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June 23, 2026 28 mins

Music festivals? Ho hum. This summer, treat yourself to a real adventure—like a super-gloopy mud festival, or the world’s greatest (and only, as far as we can tell) belly button festival.

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This episode originally aired on June 13, 2024.

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Photo of the Boryeong Mud Festival by Hypnotica Studios Infinite via Wikimedia Commons. Thanks, HSI!

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Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Guess what Will?

Speaker 3 (00:13):
What's that Mango?

Speaker 1 (00:14):
So I am so angry because we missed Stuart Pennington's
World Championship Running of the Tubs again this year.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
Okay, so here's the thing I've always wondered about Stuart Pennington.
Who is Stuart Pennington?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
You don't remember Stuart from college?

Speaker 3 (00:30):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Stuart Pennington was this booster and this businessman from Hot Springs, Arkansas,
and he was trying to figure out a fun way
to bring more tourists to town. So I didn't realize this,
but Hot Springs actually has some fun novelty events already.
The shortest, Saint Patrick's Day Parade is I think their
most popular. It's a ninety eight feet long. But anyway,

(00:54):
building off that idea, he came up with the idea
of this world Championship baptub race, and now it's named
in his honor.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
You know, I actually vaguely remember this one from back
in our Mental Flaws days, but I did always wonder, like,
why race bathtubs?

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Yeah, it's a good question. Apparently Hot Springs has this
beautiful section called Bathhouse Row, and it's full of spas,
these like architectural gems that are built over the town's
natural hot springs. They were built there in the eighteen
nineties to nineteen twenties, and that's about the period where
people are really getting into sanitariums. Anyway, the tubs are
kind of an homage or almost a nod to the bathhouses,

(01:29):
and the races sound really fun.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Apparently, each team.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Has to have five members, a captain, a bathtowel attendant,
a b attendant, a soap attendant, and alofa attendant in size.
They're the ones doing the pushing. Meanwhile, the captain steers
the tub from inside, and all the attendants can only
push with one hand because they have to hold on
to their other item the whole race, whether that's the
soap or the bath matter or whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
I like all the specifics of this. This actually sounds
pretty great.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, it's a hood, but there are also obstacles along
the course, and the judges can make up rules on
the fly. Also, you are free to bribe judges, and
if you bribe the right ones, they'll let you pass,
and if you bribe the wrong ones, they'll actually hold
you up at various detours. The crowd really gets into
the whole thing. You're encouraged to pelt teams with water

(02:18):
balloons and water guns along the way.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
And there's one last rule.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
You can decorate the tub and dress up in any
theme you want, but everyone has to wear suspenders.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
Right, of course, that's the only logical.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Anyway, Maybe next year we should get a team together,
but apparently the town makes it really easy. They even
provide stock bathtubs on wheels for you to decorate if
you're inclined. But the fact that we missed Stuart Pennington's
world championship running the tubs this year gave me major fomo,
and I wanted to make sure we didn't miss any
other strange and important summer festivals.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
So why don't we dig in?

Speaker 4 (03:14):
Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm here with my good
pal Mangash hot ticket here and sitting behind that big
booth carving a giant slab. I think that is spam
into a beautiful sculpture just in time for Spamfest.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Mango. That's our pal Dylan. Can you see what he's
carving over there.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
I think it's is it it like spam b.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
Arthur or it looks a little b arthurish Margaret Thatcher,
I can't. I'm pretty sure he's a big Golden Girls fan,
so I'm gonna go with b Arthur. But You're right,
it's it's either way. It is very, very impressive, all right.
So the weather is changing in New York.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Mango now.

Speaker 4 (03:52):
I know that it is, was just there last week
and it's finally getting to be summer. But here in Alabama,
my kids have been off from school for a while now,
so I'm curious when does summer vacation start for you guys.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, it's still a couple of weeks away. Kids in
New York are basically in class until July, which is
so hard when the weather is nice. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Actually you know this, But that year where.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
We moved from New York to Atlanta, Henry, who was
like seven at the time, was so excited for summer.
He's really one of those kids who's built for camp
and built for summer, and so he gets off school
in July and then we got to Atlanta and he
had to be in school on August first, and I
don't know when it dawned on him that he only
had like a month of summer vacation.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
But he was so angry.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
I get it, he should have been. That's rough.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
But you know, since I have a few more weeks
before our summer vacation really begins, this is kind of selfish,
but I want to hear more about some of the
weirdest summer festivals just in case we can sneak one
in on the calendar.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
I like that. That's a good idea.

Speaker 4 (04:51):
All right, Well, I will jump in here, and I
think I will start with the messiest festival that I
can find. Now, some people might want to talk about
Great Throwing Festival or that tomato tossing festival in Spain.
But if you want real, real messiness, you're looking to
do some international travel as well. You've got ahead to
Boryong in South Korea.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Well, I don't know about getting dirty, but the international
travel part of it sounds appealing, So why don't you
tell me a little more?

Speaker 3 (05:18):
All right?

Speaker 4 (05:18):
So, Borjong is this town in the western coast of
South Korea. But every July for two weeks, there's this
giant mud festival there. Now, I know what you're thinking,
this probably reminds you of the giant mud party that
happened on the quad in college, which was a total disaster,
although funny to watch, but it is nothing like that.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Oh my god, that mud party was the worst. It
was supposed to be. It was supposed to be.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
A bubble party, a bubble party, and all college kids
love a good bubble party, I think, yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
But then that machine malfunctioned and just sit out like
tiny bits of soap, and it was raining, and it
just turned into like a ridiculous mud wrestling pit. It
was so gross. Yes it was, But I mean I
assume at this mud festival people just get muddy, right, well.

Speaker 4 (06:04):
I mean that is part of the name. But you've
got to remember this is no ordinary mud mango. We
are talking premium South Korean mud here. Keep that in mind.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
I like that, so, so tell me a little more.

Speaker 4 (06:14):
Well, in the nineteen nineties, Borjong had fallen on hard
times and the beaches were kind of laughed at because
the water was dirty with mud and it wasn't the
sort of pristine thing you would travel for. Also, local
manufacturing had shut down, and things for various reasons were pricey.
But when the towns mayor read this report that Boryong
mud was superior to other MUDs for skin care, he

(06:38):
helped bootstrap this industry around it. Apparently the mud has
these various nutrients and qualities that are beneficial for cosmetic care.
And because Boryong mud Flats had mud all over the place,
it turned into a real driver of business. And then
slowly as the town wanted to glamorize this mud and
the pr around it sort of just kept growing. It's

(07:00):
art of this giant mud festival.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
What happens at the mud Festival.

Speaker 4 (07:03):
Well, it's for two weeks every July. Millions of people
flock to the town. Seriously, millions of people flocked to
the town for all sorts of muddy events. Now this
is according to the official site. There's mud wrestling, mud sliding,
mud swimming, and a muddy marathon which just sounds like torture.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
I don't know if it's a full marathon.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
There's also something called a mud prison, which I'm not
sure what that is. But best of all, if you
show up, you can get free mud like they'll dollop
it into your hands and it's yours. Mango like, you
can fly home with it. You can go home with it. Yeah,
you get to keep the mud. It's pretty amazing. Plus
there's food, there's fireworks. I don't think either of those
are made of mud, hopefully not. And most importantly it

(07:45):
ends in a big K pop concert, which is just
a blast. And because I know how finicky you are,
there are also lots and lots of places to wash off,
from jumping in the sea to water spouts everywhere. It's
really this joyous of then, And the real promise is
that after all the mudtastic fun, which is a phrase
I pulled from the official site, you are going to

(08:07):
walk away with glowing skin, so sort of an added benefit.

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(10:49):
in the episode description. Well, here's the summer festival I like.
It takes place in August. It's called the Burning of
Zazobra or burns Azobra, and it's in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Speaking of which, have you ever hung out in Santa
Fe or like spend time in New Mexico.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
I have actually never been to Santa Fe. You know,
there's that group that I get together with once a
year to just kind of make up our own half
marathon somewhere, and Santa Fe has always been on the list.
One of the things that scares us is the elevation
there in terms of, you know, adjusting to that for
a good run.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
But I've always wanted to go. I know, it's just
beautiful there.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yeah, I mean we went last summer and it was
like a wonderful and easy trip. And you know that
writer Rachel Sime, she made a list for this friend
of mine who was going on the trip, and it
was just all these incredible things to do in New
Mexico and it was so wonderful between like the landscapes
and the hikes and the food.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
So I've been evangelizing that. But back to Zazobra.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
The whole festival comes from this artist named Will Schuster,
and this is way back in nineteen twenty four. I
guess he and his friends formed this little club where
you could only be a member if you could spin
great yarns. So it's this like colorful group of characters,
and they decided to throw a big annual party. But
at the end of it, they wanted something meaningful. So
the names of Zobra, according to the festival site, means anguish,

(12:11):
anxiety or gloom in Spanish. And the idea is that
they wanted to create this giant's Zobra character. It started
out just six feet high, but today it's a fifty
foot high marionette, and they light it on fire at
the end of the festival and they keep it dancing
through the flames, which is, you know, amazing because it's
a marionette. But here's the thing. Instead of just lighting

(12:31):
this big marionette on fire, everyone celebrating fills it with
their worries. So some people will stuff old parking tickets
in or paid off mortgages, or some people actually put
their divorce papers in the pile, or you know a
lot of people just write their anxieties and put it
on paper and then you know, slip it in and
then this gigantic effigy of wood, wire and cloth goes

(12:52):
up in flames. There's a whole ceremony and parade that
leads up to the fire. But the idea is that
you can leave your worries and get some relief from
it all. Actually, this is a note that will Schuster
wrote to his friend back in nineteen twenty four after burning.
It goes quote, after the flames consumed the effigy, and
the embers faded into the starlit Santa fe sky, we

(13:12):
stood together, a group of unburdened. In the ashes of
this effigy lay the worries of the past year. And
from them we shall rise anew our spirits ablaze with
hope and renewal. Tonight we have not just witnessed a spectacle.
We have participated in a sacred rite of purification, laughter,
and rebirth.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
And I should think that could be a really great
way to end the summer.

Speaker 4 (13:33):
Yeah, I mean, that's just especially with that quote, that's
pretty terrific there. All right, Well, there are plenty of
things to get into before the end of the summer,
including Maidens Fair and once again I'm going to go international.
I think you can tell I've just sort of got
this bug. I'm ready to travel here. But the Maidens
Fair takes place on the third Sunday of July in
the Guyina Mountains of Transylvania.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
And so what happens on Maiden's Fair.

Speaker 4 (13:56):
Well, the Guina Mountain borders four regions that make up
some like eighty villages. So for centuries the mountain has
been this convenient meeting spot for trade and communication. And
actually the location is supposed to be stunning, like there's
this clearing about a mile up where you're basically touching
the clouds and overlooking all these towns, and so since

(14:16):
the eighteen hundreds, the festival mostly served as this huge market,
but at some point Romanians realized that it was also
a good way to match make and they'd form ties
with these other communities. There's also this legend about a
magic hen the mountain is named for Gayina that would
lay these golden eggs, and once a year, newlyweds who
were truly in love would receive an egg as a present,

(14:40):
And according to one site, there are still plenty of
these superstitious locals who believe that the mountain is good
luck and that a couple can only be happy if
their wedding is done in the mountain's clearing. Anyway, in
modern times, there's much less matchmaking that takes place there,
and it's really just this wonderful festival of Romanian culture.
People up in these traditional clothes, they sell crafts and

(15:03):
just kind of indulge in all these folkloric arts'.

Speaker 3 (15:05):
It seems like a really pleasant thing to be at.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
And is it just kind of like a cultural affair
or is there a party element to it too?

Speaker 3 (15:13):
No, definitely.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
In fact, there's this homemade plum brandy that the mountaineers
in the area apparently love, and that's supposed to be
pretty good as well, and there's lots of dancing and drinking.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
So it sounds like a great time.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Oh I like that.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
Well, here's an international one that I think is pretty funny.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
Actually thought I was the one doing the international one.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
Go ahead and joining you now I will not be
traveling to this one this year, but it takes place
on July twenty eighth and twenty ninth in Ferrano, Hokkaido
in Japan, and it's a festival dedicated to the belly button.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
The whole thing is dedicated to the belly button.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
Yeah. Yeah, So I was wondering why the belly button,
and I guess Furano is the center of Hokkaido, the
same way you're a belly button is the center of
your body. So they decided to celebrate itsography with a
belly button Festival.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Apparently in the late nineteen sixties, town politicians thought that
the people of Ferano needed something fun, like a summer festival,
and something to bring them together because apparently the population
is really spread out over the region. Now, Hokkaido has
tons of things that attract people in the winter. It's
a northern Japanese island, so it's got skiing and hot springs,
and I read this one tourist account of slurping on

(16:25):
this delicious hot crab soup that's made in the winter,
so they've got that as well. But Karano needed a
summertime activity aside from the cherry blossoms and the lavender fields,
so they concocted this belly button festival.

Speaker 4 (16:37):
All right, all right, So we still haven't said yet though,
what actually happens at the belly Button Festival. It is
mostly a lot of belly dancing, but not not belly
dancing in the way you might think. People paint funny
faces on their stomachs and then they carry these parasols
and umbrellas to look like hats to cover their heads
so it looks like your stomach is this giant face

(16:58):
of a cartoon character. And then they wear these clothes
that have arms sticking out from the waist down. So yeah,
I've got to show your picture is just so ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
Oh my gosh, this is not at all what I pictured.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
Like, these are so incredible, Like these are real. I
just expect like somebody had taken a sharpie and drone
on their belly button and then like made faces with its.
These are amazing mango.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
Yeah, it's this insane parade and it's really fun and sweet,
and the whole purpose is just to laugh and bring
joy to people. Yeah, the first year of the festival
in nineteen sixty nine, only eleven people took off their
shirts and painted their bellies. But these days the event
draws four thousand dancers and anyone can join in, and
the troops can win awards for best dances. But the

(17:43):
weirdest part of the festival, and the thing I really
still can't figure out, is this thing that all the
sites seem to claim, they say, quote, the best part
of the festival is the belly button beamed food.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
I mean, of course I love belly button theme food,
but what is belly button themes food exactly?

Speaker 1 (18:01):
I have no idea. Every site seems to talk about it,
but you know, and I was thinking maybe it's like
candy buttons or like uh, gummy suma wrestlers or something,
you know. And the only reference I could find to
the food was curry and noodles, which I guess just
goes in your belly but doesn't seem particularly belly button themed.

Speaker 4 (18:21):
Wow, that is wild that I had never heard of
that festival before. All right, So how about for our
last four Since such a significant number of our listeners
are in the States, why don't we keep it domestic
or at least to North America.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
What do you think?

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah? I could do that. So so what are you thinking?

Speaker 4 (18:37):
Well, since we haven't done a music festival yet, how
about the Underwater Music Festival in Big Pine Key, Florida.
So this one is coming up soon. It's on July
tenth of this year, so you'll have to make plans
pretty quickly. But the festival was started back in nineteen
eighty five by Bill Becker, who worked for US ones
radio station one. Oh four point one FM, and it

(18:57):
was a way to do something fun and raise my
to protect the coral reefs. So basically the radio station
encourages people to dress up then dive or snorkel as
they pump music into the water.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Does the music come through clearly? Like, what does it
sound like?

Speaker 4 (19:12):
Well, Bill actually was doing an interview with a local website,
Florida keys dot com, and he was saying that sound
travels five times as quickly in water as it does
in air, and it comes from all directions, so you
get this surround sound sort of this ethereal feeling from
the music there. And of course all the music is
water theme, so from playing the Titanic soundtrack to Yellow Submarine,

(19:35):
they keep it all in that theme.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
And I'm guessing this a lot of Jimmy Buffett too.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
You nailed it, a lot of Jimmy Buffett. But the
other fun part of the festival is the costuming. So
people dress up as rock stars and mermaids for their dives,
and they're all sorts of puny underwater instruments from the
trombonefish and clambourines that artists make.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
It's actually really quite fun.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
And what about the fish, like, are they bothered by
all this noise that sort of piped into the ocean.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
Apparently not.

Speaker 4 (20:05):
Some of the divers actually say that the fish to
tend to shimmy in unison with the music, and that
sounds fun to watch. But lots of animals come though,
from turtles to manatees, and as Bill likes to point out,
it's pretty special because quote, this is the only living
coral reef off the coast of the continental United States
that you can actually drive to. So he said, why

(20:26):
wouldn't you want to join the fun, get in the
water and enjoy this reef.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
That's a really good point that Bill's making. So I'm
going to book my tickets tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (20:35):
Great, all right, So what else do we need to
add to our calendar?

Speaker 3 (20:38):
Next?

Speaker 1 (20:40):
How about the Sand firm In Festival in New Orleans,
which has taking place July twelfth to fourteenth. I actually
chose this one because I already talked about the running
of the Tubs, and I thought it'd be fun to
talk about the running of the bulls Nueva Orleans style.
The event is the branchild of Mickey Henning, a local
who saw someone in that all white red kerchief thing

(21:01):
that runners in pamplona ware, and he saw that at
Marti Ground, he thought, hey, why doesn't New Orleans have
its own bull festival? So instead of real bulls, he
put his bulls on roller skates. Handing found four hundred
roller bulls who are athletes from local roller derbies, and
they're dresses bowls with little helmets with horns, and they

(21:22):
line up and chase down fourteen thousand runners and then
they whack them with his foam bat they have, or
occasionally poke them with horns on their helmets. It is
fun and total chaos, and you can end up with
minor bruises, but as the tourist site promises, it's nothing
a little food and drink can't fix. And there are
other events that round out the weekend too. There's a

(21:44):
La Fiesta de Pantalones, which is for some reason, a
festival of pants that first night, and an El pobre
de me or poor Me event that final day when
you're supposed to be nursing your hangover and your bruised bottoms. Also,
there's a Hemingway look like contest for added fun.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
Oh I like that. That's a good, good addition there.

Speaker 4 (22:04):
All right, we've got two more strange festivals to get to.
But why don't we take a quick break first.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
Welcome back to part time genius. When we're talking strange
summer festivals, I think we've got a pretty strong list
of things to do this summer will but what do
you want.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
To finish with?

Speaker 4 (22:34):
I mean, there's so many wonderful festivals that don't exist anymore.
There's the Cleveland Duct Tape Festival. There's the Friendship Festival
that used to occur between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo.

Speaker 2 (22:45):
They're not friends anymore.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
They're friendly, but apparently bingo and slot machines used to
fund the festival, and when the slots casino closed, people
stopped playing as much bingo, and that money that funded
the Friendship I guess dried out.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
But it still feels like you could celebrate this border
crossing friendship, don't you think.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Yeah, it feels like there's still opportunity there. But what
are you going to talk about instead?

Speaker 4 (23:09):
That was me buying time to decide which festival is
going to talk about next. But all right, well, here's
a festival that is still going strong, the fortieth anniversary
of Mount Rainier's slug Fest.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
So what happens a slugfest?

Speaker 4 (23:23):
Well, basically, it's a slug appreciation festival because slugs are
good for the soil, and the Pacific Northwest takes pride
in their giant slugs, especially the banana slug, which is
the best of the slugs. And this year the festival
is on July twentieth and twenty first, but it is
filled with slug like costumes where you can make your

(23:43):
own tentacles, and you have this slug hunt where you
go on hikes to look out for the critters and
best of all, slug races where you're giving a waterproof
slug sack and you have to crawl on your bellies
on a slip and slide to the finish line and
then you can't qualified as finishing unless you have yelled
snailed it.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
I feel like you just want to talk about that
because you want to say snail nailed it.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
Well.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
I also picked an animal festival for my last entry,
and it's called a Festival du Coachemp, which takes place
in Quebec. I guess this year it's August one to fourth,
And I was totally intrigued because this is how.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
An article and Vice described.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
It quote, There's no elegant way of catching a pig.
It's not a matter of speed or agility. You have
to corner the beast and jump on it, plain and simple.
At least that's what I was able to glean last
weekend between mouthfuls of pork while watching the National Greased
Pig Race and Saint Perpetchu quebec An event, which is,
depending on who you ask, either the ultimate celebration or

(24:45):
humiliation of the humble pig.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
So I like that.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
I also love this description of the grease pig racing,
where quote, rural gladiators step into the ring with grease
covered pigs in an attempt to drop it into a
barrel in under ninety second.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
I like that time li of there. So, how did
this pig festival start?

Speaker 1 (25:05):
Well, apparently the races started in nineteen seventy eight, and
it came from locals remembering how when pigs would get
loose at the local farms, especially in the rain, the
employees would race around, slipping and chasing them and trying
to pin them down, and that kind of inspired a
town event, and it quickly grew into this massive festival.
According Tovice, The town only has like a thousand inhabitants,

(25:28):
but over thirty five thousand people show up for this event. Apparently,
even Celine Dion has played the festival. I will say
that while greased pig races were a big draw for
a long time, they stopped those over concerns of swine
flu some years ago, which made animal activists happy, although
they still serve pork at the event, so I.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Don't know how happy they could be.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
But the festival is more about barbecue music now and
of course some pig meat and greets.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
Oh, pig meet and greets.

Speaker 4 (25:57):
Is this where you get to meet the pigs or
the pigs meeting read each other?

Speaker 2 (26:00):
I think you get to meet Okay, that's very exciting.

Speaker 3 (26:03):
I might have to check this out.

Speaker 4 (26:04):
I feel like we covered a lot of great festivals
and definitely ones worth trying to get out to in
the next few years. But I have to say the
fact that you expected I might know who Stuart Pennington was,
and the weirdness of the Stuart Pennington running of the tubs.
I think you win this week's trophy, Mango.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Well, thank you. I'm serious.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
We should figure out how to enter because I've actually
never been to Arkansas, and I want to visit those
hot springs. But from Will, Dylan and me here at
part Time Genius, thank you so much for listening.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
We'll be back next week with the new episode. Oh
and remember the reviews. Do you make us happy?

Speaker 1 (26:38):
If you want to rate the show, just write up
your review on iTunes. And if you want to write
us with memories, corrections, or just a little notice to
say hi, you can always email pet Genius moms at
gmail dot com.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Our moms love.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
To pass along the messages and they are wondering why
you haven't written yet. Part Time Genius is a production
of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by Will

(27:14):
Pearson and Me Mongish Heatikler and research by our good
pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and produced
by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
From Tyler Klang.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvel
and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay,
Trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shorey. For more podcasts from
Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows,

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