Code Switch

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.  

Would you classify your high school self as an A/V nerd, band geek or mathlete? This week’s show pays homage to them all. In the games, we’ll spoil some famous films by not spoiling anything at all, teach you how to “put a Björk in it,” and make an inordinate amount of cat jokes. And Paul Feig, director of Bridesmaids and The Heat, discusses why funny women should be bigger stars, and reflects on the legacy of his beloved creation, the short-lived TV series Freaks and Geeks.

In this podcast-only extra, director Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks, Bridesmaids, The Heat) talks with Ask Me Another host Ophira Eisenberg about his early forays into show business. These include performing magic at a nursing home and, a few years later, stand-up comedy in a Detroit biker bar. Plus, hear which whip-smart movie inspired him to get into filmmaking, and how he fared in his past game show experiences...

This summer spectacular, recorded outdoors in New York City's Central Park, is a jam-packed show. The Office's B.J. Novak hits the puzzle hotseat for a Shakespearean pop quiz, Wet Hot American Summer filmmaker David Wain flaunts his movie trivia prowess, and Kurt Andersen, host of PRI's Studio 360, stakes his claim as a literary romantic...

The show we recorded at Central Park's SummerStage was so jam-packed, we couldn't include everything in the radio show. In this podcast-only extra, singer-songwriter Nellie McKay and house musician Jonathan Coulton perform McKay's song, "Bodega." (Say it with us: "boh-DAY-guh.")

(Rebroadcast) 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.

(This is a podcast-only extra.) Actor and writer B.J. Novak (NBC’s The Office, Inglourious Basterds) joined Ask Me Another recently as a Very Important Puzzler. When asked if he grew up in a game-playing family, he launched into a story about the time he played Scattergories with the King of Pop. Listen to the extended cut of his epic tale.   This is a sneak peek of the show we recorded in New York City at Central Park's SummerStage on June 14th, 2013. Hear the full episode on July 12th, 2013.

If you're the type of person who gives your pet a name like "Chairman Meow," then you'll be right at home with this week's games. We'll combine highbrow folks (world leaders) with the lowest form of comedy (puns), spend a little time in Celebrity A-A, and find out what happens when house musician Jonathan Coulton applies his mellow song stylings to the electric wizard, Jimi Hendrix...

Sorry, Beatles fans: This hour, Jonathan Coulton turns some of the Fab Four's most beloved hits into trivia questions about famous historical figures. Is nothing sacred? We'll also put the King of Horror's son, novelist and B-movie aficionado Owen King, in the puzzle hot seat as our V.I.P. Plus: Play a game that has nothing to do with the HBO series Game of Thrones, and translate common expressions into medical conditions...

(Rebroadcast) 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, host of WNYC's Radiolab 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.