Speaker 1: Hello, puzzle ours, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the Floating
Speaker 1: marshmallows in your steaming mug of puzzle hot cocoa. I'm
Speaker 1: your host, AJ Jacobs, and today's guest is the legendary
Speaker 1: if I can say that, Stephen Dovner, author, journalist and
Speaker 1: host of Freakonomics Radio. Welcome Stephen, Thank you, AJ.
Speaker 2: Very happy to be here with you.
Speaker 1: We are delighted to have you, and we have written
Speaker 1: for you. You're here all week. But our first puzzle
Speaker 1: is based on the name Freakonomics because I love the book,
Speaker 1: I love the radio show, and I love the name.
Speaker 1: And just for people, the benighted souls who don't know Freakonomics,
Speaker 1: great book about it was about the hidden side of everything,
Speaker 1: so from sumo wrestling to drug dealing, the sort of
Speaker 1: science and data behind that. Is that an accurate assessment?
Speaker 2: Sure? Yeah, this sounds good. By the way, nice use
Speaker 2: of benighted.
Speaker 1: Thanks.
Speaker 2: I threw it out there really good. I didn't know
Speaker 2: what that meant. I had to look it up. I
Speaker 2: thought it meant that I had that it means. I
Speaker 2: thought benighted is what happens when someone makes you a name.
Speaker 2: But it's not at all. It's in a state of
Speaker 2: piti pitiful or contemptible, intellectual or moral ignorance. So nice,
Speaker 2: all right, you already gave me a gift today of
Speaker 2: teaching me of vocapular word. I'm just going to write
Speaker 2: that down.
Speaker 1: Yes, So in our puzzle, we are going to do
Speaker 1: the same thing you did to economics. We are going
Speaker 1: to freakify it. We are going to add the letters
Speaker 1: f R to the front of words. We're going to
Speaker 1: add the FR. And I'll give you a clue, and
Speaker 1: the answer is going to be a sentence that includes
Speaker 1: the original word and the FR version.
Speaker 2: So for instance, or the answer that I provide will
Speaker 2: be a full sentence.
Speaker 1: You're saying, that's right, Wow, give you an example, give
Speaker 1: you an example?
Speaker 2: It all all?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm clear. If you're picnic in Paris is disturbed
Speaker 1: by little insects, then you might have a have blank
Speaker 1: in blank, So the answer would be you might have.
Speaker 2: I might have ants in France.
Speaker 1: Exactly there it is, and it might be fanatic and
Speaker 1: like that, so it might not be the exact same word.
Speaker 1: Are you ready for the real ones?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, what if I'm not then.
Speaker 1: Will hang up right now. I'm okay with that. I'll
Speaker 1: see your bluff.
Speaker 2: I very much want to be ready, but I don't know.
Speaker 2: Do you ever really feel you're ready for anything?
Speaker 1: No, which is good.
Speaker 2: That is good.
Speaker 1: I think we can make it better.
Speaker 2: So I am similarly unready. Let's go.
Speaker 1: If you are at a McDonald's and you're looking at
Speaker 1: a side order, you might have a blank on the blank,
Speaker 1: blank on the blank.
Speaker 2: If I'm at McDonald's looking at a side order, I
Speaker 2: might have fries, French fries on the on my mind,
Speaker 2: French fries.
Speaker 1: Now you have the fries. You got that, remember the
Speaker 1: you gotta.
Speaker 2: Take the blank I'm looking for right, Oh, I might
Speaker 2: have my eyes on the fries, eyes on the fries.
Speaker 2: Very inspiring, it's an inspiring Yeah.
Speaker 1: All right. How about this one. If you have sixteen
Speaker 1: pounds of cargo on your truck, you have blank, tons
Speaker 1: of blank, blank tons of blank.
Speaker 2: That would be eight tons of freight exactly.
Speaker 1: And can I fact check myself right now? Because cargo
Speaker 1: is actually for ships and freight is for trucks. I
Speaker 1: looked it up because I was unsure, but yeah, what.
Speaker 2: What's what's s cargo?
Speaker 1: Then? Well, what about flotsham and jetson. I didn't know that,
Speaker 1: but now I have a pneumonic THINGK.
Speaker 2: So, what's the difference between flots and jetsum.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad you asked. Jetsum is intentionally jettisoned cargo
Speaker 1: and flats is just randomly unintentionally jettisen. So jet jettison,
Speaker 1: Jet jettison.
Speaker 2: Let me make some I'm learning so much between benighted
Speaker 2: and flotsam and jetson. Okay, all right, that's what we're
Speaker 2: here for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're in competition with you, Steven. We're teaching people
Speaker 1: to How about this one. If a star of Real
Speaker 1: Housewives of New York, first named Bethany wears a dress
Speaker 1: that only goes down to her shins, you might see
Speaker 1: blank of blank, might see the blank of blank. I'm
Speaker 1: guessing from your face you're not a huge Real Housewives
Speaker 1: of New York fan, is what I'm.
Speaker 2: I have heard of it. I have heard of it,
Speaker 2: and this.
Speaker 1: Is probably the most famous of the Real Housewives. She's
Speaker 1: like old school. She was one of the first.
Speaker 2: This isn't so. I know that there was a recent
Speaker 2: addition in New York that had an outlier in a
Speaker 2: woman who Jenna Lions. It is not her, so it's
Speaker 2: not that season. Even this is from you.
Speaker 1: This is early. Well how about this work backwards works.
Speaker 2: We'll work it out. We'll work it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it gets engineered.
Speaker 2: Give me the clue again. You mentioned there's Bethany.
Speaker 1: Bethany.
Speaker 2: Is Bethany relevant to the answer.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Bethany is the first name of this real housewife.
Speaker 2: Oh so I should know her last name or something.
Speaker 1: And then if you if she's wearing a dress that
Speaker 1: only goes down to her shins, then you're gonna see
Speaker 1: the blank of blank.
Speaker 2: So is this pornographic? The answer so not. It is
Speaker 2: very g rated if it goes the shins. I'm seeing
Speaker 2: her knees, even lower ankles, ankle I'm seeing I'm seeing, uh,
Speaker 2: just one ankle and a Frankel ankle. That's her last name,
Speaker 2: Frank seeing an ankle of Frankel exactly.
Speaker 1: And she's a business woman. I mean, you could have
Speaker 1: her on for Economics with I'm saying this with no
Speaker 1: irony because she's trying to unionize reality show stars and
Speaker 1: she is in a fight with the head of Bravo,
Speaker 1: Andy Cohen.
Speaker 2: That is interesting.
Speaker 1: All right, we got one more. If there is a
Speaker 1: baseball official who calls balls and strikes and she happens
Speaker 1: to be a dowdy dresser, I might have a blank
Speaker 1: who is a blank?
Speaker 2: I've got an ump who is a frump?
Speaker 1: That's it just rolls right out. And did you know
Speaker 1: here's one I want to see if you write this down.
Speaker 1: Trump is gender specific. It is only you cannot have
Speaker 1: a male FROMP. It's a which I find offensive. I
Speaker 1: think there should be male FROMS, non binary froms, like W.
Speaker 1: It's a great word. Why should it be specific? Two?
Speaker 2: I love that you're offended by a word that is
Speaker 2: derogatory only toward a group of which you are not.
Speaker 2: But you know, go for it.
Speaker 1: That is a social justice move and I feel passionate
Speaker 1: about Well, we loved it. Thank you and thank you
Speaker 1: for writing Fakonomics and having the show. And people can
Speaker 1: hear that wherever they get their podcasts. I assume they do.
Speaker 2: Wherever you get this fine podcast, you can also get
Speaker 2: Freakonomics Radio.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wonderful. And before we wrap up, as always a
Speaker 1: puzzle for the puzzlers at home, an extra credit if
Speaker 1: an artist whose name starts with mc he happens to
Speaker 1: be famous for his never ending staircases. If he wakes
Speaker 1: up from a nap, then you might have a blank.
Speaker 1: Who is blank?
Speaker 2: That's a nice one. I promise not to divulge the answer,
Speaker 2: even though my little brain is working on it, but
Speaker 2: I will. Can I give one clue to the listeners?
Speaker 1: I would love it.
Speaker 2: It's not EMC Hammer.
Speaker 1: That is good to know.
Speaker 2: Who's my first thought?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Sure, I mean, if we being honest, he is an artist.
Speaker 1: Puzzlers, please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler podcast
Speaker 1: and I'll meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles
Speaker 1: that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2: Hello puzzlers. Greg Blisker here with the extra credit answer
Speaker 2: from our previous show. On that show, we were playing
Speaker 2: political insults with Andy Burrowitz. These are all famous insults
Speaker 2: from the world of politics, and the extra credit insult
Speaker 2: we gave you was the General doesn't know any more
Speaker 2: about politics than a pig knows about Sunday. And if
Speaker 2: you figured this one out, you recognize that the general
Speaker 2: is probably Dwight David Eisenhower, and that is Harry S.
Speaker 2: Truman talking about his opponent Dwight David Eisenhower, hope you enjoyed.
Speaker 2: We'll see you next time.