Hello, Puzzlers! AJ has a new book out! You can order "The Year of Living Constitutionally" right now!.
Puzzling with us today: writer, podcaster, and host of "X-Ray Vision", Jason Concepcion!
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.
Hello Puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the final Rose in your Golden Bachelorette Puzzle Ceremony. I am your host, A J. Jacobs, and today's guest is the awesome Jason conceptsi own podcaster, writer, host of the Six Trophies and X ray Vision podcast and the Official Game of Thrones podcast. Welcome Jason, Thank you for having me.
It's wonderful to be here.
Wonderful to have you back a second time.
So much has happened, So much has happened since the last time we checked in, and we'll talk about it off Mike. But wonderful to see you again.
Great to see you.
Well.
Today I've got a special treat. I'm going to bring in Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska to give you a special Jason Conceptsion themed puzzle.
Welcome Greg, Thank you Aj, and thank you Jason for doing this. I think you might be the ultimate fanboy. And since I'm a fanboy of yours, I think that makes me like a fan fanboy or a fanboy boy or something. I don't know. I just I am very psyched that X ray Vision is back. My son and I have listened to a bunch of it, but I always have to turn it off to avoid the spoilers. I say, yes, but you warn us when they're coming. And what happens is you and Rosie get so excited about things I haven't seen that I go turn them on to watch them.
Oh that's wonderful. I'm glad to hear that.
Yeah, which means that the studio should be paying you big advertising bucks. I'm just saying, just teeing this up for iHeart to line that up for you.
Feel free to let them know that I will.
Okay, Well, today, since you're such a big fan of so many things, we're going to play a title mashup game that we're calling Enders Game of Thrones. You see it works. Yes, we take two titles that have a word in common and we mash them up, and we'll give you a clue to the mashed up version. So if I had said this is a series where a Child's soldier named Andrew Wiggins fights off both insectoid aliens and the House of Lanister, that would of course be Enders Game of Throat. And wouldn't you want to watch that?
I think I would. I think I would.
All Right, So let's take a little dive into all this fun pop culture stuff. Posh, scary, Ginger, Sporty and Baby join Brad Pitt in an apocalyptic battle against a zombie pandemic.
The members of the Spice Girls.
Yeah, then take part in the Brad Pitt movie World Wars, which I believe to be World warsy.
Yeah.
Yeah, And they did a movie as well that mashes right up with World Us.
They didn't oh no, oh, what was the name of the movie?
Well, you could just you know, I got it, I got it, I got it Spice World war Z.
And you know, I couldn't decide if it was them with Brad Pitt fighting off the zombies or if it was zombie Spice Girls like storming the battle.
Yeah, I like that. I like that too.
You can have them say, well, tell you what I want, what I really really want, brains.
If only we could have that song just play out at the end of the All right, here's another one for you. This is a game show in which contestants can phone a friend, pull the audience, or ask a time Lord for the answers.
Oh I love this one. Oh wow, that's really fun. I believe that this is doctor who wants to be a millionaire.
Yes, that's exactly what it is. I'm so glad you like that one. I pitched this to one of our producers. I said, this might be hard for the general audience some of this, but I think Jason will get a kick out of it. So this is working out all right. In this film, it's actually a film TV show mashup. Mike Myers plays an international playboy and secret agent who is forced to watch B movies with two robot companions.
So that is the B movies with robot companions, I believe is Mystery Science Theater three thousand and then we're speaking of Austin Powers, the international man of Mystery Science Theater three thousands.
There you go there, nicely done.
Wow, that was tough, great, and that was very fun.
And then deep into I really did I know? I always just remember Austin Power. It's nicely done.
Oh that was very good. All right, here's another one for you. Tatiana Maslani plays all the roles in this British anthology series created by Charlie Booker.
Okay, so uh the British anthology series child Booker. Uh, Oh gosh, this is one of those brain parks. I it was.
He named it for what our you know, our phones look like when we hold them up. That's where he got the name. Right, We're staring staring at this device that is reflective, but when.
It's not on, ah, that's thank you. So that would be dark Mirror on Netflix. No, no, no, black mirror. Excuse me? And then okay orphan black mirror. Yes, exactly, thank you for thank you for the end. And what a performance by Tetana Maslani by.
The way, God incredible.
A million awards for that role.
Several times, like she should have been nominated for like five times.
Yeah, oh yeah, the entire category. Yeah, different girls.
That would be perfect. All right, I got one more for you. One more. Starfleet Commander Benjamin Cisco is the boss of the space station, but three of the employees, Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and share rebelegance, dis leadership, and hilarity ensues.
Oh wow, okay, so that again, I'm going to take the last part for the the being discussed is I believe nine to five, and so the Star Trek show must be Deep Space nine to five.
Yes, Star Trek. Wow?
Like that. I was thinking it was like the Star Trek Deep Space nine and a half weeks, sort of a softcore. I think you went the high road, Greg, I appreciate that.
The more family friendly option. Yes, Mickey Rourke and you know Ambassenger.
I think, well that was great, Greg, Thank you and thank you Jason. You got them all? What else? I mean? You got so much to plug? So oh gosh, I open it up. I opened the door.
Watch Miguel Wants to Fight on Hulu, co written by myself and four time New York Times bestselling author Chas Ferrano. And then just google me and see the other stuff that I'm hosting. And if can interest you, please check.
It out great or bing or use bing if you want, in case they want to sponsor us. All right, well yeah, bring it up before we wrap up, Greg, do we have an extra credit puzzle for the folks.
We do puzzlers at home. Here's your extra credit. A group of school kids enter the Upside Down in search of chin Wa Chabay's award winning novel.
Love it all right, folks, puzzlers, please come back tomorrow and we will have the answer to that and more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Hey puzzlers, it's Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer, here with the extra credit from our previous episode. We had the great Jason Concepsion with us and we played Man of the Month, wherevery answer is a word that begins with a three letter month abbreviation. Your extracredit clue was Canadian province whose capital is Halifax, and everyone knows, of course, that is Nova Scotia. So all you folks who are in Nova Scotia subscribe to the Puzzler podcast.
Come on,