"ASMR" w/ Lisa Loeb

Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us all this week: singer-songwriter, radio host, actor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Lisa Loeb.

Join host A.J. Jacobs and his guests as they puzzle–and laugh–their way through new spins on old favorites, like anagrams and palindromes, as well as quirky originals such as “Ask Chat GPT” and audio rebuses.

Subscribe to The Puzzler podcast wherever you get your podcasts! 

"The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs" is distributed by iHeartPodcasts and is a co-production with Neuhaus Ideas. 

Our executive producers are Neely Lohmann and Adam Neuhaus of Neuhaus Ideas, and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts.

The show is produced by Jody Avirgan and Brittani Brown of Roulette Productions. 

Our Chief Puzzle Officer is Greg Pliska. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello puzzlers, and welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, home of
your daily puzzle dollop. I am your host, A. J. Jacobs,
and I am here with our guest, the great musician
and radio host Lisa Loebe Welcome, Lisa.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
I am delighted to have you and Lisa. I have
a question to start things off. There is a certain
auditory psychological phenomenon which is very popular, became popular recently.
The first ever reference to this phenomenon is said to
be in Virginia Wolfe's novel Missus Dollaway, where she writes

(00:53):
that there's a woman who speaks with quote roughness in
her voice, like a grasshopper which rasped his spine deliciously.
So she speaks and his spine tingles. What is that phenomenon?

Speaker 2 (01:10):
ASMR?

Speaker 1 (01:11):
It is ASMR. That is our theme of our puzzle today.
We're going to do an ASMR puzzle. So I'm going
to give you clues to words that have the letters
as mr in that order.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
I thought it was going to be an anomonopoetic thing.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
I am going to whisper the clues because I want
to like, if not in you, maybe give some other
people some spine tingling pleasure. OK, And I so this
the ASMR. There might be other letters in between. It's
a little tricky. I have to say, it's a little tricky.
You might want to get a pencil and a paper.
I have a pencil and a pen okay, good, and.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
A paintbrush. I'm ready. All right.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
I might have to repeat these if you can't understand
my whisper. But I've been practicing my whisper. All right.
This one, this is actually from our era, so it
might work.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
This word might be used to describe a trendy, uneven
haircut in the nineteen eighties.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Asymmetrical You got it.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Oh. I was gonna say asymmetrical haircut, but you use
the word haircut.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Did you have one?

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Did you have? I don't think I did, but my
sister did. She even I think I had part of
her head shaved.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
H wow, all right, okay, you got it very fast.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
Number two?

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Are you ready?

Speaker 2 (02:26):
I'm ready.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
This is someone who operates a massive telescope.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Oh, astronomer.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Oh there it is?

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Are you even using I'm ASMR. I'm looking at it
and it literally spells itself out.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
All right.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
These have names including Jazz Bumblebee and Optimus Prime.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Oh they are transformers.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Transformers, unbelievable. You are just breezing through these. If you
want to add, sir in a whisper that oh he can.
But oh nice, all right, we got two more.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
This material is from a certain type of goats, found
it most often in China and Mongolia.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Oh, I know this is something that sometimes I'm a
little bit allergic to cash mere.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
That's it. Well, we're learning a lot about you, all right,
last one.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
This symbol is also known as an octothorp octothorp octathorp,
or more commonly a pound signound sign.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Oh hash hash you got right now? Then there's a
little twist.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Oh because I said cash, but you said hash. You
just gave me pleasure.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Hash hash also a tic tacto sign.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Oh hashtag. No, but that's not it.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Hashmark, hashmark, hash mark exactly the little they cashtags and
tash mark.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Is it a cash mark or a hash mark?

Speaker 1 (04:05):
I will get cash hash for both.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Is it a cash hash mark?

Speaker 1 (04:09):
I'm gonna let you own that term. You have coined
that term, and it's gonna catch on. So Thank you, Lisa.
Where can people get more of your content?

Speaker 2 (04:22):
The best place for people to get my music and
my music videos and a link to all the shows
I might be playing radio shows I might be hosting
on sirius XM. The best place to go is Lisa
loebe l oeb dot com. You can find my really
cute merchandise that I helped design.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
As well which you're wearing right now, Oh.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
My glasses, my eyewear, yes, Lisa Lowe by wear. So
you can find all things me there and sometimes I
post things like recipes, pictures of my cats or else
really official things like what city I will be in next?

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Excellent? All right, well, thank you Lisa. Everyone go and
buy all the merchandise you can before we wrap up.
As always, for the puzzlers at home, here is your
extra credit puzzle. This is an ASMR word, a place
where you might.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
Find roller coasters, flumes and long lines.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Puzzlers. Please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler podcast
and we will meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling
puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Hello again, puzzlers. Greg Pliska with the extra credit from
our previous show.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
That show, we played a game called Find the Link
with Lisa Loebe gave her clues to three different things,
and then she had to figure out the link between
those three things. Your extra credit was this number one
California's Pallo Blank, clue number two Tony or Carmela, and

(06:05):
clue number three.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
The drift, the gist, the general meaning or character.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Those three clues in order are alto California's Palo Alto soprano,
Tony or Carmela soprano, and tenor a word meaning the
general meaning of something or the drift. And the general
drift of those three clues is that they are all
vocal ranges. Congrats to everyone who got that one, and
let's play some more puzzles soon