Ask Me Another

This week, test your trivia prowess in games about celebrities who share the same name, tech companies that sound like Star Wars planets, and musicians whose names sound delicious. Plus our Very Important Puzzler, comedian, actor and author Michael Ian Black, reveals how becoming a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle launched his career. Hear him break out his best Valley Girl accent in the game “Just Do It?,” and since he’s a poker enthusiast, we up the ante with a card-themed quiz.  

Would you classify your high school self as an A/V nerd, band geek or mathlete? This week’s show pays homage to them all. In the games, we’ll spoil some famous films by not spoiling anything at all, teach you how to “put a Björk in it,” and make an inordinate amount of cat jokes. And Paul Feig, director of Bridesmaids and The Heat, discusses why funny women should be bigger stars, and reflects on the legacy of his beloved creation, the short-lived TV series Freaks and Geeks.

Would you classify your high school self as an A/V nerd, band geek or mathlete? This week’s show pays homage to them all. In the games, we’ll spoil some famous films by not spoiling anything at all, teach you how to “put a Björk in it,” and make an inordinate amount of cat jokes. And Paul Feig, director of Bridesmaids and The Heat, discusses why funny women should be bigger stars, and reflects on the legacy of his beloved creation, the short-lived TV series Freaks and Geeks.

In this podcast-only extra, director Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks, Bridesmaids, The Heat) talks with Ask Me Another host Ophira Eisenberg about his early forays into show business. These include performing magic at a nursing home and, a few years later, stand-up comedy in a Detroit biker bar. Plus, hear which whip-smart movie inspired him to get into filmmaking, and how he fared in his past game show experiences. Hear more from VIP Paul Feig on Ask Me Another #219, available starting July 19, 2013.

This summer spectacular, recorded outdoors in New York City's Central Park, is a jam-packed show. The Office's B.J. Novak hits the puzzle hotseat for a Shakespearean pop quiz, Wet Hot American Summer filmmaker David Wain flaunts his movie trivia prowess, and Kurt Andersen, host of PRI's Studio 360, stakes his claim as a literary romantic. Plus, a ukulele-strumming Nellie McKay joins Jonathan Coulton to sing the catchiest songs of summers past, and NPR Puzzlemaster Will Shortz tries to stump contestants with a doozy of a final anagram showdown.

The show we recorded at Central Park's SummerStage was so jam-packed, we couldn't include everything in the radio show. In this podcast-only extra, singer-songwriter Nellie McKay and house musician Jonathan Coulton perform McKay's song, "Bodega." (Say it with us: "boh-DAY-guh.")

(Rebroadcast) In the Ask Me Another justice system, contestants are quizzed by two separate yet equally important groups: the puzzle gurus, who investigate pop culture and word oddities, and the score keepers, who prosecute the answers. This week, hear their stories as we test our V.I.P., political pundit Keli Goff, on her favorite series, Law & Order. Plus, celebrate history’s greatest thinkers, from Confucius to Carly Rae Jepsen.

(This is a podcast-only extra.) Actor and writer B.J. Novak (NBC’s The Office, Inglourious Basterds) joined Ask Me Another recently as a Very Important Puzzler. When asked if he grew up in a game-playing family, he launched into a story about the time he played Scattergories with the King of Pop. Listen to the extended cut of his epic tale.   This is a sneak peek of the show we recorded in New York City at Central Park's SummerStage on June 14th, 2013. Hear the full episode on July 12th, 2013.

(This is a podcast-only extra.) Actor and writer B.J. Novak (NBC’s The Office, Inglourious Basterds) joined Ask Me Another recently as a Very Important Puzzler. When asked if he grew up in a game-playing family, he launched into a story about the time he played Scattergories with the King of Pop. Listen to the extended cut of his epic tale. This is a sneak peak of the show we recorded in New York City at Central Park's SummerStage on June 14th, 2013. Hear the full episode on July 12th, 2013.

If you're the type of person who gives your pet a name like "Chairman Meow," then you'll be right at home with this week's games. We'll combine highbrow folks (world leaders) with the lowest form of comedy (puns), spend a little time in Celebrity A-A, and find out what happens when house musician Jonathan Coulton applies his mellow song stylings to the electric wizard, Jimi Hendrix. Plus, we have the inventor of fantasy baseball, Daniel Okrent, on the show to play a game about the sport's most hilarious oddities.

Sorry, Beatles fans: This hour, Jonathan Coulton turns some of the Fab Four's most beloved hits into trivia questions about famous historical figures. Is nothing sacred? We'll also put the King of Horror's son, novelist and B-movie aficionado Owen King, in the puzzle hot seat as our V.I.P. Plus: Play a game that has nothing to do with the HBO series Game of Thrones, and translate common expressions into medical conditions. When it comes to our contestants, you never know what is going to come out of their alimentary canals

(Rebroadcast) Science takes center stage this week as we play games about scientific discoveries both intentional and accidental. We'll get brainy with our Very Important Puzzler, host of WNYC's Radiolab Jad Abumrad, as he talks about his quest to become a science vampire. Plus, we roll the dice on clues about our favorite board games and find out the premises of fake TV show adaptations, from Finding Emo to Oy! Story.

Word nerds, unite! This week’s show will whet your appetite for wordplay with a game that mashes up famous names and food items into portmanteaus. Our Very Important Puzzler, comedian and co-creator of The Daily Show Lizz Winstead, is a bonafide game fanatic who shares the definitions of her own, made-up vocabulary. Plus, get tongue-tied in Italian and find out which of your friends have “aptronyms” for names. It may even be you.

You can always count on Ask Me Another to cover a wide range of useful knowledge. In this episode, learn the middle names of former Presidents while solving famous murder mysteries from the movies. And this week's Very Important Puzzler, author Dan Kennedy, will teach you about his eclectic interests, including trout fishing, fighting forest fires and blurring the lines between fiction writing and real life.

(Rebroadcast) This week's versatile V.I.P., Rosie Schaap, has had spells as an author, an ordained minister, a fortuneteller, and a bartender — which serves her well during a delectable drinking game. And with quizzes covering highfalutin children's literature, crossbred celebrities and a geologist's favorite Queen song, this week's contestants show a little versatility, too.