Weekend Favorite: “Hidden Mina” w/ Mina Kimes

From time to time on the weekends, we’ll be bringing you some of our recent favorite episodes. Enjoy your weekend, and we’ll be back with a brand new puzzle on Monday!

Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: ESPN analyst and podcaster Mina Kimes.

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.

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"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 (00:03):
Hello puzzlers, and welcome to the Puzzler Weekend, where we
bring you some of our favorite episodes from the vaults
for your weekend listening. Now Here the Puzzler, we do
not select our guests based on whether their names would
make a good puzzle. We select them for their sparkling
wit and delightful personalities. But sometimes we get lucky and

(00:25):
we get someone with a great puzzle name. Such was
the case with Mina Chimes, whose first name Mina m
I Na made for an excellent brain teaser. Please enjoy.
Hello puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler podcast the Orthopedic Pillow

(00:46):
for your puzzle spinal alignment. I am your host, AJ Jacobs,
and I'm here with our guest, the Fantastic Chimes ESPN
analyst and host of the podcast The Mina Chimes Show
featuring Lenny, Lenny, of course being her dog. Welcome, Mina.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Hi, Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
We are very excited to have you on the Puzzler,
seeing as you are not just a fan of puzzles,
but you have solved a Saturday New York Times crossword
puzzle in eight minutes and thirteen seconds. If I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
I don't think that's my pr I think it's a
little lower but.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Sorry, tell me what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I don't want to break because I you know, when
you start dipping your toe into the Crossroad community, you
realize that that's actually not that impressive because I follow
a lot of the puzzle creators on the socials. But yeah,
I'm a big Saturday Times person. I lately I've been
loving this game Not Words.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Have you ever played that played it?

Speaker 2 (01:50):
It's a great app sort of like a combo crossword
Sudoku game. So I do that every morning, is the
first thing I do when I wake up.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
And I know some of these crossword solver's, like a
friend of mine wrote a crossword puzzle for the Crossword
Puzzle tournament and he could not finish it faster than
other people in the tournament, even though he wrote it.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, well, I see some of the times. For me,
it's not even like, oh my god, A're so smart,
but I'm like, how do you type that fast? Like
that's what blows my mind.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Is exactly. And with the writing I did learn you
you're supposed to do a lowercase E. I think because
it's faster Anyway, moving on Mina. You are everywhere in
the media landscape. You're on TV, radio, podcast, streaming, but
you are also everywhere in the English language. Your name Mina.

(02:39):
The letters MNA happened to show up in a lot
of English words and phrases. So this puzzle is I'm
going to give you some clues to words and phrases.
And the twist is that each of the answers contains
a hidden mina. Wow, So somewhere in the answer will
be the letters I NA. So, for instance, if I

(03:02):
said when an athlete loses at the esp Awards, she
might say it was an honor just to be nominated.
As you noticed this mina, it's no mina ted. The
Nomina's right in there between the no and the ted.
So are you ready for other hidden minas? Let's go Yeah,

(03:23):
all right, here's your first hit in mina. Mountain climbers,
bird dogs and planks are good exercises for these type
of muscles.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Ebino muscles, excellent.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Anthy pronunciation. You get bonus points for that. That is impressive.
All right, next, hidden mina. This is a word that
means to think deeply, like when you contemplate the nature
of the universe or the state of the Seattle Seahawks franchise.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, something I do on Air Bailey is ruminate about
football exactly.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
All right, you're cruising along, all right. I don't know
if this will get you, but maybe it's a little harder.
Who knows? Hidden mena number three. According to the paper
of Record, The New York Times, you mina chimes are
a fan of spinach feta wraps from Starbucks, which are
rich in this nutrient.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
A good question. What are they rich? And I'm gonna
go with Wait.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
I have hints again, I don't want to Okay, good
is it vitamin a? It is vitamin A, vitamin vitamina exactly.
I will tell you my hint because I think it's news.
You can use that. The liver. You might know this.
The livers of polar bears contain toxic levels of vitamin A.
So do not eat polar bear livers. No, I thought so,

(04:48):
all right. Final one for you is this is a
word or phrase, and the clue is that you might
stroll this way with a lover, or march this way
with a fellow protester. Oh yeah, this one's a little trick.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Here, stroll this way with a lover, or march this
way with a protester.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Right. This comes from associate puzzler Andrea Schoenberg, so blame
her if it's yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
No, this is a good one because you just did
one with two words. I believe this one has three words.
If I'm correct, you are correct. Okay, so yeah, you
would go.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
Arm in arm armina arm exactly. Look at that. You
did great as expected, way less than eight minutes and
thirteen seconds or whatever. Your personal record is on crosswords,
So thank you so much. Where can people find more
hidden or not so hidden?

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Anna's not So Hidden? On ESPN everyday one pm Pacific,
four pm Eastern on NFL Live. I do occasionally post
about crosswords and various puzzles on my Instagram. I don't
really get to work that into the football analysis so much,
but sometimes they get to. I'll post my scores and

(06:12):
I'm not that good. So I feel like I came
in pretty hard with the no, my pr is lower.
But if you're a crossword person out there, I'm not.
I'm just an amateur.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
I'm an intramural player too. I have actually not broken
ten minutes on Friday, so he definitely got me. Before
we wrap up, as always, for all you puzzlers at home,
here is an extra credit puzzle. This word or phrase
with a hidden mina. We have embedded in this podcast
a secret message using this type of communication. We actually

(06:44):
did not, but that's the that is the clue. So puzzlers,
please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler Podcast and
I'll meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that
will puzzle you puzzlingly