Speaker 1: Hello Buzzlers, and welcome to the Buzzler Weekend, where we
Speaker 1: bring you some of our favorite episodes from the vaults
Speaker 1: for your weekend listening. Today, March the thirtieth is a
Speaker 1: very important day in history, or at least nerd history.
Speaker 1: Sixty years ago today, in nineteen sixty four, the National
Speaker 1: Broadcasting Company aired the very first episode of a quiz
Speaker 1: show called Jeopardy. It was hosted at the time by
Speaker 1: TV personality Art Fleming. After Art the magnificent Alex Trebek
Speaker 1: took over for many, many years. Side note on Alex Trebek.
Speaker 1: I never went on Jeopardy myself, but I did get
Speaker 1: to interview Alex for Esquire magazine and he gave me
Speaker 1: a quote that I still think about every week to
Speaker 1: this day. He said, I'm curious about everything, even those
Speaker 1: things that don't interest me. So thank you Alex for
Speaker 1: that and for many other things. And now Jeopardy is
Speaker 1: hosted by none other than friend of the Puzzler Podcast,
Speaker 1: Ken Jennings, So in honor of a happy sixtieth to Jeopardy,
Speaker 1: we present you Ken Jennings. Hello Puzzlers, Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Puzzler Podcast. The free parking on your puzzle Monopoly Board.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, and I'm here with this
Speaker 1: week's guest, the legendary Ken Jennings of Jeopardy fame, host
Speaker 1: of the Omnibus podcast, and author of the new book
Speaker 1: One Hundred Places to See After You Die.
Speaker 2: Welcome Ken, AJ, thanks for having me back.
Speaker 1: We are honored, and I bet you've never heard this
Speaker 1: kind of joke format. The answer is this Chief Puzzle
Speaker 1: Officer is going to come on now and give you
Speaker 1: an original puzzler puzzler and the question is who is
Speaker 1: Greg Pliska.
Speaker 3: Thank you AJ, and thank you Ken for being with us.
Speaker 4: This is fun having you here.
Speaker 3: Delighted now as AJ did in the setup, everyone knows
Speaker 3: the Jeopardy tradition that all responses must be in the
Speaker 3: form of a question. So in this game, all the
Speaker 3: responses will sound like their questions, but they aren't who
Speaker 3: They're all Yeah, They're all words or phrases that sound
Speaker 3: like they begin with one of the five traditional English
Speaker 3: question words, who, what, where, when, why, or how.
Speaker 4: So here's an example.
Speaker 3: The reservoir Lake Mead was formed by the creation of
Speaker 3: this massive structure on the Colorado River.
Speaker 2: That would be whom.
Speaker 3: That's the Hoover dam exactly. So it starts with the
Speaker 3: who sound. You understand this intimately.
Speaker 2: I feel like I would not accept that on Jeopardy.
Speaker 2: If somebody just said who damn, it would be like, no,
Speaker 2: we're not playing your game. Why don't you go home?
Speaker 2: Alex Trebek didn't do this show for thirty eight years
Speaker 2: so that you could.
Speaker 4: Try that quest exactly.
Speaker 3: But it would be funny to hear somebody try that.
Speaker 2: I've often wondered if you just said something in a
Speaker 2: very querulous voice, if you were like Millard Fillmore, like,
Speaker 2: do I have to take that because it's in the
Speaker 2: form of a question.
Speaker 4: That's a great thing. No, I you know. The good
Speaker 4: thing is you get to decide.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but the Jeopardy host should not be deciding vibes.
Speaker 2: I feel like vibes should be beyond.
Speaker 4: Right the game. The game should be a little more
Speaker 4: objective than vibes.
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 3: Well, here on the puzzler, we will accept vibes as
Speaker 3: well as the correct answer.
Speaker 4: All right, here's your first one.
Speaker 3: The forty fourth state admitted to the Union. This is
Speaker 3: nicknamed the equality State.
Speaker 2: I was panicking for a second, but luckily, you know,
Speaker 2: there's fifty states to go through, but there's only what five?
Speaker 4: You said?
Speaker 2: Five question words? Who are when? Six question words? So yeah,
Speaker 2: you always go with the smallest set. And as I
Speaker 2: was going through the question words, I realized, why is
Speaker 2: the first syllable.
Speaker 3: Of Wyoming exactly? I was curious if you would just
Speaker 3: know offhand that it's the forty fourth state or the
Speaker 3: equality state.
Speaker 2: That feels like I don't know most of those by number, actually,
Speaker 2: but I just revealed my Achilles here.
Speaker 4: Do you know him by nickname? You know all this?
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, I think I know all the nicknames.
Speaker 2: As a kid, I had a book that had all
Speaker 2: the states and that would birds and whatnot.
Speaker 4: That'd be the kind of fact you'd want to learn.
Speaker 3: All right, here's your second one shape shifting creature from
Speaker 3: London featured in a Warren Zevon song.
Speaker 2: That would be a where Wolf of London. And I
Speaker 2: guess we're assuming I'm not from a part of the
Speaker 2: world that says where differently than I say where.
Speaker 3: Exactly, although maybe you would say where wolf also, I'm
Speaker 3: not sure.
Speaker 4: Probably yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I noticed that on Star Trek Clay, the Klingon guy
Speaker 2: would often hyper correct his w's He would talk about
Speaker 2: the weapons. Captain, the Romulans are arming their weapons, and
Speaker 2: I was like, there's no way it's his.
Speaker 1: I was so high. He just cannot resist.
Speaker 2: Right, he just adds the age.
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, here's your next one South American primate named
Speaker 3: for its loud cry.
Speaker 1: Ah.
Speaker 2: That would be a I think we have these at
Speaker 2: my lived near the zoo in Seattle, and if you
Speaker 2: live a few blocks nearer than us, I think you
Speaker 2: hear these guys all night.
Speaker 3: The how the howler monkey is exactly right, starting with
Speaker 3: how All right, here's another state related one nickname for
Speaker 3: a resident of Indiana.
Speaker 2: When you said nickname, I was already there, because only
Speaker 2: a few states have nicknames like that. You know the
Speaker 2: Hawkeys of Iowa, the buck guys of Ohio, and perhaps
Speaker 2: I guess there's tar Heels, but perhaps most famously, the Hoosiers,
Speaker 2: the Hoosier of Indian all.
Speaker 3: Right, we have time for a couple more of these.
Speaker 3: Let's try this one rhyming term for the depreciation that
Speaker 3: occurs during normal use of an object.
Speaker 2: That would be where and tear. As Lieutenant Work would.
Speaker 3: Say, I like the pronunciation on these.
Speaker 4: It's very good. Extra credit for that.
Speaker 3: All right, and one more for you. South Carolina Rock
Speaker 3: Band fronted by Darius Rucker. They had a hit with
Speaker 3: only Want to Be With You.
Speaker 2: I was little worried on South Carolina Rock band. I
Speaker 2: did not have one in the chamber, but luckily then
Speaker 2: you named the front man.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Really takes me back to being in college and listening
Speaker 2: to so much Wood.
Speaker 4: And the Blowfish. Excellently done.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm gonna I'm going to give you
Speaker 3: one more because this is a tough one, not as
Speaker 3: tough as the extra credit, but but I want to
Speaker 3: give you this one surname of the painter best known
Speaker 3: for Christina's World.
Speaker 2: That would be Andrew Wyeth. Why, yeah, exactly, Sorry, that's
Speaker 2: I'm half klingon, half human, as you know. Yes, that
Speaker 2: was my human side.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm impressed Ken, you've covered when we covered every
Speaker 3: imaginable category and of course you've got them all so
Speaker 3: well done.
Speaker 1: Swap to you swept that category. Nicely done. Thank you
Speaker 1: Ken for coming great job. Can where can people find
Speaker 1: more Ken jennings content?
Speaker 2: Ken jennings On, I don't even want to guess which
Speaker 2: social media platforms exist or what they're called. When this
Speaker 2: episode comes out, but you can find me there.
Speaker 1: Excellent. As always, there's an extra credit puzzle, Greg, you
Speaker 1: got one?
Speaker 4: I do have one. Yes.
Speaker 3: This is the Temple complex in Bangkok, also known as
Speaker 3: the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, thank you Ken. Before we go, I just
Speaker 1: want to thank you again. And puzzlers, please don't forget
Speaker 1: to subscribe to the Puzzler podcasts and we'll meet you
Speaker 1: here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.