May 29, 2025 • 20 mins
The Puzzler team is taking a short break, and in the meantime we're bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We'll be back with brand new episodes soon!
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: journalist, podcaster, and host of "The Sam Sanders Show," Sam Sanders!
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello puzzlers. The Puzzling crew is taking a quick break
this week to huddle in the puzzle lab and come
up with lots of new brain teasers and brain ticklers
and brain taunters and other synonyms for puzzles. We will
be back on Monday, but in the meantime, please enjoy
some of our favorite episodes from this past year. Hello puzzlers,
(00:24):
Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast The wind beneath your puzzle wings.
I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, and here's a quick puzzle
for you. What do these three words have in common,
two can, uncle, and Yosemite? The answer after the break.
(00:50):
Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast. Before the break, we
ask you what the words two, can, uncle and Yosemite
have in common? The answer is, of course Sam, they
are all Sam's two Kam, Sam, Uncle, Sam and Yosemite Sam,
which is delightfully appropriate because our guest today is another
legendary Sam, Sam Sanders podcast royalty host of the Vibe
(01:14):
Check Podcast as well as a new show, The Sam
Sanders Show on CACRW.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Welcome Sam, Thanks for having me. You know, I did
not get that question, and I feel like I should
have given it was about Sam's It was actually hard.
It was actually hard.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, well, we like to yours. I think the ones
I'll give you will be clearer.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I was just trying to get people's get their brains
kicked into gear. We have lots to talk about regarding
your new show, your pop culture expertise, but let's start
with a puzzle. Let's do it, and this puzzle is
for you. It's called Sam Sanders sand So all of
the answers are going to be objects that you'll find
in the first few letters of a famous person's name.
(01:58):
So if the clue were the grainy stuff found on
a beach owned by the host of Vibe Check, that
would be Sam Sanders Sand. So the first part of
that last name. One other example, and feel free to
chime in if you get all she wants for Christmas
is you and maybe an automobile. So we're talking about
(02:23):
Mariah carries car. Mariah carries car because you take the
car from Mariah carrycha.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Okay, are you ready for the real ones this? Uh?
And by the way, we're gonna do in little thematic clumps.
So the first three are about transportation. This is public
transportation driven by the star of Fargo, Reservoir Dogs and
Ghost World. Public transportation from a Fargo.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Star John Steve Bushimi bus.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
That's it, Steve Bus.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
You are all right?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Uh? This singer famously sang a song all about big cabooses,
and this mode of transportation has a literal caboose. So
all about train.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Train, so something train whose last name is train. The
first train that Megan trainers train.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
That's it, Meghan trainers train.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Mean trainer in a few years.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Oh my goodness, we are here to jog your memory. Uh.
This is what a former New York Yankees shortstop uses
to fly around the world and playing to bring to
bring it that well, that is one one thing you
can fly, but this is to bring it back to
(03:48):
pop culture. He dated Mariah Carey famously.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
For Derek Peters Jet.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Exactly there, Carrey, some reason, Well, I did love. I saw.
I haven't listened to it yet, but I saw you
had an episode of one of your many shows about
Justice for Glitter, her movie from several years ago. Should
I see Glitter?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Is this?
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Is it? A? Probably don't need to see Glitter, but
you should check out the soundtrack. We did an episode
of It's been a minute when I was still hosting
that show all about the soundtrack to Glitter being Mariah
Carey's first flop, in part because the movie wasn't good,
but also in part because that album was released on
nine to eleven.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
No way, I didn't know that. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's It was a wild story.
But there's a few hits on that one. I like
most things Mariah Carey. She can sing AnyWho another story.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Plus that is good counter programming. We all needed en
uplift at that point.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
That's very true.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
All right. Next category is clothing. So this is what
the star of this is what the star of my
best friend's wedding wears after getting out.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Of the shower, Julia Roberts robe.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And I watch that movie once every few months. It
is just good. It's so good.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, I loved I heard you talk about it on
one of your many podcasts. He said that, like, looking
at it again, she is She is evil, at least.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
In for what she was doing. The broad the corruption
when she like hacked into the dude's email and you're
just like, this is not legal. But I still love her,
you know, she's so charming.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
All right, this is what the Devil Wears Prada star
wears on her head at a fashion.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Week Meryl streeps.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
The other Devilware's product star and Hathaway's hat exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And I know that you are. I think you call
you've called yourself a Stan Hathaway, am I.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I'm a Stan Hathaway. I think she's so great. I
think she's ever given a bad performance, and I think
she's like a fine wine getting better with age. I
freaking love Anne Hathaway that I don't even know miss,
and I like ley miss because she was in the movie.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
But I know she's like cilantro. Some people just really
have a bad reaction. What's that?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
They're jealous of women who know what they want and
go get it. That's what. All right.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
This one needs a little suspension of disbelief. But I
think you can do that. You're good at that. It's
a former NFL quarterback and he retired recently, so he's
not working out much. So maybe his torso has gotten
a little saggy and he needs one of these.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Football is my blind spot?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Well, here I'll go. I'll go back to pop culture
for you. Giselle Gisel's X.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Oh, tom Brady's bra.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
That's it, Tom Brady's bro.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Alright, let's let's go okay.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
A little suspension of death, all right. Next category is animals.
This is a flying mammal owned by the star.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Of Ozark, Jason Bateman, but not that. Yeah, you got it,
Jason Bateman's bat.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
That's it, Jason Bateen's bat.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
What about a large mouth fish owned by the star
of What's Love Got to Do with It? The Tina
Turner biopic, So a large.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Managela Bassett's bass exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
And by the way, you did an awesome interview with
Angela Bassett for Fresh Air a few years ago. Well,
my favorite moment of the whole interview, she's You asked
her when she decided she wanted to become an actor,
and she said it was after watching James Earl Jones
in of My Cement on Broadway, and she sat there
(07:56):
weeping after the ending, the tragic ending, and said to herself,
I want to make people feel as badly as I do.
Right now? Oh good.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Iconic?
Speaker 1 (08:10):
So now is there a moment? It made me think,
is there a moment or two? From your childhood where
a movie or a song or a show hit you
really hard and you were like, I want to be
involved in this.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
There was an episode of This American Life all about
an evangelical minister who was very religiously conservative. His name
was Carlton Pearson, and he was firing brimstone like a
lot of them, and this episode was all about how,
over the course of his life, being exposed to queerness
(08:47):
and queer people, he changed his mind and decided that
hell wasn't real.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Carlton Pearson was very important in my childhood because my
mother would play his albums in the car growing up,
and so to hear this story of big change, big
emotional change about this person that had been a part
of my young life, I was like, Oh, I want
to tell stories like that. And I think that's when
I decided, at least a bit of me decided that
(09:14):
I would try to pursue audio storytelling and journalism. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
How old were you when you heard that?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Maybe eighteen or nineteen?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yes, And I know you grew up in.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Evangelical, very very evangelic. We were so churchy it hurt.
I would go to church sometimes six days a week, wow.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
That is Yeah. And by the way, I know that
there's another interesting story Mike White, who does White Lotus
the Brilliant Mind. I believe I think his father was
an evangelical Christian who worked with Jerry Folwell but then
actually came out as gay himself. That's true. Yeah, yeah,
(09:58):
that's what it reminded me of.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Uh, listen, more gaze are created and fostered and nurtured
within evangelical spaces than you would believe. The church cranks
out gaze.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
All right, this is a Shark Tank judges baby panda
or baby leopard or baby lion or baby raccoon.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I've never watched an episode of Shark Tank. I don't
even know who the hosts are.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
All Right, I'm trying to think of a good pop
culture He's like a well, he's a billionaire, he's very
he's an anti Trump billionaire.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Mark Cuban. That's a Cuban cub Okay.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
That's the one. That's the one. All right, Just a
couple of more and we've got food. We've got food.
So this is if they served cold cuts at the
Star Wars CANTEENA this actor might have had a slice
of this, not Harrison Ford, non Harrison Ford's hair.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
It's Turkey ham Ham Hammel. What's Hamil's first name?
Speaker 1 (11:04):
You got it? One of the now, well, that's his character.
It is one of the Apostles, one of.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
The Gospels, Mark Hamil's ham.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
That's it. Okay, okay, went for your church, wins for
your church upbringing.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
For you appreciate it. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
How about if this player for the late oh, I
know sports. I'm also very weak on sports, but I
think he's appeared in movies. This guy something. If he
a Lakers player who orders toast at the La Farmers Market,
he might spread a little of this on it.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Jam, Yes, Jam, a Lakers player that has Jam in
their name.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
This I mean he is if you think basketball, he's
the king.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
He is Lebron James. That's its James.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
This lifestyle guru might make a hearty meal, which she
would no doubt call a good thing.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Lifestyle guru hearty meal feast.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
No, it's a little. The hearty meal is a tough one.
It's sort of a yes, it's it's like stew. You
got it.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Lifestyle influencer with a stew the original.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
The original lifestyle influencer before the Stewart's exactly. Uh, and
I did have you seen that? I haven't heard you
talk about it, but maybe you did.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I haven't seen the dock yet. I keep hearing good
things not from her. Well, this is the thing, Okay,
here's my here's my hill. That one of many hills
that I'll die on or not die on. I think
celebrity documentaries and biopics are best when the subjects actually
hate them. If the subject likes it, it went too
(13:00):
easy on them, right. Yeah, Like there's this whole long,
shimmering saga over a Madonna biopic that has still not
come tr fruition because I believe she's too involved and
she wants it to be her way. It'll be a
better movie if a Donna's not involved, you can tell
a fuller.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Story, right. I do know she enjoys control, so that
might be hard for her, but totally I hope that.
I hope you're right. I hope it happens all right.
Last one is body parts. Body parts are going a
little uh into the cover for you. This is this
(13:40):
is what the ordinary people singer uses to walk.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
He actually has to do legends, legs.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Egg exactly. And and by the way, I also listen
to your interview with him.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Oh my goodness, you've listened a lot. I appreciate that.
That's so nice of you.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Now I'm a fan. Uh appreciate And I thought it
was very nice. You ask him at the start, should
you call him mister legend? So I should have done
that with you. I should have said misters, and you
did say. You also introduced him with a very puzzly pun.
He said he's legendary, the legendary legend, and you said,
(14:19):
please admire my pun. So you are pun friendly, Is
that correct?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
I am pun friendly. I am pun friendly, Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Good We need that all right? Two more and that's it.
This is what the mister in Mister and Missus Smith.
This is where on his body, the mister and mister
and Missus Smith, where he applies his deodorant.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Brad Pitt's armpits pits.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, I take the pit. We're all we're all friends here,
so we can call it pit. And then and then finally,
we always like to end on a high brow sophisticated note.
This is when the star of something's gotta give drinks
a lot of water. The result might be she was
(15:05):
also in the whole nine Yards, Jack and Jill. It's
a little more obscure than Brad Pitt. Not incredibly famous.
Diane Keaton, not Diane Keaton's keat, No that she This
woman is married to Game of Thrones creator David Benioff.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
If that helps, never watched Game of Thrones, dragon scare
me give me another.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
This is a hard one. This is a hard Amanda
is her first name.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Amanda, Amanda sci Fried, no different, Amanda, not Amanda Bynes.
Oh my god, Amanda.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Well you can go through it the other way. She has,
but she drinks a lot of water. Her bladder might
become distended and she might have to pee. Yes, so
I add a letter off to eat Amanda Pete heard speed.
She was big. I worked at Entertainment Weekly when she
(16:03):
was a big star. So she's an outsize.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Oh yeah, she's great.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah all right, Well.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Then yeah, how was Entertainment Weekly?
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Well it was good and bad. I was there during
the boy band era, so I wrote and that was
not my passion. No shade to anyone who is passionate
about it, but it so I wrote a little too
much about that. But it was wonderful to get to
speak to people. And uh, I was usually given the
ones on the way up or the way down. They
(16:36):
didn't give me like the top.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Honestly, you get better answers when they're on the way up,
run their way down. When they're on the way up,
so they don't know what to not answer, And when
they're on the way down they're mad, so they'll tell
you everything.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I think you're right. I think you're right. Now I
feel better. All right, Well you did fantastically And I'm
going to give an extra credit for the puzzlers at home.
I'm going to give two extra food related ones so
you can answer these, but in your head. This is
a hot dog owned by a former senator and writer
(17:12):
of SNL. A former senator, a SNL writer, and number
two is what the host of a weekly satirical news
show puts in his martini. Well, Sam, you were wonderful.
Yeah you have right now. You have vibe check and
your news show, the Sam Sanders Show, And well you
(17:34):
can describe it probably better than me. What can people
find on that?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yeah, So vibe check has been around for a few years.
It is what we call your favorite group chat. Come
to life. Every week I'm in conversation with my friends
Zach Stafford and Sayi Jones about whatever we're working through
and thinking about in the culture that week. So it's
very much an intimate conversation between friends that you get
to listen to that happens to be elevated smart and journalists.
(18:00):
And then my new show, The Sam Sanders Show, is
just an entertainment interview show about the pop culture I love.
So I talk with creatives about what they're making that
I'm consuming. I talk about movies and TV and books
and memes and Internet and there's a rotating cast of
celebrities and creatives and thinkers and journalists and it's just
(18:22):
pop culture all the time. Vibe Check comes out on Wednesdays.
The Sam Sanders Show is out on Fridays and podcast
feeds and on YouTube, and if you're in LA, you
can hear The Sam Sanders Show on CASEYRW on Fridays
and Saturdays. So yeah, I'm all over the place. Check
me out at least twice a week if you dare.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
And you should dare. They it's delightful to listen to,
as I am sure you could tell. Well, thank you, Sam.
We'll see you tomorrow and listeners. If you like the show,
please check out our Instagram feed at Hello Puzzlers, where
we post original puzzles and other fun stuff. And we'll
be here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle
you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Hello Puzzlers, it's your chief puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. We
played a game with Alex Edelman that we called Tony Tony,
in which each of the answers was two words that
are homophones. Although Tony Tony aren't actually homophones, those are
technically homonyms, but in any case, these will all be homophones.
(19:33):
Your extra credit was this clue, the twitching of a
blood sucking insect that sounds like a like an Edgar
Allan Poe line or something. It's like the pricking of
my thumbs or the beating of his hideous heart. It's
the twitching of a blood sucking insect that is a tick.
(19:53):
Tick t C K t C. Thanks for playing with us,
and we'll see you here tomorrow for some more puzzling
puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Hello puzzlers. The Puzzling crew is taking a quick break
this week to huddle in the puzzle lab and come
up with lots of new brain teasers and brain ticklers
and brain taunters and other synonyms for puzzles. We will
be back on Monday, but in the meantime, please enjoy
some of our favorite episodes from this past year. Hello puzzlers,
(00:24):
Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast The wind beneath your puzzle wings.
I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, and here's a quick puzzle
for you. What do these three words have in common,
two can, uncle, and Yosemite? The answer after the break.
(00:50):
Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast. Before the break, we
ask you what the words two, can, uncle and Yosemite
have in common? The answer is, of course Sam, they
are all Sam's two Kam, Sam, Uncle, Sam and Yosemite Sam,
which is delightfully appropriate because our guest today is another
legendary Sam, Sam Sanders podcast royalty host of the Vibe
(01:14):
Check Podcast as well as a new show, The Sam
Sanders Show on CACRW.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Welcome Sam, Thanks for having me. You know, I did
not get that question, and I feel like I should
have given it was about Sam's It was actually hard.
It was actually hard.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, well, we like to yours. I think the ones
I'll give you will be clearer.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
I was just trying to get people's get their brains
kicked into gear. We have lots to talk about regarding
your new show, your pop culture expertise, but let's start
with a puzzle. Let's do it, and this puzzle is
for you. It's called Sam Sanders sand So all of
the answers are going to be objects that you'll find
in the first few letters of a famous person's name.
(01:58):
So if the clue were the grainy stuff found on
a beach owned by the host of Vibe Check, that
would be Sam Sanders Sand. So the first part of
that last name. One other example, and feel free to
chime in if you get all she wants for Christmas
is you and maybe an automobile. So we're talking about
(02:23):
Mariah carries car. Mariah carries car because you take the
car from Mariah carrycha.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Okay, are you ready for the real ones this? Uh?
And by the way, we're gonna do in little thematic clumps.
So the first three are about transportation. This is public
transportation driven by the star of Fargo, Reservoir Dogs and
Ghost World. Public transportation from a Fargo.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Star John Steve Bushimi bus.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
That's it, Steve Bus.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
You are all right?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Uh? This singer famously sang a song all about big cabooses,
and this mode of transportation has a literal caboose. So
all about train.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Train, so something train whose last name is train. The
first train that Megan trainers train.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
That's it, Meghan trainers train.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Mean trainer in a few years.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Oh my goodness, we are here to jog your memory. Uh.
This is what a former New York Yankees shortstop uses
to fly around the world and playing to bring to
bring it that well, that is one one thing you
can fly, but this is to bring it back to
(03:48):
pop culture. He dated Mariah Carey famously.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
For Derek Peters Jet.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Exactly there, Carrey, some reason, Well, I did love. I saw.
I haven't listened to it yet, but I saw you
had an episode of one of your many shows about
Justice for Glitter, her movie from several years ago. Should
I see Glitter?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Is this?
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Is it? A? Probably don't need to see Glitter, but
you should check out the soundtrack. We did an episode
of It's been a minute when I was still hosting
that show all about the soundtrack to Glitter being Mariah
Carey's first flop, in part because the movie wasn't good,
but also in part because that album was released on
nine to eleven.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
No way, I didn't know that. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's It was a wild story.
But there's a few hits on that one. I like
most things Mariah Carey. She can sing AnyWho another story.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Plus that is good counter programming. We all needed en
uplift at that point.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
That's very true.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
All right. Next category is clothing. So this is what
the star of this is what the star of my
best friend's wedding wears after getting out.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Of the shower, Julia Roberts robe.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And I watch that movie once every few months. It
is just good. It's so good.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, I loved I heard you talk about it on
one of your many podcasts. He said that, like, looking
at it again, she is She is evil, at least.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
In for what she was doing. The broad the corruption
when she like hacked into the dude's email and you're
just like, this is not legal. But I still love her,
you know, she's so charming.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
All right, this is what the Devil Wears Prada star
wears on her head at a fashion.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Week Meryl streeps.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
The other Devilware's product star and Hathaway's hat exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
And I know that you are. I think you call
you've called yourself a Stan Hathaway, am I.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
I'm a Stan Hathaway. I think she's so great. I
think she's ever given a bad performance, and I think
she's like a fine wine getting better with age. I
freaking love Anne Hathaway that I don't even know miss,
and I like ley miss because she was in the movie.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
But I know she's like cilantro. Some people just really
have a bad reaction. What's that?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
They're jealous of women who know what they want and
go get it. That's what. All right.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
This one needs a little suspension of disbelief. But I
think you can do that. You're good at that. It's
a former NFL quarterback and he retired recently, so he's
not working out much. So maybe his torso has gotten
a little saggy and he needs one of these.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Football is my blind spot?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Well, here I'll go. I'll go back to pop culture
for you. Giselle Gisel's X.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Oh, tom Brady's bra.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
That's it, Tom Brady's bro.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Alright, let's let's go okay.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
A little suspension of death, all right. Next category is animals.
This is a flying mammal owned by the star.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Of Ozark, Jason Bateman, but not that. Yeah, you got it,
Jason Bateman's bat.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
That's it, Jason Bateen's bat.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
What about a large mouth fish owned by the star
of What's Love Got to Do with It? The Tina
Turner biopic, So a large.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Managela Bassett's bass exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
And by the way, you did an awesome interview with
Angela Bassett for Fresh Air a few years ago. Well,
my favorite moment of the whole interview, she's You asked
her when she decided she wanted to become an actor,
and she said it was after watching James Earl Jones
in of My Cement on Broadway, and she sat there
(07:56):
weeping after the ending, the tragic ending, and said to herself,
I want to make people feel as badly as I do.
Right now? Oh good.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Iconic?
Speaker 1 (08:10):
So now is there a moment? It made me think,
is there a moment or two? From your childhood where
a movie or a song or a show hit you
really hard and you were like, I want to be
involved in this.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
There was an episode of This American Life all about
an evangelical minister who was very religiously conservative. His name
was Carlton Pearson, and he was firing brimstone like a
lot of them, and this episode was all about how,
over the course of his life, being exposed to queerness
(08:47):
and queer people, he changed his mind and decided that
hell wasn't real.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Carlton Pearson was very important in my childhood because my
mother would play his albums in the car growing up,
and so to hear this story of big change, big
emotional change about this person that had been a part
of my young life, I was like, Oh, I want
to tell stories like that. And I think that's when
I decided, at least a bit of me decided that
(09:14):
I would try to pursue audio storytelling and journalism. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
How old were you when you heard that?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Maybe eighteen or nineteen?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yes, And I know you grew up in.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Evangelical, very very evangelic. We were so churchy it hurt.
I would go to church sometimes six days a week, wow.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
That is Yeah. And by the way, I know that
there's another interesting story Mike White, who does White Lotus
the Brilliant Mind. I believe I think his father was
an evangelical Christian who worked with Jerry Folwell but then
actually came out as gay himself. That's true. Yeah, yeah,
(09:58):
that's what it reminded me of.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Uh, listen, more gaze are created and fostered and nurtured
within evangelical spaces than you would believe. The church cranks
out gaze.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
All right, this is a Shark Tank judges baby panda
or baby leopard or baby lion or baby raccoon.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I've never watched an episode of Shark Tank. I don't
even know who the hosts are.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
All Right, I'm trying to think of a good pop
culture He's like a well, he's a billionaire, he's very
he's an anti Trump billionaire.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Mark Cuban. That's a Cuban cub Okay.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
That's the one. That's the one. All right, Just a
couple of more and we've got food. We've got food.
So this is if they served cold cuts at the
Star Wars CANTEENA this actor might have had a slice
of this, not Harrison Ford, non Harrison Ford's hair.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
It's Turkey ham Ham Hammel. What's Hamil's first name?
Speaker 1 (11:04):
You got it? One of the now, well, that's his character.
It is one of the Apostles, one of.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
The Gospels, Mark Hamil's ham.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
That's it. Okay, okay, went for your church, wins for
your church upbringing.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
For you appreciate it. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
How about if this player for the late oh, I
know sports. I'm also very weak on sports, but I
think he's appeared in movies. This guy something. If he
a Lakers player who orders toast at the La Farmers Market,
he might spread a little of this on it.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Jam, Yes, Jam, a Lakers player that has Jam in
their name.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
This I mean he is if you think basketball, he's
the king.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
He is Lebron James. That's its James.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
This lifestyle guru might make a hearty meal, which she
would no doubt call a good thing.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Lifestyle guru hearty meal feast.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
No, it's a little. The hearty meal is a tough one.
It's sort of a yes, it's it's like stew. You
got it.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Lifestyle influencer with a stew the original.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
The original lifestyle influencer before the Stewart's exactly. Uh, and
I did have you seen that? I haven't heard you
talk about it, but maybe you did.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I haven't seen the dock yet. I keep hearing good
things not from her. Well, this is the thing, Okay,
here's my here's my hill. That one of many hills
that I'll die on or not die on. I think
celebrity documentaries and biopics are best when the subjects actually
hate them. If the subject likes it, it went too
(13:00):
easy on them, right. Yeah, Like there's this whole long,
shimmering saga over a Madonna biopic that has still not
come tr fruition because I believe she's too involved and
she wants it to be her way. It'll be a
better movie if a Donna's not involved, you can tell
a fuller.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Story, right. I do know she enjoys control, so that
might be hard for her, but totally I hope that.
I hope you're right. I hope it happens all right.
Last one is body parts. Body parts are going a
little uh into the cover for you. This is this
(13:40):
is what the ordinary people singer uses to walk.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
He actually has to do legends, legs.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Egg exactly. And and by the way, I also listen
to your interview with him.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Oh my goodness, you've listened a lot. I appreciate that.
That's so nice of you.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Now I'm a fan. Uh appreciate And I thought it
was very nice. You ask him at the start, should
you call him mister legend? So I should have done
that with you. I should have said misters, and you
did say. You also introduced him with a very puzzly pun.
He said he's legendary, the legendary legend, and you said,
(14:19):
please admire my pun. So you are pun friendly, Is
that correct?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
I am pun friendly. I am pun friendly, Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Good We need that all right? Two more and that's it.
This is what the mister in Mister and Missus Smith.
This is where on his body, the mister and mister
and Missus Smith, where he applies his deodorant.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Brad Pitt's armpits pits.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, I take the pit. We're all we're all friends here,
so we can call it pit. And then and then finally,
we always like to end on a high brow sophisticated note.
This is when the star of something's gotta give drinks
a lot of water. The result might be she was
(15:05):
also in the whole nine Yards, Jack and Jill. It's
a little more obscure than Brad Pitt. Not incredibly famous.
Diane Keaton, not Diane Keaton's keat, No that she This
woman is married to Game of Thrones creator David Benioff.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
If that helps, never watched Game of Thrones, dragon scare
me give me another.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
This is a hard one. This is a hard Amanda
is her first name.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Amanda, Amanda sci Fried, no different, Amanda, not Amanda Bynes.
Oh my god, Amanda.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Well you can go through it the other way. She has,
but she drinks a lot of water. Her bladder might
become distended and she might have to pee. Yes, so
I add a letter off to eat Amanda Pete heard speed.
She was big. I worked at Entertainment Weekly when she
(16:03):
was a big star. So she's an outsize.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Oh yeah, she's great.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah all right, Well.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Then yeah, how was Entertainment Weekly?
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Well it was good and bad. I was there during
the boy band era, so I wrote and that was
not my passion. No shade to anyone who is passionate
about it, but it so I wrote a little too
much about that. But it was wonderful to get to
speak to people. And uh, I was usually given the
ones on the way up or the way down. They
(16:36):
didn't give me like the top.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Honestly, you get better answers when they're on the way up,
run their way down. When they're on the way up,
so they don't know what to not answer, And when
they're on the way down they're mad, so they'll tell
you everything.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I think you're right. I think you're right. Now I
feel better. All right, Well you did fantastically And I'm
going to give an extra credit for the puzzlers at home.
I'm going to give two extra food related ones so
you can answer these, but in your head. This is
a hot dog owned by a former senator and writer
(17:12):
of SNL. A former senator, a SNL writer, and number
two is what the host of a weekly satirical news
show puts in his martini. Well, Sam, you were wonderful.
Yeah you have right now. You have vibe check and
your news show, the Sam Sanders Show, And well you
(17:34):
can describe it probably better than me. What can people
find on that?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yeah, So vibe check has been around for a few years.
It is what we call your favorite group chat. Come
to life. Every week I'm in conversation with my friends
Zach Stafford and Sayi Jones about whatever we're working through
and thinking about in the culture that week. So it's
very much an intimate conversation between friends that you get
to listen to that happens to be elevated smart and journalists.
(18:00):
And then my new show, The Sam Sanders Show, is
just an entertainment interview show about the pop culture I love.
So I talk with creatives about what they're making that
I'm consuming. I talk about movies and TV and books
and memes and Internet and there's a rotating cast of
celebrities and creatives and thinkers and journalists and it's just
(18:22):
pop culture all the time. Vibe Check comes out on Wednesdays.
The Sam Sanders Show is out on Fridays and podcast
feeds and on YouTube, and if you're in LA, you
can hear The Sam Sanders Show on CASEYRW on Fridays
and Saturdays. So yeah, I'm all over the place. Check
me out at least twice a week if you dare.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
And you should dare. They it's delightful to listen to,
as I am sure you could tell. Well, thank you, Sam.
We'll see you tomorrow and listeners. If you like the show,
please check out our Instagram feed at Hello Puzzlers, where
we post original puzzles and other fun stuff. And we'll
be here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle
you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Hello Puzzlers, it's your chief puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. We
played a game with Alex Edelman that we called Tony Tony,
in which each of the answers was two words that
are homophones. Although Tony Tony aren't actually homophones, those are
technically homonyms, but in any case, these will all be homophones.
(19:33):
Your extra credit was this clue, the twitching of a
blood sucking insect that sounds like a like an Edgar
Allan Poe line or something. It's like the pricking of
my thumbs or the beating of his hideous heart. It's
the twitching of a blood sucking insect that is a tick.
(19:53):
Tick t C K t C. Thanks for playing with us,
and we'll see you here tomorrow for some more puzzling
puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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