Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! - WWDTM: Summer Is (Almost) Here Edition!

Episode Date: June 1, 2024

This week, we celebrate the return of summer with some of our favorite guests, including Bob Seger, Dakota Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, John Wilson, and Molly Seidel!Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Last year, over 20,000 people joined the Body Electric study to change their sedentary screen-filled lives. And guess what? We saw amazing effects! Now you can try NPR's Body Electric Challenge yourself. Listen to updated and new episodes wherever you get your podcasts. From NPR in WBEZ, Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm the man with a voice so smoky I can barbecue a rack of ribs just by whispering to it. Bill Curtis here, and here is your host at the Studebaker Theatre in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.

Thank you, Bill. Thank you, everybody. Now, Memorial Day is the official start of summer, so we wanted to get an early jump on Flacking Off. This week, we're going to be bringing you some of our favorite bits from the past few years so that we can get going on the base layer of our tans. I always sunbathe al fresco because tan lines are a sin. So while we were picking out the right SPF, here's some delightfully cool people starting

with rock and roll legend Bob Seeger, who we talked to while visiting his hometown in Ann Arbor in September of last year. Thank you. So, you still live here after growing up here. Did you ever do, I mean, I assumed you did, because this is what I assumed all rock and roll gods did, like live in a house in the hills in LA and like have the same party. I did. Yeah. The cover of Stranger in Town is taken on the front lawn of a house I rented in LA. And that was pretty wild.

I remember there was no cable back then. Oh, yeah. So the first cable I was ever exposed to was the Z Channel in LA. It was only in LA. It was only in LA. And I'd watch these movies like Rocky and things like that in the 70s. And they'd show them over and over, especially as it got closer to the Academy Awards. I'm just going to express a little bit of amazement that in talking about your life as a rock and roll god living in LA in the 70s, the

exciting thing that you wanted to tell us about was cable TV. My main friends out there were Don Henley and Glenn Fry, especially Glenn, who was from Royal Oak. I watched that documentary about the Eagles and they broke up because they actually couldn't, they were arguing over the remote. Exactly. They're like, what are we going to watch? So this cable thing really tracks.

Yeah, a lot of them, I've seen a lot of behind the music where they had to give up cable to get their life back together. They argued about everything. Yeah. One of the things I found out, and it's not hard to find out if you just listen to the lyrics, that many of your most well-known songs are about your life here in Ann Arbor. That's right. So for example, your song Night Moves.

Night Moves. As you once put it, that took you from the bus to the jet, right? Sure. Yeah. That was about my first girlfriend, and I was about 17. We would have these parties called grassers out between Dexter and Ann Arbor in farmer's fields and stuff like that. This buddy of mine named Richard Gregory had an upside down record player in his Chevrolet

so he could play 45s and we'd all listen to the music and leave the headlights on and get run off by the farmers after a time. You were just young and restless and bored living by the sword. Living by the sword. Yeah. Right? I'll tell you what, living by the sword, you nailed it because that's a much better rhyme than partying near manure. I want to ask about one more thing, which

is that we were watching some of your videos and I had forgotten what amazing hair you I mean, beautiful, long, luxurious, and that was just the beard. That was the hair. And I'm like, was there like a law that if you were a rock star in the 70s, you just had to have the hair? Yeah, pretty much. And I never had it after 1980. Really? Yeah, after Against the Wind. And we had three huge albums, Nightmoose, Stranger Town, and Against the Wind, and Live Bullet, four.

And it was hard to walk around with the wind. Yeah. I used to put it under a baseball cap. Really? Yeah, anything. So finally, I just said, the heck with it. I'm cutting it off. I used to put it under a baseball cap. Really? Yeah, anything. So finally I just said, the heck with it, I'm cutting it off. Really?

Did that ever happen in your career? Did it ever look back? No. Do you have any, for those out there who still might have a hair, I'm not speaking for myself, do you, 1970s rock god, have any hair care tips for them? Is there anything you picked up? Don't lose it. Yeah. Where were you and I needed that cap? haircare tips for them? Is there anything you picked up? Don't lose it.

Where were you and I needed that? Now you tell us. Well Bob Seeger we are so excited to have you with us and we have in fact invited you here to play a game that this time we're calling Working on our K'Night moves. So you're saying about Knight moves, we thought we'd ask you about Knight with a K moves, that is the game of chess. Specifically, three questions about how people have attempted to cheat in the game of chess over the years. Bill, who is Bob Seeger playing for? Gabby Ford of Ann Arbor, Michigan. There you go.

All right. All right. Ready to go? Yeah. Here's your first question. Rui Lopez of Spain was one of the first great chess masters who wrote a book on the game back in the 16th century. In that book, he suggests cheating.

How? A. Sitting with your back to the sun, so your opponent is blinded. B. If any pawn approaches your castle, pour hot oil on it. Or C. As your opponent is considering his move, quietly say, I have the plague. That one still works. We can still do that one. That still works. I would say C. You're going to go sit to C. That's your choice?

That's my choice. Oh, no. I'm afraid it was actually A. Sit so your opponent is blinded by the sun. Oh. And if you're a competitive chess player and you're taking notes out there and you ask, well what if you're playing indoors, no problem, Ruy Lopez says, sit by the fire in such a way

that you cast a shadow over the board when your opponent plays. Oh wow. It all worked out. That's interesting. Or you have two more questions. Here is your next question. By the way, you are handling this in exactly the manner and approach that I dreamed you were. Just so you know, this is great.

Here's your next question. In one of the great scandals of chess, a grandmaster was accused of cheating at the 1978 World Championships by using what foreign substance to help his game? A, yogurt. B, topical steroids. Or C, horse tranquilizer. You can see in his eyes, he's like, what drugs were going around in the late 70s?

He's like, but I don't know, I was watching cable. Bad batch of yogurt derailed an entire tour. Steroids, of course. Steroids, you're going to topical, topical steroids. Like little steroids on his stuff. There you go. And all of a sudden, he's like hairs growing out of the back of his hand. It could work, but it was yogurt. It was yogurt.

He was accused of cheating with yogurt. The idea was his opponent, at one point the guy, the Grandmaster Carpob, was his name, got a yogurt snack, some violet covered yogurt. And his opponent freaked out and said, aha, your team is sending you a signal with the color of yogurt to tell you what to do. And they had to stop the match and work it all out until they agreed that from then on, he would only get yogurt at pre-arranged intervals and it would always be the same color. That's all true chess. It's a weird game. Yeah. All right. You have one more choice here.

Okay. Let's see what we can do. Yeah, okay. We're going against the wind. But, just a few years ago, a Grandmaster was stripped of his title and thrown out of competition forever after he was caught doing what during a match? A. Going to the bathroom and then sitting in the stall and checking a chess computer on his phone.

B, making little ka-ching noises through his mouth whenever he captured an opponent's piece. Or C, constantly posing for his Instagram feed. Hey. Hey. Hey. Thank you. Finally. Finally, the box at your fan base rises up in the fence. I didn't know that to happen. Hey, you're going to go with hey? Hey.

Hey is right. That's what happens. Seriously. And you can find online, because there was a security camera here, and you can find it online, and you can find it online, and you can find it online, and you can find online, because there was a security camera he should have known of this grandmaster sitting on a closed toilet looking at his phone going, oh, that's how a night moves. Okay, yes.

Bill, how did Bob Seeger do in our quiz? He got one out of three, so the night moves are a little thin but you are always a winner with that old-time rock and roll. Bob Seeger is an immortal legend of rock and roll. Bob Seeger, thank you so much for joining us here. We know a lot of people like to read books on the beach, so here's a recent question from our show about the opposite of a beach read. Roy, a book club in California just celebrated its 28th anniversary of Regularly Meeting. They have faithfully met once a month for all those years, and in that time, they've read how many books?

One. Yes, they've read one book. It took them 28 years to finish Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, which if you... And then they lied. Yeah, well, I was about to say, Finnegans Wake, if you've read it, you're lying. It's impossible to understand. It's this avant-garde work of whatever filled with run-on sentences and then fragments of words all with no punctuation. It's either a brilliant work of experimental fiction or just someone you hate describing their dream.

And the reason it took so long is this club committed to reading one page at a time, and then they'd have a two-hour discussion about that one page, right? How many members did we have? I'm not quite sure how many there left, actually. I mean, you know your book club is old when you miss a week of Finnegan's Wake because everybody had to go to Brent's wake when we come back a great young runner expresses her enthusiasm and a great young actress questions mine that's when we come back with more Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR.

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Listen to campaign managers wherever you get your podcasts. From NPR in WBEZ, Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis, and here is your host at the Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis, and here is your host at the Studebaker Theatre in downtown Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Bill. Thank you so much. We're getting an early start on summer, which means when you're finally headed to the beach, we will already be sunburned and sick of our kids being home all day.

This summer, of course, the Olympics are in Paris. Molly Seidel won bronze in the marathon in the Tokyo Olympics, but as she told us, she wasn't expecting to win the marathon or even really to compete. Yeah, basically what happened, I was living in Boston at the time, and with my sister, we were at a holiday party and just sitting on the rooftop of this townhouse and he was like, it would be really funny if you ran your first marathon at the Olympic trials. I was like, that actually would be hilarious and then everything kind of spiraled out of

control from there. Yeah. Now, according, I will say according to runner's world, what were you doing on the top of that building? I was smoking a joint on the on the roof. Yeah. Sorry mom. Wait, so you're smoking weed and you go, I think I'm going to be in the Olympics. So I have watched the video of the end of the marathon. Now again, we should, this was I believe your third marathon. You had run one in the meantime during the pandemic. And this is what you can see if you watch the last five minutes or so of the marathon.

You see the eventual gold medalist and the silver medalist were both women from Kenya. And they look pretty tired. They're like, oh my God, I got to get through this. I think I'm going to win this, but I am beat the heck. That's what's on their faces. And then there's you you and you're like, I'm going to win a marathon. You were like, woohoo. Well, I think the problem is that the, so Paris chapter chair and Bridgette Koskai, who came in

first and second, these are world record holder, like multi-time medalists. So for them, going and winning another medal is just another like walk in the park. For Bridget, she was probably like disappointed because she was getting second and not winning. Meanwhile, this was the best day of my life. So I should say this is the first medal that any American woman has gotten in the Olympic Marathon in I think 18 years, right? So that's quite something. These are not easy to come by, these medals. And so I do want to touch on the many, many years before that medal that you labored, extraordinary distinction of having once been the second fastest door dash delivery woman in Flagstaff, Arizona. Yeah.

With or without a car? That was with a car. Right. Okay. Yeah. No, I wasn't carrying that to people. I was an absolute nightmare though to get that second fastest shopper. I would like sprint through Whole Foods.

Like I have the layout memorized of most of the Whole Foods in Boston. Really? So how, was there a secret to your efficiency as a door dasher? Probably aggressive driving and yeah, being willing to like push over an old lady for some avocados. Right. Just relentless. And that is how you win a medal.

This is how you win competitive drives. That is how you win a medal. This is how we win Did you I Got to see one more thing which is have you heard about? Taylor Swift's workout that she says she did we were actually just talking about this that apparently Taylor Swift to get ready for her concert ran for like three and a half hours on the treadmill while singing all of her songs as well. She says she did that every day. Yeah, I wonder if she's like running the whole time or if she's walking. I don't know, but I'm sure whatever she's doing. Can't we just call her up and ask her?

As a matter of fact, we can. Hang on a second. Taylor, she's backstage. She's backstage. Well, Molly Seidel, we are delighted to have you here, and we have asked you to play a game we're calling... Call now. Please, I beg of you, call now.

You run, as we have been discussing, marathons, so we thought we'd ask you about another incredible test of endurance, the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, in which the late comedian would raise money for muscular dystrophy for 24 hours live on TV, answer two out of three questions correctly about it and we'll win our prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose from our show for their voicemail. Bill, who is Molly Seidel playing for? Kyle Walton of San Francisco, California. All right.

First question, one of the first times that Jerry Lewis appeared in a fundraising telethon before he launched his own was back in 1952. And when Lewis walked out on the set of the telethon, host Bing Crosby ran right off. Why? A, the two of them had been engaged in a high stakes game of tag for seven years. B, Crosby was terrified that Lewis would run over and take off his toupee. Or C, Crosby as he said later quote, had to pee like a racehorse. One of these is real? One of those is real. I

think I have to go with C. You're gonna go with C, makes sense, yes I understand that but the answer was B. Apparently Lewis had made a thing about tearing off Crosby's toupee and he wasn't gonna let it happen again. Alright, here is your next question. One of the great things about watching the telethon was that Jerry Lewis would improv and the improvs would get wilder and wilder as the night wore on. That might explain why he once made an impassioned plea for who to donate to his cause. A, any children who had just received money from the tooth fairy. B, his friend Dave, who he once loaned 75 bucks.

Or America's drug dealers. Let me just say this, you should get this. I think they're telling me I should go with the drug dealers. You always should go with the drug dealers. It's a general rule. It's worked well for you so far. I know. All right.

The show over the years featured a lot of great musical acts. But in the middle of the night, as you could imagine, that's when they had some lesser musical acts come on, including which of these? A, the Hells Angels Singers, B, Ray Sanders, master of the musical Turkey Baster, or C, Limp Bizkit? It's, oh, it definitely can't be B.

You're saying it definitely cannot be B. You're absolutely certain. Can you play a Turkey Baster? Okay, so I think I have to go with B. You're gonna go with B, Ray Sander, master of the musical turkey baster, you're right. Yes! Yes!

Molly! Like I said. Thank you, thank you. Two to three a.m., you'll never know what you might have seen during that. What was this show? Oh. Bill, how did Molly Seidel do on our quiz?

Two out of three, she wins another bronze, so she's the winner. Congratulations. Molly Seidel is an Olympic bronze medalist. Molly Seidel, thank you so much for joining us on Race for a Social Media. We're the best. Molly Seidel, everybody. At the end of last year, we spoke to actor Dakota Johnson, who first rose to fame in the Fifty Shades of Grey movie franchise.

She came on our show to talk about a documentary she helped make about feminist share hype. But I started by asking her what it was like growing up the child and grandchild of Hollywood royalty. Well, I would tell you different things that I tell my therapist. Okay. No, I had an incredible life growing up. I traveled a lot. I was always on set. And that was incredibly fun and special. I learned to drive when I was nine.

Wait a minute, why? Because, well, the first thing, it was on a golf cart. And that's how my dad would get from his trailer to set. And so I learned how to drive a golf cart. And so I learned how to drive a golf cart, and then I learned how to drive the car, because that's the obvious next step. Yes, yeah. And then...

Or learning how to play golf. Either. No, because that's so boring. I have young children right now, and I know that for young children the world is just the world around them. They just assume that's what the world is like. So in addition to of course living with your parents, you also saw them on screens.

You saw them on big films and television shows. Was that unusual to see your mom say just be someone entirely different? I'm thinking again of you as a young child. I don't know. There's something so special about her and her artistry and the way she performs. And I think when I was younger, I was like, yeah, that's my mom. And I can tell that she's really good, but that's my mom. So okay, let's move on.

And I'd rather watch some other bullsh****. Could you offend your parents? Like, oh, you know, your dad's like, oh, Nash Bridges is on tonight. You're like, yeah, no. Yeah, I'd rather watch the OC, dad. No, I'm still a kid. It's a kind of rebellion. All right. This is sort of a related question to you watching her in movies.

We understand, I read somewhere, that your mother has seen 50 Shades of Grey three times. What? No, that cannot be true. Why would that happen? I don't know. That's why I brought it up. She's your mom. I thought it was a little odd. I mean, I'm very proud of my children, but... There's no chance that that is true okay that would be psycho all right so 50 shades was your first like enormous hit did your family have any advice about becoming a huge star my grandmother she was like you know you're

gonna get asked a lot of questions and sometimes someone will ask you a question but you don't always have to answer just because somebody asked. Right. And I was like, oh, okay, so I'll just be quiet. And I remember having these like really uncomfortable moments where I didn't want to answer a question. So I'd say absolutely nothing. Like not a word and the person thought that I was malfunctioning or like having... Yeah, that's not allowed. You're supposed to blather mindlessly, don't you know the rules? Yeah, or you're supposed to say some like really clever

response that answers but doesn't answer and then tells the person that you're not answering the question and to move on or get out. And you just sat and stared at them in silent judgment. Yeah, I was just like, well, she said to not say anything if I didn't want to say anything, so I'm not going to say anything. I'm also guessing that the junkets for the Fifty Shades movies had more than the usual share of questions that you don't want to answer, right? Yes, especially in certain countries. Like, Germany was weird. Hahaha!

Yeah, I bet. I was, I actually, I had not seen the movie, I'm gonna confess, so I watched it this week. Oh. Are you okay? I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm okay. Uh, the, I, one of the many things amazing is like I have never seen a movie with better production design in my life.

It's so, I mean, put aside the sex... That cannot be true. No, no, really? Because like, because like, oh my god. That's insane. No, like, like, Christian's Apartment is amazing. Am I, am I, have I just not been around enough? I don't know. I mean, have you ever seen another movie?

I can't. Really? Oh, wait a minute. I, I, I. Dakota, can I, can I say I think you're prepared for any question. Yeah, I know. Wait a minute, if I understand correctly, I'm just supposed to stare at you in silence now.

All right. Well, Dakota Johnson, it is an absolute pleasure to talk to you. We have invited you here to play a game, and we are calling this game... Welcome to the Dakoters Dakota oh god we assume you were named yes that is the attitude that we were hoping for we we saw God we just we don't know we were assumed you were named Dakota because of the natural beauty of South Dakota or maybe her sister state to the north so we're gonna ask you three questions about these other Dakotas.

Answer two out of three correctly. You'll win our prize, the voice of anyone you might choose and your voicemail. All right Bill, who is Dakota Johnson playing for? Andrew Scott of Detroit, Michigan. All right, here's your first question. Mitchell, South Dakota, as I'm sure you know, home of the world's only corn palace, right? Famous corn palace. The corn palace, which is not a palace made of corn, it's just called the corn palace,

is such a beloved institution that which of these things really happened in 2004? A. When it caught fire, patrons in a nearby bar ran out and extinguished the flames with their beers. B. In 2004, it got a grant from the Department of Homeland Security to protect it from terrorists. Or C, the only question in the interview segment of that year's Miss South Dakota pageant was, why do you love the Corn Palace? I'm gonna go with C, Peter. No, it was actually B. They got a grant from the Department of Homeland Security to protect the Corn Palace from terrorists because terrorists hate our freedom. All right, so maybe you've gone to Mitchell, you've seen the Corn Palace, you're looking for

another fabulous tourist attraction in South Dakota. Well, you could go to which of these? A, the world's largest ball of dryer lint in Aberdeen, South Dakota. B, Highmore, South Dakota, statistically the most average town in America. Or C, Gettysburg, South Dakota, whose slogan is, where the battle wasn't. Ooh, A. You're gonna go for the world's largest ball of dryer lint. Yes. I'm afraid it was C. It was Gettysburg, South Dakota. Yeah, I know. I know. I'm sorry. Bam.

You could, you could, you could, you could, I'm just going to say you could win it all. We're just going to make it all or nothing with this last question. Yeah. All or nothing. Game of the rules. I don't care. Did we make it so that if I lost two out of three then I win? Yes. Mathematically that's the same thing at this point. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. North Dakota of course doesn't want to cede all the glory to its neighbor to the south so which of these was a way that North Dakota once promoted its own highlights to the world a a contest that offered? 1 million dollars to anyone who could shake the hands of every resident of North Dakota

Be a video game where in North Dakota is Carmen San Diego Or see a government produced romance novel in which a career woman from the big city finds love in the arms of a roofing contractor in Minot? Well, Bea made me laugh, so I'm going to choose that one. That's always the right thing to do, Dakota. Yes, that's the correct answer In North Dakota in honor of the well-known game series in 1987 and as far as anyone knows only three copies of it now exist

But wouldn't she be easy to find since there's nothing there. Yeah Look for anything sticking up above the tree line, it's probably Carmen San Diego. Bill, how did Dakota Johnson do in our quiz? Well, Dakota got two out of three wrong, and this week that means she wins. Congratulations. Dakota Johnson is an actor, director, producer, and museum curator. She is also the voice of Sher Height in the new documentary, The Disappearance of Sher

Height, which is out now, and I recommend highly. Dakota Johnson, thank you so much for joining us on Waiver's Don't Tell Me. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you. Take care. Thank you. Bye-bye. Very smart.

Bye. Dakota. When we come back, the person behind the weirdest but most delightful TV series you may never have heard of and the star of the film franchise that everybody has heard of. That's when we come back with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NP Y'all. How does the brain process memories? Why is AI a solution and a problem for our climate? What is leadership in 2025 and beyond? The TED Radio Hour explores the biggest questions and the most complicated ideas of our time with the world's greatest thinkers.

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you get your podcasts. From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis and here is your host at the Studenbaker Theater in downtown Chicago, Peter Segel. Thank you, Bill. We are taking the week off to stake out the best beach chairs before the crowd shows up. And we're also offering you some of the best interviews we've done over the past year. So first up now, the eccentric genius behind one of my favorite documentary series, How To, with John Wilson. I asked John to try to explain what his show is to

people who haven't yet seen it. The way I originally pitched it was just, it's kind of like Planet Earth, but for New York City, you know, but instead of David Attenborough narrating it, it's me. Right. And, you know, and I have to film everything. Right. And just to give people the flavor of it, who haven't seen it, you'll start off in New York City and you'll start with a basic proposition, how to find a parking space, how to split a check, how to appreciate wine, how to watch a game, whatever, very basic stuff. And by the end of the episode, you have had this bizarre adventure that has led you to the most bizarre people and places, a convention of vacuum cleaner collectors.

Oh yeah, they were great. I have to ask you, you run into these amazing people who tell you these astonishing things about themselves or their interests. Are they all real and did you in fact find them by accident? Yeah, these are all real people and that's what I want to stress more than anything. I'm often encountering these people just like as I walk around. I went to this referee store that was in my neighborhood three different times just trying to meet a referee and waiting for one to invite me to something.

I'm going to suggest that it's a little surprising it took you three visits to meet a referee in a referee store. Yeah, it was a poor, it was a kind of a low traffic environment. But, you know, they had a lot of nice whistles for sale. So the third time that he described the whistles to me, finally a ref walked in and he miraculously invited me to a dinner filled with referees, which turned into this kind of chaotic scene when I finally got there. But I spent a lot of time and I try really hard

to make sure that whatever's on screen is authentic. It is amazing about the number of shots you have of just people in New York doing just incredibly interesting things that always, then you write your narration to it, it's an effect that's hard to describe. But I imagine it's hard to get all that footage that's so perfect for every moment.

Yeah, I mean, I shoot a lot of the stuff myself, but I have four to five amazing teams of second unit shooters that go out every single day during production and just shoot for hours and hours every day with a scavenger hunt list. And can you give me like a sample of what's like, I'm one of your crews, what would be on my list for a day? What kind of thing? Something like a Poland Spring bottle filled with urine.

Oh, give me something unusual. Or houses that look like faces. Something like that. Do you ever suspect that after a successful day of filling out your list that they just gave up, bought a bottle of Poland Spring themselves and drank it, waited a while? I try not to have a quota. No, I understand. We understand that you have a background in more traditional reality TV.

Do you enjoy watching, like when you're off duty, I guess, enjoy watching reality TV? Is that your genre? Yeah. I watch a lot. What was I watching? I mean, I watch Below Deck. That's the one about the people who work on the yachts, right? Yeah.

You know, you just, you know, it's nice to see people just doing a nice job. Sure. It's thrilling. Are you, are you, did you watch the premiere of Golden Bachelor? Wait, is it out yet? Oh, you were excited. No, are you, I'm sorry, I was misinformed. I was misinformed.

No, I think it comes out on the 28th. So clearly. I was misinformed. It's... No, I think it comes out on the 28th. You... So clearly... I think... So clearly you're excited for it. Oh, yeah. I may make some kind of spinach dip for it. Whoa.

How to make spinach dip, man, if you ever want to go back and do season four. Well, John Wilson, it's been a pleasure to talk with you today, but we have asked you here to play a game we're calling... How not to. So obviously... Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're in the business of instructing people how to do things.

We're going to ask you about instances of people having to tell others not to do things. Answer two or three correctly of these questions. You will win our prize for one of our listeners. The voice of anyone they might choose for their voicemail. Bill, who is John Wilson playing for? Linda Barton of Seattle, Washington. All right. Here's your first question, John.

When the Kilauea volcano erupted in 2018, the U.S US Geological Survey released a warning advising people to not do what? A, surf on the lava flow. B, roast marshmallows in the volcanic vents. Or C, play the floor is lava with the actual lava. Oh, wow. Yeah. Let's go with the...

I think I might go with the s'mores. You're right. No, I mean, marshmallow. Yeah, yeah, you're right. I knew what you meant and you were correct. Okay, cool. They told people, please don't roast marshmallows in volcanic vents. In addition to being quite dangerous, the USGS said your marshmallows will end up tasting

bad. Oh, yeah, that sounds gross. All right, next question. Some warnings are legally required but are meant to be ignored. Such as which of these? A, a warning on grape juice during prohibition that said, don't put this jug in a cupboard for 20 days or it will turn into wine. B. A warning that came on Nerf guns saying, do not point at your brother, especially not at his nads.

Or C. A warning on pot gummies saying, do not take and then one hour later watch the movie Cats. I... oh geez. Alright, let's go with wine just because... That's it, yes! Okay great, yes. You got it. Alright, and what about my gut? You got your gut, really well.

Alright, one more question. It is of course a litigious society, we know this. So manufacturers have to put warnings on their products to keep people from using them incorrectly or dangerously. Which of these is real? A wheelbarrow with the warning not intended for highway use. B, a label on a baby stroller, remove child before folding, or C, on the old iPod shuffle, do not eat.

I guess I'm going to go with the, even though it's, I feel like a lot of people have been tempted to eat the iPod, I feel like it's probably the baby. All three of them are real. Wow! They're all, all of the above. What? Yes. Wow. Yeah.

Wait, wait. The first one was what? The first one was a wheelbarrow not intended for highway use. I'm sure, I mean. You can do that, though. You can still do it. People take scooters on the highway. I'm just going to tell you all that if this were an episode of John's TV show,

the next scene would be somebody in a wheelbarrow going down the highway. Yeah. Yeah. Bill, how did John Wilson do on our quiz? Three out of three, John. Good luck. There you go. You're a winner. John Wilson is an Emmy nominated filmmaker. The third and final season of How 2 with John

Wilson is streaming now on Max Binge the Whole Thing. It is astounding. John Wilson, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you, John. Thank you, John. Awesome to see you. Thanks for the amazing show.

Love you guys. Take care. 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 dot npr dot org. When the economic news gets to be a bit much, listen to the indicator from Planet Money.

We're here for you, like your friends trying to figure out all the most confusing parts. One story, one idea every day, all in 10 minutes or less. The indicator from Planet Money, your friendly economic sidekick from NPR. When you hear Birmingham, Alabama, you might think about the civil rights movement, but maybe not about baseball. But as the oldest pro ballpark in America, Rickwood Field saw the struggle for freedom

play out right there on the dirt and grass. I'm Roy Wood Jr. I grew up in Birmingham, and I'm gonna tell you this whole story. Listen to Road to Rickwood from WWNO and WRKF, part of the NPR network. Finally, last year we had a chance to talk to an actor who's been in movies that collectively have grossed about one zillion dollars and it is all due to her. For example, the second role Michelle Rodriguez ever got was as Vin Diesel's girlfriend in the Fast and Furious franchise.

Even though, as she told us, she had a certain disadvantage when she got the part. I did know how to drive, I just didn't know how to do it legally. I didn't have a license. I didn't have a license. Say more about that. I did know how to drive, I just didn't have a license. I mean, I didn't have a license. Say more about that. Yeah, I did know how to drive. I just didn't have a license. Right.

And did you have to get that in order to be in the movie? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I totally did. But that was after I went to car racing school. So speaking of Vin Diesel, we understand, we have heard, as big a lug as he is, he loves to play Dungeons and Dragons on set. And so we naturally wondered if that's somehow what led you to star in the new Dungeons and Dragons movie.

Is there any connection? What led me to star in the Dungeons and Dragons movie was the fact that John and Jonathan, the directors and writers of it, care so much about the 50 years of humans around the world playing it. I used to play it as a teen, not as hardcore as then, but I did recognize as a kid that the types of humans who do play it and who take it seriously are people that you don't want to mess with. And so like... I've met them too.

I've been one of them. And you can mess with us with pretty no fear of any consequences. You know, the worst we're going to do to you if you give us a hard time is like furiously roll funny looking dice until we can yell, gotcha. I actually was very curious because the movie is great fun and and light-hearted and fast and action-filled It is incredibly loyal to the lore of the Dungeons and Dragons game And were there like nerd consultants on set going no no no that that's from the original Monster Manual What's been it's been revised? Oh my god. You have no idea like the

Pronunciation of things I mean and I'm the worst You know what I mean? first off you got to keep yelling at me about my New York accent or my Jersey accent and Tell me to remove it, you know, cuz obviously Holger doesn't have one And and we have and then on top of that I have to have to remember how to how to enunciate all these strange words that are part of the Dungeons and Dragons vocabulary. I don't know. It was rough. Right.

But we got through it, man. We got through it. Well, since you played D&D on the Fast and Furious set, I'm sure while on the Dungeons and Dragons set, you relaxed by stealing cars. Mm-hmm. All right. Well, you are as much fun to talk to as you are to watch up on the big screen, but Michelle Rodriguez, we have asked you here to play a game we are calling... The Slow and the Furious. So, as we have established, you've starred in the Fast and Furious movies, so we thought we'd ask you three questions about something that is neither fast nor furious. Sloths.

Oh my God. The famous slow moving animal of Central and South America. Answer two out of three questions about sloths correctly. You'll win our prize. One of our listeners, the voice of their choice and their voicemail, take talking as slowly as they might like. Bill, who is Michelle Rodriguez playing for? Mia Zegelcita from Honolulu, Hawaii.

There you are. All right. Yeah. Here is your first question. Nothing is more interesting about sloths than the process of how sloths poop. Why is it so interesting? A, they're only able to poop if a large animal or person is standing right beneath them. B, they poop incredibly quickly and loudly, causing zoologists to call them nature's drum solo. Or C, they only poop once a week, and when they do, they expel one-third of their body weight. I was on that diet for a while.

What? Wow, I'd have to say three. You're right, that's exactly right. They poop once a week, lose a third of their body weight in poop because of the slow metabolism. By the way, I want you to know that when we sat down to research sloths for this, every single member of the staff found this independently and sent it in. Peter, did you know that sloths... Yes, I did, because everybody else told me.

Yes. All right. Next question. You're doing great. Sloths are delightful, of course, if you've ever met one, but they're also useful. What do we owe to the sloth? A, the practice of slow-moving Tai Chi, right? B, the existence of avocados,

or C, animal towel sculptures on cruise ships. What? I thought the avocado situation. You're right, that's what we mean. In fact, and the reason is, I thought the avocado situation. You're right. That's what we mean. In fact, and the reason is, as you may have heard, one of the sloths ancestors was the giant ground sloth, which was this enormous sloth about eight feet tall. They were the only animals large enough to eat avocados and pass their enormous pits,

which is why avocados survived down to us today. So there you are. Next time you're throwing a guacamole, thank a sloth. All right, last question. You're doing great. Sloths reproduce in an unusual way. After six months of gestation, what happens? A, the mother, to B, goes on a last wild fling with her female sloth friends. B. A kind of sloth doula sits down beside the

mother sloth and slowly tells her to puuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. Or C. The mother hangs upside down in a tree until the baby drops out and swings by its umbilical cord until the mom reels it in. Whoa. I would go with three, but it does sound illogical. But you're gonna go with it? I'm gonna go with it. You're right, that's what happens. Woo! And I hope as the sloth mother reels it in, she's going, oh, that's a big one. Oh, yeah.

Bill, how did Michelle Rodriguez do on our quiz? Michelle joins a rare crowd in getting three in a row. You are a winner. Vin Diesel would be proud. Congratulations. It's so much fun to talk to you. You can see Michelle Rodriguez in Dungeons and Dragons, Honor Among Thieves, which is in theaters now.

Michelle Rodriguez, thank you so much for joining us on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. You're awesome. Love, love, love. Thanks for having me. Take care. Cheers, guys. Bye-bye. Bye.

That's it for our premature summer break edition. Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is a production of NPR and WBEZ Chicago in association with urgent hair cut productions Doug Berman, Benevolent Overlord, Philip Kotica writes our limericks, our public address announcer. It's Paul Friedman, our tour manager is Shane Adonald, our vibes curator is Emma Choi. Thanks to the staff and crew at the Studabaker Theater, BJ Lederman, composer at Theme, our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Milestone Boss, and Lillian King. Special thanks to Monica Hickey.

Peter Gwynn is our dad, buried head to toe in sand. Technical directions from Lorna White, her CFOs, Colin Miller, our production manager is Robert Newhouse. Our senior producer is Ian Chilack, and the executive producer of, wait, wait, don't tell me, is Mr. Michael Danforth. Thanks to everybody you heard of this week, all of our panelists, of course, all of our guests,

and of course, Bill Curtis. and thanks to all of you for listening I am Peter Sagal will be back next week This is NPR on the the Inheriting podcast, one event can change a family for generations. Green Americans, we call it sa-i-gu. Did you ever realize when you were a child that you became an orphan? Camp was such a hard time.

How do you think you got through it? Listen to Inheriting, our new podcast about Asian American and Pacific Islander families from LAistudios and the NPR Network, wherever you get your podcasts. This is Sam Brigger, longtime Fresh Air producer and sometime interviewer. In the special extended podcast episode, I talk with Maggie Rogers about nostalgia, her new album, and her decision to go to Harvard Divinity School.

I think at its core, music has always been the most sacred and most spiritual thing that I've ever been a part of Find NPR's fresh air wherever you get podcasts on the TED radio hour Linguist Anne Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun They to refer to one person. I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular, and I will say, but it is. The history behind words causing a lot of debate. That's on the TED Radio Hour from NPR.