"Earbuses" w/ Dax Shepard and Monica Padman

Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: the hosts of "Armchair Expert," Dax Shepard and Monica Padman!

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, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the mint flavored
mouthwash at the end of your puzzle dental cleaning. I
am your host, AJ Jacobs, and today's guests are the
legendary Dax Shepherd and Monica Padman, hosts of Armchair Expert,

(00:27):
the podcast the flagship show of the Armchair Expert Empire.
Welcome Dax and Monica.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Thanks for having that your It's kind of a preposterous inro,
but we'll take it. You're one of the funnest guests
we've ever had in six years. The notion that we
got to just puzzle our way through two.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Hours, yes, so fun. Well, it was. I'm not making
that this was. It was a highlight of my life.
It's like my wedding, my kids being born, like it's
in the top. So and I also love that you
talked about that you love puzzles, your puzzle fans.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Oh not only that, an update for you, Aj that
didn't exist when we had you on is that my
now third grade daughter has entered a phase of riddles
in her teacher gives out riddles NonStop, so she's coming
home every day with a riddle and it's like I
can't believe how blessed my life is now.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
I love that. All right, Well, I hope you do
better on these than I did. I feel good. I
feel you nervous because this is a type of puzzle
that we invented here at the Puzzler in the Puzzler Laboratory,
and we think of it as a rebus for your ears.
So we call this sort of an earbus trademark pendum.
So the way it works is I'm going to say

(01:48):
a word in a certain tone of voice or an accent,
and if you combine the word and my manner of speaking,
it's gonna reveal the answer, which is a two word phrase.
So it's easier than it sounds is easier. So if
I said, for instance, if I said tied slow tie
high tie, hi tie exact or rising time or low

(02:12):
too high, but yes high time.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
You're gonna hate us as guests because we just we
can't help but go along. But I just want to
say that one of the funniest moments I was I
was banned from doing this in a game we would
play called what was that game categories or something where
you're going to try there's like fifteen words out on
the board and you're going to say, Okay, I'm going
to say one word and you're going to be able
to guess three of the It was code names.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Oh I love that game.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, And this was an outlawed clue that I you'll
remember it because I said totgest because Australian was one
of the things, and and like doctor was one, and
then toilet or something and everyone was really mad. I
use an Australian accent, but it's very similar.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
Cruel tool might be.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Some bad makes sense? You ready for your first earbus
is banana? No, it's banana yeah, but do you know it?

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Ahead, let's do it on three one two three Banana split.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
I love it and I love the I love the delivery.
All right, well you're a natural. You're two naturals. Ready,
we got live er, Live er.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Live.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
I like their looking up. That means they're thinking live er.
It's just so you know, it's sort of in the
genre of banana split. It's like pause l I L
I V E R. But I'm pausing between live and er.
What happens with wife? No? No, it's got the word liver.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
The second it's something liver.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
We have something liver. We got liver and onions.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
We got chopped liver, chopped liver, that chop liver, nicely done.
All right, you're ready for more? You are, all right? Scientist, man, scientist,
Look at that. No hesitation, no hesitation, unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Went on into infinity. We would sit here, we would.
This is like our favorite kind of entertaining. It's like
a button that.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
I have drug button for at no plans. That's great,
all right, Well what about this one example example example example,
it's a two word phrase.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
For example, great job, you're on fire, for example, sorry,
it's great, we're playing it fast, and the spelling of four.
But yeah, you're gonna get hung up on that.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
I loved that because I loved you solved it as
you said.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
It that way.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
That's always fine, all right? What about this one.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
Move slow motion? She had to look. She was trying
to be kind. She already had it before, I was saying.
She had already had time to look at me to
go like, go ahead, all right, only two more, only too,
because you're nodding your head too. So like if there's
any effort to let me think I had it before you,
you blew that by nodding your head as you looked

(05:36):
at me.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
You were doing much better than I did with eight fours. Okay, ready, s.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Oh goodness, you weren't even like condescendingly looking at me.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Over there.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Your intelligence and compliment to you that I'm upset.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
I think you both are right in there. Well, this one,
this is a little callback to something Dack said, rules football, rules.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Football, English rules football.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
Well that I have it, I'm a terrible actor. So
is it Scottish? That was no? Again, it's so bad
rules football.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
My Australian rules football.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
Exactly. How would you do it?

Speaker 3 (06:37):
What does that even mean? I don't get it.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, that you're hearing it for the first time, which
puts you at a deficit for sure. Is that I
have heard that. I have no clue what it is.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Oh, it's like a game. It's like sort of rugby
mixed with football, Australian rules football. I mean, it's fun
to watch. They don't wear they don't wear helmets, and
they just like beat up on each other.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Everyone have callflowers here.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
Well, if you haven't gray for you okay, yeah, I
didn't mean to shame anyone.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
I didn't know about that.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
That one.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
My apologies on the that was a hard one because
my accent was was more like lucky Charms, leprechaun or something.
I don't know what it was. All right, Well you
did fantastic even with the accent, So thank you. Where
can people find more Dax and Monica content.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Anywhere you consume podcasts? Look for us on Mondays for celebrities,
Thursday's Experts, and Friday's Crazy Stories from listeners, and we
have some other shows too, So just listen to us
every day. Yeah, just stopped everything you're doing and listen,
and don't ever stop.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
Don't ever stop.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
It's good advice. It's an empire. Before we wrap up,
as always for the puzzlers at home, an extra credit
here goes we Fall? The answer is going to be
three where it's we Fall?

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Same game or playing?

Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, same game?

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah? Yeah, okay, I.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Didn't hear anything distinct on the delivery.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Did you.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Yeah there's a pause oh there, oh oh I know.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
But you don't need to do it. This is all
for the for the audience, but you can you can.
Oh they're whispering. I like it.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Oh, good job.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
I think they got it. I think they got it
I heard something. Puzzlers, please don't forget to subscribe to
the Puzzler Podcast and we'll meet here tomorrow for more
puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Hello again, puzzlers, This is Greg Pliska and I'm here
to give you the extra credit answer from our previous show.
In that show, I played a game with Aj where
he had to guess whether something was a cricket position
or a carpentry tool, and the extra credit item was
called a chalk line c H A l K line.

(09:00):
Now I n E chalk line that is in fact
a carpentry tool. It's used to draw long straight lines.
It's a string with chalk on it and you snap
it on the whatever surface to draw a long straight
chalk line. I hope you got that one, and I
hope you'll join us again on the Puzzler Podcast.