Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast

Podbit · Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast

Ep 624 - Big Boy (feat. Nate Marshall)

Explore episode Jul 16, 2026
Government
NYC Mayor Mamdani's Thermostat Mandate

Ep 624 - Big Boy (feat. Nate Marshall) · Jul 16, 2026 Government

NYC Mayor Mamdani asked residents not to set AC below 74°F during a heat wave — Taylor Swift apparently ignored this entirely for her MSG wedding. Matt McCusker sees it as a potential 'totalitarian tiptoe': a small compliance test to gauge how much control the government can actually wield.

Where this was said

Big Boy: The Train That Hospitalized a Hundred People

At 1:03:50 · chapter starts 58:55

This is the episode's crown jewel. Nate Marshall casually mentions that the Big Boy — a famous historic steam locomotive making a national tour — passed through Central Pennsylvania during a brutal heat wave, and over 100 people collapsed from heat exhaustion just standing by the tracks waiting for it to pass. Thirty were hospitalized. There were no deaths. The guys are helpless with laughter. Matt imagines his kid passing out and him quietly walking back to the car alone. He imagines the scene — a field of prone train enthusiasts, the Big Boy's horn blaring, no concession stand in sight. The kicker: one of the stops was Nate's hometown of Reading, PA — literally the Reading Railroad from Monopoly. The line hadn't run through there in Nate's entire lifetime, making it a genuinely historic moment that just happened to fell a hundred of the palest people in Central Pennsylvania.

News
Big Boy Train Disaster

Ep 624 - Big Boy (feat. Nate Marshall) · Jul 16, 2026 News

Over 100 people collapsed from heat exhaustion and 30 were hospitalized while standing outside waiting for the historic Big Boy steam locomotive to roll through Pennsylvania. There were no deaths, just a field of passed-out train nerds.

News
The Reading Railroad Connection

Ep 624 - Big Boy (feat. Nate Marshall) · Jul 16, 2026 News

One of the Big Boy's stops was Nate Marshall's hometown of Reading, PA — literally the Reading Railroad from Monopoly. The line hasn't run through there in his lifetime, making the event a genuine civic moment that happened to kill nobody but hospitalize dozens.

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