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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the

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NPR News Quiz. I'm

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the man with a voice so smoky, I

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can barbecue a rack of ribs

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just by whispering to it. Bill

0:42

Curtis here and here's your host

0:44

at the Studebaker Theater in downtown

0:46

Chicago, Peter Sagal. Thank

0:49

you, Bill. Thank you, everybody.

0:53

Now Memorial Day is the official start of summer,

0:55

so we wanted to get an early jump on

0:58

slacking off. This week, we're gonna be bringing

1:00

you some of our favorite bits from the

1:02

past few years so that we can get

1:04

going on the base layer of our tans.

1:07

I always sunbathe alfresco because

1:09

tan lines are a sin. So

1:13

while we are picking out the right

1:15

SPF, here's some delightfully cool people starting

1:17

with rock and roll legend Bob Seger,

1:19

who we talked to while visiting his

1:21

hometown in Ann Arbor in September of

1:23

last year. Thank you. So

1:27

you still live here after growing up here. Did

1:29

you ever do, I mean, I assumed you did

1:31

because this is what I assumed all rock and

1:33

roll gods did, like live in a house in

1:36

the hills in LA and like have the same

1:38

party. I did. The

1:41

cover of Stranger in Town is

1:43

taken on the front lawn of a house

1:46

I rented in LA. And

1:48

that was pretty wild. I remember there

1:50

was no cable back then. Oh, yeah.

1:52

The first cable I was ever exposed

1:55

to was the Z channel in LA.

1:58

It was only in LA. And

2:01

I'd watch these movies like Rocky

2:03

and things like that in the

2:05

70s. And

2:07

they'd show them over and over, especially

2:10

as it got closer to the Academy Awards. I'm

2:13

just going to express a little bit of

2:15

amazement that in talking about your life as

2:17

a rock and roll god living in LA

2:20

in the 70s, the

2:22

exciting thing that you wanted to tell

2:24

us about was

2:28

cable TV. My

2:35

main friends out there were Don

2:37

Henley and Glenn Frye, especially Glenn,

2:39

who was from Royal

2:42

Oaks. I watched that documentary

2:44

about the Eagles and they broke up because

2:46

they actually couldn't, they were arguing over the

2:48

remote. Exactly. What are we going to watch?

2:51

This cable thing really trapped me. A lot of

2:54

them, I've seen a lot of behind the

2:56

music. They had to give up cable to get their life

2:58

back together. They argued about everything.

3:00

One of the things I found out, and it's not hard

3:02

to find out, is to just listen to the lyrics, that

3:08

many of your most well-known songs are

3:11

about your life here in Ann Arbor. That's right. So

3:13

for example, your song Night Moves. Night Moves.

3:15

As you once put it, that took you from the bus to the jet.

3:19

That was about my first girlfriend. I

3:23

was about 17. We

3:26

would have these parties called grassers

3:29

out between Dexter and Ann Arbor

3:31

in farmer's fields and stuff like

3:33

that. This

3:36

buddy of mine named Richard Gregory had an upside-down

3:39

record player in his Chevrolet, so

3:41

he could play 45s. We'd

3:44

all listen to the music and leave

3:46

the headlights on and get

3:48

run off by the farmers after. You

3:52

were just young and restless and bored,

3:54

living by the sword. Living by the

3:56

sword. I'll tell you what, living

3:58

by the sword. You

4:01

nailed it, because that's a much better rhyme than

4:03

partying near manure. I

4:06

want to ask about one more thing, which is that

4:09

we were watching some of your videos, and I had

4:11

forgotten what amazing hair

4:13

you used to have. I

4:16

mean, beautiful, long, luxurious, and

4:19

that was just the beard. Was

4:25

there like a law that if you were

4:27

a rock star in the 70s, you just

4:30

had to have the hair? Yeah, pretty much.

4:34

And I really, I never had

4:37

it after 1980. Really?

4:40

Yeah, after Against the Wind, and

4:42

we had three huge albums,

4:46

Night Moon, Stranger Town, Against the Wind,

4:48

and Line Bullet, four, and

4:50

I just,

4:52

it was hard to walk around with the law.

4:55

I used to put it under a baseball cap.

5:00

Really? Yeah, anything. So

5:03

finally I just said, the heck with it, I'm

5:05

cutting it off. Really? Did that ever look career?

5:07

Never looked back. No. Do you

5:09

have any, for those out there who still might have a

5:11

hair, I'm not speaking for myself, do

5:15

you, in the 1970s, rock on, have any hair care

5:17

tips for them? Is there anything you picked up? Don't

5:19

lose it. Where

5:24

were you and I needed that? Now

5:27

you tell us. Well,

5:30

Bob Steger, we are so excited to have you

5:33

with us, and we have in fact invited you

5:35

here to play a game that this time we're

5:37

calling, Working on our

5:39

Con-night Foods. So

5:42

you're saying about night moves, we thought we'd ask

5:44

you about Night with a K-move, that is the

5:47

game of chess. Okay. Specifically, three

5:49

questions about how people have attempted to

5:51

cheat in the game of chess over

5:54

the years. Bill, who

5:56

is Bob Steger playing for? Debbie Ford

5:59

of N.O.V.E. Our very mission. Oh, let

6:01

it go? Yeah. Here's your

6:03

first question. Rui

6:09

Lopez of Spain was one of the first

6:12

great chess masters who wrote a book on

6:14

the game back in the 16th

6:16

century. In that book,

6:18

he suggests cheating

6:20

half A, sitting

6:23

with your back to the sun

6:25

so your opponent is blinded. B,

6:28

if any pawn approaches your castle, pour

6:31

hot oil on it. Or

6:34

C, as your opponent is considering

6:36

his move quietly say, I have

6:39

the plague. That

6:43

one still works. No, you can still do that one. It

6:45

still works. I

6:48

would say C. That's your

6:50

choice? That's my choice. Oh,

6:58

no, I'm afraid it was actually A,

7:00

sit so your opponent is blinded by

7:02

the sun. And

7:06

if you're a competitive chess player and

7:08

you're taking notes out there and you ask, well, what

7:10

if you're playing indoors? No problem. Rui

7:12

Lopez says, sit by the fire in such a

7:14

way that you cast a shadow over the board

7:16

when your opponent plays. Oh, wow. That all worked

7:18

out. Or you have two more questions. Here's

7:21

your next question. By the way, you

7:23

were handling this in exactly the manner

7:25

and approach that I dreamed you were.

7:28

That's just so you know. Great. Here's

7:30

your next question. In one of the

7:32

great scandals of chess, a grandmaster was

7:35

accused of cheating at the 1978 World

7:37

Championships by

7:39

using what foreign substance to help

7:42

his game? A, yogurt. B,

7:45

topical steroids. Or C, horse

7:47

tranquilizer. You

7:55

can see in his head, he's like, what drugs

7:57

were going around in the race? He's

8:04

like, but I don't know, I was watching cable. Bad

8:11

batch of yogurt, dear, well, the entire store. I

8:14

think that a steroid circle is... Steroid,

8:17

you're going to topical... I'm going to topical steroids.

8:19

I give you little steroids on his stuff. There

8:21

you go. And all of a sudden, he's like,

8:23

ears growing out of the back of his head.

8:25

It couldn't work, but it was yogurt. Give me

8:28

an advantage. He was accused of

8:30

cheating with yogurt. The idea was his opponent,

8:32

at one point, the guy, the grandmaster, Karpov,

8:34

was his name, got a yogurt snack, some

8:37

violet-covered yogurt, and his opponent freaked out and

8:39

said, Aha, your team is sending you a

8:41

signal with the color of yogurt to

8:43

tell you what to do. And they

8:45

had to stop the match and work it all

8:47

out until they agreed that from then on, he

8:49

would only get yogurt at prearranged intervals, and it

8:52

would always be the same color. That's

8:54

all true. It's

8:57

a weird game. Yeah. All

9:00

right. You have one more choice

9:02

here. Let's see what we can

9:04

do. Yeah, okay. We're going

9:06

against the wound. But... Just

9:11

a few years ago, a grandmaster

9:13

was stripped of his title and thrown out of the

9:15

competition forever after he was caught

9:17

doing what during a match?

9:19

A, going to the bathroom and then sitting

9:21

in the stall and checking a chess computer

9:24

on his phone, B,

9:26

making little... ...noises, nor do you see his

9:28

mouth, whatever he captured in opponent's piece, or

9:32

C, constantly posing for his Instagram

9:34

feed. Ah... Hey.

9:41

Hey. Thank

9:44

you. Finally. Finally,

9:47

the Bob Seger fan base rises

9:49

up. What is about to happen? Hey,

9:52

you're going to go with A? A is right. That's

9:55

what happens. And

10:02

you can find online, because there was a

10:05

security camera he should have known, of

10:07

this grandmaster sitting on a closed toilet

10:09

looking at his phone going, oh, that's

10:11

how a knight moves. Okay, yes. Bill,

10:14

how did Bob Seger do in our quiz? He

10:17

got one out of three, so the knight moves

10:19

are a little thin, but you are always a

10:21

winner with an old-time rock

10:23

and roll. That's a move, Bob Seger. Bob

10:27

Seger is an immortal legend of

10:29

rock and roll. Bob Seger, thank

10:31

you so much for

10:35

joining us

10:38

here. We know a lot of people

10:40

like to read books on the beach, so

10:42

here's a recent question from our show

10:44

about the opposites of a beach read.

10:47

Roy, a book club in California just

10:49

celebrated its 28th anniversary of regular meeting.

10:51

They have faithfully met once a month

10:53

for all those years, and in that

10:55

time they've read how many books? One.

10:59

Yes, they've read one book. It

11:02

took them 28 years to finish Finnegan's

11:05

Wake by James

11:07

Joyce, which if you ... And then they lied.

11:09

Yeah, well, I was about to say, Finnegan's Wake,

11:11

if you read it, you're lying. It's

11:14

impossible to understand. It's this avant-garde work

11:17

of whatever filled with run-on sentences and

11:19

then fragments of words all with no

11:21

punctuation. It's either a brilliant work of

11:23

experimental fiction or just someone you hate

11:25

describing their dream. And

11:28

the reason it took so long is this club

11:30

committed to reading one page at

11:32

a time, and then they'd have a

11:34

two-hour discussion about that one page. How

11:37

many members? I'm not quite sure how many

11:39

there left, actually. I

11:41

mean, you know your book club is old when you miss

11:43

a week of Finnegan's Wake because everybody had to go to

11:46

Brent's Wake. When

11:51

we come back, a great young runner

11:54

expresses her enthusiasm and a great young

11:56

actress questions mine. That's when we come

11:58

back with more Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. from NPR.

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13:32

News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis and

13:34

here is your host at the

13:36

Studebaker Theatre in downtown Chicago, Illinois,

13:38

Peter Segal. Thank you

13:40

Bill. Thank you so much. We're

13:44

getting an early start on summer which

13:46

means when you're finally headed to the

13:48

beach we will already be sunburned and

13:50

sick of our kids being home all

13:52

day. This summer of course

13:54

the Olympics are in Paris. Molly Seidel

13:56

won bronze in the marathon in the

13:59

Tokyo Olympics. But as she

14:01

told us, she wasn't expecting to win

14:03

the marathon or even really

14:05

to compete. Yeah, basically what happened,

14:07

I was living in Boston at the time

14:09

and with my sister, we were at a

14:11

holiday party and

14:13

just sitting on the rooftop of

14:15

this townhouse and he was like,

14:18

it would be really funny if you ran your first

14:20

marathon at the Olympic trials. I was like, that actually

14:22

would be hilarious. And then everything

14:24

kind of spiraled out of control from there. Now,

14:27

according, I will say according to

14:29

Runner's World, what were you doing on

14:31

the top of that building? I

14:34

was smoking a joint on the roof of

14:36

the building. Sorry, mom. Wait, you're smoking weed.

14:38

And you go, I think I'm going to

14:40

be in the Olympics. So

14:44

I have watched the video of the end

14:46

of the marathon. Again, we should, this was,

14:48

I believe your third marathon. You would run

14:51

one in the meantime during the pandemic. And

14:55

this is what you can see if you watch the

14:58

last five minutes or so, the marathon, you see the

15:00

eventual gold medalist and the silver medalist were both women

15:02

from Kenya and they look

15:04

pretty tired. They're like, oh my

15:06

God, I got to get through this. I think I'm going

15:08

to win this, but I am beat to heck. I'm with

15:11

on their faces. And then there's

15:13

you and you're like, I'm going to win a

15:15

marathon. Well,

15:21

I think the problem is that

15:24

the Paris chapter, Sharon Bridget, Tos guy

15:26

who came in first and second, these

15:28

are world record holder, like multi-time medalist.

15:31

So for them, going and winning another

15:33

medal is just another like walking apart

15:35

for Bridget. She was probably like disappointed

15:38

because she was getting second and winning.

15:41

Meanwhile, this is the best day of

15:43

my life. So

15:45

I should say this is the first medal that any American

15:48

woman has gotten in the Olympic marathon in I think 18

15:50

years. So that's quite something.

15:53

These are not easy to come by.

15:58

These medals. And so I

16:00

do want to touch on the many,

16:03

many years before that medal that you

16:05

labored, shall we say, in obscurity. So

16:07

for example, we understand that in addition

16:09

to your Olympic medal, you also have

16:11

the extraordinary distinction of having

16:13

once been the second fastest

16:15

door dash delivery woman in

16:17

Flagstaff, Arizona? Yeah.

16:20

Is it without a car? That was

16:22

with a car. OK. Yeah. No,

16:24

I wasn't carrying that to people's. I was

16:26

an absolute nightmare, though, to get that second

16:29

fastest shopper. I would sprint through Whole Foods.

16:31

I have this layout memorized of most of

16:33

the Whole Foods in Boston. Really?

16:35

So was there a secret to your efficiency as

16:38

a door dasher? Probably

16:41

aggressive driving. And

16:43

yeah, being willing to push over an

16:45

old lady for some avocados. Right.

16:48

Relentless. That is how you win

16:50

a medal. This is how you

16:53

win competitive drives. That's how you

16:55

do it. I gotta

16:57

ask you one more thing, which have

16:59

you heard about Taylor

17:01

Swift's workout that she said

17:03

she did? We were actually

17:05

just talking about this, that apparently Taylor

17:08

Swift, to get ready for her concert,

17:10

ran for like three and a half

17:12

hours on the treadmill while singing all

17:14

of her songs as well. She

17:17

says she did that every day. Yeah,

17:19

I wonder if she's running the whole time or

17:21

if she's walking. I don't know. But I'm

17:23

sure whatever she's doing, can't we just call her up and

17:25

ask her? As a matter of fact, we can. Hang on

17:27

a second. Taylor, she's back.

17:29

She's back to hand. Well, Molly Seidel, we

17:32

are delighted to have you here. And we've

17:34

asked you to play a game we're calling.

17:36

Call now, please. I beg of you. Call

17:38

now. You run, as we have been discussing,

17:40

marathon. So we thought we'd ask you about

17:43

another incredible test of endurance, the Jerry Lewis

17:45

Labor Day telethon, in

17:48

which the late comedian would raise money

17:50

for muscular dystrophy for 24 hours live

17:53

on TV. That's your two

17:55

out of three questions correctly about it. You will

17:57

win our prize for one of our listeners. The

17:59

voice of anyone they might choose from our show.

18:01

show for their voicemail. Bill, who is Molly Seidel

18:04

playing for? Kyle Walton of San Francisco, California. All

18:06

right. First question, one of the first times that

18:08

Jerry Lewis appeared in a fundraising telethon before he

18:10

launched his own was back in 1952. And when

18:12

Lewis walked out

18:15

on the set of the telethon, host

18:17

Bing Crosby ran right off. Why? A,

18:20

the two of them had been engaged

18:22

in a high stakes game of tag

18:24

for seven years. B,

18:27

Crosby was terrified that Lewis would

18:29

run over and take off his

18:31

toupee or C, Crosby, as he

18:33

said later, quote, had to pee like a racehorse.

18:37

One of these is real. One of those is real.

18:41

I think I have to go with C. You're going to

18:43

go with C? Makes sense. Yes, I understand

18:45

that. But the answer was B, apparently Lewis

18:47

had made a thing about tearing off Crosby's

18:50

toupee and he wasn't going to let it

18:52

happen again. All right, here is your next

18:54

question. One of the great things

18:57

about watching the telethon was that

18:59

Jerry Lewis would improv and

19:01

the improv would get wilder and wilder as the

19:03

night wore on. That might explain

19:06

why he once made an impassioned plea

19:08

for who to donate to his cause.

19:11

A, any children who had just received money from

19:13

the tooth fairy. B, his friend Dave,

19:15

who he once loaned 75 bucks

19:17

or America's drug dealers. Let

19:20

me just say this. You should get this.

19:27

I think they're telling me I should go with the drug

19:29

dealer. You always should go with the drug dealer, the

19:31

general rule. It's worked well for you so far. The

19:38

show over the years featured a lot

19:40

of great musical acts, but in the

19:42

middle of the night, as you can

19:44

imagine, that's when they had some lesser

19:47

musical acts come on, including which of

19:49

these? A, the Hells Angels Singers. B,

19:52

Ray Sanders, master of the musical Turkey

19:55

Baster. Or

19:57

C, Limp Bizkit. Oh,

20:03

it definitely can't be B. It

20:06

definitely cannot be B. It definitely can. Can

20:09

you play a turkey bass, sir? Yes. Okay,

20:11

so I think I have to go with B. You're going

20:13

to go with B, Ray Sanders, Master of

20:15

the Musical Turkey Bass, you're right. Yes! Holly!

20:18

Like I said. Thank

20:20

you, thank you. 2 to 3 AM. You'll

20:24

never know what you might have seen during that show.

20:26

What was this show? Oh. Bill,

20:29

how did Molly Seidel do on our quiz?

20:32

2 out of 3. She wins another

20:34

bronze. So she's the winner. Congratulations. Molly

20:38

Seidel is an Olympic bronze medalist. Molly

20:41

Seidel, thank you so much for joining us on The Molly Seidel Show. We're

20:44

back. Molly Seidel,

20:46

everybody. At the

20:49

end of last year, we

20:51

spoke to actor Dakota

20:53

Johnson, who

21:00

first rose to fame in the Fifty Shades of

21:02

Grey movie franchise. She came on our

21:04

show to talk about a documentary she helped make about feminist

21:06

Cher Hype, but I started by asking her what

21:09

it was like growing up the

21:11

child and grandchild of Hollywood

21:13

royalty. Well,

21:17

I would tell you

21:19

different things that I told my therapist. Okay. No,

21:28

I had an incredible life growing

21:31

up. I traveled a lot. I

21:33

was always on set, and that

21:36

was incredibly fun and special.

21:39

I learned to drive when I was nine,

21:41

you know? Wait a minute. Why? Because,

21:46

well, the first thing, it was on a golf

21:48

cart, and that's how my dad would get from

21:50

his trailer to set. And so I

21:53

learned how to drive a golf cart, and

21:55

then I learned how to

21:57

drive the car, because that's the obvious.

22:00

or learning how to play

22:03

golf. Either. That's

22:06

so boring. I

22:11

have young children right now, and I know that

22:13

for young children, the world is just the world

22:15

around them. They just assume that's what the world

22:17

is like. So in addition to,

22:19

of course, living with your parents, you also

22:21

saw them on screens. You

22:24

saw them on big

22:26

films and television shows. Was

22:28

that unusual to see your mom say, just

22:30

be someone entirely different? I'm thinking again of

22:33

you as a young child. I

22:35

don't know. There's something so special about her and

22:37

her artistry and the way she performed. And I

22:39

think when I was younger, I was like, yeah,

22:41

that's my mom and I can tell that she's

22:44

really good. But that's

22:46

my mom. So, okay, let's move on

22:48

and I'd rather watch, you know, some

22:50

other bullsh**. Could

22:53

you offend your parents? Like,

22:57

oh, you know, your dad's like, oh, Nash Bridges

22:59

is on tonight. You're like, yeah, no. Yeah,

23:02

like I'd rather watch the OC, dad.

23:05

No, go ahead. Kind

23:07

of rebellion. All right. This is sort of

23:09

a related question to you watching her in

23:12

movies. We understand. I read somewhere that your

23:14

mother has seen Fifty

23:16

Shades of Grey three times. What?

23:19

Well, no, that cannot be true. Why

23:21

would that happen? I don't know.

23:24

That's why I brought it up. I

23:26

thought it was a little odd. I mean, I'm

23:28

very proud of my children, but there's

23:31

no chance that that is true.

23:34

Okay, that would be thank you.

23:39

All right. So Fifty Shades

23:41

was your first like enormous hit.

23:44

Did your family have

23:46

any advice about becoming a huge star?

23:49

My grandmother, she

23:52

was like, you know, you're going to get asked

23:54

a lot of questions. And sometimes someone

23:56

will ask you a question, but you don't always

23:58

have to answer just because asked.

24:00

Right. And I was like, okay,

24:03

so I just be quiet. And

24:05

I remember having these like really

24:07

uncomfortable moments where I

24:10

didn't want to answer a question. So I'd

24:12

say absolutely nothing, like not

24:14

a word. And the person thought

24:16

that I was malfunctioning or like

24:18

having a question. Yeah, that's

24:21

not allowed. You're supposed to blather mindlessly. Don't

24:23

you know the rule? Yeah. Or you're supposed

24:25

to say some like really clever

24:29

response that answers but doesn't

24:31

answer and then tells the

24:33

person that you're not answering the question and

24:35

to move on or get out. And you

24:37

just and you just sat and stared at

24:39

them in silence judging. Yeah, I was just like,

24:41

well, she said to not say anything if I didn't

24:44

want to say anything. So I'm not gonna say anything.

24:46

I'm also guessing that the junkets for the Fifty

24:49

Shades movies had more than it's used the usual

24:51

share of questions that you don't want to answer,

24:53

right? Yes, especially in

24:55

certain countries. Germany was weird.

24:57

I had not seen the movie.

25:06

I'm gonna confess. So I watched it this week. And

25:12

fine. I'm fine. I'm

25:14

okay. One of

25:17

the many things amazing is like I

25:19

have never seen a movie with better

25:21

production design in my life. It's so

25:23

I mean, put aside the fact cannot

25:26

be true. No, no, like,

25:28

cuz like, oh my God, same.

25:30

No, like, like Christian's apartment is amazing. Am

25:33

I am I just not been around enough?

25:35

I don't know. I mean,

25:37

have you ever seen

25:40

another movie? Can I

25:42

say I think you're

25:44

prepared for any question?

25:47

Yeah, I know.

25:55

Wait a minute. And if I understand correctly, I'm just supposed

25:57

to stare at you in silence now. Well,

26:01

Dakota Johnson, it is an absolute pleasure to

26:04

talk to you. We

26:06

have invited you here to play

26:08

a game. We

26:11

are calling this game Welcome

26:13

to the Dakotas, Dakota. We

26:17

assume you were named Dakota.

26:20

Yes, that is the attitude that

26:22

we were hoping for. We

26:25

don't know. We were assumed you were named

26:27

Dakota because of the natural beauty of South Dakota.

26:29

Or maybe her sister stayed to the north. So

26:32

we're going to ask you three questions about these other

26:34

Dakotas. Answer two out of three correctly. You'll win our

26:37

prize, the voice of anyone you might choose in your

26:39

voicemail. All right, Bill, who

26:41

is Dakota Johnson playing for? Andrew Scott

26:43

of Detroit, Michigan. All right, here's your

26:45

first question. Mitchell, South

26:47

Dakota, as I'm sure you know, home of the world's

26:50

only corn palace, right? Famous corn

26:52

palace? The corn palace, which is not

26:54

a palace made of corn, it's just

26:56

called the corn palace, is such a

26:58

beloved institution that which of these things

27:00

really happened in 2004? A,

27:04

when it caught fire, patrons in a

27:06

nearby bar ran out and extinguished the

27:08

flames with their beers. B,

27:10

in 2004, it got a grant from the Department

27:12

of Homeland Security to protect it from terrorists. Or

27:15

C, the only question in the interview segment

27:17

of that year's Miss South Dakota pageant was

27:20

why do you love the corn palace?

27:24

I'm going to go with C, Peter. No, it

27:26

was actually B. They got a grant

27:28

from the Department of Homeland Security to

27:30

protect the corn palace from terrorists because

27:33

terrorists heed our freedom. All

27:38

right, so maybe you've gone to Mitchell,

27:40

you've seen the corn palace, you're looking

27:42

for another fabulous tourist attraction in South

27:44

Dakota. Well, you could go to which

27:47

of these? A, the world's largest

27:49

ball of dryer lint in Aberdeen,

27:51

South Dakota. B, Highmore,

27:54

South Dakota, statistically the

27:56

most average town in America. Gettysburg,

28:00

South Dakota whose slogan is,

28:03

Where the battle wasn't.

28:06

Oh, A. You're

28:11

going to go for the world's largest ball of

28:13

dryer lint. Yeah. I'm

28:16

afraid it was C. It was Gettysburg, South

28:18

Dakota. Yeah, I know. I know. I'm

28:21

sorry. Damn. You

28:23

could, you could, you could, you could, I'm

28:26

just going to say you could win it all. We're just going to make

28:28

it all or nothing with this last question. Yeah.

28:30

All or nothing. Change of the rules. Okay.

28:33

Could we make it so that if I

28:35

lost two out of three, then I win? Yeah.

28:40

Mathematically, that's the same thing at this point.

28:42

Exactly. That's what I'm saying. Sorry.

28:48

North Dakota, of course, doesn't want to cede

28:50

all the glory to its neighbor to the

28:52

south. So which of these was a way

28:54

that North Dakota once promoted its own highlights

28:57

to the world? A, a contest that

28:59

offered $1 million to anyone who

29:01

could shake the hands of every

29:03

resident of North Dakota? B,

29:06

a video game where in North

29:08

Dakota is Carmen Sandiego? Or

29:12

C, a government-produced romance novel in which

29:14

a career woman from the big city

29:17

finds love in the arms of a

29:19

roofing contractor in Minot? Well,

29:27

B made me laugh, so I'm going to choose

29:29

that one. That's always the right thing

29:32

to do, Dakota. Yes, that's the correct

29:34

answer. The game, recorded

29:37

by teachers in

29:40

North Dakota in honor of the well-known game

29:42

series in 1997, and as

29:44

far as anyone knows, only three copies of it

29:46

now exist. But wouldn't she

29:49

be easy to find since there's nothing

29:51

there? Yeah. Just look for anything

29:53

sticking up above the tree line. It's probably Carmen

29:55

Sandiego. Bill,

29:58

how did Dakota Johnson do in our quiz? Dakota

30:00

got two out of three

30:02

wrong and this week that

30:04

means she wins! Congratulations! Dakota

30:10

Johnson is an actor, director, producer and

30:12

museum curator. She is also the voice of Cher

30:14

Haidt in the new documentary The Disappearance of Cher

30:16

Haidt which is out now and I recommend highly.

30:19

Dakota Johnson, thank you so much for joining us.

30:21

Thank you so much for being with us.

30:23

Take care. Bye

30:26

bye. Bye!

30:34

When we come back, the person behind the weirdest

30:36

and most delightful TV series you may never have

30:39

heard of and the star of the film franchise

30:41

that everybody's heard of. That's when we come back

30:43

with more of Wait Wait Don't Call Me from

30:45

NPR. This

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message comes from NPR sponsor Progressive Insurance,

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NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is

32:11

Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me the

32:13

NPR News Squiz. I'm Bill

32:16

Curtis, and here is your host at

32:18

the Studemaker Theatre in downtown Chicago, Peter

32:21

Segal. Thank you, Bill. We

32:23

are taking the week

32:25

off to stake out the

32:29

best beach chairs before the crowd shows

32:31

up. And we're also offering you some of the best

32:34

interviews we've done over the past year.

32:36

So first up now, the eccentric genius

32:38

behind one of my favorite documentary series,

32:40

How To with John Wilson. I asked

32:42

John to try to explain what his

32:45

show is to people who haven't yet

32:47

seen it. The way I

32:49

originally pitched it was just it's kind of like Planet Earth, but

32:51

for New York City, you know, but

32:54

instead of David Attenborough narrating it,

32:56

it's me. Right.

32:59

And, you know, and I have to

33:01

film everything. Right. And

33:03

just to give people a flavor of who haven't seen it,

33:05

you'll start off in New York City and

33:07

you'll start with a basic proposition, how to find a parking space,

33:09

how to split a check, how to appreciate wine, how

33:12

to watch a game, whatever, very basic stuff. And

33:15

by the end of the episode, you

33:17

have had this bizarre adventure that has

33:19

led you to the most bizarre people

33:21

and places, a convention

33:25

of vacuum cleaner collectors. Yeah,

33:28

they were great. Yeah. I have to

33:31

ask you, you

33:33

run into these amazing people who

33:35

tell you these astonishing things about themselves

33:37

or their interests. Are

33:40

they all real? And did you in fact find

33:42

them by accident? Yeah,

33:44

these are all real people. And that's

33:46

what I want to stress more than

33:48

anything. I'm often

33:50

encountering these people just like as

33:53

I walk around. I went to

33:55

this referee store that was in

33:57

my neighborhood three different times just trying to

33:59

get trying to meet a referee and

34:01

waiting for one to invite me to something. I'm

34:04

going to suggest that it's a little surprising it

34:06

took you three visits to meet a referee in

34:08

a reference room. Yeah,

34:11

it was a kind

34:14

of a low traffic environment. But

34:16

they had a lot of nice whistles for sale. So

34:19

the third time that he described

34:21

the whistles to me, finally a

34:24

ref walked in and he miraculously

34:26

invited me to a dinner filled

34:29

with referees, which turned into this

34:31

kind of chaotic scene when I finally got

34:33

there. But I spent a lot of time

34:35

and I tried really hard to make sure

34:38

that whatever's on screen is authentic. It is

34:40

amazing about the number of shots you have

34:42

of just people in New York doing just

34:45

incredibly interesting things that

34:47

always mean you write your narration to it. In

34:49

effect, it's hard to describe. But I imagine it's

34:51

hard to get all that footage that's so perfect

34:54

for every moment. Yeah, I mean, I shoot

34:56

a lot of the stuff myself, but I

34:58

have four

35:01

to five amazing teams of

35:03

second unit shooters that go out every

35:05

single day during production and just shoot

35:08

for hours and hours every day with

35:11

a scavenger hunt list. Can

35:13

you give me a sample of what's on one of your

35:16

crews? What would be on my list for a day? What

35:18

kind of thing? Something like

35:20

a Poland Spring bottle filled

35:22

with urine. Oh,

35:25

give me something unusual. Or,

35:28

you know, houses that look like faces, you

35:30

know, something like that.

35:33

You ever suspect that after a successful day

35:35

of filling out your list that they

35:37

just gave up bought a bottle of Poland Spring

35:39

themselves and drank

35:42

it and waited a while? I

35:44

try not to have a quota. Yeah,

35:49

I understand. We understand that you have

35:51

a background in more traditional reality TV.

35:53

Do you enjoy watching like when

35:56

you're off duty, I guess, enjoy watching reality

35:58

TV? Is that your genre? Ah

36:00

yes, I watch a lot more.

36:03

Was I watching me to watch

36:05

below deck? And

36:08

says, what about to work on the

36:11

yachts right? Yeah yeah, know

36:13

you just. You know

36:15

it's nice to see people just. Doing.

36:17

A nice job. Serious ass religious

36:19

cities are you? Are you are

36:22

you. Did you watch the premier

36:24

of a Golden Bassler? That

36:27

are yet. Oh oh, he recited know, I are

36:30

you. I'm sorry I. I was either misinformed, I

36:32

was misinformed. It's in. I think it comes out

36:34

of the twenty eighth. You've so clearly. You're.

36:40

Excited for how he I

36:42

may may make some some

36:45

kind of. A spin and

36:47

dip for and. How

36:50

to how? How to one? How to make

36:53

Senate step man if you're to go back

36:55

to work as well John Wilson It's been

36:57

a pleasure to talk with you today but

36:59

we have as to here to play a

37:01

game and we're calling How Not to So

37:03

awful? Well yeah yeah yeah we're in the

37:05

mirror the through. This is interesting people. How

37:07

to do things were going to ask you

37:09

about instances of people having to tell others

37:11

not to do things his or two to

37:13

three correctly. Of these questions you will win

37:16

a prize. For one of our

37:18

listeners, the voice of anyone they

37:20

might use for their voice Milton

37:22

Bill who is John Wilson playing

37:25

Force Linda Barton of Seattle Washington

37:27

or I guess. Is the. First. Question

37:29

John when they kill away

37:31

a volcano erupted in Twenty

37:34

eighteen, The Us Geological Survey

37:36

released a warning advising people

37:38

to not do what a

37:41

surf on the lava flow,

37:43

be roast marshmallows in the

37:45

volcanic vents or see play

37:47

the floor is lava with

37:50

the actual novice our wow

37:52

Now ah. Ah,

37:54

let's go with the yeah I think I'm

37:56

I go with the summer's here. I know

37:58

what I mean. Marshmallow. yeah you're right i knew it

38:00

you meant to be with the right they

38:04

told people you don't

38:06

know what what about the vote and event

38:08

in this in addition to being quite dangerous

38:11

the u.s. gs said your marshmallows will end

38:13

up tasting back yeah

38:15

i thought that next question

38:18

some warnings are legally required

38:20

better meant to be ignored

38:22

such as which of these

38:26

a warning on grape juice

38:28

during prohibition that said don't

38:30

put this job in a cupboard for twenty days

38:33

or it will turn into wine the

38:36

a warning that came on nerf

38:38

guns saying do not point at

38:40

your brother especially not at his

38:42

mad or

38:46

if the a warning on pop gummies

38:48

saying do not take and then one

38:50

hour later watch the movie cap yeah

38:56

i a uh... she's all

39:02

right let's go with wine just just because

39:04

that's it yet about

39:08

my dad lol all

39:13

right one more question it

39:15

is of course the litigious society we

39:17

know this so manufacturers have to put

39:20

warnings on their products to keep people

39:22

from using them incorrectly or dangerously which

39:24

of these is real a wheelbarrow with

39:26

the warning not intended for highway use

39:30

the label on a baby

39:33

stroller removed child before folding

39:37

on the old i pod shuffle do

39:40

not eat i

39:44

guess i'm gonna go with the even though

39:47

it i feel like a lot

39:49

of people than for aanguCR Narrator

39:52

i think for all three of them are

39:55

real while Wow.

40:01

Yeah. The first

40:03

one was what? The first one was

40:05

a wheelbarrow not intended for highway use.

40:08

I'm sure, I mean. You can do

40:10

that though. You can still do that.

40:12

People take scooters on the highway. I'm

40:14

just going to tell you all that

40:16

if this were an episode of John's

40:19

TV show, the next scene would be

40:21

somebody in a wheelbarrow going down the

40:23

highway. Yeah. Yeah. Bill, how did John

40:25

Wilkins do on our quiz? We have

40:27

a three John. Good luck. There you

40:29

go. You're the winner. John

40:32

Wilson is an Emmy nominated filmmaker. The

40:34

third and final season of How

40:36

To with John Wilson is streaming

40:38

now on Max. Binge the whole

40:40

thing. It is astounding. John Wilson,

40:42

thank you so much. Thank

40:45

you for being here. Thank you, John. It's been a

40:47

pleasure. Thanks for the amazing show.

40:49

Love you guys. Take care. This

41:17

message comes from NPR sponsor, Warby Parker.

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41:59

NPR Finally,

42:02

last year we had a chance to talk to

42:04

an actor who's been in movies that collectively have

42:06

grossed about one zillion dollars and it is all

42:08

due to her. For example, the

42:11

second role Michelle Rodriguez

42:13

ever got was as

42:15

Vin Diesel's girlfriend in the Fast

42:17

and Furious franchise. Even though,

42:19

as she told us, she had

42:22

a certain disadvantage when she got the part.

42:24

I did know how to drive. I just didn't know

42:26

how to do it legally. I didn't have a license. I

42:29

didn't have a license. I didn't have a license. I didn't know

42:31

how to drive. I just didn't have a license. Right. And

42:34

did you have to get that in order to be

42:36

in the movie? Yeah,

42:41

yeah, yeah. I totally did. But that was after

42:43

I went to car racing school. So

42:48

speaking of Vin Diesel, we

42:51

understand, we have heard, as big

42:53

a lug as he is, he loves to play

42:55

Dungeons and Dragons on set. And

42:58

so we naturally wondered if that's

43:00

somehow what led you to star

43:02

in the new Dungeons and

43:04

Dragons movie. Is there any connection? What

43:09

led me to star in the

43:12

Dungeons and Dragons movie was the

43:14

fact that John and Jonathan, the

43:17

director and writers of it, care

43:20

so much about the 50 years

43:22

of humans around the world. Playing it.

43:26

I used to play it as a team, not as

43:28

hardcore as Ben. But

43:31

I did recognize

43:33

as a kid

43:35

that the

43:38

types of humans who do play it and

43:40

who take it seriously are people

43:42

that you don't want to mess with. I've

43:47

met them too. I've been

43:49

one of them. And

43:52

you can mess with us with pretty

43:54

no fear of any consequences. We're

44:00

gonna do to you if you give us

44:02

a hard time is like furiously roll funny

44:04

looking dice Until we can

44:06

yell I

44:10

actually was very curious because the movie

44:12

is great fun and and light-hearted and

44:15

fast and action-filled It is incredibly loyal

44:17

to the lore of the Dungeons and

44:19

Dragons game And were

44:21

there like nerd consultants on set going

44:23

no no no that that's from the

44:25

original monster manual What's been it's been

44:28

revised oh my god?

44:30

You have no idea like the

44:32

pronunciation of things I mean,

44:34

and I'm the worst You know what I

44:36

mean first off you got to keep yelling at me

44:38

about my New York accent or

44:41

my Jersey accent And tell

44:43

me to remove it you know because obviously whole

44:45

good doesn't have one and

44:47

we have On

44:49

top that I have to have to remember how to how to

44:52

Annunciate all these strange words

44:54

that are part of the Dungeons and

44:56

Dragons vocabulary. I don't know it was

44:58

rough Well

45:02

since you played D&D on the fast and

45:05

furious set I'm sure while on the dungeon

45:07

the dragon set you relaxed by stealing cars

45:12

All right well you are as much fun to talk

45:15

to you as you are to watch up on the

45:17

big screen But Michelle Rodriguez we have asked you here

45:19

to play a game We

45:21

are calling the slow and

45:23

the furry is so We

45:27

have established you'd start in the fast and furious

45:29

movies So we thought we'd ask you three questions

45:31

about something that is neither fast nor furious sloths

45:37

My god Central

45:40

and South America answer answer two out of

45:42

three questions about sloths Correctly you'll

45:45

win our prize one of our listeners the voice

45:47

of their choice in their voicemail take talking as

45:49

slowly As they might like

45:52

build who is Michelle Rodriguez playing

45:54

for Mia Zigal Zita from Honolulu,

45:56

Hawaii You are all

45:58

right? Yeah Here

46:03

is your first question. Nothing is

46:05

more interesting about sloths than the process of

46:07

how sloths poop.

46:11

Why is it so interesting? A, they're

46:13

only able to poop if a large

46:16

animal or person is standing right beneath

46:18

them. B,

46:20

they poop incredibly quickly and

46:22

loudly causing zoologists to call

46:24

them nature's drum solo. Or

46:28

C, they only poop once a

46:30

week and when they do, they

46:32

expel one third of their body

46:34

weight. I was on

46:36

that diet for a while. Wow,

46:41

I'd have to say three. You're right,

46:43

that's exactly right. They poop one to

46:45

eight, lose a third of their body

46:47

weight and poop because of the

46:49

slow metabolism. By the way, I want you to know

46:51

that when we sat down to research sloths for this,

46:53

every single member of the staff found this independently and

46:55

sent it in. Peter,

46:59

did you know that sloths, yes I did because everybody

47:01

else told me, yes. All

47:03

right, next question, doing great. Sloths

47:06

are delightful, of course, if you've ever met one,

47:08

but they're also useful. What do

47:10

we owe to the sloth? A,

47:13

the practice of slow moving tai

47:15

chi, right? B,

47:17

the existence of avocados.

47:20

Or C, animal towel sculptures on

47:23

cruise ships. What?

47:27

I don't want the avocado

47:29

situation. You're

47:33

right, that's what we need in fact. And

47:36

the reason is, as you

47:38

may have heard, one of the sloth ancestors

47:40

was the giant ground sloth, which was this

47:43

enormous sloth about eight feet tall. They

47:45

were the only animals large enough to

47:47

eat Avocados and pass

47:49

their enormous pits, which is why

47:51

avocados survived down to us today.

47:54

So There you are, next time,

47:56

throwing a guacamole thank a sloth.

48:00

I was forced into doing great

48:02

slaughter. Sloths reproduce in an unusual

48:04

way. After six months of gestation,

48:06

what happens. Ace, the mother to

48:08

be goes on a last wilde

48:10

sleeping with her female sloths friends.

48:14

Be a kind of sloths. The

48:16

Vanilla sits down beside the Mothers

48:18

Loss and slowly tells her two

48:21

per. Cent

48:25

my son the mother hang upside down and a

48:27

tree and of the baby drops out and swings

48:29

by the umbilical. Cord until the Mom real

48:32

that in. Love.

48:44

The logic but you're going to go in and how

48:47

many go with and your eyes out. And.

48:52

I hope as islam mother real villains of I

48:55

know it's a big win for yeah. Bill,

48:59

How did Michelle Rodriguez do

49:01

in our quiz? Michelle joins

49:03

a rare crowd and getting

49:06

three in a row. you

49:08

are a little. oh. So

49:13

much fun to talk to you. You can

49:15

see Michelle Rodriguez in Dungeons and Dragons Honor

49:17

among Thieves, which is in theaters Now missile

49:19

my readers that is so much for joining

49:21

us away with a homer on. Sabol.

49:30

That's it for our premature summer break. It

49:33

isn't with we Don't Tell me the production

49:35

of Npr Interview be Easy Chicago nurses whose

49:37

mothers and her covered artists Duggar Berman the

49:39

Benevolent Overlords to go to direct their limit

49:41

or public address announcer says ball Friedman or

49:43

to a manager seen a Donald or Vibes

49:45

to read or them. A choice thanks to

49:47

the staff and crew. Happy Studebaker Theater be

49:50

David him and composer. Theme or program is

49:52

produced by Jennifer Mills. Miles from us and

49:54

Lily and gang. Special thanks to Monica City

49:56

Peter When is our Dad buried? head to

49:58

toe in san second direct system, Lorna

50:00

White, her CFO's Colin Miller, our production manager is

50:03

Robert Newhouse, our senior producer is Ian Chillock, and

50:05

the executive producer of What We Don't Tell Me

50:07

is Mr. Michael Danforth. Thanks to everybody you heard

50:09

of this week, all of our panelists, of course,

50:11

all of our guests, and of course, Bill Curtis.

50:14

And thanks to all of you for listening. I

50:16

am Peter Segal. We'll be back next week. Thank

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