A shorter episode this week, and a special one: Project Purple at Six Flags Great Adventure finally has a name and a POV video, and it might be the strangest thing we have ever seen a roller coaster do.

Bakunawa — named for the moon-eating sea serpent of Filipino mythology — launches riders 60 mph out of the station, sends them upside down into a vertical stall while launching them a second time, then blasts them up a 382-ft tower at 100mph with zero floor beneath the seats before doing the entire thing again backwards. Mike and EB break down the three separate launches, debate whether "more of everything" is actually a substitute for something new, and land on the one moment in the ride that they think makes it worth the drive.

After the break, Dollywood finally locks in an opening date for the long-delayed NightFlight Expedition: August 19th, following pass-holder previews. The guys will talk through why this ride could be the best of 2026.

And then the news that prompted this shorter episode in the first place, Mike and EB officially announce Coaster Radio is moving its release date after more than 20 years of Thursday nights — new episodes will now drop early Tuesday mornings, timed to catch weekend park news and midweek commutes.

This week opens on sad news: Dick Knoebel, the iconic owner of Knoebels's Amusement Resort, has passed away. He was one of the true greats of the family-owned park world. Mike and EB share a piece of an interview they did with him back in 2006, on the midway in front of the Phoenix, and talk about why Knoebels still feels different from every other park in the country — and why that's exactly what he wanted.

From there, the news picks up: Fury 325 at Carowinds is back up and running after the park caught a foundation issue on one of its support columns during a routine inspection. Holiday World is extending Friday Night Live hours and adding two brand-new fall operating dates in November. And Mike and EB spend a solid chunk of the show gawking at a Heritage Auctions listing selling off actual Disney park memorabilia — a customized Big Thunder Mountain bench going for over $10,000, a Tomorrowland trash can pushing $2,000, and a Twilight Zone Tower of Terror chandelier that might, weirdly, be the one item on the list actually worth the price.

Then there's the story the guys can't stop speculating about: Silver Dollar City has pulled its mine-train coaster Thunderation to make way for what it's calling the largest investment in the park's history, wrapped in an elaborate in-universe press release about a fictional 1880s mining company "returning to work" beneath Marvel Cave. Given the ride's footprint sits right next to the park's real cave tour entrance, Mike and EB dig into what an actual underground attraction at Silver Dollar City could look like — and why the August 14th reveal might be the most interesting theme park announcement of the year.

The back half is a trip report showcase: a live in-park report on the brand new Tormenta Rampaging Run at Six Flags Over Texas, a visit to a certain small, deranged-millionaire-built park in Georgia, Flying Fox at Kentucky Kingdom, a listener's 150th ride on Wrath at California's Great America, and a family day at Lake Winnepesaukah that ends with a first roller coaster credit for a very lucky three-year-old. Also, there's some 80's pop nostalgia that you won't want to miss.

Busch Gardens Tampa is closing Kumba, one of the most beloved B&M sit-down coasters ever built and the fourth-oldest operating B&M in the world, on August 2nd. Mike and EB spend the first drop giving a 33-year-old classic its proper send-off — the terrain-hugging layout, the iconic photo op under the corkscrew, the fact that it opened the same year Mike graduated high school — before digging into what "Kumba's Revenge" and a $100 million investment might mean for the space it leaves behind.

From there, the news gets genuinely interesting: a strong rumor that Disney World's Space Mountain could get fully gutted and rebuilt from the inside out (with the guys making the case for why the purists are wrong this time), a D23 session themed to the Carousel of Progress that's being hosted by none other than Coaster Radio's own announcer, Neil Patrick Harris, and a reveal date for Six Flags Great Adventure's mysterious Project Purple — teased via a barnacle-covered shipping container reading "GVV," which may or may not stand for a name neither host can bring themselves to like.

After the break, EB dives into a genuinely enormous care package from a listener packed with park maps, hats, collectible coins, and ceramic bourbon poker chips, before the two get into the show's real centerpiece this week: BlooLoop's list of the 26 best theme park attractions in the world. It's a sprawling, hotly contested countdown spanning six continents' worth of dark rides, and Mike and EB don't hold back — disagreeing hard on Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, defending Pirates of the Caribbean's 60-year-old technology, and debating whether a ride that's been open for a matter of months deserves to be crowned the single best attraction on the planet.