Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Malorie Mackey: Foreign.
Morello Senior housing. That's what that is. That's where we are right now, near Niagara Falls.
[00:00:15] Michael Maldonado: Really ran out of content for season three.
So join us while we check out the senior living town.
[00:00:24] Malorie Mackey: Fascinating stuff here. Fascinating stuff. Stuff.
[00:00:26] Michael Maldonado: This is a place where, as you get older, you can choose to live near Niagara Falls.
[00:00:35] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Hopefully they have like shuttles.
Cuz how else are these seniors getting out there?
[00:00:49] Malorie Mackey: Driving?
What could go wrong with that?
[00:00:52] Michael Maldonado: I don't, I don't know. I mean, it depends. Depends on the type of senior.
[00:00:55] Malorie Mackey: It's true, it's true. How senior are you?
[00:00:58] Michael Maldonado: If you're my 99 year old grandfather, you are shockingly and disconcertingly still driving.
[00:01:08] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Wow. I'm totally unprepared. My notes are out the window because
[00:01:23] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: For some reason I wasn't invited to sing. I'm not sure why.
[00:02:03] Malorie Mackey: Why could that be?
That seems suspicious.
[00:02:07] Michael Maldonado: It does.
[00:02:08] Malorie Mackey: We've all heard your Oogie Boogie song. You nailed it.
[00:02:11] Michael Maldonado: Pretty good at the Oogie Boogie song.
[00:02:13] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: and I was like, this is gonna take forever.
[00:02:35] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Yes. So the first thing we did was go to the bookstore and buy an egregious amount of books and swag.
[00:03:47] Malorie Mackey: Like $300 worth of books and swag.
Like, I mean, just a crazy amount. And then they also.
[00:03:55] Michael Maldonado: No regrets.
[00:03:56] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: But how can you not get more?
[00:04:26] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: That makes sense.
[00:04:40] Michael Maldonado: God forbid I'm going to even slightly damage a signed copy.
[00:04:44] Malorie Mackey: Right.
[00:04:44] Michael Maldonado: Of which now I have several.
[00:04:45] Malorie Mackey: Right.
[00:04:46] Michael Maldonado: I could give them out to other people, but I'm not going to.
[00:04:48] Malorie Mackey: Exactly. Why. Right.
[00:04:50] Michael Maldonado: Why?
[00:04:50] Malorie Mackey: Makes sense to me.
[00:04:51] Michael Maldonado: Okay.
[00:04:52] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Well, it's not out yet.
[00:05:01] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: And you signed a copy of her?
[00:05:56] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: That's right. That's the first piece you wrote.
[00:06:07] Malorie Mackey: First piece I wrote two years ago. Right, yes.
[00:06:10] Michael Maldonado: You really just wanted to get the penguins in.
[00:06:12] Malorie Mackey: I really did.
[00:06:13] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: His name is chubby. He's P4 South African penguin.
[00:06:25] Michael Maldonado: To be in this magazine.
[00:06:27] Malorie Mackey: Yes.
[00:06:27] Michael Maldonado: And I'm going to write around Chubby.
[00:06:30] Malorie Mackey: Exactly.
Yes, exactly.
[00:06:33] Michael Maldonado: And he's in it. So there you go.
[00:06:34] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Y.
[00:07:25] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: It was a pretty big dinner. I was surprised how many people were at the dinner.
[00:07:46] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: But it's It's.
[00:09:55] Malorie Mackey: It's great.
[00:09:55] Michael Maldonado: It's a dramatic monologue.
[00:09:57] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: You committed. You committed.
[00:10:28] Michael Maldonado: Did I commit?
[00:10:29] Malorie Mackey: You committed. It was good.
[00:10:30] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Yeah, the devil. The devil.
[00:10:51] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Don't escort that man out.
[00:11:12] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Michael Mann and Peter Hotez are, like, obviously, big deals.
[00:11:26] Malorie Mackey: Yes.
[00:11:27] Michael Maldonado: In science.
[00:11:28] Malorie Mackey: And they were very, very lovely people,
[00:11:31] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: You were flubbing it.
[00:13:08] Malorie Mackey: I was flubbing the selfie.
[00:13:09] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: He's like, mallory, stop embarrassing me in front of Bill.
[00:13:29] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:13:35] Malorie Mackey: Such a nice guy.
[00:13:36] Michael Maldonado: Yeah.
[00:13:37] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Yeah, all the.
[00:13:59] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: I had to get up less early because I didn't have, like, all this hair and makeup to do.
[00:14:51] Malorie Mackey: It's true.
Jealous. And you didn't have to check in an hour early either.
[00:14:56] Michael Maldonado: Right.
[00:14:56] Malorie Mackey: It was nice.
[00:14:57] Michael Maldonado: Really. You should just be happy I showed up for your talk.
[00:15:00] Malorie Mackey: It was. It was questionable if you were gonna show up.
[00:15:02] Michael Maldonado: At one point, I was like, I'm really tired.
Maybe you can just give me the second rendition.
[00:15:07] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Yeah.
[00:15:26] Malorie Mackey: My cute little.
[00:15:26] Michael Maldonado: So now he's been in the magazine and live at the conference.
[00:15:29] Malorie Mackey: Exactly.
[00:15:30] Michael Maldonado: 50th anniversary.
[00:15:31] Malorie Mackey: Yeah. Chubby's famous. He's famous.
[00:15:33] Michael Maldonado: He even got a custom made wine bottle out of it.
I am so jealous of that. I am so jealous.
[00:15:39] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Yeah.
[00:15:48] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: They like that I come from a world of.
[00:16:16] Michael Maldonado: They like that you have talent and
[00:16:18] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: You're a good writer. You're from the. Your. Your past is kind of a. Somewhat believer.
[00:16:40] Malorie Mackey: Yeah.
[00:16:40] Michael Maldonado: And I've been molding you.
[00:16:42] Malorie Mackey: Yeah, right, right.
Molded.
[00:16:47] Michael Maldonado: Behind every successful woman, there's a strong, skeptical man.
[00:16:51] Malorie Mackey: Wow.
[00:16:52] Michael Maldonado: That's what I hear the saying. I think that's what they're saying.
[00:16:54] Malorie Mackey: Is that what it is? I think that's what it is. That seems. That seems nice. Right?
[00:16:56] Michael Maldonado: Okay.
[00:16:59] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Absolutely pouring.
[00:17:39] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: You did look very wet. Ratty.
[00:18:03] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: That's fair. We should have worn sandals.
[00:18:31] Michael Maldonado: Still didn't bring a second pair of shoes.
[00:18:35] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: Yeah. It was not.
[00:18:48] Michael Maldonado: We're not doing any wet activity.
[00:18:50] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Squishy is a good term for it. It was very squishy.
[00:19:13] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: 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] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: That company alone has been running for. How many years did it say? 70 something?
[00:19:41] Malorie Mackey: A long time.
[00:19:42] Michael Maldonado: It was a long time.
[00:19:43] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Yes, that's why. That is why we're going.
[00:19:56] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: Icon.
[00:20:05] Malorie Mackey: 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] Michael Maldonado: haven't, and season one.
[00:20:29] Malorie Mackey: And season one.
And until next time, everybody stay weird.
