ECAD 2026 - The Explorers Club Annual Dinner

[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hello, hello, hello, everyone. Welcome back to Weird World Adventures, the podcast. I'm your host, Mallory. [00:00:13] Speaker B: And I'm your host, Michael. [00:00:14] Speaker A: And we're here to show you just how weird this world of ours really is. [00:00:19] Speaker B: So weird. [00:00:20] Speaker A: So weird. Well, speaking of weird, we just got back from ECAD Weekend, so things got really weird and awesome. [00:00:29] Speaker B: That's the Explorers Club annual dinner. [00:00:32] Speaker A: Explorers Club Annual Dinner 2026. This is my fourth ECAD. Your third. You know, you've been for three years. [00:00:41] Speaker B: I guess that's right. Yeah. [00:00:43] Speaker A: Yeah. And it is just such a magical experience ever. It never. It's never dull. It's always like, you leave so excited that you went. [00:00:53] Speaker B: So 20, 24, 5 and 6 are the ones I've been to. What was the theme for the first one? [00:00:58] Speaker A: I was at the Cosmic Ballet. [00:01:00] Speaker B: Oh, that's right. Okay. Last year was Paradise Found. Right. And then this was Odyssey. [00:01:05] Speaker A: Yes, this was Odyssey. The first year I went. I don't remember what the theme was, but it was conservation related because Bendy Irwin got the. [00:01:11] Speaker B: That's when you met the Irwins. [00:01:12] Speaker A: Yes. That was so amazing. And then it was the Cosmic Ballet. That was your first year. I recycled my dress the first two years, too, because I just didn't. I wasn't, like, committed to the experience. I know I'd have phoned it in because I got this nice Marchesa dress and I was like, I love it. I'll wear it twice. And it really worked for the Cosmic Ballet. The first year was just like, I got this nice dress. I'm excited to go. Right. And the second year, I'm like, oh, people go crazy with the themes. And it worked for the theme of the Cosmic Ballet because it looked like spark. Sparkly and starry. [00:01:46] Speaker B: To be fair, I've just been phoning in the same suit for pretty much any event for the last 20 years. [00:01:51] Speaker A: Except not this time. [00:01:52] Speaker B: Except not this time. [00:01:53] Speaker A: We. We nailed it this time. First of all, Odysseys was the theme, and it was talking about how, like, journeys aren't always in a straight line because of, you know, Odysseus. And first of all, because, you know, Odysseus. Odysseus. I. I love the Odyssey. I made Michael read it a few years ago. [00:02:14] Speaker B: Well, okay, hold on. So I was supposed to have read it in seventh grade and you didn't. We had to pick a book to do a book report on in seventh grade. And out of, like, a select, you had, like, the choice out of maybe, like, 10 books. Because it wasn't just, like, a free for all. And maybe like, seven people chose the Odyssey. I forget what the other choices were, but I was like, oh. I mean, this is, like, pretty cool. Like, monsters and shit. And I remember trying to read it in seventh. Come on. It's a big. It's a. It's a big read. It's a big ask in seventh. And there's like 40 pages in the beginning that are just describing, like, a banquet dinner. And I mean, come on. Like, I was like, what? I remember being like, what the hell is this? Like, this is. This is not what I signed up for. I wanted the Cyclops. Like, I wanted the cool stuff. I know you. But seventh grade, me was not having it. I almost wanted the movie. So I rented the movie. Turns out, not a lot to do with the book. Like, quite a bit different than the book. Like, just whole sections are just not there. Not there or are in the movie and not in the book. Like, just made up shit. [00:03:28] Speaker A: Yes. [00:03:28] Speaker B: And lucky for me, I think six of the other people that did the Odyssey also just clearly, because we had to present our book reports, and we had the same reports or same source material, and one person didn't, and she got accused of being the one that cheated. We're like, I don't know what's the likelihood the six of us all cheated on using something else? [00:04:01] Speaker A: You monsters. That would have been me. I know. [00:04:04] Speaker B: Wasn't good. [00:04:05] Speaker A: That would have been me. Do you know how. Do you know how I fell in love with the Odyssey? I know. I told you. [00:04:14] Speaker B: No. [00:04:15] Speaker A: Wow. It was my first video game. [00:04:18] Speaker B: Oh. [00:04:19] Speaker A: And it was Wishbone. They had a Wishbone video game. And it was Wishbones the Odyssey. And the dog. Yeah, he's a Jack Russell terrier. And it was like a PBS show. It came on before Bill Nye or after Bill Nye. It was great. And it's a dog that loves literature, and he retells pieces of classic literature where he's, like, the hero. So, like, A Tale of Two Cities, he's the hero. You know, they did Phantom of the Opera. [00:04:46] Speaker B: He's the one that gets killed at the end. [00:04:47] Speaker A: He is. He gives that. Yeah, yeah. It's a far, far better thing I do now than I have ever done before. [00:04:53] Speaker B: So they just kill that dog and the. [00:04:55] Speaker A: They don't show it, but it's implied. Yeah, they commit. [00:04:59] Speaker B: Oh, that's good. [00:05:00] Speaker A: And so Wishbone did the Odyssey, and I. [00:05:04] Speaker B: Does he murder all those dudes at the end? [00:05:07] Speaker A: No, there were some very whitewashed, like, well, this is for children thing. He kind of kills the Cyclops. But it's not violent. Right. It's kind of a cop out. He plays checkers. [00:05:21] Speaker B: Stake that poor bastard through the eyeball. Hug them. [00:05:24] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. They play checkers with Cersei. He plays checkers with Cersei. Instead of like, fighting her and killing her, like, the violence is replaced with like, we're going to do this task instead. Right. So it's a little. [00:05:38] Speaker B: Cause the actual Odyssey's got a pretty good murder scene at the end where just a whole bunch of people that have it coming. [00:05:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:45] Speaker B: After he get what's coming, he shoots [00:05:47] Speaker A: the arrow right through the ax, through that axe, through the axes. Yeah. They did the Odyssey. I remember them doing it in the show, too. And I watched it, but I. That was how I started to fall in love with the Odyssey. Was. Was because Wishbone did it as a video. It was my first video game. [00:06:01] Speaker B: I would be remiss if I didn't point out that she still has a Wishbone dog. [00:06:07] Speaker A: I do. [00:06:07] Speaker B: Stuffed animal. [00:06:08] Speaker A: I sleep with him every night. [00:06:09] Speaker B: That she sleeps with every night. [00:06:10] Speaker A: He was. He was like the one, like the one stuffed animal. You're like, this is. This is the one. [00:06:14] Speaker B: You're like a middle aged woman sleeping with a stuffed animal. [00:06:16] Speaker A: That's fine. I love him. He's been with me since I was eight years old. [00:06:22] Speaker B: He looks like it. To be honest. [00:06:25] Speaker A: He gets pretty clean when you wash him. You have to just clean. [00:06:28] Speaker B: When was the last time that happened? [00:06:30] Speaker A: Wow. I also have the Wishbone Odyssey game up here in our game. [00:06:34] Speaker B: I know. [00:06:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. I was like, oh, this is great. I found it at my dad's house. I, like, didn't realize that he still had it. And we were cleaning out his desk recently. Like, it was. It was within the last year when we replaced his desk with the desk and I opened the drawer and he had the box and everything. I'm like, you still have this? [00:06:52] Speaker B: Very playable on any Windows 92. [00:06:56] Speaker A: Windows 95. Yeah. [00:06:59] Speaker B: Okay. [00:07:00] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I was like 7. It was good. [00:07:01] Speaker B: Okay. [00:07:03] Speaker A: Yeah. But great story. Anyway, so the theme was Odyssey. [00:07:08] Speaker B: And yes, she did made me read it a couple years ago. [00:07:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:12] Speaker B: And I obviously enjoyed it quite a bit. [00:07:14] Speaker A: But you liked the Iliad better. [00:07:15] Speaker B: And then I went on to immediately read the Iliad, which was even better, in my opinion. [00:07:19] Speaker A: Yeah. That's just the fall of Troy, right? [00:07:21] Speaker B: Yeah. The whole book is basically just the one ongoing war. [00:07:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:25] Speaker A: It's great. It's good. So for this, my point with all of that is we needed to Commit. What a rant. We needed to commit to the outfits. Like, I'm like, this is my thing. Right? Mythology is my thing. We gotta have good outfits. [00:07:40] Speaker B: This. [00:07:41] Speaker A: And I like to have some good glam and inspiration, but I'm not gonna wear a Cyclops costume. Like, although Richard Garrison. [00:07:48] Speaker B: Yeah, someone did. [00:07:50] Speaker A: Although I will say he made his dog Cerberus. Yeah, that was great. But anyway, so I needed it to be, like, inspired by the theme and really hitting it, but also still fashion. [00:08:06] Speaker B: Not a lunatic. [00:08:07] Speaker A: Exactly. And so I don't want to do a costume. I want to do fashion. [00:08:12] Speaker B: Got it, Got it. [00:08:14] Speaker A: And so fashion. Fashion. I found. I was like, I want it to look kind of like a. Like a Greek, like, outfit, but I also want it to be blue because they were focusing hard on, like, ocean. Because water. Because water. Right. So I don't know. They were focused. I was like, it needs to be blue like the ocean. [00:08:32] Speaker B: Like water. [00:08:32] Speaker A: Like water. So. Got it. I found this Marchesa dress, and it's amazing. It's funny. It wasn't supposed to be off the shoulder, but it looks so much better off the shoulder. [00:08:42] Speaker B: Did you find it or did your friend find it for you? [00:08:44] Speaker A: I found that one. [00:08:45] Speaker B: Oh, you found that one. [00:08:46] Speaker A: Okay, I found that one. And then I got approval from everybody. [00:08:48] Speaker B: Got it. Well, it is very important that you get approval from the high fashion. [00:08:52] Speaker A: Exactly. And it goes from light blue down to dark blue. It's like an ombre down. And then we got Mike a beautiful matching blue and black suit. And it really were. I mean, people were very much confident. [00:09:06] Speaker B: It's like a blue tux. [00:09:07] Speaker A: It's a blue tux. Yeah. Yeah. People were really complimented because, you know. [00:09:11] Speaker B: Water. [00:09:11] Speaker A: Right, Water. The blue tux, the Marchesa dress, it was super flowy. It had a cape. That was. That was really my. My thing is the fact that it had a cape. But me and Holly. So my friend Holly, I guess that's another side rant. My friend Holly, we used to work together in Los Angeles. I've known her for, like, 15 years. I've known her forever. And we would, like. We stayed friends. We'd keep in touch. We'd hang out every so often. I helped her move a couple times, and then she moved back to the east coast around the same time I moved back to the east coast. And so we both kind of moved back over here at the same time from LA. And we FaceTimed a couple times after the move and caught up. And you met her FaceTime briefly. [00:09:56] Speaker B: I think I walked by awkwardly yeah. Oh, hello. [00:09:59] Speaker A: Yeah, she called me on FaceTime a year ago after we got back from ECAD. [00:10:08] Speaker B: Yeah, almost exactly a year ago. Yeah. [00:10:10] Speaker A: And she was like, I think I'm dating this guy from your club. Do you know him? His name is Josh Bernstein. And I was like, I do know Josh Bernstein. What a small world. And then they've been dating ever since. And so this was her first ecad, So I was really excited to celebrate that with her. And so we were texting about the dress because she, like, came from the fashion world. We worked at Viva Glam together, and she came from the fashion world. That was her thing. And she was like, oh, my gosh, you have to wear this dress. But then, like, have this, like, shell purse. Shell purse. Is that where the shell purse came from? And, like, crimpy hair. And I was like, oh, my God, yes, we're doing this. She's like, you can be a mermaid. So kind of, like, moved into. I think I feel like. I was thinking, like, siren, right? Like the water siren. [00:10:58] Speaker B: But it kind of went with, like, King Triton. So shirtless, right? Trident. [00:11:04] Speaker A: Exactly. That would have been a cool outfit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good stuff. [00:11:10] Speaker B: Almost like a kilt that could have been flowing like those, like, fins and then obviously go commando underneath. [00:11:17] Speaker A: There are a lot of kilts there. [00:11:18] Speaker B: There are a lot of kilts. [00:11:20] Speaker A: There are. [00:11:20] Speaker B: So would it fit right in blue kilt? Because water. [00:11:23] Speaker A: Right. [00:11:25] Speaker B: Trident. [00:11:26] Speaker A: Right. [00:11:27] Speaker B: No shirt. [00:11:28] Speaker A: Right. [00:11:28] Speaker B: So I'm just like my rippling, manly king Trident muscles and pecks. [00:11:35] Speaker A: Perfect. [00:11:36] Speaker B: What a missed opportunity. [00:11:38] Speaker A: I know. [00:11:38] Speaker B: Jamming on that blue tux instead. [00:11:40] Speaker A: There was a. There was a totally unrelated. I don't know why this. I don't know why that my brain moved to here from that. [00:11:48] Speaker B: We actually haven't covered a lot of. [00:11:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that's why I'm coming back. I was going back to ecad, so ECAD weekend, first of all, I will say it starts now on Thursday night with Pre Cad. Pre CAD is new. Pre Cad is new. Apparently it's been going on for, like, four or five years now. But we. Anyone I knew only started going last year. [00:12:09] Speaker B: I've never made it to any of this pre stuff because every year we get the dates wrong or they're not announced in time for me to put in my vacation. [00:12:19] Speaker A: And I'll even reach out to headquarters and be like, is this gonna be ecad? They're like, yeah, pretty sure. And it's the wrong. [00:12:24] Speaker B: It's been really frustrating because three in a row now I've had to well, not just from them, but also my job's also frustrating, but I've literally had to get off work Friday. Like I have had to put in a request to not have an evening shift on Friday. Yeah, I get off at 4pm or [00:12:42] Speaker A: whatever on Friday, hop on a train [00:12:44] Speaker B: and basically have my parents bring me to the train station because it's always that tight, you know, it's like I need someone on the way already. Yeah, they just drop me off there and I walk on the train and nine hours later you pick me up at the train. [00:12:57] Speaker A: It's like six, five to six. It was six. [00:13:01] Speaker B: It didn't feel like five. [00:13:02] Speaker A: Six. I think it was six. [00:13:03] Speaker B: Yeah, it felt, it felt not as bad coming back. I don't know, going up, that was a rough. Anyways, whatever. It's been the same kind of just like 18 hour day getting up there on Friday and. [00:13:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:13:19] Speaker B: Well, so I haven't experienced any of this good stuff beforehand. [00:13:22] Speaker A: Well, last year I was driving up on Thursday and I don't think I made it until like midnight or one in the morning. It was like a. I'm coming up tonight so I can sleep and go to headquarters in the morning. Because I try to make all the Friday stuff. It hasn't worked out well recently, but I try. But everyone was texting. I'm driving in the car trying to make it up to Manhattan and like three different people text me. I just walked on fire. Like, what? What are you talking about? Like, oh yeah, we're in Justin's party. I just walked on fire. And I'm like, well, now I have FOMO because I didn't get to walk on fire. What do you mean? So the Thursday night special party is a new thing and fire walking is the big thing. And so this year, fire story. Oh, definitely, definitely about this one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. And yeah, your continued fomo. Yeah, my continued fomo. But so I, I did make it up for it this year, but I didn't get to participate in any of the fun stuff, which we'll elaborate on later. But I did get to lay on a bed of nails. It was something there. So it's in Yonkers, this, this house. And I only know it because of the, the play. Like Lost in Yonkers. Right? Zonian. It's like 40 minutes north from where we were in Manhattan. I think it's on the island, but it's not like close. I think it's still New York. [00:14:46] Speaker B: I only know Yonkers from the book world. War Z. Oh, and the Battle of Yonkers. [00:14:52] Speaker A: Oh, well, I knew it from Lost in Yonkers. [00:14:55] Speaker B: Famously, a big zombie fight happened. [00:14:57] Speaker A: Okay. In Yonkers. [00:14:58] Speaker B: In Yonkers. [00:14:59] Speaker A: I'll remember that for the zombie apocalypse. [00:15:00] Speaker B: The zombies win. Well, get the hell out of Yonkers. [00:15:05] Speaker A: This guy's house is, like, insane, but in a great way, right? He likes all this ritual occult stuff. Like, he goes around and, like, works with tribal occult stuff. So we have to be friends. I have to reach out to him. And you walk in, and he has this giant horse statue. So of course I walk in and go, look at that horse. And nobody got it. And I was like, that's fine. It'll be there for the people that do get it, right. Look at that horse. [00:15:33] Speaker B: It's such a niche joke, but it's so worth it. [00:15:36] Speaker A: So good. [00:15:37] Speaker B: It's from, like, early aughts, right? [00:15:40] Speaker A: Yeah. If you guys don't know, look at that horse. [00:15:42] Speaker B: Look at that horse. [00:15:43] Speaker A: Look at that horse. Look at that horse. Definitely we did it enough to know. Look at that horse, right? [00:15:49] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:15:50] Speaker A: Okay, and then to the left. [00:15:51] Speaker B: And then look up our version of it. [00:15:53] Speaker A: Exactly. We have a version of it. So look it up. There's a room of, like, occult objects, and he has a bed of nails. So I laid down on the bed of nails. Trent was, like, coaching people through it. Like, just. Just evenly distribute your weight. It's fine. [00:16:07] Speaker B: Throw yourself back as hard as possible. [00:16:09] Speaker A: Marcus, like, put his hand on it, like, and put all the weight on his hand. Not thinking. It was like, that's not what you do. It was still a little painful, but just like. Like, annoying, right? It wasn't like, I'm gonna die. It was just like, oh, this is interesting. That was fun. And then there was a room filled with, like, it had, like, medieval paints on the wall. Like, it was really cool. Like, the aesthetic is just like, what is this house? It's great, right? And it had a room of just too adventurously exotic, meaty for me. And the meat smells actually made me want to puke, so I had to, like, leave. It was intense. I walked in and was like, nope, I'm walking out. Walking out. There was bear. There was bobcat. I think they had wild boar there, too, which I ate at. Ecat. Yeah, they had. They had a few others that were really bizarre. And I was like, this is so gamey. I have to leave right now. Can't do the smell. And then continued through. The kitchen is, like, all mosaic tiles. Like, it's very cool. Like the house. And then upstairs he has this like dark painted haunted mansion, like library. Yeah, it's really cool. Which is like a head on the wall. It's a really cool place. And then outside he did the fire walking. He had this like full 360 swing that people could get pushed on and go upside down and do the whole thing. And then there was Richard Garriott having people smoke tobacco out of a wolf's gull. It was like a taxidermied wolf head with like a pipe coming out of it. And he just like, there's a spot on the top where you could smoke tobacco out of it. And he's like, please come smoke tobacco out of here. [00:17:53] Speaker B: I think that's what I want done with me after I go. [00:17:56] Speaker A: You want to become a pipe? [00:17:57] Speaker B: A pipe. Yeah. [00:17:57] Speaker A: Yeah. Perfect. [00:17:58] Speaker B: Make me a pipe. [00:17:59] Speaker A: Intricate pipe. [00:18:00] Speaker B: Yes. [00:18:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Right, right. [00:18:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:03] Speaker A: It was weird. It was enough for like us to be at Tacos the next night and for me to share that picture with everybody and like, why wasn't I at this party? There's Richard Garriott getting people to smoke out of a coyote head or wolf head. [00:18:18] Speaker B: I was jealous of the coyote head pun. [00:18:21] Speaker A: That's pretty good. Yeah, I couldn't do that either. Womp, womp. So then that was Thursday. I actually was good. And I was like, I'm leaving now. It was 40 minutes away. I was like, I will be asleep by midnight. So I left at 11. I was very good. I got a group of people together. There's enough people going to central Manhattan where I was like, who's going back? We got a group left. Got back before midnight and like woke up feeling refreshed to have my film hub meeting for Weird World on Friday morning and then head out to get my nails done with Holly. [00:18:59] Speaker B: Yes. [00:18:59] Speaker A: So it was like a good. It was a good timing. And then we had our Friday. Friday is always like the big day at the club where they have like the. The EC50 still wouldn't know sitting at work. I missed all this. This time there's like presentations and some cool stuff. I was getting my nails done with Holly and then we had lunch. [00:19:22] Speaker B: So your day was just as hard? [00:19:24] Speaker A: Just great. But then I got back to the club at like 2:30 or got to the club at like 2:30 or 3 and just hung out until everybody showed up for the party. [00:19:32] Speaker B: Your nails are also a Weird World green. [00:19:34] Speaker A: They are. So I got. I wanted them like a blue green to match my dress but be a little like off in the colors, like, a little more green. And then afterwards, I realized, this is the same color as my femme case. Oh, my God. This is the weird world color. And I didn't even. [00:19:48] Speaker B: No wonder I liked it. [00:19:49] Speaker A: Yeah, no wonder I liked it. It was not intentional. And then I was like, oh, and it matched my Adidas bag, too. I was carrying the Adidas bag around. [00:19:57] Speaker B: Yeah, that is the same color. [00:19:58] Speaker A: I'm like, I look like a crazy person whose nails match her backpack and her phone case. [00:20:03] Speaker B: Yes. [00:20:03] Speaker A: Yeah, it was weird, but that was nice. Lunch was great. [00:20:09] Speaker B: A pleasant surprise. [00:20:09] Speaker A: Pleasant surprise. And then I was so excited because Friday we have the big party at the club, and I got to reunite with all my. We have this kind of intimate ECAD group now. We still socialize with other people, but we have our Cool Kids club. [00:20:23] Speaker B: The Cool kids club. [00:20:25] Speaker A: We're just friends. I like having a group of. I get so anxious in situations where there's a lot of people and I'm okay networking, but I need a safe zone of, well, this is just my group of people I can hide in when I come back here. And now I can hide for a few minutes behind somebody so that I can decompress. [00:20:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I get it. I'm an introvert, not an extra. [00:20:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I need to recharge. [00:20:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it's work. [00:20:50] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And it's. It's Nina, who? Nina was on the podcast last year. She is our lovely friend who vaporizes rocks on Mars to see their chemical compounds. Ms. Astro Geologist. Geologist. She's lovely. And her friend Kirsten, that comes with her from Los Alamos. Oppenheimerland. That's what they call him. And we had a job. What was that trend? I had my friend Trent Alves, who. We met him, I think, my second year at the club, and he was just like, this eager, excited, like, I want to join the Explorers Club. I heard about the Explorers Club. I just came. I heard about this weekend, so I just came here. And then he joined the next year, and I was so proud. I'm like, look at you go. So he's great. He's done a few expeditions, like, and he's done the Menorca shipwreck stuff, which is cool. [00:21:45] Speaker B: Also friend of the podcast. [00:21:47] Speaker A: Also been on the podcast. Yeah. And Josh and Candy, who I'm sure a lot of people know, Josh Gates and his lovely girlfriend Candy. And then this year, I don't know why, Josh and Don Wildman were, like, married to each other. So dawn became a part of the group. [00:22:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it was good. [00:22:09] Speaker A: Joe Rody and his wife Mel were, like, amazing. They were going, like, in and out. They were really wonderful. They wound up at tacos with us. And then. And then later, not Friday, but like, for ecad. Like Josh Bernstein and Holly, because Holly. Holly and Josh showed up at the club for a few minutes and we're like, okay, bye. There's a lot of people here. [00:22:31] Speaker B: I get it. [00:22:32] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it was a lot. But, yeah, it's. It's a lot of fun. And. And Fridays now just traditionally go from Explorers Club to tacos to karaoke bar, and we always wind up going, hmm, it's 12:30 now. We have to get up and have a day tomorrow. We should probably leave the karaoke bar now and go to sleep. [00:22:57] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it's the second time I've just gotten off the train and going to karaoke. Go to karaoke, still carrying my luggage. [00:23:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:06] Speaker B: And, you know, everyone's well into the party, and I'm just like, I need to go to sleep now. [00:23:12] Speaker A: Yep, yep, yep. This was. This was fun too. This is the second year we did the tacos and the karaoke and the tacos. They're so good. We left your tacos. You never even ate them. [00:23:26] Speaker B: I did eat half of them. [00:23:27] Speaker A: Yeah, okay. They were good. They were really good. And I just. I just remember being like, I. So I had. I, like, just committed to not drinking and going crazy at ecat, and I had my, like, non alcoholic margarita, and then somebody else apparently ordered one and nobody knew that, like a second person ordered one. And they're like, we have a non alcoholic. And then I had mine, and I'm like, oh, did I grab the wrong one? Is there alcohol in here? Did I mess this up? What did I do? And Josh Gates just grabs my drink, is like, takes a sip of it, and is like, no, there's not alcohol in here. Yeah. I'm like, bro, that's my drink. Backflow. I have a thing about backflow. [00:24:11] Speaker B: It's backwash. [00:24:12] Speaker A: Backwash. Back flow, Backflow, Backwash. [00:24:15] Speaker B: Same thing you just put on your backflow preventer. [00:24:17] Speaker A: Yeah, Backwash. [00:24:19] Speaker B: That's like a sprinkler thing. [00:24:21] Speaker A: Oh. I think I've called it backflow forever. Backwash. [00:24:24] Speaker B: Backwash. [00:24:25] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:24:26] Speaker B: Wow. [00:24:27] Speaker A: Backwash is nasty. I don't even share drinks with my own dad, and he's really offended by it. He doesn't really even. [00:24:34] Speaker B: Like, if I share them with you. [00:24:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm weird. I'm weird about sharing, but, like, we could. But you just don't like, like sugar Drinks. And I like sugar drinks. [00:24:43] Speaker B: Yeah. I try to. I try to keep this toned physique down with. I try to not drink my calories. [00:24:51] Speaker A: That's smart. [00:24:52] Speaker B: That's my policy. [00:24:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Smart. And then. And this year, I was so tired. By Saturday, you were exhausted. I was exhausted. I woke up, they have lectures and I. And the first year was, like, exhilarating. That's where, like, they had the person that had the. The. What was the. What's the big telescope now? The new one, The James Webb. James Webb. They had people that worked on the James Webb. [00:25:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:21] Speaker A: Like, get awards and talk about the James Webb telescope. And it was fascinating. The people that won awards were incredible. I was so intrigued, sitting through all the lectures. I had a great time. And then we went into, like, to the Irwins talk. And that was just the greatest thing ever. Right? [00:25:36] Speaker B: This is the group. [00:25:36] Speaker A: This is the first year. My first year. I have not done the lectures since then. I would like to do them again, but every time I get to Friday, I'm like, I'm so tired. And we have the big party tonight. I'm gonna see. [00:25:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:47] Speaker A: I Woke up at 12:30 this time, and that's, like. For me, that's like, what the hell did you do, Mallory? What do you mean you Woke up at 12:30? I woke up at 12:30, starving. Ran across the street to Starbucks to get, like, I need a croissant and some food and I'm gonna get a drink and come back. Came back and kind of vegetated until I was like, okay, I have to get ready now. And we, like. Like I said, we went all out. [00:26:14] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:26:14] Speaker A: Our outfits were epic. Everyone was like, you guys look great. I just want to say, look like water. Looks like water. And we got there and might get a cockroach at each end. That's really the highlight. [00:26:28] Speaker B: Yeah, they're the big, juicy kind, like Madagascar. [00:26:33] Speaker A: The Madagascar hissing cockroach. [00:26:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:35] Speaker A: Yep, yep, yep. They haven't had the spider since the first year I was there. [00:26:41] Speaker B: I know. I really wish I had gotten a spider and a tarantula. [00:26:44] Speaker A: Tarantula. And I think the one Dakota ate was even a display when she just took an. Ate like. Like someone else had taken it. And then it was passed to us and we didn't know. Just ate it. But. But, yeah, like, they don't really have them anymore, but. But they have the cockroaches and the scorpions. And the scorpions are, like, easy at this point because we eat one every year, so it's like, not Challenging anymore. [00:27:06] Speaker B: Well, they're also. They're not that big, and they don't taste like a. There's not a lot of, like, meat there. It's like, just kind of chewing. [00:27:13] Speaker A: Although it is metallic. The metallicy. I don't love. [00:27:17] Speaker B: I will say I kind of just grabbed a scorpion and a cockroach. We just, like, beelined it for that because I wanted to see if there was a spider. There wasn't that tarantula. And I kind of grabbed both. And before I, like, really thought about what I was eating, I was kind of eating it. That cockroach was nasty. That was. [00:27:36] Speaker A: You had second. You had, like, second thoughts. [00:27:38] Speaker B: I know. As it was, like, going in my. I was like, oh. Oh, no. [00:27:42] Speaker A: You tried to crunch it. The videos on our Instagram, by the way, make sure you go to Mallory's Adventures Instagram. You tried to bite it, and you couldn't crunch through it, so then you had to put the whole thing in your mouth. And that was. That was just revolting. [00:27:54] Speaker B: Yeah. I tried to take a bite of it as if it was. Because it's on, like, a skewer. It's not like a shish kebab. [00:27:59] Speaker A: Yep. [00:28:00] Speaker B: And I couldn't bite through it. I mean, like, in one bite. So I was like, I'm just gonna have to just jam this. It's big enough to have been. If you could bite it, like, three bites, I would say it would have been like three. Three meat cubes worth of, like, shish kebab. Right. And I couldn't bite through it, so I just jammed the whole thing in there. And it's mostly crunchy until you get to the butt end. And then it was just juice. It was like just, like. [00:28:23] Speaker A: And just goo. [00:28:25] Speaker B: And I was like, oh. Oh, no. Oh, no. [00:28:29] Speaker A: You, like, couldn't swallow it. And I said, is it super crunchy? And you're like, well. And it's juicy. And that also made me want to throw up. [00:28:36] Speaker B: I ate the juicies. The juicies came out of it. And then it ended up just kind of being like a very large carapace husk. I was like, I can't. Like, this is like, I can't swallow it. Yeah. I can't get. [00:28:47] Speaker A: But if you can't chew it and swallow it, how could you digest it? Well. Well, no, I'm sure it doesn't exactly. Right. So just spit it out. [00:28:53] Speaker B: The juicies went down, and I got, like, some of the carpets and body down, I guess, but. But, I mean, it ended up just being Like, a pretty large, like, husk of, I don't know, hard, you know, like. I don't know, eating, like, a. Like a twig. I know. It's just like, yeah, some of this is just not gonna go down my throat. [00:29:18] Speaker A: And the. Like, the. The scorpion. The tail fell out of your mouth. You were like, oh, here's the little, like, fincher. [00:29:26] Speaker B: That was. Yeah, I didn't mean. I tried to get that whole thing down in one bite. [00:29:30] Speaker A: I usually do. Yeah. [00:29:32] Speaker B: But I was filled up with cockroach juice. [00:29:38] Speaker A: I. I didn't commit to anything crazy this time, but I did. I did eat the wild boar that. That. So that felt, like, safe, but different. That felt like, well, this is weird, but it's not gonna kill me, right? So I'm gonna have this, right? Yeah, The. The. I mean, I usually have some of the worms. [00:29:55] Speaker B: Although wild boar does kill people. [00:29:57] Speaker A: I killed Robert Baratheon. I killed Robert Baratheon, but not that way. It was alive when I killed Robert Baratheon. [00:30:04] Speaker B: Were you, like, I want this boar served so everybody knows that this was the boar that killed Mallory Mackie at [00:30:11] Speaker A: my funeral dinner, I will say. Yeah, I think I did say. I think I did say, like, Robert Baratheon would be proud before I ate it in my video, I think I said that. That's really, like, right where my mind went. [00:30:24] Speaker B: Okay. [00:30:25] Speaker A: The. The worms, though, I mean, there was that one year I got. I actually confronted Joe Rohde about it last year. [00:30:32] Speaker B: Right? You talked about it last year's podcast. [00:30:35] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, the moapi worm. Well, I confronted Joe about it this time. I was like, joe, I ate that moapi worm because you told me it was your recommendation, and it was nasty. And he's like, oh, I really like it, but it tastes like a moldy peanut. How do you like it, Joe? His wife is lovely, by the way. [00:30:54] Speaker B: Anyways, I can't say I recommend the Madagascar hissing cocktail. [00:31:00] Speaker A: So you won't be eating that one again? [00:31:01] Speaker B: Probably not. [00:31:03] Speaker A: Yeah. It looked traumatizing just watching you try to eat it. [00:31:06] Speaker B: Well, at first, I was, like, trying to bite through it, and then I got to the juice, and I was [00:31:09] Speaker A: like, oh, it's like, unexpected. Surprise, surprise. Like a gusher. [00:31:13] Speaker B: It was not good. Yeah. [00:31:14] Speaker A: And a bug gusher. Oh, nasty. [00:31:17] Speaker B: It was like a gusher, but really not good. [00:31:21] Speaker A: And then we went from. From that to Felix Kunst does picture. Does beautiful portraits every year. And this is our second year with some amazing portraits, and I can't wait to see it. I'm so Antsy about it because they're so good. They're so good. And that was fun. And then. And then we, like, found the group to do the step and repeat, and by the time you just do that sequence of events, it's like dinner time. And we had, like, the most awesome. I think we have the best group. We had the best. Our group rocks. We had just this gigantic, sprawling group of awesome on our sevener bead. [00:31:56] Speaker B: Sprawling group of awesome. [00:31:58] Speaker A: It was me and you. And then this guy named Eric who I guess used to be on the board, who was lovely, but we kept running into him. And then he just, like, joined our group. Like, we kept accumulating people. And then Trent was there, but he didn't step in with us for some reason. [00:32:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:14] Speaker A: And Holly and Josh Bernstein and Nina and Victor. Victor Velasco came in and Kirsten. And then we had. We didn't have Josh Gates at first. We had Candy, his girlfriend, and Don Wildman. And then Josh, like, photobombed the second one, like, no way. Then came back up and we took another one. We had a good group. We had a good group. [00:32:37] Speaker B: Has a cool, like, lightning backdrop. [00:32:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it does. We look so good in our outfits. So good. I really feel like if they did a best dress, like, we would have had best dress. [00:32:50] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:32:51] Speaker A: I really feel that this year. This is the first year I've been like, man, we nailed it. [00:32:54] Speaker B: That was us. [00:32:54] Speaker A: We nailed it. And then we had the dinner, except [00:32:58] Speaker B: they took one look at me like, son, that is a clip on bow tie. [00:33:04] Speaker A: We tried to tie an Explorers club bow tie that we bought a really nice one for Mike, and we couldn't figure out how to tie it, and we gave up. [00:33:12] Speaker B: Well, we were running. [00:33:14] Speaker A: We were running out of time. [00:33:14] Speaker B: I was like, if I had an hour, I could get this. [00:33:16] Speaker A: But yeah, I'm a long tie guy. [00:33:19] Speaker B: Not a. Yeah. I have never. I've never had occasion to need a bow tie that doesn't just come with, like, a groomsman suit, like, for a tux. That is a clip on that. I just have someone clip on me. [00:33:32] Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah. [00:33:33] Speaker B: I don't own a bow tie. Like, an actual bow tie. [00:33:35] Speaker A: Well, now you do. Now I do now. [00:33:37] Speaker B: Too bad I don't know how to use it. [00:33:38] Speaker A: All right, we'll get there. We'll figure it out for next year. There's always next year. [00:33:41] Speaker B: Always next year. [00:33:43] Speaker A: And then the dinner was great. Dinner was great. Like, always. Yeah. I mean, yeah, they had food. Well, they had. They had so many, like, previous medalists. Come up and speak My. My. One of my sponsors in the club. Wade Davis was there. [00:33:59] Speaker B: He was one of the speakers. [00:34:00] Speaker A: And. He was one of the speakers. And that was nice, because I don't think I've seen Wade in. I haven't seen him in three years. I think the last time I saw him was at the lunch with the Irwins. Yeah, that was the last time I saw him. Yeah. And so Wade and Josh Gates spoke, and they had. Richard Weiss spoke. I think Gary had spoke, didn't he? Or. No. Yeah. Like, they had made a bunch of, like, you know, cool people, classics there. Speaking. They had a lady host, which was great. I wish she spoke more, to be quite honest. She had a TV show. She sounded great. [00:34:36] Speaker B: Hey. Like you. [00:34:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I know, right? You gotta represent. [00:34:40] Speaker B: Although I don't need her to speak more. [00:34:42] Speaker A: Wow. [00:34:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I got plenty of that. [00:34:47] Speaker A: And then while we were, like, preparing before dinner, Josh Bernstein came over and, like, was like, oh, we're gonna do, like, a special toast outside. Like, don't tell anybody. And. And, like, set up this whole, like, special test situation. [00:35:00] Speaker B: Situation. [00:35:01] Speaker A: Situation. I say it like, my cousin Brett, I hear her in my head there. [00:35:05] Speaker B: What's that all about? [00:35:06] Speaker A: I don't know. I say it like, brett. I don't know why I hear Brett say it every time I say that word. For some reason. I don't know. So after the dinner, we all go out on the patio. [00:35:17] Speaker B: You know, they used to call me Mike the Situation. You know. [00:35:21] Speaker A: Thought you were Magic Mike. [00:35:23] Speaker B: That, too. [00:35:23] Speaker A: Well, wow. [00:35:24] Speaker B: I wear many hats. [00:35:28] Speaker A: And we all go out in the patio, and it's a beautiful patio. That terrace I used to like to take pictures on because it has, like, the New York City skyline in the back and the boats on the other side. It's nice with pictures from last year up there. Yeah, we do. Or from two years ago, I think. [00:35:44] Speaker B: Okay. [00:35:45] Speaker A: And so we were like. He had us all get in a circle to do a toast, and he gave everybody a bag with candles. And right when everyone starts lining up and he starts speaking, Mike's just like, oh, he's gonna propose to your friend. I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, he's gonna propose to your friend. [00:36:00] Speaker B: Why am I, like, the bag? I was like, oh, it's a candle. [00:36:03] Speaker A: And he's like, light your candles and this. And Holly was, like, oblivious. She's like, I thought you guys were gonna, like, summon a demon or something. Weird. I don't know what your club is. Like, it seemed weird and, like, Ritualistic and. I don't know, like, we're all annual sacrifice, right? Like, who knows? And. And then he proposed. And. Yeah, you called it. And she, like, had no idea. She, like, slammed her bag down. It, like, broke. She dropped her bag so hard, it broke. Like, you can hear it crash in the video. [00:36:34] Speaker B: More of a throw down than a. [00:36:36] Speaker A: Oh, it was a throw down. It was a whoosh. And, yeah, she said yes. And it was really cool because it was like. I don't know, it was like, two parts of, like, my world, Right? My life, like. Like, Holly is, like, one of my dear friends for a long time. And, like, having. Having this, like, piece of my life, like my friend outside the Explorers Club, and then having, like, you know, her marry Josh and be there and getting to celebrate that, like, in the end, everyone from the Explorers Club, it was really cool. I was like, this is a small world, and this is really cool. And Holly's like, thank God you were here. Someone from the bright side, Mal. It was great. It was wonderful. [00:37:16] Speaker B: And there were cigars. [00:37:17] Speaker A: There were cigars. He passed around the cigars. He passed around the champagne. And then we wound up on the stairs the whole rest of the night, which I don't think was intentional, but it was nice. It's so nice out there. Yeah. And, yeah, so that. And then Sylvia Earle came out. [00:37:32] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:37:32] Speaker A: That was cool. She's. She's like. I've never, like, wanted to bother her because she's so old and she's just so nice and she's so lovely, but, [00:37:41] Speaker B: like, so sought after. Feels. It feels wrong to, like, just be another person. [00:37:46] Speaker A: Like, and she takes pictures of everybody, and I'm like, I just can't be that person. But I respect from afar, she's. She's lovely. [00:37:54] Speaker B: Plus, we. To me, it's like I used up that card that Woody Harrelson. Woody Harrelson, who randomly was there. [00:38:01] Speaker A: Woody was there. And the Kon Tiki. [00:38:03] Speaker B: So I know we missed two things. [00:38:04] Speaker A: We missed two good things during the dinner. Mike Bin on a piece of the Contigu raft. It was one of the auction items. He was like, you know, it wasn't even. Like, he read it in the silent auction. Was like, I have to have it. It's like we walked out to look at the stuff on the table. [00:38:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:20] Speaker A: At dinner. And he was just like, I need this. Like. Like, it, like, called to you. Like, he didn't bid on it. [00:38:27] Speaker B: He won the shit out of it. [00:38:29] Speaker A: He bid on it and won. So now in our library, we Have a piece of the Kon Tiki. Authentic piece of the Kaniki. And he is. He was so proud. He's like, you can't let me do this. And then. But then it was so good. I'm like. And no one has buyer's remorse. It was worth it. It was worth it. [00:38:49] Speaker B: I thought I was going to because I usually do for way less on just other stuff, but I don't know. I was like, no, I feel okay about this. [00:38:59] Speaker A: Do you want to tell people why the Contiki? [00:39:02] Speaker B: Not really. [00:39:05] Speaker A: I'll tell them. [00:39:05] Speaker B: Okay. [00:39:07] Speaker A: Mike knows about it because of Curb youb Enthusiasm. I said that? Weird. Curb your enthusiasm. [00:39:12] Speaker B: I'm sorry, because of what? [00:39:14] Speaker A: I had a stroke. Curb your enthusiasm. [00:39:17] Speaker B: Curb your orgasm. Enthusiagasm. [00:39:22] Speaker A: I had a break. [00:39:22] Speaker B: Yeah. What was that? [00:39:24] Speaker A: I'm really tired right now. [00:39:26] Speaker B: I watched you have a stroke. [00:39:28] Speaker A: I'm really tired. I'm really tired. But in one of the episodes there's like, who is it? [00:39:36] Speaker B: Clive Owen? [00:39:37] Speaker A: Yeah. He plays an actor and he does a whole one man show about the Kondiki. So that's what I think. [00:39:44] Speaker B: That's why I know of the Contiki. [00:39:45] Speaker A: I know of it because my first year at ECAD Weekend, Steve Elkins comes down with a huge piece. I mean, like, like, like foot long piece of the Kon Tiki rope. Because they're cutting off a piece. Yeah. [00:39:57] Speaker B: Because now I have a piece of it. [00:39:58] Speaker A: And he's like, this came from the Kantiki. You guys have to touch it. And was like passing it around, like, oh, my God. [00:40:04] Speaker B: Well, I got good news for you. You can touch a piece of it anytime you want. And I was like, wise decisions were made. [00:40:13] Speaker A: And I was like, what's the content? Then I had to look it up. So I didn't look like I had no idea what people were talking about. Right. But. Yeah, but Larry David. [00:40:20] Speaker B: There could have. I'll just say I could have. There could have. There were worse. There were worse things. There were. There were bigger mistakes that I could have made at the. [00:40:28] Speaker A: Definitely. [00:40:29] Speaker B: At both the live and silent auction. [00:40:31] Speaker A: You and Josh were talking at the end of the night about the, like the Airstream. Yeah, the Airstream. They had like a fully decked out. I'm gonna be honest. Had I seen the inside, it's all Explorers Club, I would have been more intrigued and interested in that. Right. But it didn't go for that much. [00:40:47] Speaker B: I'm kind of glad we didn't know. Like. Well, I mean, you say not that much. It went for like 55 grand. It's not like it went. [00:40:53] Speaker A: It was less than the value. [00:40:56] Speaker B: Yeah, you could. You. I think you could turn around and [00:40:59] Speaker A: make money profit off of it, definitely. Well, that's why Josh was upset. He didn't get it because he was like, damn, I was gonna bid on that. Like, I could have turned around and sold it. Yeah, it was good. [00:41:11] Speaker B: It's still a substantial yes. [00:41:13] Speaker A: Yeah, well, so I went out to try to get, like I said, worse [00:41:16] Speaker B: mistakes could have been made. [00:41:19] Speaker A: I didn't want to miss whatever toast was happening on the balcony because I was like, well, something's gonna be good, right? I felt like something good is happening here. I don't know why I didn't go to Eng, but I didn't want to miss it. So I was trying to get our winnings from the auction early. So I went to the table where the Contiki was, and Woody Harrelson was just standing there. And this was after. I think Trent ran in and was like, woody Harrelson's just out there admiring [00:41:42] Speaker B: my piece of Contiki. [00:41:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And then I walked out. [00:41:45] Speaker B: Very random. [00:41:47] Speaker A: Yeah. And I walked out, and he's just, like, hanging out by the auction table. [00:41:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:51] Speaker A: He must have won something, right? I feel like he won something because he's just hanging out by the auction table. He was very nice. We got a picture with him. We talked to him. He was on another level of, like, consciousness, I think, at that moment. [00:42:05] Speaker B: Everybody was, like, filtered into see him at that point. [00:42:08] Speaker A: But also everybody's like, oh, that just makes sense. What do you hear, Allison? Yeah, it sounds right. Just vibrating conservation, though, isn't it? Yeah, I think so. [00:42:18] Speaker B: I think I, like, knew that. [00:42:20] Speaker A: Yeah, you brought it up. When I said that, I was like, woody Harrelson, and then I said, oh, are you thinking about joining the club? And he's like, yeah, I would like that. [00:42:28] Speaker B: Well, hey, we can sponsor you. [00:42:29] Speaker A: That's what I said. [00:42:30] Speaker B: I'm sure he's listening. [00:42:32] Speaker A: We can sponsor you, Woody Harrelson. Is it weird if we say both your names like that? We can sponsor you, Woody. [00:42:38] Speaker B: I feel like. No, I feel like Woody. Like, a lot of. I don't know. He's a Woody Harrelson kind of like. [00:42:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Except I always called him Woody from Cheers. That was, like, my thing for years. Oh, yeah. Woody from Cheers. [00:42:50] Speaker B: Yeah. I guess when I hear him reference, it's usually both names. [00:42:54] Speaker A: It is. Well, that's like, celebrities just get referenced by both names. But that's my problem with, like, I'm On. I mean, like, I'm not going around calling, like, Josh Bernstein. Josh Bernstein and Josh Gates. Josh Gates. But there's two Josh's around us, so it's like, all right, well, you're Josh and you're Bernstein. Right, Right. Like, there has to be a way to differentiate the two of them. [00:43:13] Speaker B: And I mike the situation. [00:43:14] Speaker A: Exactly right. And I'm Mallory. [00:43:19] Speaker B: You go by Mallory Mackie. [00:43:21] Speaker A: I do. [00:43:22] Speaker B: Pretty. [00:43:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:23] Speaker A: It's a comic book name. It sounds good. It is. People used to tell me that when I was growing up, like, me and Marissa. Marissa Maldonado. Mallory Mackie. Like, you guys have comic book names. My other friend I grew up with on Seven Oaks that Marissa also knew was Jaleesa Jones. We were all comic book characters, Right? [00:43:40] Speaker B: Like, Jaleesa Jones is pretty good. [00:43:42] Speaker A: It was good. [00:43:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:45] Speaker A: Unlike, we're all comic book characters. But it was lovely. And e cat is never complete without then going from. Despite there not being an after after party, we still left very late from the glass house and wound up, like, from the terrace. Like, we didn't even really get to experience the after party because we were out partying on the terrace. [00:44:02] Speaker B: Right. [00:44:03] Speaker A: And then went to a gay bar. Well, first we went. We went to the after party, and we're like, we're not gonna even sit in this place. It is not movable. This is not gonna happen. And instead walk down the street to a gay bar. And Josh Gates loved that. Okay, so if I say Josh, it's Josh Gates. If I say Bernstein, it's Josh Bernstein. That was what we were doing all weekend, so it's not confusing. Just so I don't have to keep saying both his names. It's weird. It's weird to me. Like, and then Josh Gates did this. It feels weird. Okay. So then Josh was like, I hope it's not a gay bar, but was, like, really all about it being a gay bar. Like, he just said that for appearances and was so into it. [00:44:40] Speaker B: Well, it was clearly a gay bar. [00:44:42] Speaker A: It clearly was. Based on the name. [00:44:43] Speaker B: Based on. [00:44:43] Speaker A: It's him. Yeah, it was great. And so I don't think anyone was [00:44:47] Speaker B: like, this is gonna be anything but exactly what it was. [00:44:51] Speaker A: We went in. There was just, like, great sitting room. It was. It was wonderful. We had a great time. Josh and the bartender became besties. The only weird thing was the bathroom situ. Apparently that's a normal thing. And someone told me, this is a normal thing. [00:45:05] Speaker B: In Manhattan, probably space is at such a premium. You're not gonna. [00:45:09] Speaker A: Yeah, there was one bath One bathroom. One unisex bathroom. And it's just all urinals and a single stall for the ladies. And I was like, I feel really uncomfortable walking in. White people are peeing at urinals, Right? Like, that is just not. That's weird, right? It's weird to me. I'm not worried about me. I'm worried about everybody else. Like, I don't need to be looking at your penis accidentally while I'm trying to go to the bathroom. [00:45:30] Speaker B: What? [00:45:30] Speaker A: What? So, like, I was like. I went to go in, and then I was like. [00:45:34] Speaker B: But also, I mean, I don't look at the penises accidentally either. Like, I don't know. [00:45:41] Speaker A: It just feels. It feels weird. [00:45:42] Speaker B: You don't have to. You're not trained to have urinal etiquette because you're. [00:45:46] Speaker A: I've never been around someone peeing in a urinal before. It's weird. [00:45:49] Speaker B: You want to get up in there and, like, awkwardly, like, look left and right, but, like, down, right at him, and then, like, make, like, admiring. [00:45:57] Speaker A: Okay, that sounds right. Okay, I got it. I'll do that next time. [00:46:00] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. Thank you. [00:46:02] Speaker A: I went to go in and saw that and closed the door and backed up, and there was a guy behind me, and I was like, do you know if this is, like, it has [00:46:09] Speaker B: a different part than I do down there? [00:46:11] Speaker A: Is this. I was like, is this, like, a unisex, like, everybody bathroom? And the guy's like, yeah, I think so. And I was like, do I just go in? And he's like, yeah. And I'm like, okay. And I, like, awkwardly go in like I'm not looking at anything, and, like, beeline it to the single stall. Like, what if there was somebody in the stall? Right? What do you do? I made it in the stall, and I didn't leave until everyone else was gone. And then I left. [00:46:38] Speaker B: So you're just in there, like, faking a poop till everybody's out. [00:46:41] Speaker A: Everyone left really fast because they're guys. They pee pretty fast. No one else came in. So I was like, okay. No. But then I was like, okay, if the coast clear, I'm gonna. Peace the F out really fast. It was awkward. It was an awkward situation. And I'm in this huge, flowy gown, right? Like, the whole thing was awkward. I'm like, everything about this is awkward. [00:46:59] Speaker B: Let me just flow into this stall. [00:47:02] Speaker A: Yeah, the whole thing was awkward. Cause I have to carry. [00:47:05] Speaker B: Peep through. [00:47:05] Speaker A: I have to, like, pull up some guys. Yeah, I have to pull up, like, seven pounds of dress, cape. And stuff. Like, to try to peep, like, it was a whole ordeal. [00:47:14] Speaker B: You just had to look like the water. [00:47:15] Speaker A: I did. Snowy siren. And then. And then we. We hung there until nuggets. And the thing I love most about our girl Nina is that, like, it always has to end in nuggets. [00:47:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:29] Speaker A: And so we wound up at McDonald's. And it wasn't that late this time. It was like three thirds. It wasn't five. Yeah, well, yeah, wasn't five. It was 3:30. It probably would have been five if the after. After party happened. But it was 3:30 and we were like, enjoying our nuggets at McDonald's. And then it just hit a point where I was like, I have to go to sleep. [00:47:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I got very tired. [00:47:51] Speaker A: And she was texting with Victor, like, oh, come to McDonald's. We're all getting nuggets. [00:47:55] Speaker B: And he did. [00:47:56] Speaker A: He did. There's legendary explorers just sitting next to us at McDonald's, eating nuggets at like [00:48:02] Speaker B: 3:30 in the morning out of nowhere, like, just. Just some random McDonald's down, you know, [00:48:10] Speaker A: in like, his beautiful naval suit. [00:48:12] Speaker B: Everyone's dressed up. Yeah. [00:48:13] Speaker A: Yeah. I was. It was lovely. And I was like, I am so sorry. I have to go to sleep right now. Nina's like, we can go. She was. She was a trooper. She was like, we can go. It's okay. I was like, I'm not gonna make it if we don't go. And poor Nina had to get up to go to the club the next morning because she was running for the board and they were doing the announcements. So she had to be there at 10. I didn't make it there. That for. That meeting lasted for three hours, by the way, because it was. It was ending when I got there at 12, like, 30. So it was almost a three hour meeting. And I. I like, woke up at 10, just like, I'm awake. And I'm like, why am I awake? And I laid in bed for a while before I was like, I could be a good morning friend and bring Nina coffee because she was the only person at the club from any of our people, because she, poor thing. I was like, all right, I'm gonna walk to the club and bring you coffee. And then we just hung out at the club all day. And it was nice. It was good. It was a nice, like, closure. And then there's like, a nice dinner Sunday. It was like a good closure to the chaos. But, oh, my God, I am. I have been a zombie for three days since we got back. Yet to recover. Yeah. [00:49:26] Speaker B: It does require. I'm glad I'm off this week because we got it wrong. [00:49:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Which actually kind of worked out. [00:49:31] Speaker B: Kind of worked out because it's a. It's a lot of fun, but, like, man, I would not be, like, ready to go back to do anything functional. [00:49:39] Speaker A: Well, if you had the week off, you would have done Thursday and Friday and Saturday, and you would have been like, I'm done. Like, it would have been terrible. [00:49:48] Speaker B: Monday. Yeah. [00:49:48] Speaker A: Not a good Monday. [00:49:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:51] Speaker A: So, like, it kind of worked. Like, either way, you get some kind of value out of it. Right. Because, like, the ability to crash was good, too. Yeah. I did not recover. I still have not recovered. Ecat is. It's the best weekend of the year. It's wonderful. It is. It is, like, I don't know, it's like, my favorite thing in the world because you just get to, like, talk to and network and connect with and, like, get inspired by and hear all these stories from the most interesting people in the world. I mean, and the people that have just broke boundaries and done incredible things, and, I mean, I just pinch myself sometimes. Like, this person does what? And they're my friend. How cool are they? I'm not that cool. [00:50:33] Speaker B: Oh, I know. [00:50:34] Speaker A: Wow. So it's always magical, but, yeah, it's. It's always exhausting. And this year was, like, even more exhausting than normal. So. Yeah. But it was wonderful. Thank you guys for listening into our lovely ECAD podcast. I know we talked forever about it, but it's such a magical event that happens once a year, so I feel like we have to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's great. [00:50:57] Speaker B: And you can see me eat a cockroach. [00:51:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Go to MallorySadventures on Instagram. M A L O R I E S Adventures on Instagram, where you can see Michael eat a cockroach in a blue tux. In a blue tux. [00:51:12] Speaker B: Cause water. [00:51:12] Speaker A: And eventually you'll be able to see our amazing portraits. [00:51:16] Speaker B: Yes. [00:51:17] Speaker A: Yes, yes. [00:51:19] Speaker B: And season two is out. [00:51:20] Speaker A: Yes. Be sure to go onto Amazon prime to see Weird world Adventure Season 2. Or if you have a Roku TV, you can stream it for free, so. [00:51:32] Speaker B: Or just a computer. I mean, it works. Yeah. [00:51:34] Speaker A: So type in on your device Weird World Adventures, and it'll come up with how you can watch it. And if you have Roku, it'll offer you the Fossum app and you can watch it for free. [00:51:45] Speaker B: And if you enjoy it for the [00:51:48] Speaker A: podcast, make sure you rate it. [00:51:50] Speaker B: Please leave us your positive reviews. And if you don't like it, please don't. [00:51:56] Speaker A: For if you love the show, leaving us a nice, like, review on Amazon would be fabulous. But also IMDb. If you have an Amazon account, which 90% of the world does, then you have an IMDb account because you can log in through Amazon. So Please go to IMDb.com search for weird world Adventures and rate each episode. You can rate the overall show, but then you can rate each episode. So please, please do that for us. It really helps us out. It's a free, easy thing you can do to help us out here. We'd really appreciate that. Rate the podcast and the show. Thank you. [00:52:35] Speaker B: My PSA and my cockroach eating video. [00:52:37] Speaker A: And my cockroach. Yeah, I like the cockroach video. Just like it. Yeah, it's easy. One, one, one. Boop. Done. All right, well, this has been fun. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. I will say please, please tune in next week because we have extra special announcement next week. [00:52:54] Speaker B: Extra special. [00:52:55] Speaker A: Extra special announcement. We're really excited about it, so tune in next week for extra special announcement. And until then, everybody stay weird.