June 28, 2024 • 11 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! AJ has a new book out! You can order "The Year of Living Constitutionally" right now!.
Puzzling with us today: our very own Chief Puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska.
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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello puzzlers, and welcome to the Puzzler Podcast. The medicated
oatmeal shampoo at your high end puzzle dog grooming spot.
That's a lot of information, but all true. That is
what they have at high end spots, according to the Internet.
(00:26):
I am here at the Fancy iHeart Studios with Chief
Puzzle Officer Greg Puliska.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hello Greg, Hello AJ. No medicated oatmeal shampoo has been
used in the making of this puzzle.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Now, although if it did, it wouldn't be so bad
because I hear it's very comfortable for the dogs. Okay, good, Well,
today you're not only a chief puzzle officer, but you're
also a chief solving officer, and in that capacity, I
have a puzzle for you today.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I think I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
All right. Well, if there is you know this, Greg.
But if there's one recurring theme in the feedback from
Puzzler listeners, it's that they want me to sing more songs,
more of the liftless tones from AJ.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
We have, oh postcards, more singing.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Please, So I have I have finally buckled to popular
demand and I'm giving you a puzzle featuring clues that
I will sing. So here's the way it works. You
know how certain songs have questions in the title or
in the lyrics. Yes, so I'm going to sing the
answers to those questions in the style of the song,
(01:38):
and you will have to guess the song. I love it,
So name that tunes question. Okay, ready, Yes, take the
one o one North inter State, Merge onto one fifty
two West and go straight now, exit at Santa Clava Street,
and then simply get out of your car seat.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So I love it. These are not the actual lyrics
to the song. I was expecting these to actually be
the actual song lyrics, but they're not.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
No, I wrote these.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I know you wrote these to the tune of do
you know the Way to San Jose?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Exactly? You got it, and that that is the way
to San Jose from LA.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
That's well done. Although technically the answer to that question
might just be yes, it is harder to guess, harder
to guess the title. If you had just said yes,
I would have been stumped. But I got it from
that wonderful.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Even with my voice, which Julie told me that I
should hire our friend Shannon to do it, but we
ran out of time.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
It's funny because I was just emailing this morning with
a friend who's also a puzzler and a musician who
is also driving from La to San Jose in a
month or so. We were just emailing about that.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And did you reference the song?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I didn't reference the song? Should have? Should have? It's yeah,
Burt Backgrack and Hal David, one of the great songwriting
teams of the previous century.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Uh, all right, here comes the second one. La La, La,
la la. There are the same number as before. You
just notice the spare rosmore. Cognitive bias is active in
(03:26):
your brain. Are you laughing at so good?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
No?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Give me.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I just want to hear the first lyric again because
it's so good.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
There are the same number as before. You just notice
the spare rose and pigeons more.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I love it? Did you? I have sparrows and pigeons more?
Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
That's it? You got it, and you're you should be
the one giving this and Ione listens so good?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
This is great, thank you, that's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I'm gonna tell Julie your answer.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Is there is no there aren't that. They don't just appear.
They're always there. You just notice them.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
More. It's a cognitive bias. I was trying to figure
out which one may be the al availability bias. I'm
not sure, but yes, when you're in love you notice
things more. So that's nice. Absolutely, Okay, are you ready
for it? Just a couple more. This is not a
heart lemma. This is not a heart lemma. If you remain,
(04:31):
there's two times the stress, so leaving causes have the mess.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
What's the great is you got not just the tune,
but the attitude?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Thank you? I did try to get into character.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
You're just like, who was the lead singer of the clash?
Oh god?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Well, well it does happen to be appro.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
It is a class clash song Should I stay or
should I go?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Right? Exactly? Who is the class lead singer? That's some
harassing I should know. But because it is uh Nick.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Joe's strummer Jones.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Well I I did this one because Uh, I watched
a movie that I recommend called Unpregnant, and they pointed
out they had a discussion about this song because really
it is not hard. If I stay, there will be trouble.
If I go, there will be trouble. If I stay,
there will be double So that's not hard. If there's
(05:29):
double trouble, that's worse.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So you should go. So you should go unless you
like trouble.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Exactly. It is not a hard question, and they're making
it seem like it's this very difficult decision, right, all right,
here's one. Just know this one might be a little harder. Uh.
Julie Jacobs was not impressed. Okay, you're ready, very okay,
do do do do?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Public ludeness is illegal. Public ludeness is illegal. Public loudness
is illegal. Public loudeness is illegal. You rest ninety days
in jail.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Public loudeness is illegal.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
You're you're you're doing your best Beatles qussion, which is
not that I mean I might Julie. We have to
know Julie is always right, So I don't want to
question Julie. Why don't we do it in the road?
Exactly rightly? Okay. Sean Lennon's song I think.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Which I learned from my googling, that it was because
they were in India and they saw two chickens doing
it in the road, and they're like, why can't we
do that?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
An existential question for you. The chickens can do it,
why can't we There's lots of things chickens do that
we don't do.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Can't we lay eggs?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Exactly? Exactly? All right?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Last one last week for the extra credit. Now this
one I had. I knew that like a lot of
these were in You're in my demo, so I tried
to get one that's a little younger. So I asked
my kids. So honestly I would not have gotten this,
but I felt it was important to try at least.
(07:18):
Here goes there's eight billion people on the glove. Oh,
chances i'd run into you are low?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
H oh yeah, Okay, so this is is something from
the twenty first century.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
It is it. I mean it's not that new, to
be honest.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Globe chances are chances.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Twelve years ago, so but it was the newest.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Set running into you are low. There's eighty eight billion,
eight billion people on the globe.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Probably back then it was more seven and a half billion.
Well it was. I'll give you a clue to the artist.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Okay, she is uh.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
She is probably the most famous singer from Barbados.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Oh so it's Rihanna.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
It is real. And it is a question not uh,
who have you been or why have you?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Where have you been?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Where have you been?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I can't I can't even sing it. That's really terrible.
There's so many Rihanna songs I could have done for you.
I could probably do the Tom Holland choreography to Umbrella,
but no, I can't. No, I couldn't do the choreography.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
But well, this is the only one that had a question.
If Umbrella was a question, where is where?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
All right, well, I'm sorry I had to end with
that one.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
It's all right.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
I have some old occasionally.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, well done, though, you got every one of the
other ones. And yes, I will be releasing a this
as an album.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
O great, okay, so wait, do you hear the outtakes?
They're going to be so good. Okay, and you have
an extra.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Credit, have an extra credit? No, I believe in science
and natural laws, even in a young girl's heart like Greg's.
I like Greg's eyebrow that it was quite a raised eyebrow.
All right, well, there you go. Come back next time
(09:19):
and you will find out the mystery song. And in
the meantime, we have an Instagram channel called at Hello Puzzlers,
and there are new puzzles all the time. Please go
to that and come back tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles
that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
High puzzlers. Greg Pliska here up from the Puzzle Lab
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode, Judy
Gold did some four letter words with us and we
gave you two extra credits. Each answer is a pair
of four letter words that form a common phrase. Your
clue is the opposite of those two words. Number one
(10:05):
credit stoppage, number two crewe, wrinkle. The answer to number
one is cash flow, where cash is the opposite of
credit and flow is the opposite of stoppage. And the
answer to number two is cast iron because cast is
kind of the opposite of crewe, and of course iron
(10:27):
is the opposite of wrinkle. Go iron your shirts and
while you do it, listen to the Puzzler.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Thanks for playing along with the team. Here at the
Puzzler with AJ Jacobs. I'm Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer.
Our executive producers are Neelie Lohman and Adam Neuhause of
New House Ideas and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is produced by Jody Averragan and Brittany Brown of
Roulette Productions with production support from Claire Bidegar Curtis. Associate
(11:00):
producer is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with Ajjacobs is a
co production with New House Ideas and is distributed by
Hot Card Pasties. No I Rearrange Those Letters distributed by
iHeart Podcasts. If you want to know more about puzzling puzzles,
please check out the book The Puzzler by AJ Jacobs,
(11:22):
a history of puzzles that The New York Times called
fun and funny. It features an original puzzle hunt by
yours Truly, and is available wherever you get your books.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
And puzzlers.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
For all your puzzling needs, go visit the puzzler dot com.
See you there,
Hello puzzlers, and welcome to the Puzzler Podcast. The medicated
oatmeal shampoo at your high end puzzle dog grooming spot.
That's a lot of information, but all true. That is
what they have at high end spots, according to the Internet.
(00:26):
I am here at the Fancy iHeart Studios with Chief
Puzzle Officer Greg Puliska.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hello Greg, Hello AJ. No medicated oatmeal shampoo has been
used in the making of this puzzle.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Now, although if it did, it wouldn't be so bad
because I hear it's very comfortable for the dogs. Okay, good, Well,
today you're not only a chief puzzle officer, but you're
also a chief solving officer, and in that capacity, I
have a puzzle for you today.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I think I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
All right. Well, if there is you know this, Greg.
But if there's one recurring theme in the feedback from
Puzzler listeners, it's that they want me to sing more songs,
more of the liftless tones from AJ.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
We have, oh postcards, more singing.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Please, So I have I have finally buckled to popular
demand and I'm giving you a puzzle featuring clues that
I will sing. So here's the way it works. You
know how certain songs have questions in the title or
in the lyrics. Yes, so I'm going to sing the
answers to those questions in the style of the song,
(01:38):
and you will have to guess the song. I love it,
So name that tunes question. Okay, ready, Yes, take the
one o one North inter State, Merge onto one fifty
two West and go straight now, exit at Santa Clava Street,
and then simply get out of your car seat.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
So I love it. These are not the actual lyrics
to the song. I was expecting these to actually be
the actual song lyrics, but they're not.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
No, I wrote these.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I know you wrote these to the tune of do
you know the Way to San Jose?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Exactly? You got it, and that that is the way
to San Jose from LA.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
That's well done. Although technically the answer to that question
might just be yes, it is harder to guess, harder
to guess the title. If you had just said yes,
I would have been stumped. But I got it from
that wonderful.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Even with my voice, which Julie told me that I
should hire our friend Shannon to do it, but we
ran out of time.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
It's funny because I was just emailing this morning with
a friend who's also a puzzler and a musician who
is also driving from La to San Jose in a
month or so. We were just emailing about that.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
And did you reference the song?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I didn't reference the song? Should have? Should have? It's yeah,
Burt Backgrack and Hal David, one of the great songwriting
teams of the previous century.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Uh, all right, here comes the second one. La La, La,
la la. There are the same number as before. You
just notice the spare rosmore. Cognitive bias is active in
(03:26):
your brain. Are you laughing at so good?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
No?
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Give me.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I just want to hear the first lyric again because
it's so good.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
There are the same number as before. You just notice
the spare rose and pigeons more.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I love it? Did you? I have sparrows and pigeons more?
Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
That's it? You got it, and you're you should be
the one giving this and Ione listens so good?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
This is great, thank you, that's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I'm gonna tell Julie your answer.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Is there is no there aren't that. They don't just appear.
They're always there. You just notice them.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
More. It's a cognitive bias. I was trying to figure
out which one may be the al availability bias. I'm
not sure, but yes, when you're in love you notice
things more. So that's nice. Absolutely, Okay, are you ready
for it? Just a couple more. This is not a
heart lemma. This is not a heart lemma. If you remain,
(04:31):
there's two times the stress, so leaving causes have the mess.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
What's the great is you got not just the tune,
but the attitude?
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Thank you? I did try to get into character.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
You're just like, who was the lead singer of the clash?
Oh god?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Well, well it does happen to be appro.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
It is a class clash song Should I stay or
should I go?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Right? Exactly? Who is the class lead singer? That's some
harassing I should know. But because it is uh Nick.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Joe's strummer Jones.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Well I I did this one because Uh, I watched
a movie that I recommend called Unpregnant, and they pointed
out they had a discussion about this song because really
it is not hard. If I stay, there will be trouble.
If I go, there will be trouble. If I stay,
there will be double So that's not hard. If there's
(05:29):
double trouble, that's worse.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
So you should go. So you should go unless you
like trouble.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Exactly. It is not a hard question, and they're making
it seem like it's this very difficult decision, right, all right,
here's one. Just know this one might be a little harder. Uh.
Julie Jacobs was not impressed. Okay, you're ready, very okay,
do do do do?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Public ludeness is illegal. Public ludeness is illegal. Public loudness
is illegal. Public loudeness is illegal. You rest ninety days
in jail.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Public loudeness is illegal.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
You're you're you're doing your best Beatles qussion, which is
not that I mean I might Julie. We have to
know Julie is always right, So I don't want to
question Julie. Why don't we do it in the road?
Exactly rightly? Okay. Sean Lennon's song I think.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Which I learned from my googling, that it was because
they were in India and they saw two chickens doing
it in the road, and they're like, why can't we
do that?
Speaker 2 (06:47):
An existential question for you. The chickens can do it,
why can't we There's lots of things chickens do that
we don't do.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Can't we lay eggs?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Exactly? Exactly? All right?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Last one last week for the extra credit. Now this
one I had. I knew that like a lot of
these were in You're in my demo, so I tried
to get one that's a little younger. So I asked
my kids. So honestly I would not have gotten this,
but I felt it was important to try at least.
(07:18):
Here goes there's eight billion people on the glove. Oh,
chances i'd run into you are low?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
H oh yeah, Okay, so this is is something from
the twenty first century.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
It is it. I mean it's not that new, to
be honest.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Globe chances are chances.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Twelve years ago, so but it was the newest.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Set running into you are low. There's eighty eight billion,
eight billion people on the globe.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Probably back then it was more seven and a half billion.
Well it was. I'll give you a clue to the artist.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Okay, she is uh.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
She is probably the most famous singer from Barbados.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Oh so it's Rihanna.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
It is real. And it is a question not uh,
who have you been or why have you?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Where have you been?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Where have you been?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I can't I can't even sing it. That's really terrible.
There's so many Rihanna songs I could have done for you.
I could probably do the Tom Holland choreography to Umbrella,
but no, I can't. No, I couldn't do the choreography.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
But well, this is the only one that had a question.
If Umbrella was a question, where is where?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
All right, well, I'm sorry I had to end with
that one.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
It's all right.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
I have some old occasionally.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, well done, though, you got every one of the
other ones. And yes, I will be releasing a this
as an album.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
O great, okay, so wait, do you hear the outtakes?
They're going to be so good. Okay, and you have
an extra.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Credit, have an extra credit? No, I believe in science
and natural laws, even in a young girl's heart like Greg's.
I like Greg's eyebrow that it was quite a raised eyebrow.
All right, well, there you go. Come back next time
(09:19):
and you will find out the mystery song. And in
the meantime, we have an Instagram channel called at Hello Puzzlers,
and there are new puzzles all the time. Please go
to that and come back tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles
that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
High puzzlers. Greg Pliska here up from the Puzzle Lab
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode, Judy
Gold did some four letter words with us and we
gave you two extra credits. Each answer is a pair
of four letter words that form a common phrase. Your
clue is the opposite of those two words. Number one
(10:05):
credit stoppage, number two crewe, wrinkle. The answer to number
one is cash flow, where cash is the opposite of
credit and flow is the opposite of stoppage. And the
answer to number two is cast iron because cast is
kind of the opposite of crewe, and of course iron
(10:27):
is the opposite of wrinkle. Go iron your shirts and
while you do it, listen to the Puzzler.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Thanks for playing along with the team. Here at the
Puzzler with AJ Jacobs. I'm Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer.
Our executive producers are Neelie Lohman and Adam Neuhause of
New House Ideas and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is produced by Jody Averragan and Brittany Brown of
Roulette Productions with production support from Claire Bidegar Curtis. Associate
(11:00):
producer is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler with Ajjacobs is a
co production with New House Ideas and is distributed by
Hot Card Pasties. No I Rearrange Those Letters distributed by
iHeart Podcasts. If you want to know more about puzzling puzzles,
please check out the book The Puzzler by AJ Jacobs,
(11:22):
a history of puzzles that The New York Times called
fun and funny. It features an original puzzle hunt by
yours Truly, and is available wherever you get your books.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
And puzzlers.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
For all your puzzling needs, go visit the puzzler dot com.
See you there,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.