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From NPR and WBEC Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm the man with a voice so smoky I can barbecue a rack of ribs just by whispering to it. Bill Curtis here, and here's your host at the Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.
Now, Memorial Day is the official start of summer, so we wanted to get an early jump on slacking off. This week, we're going to be bringing you some of our favorite bits from the past few years so that we can get going on the base layer of our tans. I always sunbathe al fresco because tan lines are a sin. So...
While we are picking out the right SPF, here's some delightfully cool people, starting with rock and roll legend Bob Seger, who we talked to while visiting his hometown in Ann Arbor in September of last year. Thank you. Thank you.
So, you still live here, after growing up here. Did you ever do, I mean, I assumed you did, because this is what I assumed all rock and roll gods did, like live in a house in the hills in L.A. and like have the same party. I did. Yeah. The cover of Stranger in Town is taken on the front lawn of a house I rented in L.A. Yeah. And...
That was pretty wild. I remember there was no cable back then. Oh, yeah. So the first cable I was ever exposed to was the Z Channel in L.A. It was only in L.A. And I'd watch these movies like Rocky and things like that in the 70s. And they'd show them over and over, especially as it got closer to the Academy Awards.
I'm just going to express a little bit of amazement that in talking about your life as a rock and roll god living in LA in the 70s, the exciting thing that you wanted to tell us about was cable TV. LAUGHTER
My main friends out there were Don Henley and Glenn Frey. Especially Glenn, who was from Royal Oak. I watched that documentary about the Eagles, and they broke up because they actually couldn't, they were arguing over the remote. Exactly. They're like, what are we going to watch? So this cable thing really tracks. Yeah, a lot of them. I've seen a lot of behind the music, where they had to give up cable to get their life back together. They argued about everything. Yeah.
One of the things I found out, and it's not hard to find out if you just listen to the lyrics, that many of your most well-known songs are about your life here in Ann Arbor. That's right. So, for example, your song Night Moves. Night Moves. As you once put it, that took you from the bus to the jet, right? Sure. Yeah. That was about my first girlfriend, and I was about 17. We would have these parties called grassers.
between Dexter and Ann Arbor in farmer's fields and stuff like that. And this buddy of mine named Richard Gregory had an upside-down record player in his Chevrolet.
So he could play 45s and we'd all listen to the music and leave the headlights on and get run off by the farmers after a time. You were just young and restless and bored living by the sword. Living by the sword. Yeah. I'll tell you what, living by the sword, you nailed it because that's a much better rhyme than partying near manure. Yeah.
I want to ask about one more thing, which is that we were watching some of your videos and I had forgotten what amazing hair you used to have. I mean, beautiful, long, luxuriant. And that was just the beard. That was the hair.
And I'm like, was there like a law that if you were a rock star in the 70s, you just had to have the hair? Yeah, pretty much. And I really, I never had it after 1980. Really? Yeah, I, after Against the Wind, and we had three huge albums, Night Moons, Stranger Town, Against the Wind, and Line Bullet, four, and I
I just, it was hard to walk around with the hair. I used to put it under a baseball cap. Really? Yeah, anything. So finally I just said, the heck with it, I'm cutting it off. Really? Did that ever hurt your career? No. For those out there who still might have a hair, I'm not speaking for myself, do you, 1970s rock god, have any hair care tips for them? Is there anything you picked up? Don't lose it. Yeah.
Where were you and I needed that? Now you tell us. Well, Bob Seger, we are so excited to have you with us, and we have, in fact, invited you here to play a game that this time we're calling... Working on our K'nightin' Booze. Okay.
So you sang about night moves. We thought we'd ask you about night with a K moves. That is the game of chess. Okay. Specifically, three questions about how people have attempted to cheat in the game of chess over the years. Bill, who is Bob Seger playing for? Gabby Ford of Ann Arbor, Michigan. There you go. All right.
Ready to go? Yeah. Here's your first question. Rui Lopez of Spain was one of the first great chess masters who wrote a book on the game back in the 16th century. In that book, he suggests cheating, A, sitting with your back to the sun so your opponent is blinded.
B, if any pawn approaches your castle, pour hot oil on it. Or C, as your opponent is considering his move, quietly say, I have the plague. That one still works. We can still do that one. It still works. I would say C. You're going to go C? Yeah.
That's your choice? That's my choice. Oh, no, I'm afraid it was actually A, sit so your opponent is blinded by the sun. Oh. And...
If you're a competitive chess player and you're taking notes out there and you ask, well, what if you're playing indoors? No problem. Rui Lopez says, sit by the fire in such a way that you cast a shadow over the board when your opponent plays. Oh, wow. It all worked out. Or you have two more questions. Here's your next question. By the way, you're handling this in exactly the manner and approach that I dreamed you would. Just so you know, this is great.
Here's your next question. In one of the great scandals of chess, a grandmaster was accused of cheating at the 1978 World Championships by using what foreign substance to help his game? A, yogurt, B, topical steroids, or C, horse tranquilizer? You can see in his eyes, he's like, what drugs were going around in the late 70s? He's like, but I don't know. I was watching cable. I...
Bad batch of yogurt derailed an entire tour. Steroids are cool. Steroids. You're going to topical. You're going to topical steroids. I get little steroids on his stuff. There you go. And all of a sudden, he's like hairs growing out of the back of his hand. It could work, but it was yogurt. Give me an advantage. It was yogurt. He was accused of cheating with yogurt. The idea was his opponent, at one point, the guy, the Grandmaster Carpob was his name, got
a yogurt snack, some violet covered yogurt, and his opponent freaked out and said, "Aha! Your team is sending you a signal with the color of yogurt to tell you what to do." And they had to stop the match and work it all out until they agreed that from then on he would only get yogurt at prearranged intervals and it would always be the same color. That's all true chess. It's a weird game. Yeah!
All right. You have one more choice here. Let's see what we can do. Yeah, okay. We're going against the wind. But just a few years ago, a grandmaster was stripped of his title and thrown out of competition forever after he was caught doing what during a match? A, going to the bathroom and then sitting in the stall and checking a chess computer on his phone.
B, making little ka-ching noises through his mouth whenever he captured an opponent's piece, or C, constantly posing for his Instagram feed? Hey. Hey. Thank you. Finally. Finally, the Bob Seger fan base rises up in defense, waiting for that to happen. A, you're going to go with A? A is right. That's what happens. I can't remember any more.
Seriously, and you can find online, because there was a security camera he should have known, of this grandmaster sitting on a closed toilet looking at his phone going, oh, that's how a knight moves. Okay, yes. Bill, how did Bob Seger do in our quiz? He got one out of three, so the knight moves are a little thin, but you are always a winner with an old-time rock and roll. Yes, indeed. Thank you, Bill.
Bob Seger is an immortal legend of rock and roll. Bob Seger, thank you so much for joining us here. We know a lot of people like to read books on the beach. So here's a recent question from our show about the opposite of a beach read. Roy, a book club in California just celebrated its 28th anniversary of regularly meeting. They have faithfully met once a month for all those years. And in that time, they've read how many books?
Yes, they've read one book. It took them 28 years to finish Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce, which if you... And then they lied. Yeah, well, I was about to say, I was about to say Finnegan's Wake. If you've read it, you're lying. It's impossible to understand. It's this avant-garde work of whatever filled with run-on sentences and then fragments of words all with no punctuation. It's either a brilliant work of experimental fiction or just someone you hate describing their dream. Mm.
And the reason it took so long is this club committed to reading one page at a time, and then they'd have a two-hour discussion about that one page.
How many members? I'm not quite sure how many there left, actually. I mean, you know your book club is old when you miss a week of Finnegan's Wake because everybody had to go to Brent's Wake. When we come back, a great young runner expresses her enthusiasm and a great young actress questions mind. That's when we come back with more Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR.
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Download the Instacart app to get free delivery on your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 per order. Additional terms apply. From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis, and here is your host at the Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Bill. Thank you so much.
We're getting an early start on summer, which means when you're finally headed to the beach, we will already be sunburned and sick of our kids being home all day. This summer, of course, the Olympics are in Paris. Molly Seidel won bronze in the marathon in the Tokyo Olympics.
But as she told us, she wasn't expecting to win the marathon or even really to compete. Yeah, basically what happened, I was living in Boston at the time and with my sister we were at a holiday party and just sitting on the rooftop of this townhouse and Izzy was like, it would be really funny if you ran your first marathon at the Olympic trials. I was like, that actually would be hilarious. And then...
Everything kind of spiraled out of control from there. Yeah. Now, according... I will say, according to Runner's World, what were you doing on the top of that building? I was smoking a joint on the roof. Yeah. Sorry, Mom. Wait, so you were smoking weed and you go, I think I'm going to be in the Olympics. Yeah. So, I have watched...
the video of the end of the marathon. Now, again, this was, I believe, your third marathon. You had run one in the meantime during the pandemic. And this is what you can see if you watch the last five minutes or so of the marathon. You see the eventual gold medalists and the silver medalists were both women from Kenya. And they look pretty tired. They're like, oh, my God, I got to get through this. I think I'm going to win this, but I am beat to heck. That's what's on their faces.
And then there's you, and you're like, I'm gonna win a marathon! You were like, woohoo! I honestly... Well, I think the problem is that the... So Paris Chepchishir and Bridget Koskai, who came in first and second, these are world record holders, like multi-time medalists. So for them, going and winning another medal is just another walk in the park. For Bridget, she was probably disappointed because she was getting second and not winning. Meanwhile...
This was the best day of my life. So I should say this is the first medal that any American woman has gotten in the Olympic marathon in, I think, 18 years, right? So that's quite something. These are not easy to come by.
These medals. And so I do want to touch on the many, many years before that medal that you labored, shall we say, in obscurity. So, for example, we understand that in addition to your Olympic medal, you also have the extraordinary distinction of having once been the second fastest DoorDash delivery woman in Flagstaff, Arizona. Yeah.
Yeah, there without a car that was with a car. Okay. Yeah. No, I wasn't carrying that to people I was an absolute nightmare though to get that second fastest shopper I would like sprint through Whole Foods like I have this layout memorized of most of the Whole Foods in Boston Really? So how was there a secret to your efficiency as a door dasher? Um
Probably aggressive driving. And yeah, being willing to like push over an old lady for some avocados. Right. Just relentless. That is how you win a match.
This is how you win. Competitive drive. That's how you do it. Did you, I got to ask you one more thing, which is, have you heard about Taylor Swift's workout that she says she did? We were actually just talking about this, that apparently Taylor Swift, to get ready for her concert, ran for like three and a half hours on the treadmill while singing all of her songs as well. Yes.
She says she did that every day. Yeah, I wonder if she's like running the whole time or if she's walking. I don't know, but I'm sure whatever she's doing. Can't we just call her up and ask her? As a matter of fact, we can. Hang on a second. Taylor, she's backstage. Well, Molly Seidel, we are delighted to have you here and we've asked you to play a game. We're calling. Call now. Please, I beg of you. Call
now. You run, as we have been discussing, marathons, so we thought we'd ask you about another incredible test of endurance, the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon. Laughter
In which the late comedian would raise money for muscular dystrophy for 24 hours live on TV. If you answer two out of three questions correctly about it, you will win our prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose from our show for their voicemail. Bill, who is Molly Seidel playing for? Kyle Walton of San Francisco, California. All right. First question. One of the first times that Jerry Lewis appeared in a fundraising telethon before he launched his own was back in 1952. And when Lewis walked out on the set of the telethon,
One of these is real? One of those is real.
I think I have to go with C. You're going to go with C. Makes sense. Yes, I understand that. But the answer was B. Apparently, Lewis had made a thing about tearing off Crosby's toupee and he wasn't going to let it happen again. All right. Here is your next question.
One of the great things about watching the telethon was that Jerry Lewis would improv, and the improvs would get wilder and wilder as the night wore on. That might explain why he once made an impassioned plea for who to donate to his cause. A, any children who had just received money from the tooth fairy. B, his friend Dave, who he once loaned 75 bucks. Or America's drug dealers.
Let me just say this. You should get this. I think they're telling me I should go with the drug dealers. You always should go with the drug dealers. It's a general rule. It's worked well for you so far.
All right. The show over the years featured a lot of great musical acts, but in the middle of the night, as you can imagine, that's when they had some lesser musical acts come on, including which of these? A, the Hells Angels Singers, B, Ray Sanders, Master of the Musical Turkey Baster, or C, Limp Bizkit.
It definitely can't be B. You're saying it definitely cannot be B. You're absolutely certain. Can you play a turkey baster? Okay, so I think I have to go with B. You're going to go with B, Ray Sanders, master of the musical turkey baster. You're right. Yes! Like I said. Woo-hoo!
Thank you. Thank you. 2 to 3 a.m., you'll never know what you might have seen. What was this show? Tell us all. Bill, how did Molly Seidel do on our quiz? Two out of three, she wins another bronze. So she's the winner. Congratulations. Molly Seidel is an Olympic bronze medalist. Molly Seidel, thank you so much for joining us on A.J. and S.L. Thomas. You're the best. Molly Seidel, everybody.
At the end of last year, we spoke to actor Dakota Johnson, who first rose to fame in the Fifty Shades of Grey movie franchise. She came on our show to talk about a documentary she helped make about feminist share hype. But I started by asking her what it was like growing up the child and grandchild of Hollywood royalty. Well...
I would tell you different things that I tell my therapist. Okay. No, I had an incredible life growing up. I traveled a lot. I was always on set and that was incredibly fun and special. I learned to drive when I was nine, you know? Wait a minute. Why? Why?
because, well, the first thing, it was on a golf cart, and that's how my dad would get from his trailer to set, and so I learned how to drive a golf cart, and then I
learned how to drive the car because that's the obvious next step. Yes. Yeah. And then... Or learning how to play golf. Either. No, because that's so boring. I have young children right now and I know that for young children, the world is just the world around them. They just assume that's what the world is like. So...
In addition to, of course, living with your parents, you also saw them on screens. You saw them on big films and television shows. Was that unusual to see your mom, say, just be someone entirely different? I'm thinking again of you as a young child. I don't know. There's something so special about her and her artistry and the way she performs. And I think when I was younger, I was like, yeah, that's my mom. And I can tell that she's really good. But
that's my mom, so okay, let's move on and I'd rather watch, you know, some other bulls**t. laughter laughter
Could you offend your parents? Like, oh, you know, your dad's like, oh, Nash Bridges is on tonight. You're like, yeah, no. Yeah, I'd rather watch the OC dad. It's a kind of rebellion. All right. This is sort of a related question to you watching her in movies. We understand, I read somewhere, that your mother has seen Fifty Shades of Grey three times.
What? No, that cannot be true. Why would that happen? I don't know. That's why I brought it up. She's your mom. I thought it was a little odd. I mean, I'm very proud of my children, but... There's no chance that that is true. Okay. That would be psycho. All right. So, Fifty Shades was your first, like, enormous hit. Did your...
Family, have any advice about becoming a huge star? - My grandmother, she was like, you're gonna get asked a lot of questions and sometimes someone will ask you a question but you don't always have to answer just because somebody asked. And I was like, oh okay, so I'll just be quiet. And I remember having these really uncomfortable moments where I didn't wanna answer a question so I'd say absolutely nothing.
like not a word and the person thought that I was malfunctioning or like having some kind of
Yeah, that's not allowed. You're supposed to blather mindlessly. Don't you know the rules? Yeah, or you're supposed to say some really clever response that answers but doesn't answer and then tells the person that you're not answering the question and to move on or get out. And you just sat and stared at them in silent judgment. Yeah, I was just like, well, she said to not say anything if I didn't want to say anything, so I'm not going to say anything. Okay.
I'm also guessing that the junkets for the Fifty Shades movies had more than the usual share of questions that you don't want to answer, right? Yes, especially in certain countries. Like, Germany was weird. Yeah, I bet. I actually had not seen the movie, I'm going to confess, so I watched it this week. Oh. Are you okay? I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm okay. Okay.
One of the many things amazing is like I have never seen a movie with better production design in my life. It's so, I mean, put aside the sex. That cannot be true. No, no, really? Because like, oh my God. That's insane. No, like Christian's apartment is amazing. Have I just not been around enough? I don't know. I mean, have you ever seen another movie? I can't. Really? Oh, wait a minute. Yeah.
Dakota, can I say I think you're prepared for any question. Yeah, I know. Wait a minute, if I understand correctly, I'm just supposed to stare at you in silence now. All right. Well, Dakota Johnson, it is an absolute pleasure to talk to you. We have invited you here to play a game. And we are calling this game... Welcome to the Dakotas, Dakota. Dakota.
Oh, God. We assume you were named. Yes! Yes! That is the attitude that we were hoping for. Oh, God. We don't know. We assumed you were named Dakota because of the natural beauty of South Dakota or maybe her sister state to the north. So we're going to ask you three questions about these other Dakotas. Answer two out of three correctly. You'll win our prize. The voice of anyone you might choose in your voicemail.
All right, Bill, who is Dakota Johnson playing for? Andrew Scott of Detroit, Michigan. All right. Here's your first question.
Mitchell, South Dakota, as I'm sure you know, home of the world's only corn palace, right? Famous corn palace. The corn palace, which is not a palace made of corn, it's just called the corn palace, is such a beloved institution that which of these things really happened in 2004? A, when it caught fire, patrons in a nearby bar ran out and extinguished the flames with their beers.
B, in 2004, got a grant from the Department of Homeland Security to protect it from terrorists. Or C, the only question in the interview segment of that year's Myth South Dakota pageant was, why do you love the Corn Palace? I'm going to go with C, Peter. No, it was actually B. They got a grant from the Department of Homeland Security to protect the Corn Palace from terrorists because terrorists hate our freedom.
All right. All right. So maybe you've gone to Mitchell. You've seen the Corn Palace. You're looking for another fabulous tourist attraction in South Dakota. Well, you could go to which of these? A, the world's largest ball of dryer lint in Aberdeen, South Dakota. B, Highmore, South Dakota, statistically the most average town in America. Yes.
Or C. Gettysburg, South Dakota, whose slogan is, Where the battle wasn't. Ooh. A. You're going to go for the world's largest ball of dryer lint. Yes.
I'm afraid it was C. It was Gettysburg, South Dakota. Yeah, I know. I know. I'm sorry. You could... I'm just going to say you could win it all. We're just going to make it all or nothing with this last question. Yeah. All or nothing. Game of the rules. I don't care. Did we make it so that if I lost two out of three, then I win?
Yes. Mathematically, that's the same thing at this point. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. Sorry. North Dakota, of course, doesn't want to cede all the glory to its neighbor to the south. So which of these was a way that North Dakota once promoted its own highlights to the world? A, a contest that offered $1 million to anyone who could shake the hands of every resident of North Dakota. Yes.
B, a video game where in North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego? Or C, a government-produced romance novel in which a career woman from the big city finds love in the arms of a roofing contractor in Minot? Well, B made me laugh, so I'm going to choose that one. That's always the right thing to do, Dakota. Yes, that's the correct answer. The game was created by teachers...
In North Dakota, in honor of the well-known game series in 1997, and as far as anyone knows, only three copies of it now exist. But wouldn't she be easy to find since there's nothing there? Yeah. You just look for anything sticking up above the tree line, and it's probably Carmen Sandiego. Bill, how did Dakota Johnston do in our quiz? Well, Dakota got two out of three wrong, and this week that means she wins. Congratulations. Thank you.
Dakota Johnson is an actor, director, producer, and museum curator. She is also the voice of Cher Height in the new documentary, The Disappearance of Cher Height, which is out now, and I recommend highly. Dakota Johnson, thank you so much for joining us on Weathered Transformation. Thank you so much for being with us. Take care. Bye-bye. Very smart.
When we come back, the person behind the weirdest but most delightful TV series you may never have heard of and the star of the film franchise that everybody has heard of. That's when we come back with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR.
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From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis, and here is your host at the Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Bill. We are...
We are taking the week off to stake out the best beach chairs before the crowd shows up. And we're also offering you some of the best interviews we've done over the past year. So first up now, the eccentric genius behind one of my favorite documentary series, How To, with John Wilson. I asked John to try to explain what his show is to people who haven't yet seen it. Um...
The way I originally pitched it was just, it's kind of like Planet Earth, but for New York City, you know, but instead of David Attenborough narrating it, it's me. Right. And, you know, and I have to film everything. Right. And just to give people a flavor of it who haven't seen it, you'll start off in New York City and you'll start with a basic proposition, how to find a parking space, how to split a check, how to appreciate wine, how to watch a game, whatever, very basic stuff.
And by the end of the episode, you have had this bizarre adventure that has led you to the most bizarre people and places, a convention of vacuum cleaner collectors. Oh, yeah. They were great. Yeah. And I have to ask you, you run into these amazing people who tell you these astonishing things about themselves and their interests. Are they all real? And did you, in fact, find them by accident?
Yeah, these are all real people, and that's what I want to stress more than anything. I'm often encountering these people just like as I walk around. I went to this referee store that was in my neighborhood three different times just trying to meet a referee and waiting for one to invite me to something. I'm going to suggest that it's a little surprising it took you three visits to meet a referee in a referee store.
Well, yeah. It was kind of a low-traffic environment. But they had a lot of nice whistles for sale. So the third time that he described the whistles to me, finally a ref walked in, and he...
miraculously invited me to a dinner filled with referees, which turned into this kind of chaotic scene when I finally got there. But I spent a lot of time and I tried really hard to make sure that whatever's on screen is authentic. It is amazing about the number of shots you have of just people in New York doing just incredibly interesting things.
that always, when you write your narration to it, it's an effect that's hard to describe. But I imagine it's hard to get all that footage that's so perfect for every moment. Yeah, I mean, I shoot a lot of the stuff myself, but I have four to five amazing teams of second unit shooters that go out every single day during production and just shoot for hours and hours every day with a scavenger hunt list. And
So can you give me a sample of what's... I'm one of your crews. What would be in my list for a day? What kind of thing? Something like a Poland Spring bottle filled with urine. Oh, give me something unusual. Or houses that look like faces. Something like that. Do you ever suspect that after a successful day of filling out your list that they just gave up, bought a bottle of Poland Spring themselves and...
Drank it, waited a while. I try not to have a quota. Yeah, I understand. We understand that you have a background in more traditional reality TV. Do you enjoy watching, like when you're off duty, I guess, enjoy watching reality TV? Is that your genre? Yeah. I watch a lot. What was I watching? I mean, I watch Below Deck.
That's the one about the people who work on the yachts, right? Yeah, you know, you just, you know, it's nice to see people just doing a nice job. Sure. It's thrilling. Did you watch the premiere of Golden Bachelor?
Wait, is it out yet? Oh, you're excited. No, I'm sorry. I was misinformed. I was misinformed. No, I think it comes out on the 28th. So clearly... I think. So clearly you're excited for it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I may make some kind of spinach dip for it. Whoa. Yeah.
How to make spinach dip, man, if you ever want to go back into season four. Well, John Wilson, it's been a pleasure to talk with you today, but we have asked you here to play a game we're calling... How Not To. So, obviously... Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're in the business of instructing people how to do things. We're going to ask you about instances of people having to tell others not to.
to do things. Answer two or three correctly of these questions, you will win our prize for one of our listeners. The voice of anyone they might choose for their voicemail. Bill, who is John Wilson playing for? Linda Barton of Seattle, Washington. All right. Here's your first question, John. When the Kilauea volcano erupted in 2018, the U.S. Geological Survey released a warning advising people to not do what? A, surf on the lava flow.
B, roast marshmallows in the volcanic vents. Or C, play The Floor is Lava with the actual lava. Oh, wow. Yeah. Let's go with the, I think I might go with the s'mores. You're right. No, I mean marshmallow. Yeah, yeah, you're right. I knew what you meant and you were correct. Okay, cool.
They told people, please don't roast marshmallows in volcanic vents. In addition to being quite dangerous, the USGS said your marshmallows will end up tasting bad.
Oh, yeah, that sounds gross. All right, next question. Some warnings are legally required but are meant to be ignored. Such as which of these? A, a warning on grape juice during prohibition that said, don't put this jug in a cupboard for 20 days or it will turn into wine. B, a warning that came on Nerf guns saying, do not point at your brother, especially not at his nads.
Or C, a warning on pot gummies saying, do not take and then one hour later watch the movie Cats. I, oh, geez. All right, let's go with wine just because. That's it, yes. Okay, great, yes. You got it. All right, I'm going with my gut. You're doing really well. All right.
One more question. It is, of course, a litigious society. We know this. So manufacturers have to put warnings on their products to keep people from using them incorrectly or dangerously. Which of these is real? A wheelbarrow with the warning, not intended for highway use. B, a label on a baby stroller, remove child before folding. No.
Or C, on the old iPod shuffle, do not eat. I guess I'm going to go with the, even though it's, I feel like a lot of people have been tempted to eat the iPod. I feel like it's probably the baby. All three of them were real. Wow. They're all of the above. Yes. Yes.
Wow. Yeah. Wait, the first one was what? The first one was a wheelbarrow not intended for highway use. I'm sure, I mean. You can do that, though. You can still do that. People take scooters on the highway. I'm just going to tell you all that if this were an episode of John's TV show, the next scene would be somebody in a wheelbarrow going down the highway. Yeah. Yeah.
Bill, how did John Wilson do in our quiz? Three out of three, John. Good luck. There you go. You're a winner. John Wilson is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker. The third and final season of How To With John Wilson is streaming now on Max. Binge the whole thing. It is astounding. John Wilson, thank you so much. Thank you so much. For being on our show. Thank you, John. Awesome to see you. Thanks for the amazing show. Love you guys. Take care. Bye. Bye. Bye.
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Finally, last year we had a chance to talk to an actor who's been in movies that collectively have grossed about one zillion dollars and it is all due to her. For example, the second role Michelle Rodriguez ever got was as Vin Diesel's girlfriend in the Fast and Furious franchise. Even though, as she told us, she had a certain disadvantage when she got the part. I did know how to drive, I just didn't know how to do it legally.
I didn't have a license. I didn't have a license. Say more about that. I did know how to drive. I just didn't have a license. Right. And did you have to get that in order to be in the movie? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I totally did. But that was after I went to car racing school. So, speaking of Vin Diesel...
We understand, we have heard, as big a lug as he is, he loves to play Dungeons & Dragons on set. And so we naturally wondered if that's somehow what led you to star in the new Dungeons & Dragons movie. Is there any connection? What led me to star in the Dungeons & Dragons movie was the fact that John and Jonathan, the directors and writers of it,
so much about the 50 years of humans around the world playing it. I used to play it as a teen, not as hardcore as then. But, you know, I did recognize as a kid that the types of humans who do play it and who take it seriously are people that you don't want to mess with. I'm so like... I've met them too. I've...
been one of them and you can mess with us with pretty no fear of any consequences. You know, the worst we're going to do to you if you give us a hard time is like furiously roll funny looking dice until we can yell, gotcha!
I actually was very curious because the movie is great fun and lighthearted and fast and action-filled. It is incredibly loyal to the lore of the Dungeons & Dragons game. And were there like nerd consultants on set going, no, no, no, that's from the original Monster Manual. It's been revised.
Oh my god, you have no idea. Like the pronunciation of things, I mean, and I'm the worst, you know what I mean? First off, you gotta keep yelling at me about my New York accent or my Jersey accent and tell me to remove it, you know, because obviously Holga doesn't have one. And then on top of that, I have to
I have to remember how to enunciate all these strange words that are part of the Dungeons & Dragons vocabulary. I don't know. It was rough. But we got through it, man. You did. Well, since you played D&D on the Fast & Furious set, I'm sure while on the Dungeons & Dragons set, you relaxed by stealing cars. Ha ha ha ha!
All right. Well, you are as much fun to talk to as you are to watch up on the big screen. But, Michelle Rodriguez, we have asked you here to play a game we are calling... The Slow and the Furious. So, as we have established, you've starred in the Fast and Furious movies, so we thought we'd ask you three questions about something that is neither fast nor furious, sloth.
Oh, my God. The famous slow-moving animal of Central and South America. Answer two out of three questions about sloths correctly. You'll win our prize. One of our listeners, the voice of their choice in their voicemail, talking as slowly as they might like. Bill, who is Michelle Rodriguez playing for? Mia Ziegelsita from Honolulu, Hawaii. There you are. All right. Yeah. See that? Yeah.
Here is your first question. Nothing is more interesting about sloths than the process of how sloths poop.
Why is it so interesting? A, they're only able to poop if a large animal or person is standing right beneath them. B, they poop incredibly quickly and loudly, causing zoologists to call them nature's drum solo. Or C, they only poop once a week, and when they do, they expel one-third of their body weight. I was on that diet for a while. What?
Wow. I'd have to say three. You're right. That's exactly right. They poop once a week, lose a third of their body weight in poop because of the slow metabolism. By the way, I want you to know that when we sat down to research sloths for this, every single member of the staff found this independently and sent it in. Peter, did you know that sloths... Yes, I did, because everybody else told me. Yes. All right. All right.
Next question. You've been great. Sloths are delightful, of course, if you've ever met one, but they're also useful. What do we owe to the sloth? A, the practice of slow-moving Tai Chi, right? B, the existence of avocados, or C, animal towel sculptures on cruise ships. What? I go with the avocado situation. You're right. That's what we, in fact...
And the reason is, as you may have heard, one of the sloths' ancestors was the giant ground sloth, which was this enormous sloth about eight feet tall. They were the only animals large enough to eat avocados and pass their enormous pits, which is why avocados survived down to us today. So there you are. Next time you're enjoying a guacamole, thank a sloth.
All right. Last question. You're doing great. Sloths reproduce in an unusual way. After six months of gestation, what happens? A, the mother to B goes on a last wild fling with her female sloth friends. B, a kind of sloth doula sits down beside the mother sloth and slowly tells her to puh.
Or C, the mother hangs upside down in a tree until the baby drops out and swings by its umbilical cord until the mom reels it in. Whoa. I would go with three, but it does sound illogical. But you're going to go with it? I'm going to go with it. You're right. That's what happens. Woo!
And I hope as the sloth mother reels it in, she's going, oh, that's a big one. Oh, yeah. Bill, how did Michelle Rodriguez do in our quiz? Michelle joins a rare crowd in getting three in a row. You are a winner. Vin Diesel would be proud. Congratulations.
It's so much fun to talk to you. You can see Michelle Rodriguez in Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves, which is in theaters now. Michelle Rodriguez, thank you so much for joining us on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. You're awesome. Thanks for having me. Take care. Cheers, guys. Bye-bye. Bye.
That's it for our premature summer break edition. Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is a production of NPR and WBEZ Chicago in association with Urgent Haircut Productions, Doug Berman, the Benevolent Overlord, Philip Koticka writes our limericks, our public address announcer is Paul Friedman, our tour manager is Shana Donald, our vibes curator is Emma Choi. Thanks to the staff and crew at the Studebaker Theatre, BJ Liederman composed our theme, our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Stormboss, and Lillian King. Special thanks to Monica Hickman,
Peter Gwynn is our dad buried head to toe in sand. Technical direction is from Lorna White. Our CFO is Colin Miller. Our production manager is Robert Newhouse. Our senior producer is Ian Chilock. And the executive producer of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is Mr. Michael Danforth. Thanks to everybody you heard this week. All of our panelists, of course. All of our guests. And, of course, Bill Curtis. And thanks to all of you for listening. I am Peter Sagal. We'll be back next week. Thank you, everybody. This is NPR.
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