Speaker 1: Hello, Puzzlers. Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the comfy for
Speaker 1: lining in your favorite winter puzzle slippers. I am your host,
Speaker 1: AJ Jacobs, and I am here with our guest, the
Speaker 1: podcasting legend, Ben Bolin, creator and co host of Ridiculous
Speaker 1: History and Stuff They Don't Want You To Know, and
Speaker 1: many many others. Welcome Ben, Aj.
Speaker 2: This is huge for me. Thank you so much for
Speaker 2: having me on the show. As we talked about earlier,
Speaker 2: as soon as I found out you were helping this podcast,
Speaker 2: I immediately with no regrets and not really a bunch
Speaker 2: of dictems. Oh ask to be on because I have
Speaker 2: followed your work for quite some time.
Speaker 1: My friend, Oh well, thank you. We are delighted and
Speaker 1: honored to be back. I am right back at you,
Speaker 1: a big fan, and we're going to talk about your shows.
Speaker 1: But first I wanted to talk about your name. We
Speaker 1: are probably the first to ever point this out, but
Speaker 1: your last name is actually a verb or jaroned if
Speaker 1: you take a colloquial without the end the Bolin Ben Bolin.
Speaker 1: Are we the first to ever notice that?
Speaker 2: I think the first not to do the Ben Bolan
Speaker 2: Lately joke, which which I grew up with is very familiar,
Speaker 2: but the as fellow a fellow fan of etymology, it's
Speaker 2: it's a it's a strange one, admittedly, and like many people,
Speaker 2: I spent some time trying to figure out the derivation
Speaker 2: of that etymology, and then, like dare I say many people,
Speaker 2: I just stopped at the one I thought was cool,
Speaker 2: and I was like, I've.
Speaker 1: Learned enough, which was what what is the cool one?
Speaker 2: It was the one that's did the most realistic, the
Speaker 2: idea that a lot of people's surnames come from some
Speaker 2: trade or profession, right, And they were like, oh, you
Speaker 2: made you know, back in the day, your ancestors made
Speaker 2: lines for bows and arrows, And I thought, okay, that's
Speaker 2: like an upstanding job. I also don't know much about
Speaker 2: bows and arrows, candidly, so I thought it might have
Speaker 2: been a grift. I was like, how complex can the
Speaker 2: line on the bow be? Turns out very complex?
Speaker 1: Oh, the bow line, I say. I thought that it
Speaker 1: was going to be like pottery. You were the people
Speaker 1: who made bowls, but I guess that, yeah, bows and
Speaker 1: arrows kind of cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah that would be I think that would probably be
Speaker 2: more useful because if if you only specialize in making
Speaker 2: the lines for the bows. Then you you know, you
Speaker 2: necessarily have to collaborate with someone. There's some guy out
Speaker 2: there right now. His last name is probably like arrowman
Speaker 2: or arrow person.
Speaker 1: Well, Fletcher. I believe Fletcher is someone who makes arrows.
Speaker 1: I could be wrong. Well that is, I believe it.
Speaker 1: I'm going with the bowline theory because I think you
Speaker 1: are cool. Our puzzle is actually not based on the arrows,
Speaker 1: but instead based on the sport, the bowling. So for instance,
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give you a clue,
Speaker 1: and the answer to that clue is a two word phrase,
Speaker 1: which is the name of a famous person like yourself.
Speaker 1: So if we were decluing you, it would be, for instance,
Speaker 1: founding Father Franklin love to go down to the alley
Speaker 1: and throw some strikes and spares. His friends love to
Speaker 1: watch Ben. That's you, So Ben Franklin Bowlin. So he
Speaker 1: loved to watch Ben Bolin. So everyone is gonna be
Speaker 1: when you say it the name of a celebrity, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna describe it in a tricky way. So are
Speaker 1: you ready?
Speaker 2: I am ready?
Speaker 1: All right, here we go. Texas Senator Cruz is doing
Speaker 1: the waltz, the rumba, and the fox trot. Let's go
Speaker 1: check out.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, okay, all right, So Texas senator with a
Speaker 2: pretty famous or infamous last name Cruise, right, that that
Speaker 2: would that would not be Tom Cruise, which would be
Speaker 2: that would be uh, that would still be a tea though,
Speaker 2: I think yes, would be Ted Cruz.
Speaker 1: Ted Cruz, you got it. That's halfway there. You're yeah, okay, Ted?
Speaker 2: Okay? And then could I have the the second part show?
Speaker 1: All right, it's Senator Ted Cruz. He's doing the waltz,
Speaker 1: the rumba, the foxtrota, you name it. He is let's
Speaker 1: go check out.
Speaker 2: He could also be if I'm if I'm picking up
Speaker 2: what you're putting down AJ. He could also be, for instance,
Speaker 2: doing the Dougie. He could be doing the running Man right.
Speaker 2: He could even be tap be into the world of tap. Yes,
Speaker 2: I think these people are going to I think they're
Speaker 2: going to watch Ted dancing, tad dance.
Speaker 1: You are picking up what I'm laying then Ted Danson
Speaker 1: is the answer, as in Cheers, Star Good Play, star
Speaker 1: Ted Danson, whom I love, excellent and I feel like
Speaker 1: I was inside your mind. Thank you for that that
Speaker 1: was terrific. All Right, we've got a couple more. What
Speaker 1: if the Phoenix Son's power Forward, whose last name is
Speaker 1: Durant is making a cake and some cupcakes and some pies.
Speaker 1: Maybe we should go watch. So this is Kevinder. Oh,
Speaker 1: I just said the freaking answer. That's the third time
Speaker 1: have done that on this show.
Speaker 2: You know what. I also feel like you are reading
Speaker 2: my mind somehow, aj because as soon as I realized
Speaker 2: the first part was a sports question, I thought, I
Speaker 2: have disappointed the Western world, the anglosphere entire, so I
Speaker 2: needed needed that one.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, Kevin, that's good to tell because I am
Speaker 1: also a sports signory. Thankfully we have Greg and Jodi
Speaker 1: and our other producers who are sports ficionados. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so we've got Kevin and he's making some cakes, some cupcakes,
Speaker 1: some pies.
Speaker 2: Okay, so he's not sautain things. This is not a
Speaker 2: stovetop situation, but there's there's some cookery involved, so that
Speaker 2: would be I'm running through the famous Kevin's.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 1: It's spelled differently. That's the tricky part.
Speaker 2: Oh oh oh oh, yes, Kevin Bacon, Kevin Bacon exactly.
Speaker 1: It's a little tricky because that's also a food. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you got it.
Speaker 3: You've got famous six degrees right exactly exactly and by
Speaker 3: the way, fun fact, I don't know if it's fun,
Speaker 3: but I broke the Kevin six degrees of Kevin Bacon's
Speaker 3: story in Entertainment Weekly, the first like media publication to
Speaker 3: write about it, because I was I was a dork
Speaker 3: and I was on like those I guess, I don't
Speaker 3: know what they called them back then, bulletin boards, and
Speaker 3: it was big on the bulletin boards.
Speaker 1: So I was like, hey, this could be cool.
Speaker 2: How did you find out about that? How did you
Speaker 2: learn about that?
Speaker 1: Again, I was just a dork and I was on
Speaker 1: these like you know what, I don't know where they
Speaker 1: chat rooms, bulletin boards on like Prodigy or like all
Speaker 1: these ancient internet things, and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this is so cool. And then I called this publicist
Speaker 1: and she was really pissed because she thought I was
Speaker 1: making fun of him. But then they were happy. So anyway,
Speaker 1: that was Sorry for the digression. All right, How about
Speaker 1: this one? This is at the dog part. The former
Speaker 1: talk show host Degenerous that's her last name. She's imitating
Speaker 1: some dog sounds and it's very funny to see. Let's
Speaker 1: go see.
Speaker 2: Okay, there's Ellen degenerous.
Speaker 1: Yep, that's it. I'm going to stop you right there.
Speaker 1: You got Ellen. So now you just need the second part. Okay,
Speaker 1: so what how do dogs? What do they do?
Speaker 2: Oh? Oh, Ellen growling?
Speaker 3: Is not it?
Speaker 2: If there isn't Ellen growling and you're listening, you know,
Speaker 2: I apologize.
Speaker 1: Yes, probably interesting in her own right, but.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I agreed. Would that be Ellin Barking Barkin?
Speaker 1: Ellen Barkin?
Speaker 2: Ellen Barkin?
Speaker 1: Wonderful actress, Ellen Barkin? Are you maybe you're too young?
Speaker 1: That could be?
Speaker 2: I am so embarrassed, but honesty and transparency're very important
Speaker 2: to me. Aja, So I've got to tell you and
Speaker 2: our fellow puzzle enthusiast the name sounds familiar, but it
Speaker 2: gave it gave me a little bit of doubt because
Speaker 2: I'm often bad at celebrity trivia. It is on a
Speaker 2: trivia team. It is not my strong suit, right because
Speaker 2: I feel like I kind of remember every name, even
Speaker 2: when it's just totally new to me and like, oh
Speaker 2: maybe they were at my high school. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Well you got it, you got it? Well, thank you, Ben,
Speaker 1: You are excellent. Where can people find more of you?
Speaker 1: Presumably not on ESPN?
Speaker 2: Yeah, not unless they get into sketch comedy until that point,
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, and the Puzzler team, you can
Speaker 2: find me on Stuff they Don't want you to know.
Speaker 2: Long running podcast that explores that applies critical thinking to
Speaker 2: everything from allegations of psychic powers to government cover ups
Speaker 2: and modern pop culture mysteries. If that's not quite your
Speaker 2: cup of tea, you can head over to Ridiculous History,
Speaker 2: where big breaking news folks. You can also hear our
Speaker 2: host aj Jacobs making an appearance very soon.
Speaker 1: Cannot wait, very excited. Well before we wrap up, as
Speaker 1: always for the puzzlers at home, here's an extra credit puzzle.
Speaker 1: What if atheist writer Hitchens is taking a stroll? You
Speaker 1: might say? That would be something? Oh you know, Ben
Speaker 1: knows I should have done that one for you puzzle airs.
Speaker 1: Please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler podcast and
Speaker 1: tell a friend write a review if you want. It
Speaker 1: really helps, and we'll meet here tomorrow for more puzzling
Speaker 1: puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2: Hello, puzzlers, this is Greg Pliska here, with the extra
Speaker 2: credit answer from our previous episode. In that episode, we
Speaker 2: were looking at some phrases, idiomatic phrases from other languages,
Speaker 2: and AJ was queezing me about what they mean.
Speaker 1: So the extra credit you got was the phrase to
Speaker 1: be peeing against the moon.
Speaker 2: What does it mean when someone is peeing against the moon.
Speaker 2: It means that they're wasting time on a feudal endeavor.
Speaker 2: I hope that's not how you feel about puzzles, because
Speaker 3: We look forward to puzzling with you every day here
Speaker 3: on the Puzzler Podcast.