How To!: Put Your Town on the Map
Slate Daily Feed
Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 October 2022
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If you've ever vacationed on the beaches of Delaware, chances are you drove right by Smyrna. It's a small but charming town that's been bypassed by the main highways. Which is why Mike, a small business owner on the town council, wants to create a spectacular, engaging roadside attraction to tempt tourists into town. The only snag? He doesn't know what to actually build.
On this episode of How To!, we bring on roadside attraction aficionado Erika Nelson. She's the creator of The World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things. She's also an artist who helps towns like Smyrna develop their own car-stopping attractions. She decodes the magic of the most wondrous roadside attractions and explains why hosting a Guinness world record-holding object is not the only key to success. You also have to tell a good story.
If you liked this episode, check out: "How To Convince People to Give You Money."
Do you have a question without an answer? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you'll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus to help support our work.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello I'm Ian Stirling and I'm with one of McCain's farmers who grow their |
| 0:04.0 | petite hang on these are odd looking potatoes. That's kale Ian. You do know you |
| 0:08.9 | need potato to make chips right? Yes but we don't just grow potatoes we actually |
| 0:13.8 | rotate different crops to help keep the soil healthy. So we eat McCain chips I'm |
| 0:17.7 | helping do some good. Exactly yeah you're supporting the move to regenerative |
| 0:21.8 | farming. By the way I do know the difference between kale and potatoes. Of course |
| 0:27.2 | you do. McCain let's all check in. What's one attraction you think everyone should |
| 0:34.2 | see at least once in their life? Oh hands down the world's largest fall of |
| 0:38.9 | twine I mean that is that's a cultural icon. Yeah and you have to listen to the |
| 0:44.2 | song over and over and over again while you're driving there to annoy you |
| 0:48.2 | that's part of it you're listening to how to I'm Amanda Ripley that was |
| 1:08.3 | Weirdel Yankovic singing about one of our country's most famous roadside |
| 1:12.6 | attractions. Now why are we playing this song? Well the other day a listener called |
| 1:18.1 | into the how-to hotline with an unusual request. How can our town he wanted to |
| 1:23.4 | know build a truly awesome roadside attraction? One that delights and inspires |
| 1:29.2 | one that rivals the largest fall of twine in America. Our list serves from a |
| 1:35.7 | little town in Delaware called Smurna. A place you've probably never heard of which |
| 1:41.2 | is part of the problem. Smurna is a small town we are about 13,000 people a |
| 1:46.7 | very agriculturally focused area of our state but it still has this wonderful |
| 1:52.0 | little small town charm. That's Mike. He wears many hats in Smurna. In addition to |
| 1:57.0 | running a fleet of taco trucks he owns a craft distillery in an old renovated |
| 2:01.3 | movie house. He's a member of the town council and he sits on the county |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.