Speaker 1: Hello, Puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast the Parachute Game.
Speaker 1: At the end of your puzzle Gym class, I am
Speaker 1: your host, AJ Jacobs, and I am here with our guests,
Speaker 1: the awesome Dax Shepherd and Monica Padman, hosts of Armchair
Speaker 1: Expert and so much more. Welcome Dax and.
Speaker 2: Monica, thanks for having us a j listen. Your creative
Speaker 2: output in creating the games is already monumental and impressive,
Speaker 2: but the notion that you have a new intro every
Speaker 2: time that is that clever is already giving me tremendous
Speaker 2: anxiety of how you're coming up with it. You're gonna
Speaker 2: run out right now.
Speaker 1: He's very stressful. Yeah, I spent an hour this morning,
Speaker 1: and you're nice to say they're clever. They're not. You know,
Speaker 1: I try, but they are. I mean, they started out
Speaker 1: making sense like the chaerry on top of your puzzle
Speaker 1: ice cream, and now they're just you know, absurdist. Well, anyway,
Speaker 1: as many of your fans know, and you have a
Speaker 1: lot of them. At the end of your show, Monica
Speaker 1: often does a fact checking segment where you correct. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you did it for my segment. I thank you.
Speaker 2: I was do you remember if you erred in any way.
Speaker 1: I did in the sense that I said I didn't
Speaker 1: know something, so you told me. Because the question was
Speaker 1: about turkeys and whether turkeys do they come from Turkey?
Speaker 1: Why are they? Turkeys are the American and Monica found
Speaker 1: a yes, they they are. They are native to America,
Speaker 1: and Turkey has no actual turkeys.
Speaker 2: It's a it's a feather in the cap of all Americans.
Speaker 2: Turkey heils from here.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: And just so you know, ninety nine point nine percent
Speaker 2: of the facts being corrected are ones I get wrong.
Speaker 2: So and generally it's just to attack me and not
Speaker 2: the guest.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, but I'm equal opportunity failure. So if you
Speaker 3: are going to mess up, I am going to call
Speaker 3: you out on it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not going to slide by.
Speaker 1: I'm ready to be fact checked. And in fact, I
Speaker 1: may have messed up the fact checking story about you
Speaker 1: fact checking me, so we're going to have to fact
Speaker 1: check that. But in this game, I am going to
Speaker 1: tell you two facts about puzzles, about the history of puzzles,
Speaker 1: and you are going to try to figure out which
Speaker 1: is true and which is fake. Which is so one
Speaker 1: truth in one lie. Are you ready for your first
Speaker 1: set of potential truths? Yes, all right, they're all about puzzles.
Speaker 1: Option one is the current fastest solving of a Rubik's
Speaker 1: cube is three point one seconds. Okay, that's fact one.
Speaker 1: Fact two is, if you turn a Rubik's cube randomly
Speaker 1: at the rate of one twist per second, it will
Speaker 1: take three point one million years to solve on average.
Speaker 1: So the three point one seconds or three point one
Speaker 1: million years.
Speaker 2: This is a tough ee. Now, my instinct is a
Speaker 2: buy that three point one million years number, because I
Speaker 2: have tried numerous times to solve one, and I don't
Speaker 2: think if you gave me three point one million years,
Speaker 2: even spinning it intentionally, I wouldn't get it.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: And then also have you seen these people do these
Speaker 2: pop I mean they're doing it with one hand.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 2: It's insane mind folded.
Speaker 3: Yes, but exactly blindfolded. And I do think it's a
Speaker 3: The younger generation is really on top of like mastering
Speaker 3: the Rubik's cube. Now, so I think the first one's true, you.
Speaker 2: Do, yeah, And I think maybe the second one is
Speaker 2: just simply unknoble true. Okay. Our final answer is a
Speaker 2: is correct and two is potentially unknoble.
Speaker 1: You know your Rubik's gibe three one seconds max.
Speaker 2: Park done on both it sounds like a boy sounds.
Speaker 1: We don't know the name increasingly, I mean is it's
Speaker 1: on It's on YouTube if you want to see it.
Speaker 1: Is crazy.
Speaker 2: I wish I had.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I never met him, but I
Speaker 1: did for my book The Man who pulds the foot record,
Speaker 1: because you can solve it with your feet and that's
Speaker 1: about sixteen seconds.
Speaker 2: Sixteen seconds with the feet, that's a real thumb your
Speaker 2: nose at us simpletons that can't even do it with
Speaker 2: our hands, Like.
Speaker 1: Was that a pun? Were you going with a pun?
Speaker 1: Or that was?
Speaker 2: No, that would have been on accident.
Speaker 1: But by the way, if you did the random thing,
Speaker 1: it would take one hundred and eleven billion years. No, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. There are forty three quintillion possible combinations, which
Speaker 1: is just un that is, it's not unknowable but unfathomable.
Speaker 2: But also great use of time, you know, So are
Speaker 2: there anything of dedicating billions of years of your life too?
Speaker 3: It's got to be that are people who are solving it,
Speaker 3: then they know how to solve it, and then they're
Speaker 3: just working on the time, like they like, they know,
Speaker 3: they look, there's a trick or a hack.
Speaker 2: There's a system.
Speaker 3: There's a system.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like like it's like chess. Right, They've they've
Speaker 2: watched the many different permutations of moves so many times
Speaker 2: that the intuitively and immediately recognize the pattern and know
Speaker 2: what the response to that given pattern is. So they
Speaker 2: can probably glance at that cube and they go, oh,
Speaker 2: it's that pattern. It needs to be spun right left too.
Speaker 2: You know, I imagine that cognitively what's happening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right. And that's why they can do
Speaker 1: it blindfolded because they're allowed to see the cube before
Speaker 1: they put on the blink. That would be pretty impressive.
Speaker 2: Oh good, I'm glad you explain that, because I was like,
Speaker 2: how would someone do it blindfolded? That's doesn't he make
Speaker 2: any sense that colors feel differently? What are we talking?
Speaker 1: Well a little?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 1: Are you ready for your next factech and challenge?
Speaker 4: Yes? All right?
Speaker 1: This is why were readers of the Baltimore Sun furious
Speaker 1: about the April twenty six, twenty twenty puzzle page. Was
Speaker 1: it because a the newspaper printed a crossword puzzle where
Speaker 1: the black squares were in the pattern of a satanic pentagram. B.
Speaker 1: The newspaper printed a spot the Difference puzzle where the
Speaker 1: two images were identical, so they get to find the differences.
Speaker 1: But the newspaper accidentally printed the same image, so there
Speaker 1: were no differences.
Speaker 2: Well, I want to ask a question to you. I
Speaker 2: guess as my partner. Yeah, he said, April twenty six.
Speaker 2: When when is April Fool's Day? That's the first. Yes, first,
Speaker 2: it's not like they would do the identical pictures as
Speaker 2: an April Fools gag. We've passed that twenty five.
Speaker 3: But it was an accident. It could have been an accident,
Speaker 3: which is why I drove people insane.
Speaker 2: Do we know if it's an accident or intentional, Well,
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter because.
Speaker 1: Then the fake scenario, fake or real scenario. It was
Speaker 1: an accident, they did not write.
Speaker 2: I think it's the pentagram you do.
Speaker 1: And can you remind me where we are Boston, Baltimore,
Speaker 1: the Baltimore.
Speaker 3: I think it's I think it's the identicals you do. Well,
Speaker 3: we're going to have We're gonna have.
Speaker 1: Different like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, arguments, someone's going to take the lead right now. Okay,
Speaker 2: well that's our final answers.
Speaker 1: Monica, I'm sticking the winner.
Speaker 3: Yeah. He loves when I win.
Speaker 2: No victory's worth you being in a good mood.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm very proud you went for that one, DX
Speaker 1: and and Monica, Yeah, I love that. It's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite puzzles of all time.
Speaker 2: Just think how many hours were we did where people
Speaker 2: were like, where is it? Family members?
Speaker 3: Exactly?
Speaker 1: Oh, it's heartbreaking. It is just heartbreaking.
Speaker 2: They should lose their puzzling license over that.
Speaker 1: All right, we have one last fact checking for you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you two riddles. One of these
Speaker 1: two riddles is the first recorded riddle in history, and
Speaker 1: one is something I made up this morning. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: are you ready? Riddle a what gets fat without eating
Speaker 1: and pregnant without having sex? And you can try to
Speaker 1: guess or I can give you the answer. That's not
Speaker 1: part of the actual fact checking puzzle. But what gets
Speaker 1: fat without eating and pregnant without having sex is I
Speaker 1: will say. Both of these are Babylonian puzzles, so they're
Speaker 1: funnier in the Babylonian and they like rice or.
Speaker 2: Something like what gives birth? Well, like rice gets fat
Speaker 2: without eating. Is put in water?
Speaker 1: Right, Water is good. Water is like the ocean, or
Speaker 1: like water is water but up in the air like.
Speaker 3: Evaporation, rain cloud, rain cloud.
Speaker 2: Gets fat without eating.
Speaker 1: Sure it gets bigger and pregnant. I guess like that,
Speaker 1: Why does the baby is the water the rain abstract?
Speaker 1: I'm not on board.
Speaker 2: I don't feel bad because I still don't see I
Speaker 2: don't see it. I've never looked up in the sky
Speaker 2: and said, like, holy crap, that cloud has twins. Look
Speaker 2: at the size of it.
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, and you never see one plopping out another cloud?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: Good point. Good point.
Speaker 2: The one's ever said it's raining babies either. Let's just
Speaker 2: add that. Okay, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: All right, so you're skeptical of it, but but maybe
Speaker 1: if you spoke Babylonian it would make more sense. All right,
Speaker 1: here's the other possible riddle. What is a crop that
Speaker 1: grows in all four seasons? A crop that grows in
Speaker 1: all four seasons?
Speaker 3: And it's a riddle, so it can't it's not just
Speaker 3: like corn, Like, it's not like a real answer.
Speaker 2: Right, I don't know that wasn't clouds was their attempt
Speaker 2: at a real answer? Well, already. I feel like I
Speaker 2: know me too.
Speaker 3: The first one is his No, I.
Speaker 2: Think, oh he thinks we're thinking crops, your early agriculture, civilization.
Speaker 3: I just think, whatever this riddle is, whatever this answer
Speaker 3: is probably better.
Speaker 1: Should we just.
Speaker 2: Let's try to find out the answer. Let's work it
Speaker 2: for a minute.
Speaker 3: Like, good job, Okay, what was crop in all four?
Speaker 1: What is a crop that grows in all four seasons?
Speaker 1: So yeah, you got it. Is something that grows in
Speaker 1: all four But it's not like you said. It's not
Speaker 1: like corn, but it is something that grows crop of
Speaker 1: crop the top. That's interesting.
Speaker 3: Oh hair ah, yeah, has got it right.
Speaker 1: That's the first one.
Speaker 3: Is the first riddle, okay, because it's so stupid, this
Speaker 3: one was clever, a little bit clever, so I think
Speaker 3: AJ made it up.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll stick with you.
Speaker 1: You are right, and thank you for thinking I'm more
Speaker 1: clever than Ben. Sure are honored.
Speaker 3: You would never say that cloud thing.
Speaker 2: I mean, these folks, what would they think. I was
Speaker 2: just reading Hamarabi's code this morning, and I was equally flummix.
Speaker 2: It's no wonder this riddle didn't hold up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well you did great, you busted me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Let's be clear, Monica did great. She's three for three,
Speaker 2: two for three, yeah.
Speaker 1: Two for three. That's still a sea a see yuck.
Speaker 3: Really, it's very magna of you.
Speaker 1: Where can people hear more of Dax and Monica?
Speaker 2: We are everywhere one would listen to podcasts, so please
Speaker 2: check us out Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays.
Speaker 3: Armchair Expert love it.
Speaker 1: And for those puzzlers at home, we have one extra credit.
Speaker 1: Which of these is true? Alexander the Great started a
Speaker 1: war because of a jigsaw puzzle or Alexander the Great
Speaker 1: started a war because of an anagram? One of those
Speaker 1: is true. Puzzlers, please don't forget to subscribe to the
Speaker 1: Puzzler podcast and we will meet you here tomorrow for
Speaker 1: more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 4: Hello, puzzlers, this is Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska here
Speaker 4: with the extra credit answer from our previous show, we
Speaker 4: played Armchair Export with Monica and Dax. It's Armchair Export,
Speaker 4: not Expert. Every answer is the name of a well
Speaker 4: known podcast with one letter changed. Your extra credit clue
Speaker 4: was from n p R. This show explores wheat barley
Speaker 4: and oats that you cannot see with host shanker Vedantum
Speaker 4: and the answer, of course is hidden grain, a single
Speaker 4: letter change from the great show Hidden Brain. But your
Speaker 4: brains aren't hidden, are they. They're right there for us
Speaker 4: to see here in the puzzle Lab. Catch you next time.