A New Suite for the Mona Lisa, AI Can Be Persuaded to Lie, Travel Tuesday in Texas 5/19/26

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:06]This is the afterparty live with Kim Mallister.

[00:00:11]Pick a couch, grab a drink, and settle into the conversation.

[00:00:22]Well, hello. Hello. Hello, it is the afterparty live on a travel Tuesday and I heard that Glenn from Australia might pop by the location that he took us to when he uh was on the show recently.

[00:00:39]Garry Island is where he is right now.

[00:00:42]And so he may come in live to kind of show us the scenery. I sent him the link and it may happen, it may not, but if he has time, I'm I'm excited about even the possibility that he could pop in.

[00:00:53]Apologies for the tardiness when Mark comes back. It's uh it's always a a longer post show. Aloha. Kim says, "Ivan, aloha to you. Aloha, Beach Bonnie. Thank you for the the chiming in there and the nice aloha. A little love spread around." Nola Fidian, hello to you. And uh hello to everybody who's making time to come in and and kind of take a breather, do a little relaxation here on the afterparty live. Let's start the stories because we're running be I'm running behind. The first one is about the Louve.

[00:01:29]For a long time, people have been crowding around this little area trying to catch a glimpse and a picture, possibly a selfie with the Mona Lisa.

[00:01:40]Well, that's about to change because the Mona Lisa is getting a new home.

[00:01:45]architects right now are designing a private suite for the Mona Lisa. This is uh you know it's it's a it's a big do uh to do for the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece. Now you will be able to just in case you wanted to skip all the rest of the crap in the Louve as if I mean you're going to see the most wonderful things but say all you were interested in was the Mona Lisa like that's all you really cared about.

[00:02:11]Okay, this is for you. Now you will be able to see it without touring the rest of the museum. They think the visitor traffic because they're doing this will grow by 3 million people a year. That's how many people they think came specifically to see the Mona Lisa and nothing else.

[00:02:31]It could add up to a billion dollars aimed at addressing crowd control, security, infrastructure, and all those kinds of needs at the Louvre. So, there's a New York-based company teaming up with a Paris company to lead this renovation and expansion.

[00:02:54]The winning design is being called respectful and contemporary and is expected to create an elegant connection between the city, the palace, and the museum.

[00:03:08]Uh, it's an overhaul. It needed an overhaul. We We knew that the lube was kind of in rough shape, right? The project is centering around this redesign of the plaza at the Grand Colonade. That is the eastern edge of the museum. It was built in the 17th century. It has these giant coupled columns.

[00:03:30]The winning design brings some symmetry to this facade and will have two new underground entrances, expanded exhibition space, more dining areas, more gift shops, new pathways and greenery connecting the Louve to the rest of Paris, which they think may solve their trouble with foot traffic.

[00:03:54]And they think it could bump up visitors to the museum by about 3 million a year.

[00:03:58]Riot as it stands now about nine million people every year stop by the lube to check things out.

[00:04:06]In addition to all of these other changes the Mona Lisa which brings in about 20,000 visitors a day. How crazy is that? 20,000 people a day.

[00:04:20]The Mona Lisa gets a custombuilt 33,000 square ft exhibition space. They say this new gallery will let people view the painting without necessarily going into the rest of the museum. They think it'll cut down on crowding in the rest of the museum, and they'll be able to put up more information about the paintings's history to help fill up this enormous space.

[00:04:48]The museum's former director says the everyday this room is the scene of intense agitation.

[00:04:57]Exceptional visitor numbers are not a curse. They're a source of pride. And it's also a challenge to reinvent ourselves and remain faithful to our public service mission.

[00:05:10]The expansion expected to be finished in the year 2031.

[00:05:16]It'll cost hundreds of millions of dollars to get this done.

[00:05:21]The French president, Emmanuel Mcronone, is saying this is a matter of national importance and cultural pride because a lot of people are complaining about how expensive this is.

[00:05:34]We've seen the heist. They had to, you know, they got a lot of heat over security and deficiencies there. There were some water leaks that damaged some paintings in the Louv. Another leak caused tears in a painting a few months ago.

[00:05:52]So, you know, it's no it's there's no dispute that they need to improve things at the Louvre.

[00:06:03]Uh Mcronone is referencing the renovation of the Notream Cathedral after the fire as an inspiration for fixing up the lube. He said, "Notam has been a catalyst for our architecture and arts and crafts.

[00:06:19]The new renaissance project for the Louv must be for art history and its transmission a new stage in the life of the nation. If you are going to the Louv, would you just go see the Mona Lisa or would you go see all the other stuff there?" Cuz I'm thinking if you're going to the Lou, I'm making it a full day. I'm going to see every inch of that place. It's going to take me forever and I'm going for it.

[00:06:44]I went to Paris a few years ago back in the KGO era and it was when CO just hit and they were closing down everything and so I didn't get to see the Lou. I was on the list but we had to come home otherwise the airlines were shutting down. So, I I have not been to the Louv and I have not seen the Mona Lisa in person, but if I and I was going, if I had made it there, it would have been an all day event. Yeah. Katie says it's a full day experience. Absolutely.

[00:07:19]Right.

[00:07:21]Um, crazy. So glad I saw it and have been to the Lou back in the 80s. Sounds like a good idea, says Mindy.

[00:07:30]When I went to Paris, says Sandy, in 1995, we were pressed for time. We sprinted through the lube just to do see the Mona Lisa and then we rushed out because we had other stuff to do. So, this would have worked for you. This would have been great.

[00:07:43]Cranky Charcoal says it's going to cost about the same as Trump's ballroom.

[00:07:47]Okay. I feel like an institution as important to the world as the Louvre, where much of the world's most precious art is kept and millions of people stop past every year or 20,000 a day, right? At least I feel like that's more important to spend money on and to restore. It's already there. So, maintaining it, fixing it, that's the responsible thing to do. Smashing something down that was fine to build some billion dollar ballroom, that's a whole different story. But I digress because we don't talk about that on this show. Everybody take a deep breath. I am. My apologies.

[00:08:34]I don't know. Mama says, "I must be really uncultured. I really don't understand what's so great about the Mona Lisa." Yeah, from what I understand, once you get in front of it, you realize it's just this tiny little picture. Nolphinian would rather go to a science museum. Liz says, "The tiny private suite, it's already crowded in that large room. It's going to be a huge private suite." John says, "I was there.

[00:08:59]It was hard to do a whole day there.

[00:09:00]only spent about a half day.

[00:09:03]Well, now there's going to be restaurants and gift shops and I don't know. You never have to leave the Lou.

[00:09:11]If I were going to France, I'd want to do a wine tasting tour. You and me both.

[00:09:16]All right, we'll move past this.

[00:09:19]The last thing you expect when you're ordering a salad or you're buying a bag of lettuce at the grocery store is a frog. It's a big frog, too. Customer brings home a bag of lettuce from a grocery store in Australia. And amongst the leaves, there's a live frog.

[00:09:41]I was um once having lunch with a co-orker at the a hospital cafeteria and there was a like a some kind of a grasshopper looking bug in her salad.

[00:09:53]So, you know, you're you're you're eating lettuce, right? You're eating farm grown earth products. You have to expect that there's going to be some earth remnants maybe. But a giant frog, I don't know, maybe somebody should have caught that one.

[00:10:12]These people, they're originally from New Zealand and now live in Australia, said their roommate came home from a trip to the local Woolworths and called their attention to the bag of lettuce he just bought.

[00:10:27]He said, "Bro, I've got a lettuce, like a frog in my lettuce."

[00:10:32]He posted a video of the frog in this bag to Tik Tok. Millions of people have seen it. The frog was big, too. About the size of this man's palm. It's massive. Must have been kind of burrowing down inside the lettuce. He said, "It's quite a decentsized frog for a big adventure. It would have probably come from the east. Most of our vegetables come from eastern Australia to espirants. The bag of lettuce does have holes in it to keep the produce fresh. So, he had a snack and some air on his way over. They named the frog Greg. They released Greg into a local dam along with the lettuce that he was snacking on cuz clearly he liked it. He said it was the most random thing I've ever encountered while opening a bag of lettuce. He said, "I'm just glad that Greg is back in his natural habitat."

[00:11:23]The grocery store said, "The discovery is under investigation. The stowaway frog, they call an isolated incident.

[00:11:31]There are no other reported cases." Just another note. Double check your lettuce and your produce.

[00:11:39]It's a story of people helping animals yet again. Love this. This is an owl that was found covered in concrete.

[00:11:50]They had to do feather surgery on this little one. So, there they are doing the feather surgery on this great horned owl.

[00:11:59]They had to replace its damaged feathers at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and they brought the owl to the Wild Friends Rehab Center after it was found with 25% of its body covered in concrete. The owl was inside of a mixer.

[00:12:19]It had to go undergo several days of care, 20 minute baths to slowly remove the concrete. But all of this left the owl with damage to its feathers, so it couldn't fly silently anymore. And if they're going to survive in the wild, the great horned owls must fly silently.

[00:12:39]So they did some surgery. They expected the owl to mol and grow new feathers, but it didn't go well. So the Wild Friends team took a training course about a procedure they'd never done before. It's called imping and it requires using donor feathers and adhesive to replace the owl's feathers.

[00:13:03]There was a wildlife rescue in northern Utah that gave wild friends feathers from a great horned owl of similar size who had passed away and so they impeded.

[00:13:16]And this owl has now been released back into the wild.

[00:13:21]Yay.

[00:13:24]Now it has the feathers to fly silently once again.

[00:13:28]They went to a lot of trouble to save this owl and to help this owl.

[00:13:33]I have another animal story for you.

[00:13:35]Sorry to show you bugs up close, but this is a brand new spider. It's called the happy face spider. Can you see the happy face on its back? It's got two red eyes at the top and kind of dots forming a smile at the bottom.

[00:13:52]The folks that discovered this spider said they knew they had a jackpot. They call it the happy face spider.

[00:14:01]Theidian grow is its real name. And ecologists in Hawaii first described this spider in the year 1900.

[00:14:12]They thought they were unique to the islands, but then one was found thousands of miles away in the Himalayan mountains. A study published on this in the journal Evolutionary Systematics.

[00:14:25]They say there's at least one more smiley spider species in the world. The discovery deserves an equally appropriate name. They said without further ado, meet the Himalayan happyfaced spider. So, we've got our Hawaiian and our Himalayan.

[00:14:44]They found it in the northern state of Utaracond.

[00:14:50]Researchers from India's forest research institute and the regional museum of natural history were trying to catalog and uh look at ant biodiversity at the foot of the Himalayan mountains. But they kept getting distracted by these spiders. They kept taking pictures from high alitude regions for identification of these spiders. And one day a colleague sent a picture of this arachnid clinging to a leaf.

[00:15:20]They say I'd seen the Hawaiian spider during my master's program. According to one of the studies co-authors name is Debbie Priya Darne said, "I saw the the Hawaiian spire spider during my masters.

[00:15:35]I knew instantly we had a jackpot because of its striking resemblance. So over the next few months, they documented every similar spider that they found during the survey. 32 examples clearly belonging to the same species and all showcasing this smiley dot and stripe coloration patterns called morphs on their bodies.

[00:15:58]Once back at the lab, the team uh team conducted a DNA analysis of their specimens. They said there's about an 8 and a half% genetic variation from the Hawaiian to the Himalayan.

[00:16:10]They said if confirmed uh that it did confirm that it evolved completely independent of the almost identical island spiders.

[00:16:24]They uh they said the green coloration helps both spiders blend into the surrounding vegetation. They don't know the exact reason for the black patterns on it, but they say it's definitely indicative of a deeper genetic mystery.

[00:16:40]There's another shared trait. Both species have a fondness for ginger plants, even though ginger is not native to Hawaii.

[00:16:49]So, the question is posed by the researchers, how did the Hawaiian spiders choose an invasive species and ginger?

[00:17:00]They don't know.

[00:17:02]It'll be a further scope of their work to establish any missing links between the Himalayan happy spider and the Hawaiian happy spider.

[00:17:13]Even with this smiley face on its back, I'm still not thinking it looks any more friendly. No. Nope. I still don't want it be anywhere near this thing.

[00:17:23]Absolutely not.

[00:17:26]There's a new roller coaster coming in.

[00:17:32]It is in Texas. Six Flags of Texas. This roller coaster will shatter six world records. It's set at Six Flags over Texas in Arlington.

[00:17:47]It's a They call it a one-of-a-kind thrill ride. It's called the Tormenta Rampaging Run. The Torment Rampaging Run. the fastest, the tallest, and the longest dive roller coaster in the world. You can see that dive right there toward the left. Oh, and also there's another one on the right.

[00:18:09]No thanks. It's a 309 ft tall roller coaster. It features a 95 degree beyond vertical drop. Travels at speeds of up to 87 m an hour.

[00:18:25]Also, it features the tallest vertical coaster loop at 179 ft. Okay, so here's the world records this thing will set.

[00:18:33]Tallest dive coaster at 309 ft. Highest 95 degree beyond vertical drop, 285 ft.

[00:18:42]Fastest dive coaster, 87 mph. Highest Immelman inversion, I don't know what that is, 218 ft. Tallest vertical coaster loop 179 ft and the longest dive coaster 4,199 ft.

[00:19:02]The quote on the theme park website torment a rampaging run will elevate riders to a height of 309 ft just like waiting for the release of the bulls.

[00:19:14]Your heart will pound as you wait for the inevitable.

[00:19:19]They have not released a date for this thing to open yet.

[00:19:26]The apparently the most intense roller coasters in in addition to this one X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain is a 4D coaster that includes seats that rotate independently of the track which kind of gives you this chaotic experience. I am just no thank you to all of this. Uh, and then at Universal Studios Hollywood, a ride called Fast and Furious Hollywood Drift is set to open this summer as well. So, if you roller coasters are your jam, like my friend Nikki Maduro, this might be for you.

[00:20:05]I can't imagine wanting to put myself through this stress on purpose.

[00:20:10]No, perhaps I'm boring. You know what I would enjoy?

[00:20:16]This is my kind of record. And I'm very impressed by these people in Ohio that now have the record for how many stairs they managed to get their slinky down consecutively.

[00:20:31]53 stairs in a row. It's a record breaker in Ohio.

[00:20:36]They did it at a local stadium, the Lucingers. They went to Otterbine Stadium in Westerville with their five-year-old son in an effort to get this Guinness World Record for the most stairs descended by a slinky.

[00:20:54]The most I have achieved is five. It's about it.

[00:21:01]The the dad Joe Leshinger is a fourth year resident at the Yale School of Medicine. He said this record attempt was his son's ID, a 5-year-old Axel. He said he's at the age where everything needs to be the biggest and the fastest or the most extreme version of itself.

[00:21:17]So he'd recently discovered slinkies and he said he knew I'd attempted a record before. So he wanted to know the record for the most stairs descended by a slinky. And we looked it up and saw the existing record was 30 stairs. And they thought, well that seems beatable. We could do that. So, they buy this 6-in rainbow slinky, which is interesting cuz I would think you would need a metal slinky, and I think the rainbows are plastic. I have way too much slinky knowledge because my son loves slinkies.

[00:21:46]They buy this 6-in rainbow slinky, and they send it down 53 stairs, and with that, they scoop in and take the record away from Marty Jopson and Hugh Hunt, who set the record at 30 stairs in 2014.

[00:22:04]The new record, the 53 stair record, has been confirmed as an official world record by Guinness World Records. And so now this family from Ohio has this claim to fame, the Slinky claim to fame. I have to ask Jacob, do you think we could beat 53 stairs? I don't know. I think that's pretty impressive.

[00:22:28]I have this story about AI.

[00:22:32]It turns out this new study shows you can persuade AI models to accept falsehoods as truth. I'm telling you, for all of this, we need to learn to use AI. We need to do AI. We need to dact in my estimation is absolutely not ready for prime time. I just don't think so.

[00:22:58]Not yet.

[00:23:00]No.

[00:23:02]So here's this uh here's the story this out of popular science.

[00:23:09]The research group asked five leading models to describe scenes in movies or novels that don't actually exist.

[00:23:20]One question asked of G chat G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G GPT they asked it's favorite scene in the movie Goodwill Hunting and it noted a scene between leading characters and then then they asked what about the scene with the Hitler reference but there's no scene in the movie that references that and chat GPT constructed a vivid plausible description of this scene that wasn't in the movie it's called an AI hallucination and The researchers say it reveals something deeper about how AI systems reason.

[00:23:56]There's a fundamental problem with how they reason.

[00:24:01]References they say to Hitler aren't uncommon in films which apparently convinced Chat GPT to accept and elaborate on a false premise rather than correct it. So what happens when these AI systems are pushed toward falsehoods?

[00:24:17]Do they resist or do they comply? So the researchers developed this approach that they called hallucination audit under nudge trial where they had conversations with five leading models about 1,000 popular movies and 1,000 popular novels.

[00:24:36]And during the exchanges they raised plausible but false references to Hitler, dinosaurs, time machines. They did it in various ways such as saying like for me I love the scene where fill in the falsehood right the method works in three stages. They said first the AI generates statements about a topic like a book or movie, some true, some false.

[00:24:59]Then in a separate interaction, the AI attempts to verify those statements. And then the humans introduced a nudge where the model is challenged with its own incorrect claims to see if it resists them or if it accepts them. And here's what they found. The AI models struggled to remain consistent under pressure.

[00:25:21]Even if they initially identified a statement as false, they might later accept it when they are nudged. And that they say reveals this vulnerability that traditional evaluation methods are failing to capture.

[00:25:37]the research I don't think it's peer-reviewed yet but they're uh they have been accepted at the annual meeting of the association for computational linguistics conference this year where they where they will present more they say this this matters because humans can misremember things we can forget stuff right but if we can persuade a model to accept a falsehood that's an important vulnerability in AI's capacity to provide accurate information.

[00:26:13]There are other pieces of research being done on this as well.

[00:26:18]We don't know why some AI systems resist falsehoods better than others. They say Claude was the most resistant, followed closely by Grock and Chat GPT, Gemini and Deep Seek were further behind.

[00:26:36]And they also say movies and novels are self-contained content and they haven't tested AI about how it would respond under pressure in a broader more complex realw world setting. So they're starting to extend, they say, their scientific literature and health related claims to better understand whether conversational pressure works differently when the discussion involves uncertainty or expertise.

[00:27:06]I mean, it's obvious when there's no scene in a movie, but it's not as obvious in other scenarios that are more subjective.

[00:27:15]I'm telling you, AI not ready. Go into the chat to see what you guys have to think.

[00:27:22]Claude is wiggy. Claude is kind of wiggy. They're all wiggy, right? So AI says mama is designed to be a people pleaser.

[00:27:32]Or AI is made by people and is malleable.

[00:27:36]Agent Kitty Fats, I told it the articles were BS. It apologized and gave me more sources and they were fake, too.

[00:27:45]Not helpful. I mean, your comment is helpful, but AI not helpful to you in that scenario. Wes says it's the reason for some of these lawsuits against AI companies where people have taken their own own lives. Yeah, if you convince the AI is wrong, eventually it'll become agreeable if you keep at it. And that really is the crux of the study, the heart of the study.

[00:28:08]What the sizzle says to me, they've been gathering info on us for almost 30 years and they need AI to sort through it all now. They don't know what to do with the data, so hoping AI will tell them and what could go wrong. Mindy Lee says, "I think AI is creative when they make up stories."

[00:28:27]This is a Okay, this is a guilty pleasure. And I don't even know if it's a pleasure. It's just more of a pass the time. They have these AI. They're all ridiculous and stupid and weird, but they have these AI stories about uh on on YouTube about uh things like and they're all like uh uh revenge stories, you know, my uh my grandpa left me $3 million and my parents tried to take it and I sued them or someone made me sell my house so they could give the money to my sister or they they forged documents to to sell my house when I didn't agree.

[00:29:06]All these types of things. So sometimes Jacob and I on the way home from school will listen to one of these ridiculous stories because we think it's funny to hear AI, the voice, the chat voice of AI say some of these things. And some of them will have like comments. The Thanksgiving table smelled like mashed potatoes and lies. It's just funny the way AI is when AI gets dramatic. Maybe I shouldn't admit that we do that.

[00:29:38]Sabotaging it. I read an article that Gen Z is deliberately feeding it incorrect info in the workplace so it spits it out wrong. If that's true, that would actually be really smart. We want to save our jobs, right? Hilo Karen says, "Most AI will take in anything.

[00:29:55]Thus, garbage in, garbage out. It all applies."

[00:30:00]Wes in Florida throwing it a five. Thank you, Weson Florida. Look at it like this. You can trust an AI just as much as you can trust any random person. Some are right. Some are full of BS.

[00:30:15]I don't think a lot of people get that though. See, I agree with you completely.

[00:30:20]Absolutely completely.

[00:30:23]Some people will base a decision on what AI tells them or will base um not only work decisions but life decisions.

[00:30:34]It's getting kind of crazy out there.

[00:30:37]And I think we need to realize exactly what Wes is saying, exactly what Karen is saying. Garbage in, garbage out.

[00:30:43]Trust it as much as you'd trust a person. Absolutely. Thanks for the comment and the contribution. us. Mama says, "Feels like when you tell your younger sibling a ridiculous story just to see if they believe it." It's true.

[00:30:58]Yeah, that's the point. Saving jobs.

[00:31:01]And who needs more garbage? Says Ivon.

[00:31:04]What the sizzle? The worst AI short on YouTube. A giant scorpion on the back of a polar bear. I watched it several times. If a scorpion was that big, it would be in Guinness. And where would a scorpion and a polar bear even meet up?

[00:31:19]Okay, those are that's the obvious, right? When it's obviously false. Some of the some of them though, it takes me a minute and I'll think, okay, is is it AI or is it not AI? Some in a couple cases I've shown it to my husband and said, "All right, what's your thought on this?"

[00:31:36]He's like, "Well," and he'll look at it and go, "Well, here's how you can tell it's AI. Here's the hallmarks of AI." He uses AI in his tech job. He's better at spotting these things than I am.

[00:31:47]Eventually, I guess we're all going to have to become AI experts, try to sleuth out the what's true and what isn't.

[00:31:54]Karen says, "Because AI is based on human input, it can be as diabolical and as nutty as people, or more so without a conscience."

[00:32:08]Karen says, "Hello, Karen. Aloha. I'm very disturbed when my friend who has lots of friends and family depends on chat GPT for advice. What's really frustrating is when someone trusts what chat GPT says over what a human says. So say you have u a worker an employee and you ask the employee a question and they answer one way but chat GPT answers the other way and you go with a chat GPT answer rather than the human expertise.

[00:32:45]That's the way it's going lately.

[00:32:48]Yeah.

[00:32:50]Thanks for tuning in, Miss Organic. I'm so glad to see you moving. We got to get moving, right? Wes says, "Also, think about it. These AIs have tons of info but not tons of experience. They've been around for only a few years, so they're kind of like a toddler." That's the truth. Hey Glenn, greetings from uh Hervey Bay near Gari, just chilling. Are you checking in? I sent you the link.

[00:33:15]Come on you have time. Come on if you'd like. I think AI will be obsolete before any data centers are even built. Maybe.

[00:33:24]I don't know. Oh, I'll post the link in the chat, too, in case you didn't get it, Gwen. There it is. If you feel like coming in, agent Kitty, our mama says, "Uh, my older brother told me if I ate burnt toast, I would get buff like a Hulk Hogan." Oh, that's good. I like it.

[00:33:40]Well, interesting discussion about AI. I think we have to remember it's perhaps not all it's cracked up to be and certainly not quite ready to be trusted just yet is what I'm thinking.

[00:33:55]Oh, Glenn says you want to come on tomorrow. All right. Well, whatever you want to do. Absolutely. No, no pressure, no stress. Happy to have you whenever you want to be here.

[00:34:07]Let's check in with the lotto of the day.

[00:34:10]This is an advice from a sister-in-law.

[00:34:13]Ends up to a big old jackpot. It happened in Maryland. This woman took some advice from her sister-in-law.

[00:34:20]Scored a $77,000 prize from a scratchoff ticket in Maryland. This woman and her sister.

[00:34:28]They both play the lottery all the time.

[00:34:30]They were visiting the Exxon gas station when they bought some lottery tickets.

[00:34:37]She said, "I tell her to buy tickets.

[00:34:39]You never know when you're going to be lucky, according to the sister-in-law.

[00:34:43]So, the woman selects a $10 triple red sevens multiplier ticket, scratches it off, and wins $77,777.

[00:34:54]Five sevens. She says, "I've been doing this for years. She just plays it a couple times and wins," the sister-in-law said. The player went to the lottery headquarters to collect that big fat prize and said she's not sure yet what she'll do with her winnings, but she's considering the purchase of a new car. Don't you have to give some to your sister-in-law?

[00:35:19]I mean, I think if she's the one that encouraged you to buy the tickets, you kind of have to, right?

[00:35:28]I don't know.

[00:35:30]I think you kind of have to. I mean, it would go a long way to preserve family unity.

[00:35:38]I don't know. I don't know how you get out of doing that.

[00:35:42]All right, it is time for Travel Tuesday and we're doing something a little unexpected, which is heading to Texas.

[00:35:56]I know I said I I I historically am not a fan of Texas, but there are some interesting places to look at. And here's my thinking. I'm sorry for my Texas people, but if we go to Texas online, then it's like we don't really have to go there in person.

[00:36:17]Yeah, I know. I've never been a fan of Texas, but here we go. This is Oh, and I forgot to put this up. Travel Tuesday.

[00:36:26]Off we go. 10 best things to do in Texas. And the first one is heading to the space center in the Houston metro area. And this is kind of cool cuz you can explore the NASA legacy here. This is one of the most famous space museum museums in the world. It's Space Center Houston. You can tour a real spacecraft.

[00:36:48]Walk inside a replica of a space shuttle. Ride the NASA tram tour to see mission control and astronaut training facilities.

[00:36:58]This is good for all ages, families, science lovers. If you've ever been curious about space travel, this is the place. It's 30 bucks for a grown-up to get in. It's uh $25 for a child to get in and it is it takes the number one spot on the 10 the list of 10 best things to do in Texas. I will say I have done the second thing on the list because for a time my dad lived in Houston and one weekend we went to San Antonio. Number two and and the Alamo by the way. The number two thing on the list. Yep. San Antonio Riverwalk Cruise.

[00:37:41]It is a journey into Texas history where the uh visiting the Alamo where the heroes fought during the 1836 Battle for Texas Independence.

[00:37:54]They say after you explore the mission, you can head over to the San Antonio Riverwalk for a narrated boat cruise through the vibrant downtown area of San Antonio, offering the best of Texas heritage and hospitality.

[00:38:09]Getting into the Alamo is free. The Riverwalk cruise costs between 14 and 20 bucks in San Antonio, Texas. and they say the insider tip here is to get there as early as possible to beat the uh crowds in this area. I have also been to number three on the list. If you haven't, I will say this, make sure you take your mosquito repellent because the thing I remember most about visiting Galveastston was the mosquitoes the size of house cats. My sister and I had huge hives bites all over our bodies. But number three on the list is in Galveastston.

[00:38:55]It's called Moody Gardens. There are three glass pyramids here. One for aquatic life, one for rainforests, and one for science and discovery. They put in a 3D 4D theater. They've got a paddlehe boat and seasonal events. And it's a huge attraction. Moody Gardens in Galveastston on Galveastston Island.

[00:39:18]It's a hotel, a spa, a convention center. They've got a golf course there.

[00:39:22]You can get a bundle of tickets for about 50 bucks.

[00:39:28]So, very fun. And then, you know, you can always go to the beach at Galveastston as well, but again, I warn you of the mosquitoes.

[00:39:38]Number four on the list, it's right up my alley. Natural Bridge Caverns and Adventure Park in San Antonio. This is in Hill Country.

[00:39:50]This will take your mind off things for a while.

[00:39:54]The caverns looks like a fun place to be.

[00:39:59]Here's a picture of it.

[00:40:02]It looks cool, right? Not just a cave, an underground cathedral of limestone formations. This is Texas's largest commercial cavern. You can take a guided tour and then you can ascend to the surface for zip lines, rope course courses, and a gem mining experience.

[00:40:23]That sounds fun. Good for families, good for thrill seekers. You've got to be age five or over to go down into the caverns. Seven or over to participate in the aerial zip lines. 28 to $35 for the cavern tours. C cavern tours and then more for the adventure packages as well.

[00:40:43]This is located between San Antonio and New Brown Falls. I hope I said that right. Yeah, that looks fun.

[00:40:52]I'll I'll give you that. Texas.

[00:40:55]Next, we're going to this golf course.

[00:40:58]It's the Popstroke Golf and Entertainment in Austin. Now, this place was designed by Tiger Woods. He's had some trouble as of late, but apparently this place is number five on the best the list of best things to do in Texas.

[00:41:15]It blends mini golf innovation, sports bars, and fun tech into one destination.

[00:41:24]They've got customdesigned putting courses, interactive scorekeeping, and a fullervice restaurant at Popstroke.

[00:41:33]It's a great place for a group outing or for family fun. 25 bucks gets you unlimited play.

[00:41:43]And so the pop stroke designed by Tiger Woods. Eat, putt, drink. H. Maybe that's not so timely. I don't know. It's uh it's on the list. Number six on the list. I don't know about this one because you can kind of there's a bunch of these types of lodges all over the place, but this is on the list of best things to do in Texas. It is um it's called the Wolf the Great Wolf Lodge.

[00:42:14]Here's a picture of it.

[00:42:17]It's a an epic indoor water park resort.

[00:42:22]It's kind of one of these giant family fun centers. There are water slides, lazy rivers, themed rooms, arcade games, nightly kids story times.

[00:42:35]They say it's great for grown-ups and kids. Not cheap. The room rates start at $250 a night, which does include your water park access. I don't think that would be what I would do if I was going to a place, you know, if they have those in California or they have those, you know, all over the place, wherever you live. I'm not going to see. It's like It's like why would you seek out going to a uh a chain restaurant in a new place? Kind of want to try something that's unique and individual. So, I don't know if that I would put that on my list, but they put it on there. So, there it is. The next one on the list.

[00:43:14]Yeah, this we're back to the coast, the ocean, and here it is, the boardwalk.

[00:43:24]Kama Boardwalk at Galveastston Bay called a classic seaside destination.

[00:43:31]There are rides, there are games, there are restaurant, there's live music, there's a ferris wheel and roller coasters and a boardwalk bullet for thrillsekers.

[00:43:43]They say while the waterfront dining options and views may appeal to adults, there's a lot of stuff to appeal to kids here as well. And they call it a great day trip from Houston. It's free to get in. The ride passes are between 20 and 45 bucks. This is in Kama, Texas. K E M A H.

[00:44:03]And this is something I don't think I've seen anywhere else. I could be persuaded to do a day of hopscotch, especially since we know any type of movement is good movement. So, why not head to Texas?

[00:44:19]My nose itches. Sorry. and do a little hopscotching at this immersive hopscotch experience.

[00:44:26]Here it is.

[00:44:28]It is Hopscotch immersive art experience. Art meets Instagram at Hopscotch in San Antonio. An immersive gallery of interactive light shows, installations, surreal visuals, playful, trippy, and totally Texan. Adults will appreciate the on-site bar. Kids will love the giant ball pit and the motion activated walls. Tickets are 24 bucks.

[00:44:55]That's located in downtown San Antonio.

[00:44:58]And that looks pretty fun. And I don't think you can go to Texas without going to a a ranch, right? Kind of getting some of the country vibes in. This is Cibilo Creek Ranch and it is in Marfa, which is in West Texas.

[00:45:19]And here's what it looks like.

[00:45:25]Exactly what you would think a ranch would look like. There you go. Horses, rolling hills, nature. It's a 30,000 acre luxury ranch near Marfa. It's wild west vibes with a luxe twist. Activities include horseback riding, UTV desert tours, historic fort stays, and gourmet dining. It's a musto, they say, for couples, photographers, or anyone looking for some remote tranquility with a frontier spirit.

[00:46:00]That's kind of us. We're looking for remote tranquility. We like a frontier spirit.

[00:46:07]Luxury stays here at Cibilo Creek, $500 a night.

[00:46:12]It's in Marfa, Texas. You know, somebody remote tranquility is it costs. That's just the way it goes.

[00:46:24]Oh my goodness.

[00:46:27]Uh then there's, and this is number 10 on the list, and I can see why they made it number 10, because they don't really make it sound all that exciting, but there is the Texas Museum Circuit. And for this you would go to Dallas and Houston and Galveastston to check out the rich cultural traditions of Texas. Texas art immers immersive activities at the museums. This is number 10.

[00:47:00]The sixth floor museum at Dy Plaza in Dallas where you can learn about JFK's history and legacy. the Houston Museum of Natural Science, where you can learn about dinosaurs, gems, and check out the planetarium. And the Brian Museum in Galveastston has one of the largest collection of southwestern artifacts.

[00:47:22]Each museum is ticketed, professionally curated, and offers an indepth dive into Texas and American history.

[00:47:32]That's in Houston, one is in Dallas, and one is in Galveastston. Best they say for history buffs, rainy day plans, and those that are curious.

[00:47:44]Now, there you have it. The best experiences in Texas, the top 10 mustdo activities.

[00:47:51]I feel like we had a little te taste of Texas today. And there it is.

[00:47:57]Thank you to everyone who contributes to the afterparty live on this travel Tuesday. Hopefully, we'll hear from Glenn tomorrow. I'd love to see some live pictures of Australia. So, I'm crossing my fingers that that that happens. No promises, no pressure, but I'm I'm crossing my fingers. Um, I do want to thank the folks that have contributed to keep this show going and make it a a weekly a weekday thing that we do together where we just kind of gather and chill out, talk about the stories that we never would have heard about probably because there's so many huge things happening in the news.

[00:48:38]Thank you to Wes for contributing today both on the super chat super sticker and via PayPal. Huge, huge thank you Meredith D set up her recurring PayPal payment. Huge thank you Meredith Wes from yesterday contributing again. Yvon B James S.

[00:48:58]The PayPal information is in the show description every day and it's in the about tab so you can find it if you are so inclined. Thank you also for the messages and for taking the time to spend on during your day here on the afterparty live. Absolutely love it.

[00:49:18]Okay, go forth. Make it the very best rest of your Tuesday. I'll meet you back on the Mark Thompson show tomorrow where John Rothman will swing by to talk politics. For now, bye everybody.

[00:49:31]The afterparty live would like to thank the following contributors and viewers like you.

[00:50:08]KG.

[00:50:25]Oh, Cranky Charcoal, thank you for the super sticker all the way from the UK.

[00:50:34]Been a while. Thank you so much. Good to have you in Now that should have been on the list.

[00:50:57]Techmex food and barbecue, right?

[00:51:12]Well, I'm sorry to hear it, Liz. I hope she rallies.

[00:51:18]Sending you some good hugs.

[00:51:24]Hilo Karen, thank you for being a better YouTuber than I. Yes, please hit the like button. Clicky likey.

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[00:54:19]That only works until you get so many that you can't yank them out anymore.

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