Coaster Radio: The Original Theme Park Podcast

It's a shorter show this week but don't let that fool you — there is a lot happening. Project Purple at Six Flags Great Adventure is going vertical fast. Like, suspiciously fast for a ride that isn't supposed to open until 2027. Mike and EB break down what the unofficial animations are showing — a launch into an upside-down stall, spinning cars, a 375-foot spire that wraps the track sideways around the tower, and absolutely zero consensus in the enthusiast community on whether this is going to be incredible or a complete head-scratcher. Nobody is in the middle on this one. Also this week — NBA superstar Kevin Durant has purchased the former Six Flags America land through his investment group 35V. All 500 acres of it. What happens next is anyone's guess, but Mike has an extremely optimistic theory involving saving the Wild One that he fully admits is not going to happen. Canada's Wonderland is getting new track on the Mighty Canadian Minebuster AND recycled trains from Six Flags America's old Vekoma hang and bang for a rebranded ride called the Daredeveler. Cedar Point's beloved 50-year-old Monster flat ride is retiring quietly and nobody is going to notice until it's gone. And Six Flags is officially removing the Zamperla Disk'O coasters from their roller coaster counts, which raises the eternal question — was it ever a roller coaster in the first place? And then EB opens a very special package from Erik and Emma — a collection of Disney's Galactic Star Cruiser memorabilia that you cannot buy anywhere on Earth because the experience no longer exists.

Part two of the Coaster Radio Listener Question Show is here and this one gets personal. Mike and EB answer the question every longtime listener has wanted to ask — what would you tell your 2005 selves knowing what you know now? The answer involves regretting the name, wishing they'd bought Facebook stock, and making friends with Neil Patrick Harris sooner. Standard stuff. Also this week — is the theme park industry past its peak or is the best still ahead? Where does EB rank on CoasterCount.com and how many coasters has Mike actually ridden? Is Isle of Berk actually better than Galaxy's Edge? A listener from the Netherlands gets a complete Six Flags Great Adventure survival guide including EB's legendary every-90-minutes dining plan strategy that may or may not feed your entire group on one meal ticket. And the full story of the Cedar Point meetup where Mike and EB set up a grill in the parking lot, flew a 24-foot flag made of PVC pipe, and had to be talked down by both park security and the Sandusky Police — saved only by the British charm of Matt from Yorkshire. Plus Coaster Boy makes a surprise comeback. The Discovery Channel almost gave Mike and EB a TV show three times and ghosted them every time. And what is the biggest thing Coaster Radio has accomplished in 20 years? Spoiler: 800 episodes, one puppet, and one Neil Patrick Harris.

You asked. They answered. Sort of. The 2026 Coaster Radio Listener Question Show is here and there are so many questions this year that it's taking at least two episodes — possibly three — to get through them all. This week Mike and EB tackle the big ones: If you could only live in one non-Disney, non-Universal theme park for the rest of your life, which would it be? What five existing attractions would you steal for your own park? Would you move your podcast to the middle of a desert for a billion dollars? And what cool sounding job title would you want at a theme park? Along the way there are strong opinions about concert disappointments, a heated debate about whether Cake deserves to be the worst live act either host has ever seen, a surprisingly deep discussion about animatronic maintenance at regional parks, a quick update on Six Flags Great Adventure's boardwalk glow-up, a reunion of sorts with the Eastern Motors jingle, and a moment where the whole show almost goes completely off the rails trying to figure out the logistics of actually living inside a theme park. Also this week — YouTube shorts are working, Stardust Racers is finally back up and running, and the Coaster Radio app is your secret weapon for road trips to the parks.