Dan and Nicole are back! After a longer-than-planned hiatus (life happens), the dynamic duo returns for Episode 148 with plenty to catch up on and a loaded lineup of stories to dig into.

First, Nicole comes in hot off a week-long stay at a charming little hotel in Asbury Park, New Jersey (right down the street from the Stone Pony, for the Springsteen fans out there), and that trip sparks a full-blown conversation about hotel room hygiene. A Southern Living article confirms what many frequent travelers already suspect: decorative pillows almost never get washed, the drinking glasses are a gamble, and the ice bucket... well, there's a reason you use the liner. Dan and Nicole compare notes on their Clorox wipe routines, debate whether pricier hotels are actually cleaner (spoiler: not necessarily), and remind you to look at the air vents if you want to ruin every future hotel stay.

From there, the conversation takes a detour into the best kinds of videos on the internet, including human statues pranking unsuspecting tourists, dogs crunching their food, and animals giving idiots exactly what they deserve. Which leads naturally into a story about a 65-year-old grandfather at Yellowstone who got launched eight feet into the air by a bison, despite minding his own business. Dan and Nicole weigh in on buffalo body language (tail up means get out), why this guy probably doesn't belong in the "idiot tourist" category, and why that still shot absolutely needs to be his Christmas card.

Then it's time to talk food labels. California has banned "sell by" dates, replacing them with standardized "best if used by" and "use by" labels in an effort to cut food waste. Dan goes on a very reasonable tangent about how California's regulations have a funny way of becoming everyone's regulations, whether you live there or not.

Finally, the episode wraps up with a legitimately baffling airline story. A United Airlines passenger flying from Los Angeles to Managua, Nicaragua somehow ended up six hours into a flight to Tokyo before anyone told him. The debate over who's at fault, what signs he missed, and whether $2,500 in compensation is too much (Dan says yes) rounds out the episode nicely.

New episodes drop Wednesdays. They also record live on Monday evenings around 7pm Central, so come find them there if you just can't wait. Subscribe wherever you listen, and catch old episodes at stillspinningpodcast.com.