Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! - WWDTM: Erik Weihenmayer

Episode Date: June 22, 2024

Erik Weihenmayer was the first blind person to summit Mt. Everest, but may be best known for a viral news blooper in 2006. He joins us to talk about a very specific kind of fame, plus what life is like as a blind adventurer.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

On this week's episode of Wild Card, comedian Taylor Tomlinson explains how you can use fear as a motivating force. I was afraid that I would get years down the road and go, man, I really wish I had pursued that or I wish I had developed this talent that might have taken me somewhere. I'm Rachel Martin. Join us for NPR's Wild Card Podcast, the game where cards control the conversation. From NPR at WBEC Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. Get some tan lines from me. I'm your string, Bill Keeney. Bill Curtis and here is your host at the Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Segel.

Thank you, Bill. Thanks, everybody. Thank you all so much. We do, in fact, have a great show for you this week. Later on, we're going to be talking to the adventurer, Eric Winemayer, the first blind person to climb first Mount Everest and then all the highest peaks on every continent, which is even more impressive to me after this past week when I myself swore to never go outside again. We invite you to turn down your AC so we can hear you when

you call in to play our games. The number is 1-888-WAITWAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. It's time to welcome our first listener contestant. Hi, you are on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Hi, this is Ian Grunis from South Orange, New Jersey. South Orange, New Jersey. I know it well.

I grew up near there. What do you do there? Oh, that's a hard one. I own a fabrication shop. I build things for Broadway and off Broadway. Oh, how incredibly cool. Can you brag about some of the cool things you've made for Broadway or elsewhere? I have a table on Hamilton.

You have a table in Hamilton? Is it the table where it happened? Ha ha ha ha ha. One of the many Act One tables. Wow. Well, Ian, welcome to the show. Let me introduce you to our panel this week. First, he's a comedian and the co-host of Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone.

It's Adam Felber. Hi, Ian. Hi, Adam. Yeah. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Next, it's the comedian you can see on tour in July Adam Felber. Hi, Ian. Hi, Adam. Hi. Woo.

Next, it's the comedian you can see on tour in July with a great American punchline show. Go to Great American Punchline to get your tickets. It's Nagin Farsad. Hello. Hello. And a comedian who will be at the Houston Improv August 2 through the 4th and is currently on a world tour.

For all those dates. Go to MazjoBrani.com. That's right, it's Mazjo Brani. Hi, Ian. Hi, Maz. Love your table. So Ian, you're going to play Who's Bill this time. Of course, Bill Curtis is going to start our show this week, as he always does, with three

quotations from the week's news. Your job, of course, identify, explain, just two of them. Do that, you'll win our prize. Any voice from our show you might want for your voicemail. Are you ready to go? I'm ready. All right. Your first quote is from a Reddit user who was suggesting the text of a new proposed warning label.

May make you hate your friends and find your extended family unbearable. He was helpfully responding to the news that the Surgeon General wants to put a warning label on what? That would be social media. That's right, Ian, social media. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wants to put warning labels on social media because it is very bad, he says, for adolescents.

And of course, if you warn a teenager that something is bad for them, they immediately stop doing it. It doesn't help that I learned about this warning on Twitter. Yeah, I know. It kind of defeats the whole purpose. It really does. My main concern is if all of the young people stop going on social media because of a regulation or a label, my concern is that where am I going to get my skincare advice?

Because I feel 11-year-old girls are our number one dermatologist in this country. And that's mainly who I go to for the dewy look that you see before you. You'll just have to do it the way we did in the old days. Chase down people who seem to glow and yell, what's your secret? So nobody's come up, even the surgeon general himself has not yet suggested what this warning label would say. He's not surgeon specific. That's true.

Yeah. Okay. would say or what? He's not surgeon specific. That's true. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Yeah. OK. You know what I found myself telling my daughter recently? She's five, so she's like not in this space, but soon. And I started telling her, you know what a great pastime is? It's just to stare at people and like look at their outfits

and imagine what their lives are. Because I was like, let me start getting her young with other ways of wasting your time. You know? I feel like that's more, here's the thing also. I was eavesdropping on a conversation this morning. And the woman was walking down the street. And she goes, so I brought stain remover.

I am not playing around in this house. And I was like, what is the story? Right. And I feel like the great art of eavesdropping has been stolen by social media. Because instead of listening to all of each other's conversations, which is what we should be doing, we're on our phones, you know?

What we're doing on our phones is we're reading or listening to the things that people would be saying to each other in private. Were we listening? All right, Ian, here is your next quote. Words are hard. That was Science Magazine summing up a new study just out in time for summer saying that heat makes us what? I don't know.

Can I have a hint? This is why you should never take the SAT in August. Less intelligent. Yes, or dumber as we might say when it's hot. A brand new study demonstrates that extreme heat, like what we all lived through this past week, makes people's speech less intelligent. So hot weather makes you dumb, not to be confused with being hot and dumb, which is what makes you popular. So this is really cool. The study looked at 7 million speeches given by politicians in eight countries over many

years and it showed that they tended to use shorter words in speeches delivered on days that were 75 degrees or hotter. So like vote me, I good, bye bye. Wow I already had lowered expectations for next week's debate. Yeah. This makes sense. Can I say something about this whole issue? Yes.

First of all, I'm okay. I'm insulted because I grew up in extreme heat. I grew up in a desert. So I'm either just a total dumb dumb or I'm like one of those like crops that are genetically modified to be drought resistant. I think I'm that crop. Because I never, I don't feel heat is annoying at all. I love it, I'm into it.

I'm heat smart, I use a bunch of big words. You know what I mean? You're a genetically modified comedian. You're a GMC. I'm a genetically of big words. You know what I mean? You're a genetically modified comedian. I'm a genetically modified heat comic. Yeah. You see, I'm the other end of the spectrum because looking back, now that I know this, almost all the terrible decisions I ever made were during the summertime. Really?

Oh, yeah. Sure, let's jump into a quarry naked. But if you had done that in the winter, it would have been technically dumber. Yes. True. Yes. Peter's smart. There's air conditioning in here.

That's why he's so smart. All right. Here Ian is your last quote. No ring, no bring. That was the Atlantic Magazine describing a policy being adopted by more and more couples. They are no allowing, I'm sorry, they're no longer. It is summertime. Are you really hot in here?

It's hot. They are no allowing. They are no allowing anymore. No, no, no, no, stop. I have funny. No, these couples are no longer allowing people to bring plus ones to their what? Wedding. Yes, their wedding, Ian. Very good.

Weddings, of course, as we all know, are more expensive than ever, and one of the biggest ways to cut down on your costs is to not invite the person your cousin just met on Hinge. The no ring, no bring motto, that just means you don't get to bring someone to the wedding unless you're actually married to them or functionally engaged. And that is why the guy you just met promises a great time at his sister's wedding. But first we got to stop at City Hall just for a sec. Is there like a bouncer that's checking like wedding certificates like marriage licenses? Maybe I don't know but what kind

of idiot thinks a family wedding is a good first date anyway? It's like hey we just met want to see me fight with my stepdad? There is a good way to get around this just get a like a vest for your date and refer to him as your service boyfriend. You just print up a second set of invitations with the wrong address and you send that to the people that you don't want to. Isn't that how everybody does it? And in that one they get a plus one. Yeah, they get as many as they want.

Free the whole family. Bill, how did Ian do on our quiz? He was perfect. Congratulations. Bring the whole family. Bill, how did Ian do on our quiz? He was perfect. Congratulations. Well done, Ian. Thank you. Thank you so much for playing. Thanks, you too. Right now, panel, it is time for you to answer some questions about this week's news.

But first, it's time for a new game that we are calling... The Olympic Torch Report. So the Paris Summer Olympics are almost here and news about the games is coming at us faster than Usain Bolt fired out of a slingshot, which would be an amazing event. But we're going to ask you a series of questions, rapid fire, true-false style. Get yours right, you get a point. Very simple. Ready to go?

I need a verbose. Yes, yes, yes. You're on topic. You're absolutely. True. Nagin. Yeah. Nagin, true or false, to celebrate the cleanup of the Seine for the Olympics, the mayor of

Paris will swim in that river next week. True. Right. Miles to our falls to protest the cost of that cleanup, hundreds of Parisians are planning a quote poop in the Seine protest on the very day the mayor is going swimming. True. Yes. And if you live upstream, there is a calculator online. This is true to help you time the arrival of your contribution Adam true or false after Paris tried to relocate the booksellers who have sold books along the sand for six centuries to make room for Spectators the booksellers told them quote. What is sport compared to the exercise of the mind?

True no false according to ESPN the booksellers quote told them to f off True. No, false. According to ESPN, the bookseller's quote told them to F off. It's a poor translation. It is. Nagin, true or false, at the inauguration of the new Olympic Aquatic Center, three divers performed a synchronized dive for President Macron. True.

No, false. Two divers did the synchronized dive while the third tripped on his own foot, bounced on the diving board onto his butt, and then flopped backwards and fell into the water for President Macron. That's it for this week's Olympic News. If you want more, just turn on Peacock any time of day for the next six months. Coming up, our panelists tell dad jokes in our Bluff the Listener game called 1-triple-8 Wait, Wait, Don't Play. We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me

from NPR. This message comes from NPR sponsor Allbirds. Their Tree Runner GO is the perfect travel shoe no matter where your journey takes you. They're packable, breathable, and washable. They deliver all-day comfort with an ultra-cushioned midsole and durability, but with an elevated design that suits any setting. Get the Allbirds Tree Runner Go for your next trip at Allbirds.com and use code WAIT and score a free pair of socks with purchase today. That's A-L-L-B-I-R-D-S dot com, code WAIT. I'm Rachel Martin.

After hosting Morning Edition for years, I know that the news can wear you down. So we made a new podcast called Wild Card, where a special deck of cards and a whole bunch of fascinating guests help us sort out what makes life meaningful. It's part game show, part existential deep dive, and it is seriously fun. Join me on Wild Card wherever you get your podcasts, only from NPR. Climate change can feel scary, but shortwave is all about empowering you with knowledge.

We find hope in the ways people and governments are innovating and searching for solutions, and all the ways that different organisms are fighting to adapt to that climate future too. Listen now to the shortwave podcast from NPR. Hey, it's Peter Sagal in our latest bonus episode. It's another edition of the Wait, Wait, Wait Back Machine.

That's the game where we ask a listener questions that appeared in our show 20 years ago. Well, there can be only one answer, right? that appeared in our show 20 years ago. Well, there can be only one answer, right? There's only one that's coming to my mind, but I was 18 at the time. You could be a contestant in a future bonus episode by signing up for Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me Plus. Now, if you've already done it, thank you so much.

If you haven't though, now is your chance. You get bonus content, sponsor free listening, and you get to support the work of NPR. Just go to plus.npr.org. ["The NPR News Quiz"] From NPR in WBEZ, Chicago, this is, wait, wait, don't tell me, the NPR News Quiz.

I'm Bill Curtis, we are playing this week with Adam Felber, Maz Jobrani, and Nagin Farsad. And here again is your host at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Bill. Thank you all so much. Right now, it is time for the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, Bluff the Listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play our game on the air, Thank you all so much. Right now it is time for the Wait Wait Don't Tell Me

Bluff the Listener game call 1-888-WaitWait to play our game on the air or you can check out the pinned post on our Instagram page at WaitWaitNPR. Hi, you are on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Hi, hi, I'm Chris. Hey Chris, where are you calling from? I'm calling from Austin, Texas. I'm actually originally from Chicago though, that's where I grew up. Oh wow, that's great. How could you ever leave us? I ask myself that a lot.

What's the temperature out there? You know, I think it might be a little bit cooler here right now than it is there. I think it has been for the past couple days, oddly, for the summer. That's alright. We'll get you back later. Don't worry. Soon enough we'll all be in hell. It's all right Chris it's nice to have you with us. You're gonna play our game of which you must try to tell truth from fiction Bill

What is Christine's topic famous dads in the news famous dads are still dads But when their kids don't quiet down they make the chauffeur turn the car around This week we heard about a famous dad who made the news for his dad-like behavior. Our panelists are going to tell you about it. Pick the real one and you'll win the weight-weighter of your choice on your voicemail. Ready to play? Yes. All right.

First, let's hear a dad tale from dad Mazdo Brani. Celebrity dad and workout fiend Mark Wahlberg had had enough. His kids, like all kids today, were spending way too much time on their phones and getting lazy in the process. So he decided to do something about it. Last fall, Wahlberg told his kids if they wanted screen time, they had to earn it. They could look at their phones for exactly as long as they'd worked out for that day. According to Wahlberg, there's no way they're going to work out for hours just to look at their phones, right? Wrong! According to the celeb dad, I thought it would get them to cut down on phone time because

no one wants to work out that much, not even me. But no, they're getting subject just for phone time. But it's not all a lost effort. The football coach at their high school in Nevada saw the increased strength in Walberg's kids and implemented the regimen for the whole team in a system he's calling Ballberg. Since then, their squad has gone undefeated and have the biggest glute and calf muscles in the entire state. They also have the most back injuries. Mark Wahlberg literally weighs his kids down with responsibility if they want to use their

phones. Your next Daddy Diddy comes from Nagin Farsad. Guy Fieri is known for diners, drive-ins, and dives. He's famous for the way he can shove a three-level burger, chicken filet, and potato chip sando into his mouth all at once, and for the way he frosts his tips. But beneath it all, he's a serious academic with incredibly high standards for his two boys Hunter and Ryder. In fact, every summer, Fieri made them write weekly reviews of their camp's lunch.

By the time Ryder was 12 and at swim camp, he was also submitting scathing critiques. Quote, the staleness of the bread only heightened its mass-produced mouthfeel in what was a subpar peanut butter and jelly sandwich. When cafeteria staff caught wind of these reviews, they started to up their game and the reviews showed it, quote, what started as a disappointing culinary experience at the butterfly swim camp of Santa Rosa has evolved into a sophisticated gastronomical experience as evidenced by Taco Tuesday. Fieri made waves when he joined his son for lunch at camp shaking hands with Chef Jerry and saying, quote, today you took me to flavor town, and, quote, that meatloaf put the Shamalama

in ding dong. Guy Fieri teaching his kids how to be restaurant reviewers. Your last father feature comes from Adam Felber. College football coaches can be tough. Some wake you up at dawn and force you to do wind sprints. Some make you catch greased piglets. And some will force you to watch their son rap with Lil Wayne. Yes, upon becoming head coach of the University of Colorado football team, the legendary athlete Deon Sanders,

aka Primetime, not only promoted his son Chidurah to quarterback, he also arranged for Lil Wayne to perform there, arranged for Chidurah, an aspiring rapper, to be the warm-up act, and made it mandatory for his team to attend the show. According to one source, quote, the Wayne concert was the final straw for a few players. Rather than be forced to see the Carter, several players chose to see the door transferring out of Colorado. So maybe Dion himself will have to suit up, ushering in a new era of past his prime time. All right. So we found a story in the news of a famous dad being a dad to his kids. Was it from Maz Jobrani, Mark Wahlberg teaching his kids to work out like he does if they wanted to use their phones, from Nagin Farsad, Guy Fieri commissioning his kids to eat with

care and criticism, or from Adam Felber, Deon Sanders using his position as a college football coach to make sure that his son had an audience for his rap concert. Okay, those are all very good. I'm gonna go with the third one, Deon Sanders. You're gonna go the third one, Adam's story about Deon Sanders. Okay, that's your choice. Well, to bring you the correct answer, we want to hear from someone with some insight into the real story. I don't see nothing wrong with going to the Lil Wayne concert.

I would thought it'd be fun to see my quarterback rapper. That was Max, host of the YouTube channel Buffs Nation Daily. That's a Colorado football team fan show, giving his two cents on Deon Sanders' mandatory concert. Congratulations. You got it right, Chris. You earned a point for Adam. And you have won our prize, the voice of your choice on your voicemail.

Congratulations. Thank you. That's great. Thank you, Christine. And now the game where we ask people about things they don't know anything about. It's called Not My Job. Eric Winemayer has an amazing resume as an explorer and adventurer, even more impressive since he completely lost his sight as a teenager. He was the first blind person to climb Mount Everest and then the other six highest mountains on each continent, but nothing

he's done requires as much sheer courage as appearing with us here. Eric Weinmayer, welcome to Wait, Wait, Don't Stop It. So Eric, it's great to have you. We need to get this out of the way quickly. Although you have been acclaimed, you were named one of the most, 100 most influential people by Time Magazine, there have been films made about you, documentaries and feature films. We first heard about you from a video that went viral in 2006.

And we're going to play it for our audience. This is just a local newscast with someone who is announcing that they're going to interview you. Let's just listen. Right after the break, we're going to interview Eric Weidner, mayor who climbed the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. But he's gay. I mean, he's gay. Excuse me, he's blind.

So we'll get back to him. Okay. Yeah. So a couple questions. A couple questions. I assume you've seen, you've heard that before. I've heard it a thousand times. But what they didn't realize, they think it's funny, but I'm like, no way, man. You made my career. heard it a thousand times.

What they didn't realize, they think it's funny, but I'm like, no way, man, you made my career. No one heard about climbing Everest, but everyone heard about my gay video. Yeah, I guess now that we've established that, I should say, first of all, happy pride. Secondly, so this local news anchor was going to interview you about your achievement of being the first blind person to climb Everest. Were you standing by as that was said? Did you like hear her say that?

And did you have to? Yeah, there's another clip where if you go online, you can see me just completely laughing, cracking up for, I couldn't even do the interview. And by the way, I just want to say for the NPR audience, nothing funny about being gay or being blind, but I don't know how the two look the same on a script. When you have to introduce yourself, you say, well, yes, I'm Eric Weinmeier. I climbed Mount Everest, first blind person to do it, first blind person to climb the seven summits, and there's still nothing, and you're like, I'm blind, not gay.

And then they go, you! No, no, no. In fact, I take, I like more records than I can get. You know, like first blind guy to climb Everest, first blind gay man to climb Everest is even better. So I'll take it. Now that we have covered that, I actually want to talk to you about the actually impressive things that you did.

There might be people out there who say, oh, he's a blind guy who climbed Everest. I guess he just was roped to some guide who did the climbing. No. You do it by feel, right? Yeah, and I did have great guides though. I mean, like on Everest, we had 12 friends and eight sherpas on our team. And those guys were helping me get through like the Khumbu Icefall. I mean, the Khumbu Icefall is right out of base camp

on Everest and it's a blind person's worst nightmare. It doesn't meet Americans with Disability Act standards. I mean, so yeah, they were ringing a, jingling a bell in front of me and talking to me and telling me which ropes to clip into. So for sure, blind guys, at least as far as I know don't climb Everest alone and I owe my team Everything I I'm sure you get this lot when when I think about climbing mountains, which is not something I have done

But I think if I were to do it it would be for the view Which is not relevant. Yeah. Yeah to you So what is the appeal to you to do this remarkable alpine climbing? You know, when people say I climb for the view, blind people use this kind of skill called echolocation. And it's the idea of sound vibrations moving out through space and bouncing off of objects and coming back at you. And when you're up high on a summit, those sound vibrations just move out infinitely through space. It's sort of like you've been swallowed by sky. It's this scary, infinite, beautiful, powerful sound of vibrations just moving through the

universe. So I'm getting a lot of scenery it's just not visual. You they made like I said your your career and your life has been documented in documentaries and in one feature film about you going up to the top of Everest that must have been a little odd having a movie made about you while you're still here. Well even odder I was the this guy Peter Faccinelli played me and and so I they asked me to be the stunt man for Peter so I think was a first in history because it was a story about me played by Peter and I was the

stunt man for Peter. So Peter this actor is playing you. How handsome did he tell you he was? Oh, he was way handsomer than me. I heard he's a real handsome man. It occurs to me if you ask me, well, how handsome is Peter who plays me in the movie, I would be stuck. Because if I say he's very handsome, would that be flattering you? Yeah, no, you's very handsome, would that be flattering you? Oh, yeah.

No, you could play me for sure. I think you'd have, from what I understand, you'd have to put a wig on, though. Ah. Maybe two wigs. All right. I'm just, I'm so disappointed. Who told you?

Because this entire conversation, I have felt so free and unburdened by my first time in years. Blind people, we're judgy. But we have to get the information in another way. Was it the echoes coming off the top of his head? Well Eric Weinmeier, it is a pleasure to talk to you. We've asked you here to play a game we're calling

Mountain Climber meets Social Climber. So since you are an accomplished mountain climber, we thought we'd ask you about another kind of climber. Social climbers, people who are trying to rise above their station in society. Answer two or three questions correctly, you'll win our prize for one of our listeners, the voice of their choice from our show on their voicemail. Bill, who is Eric playing for? Lilac Rain Thompson of Black Mountain, North Carolina. Lilac Rain Thompson. All right, Eric, here is your first question. Two of the most famous social climbers in recent history were Tariq and Michaela Salahi, who famously crashed a 2009 White House state dinner to which they were not invited. Now, what

did Ms. Salahi go on to do after that? Was it A, she joined the CIA as an infiltration expert, B, she became a life coach promising to help clients quote, get past any velvet rope holding you back. Or C, she left her husband to marry the founder of the rock band Journey in a wedding broadcast live on pay-per-view. Wow. The third one sounds so specific. Maybe I'll go B.

Wait a minute. I'm just going to go C. No, no, no. I'm going C. All right. There you go. Lightning reflexes. Yes, it is C. She ran off.

One day her husband, Tariq, filed a missing persons report because he didn't know where she was. It turns out she had ran off with Neil Shown, co-founder of Journey, and she eventually married him in a pay-per-view event in 2013. They are still apparently happily married. All right, next question. A woman named Rachel Lee loved celebrity style and wanted to dress just like her favorite style icon, so she did what?

A, she created a wearable digital screen that could display images of any look she wanted. B, she sent every celebrity a version of her favorite dress, so eventually they'd be copying her. Or C, she just broke into celebrities' houses and stole the outfits she liked. All right, I'll go with A. You're going to go with A. No, it was actually C, she broke into their homes and stole the outfits she liked. I'll go with A. You're gonna go with A. No, it was actually C, she broke into their homes and stole their outfits.

What? She did. This was a big deal. She and her accomplices became known as the Bling Ring. Shoulda known. Yeah. Here's the funny thing too, their first victim was Paris Hilton because they figured Paris Hilton

would never lock her door and they were right. All right, last question. If you win this, if you win this, you have summited one of the most famous social climbers of recent years was Anna Delvey. She pretended to be a wealthy heiress as she scammed other people out of money to fund her lifestyle. After her conviction for fraud, which of these did she really say when a reporter visited her at Rikers Island Prison?

Was it A, I'd be lying to you if I said I was sorry for anything? B, would you mind loaning me $75,000? I'm good for it. Or C, the last thing I remember is hitting my head on a car door in 2012. Where am I? A. A sounds kind of plausible. You're going to go for A?

All right, we'll do it. You're going to go for A. All right, yes, it was A. I'd be lying to you if I said I was sorry for anything. These people must have seen the Netflix series about her. Bill, how did Eric Weinmeier do in our quiz? He got two out of three, and that's enough for a win. I'm so excited. I feel like I just summited the seven summits all over again. And it was easier.

Yeah. Go enjoy your piano. And I did it on my couch. It did, exactly. Eric Weinmeier is an adventurer, activist, speaker, and the first blind man to live in It's easier. Yeah. Go enjoy your piano. And I did it on my couch. It did, exactly. Eric Weinmeier is an adventurer, activist, speaker, and the first blind man to summit Mount Everest, but not, despite what you've heard, the first gay one. Eric Weinmeier, thank you for joining us.

I'm... Wait, wait, don't tell me. What a great pleasure to talk to you, sir. Bye, Eric. Take care. Bye-bye. In just a minute, Bill takes a big whiff in our Listener Limerick Challenge call. One, triple eight, wait, wait to join us in the air.

We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR. Here at Shortwave Space Camp, we escape our everyday lives to explore the mysteries and quirks of the universe. We find weird, fun, interesting stories that explain how the cosmos is partying all around us. From stars to dwarf planets to black holes and beyond, we've got you. Listen now to the shortwave podcast from NPR. On NPR's through line, the ancient peoples that tie much of the world to a common lineage and how their stories became a justification for white supremacy. Find NPR's Thru Line wherever you get your podcasts.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most powerful man in Indian politics, but big questions remain about how he's held on to power. India is really in danger now. All the democratic structures have been compromised. Cyber hacking, mass arrests, and what it means for India's democracy on the latest episode of the Sunday story from NPR's Up First podcast. From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis. We are playing this week with Maz Jabrani, Adam Felber, and Nagin Farsad. and here again is your host at the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sago.

Thank you, Bill. Thank you, everybody. In just one minute, Bill gets bitten by a limeritic and gets Rhimes disease. Oh, God. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-888-924-8924. Right now, we'll handle some more questions for you from the week's news. Maz, more and more seniors are turning away from traditional retirement communities and instead spending their golden years where? Can I get a hint?

Yes, they don't so much as rush a fraternity as carefully stroll in with a walker. Oh, back to university. Yes, they're going to college campuses. Universities from Arizona State to Stanford are creating special senior living centers right on campus so retirees can enjoy all the pleasures of college life, classes, extracurriculars, sporting events, trying to hook up in a single bed without, you know, ever having to take exams. It's both a great solution for active retirement and the premise for Clint Eastwood's next movie. Do they have to apply? No, they just have to pay. Can my

kid pretend to be old and go to Yale? Yeah. That's the premise for the next Pauly Shore movie. There you go. And it's also great news for all the college acapella groups. They finally have an audience. Do Sweet Adeline again. Nagin, a British man is suing Apple, the company, for five million pounds. He claims that they made it impossible for him to do what? They made it impossible for him to not have a drawer full of dongles.

I mean, but that's true. It is true. For all of us. Yes. Okay. But I do request a hint. You do. You do. Well, this is why Android

and competing with Apple is promising mistress protection. Oh, he wasn't successfully able to cheat on his wife. That's right. The man is suing Apple for their quote misleading user guidelines after his wife sat down at the family computer one evening and found the texts that he had sent to a sex worker that he thought he had deleted forever on his phone. His wife immediately sent him a demand for a divorce and the good news is thanks to Apple's iCloud service those messages are preserved forever across all his devices. Wow. Okay so for a friend, when you delete them on your phone, they do not get deleted anywhere else.

They do not get deleted anywhere else. Wow. Just again, for a friend, how do you delete them on all the, just if we wanted to, for these horrible people that need to do that? The bad people. How would you do that? The bad people.

I believe, and I wouldn't know, because I've lived a blameless life. You have to run frantically around to all your devices and delete them individually. It is a little freaky to know that everything you've ever texted is still out there somewhere, right? If someone unearthed all my texts from my Irma Gurd and Awesome Saucy era, I would be mad.

Nagin, in a massive crackdown, the city of San Diego is sending out law enforcement to stop anyone from doing what nefarious activity on public land? Oh, what nefarious activity? Yes. Public, oh like, is it, is it sexual? No. Oh. Can it be?

Wait, can I get a hint? You can. When they arrest everyone, instead of saying hands up, they just tell them to do the tree pose. Oh, they're doing yoga? That's right. They're cracking down on unauthorized yoga classes in public parks. After residents complained of crowding and actually damage to the parks, how hard are

these people yogaing? So now the city is sending police officers to popular yoga spots and threatening people with tickets. The worst is when they bring out the downward dog sniffing dogs. Is it yoga classes or can you do solo yoga? And how can you tell solo yoga from stretching? Right, that's a good question. Oh, it's if your shocker is open. Right.

Oh, OK. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. They just. That's a great point. So if there's like 20 of them doing yoga, and they go, we're just stretching, the guys are going to be like, OK, yeah, that's it.

There's no law against stretching. Carry on. Do you know what a third eye is? They'll be like, we have no idea. All right, then keep going. Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. That's great.

Just calisthenics, please. Good job. Put your foot behind your ear. I can't, officer. You're free to go. Coming up, it's Lightning Fell in the Blank, but first it's the game where you have to listen for the rhyme. If you'd like to play on air, call or leave a message at 1-888-WAITWAIT.

That's 1-888-924-8924. You can catch us most weeks right here at the Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago or catch us on the road. We will be outside in Philadelphia at the Mann Center next week on June 27th, so check out our special Heat Wave ticket prices. For tickets and information for all of our live shows, go to nprpresents.org. Hi, you are on Wait, Wait, Don'tPR presents dot org. Hi you are on wait wait Don't tell me hello. Hi, who's this? This is Andrew calling from Frederick, Maryland. What do you do there in Frederick?

I am a car salesman. You are you know car salesmen have a reputation I Have to fight against that reputation every day. All right, so the question is how true is it? fight against that reputation every day. All right, so the question is how true is it? It depends on the company I think. For me not true, but for others I work with or against, more true. Really? So what you're telling me is you're one of the good ones. I hold myself to that standing. All right. Well, Andrew, welcome to the show. Bill Curtis is gonna read you three news related limericks with the last word or phrase missing from each. If you can fill in that last word or phrase correctly and two of the limericks will be a winner. Ready to go? Ready to go. Here's your

first limerick. My heart and my soul took a knock since my lover has taken a walk. But electrical currents are abreak deterrents. My brain will be zapped with a clock. Not a clock. A shock. A shock, yes. There we are. According to brand new research, the feelings of negativity, anxiety, and depression that

come from romantic heartbreak can be alleviated with a simple headset that pumps electrical current into your brain in 20-minute sessions. So the next time, and I hope it doesn't happen to you, but the next time you might be suffering from what scientists actually call love trauma syndrome. Don't ask your friends to take you dancing. Just tell them to bring over a 9-volt battery and some wet sponges. This could also get rid of the entire country music genre. Oh, God.

I mean, all half of popular music. My wife left me, but it's okay. I mean, if somebody had just applied a shock to Taylor Swift 10 years ago, we never would have heard of her. Don't break my heart. Go ahead, break it. Happy Poets Department. All right, here is your next limerick. Perhaps you should name your kid, maybe, or hear me out, Lady Tom Brady. For the fee that's quite large, you will not have a marge. Just pay me and I'll name your baby. Baby, yes.

This week, the New York Times profiled a woman named Emily Kim, a baby name expert who charges parents $300 for a five-minute session to help them pick the perfect baby name. Which means if you use your services someday your baby will ask you, so why did you name me Woods? And you'll say, I don't know, the five minutes were up before she could explain it. What a beautiful and personal way to find a baby name. Yeah. Just to bring in a nice third party you've never met before and just hear some rando names that are maybe not at all connected to your heritage.

Exactly. And you know, in five minutes, she has no time to talk to you or find out your preferences. She's just doing it like the usual suspects way. Like, oh, have you considered naming your baby daughter a Bluetooth, calendar, plant? Zoom. I wonder, can you imagine after five minutes, and she's like, just go with junior.

All right. Here, here is your last limer. In train stations I like to dwell because my nose isn't doing too well. A spice rack a day keeps the aging at bay. I am working on my sense of... Smell. Smell, yes. The New York Times reports that just like everything else in your failing body, your sense of smell will deteriorate with age. It's either yet one more effect

of aging or a natural defense mechanism evolved by parents of boys in middle school. So they say you can maintain your sense of smell as you age by regularly exercising it with strong odors. That's why some people at the gym head to the treadmills, some to the weight rack, and one old guy right to the pile of used towels. Bill, how did Andrew do in our quiz? Andrew, the car salesman, sold me three in a row. Congratulations. Yay!

Andrew, thank you so much for playing. Take care. Thanks for having me. Bye-bye. NPR plus is a new way to support public media and get more from your favorite NPR podcasts like Fresh Air. Sometimes I'll actually preface the question with if it makes you too uncomfortable to talk about, if it's too personal, just tell me.

Here's the question. For behind the scenes content, bonus episodes, and more, sign up at plus.npr.org. Here at Shortwave, we bring the wondrous world of animal science to your daily life. We find inspiration in the cute, gross, incredible, and the surprising. From queer animal love stories to metapausal whales, we got your dose of critter knowledge.

Listen now to the Shortwave podcast from NPR. New from the Embedded podcast, what happens when three Republican women challenge their own party? Maybe we need to speak out a little bit bolder. Maybe we need to do something to get people's attention. They have a front row seat to democracy. Now you do too. Listen to

Supermajority from NPR's embedded in WPLN. Now it's time for our final game Lightning Fill in the Blank. Each of our players will have 60 seconds in which to answer as many Fill in the Blank questions as they can. Each correct answer now worth two points. Bill can you give us the scores? It's a rare situation, but we have a three-way tie. Oh my goodness. Unheard of. Wow.

It's incredible. Everybody has three. All right. So what we're going to do is we're going to go boy, girl, boy. So Maas, we'll start with you. You're up first. Fill in the blank.

On Tuesday, President Biden announced a new path to blank for people married to US citizens. For citizenship. The Hotaucus past U.S. citizens. For citizenship. The Hasakian path to citizenship. This week, Elon Musk went to an advertising conference in France to beg companies to once again advertise on blank. On Twitter X. This week, Alberto, the first tropical storm of the 2024 blank season formed over the Gulf

of Mexico. The hurricane season. Right. On Tuesday, baseball legend blank passed away at the Gulf of Mexico. The hurricane season. Right. On Tuesday, baseball legend Blank passed away at the age of 93. The Great Willie May. Yes. Say hey.

According to new research, self-driving cars are safer than human-driven cars except during blank. Except during night. Not just night. They're safer except during dawn, dusk, or whenever they turn. Otherwise. Much safer. On Monday, the Blanks won their 18th NBA title. Celtics.

Yes. On Wednesday a group of environmental protesters in the UK sprayed blank with orange paint. That would be Rishi Sunak. No. Stonehenge. This week a man in China made the news when the used books he bought for just a dollar contained blank. It contained Mao Zedong's underwear? No, they complained very important military secrets. According to the Chinese Ministry of State Security, two employees were supposed to shred 200 books but sold them to a recycling plant instead. Who sold them? The man ended up returning the books to the government, which was a huge mistake.

He could have made so much money on Antique Military Secrets Roadshow. Bill, how did Maz do on our quiz? Pretty good. Five right, ten more points. Total of 13 puts him in the lead. Alright then. Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright. Okay, Nagin, you are up next. Fill in the blank. On Wednesday, Russia announced it had signed a mutual defense pact with blank. North Korea. Right. For the first time ever, scientists were able to see the birth of a supermassive blank.

Birth of a supermassive star? Almost black hole. This week, a historic building in Italy was damaged when a bunch of British tourists went there and blanked. Doing raspberries of their slurpees. No, they did parkour on the building. On Tuesday, police in the Hamptons arrested pop star blank 4 DUI. Justin Timberlake.

Yes, this week the second movie in Pixar's blank series set records at the box office. Yeah, it's inside emotions, inside out. Inside out, yes. This week a farmer in England was reunited with his Rolex watch, which he lost 50 years ago when it was blanked. When it grew up with a rutabaga. No, when it was eaten by a cow. The 95-year-old farmer was shocked when a man with a metal detector found the watch

50 years after it had passed through the cow and returned it to him. The farmer says he is thrilled to be reunited with the Rolex and cannot wait to never, ever wear it again. Bill, Bill, how did Nagin do on our quiz? Three right, six more points. Total of nine still trailing. All right, so how many then total of nine still trailing Maz. Alright, so how many then does Adam Felber need to walk away with this thing?

Six to win and walk. Adam, this is for the game, fill in the blank. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Blank claimed the US was withholding weapons from that country. Netanyahu. Right. On Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld a Trump-era tax on Blank. Foreign earnings. Right.

This week, the governor of Louisiana signed a new law requiring schools to display blank in all their classrooms. The Ten Commandments. On Monday NASA announced that two astronauts would have to stay in the ISS longer than expected as blank tries to solve issues with their Starliner rocket. Boeing. While arresting Travis Scott this week Miami Beach police asked the rapper if he had been drinking and Scott responded blank.

LOL. No, he responded quote, it's Miami. On Tuesday Massachusetts experienced the statewide outage of their blank system. Power? No, 911. On Monday McDonald's announced it would no longer use blank to take drive through orders. AI. Exactly right.

This week a student in Turkey was thrown out of his college entrance exams when it was discovered he was cheating by blanking. Commuting with the dead. No, he was cheating by disguising a camera as a shirt button, which read the test questions and sent them to a computer hidden in his shoe, running an AI which fed him the answers to his earpiece.

Oh my god. Why wouldn't you want that kid in your screen? I know, exactly. The plot's so elaborate that this kid should be immediately accepted to any college he wants. The student made a tiny pinhole camera and then sent the questions via a wire to an internet enabled device in his shoe which would connect to a server running chat GPT which would read the question, come up with the answer, send it back to him, and then use an AI-generated voice to whisper the answers into his ear. It was amazing, at least until he got to the first question, what is the Wi-Fi password?

Bill, did Adam do well enough to win? He did very well. Five right, ten more points, total of 13. And that means Adam and Maz are co-champions. Yeah! Woo! Yeah! Woo!

Woo! Woo! Woo! In just a minute, we're going to ask our panelists to predict what will be the next thing that will get a surgeon general's warning. But first, let me tell you all, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is a production of NPR and WBEZ Chicago in association with Urgent Haircut Productions,

Doug Burnman, Ben Evel, and Overlord. Philip Godica writes our limericks, our public address announcer is Paul Friedman. Our tour manager is Shayna Dommel, thanks to the staff and crew at our home, the Studebaker Theater. BJ Liederman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills,

Miles Dornbos, and Lillian King. Special thanks this week to Monica Hickey, Blythe Robertson, and Shantira Jackson. Our famous dad is Peter Gwynn. Emma Choi is our Vibe Curator. 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 Michael Tanforth. Now, panel, what will be the next thing that gets a Surgeon General's warning and why?

Adam Felber. Public radio. Warning. this product may contain actual information and cause you to act like you really have it. Maz Jobrani. Marriage may cause less time with your friends, less time being right, and less time having sex. Nagin Farsad. The Tesla cyber truck will come with a warning that says if you already bought this there

may be little hope for you. Please consult your nearest ex-wife. Well, if any of that happens, we're going to ask you about it right here on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Thank you, Bill Curtis. Thanks also to Nagin Farsad, Michael Bonny, Adam Fielber Thanks to our fabulous audience here at the Studebaker Theater, you're amazing Thanks to everybody out there for listening wherever you are, I'm Peter Segel We'll see you next week in Philadelphia

This is NPR. From the campaigns to the conventions from now through election day and beyond, the NPR politics podcast has you covered. As Joe Biden and Donald Trump square off again, we bring you the latest news from the trail and dive deep into each candidate's goals for a second term. Listen to the NPR Politics Podcast every weekday. The Bullseye Podcast is, according to one journalist, the quote, kind of show people listen to

in a more perfect world. So make your world more perfect. Every week, Bullseye puts the pop in culture, interviewing brilliant authors, musicians, actors, and novelists to keep you on your pop culture target. Listen to the Bullseye podcast, only from NPR and Maximum Fun. Here at Planet Money, we bring complex economic ideas down to Earth. We find weird, fun, interesting stories that explain the way money shapes our lives. Inflation,

recessions, the price of gas, we've got you. Listen now to the Planet Money podcast from NPR.