the U S National Tick Collection and it's the largest
Speaker 1: election of its kind in the world. Wow. This definitely
Speaker 1: seems fitting for this time of year when we're all
Speaker 1: searching for ticks after we go for a hike, and
Speaker 1: especially that one that makes people vegetarian because it gives
Speaker 1: you an intolerance to eating meat. How weird is that?
Speaker 1: I know, it's like the meat lobby's nightmare, But how
Speaker 1: big could this tick collection be? Or there really that
Speaker 1: many kinds of ticks out there? I was so surprised.
Speaker 1: They have over a million specimen and there are eight
Speaker 1: hundred sixty species of these bloodsuckers collected from all seven continents.
Speaker 1: I just opened the website here and I see that
Speaker 1: They're open just a couple of days a week for
Speaker 1: a couple hours each, so you definitely need to plan
Speaker 1: in advance. And this collection is actually owned by the
Speaker 1: Smithsonian Institution. That's pretty cool. And my other spot in
Speaker 1: the South is in Scottsboro, Alabama. Yes, another Alabama fact.
Speaker 1: And I know this one, so please let me talk
Speaker 1: about it. I mean, you owe me after all the
Speaker 1: Delaware facts and the tax savings issue. Okay, the floor
Speaker 1: is yours. So this is the Unclaimed Baggage Center in
Speaker 1: North Alabama. And it's not technically a museum, but it
Speaker 1: might as well be. It's where every piece of lost
Speaker 1: luggage from around the country goes. It's a forty thousand
Speaker 1: square foot facility and they take all the best stuff
Speaker 1: from the lost luggage they acquire from the airlines and
Speaker 1: put it on sale there. How weird is that? Is
Speaker 1: so weird? And it's been around since the seventies. I
Speaker 1: think it was an insurance salesman who decided to buy
Speaker 1: on claim luggage from a bus station first, and then
Speaker 1: he'd set up shops somewhere and sell all this stuff.
Speaker 1: This was all before you expanded into the airline world.
Speaker 1: And there are literally millions of items passing through there
Speaker 1: every year. Have you actually ever bought anything from there? Where?
Speaker 1: Do you think I got this awesome American flag cowboy hats? Anyway,
Speaker 1: it's definitely worth a visit, if only just to see
Speaker 1: the weirdness of all the stuff people have lost. Well,
Speaker 1: the unusual thing to me, too, is that it isn't
Speaker 1: just a pile of junk like from what I've read.
Speaker 1: It's actually kind of a nice shopping experience. Yeah, they've
Speaker 1: got a guest services desk with a concierge who can
Speaker 1: help you find some great dining options in the city.
Speaker 1: They'll provide you with personal shoppers. They even have someone
Speaker 1: take care of your pet while you rummage. It's a
Speaker 1: full service thrift shop. But thanks for letting me talk
Speaker 1: about it. I think it's what that's four places now
Speaker 1: where two necks. Well, I figured I knowed you. But
Speaker 1: we've done a little music, some language, some bugs, and
Speaker 1: I think we deserve a break. So we're gonna head
Speaker 1: up north where we can kick back, hand our kids
Speaker 1: some quarters and then ignore them for a while. Will
Speaker 1: be bask in the warm globe screen. Nice. Actually, these
Speaker 1: are two different places, but they're very much related. The
Speaker 1: first is a dream spot for retro arcade nerds. It's
Speaker 1: called the American Classic Arcade Museum in Laconia, New Hampshire,
Speaker 1: and according to Guinness, it's the largest arcade in the world. Wow.
Speaker 1: So it's a museum, but you can also play the
Speaker 1: games they have. Definitely there are hundreds, and the focus
Speaker 1: is on many of the classic coin operated games that
Speaker 1: were so popular before there was a significant shift in
Speaker 1: the eighties and early nineties to the more violent stuff. Okay,
Speaker 1: now I'm looking at their website and I see they
Speaker 1: not only have the Kiss that's the band pinball machine,
Speaker 1: but also the Harlem Globe Trotters machine. And I see
Speaker 1: we missed something called bro Fest. I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: okay with that, though I might prefer to visit when
Speaker 1: it's not bro Fest whatever that is. Yeah, I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure Profest is like a big networking event for professionals
Speaker 1: from all over the Glober of course. But speaking of
Speaker 1: pinball machines, that's the perfect segue into the other half
Speaker 1: of this thing we're pretending is one visit, and that's
Speaker 1: the Pinball Hall of Fame and Museum in Hopewell Township, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: They have four hundred vintage games and pinball machines, with
Speaker 1: over twelve hundred more in storage. Actually love the history
Speaker 1: of pinball. It's so weird. So did you know that
Speaker 1: after pinball was invented in the nineteen thirties, Mayor LaGuardia
Speaker 1: You know, the one that New York's least successible airport
Speaker 1: by public transit is named after. Anyway, he had more
Speaker 1: than two thousand pinball machines confiscated in the early nineteen
Speaker 1: forties because they were considered gambling machines. Yeah. This this
Speaker 1: classic photo of him holding a sledgehammer winding back, getting
Speaker 1: ready to go after one. It's a tough guy to
Speaker 1: destroy a penball machine. But yeah, I really do want
Speaker 1: to see this place. So Pennsylvania. All right, Well, before
Speaker 1: we head to our next destination, what do you say
Speaker 1: we take a little detour and talk to one of
Speaker 1: our favorite adventure lovers. Dylan Thoris is our old friend
Speaker 1: and co founder of Atlas Obscura, a definitive guide to
Speaker 1: the world's most wondrous and curious places. In addition to
Speaker 1: cataloging the world's wonders and web and book form, Atlas
Speaker 1: has also hosted incredible events where you can meet wolves
Speaker 1: at bars, explore subterranean graveyards, learned lock picking from expert locksmiths,
Speaker 1: and even hawaduet with a given. It's truly one of
Speaker 1: our favorite sites to get lost in. And we're so
Speaker 1: excited to have him here today. Welcome Dylan. Hey, thanks
Speaker 1: for having me one, and I guess it's so exciting
Speaker 1: to be here. All right, all right, So Dylan, tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about how you found it. Alice Obscura. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I met Josh, my co founder, way back in
Speaker 1: my two thousand and seven and uh, I was about
Speaker 1: to go on a big trip moving to Hungry to
Speaker 1: Budapest for a year, and we we're done through the
Speaker 1: previous projects about ideas of wonder and discovery, and we
Speaker 1: started talking about travel and the kind of place that
Speaker 1: we like to find and how difficult it could be
Speaker 1: actually to find these sort of tiny museums or you know, uh,
Speaker 1: collections of mummies or or the sort of stuff that
Speaker 1: really like stuck with you when you when you traveled someplace.
Speaker 1: So basically it came out of a desire to create
Speaker 1: a database of that kind of stuff for ourselves as
Speaker 1: travelers and we thought, you know, I bet you there's
Speaker 1: tons of people out there who know that's some incredible
Speaker 1: place that they grew up next to or they happened
Speaker 1: upon on a trip, and we should make a kind
Speaker 1: of a place where people can put those incredible locations.
Speaker 1: And so that's how it started. And living in Eastern Europe,
Speaker 1: I traveled around and started finding in some of these
Speaker 1: things myself, and then into nine we launched Alice Obscia
Speaker 1: and it's always been a kind of open platform where
Speaker 1: people can submit a place. And so yeah, to this day,
Speaker 1: people still send stuff in this list totally mind boggling
Speaker 1: that you've never heard of. So how do you make
Speaker 1: time in your life to explore with a diddy job
Speaker 1: and all this other stuff? Yeah, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: one of the thesis statements of Alice Obscara is that
Speaker 1: you can find incredible wonders, you know, around the corner
Speaker 1: from you, that you don't have to travel around the world.
Speaker 1: And so a lot of times it's just trying to
Speaker 1: be really curious about what is already around you. It's
Speaker 1: sort of if you see something unusual that you drive by,
Speaker 1: it's like taking the time to stop and knock on
Speaker 1: the door or see if you can get in somehow. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I recently moved and so I've been exploring
Speaker 1: this area around where I live, and I found out
Speaker 1: that there's a you know, maybe a minute from me,
Speaker 1: there's a gigantic, huge mind that is open to the
Speaker 1: public that you can just kind of walk into and
Speaker 1: they host like concerts there. Sometimes it's really incredible and
Speaker 1: it's it's always surprising. What's you know, just uh right
Speaker 1: around the corner from you. Wow, that's pretty cool. We're
Speaker 1: talking in this episode about several of the odd ball
Speaker 1: museums around the country, and you know, man guests came
Speaker 1: up with a pretty awesome list of this And do
Speaker 1: you have any favorite museums around the country you would
Speaker 1: se just for our our listeners to to check out
Speaker 1: this summer. Yeah, sure, I mean, if we're going to
Speaker 1: sort of keep it specifically unusual museums. Um, there's a
Speaker 1: few really good ones obviously. Uh, this is a really
Speaker 1: well known one. But the Muter Museum or Mutter Museum
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia is America's greatest medical museum, and it is
Speaker 1: just an incredible collection of skulls and wax faces with
Speaker 1: the horrible skin diseases. It's not you know, it's not
Speaker 1: for the weak of stomach if you have if you're
Speaker 1: not comfortable with that kind of stuff, it's probably like
Speaker 1: you might wanna take it so low. But it really
Speaker 1: is an unbelievable museum. And it's really an example of
Speaker 1: a kind of museum that was more prevalent than sort
Speaker 1: of mentally eighteen hundreds and still exists all over Europe.
Speaker 1: They just aren't very many of them there in the US.
Speaker 1: And them is an incredible museum. Um, it's questionable if
Speaker 1: you can call on a museum exactly. But but one
Speaker 1: of the places that started me on this whole journey
Speaker 1: this path is a place in Wisconsin called the House
Speaker 1: on the Rock. Uh. And the House on the Rock
Speaker 1: is kind of a like a legendary tourists stop. It's
Speaker 1: it's tucked back in the woods of Wisconsin. If you
Speaker 1: weren't kind of told about it or hadn't heard of it,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't have any reason you wouldn't kind of sort
Speaker 1: of stumble across it. But what it is is it
Speaker 1: started out as a one man's kind of architectural project.
Speaker 1: This sort of at least a myth is that it
Speaker 1: was a screw you to Frankloyd Right that this guy
Speaker 1: went to work for Frank wood Right and he told
Speaker 1: him I wouldn't hire you to build a Chicken Cooper
Speaker 1: and she's great, and the guy said, I'm going to
Speaker 1: go build the greatest Frank Lloyd Right house ever. So
Speaker 1: it's this weird off brand Frankloyd Right house. And whether
Speaker 1: whether myth is true or not, I mean it's almost
Speaker 1: certainly not, but it works and you definitely, it definitely
Speaker 1: is a very sort of Frank Lloyd Wrong vibe as
Speaker 1: you as you go through. Over time, this house sort
Speaker 1: of started acquiring other collections and other museums and they
Speaker 1: attached this enormous set of warehouses sort of buried in
Speaker 1: the forest, and you really can't tell how big the
Speaker 1: place is. You start going through it, and it takes
Speaker 1: like five hours to go through. And inside of this
Speaker 1: house is a whale sculpture of a whale fighting a
Speaker 1: squid that is the size of the Statue of Liberty.
Speaker 1: It's like my house. The world largest carousel is in
Speaker 1: the house with the world's most diverse collection of carousel animals. Uh.
Speaker 1: The house is actually it's a it's a big set
Speaker 1: piece in Neo Demon's book American Gods, and he has
Speaker 1: said on the record that he had to tone down
Speaker 1: the craziness of the House on the Rock because no
Speaker 1: one would believe, even though it's a book of fantastical picture,
Speaker 1: that the actual house is too much, too intent. So
Speaker 1: that I went to the place and I was like twelve,
Speaker 1: on a road trip with my parents, and it kind
Speaker 1: of set me on this path in a way. And
Speaker 1: there's another big day coming up, and I've seen you
Speaker 1: guys are promoting it on the website as well. On
Speaker 1: August twenty one is the complete solar eclipse. So tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about how you guys are celebrating
Speaker 1: this and where you will be on that day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I am so so freaking excited about this. So you know,
Speaker 1: August August one is going to be like this once
Speaker 1: in a lifetime celestial experience, total solar eclipse cutting across
Speaker 1: almost the entire uh United States. And you know, short
Speaker 1: of traveling all over the world, there are these eclipse
Speaker 1: chasers who basically go all around the world seeking kind
Speaker 1: of the next grade eclipse. For most people in the US,
Speaker 1: this will be their best chance to see a total
Speaker 1: solar eclipse and at least for you know, forty some years.
Speaker 1: So we are having a big three day party out
Speaker 1: in kind of rural Oregon, in an area that's, uh
Speaker 1: weather wise, is thought to have one of the best
Speaker 1: chances of getting a totally clear view of the eclipse.
Speaker 1: And we've got Science Friday from NPR coming out. We've
Speaker 1: got a ton of musicians and performers. We have the
Speaker 1: Sun Raw Orchestra performing sort of themed uh themed celestial
Speaker 1: act and it's just going to be a celebration of
Speaker 1: kind of the science, the wonder and the beauty of
Speaker 1: this this natural event that's awesome. Me and me and
Speaker 1: the fam will will be out there. Yeah, it'll be good. Well,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be great. We're gonna be watching it from
Speaker 1: from Nashville, which is I know, in the band that's
Speaker 1: supposed to see it, so so not quite as remote
Speaker 1: as you will be. But I've already purchased my solar
Speaker 1: eclipse viewing glasses. Excited for that, but almost as exciting
Speaker 1: as this is the quiz that we're about to take.
Speaker 1: So ango, what what game is still employing today? This
Speaker 1: is a game called trucking in puns and It's based
Speaker 1: on Atlas Obscure, as incredible catalog of crowdsourced penny titled
Speaker 1: food trucks trucking in puns. I like it. So basically,
Speaker 1: we're going to take an incredible food truck name and
Speaker 1: give you a clue and you have to tell us
Speaker 1: it's punny name. So don't worry. This will be fun
Speaker 1: and uh, we hope you're ready to play. You're ready, Dylan,
Speaker 1: I think, so prepare for disaster. All right, We've just
Speaker 1: got a few questions here. Okay, here we go. This
Speaker 1: food truck combines a Vietnamese soup with the number of
Speaker 1: tires it has. It's in Washington, d C. Okay, here
Speaker 1: we go. Question number two. This food truck combines a
Speaker 1: cure song about days in the week with a breakfast
Speaker 1: dish that comes sunny side up. We're over easy. God,
Speaker 1: that's hard. Oh man. Uh the first words of nicely done.
Speaker 1: So this is a real food truck Friday egg, I'm
Speaker 1: in love. Good job. Wow. Okay, next question, This food
Speaker 1: truck name combines a French loaf of bread and something
Speaker 1: Tony Soprano might tell you after he does you a
Speaker 1: small favor. Oh, I actually I remember this one is
Speaker 1: one of my favorites. Butget about it all right. Two more,
Speaker 1: here we go. This food truck celebrates pork while naming
Speaker 1: itself for Tupac's rival from Clinton Hill, notorious p I G.
Speaker 1: It's gotta be okay. Last one here a famous Rolling
Speaker 1: Stone song which shows compassion for Satan, combined with a
Speaker 1: place you might get a cold cut sandwich like Cats
Speaker 1: Is in New York City. I really want this to
Speaker 1: be about Satan, but I think it's not. Uh is
Speaker 1: it um? Sympathy for the Delhi? Five for five? Five
Speaker 1: for five? So what is Dylan one today? Well? That
Speaker 1: earns him an official certificate of admiration from us here
Speaker 1: at Part Time Genius. Thanks so much for joining us, Dylan, congratulations.
Speaker 1: That's my actual only skill is But we hope all
Speaker 1: of our listeners will check out Alice Obscure if you
Speaker 1: have not already. Dylan, thanks so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thanks for having me. Welcome back to Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius. So Mango has been taking us on a
Speaker 1: tour of the weird museums to get out of the
Speaker 1: summer heat. Now we hit up the Kazoom Museum in
Speaker 1: South Carolina. The Museum of the Alphabet in North Carolina,
Speaker 1: the US National Tick Collection in Georgia, Unclaimed Baggage Center
Speaker 1: in Alabama, the American Classic Arcade Museum in New Hampshire,
Speaker 1: and then the Pinball Hall of Fame in Pennsylvania. All right,
Speaker 1: we're two next, Mengo. Well, all this touring has probably
Speaker 1: made you a little hungry, so let's head over to
Speaker 1: the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota. By the way, I
Speaker 1: had this funny experience in college where I was at
Speaker 1: a party and chatting with this guy and he said
Speaker 1: he was from Austin, and I said, Oh, that's such
Speaker 1: a cool town. And he just went off talking about
Speaker 1: how great the Spam Museum is, like at length, and
Speaker 1: I kept thinking, I mean, there's south By, Southwest city Limits, barbecue,
Speaker 1: so many cool things. Why is he hung up on spam?
Speaker 1: And then then I eventually I figured it out. But
Speaker 1: all his evangelism did make me want to go. Now,
Speaker 1: have you ever had spam? Ango? No, I have no
Speaker 1: interest in trying it, but I like it as a punchline.
Speaker 1: I actually haven't tried it either, but I feel like
Speaker 1: we need to change that in the future episode. Maybe
Speaker 1: we'll find a way to incorporate it into a food quote.
Speaker 1: I do think the history of spam is super interesting
Speaker 1: because I can't stop pulling up the websites of places
Speaker 1: you're mentioning. I see they're celebrating a big birthday this year.
Speaker 1: That's right. Spam was first created in n seven at
Speaker 1: the Hormel Foods Corporation plants, so they're turning eighty. And
Speaker 1: at the museum you can follow its history and see
Speaker 1: tons of memorabilia from World War Two and the role
Speaker 1: it played in the war. I mean, it's such a
Speaker 1: massively popular food and several of the island cultures of
Speaker 1: the Pacific because of the spread. During the war, can
Speaker 1: eat was an easy way to give sustenance to soldiers
Speaker 1: in far flung regions, and the military really doubled down
Speaker 1: on it. I think we shipped over a hundred million
Speaker 1: or possibly even a hundred fifty million pounds of spam
Speaker 1: to soldiers around the world during the war. I know,
Speaker 1: it was so president in the soldiers daily lives they
Speaker 1: actually started referring to Uncle Sam as Uncle Spam. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's so many interesting facts about spam, like did you
Speaker 1: know that Hallie Selassie, the Rastafarian messiah and Ethiopian leader,
Speaker 1: took a tour of the Spam Museum when he visited
Speaker 1: the States. Actually, I know it's not time for the
Speaker 1: fact Off yet, but maybe we should have a special
Speaker 1: mini fact Off Spam edition. Oh that's a great idea. Okay,
Speaker 1: Can I go first? Definitely? All right? So, there used
Speaker 1: to be a mascot named Slamming Spammy. According to the
Speaker 1: Daily Meal, he was a machine gun toting, bomb hurling
Speaker 1: angry face pig introduced by Hormel to help support the
Speaker 1: war effort, and he showed up on everything from clothing
Speaker 1: to bombers. I want that t shirting to the McDonald's
Speaker 1: breakfast platter in Hawaii actually includes a slice of spam. Well,
Speaker 1: in Guam they eat an average of six team cans
Speaker 1: per year. In South Korea, it's considered a luxury food
Speaker 1: and it's appropriate to give to a host when you
Speaker 1: attend their party. So there used to be a kosher
Speaker 1: spam distributed by the Israeli Army. It was made of
Speaker 1: chicken or beef, but they phased it out in two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight. Okay, Well, if I say you win,
Speaker 1: will you agree to go check out this museum with
Speaker 1: it totally alright. Next, alright, the next one is one
Speaker 1: of the craziest and most interesting places people have never
Speaker 1: heard of. And it's in Hutchinson, Kansas. Alright, Kansas, So
Speaker 1: what is it. It's a place called Stratica and it's
Speaker 1: a huge salt mine where the Kansas Underground Salt Museum lives.
Speaker 1: So this mine is insanely big. It has veins that
Speaker 1: extend all the way to New Mexico. But there's a
Speaker 1: museum down there that's sixty five stories underground, Like that's
Speaker 1: basically an underground skyscraper. You can take a tram tour there,
Speaker 1: and there's apparently a two million year old salt crystal
Speaker 1: that researchers have actually found a living bacterium in. Wow,
Speaker 1: that place sounds pretty cool and I'm not even done.
Speaker 1: The mine is also a storage location for government records,
Speaker 1: so if you want to find master prints of like
Speaker 1: Gone with the Wind or The Wizard of Oz, well
Speaker 1: this is the place to look. And uh. Also sometimes
Speaker 1: they host something called Murder in the Mine at the
Speaker 1: dinner theater. They're all right, you're just making you should
Speaker 1: look it up. I mean even on every other website
Speaker 1: related to this tour of weird Museum. I am, and
Speaker 1: holy crap, you're not making this up. I've got to
Speaker 1: see this place. So it looks like you've got one
Speaker 1: more place to take us to before we break for
Speaker 1: a quiz, and then I'm going to share a few
Speaker 1: fun festivals everyone should check out this summer. Okay, so
Speaker 1: I know we said eight, but let me just say,
Speaker 1: if you're already in Kansas, it would be a shame
Speaker 1: if you didn't just make a quick trip up one
Speaker 1: state to Paul's Valley, Oklahoma. This is the home of
Speaker 1: the Toy and Action Figure Museum with over action figures,
Speaker 1: and the coolest part of the museum is the diorama
Speaker 1: that showcases thousands of different action figures from over the years,
Speaker 1: including a Peewee's playhouse. All right, I was going to
Speaker 1: call you out on going over your quota, but you
Speaker 1: won me over at Peewee. Okay, you're right, it does
Speaker 1: sound cool. And just one more we're headed out to
Speaker 1: call Fornia, but you might as well stop off quickly
Speaker 1: at the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, Idaho, if only
Speaker 1: to see the world's largest potato chip. A pringle, measuring
Speaker 1: twenty five inches long. It's been there since. Good lord,
Speaker 1: can you imagine how stale that thing is now? All right,
Speaker 1: I know you can't help yourself. And that is another
Speaker 1: good edition. They're just too many good places. I think
Speaker 1: we should do another episode on museum. So all right,
Speaker 1: So what's your final stop on the museum front. Well,
Speaker 1: this one's gonna come as no surprise to you since
Speaker 1: you've known me so long. It's the Burlingame Museum of
Speaker 1: Pez Memorabilia in Burlingame, California. I should have known you'd
Speaker 1: end your list with this, all right, so tell me
Speaker 1: about it. They have all fifty plus characters ever produced
Speaker 1: and the largest PEZ dispenser in the world, which looks
Speaker 1: like a snowman. And by the way, I know a
Speaker 1: lot of people know that Pez was started as an
Speaker 1: adult candy is a way to help smokers avoid smoking,
Speaker 1: which is why the original dispensers look like lighters. But
Speaker 1: my favorite thing about Pez is that it used to
Speaker 1: come in so many weird flavors like this is so
Speaker 1: much earlier than this kick cat trend where they kick
Speaker 1: cats come in like soy sauce and baked potato flavor.
Speaker 1: Or whatever. But early on PEZ came in coffee, eucalyptus,
Speaker 1: and even chlorophyll, Like, I want to try those. I
Speaker 1: really hope they sell them in the museum lobby. For
Speaker 1: some reason, that PEZ fact about its origins, I forget it,
Speaker 1: and then every time I hear it, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's so interesting. It used to help people quit smoking.
Speaker 1: So all right, well, that's a terrific list of museums.
Speaker 1: Congratulations for managing to actually fit in eleven museums on
Speaker 1: your list of eight. So while I take a minute
Speaker 1: to process that math, let's take a break broke with
Speaker 1: so mego, who do we have on the line today?
Speaker 1: So we've got two wonderful travel agents on the line.
Speaker 1: We've got Susan Whitson from King and Whitson Travel in Washington, Virginia,
Speaker 1: and Martha Rhodes from Travel with Martha and Richmond, Virginia.
Speaker 1: All right, well, let's welcome them both. Now, Susan, I
Speaker 1: understand that you actually, before your career as a travel agent,
Speaker 1: worked at the White House. Is this true? It? I
Speaker 1: was Laura Bush's press secretary for a couple of years
Speaker 1: in the second administration before I went home and had
Speaker 1: some children and decided to embark on a career and
Speaker 1: travel an interesting gig. Yeah. No, it was a wonderful experience,
Speaker 1: wonderful career, And I think part of the reason why
Speaker 1: I went into the travel business was simply because I
Speaker 1: went through I had these amazing experiences traveling around the
Speaker 1: world with the President. I tried to recreate a lot
Speaker 1: of those for my clients. The only thing I cannot
Speaker 1: do is I cannot get air Force one. I think
Speaker 1: I could do everything else than get Airport one. Well,
Speaker 1: this call is over, you know. That's that's what we
Speaker 1: were getting. Uh. And Martha, speaking of interesting experiences, I
Speaker 1: heard you had an interesting experience recently trying to uh
Speaker 1: to go through security at the airport and you were
Speaker 1: pulled aside. Huh. Yeah, Well, I think I would offer
Speaker 1: your listeners what I call a newly acquired travel tip
Speaker 1: in the category of learned this the hard way. Um. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I tested Paul to the for explosives at T s
Speaker 1: A this week, and um I was quite uh concerned
Speaker 1: about what that could possibly be. And after my first
Speaker 1: pat down, the agents gloves tested positive for explosives, and
Speaker 1: I got very concerned that maybe I wasn't going to
Speaker 1: be allowed on my flight, and UM a second pat
Speaker 1: down and the gloves were clear. And it took me
Speaker 1: a little while, but I realized that it was probably
Speaker 1: the body powder that I put on before I went
Speaker 1: to the airport, and UM, consulting with my engineering son,
Speaker 1: I'll learned that body powder has magnesium carbonate, which is
Speaker 1: also used to make gunpowder and flash powder and rocket fuel.
Speaker 1: So that's something for people to know, is to skip
Speaker 1: the body powder until you get to the other side
Speaker 1: of security. Well, I'm glad, You'm glad you made it through. So,
Speaker 1: speaking of advice that you have to give your clients,
Speaker 1: that's actually related to today's quiz. What quiz are you
Speaker 1: playing with these guys today, Mango, We're gonna play a
Speaker 1: game called Weird World Laws. Okay, weird World Laws. So
Speaker 1: what's going to happen is we're going to give you
Speaker 1: a law from a certain place around the world, and
Speaker 1: all you guys have to do is tell us whether
Speaker 1: that is true or faults. We're gonna let you guys
Speaker 1: work together on this one. There five questions you guys
Speaker 1: ready to go? Sure, all right, here we go. Question
Speaker 1: number one or statement number one feeding the pigeons in
Speaker 1: Venice is against the law, true or faults. But so Susan,
Speaker 1: I think that's probably true. I think it's probably true too,
Speaker 1: but I know people do it anyway. It is true,
Speaker 1: and mangoe give us the explanation for that one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Venice has a pigeon problem and all those birds cause
Speaker 1: extra work for the clean up crew who have to
Speaker 1: polish the town statues. And uh, in fact, you can
Speaker 1: get a hefty fine if you feed the pigeons. Wow,
Speaker 1: it's good advice there. Don't feed the pigeons. Number two.
Speaker 1: In Luxembourg, it's illegal to put holy water in a
Speaker 1: water balloon. True or faults. I would say true. Who
Speaker 1: has access to holy water and water balloons? I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, you could just go in and you can
Speaker 1: get like a little cut up and get it out
Speaker 1: of a little fun if you wanted to in there,
Speaker 1: if you really wanted to, so, I would say that
Speaker 1: would be pretty bad. But some mischievous child could do that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say that's false because that just seems like
Speaker 1: not even a law you would need. Yeah, you're right,
Speaker 1: it's false. That's one of those you want to I
Speaker 1: wanted to put that in our travel tip. Work alright.
Speaker 1: Question number three. In Barbados, wearing camouflage shorts is a
Speaker 1: crime unless you're in the Barbados military. True or false?
Speaker 1: You know they have that they Martha, they have that
Speaker 1: rule in Africa. They have that law in Africa. I
Speaker 1: know no wash is loud enow. Yeah, when you go
Speaker 1: in Safari. Yeah, I don't. I don't know about Barbadoes.
Speaker 1: Why would you be wearing camo and Barbados? Anyway, let
Speaker 1: you go with my crew. I'm gonna go with true.
Speaker 1: I'll go true to you. Guys. Are right, it's true,
Speaker 1: and the reason is because the rule came out in
Speaker 1: the eighties when gang members impersonated the military and robbed
Speaker 1: some banks and since then lusted on the books. Wow,
Speaker 1: well done, these guys are what three for three? Well,
Speaker 1: Martha is I miss one? I'll give Martha. You guys
Speaker 1: are a team. You stick together. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 1: Question number question number four, Travel Asian code. That's right,
Speaker 1: that's right, that's right, travel stick together, buddy system here. Okay.
Speaker 1: It's illegal to reincarnate in China without government permission. It's
Speaker 1: illegal to reincarnate in China without government permission. True or faults?
Speaker 1: Is it reincarnate not reproduced? Right? That is good. I
Speaker 1: think that's faults. I don't know, Martha, I think I
Speaker 1: think that's fault. What do you think, Martha? Okay, they
Speaker 1: went with faults? What this one is actually true? Wow?
Speaker 1: Let's hear the explanation. Yeah, the law was an acted
Speaker 1: partially to prevent the Dalai Lama from reincarnating in Tibet.
Speaker 1: But if you want to be born there in your
Speaker 1: next life, you actually have to seek the blessing of
Speaker 1: the Chinese government. It's interesting stuff. So remind your clients.
Speaker 1: Remind your clients need to reincarnate, and little known facts
Speaker 1: about your upcoming trip to China. All right, last question.
Speaker 1: These guys are three for four. Let's see if they
Speaker 1: can get the last one. Number five. Is it's illegal
Speaker 1: for foreigners to handle or pet a pure bred French
Speaker 1: poodle in the Maldives. Poodle mixes, however, are fair game?
Speaker 1: True or false? I have no idea on that one.
Speaker 1: I think we got to go with true one. Okay, Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: then goes kind of a trickster when he comes up
Speaker 1: with these, Uh, what's the answer to it's actually false?
Speaker 1: Anyone can touch a French. But I think I think
Speaker 1: in our official rule book of travel agent quizzes, what
Speaker 1: did they have to score to win the big prize?
Speaker 1: Three out of five? And what did they get? So
Speaker 1: Martha and Susan combined for an astounding three or five,
Speaker 1: which wins them a certificate to their moms or boss
Speaker 1: singing their praises from us and where It's gonna send
Speaker 1: you a pickle luggage tag as well the classiest pickle
Speaker 1: luggage tags on Etsy. Wow. Congratulations guys. Thank you guys
Speaker 1: so much for joining us today and I hope you
Speaker 1: have a great next trip. Thank you. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: part time Genius Mango. I think you've given our listeners
Speaker 1: some great museums to visit when they want to escape
Speaker 1: the heat this summer. But I don't think summer can
Speaker 1: really be complete without visiting at least one or two
Speaker 1: weird festivals. So with that in mind, I want to
Speaker 1: quickly share a few must attend events for the remaining months,
Speaker 1: and I'm must attack. Okay, let's hear them all right, listeners,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to move quickly to make this first.
Speaker 1: When it's down in New Orleans, it's the sand Firm
Speaker 1: and Bull Run and the festival takes place from July
Speaker 1: seven to nine. Now, I know you've all heard of
Speaker 1: the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, and that's pretty
Speaker 1: much exactly what this is. But instead of bulls, participants
Speaker 1: are being run down and beaten with foam bats by
Speaker 1: the big Easy roller girls. Last year, the run attracted
Speaker 1: fourteen thousand participants. I can't believe people actually come for that.
Speaker 1: It's amazing, it's a big deal. Well what else you have?
Speaker 1: All right? Then you'll have a couple of weeks to
Speaker 1: recover for two very different festivals on back to back nights,
Speaker 1: but it's really worth it to make it to both. First,
Speaker 1: you have the Great Texas Mosquito Festival Include Texas, and
Speaker 1: this is where you'll see the mosquito calling contest and
Speaker 1: Willie man Chew, which is the twenty six ft tall
Speaker 1: mosquito mascot wearing a cowboy hat and boot. I have
Speaker 1: a little skeptical of taking your trip just to hang
Speaker 1: out with a giant mosquito. I think you're forgetting it
Speaker 1: wears a hat and you can't miss that, Okay, And
Speaker 1: there's a second festival right there on that second night. No,
Speaker 1: not right there. You'll need to catch a flight from
Speaker 1: nearby Houston up to Detroit and then make the easy
Speaker 1: one and a half hour drive up to Yale, Michigan
Speaker 1: for the annual Bologney Fest. I mean, you don't want
Speaker 1: to find out who's crowned this year's King and Queen
Speaker 1: of Bolognay on Twitter, right, you want to be there.
Speaker 1: Plus you can enjoy the Bologny Derby and the Outhouse
Speaker 1: races races. I guess this is because of where you
Speaker 1: need to run after eating a bunch of ballooney. I
Speaker 1: get the impression that is the case, but I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure I've told you before why I can't stand the
Speaker 1: smell of bologne even to this day. Why is that again, Well,
Speaker 1: because I grew up across the street from Triplet boys
Speaker 1: who were younger brothers than my friend Mike. Well, their
Speaker 1: mom would return home from the grocery store and she
Speaker 1: would always buy them packs of Bologny. The bologny would
Speaker 1: never make it to the refrigerator. It would just hit
Speaker 1: the kitchen table and the boys would tear into it
Speaker 1: like a pack of wild dog. I can still hear
Speaker 1: it now. It's so gross. Well, it seems like the
Speaker 1: right thing to do to attend to Bullooney Festival is
Speaker 1: a tribute to them. Where to next? All right, well,
Speaker 1: I've got two other stops, the first of which is
Speaker 1: perhaps the only thing more gross to me than bologna.
Speaker 1: It's the Wisconsin State Cow Chip Throw in Prairie do Sac, Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: This happens to be in very early September. And in
Speaker 1: case you didn't know, a cow chip is a piece
Speaker 1: of hardened cow dung. So the whole idea behind the
Speaker 1: throwing contest is to see how far you can throw,
Speaker 1: or rather fleeing like a discus, these cow chips. And
Speaker 1: apparently the record is two hundred and forty eight feet.
Speaker 1: But the best part about the whole thing might be
Speaker 1: the rules, as the homepage of the event's website says
Speaker 1: no gloves, but licking your hands is allowed to get
Speaker 1: a better grip. So discussing, well, it's clearly not that
Speaker 1: disgusting because forty people show up every year to check
Speaker 1: it out. There's even a corporate division, Mango. So I'm
Speaker 1: thinking maybe we should get the House Stuff Works Gang
Speaker 1: to sign up for this. How State couche Throws work?
Speaker 1: I I like that. Alright, And here's another thing I
Speaker 1: know that they're all excited about. And then we talked
Speaker 1: about earlier with Dylan, and this is the solar eclipse
Speaker 1: happening on August one. It's the first one in the
Speaker 1: United States in our lifetime and won't happen again for decades.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned earlier, we've ordered our solar eclipse glasses
Speaker 1: and I can't wait to see it. Anyone in the
Speaker 1: band that runs diagonally across the country from Salem, Oregon
Speaker 1: to Charleston, South Carolina will be able to see it
Speaker 1: in totality, but even those who aren't will at least
Speaker 1: be able to see a partial eclipse. Yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: terrific episode of Every Little Thing, one of our favorite
Speaker 1: new podcasts, that covers this event and the super weird
Speaker 1: and fun world of eclipse chasers. It's pretty great. Well,
Speaker 1: speaking of pretty great, you know what time it is?
Speaker 1: Time for the part time Genius fact Off. This is
Speaker 1: the part of the show where we share some of
Speaker 1: the incredible facts we found in our research but didn't
Speaker 1: get a chance to share yet. M alright, man goo,
Speaker 1: you want to kick it off? Sure? Do you know
Speaker 1: that every year about half a penny from each American taxpayer.
Speaker 1: It goes to something called all the International Boundary Commission,
Speaker 1: whose job it is to keep a clean border between
Speaker 1: the US and Canada. This area is known as the
Speaker 1: Slash Slash and it's a twenty ft wide zone that
Speaker 1: goes the distance of the border. Definitely a destination for
Speaker 1: geography nerds and slash. That's that's pretty cool. I've actually
Speaker 1: never heard of that. I can't imagine how many hours
Speaker 1: are spent keeping that area cut. It's so weird. Speaking
Speaker 1: of weird, if there's one thing that was reinforced as
Speaker 1: we were looking into places to visit, it's that Florida
Speaker 1: is weird but also pretty awesome. So did you know
Speaker 1: that Florida is home to the world's first underwater hotel.
Speaker 1: It's the Jewels Undersea Lodge and Key Largo Undersea Park. Now,
Speaker 1: you do have to be scuba certified, but if you are,
Speaker 1: you can watch the fish swim around outside your bedroom.
Speaker 1: You'll have access to a full kitchen. There's even a
Speaker 1: lounge with books and movies to enjoy, all while being
Speaker 1: twenty one ft under the surface. That's pretty cool. So
Speaker 1: if you're looking for a place to take a nice
Speaker 1: long stroll. Why not head to Weldon Spring, Missouri, where
Speaker 1: you can walk on the Nuclear Waste Adventure your trail.
Speaker 1: This park sits on the land of what used to
Speaker 1: be the largest explosive factory in the country and a
Speaker 1: uranium factory during the Cold War. Yeah, the U. S
Speaker 1: Department of Energy decided to throw a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: rocks on it in the eighties. And now you can
Speaker 1: take that walk knowing you're strolling on top of asbestos
Speaker 1: and mercury, uranium TNT all sorts of fun things. Crazy alright,
Speaker 1: But like I was saying, Florida is weird. It's not
Speaker 1: only home to the first underwater hotel, but there's also
Speaker 1: an underwater cemetery just a few miles off the coast
Speaker 1: of Miami. It used to be called the Atlantis Memorial Reef,
Speaker 1: which I think sounds cool, but it's now called the
Speaker 1: Neptune Memorial Reef. But if you visit, you'd see these
Speaker 1: huge columns with lions guarding the entrance. Now inside you'd
Speaker 1: find stone roads and other evidence of this lost city.
Speaker 1: And when someone passes away and is cremated, their remains
Speaker 1: are then put into concrete memorials inside the city where
Speaker 1: divers can visit all of this forty ft below the surface.
Speaker 1: That's crazy and also a lot of Florida. Yes it is. Okay,
Speaker 1: So this he just talked about death, I'll talk about
Speaker 1: a pretty huge existence of life known as the humongous
Speaker 1: fungus and Grant Oregon is this huge network fungus that
Speaker 1: scientists think maybe both the largest and oldest life forms
Speaker 1: still found on Earth. It spreads acres and it's been
Speaker 1: growing for two hundred years. And while it has a
Speaker 1: sweet name, the honey mushroom, the main way scientists know
Speaker 1: how widespread it is is to see how many of
Speaker 1: the trees above ground are dying, because it's a parasite
Speaker 1: that takes over the root systems of these trees above
Speaker 1: and eventually kills No. No, I'm so sorry. I was
Speaker 1: trying to make this about life. Yeah, that one took
Speaker 1: a surprising turn. Alright, So back to Florida. You know
Speaker 1: one thing I wish I could still experience there is
Speaker 1: the sound of the singing runway at the abandoned Disney
Speaker 1: World Airport in Orlando. It was only used for a
Speaker 1: year or two before they decided not to allow flights
Speaker 1: to come directly into the Magic Kingdom. But even better
Speaker 1: than the convenience to Disney was the fact that the
Speaker 1: grooves and the runway, you know, the ones that are
Speaker 1: kind of like the ones that run along the interstate there,
Speaker 1: they've decided to make them play when you wish upon
Speaker 1: a star when driven over at forty five miles an hour.
Speaker 1: It's such a fun surprise for pasting. Oh I love that,
Speaker 1: And after the emotional roller coaster we experienced in this
Speaker 1: fact off, I think I have to give it to
Speaker 1: you for ending on a happy note, so you win
Speaker 1: this week's edition. Thanks Mago. That's it for today's Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius. Happy travels out there, and thanks so much
Speaker 1: for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is
Speaker 1: a production of how stuff works and wouldn't be possible
Speaker 1: without several brilliant people who do the important things we
Speaker 1: couldn't even begin to understand. Christa McNeil does the ending thing.
Speaker 1: Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
Speaker 1: mixy sound thing. Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.
Speaker 1: Gabe Losier is our lead researcher, with support from the
Speaker 1: Research Army, including Austin Thompson, Land Brown and Lucas Adams
Speaker 1: and Eve. Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears.
Speaker 1: Good job, Eves. If you like what you heard, we
Speaker 1: hope you'll subscribe, And if you really really like what
Speaker 1: you've heard, maybe you could leave a good review for us.
Speaker 1: Do we do we forget Jason? Jason who