The Podsquad is back in action! We’ve missed hearing from everyone and we’re so glad to be returning to your commutes, cleaning sessions, etc.
We kicked things off with a tribute to Paula, who retired in June this year. She was our long-time Director of Communications and creator and host of the Official Holiday World Podcast. We miss her a ton already.
Thanks, Paula for your years of service!
We then went on to talk about the new podcast format.
Most importantly, we’re excited to announce that we’re looking for a new game to play. Because while we love Paula, as long as she’s not hosting, we’re coming up with a brand new game. And we want to hear your suggestions.
If you’re looking for help, we discussed Apples to Apples, Cards Against Humanity (but safe for work), and Pictionary for those listening at home. So, anything you can come up with is better than what we have.
Along the way, we discussed Disney (of course), the last podcast I hosted and our 70 Degrees of Separation soundmakers.
If you have a new game idea, send us an email at podcast@holidayworld.com, leave us a voicemail at 812-937-4401 extension 8081, or tag us on social media using the hashtag #HOWOPO.
ALSO NEW! Our podcast will now have transcripts. Here’s the transcript for Episode 1:
Episode 1 Transcript
Man’s voice: You are next in linefor the Official Holiday World Podcast.
Man Speaking through a P.A. system:Welcome to Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari.
Man’s voice: Dropping in from SantaClaus, Indiana
[Tech sounds, sonar, typing]
Man Speaking through P.A. system:Riders will experience swift acceleration, high-speed turns, and sudden stops
[roller coaster break sounds]
Man’s voice: With park presidentand CEO, Matt Eckert.
Matt Eckert: After that bacon soda,I’ll try anything.
Man’s Voice: Fourth GenerationOwners, Lauren Crosby…
Lauren’s voice in a short clip: Icame back, I’m here
Man’s Voice: and Director ofCommunications Leah Koch
Leah’s voice in a short clip: ha haha ha uhhhhh [drawn out]
Man’s voice: Now still your loosearticles and buckle up, keep your hands and legs inside the car at all times.
[Rock music intro music and rollercoaster ride sounds]
LEAHKOCH: And we’re back! Hey, welcome to season 2 of the official Holiday Worldpodcast, this is season two episode one, the one where we missed you too.
MATTECKERT awww
LEAH KOCH: Joining us today are Lauren and Matt. Lauren andMatt, Have you guys missed the podcast?
MATT ECKERT I have missed the podcast (reminiscently)
LAUREN CROSBY: A little bit
LEAH KOCH: A little bit??
[All pod squad laughter]
MATT ECKERT I see the two of you everyday so not so much youguys but yeah the podcast
LEAH KOCH: Thanks. First of all I was to start by explainingwe will have a couple changes coming your way. But before we dive into all ofthose changes coming your way, I want to acknowledge what I’m calling the 800pound gorilla in your ear. I’m totally speaking very clearly today. We are offto a great start. I’m not Paula.
MATT ECKERT That’s a big gorilla
LEAH KOCH: It’s the 800 pound gorilla or the elephant in theroom
MATT ECKERT I like the gorilla, let’s do it
LEAH KOCH: Yeah, 800 pound gorilla seemed appropriate
MATT ECKERT Okay
LEAH KOCH: and it’s in your ear, so figure that one out.Paula retired this summer and we so happy for her but we miss her a lot. But Iwant to take a minute to appreciate Paula, so what are you guys miss the mostabout Paula
MATT ECKERT Lots of things, but you know how I am, I alwayshave more than one. So for me professionally, Paula is and always will be alegend when it comes to..
LEAH KOCH: Careful where you step, I have her job now
[All pod squad laughter]
MATT ECKERT So you have big shoes to fill
LEAH KOCH: I definitely do and we have two people fillingthem now.
MATT ECKERT There you go, yeah, she’s just legendary withinour industry, within the theme park industry she is very well known. She waswith us for a number of years throughout our massive growth history and she wasthere every step of the way. She came up with innovative ideas to put us on themap when it comes to the PR world. Personally,I will miss her and we are acting like she’s gone forever, I still talkto her
LEAH KOCH: I know! Like we don’t text her all the time.
MATT ECKERT I miss her wit. Paula and I had some very sharpwitted conversations and texts back and forth. We would be texting well intolate in the night things. She and I just got each other really well and we wereable to give each other very open and honest feedback. Sometimes her feedbackwas more honest than I wanted it to be, but she would give that to me and Iappreciate that
LEAH KOCH: As her writing intern, back in the day as herblogging intern, she held nothing back
MATT ECKERT But you know I appreciate that
LEAH KOCH: Owners daughter? No one cares!
[laughter]
MATT ECKERT: If you have something to say to me, say it andlet’s move on
LEAH KOCH: I was about to say I’m definitely better for it,for having Paula in my life
MATT ECKERT: So Iwill miss that, so you guys need to step it up and start giving me more flack Iguess
LEAH KOCH: Challenge accepted [in laughter] Lauren how aboutyou?
LAUREN CROSBY: I have a few things as well, sorry.
MATT ECKERT: So I’m not the only one
LAUREN CROSBY: You’re not the over achiever today, you arejust an achiever
LEAH KOCH: It’s hard to limit it to just one when it comesto Paula
LAUREN CROSBY: well, I think the number one things, well Ican’t even rank it, but anyway one of the things I’ll miss the most is Paula’ssass towards Matt.
[ LAUREN CROSBY: and LEAH KOCH: Laughter]
LEAH KOCH: We’re going to have to step it up on the podcastalone, cause, well and now is a good time
MATT ECKERT: I don’t have Rentz here either to lay it backon him, so I have nobody!
LEAH KOCH: Yes, now is a good time to introduce the factthat now Stephen will no longer just be a voice in our ears. Stephen will be anofficial unofficial host of the podcast.
MATT ECKERT: So he can be my person
LEAH KOCH: So he can be your person, so he can come in andyou don’t even get to see him. He’s down stairs on the soundboard
Stephen: Yeah, I don’t mind being the lackey
LEAH KOCH: That also means we get to yell, STEPHEN! Anytimesomething’s wrong
LAUREN CROSBY: Anyway
LEAH KOCH: Sorry I cut you off
LAUREN CROSBY: There was more, there’s obviously many manythings we will miss about Paula, but I think one of the other things I willmiss the most is just how much she cared for and fought to preserve our historyand our story. As someone who wasn’t family but still was like family. Youknow, she cared an awful lot about Holiday Worlds story and making sure we keptthe story alive
LEAH KOCH: Where we came from
LAUREN CROSBY: Yes, all of that. I appreciate that greatly. AND her grammar!
LEAH KOCH: Personally, first and foremost, I’m going to misshaving the likeminded person at the table. And now it’s going to be me insteadof Paula going, “Paula, Paula, please come back.” Every episode.
LAUREN CROSBY: That’ll be your new little voice thing
LEAH KOCH: That’ll be my new little thing, “Paula, Paula,please come back.” With a nice little shake to my voice. I’m going to missPaula and her grammar sense of course. I’m going to miss her wit of course, butI feel like she was such a leader to me and such a personal mentor to me. When I did my internship with her years agoand I just feel like anytime she could tell me about her job and how to do itshe would pull me aside and go, “Here’s another little tip, just in case youever want to know and just in case you want to be in PR one day.” And now, I’mtaking over her job [let out air laugh] Doing my best, but I was trained by thebest. So yeah. Before we take a quick break, I wanted to say thank you to Paulafor her nearly three decades of service to Holiday World. We’d be a verydifferent park without her, and she’s changed us for the better in every way. Iwill do my best, I wrote down this little pledge to make sure I have it exactlyright, I will do my best to uphold her impeccable grammar, her journalisticintegrity, and her wit and biting sense of humor. And I promise to miss you inevery episode
MATT ECKERT: I must add that Leah held her hand over herheart while she read that. I think that’s important for listeners to know.
[rock music cuts in for commercial break]
POD BITS
Matt: We won’t miss seventy or twenty-five or however many degrees ofseparation. But we will be accepting new game ideas.
LAUREN CROSBY: Want to make a suggestion? Or have questionsfor the podsquad? There are more ways than ever to reach out to the podcast!
LEAH KOCH: Find @holidayworld on Facebook, Twitter andInstagram and use hashtag H-O-W-O-P-O to let us know you’re talking about us.
Matt: You can now CALL US! Dial 812-937-4401 and type in extension8081 to get the HOWOPO voice mailbox
Lauren: Leave your questions and feedback for us there ORyou can email us at podcast@holidayworld.comeither with a written message or with a voice memo
Leah: again, reach out on social media to @holidayworld anduse the hashtag HOWOPO, or call us at 812-937-4401 extension 8081, or send usan email to podcast@holidayworld.com
[rock music fades back in with a funky beat]
LEAH KOCH: In addition to new ways to talk with us, we havesome other big changes coming to the podcast. First of all, we are talking toyou from the past
[ghost noises]
MATT ECKERT: That’s kinda creepy!
LEAH KOCH: Today is December 6, and Stephen when are wereleasing this episode?
Stephen: That is a great question
[Laughter]
MATT ECKERT: Some time after December 6
LEAH KOCH: I meant to put that in my notes and I put it
Stephen: I believe this is going to be our first episode of2020
LEAH KOCH: first Monday in January
Stephen: In 2020!
MATT ECKERT: Wow, so we’re in next year already, but we’renot
LEAH KOCH: Yeah!
Stephen: We are speaking from last decade
LEAH KOCH: There’s a reason we aren’t necessarily talkingabout Christmas during these episodes we are recording today.
MATT ECKERT: You just made me feel really old Stephen
LEAH KOCH: Ohh, also a note to make, we are now recordingmultiple episodes in one day. So this is our first time doing this, pleaseforgive us if we stumble a few times or try to jump into other episodes a fewtimes. But yeah, so today we’ll be recording four episodes, we’re doing a threeepisode drop if you are listening to this you already see that there are threeepisodes now on your feed.
LAUREN CROSBY: Surprise!
MATT ECKERT: We’re all about efficiency
LEAH KOCH: Are you excited?! So there will be two moreepisodes we’re dropping and we’re recording today and we’re recording one moreso we can drop it while Stephen is away on vacation at the start of the newyear. And we’ll be going with a new schedule, we’ll be dropping late Sundaynight slash early Monday morning, again I can talk and I have things in mybrain I promise. Well be dropping those so you’ll have them for your Mondaymorning commute or whatever you do on Monday first thing in the week and we’llbe doing every other week again. We are taking pauses so you can actually lookat your phone and we don’t have to marathon into potty breaks. That was themost stressful thing for me, if you needed a potty break
LAUREN CROSBY: That was stressful
LEAH KOCH: In the middle of a two hour podcast you had tosneak out and hope you didn’t miss anything.
Stephen: Personally I’m glad I don’t have to edit a two hourpodcast after recording a two and a half hour podcast.
[laughter]
LAUREN CROSBY: Fair.
MATT ECKERT: it’ll be more efficient now, we’ll be doingmore and giving more at a time.
Stephen: I think our time management on this round is goingto be great
LEAH KOCH: and we’ve got Sabrina Jones who is our MediaRelations Manager who is being our other half of Paula for me, because it takestwo people to be Paula, lets be real about tht.
MATT ECKERT: She’s keeping us on task.
LEAH KOCH: She’s our time keeper.
MATT ECKERT: and LEAH KOCH: : She just flashed us tenminutes now
LEAH KOCH: That was such perfect timing
MATT ECKERT: That was!
LEAH KOCH: so anyway, what else are you guys excited for?
MATT ECKERT: I’m excited we won’t be playing that gameanymore.
LEAH KOCH: What kind of game do you guys hope for? We’regoing to crowd source this. We are going to ask people for advice.
MATT ECKERT: It doesn’t matter.
LEAH KOCH: If you could pick one?
MATT ECKERT: because I’m going to win whatever it is.
LEAH KOCH: Uh-huh, sure!
LAUREN CROSBY: mmm-kay!
MATT ECKERT: As long as it’s not degrees of something.
LEAH KOCH: What do you want Lauren?
LAUREN CROSBY: I honestly don’t know
LEAH KOCH: I was hoping for like a cards against humanity ofsome sort, but like appropriate version, or an apples to apples but all themepark, so if someone wants to make a theme park, fully family appropriate applesto apples
[Lauren laughter]
LAUREN CROSBY: That’s highly specific
MATT ECKERT: that is highly specific, market that on!
[all pod squad laughter]
LEAH KOCH: Guys I have a game called Charty Party now
MATT ECKERT: Called what?
LEAH KOCH: Charty Party.
MATT ECKERT: Charty Party?
LEAH KOCH: It’s kinda like one of those “What do you meme?”Or Cards against humanity but instead of pulling a meme or a word, like in“What do you meme?”, it’s a chart of something and it explains one axis. So theX axis will be age, so it’ll show really high for teenage years and really lowfor adult years
MATT ECKERT: I like this game already
LEAH KOCH: and you have to pick through a bunch of cards tosay what it describes, so it’ll be my level of energy. You know really highwhen I was young and really low now with a sharp drop off. I haven’t even gotto play it yet, but I’m so excited about it.
MATT ECKERT: That sounds so fun, I saw a game at Target theother day, it was Pictionary but you draw in the air. So you like hold somekind of device that I don’t know..
LAUREN CROSBY: So it’s like the old school Disneycommercials
[Laughter]
MATT ECKERT: right, that’s exactly what I thought of, withthe ears just magically appeared
LEAH KOCH: aren’t there videos where they just trace that? Ihave never watched one of those but I feel like that would be the best.
MATT ECKERT: That would be a cool job, “what’s your job?”, Idraw Mickey Mouse ears for TV
[all pod squad laughter]
LEAH KOCH: I just want to see one of those video’s becauseyou know they used to have all the little teen celebrities do something withthat wand.
MATT ECKERT: Right
LEAH KOCH: Half of them would just swish it in a big circleor do something crazy like that
LAUREN CROSBY: I don’t think they actually wanted them todraw anything. I think they just wanted them to be cute.
LEAH KOCH: some of them worked hard, you could see themkinda making the mouse ears and everything and some of them were just PEACE,little jab of the wand and we’re good.
[Laughter]
MATT ECKERT: Funny
LEAH KOCH: So anyway, that’s our new game, huh?
[laughter]
MATT ECKERT: Our listeners wouldn’t like that very much, Idon’t think they’d be able to play along.
LAUREN CROSBY: Can you see this?
MATT ECKERT: This is what we’re drawing, really!
LEAH KOCH: Let’s just play Pictionary the whole time
MATT ECKERT: Okay, I’m done
LEAH KOCH: Take a nice visual game and really put it onaudio
MATT ECKERT: We should do Charades too
LEAH KOCH: I like this, I think we’re on the right track. Ithink we’ve definitely got this. So that’s why we’re crowdsourcing guys. So ifyou have any ideas or [cough cough sound] if you like the game I made up in theepisode whatever that was when I hosted. You guys can also add a note aboutthat..
MATT ECKERT: Is it sad that I don’t remember what that was?
LEAH KOCH: uhhh, it was called “What’s my name?” and it wasbased on “That’s not my job? From Wait, Wait, don’t tell me. I asked youspecific questions about ravens and mammoths
MATT ECKERT: Oh, yes. I remember
[deafening silence]
LEAH KOCH: SOO, the popular feedback from this table istelling me a lot right now. So I’m pretty
MATT ECKERT: I just said I remember, that’s all I said.
LAUREN CROSBY: I just remember it being really complicatedor it seemed complicated.
LEAH KOCH: It was not the easiest game, yes, but I had a tonof fun with it, so I don’t know what you guys are complaining about
[Lauren breaks out in laughter]
MATT ECKERT: So back to Pictionary
LAUREN CROSBY: Isn’t that all that matters? I’m pretty surethat’s Paula’s philosophy.
LEAH KOCH: It’s all that Paula wanted out of Seventy Degreesof Separation or however many degrees of separation it was just as long as shewas having fun.
[all pod squad laughter]
MATT ECKERT: At our expense
LEAH KOCH: Yes! Uhhh, but yeah at some point I’m going tohave to bring the oboe back. I didn’t bring the oboe with me today.
LAUREN CROSBY: Speaking of….
LEAH KOCH: Oh, yes! An ode to a squeaky toy. Yes, about amonth or two ago the infamous, it got a few too many holes in it and it stoppedsqueaking.
MATT ECKERT: Now it’s just a toy
LAUREN CROSBY: Well, it went to the garbage. In the arms ofan angel.
MATT ECKERT: okay ,Don’t sing, moving on
LEAH KOCH: We don’t want to pay for that music ques, somoving on. You picture it and you picture that squeaky toy in the trash. I’mtrying to think of anything else, we’re going to get around to a lot in thenext couple episodes. Is there anything else that’s changed that we need toupdate? Oh, I think there might be one thing in Lauren’s personal life that’schanged a little bit?
MATT ECKERT: A little bit? One thing? That’s a big thing!
LAUREN CROSBY: I’m having another baby! Wooo! Surprise!
LEAH KOCH: So Lauren will be in the podcast for what, maybetwo or three months, and then she’ll be back out for a little bit, but we’regoing to have a rotating cast of characters I think so.
MATT ECKERT: They grow up fast, Lauren. I have a Senior.
LAUREN CROSBY: I know, my first one is TWO already!
MATT ECKERT: Crazy!
LAUREN CROSBY: It seems like just yesterday we were sittingin this room with a lamp because I had vertigo during my pregnancy with Sawyer.
MATT ECKERT: That is correct!
LEAH KOCH: Poor thing!
MATT ECKERT: And he keeps bringing you joy everyday.
LAUREN CROSBY: He does! Some days, mind dizzying joy.
LEAH KOCH: Sawyer is two now, I can’t believe it. And yeahAbby is a Senior. How does that feel?
MATT ECKERT: Awful! It seems unreal, it seems like we justhad her, like just, its why I say it happens so quickly, she was two justyesterday. She liked me a lot more then.
LEAH KOCH: Now she’s kicking footballs and soccer balls
MATT ECKERT: Yeah she’s kicking footballs,
LEAH KOCH: I can’t believe it
MATT ECKERT: had agood year, had a good season.
LEAH KOCH: we’ll we have plenty more to catch up on in thenext few episodes but I just wanted to say congratulations, you’ve brought usback by semi-popular demand! And you’ve made it to the end of the first episodeof our reformatted podcast. You’re listening to the first of our specialbinge-worthy drop of three podcast episodes. Please join us now or during yournext commute, cleaning session, etc. for our next episode, Season 2 episode 2:The one with the kNights Who Say “Whee!”
[laughter]
LEAH KOCH: That’s the only way I can say it, sorry. Thankyou to all of our behind-the-scenes podsquad: Stephen Rutherford for drivingthis glorious return to the podcasting realm AND for dreaming up our special3-episode drop. Thanks to Josh Moore for sharing the article that rebirthed thepodcast. And special thanks to the newest member of communications, SabrinaJones, for being our timekeeper and for leading the charge on our grand return.And thanks to all three of you, Stephen, Josh, Sabrina for letting me pretendlike half of these things were my idea. Much appreciated
[laughter]
Outromusic: You’ve been listening to the official Holiday World Podcast,
Man onSpeaker: Welcome back! Did you enjoy your flight?
ManSpeaking: A production of Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari in Santa Claus,Indiana. Check out the latest episodes at HolidayWorld.Com/Podcast
Thanks fortaking a ride with us and please come back to see us again soon.
[music fades out]
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