Speaker 1: Hello, puzzlers. Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the Diving clothes
Speaker 1: Line in Your World puzzle Wrestling Championships. I am your host,
Speaker 1: A J. Jacobs, and today's guests are Vanessa and Jonah Bayer,
Speaker 1: multi talented siblings. Jonah is a music writer and a musician.
Speaker 1: Vanessa is a writer actor, former cast member of Saturday
Speaker 1: Night Live, and together they host the wonderful podcast how
Speaker 1: Did We Get Weird? Welcome Vanessa and Jonah.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Jjy. We're happy to be here.
Speaker 1: We are thrilled and I love your podcast. It's about
Speaker 1: you too. And a guest reminiscing about weird things from childhood,
Speaker 1: Saturday Morning cartoons, lunchables, saved by the Bell. One question.
Speaker 1: Have you ever done an episode on puzzles like Where's Waldo?
Speaker 1: Or mad Libs or anything like that.
Speaker 3: No, we haven't. That's a great idea. We loved Where's
Speaker 3: Waldo growing up, right, Vanessa?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think the closest thing to a puzzle that we
Speaker 5: might have talked about is like magic Eye. Those Magic Eye.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, those were good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, those considered a puzzle.
Speaker 1: I count I'm very liberal with the word puzzle. Uh
Speaker 1: were you able to do it because I was not. Really.
Speaker 1: I would stare at it and I thought people were
Speaker 1: pranking it.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I thought it was like, you know, when Ashton Kutcher
Speaker 1: was going to pop out.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I could never get them either. Think it's impossible.
Speaker 5: I think for me, they would when they were supposed
Speaker 5: to look like they were popping out towards me, they
Speaker 5: would always be going inward, like they'd be going away
Speaker 5: from me, sort of. But that was maybe one out
Speaker 5: of ten times. In the other nine times, I just
Speaker 5: got nothing.
Speaker 1: That is weird, that is weird. Maybe I don't know what.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's were you in the Southern.
Speaker 4: Hemisphere, Maybe maybe it was where.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I love the name of your podcast, How did we
Speaker 1: get weird? How did you choose how did we get weird?
Speaker 1: As the title?
Speaker 2: It's good question, Benessa.
Speaker 4: Do you remember we had a few ideas and.
Speaker 5: I think we've found it to be sort of catchy,
Speaker 5: and I do think we find ourselves to be pretty weird,
Speaker 5: so it.
Speaker 4: Kind of I think very organically we came to it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, naming a podcast is it's a naming that band, Like,
Speaker 3: all the names are taken pretty much at this point,
Speaker 3: so it's you have a good name. It's simple, explains
Speaker 3: the idea. So good job with that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, thank you. Well, I will say I love
Speaker 1: the word weird. I consider myself weird. And actually, I
Speaker 1: don't know if you know this, but it is actually
Speaker 1: an important word in the puzzling world. Are either of
Speaker 1: you puzzlers at all? Like crosswords or Sudoku or jigsaws
Speaker 1: anything like that.
Speaker 3: I'm like a Monday New York Times cross word and
Speaker 3: then after that just as makes me feel like I
Speaker 3: don't know anything?
Speaker 2: What about you, Vanessa mean?
Speaker 5: Most nights I do the New York Times Mini Crossword,
Speaker 5: I do word all and I do I've started doing
Speaker 5: that game Connections, although it's often very difficult for me
Speaker 5: and often makes me mad, but it is so addictive.
Speaker 1: It's infuriating and addictive at the same time. Yes, well, good,
Speaker 1: but you're in the puzzle world. But British crosswords use
Speaker 1: the word weird in their clues a lot. And British crosswords,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever done them. They're called
Speaker 1: cryptics and they are all about wordplay. They love their anagrams,
Speaker 1: and the clues will say the word weird because it
Speaker 1: signifies that the next word is going to be an
Speaker 1: anagram that you have to mix up the letters. So
Speaker 1: if a clue is in a British crossword puzzle is
Speaker 1: something like weird, step up, the answer might be step
Speaker 1: you rearrange it to pest something like that. So you
Speaker 1: take the word right after weird and you mix up
Speaker 1: the letters. So this in honor of you, is a
Speaker 1: weird puzzle written by Greg Pliska, our chief puzzle officer.
Speaker 1: It sounds complicated, but it's not. I'm gonna give you
Speaker 1: a clue. So here's an example. Clue, Hey, I got
Speaker 1: some weird pots. They're read and octagonal and they look
Speaker 1: like a sign. So in that clue weird pots, the
Speaker 1: word after weird is pots. So you're gonna anagram that
Speaker 1: to make something that is octagonal red looking like a sign,
Speaker 1: which might be stop stop, I will not stop, I
Speaker 1: will keep going. You got it that that was a
Speaker 1: cheap one. All right, Well let's do it. Let's do
Speaker 1: some weird, some weird games. Are you ready?
Speaker 2: I'm ready?
Speaker 1: Yes, all right. I heard about this really weird diet
Speaker 1: where all you eat is laundry detergentness.
Speaker 2: That you've any ideas for this.
Speaker 5: One, well, diet d I e t Yes, I'm thinking
Speaker 5: it's probably a type of laundry detergent.
Speaker 1: Nice And.
Speaker 4: As someone who.
Speaker 5: Loves major brands, real brand person over here, I think
Speaker 5: I have it.
Speaker 4: Jonah, do you think you have it?
Speaker 2: Are you thinking tide?
Speaker 1: Yes, you are thinking correctly, because that is the answer.
Speaker 1: It is tied. And by the way, you know this
Speaker 1: is not a joke. Remember the tide pod all the
Speaker 1: kids were eating their.
Speaker 4: Tithe Yeah, oh yeah, this is.
Speaker 1: A little public service announcement that don't go on the
Speaker 1: tide diet please, all right. Next one, I was at
Speaker 1: the beach and I walked into this really weird dune
Speaker 1: and suddenly all my clothes fell off. So what might
Speaker 1: that dune?
Speaker 2: Okay, so dune dune clothes falling off?
Speaker 4: Yes, I think it's nude.
Speaker 1: It is nude, exactly. Yeah, we got a couple more.
Speaker 1: Are you ready. We're gonna get a little We're gonna
Speaker 1: move it up a little. I ate these really weird tacos.
Speaker 1: They're super large and you can wear them to stay warm.
Speaker 1: Tacos that you wear to stay warm tacos.
Speaker 4: I think I've got it.
Speaker 1: Coats, coats, Yeah, exactly. All right, we're gonna keep with
Speaker 1: the food theme for one more. I got this really
Speaker 1: weird tarragon from the spice store. It thinks it's better
Speaker 1: than all the other spices. Tarragon that is a little conceited,
Speaker 1: little conceited, this tarragon. Oh this now I feel you
Speaker 1: are you are stuffed a little? Yeah, this one is hard,
Speaker 1: exactly what we wanted to tarragon. Well, you know how
Speaker 1: I like to focus on the clue, not on forget again.
Speaker 4: Can we hear the clue again? Sure?
Speaker 1: This really weird tarragon from the spice store that thinks
Speaker 1: it's better than all the other spices. It's super conceited.
Speaker 1: It is like pompous.
Speaker 5: It is well, I thought of one, but I don't
Speaker 5: know that it means pompous or conceited, or that it
Speaker 5: has the right letters.
Speaker 4: But I'll guess it. Okay, good, which is a reganel?
Speaker 1: No, no, no, I will say that. I will say
Speaker 1: I'm getting hungry. It is if you.
Speaker 4: Are, It's right. It doesn't have to be a spye.
Speaker 1: Right, Well, I'll give you take off the from argon.
Speaker 4: Oh, I got it. That's that's now, I've got it.
Speaker 4: Now I've got it? Did you have it?
Speaker 2: Vanessa? I have no idea, so good.
Speaker 4: Arrogant is correct.
Speaker 1: That's right. You can be arrogant about getting that before
Speaker 1: your brother. So that was good. All right, have about
Speaker 1: one more, sure, and then we will we'll get an
Speaker 1: extra credit for the folks at home. I bought these
Speaker 1: really weird meats at the store yesterday. When you cook them,
Speaker 1: they just turn into water vapor. So meets the turn
Speaker 1: into water vapor.
Speaker 4: This one I got, Vanessa, I don't think I have
Speaker 4: this one.
Speaker 2: Ag I'm gonna go with steam.
Speaker 1: You got it? You got it? So now you're even,
Speaker 1: Now you are even? Yes, so Vanessa got one? You
Speaker 1: got one? Well that was lovely. You did great. Where
Speaker 1: can people find more? Vanessa and Jonah content, Well, it's.
Speaker 5: Funny that you asked that because we have a podcast
Speaker 5: ourselves called how did We Get Weird? And you can
Speaker 5: find it wherever you get your podcasts. And we have
Speaker 5: a lot of fun. We've had guests such as Sam
Speaker 5: richardson Weird.
Speaker 1: Al Weird, of course.
Speaker 4: Yes, weird.
Speaker 1: We've had al.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we we just had Bill Hayter on. Just a
Speaker 5: bunch of really great guests and so we and we
Speaker 5: love just talking about our childhood and how we got
Speaker 5: so darn weird.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for being weird, and thank you for
Speaker 1: coming on the show. Before we wrap up, as always
Speaker 1: for the puzzlers at home, we've got an extra credit puzzle,
Speaker 1: which is these really weird salesmen came to my door
Speaker 1: the other day and they insisted on remaining anonymous. So
Speaker 1: these salesmen were anonymous. So tune in to the next
Speaker 1: episode to find out what that is. And in the meantime,
Speaker 1: please subscribe rate the podcast. I recommend five stars. That's
Speaker 1: just me and if you're enjoying the podcast, tell your
Speaker 1: friends and we'll meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling
Speaker 1: puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 4: Hey puzzlers, Greg Pliska here up from the Puzzle Lab
Speaker 4: with the extra credit answer.
Speaker 1: From our previous episode, we played I Love That for
Speaker 1: You with Vanessa and Jonah Bayer. Each clue points to
Speaker 1: a word or phrase that starts with the you sound.
Speaker 1: Your extra credit clue was picks with pictures of tiny
Speaker 1: tim and the answer is I love that for Ukuleles,
Speaker 1: So get your ukulele
Speaker 4: And join us next time on the Puzzler podcast