April 11, 2025 • 20 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Today, A.J. and Greg give you a little peek behind the curtain and take you on a tour of the Puzzle Lab.
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 AI” 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 (00:01):
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. This mini
puzzle is about the names of months and how some
people are named after the names of months, like April
as An April Kelly, creator of boy Mats World. There
are people in the world named after every single month
of the year, but there are only three months that
crack the top one thousand most popular American names. One
(00:24):
of them is April. What are the other two months?
The answer and more puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers,
Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast the smiley feedback button
on your way out of the Airport Puzzle Bathroom. I
(00:44):
am your host, AJ Jacobs, and I'm here with Chief
Puzzle Officer Greg Kliska and Craig. Before the break, we
ask what are the three months that make the one
thousand most popular American names? One of them we gave
was April. Do you guess they for this?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I have a guess for the other two, and I'm
gonna say they are. They follow right along. I even
think I have a memory that in Stephen Sometimes Musical Company,
there is a character named April. But there's a point
at which the main character, Robert talks about two other women.
(01:23):
I think it's in one of the songs. I might
have made this up, but I'm guessing it's April, May
and June.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
All right, I finally got greg. I actually thought that
would be the case as well. Turns out May does
not crack the top one thousand. What yeah, it is.
June comes in pretty high, one hundred and seventy first
for girls. August August for boys is at one oh four.
It was. It's making a big comeback. By the way,
August is very hot. So there you go, there May.
(01:53):
There are a lot of mayas. I bet Maya makes
it Maya Rudolph.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
But I just found out that John Willy's daughter, who
he had a few months ago, I believe they named
her May June.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh, and that puts May over the top. And I
was right after, well.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
It's called m e I So maybe if you could,
if you put it that in the calculation, maybe that
would be Potter resting.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
All right, Well, good, that, thank you. That was of
course h Andrea ur Schoenberg, our associate puzzler with relevant
and important information. So today, this day in April is
a very special day because we have a tour inside
the puzzle Lamb, we get a peek behind the curtain.
(02:42):
We're going to stop by the listener feedback corner where
it was very it was very busy this week, lots
going on and the puzzler work bench where we reveal
the inner workings of the puzzling mind. So let's start
with a listener feedback corner because we did get some
(03:04):
juicy letters this week.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Juicy.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yes, we've got the aforementioned Andrea Schoenberg monitoring.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
What do you got for us? Andrea, Well, we have
a letter from Eric Guss. Eric writes, thanks for the
great podcast. I've listened since episode one.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Here's something I realized when getting a raw answer in
the New York Times Mini crossword, and he goes on
to say that if you change the middle letter of
certain five letter words, you get a new word with
a new pronunciation, such as vague, where you change the
middle letter of vague the G. If you change that
to an L, you get value and it's a totally
(03:44):
different word with a different pronunciation.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I love it. I love it. It is sort of in
the same area as alpha Looha, and Eric suggested we
do a puzzle on that, so I thought that was
a good idea. We'll doing a little mini puzzle inspired
by Eric, who we hope is still listening. He hasn't
given right before this episode. All right, so I'm going
(04:10):
to give a clue to both words, and you tell
me the two words. So if it were the example
vague and value, I would say a non specific monetary
worth is a vague value. All Right, Andre and Craig
you can both play, are you ready? Yes, a less
punctual beer.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Okay, I got it.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Okay, yeah, all right, someone say it.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It's a later lagger exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Now, they don't necessarily gain a syllable, it's just a
different pronunciation slightly. That was That was actually an example
from Eric. Thank you Eric. How about a rabbi who
does circumcisions at roadside inns?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Rather it's the the inn where you can get the
circumcision either way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it, all right,
you know that one?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah? Well motel and uh and the word for the
rabbi who gives the circumcision is like what is it
is like a moidal or.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Oil hotel moil the motel oil And that's a nice
that's a nice visual for people.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I like the likely you're traveling, you've got a newborn,
you don't have time to get to the temple. You
just call up the motel oil and he pops right by.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Exactly, all right. A couple more a bet in which
the better is winner lose a bottle of evy on.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Oh okay, that's pretty exciting. Andrea, you want to bet
a bottle of avon and whether we can both get this.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
A water wager a water exactly Listen, it could be Fiji,
could be I'm not saying it has to be a
romantic partner who is closer to the ground.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
I'm sorry, I'm picturing scenarios.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Well, sure like we like to spicy here.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Sure that's the lower lever, the.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Lower lever, that is correct, all right? And last one
the dance steps of a major Old Testament figure.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Moses moves, Moses.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Moves, Moses moves.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
The extra credit someone who surfs down the nile, someone
who serves down the nile, or could be the Mississippi.
But there you go. That's the extra credit. Well, thank you, Eric,
that was super fun. We love getting suggestions. But we
are not done. We still have a stop at the
(06:47):
puzzler workbench where we reveal the mysteries of how we
create puzzles. Correct, what have you got for us today
at the work bench stuff?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I've got, you know, an interesting, litterally interesting story. So
we had Karen Puzzles on, but before we actually you know,
got her on to record the episode, we also were
talking about her real name, which is Karen Cavitt ka
V E T T. And that got us thinking about
a puzzle where you take a word with one T
(07:24):
and you insert an extra tea to get a new word.
So I've set it up. I'm going to give you
a sentence with blanks that can be filled in with
the two words great. So, for example, if you have
the word slated and slatted, the example would be I
have it on my calendar to install Venetian blinds this weekend.
I've blank the new blank window coverings for Saturday.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Something people say all the time all the time.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I've slated the new slatted window coverings for Saturday.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Love it all right?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
So these are all these are all of the same form.
The first blank has one tea, the second blank has
two teas. I am not overwhelmed by nobility, So an
aristocrat with a fancy blank doesn't impress me one blank.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Oh, okay, or one jot even I am gonna I'll
do this one, Andrea, and then you can do I
think a note someone with a fancy title does not
impress me one tittle. And by the way, I think
one of the reasons that we wanted to do this
puzzle was the title, right, and the.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Tea for two title?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, tea for two? Tea for two, you gotta yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I think letter t for two. We have two te's
two teas?
Speaker 1 (08:42):
All right? What else?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
My sister accidentally tore up her kitchen clothing while peeling potatoes.
That incident with the blank left her apron in blank.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Okay, incident with the taters left her apron and tatters.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yes, yes, sad, sad could be true, could be true,
This one maybe not true. We'll see. I like to
treat the director of Lord of the Rings as if
he's a cute little dog, which I guess makes me
a blank Jackson blank.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Okay, sends a little adult for me. But that's okay,
he's a cute little dog. Well, go ahead, Andrea, what
do you got.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
A Peter Petter, A Peter Petter Peter, Oh, you're a
good boy, good direct. This puzzle is really really getting
me into enunciations, enunciating the tease.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yes, you really need to do that, all right. If
you really don't like Lewis Carroll's characters, that might make
you a blank of the mad blank.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Oh, I like this one. I like this one. Uh,
hater hatter or hater.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Hater of the mad hatter, right, hater of that hatter hatter.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
As Andrea would say, all.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Right, let's do a couple more of these. When I
quit the Mormon Church, I said blank to the Church
of Jesus Christ of the Blank day Saints.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Got it, okay, Andrea, I said, later to the Latter
day Saints, Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Also not a true story. I was never a member
of the Mormon Church. My polite German friend wanted some
of my sandwich, so he said, may I have a blank? Blank?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Oh? Very good? Okay, you know need to know a
little German not fluent. What do you got, Andrea, I,
unfortunately don't even know a little German. Oh it's I
believe a bite, but a bite bite?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
May I have a bite? BITA Let's see a good
golfer blank her feet in a parallel position before she
blank the ball on the green.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
She put her feet in position before she puts.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Yeah, she puts her feet before she puts before. All right,
let's do one. Let's do another one. I've been doing
trash clean up with metric containers and in only five
minutes I had gathered a blank of blank.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I would I would solve this, but I spell letter
the proper way l I t r E, so it's
litter littree.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Leader of litter the proper way spelled p r O
p r e proper exactly. And I've got an extra
credit for this one too. Why not thanks give him
something to do over the weekend. I sat down with
a picnic buffet in Nebraska having a blank of barbice
by the blank river.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
A very good. Well, that was super fun. I should
come up with a t double tea where that was
more than a little fun letal fun. But we're not done.
We have one final segment because we like to support
the Puzzler family. Oh yes, and one of our family
(12:24):
members here at the Puzzler is Adam new House. He
is a brilliant producer. He's a founder of new House
Ideas and believe it or not, in addition, to producing
the Puzzler. He does have other projects. We do not
begrudge him that. In fact, we support it, and we
want to talk about one of his very cool new
(12:48):
projects which got a lot of attention. So this is
not the only publicity you might have heard of it,
but it is about solving a puzzle, the puzzle being
how do you get more great non fiction movies out there?
Welcome Adam to the Puzzler.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
Wow. Very excited, very excited to be here.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Yes, yes we are.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Thank you for that intro of course. Well you're excited.
You're a good get. You're a good get.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
Uh yeah. Well, basically, it felt as if, in our
current climate that there was a bit of a backlog
in non fiction products and projects, and that everyone was
going to your tech overlords and streaming services and pitching
projects and everyone was ordering less, and so it seemed
(13:42):
like there was a great amount of great projects that
were just out there with producers that I knew and
production companies that I knew, And instead of just relegating
ourselves to the reality set before us, we went on
to become change agents ourselves. And so I looked for
(14:02):
a volunteer army and a lot of people raise their
hands to kind of help join me, And so there
was a group of twenty of us leading a volunteer
community initiative where we spun up a website, We spun
up a submission process nonfictionhot list dot com. We put
out the call for projects, and directors and producers and
(14:22):
production companies flooded our inbox with amazing projects across nonfiction.
So that was documentaries and documentary shorts and series and podcasts,
really anything in the nonfiction space. So we ended up
having six hundred and thirty nine submissions that came in,
(14:43):
and we went through a rigorous process to grade the
projects and debate the projects and ended up with a
list of twenty three truly exceptional non fiction projects touching
on every type of subject that you could imagine. The
other cool thing that we did is we didn't want
ourselves to be gatekeepers upon making this type of initiative,
(15:06):
So all the people who came together to organize this,
we were doing it in the spirit of service and
that we thought we could offer almost a free curation
to the marketplace. We were just saying that these are
great projects and they deserve attention, and they deserve to
get made, and so we put this list together with
(15:27):
the contact information of the projects themselves and started publishing
this list out to both the entertainment community to other
adjacent industries in the hope that whether it's somebody who
wants to fund the whole project that they see, or
if they saw that a project needed some post production
help and they were a post production place, that they
(15:48):
could jump in and help along the way. So really
a kind of community led process with the hope being
that the community itself might all chip in to help
more great projects get made. So it's been a really
joyous process to see the amazing creativity of people across
the industry. It was almost almost impossible to choose the
(16:11):
twenty three out of six hundred and thirty nine, but
we feel very strongly about it and encourage anyone who
is just a fan of nonfiction, so again that could
be documentaries or series or shorts or podcasts like the
one you're listening to right now, to go to Nonfiction
hot List. You can view the list yourself, and so
(16:31):
if you want a little bit of a look underneath
the hood of projects as they're being made, getting into
market and not necessarily just arriving on your doorstep ready
to go. We'll give you a peek at some of
the amazing creators that are making amazing stuff right now.
And it's always good to support your local filmmakers and
(16:52):
support your local artists and recognize that the entertainment that
has delivered to you really comes from extraordinary stores.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Tellers love it.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
So if we go to the nonfiction hot List, we'll
see what kind of where the status of each of
these projects is and what kind of help they need.
Are they I mean, are they only looking for sort
of huge donations? Do they have go fundmes? If people
wanted to support they said, oh, this looks really cool,
how can I help? How do they do that? Great question?
So every project is different. So some projects have a GoFundMe,
(17:24):
some have a five oh one C three where you
can make a donation that's tax deductible, and some are
just looking for you.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
To follow their Instagram feed. So there is lots of
ways to support. And there are twenty three projects. So
I don't know how many flavors ice cream does Basket
Robins have, but for anyone, well, well you know we
don't have that many. But the Nonfiction hot List has
as many good flavors of stuff, and I would challenge
anybody to go through to find a story or two
(17:51):
that they are really passionate about. And even if you
have maybe off the bat, not sure of how you
can contribute. Even then, the filmmakers would love and email
email addresses are all attached to the projects, just to
tell them that you're supporting and that you love their project.
That would also be appreciated.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
It's correct, such a great such a great project. Love
it all right, Well, thank you Adam, and everyone go
check it out. What was the website one?
Speaker 5 (18:16):
We're done on nonfiction hotlist dot com.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
And while you're doing that, we also have a nonfiction
product and we would love it if you would take
thirty seconds to rate our product on your favorite podcast
platform because we are ruled by algorithms and it is
so important to helping people find us. So please go
and rate the Puzzler and we will see you here
(18:41):
tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska, You're chief puzzle officer here
once again with the extra credit answer from our previous episode.
I did a Siblings Day puzzle for a and which
the extra credit answer has three words, all of which
start with bro. For brow, here's your clue in the
burrow of blank. Some people have to sweep the stoops
(19:13):
of their blank using a blank, so you'll get for
three words that I'll start with bro and those are Brooklyn, Brownstones,
and broom. And it's true. In Brooklyn everyone sweeps the
brown Stones with the broom and while they're doing it,
they listen to the Puzzler podcast. Thanks for playing with us.
(19:37):
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 Neuhouse of
New House Ideas and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is produced by Jody Averrigan and Brittany Brown of
Roulette Productions, with production support from Claire Bidegar Curtis. Our
(19:58):
associate producer is on Ya Schoenberg. A Puzzler with Ajjacobs
is a co production with New House Ideas and is
distributed by the Sattrap Disco. Now rearrange those letters it's
distributed by iHeart Podcasts. If you want to know more
about puzzling puzzles, please check out the book The Puzzler
(20:21):
by AJ Jacobs, 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 and puzzlers. For all your puzzling needs,
go visit the puzzler dot com. See you there,
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. This mini
puzzle is about the names of months and how some
people are named after the names of months, like April
as An April Kelly, creator of boy Mats World. There
are people in the world named after every single month
of the year, but there are only three months that
crack the top one thousand most popular American names. One
(00:24):
of them is April. What are the other two months?
The answer and more puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers,
Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast the smiley feedback button
on your way out of the Airport Puzzle Bathroom. I
(00:44):
am your host, AJ Jacobs, and I'm here with Chief
Puzzle Officer Greg Kliska and Craig. Before the break, we
ask what are the three months that make the one
thousand most popular American names? One of them we gave
was April. Do you guess they for this?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I have a guess for the other two, and I'm
gonna say they are. They follow right along. I even
think I have a memory that in Stephen Sometimes Musical Company,
there is a character named April. But there's a point
at which the main character, Robert talks about two other women.
(01:23):
I think it's in one of the songs. I might
have made this up, but I'm guessing it's April, May
and June.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
All right, I finally got greg. I actually thought that
would be the case as well. Turns out May does
not crack the top one thousand. What yeah, it is.
June comes in pretty high, one hundred and seventy first
for girls. August August for boys is at one oh four.
It was. It's making a big comeback. By the way,
August is very hot. So there you go, there May.
(01:53):
There are a lot of mayas. I bet Maya makes
it Maya Rudolph.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
But I just found out that John Willy's daughter, who
he had a few months ago, I believe they named
her May June.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh, and that puts May over the top. And I
was right after, well.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
It's called m e I So maybe if you could,
if you put it that in the calculation, maybe that
would be Potter resting.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
All right, Well, good, that, thank you. That was of
course h Andrea ur Schoenberg, our associate puzzler with relevant
and important information. So today, this day in April is
a very special day because we have a tour inside
the puzzle Lamb, we get a peek behind the curtain.
(02:42):
We're going to stop by the listener feedback corner where
it was very it was very busy this week, lots
going on and the puzzler work bench where we reveal
the inner workings of the puzzling mind. So let's start
with a listener feedback corner because we did get some
(03:04):
juicy letters this week.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Juicy.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yes, we've got the aforementioned Andrea Schoenberg monitoring.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
What do you got for us? Andrea, Well, we have
a letter from Eric Guss. Eric writes, thanks for the
great podcast. I've listened since episode one.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Here's something I realized when getting a raw answer in
the New York Times Mini crossword, and he goes on
to say that if you change the middle letter of
certain five letter words, you get a new word with
a new pronunciation, such as vague, where you change the
middle letter of vague the G. If you change that
to an L, you get value and it's a totally
(03:44):
different word with a different pronunciation.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I love it. I love it. It is sort of in
the same area as alpha Looha, and Eric suggested we
do a puzzle on that, so I thought that was
a good idea. We'll doing a little mini puzzle inspired
by Eric, who we hope is still listening. He hasn't
given right before this episode. All right, so I'm going
(04:10):
to give a clue to both words, and you tell
me the two words. So if it were the example
vague and value, I would say a non specific monetary
worth is a vague value. All Right, Andre and Craig
you can both play, are you ready? Yes, a less
punctual beer.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Okay, I got it.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Okay, yeah, all right, someone say it.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It's a later lagger exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Now, they don't necessarily gain a syllable, it's just a
different pronunciation slightly. That was That was actually an example
from Eric. Thank you Eric. How about a rabbi who
does circumcisions at roadside inns?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Rather it's the the inn where you can get the
circumcision either way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it, all right,
you know that one?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah? Well motel and uh and the word for the
rabbi who gives the circumcision is like what is it
is like a moidal or.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Oil hotel moil the motel oil And that's a nice
that's a nice visual for people.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I like the likely you're traveling, you've got a newborn,
you don't have time to get to the temple. You
just call up the motel oil and he pops right by.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Exactly, all right. A couple more a bet in which
the better is winner lose a bottle of evy on.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Oh okay, that's pretty exciting. Andrea, you want to bet
a bottle of avon and whether we can both get this.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
A water wager a water exactly Listen, it could be Fiji,
could be I'm not saying it has to be a
romantic partner who is closer to the ground.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
I'm sorry, I'm picturing scenarios.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Well, sure like we like to spicy here.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Sure that's the lower lever, the.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Lower lever, that is correct, all right? And last one
the dance steps of a major Old Testament figure.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Moses moves, Moses.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Moves, Moses moves.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
The extra credit someone who surfs down the nile, someone
who serves down the nile, or could be the Mississippi.
But there you go. That's the extra credit. Well, thank you, Eric,
that was super fun. We love getting suggestions. But we
are not done. We still have a stop at the
(06:47):
puzzler workbench where we reveal the mysteries of how we
create puzzles. Correct, what have you got for us today
at the work bench stuff?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I've got, you know, an interesting, litterally interesting story. So
we had Karen Puzzles on, but before we actually you know,
got her on to record the episode, we also were
talking about her real name, which is Karen Cavitt ka
V E T T. And that got us thinking about
a puzzle where you take a word with one T
(07:24):
and you insert an extra tea to get a new word.
So I've set it up. I'm going to give you
a sentence with blanks that can be filled in with
the two words great. So, for example, if you have
the word slated and slatted, the example would be I
have it on my calendar to install Venetian blinds this weekend.
I've blank the new blank window coverings for Saturday.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Something people say all the time all the time.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I've slated the new slatted window coverings for Saturday.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Love it all right?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
So these are all these are all of the same form.
The first blank has one tea, the second blank has
two teas. I am not overwhelmed by nobility, So an
aristocrat with a fancy blank doesn't impress me one blank.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Oh, okay, or one jot even I am gonna I'll
do this one, Andrea, and then you can do I
think a note someone with a fancy title does not
impress me one tittle. And by the way, I think
one of the reasons that we wanted to do this
puzzle was the title, right, and the.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Tea for two title?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Yeah, tea for two? Tea for two, you gotta yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
I think letter t for two. We have two te's
two teas?
Speaker 1 (08:42):
All right? What else?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
My sister accidentally tore up her kitchen clothing while peeling potatoes.
That incident with the blank left her apron in blank.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Okay, incident with the taters left her apron and tatters.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yes, yes, sad, sad could be true, could be true,
This one maybe not true. We'll see. I like to
treat the director of Lord of the Rings as if
he's a cute little dog, which I guess makes me
a blank Jackson blank.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Okay, sends a little adult for me. But that's okay,
he's a cute little dog. Well, go ahead, Andrea, what
do you got.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
A Peter Petter, A Peter Petter Peter, Oh, you're a
good boy, good direct. This puzzle is really really getting
me into enunciations, enunciating the tease.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yes, you really need to do that, all right. If
you really don't like Lewis Carroll's characters, that might make
you a blank of the mad blank.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Oh, I like this one. I like this one. Uh,
hater hatter or hater.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Hater of the mad hatter, right, hater of that hatter hatter.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
As Andrea would say, all.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Right, let's do a couple more of these. When I
quit the Mormon Church, I said blank to the Church
of Jesus Christ of the Blank day Saints.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Got it, okay, Andrea, I said, later to the Latter
day Saints, Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Also not a true story. I was never a member
of the Mormon Church. My polite German friend wanted some
of my sandwich, so he said, may I have a blank? Blank?
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Oh? Very good? Okay, you know need to know a
little German not fluent. What do you got, Andrea, I,
unfortunately don't even know a little German. Oh it's I
believe a bite, but a bite bite?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
May I have a bite? BITA Let's see a good
golfer blank her feet in a parallel position before she
blank the ball on the green.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
She put her feet in position before she puts.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Yeah, she puts her feet before she puts before. All right,
let's do one. Let's do another one. I've been doing
trash clean up with metric containers and in only five
minutes I had gathered a blank of blank.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
I would I would solve this, but I spell letter
the proper way l I t r E, so it's
litter littree.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Leader of litter the proper way spelled p r O
p r e proper exactly. And I've got an extra
credit for this one too. Why not thanks give him
something to do over the weekend. I sat down with
a picnic buffet in Nebraska having a blank of barbice
by the blank river.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
A very good. Well, that was super fun. I should
come up with a t double tea where that was
more than a little fun letal fun. But we're not done.
We have one final segment because we like to support
the Puzzler family. Oh yes, and one of our family
(12:24):
members here at the Puzzler is Adam new House. He
is a brilliant producer. He's a founder of new House
Ideas and believe it or not, in addition, to producing
the Puzzler. He does have other projects. We do not
begrudge him that. In fact, we support it, and we
want to talk about one of his very cool new
(12:48):
projects which got a lot of attention. So this is
not the only publicity you might have heard of it,
but it is about solving a puzzle, the puzzle being
how do you get more great non fiction movies out there?
Welcome Adam to the Puzzler.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
Wow. Very excited, very excited to be here.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Yes, yes we are.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Thank you for that intro of course. Well you're excited.
You're a good get. You're a good get.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
Uh yeah. Well, basically, it felt as if, in our
current climate that there was a bit of a backlog
in non fiction products and projects, and that everyone was
going to your tech overlords and streaming services and pitching
projects and everyone was ordering less, and so it seemed
(13:42):
like there was a great amount of great projects that
were just out there with producers that I knew and
production companies that I knew, And instead of just relegating
ourselves to the reality set before us, we went on
to become change agents ourselves. And so I looked for
(14:02):
a volunteer army and a lot of people raise their
hands to kind of help join me, And so there
was a group of twenty of us leading a volunteer
community initiative where we spun up a website, We spun
up a submission process nonfictionhot list dot com. We put
out the call for projects, and directors and producers and
(14:22):
production companies flooded our inbox with amazing projects across nonfiction.
So that was documentaries and documentary shorts and series and podcasts,
really anything in the nonfiction space. So we ended up
having six hundred and thirty nine submissions that came in,
(14:43):
and we went through a rigorous process to grade the
projects and debate the projects and ended up with a
list of twenty three truly exceptional non fiction projects touching
on every type of subject that you could imagine. The
other cool thing that we did is we didn't want
ourselves to be gatekeepers upon making this type of initiative,
(15:06):
So all the people who came together to organize this,
we were doing it in the spirit of service and
that we thought we could offer almost a free curation
to the marketplace. We were just saying that these are
great projects and they deserve attention, and they deserve to
get made, and so we put this list together with
(15:27):
the contact information of the projects themselves and started publishing
this list out to both the entertainment community to other
adjacent industries in the hope that whether it's somebody who
wants to fund the whole project that they see, or
if they saw that a project needed some post production
help and they were a post production place, that they
(15:48):
could jump in and help along the way. So really
a kind of community led process with the hope being
that the community itself might all chip in to help
more great projects get made. So it's been a really
joyous process to see the amazing creativity of people across
the industry. It was almost almost impossible to choose the
(16:11):
twenty three out of six hundred and thirty nine, but
we feel very strongly about it and encourage anyone who
is just a fan of nonfiction, so again that could
be documentaries or series or shorts or podcasts like the
one you're listening to right now, to go to Nonfiction
hot List. You can view the list yourself, and so
(16:31):
if you want a little bit of a look underneath
the hood of projects as they're being made, getting into
market and not necessarily just arriving on your doorstep ready
to go. We'll give you a peek at some of
the amazing creators that are making amazing stuff right now.
And it's always good to support your local filmmakers and
(16:52):
support your local artists and recognize that the entertainment that
has delivered to you really comes from extraordinary stores.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Tellers love it.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
So if we go to the nonfiction hot List, we'll
see what kind of where the status of each of
these projects is and what kind of help they need.
Are they I mean, are they only looking for sort
of huge donations? Do they have go fundmes? If people
wanted to support they said, oh, this looks really cool,
how can I help? How do they do that? Great question?
So every project is different. So some projects have a GoFundMe,
(17:24):
some have a five oh one C three where you
can make a donation that's tax deductible, and some are
just looking for you.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
To follow their Instagram feed. So there is lots of
ways to support. And there are twenty three projects. So
I don't know how many flavors ice cream does Basket
Robins have, but for anyone, well, well you know we
don't have that many. But the Nonfiction hot List has
as many good flavors of stuff, and I would challenge
anybody to go through to find a story or two
(17:51):
that they are really passionate about. And even if you
have maybe off the bat, not sure of how you
can contribute. Even then, the filmmakers would love and email
email addresses are all attached to the projects, just to
tell them that you're supporting and that you love their project.
That would also be appreciated.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
It's correct, such a great such a great project. Love
it all right, Well, thank you Adam, and everyone go
check it out. What was the website one?
Speaker 5 (18:16):
We're done on nonfiction hotlist dot com.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
And while you're doing that, we also have a nonfiction
product and we would love it if you would take
thirty seconds to rate our product on your favorite podcast
platform because we are ruled by algorithms and it is
so important to helping people find us. So please go
and rate the Puzzler and we will see you here
(18:41):
tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska, You're chief puzzle officer here
once again with the extra credit answer from our previous episode.
I did a Siblings Day puzzle for a and which
the extra credit answer has three words, all of which
start with bro. For brow, here's your clue in the
burrow of blank. Some people have to sweep the stoops
(19:13):
of their blank using a blank, so you'll get for
three words that I'll start with bro and those are Brooklyn, Brownstones,
and broom. And it's true. In Brooklyn everyone sweeps the
brown Stones with the broom and while they're doing it,
they listen to the Puzzler podcast. Thanks for playing with us.
(19:37):
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 Neuhouse of
New House Ideas and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts. The
show is produced by Jody Averrigan and Brittany Brown of
Roulette Productions, with production support from Claire Bidegar Curtis. Our
(19:58):
associate producer is on Ya Schoenberg. A Puzzler with Ajjacobs
is a co production with New House Ideas and is
distributed by the Sattrap Disco. Now rearrange those letters it's
distributed by iHeart Podcasts. If you want to know more
about puzzling puzzles, please check out the book The Puzzler
(20:21):
by AJ Jacobs, 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 and puzzlers. For all your puzzling needs,
go visit the puzzler dot com. See you there,
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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