Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: creators of Room Escape Artist and hosts of the Reality Escape Pod, David Spira, Lisa Spira, and Peih-Gee Law!
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.
Hello, puzzlers. Welcome to the Puzzler podcast, the umlat above the You in Your Heavy Metal puzzle from the eighties. I am your host, AJ Jacobs, and today's guests are heavyweights in the world of puzzles. They are David Spira, Lisa Spira, and PG Law. They are the experts of all experts on escape rooms. They founded Room Escape Artist, which is a website that runs funny and useful reviews and news about escape rooms. They also have a podcast, The Reality Escape Pod, which Greg and I recently were guests on, so check that out. Welcome David, Lisa and PG.
It's great to be back. Thank you for having us again.
We are delighted. So today's puzzle is about escape rooms, more about rooms. We call it other rooms. So I'm going to give you some hints to other types of rooms, not escape rooms. The hints might be a little twisty, but you are puzzle experts, so I think you're up to it. For instance, if I said this room is filled with arm joints, like joints in your arm that might be elbow, well she knew it. I shouldn't. I shouldn't have even said it. Okay, So first one. Are you ready? This is a room where you might store crushed talcum or crushed cocoa or crushed chili pow.
It sounds like a room for powdering powder room exactly.
Uh.
And by the way, I realized when looking up, crushed talcum is redundant because talc is crushed into talcum. So I realized that. And if there are people who wanted to email me, go ahead, but just know that I did. I did.
The more you know, how about this room?
What would you call a room where you do your putting for golf?
They oh, the green room.
The green room, which those who can't see PG is in a green room as we speak totally. Are you going to do some special effects later?
Is like?
Is that why you've got it up?
Yeah?
Yeah, We're gonna green screen in like just images of my face and David's floating around for your social media.
I can't wait. Well, I am going to actually break tradition and I'm going to pause our game for just a few minutes because I feel as a special opportunity. You have done so many escape rooms and you have so much knowledge about puzzles. I just wanted to give listeners a taste and last episode we established David and Lisa, you're over eleven hundred escape rooms now and you met at an escape room, right, Is that correct?
We meet in an escape room. We met right after I had played my first one, and.
I was We were in a bar, there had been a snowstorm. He was telling me about this game where they'd solved all these puzzles, and I was like, that sounds interesting. He asked for my number, and here we are, So I asked for a number.
There you are.
That's how nerds do it.
Well, David, you told me in the interview for the Puzzler book that when you first started doing escape rooms doesn't happen as often now, but you were like, when you came out, it was like you had just dropped LSD. It was like you had somehow like tapped into some higher level.
When you emerge from an escape room, you feel very aware of your senses, and you feel very aware of your surroundings, and so you look at, you know, a number on the side of a building and you're like, I wonder if that's a code to something. So, yeah, it feels like a little bit of a trip.
Interesting. So is that how QAnon started? People did escape from rooms, and.
I think that they should just stick to escape rooms. I think they'd have more fun.
That's the way to save America. I love it all right. Well tell me, I'm just going to go down sort of a lightning round of questions. Tell me favorite escape rooms of the hundreds you've done.
I have a personal favorite, which is from a company called Strange Bird Immersive in Houston, Texas. The game is called The Man from Beyond. It's the story of a Houdini seance and it is so incredibly moving. I am not ashamed of This is an escape room that made me cry.
Wow.
Beautiful.
That is lovely. That is I have never cried in an escape room. I've screamed with frustration. And what about you, Lisa and Fiji.
I have a favorite. It's a newer one in Montreal called Forgotten Cathedral at the Escaparium, And I really feel like this escape room take you on an adventure with unexpected moments in an amazing set, with incredible puzzle interactions that forward your story. It's magnificent.
So is it a cathedral? Are you like lighting candles and saying prayer?
It's oh, it's a cathedral.
Yes, interesting huge. Really all right, MPG.
I'm going to talk about a game that's a little bit different. It's called Stay in the Dark. It is in the Netherlands and it takes place in an abandoned five story chemical warehouse.
It's it's insane.
So, I mean, I've done scary rooms, but there's nothing like looking down a dark hallway and the end of it is just engulfed in darkness and you know that you have to walk down there. At some point, you're solving puzzles, you're being chased by like a crazy serial killer.
It's it's it's absolutely nuts.
Well that does sound that's amazing. Well, how haven't there been escape rooms in caw coffins and things like that? An escape coffin?
I had that on the list of weird escape rooms to talk about. Oh good, you locked it in a coffin.
You did it though you were in one.
David did it? We did.
We have.
This scheme doesn't exist anymore for some fire code reasons. Back in the early days of this we were a lot more irresponsible. But yeah, there it was two adjacent coffins that two players would be locked in and you would play your entire game within your own coffin and have to find a way to collaborate with the person next to you.
Oh.
Interesting, So you too were very romantic and nice romantic date side by side coffins.
Yes, we played it on a terribly hot day in the middle of the summer and we were just sweating in these coffins.
It was quite an experience.
I will say, though I've been to escape rooms, these are the early days when it was an air conditioned and I took off my shirt. I was with my family. Oh that, do you know what? That's a second.
Start the rumor.
I did not start it, but I certainly publicized it. All right, Well, were going to get to this a little later. But in my book, I was talking to one escape room designer and I asked him, what are some interesting tidbits about escape rooms. He says, well, one of the big consumers of escape rooms are nudists, because they can go into an escape room, take off their clothes, solve the puzzles, and come out and no one's the wiser. You can't do that at a bowling alley or a movie theater. And so I loved this fact. I put it in the book, and then David and Lisa did some deep dives to see how true this was and what did you come up with.
We're aware of one individual and the group that he plays with who does this on a semi regular basis, But I wouldn't say that it is a big drive of traffic for escape rooms.
I still say it's like twenty five thirty percent of the business. And i'd get to you that.
Your version of reality is probably more fun than mine.
All right, well, let's go back to the puzzle just briefly. Remember it's a puzzle about rooms, and we have one more room for you. This is a room where you might keep your poker chips.
Ooh, it's kind of stumped us here with this.
One worker chips. Yeah, okay, so.
Let me know if you need a hint, I'm here where you would.
Keep your poker chips? So gambling casinos.
Yeah, more specific to poker chips. What are poker chips using?
More bedding? Betting? The betting room?
Is that that's a good one. I'll give you half credit. It's called the bedroom. I think, uh no, this is uh well, what do you use chips for you for betting? And if you want to wager a poker game. If you want to enter a hand.
You anti an anti room, anti change.
Anti room, well anti chamber. According to the Internet, it's also called an anti room. But maybe that's a little that's interesting, all right, I give you I get listen bonus points since it's not as common as anti chamber.
Not big gamblers over here.
What is an anti room? Is that like the room before your bedroom?
I guess so yeah, Or it's where you keep your poker chips, or it's where you keep your aunt exactly either kind? All right, great job. Thank you for the the peak inside the world of escape rooms, Lisa David PG. Everyone should go to where.
Oh you can find the podcast at Reality escape pod. It is available everywhere and on YouTube. For escape room tips, information and reviews, you can go to room escape artist dot com. And they also run escape room tours, so if anybody's interested in going on a tour to go play escape rooms with a group of people, you can go check that out on their website.
We'll take you to some world class games.
Love it well, great job, and before we wrap up, as always, for the puzzlers at home, here is an extra credit puzzle. This is a room where you might practice your shouts for dog sledding. What do you say when you are dog sledding? This is that kind of room. You will get the answer to the extra credit on the next episode. And puzzlers, please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler podcast. If you are enjoying it, tell your friends and we will meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Hello puzzlers. Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle Officer, here up from the Puzzle Lab to give you the answer to the extra credit from our previous episode. We played a palindrome game with David and Lisa Spira and PG Law from REPOD, the Reality Escape podcast and the Room Escape Artist website. We gave them palindrome clues, all themed to them in their podcast. The first one I gave you was escape from one of the REPOD hosts informally, and that would be evade Dave. I don't actually know if he goes by Dave. I know him as David, but that's why it's informal. And the other one was a suitable response to what's that damage to your shirt?
Law?
Now? If you remember, PG Law was a contestant on the show Survivor shirt might have been damaged during one of those episodes, and the answer she would give is a rip Spira, using the surname of her questionnaire David and or Lisa. So those are your two answers. Thanks for playing along with us, and we will catch you on the next episode.