Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

00:01 This message comes from the podcast, Love It or Leave It. Every week, John Lovett takes listeners through the biggest stories in politics and culture. Comedians, Hollywood legends, and politicians join in the fun. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. 00:19 From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm your judge and scorekeeper, classically trained by Judge Judy herself. 00:30 I'm Alzo Slade, and here's your host at the Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Alzo. Oh, thank you, everybody. 00:41 Wow. 00:43 Wow. Thank you. Yes, it is exciting. We have a great show for you today. Later on, we are going to be joined by the legendary actor Sally Field. 00:52 Yes. 00:55 herself. 00:57 She was just nominated for an Emmy for her role in Remarkably Bright Creatures on Netflix. 01:04 We have some fans. Okay, this is a movie where she co-stars with an octopus. 01:11 Sadly, the Emmys snubbed the octopus. 01:15 We promise to recognize your work, so pick up your phone and give us a call. The number is 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. Let's welcome our first listener contestant. Hi, you're on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. 01:26 Hi, I'm Quincy from Dallas, Texas, but currently living in Austin, Texas. 01:30 Okay. 01:32 So you're Quincy, you're from Dallas, but you're temporarily located in Austin. What made you do that? 01:38 I'm a student at the University of Texas. Oh, great. 01:41 Yes. And what are you studying, may I ask? 01:45 I'm doing aerospace engineering. Are you? 01:49 She's going to have a job. 01:52 Are you, he said, in a way meant to subtly foreshadow some of the questions we have for you. Well, welcome to our show, Quincy. Let me introduce you to our panel. First up, she's an Emmy-nominated writer and comedian. It's Shantira Jackson. 02:08 Hi, Quincy. Hi, Shantira. Hi. 02:12 Next, he's a humorist and founder of Hatch Space Woodworking School and Community Workshop in Brattleboro, Vermont. It's Tom Beaudet. 02:19 Hello, Quincy. Hi, Tom. And a comedian you can see in Munhall, Pennsylvania on September 25th, whose podcast is Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone. It's Paula Poundstone. 02:33 Hey, Quincy. Hi, Paula. How you doing? Good. 02:37 So, Quincy, you're going to play Who's Alzo this time. Alzo Slade is going to read you three quotations from this week's news. Your job correctly. Identify or explain two of them. You'll win our prize. Any voice from our show you might choose on your voicemail. Are you ready to go? 02:50 Yes, sir. 02:50 Okay. Here we go, Quincy. Your first quote is from a NASA investigator. I think it will be a beautiful crater. That investigator was reacting to news that a rocket crashed this week into what? 03:04 The moon. 03:04 Yes, the moon. 03:09 A SpaceX rocket crashed into the moon after being left in orbit. This happened at a bad time for both of Elon Musk's companies, SpaceX and Tesla. Their stocks tanked this week, but it is still impressive that even though this happened on the moon, the rocket still managed to take out several pedestrians. 03:29 How does a rocket crash into the moon? I mean, did somebody fall asleep at a switchboard or? 03:34 No, no, this was a rocket stage. You know, the rockets have stages, these big parts, segments of the rocket. And this was left in orbit and it's just been floating out there. And eventually its path crossed the path of the moon. And well, you know, when two objects love each other very much. 03:52 Well, this is a question for Quincy, being a scientist engineer. 03:57 Now, don't things orbit like 200 miles up? And isn't the moon like further than like 250,000 miles up? I don't think this was an accident. I'm not a conspiracy guy. You think somebody had it out for the moon? It's hard to hit the moon. There's a lot of math. And hitting it by accident is like winning the Powerball. 04:22 To be fair, it is actually very hard to land a rocket safely on the moon. That's why we don't expect to be able to do it until 57 years ago. 04:35 We've already put the first man on the moon. Maybe he wants to put the first man in the moon. It's possible, yeah. 04:41 Are all these tech guys not going to have to start crashing their rockets in there? Like now Bezos is going to send a bigger rocket going a little faster. 04:50 Look at my crater. 04:51 You thought you messed up with the moon. Watch me. 04:54 The thing is, we all remember what Jeff Bezos' rockets look like. They're sort of cylinders that bulge out at the top. They're very indicative of something, some concern. I'm just imagining the image of that crashing, heading into the moon. It would be like one of those illustrations of how life begins. Right. 05:14 Oh, no, I'll never be able to unsee that. I know. 05:19 I was going to say, can you imagine how hard the moon tries to get out of the way? 05:28 Quincy, for your next quote, here is a citizen of Mexico giving his opinion on an American burrito chain that just opened there. It's gringo food for gringos. So... 05:40 What American burrito chain just opened their first ever branch in Mexico? 05:45 Is it Chipotle? 05:46 It is Chipotle. 05:50 Or, as they say in Mexico, Chipotle. 05:56 America invading Mexico with Chipotle restaurants really puts the colon in colonized. 06:03 And... 06:06 There is a chance to see the subtle differences between the American version of Mexican food and the authentic version. For example, in Mexico, they also have cyclospora, but there it's made with cane sugar. 06:22 So is this very recent? 06:24 I mean, do we know how it's doing? 06:26 Well, apparently they opened it in the town of Monterrey, Mexico, in northern Mexico, which, because it's near the border, has a lot of American restaurants. People are used to that. It's not Mexican food. They know it's not, but it's tasty and decent fast food. 06:38 I think I'm getting a spaghetti factory franchise for Rome. 06:43 Well, you know, I wouldn't do that because there is a sad history here. They tried opening a pizza hut there once and that's why they joined the other side of World War II. 06:55 They didn't take that well. 06:57 All right, Quincy, your last quote is about a new device for new parents. 07:03 Infants survive just fine before infrared night vision cameras. 07:06 That was the New York Times talking about the new thing that everybody gets after they get their first baby. What is it? 07:14 Is it like crib cam, baby cam? 07:16 Yeah, it's like a baby monitor, but not just a baby monitor. The $400 Nanit monitor tracks your baby throughout the night on more than a dozen metrics, including their breathing, their movements, their so-called sleep efficiency. And also, this is true, it takes a photo of the baby's facial expression whenever a parent walks into the room and then... without being told, it will edit those photos into a montage for you, which is a great way to know which parent the baby likes more. 07:52 So it's a flat camera for babies. 07:54 It really is. So it's basically turning the nursery into an ICU. Pretty much, yeah. It's like the nurse's station's got a blue light and a buzzer out there when the blood pressure drops. Yeah, pretty much. 08:05 It covers, it's like, it's a huge leap forward. Finally, a baby monitor that gives parents more things to worry. Yeah. 08:12 I used to, you know, I sleep on the floor and... 08:16 I didn't know that. Yeah. 08:19 You can't fall out a floor. 08:23 So when my son was a baby, he also slept on the floor a lot. And so he was taking a nap one day. Just an infant. But I'd put a blanket down on the floor for a minute. It was in the summer. It was wicked hot. 08:39 But I put him on the blanket. And then I'd go downstairs. And we didn't have things like that. No, no. And... 08:45 In a while, I go up to check on him, and he's on the wood floor and not on the blanket anymore. And I'm like, oh, sorry about that. And I move him back. 08:56 And then I go back downstairs. In a little while, I go up to check on him, and he's on the wood floor again. Now, see, if I had had this camera, I would have realized how hard he tried to get to the wood floor. 09:07 Because it was cooler than that damn blanket. He was a baby, but he wasn't a stupid baby. 09:14 Now, this, of course, is AI, and it's connected to the internet where they store all the data. Many parents are concerned about exposing their babies to so much surveillance, and they're worried about how all this data might be used. But Nanette Company says, don't worry, your baby loves it. We know because we're looking at him right now. 09:33 So, Alzo, how did Quincy do in our quiz? She passed with flying colors. Three out of three. Congratulations. Congratulations. 09:43 Thank you. Thank you, Quincy. Good luck with your studies, and I'm sure your rockets will not crash into anything. 09:48 Thank you so much. Bye, guys. 09:49 Bye-bye. 09:50 I've been thinking about you for hours. My mind's racing with hearts and flowers. I can't help it. I'm hooked on you. I'm kind of thinking that you are, too. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Be my baby love. Oh, oh, oh, oh. I'll never let you go. 10:11 Right now, panel, time for you to answer some questions about this week's news. Paula, we know all about the loneliness epidemic, but the Washington Post this week had some advice for making new friends. They say you should just become friends with who? 10:27 Give me a hint, Peter. 10:28 It might be friends with what? And I'll give you a hint. The first thing you should do is take down that thing in the field that scares them away. Oh, birds, crows. Crows, yes. Make friends with a crow, everybody. 10:39 Wow, that is helpful. It'll improve your life. 10:41 According to the Post, more and more people are becoming friends with crows. They give the crows treats. until the crow learns to start showing up every day. Some even take it further. They walk around with their new crow friend on their shoulder, which is great if you've always aspired to be an omen that whoever sees is about to die. 11:03 I love crows because they're loyal. If they see somebody do something to you, that becomes their enemy. How do you know this? Because I'm a millennial. We all love birds. 11:13 Really? 11:14 Yeah. 11:17 As soon as you turn 35, you got to go get into birds. 11:21 Really? 11:22 Yes. Wow. You know what? I have an owl in my neighbor's tree that some nights hoots. And I go out and hoot back to it as best I can. I have recordings of it. It's kind of great, actually. So, you know, he'll do, you know, and then I wait a second. I go. 11:40 Do you think the owl likes that? Do you think the owl tells his owl friends like every night? He says, watch this. Ready? Ready? 11:48 No, really. It's really funny. Here we go. 11:51 I sent the recording of it to my daughter, and she wrote me back. She goes, Mom, be careful. You don't know what you're saying. I swear. 12:11 Coming up, our panelists don't break a leg in our beloved listener game called 1-888-WAIT-WAIT-TO-PLAY. We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR. 12:21 Support comes from our 2026 lead sponsor of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, Odoo. If your business runs on five different apps, 12 browser tabs, and one spreadsheet that everyone's afraid to touch, it's probably time for Odoo. Odoo is an all-in-one business management software platform. Instead of wasting time switching between systems, your business works together in real time. Odoo gives you one flexible platform built to grow with you. Try for free today at odoo.com slash wait, wait. That's odoo.com slash wait, wait. 12:53 50 years ago, Congress set out to protect coal miners from black lung disease. Today, it's back at rates not seen in half a century. 13:02 These guys are being treated like disposable widgets, not human beings. 13:06 On the Sunday story, why coal miners in Appalachia are getting sicker faster. Listen now to the Sunday story from the Up First podcast on the NPR app. 13:17 Attention, a PSA from Shortwave, NPR science podcast. You need to be paying more attention to your poop. 13:24 I really do think that this deep stigma we have about talking about pooping is tied to these early onset colorectal cancer cases. What to watch out for and how to decode the secret messages hidden in your poop on Shortwave. 13:38 Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. 13:45 From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Alzo Slade. We're playing this week with Tom Baudet, Paula Poundstone, and Shantira Jackson. And here again is your host at the Student Breaker Theater in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. 14:01 Thank you, Alzo. Thank you, everybody. 14:05 Right now... 14:07 It is time. Thank you, everybody. Right now, it's time for the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me Bluff the Listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play our game on the air. Hi, you're on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. 14:16 Hey, Peter. This is Dan Blondo from Crozet, Virginia. 14:18 Crozet, Virginia. Now, I don't know where that is. Where is it? 14:21 It is just outside of Shenandoah National Park near Charlottesville. 14:25 Oh, beautiful. I know that area. What do you do there? 14:28 I am a communications consultant. Sounds fancier than it is. It's really not. I put words in other people's mouths. 14:35 Right. 14:36 It's not like you say to people, just speak a little slower, enunciate more, that sort of thing. Yeah, just like that. Just like that. Okay. Well, Dan, welcome to the show. It's great to have you. You're going to play the game in which you must try to tell truth from fiction. 14:50 Alzo, what is Dan's topic? 14:51 The show must not go on. 14:54 We all know the old adage, the show must go on. At least that's what my producers tell me every week when I hide in the closet again. But this week we heard about a show that did not, in fact, go on. Our panelists are going to tell you why. Pick the real one and you'll get the wait waiter of your choice on your voicemail. You ready to play? Yeah. I'm ready. Okay, that's great. First, let's hear from Tom Beaudet. 15:19 In the Green Mountain State, there is a community theater company to fill every empty Grange Hall. These performers have been hardened by years of grinding out shows come Vermont heat, sleet, snow, and high water. 15:32 But the Essex Community Players spring production of Rocky Horror Show has been canceled while still in rehearsals due to the musical director receiving anonymous, threatening text messages. 15:44 That must be hard. You're trying to do your job as a musical director, but you keep getting all these threatening texts. Plus, you have to spend all that time sending the threatening text to yourself. 15:56 That's right. He was texting himself. 16:00 Once the police discovered the text, he admitted to creating a false account and sending himself threats, so he had an excuse to step away from the production instead of the real reason, which is that he hated everyone so much. 16:15 He had put up a Facebook post complaining about the cast and crew, and when confronted about it, he refused to apologize. Rocky Horror Show, dead. Passive-aggressive conflict avoidance in the arts, sold-out shows daily across Vermont and beyond. 16:32 A production of the Rocky Horror Show, the community theater in Vermont, canceled. 16:36 because the musical director sent threatening notes to himself because he just couldn't stand the drama. Your next curtain call off is from Shantira Jackson. 16:47 Move over, Sondheim. There's a new place to send in the clowns. For the past 25 years, Clown Fest has taken over the streets of Paris, Tennessee. 16:57 Sad clowns, happy clowns, and Bill Skarsgård all came together in one car to celebrate their craft. This year, things went a bit awry when the clown chorus had to cancel their annual clown concert at the clown brunch. 17:11 With their makeup on and sheet music in hand, the audience watching was met with silence when it turned out that everyone who had volunteered for the clown concert was a mime. 17:23 With dozens of completely silent mimes on stage pretending to sing, one onlooker described it as, quote, kind of weird. 17:33 Organizers of Clown Fest apologized for the mimes and the uncomfortable silence by squirting everyone in the face with a little bit of water from a flower. 17:45 The... 17:48 The clown concert at Clown Fest 2026 ruined because all the clowns who were singing were mimes. Your last story of a stage gone silent comes from Paula Poundstone. 17:58 When Long Island fiddler Greg Grinnell hit a rut in the fiddling business, he had to come up with something new. So he adapted with the times, or at least the times 60 years ago when Fiddler on the Roof came out. He thought, I'm a fiddler, I should get on a roof. He had never seen the musical. He invited everyone he knew, ex-girlfriends, fiddler friends, fiddler enemies, his mom. He picked the most beautiful roof in town, a gorgeous Victorian-style house with the perfect Tourette to perch upon. When the audience filled in, which was surprisingly large considering it was just a guy fiddling, Greg was nervous, but he grabbed his fiddle and crawled up the ladder to get in place. 18:37 The crowd was going nuts, Fandler, Fandler, they were chanting. He started his first song and within seconds went tumbling off the roof, bouncing off the gutter, only to land perfectly atop a stabilizing bush. The show was canceled, but since then, Greg has actually seen Fiddler on the Roof and agrees with the show. 18:56 Tradition. Without traditions, our lives would be as shaky as a Fiddler on the Roof. 19:05 So these are your stories of a show that did not go on. Was it from Tom Beaudet, a production of the Rocky Horror Show in Vermont canceled because the musical director sent himself threatening texts just to get out of it. From Shantira Jackson, the clown chorus at the clown fest being ruined because all the clowns who showed up were mimes. Or from Paula Poundstone, a fiddler who decided to try being a fiddler on the roof without having ever seen the show. Which of these is the real story of a performance that did not happen? 19:36 I'm going to go with A. 19:37 Okay, so your choice is Tom's story. And to find out the correct answer, we spoke to someone who knows a lot about the real story. 19:44 The threatening messages were coming from the musical director of the show. We just wanted to have it canceled. 19:50 That was Ian Curry, the intern reporter at Seven Days, Vermont's independent voice, who absolutely owns the story. Congratulations, Dan. You did get it right. Tom was telling the truth. Good job, Dan. about his own state. You're going to point for him. Thank you, Dan. You've earned our prize, the voice of anyone you might choose in your voicemail. Congratulations. It was generally a very good time. Thank you very much. 20:24 And now the game where we ask impressive people to do an unimpressive thing. We call it Not My Job. If you were going to name the most successful and acclaimed actor around, it would be hard to beat Sally Field. Her career has spanned more than 60 years. 20:41 Wow. She has won two Oscars, three Emmys, so many awards. She has a separate Wikipedia page just for them. 20:50 And she's got range. Who else has played both Gidget and Mary Todd Lincoln? She's up for yet another Emmy for her starring role in Remarkably Bright Creatures on Netflix, and she joins us now. Sally Field, welcome to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. 21:11 So, first of all, congrats on the latest Emmy nomination. Did you know that you have a separate Wikipedia page just for your awards? 21:19 No, no, I did not, because I don't oft times look for myself. 21:26 I think that would be just a tiny bit weird if I wanted to Google myself. 21:30 Yeah, I mean, you've done so many things in your extraordinary career. Does anybody ever come up to you and say, oh gosh, Sally Field, I loved you in whatever it was, and you're like, that's wonderful, and you have no memory of doing it? 21:44 Um... 21:46 No. 21:46 No, it doesn't happen. 21:47 You remember everything. Not really. I've done such strange things that I would have a hard time remembering, but they would not be things that anyone else would remember either. You know, I've done episodic things in the... 22:03 late 60s and early 70s. And you know what? We're all so old now. Anybody who watched it is like halfway brain dead at this point. Yeah, exactly. 22:11 Hey! Yeah. I'm not, you know. Sally, this is Paula Poundstone. Hi, Paula. Hi. 22:18 First of all, I have you and Lily and... My dog is beginning to bark at a squirrel out there, so just ignore him. We will. What's the dog's name? 22:30 My dog's name is Dashiell Hammett. 22:34 Wow. Do you think that he only really responds to Da? 22:39 And he responds to Dash, but he responds to Dashiell Hammett. He's a great crime writer. He doesn't respond to Dashiell Hammett. 22:47 That's too long a name for a dog. Dashiell Hammett, get over here right now. 22:55 Whenever we have an actor like you, who's had such an extraordinary career, I'm always wondering what role they're most known for, and usually I can guess. In your case, I would have no idea. Is there one thing that keeps coming up, or does it entirely depend on the person, on their age, on their interest? 23:13 All of that. It depends on the person, the age, and all of that. But I think the thing I'm most surprised about... 23:21 is The Flying Nun. I'm most surprised. Like, I love, like, young people, like, they're, like, in their 20s and 70s, they're in their, you know, late teens, and they say, they love The Flying Nun. I think, When? 23:37 It's hard for me not to want to say, I've done other work. I've grown as an actor. I have to look into it or not. But yeah, that's always surprising to me. 23:49 I am one of those people you mentioned earlier who's old enough to actually have watched that when it came out. And it took me a while to realize that I wasn't imagining it. There was this TV show on about this nun who flew. And I'm dying to know, how did they pitch this show to you? 24:07 I would have rather just been a nun with my feet on the ground. Sure. Because that was scary and painful and stupid. 24:18 Sally, you weren't actually flying. 24:22 How did they make you fly? Why was it painful? 24:25 It was painful because it was still the 60s, and they hadn't really upgraded how you can do this. There was no special effects. So it was wires. I had this harness with wires coming out of the habit. And they would, like, I was on a 50-foot crane some of the times, and they would fly me into the side of a building. 24:50 I'm like Spider-Man. I'm trying to go, oh boy, here comes the building. It was not something I should be doing. 24:59 I watched Remarkably Bright Creatures, your film on Netflix for which you were nominated for an Emmy. 25:08 We have fans here. 25:11 And it's interesting because you play a woman whose life is changed by a guardian angel that happens to be an octopus, which means you have acted opposite an octopus and Daniel Day Lewis. 25:30 Which was more fun? 25:34 Oh boy, that's hard to say. 25:39 Was the octopus also very method? Did the octopus always insist on being an octopus even off set? 25:46 Oh, gosh, yes. Oh, my gosh, yes. All the best actors do. So there you go. That's Daniel. And the dog has decided there is a creature in the house that he's going to bark at no matter what we do. 26:00 There are scenes, many scenes in this film in which you, Sally Field, a real human being, are interacting with an octopus somewhat intimately. The tentacles or you hold tentacles or hold hands, hand tentacle, whatever. And I assumed, apparently this is true, that the octopus was CGI. Is that the case? 26:16 It's hard to train an octopus to do this kind of thing. 26:19 Right. 26:22 And their rates are very expensive. 26:23 I don't want to spoil anybody's vision if they haven't seen it or if they're thinking of seeing it or if they want to see it. But no, it's all in my mind. 26:33 I suspect she doesn't have a dog. 26:37 All this time. 26:39 We haven't seen the dog. She's referred to the dog. 26:42 Wait for a minute. He was running back that way. Oh, sure she was. Absolutely. 26:46 Absolutely. 26:48 Dashiell Hammett, the dog. 26:49 Over here, right now. Dashiell Hammett, get over here, write us down. 26:54 I have to ask one last question before we go to our game. You have done so many things. You have won so many awards. You have played such roles with such amazing people and directors. Is there anything left in your bucket list that you still want to do that you haven't done? 27:07 Well, I'm doing it right now. There you are. Oh, God, she's good. She's very good. 27:18 Well, Sally Field, it is a dream come true to talk to you. And we have invited you here to play a game that we're calling Meet These Remarkably Dumb Creatures. So you starred in the movie Remarkably Bright Creatures, so we thought we'd ask you about some remarkably dumb ones. Answer two or three questions about some animals that will not be getting a Netflix movie made about them anytime soon. And you will win a prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose for their voicemail. Alzo, who is Sally Field playing for? 27:49 Aaron Piotr and Tessa Holmes of Hillsburg, California. All right. You ready to play? 27:55 Yep. 27:56 Okay. 27:57 Here's your first question. 27:59 While looking into which animals had the smallest brains, we were shocked to learn that number four on the list was what animal? A, the bony-eared ass fish, B, the twiddling dumb bug, or C, the really slow loris? 28:20 I'll just say... 28:24 One. 28:24 Yes! 28:25 That's it, it's the bony. 28:26 The bony-eared ass fish? 28:31 Yes, the bony-eared ass fish. The bony-eared ass fish weighs as much as three pounds, but its brain is the size of a pebble. That's true. Here's your next question. Ostriches, also not very bright. Their eyeballs are each bigger than their brain. 28:46 And their dumbness is a challenge for ostrich farmers. Why? A, they routinely get into fights with bushes, thinking they're rival ostriches. B, the male ostriches tend to fall in love with their human caretakers because they find them more attractive than female ostriches. 29:03 Or C, not only do they eat pebbles because they look like seeds, they seem to prefer the pebbles. 29:11 Yikes, it sounds like a few relatives of mine. 29:18 I'm thinking it's three, that they just eat pebbles. They just eat pebbles. 29:23 The audience agrees, but sadly it was two. They tend to fall in love with their human caretakers. Because, you know, I mean, which would you choose, a human or an ostrich? They feel the same way. 29:35 I would choose a pebble every time. 29:37 Every time. Okay. 29:39 All right, that's okay, because you have one more. If you get this right, you win. Sloths aren't just slow, they're also dumb. In fact, they often injure themselves by doing what? A, jumping from one tree to another and falling asleep in midair. 29:55 B, trying to take naps on top of predators, or C, mistaking their own arm for a tree limb, grabbing on, and then falling to the ground. 30:09 Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy. It's a bevy of favorites. 30:13 It really is. 30:13 I have thought my arm was a tree and just, like, grabbed it. 30:18 Yeah, so that's your choice? You're going to go with C, they grab their arm? 30:21 I'm just going to go with it because I have no frigging idea... 30:24 Well, yes, you do, because that's correct. They have been observed to do this. 30:33 Sloths who live in the jungles of Central and South America can sometimes be seen falling out of trees, holding firmly onto one arm with the other. 30:44 Also, how did Sally Field do on our quiz? 30:47 Out of all the awards she has, this might be the best one. She got two out of three. 30:57 Sally Field is an absolutely legendary actor who is up for an Emmy for her latest role in Remarkably Bright Creatures, which is streaming on Netflix now. Sally Field, what an absolute joy. Give it up for Sally Field. 31:10 Thank you. Thank you. 31:18 In just a minute, Alzo invites you out to a fancy steakhouse, but there's an odd dress code. It's our Listener Limerick Challenge. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to join us in the air. We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR. 31:39 French fries, tater tots, Colombian ahiaka. 31:43 Potatoes are beloved everywhere. And yet... 31:47 They're always kind of denigrated. There's a long history of racializing potatoes. 31:53 How the potato became an insult around the world. Listen to NPR's Code Switch podcast in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. 32:03 This week on Sources and Methods, is Iran trying to hack U.S. water systems? 32:09 What is it that you can do to potentially, quote unquote, scare the American people? Well, water is one of those things that's a necessity of light. 32:19 We unpack the week's biggest national security news on sources and methods. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get podcasts. 32:27 Big news stories don't always break on your schedule. But with the NPR app, news, culture and podcasts are ready when you want them in your pocket. Download the NPR app today. 32:45 From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Alzo Slade. We're playing this week with Paula Poundstone, Shantira Jackson, and Tom Bodette. And here again is your host at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. 33:00 Thank you, Alzo. Thank you, everybody. Thank you all. Thank you. 33:06 In just a minute, Alzo assures us that it's rhyme o'clock somewhere. It's our listener limerick challenge. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. Right now, panel, it is time for more questions for you from this week's news. Tom, this week, the New York Times published an in-depth, multi-part investigation into Talenti brand gelato. They used high-tech equipment and rigorous reporting just to try to explain what. 33:32 Well, you know, I use the containers for keeping hardware in, and they've gotten a little flimsier, so I think it's the flimsy containers. 33:40 Well, there's something about the containers. Specifically, they come in jars, and the question is, why are those jars... 33:45 tight. 33:47 Hard to open? They're very hard to open, yes. The Times wanted to find out why the jars of Talenti Gelato are so hard to open. 33:55 Getting into a carton of ice cream is easy. You're not eating Talenti. No, it's like you hear about the mother who picks up a car to save her child. Opening ice cream is that same gland. It's like the adrenaline. 34:10 Also, Tom has power tools, so it's not a... Problem for you. Yes, the paper that brought down Harvey Weinstein has turned its attention to figuring out why people can't open their fancy ice cream jars. And if you are about to write in to say, no, no, Peter, it's gelato, that's why your arms are too weak to open a jar. 34:31 They actually, this is true, to find out why the jars are so hard to open, they put one into a CT scanner. 34:38 Did insurance pay for that? 34:39 I don't know. 34:42 What if it did? You'd find out that a jar of sorbet has better health insurance than you do. 34:45 Yeah, more than likely. 34:47 You're using a CT scan. Can you imagine you go in and you're like, you need your own diagnosis and they say, oh, it has to be, can't do it till next week. There's cookies and cream using the machine right now. 34:57 And this was part, the CT scan was just part of this huge multi-party investigation into the brand's history and its decline and its current flavors versus past versions, and because it's the New York Times, also something to do with polyamory in Brooklyn. 35:17 And no one can unearth the Epstein files? 35:21 Maybe that's where they are, inside a Talenti jar that no one can open. 35:29 Shandira, concert goers this summer are dealing with a strange and unpleasant new behavior in the crowd, and now artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Noah Khan, among others, have had to publicly ask their fans to stop doing what during their concerts? 35:44 Being tall and standing in front of short girls. 35:47 No, but I appreciate that perspective. It's that people are very excited to get places really down front, and they don't want to give up those places for any reason at all. 35:59 Oh! Are they going to the restroom at the... 36:03 Yes, I think that's a very polite way of putting it. They're going to the restroom without actually going to the restroom. Wow. It's a global phenomenon, apparently. Concerts all over the world. People keep pooping on the floor during concerts. 36:15 Wow. 36:16 I thought you meant they wore diapers at least. No. 36:21 I love Beyonce, but not that much. 36:23 Oh. 36:26 That's awful. 36:26 Earlier this month, Olivia Rodrigo said that fans in the front row at her concerts were just doing that rather than go to the bathroom and give up their place by the stage. Then other artists started coming forward and saying, yes, it's happening at my shows too. This is rough. The only musicians who should have people pooping their pants at their concerts is the Wiggles. 36:46 Noah Kahn doesn't even make any music that you need to do that to. 36:50 Ooh, fighting words. 36:51 No, his music is nice. You can just hold it. You don't have to. Everybody at Noah Kahn concert is so nice. You don't have to do that. They will let you go. They will let you go. Give me your place back because they're all very gentle people. They're very kind. I think he's from like a mountain. 37:06 Yes, he is. If any musicians are listening right now, if you want to make sure your fans leave to use the bathroom, you just need to say, well, now we're going to play some of our new stuff. 37:30 Coming up, it's lightning fill in the blank, but first it's the game where you have to listen for the rhyme. If you'd like to play on air, call or leave a message at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. You can see us most weeks right here at the Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago and catch us on the road. We'll be at the beautiful Outdoor Rose Music Center in Dayton, Ohio on September 3rd. It's just a stone's throw away from Columbus. We know, we threw a stone. And the perfect way to enjoy the end of summer outside. We will also be at the Orpheum Theater in Omaha, Nebraska on September 24th. 38:01 And you can check out our comedy grab bag show September 9th at the Den Theater in Chicago. Alzo Slade will be hosting. 38:11 And you will get stand-up performances from wait-wait panelists and see special guests. Well, for example, like me. For tickets and information to all of our live events, just go to nprpresents.org. 38:25 Hi, everyone. Wait, wait, don't tell me. 38:28 Hi, this is Lizzie calling from Bethesda, Maryland. 38:30 Now, Bethesda, Maryland is a place I know. What do you do there? 38:34 So during the school year, I teach fifth grade, but seeing as it's summer, I just got back from my honeymoon. 38:39 Oh, really? Mazel tov. Congratulations. 38:44 Thank you. And now that you're back, how are you finding married life? 38:47 So far, so good. We are still married. 38:49 That's good. 38:51 If you get through the honeymoon and you're still married, that is a good sign. Congratulations. 38:54 Yeah, it tends to be. 38:55 Well, Lizzie, welcome to the show. Alzo Slade is going to read for you three news-related limericks with a last word or phrase missing from each. If you can fill in that last word or phrase correctly, and two of the limericks will be a winner. You ready to play? 39:05 I'm ready. 39:06 Here's your first limerick. 39:08 Our steakhouse might not have great food, but to seats many buts will be glued. 39:15 Our diners all chose to throw off their clothes. They're eating their steaks in the... Nude! Right! 39:24 Class Soiree Steakhouse in Miami, Florida said they started their monthly nude dinner service to attract new, quote, adventurous customers. Because it is the truly adventurous who will sit down in front of piping hot food with a serrated steak knife and think, boy, I wish my genitals were completely unprotected right now. 39:50 The owner of the restaurant, whatever you think of his motives, says, no, no, no, this is all about the experience for the clientele because, quote, me and my crew, we're all professionals, unquote. 39:59 He's right. It does take a professional to look a naked man straight in the eye and ask, any fresh pepper on that? I'm going to be honest. 40:09 If I go to a steakhouse, that's not the meat I'm trying to see. 40:13 There you are. 40:16 Also true. 40:17 Boy, you know, sometimes I just don't even feel human. 40:22 I'm like, none of these activities. I would so not eat naked to begin with. And if I was going to eat naked, I wouldn't want to eat naked with other naked eaters. 40:33 Also true. 40:35 Here's your next limerick. Since my breakfast treat's gone, I feel so hurt. I'm so mad I might protest and throw dirt. But Dannon just shrugged and pulled out the plug. They stopped making that great coffee. 40:50 Yogurt. Yes, yogurt. This week, Dannon, the yogurt people, announced they are discontinuing their coffee-flavored yogurt, and people are devastated. Right? 41:03 Where are my Dannon heads? 41:04 Come on now. 41:06 Well, the reason so few people cheered is because the serious fans of Dan and Coffee Yogurt are out there trying to score the last remaining cases of the stuff, which they will keep because yogurt lasts forever. 41:18 Right? 41:18 See, again, I just don't relate to people. 41:22 I've had Dan and Coffee Yogurt. It's not bad if you like the flavor of coffee. 41:26 I don't like coffee or yogurt, so no. I don't think it would be for you then. Yeah, just put nuts in it and call it quits. 41:33 Here is your last limerick. Will I see the new movie? Well, maybe. 41:39 At this matinee, others won't slay me. We can bring a few toys and make extra noise. It's a safe place for me and my... Baby? 41:49 Yes! People with babies are flocking to screenings of The Odyssey arranged just for them. It's a great way to save money and a babysitter still have a night out. And what better movie to teach your kid that when daddy leaves, he is never coming back. 42:09 Other theaters that are showing the Odyssey have tried to ban babies from screenings, but then some guy showed up with this big wooden horse, and you'd never guess what was inside. 42:20 I guess they are just scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of trying to get people... How come they don't have naked... They'll do naked movie showings at some point. 42:30 Yeah. Yeah. 42:32 Alzo, how did Lizzie do in our quiz? She did great. Three out of three. Congratulations. Congratulations, Lizzie. Well done. 42:37 Thank you. This is a dream come true. Aim higher, Lizzie. 42:45 She's just my baby. Baby, baby. She's all I need. Baby, don't you ever leave. 42:59 She's my baby. She's my Valentine. My Valentine. My Valentine. My Valentine. 43:19 How will a historically unpopular president navigate a midterm election season that may leave him with a lot less power? Stay caught up on the latest news with Trump's Terms, the podcast where we curate NPR's coverage of President Trump and short episodes focused on a single story. Follow Trump's Terms on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. 43:42 Okay, so you're driving to work or you're on a walk or you're at the gym or whatever, and you just need to clear your head. That's the perfect time to hit the play button on NPR's All Songs Considered. It's not the news, it's not work, or whatever else is weighing you down. It's just a good time with good friends and great tunes. Listen to All Songs Considered every Tuesday in the NPR Music Podcast. 44:07 Now on to our final game. Lightning fill-in-the-blank. Each of our players left 60 seconds in which to answer as many fill-in-the-blank questions as they can. Each correct answer is now worth two points. Alzo, can you give us the score? 44:17 Of course. Paula has two, and Sentira and Tom are tied for the lead at three. Okay. 44:22 So, Paula, that means that you are in second place, so that means you're going to go first. The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill-in-the-blank. On Tuesday, authorities arrested the man suspected of starting one of the blanks in Washington State. Fires. Right. On Wednesday, space company blank made 900 million more shares available to investors. 44:42 Star something? The Musk thing? 44:45 Yeah, the Musk thing. I'll give you two. It's SpaceX. A man in Wales was arrested for climbing to the roof of a hospital and blanking. 44:54 and yelling, I'm cured. 44:56 No, putting on a Grim Reaper costume and just staring silently at all the patients coming into the hospital. Wow. On Wednesday, paleontologists in New Mexico identified a new species of blank. 45:09 Dinosaur? Right. This week, a video of a street brawl in Detroit went viral because people noticed that blank was standing on the sidelines cheering the combatants on. Blank was. Blank was. 45:20 Blank was. Tom Holman. 45:22 No, the police commissioner of the city of Detroit. 45:25 So a passerby caught this street fight on video and right there in the front of the crowd of onlookers is the police commissioner of Detroit who cheered and he kind of urged the fighters on, you know, while wearing his Detroit police hat. When asked why he did not intervene in this rather brutal fight, he said, and I am not kidding, I did intervene when the guy had had enough. 45:48 Wow. 45:49 That feels very Detroit. That's old school. That's how they roll in Detroit. 45:56 Alzo, how did Paula do in our quiz? She got three right for six more points, total of eight, and the lead. All right. 46:01 Wow. That's all you'll give me, Alzo? 46:05 You used to be friends. Yeah, you're not one of us anymore. 46:10 Shantira, I'm going to arbitrarily pick you to go next to fill in the blank. As more states report outbreaks, RFK Jr. said that parents should vaccinate their kids against blank. Measles. Right. This week, a Nobel Prize winning computer scientist warned that humans may soon be unable to outsmart blank. 46:26 AI? 46:26 Right. On Thursday, former Senate Majority Leader blank was discharged from the hospital. 46:30 Oh, goofy McConnell. 46:32 Goofy, yes. This week, police in New Jersey were able to cite 74 drivers for traffic violations. 46:39 after they had their traffic cops blank. Do their job. No, disguise themselves as trees on the road. On Tuesday, astronomers released the most high-resolution images ever taken of the surface of the blank. Sun. Right, according to a new report, the UFC lost $30 million when they staged an event at the blank. 47:00 The White House. 47:01 Right, in Arizona, two people are recovering after being shot by a man who was blanking. 47:06 In the sandwich. No. They were shot by a man who was demonstrating the safety features of his gun. 47:14 Two men were looking at a handgun at a yard sale when the owner came over to show off its various safety features. While he was doing that, he accidentally shot both of them. Wow. 47:23 Okay. It was an emergency. They were harmed. They were hurt. They're fine. But I hope they waited a while to call 911 because if there's ever a time to get somebody to pay the price you want at a yard sale, it is right after you have shot them. Okay. 47:37 I thought it was a bad shot, but if he hit both of them with the same bullet, he might be kind of good. 47:43 Also, how did Shantira do in our quiz? She did all right. She got five right for 10 more points, total of 13, and the lead. All right, then. So... 47:52 How many then does Tom Beaudet need to win? 47:54 Five to tie, six to win. All right. Here we go, Tom. This is for the game. On Wednesday, officials in Iran pushed back on Blank's claim that peace talks were underway. Trump. Right. On Thursday, Ukraine drone strikes hit two oil refineries deep in Blank's territory. Russian territory. Right. The latest movie in the Blank franchise is the fastest movie in history to make half a billion dollars. Marvel. 48:15 The Spider-Man? Yeah, Spider-Man, yeah. On Tuesday, Abdul Al-Sayed won a closely-watched Democratic primary in blank. Michigan. Right. This week, a woman in Utah is suspected of not wanting to get married after she was caught blanking the night before her wedding. 48:30 Like, I don't know. 48:34 Leaving down? No, attempting to burn down the church where it was supposed to happen. Yeah. 48:39 She should have just left town. It's true. According to a new study, watching too much blank may actually rot your brain. 48:46 Like phone video stuff. Yeah, TV, basically. On Wednesday, a genetics company announced it had created a hypoallergenic blank. 48:54 Oh, dog. Right. This week, a man who was drowning in the Yellowstone River was saved by a blank that was nearby. Oh, the Hoboken ass fish. No. No. 49:04 Dumb as they are, they have their moments. No. The man who was drowning in the Yellowstone River was saved by a teenager who happened to be practicing with his lasso on the riverbank. 49:14 He'd been practicing his lasso, you know, roping things at the distance so much that I kind of think he pushed the guy in just to be able to throw a lasso, and as he swept by and pull him to safety, the kid was, of course, celebrated for saving this man, but did he have to then hogtie him? No. 49:30 What a great story to have as a kid to tell the rest of your life. Well, yep, that's what I did. 49:36 Alzo, did Tom do well enough to win? 49:38 He did it. He got six right for 12 more points, total of 15, and he is the champion. 49:44 Thank you. 49:45 Thank you very much. 49:47 In just a minute, we're going to ask our panelists to predict, after that rocket crashed into it, what will be the next big news from the moon. But first, let me tell you all. 49:56 Wait, wait, don't tell me. It's a production of NPR and WBEZ. Chicago, in association with Urgent Haircut Productions, Doug Berman, Benevolent Overlord. Philip Godica writes our limericks. Our public address announcer is Paul Friedman. Our ops manager is Jasira Vardak. Thanks to the staff and crew at the Studebaker Theatre, B.J. Liedemann composed our theme. Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Gornbos, and Lillian King. Special thanks this week to Blythe Roberson, Janie Hoffman, Dom Banias, and Peter Gross. Our third Peter this week is Peter Gwynn III. Emma Choi is our vibe curator. Technical direction is from Lorna White. 50:27 Our CFO is Colin Miller, our production manager. That's Robert Newhouse. Our senior producer is Ian Chillock. And the executive producer of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is Mike Marybella Danforth. Now panel, what would be the next big news about the moon? Shantira Jackson. 50:40 In addition to moon pies and moon cakes, this holiday season she will be releasing a moon tiramisu. 50:46 Tom Beaudet. 50:47 Elon will abandon his plans for a moon colony, explaining he didn't know random rockets and boulders and stuff could just crash down at any time. And Paula Poundstone. 50:57 When it hits your eye, it's nothing like a pizza pie of any size. 51:03 And if any of that happens, panel, we'll ask you about it on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. 51:07 Thank you so much, Alzo Slade. Thanks also to Tom Baudet, Paula Poundstone, Shantira Jackson. Thanks to our fabulous audience here at the Studio Baker Theater in downtown Chicago. Thanks to all of you for listening wherever you are. I'm Peter Shega. We'll see you next week. 51:29 This is NPR. 51:32 From the light bulb to the internet, human history has been driven by innovation, and Shortwave is exploring how the technology of tomorrow will transform our future. Would you ride in a flying taxi? Will AI models fight wars? Hear about the technological frontier every Monday on TechCamp, the new series from Shortwave. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. 51:56 Tanya, I think you did the best interview that I've done. Seriously. 52:02 Oh, that's a great question. 52:04 I think I want to think about that question for the rest of my life. 52:07 Oh, good question. This is Tanya Mosley, co-host of Fresh Air, and the questions are only the half of it. Listen to Fresh Air on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.