"Your Moment of Zen" w/ Baratunde Thurston

Published Oct 23, 2023, 8:00 AM

Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us all this week: writer and activist Baratunde Thurston, host of "How to Citizen" and America Outdoors.

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! 

And visit our website thepuzzler.com for lots more.

"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 emotional running to the airport scene in your Puzzle, romantic comedy. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, and I am here with our guests for the week, the great Baratunde Thurston, writer and host of many many things, including How to Citizen the podcast right here on iHeart. Welcome Baratunday.

Hello, Aj, thank you so much for having me. I'm looking forward to not embarrassing myself.

Yes, we will give me the embarrassment to a minimum. It's usually me who embarrasses myself. Okay, But I actually don't know. I've read a lot about you, but I don't know. Are you a puzzle fan at all? Crosswords, jigsaw, word puzzles, anything like that.

Nothing consistently. I've had bouts phases of puzzle them. COVID was a big puzzle phase, of course, as we were all held hostage by ourselves in our homes. I still have a puzzle on our dining table. We've been working on it, my wife and I for six months, and we actually have guests coming over this weekend and we need to finish it because other people need to sit at the table. So I am. This is going to help me get in a puzzle frame of mind so that I can finish the puzzle in my life, which is soon to get in the way of me living my life. We are here to help prime my puzzle pump.

Yeah. I thought when you said you had friends coming over you were going to put them to work.

We actually did that.

We had a friend come over after drinks, and the three of us worked together and made more progress in an hour than you know, Elizabeth and I had made in many, many, many weeks.

Well, we're going to give you a puzzle. It's not a jigsaw puzzle, okay. This puzzle is called your Moment of zen and it's it's partly an honor of your former job at the Daily Show, but mostly it's an honor of your wonderful podcast How to Citizen. Because like the word citizen, all the answers to these clues contain the word zenka. So if for instance, I said a Baker's one of these has thirteen, the solution might be.

Does zen z it?

Does Baker's get it? All right? Are you ready?

I'm ready?

All right? Clue number one. These might be made by reco la oh ah, Okay, So first of all, I'm sorry.

I have a story for everything, apparently, but I used to sing that song. I was addicted to ricola as a high school student, not not a substance abuse, wagees and like, I really appreciated non sorts wrotes, and so my friends knew and they would even see me coming and they would sing the song.

Go la, go lah.

When it changes the key, that's the that's the key. So you are referring to lozenges exactly.

And first of all, I love that because I was very nervous when I wrote this. And he's too young to know those cheesy commercials.

But no, no, not in the sweet spot.

Yeah, it was.

Your like, it was your your trademark.

I sang. I'm born in seventy seven. I've been around Ricolaza, part of part of my youth.

Fantastic, all right. So this this actress has a name derived from the ban two word meaning to give thanks, actress singer, some some say, although my son says, she's more of an actress.

Okay, so the band two word give thanks doesn't help me much. I'm just gonna always share my thought process here. I love that actress and z e n being in the name, and I give thanks that she exists. I would say, Zindia exactly.

Yeah, we are all thankful, well done? All right, you were.

Too okay, all right.

This Disney movie, according to Internet conspiracy theories, was to very all mention of the cryogenic preservation of Walt Disney by flooding Google with a different word. What I know that is a crazy clue. My kids, I had a different clue, and my kids are like, yeah, no, do this one.

So okay.

So I'm audio and I'm trying to relate to the words. So we got Disney something in cartoons and Disney obsessive movies and cryo ice. So are we talking frozen?

Frozen? Exactly? You got it?

Rate all right?

Just two more. This writer, this novelist had a mini spat with Oprah Winfrey.

A novelist who had a mini spat with Oprah Winfrey. Who would have a spat with Oprah? First of all, I don't I probably don't like this person. If you'd got beef with Oprah?

She yes, he's a bit controversial but super talented. It was over a book he wrote that she chose for her show, and the book was called the corrections, and he then said some disparaging things about the Oprah Winfrey audience. So she disinvited. This is my memory. She disinvited this person from the show, but still read his book because it was, you know, separate the artist from the art. He is a National Book Award winning Okay, his first name is Jonathan.

Thank you that did it, because I've just heard Jonathan Franz in Jonathan friends and Jonathan Franzen and it rolls off the tongue. So thank you for that assist.

You got it, You get full credit. Yeah, it's hard to find people with names with Zen in it. Yeah, all right. Last one is the part one of the clue is this was a twoenty twenty two Alyssa Milano movie that got thirteen percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Or it's a word meaning bold and shameless.

Hmmm, Alyssa Milano, twenty twenty two low ranked movie, not helping.

Yes, I figured that would not be helpful. That was just sort of like, but throw a little pop culture in there.

Yeah, I appreciate it.

And the synonym for bold shameless.

Oh okay, okay, brazen.

Brazen, Yeah, you got it. They five out of five The perfect score.

Oh this is ironic. I can't think of the word that synonym or in this case xynonym nine.

Oh my god.

Oh I wish.

We had a cash prize for like a brilliant wordplay, but we don't.

I am thoroughly warmed up. This is fun, This has been fun.

Well, thank you, so you did great. Where can people find more baritun Day content?

People can go to this place called a website. I have one that I've had since nineteen ninety nine. Wow, I was very early. Baratun day dot com is the owned and operated hub of my universe. You can also find me on digital sharecropper sites such as Instagram or whatever else owned by someone else, but mine is bear to day dot com, so you can plug that.

Well, thank you. I never heard that phrase, but it's it's brilliant. Before we wrap up, as always, one extra credit for you puzzlers at home. This word it contains zen and the clue is it is a proceder of massed, preceder of mast. All right, puzzlers, please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler podcast and we'll meet here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.

Hello puzzlers. Greg Pliska here with the answer to last episode's extra credit puzzle. We were playing a game called Links to Links, where I gave AJ clues to words with link in them using the names of the Wikipedia pages that link to that page. The clues I gave AJ were Ukraine, Time Person of the Year and satellite and the answer, of course is Starlink, the satellite system from the company owned by Elon Musk who was Time Person of the Year that was used and is being used in the Ukraine Russia war. Hope you all got that one. We'll see you here next time.

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