How To Do Everything - The Gilligan Rule

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

This week from the archives: a fire captain puts out a fire with the help of an unexpected beverage, showrunner Vince Gilligan discloses when it’s appropriate to drop a spoiler, and what ever happened to the lost fourth Rice Krispie elf?You can email your burning questions to [e-mail] first-ever NPR Pod Club Awards are coming up, and YOU get to crown the winner of the People’s Choice Award. Vote for our show here! How To Do Everything is available without sponsor messages for supporters of Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me+, who also get bonus episodes of Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me! featuring show outtakes, extended guest interviews, and a chance to play an exclusive WW+ quiz game with Peter! Sign up and support NPR at plus.npr.org. How To Do Everything is hosted by Mike Danforth and Ian Chillag. It is produced by Stephen Tobias. Technical direction from Lorna White.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey, it's Ian and Mike. This is How to Do Everything, and this is one of our classic shows, an archive show, a rerun. Craig Monroe is a captain in the Houston Fire Department. Craig, you want to tell us what happened on your day off? Yeah, so my wife and I were on her way home, and she smelled something burning, but couldn't quite figure out what it was. And then right up ahead of us, we saw flames coming from the back of an 18-wheeler, and he pulled over on the side of the road, and we pulled. just in front of him, and ran back to see what I could do to help. And he had had this little tiny extinguisher, and he was spraying it from the outside of the tire,

but what was burning was the inside tire and the brakes. And so I took the extinguisher from him and crawled underneath the truck and sprayed it on the brakes, and fire went out for two seconds. Okay, so then what happened? And so when the flames started coming back up, the tire exploded, which was a little disconcerted, And then I was asking him, what's in the back of the truck? Because I was thinking, this whole trailer is about to burn up because there's nothing left to put it out. And the closest fire department was miles and miles away.

And so he said, beer, it's all full of beer. And I was like, oh, well, I don't know, it's liquid. Let's give it a shot. So I told him to unload it and start throwing cans underneath the truck to me. And so he grabbed a couple of cases and started just shaking him up and throwing them. And at first I would pop open the top with, you know, the regular way. And then later I figured out it worked better to stab them with my knife. And so I got a smaller opening and a little more pressure.

And the flames went out, but it was still glowing red. And we poured a few more on top to cool it down. And it saved the day. So you're under the truck, I guess, taking shaking up beer cans and stabbing them and using that like a fire hose. Yes, sir. That's about the extent of it. What is it like shotgunning beer kind of?

Yeah, yeah. That's been equated to more than once. I'm a firefighter buddies who some of them are better at shotgunning beer than putting out fires. I got to ask what kind of beer was it? It was Coors Banquet beer. And was that beer you think particularly good at putting out fires better than some other beers? Hey, listen, for all the beers I've tried, it's the best. And specifically the tallboys, they seem to be great.

I think the smaller cans wouldn't have been there as good. bottles probably wouldn't work at all, but the tallboys work like a champ. I mean, I imagine you've been in a lot of pretty sticky situations, and then you're, was there a moment where you thought, I can't believe I'm doing this, I'm putting out a fire with cans of beer? Yeah, well, yes, it was, but at the same time, my fire station is Station 41 in Houston, which is right next to this huge Budweiser brewery. And we've joked for years if the, you know, the wood aging or whatever catches on fire, we're just going to tap into the big old kegs of beer there and use those. And so we've kind of made that joke about putting out fire with beer for a long time.

Just the absurdity of actually doing it and off-duty and with Coors was made the story even more funny to me. Was there ever a point when you were under the truck that you were yelling at the truck driver, more beer, send me more beer! Yeah, pretty much the entire time. Really? Yeah. Considering the things you've gone through in your professional career to think that you're in a tense situation and the thing you're yelling is, I need more beer.

Yeah. Usually it's only frat boys yelling that, but... How many cans of beer did it take? It was about half a case. I don't know. Somewhere about 20, I'd guess. So you had a few left over. Did you celebrate?

I'm not going to comment on that on here. My mom might be listening. All right. Fair enough. This is How to Do Everything. I'm Mike. And I'm Ian. Coming up, the secret of Rice Krispies.

But first... We are... tired of spoiler alerts, tired of people complaining to other people about spoiling things. So we thought we should establish a rule, a set amount of time where you cannot expect people to protect you from spoilers anymore. Vince Gilligan is on the line with us now. He created Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. This segment, I guess we should say, even though it's 15 years later, will probably contain Breaking Bad spoilers. Vince, does the idea of a, rule, a spoiler rule like this, does this make sense to you?

Yes. I think you're right. Yeah, there needs to be, there needs to be an agreed upon, you know, by some international governing board of metrics and weights and measures. There has to be, you're right, like, there has to be some agreed upon statute of limitations. Let's, we will let you be the final arbiter of this number. I think if you establish it, all of us that watch television forever can abide by the length of time you decide. Oh, man, that is a whole lot of pressure. Gosh, what would it be? Well, you know, it's, I've got to be, I guess I've got to be kind of brutal here

and say it should probably be about a week. Oh, whoa. Yeah. Really? That's pretty tough. Because you've got to balance people's right to talk about a show with one another. You know, we run into it all the time in the writer's room. We say to each other.

or, you know, hey, did you see a Game of Thrones last night? Yeah. Or whatnot. And then there's always somebody in the room saying, no, no, I'm behind. Don't say anything. So everyone else has to kind of pussyfoot around. But, you know, at a certain, well, maybe a week is too soon. You know, I got to say, though, I wouldn't feel comfortable saying any more than, like, two weeks.

Okay. Because it's like, maybe, maybe two weeks is like the really sort of generous kind of outside number. I think I'd have to give. We'll make it official, yeah. But there's nothing stopping you, by the way, from if you're hanging out with some friends, and they start talking about, you know, Game of Thrones or whatnot, there's nothing stopping you from saying, whoops, and given the universal sign language symbol of putting your hands over your ears.

But then it's only good manners for you to walk away. As Breaking Bad was wrapping up, did the people in your life, the people you're close to that you weren't working with, did they all know what was going to happen, or were you keeping it tight? Like my girlfriend, for instance, she read the script before it gets shot and stuff like that, but some people didn't want to know. For instance, Brian Cranston, of all people, he didn't want to know. And a lot of people in my life didn't want to know. So it was an interesting phenomenon in that final season of Breaking Bad that whereas seasons before

I'd run into people and they'd say, ah, what's going to happen? You can tell me, just give me a little hint. Just give me a little hint. I promise I won't tell anybody. It went from being that to in the final season Breaking Bad. I don't remember anyone wanting a hint. Everyone I ran into would make the joke, they would say, hey, you're going to tell me what happens. And then as soon as I would open my mouth to, you know, to make a joke in return, they wouldn't even let me speak.

They would say, I don't want to know. Wow. I don't want to know. So it was a very interesting phenomenon that final season. But it's so interesting. Like the way we kind of digest TV now, like there are certain shows and Breaking Bad is definitely one of them, where the show will air. And then the week afterwards, people will spend kind of taking it apart and looking for symbols and hints of things to come. Did you ever, like, you know, layer in any hints and subtle clues?

We did indeed. In season two, there was a really fun series of clues laid in that if properly deduced would give away the ending of the season. This was a season that started off in black and white with what looks like there's been a meth lab explosion or some horrible violence at the White House, and there's nobody at sight, and there's a wreckage laying around, and there's a teddy, there's a pink teddy bear floating in the white's pool. Yeah. So those, we continued that string of teasers, the first opening couple of minutes of each episode.

We did four of them throughout the 13 episode season, and they were always in black and white, and they always furthered the visually furthered the story of, you know, why is this burned up teddy bear in this pool? And if you looked very closely, if you looked on the internet or looked in your TV guide or whatever and you

correlated those episodes with those black and white teddy bear teasers to the titles of those episodes the titles laid out as the first one was called 737 and the second one of the teddy bear a few episodes later was called down

and you know several episodes later the third one was called over and then the fourth one, which is the last episode of the season, was called ABQ. So he was bringing them together 737 down over ABQ, Albuquerque, which gave away the, purposely, if you found it, gave away what the big secret was of the season. I have a question about the end of a show, so you watch a show, and at the end of the episode, they'll be like, stay tuned for scenes from next, week's Breaking Bad. And I watch that, and I think, I don't get it, because I watch that,

I learned nothing about the next week's episode, and it all seems to be, it seems like a trick. It's like a trick on me, the viewer. Yeah. Every showrunner has a slightly different threshold or tolerance level for how much they want to give away. I had a much higher threshold myself in the early days of Breaking Bad. I'd say to the folks who edit the trailers for the next week, the previews, I'd say, yeah, put in all the good stuff. I just want people watching. We've got barely any viewers as it is. Let's give them some sexy stuff, so to speak, and let's get them watching next week.

As the show became more popular, I would say, especially as the seasons went by, I would say, ooh, I think we're giving away too much here. Why don't we cut this shot? Why don't we cut that shot? So it's a tricky tight rope walk. Well, as a TV guy, do you watch shows and watch those trailers, and can you kind of sess out what's happening? Are you also just baffled like everybody else? I'm the older I get, the laser I get.

I just want to be taken along for a ride. I don't want to have to steer it myself, so I do that all day long. I'm the worst kind of TV viewer. I personally am not looking to garner on my shows. I like to reward people for active viewing, for thinking hard about it and trying to piece clues together and paying close attention. As best I can as a writer, I want to reward that kind of viewing, which is very hypocritical of me, because when I get home, I sit there like the ultimate couch potato with my thumb in the remote, just surfing through. And yet, you know, I don't want those kind of viewers for my show. It's very hypocritical of me. Well, Vince, this has been really great. Thanks so much.

Oh, thanks, guys. Good talking to you. So we have established officially this is the Gilligan rule. After two weeks post-broadcast of any given show, it is your responsibility, not the responsibility of others to avoid spoilers. Hey, real quick, we want to tell you about some new podcast awards that you can vote for. It's a chance for Ian and I to finally get a. For me, there's nothing I love more than quantifying the art that people in audio make, finding a way to rank the things from best to worst. Head over to npr.org slash people's choice, and you can vote for this show for the People's Choice Award. NPR.org slash people's choice.

This message comes from Wise. for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit Wise.com. Tease and C's Apply. Support for this podcast comes from Dignity Memorial. For many families, remembering loved ones

means honoring the details that made them unique. Dignity Memorial is dedicated to professionalism and compassion in every detail of a life celebration. Find a provider near you at DignityMemorial.com. If you have any questions for us, anything at all, maybe something for Vince Gilligan again. You can send it to us at how-to at npr.org. So the sound you're hearing there, it does sound a little bit like sizzling bacon. but it is, in fact, the sound of Rice Krispies.

It's Rice Krispies with fresh milk poured over them. The snap, crackle, and pop, we're all familiar with. But there's actually more going on there. Kelly, can you tell us about it? Sure. There was a fourth one, Powell. And he's kind of like this elusive, fourth brother-like character in the elf family there. I mean, they are three elves, and we all know them.

They have distinct characteristics. One has a baker's hat. One has a little knit cap. One has like a marching band leader's hat. And then this fourth one, he's a spaceman. It's just so strange. I was just like, well, how does this even kind of, how does this fit in? So there was a point in history when, you know, you would think about Rice Krispies

and you wouldn't think snap, crackle, and pop. You would think snap, crackle, pop, and pow? Yeah. In early 1950, the marketers were discussing how they could include this, like, healthy component, this health component into their cereal. He was supposed to represent the power of whole grain rice. That was the whole thing. Yeah. So he was this silent spaceman that just flew down from space and his, like, cover crafting, and pointed at things. And he would point to, you know, the cereal box, and he would, stand there with his arms on his hips and just be powerful, like, he was supposed to represent how this drill was going to be healthy for your kids, I suppose. So what happened? Why did Powell not survive until today?

So I asked Kellogg that. Kind of the general consensus that I got from the woman I spoke to at Kellogg's was kind of that, like, it didn't have a good ring to it, you know? Yeah. It just, it's like snap, crackle, and pop, and then. pow you know it just it just doesn't work kelly smith is a freelance writer for the smithsonian magazine kelly thanks so much for talking to us about this yeah no problem so let's try this let's take the the sound of the rice crispy's and let's see if we can hear the the pow you know there's a lot of crackling

and snapping in there we let's slow this down and see if we can hear the the pow sound so here's the slowed down sound of Rice Krispies. This is the soundtrack of nightmares. Yes. I'm hearing a lot more clanging. Yeah, this is like a breakfast horror show. I have to say I'm not hearing hearing a pal. I mean, yeah, this sounds like

you're trapped in a prison. Yes. It's a ghost prison. Breakfast prison. That does it for this week's show. What'd you learn, Ian? I learned that there was a fourth elf in the Rice Krispy elf family. I wonder if POW was just too explosive a Krispy. Like in combination with crackle, snap, and pop, Pao was just too much.

I want to get to your point, but you believe that Krispy was their last name. It was Snap Krispy, Crackle Krispy, Pop Krisp. and Pau Crispy. Right. The Krispy Brothers. They're all, yes, from the Rice Krispy families. It's a hyphenated last name.

How to Do Everything? It's produced by Stephen Tobias with technical direction from Lorna White. Our interns this week are Adeline Peeval and Griffin Peeval. It takes two. Our illustrator is Justin Whitty. Get us your questions at how to at npr.org. Our website is how to do everything.org. I'm in.

And I'm Mike. Thanks.