This week we're celebrating Independence Day, which means it's time for cookouts, fireworks and, of course, Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest.
In celebration of the big event that happens each year on the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, we have special guest George Shea, chairman of Major League Eating and the energetic public address announcer for the contest. 
Since this is a program about weather, climate, and meteorology, the hosts discuss how weather comes into play for the competitors such as Joey Chestnut, who has won 15 of the last 16 competitions, and defending women's champion Miki Sudo. Shea also talks about how he prepares for the big event as well as how the weather plays into his wardrobe decisions. 
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About the Across the Sky podcast
The weekly weather podcast is hosted on a rotation by the Lee Weather team:
Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.
Episode transcript
Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically:
Happy 4th of July, everyone from our Across the Sky podcast team. I’m meteorologist Joe Martucci. Join me from Chicago is Matt Holiner. We have a maybe our most unique episode of the Across the Sky podcast. We managed to snag an interview with George Shea. You may not know the name, but you definitely know his suit in the hat at the Nathan's 4th of July eating contest.
He is the chairman of Major League Eating. He is the host of the contest. We have him on to talk all things hot dogs. Sean Sublette, who is the meteorologist at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He balked at this interview. I don't think the hot dogs agreed with him there. Kirsten Lang is on maternity leave, so she has a little say.
What do we think, Matt? A more valid reason for not being on the podcast? Because I knew I knew we were in trouble when when this all started, when we were talking about our sports betting episode, how weather impacts sports and you brought up, you know, hey, what about the hot dog eating contest? What about major league eating?
And as soon as you the hot dog eating contest, the look on Shawn's face over Zoom is a record. This over Zoom is priceless or a look of horror you describe. It just crossed his face. And I was like, I don't think he's going to do that episode. Right. So only the strong survive here. Matt and I, we're here and we'll just get into it.
Let's talk to George Shea about the Nathan's hot dog eating contest.
All right. And we are here. A 4th of July is coming up on Tuesday. And when I think 4th of July, the first thing I think of is the Nathan's hot dog eating contest. So who better to have on than the chairman of Major League eating and the host of the Nathan's hot dog eating contest, George Shea? George, it is great to be here with you.
Happy early 4th of July to you. How you feeling? And as we get into the event here, that will be coming up on Tuesday. Well, thank you very much for having me, both of you. I appreciate that. We're very excited. Obviously, the tension high, the 4th of July is on us, but we're you know, every year it's crazy.
You're up and down. You have different things to deal with. But we are ready to rock and roll. And I think it's going to be a great event, always a great event. On the corner of Surf and Stillwell in Coney Island. I was there in 2011 when Sonya Thomas won the women's event. Joey Chestnut was doing his thing.
There. It was. It wasn't too hot that day, but it was humid. I remember we