Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! - WWDTM: Summer Break Edition!

Episode Date: August 10, 2024

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On the TED Radio Hour, legendary soccer player Abby Wambach remembers exactly what was going on in her mind at a crucial moment during the 2011 World Cup. As soon as the ball came off of her foot, I knew that that ball was coming to my head. The only thing in my mind was don't screw this up. How to apply sports psychology to everyday life on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR. Hey, it's Peter Segal here, and I want to tell you about some exciting things that are to everyday life on the Ted Radio Hour podcast from NPR. Hey, it's Peter Segal here, and I want to tell you about some exciting things

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From NPR in WBEZ, Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm the man who makes rich people open their wallets just so they can hear me say their name, Chiokie Iancin. And here's your host at the Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago, Illinois, Peter Segel. Thank you, Chiokie. Thank you, everybody. As hard as it is to believe, we have arrived at Summer Vacation 2024, which means it is time for Bill Curtis' annual pilgrimage to Ibiza, so we're lucky to have Giochi fill in for him.

Somebody had to be there to hit you if you pronounced it Ibiza. So while Bill is partying till dawn, we're going to amuse ourselves with some highlights from our past shows, starting with an extended version of our visit with Jason Isbell. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter joined us soon after releasing his latest album, which he wrote while on the set of the movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, in which he starred. Thank you. Thank you very much. So great to talk to you.

I just, first we need to start with a fact check, which is your band The 400 Unit is named after an asylum? Yes, and it was really just, it was part of a hospital, a general hospital, and the floor where they put all of the mental health treatment patients was called the 400 unit and me and everybody else that I knew and that I grew up with had family who had spent time in the 400 unit if they hadn't done so themselves. And so it was kind of a, it was a thing in our family when somebody would have a come apart, you know, my granddad would say be careful we're going to send you to the 400 unit and eventually I found myself after naming my band the 400 unit, I found myself judging their talent show. And really, I mean, it was incredible. There were some extremely talented people in there, as you might imagine.

Yeah. People think you're one of the greatest songwriters alive. Like John Mayer called you our greatest living lyricist. So my question is, what is his problem with your tunes? That's what I thought too. He does it like my guitar plays. I think he made up for it when he wrote that song about your body being a wonderland. Yeah, it was originally Wonder Bread, but he changed it.

And I also heard you say once that when you met Bruce Springsteen, he immediately launched into one of your songs. He did, yeah. He said that his son had brought my album home and he had really fallen in love with this song called Traveling Alone and then he leaned in and he started singing it. And I immediately thought, oh my God, this man is singing my song in Bruce Springsteen voice. But yeah, he was very, very kind, which meant a whole lot to me.

Sure. Well, how do you respond to that? Did you feel like you needed to do a little, you know, dancing in the dark for him just to even things out? Yeah, I felt like I needed to do that. I sang Thunder Road in its entirety acapella. I did a knee slide at the end. I did a knee slide at the end. There is, I don't know what you want to call it, a stereotype, a cliché, maybe even a joke about you that you only write very sad songs. But have you ever just sat down to just like, you know, just show the world and write a song like, my puppy is so cute or something like that, just to show you've got that club

in your bag? No. No. I haven't. I've written songs for my daughter. My daughter is eight years old. Oh, sure. And I have made up songs for her that are happy and she did not like them. So I went. And so I read this thing about you that you went to college, you're a creative writing major but you left college one credit shy of getting your degree and then just recently, years after you left school, you went back and they gave you your degree. Is that right?

Right. Well, I didn't go back. Like they, I don't know if I'm supposed to tell this. So what happened was it was a human fitness and wellness course. So it was a book course about like how many calories are in a cupcake and they would take you in and pinch you with the little forceps and tell you if you were overweight or not. And I was not about to do that. This was the only course you had to take to graduate college. This year human health course. And you were you were like absolutely not I'd rather just leave

Yes He'd been pinched enough he was like I gotta get it here It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life because I remember distinctly Thinking I can get out of here and walk out and no one's gonna arrest me or anything You can like don't tell your children this, but you can just leave college. And so more recently the college approached you and said, we are aware that you were one credit shy and you never graduated, so what did they say? They said that I knew enough now about those things.

It's because, well, knowing a lot of your songs, you know, there's a track that didn't make Southeastern that's all about how many calories in a cupcake, so they obviously... There is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And that one is the saddest of all. Yeah. With tears in their eyes, they're like, you finally get it now. How many calories have they handed you? How dare you?

You've broken it. And they gave me my degree. But I don't know if the degree that they gave me is a degree that existed before that moment or not. It looks like something they made up. Like it's got the word studies in it more than once. I Don't know what I could use it for but I'm very proud of it sure You are married to another

wonderfully talented singer a musician and songwriter Amanda Shires and and you were actually on NPR's Tiny desk concert and you were with her right and there's this moment during the concert that you do where your beautiful, talented wife looks at you and leans close and says, do I have any boogers? Yes. And you lean in and you check and you say no. And I just want to say, is that like what your relationship is normally like? I think so, yeah, I think that's true love.

If you feel comfortable enough to ask and they feel comfortable enough to answer, then you're being a good friend to that person in that moment. And the only other option was just go with the boogers and play the show with the boogers. Yeah. And nobody wants that to happen.

Yeah. The problem is, the problem is when I see boogers and she doesn't, then we have a problem. And when that happens and you're like, you have boogers and she's like, no, I don't, do you say, well, I'm a college graduate? Yes. I have my degree in studies and other studies. Jason Isbell, it is so much fun to talk to you. We have invited you here to play a game that this time we're calling Big Ben is Clock? No, is Bell.

So we have decided to ask you, Jason Isbell, three questions about Big Ben, which many people don't realize is not the clock, it's the bell in the clock. Answer two out of three questions correctly, you'll win our prize for one of our listeners. The voice of anyone they might like from our show going bong, bong on their voicemail. Bill, who is Jason Isbell playing for? Jared Maynard of Dearborn, Michigan. All right, here's your first question about Big Ben. The man who designed Big Ben, both the clock and the bell, was Baron Grimthorpe, who was

a lawyer and self-proclaimed expert on clocks. In fact, his fame about his expertise on clocks was such that he was repeatedly elected president of Britain's Horological Institute. Great guy to have in charge, but there was a problem. What was it? A, he was never weirdly on time to the meetings. B, he was so obnoxious as a person, a condition of him becoming president was that he never attend any of its dinners. Or C, he demanded that the clock in the Institute's clock tower be digital? Sure.

I mean, since you called him a self-described expert, I would say that he's not somebody you would want to sit down at dinner with. You're exactly right. I would go with B. That's right. In fact, he was originally charged with picking someone to design the clock, and he said, you know who's best at designing clocks? Me. All right, you got that one right.

You were very sharp on that. Graham Thorpe, as I said, gave himself the job of designing the clock and the bell, which immediately cracked the first time they hit it with something. And he dealt with that disaster by doing what? A. He took responsibility, apologized, and handed off the job to someone else to do correctly. B. He claimed that he meant it to crack because it would sound better that way. Or C. He made friends with a guy who worked at the foundry that made the bell, got him drunk, and convinced him while drunk to say that it was all their fault.

Ooh, C is tempting. But it's hard for me to imagine this man making friends with anybody. I'm going to go with B again. No, it was actually C. He did get the guy drunk, convinced him to say it was the foundry's fault, that not being true, the foundry sued him for libel and won, and then he got angry and said it again, and they sued him again, and they won again. So, last question, if you get this right, you win, in addition to the bell of Big Ben and the clock, and the bell, by the way, is still cracked,

the baron is memorialized forever by what? A, the phrase to Grimthorpe, which means to ruin a building while attempting to restore it. B, an act of parliament requiring all clockmakers to this day to prove that their products were not designed by Baron Grimthorpe, or C, being the only person to be buried in a small nave of Westminster Abbey known as the Jackass's Corner. I think it's A. I think it is A. You're right. It is A. Bill, how did Jason Isbell do on our quiz?

Well, we know he did not grimthorpe this. He's two out of three. You're a winner, Jason. Again. Jason Isbell is a celebrated singer-songwriter whose new album, Weather Veins, is up for three Grammys. Jason Isbell, thank you so much for joining us. What an absolute thrill to talk to you. Take care.

When we come back we talk to two authors, one who is the most prolific author in the world, James Patterson, and one who might be if she didn't also have to host a TV show, Rachel Maddow. That's when we come back with more Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, from NPR. This message comes from NPR sponsor Grammarly. You write across multiple platforms at work, so delivering consistent, high-quality communication is key. Grammarly and their secure AI capability makes them a great writing partner.

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dollars worth of coverage. Some options offer same-day approval and avoid unnecessary medical exams. Compare quotes from top insurers in just a few clicks. Don't put off life insurance. Make it easy with Policy Genius. Head to PolicyGenius.com to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save. New from Embedded. Who gets to compete as a woman? This question came up in ugly form at the Paris Olympics.

But it's not new. If she runs like a man and talks like a man, is she a man? Hear about the long history of sex testing women athletes on Tested, a new series from CBC and NPR's Embedded podcast. From NPR WBZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Chioki Iansenin, and here's your host at the Studenbaker Theater in downtown Chicago, Peter Segel.

Thank you, Chioki. Thank you all. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Come on, people. Make it believable. Thank you, Chioki. So this week, Chioki is filling in for Bill,

who got an early start in his summer vacation, and we're also revisiting some of our favorite moments from the past year while the rest of us are trying to find him. Where in the world is William Horton Curtis? For many years we had wanted to interview MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, but it was impossible because she was too busy. Finally, she reduced her broadcast schedule to just one hour a week. That's hardly working at all.

You'd be surprised, Chiyoki, how taxing it is. Anyway... Rachel has more time now to write books, and at the start of the year, we interviewed her at Carnegie Hall about her latest, a book called Prelude, as well as about how she stumbled into her remarkable career. Everybody, we heard that back in college at Stanford, everybody thought you'd be a professor, because you were to use a term that I think is an approbation in these circles, an egghead. A little bit of a dork. A little bit of a dork.

Yes. So how did you stumble into broadcasting? I was finishing my dissertation, living with friends, totally broke, and I got a job as the news girl on a morning zoo radio show. You are kidding me. No, it was a live on the air audition and I got hired on the spot and started the next day. And how did you fit in in the whole morning zoo crew type ethos?

Well, one of the things that happened on our morning zoo show, it's called the Dave in the Morning show. Sure. And we used to write jingles for local businesses. Oh wow. Yeah. I think I speak for your international fandom to ask, can you still do a jingle? I remember bits of them. For example, it's not just for Cinco de Mayo, so put on a suit and a tie-o.

I don't remember how that one started. There was something about, you can't borrow my chainsaw. Somewhere on Route 9, get yourself a chainsaw because you sure ain't using mine. Green Mountain Power out in Florence, Mass. We give you the power to cut your freaking grass. I do remember some. Do you remember what it was like to transition from radio to TV? Something I've never dared to do.

I have never really admitted to myself that anybody can see me. Right. In my mind, it's just me and a microphone. If you think about it, you can't see them. So it wouldn't be fair if they could see you. Ding! Right. Exactly.

I wear the same clothes every day. There's nobody else in the room except for a nice lady named Jackie who stands next to the camera. And I don't pay very much lady named Jackie who stands next to the camera. And I don't pay very much attention to what the visuals are on the screen and I just think about the script. Right. Does it ever get intense because I know people look to you not just for information and analysis, but for kind of hope? Do people come up to you and laden you with that? Because that'd be a lot. I don't feel beleaguered by it or anything. I have nothing to complain about at all.

I do sometimes worry when people say that I am the thing that gives them hope. I just think, wow, that is a gossamer thread. Because I'm just a person who talks about the news on television. Like you should have other resources. I understand you've become quite the fisher person. Yes, I do it a lot but I'm bad at it. Really? Yes.

What kind of fishing? All the fishing. All the fishing. Fly fishing, spin fishing, ice fishing. Ice fishing? Ice fishing is my favorite kind of fishing. So you're telling me that if I'm out there like in the mountains of the Berkshires and there's a frozen lake, I can look out there and there's a huddled person

sitting there in a next to a hole in the ice it could be you? Yes. Wow. Yes. Staring into a hole happier than I am at any other time of the year. Really? Yes. I could do this all day but we do have business to do. You have a new book out

called Prequel which is about the pro-fascist movement in America. But since you have written a book called Prequel, yes, we have asked you to play a game we're calling The Worst Prequel of Them All. Meaning What Do You Know About The Phantom Menace? Star Wars episode one. Oh no. Right. Oh no. So if your job is to answer two or three questions

correctly about the Phantom Menace. Oh no. You don't, you know. I saw the first Star Wars movie when I was four, and that's the only Star Wars movie I have ever seen. And the only time I've ever seen that one. Do you know what they're about? They're about, like, war. Yeah. And stars.

And they're stars. Yeah. I can do this. Okay. Bill, who is Rachel Maddow playing for? Lee Woodyear of New York City, who is celebrating his 60th birthday with us here at Carnegie Hall. Here's your first question. Now we all know, you may remember this, remember the lightsaber fights in Star Wars?

The swords? You remember this. Well, you have to have lightsaber fights and they had them in The Phantom Menace but they were hard to get right when they were filming. Why? A, all the lightsabers had been thrown out when Lucasfilm moved their offices in 1994. B, actor Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan, kept making lightsaber noises with his mouth,

which were really hard to remove in post-production. Or C, George Lucas insisted that the actors fight with real lightsabers. I'm going to go with B. B is the answer. You and McGregor. Wow. You would know this if you were that kind of nerd. Rather than the brainiac.

But it is literally impossible to pick up like anything, even a flashlight. And not go, vshhh, vshhh. And you and McGregor could not stop himself from doing that in the head of the race. even a flashlight and not go... And Ewan McGregor could not stop himself from doing that in the head of the race. Okay. The movie sets were built only to be as high as the actors' heads, right? Because the rest of the, you know, expanse of whatever room they were in would be created digitally later, right? But there was an unexpected problem with that supposedly money-saving technique. What was it? A. Liam Neeson, who was in the film, was so tall that he cost the set crew an extra $150,000 in construction costs. B. George Lucas said the doors will be CGI too, so the construction crew did not put any openings in the wall for the actors to walk through.

Or C. Whenever an actor ran on the set, his head would bounce too high and disappear. We think it's Liam Neeson! You're right, that's true! This is great! I love this. I love that you're answering this as a collective. So appropriate for you MSNBC people. This is the most liberal collective thing I've ever done. I know. All right. Last question.

The parts of the movie that were not shot on digital sets were made in the deserts of Tunisia where it got so hot that what happened on set? A, the actors playing Jedi Knights demanded and got air conditioners put under their robes. B, Natalie Portman and the other actors actually fried an egg on top of R2-D2. Or C, they needed four standby actors ready to get into the metal C-3PO costume because they kept passing out.

Oh, wow. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Trust your feelings, Rachel Maddow. All right, I'm going to go with air conditioners. No, it was actually they fried an egg. Oh, you're kidding. Yes, they did. An actor named Ahmed Best, who was in the movie, said that they did that.

And as far as we know, he had nothing else to do with the film. Bill, how did Rachel Maddow do on our quiz? How could we make Rachel anything more than a champion? Rachel Maddow is the host of the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC, and her new book, Prequel, debuted at number one at the New York Times bestseller list. Rachel Maddow, thank you so much for joining us. In October of last year, we went to Hartford, Connecticut, where we interviewed best-selling author James Patterson. How best-selling is he, you ask?

Well, he doesn't even live in Hartford. He just flew in on his private jet. Peter asked him about his remarkable stature in the world of letters. We were looking into this and everything I said is true. You are in fact the best-selling author in the world. One piece of data we came across is like 7%... It's kind of a tragedy but we'll go with it. Okay, 7% of all books sold in a year are your books,

which is something to be proud of. I assume you're proud of it, yes? You know, just very quickly, and there's a lot, and I don't know who said this, it wasn't me, but I love it. And I think it's as true for 20-year-olds as it is for somebody my age, 30-something. And what it is, my time here is short. What can I do most beautifully? And for me, it's telling stories. And that's what it's all about. I don't care about anything other than that. This is a hard question to ask any artist, especially a very popular one, but I'll try. Can you explain your success? Do you know why you are on the top of that list?

I don't think about it that way, but it's just story, story, story, story. I mean, you know, the real estate thing, location, location, it's just story, story, story. Right. And you were not at first a novelist. You were in the advertising business. Yeah, but I've been clean for over 25 years. Oh, I'm glad. I'm glad.

Congratulations. Thank you. You have a chair. And were you all, did you always want to be a writer? You were one of those guys who... Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, totally. And did you feel, did you have to go through like a, you know, an apprenticeship of like,

did you write a lot of novels that you had to throw away before you... No, I was, I was really lucky in that the first one I wrote was 25, 26 years old. It won an Edgar's Best First Mystery. And that's the best thing I've written. I haven't written anything even close to that. Really? I was really good. I had a lot of problems when I was 26. Now look, you've written, like I said, in every genre. I tried to find one. The only things you haven't done are epic poetry and erotica. I did epic poetry. Erotica,

at a certain age, that comes off the scorecard. I'm not going to erotic. Really? All of a sudden, you sit down to write it instead of doing anything. They just watch some TV and go to bed, and you're like, that's exciting. You're an immensely popular author. Do you get recognized in public? You know, it's a mixed bag. I was in a restaurant in Florida, Italian rice favorite restaurant.

They took us to the seat and I'm walking down the aisle with my wife and this lady pops up and she says, I know you. You sold us our life insurance. So I do get recognized. So like a half credit, a half credit. I went with it. What the weird thing is, so then we sat down and during the appetizer, somebody in back said, are you from Massachusetts?

I turned around and said, you're Tom Clancy. This is true. This is within 10 minutes. Yeah. Like, you know, whatever. Yeah, so yeah, I do get recognized. Right. You want funny stories. I do.

I do. Would it be amusing to ask you about your feud with Stephen King? You know, we don't have a feud. He has a feud. I like his books. Although the new one is so weird. They put this cover Holly with a nice little house. It looks so cute.

It's about these two old people who are cannibals. Right. You know? And that's who I swear, you see, think that's a comedy. It's just weird. He is a very, very good writer and I'll leave it at that. That's, that's where I come out on Stephen King. Wow. Well, I didn't know, I didn't know authors have beef like that. They do, man. Like rappers. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, no, no, no. Oh, a lot of, a lot of John Irvin. There are a lot of a lot of that stuff. I'm not into it. Really? There are a lot of did you used to have literary beefs when you were young? When I'm a kid in New York, I just went there and I go into this there was a party and in this back room, I swear to God, there's James Baldwin and Norman Mailer and they're

arguing but they have their fist clenched. Right. And they're both little. They're like about 5'4 or something like that. James Baldwin and Norman Mailer are going to go at it. Well, they were going at it verbally but they had their, it was like this kind of, you know, it was weird. That's how writers, we don't really fight but we'll, you know, we'll fake it. We'll threaten it.

We'll threaten it. I guess Norman Mailer liked to box. I would box him. I wouldn't be afraid of him. You think you could beat him? Yeah, hell yes. That's how you become the world's bestselling author. Well James Patterson, we have asked you here to play a game we're calling, I've Got an

Hour Until My Flight and money in my pocket. So your books do very well in airport bookshops when people need something gripping to get them through a flight. But we were wondering what other fun things can you buy in an airport? Answer two to three questions about other airport purchases correctly. You'll win our prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose in their voicemail. Bill, who is James Patterson playing for? Katherine Nyhan Chaney from New Britain, Connecticut.

All right. All right. Katherine, if I mess this up, I'm going to get you a dozen Dunkin' Donuts or some Grater's ice cream, so no matter what, you're going to be a winner. All right. All right. And you're going to be a winner. All right. I'm going to mess it up. The first thing you can buy in an airport, Auntie Ann's pretzels. The original logo of Auntie Ann's pretzels

was the name of the store in an old English font with the image of a pretzel. Where did that pretzel image come from? A, they took the Mr. Salty pretzel logo, flipped it, and made it blue. B, they took one of their actual pretzels and just Xeroxed it. Or C, they drew an outline of a pretzel and asked a focus group where the pieces of salt should go. Okay.

I'm going to, because I think this is going to go A, B, C, so I'm going to go A. No, it's actually B. They just Xeroxed a pretzel. All right. You have two more chances, so I think you'll do fine here. Sometimes spending money at the airport has an added bonus, like at the Changi Airport in Singapore. Oh, boy. For every $10 you spend in the airport shops, you also get what?

A, one free ride on the airport's four-story slide. B, a pack of chewing gum seized from a Singapore resident, or see an entry in a raffle to ride in the cockpit on your next flight? Oh, perfect. Okay, who knows the answer to this? One person. We going A again? A.

A. We're going A. A is correct, A. A. We're going A. A is correct everybody. Congratulations. It is the world's highest slide in an airport. Okay. I know. I could do a scene there and kill somebody. There you go.

Yeah. All right. Last question. If you get this, you win. All right. We all know about buying overpriced water and snacks and of course books, but which of these can you get in an airport somewhere in the world if the mood happens to strike you while you're at the airport?

A. A root canal. B. A $1,200 ham that comes in its own suitcase. Or C. A wedding. $100 ham that comes in its own suitcase or see a wedding See actually all of them Very nice the dentist is I thought I thought the dentist thing. That was my guess. Yeah, there's a dentist who works inside the Munich Airport. The $1,200 ham is at the Miami International Airport, and I forget where you can have the wedding. So just ask in the next airport. Thank you, and that's good for that person, whoever that person is from.

Bill, how did James Patterson do in our quiz? Two out of three, he's won. You win! Somebody won. James Patterson's latest book is 12 Months to Live written with Mike Lupica. James Patterson, thank you so much for joining us. I'm, wait, wait, don't tell me. Thank you, thank you. James Patterson. When we come back, two musicians iconic in their own way is one a queen of the Broadway stage and the other a queen of the Stone Age.

That's when we return with more 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. I just don't want to leave a mess. On Bullseye, the great Dan Aykroyd talks about the Blues Brothers,

Ghostbusters and his very detailed plans about how he will spend his afterlife. I think I'm going to roam in a few places, yes. I'm going to manifest and roam. All that and more on the Bullseye Podcast from MaximumFun.org and NPR. New from the Embedded Podcast. Elite female runners are being told they can't compete because of their biology. Not only can you not compete, you're not actually female. Hear about the 100-year history of sex testing in women's sports and the hard choices these

athletes are facing now. Listen to Tested, a new series from CBC and NPR's Emb podcast. ["WBEZ Chicago News Quiz"] From NPR in WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Chioki Iancin, and here's your host at the Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Chioki.

Thank you, everybody. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, everybody. So as we take our summer break, we thought we'd give you a break from the heat with some of the coolest guests we ever had. Now, Patti LuPone is the epitome of the Broadway diva. Her career began on the Great White Way 50 years ago when she created the title role in Evita. But when we spoke to her in 2023,

she said she was actually done with Broadway. That is true. I'm not done with the stage, but I'm done with sort of, I don't know what Broadway is anymore. What I wanna do is I wanna make my downtown debut. I wanna work on East Fourth Street. So you wanna like do the whole theater crew in reverse. You wanna go from being the biggest Broadway star there is to playing like

in a cellar, probably naked, smeared with some food for no money at all. No, I want a Broadway salary downtown. Good luck, Miss Lee. That'll happen. Patty, out of the over Patty, Adam Velber here. I have a question. Maybe you can help me. I've got a 15-year-old son whose sole ambition is to move to New York and be on Broadway. So as a Broadway legend, do you recommend that I send him to military school or break

his leg? Oh, don't send him to military school. I won't. He's going to be in military school on Broadway. Seriously, you know, it's people, I don't understand why people want to be on Broadway. It is extremely hard. You have to be an athlete and a monk. You know, there's such joy in it. There's ecstasy in it.

And there's also incredible pain and depression in it. You can be in a hit or you can give your life to a flop and you just have to roll with the punches and sometimes that's really really hard. So break his legs. Break his legs. I was about to ask if we can have you say that all again but with some stirring background music. That's beautiful. And another thing that happens as I need not tell you is sometimes you're doing all that work and somebody pulls out their cell phone. Yeah. And I just want to speak for everybody on every stage in front of an audience everywhere to thank you for what you did famously when, as I understand the story, you were doing

a play at Lincoln Center and some guy was like, I think it was, of course I'm thinking it's a guy, only guys would be this rude, texting through the entire show and you just reached out and grabbed his cell phone? Well, it was a woman. Oh, excuse me. It was at the Mitzi Newhouse, which is a smaller theater than the Vivian Beaumont. It was an off-Broadway house, so it's a smaller house, and she was in full light, and her husband or her boyfriend was watching the play and she was texting for the entire first act and everybody could see her texting. And at the intermission, there's only five of us in the play, we come off stage and we're like, did you see that woman texting?

Yeah, yeah, she's not gonna be back. Yeah, she was bored out of her mind. We start the second act and she's still texting. It's the second act. She hasn't put the phone down. I don't know if she's on eBay. I don't know what the hell she's doing. Dale's talking and I'm thinking, how am I gonna get that phone? Have you ever wondered what actors are doing when the other actor is speaking? Now you know. So you're thinking to yourself, how am I gonna get it? I make an exit on that side of the stage, and my line is, and remember, community theatre

has the word community in it, and I would go and I would shake the hands of the people in the first row on that side of the stage, on that side of the stage where she was texting. But I didn't shake their hands that night. I just went up to her, placed my right hand on her shoulder, and palmed the phone out of her lap. And I couldn't believe I could. And I thought I was going, Imed the phone out of her lap. And I couldn't believe I could. And I thought I was going, I got the phone!

And the audience on the other side of the stage gasped and applauded. And then backstage, the stage manager was in the gods someplace, he said, thank God you got the phone. I gave it to the assistant stage manager, they gave it to the house manager was in the gods someplace. He said, thank God you got the phone. I gave it to the assistant stage manager, they gave it to the house manager. I should have held onto it. And said if she wants the phone back, she's gotta come and answer some questions that I'm gonna ask.

Or you just could have answered every text by saying, I'm sorry I didn't respond, I was seeing the most amazing play. Well, Patti LuPone, I'm sorry I didn't respond, I was seeing the most amazing play. Well, Patti LuPone, I could talk to you all day, but mainly we have you here to play our game, and this time we're calling it, LuPone Meet Lupine. That's right, Lupine, meaning, as I'm sure you know, pertaining to wolves. We're going to ask you three questions about our Lupine friends, and if you answer two of them correctly, you'll win our prize for one of our listeners. Any voice they might choose for their voicemail. Bill, who is Patti

Lepone playing for? Jim Church of Orlando, Florida. All right, you ready to do this? I am. All right, here is your first question. In 2011 a 13 year old boy in Norway encountered a pack of wolves while walking home from school, and he survived that dangerous encounter by thinking quickly and doing what? A, taking off his headphones and blasting the heavy metal band Creed at full volume to scare the wolves away. B, he offered them generous social welfare benefits in return for not eating him, or see he lulled them to sleep by performing a one-man version of Henrik Ibsen's Enemy of the People.

You've got to be creed. That's right, yes, absolutely. All right, two more questions. A man committed an armed robbery of an Illinois bank a while ago while wearing a big wolf mask. No one was hurt in the incident, but there was collateral damage of a kind. What happened? A, a local German shepherd was wrongfully arrested for the crime.

B, local news anchors reporting the story couldn't stop laughing at the mask and could not continue the newscast. Or C, two days later, someone at the bank called the police when a guy with a big beard walked in. I'm gonna go with the newscasters laughing. You're exactly right, Patty, that's what happened. To be fair, it was a pretty funny looking mask. All right, last question. To no one's surprise there is a lot of werewolf erotica out there. So which of the following is a real title from the Goodreads.com list of best werewolf erotica? Here are the choices. Which of these are on Goodreads.com's list of best werewolf erotica? A. How to flirt with a naked werewolf.

B. His purrrfect mate. Or C. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I'm going to go with the first one. You're right, but all of them were. What? All of them are on the list. A lot of mysteries here. First of all, werewolves don't purr.

They don't purr. They don't purr. They don't purr. Second, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone has no werewolves in it. Bill, how did Patti LuPone do in our quiz? Patti, you are perfect in this game. Three right, you are a champion. Perfect Patti.

Patti LuPone is a legend, as you all now know, of both stage and screen. Patti LuPone, thank you so much for joining us. Wait, wait, don't tell me. What a joy to talk to you. Thank you. much for joining us. Wait, wait, don't tell me. What a joy to talk to you. Thank you. Bye-bye. New from the Embedded Podcast. I hereby declare the House representatives of the 113th General Assembly of the state

of Tennessee now in session. What happens when three moms set out to change the way state politics work? We are smart and we are swift. We are not going anywhere. Listen to Supermajority from NPR's Embedded and WPLN. All episodes out now.

New from the Embedded podcast. Female athletes have always needed grit and talent. But for decades, they've also needed a certificate. There was chit chat about, is that really a woman? And even now, they're still being checked and questioned. Their story is the newest series from CBC and NPR's embedded. It's called Tested. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. 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. Finally, we're digging deeper into our archives to bring you one of the coolest musicians we have ever convinced to talk to us squares. Josh Homme founded and fronted the band's Kyus, Eagles of Death Metal, Queens of the Stone Age, along with many other musical projects. When he joined Wait Wait in 2017, Peter asked him if it was true that as a child, his first love was polka music.

Well, I mean, I think much of the rock and roll that you love started with polka. You started your first band when you were 12? I was an early bloomer. Yeah. And what was that band like? Well, it wasn't that good, honestly. It just, from the town that I'm from, there wasn't much to do in Palm Desert, California. And so to play around with your friends

and extend that into music was just something natural. So your first big band that got attention was Chius. Am I saying that right? Chius. Chius. That's OK. That's OK. was just something natural. So your first big band that got attention was Keyus? Am I saying that right? Pius. Pius. That's OK. That's OK.

And this, I heard, came from a Dungeons and Dragons thing? Well, as I said, in the desert, there's not a lot to do. Yeah, you've mentioned it. Prompt as it California is, your band should have been named like the melted instruments. It's unbelievably hot there. I can't even believe it. I've never seen children there. All the children are melted down and turned into old people there.

It happens really quickly. That's very believable. I heard that your entire band got the same tattoo, a particular date., yeah, unfortunately that's true. Alright, well what happened and why did you do this? We played a show in Germany where everything went wrong from the intro music not going off when we started to singing into a mic that's only plugged in on one end. It just sort of continued on and on and on and And it was that the date was Freitag 415, which means Friday at 415 in the day. But also, coincidentally, in German, Freitag means Black Day.

Right. And fortunately for you, Germans are so forgiving and easygoing, so I'm sure. Well, it was only in front of 45,000 people. 45,000 people. So you decided to take this disaster and tattoo it onto your bodies. Yeah, but I only got it on my forehead, so it was no big deal.

Yeah. Really? I mean, I believe I play music and dance around and drink tequila for a living. And I think that never forgetting your worst show in order to make that the floor of what you do and to try to reach for more, that's the minimum obligation of the job. Josh, at what point did you know that was going to be the floor?

Right. Because that's confident. Yeah. Well, I just assumed, you know, but I still have time left to break the floor over. Do you still have space on your body for another tattoo? I've got tons of space. I'm six five. So I've got a lot of space Can I just say though? I I just want to weigh in as like an advice columnist like that is the most well-adjusted Response to failure I have ever heard of my life

I think that is awesome. Is that chewing it on your body? Yeah. It's sort of, yeah, no, because I mean, I see it as like you're claiming it. Like, oh yeah, we did that. That happened. Yeah. We were there.

I think that's great. Perhaps in this day and age, people don't take as much responsibility as they should. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if I've ever spoken to a musician, certainly, who had so many different bands at once.

And these bands have different people in them, right? So you have one band with one group of guys and another band with another group of guys. How do you keep them all happy? Guys and girls. Yeah. Excuse me. Of course, guys and girls. How do you keep them all happy?

Do they ever get jealous? I do a lot of scheduling. Oh, really? Does one know about the other? Well, they do now that you said. Yeah. Is it like they're listening and home says, wait a minute. He has another band?

Do you ever play a song from one band accidentally with another band, and that's how they find out? Well, I mean, that's the nexus of drinking tequila. Yeah. Well, Joshua Ohami, we are delighted to talk to you. We have invited you here to play a game that this time we're calling... They're the Modern Stone Age Family.

Since you founded the band Queens of the Stone Age, we thought it only right and proper to ask you about the kings of the Stone Age, namely the Flintstones. Answer two out of three questions about the great classic animated show. You'll win a prize for one of our listeners, Carl's voice on their answering machine. Bill, who is Joshua Homme playing for? Mike Seberg of Baltimore, Maryland. All right, first question.

Many of us watched the show, of course, during its many years in syndication, long after its 1963 debut. But those lucky enough to see it when it first aired in prime time were lucky enough to see what on the Flintstones? A, the first known TV nip slip, long since edited out, when Fred leaned over to pick up a rock. B, Fred and Barney taking cigarette breaks.

Or C, a prehistoric minute with a scientist offering real facts about the Stone Age. making cigarette breaks or see a prehistoric minute with a scientist offering real facts about the Stone Age? I would say B at that time it was probably a ciggy break by those two. It was, it was in fact a commercial for Winston Cigarettes who sponsored the show and in those days what they would do is the commercials were part of the show, the characters in the show would start smoking Winstons. Hey isn't it great Barney? We're smoking Winston cigarettes thousands of

years before they would be invented. All right, second question Joshua. The Flintstones live action movie you may remember came out in 1994 with John Goodman as Fred Flintstone. The movie is historic in an unusual way. What is it? A, it featured Elizabeth Taylor in her last on-screen role. B, watching the Flintstones' silent engineless car inspired a young Elon Musk to found Tesla some years later. Or C, it features the first accurate depiction of bipedal dinosaur locomotion, which is more avian than mammalian.

I'm gonna have to go with Elizabeth Taylor making that mistake and being in this final. You're right. It was in fact Elizabeth Taylor's last on-screen role. Elizabeth Taylor, who you know was once the biggest movie star in the whole world, ended her career playing Fred Flintstone's mother-in-law. Well, you know what? She has the date she did it tattooed on her breast. So that Flintstone's movie, that live action movie,

took many, many years to get made. It went through many, many versions of story and script. In an earlier version of the script, the movie was going to be very different. In what way? Was it A, it was going to be a loose adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath in which Fred and Barney lose their jobs and travel through landscapes of want and hunger? B, it was supposed to have a twist ending in which it would be revealed that it takes

place thousands of years in the future after an apocalypse? Or C, it was supposed to be an opera climaxing with the aria Nessun Wilma. Wow. Or D, it was supposed to be good. Hey, do you know that movie made more than $100 million? In a row? Yes. Well, I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say B,

Well, I'm just going to go out on a limb and say B, it was supposed to be from the future, although it's just a guess, really. No, it was actually the first one. It was going to be Fred and Barney as Okies in an adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath. Wow. Yeah. They decided that was going to be a downer, and they threw it out and wrote something else. But it's true.

Wow. I kind of want them to make that now. I do. Bill, how did Joshua Homme do in our case? Well, he won with two out of three. Congratulations. Congratulations, Joshua. Well done.

The new Queens of the Stone Age album, Villains, is out now. Joshua Homme, thank you so much for joining us. And wait, wait, Don't Tell Me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's it for our turn on your radio and turn off your AC edition.

Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is a production of NPR and WBEZ Chicago in association with Urgent Haircut Productions, Doug Berman, Ben Avalon, Doverlord. Philip Godica writes our Limericks. Our public address announcer is Paul Friedman. Our tour manager is Shayna Donald. Our vibes curator is Emma Choi.

Thanks to the staff and crew at our home, the Studio Baker Theater. BJ Liedemann, composer, I think our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Dornbos, and Lillian King. Special thanks to Monica Hickey. Peter Gwynn is making sure we get sunscreen on the hard to reach spot on our back.

Technical Directionist is Lorna White. Our CFO is Colin Miller. Our production manager is Robert Newhouse. Our senior producer is Ian Chilag. And the executive producer, of Wait, Wait, don't tell me, is Michael Danforth. Thanks to everyone you heard on our show this week. All of our panelists, our guests, Chokie Iancin, and of course, Bill Curtis. And thanks to all of you for listening.

I'm Peter Segal. We'll be back next week. This is NPR. On this week's episode of Wild Card, soccer legend, Abbie Wambach says the transition from professional athlete to normal person can be tough. There's this innate narcissism that is almost required in order to be a high level athlete. I'm Rachel Martin. Join us for NPR's Wild Card podcast, the game where cards control the conversation.

The Constitution, our founding document, says a lot about how our country has evolved and who we want to be. But it's not set in stone. So for the next month, we'll be digging into the history behind some of its most pivotal amendments. Listen to We the People on the Throughline Podcast from NPR.