Ask Me Another
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AMA Favorites 002: The "Ophira Plays Favorites" Edition
This week, Ask Me Another leaves the decision making up to host Ophira Eisenberg, as we revisit some of her favorite games from the past two seasons. Ophira's motto: the weirder, the better. We'll analyze literary classics and bestsellers based on one-star Amazon reviews, flip through the pages of etiquette manuals published in the early 1960s, and even attempt the impossible: play Pictionary...on the radio! Plus: a tribute to a Billy Joel classic, reading advertising slogans like Valley...
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213: Frankly, We Heart Boston
For our first-ever show on the road, we chose a city near and dear to our hearts: Boston. In this rousing hour, taped live at the Wilbur Theatre, we poke a little 'pun' at the local accent, imagine famous songs as if they had been written about Boston neighborhoods, and sing everyone's favorite Fenway Park anthem. Plus, we step up our own game, bringing you three guests and hometown heroes: film critic Wesley Morris, young adult author Lois Lowry, and the wit of Capitol Hill, former...
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212: The Human Guinea Pig
This week, go grocery shopping with celebrities, learn to pronounce some really long German words, and have a little 'pun' with animal noises. Plus, find out about one man's quests to read the encyclopedia from A to Z, live his life according to the Bible, and achieve bodily perfection—author of The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically, A.J. Jacobs. How do you quiz the V.I.P. who knows everything?
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203 (R): Send In The Clowns
(Rebroadcast): Ever wanted to run away with the circus? This week’s show might be the next best thing, as Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone, The Big Apple Circus’ husband-and-wife team of globetrotting masked comedy masters, pay a visit. Plus, we’ll follow a famous clown around the world, give some military officers a word game salute, and find out there’s nothing original left in Hollywood.
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211: Always Bet On Black
This week, test your trivia prowess in games about celebrities who share the same name, tech companies that sound like Star Wars planets, and musicians whose names sound delicious. Plus our Very Important Puzzler, comedian, actor and author Michael Ian Black, reveals how becoming a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle launched his career. Hear him break out his best Valley Girl accent in the game "Just Do It?," and since he's a poker enthusiast, we up the ante with a card-themed quiz.
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210: Meme Me Up, Scotty
On the Internet, you have limitless opportunities. You can leave scathing reviews of literary classics on a public forum. You can make a video of a cat doing a silly dance or falling down...and your work can entertain millions of people. Or, you can order many, many Jonathan Coulton CDs. This week's V.I.P., Mike Rugnetta, is the host of the PBS web series Idea Channel, and he has a few ideas of his own about the intersection of technology, philosophy, art and culture. We put him to the test...
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(R) 201: Fifty Shades Of Dr. Ruth
(Rebroadcast) This week, we revisit the 20th century with Billy Joel, write novels the Robert Ludlum way, and catch words with a subtle silent "t". Plus, we talk "Fifty Shades of Grey" with our V.I.P. (that's "Very Important Puzzler"), superstar sex doctor Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
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209: Chess For Success
The "Frankenstein-Dracula," the "King's Indian" and the "Fried Liver" are all famous ways to do what? As this week's V.I.P., International Grandmaster of chess Maurice Ashley, knows, they're all strategies to begin a chess match. In this episode, Ashley divulges his own chess-playing strategy that combines Zen-like meditation with CIA-like mind games. Plus: anagrams for foodies, cartoon characters with speech impediments, and gender-bending pop songs. Ready to play? Check and mate.
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AMA Favorites 001: Lights! Camera! Answers?
This week, Ask Me Another goes celluloid by revisiting some favorite movie games from the past two seasons. We'll mash up plots, contemplate why some films have such ridiculous titles, and even get a little Randy. That's right: did you know that any movie can be Randy Newman-ized with a jaunty tune? Plus: overseas American films get lost in translation, and monsters and villains attempt online dating. Celebrate your inner cinephile, you connoisseurs of IMDB. We're bringing the lights, camera...
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208: He Blinded Me With Science
Science takes center stage this week as we play games about scientific discoveries both intentional and accidental. We'll get brainy with our Very Important Puzzler, Radiolab host Jad Abumrad, as he talks about his quest to become a science vampire. Plus, we roll the dice on clues about our favorite board games and find out the premises of fake TV show adaptations, from Finding Emo to Oy! Story.
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(R) 112: The Puzzle Master Takes On The Puzzle...
Normal 0 false false false (Rebroadcast) What famous fantasy novel follows a group of rabbits in search of laundry detergent? How about Watership Downy? This week on NPR's hour of puzzles, word games, and trivia: famous works of art and literature are slapped with product placement, we honor "Weird Al" Yankovic's timeless tunes, and one of Ask Me Another's own puzzle gurus challenges the puzzle world master, Will Shortz, in an anagram showdown for the ages.
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207: Special Pundits Unit
In the Ask Me Another justice system, contestants are quizzed by two separate yet equally important groups: the puzzle gurus, who investigate pop culture and word oddities, and the score keepers, who prosecute the answers. This week, hear their stories as we test our V.I.P., political pundit Keli Goff, on her favorite series, Law & Order. Plus, celebrate history's greatest thinkers, from Confucius to Carly Rae Jepsen.
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206: The Guttenberg Bible
You may know this week's V.I.P. (Very Important Puzzler) Steve Guttenberg from such iconic films as Diner, Cocoon, and Three Men and a Baby. But he wears plenty of other hats: author, reality show contestant, even Guinness World Record holder. In this episode we'll explore all things Gute. Plus, we'll dine out on some soft rock, give movies the Randy Newman treatment, and find out that Mark Twain isn't all he's cracked up to be.
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(R) 113: How To Be Black
(Rebroadcast) If you love playing around with palindromes, quoting Downton Abbey's Dowager Countess, and spotting factual errors in the news (Editor's note: "What factual errors?"), then this episode will make you so happy, you'll want to clap your hands. Plus, this week's hilarious V.I.P., Baratunde Thurston, has some advice for the Area Man or Woman in all of us.
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205: Sharpen Your Wits (And Your Pencils)
"Shake it like a polar bear ninja!" If you suspect that these are not the correct lyrics to Outkast's "Hey Ya!", then this week's game of mondegreens (misheard lyrics) is for you. We'll also visit the world of late-night infomercials, learn how to tell the difference between Michael Caine and Anthony Hopkins, and root for our favorite gluttonous, envious, lustful basketball team: the Phoenix Sins. Plus, V.I.P. David Rees teaches us how to sharpen pencils the artisanal way.
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204: So A Girl Walks Into A Bar...
This week's versatile V.I.P., Rosie Schaap, has had spells as an author, an ordained minister, a fortuneteller, and a bartender — which serves her well during a delectable drinking game. And with quizzes covering highfalutin children's literature, crossbred celebrities and a geologist's favorite Queen song, this week's contestants show a little versatility, too.
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(R) 101: The Man Who Knew Too Much. Way Too Much.
(Rebroadcast) So you think you're a TV buff. But how well do you know shows by their episode titles? Contestants are put to some pop culture challenges, like deciphering breakfast cereal haikus and a remixed nursery rhyme. Plus, this week's V.I.P. is a certain brainiac who shares a few of his favorite apocalyptic prophesies.
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The Man Who Knew Too Much. Way Too Much.
(Rebroadcast) So you think you're a TV buff. But how well do you know shows by their episode titles? Contestants are put to some pop culture challenges, like deciphering breakfast cereal haikus and a remixed nursery rhyme. Plus, this week's V.I.P. is a certain brainiac who shares a few of his favorite apocalyptic prophesies.
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Send In The Clowns
Ever wanted to run away with the circus? This week's show might be the next best thing, as Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone, The Big Apple Circus' husband-and-wife team of globetrotting masked comedy masters, pay a visit. Plus, we'll follow a famous clown around the world, give some military officers a word game salute, and find out there's nothing original left in Hollywood.
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Once A Jersey Girl...
Do you know what a Russian pig sounds like? What about a Japanese bee? Find out as we test you on animal kingdom noises, spoil some TV show finales, and walk the streets with a song in our hearts. Plus, our V.I.P. may make her living as a Czech musician, but she's a Jersey girl at heart — it's Cristin Milioti, star of the Broadway musicalOnce.
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Fifty Shades Of Dr. Ruth
This week, we revisit the 20th century with Billy Joel, write novels the Robert Ludlum way, and catch words with a subtle silent "t". Plus, we talk "27 Shades of Grey" with our V.I.P. (that's "Very Important Puzzler"), superstar sex doctor Dr. Ruth Westheimer.
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Bonus: A Holiday Hullabaloo
On this behind-the-scenes, podcast-only extra, host Ophira Eisenberg warms up the crowd before a taping of Ask Me Another with a childhood tale of her fascination with Christmas. Plus house musician Jonathan Coulton and special guest John Roderick perform a rousing rendition of the title track from their new holiday album "One Christmas At A Time."
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How To Be Black
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The Puzzle Master Takes On the Puzzle Grasshopper
What famous fantasy novel follows a group of rabbits in search of laundry detergent? How about Watership Downy? This week, famous works of art and literature are slapped with product placement, we honor...Weird Al...Yankovic’s timeless tunes, and one of Ask Me Another’s own challenges the puzzle world master in an anagram showdown for the ages.
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The Big, Mean, and Green
Can you tell the difference between a Harry Potter spell, a prescription drug, and a piece of IKEA furniture? This week, some brainy contestants have the chance to befriend both Gore Vidal and Dracula, while our Mystery Guest, a Rhodes Scholar-turned-filmmaker and comic book scribe, is put to the test in this hour of puzzles and trivia.
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The Girl Who Played With Her Food
This week’s contestants try to translate some international film titles, like...Meetings and Failures in Meetings...back into English, and name another military official, besides Colonel Sanders, who’s famous for his chicken. Chances are, this week’s Mystery Guest, a sweet-toothed chemist in her culinary laboratory, knows the answer.
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Secret Agent Man
Host Ophira Eisenberg and her puzzle gurus serve up presidential tunes from our nation’s capital, such as the hit song...Summer of 69... by the second U.S. President John Adams…wait a minute. Also on the menu are a variety of cheeses—or are they Moby Dick characters? This week’s Mystery Guest probably knows, since his specialty is intelligence.
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The Sporting Lifer
What sounds right...remember the Alamo...or...remember the Aniston? For this hour of puzzles and trivia, it may help to know both. Contestants try to top the lyrical talents of Justin Bieber, while a backwards spelling bee turns a few heads. Plus, our Mystery Guest, a best-selling journalist, tests his knowledge of pro athletes-turned-bad actors.
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The...Too Many Editions...Edition
What ever happened to predictability? ...asked one esteemed poet – or was that a TV theme song? Host Ophira Eisenberg and her puzzle mavens travel to Washington, D.C. to look for math in odd places, and some classic novels find some fitting new underwriters. All this, plus a special visit from this week’s Mystery Guest, a worldly NPR correspondent.
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You Always Remember Your First KISS
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt shares a name with several of us, but did you know that Swingers director Jon Favreau shares his name with a White House speechwriter? This hour of puzzles and games involves shared names, fictional love triangles, and a quiz specially tailored for our Mystery Guest, a notable rock critic and pop culture aficionado.
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The Maverick of the Twitter Set
What if horror film characters ran personal ads on dating sites, and musicians wrote songs like...Wake Up, Little Herman? Our puzzle gurus imagine such a world, while our Mystery Guest, a 21st-century political darling, tells us what makes America sexy, and shows us that the good life is but a tweet away.
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Auto-Tune The Puzzle Show
House musician Jonathan Coulton takes a 90s alt-rock hit around the world in this week’s music game, while contestants go to Tinseltown for some weird movie mash-ups. And ever wonder what car Tiger Woods might drive if he wanted to keep out of Page Six? Speaking of news, this week’s Mystery Guests tell us how they keep in tune with the headlines.
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They Had Me At Hello
“Radio is a sound salvation,” sang Elvis Costello, and it’s also the theme of Jonathan Coulton’s euphonious music quiz. Speaking of music, our Mystery Guest is a Broadway superstar, put to the test on her musical theater know-how. Plus, mutated movie titles, a double name game, and an etiquette test from the 1960s. Got a light?
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What Not To Wear On The Radio
What do you get when you throw Leonard Bernstein, a 19th-century murderer, and the CEO of Goldman Sachs in a room together? Perhaps the best R.E.M. song ever. In this hour, contestants create horrific hybrids like Dr. Moreau, rewrite some outdated Cole Porter lyrics, and join this week's Mystery Guest to evaluate their own signature flourish.
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The Man Who Knew Too Much. Way Too Much.
So you think you’re a TV buff—but how well do you know your shows by their episode titles? This week’s contestants are put to some pop culture challenges, like deciphering breakfast cereal haikus and a remixed nursery rhyme. Plus, a certain brainiac shares a few of his favorite apocalyptic prophesies.
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