Weekend Favorites: "In the Form of a Question" w/ Ken Jennings

Published Mar 30, 2024, 8:00 AM

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: Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings, host of the Omnibus podcast and lots more.

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 Buzzlers, and welcome to the Buzzler Weekend, where we bring you some of our favorite episodes from the vaults for your weekend listening. Today, March the thirtieth is a very important day in history, or at least nerd history. Sixty years ago today, in nineteen sixty four, the National Broadcasting Company aired the very first episode of a quiz show called Jeopardy. It was hosted at the time by TV personality Art Fleming. After Art the magnificent Alex Trebek took over for many, many years. Side note on Alex Trebek. I never went on Jeopardy myself, but I did get to interview Alex for Esquire magazine and he gave me a quote that I still think about every week to this day. He said, I'm curious about everything, even those things that don't interest me. So thank you Alex for that and for many other things. And now Jeopardy is hosted by none other than friend of the Puzzler Podcast, Ken Jennings, So in honor of a happy sixtieth to Jeopardy, we present you Ken Jennings. Hello Puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast. The free parking on your puzzle Monopoly Board. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, and I'm here with this week's guest, the legendary Ken Jennings of Jeopardy fame, host of the Omnibus podcast, and author of the new book One Hundred Places to See After You Die.

Welcome Ken, AJ, thanks for having me back.

We are honored, and I bet you've never heard this kind of joke format. The answer is this Chief Puzzle Officer is going to come on now and give you an original puzzler puzzler and the question is who is Greg Pliska.

Thank you AJ, and thank you Ken for being with us.

This is fun having you here.

Delighted now as AJ did in the setup, everyone knows the Jeopardy tradition that all responses must be in the form of a question. So in this game, all the responses will sound like their questions, but they aren't who They're all Yeah, They're all words or phrases that sound like they begin with one of the five traditional English question words, who, what, where, when, why, or how.

So here's an example.

The reservoir Lake Mead was formed by the creation of this massive structure on the Colorado River.

That would be whom.

That's the Hoover dam exactly. So it starts with the who sound. You understand this intimately.

I feel like I would not accept that on Jeopardy. If somebody just said who damn, it would be like, no, we're not playing your game. Why don't you go home? Alex Trebek didn't do this show for thirty eight years so that you could.

Try that quest exactly.

But it would be funny to hear somebody try that.

I've often wondered if you just said something in a very querulous voice, if you were like Millard Fillmore, like, do I have to take that because it's in the form of a question.

That's a great thing. No, I you know. The good thing is you get to decide.

Yeah, but the Jeopardy host should not be deciding vibes. I feel like vibes should be beyond.

Right the game. The game should be a little more objective than vibes.

Exactly.

Well, here on the puzzler, we will accept vibes as well as the correct answer.

All right, here's your first one.

The forty fourth state admitted to the Union. This is nicknamed the equality State.

I was panicking for a second, but luckily, you know, there's fifty states to go through, but there's only what five?

You said?

Five question words? Who are when? Six question words? So yeah, you always go with the smallest set. And as I was going through the question words, I realized, why is the first syllable.

Of Wyoming exactly? I was curious if you would just know offhand that it's the forty fourth state or the equality state.

That feels like I don't know most of those by number, actually, but I just revealed my Achilles here.

Do you know him by nickname? You know all this?

I think, yeah, I think I know all the nicknames. As a kid, I had a book that had all the states and that would birds and whatnot.

That'd be the kind of fact you'd want to learn.

All right, here's your second one shape shifting creature from London featured in a Warren Zevon song.

That would be a where Wolf of London. And I guess we're assuming I'm not from a part of the world that says where differently than I say where.

Exactly, although maybe you would say where wolf also, I'm not sure.

Probably yeah, yeah.

I noticed that on Star Trek Clay, the Klingon guy would often hyper correct his w's He would talk about the weapons. Captain, the Romulans are arming their weapons, and I was like, there's no way it's his.

I was so high. He just cannot resist.

Right, he just adds the age.

Yes, okay, here's your next one South American primate named for its loud cry.

Ah.

That would be a I think we have these at my lived near the zoo in Seattle, and if you live a few blocks nearer than us, I think you hear these guys all night.

The how the howler monkey is exactly right, starting with how All right, here's another state related one nickname for a resident of Indiana.

When you said nickname, I was already there, because only a few states have nicknames like that. You know the Hawkeys of Iowa, the buck guys of Ohio, and perhaps I guess there's tar Heels, but perhaps most famously, the Hoosiers, the Hoosier of Indian all.

Right, we have time for a couple more of these. Let's try this one rhyming term for the depreciation that occurs during normal use of an object.

That would be where and tear. As Lieutenant Work would.

Say, I like the pronunciation on these.

It's very good. Extra credit for that.

All right, and one more for you. South Carolina Rock Band fronted by Darius Rucker. They had a hit with only Want to Be With You.

I was little worried on South Carolina Rock band. I did not have one in the chamber, but luckily then you named the front man.

Yeah.

Really takes me back to being in college and listening to so much Wood.

And the Blowfish. Excellently done.

You know what I'm gonna I'm going to give you one more because this is a tough one, not as tough as the extra credit, but but I want to give you this one surname of the painter best known for Christina's World.

That would be Andrew Wyeth. Why, yeah, exactly, Sorry, that's I'm half klingon, half human, as you know. Yes, that was my human side.

Well, I'm impressed Ken, you've covered when we covered every imaginable category and of course you've got them all so well done.

Swap to you swept that category. Nicely done. Thank you Ken for coming great job. Can where can people find more Ken jennings content?

Ken jennings On, I don't even want to guess which social media platforms exist or what they're called. When this episode comes out, but you can find me there.

Excellent. As always, there's an extra credit puzzle, Greg, you got one?

I do have one. Yes.

This is the Temple complex in Bangkok, also known as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.

Okay, well, thank you Ken. Before we go, I just want to thank you again. And puzzlers, please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler podcasts and we'll meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.

The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs

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