Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Morello Senior housing. That's what that is. That's where we are right now, near Niagara Falls.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Really ran out of content for season three.
So join us while we check out the senior living town.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Fascinating stuff here. Fascinating stuff. Stuff.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: This is a place where, as you get older, you can choose to live near Niagara Falls.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: If you would like to look at the falls every day of your life.
Not from here though. You have to go to them. They're like 15 minutes, maybe 10 away.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Hopefully they have like shuttles.
Cuz how else are these seniors getting out there?
[00:00:49] Speaker A: Driving?
What could go wrong with that?
[00:00:52] Speaker B: I don't, I don't know. I mean, it depends. Depends on the type of senior.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: It's true, it's true. How senior are you?
[00:00:58] Speaker B: If you're my 99 year old grandfather, you are shockingly and disconcertingly still driving.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: All right, since we're, since we're doing this and we're talking about Niagara Falls, I say we go for it. Let's do our podcast on SciCon and talk about why we're in Buffalo in New York. I just threw a curveball at Michael right now.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Wow. I'm totally unprepared. My notes are out the window because
[00:01:23] Speaker A: we're gonna do one. But I say, you know what, this is thematic to the next. So welcome to Weird World Adventures, the podcast.
We are in Buffalo, New York. We came up to Buffalo, New York for SAI Con, which we talked about in the past. It's csicon SAI Con.
And it was a pretty incredible experience, to be quite honest. I was very, very thrilled to be invited to come speak and also sing at saicon because they had a variety show. So I'll say.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: For some reason I wasn't invited to sing. I'm not sure why.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: Why could that be?
That seems suspicious.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: It does.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: We've all heard your Oogie Boogie song. You nailed it.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Pretty good at the Oogie Boogie song.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: Yeah. You would have nailed it.
Yeah, it was, I will say, because we both had to work Friday, we kind of drove up from Virginia into Buffalo, which is eight hours without traffic. It wound up being a little over nine, which could have been a lot worse, to be honest. The traffic was somehow not that bad. Friday night, we had a bad start
[00:02:33] Speaker B: and I was like, this is gonna take forever.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: It was, it was, it was an actual pretty easy drive, all things considered. Yeah, it started out bad.
Wound up being perfectly fine. We got in at 3 in the morning, which I guess it could have been worse. Wasn't ideal, but could have Been worse and crashed and then just kind of jumped into everything full force Saturday, which was.
I'll say. I don't recommend if you can have the time to lead into the conference better. But you know what? We did it. We just jumped right in there on Saturday.
And I feel like it was.
It was perfect timing because as we were walking across from the hotel to the convention center, we.
We just happened to run into someone who, who told us like, oh, the. The Skeptics Guide is signing right now. And of course, they're like, some of the people were there to see. And we were sad that we missed their. Their live podcast recording the first day when we couldn't be there. So it was like, it was perfect kismet to be like, oh, we can go to the book signing right now. Let's go. So we were just like, thrust into the chaos.
[00:03:42] Speaker B: Yes. So the first thing we did was go to the bookstore and buy an egregious amount of books and swag.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Like $300 worth of books and swag.
Like, I mean, just a crazy amount. And then they also.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: No regrets.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: No regrets. And got our book signed, which was lovely.
By the Skeptics Guide. So you had to get some of those.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: And then. And then the thing is, I.
I have followed them since the inception of their podcast, so it's over 20 years now. And they have two books, both of which are great. And I can't recommend them enough. And the podcast is great. I can't recommend it enough. But I have at least a signed copy of each book.
But, you know, of their books.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: But how can you not get more?
[00:04:26] Speaker B: But I'm not going to not get another signed copy of their book. That makes sense while I'm there.
So, yeah, now I have a stack of their signed books, and I think I have an unsigned copy of each book on purpose because that's the one I read.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: That makes sense.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: God forbid I'm going to even slightly damage a signed copy.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: Of which now I have several.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: I could give them out to other people, but I'm not going to.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Exactly. Why. Right.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Why?
[00:04:50] Speaker A: Makes sense to me.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: And then they have, like a free table where they give stuff out. And I will say they. They had the new issue of Skeptical Inquirer.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: Well, it's not out yet.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: Well, it's not out yet. And I wouldn't have known that my article was in it because nobody told me, because I. I approved it like three articles ago or three magazines ago, and they kept pushing it back because of the 50th. Anniversary, because, by the way, this is the 50th anniversary.
So they kept pushing it back. So I didn't know that it was in the new one. I hadn't gotten my author copies yet. And Julia, who is a lovely human being, who's the managing editor for Skeptical Inquirer, came over like, mallory, it's so nice to meet you in person. Because we had never met in person. Thank God she recognized me because I never seen her picture because we hadn't met before.
And we just emailed and she's like, you're in the. You're in the issue. Did you see it? Did you see it? And I was like, no.
And then they weren't there. And I was like, are you kidding? So then she's like, oh, no, it's not here. Hold on.
No. You teased me. And then they had a hidden box underneath the table, so I got a few of those.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: And you signed a copy of her?
[00:05:56] Speaker A: I signed a copy for her, yes. That was so nice.
But it was really exciting to get to see my, my Robben island article come to light. That was what started my journey with Skeptical inquiry.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: That's right. That's the first piece you wrote.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: First piece I wrote two years ago. Right, yes.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: You really just wanted to get the penguins in.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: I really did.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: At the end.
At the beginning. The primary motivation. But she had penguin pictures and she was like, I need this fat penguin, Chubby.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: His name is chubby. He's P4 South African penguin.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: To be in this magazine.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: And I'm going to write around Chubby.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: Exactly.
Yes, exactly.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: And he's in it. So there you go.
[00:06:34] Speaker A: Yes, he is in it. It worked out perfectly. It was wonderful.
So excited to get Chubby. He's like, he's like in the little. The appendix to my article. He's a little picture for it. And I'm like, it's Chubby be in the magazine. So I'm really excited about that.
And then, and then we kind of just, just jumped into some of the talks. Like we said hi to people that we, that we were excited to see we hadn't seen in a while. I kind of asked around where people were reconnected, said highs, sat in a few talks and I feel like we, we like did a bunch of like to dos check offs in the morning so that we could like do all the things we wanted to do in the afternoon because there were so many good talks and things to sit in in the afternoon. Ben Radford gave, gave a great talk that Was great.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: Y.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: And it was all. All leading up to the dinner variety show that I sang in.
I was the first act, and I was. I'm not gonna lie, I was very nervous. And I love singing. I have it down, but the. But just something about leading up to it, like singing in front of a bunch of people.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: It was a pretty big dinner. I was surprised how many people were at the dinner.
[00:07:46] Speaker A: It was a huge dinner. The, like, the warehousey, like. Like, banquet hall space it was in was huge.
And I found Stephen Hupp is the. The editor in chief for Skeptical Inquirer. He's the one that invited us. I found him, like, an hour before the dinner, and I went up there and was like, oh, this. This. This is a huge space.
And, you know, tested the audio. Everything was lovely. But it. It was.
It was. It was intimidating. I was like, this is going to be an adventure. And then. Then to top it all off, they have, like, these legendary people sitting with us and around us that I'm like. I mean, Bill Nye the science guy was there, and I'm like, I'm singing to Bill Nye the science.
He's right here.
There's Bill Nye. And I have to sing for Bill Nye and Michael Mann, the scientist was at our table at Peter Hotez. They were getting awards. And it was.
I'm not gonna lie. I felt so, so important.
So, like, special pants here, because they put us at, like, the table of people that had to go up on stage. So we were with two awardees, the
[00:08:56] Speaker B: awardees, their significant others, and, like, five important people going up on stage. And then us two, we're like, what are we doing?
[00:09:04] Speaker A: What are we doing here? I know.
And I think. I mean, like, Stephen said it multiple times to me, like, oh, yeah, we really. This is the first time we did the Variety show, and we really needed it to be good. I just wanted you to go first and set the stage for it. And, like, he really had confidence that I was gonna nail that song.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: I still don't know why I didn't get asked. You know, I don't know. He wanted it to be good. I mean.
Yeah.
Although I did have a crowd.
A crowd participation line.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: You did last minute.
So I sang Leanne Lord did some, you know, her comedy stand up. Daniel Reed did, like, a Dr. He called it a dramatic reading. And I was a little confused by that because he said a dramatic reading from Stranger Things. It was actually just a monologue. He did a monologue from Stranger. Stranger Things.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: But it's It's.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: It's great.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: It's a dramatic monologue.
[00:09:57] Speaker A: It is a dramatic monologue from Eddie, right? Yeah. Who, like, does the, like, satanic panic D and D thing. It's like, right up his alley. And then he asked Mike to participate.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: So, yeah, he handed me his monologue kind of right as we sat down at the table. And he's like, could you just yell this out when I get to this part? And I'm like, oh, God, I don't know if you've got the right guy for the job here.
And then I was like, oh, no. Oh, no. I've got a part. I've got a partner. I've got a speaking role now. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: You committed. You committed.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: Did I commit?
[00:10:29] Speaker A: You committed. It was good.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: I was trying to be very loud and obnoxious because that was what it was supposed.
The line was supposed to be a pray so. Sorry, Daniel, if I detracted from your monologue.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: No, it was good. He kind of stepped out at that point because he, like, he goes and does this thing afterwards.
[00:10:49] Speaker B: Yeah, the devil. The devil.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: And then he. And then he looked and he's like. He, like, announces to the audience. No, I'm supposed to do that. It's in the script.
He broke the fourth wall in that moment to assure everyone that that was scripted.
So you must have been really believable. You were so committed.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: Don't escort that man out.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: It was good.
And it was. It was really great. I mean, we got to sit with some really famous names in science and have a dinner.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: Michael Mann and Peter Hotez are, like, obviously, big deals.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: In science.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: And they were very, very lovely people,
[00:11:31] Speaker B: wonderfully humble, just super easy to talk to. You would never know, you know, that they're there to get these prestigious awards.
And then George Robb closed out the talent show, the writer show, which is great.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Yeah. The whole thing was fabulous.
And then we.
Then we went down to hear Bill Nye talk. So they had Stephen Hupp and, like, ask questions to Bill Nye on stage.
And. And he's just such a funny, nice, normal guy.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: He is. Yeah.
He just gives very normal people responses that, like, he's funny. He can be sarcastic.
He's very knowledgeable. I know. He just seems like you're just talking to him.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a very cool, normal guy.
Very nice.
He.
He, he. Afterwards, like, there was, like, a horde of people that wanted pictures, and he. He just, like, stayed with everybody. He was like, all right, we're gonna move everybody this way, while I do this thing. Just come with me. Crowd. Like, he was like, very funny about it.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: Getting. Getting pictures with Bill Nye. Clearly not Bill's first rodeo, because he had that. He had that herd of cats organized and running through the pictures pretty well.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: He was. He was. He stayed until everyone had their picture. He was very sweet. I can't say that about everybody, you know, just so nice. He took a selfie with us and Stephen Hupp and was like.
He was instructing me on how to take a selfie because I wasn't doing it right.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: You were flubbing it.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: I was flubbing the selfie.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: He's like, no, no. He's like, what, have you never taken one of these before? And then he took, like, 50 of them in a row. It's like, man, this guy's got it down.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: He had it down.
I was not up to selfie standards, and he had me covered, so that was fun. And then we actually got to walk back over.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: He's like, mallory, stop embarrassing me in front of Bill.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: And Michael Mann was going to sit with us during that talk, too, because he wanted to introduce me to Bill. He was very nice.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: Such a nice guy.
[00:13:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: And then we wound up going back over to, like, everyone went back over to the hotel afterwards. We got to walk back over with Bill Nye and Stephen Hupp, which was really cool.
And we talked a little bit, and then everyone hung out at the bar for the night, which was.
It was. It was nice to see, like, Bill and I just hanging out and having drinks with everybody and everyone. Everyone was.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: Yeah, all the.
[00:13:59] Speaker A: All the people, like Steve Nivella was there. Everyone. Everyone was just there hanging out, being cool. Like, it was. It was very. It was very cool to see everybody just have a good time and. And, like, nor be normal people. I mean, it's such a good, nice community. Community. And it's like, these people are really making a difference in the world, and yet they're still so humble and kind,
[00:14:22] Speaker B: and it's really nice to see that. It's really nice to see people that are just so accomplished in their field, and then you talk to them and you would never know that, you know?
[00:14:31] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely.
And.
And then Sunday, we had to get up early, which was painful. It wasn't even that early, but it felt early to. To speak and give my talk on.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: I had to get up less early because I didn't have, like, all this hair and makeup to do.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: It's true.
Jealous. And you didn't have to check in an hour early either.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: Right.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: It was nice.
[00:14:57] Speaker B: Really. You should just be happy I showed up for your talk.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: It was. It was questionable if you were gonna show up.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: At one point, I was like, I'm really tired.
Maybe you can just give me the second rendition.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: But no, it was really. It was nice. I got to give a talk on skepticism and exploration, which you guys have already heard because I definitely dropped that as a podcast.
And it was great. I was really excited again to get the opportunity to showcase Chubby to the world.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: My cute little.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: So now he's been in the magazine and live at the conference.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: 50th anniversary.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Chubby's famous. He's famous.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: He even got a custom made wine bottle out of it.
I am so jealous of that. I am so jealous.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: I saw someone post a Kenny Biddle wine and I thought that it was like a joke or something made for Kenny. Yeah. For him.
[00:15:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: And it wound up being that everybody that spoke got their own wine bottle. It says the 50th anniversary of SciCon. So I have a. I have a SciCon 50th anniversary.
Mallory Mackie wine.
[00:16:01] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, joined the community two years ago after never hearing about it. Get. Get the custom wine ball. You know what? I'm just sitting over here for the last 20 years.
20 years, Mallory.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: They like that I come from a world of.
[00:16:16] Speaker B: They like that you have talent and
[00:16:18] Speaker A: come from a world of. I mean, I will say they like that I come from the world of believing. They appreciate. I feel like what I'm bringing for the talks and stuff, but my real.
My real value here is the singing. I feel like everyone came over like this was absolute.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: You're a good writer. You're from the. Your. Your past is kind of a. Somewhat believer.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:40] Speaker B: And I've been molding you.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: Yeah, right, right.
Molded.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: Behind every successful woman, there's a strong, skeptical man.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: That's what I hear the saying. I think that's what they're saying.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: Is that what it is? I think that's what it is. That seems. That seems nice. Right?
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: And then. Then we went on an excursion to Niagara Falls, which was the biggest adventure we had all week, to be sure. And I drove just for a day into Toronto, Let me tell you. And this was. This was the.
The worst of it. It was great. I'm not saying it. It was just. It was a real adventure because we got two Niagara Falls. And you know, they. When you go on the Maid of the Mist, we did the boat. They Give you the big ponchos. And we were in line to get our tickets, which then led to the ponchos. And it started pouring down. Raining in a way I haven't.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: Absolutely pouring.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: We.
It was like we showered and before we got to the ponchos, so I had like a blazer sweater and a dress. And it was. It was like a thick dress too. Like the nice professional one that I spoke in. It was all completely soaked. So I was just a wet rat.
Like, completely.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: You did look very wet. Ratty.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: And. And it. I had like, my makeup was dripping down. I know. We all did. Makeup was dripping down my face. I mean, everything about it was like. We just showered outside, you guys. And then we got the punch chosen. It was like, well, too little too late.
And it would have been fine if it wasn't for the shoes.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: The shoes.
I mean, that's. That's partially our fault or my. I mean, because I knew we would get wet on the boat itself.
[00:18:29] Speaker A: That's fair. We should have worn sandals.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: Still didn't bring a second pair of shoes.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I didn't really think about getting wet on the boat because I hadn't done it before. And then you mentioned it.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: You get wet on the boat. And then we even. Like when we were packing, we're like, should we get two pairs of shoes? Nah, we're fine.
[00:18:47] Speaker A: Yeah. It was not.
[00:18:48] Speaker B: We're not doing any wet activity.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: Not a great call.
So anyway, that was interesting that that happened.
And it was very cool to see. It was very cool. I. I will say it is worth doing. It was worth the four hours of being completely soaking wet in a poncho.
Like with poncho over the wet clothes. Like, the whole squishy experience.
It was worth it.
[00:19:11] Speaker B: Squishy is a good term for it. It was very squishy.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: So squishy.
But it was worth it for, like, the. The falls were just beautiful and just going into the mist and getting to see it all. It was. It was really magical. It was very cool.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: You get right up in there. Like, the boat, like turn does like a loop up in the fall, in the fall. And it's pretty cool.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: And now I definitely know why they call it the Maid of the Mists, which I think there's a legend on. We have to, like, look up and school people on later because that will be. That'll be a follow up, because that would be very.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: That company alone has been running for. How many years did it say? 70 something?
[00:19:41] Speaker A: A long time.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: It was a long time.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: It's like a piece of Niagara Falls history.
Anyway, we are, we are arriving almost at our destination here. We're going to the Founding Fathers Pub, which also just seems weird.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: Yes, that's why. That is why we're going.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: We're going because it's weird. So we will have to let you know how that goes.
And, yeah, I hope you enjoyed our little talk on Sunday.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: Icon.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: There's a cat in that window.
Speaking of weird, there's an adorable cat right there.
Cats are just weird.
But anyway, thank you guys so much for tuning in today. Please check out MallorySadventures.com as we write about more weird stuff in Buffalo. Watch season two of Weird World Adventures on Amazon prime, or Fossum if you
[00:20:28] Speaker B: haven't, and season one.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: And season one.
And until next time, everybody stay weird.
