Speaker 1: Guess what, mango, what's that?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm not sure if you've ever been to the
Speaker 2: Secret Museum in New York City. There's a secret museum. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's hidden in this elevator shaft, and it's pretty incredible.
Speaker 2: Each shelf is considered its own wing of the museum,
Speaker 2: and they have all sorts of weird things in there,
Speaker 2: from vintage magazines to a gallery of weird toothpaste from
Speaker 2: around the world, to the shoe that was supposedly thrown
Speaker 2: at George Bush at that Iraqi Press cow rest. It's
Speaker 2: so strange, and it's all hiding in this tiny hidden
Speaker 2: museum that commuters just walk past all the time.
Speaker 3: It's strange how many like little museums and galleries there
Speaker 3: are hiding all around us. Like I feel like I
Speaker 3: only learned about this micro toy museum in my neighborhood
Speaker 3: when it showed up on my son's Pokemon Go So
Speaker 3: that thing did prove useful very.
Speaker 2: The crazy thing is they are actually more museums in
Speaker 2: the country than Starbucks and McDonald's combined. Like, according to
Speaker 2: the Washington Post, there are over thirty five thousand museums
Speaker 2: in this country and they cover every conceivable topic, from
Speaker 2: a forest fire museum in Idaho to a museum of
Speaker 2: maritime pets and a Napos maritime Pets.
Speaker 3: I really want that museum to just be a giant
Speaker 3: gallery of parrots owned by famous buccaneers.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure that's what it is. We have to
Speaker 2: check it out, but doesn't it feel like a waste?
Speaker 2: I mean, if there are that many museums hiding all
Speaker 2: around us, shouldn't we be taking advantage of them? So
Speaker 2: that's what we're going to do in this episode. We're
Speaker 2: creating a weird summer travel guide filled with obscure places
Speaker 2: that deserve way more attention. What do you say we
Speaker 2: dive in? Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 2: I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my
Speaker 2: good friend Mangesh hot Ticketter, and today we're talking about
Speaker 2: finding ways to fit.
Speaker 1: In a little weirdness into your summer.
Speaker 2: So, as you know, Mango, a few weeks ago, while
Speaker 2: we were recording a few episodes, my wife and kids
Speaker 2: were doing their annual trip with three or four other
Speaker 2: moms and a herd of kids the Great Smoky Mountains.
Speaker 2: They go in they camp there for three nights in Elkmont, Tennessee.
Speaker 2: And it's not just for the camping. It's because there's
Speaker 2: a species of firefly that light up in synchrony. That's right,
Speaker 2: synchronize fireflies. And it only happens for about two weeks
Speaker 2: in June.
Speaker 3: Just two weeks, like that's such a short window.
Speaker 2: It is, but it sounds magnificent and it's one of
Speaker 2: the only places in the world where you can see them.
Speaker 2: There have been some others found in the swamps of
Speaker 2: South Carolina and some other areas of the Appalachians, but
Speaker 2: this has become such a big deal in the Smokies
Speaker 2: that the camp sites at Elkmont book up a year
Speaker 2: in advance. But during the second week in June you
Speaker 2: can take a trolley up to the area and see
Speaker 2: the fireflies, even if you're not a camper.
Speaker 3: That's something I definitely want to see. Well, that's what
Speaker 3: got me.
Speaker 2: Thinking, somemer may have already started, but it's not too
Speaker 2: late to find lots of other unique and weird things
Speaker 2: to see and do around the country before the season ends.
Speaker 3: Definitely not and to help us find some of the
Speaker 3: most interesting off the beaten path places and events around
Speaker 3: the country, we turn to our friends at one of
Speaker 3: our favorite websites at liss Obscura. Now, if you don't
Speaker 3: know atless Obscure, you've got to check it out. And
Speaker 3: in a bit will be joined by Dylan Thuris, one
Speaker 3: of the founders, to hear about some of his favorite spots.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure you've got a ridiculous quiz ready for
Speaker 2: two lucky people.
Speaker 3: Of course, who are.
Speaker 1: We going to have on the line today.
Speaker 3: Well, we've got a travel theme, so we've got two
Speaker 3: travel agents from Virginia and they'll be joining us to
Speaker 3: play weird world laws.
Speaker 2: All right, Okay, well let's get started. So we know
Speaker 2: it can sometimes be tough to schedule around exact dates
Speaker 2: that we'll still get to a few awesome festivals later
Speaker 2: on in the episode, but let's start with some places
Speaker 2: you can go to pretty much any week. And because
Speaker 2: we love museums that are focused on very specific things,
Speaker 2: I think we should kick this off with a few
Speaker 2: of those. I see you've made a big list here, Mango.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've got this list of one hundred and thirty
Speaker 3: one must see museums around the country right now.
Speaker 2: Well, that's great, but I'm not sure we have time
Speaker 2: for one hundred and thirty one places, and in fact,
Speaker 2: you're moving from Brooklyn to Atlanta this summer. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: barely even getting a summer. So why don't you say,
Speaker 2: why don't we pick eight and we'll talk about those.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna cut my list off right here. Okay, let's
Speaker 3: begin right here on the East Coast and start with
Speaker 3: the museum dedicated to one of my favorite instruments, the kazoo. Whoa,
Speaker 3: I'm talking about the Kazoo Museum at the Kazoobi Kazoo
Speaker 3: Factory in Bocher at South Carolina. Did you know the
Speaker 3: kazoo is actually one of the only homegrown instruments in
Speaker 3: the US.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, while I can't say I'm an expert
Speaker 2: on weird instrument history, I actually do know this one
Speaker 2: because of its origin. So a few episodes ago, you
Speaker 2: got to share lots of fun facts about your home
Speaker 2: state of Delaware. So I feel like it's my turn
Speaker 2: to recognize some of the very important facts about my
Speaker 2: home state of Alabama. I don't know if you've noticed,
Speaker 2: but we come from some pretty influential states here, Mayory.
Speaker 2: But I know this one because the kazoo was invented
Speaker 2: by an Alabama vest and clockmaker, Thaddeus von Klegg, almost
Speaker 2: two hundred years ago.
Speaker 3: That's right. And do you think we're going to be
Speaker 3: the first podcast to mention a clockmaker from Alabama?
Speaker 1: Probably?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 3: But did you know that the kazoo is also known
Speaker 3: as the down South summer?
Speaker 1: Good God, no, I didn't.
Speaker 2: Now I feel bad for running away from that man
Speaker 2: who asked if I wanted to check out his down
Speaker 2: South submarine.
Speaker 1: This sounds like a really fun museum.
Speaker 2: By the way, did you know that kazoo is sometimes
Speaker 2: called the most democratic.
Speaker 1: Of all instruments?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Why is that?
Speaker 2: Because they're cheap and approachable and basically anyone can just
Speaker 2: pick one up and play it immediately. There's this avant
Speaker 2: garde piece from the nineteen seventies called With one Hundred Kazoos,
Speaker 2: and audience members are given kazoos to a company, a
Speaker 2: little orchestra of real musicians, and they don't sound bad
Speaker 2: because kazoos are that easy. All right, But let's move on.
Speaker 2: Where do we go from Beaufort, South Carolina. Let's head
Speaker 2: one state up to North Carolina to a museum. I
Speaker 2: have to admit I didn't even know existed when we
Speaker 2: went to college in the state. It's the Museum of
Speaker 2: the Alphabet in Waxhaw, North Carolina. And what happens at
Speaker 2: the Museum of the Alphabet, Well, it started out as
Speaker 2: a project intended to translate the Bible into as many
Speaker 2: languages as possible. But even if that's not your interest,
Speaker 2: it's a pretty fascinating project. It's really a celebration of
Speaker 2: the history of the ridden life language. There are twelve
Speaker 2: galleries dedicated to individual languages or families of languages, from
Speaker 2: Greek to Hebrew to African languages. But I think what's
Speaker 2: most interesting about it is the focus on minority languages
Speaker 2: that are only spoken by a small number of people,
Speaker 2: and they might be going extinct if they're not preserved.
Speaker 2: I remember seeing a fact somewhere that of the seven
Speaker 2: thousand languages in the world, about a third of those
Speaker 2: lack a written alphabet, So all of those would definitely
Speaker 2: be at risk of being lost completely if people stop
Speaker 2: speaking them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my family actually speaks a tiny dialect of a
Speaker 3: language called Konkni, which doesn't have its own script, and
Speaker 3: it was great growing up because it's basically like a
Speaker 3: secret language that I had just with my parents. There
Speaker 3: are so few speakers, but it's really not that useful
Speaker 3: if you're trying to get around India. But it's fascinating
Speaker 3: that the Museum of the Alphabet is really trying to
Speaker 3: preserve languages, and one of the ones they focused on
Speaker 3: is that of the Galah communities of South Carolina, Georgia,
Speaker 3: and Florida. It's a creole language of some of the
Speaker 3: African American populations in the coastal region, and it was
Speaker 3: developed out of several West African languages in the sixteenth
Speaker 3: and seventeenth centuries as a way for slaves or different
Speaker 3: backgrounds to communicate with one another.
Speaker 1: It's so interesting. I definitely want to check this place out.
Speaker 3: Well. While you're there, you can also see how your
Speaker 3: name would look and cling on.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool too.
Speaker 2: Actually, that reminds me of the time you and I
Speaker 2: went to speak to the employees at Google and Mountain View, California.
Speaker 2: Remember this trip definitely. Because we'd heard they were so smart,
Speaker 2: we decided to put them to the test and had
Speaker 2: a few language experts create the world's geekiest crossword puzzle,
Speaker 2: so every answer was in a constructed language like Klingon
Speaker 2: and Elvish and Esperanto, and we told them whoever completed
Speaker 2: it would get a free T shirt. Now, not only
Speaker 2: did we run out of T shirts because so many
Speaker 2: of them completed it, but they were correcting our grammatical mistakes.
Speaker 1: And these constructed languages, I guess they are pretty smart.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so crazy.
Speaker 2: Okay, So another fascinating spot.
Speaker 1: Where to next?
Speaker 3: Well, there are two other spots in the South before
Speaker 3: we head up to the northeast. The first is right
Speaker 3: here in Georgia in Statesboro at the Georgia Southern Campus.
Speaker 3: It's the US National Tic Collection and it's the largest
Speaker 3: collection of its kind in the world.
Speaker 2: Wow, this definitely seems fitting for this time of year
Speaker 2: when we're all searching for ticks after we go for
Speaker 2: a hike, and especially that one that makes people vegetarian
Speaker 2: because it gives you an intolerance to eating meat.
Speaker 1: How weird is that?
Speaker 3: I know, it's like the meat lobby's nightmare.
Speaker 2: But how big could this tick collection be? Are there
Speaker 2: really that many kinds of ticks out there?
Speaker 3: I was so surprised. They have over a million specimen
Speaker 3: and there are eight hundred and sixty species of these
Speaker 3: bloodsuckers collected from all seven continents.
Speaker 2: Wow. I just opened the website here and I see
Speaker 2: that they're open just a couple of days a week
Speaker 2: for a couple hours each, so you definitely need to
Speaker 2: plan in advance. Oh and this collection is actually owned
Speaker 2: by the Smithsonian Institution.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3: M hm. And my other span in the South is
Speaker 3: in Scottsboro, Alabama.
Speaker 2: Yes, another Alabama fact. And I know this one, so
Speaker 2: please let me talk about it. I mean, you owe
Speaker 2: me after all the Delaware facts and the tax savans issue.
Speaker 3: Okay it a floor is yours.
Speaker 2: So this is the Unclaimed Baggage Center in North Alabama,
Speaker 2: and it's not technically a museum, but it might as
Speaker 2: well be. It's where every piece of lost luggage from
Speaker 2: around the country goes. It's a forty thousand square foot
Speaker 2: facility and they take all the best stuff from the
Speaker 2: lost luggage they acquire from the airlines and put it
Speaker 2: on sale there.
Speaker 1: How weird is that?
Speaker 3: Is so weird?
Speaker 2: And it's been around since the seventies. I think it
Speaker 2: was an insurance salesman who decided to buy unclaim luggage
Speaker 2: from a bus station first, and then he'd set up
Speaker 2: shop somewhere and sell all this stuff. This was all
Speaker 2: before you expand it into the airline world, and there
Speaker 2: are literally millions of items passing through there every year.
Speaker 3: Have you actually ever bought anything from there?
Speaker 2: Where? Do you think I got this awesome American flag
Speaker 2: cowboy hat? Anyway, it's definitely worth a visit, if only
Speaker 2: just to see the weirdness of all the stuff people
Speaker 2: have lost.
Speaker 3: Well, the unusual thing to me, too, is that it
Speaker 3: isn't just a pile of junk like from what I've read.
Speaker 3: It's actually kind of a nice shopping experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they've got a guest services desk with a concierge
Speaker 2: who can help you find some great dining options in
Speaker 2: the city. They'll provide you with personal shoppers. They even
Speaker 2: have someone take care of your pet while you rummage.
Speaker 2: It's a full service thrift shop. But thanks for letting
Speaker 2: me talk about it. I think it's what that's four
Speaker 2: places now?
Speaker 3: Next, Well, I figured i'd owed you, but we've done
Speaker 3: a little music, some language, some bugs, and I think
Speaker 3: we deserve a break. So we're gonna head up north
Speaker 3: where we can kick back, hand our kids some quarters
Speaker 3: and then ignore them for a while while we bask
Speaker 3: in the warm globe screen.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 3: Actually these are two different places, but they're very much related.
Speaker 3: The first is a dream spot for retro arcade nerds.
Speaker 3: It's called the American Classic Arcade Museum in Laconia, New Hampshire,
Speaker 3: and according to Guinness, it's the largest arcade in the world.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So it's a museum, but you can also play the
Speaker 2: games they have.
Speaker 3: Definitely, there are hundreds, and the focus is on many
Speaker 3: of the classic coin operated games that were so popular
Speaker 3: before there was a significant shift in the eighties and
Speaker 3: early nineties to the more violent stuff.
Speaker 2: Okay, now I'm looking at their website and I see
Speaker 2: they not only have the Kiss that's the band pinball machine,
Speaker 2: but also the Harlem Globe Trotters, Sandball, the Sheet And
Speaker 2: I see we miss something called Brofest. I feel like
Speaker 2: I'm okay with that, though I might prefer to visit
Speaker 2: when it's not Brofest whatever that is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm pretty sure Profest is like a big networking
Speaker 3: event for professionals from all over the globe, of course,
Speaker 3: But speaking of pinball machines, that's the perfect segue into
Speaker 3: the other half of this thing we're pretending is one visit,
Speaker 3: and that's the Pinball Hall of Fame and Museum in
Speaker 3: Hopewell Township, Pennsylvania. They have four hundred vintage games in
Speaker 3: pinball machines, with over twelve hundred more in storage.
Speaker 2: I actually love the history of penball.
Speaker 1: It's so weird.
Speaker 2: So did you know that after pinball was invented in
Speaker 2: the nineteen thirties, Mayor La Guardia, you know, the one
Speaker 2: that New York's least successible airport by public transit is
Speaker 2: named after. Anyway, he had more than two thousand pinball
Speaker 2: machines confiscated in the early nineteen forties because they were
Speaker 2: considered gambling machines.
Speaker 3: Yeah. This classic photo of him holding a sledgehammer winding
Speaker 3: back getting ready to go after one.
Speaker 2: That's a tough guy to destroy a penball machine. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I really do want to see this place, so Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, before we head to our next destination,
Speaker 2: what do you say we take a little detour and
Speaker 2: talk to one of our favorite adventure lovers. Dylan Thuris
Speaker 2: is our old friend and co founder of Atlas Obscura,
Speaker 2: a definitive guide to the world's most wondrous and curious
Speaker 2: places In addition to cataloging the world's wonders and web
Speaker 2: and book form, Atlas has also hosted incredible events where
Speaker 2: you can meet wolves at bars, explore subterranean graveyards, learn
Speaker 2: lock picking from expert locksmiths, and even how a duet
Speaker 2: with a gibbon. It's truly one of our favorite sites
Speaker 2: to get lost in and we're so excited to have
Speaker 2: him here today.
Speaker 1: Welcome Dylan.
Speaker 4: Hey, thanks for having me on. Man, guess it's so
Speaker 4: exciting to be here.
Speaker 2: All right, all right, So Dylan, tell us a little
Speaker 2: bit about how you founded Atlas Obscuro.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I met Josh, my co founder, way back in
Speaker 4: my two thousand and seven and I was about to
Speaker 4: go on a big trip. I was moving to Hungary
Speaker 4: to Budapest for a year, and we were done through
Speaker 4: previous projects about ideas of wonder and discovery, and we
Speaker 4: started talking about travel and the kinds of places we
Speaker 4: like to find and how difficult it could be actually
Speaker 4: to find these sort of tiny museums or you know,
Speaker 4: collections of mummies, or the sort of stuff that really
Speaker 4: like stuck with you when you traveled someplace. So basically
Speaker 4: it came out of a desire to create a database
Speaker 4: of that kind of stuff for ourselves as travelers, and
Speaker 4: we thought, you know, I bet you there's tons of
Speaker 4: people out there who know about some incredible place that
Speaker 4: they grew up next to or they happened upon on
Speaker 4: a trip, and we should make a kind of a
Speaker 4: place where people can put those incredible locations. And so
Speaker 4: that's how it started. And living in Eastern Eurofe, I
Speaker 4: traveled around and started finding some of these things with myself,
Speaker 4: and then in two thousand and nine we launched alis
Speaker 4: Obskira and it's always been a kind of open platform
Speaker 4: where people tend to submit a place and so yeah,
Speaker 4: to this day, people still send stuff in it's totally
Speaker 4: mind boggling that you've never heard of.
Speaker 3: So how do you make time in your life to
Speaker 3: explore with a busy job and all this other stuff?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think one of the thesist statements
Speaker 4: of Alice Obscira is that you can find incredible wonders,
Speaker 4: you know, around the corner from you, that you don't
Speaker 4: have to travel around the world. And so a lot
Speaker 4: of times it's just trying to be really curious about
Speaker 4: what is already around you. It's sort of if you
Speaker 4: see something unusual that you drive by, it's like taking
Speaker 4: the time to stop and knock on the door or
Speaker 4: see if you can get in somehow. You know. I
Speaker 4: recently moved, and so I've been exploring this area around
Speaker 4: where I live, and I found out that there's a
Speaker 4: you know, maybe a minute from me, there's a gigantic,
Speaker 4: huge mine that is open to the public that you
Speaker 4: can just kind of walk into and they host like
Speaker 4: concerts there. Sometimes it's really incredible and it's always surprising.
Speaker 4: What's you know, just right around the corner from you.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's pretty cool. We're talking in this episode about
Speaker 2: several of the oddball museums around the country, and you know,
Speaker 2: Mangesh came up with a pretty awesome list of this.
Speaker 2: And do you have any favorite museums around the country,
Speaker 2: you would say, just for our listeners to check out
Speaker 2: this summer.
Speaker 4: Yeah, sure, I mean, if we're going to sort of
Speaker 4: keep it specifically unusual museums, there's a few really good ones.
Speaker 4: Obviously this is a really well known one, but the
Speaker 4: Muter Museum or Mutter Museum in Philadelphia is America's greatest
Speaker 4: medical museum, and it is just an incredible collection of
Speaker 4: skulls and wax faces with horrible skin diseases. It's not,
Speaker 4: you know, it's not for the week of stomach if
Speaker 4: you have. If you're not comfortable with that kind of stuff,
Speaker 4: it's probably like you might want to take it slow.
Speaker 4: But it really is an unbelievable museum. And it's really
Speaker 4: an example of a kind of museum that was more
Speaker 4: prevalent than sort of mentally eighteen hundreds and still exists
Speaker 4: all over Europe. The just earn't very many of them
Speaker 4: there in the US. And the Muter is an incredible museum.
Speaker 4: It's questionable if you can call on a museum exactly.
Speaker 4: But one of the places that started me on this
Speaker 4: whole journey this past is a place in Wisconsin called
Speaker 4: the House on the Rock. And the House on the
Speaker 4: Rock is kind of a like a legendary tourist stops.
Speaker 4: It's tucked back in the woods of Wisconsin. If you
Speaker 4: weren't kind of told about it or hadn't heard of it,
Speaker 4: you wouldn't have any reason you wouldn't kind of sort
Speaker 4: of stumble across it. But what it is is it
Speaker 4: started out as one man's kind of architectural project the
Speaker 4: sort of at least the myth is that it was
Speaker 4: a screw you to Frankloyd Right, that this guy went
Speaker 4: to work for Franklood Right and he told him I
Speaker 4: wouldn't hire you to build a Chicken cooper a cheese
Speaker 4: great and the guy said, I'm going to go build
Speaker 4: the greatest Francloid Right house ever. So it's this weird
Speaker 4: off brand Frankloyd Right house. And whether whether the myth
Speaker 4: is true or not, I mean, it's almost certainly not,
Speaker 4: but it works, and you definitely, it definitely is a
Speaker 4: very sort of Frankloyd Wrong vibe as you as you
Speaker 4: go through who Over time, this house sort of started
Speaker 4: acquiring other collections and other museums, and they attached this
Speaker 4: enormous set of warehouses sort of buried in the forest,
Speaker 4: and you really can't tell how big the place is.
Speaker 4: He start going through it and it takes like five
Speaker 4: hours to go through. And inside of this house is
Speaker 4: a whale, a sculpture of a whale fighting a squid
Speaker 4: that is the size of the Statue of Liberty. It's
Speaker 4: like my house. The world's largest carousel is in the
Speaker 4: house with the world's most diverse collection of carousel animals.
Speaker 4: The house is actually it's a big set piece in
Speaker 4: Neil Deaemon's book American Gods, and he is said on
Speaker 4: the record that he had to tone down the craziness
Speaker 4: of the house on the rock because no one would
Speaker 4: believe even though it's a book of fantastical fix the
Speaker 4: actual house is too much, too intense. So that I
Speaker 4: went to that place when I was like twelve on
Speaker 4: a road trip with my parents and it kind of
Speaker 4: set me on this path. Wow in a way.
Speaker 2: And is another big day coming up, and I've seen
Speaker 2: you guys are promoting it on the website as well,
Speaker 2: on August twenty first as the complete solar eclipse. So
Speaker 2: tell us a little bit about how you guys are
Speaker 2: celebrating this and where you will be on that day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I am so so freaking excited about this. So
Speaker 4: you know, August twenty first is going to be like
Speaker 4: this once in a lifetime celestial experience, total solar eclipse
Speaker 4: cutting across almost the entire United States. And you know,
Speaker 4: short of traveling all over the world, there are these
Speaker 4: eclipse chasers who basically go all around the world seeking
Speaker 4: kind of the next great eclipse. For most people in
Speaker 4: the US this will be their best chance to see
Speaker 4: a total solar eclipse I at least for forty some years.
Speaker 4: So we are having a big three day party out
Speaker 4: in kind of rural Oregon, in an area that's weather
Speaker 4: wise is thought to have one of the best chances
Speaker 4: of getting a totally clear view of the eclipse. And
Speaker 4: we've got Science Friday from MTR coming out. We've got
Speaker 4: a ton of musicians and performers. We have the Sun
Speaker 4: Raw Orchestra performing sort of themed themed celestial act and
Speaker 4: it's just going to be a celebration of kind of
Speaker 4: the science, the wonder and the beauty of this this
Speaker 4: natural event.
Speaker 1: Oh that's awesome really and I'll be me and.
Speaker 4: The fam will will be out there. Wow, yeah, it'll
Speaker 4: be good.
Speaker 1: Well, that's going to be great.
Speaker 2: We're going to be watching it from from Nashville, which
Speaker 2: is I know in the band that's supposed to see it,
Speaker 2: so so not quite.
Speaker 1: As remote as you will be.
Speaker 2: But I've already purchased my solar clips viewing glasses.
Speaker 4: Great.
Speaker 2: Excited for that, But almost as exciting as this is
Speaker 2: the quiz that we're about to take.
Speaker 1: So Mango, what what game is done? Playing today.
Speaker 3: This is a game called Trucking in Puns and it's
Speaker 3: based on Atlas Obscure. Is incredible catalog of crowdsourced puney
Speaker 3: titled food Trucks.
Speaker 2: Trucking in Puns I like it. So basically, we're going
Speaker 2: to take an incredible food truck name and give you
Speaker 2: a clue and you have to tell us its punny name.
Speaker 1: So don't worry. This will be fun and we hope
Speaker 1: you're ready to play.
Speaker 4: You ready, Dylan, I think, so prepare for disaster.
Speaker 1: All right, We've just got a few questions here. Okay,
Speaker 1: here we go.
Speaker 2: This food truck combines a Vietnamese soup with the number
Speaker 2: of tires it has.
Speaker 3: It's in Washington, d C.
Speaker 2: Okay, here we go. Question number two. This food truck
Speaker 2: combines a cure song about days in the week with
Speaker 2: a breakfast dish that comes sunnyside up or over easy.
Speaker 1: God, that's hard.
Speaker 3: Oh man, Wow, nicely done.
Speaker 1: So this is a real food truck. Yeah, Frida egg
Speaker 1: I'm in love. Good job. Wow. Okay, next question.
Speaker 2: This food truck name combines a French loaf of bread
Speaker 2: and something Tony Soprano might tell you after he does
Speaker 2: you a small favor.
Speaker 4: Oh I actually I remember this one is one of
Speaker 4: my favorites. Forget about it?
Speaker 1: Yes, all right? Two more, here we go.
Speaker 2: This food truck celebrates pork while naming itself for Tupac's
Speaker 2: rival from Clinton Hill.
Speaker 4: Oh, notorious pig.
Speaker 1: It's gotta be it is okay?
Speaker 2: Last one here a famous Rolling Stone song which shows
Speaker 2: compassion for Satan combined with a place you might get
Speaker 2: a cold cut sandwich like Cats Is in New York City.
Speaker 4: I really want this to be about Satan. But if not,
Speaker 4: is it sympathy for the deli?
Speaker 1: You got it?
Speaker 3: Five for five?
Speaker 1: Wow? Five for five? So what is Dylan one today?
Speaker 3: Well that earns him an official certificate of admiration from
Speaker 3: us here at Part Time Genius. Thanks so much for
Speaker 3: joining us, Dylan, congratulations.
Speaker 4: That's my actual only skill is.
Speaker 2: But we hope all of our listeners will check out
Speaker 2: Alice Obscure if you have not already. Dylan, thanks so
Speaker 2: much for joining us today.
Speaker 4: Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 2: So Mango has been taking us on a tour of
Speaker 2: the weird museums to get out of the summer heat.
Speaker 2: Now we hit up the Kazoo Museum in South Carolina,
Speaker 2: the Museum of the Alphabet in North Carolina, the US
Speaker 2: National Tic Collection in Georgia, Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama,
Speaker 2: the American Classic Arcade Museum in New Hampshire, and then
Speaker 2: the Pinball Hall of Fame in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: All right, where to next, Mago.
Speaker 3: Well, all this touring has probably made you a little hungry,
Speaker 3: so let's head over to the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Hey, by the way, I had this.
Speaker 3: Funny experience in college where I was at a party
Speaker 3: in chatting with this guy and he said he was
Speaker 3: from Austin, and I said, Oh, that's such a cool town.
Speaker 3: And he just went off talking about how great the
Speaker 3: Spam Museum is, like at length, and I kept thinking,
Speaker 3: I mean, there's south By, Southwest city Limits, barbecue, so
Speaker 3: many cool things. Why is he hung up on spam?
Speaker 3: And then I eventually I figured it out. Yeah, but
Speaker 3: all his evangelism did make me want to go.
Speaker 1: Now, have you ever had spam Mango?
Speaker 3: No, I have no interest in trying it, but I
Speaker 3: like it as a punchline.
Speaker 2: I actually haven't tried it either, but I feel like
Speaker 2: we need to change that in a future episode. Maybe
Speaker 2: we'll find a way to incorporate it into a food quote.
Speaker 2: I do think the history of spam is super interesting,
Speaker 2: and because I can't stop pulling up the websites of
Speaker 2: places you're mentioning, I see they're celebrating a big birthday
Speaker 2: this year.
Speaker 3: That's right. Spam was first created in nineteen thirty seven
Speaker 3: at the Hormeelle Foods Corporation plant, so they're turning eighty.
Speaker 3: And at the museum you can follow its history and
Speaker 3: see tons of memorabilia from World War Two and the
Speaker 3: role it played in the war. I mean, it's such
Speaker 3: a massively popular food in several of the island cultures
Speaker 3: of the Pacific. Because of the spread during the war,
Speaker 3: can was an easy way to give sustenance to soldiers
Speaker 3: in far flung visions, and the military really doubled down
Speaker 3: on it. I think we shipped over a hundred million
Speaker 3: or possibly even one hundred and fifty million pounds of
Speaker 3: spam to soldiers around the world during the war.
Speaker 2: Wow, I know it was so present in the soldiers
Speaker 2: daily lives. They actually started referring to Uncle Sam as
Speaker 2: Uncle Spam.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's so many interesting facts about spam, Like did
Speaker 3: you know that Hallie Selassi, the Rastafarian messiah and Ethiopian leader,
Speaker 3: took a tour of the Spam Museum when he visited
Speaker 3: the States. Actually, I know it's not time for the
Speaker 3: fact Off yet, but maybe we should have a special
Speaker 3: mini fact Off Spam edition.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a great idea. Okay, Can I go first?
Speaker 3: Definitely?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: So, there used to be a mascot named Slam and Spamy.
Speaker 2: According to the Daily Meal, he was a machine gun toading,
Speaker 2: bomb hurling, angry face pig introduced by Hormel to help
Speaker 2: support the war effort, and he showed up on everything
Speaker 2: from clothing to bombers.
Speaker 3: I want that T shirt too. The McDonald's breakfast platter
Speaker 3: in Hawaii actually includes a slice of spam.
Speaker 2: Well, in Guam they eat an average of six cans
Speaker 2: per year.
Speaker 3: In South Korea, it's considered a luxury food and it's
Speaker 3: appropriate to give to a host when you attend their party.
Speaker 2: So there used to be a kosher spam distributed by
Speaker 2: the Israeli Army. It was made of chicken or beef,
Speaker 2: but they phased it out in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, if I say you win, will you agree
Speaker 3: to go check out this museum with you?
Speaker 1: Totally? All right? Next?
Speaker 3: All right? The next one is one of the craziest
Speaker 3: and most interesting places people have never heard of. And
Speaker 3: it's in Hutchinson, Kansas.
Speaker 1: All right, Kansas. So what is it.
Speaker 3: It's a place called Stratka and it's a huge salt
Speaker 3: mine where the Kansas Underground Salt Museum lives. So this
Speaker 3: mine is insanely big. It has veins that extend all
Speaker 3: the way to New Mexico. Oh wow, But there's a
Speaker 3: museum down there that's sixty five stories underground, Like that's
Speaker 3: basically an underground skyscraper.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can.
Speaker 3: Take a tram tour there. And there's apparently a two
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty million year old salt crystal that researchers
Speaker 3: have actually found a living bacterium in.
Speaker 1: Wow. That place sounds pretty cool.
Speaker 3: And I'm not even done. The mine is also a
Speaker 3: storage location for government records. Do you want to find
Speaker 3: master prints of like Gone with the Wind or The
Speaker 3: Wizard of Oz, Well, this is the place.
Speaker 1: To look, oh way.
Speaker 3: And also sometimes they host something called Murder in the
Speaker 3: Mine at the dinner theater there.
Speaker 1: All right, you're just making this up at this point.
Speaker 3: It's so serious you should look it up. I mean,
Speaker 3: even on every other website related to this tour of
Speaker 3: Weird Museum.
Speaker 2: I am and holy crap, you're not making this up.
Speaker 2: I've got to see this place. So it looks like
Speaker 2: you've got one more place to take us to before
Speaker 2: we break for a quiz, and then I'm going to
Speaker 2: share a few fun festivals everyone should check out this summer.
Speaker 3: Okay, so I know we said eight, but let me
Speaker 3: just say, if you're already in Kansas, it would be
Speaker 3: a shame if you didn't just make a quick trip
Speaker 3: up one state to Paul's Valley, Oklahoma. This is the
Speaker 3: home of the Toy and Action Figure Museum, with over
Speaker 3: thirteen thousand action figures, and the coolest part of the
Speaker 3: museum is the diorama that showcases thousands of different action
Speaker 3: figures from over the years, including a Peewee's playhouse.
Speaker 2: So I was going to call you out on going
Speaker 2: over your quota, but you won me over at Peewee.
Speaker 1: Okay, you're right, it does sound cool.
Speaker 3: And just one more we're headed out to cal but
Speaker 3: you might as well stop off quickly at the Idaho
Speaker 3: Potato Museum in Blackfoot, Idaho, if only to see the
Speaker 3: world's largest potato chip, a pringle measuring twenty five inches long.
Speaker 3: It's been there since nineteen ninety one. Good lord, can
Speaker 3: you imagine how stale that thing is now?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: I know you can't help yourself, and that is another
Speaker 2: good addition. They're just too many good places. I think
Speaker 2: we should do another episode on museum. All right, So
Speaker 2: what's your final stop on the museum front.
Speaker 3: Well, this one's going to come as no surprise to
Speaker 3: you since you've known me so long. It's the Berlin
Speaker 3: Game Museum of Pez Memorabilia in Berlin Game, California.
Speaker 1: I should have known you'd end your list with this,
Speaker 1: all right, So tell me about it.
Speaker 3: They have all five hundred and fifty plus characters ever
Speaker 3: produced and the largest Pez dispenser in the world, which
Speaker 3: looks like a snowman.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 3: And by the way, I know a lot of people
Speaker 3: know that Pez was started as an adult candy as
Speaker 3: a way to help smokers avoid smoking, which is why
Speaker 3: the original dispensers look like lighters. But my favorite thing
Speaker 3: about Pez is that it used to come in so
Speaker 3: many weird flavors, like this is so much earlier than
Speaker 3: this kitcat trend where they kick cats come in like
Speaker 3: soy sauce and baked potato flavor or whatever. Right, but
Speaker 3: early on PEZ came in coffee, eucalyptus, and even chlorophyll.
Speaker 3: What I want to try those? I really hope they
Speaker 3: sell them in the museum lobby.
Speaker 2: For some reason, that PEZ fact about its origins, I
Speaker 2: forget it, and then every time I hear it, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's so interesting. It used to help people quit smoking.
Speaker 2: So all right, well that's a terrific list of museums.
Speaker 2: Congratulations for managing to actually fit in eleven museums on
Speaker 2: your list of eight. So while I take a minute
Speaker 2: to process that math, let's take a break.
Speaker 1: Bro quiz, So mango, who do we have on the
Speaker 1: line today?
Speaker 3: So we've got two wonderful travel agents on the line.
Speaker 3: We've got Susan Whitson from King and Whitson Travel in Washington,
Speaker 3: Virginia and Martha Rhoads from Travel with Martha and Richmond, Virginia.
Speaker 1: All right, well, let's welcome them both. Now.
Speaker 2: Susan, I understand that you actually before your career as
Speaker 2: a travel agent worked at the White House.
Speaker 1: Is this true?
Speaker 5: That was Laura Bush's press secretary for a couple of
Speaker 5: years in the second administration, before I went home and
Speaker 5: had some children and decided to embark on a career
Speaker 5: and travel.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's been an interesting gig.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: No, it was a wonderful experience, wonderful career, and I
Speaker 5: think part of the recent why I went into the
Speaker 5: travel business was simply because I went through I had
Speaker 5: these amazing experiences travel around the world with the President.
Speaker 5: I've tried to recreate a lot of those from my clients.
Speaker 5: The only thing I cannot do is I cannot get
Speaker 5: air Force one. I like to think I could do
Speaker 5: everything else other than get Air Force one.
Speaker 1: Well, this call is over, you know. That's what we
Speaker 1: were going on for you and Martha.
Speaker 2: Speaking of interesting experiences, I heard you had an interesting
Speaker 2: experience recently trying to go through security at the airport
Speaker 2: and you were pulled aside.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Well, I think I would offer your listeners what
Speaker 5: I call a newly acquired travel tip in the category
Speaker 5: of learned this the hard way. Yeah. I tested Paul
Speaker 5: for explosives at TSA this week, and I was quite
Speaker 5: concern about what that could possibly be. And after my
Speaker 5: first pat down, the agent's gloves tested positive for explosives,
Speaker 5: and I got very comforted maybe I wasn't going to
Speaker 5: be allowed on my flight. And a second pat down
Speaker 5: and the gloves were clear, And it took me a
Speaker 5: little while, but I realized that it was probably the
Speaker 5: body powder that I put on before I went to
Speaker 5: the airport, and consulting with my engineering son, I learned
Speaker 5: that body powder has magnesium carbonate, which is also used
Speaker 5: to make gunpowder and flash powder and rocket fuel. So
Speaker 5: that's something for people to know, is to skip the
Speaker 5: body powder until you get to the other side of security.
Speaker 1: Wow, well, I'm glad. I'm glad you made it through.
Speaker 2: So, speaking of advice that you have to give your clients,
Speaker 2: that's actually related to today's quiz. What quiz are we
Speaker 2: playing with these guys today, Mango.
Speaker 3: We're going to play a game called Weird World Laws.
Speaker 1: Okay, weird World Laws.
Speaker 2: So what's going to happen is we're going to give
Speaker 2: you a law from a certain place around the world,
Speaker 2: and all you guys have to do is tell us
Speaker 2: whether that is true or false. We're gonna let you
Speaker 2: guys work together on this one. There are five questions
Speaker 2: you guys.
Speaker 1: Ready to go?
Speaker 5: Sure?
Speaker 1: All right, here we go.
Speaker 2: Question number one or statement number one, feeding the pigeons
Speaker 2: in Venice is against the law.
Speaker 1: True or false?
Speaker 5: So, Susan, I think that's probably true. I think it's
Speaker 5: probably true too, but I know people do it anyway.
Speaker 2: It is true and mango, God give us the explanation
Speaker 2: for that one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Venice has a pigeon problem and all those birds
Speaker 3: cause extra work for the cleanup crew who have to
Speaker 3: polish the town statues. And in fact, you can get
Speaker 3: a hefty fine if you feed the pigeons.
Speaker 1: Wow, it's good advice there. Don't feed the pigeons.
Speaker 5: Great to know.
Speaker 1: Number two.
Speaker 2: In Luxembourg, it's illegal to put holy water in a
Speaker 2: water balloon.
Speaker 1: True or false?
Speaker 5: I would say true. Who has access to holy water?
Speaker 5: And we I mean, you know, you could just go
Speaker 5: in and you could get like a little cup and
Speaker 5: get it out of the little font if you wanted
Speaker 5: to in there, if you really wanted to. So I
Speaker 5: would say that would be pretty bad. But some mischievous
Speaker 5: child could do that. I'm gonna say that's false because
Speaker 5: that just seems like not even a law you would need.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right, it's false.
Speaker 1: All right, that's one of those you want.
Speaker 5: To I want to put that in our travel tip work,
Speaker 5: all right.
Speaker 2: Question number three. In Barbados, wearing camouflage shorts is a
Speaker 2: crime unless you're in the Barbados military.
Speaker 1: True or false?
Speaker 5: You know they have that they Martha, they have that
Speaker 5: rule in Africa. They have that law in Africa, I know.
Speaker 5: Is loud enough? Yeah, when you go in Safari, Yeah,
Speaker 5: I don't. I don't know about Barbados. Why would you
Speaker 5: be wearing camo and Barbadoes? Anyway? With true, I'm gonna
Speaker 5: go with true one. I'll go too.
Speaker 3: You guys are right, it's true. And uh. The reason
Speaker 3: is because the rule came out in the eighties when
Speaker 3: gang members impersonated the military and robson banks and since
Speaker 3: then the last on the books.
Speaker 1: Wow, well done, these guys are what three for three? Three?
Speaker 5: Well, Martha is I miss one? I'll give Martha's.
Speaker 2: You guys are a team. You stick together. Okay, here
Speaker 2: we go. Question number Question number.
Speaker 3: Four, travel agent code.
Speaker 1: That's right, That's that's right.
Speaker 2: Travelers stick to the other buddy system here. Okay, it's
Speaker 2: illegal to reincarnate in China without government permission. It's illegal
Speaker 2: to reincarnate in China without government permission?
Speaker 1: True or false?
Speaker 5: Could reincarnate not reproduce? Right?
Speaker 1: That is good?
Speaker 5: I think that's false.
Speaker 1: I don't know Martha's.
Speaker 5: I think that's false.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Martha? Okay, they went with false?
Speaker 1: What's the answer?
Speaker 3: This one's actually true?
Speaker 1: Wow, let's hear the explanation.
Speaker 5: Really.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the law was in acted partially to prevent the
Speaker 3: Dalai Lama from reincarnating in Tibet. But if you want
Speaker 3: to be born there in your next life, you actually
Speaker 3: have to seek the blessing of the Chinese Government's interesting stuff.
Speaker 1: So remind your clients. Remind your clients to reincarnate, and in.
Speaker 5: Travel tips, clients, a little known facts about your upcoming
Speaker 5: trip to China.
Speaker 2: That's right, all right? Last question. These guys are three
Speaker 2: for four. Let's see if they can get the last one.
Speaker 2: Number five is it's illegal for foreigners to handle or
Speaker 2: pet a pure bred French poodle in the Maldives. Poodle mixes, however,
Speaker 2: are fair game? True or false?
Speaker 5: I have no idea on this one. I think we
Speaker 5: got to goru okay, true.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, Theno's kind of a trickster when he comes
Speaker 2: up with these.
Speaker 3: What's the answer is, It's actually false. Anyone can touch
Speaker 3: a French.
Speaker 5: Right there.
Speaker 2: But I think I think in our official rule book
Speaker 2: of travel agent quizzes, what did they have to score
Speaker 2: to win the big prize?
Speaker 1: I think three out of five? And what did they get?
Speaker 3: So Martha and Susan combined for an astounding three or five,
Speaker 3: which wins them a certificate to their moms or boss
Speaker 3: singing their praises from us and where I'm going to
Speaker 3: send you a pickle luggage tag as well the classiest
Speaker 3: pickle luggage tags on Etsy.
Speaker 1: Wow. Congratulations guys.
Speaker 2: Thank you guys so much for joining us today and
Speaker 2: I hope you have a great next trip.
Speaker 5: Thank you with you.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to part time Genius Mango. I think you've
Speaker 2: given our listeners some great museums to visit when they
Speaker 2: want to escape the heat this summer. But I don't
Speaker 2: think summer can really be complete without visiting at least
Speaker 2: one or two weird festivals. So with that in mind,
Speaker 2: I wanted to quickly share a few must attend events
Speaker 2: for the remaining months and I'm must attend. Okay, let's
Speaker 2: hear them all right, listeners, you're gonna have to move
Speaker 2: quickly to make this first when it's down in New Orleans.
Speaker 2: It's the Sand Firm and Bull Run, and the festival
Speaker 2: takes place from July seventh to ninth. Now, I know
Speaker 2: you've all heard of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona,
Speaker 2: and that's pretty much exactly what this is. But instead
Speaker 2: of bulls, participants are being run down and beaten with
Speaker 2: foam bats by the.
Speaker 1: Big Easy roller girls.
Speaker 2: Last year, the run attracted fourteen thousand participants.
Speaker 3: I can't believe people I should come for that. It's amazing,
Speaker 3: it's a big deal. Well what else do you have?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: Then you'll have a couple weeks to recover for two
Speaker 2: very different festivals on back to back nights, but it's
Speaker 2: really worth it to make it to both. First, you
Speaker 2: have the Great Texas Mosquito Festival Inclute, Texas, and this
Speaker 2: is where you'll see the Mosquito calling contest and Willie
Speaker 2: man Chew, which is the twenty six foot tall mosquito
Speaker 2: mascot wearing a cowboy hat and boots.
Speaker 3: I'm a little skeptical of taking a trip just to
Speaker 3: hang out with a giant mosquito.
Speaker 2: I think you're forgetting. It wears a hat and you
Speaker 2: can't miss that.
Speaker 3: Okay, and there's a second festival right there on that
Speaker 3: second night.
Speaker 1: No, not right there.
Speaker 2: You'll need to catch a flight from nearby Houston up
Speaker 2: to Detroit and then make the easy one and a
Speaker 2: half hour drive up to Yale, Michigan for the annual
Speaker 2: Balooney Fest. I mean, you don't want to find out
Speaker 2: who's crown this year is King and Queen of Boloney
Speaker 2: on Twitter?
Speaker 1: Right? You want to be there.
Speaker 2: Plus you can enjoy the Baloney Derby and the outhouse
Speaker 2: races Outhouse Races.
Speaker 3: I guess this is because of where you need to
Speaker 3: run after eating a bunch of ballooney.
Speaker 2: I get the impression that is the case, But I'm
Speaker 2: pretty sure I've told you before. Why can't stand the
Speaker 2: smell of baloone even to this day?
Speaker 1: Why is that? Again?
Speaker 2: Well, because I grew up across the street from Triplet Boys,
Speaker 2: who were younger brothers and my friend Mike, Well, their
Speaker 2: mom would return home from the grocery store and she
Speaker 2: would always buy them packs of baloney. The baloney would
Speaker 2: never make it to the refrigerator. It would just hit
Speaker 2: the kitchen table and the boys would tear into it
Speaker 2: like a pack of wild dogs.
Speaker 1: I can still hear it now. It's so gross.
Speaker 3: Well, it seems like the right thing to do to
Speaker 3: attend the Baloney Festival is a tribute to them. So
Speaker 3: where to you next?
Speaker 2: All right, Well, I've got two other stops, the first
Speaker 2: of which is perhaps the only thing more gross to
Speaker 2: me than baloney. It's the Wisconsin State Cowchip Throw in
Speaker 2: Prairie do Sac, Wisconsin. This happens to be in very
Speaker 2: early September, And in case you didn't know, a cowchip
Speaker 2: is a piece of hardened cow dung. So the whole
Speaker 2: idea behind the throwing contest is to see how far
Speaker 2: you can throw, or rather fleeing like a discus, these cowchips.
Speaker 2: And apparently the record is two hundred and forty eight feet.
Speaker 2: But the best part about the whole thing might be
Speaker 2: the rules, as the homepage of the event's website says
Speaker 2: no gloves, but licking your hands is allowed.
Speaker 1: To get a better grip.
Speaker 2: So discussing, well, it's clearly not that disgusting, because forty
Speaker 2: thousand people show up every year to check it out.
Speaker 2: There's even a corporate division, Mango. So I'm thinking maybe
Speaker 2: we should get the House Stuff Works Gang to sign
Speaker 2: up for this.
Speaker 3: How state cowshit throws work. I like that, all right.
Speaker 2: And here's another thing I know that they're all excited about,
Speaker 2: and that we talked about earlier with Dylan, and this
Speaker 2: is the solar eclipse happening on August twenty first. It's
Speaker 2: the first one in the United States in our lifetime
Speaker 2: and won't happen again for decades.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned.
Speaker 2: Earlier, We've ordered our solar eclipse glasses and I can't
Speaker 2: wait to see it. Anyone in the band that runs
Speaker 2: diagonally across the country from Salem, Oregon to Charleston, South
Speaker 2: Carolina will be able to see it in totality, but
Speaker 2: even those who aren't will at least be able to
Speaker 2: see a partial eclipse.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: There's a terrific episode of Every Little Thing, one of
Speaker 3: our favorite new podcasts, that covers this event and the
Speaker 3: super weird and fun world of eclipse chasers.
Speaker 2: It's pretty great. Well, speaking of pretty great, you know
Speaker 2: what time it is.
Speaker 3: Time for the part time genius fact off. This is
Speaker 3: the part of the show where we share some of
Speaker 3: the incredible facts we found in our research but didn't
Speaker 3: get a chance to share yet.
Speaker 1: All right, Mango, you want to kick it off? Sure?
Speaker 3: Do you know that every year about half a penny
Speaker 3: from each American taxpayer it goes to something called the
Speaker 3: International Boundary Commission, whose job it is to keep a
Speaker 3: clean border between the US and Canada. This area is
Speaker 3: known as the Slash Slash and it's a twenty foot
Speaker 3: wide zone that goes the distance of the border. Definitely
Speaker 3: a destination for geography nerds and slash.
Speaker 2: That's pretty cool. I've actually never heard of that. I
Speaker 2: can't imagine how many hours are spent keeping that area cut.
Speaker 1: It's so weird.
Speaker 2: Speaking of weird, if there's one thing that was reinforced
Speaker 2: as we were looking into places to visit, it's that
Speaker 2: Florida is weird but also pretty awesome. So did you
Speaker 2: know that Florida is home to the world's first underwater hotel.
Speaker 2: Now it's the Jewels Undersea Lodge and Key Largo Undersea Park. Now,
Speaker 2: you do have to be scuba certified, but if you are,
Speaker 2: you can watch the fish swim around outside your bedroom.
Speaker 2: You'll have access to a full kitchen. There's even a
Speaker 2: lounge with books and movies to enjoy, all while being
Speaker 2: twenty one feet under the surface.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3: So if you're looking for a place to take a
Speaker 3: nice long stroll, why not head to Weldon Spring, Missouri,
Speaker 3: where you can walk on the nuclear waste Adventure. This
Speaker 3: fifty four acre park sits on the land of what
Speaker 3: used to be the largest explosive factory in the country
Speaker 3: and a uranium factory during.
Speaker 1: The Cold War.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, Yeah, the US Department of Energy decided to
Speaker 3: throw a whole bunch of rocks on it in the eighties,
Speaker 3: and now you can take that walk knowing you're strolling
Speaker 3: on top of asbestos and mercury, uranium TNT all sorts
Speaker 3: of fun things go.
Speaker 2: That's crazy, all right, But like I was saying, Florida
Speaker 2: is weird. It's not only home to the first underwater hotel,
Speaker 2: but there's also an underwater cemetery just a few miles
Speaker 2: off the coast of Miami. It used to be called
Speaker 2: the Atlantis Memorial Reef, which I think sounds cool, but
Speaker 2: it's now called the Neptune Memorial Reef. But if you visit,
Speaker 2: you'd see these huge columns with lions guarding the entrance.
Speaker 2: Now inside you'd find stone roads and other evidence of
Speaker 2: this lost city. And when someone passes away and is cremated,
Speaker 2: their remains are then put into concrete memorials inside the
Speaker 2: city where divers can visit all of this forty feet
Speaker 2: below the surface.
Speaker 3: That's crazy and also a lot of Florida. Yes it is,
Speaker 3: Okayins you just talked about death, I'll talk about a
Speaker 3: pretty huge existence of life known as the humongous fungus
Speaker 3: in Grant, Oregon. It's this huge network fungus that scientists
Speaker 3: think maybe both the largest and oldest life forms still
Speaker 3: found on Earth. It spreads twenty two hundred acres and
Speaker 3: it has been growing for twenty four hundred years. No way,
Speaker 3: And while it has a sweet name, the honey mushroom,
Speaker 3: the main way scientists know how widespread it is is
Speaker 3: to see how many of the trees above ground are dying,
Speaker 3: because it's a parasite that takes over the root systems
Speaker 3: of these trees above and eventually kills No. No, I'm
Speaker 3: so sorry. I was trying to make this about life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that one took a surprising turn, all right, So
Speaker 2: back to Florida. You know one thing I wish I
Speaker 2: could still experience there is the sound of the singing
Speaker 2: runway at the abandoned Disney World Airport in Orlando. It
Speaker 2: was only used for a year or two before they
Speaker 2: decided not to allow flights to come directly into the
Speaker 2: Magic Kingdom. But even better than the convenience to Disney
Speaker 2: was the fact that the grooves and the runway, you know,
Speaker 2: the ones that are kind of like the ones that
Speaker 2: run along the interstate there, decided to make them play
Speaker 2: when you wish upon a star when driven over it
Speaker 2: forty five miles an hour.
Speaker 1: It's such a fun surprise for passing.
Speaker 3: Oh I love that, And after the emotional roller coaster
Speaker 3: we experienced in this fact off, I think I have
Speaker 3: to give it to you for ending on a happy note,
Speaker 3: so you win this week's edition.
Speaker 1: Thanks Mango. That's it for today's Part Time Genius.
Speaker 2: Happy travels out there, and thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 2: Part Time Genius is a production of how stuff works
Speaker 2: and wouldn't be possible without.
Speaker 1: Several brilliant people who do the important things. We couldn't
Speaker 1: even begin to understand.
Speaker 3: Christa McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 2: Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
Speaker 2: mixy sound thing.
Speaker 3: Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.
Speaker 1: Gabe Lozier is our lead researcher, with support from the research.
Speaker 2: Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve.
Speaker 3: Jeffco gets the show to your ears, Good job, Eaves.
Speaker 2: If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
Speaker 2: And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
Speaker 2: you could leave a good.
Speaker 1: Review for us.
Speaker 3: Do we do? We forget Jason?
Speaker 1: Jason who