August 11, 2026 • 30 mins
Are you a careful observer of seagulls? Do you have a passion for paddling in shallow, murky water? Could you spend an entire month circling the same city block? Do you like oatmeal? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, great news: there’s a world championship event for you. Grab your entry forms and be sure to let us know how it goes!
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what will?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What's that? Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Did you know that Tuna Rama is back and it
is better than ever? Isn't that fantastic?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's so fantastic, Mango. I just have one one question
for you. What is Tunorama?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Tunorama? It's right there in the name Tunorama.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I think you're just trying to say Tunorama as many
times as possible. I'm a little lost. We're like thirty
seconds in no idea what we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Well, for you and all those porcels who aren't in
the note. Tunorama is an annual festival in the coastal
Australian town of Port Lincoln aka the seafood Capital of Australia.
And this festival started in the nineteen sixties and ran
for decades before being canceled in twenty twenty three, and
this was due to a lack of funding. The good
(01:09):
news is it is back, baby, and organizers say the
next event, which is slated for January twenty twenty seven,
is going to be the biggest and best one yet. Now,
since you don't know what Tunarama is, you're probably wondering
what goes on at Tunarama. Well, it has all your
standard festival activities, parade, fireworks, live music. But the reason
(01:32):
we are talking about it today is the tuna toss competition,
which was introduced in nineteen eighty and at first this
involved hurling actual bluefin tuna, the frozen kind, as far
as possible. But at some point people realize this was
a waste of fish, so now competitors throw ken kilogram
(01:53):
rubber tunas.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Okay, so I have an obvious next question here is
how far can you throw a ten kilogram rubber tuna?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Me personally, not very far, but Olympic hammer thrower Sean
Carlin does a slightly better job of it. In nineteen
ninety eight, he set the current record for thirty seven
point two to three meters, which is just over about
one hundred and twenty two feet.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Oh that's impressive. I had no idea what that number
was going to be, but that does seem like a
long way. And ten kilograms is what that's more like,
like twenty pounds or something like that.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, it's about twenty two pounds. But you know, my
favorite thing about the tuna toss is that it is
not just a random goofy competition. It's actually this homage
to the local fishing industry. So back in the day,
dock workers would unload bluefin boats by tossing the fish. Sure,
and it said that young people looking for seasonal work
would be hired based on their throwing abilities. So if
(02:46):
you've got a strong arm and a passion for seafood history,
you can head down to Port Lincoln to take your
chances tossing the tuna. And if you thought that's the
weirdest competition you've ever heard of, well we have eight
more delightfully strange and hyper specific championships to tell you
about today.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
So let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to
(03:27):
Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and is always I'm
joined by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer and they're
in the booth wearing a shiny gold medal that says
world's number one Dylan Fagan. I think it says it's
our Palin producer, Dylan Fagan. I honestly, I think it's
a well deserved victory, don't you, Mango?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
He is so far ahead of the number two, Dylan
Fagan as far as I'm not concours. Yeah, so congrats Dylan.
Before we get into the rest of today's episode, I
actually want to propose a little idea. As we talked
through this list of bizarre championships, Let's think about which
one we would each like to enter, and that could
(04:07):
mean which one we think we'd be best at, or
which one we just enjoy the most. And at the
end we can just compare notes.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Sound good, That sounds like a plan, And if you
don't mind, I can kick us off with a classic.
It's the annual World bog Snorkeling Championship. It's held in
the Welsh town of leonerted Wells. I'm sure pronounce that
exactly right. It's this pretty spot in the Cambrian mountains
and the smallest town in Wales. But that's not its
only claim to fame. Local organizers run several festive competitions,
(04:36):
including a stone skipping event which sounds a lot of
fun to me, and this thing where they attach mountain
bikes to chariots and race them around a nearby lake.
That one maybe a little less interested in participating in
that one. But what put this town on the map
even if people reading the map can't pronounce the name
is Bog Snorkeling.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I know what a bog is, and I know what
snorkeling is, So is this what I think it is?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It's as simple as it sounds. It is exactly that
snorkeling in a bog, but not just any bog. It's
a peat bog. So these ancient wetlends are found throughout
the UK, and while they may look like damp grass
standing in muddy water, they're actually these very complex ecosystems
home to a wide variety of plants, different animals. And
that brings us back to our tiny town in Wales,
(05:20):
which you'll notice I'm not even trying to pronounce anymore.
But the Bog Snorkeling Championship supposedly began as a bet
in a local pub back in the nineteen seventies, like
many good competitions, but today it's a way to raise
awareness of peat bog conservation.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Is it working? I mean, I guess it is. We're
talking about peat bogs right now.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
We're saying peat bogs, yeah, repeatedly. And not only that,
but people travel from around the world to compete. Contestants
do two laps around a one hundred and eighty foot course,
and they're paddling through this shallow and apparently awful smelling
trench of water that just runs through a local bock there.
And to put that distance in perspective and go, they
(06:00):
did some math here. The length of the course is
three hundred and sixty feet, which is a little more
than twice the length of an Olympic swimming pool. Now
repeat champ. Neil Rutterers set the world record in twenty
twenty three with a time of one minute twelve seconds.
He won the event again last year, coming in at
one minute and eighteen seconds, and he told the BBC
that he attributes his success to having strong legs, making
(06:23):
sure his snorkel isn't leaking, and quote embracing the wacky
bonkersness of what he's doing.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
I feel like that's just like good advice for life
in generally, I agree, brace the wacky bonkersness. Okay, for
our next championship, I'm gonna start with a clip. Now,
take a listen and tell me if you know what
this is.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
I'm thinking that's a seagull, right, you.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Are very close. It is a person imitating a seagull
at the European Seagulls Screeching Japanese.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
That's well done.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
This is an annual contest held in Belgium. It is
the brainchild of comedian and educator Claude Willer. And you know,
many people think seagulls are a nuisance. They're noisy, they
swoop in and steal food out of your hand on
the beach or French fries, like they did to me
in Maine last week. But Willer it says they deserve
to be respected as an essential part of coastal environments. Now.
(07:31):
He started the Screech Fest in twenty twenty with the
goal of getting people to pay closer attention to seagulls
and as he writes on his website gullscreaching dot eu
for anyone who wants to go read more quotes about
gull screeching quote. Scientific observation is required if you want
to imicate the sound of seagulls properly. If you take
(07:52):
the time to observe them, well, you will start caring
for them, which I kind of love.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, yeah, this is this is interesting. In this Eurovision
of seagull sounds, who does the judging and like what
are the criteria here?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Yeah, I was curious about this as well. There's a
panel of five judges and according to the website, they
are quote true seagull lovers. But as for the scoring,
contestants are judged on their screeching ability, which is worth
seventy five percent, and overall performance, which is worth twenty
(08:28):
five percent. In other words, you can't just get up
there and screech perfectly. You have to embody a seagull
through movement, costumes and general gull vibes. You'll only get
one chance to impress the judges, so you've got to
make account. But if the idea of standing on stage
alone scares you, you don't have to worry. In addition
(08:48):
to the individual competition, there's a colony category where two
to five people can compete together to do their best
imitation of a group of goals.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
That is fantastic. Well, speaking of things that fly through
the air. For our next Weird Championship, we're heading to
Only Now. This is a town in the southeast of England.
It's the home an event called the Only Pancake Race.
And in order to explain what that is, I have
to explain what Shrove Tuesday is so. In Western Christianity,
Shrove Tuesday is the day before ash Wednesday, or the
(09:19):
start of Lent. It's this period of fasting and reflection,
of course, that leads up to Easter. And in New
Orleans they call Shrove Tuesday Mardi Gras. But in many
parts of Europe it's known as Pancake Tuesday, which sounds
pretty awesome to me because pancakes are an easy way
to use up the eggs and the butter and the
sugar and sort of all the rich ingredients that were
(09:40):
historically forbidden during Lent.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
It feels like pancake Tuesdays should just be every Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
I totally agree. I think I am on board. I'm converted. Mango,
here we are.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
So.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
According to legend on Shrove Tuesday and fourteen forty five,
an only woman was home cooking pancakes when she heard
the church bell ring for the start of services. She
was so anxious about being late that she ran out,
still clutching her pan, and sprinted through the town to
get to church on time. Now, obviously we have no
way of knowing if that's really true, but it kicked
off this tradition of running through the town with a
(10:13):
pancake pan, and so in nineteen forty eight, locals established
the only Pancake Race as a formal competition.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
It's funny because one it sounds true, so it must
be true, right, But usually when you hear pancake and
competition in the same sentence, you imagine eating pancakes, not running.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, no, totally. And this race is a faithful recreation
of what happened on that day back in fourteen forty five.
And only women compete, and they have to wear skirts
and bring their own pancakes, and race organizers provide the pans,
aprons and headscarves. I think it's hilarious that they provide
all those things. It seems like the pancakes would be
pretty easy to provide.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Now it's byop exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Well, once they're appropriately costume, the contestants run four hundred
and fifteen yards from the town market to the church door.
And this is the key. They have to flip the
pancake in the pan at the start and at the
end at the finish line, which is pretty hilarious to me.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
What a great race idea. Actually, I kind of love it.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
So the pancake race gave rise to a really sweet
international bond. In nineteen fifty, shortly after the modern incarnation
of the race began, a Kansas city called Liberal began
hosting its own version. Folks there saw a magazine article
about the only event and thought, you know what our
small city on the Kansas Oklahoma line needs. We need
more women running with pancakes. And so the Liberal competition
(11:39):
is essentially the same as it is in Olney, although
the Kansas have added a separate pancake free men's foot race.
And according to the legend, and by that I mean
the Liberal Pancake Day website, the men's race began as
a way of transporting women's coats to the finish line.
So over the years of friendly rivalry has been built
up between Liberal and Olney that began in the Winter's
(12:00):
Times for comparison, so the BBC reports that the score
is currently Liberal forty two, Only thirty one.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
That's so funny and crazy that the men have to
run with coats, I guess to the finish line. Well,
our next World Championship is a very different kind of race.
Instead of church and pancakes, it involves a level of
mind body exhaustion that is so intense that participants transcend
the earthly plane. We had to take a quick break,
but when we come back, I'm going to tell you
(12:28):
all about it.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius. We're counting down nine
of the world's strangest and most specific championship competitions. Now, Mago,
you left us with a wild cliffhanger. What is this
intense race and what makes it so exhausting?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
It is called the Tree chinmoy Self Transcendence Race, and
at thirty one hundred miles, it is the world's longest
certified foot race. It takes place right here in New
York City, specifically on a single block in Jamaica Queens.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
What in Jamaica Queens? Now, granted I'm not super familiar
with the layout of Jamaica Queens, but but you said
this race is thirty one hundred miles long, So how
exactly does that fit in a city block?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
So you have to run around the block five thousand,
six hundred and forty.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Nine deer God, And here is how.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Grueling the schedule is. The course is open from six
am to midnight. When it's closed, competitors have a few
precious hours to nap, eat and change clothes, and trailers
that are parked nearby. The race lasts a maximum of
fifty two days. I'm not sure why fifty two or
why you have to race around the block five, six
hundred and forty nine times, but the current world record
(13:56):
is held by a Finnish ultra marathoner named ashprihanal Alto.
I'm sorry if I pronounced that name, mister Alto, but
this ultra marathoner completed the course in forty days, nine hours,
and six minutes. In fact, the Self Transcendence race is
so intense that only experienced ultra marathon runners like Alto
(14:19):
can enter it.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I mean that does answer my question of who would
enter a race like that, But my other question is
who would invent a race like this?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
So that is Sri Chinmoy tre Chinmoy was born in
nineteen thirty one in what was then East Bengal today
it's Bangladesh. After being orphaned at a young age, he
grew up in an ashram in South India. In the
nineteen sixties, he moved to New York, where he opened
a meditation center and he was the self proclaimed guru.
Eventually he was invited to lead meditation sessions at the
(14:49):
un Chinmoy traveled the world giving lectures promoting peace enlightenment,
but he was also obsessed with feats of physical endurance,
and he encouraged those around him to push past their limits.
Like in nineteen eighty six, one of his followers decided
to honor him by setting a pogo stick world record
bouncing eleven point one miles along a road at the
(15:12):
base of Mount Fuji. If anyone wants to honor me
in that way, I'd totally be for it. But in
nineteen ninety seven, and Chinwai created the self Transcendence Race
in Queens with the belief that the relentless monotony of
running around the same block for eighteen hours every day
for over a month would help people gain spiritual insights
(15:33):
and quote transcend their own previous capacity.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I mean, I feel like there's got to be some
other way to transcend your own, you know, your previous capacity.
But this is willd I mean, you know, I liked
to iron and it's part of you know, what I
enjoy when I go to different cities, and it's as
much a mental health thing as a physical thing. But
it's a it's such a great way to see new
places and see different cities. I would think this would
(15:57):
just be so mind numbing to just keep going around
this one block over and over.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah. So, I mean, I guess the mind numbness is
the point, and I should add that. You know, although
Tin Moy is this fascinating character, there is controversy around him.
Critics have said that his followers were essentially a cult,
and after his death in two thousand and seven, there
was reports of inappropriate behavior and manipulation. One woman alleges
(16:23):
that her brother died of AIDS because Chinmoy discouraged his
followers from seeking medical help, which you know, it is
sad to hear. Still, it is pretty remarkable that hundreds
of people have completed this crazy race. I just don't
think I'd ever be one of them.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Let's not do it. Let's agree not to do the list. Yeah,
now you may find this next weird championship more appealing though.
So it's a physical activity, but instead of record breaking endurance,
it's all about precision and actually I'd say creativity and agility,
you know, arts and crafts, and this sounds really cool.
So I'm talking of course about the Finish Hobby Horse Championships,
(16:59):
the world's largest hobby horsing event. And yes, hobby horsing
is a verb.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah, I was gonna ask, you know, I never thought
about what it's called when you ride one of those
like giant toy sticks with the horses had on it.
But I guess hobby horsing is the verb for it.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Hobby horsing. That's exactly right. And the finished championships are
held in a giant arena in the city of Sanijoki. Now,
hundreds of riders from around the world compete in classes
modeled on horse riding events. So there's jumping, there's d
massage and pole bending where riders race around polls without
knocking them over all sorts of events. Where did the
(17:37):
arts and crafts come in? So it turns out that
a lot of hobby horse enthusiasts build their own hobby
horses and make DIY accessories like halters, rains, decorative tassels,
all sorts of stuff. And in addition to the competitive
action at the Finnish Championships, there's a marketplace where people
can show off their wares. And so here's the thing.
I go the championship level, hobby horsing takes a tremi
(18:00):
in this amount of skill. Perhaps the most impressive event
is the high jump, so competitors gallop toward an obstacle
and leap over it without knocking the top rail down,
which of course means neither your legs nor the hobby
horse can hit it. So this year's high jump winner
was a check rider named Ella, who cleared one hundred
and fifty one centimeters. That's almost sixty inches manga. So
(18:23):
to put that in perspective, Olympic track and field hurdles
are only one hundred and six centimeters or forty one
point seven inches high, so you're talking good almost nineteen
inches higher than you, you know, than a regular hurdle.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
I feel like you're pretty good at jumping, right, like,
maybe this is something you could as you could take on.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I love that My wife started a rumor many years
ago that I'm good at jumping, and it somehow stuck.
So no, this is this is super impressive. I don't
think I could get anywhere near that, but thanks for
thinking I might.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Fair enough. Well, if all that hobby horsing works up
anwe you can head over to Carbadge, which is a
scenic village in the Scottish Highlands that is home to
the World Porridge Making Championships. This event is also known
as the Golden Spurtle, which is actually the name of
the trophy that winners receive.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I think that sounds nice, but what's a spurtle.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
It is a long wooden rod with a tapered end,
and it's this traditional Scottish stirring utensil which is said
to make extra creamy porridge, or as we and the
States call it, oatmeal. But what fascinates me about the
Golden Spurtle Championships is that it really does come down
to technique because in the traditional porridge category, contestants use
(19:42):
the same plain ingredients, which is just oats, water and salt.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
None of that fancy brown sugar, cinnamon stuff, no bananas,
no blueberries. There's a specialty category where you can get
more creative and add some of that stuff, but the
core of the competition is an homage to the humble. Now,
this all began in nineteen ninety four when Roger Reid,
the owner of a nearby hotel, decided launching an event
that would boost tourism. He landed on porridge because he
(20:09):
believed it was an underappreciated dish and as he told
a local newspaper quote, it is a very healthy food
and we should make more people.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Aware of this. Over the years Reid got his wish.
Porridge makers have traveled from across the globe to participate
in the competition, and the event also spawned World Porridge Day.
It's held every year on October tenth, a day on
which people are encouraged to host their own porridge making
events in their communities to raise money for hunger relief.
(20:39):
Which is actually kind of sweet.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah, that's actually really nice. I almost hate to follow
it up with something kind of gross, but I do
have to tell you about my last one of the day.
It's the World Mosquito Catching Championship. This event comes to
us from Overturnio, which is a small town in northern Swite.
And we've had a lot of really hard town names
to pronounce today. But apparently mosquito's are a huge problem
(21:01):
in this part of the world. And I mean that
in both senses. So the mosquitos themselves are enormous and
it is a very serious issue. I found one study
where researchers put mosquito traps around the town to figure
out which species were present in the region, and they
reported catching over fifteen thousand mosquitoes in one night one,
which is just disgusting. Yeah, that sounds I don't know
(21:24):
what they did with them, but that sounds really nasty.
So in twenty fifteen, some locals took matters into their
own hands by launching the Mosquito Catching Championships, which I
think is actually pretty funny. Now, as the researchers demonstrated,
you can catch a lot of mosquitoes with a trap,
but you know, there's not a whole lot of fun
in that. So for the championships, participants had fifteen minutes
to catch and kill as many mosquitoes as they could
(21:47):
from this designated area at the edge of the forest,
but they could only use their hands or nets, and
so they had to collect the dead bugs and coffee
cups for judging. Now, speaking which, one of the organizers
told sw Yidish Public News that initially they'd plan to
determine winners by weight, but then they realized that mosquitos
really don't weigh that much, so it would take something
(22:08):
like five hundred of them to weigh less than a gram,
so they just had to go by pure numbers instead,
which seems like the right move.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
So how many mosquitoes can a Swedish person kill in
fifteen minutes and put in a coffee cup?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Definitely sounds like the start of a joke, but the
world record appears to have been set at the twenty
seventeen championships. One hundred and fifty mosquitoes. That's a lot
of mosquitoes now. Alice Obscura reports that people try to
improve their odds by wearing dark clothings skipping showers to
increase their bo both things that he'll supposedly attract mosquitoes,
but it could be worth it. So winners received a
(22:44):
cash prize and of course a mosquito trap.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Well. Our final Strange Championship is pretty much the opposite
of running around in the woods or running around anywhere.
It is the annual Lying Down competition held in Donya Brizna,
which is a village in Monte Negro. This started twelve
years ago because apparently in the Balkans there's a stereotype
that Monte Negrins are lazy. Now, I actually found some
(23:10):
discussion about this online. There was this ask Balkan subreddit
and what there is that the local climate created the stereotype, right,
summer gets really hot along the Mediterranean coast, workers would
rest when the midday sun was at its peak, So
somehow that turned into the sense of people just lazing around.
Obviously not true anyway. In twenty twenty three, a woman
(23:31):
named Lydia and a man named Philly tied for first
place in the Lying Down competition, jointly setting a world
record of fifty days. They outlasted dozens of competitors who
reclined under a tree, only getting up once every eight
hours to stretch their legs and use the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Do you know that weird feeling like when you've been
sitting down or lying down for a while, and like
it kind of takes your legs a minute to figure
Maybe it's because we're old now, Lengo, and it takes
a minute to figure figured out how to start. Can
you imagine fifty days and getting up and to start walking?
That's pretty wild and at the same time it sounds
really hard, Like don't they get bored?
Speaker 1 (24:09):
The competitors, I guess amused themselves by listening to music.
They danced while lying down which was kind of fun
to think about it. They also slept eight read books,
but organizers say that the internet availability has changed the
competition in setting this record right. In previous years, when
people couldn't go online, they gave up much faster and
sticking it out was worth it. Winning the twenty twenty
(24:31):
three competition actually came with a one thousand euro prize,
although Lydia, one of the joint winners, called the local
paper quote, it's not about the money. My parents come
every day and begged me to stand up. They offered
to give me the thousand euros, but I'm not here
for that. I'm here to win.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
That's dedication. She's like the Lebron James of this lying
down thing.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Well there's actually more. The twenty twenty four event wasn't held,
but it came back last fall, and this time, instead
of lying down under a maple tree, the twenty contestants
were given actual beds. Now. Lydia returned to defend her title,
and in a shocking twist, her rivals gave up after
just two days. Her winning resting time was a mere
(25:15):
fifty hours, and this time she walked away with two
thousand euros. When asked why everyone folded so fast, Lydia said, quote, honestly,
they were scared of me. It was really great. I
just love that confidence. I can really lie down and
believe it. Oh okay, Well, so of the nine we're
(25:37):
championship events, we've talked about, which one are you signing
up for?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Well, while I did say that I'm not actually as
good of a jumper as I might be rumored to be,
I don't know. I'm sort of intrigued by the hobby
horse thing and trying to jump with one just to
see how well I could do it. So either that
or begging the whole pancake race thing to allow men
to participate as well, because actually does sound kind of
fun and funny. How about you?
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yeah, and involves running, would you like? I mean, I
think the nice thing about the hobby Horse festival is
that you can do that in the off season and
then do quidditch in the regular season. Right, so you've
got totally sports with sticks running. I think that you
know how much I love napping, Even if I am
(26:22):
just there to say I competed against Lydia for a
short time, I think that's where my heart is and
I've never seen Montenegro, so I think that would be
fun too. Okay, well, since neither of us have done
any of these things, yet, it seems strange to give
ourselves a trophy today. So what do you think we
should do?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
You know, I feel like there's only one solution. I
feel like this episode's trophy has to go to Lydia,
like she just is so zeroed in on this despite
people trying to talk her out of participating in this
very important championship. She is a world champion of lying down,
so I think it should go to her.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Well, congratulations to Lydia and to everyone else who has
participated in these incredible events. No matter how you ranked,
you are all winners in our book. And speaking of
amazing people, I just want to share this message we
got from a listener named Elba in Rockland, Maine. She
recorded this in her car whilst she was driving home
from buying her very first boat, which is a big
(27:18):
deal in coastal Maine.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
You know, I'm going to be honest. You can't see it,
but I'm hauling my boat home from my boat mechanic
and this is the first season that I have ever
owned a boat. I've never driven a boat and I'm
by myself physically, but I turned on Part Time Genius
(27:42):
because Will and Mango have been with me many many times,
and I've been driving alone in distant countries or just
feeling lonely, and you guys have been my friends for
years since your first stint at Part Time Genius, and
I really wanted you to be with me for this
(28:04):
very very special moment in my life, which hopefully marks
the beginning of my Driftwood Hunter era. More on that later,
but thank you both for being my friends kind of
Golden Girls style, and thank you for being so fun
and awesome.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
You know that is so sweet. Mango and I think
that's why we do this at the end of the day.
Of course, we love learning fun things, but you know,
I think we also like to try to put smiles
on people's faces and learn really fun stuff from our listeners.
So oh, but that means a lot. Really love that.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, I love it too. Congrats on the boat, Alba.
We are thrilled for you. That does it for today's episode.
If anyone else out there wants to leave us a message,
give us a call at three oh two, four oh
five five nine two five. You could share a question
or idea for the show. Tell us about something you're
interested in doing, whether it's boat related or not. We
just love hearing your voices. You can also send us
(28:56):
an email at high Geniuses at gmail dot com and
follow up on Blue Sky and Instagram. We're part Time Genius.
We'll be back next week and in the meantime. From Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary,
and myself, thank you so much for listening. Part Time
(29:25):
Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. It is
hosted by my good pal Will Pearson, who I've known
for almost three decades now. That is insane to me.
I'm the Utaco host, Mangeshatikular aka Mango. Our producer is
Mary Phillips Sandy. She's actually a super producer. I'm going
to fix that in post. Our writer is Gabe Lucier,
(29:47):
who I've also known for like a decade at this point,
maybe more. Dylan Fagan is in the booth. He is
always dressed up, always cheering us on, and always ready
to hit record and then mix the show after. That's
a great job. I also want to shout out the
executive producers from iHeart my good pals Katrina and Norvel
and Ali Perry. We have social media support from Calypso
(30:10):
Rallis if you like our videos, that is all Calypso's handiwork.
For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
App, Apple Podcasts, or.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Tune in wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That's
it from us here at Part Time Genius. Thank you
so much for listening
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what will?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What's that? Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Did you know that Tuna Rama is back and it
is better than ever? Isn't that fantastic?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's so fantastic, Mango. I just have one one question
for you. What is Tunorama?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Tunorama? It's right there in the name Tunorama.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I think you're just trying to say Tunorama as many
times as possible. I'm a little lost. We're like thirty
seconds in no idea what we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Well, for you and all those porcels who aren't in
the note. Tunorama is an annual festival in the coastal
Australian town of Port Lincoln aka the seafood Capital of Australia.
And this festival started in the nineteen sixties and ran
for decades before being canceled in twenty twenty three, and
this was due to a lack of funding. The good
(01:09):
news is it is back, baby, and organizers say the
next event, which is slated for January twenty twenty seven,
is going to be the biggest and best one yet. Now,
since you don't know what Tunarama is, you're probably wondering
what goes on at Tunarama. Well, it has all your
standard festival activities, parade, fireworks, live music. But the reason
(01:32):
we are talking about it today is the tuna toss competition,
which was introduced in nineteen eighty and at first this
involved hurling actual bluefin tuna, the frozen kind, as far
as possible. But at some point people realize this was
a waste of fish, so now competitors throw ken kilogram
(01:53):
rubber tunas.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Okay, so I have an obvious next question here is
how far can you throw a ten kilogram rubber tuna?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Me personally, not very far, but Olympic hammer thrower Sean
Carlin does a slightly better job of it. In nineteen
ninety eight, he set the current record for thirty seven
point two to three meters, which is just over about
one hundred and twenty two feet.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Oh that's impressive. I had no idea what that number
was going to be, but that does seem like a
long way. And ten kilograms is what that's more like,
like twenty pounds or something like that.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, it's about twenty two pounds. But you know, my
favorite thing about the tuna toss is that it is
not just a random goofy competition. It's actually this homage
to the local fishing industry. So back in the day,
dock workers would unload bluefin boats by tossing the fish. Sure,
and it said that young people looking for seasonal work
would be hired based on their throwing abilities. So if
(02:46):
you've got a strong arm and a passion for seafood history,
you can head down to Port Lincoln to take your
chances tossing the tuna. And if you thought that's the
weirdest competition you've ever heard of, well we have eight
more delightfully strange and hyper specific championships to tell you
about today.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
So let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to
(03:27):
Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and is always I'm
joined by my good friend mangesh Hot Ticketer and they're
in the booth wearing a shiny gold medal that says
world's number one Dylan Fagan. I think it says it's
our Palin producer, Dylan Fagan. I honestly, I think it's
a well deserved victory, don't you, Mango?
Speaker 1 (03:46):
He is so far ahead of the number two, Dylan
Fagan as far as I'm not concours. Yeah, so congrats Dylan.
Before we get into the rest of today's episode, I
actually want to propose a little idea. As we talked
through this list of bizarre championships, Let's think about which
one we would each like to enter, and that could
(04:07):
mean which one we think we'd be best at, or
which one we just enjoy the most. And at the
end we can just compare notes.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Sound good, That sounds like a plan, And if you
don't mind, I can kick us off with a classic.
It's the annual World bog Snorkeling Championship. It's held in
the Welsh town of leonerted Wells. I'm sure pronounce that
exactly right. It's this pretty spot in the Cambrian mountains
and the smallest town in Wales. But that's not its
only claim to fame. Local organizers run several festive competitions,
(04:36):
including a stone skipping event which sounds a lot of
fun to me, and this thing where they attach mountain
bikes to chariots and race them around a nearby lake.
That one maybe a little less interested in participating in
that one. But what put this town on the map
even if people reading the map can't pronounce the name
is Bog Snorkeling.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
I know what a bog is, and I know what
snorkeling is, So is this what I think it is?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It's as simple as it sounds. It is exactly that
snorkeling in a bog, but not just any bog. It's
a peat bog. So these ancient wetlends are found throughout
the UK, and while they may look like damp grass
standing in muddy water, they're actually these very complex ecosystems
home to a wide variety of plants, different animals. And
that brings us back to our tiny town in Wales,
(05:20):
which you'll notice I'm not even trying to pronounce anymore.
But the Bog Snorkeling Championship supposedly began as a bet
in a local pub back in the nineteen seventies, like
many good competitions, but today it's a way to raise
awareness of peat bog conservation.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Is it working? I mean, I guess it is. We're
talking about peat bogs right now.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
We're saying peat bogs, yeah, repeatedly. And not only that,
but people travel from around the world to compete. Contestants
do two laps around a one hundred and eighty foot course,
and they're paddling through this shallow and apparently awful smelling
trench of water that just runs through a local bock there.
And to put that distance in perspective and go, they
(06:00):
did some math here. The length of the course is
three hundred and sixty feet, which is a little more
than twice the length of an Olympic swimming pool. Now
repeat champ. Neil Rutterers set the world record in twenty
twenty three with a time of one minute twelve seconds.
He won the event again last year, coming in at
one minute and eighteen seconds, and he told the BBC
that he attributes his success to having strong legs, making
(06:23):
sure his snorkel isn't leaking, and quote embracing the wacky
bonkersness of what he's doing.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
I feel like that's just like good advice for life
in generally, I agree, brace the wacky bonkersness. Okay, for
our next championship, I'm gonna start with a clip. Now,
take a listen and tell me if you know what
this is.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
I'm thinking that's a seagull, right, you.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Are very close. It is a person imitating a seagull
at the European Seagulls Screeching Japanese.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
That's well done.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
This is an annual contest held in Belgium. It is
the brainchild of comedian and educator Claude Willer. And you know,
many people think seagulls are a nuisance. They're noisy, they
swoop in and steal food out of your hand on
the beach or French fries, like they did to me
in Maine last week. But Willer it says they deserve
to be respected as an essential part of coastal environments. Now.
(07:31):
He started the Screech Fest in twenty twenty with the
goal of getting people to pay closer attention to seagulls
and as he writes on his website gullscreaching dot eu
for anyone who wants to go read more quotes about
gull screeching quote. Scientific observation is required if you want
to imicate the sound of seagulls properly. If you take
(07:52):
the time to observe them, well, you will start caring
for them, which I kind of love.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, yeah, this is this is interesting. In this Eurovision
of seagull sounds, who does the judging and like what
are the criteria here?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Yeah, I was curious about this as well. There's a
panel of five judges and according to the website, they
are quote true seagull lovers. But as for the scoring,
contestants are judged on their screeching ability, which is worth
seventy five percent, and overall performance, which is worth twenty
(08:28):
five percent. In other words, you can't just get up
there and screech perfectly. You have to embody a seagull
through movement, costumes and general gull vibes. You'll only get
one chance to impress the judges, so you've got to
make account. But if the idea of standing on stage
alone scares you, you don't have to worry. In addition
(08:48):
to the individual competition, there's a colony category where two
to five people can compete together to do their best
imitation of a group of goals.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
That is fantastic. Well, speaking of things that fly through
the air. For our next Weird Championship, we're heading to
Only Now. This is a town in the southeast of England.
It's the home an event called the Only Pancake Race.
And in order to explain what that is, I have
to explain what Shrove Tuesday is so. In Western Christianity,
Shrove Tuesday is the day before ash Wednesday, or the
(09:19):
start of Lent. It's this period of fasting and reflection,
of course, that leads up to Easter. And in New
Orleans they call Shrove Tuesday Mardi Gras. But in many
parts of Europe it's known as Pancake Tuesday, which sounds
pretty awesome to me because pancakes are an easy way
to use up the eggs and the butter and the
sugar and sort of all the rich ingredients that were
(09:40):
historically forbidden during Lent.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
It feels like pancake Tuesdays should just be every Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
I totally agree. I think I am on board. I'm converted. Mango,
here we are.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
So.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
According to legend on Shrove Tuesday and fourteen forty five,
an only woman was home cooking pancakes when she heard
the church bell ring for the start of services. She
was so anxious about being late that she ran out,
still clutching her pan, and sprinted through the town to
get to church on time. Now, obviously we have no
way of knowing if that's really true, but it kicked
off this tradition of running through the town with a
(10:13):
pancake pan, and so in nineteen forty eight, locals established
the only Pancake Race as a formal competition.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
It's funny because one it sounds true, so it must
be true, right, But usually when you hear pancake and
competition in the same sentence, you imagine eating pancakes, not running.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah, no, totally. And this race is a faithful recreation
of what happened on that day back in fourteen forty five.
And only women compete, and they have to wear skirts
and bring their own pancakes, and race organizers provide the pans,
aprons and headscarves. I think it's hilarious that they provide
all those things. It seems like the pancakes would be
pretty easy to provide.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Now it's byop exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Well, once they're appropriately costume, the contestants run four hundred
and fifteen yards from the town market to the church door.
And this is the key. They have to flip the
pancake in the pan at the start and at the
end at the finish line, which is pretty hilarious to me.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
What a great race idea. Actually, I kind of love it.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
So the pancake race gave rise to a really sweet
international bond. In nineteen fifty, shortly after the modern incarnation
of the race began, a Kansas city called Liberal began
hosting its own version. Folks there saw a magazine article
about the only event and thought, you know what our
small city on the Kansas Oklahoma line needs. We need
more women running with pancakes. And so the Liberal competition
(11:39):
is essentially the same as it is in Olney, although
the Kansas have added a separate pancake free men's foot race.
And according to the legend, and by that I mean
the Liberal Pancake Day website, the men's race began as
a way of transporting women's coats to the finish line.
So over the years of friendly rivalry has been built
up between Liberal and Olney that began in the Winter's
(12:00):
Times for comparison, so the BBC reports that the score
is currently Liberal forty two, Only thirty one.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
That's so funny and crazy that the men have to
run with coats, I guess to the finish line. Well,
our next World Championship is a very different kind of race.
Instead of church and pancakes, it involves a level of
mind body exhaustion that is so intense that participants transcend
the earthly plane. We had to take a quick break,
but when we come back, I'm going to tell you
(12:28):
all about it.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius. We're counting down nine
of the world's strangest and most specific championship competitions. Now, Mago,
you left us with a wild cliffhanger. What is this
intense race and what makes it so exhausting?
Speaker 1 (12:59):
It is called the Tree chinmoy Self Transcendence Race, and
at thirty one hundred miles, it is the world's longest
certified foot race. It takes place right here in New
York City, specifically on a single block in Jamaica Queens.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
What in Jamaica Queens? Now, granted I'm not super familiar
with the layout of Jamaica Queens, but but you said
this race is thirty one hundred miles long, So how
exactly does that fit in a city block?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
So you have to run around the block five thousand,
six hundred and forty.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Nine deer God, And here is how.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Grueling the schedule is. The course is open from six
am to midnight. When it's closed, competitors have a few
precious hours to nap, eat and change clothes, and trailers
that are parked nearby. The race lasts a maximum of
fifty two days. I'm not sure why fifty two or
why you have to race around the block five, six
hundred and forty nine times, but the current world record
(13:56):
is held by a Finnish ultra marathoner named ashprihanal Alto.
I'm sorry if I pronounced that name, mister Alto, but
this ultra marathoner completed the course in forty days, nine hours,
and six minutes. In fact, the Self Transcendence race is
so intense that only experienced ultra marathon runners like Alto
(14:19):
can enter it.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I mean that does answer my question of who would
enter a race like that, But my other question is
who would invent a race like this?
Speaker 1 (14:28):
So that is Sri Chinmoy tre Chinmoy was born in
nineteen thirty one in what was then East Bengal today
it's Bangladesh. After being orphaned at a young age, he
grew up in an ashram in South India. In the
nineteen sixties, he moved to New York, where he opened
a meditation center and he was the self proclaimed guru.
Eventually he was invited to lead meditation sessions at the
(14:49):
un Chinmoy traveled the world giving lectures promoting peace enlightenment,
but he was also obsessed with feats of physical endurance,
and he encouraged those around him to push past their limits.
Like in nineteen eighty six, one of his followers decided
to honor him by setting a pogo stick world record
bouncing eleven point one miles along a road at the
(15:12):
base of Mount Fuji. If anyone wants to honor me
in that way, I'd totally be for it. But in
nineteen ninety seven, and Chinwai created the self Transcendence Race
in Queens with the belief that the relentless monotony of
running around the same block for eighteen hours every day
for over a month would help people gain spiritual insights
(15:33):
and quote transcend their own previous capacity.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I mean, I feel like there's got to be some
other way to transcend your own, you know, your previous capacity.
But this is willd I mean, you know, I liked
to iron and it's part of you know, what I
enjoy when I go to different cities, and it's as
much a mental health thing as a physical thing. But
it's a it's such a great way to see new
places and see different cities. I would think this would
(15:57):
just be so mind numbing to just keep going around
this one block over and over.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Yeah. So, I mean, I guess the mind numbness is
the point, and I should add that. You know, although
Tin Moy is this fascinating character, there is controversy around him.
Critics have said that his followers were essentially a cult,
and after his death in two thousand and seven, there
was reports of inappropriate behavior and manipulation. One woman alleges
(16:23):
that her brother died of AIDS because Chinmoy discouraged his
followers from seeking medical help, which you know, it is
sad to hear. Still, it is pretty remarkable that hundreds
of people have completed this crazy race. I just don't
think I'd ever be one of them.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Let's not do it. Let's agree not to do the list. Yeah,
now you may find this next weird championship more appealing though.
So it's a physical activity, but instead of record breaking endurance,
it's all about precision and actually I'd say creativity and agility,
you know, arts and crafts, and this sounds really cool.
So I'm talking of course about the Finish Hobby Horse Championships,
(16:59):
the world's largest hobby horsing event. And yes, hobby horsing
is a verb.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah, I was gonna ask, you know, I never thought
about what it's called when you ride one of those
like giant toy sticks with the horses had on it.
But I guess hobby horsing is the verb for it.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Hobby horsing. That's exactly right. And the finished championships are
held in a giant arena in the city of Sanijoki. Now,
hundreds of riders from around the world compete in classes
modeled on horse riding events. So there's jumping, there's d
massage and pole bending where riders race around polls without
knocking them over all sorts of events. Where did the
(17:37):
arts and crafts come in? So it turns out that
a lot of hobby horse enthusiasts build their own hobby
horses and make DIY accessories like halters, rains, decorative tassels,
all sorts of stuff. And in addition to the competitive
action at the Finnish Championships, there's a marketplace where people
can show off their wares. And so here's the thing.
I go the championship level, hobby horsing takes a tremi
(18:00):
in this amount of skill. Perhaps the most impressive event
is the high jump, so competitors gallop toward an obstacle
and leap over it without knocking the top rail down,
which of course means neither your legs nor the hobby
horse can hit it. So this year's high jump winner
was a check rider named Ella, who cleared one hundred
and fifty one centimeters. That's almost sixty inches manga. So
(18:23):
to put that in perspective, Olympic track and field hurdles
are only one hundred and six centimeters or forty one
point seven inches high, so you're talking good almost nineteen
inches higher than you, you know, than a regular hurdle.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
I feel like you're pretty good at jumping, right, like,
maybe this is something you could as you could take on.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
I love that My wife started a rumor many years
ago that I'm good at jumping, and it somehow stuck.
So no, this is this is super impressive. I don't
think I could get anywhere near that, but thanks for
thinking I might.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Fair enough. Well, if all that hobby horsing works up
anwe you can head over to Carbadge, which is a
scenic village in the Scottish Highlands that is home to
the World Porridge Making Championships. This event is also known
as the Golden Spurtle, which is actually the name of
the trophy that winners receive.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I think that sounds nice, but what's a spurtle.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
It is a long wooden rod with a tapered end,
and it's this traditional Scottish stirring utensil which is said
to make extra creamy porridge, or as we and the
States call it, oatmeal. But what fascinates me about the
Golden Spurtle Championships is that it really does come down
to technique because in the traditional porridge category, contestants use
(19:42):
the same plain ingredients, which is just oats, water and salt.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
None of that fancy brown sugar, cinnamon stuff, no bananas,
no blueberries. There's a specialty category where you can get
more creative and add some of that stuff, but the
core of the competition is an homage to the humble. Now,
this all began in nineteen ninety four when Roger Reid,
the owner of a nearby hotel, decided launching an event
that would boost tourism. He landed on porridge because he
(20:09):
believed it was an underappreciated dish and as he told
a local newspaper quote, it is a very healthy food
and we should make more people.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Aware of this. Over the years Reid got his wish.
Porridge makers have traveled from across the globe to participate
in the competition, and the event also spawned World Porridge Day.
It's held every year on October tenth, a day on
which people are encouraged to host their own porridge making
events in their communities to raise money for hunger relief.
(20:39):
Which is actually kind of sweet.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah, that's actually really nice. I almost hate to follow
it up with something kind of gross, but I do
have to tell you about my last one of the day.
It's the World Mosquito Catching Championship. This event comes to
us from Overturnio, which is a small town in northern Swite.
And we've had a lot of really hard town names
to pronounce today. But apparently mosquito's are a huge problem
(21:01):
in this part of the world. And I mean that
in both senses. So the mosquitos themselves are enormous and
it is a very serious issue. I found one study
where researchers put mosquito traps around the town to figure
out which species were present in the region, and they
reported catching over fifteen thousand mosquitoes in one night one,
which is just disgusting. Yeah, that sounds I don't know
(21:24):
what they did with them, but that sounds really nasty.
So in twenty fifteen, some locals took matters into their
own hands by launching the Mosquito Catching Championships, which I
think is actually pretty funny. Now, as the researchers demonstrated,
you can catch a lot of mosquitoes with a trap,
but you know, there's not a whole lot of fun
in that. So for the championships, participants had fifteen minutes
to catch and kill as many mosquitoes as they could
(21:47):
from this designated area at the edge of the forest,
but they could only use their hands or nets, and
so they had to collect the dead bugs and coffee
cups for judging. Now, speaking which, one of the organizers
told sw Yidish Public News that initially they'd plan to
determine winners by weight, but then they realized that mosquitos
really don't weigh that much, so it would take something
(22:08):
like five hundred of them to weigh less than a gram,
so they just had to go by pure numbers instead,
which seems like the right move.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
So how many mosquitoes can a Swedish person kill in
fifteen minutes and put in a coffee cup?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Definitely sounds like the start of a joke, but the
world record appears to have been set at the twenty
seventeen championships. One hundred and fifty mosquitoes. That's a lot
of mosquitoes now. Alice Obscura reports that people try to
improve their odds by wearing dark clothings skipping showers to
increase their bo both things that he'll supposedly attract mosquitoes,
but it could be worth it. So winners received a
(22:44):
cash prize and of course a mosquito trap.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Well. Our final Strange Championship is pretty much the opposite
of running around in the woods or running around anywhere.
It is the annual Lying Down competition held in Donya Brizna,
which is a village in Monte Negro. This started twelve
years ago because apparently in the Balkans there's a stereotype
that Monte Negrins are lazy. Now, I actually found some
(23:10):
discussion about this online. There was this ask Balkan subreddit
and what there is that the local climate created the stereotype, right,
summer gets really hot along the Mediterranean coast, workers would
rest when the midday sun was at its peak, So
somehow that turned into the sense of people just lazing around.
Obviously not true anyway. In twenty twenty three, a woman
(23:31):
named Lydia and a man named Philly tied for first
place in the Lying Down competition, jointly setting a world
record of fifty days. They outlasted dozens of competitors who
reclined under a tree, only getting up once every eight
hours to stretch their legs and use the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Do you know that weird feeling like when you've been
sitting down or lying down for a while, and like
it kind of takes your legs a minute to figure
Maybe it's because we're old now, Lengo, and it takes
a minute to figure figured out how to start. Can
you imagine fifty days and getting up and to start walking?
That's pretty wild and at the same time it sounds
really hard, Like don't they get bored?
Speaker 1 (24:09):
The competitors, I guess amused themselves by listening to music.
They danced while lying down which was kind of fun
to think about it. They also slept eight read books,
but organizers say that the internet availability has changed the
competition in setting this record right. In previous years, when
people couldn't go online, they gave up much faster and
sticking it out was worth it. Winning the twenty twenty
(24:31):
three competition actually came with a one thousand euro prize,
although Lydia, one of the joint winners, called the local
paper quote, it's not about the money. My parents come
every day and begged me to stand up. They offered
to give me the thousand euros, but I'm not here
for that. I'm here to win.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
That's dedication. She's like the Lebron James of this lying
down thing.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Well there's actually more. The twenty twenty four event wasn't held,
but it came back last fall, and this time, instead
of lying down under a maple tree, the twenty contestants
were given actual beds. Now. Lydia returned to defend her title,
and in a shocking twist, her rivals gave up after
just two days. Her winning resting time was a mere
(25:15):
fifty hours, and this time she walked away with two
thousand euros. When asked why everyone folded so fast, Lydia said, quote, honestly,
they were scared of me. It was really great. I
just love that confidence. I can really lie down and
believe it. Oh okay, Well, so of the nine we're
(25:37):
championship events, we've talked about, which one are you signing
up for?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Well, while I did say that I'm not actually as
good of a jumper as I might be rumored to be,
I don't know. I'm sort of intrigued by the hobby
horse thing and trying to jump with one just to
see how well I could do it. So either that
or begging the whole pancake race thing to allow men
to participate as well, because actually does sound kind of
fun and funny. How about you?
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yeah, and involves running, would you like? I mean, I
think the nice thing about the hobby Horse festival is
that you can do that in the off season and
then do quidditch in the regular season. Right, so you've
got totally sports with sticks running. I think that you
know how much I love napping, Even if I am
(26:22):
just there to say I competed against Lydia for a
short time, I think that's where my heart is and
I've never seen Montenegro, so I think that would be
fun too. Okay, well, since neither of us have done
any of these things, yet, it seems strange to give
ourselves a trophy today. So what do you think we
should do?
Speaker 2 (26:39):
You know, I feel like there's only one solution. I
feel like this episode's trophy has to go to Lydia,
like she just is so zeroed in on this despite
people trying to talk her out of participating in this
very important championship. She is a world champion of lying down,
so I think it should go to her.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Well, congratulations to Lydia and to everyone else who has
participated in these incredible events. No matter how you ranked,
you are all winners in our book. And speaking of
amazing people, I just want to share this message we
got from a listener named Elba in Rockland, Maine. She
recorded this in her car whilst she was driving home
from buying her very first boat, which is a big
(27:18):
deal in coastal Maine.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
You know, I'm going to be honest. You can't see it,
but I'm hauling my boat home from my boat mechanic
and this is the first season that I have ever
owned a boat. I've never driven a boat and I'm
by myself physically, but I turned on Part Time Genius
(27:42):
because Will and Mango have been with me many many times,
and I've been driving alone in distant countries or just
feeling lonely, and you guys have been my friends for
years since your first stint at Part Time Genius, and
I really wanted you to be with me for this
(28:04):
very very special moment in my life, which hopefully marks
the beginning of my Driftwood Hunter era. More on that later,
but thank you both for being my friends kind of
Golden Girls style, and thank you for being so fun
and awesome.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
You know that is so sweet. Mango and I think
that's why we do this at the end of the day.
Of course, we love learning fun things, but you know,
I think we also like to try to put smiles
on people's faces and learn really fun stuff from our listeners.
So oh, but that means a lot. Really love that.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, I love it too. Congrats on the boat, Alba.
We are thrilled for you. That does it for today's episode.
If anyone else out there wants to leave us a message,
give us a call at three oh two, four oh
five five nine two five. You could share a question
or idea for the show. Tell us about something you're
interested in doing, whether it's boat related or not. We
just love hearing your voices. You can also send us
(28:56):
an email at high Geniuses at gmail dot com and
follow up on Blue Sky and Instagram. We're part Time Genius.
We'll be back next week and in the meantime. From Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary,
and myself, thank you so much for listening. Part Time
(29:25):
Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. It is
hosted by my good pal Will Pearson, who I've known
for almost three decades now. That is insane to me.
I'm the Utaco host, Mangeshatikular aka Mango. Our producer is
Mary Phillips Sandy. She's actually a super producer. I'm going
to fix that in post. Our writer is Gabe Lucier,
(29:47):
who I've also known for like a decade at this point,
maybe more. Dylan Fagan is in the booth. He is
always dressed up, always cheering us on, and always ready
to hit record and then mix the show after. That's
a great job. I also want to shout out the
executive producers from iHeart my good pals Katrina and Norvel
and Ali Perry. We have social media support from Calypso
(30:10):
Rallis if you like our videos, that is all Calypso's handiwork.
For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
App, Apple Podcasts, or.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Tune in wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That's
it from us here at Part Time Genius. Thank you
so much for listening
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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