The summer after high school, a Texas drive-in projection booth seemed like the perfect job, and home video was the future. Four decades later, after years of cable television, Netflix DVDs, and streaming services, a COVID-era screening of Godzilla vs. Kong answered an unexpected question about what movie theaters still provide.

Inside a nearly empty Waco theater, eight audience members, a baby in a stroller, and a deafening monster battle combined to make an ordinary Saturday afternoon feel acutely momentous. This episode explores what was lost during the pandemic—and what was rediscovered—when people finally returned to the movies.

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A Little Free Library on North 43rd Street doesn’t look like that much: a blue wooden box on a post filled with donated books, puzzles, and whatever else happens to land there. But after stumbling across its decade-long trail of guestbook entries, holiday decorations, repairs, a missing weather vane, and an outbreak of alleged book theft, it starts to seem like something more.

An examination of one of Waco’s smallest free libraries turns into a reflection on the fingerprints people leave behind when they build something and then let it go.

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A picture on Facebook of a hot dog buried beneath guacamole, carne asada, sour cream, and pico de gallo raises a simple question: Where’s the actual hot dog? What begins as a close look at the “Cali Dog”—available for “only” $11—leads to Waco’s month-long Hot Dog Crawl, complete with a passport app, voting for the best dog, hot dog t-shirts, and even runners covering the 22 miles between participating restaurants.

Somewhere between the ballpark and the hot dog crawl, the humble wiener became more than just lunch. This week’s episode explores how one of America’s simplest foods is now your ticket to an entirely different kind of Saturday afternoon.

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Hit subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode of Your Waco Weekend—and visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠wacoinsider.stubstack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to sign up for our weekly newsletter.