WWDTM: Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant 47:48

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From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz, filling in for Bill Curtis. I'm NPR newscaster and Peter's new BFF, Lakshmi Singh. And here's your host at the Studebaker Theatre at the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Illinois, my BFF, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Lakshmi. Thank you.

Just going to say, Bill never says that about me. We have a fabulous show for you today. Later on, we're going to be talking to Dr. Rae Wynn Grant, a large carnivore expert. She's an expert on large carnivores. She's not. Large carnivore is an expert. And a host of the new Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. And finally...

We will get an answer to that age-old question, what exactly does a bear do in the woods? First, we want to find out what you've been researching. Give us a call to play our games. The number is 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. Now, let's welcome our first listener contestant. Hi, you are on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Hi.

Hi, this is Johnny Billet. I'm calling from Abilene, Texas. Abilene, Texas. I've heard of Abilene, Kansas. Where's Abilene, Texas? Abilene, Texas is south of Abilene, Kansas. All right. Well, there you go. It's just Abilene straight down to South America. What do you do there?

I am a route sales driver. A route sales driver. What are you selling? Mostly ice cream and frozen foods. Oh, wait a minute. Everybody here is all of a sudden hoping you'll stop by. Well, Johnny, let me introduce you to our panel this week. First, a comedian whose second album, Weaponized Empathy, will be released on a special thing records later this year. It's Adam Burke. Hi, Johnny. Hi, Johnny.

Next, a comedian who hosts Butter Boy Comedy every Monday night in Brooklyn, New York. It's Maeve Higgins. Hi. And the comedian and host of the Breaking Bread with Tom Papa podcast, it is, of course, Tom Papa. Johnny. Johnny.

So, Johnny, welcome to the show. You're going to play, the first ever to play, who's Lakshmi this time? Lakshmi Singh, filling in for Bill Curtis, is going to read you three quotations from this week's news. If you can correctly identify or explain two of them, you'll win our prize. Any voice from our show, you might choose for your voicemail. Are you ready to do it? Let's do it. All right. Your first quote is from President Biden. When the hell did I say that?

I realize that could have come up in a bunch of different contexts, but he was actually reacting to a video that he saw of himself, a fake video made using what technology? AI. Yes, AI. President Biden this week...

signed a new executive order trying to react to the AI explosion, it will require tech companies to notify the public when their AI products go rogue, right? So it's like, oh, look, it's a text alert from Apple. My phone is now self-aware and it hates me. Now, this is funny that one of the things that inspired President Biden to take this action

according to an actual White House statement, was that he got totally freaked out about AI after seeing the new Mission Impossible movie.

Which features as its villain this evil AI, right? That's true. So he came up with this executive order to try to prevent that, and he announced that going forward, he is going to do all his own stunts. Thank God he didn't watch Jurassic Park. Yeah. Okay.

What does he only get his policy ideas from Tom Cruise movies apparently so is this why he said he was gonna build a highway to the danger zone Yes What is the video that he saw that made him go when the hell did I say? That's actually a good question. Was it him does not waking any mistakes exactly? Yes

No, it was a fake video. It was a deep fake video is the term created by AI of Biden and his dog saying something, as he pointed out, he had never actually said. You could tell it was a fake because in the video, the dog is not biting anyone. All right, here, Johnny, is your next quote.

Tell me this guy's not wearing heels. That was from a TikTok, one of many that was posting evidence that what presidential candidate may not be as tall as he says he is. That would be Ron DeSantis. That would be Ron DeSantis, yes. So for weeks now, people have been posting video and photo evidence that they say proves that Ron DeSantis is wearing lifts inside his cowboy boots to make him appear taller.

The allegations began at the last Republican debate, where instead of shaking hands at the end, Mr. DeSantis went over to Nikki Haley, raised his arms, and yelled, oppie, oppie.

But that's the thing. Women are allowed to wear heels in America, but they're not allowed to be president. That's right. That's fair. He's wearing special shoes to make himself look taller. Are politicians getting all their ideas from Tom Cruise right now? Apparently, yes. LAUGHTER

So, you know, keep in mind, again, this is what's important here. He's already wearing cowboy boots, which, as all men know, is like the, you know, high heels for manly men, right? You can get away with that. But the accusation is that he's actually putting lifts inside the cowboy boots to make himself appear even taller, which is like putting a hat on a hat and then standing on both hats to make people think you're tall. LAUGHTER

I saw in the interview, they asked him how tall he was. And I knew at that moment that he was lying because I am 5'10 and like a little bit. Mm-hmm.

And whenever people ask me how tall I am, I say 5'11". And when they asked him how tall he was, he said 5'11". I knew he was lying. We do need to have a national measuring of men because it's only men who lie about it. Like I've talked to people. I'm 5'9", and I'm fine with it. But I've talked to people my height, looked them in the eye, and they've told me they were 6'. I was like, all right, we're all going to the DMV, and we're getting settled once and for all.

What's the height requirement to host this show?

Thankfully, thankfully, there is none. There's a height maximum, so you're out. 5'11". All right, here, Johnny, is your last quote. Your order might take longer to get delivered. Are you sure you want to continue? Now, that is a new notification that users of DoorDash are now getting...

if they choose not to do what? Not to tip. Exactly right. So DoorDash, very popular food delivery service, is now telling people that if they do not tip the driver in advance, delivery is going to take a lot longer. Right? It goes on, you know, hey, you ordered some really nice burritos. It'd be a shame if something happened to them. It's...

Is this news, though? It seems like this is the way that it... I always think if I put... You know, they always give you the 15, the 20. I always hit the 20 thinking they'll see it and come and not eat my french fries. Right.

Right. Well, what's interesting, yeah, I mean, we've always been understanding that if you tip a little bit, especially where you can tip in advance, you get a little better service. But this is definitely a leap forward because they are making that explicit. Right. If you choose not to tip, the driver will just send you, instead of your food, a grainy photo of your food with today's newspaper. Lakshmi, how did Johnny do in our quiz? Did really well. Got all three. You did with confidence, sir. At all.

Johnny, thank you so much for playing. Thank you. Take care.

Right now, panel, it is time for you to answer some questions about this week's news. Maeve, airline passengers' behavior has become more and more outrageous over the last few years. We all know that. But this week, the internet was horrified by a TikTok of one woman who did what throughout her entire nine-hour flight? Was she knitting? No. That would be so cool. Was she not, like, sleeping on the ground? No, she wasn't sleeping. Was she yelling? She wasn't yelling.

She sounds like so nice actually. Are you just going to go through all the verbs? You can go through all the verbs and I will tell you every time that she wasn't doing them. Because she was a noun? Can I have a hint? I have given you a pretty big one. Remember I said that no matter what verb you came up with, what activity... She had died. She had not died. She was alive, but she just did... Nothing. Nothing.

That's the answer. How dare she? I know. Oh, my gosh. A woman named Sophie Cook posted a video of her mother on a flight from Chicago to Budapest sitting quietly, staring at nothing. Wow. Not reading, not listening, just sitting. Wow.

And TikTok had the caption, my mom raw dogs every flight. No matter how long. No iPad, no headphones, no book. And millions of people reacted to this in horrified fascination because no one now alive

can remember being alone with their thoughts for that long. Especially in a plane where your thoughts tend to be things like, "Should I watch '27 Dresses' again?" or the first three episodes of "Amazing Hotel." Are we absolutely sure she didn't do like a hero dose of magic mushrooms before she got off? It's just her seeing the fabric of the universe. It's possible. "Oh, that in-flight movie was awesome," she said.

You ever been on a flight and you're watching a movie that they provided and then it turns into a very suggestive scene and there's some boobs flapping around and stuff's going on and then I always feel like suddenly responsible. Wait, because you've taken off your top. You just get so relaxed watching the movie, you take your top off. Yeah, you're like, oh, this is so great.

I always feel responsible for the movie that's being shown. Like, people look over your shoulder. Like, I didn't direct this. You know, I didn't bring it myself. This is, United gave me this. Yeah, but you did swipe through until you saw the content warning contains nudity. I did press pause and take my top off. Fly away.

Coming up, the one app you should definitely avoid. It's our Bluff the Listener game called 1-888-WAIT-WAIT-TO-PLAY. We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR.

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From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Lakshmi Singh. We're playing this week with Tom Popup, Adam Burke, and Maeve Higgins. And here again is your host at the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you so much, Lakshmi. Thank you.

So right now it's time for the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me Bluff the Listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play our game in the air. Hi, you are on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. This is Marlon Glickman. Hey, Marlon. How are you? I'm doing fine, thanks. Where are you calling from? Well, right now I'm in Union, West Virginia, helping my daughter with her goats and chickens. You're helping your daughter with her goats and chickens? Yes. Okay. She has a little farm. So your daughter decided to go into farming?

Exactly. Right. And when, and I'm making some assumptions about your character here, just based on your accent, but when she told you that's what she wanted to do, what was your reaction? Really? That's what I expected.

It's nice to have you with us, Marlon. You're going to play our game in which you must try to tell truth from fiction. Lakshmi, what is your topic? Get off the apps. No matter what, there's an app for that. There's even an app that gives you a tiny electric shock if you say the phrase, there's an app for that, in 2023. But this week, we read about someone who got into big trouble because they used electricity.

Our panelists are going to tell you about this. Pick the one who is telling the truth. You'll win the weight-waiter of your choice on your voicemail. Are you ready to play? I'm ready. All right. First, let's hear from Adam Burke.

At first, Marcus Jennings was thrilled to participate in the beta test of a new communications app called Sure Mom. The idea is the app creates a realistic AI audio version of you, explained the app's creator, Caitlin Elspeth, and then when your mom or dad calls, it will respond in vaguely affirmative terms throughout the course of the conversation so that you don't have to.

Jennings adds, "Say your mother calls you to complain about her book club. The app will wait for the appropriate moment and say things like, 'I know, right?' or 'Classic Shirley!'" While Jennings' initial experience with the app was positive, he noticed that after a couple of weeks his parents were contacting him with even greater frequency than usual.

I started getting messages from mom about what a great emotional chat we had and how she was looking forward to our thrifting trip, he says. And then dad was thanking me for promising to help him finish the deck. Elizabeth says that it's clear the app needs work, saying the goal is to have it be generally agreeable without actually committing to anything. We're going to test it on telemarketers next. A man uses an app.

To respond to his parents for him and finds out his parents like the app more than they like him, your next story of an app oopsie comes from Maeve Higgins. Are you a sweet little Azerbaijani man on vacation in Portugal who suddenly gets an overwhelming urge for a pomegranate juice?

I certainly am, and I'm not the only one. Last week in Lisbon, an Azerbaijani man used a language translation app and wrote down what it told him was Portuguese for pomegranate juice. He handed the note to the waitress, who flipped out when she read, I have a bomb. You see, in his language, the word bomb and pomegranate are similar, and the app messed it up.

So, instead of getting a juice, he got arrested by heavily armed policemen who thoroughly searched his luggage and his hotel room before releasing him. Ah, technology. That sweet little man never did get his pomegranate juice, and neither did I. A tourist in Portugal...

Tries to order pomegranate juice using his translation app and ends up getting arrested. Your last story of something in-app-ropriate comes from Tom Papa. A popular sleep app that lulls listeners to sleep to the voice of Matthew McConaughey is so effective that one user has started to dream that she's in a real-life relationship with the actor. LAUGHTER

After using the app for only two weeks, Laura Knowles of Clifton, New Jersey, woke up to find that she had bought a $500 plane ticket to Austin, Texas, because she thought that Mr. McConaughey wanted to spend a romantic day horseback riding with her on his ranch. Then came the night her husband, Kevin, found her sleepwalking with a can of his Barbasol shaving cream.

She had apparently used the shaving cream to sculpt a bust of Mr. McConaughey. Sure, it looked like him, said Knowles, but my wife had no memory of either sculpting it or kissing it right on the lips. LAUGHTER

The final straw was when police found Ms. Knowles asleep behind the wheel of a stolen Lincoln Continental, repeatedly mumbling, all right, all right, all right. All right. Apps are normally very convenient, fun, and time-saving, but this week we heard a story about one that was none of those things. Was it either from Adam Burke, an AI app that

pretends to be you to fool your parents that ended up being better to your parents than the user was. From Maeve Higgins, a man who tried to use an app to translate his order for pomegranate juice and ended up getting thrown to the ground and arrested at gunpoint. Or from Tom Papa, a Matthew McConaughey late night meditation app that changed a woman into a sleepwalking Matthew McConaughey stalker. Which of these is the real story of an app we found in the news?

I'm going to say the second story. You're going to say Maeve's story, that is? Yes. About the translation? Yes. The audience agrees. Perhaps they just use the apps in their phones to check. So that's your choice, Maeve's story. Well, we spoke to someone familiar with the real story. We have Poma for Pomegranate and Granada for Grenade. They are not similar at all.

That was Juliano Saccomani, who teaches Portuguese and Spanish at the University of Chicago, marveling at the mistake that this app made in getting this poor guy arrested. Congratulations, Marlon. You got it right. Maeve was telling the truth. Thank you, Maeve. Thank you. Well done, and good luck with those chickens. Thank you. Thank you.

And now the game where we ask experts on one subject about another subject. That's not a joke. It's just what it is. We call it Not My Job. When Ray Wingrant was growing up, her parents only allowed her to watch educational TV and nature shows, and their nefarious plan worked.

She has become the nation's leading expert on large carnivores, lions and tigers and bears, and is one of the hosts of the new version of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom on NBC. Dr. Rae Wynn Grant, welcome to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. I'm happy to be here. This is awesome. So my first question for you is that that story is true, right? Your parents wouldn't let you watch fun TV and just made you watch the educational shows?

Yeah, that's right. For several years, we didn't even have a TV. And then my dad was missing his NBA games so much in the early 90s that they caved and got one.

So it was limited to just educational and lucky me, nature shows are educational. So I dove right in and haven't looked back. So what were some of your favorites? Do you remember? So believe it or not, I used to love watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, especially at my grandparents' house. And then PBS Nature has always done great with nature and wildlife documentaries. I had an idea when I was a kid for a nature show that you might like.

Like, you can have it now if you want. It's called Bear With Me. You just do normal things, but there's a bear with you the whole time. So you majored in environmental science. That covers a lot of ground. What drew you to large carnivores and bears? Yeah.

You know, when I finally had my choice of what I wanted to kind of narrow in on and focus on, I, you know, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I just kind of kept going back to, well, what did I used to see on the nature shows? What was the most exciting? And it was tigers, believe it or not. I used to say, I want to study tigers in Asia. Then in my PhD program, I transitioned to bears across North America. And I'm, you know, I'm open

to non-carnivore animals, but so far the carnivores have served me well, and I still have not studied tigers. Did you hear that, everybody? She's herbivore curious. But you are perhaps one of the nation's foremost expert on bears.

You have young children, right? I do. I have two girls. Right. And when they're watching their own cartoons like Winnie the Pooh, do you constantly harsh their mellow and go, like, no. A real bear would not wear a shirt and no pants. That's gross.

Oh, I'm so obnoxious. Are you really? Oh, I am. Oh, yeah. They can't stand me when there's bear stuff on. The way that our culture has kind of, you know, anthropomorphized bears, you always see a bear family, right? There's always a papa bear in the picture. That's not real. That is not real. Dad is out of there as soon as the mating's over.

You're harsh, your kids mellow about cartoons on your downtime. So what is your day like? What is the life like of a leading expert on bears and now mountain lions?

Well, I have to say, I spend a lot of time in the field. So my office is usually the wilderness somewhere, and I'm either by myself, which, you know, don't try it at home, or with a small team of graduate students or other researchers collecting data on these animals. So have you ever, I imagine you must have in your long career, gotten into some dangerous situations with some wild animal?

Yeah, a few too many. Yeah, that's correct. There was this one time I got chased by a bear and I was by myself and I was in the middle of the wilderness in western Nevada, in the mountains of western Nevada. Part of my work is to attach GPS collars to bears. And in order to put a GPS collar on a wild black bear, you have to first trap it, sedate it, and then give it a checkup, see if it's healthy enough to have the collar, and then attach it.

And one day I was, you know, it was a hundred plus degrees and I was grumpy and I decided I'm not bringing my backpack. I'm not bringing my bear spray. I'm just going to leave it all down by my ATV. And I hiked up to the trap. It was empty like it always was. And I pulled out the can of tuna fish to rebate the trap.

Got up, turned around, and who's looking straight at me but this huge, like 600-pound male black bear staring at me. And he started chasing me. And what you're not supposed to ever do is run. Right. And after all of my training, years and years of training, I mean, and living with lions and the works,

Wow. That's pretty terrifying. So you should...

Also, stupid. I mean, I could have had my bear spray. I could have been way more protected than I was. But, you know, I was a fool once. So let me make the mistake so you don't have to. All right. I'm going to ask you this because you've spent a lot of time, as you said, with lions and bears and you've had close calls. If you had to get eaten by an animal, if that was your fate, which animal would be coolest to be eaten by? Oh, my God.

You know, I might actually betray my own expertise here and say, you know, like an anaconda or like a giant boa constrictor, something that just, you know, squeezes you to death and kind of gets all the oxygen out of your lungs so you pass out before you're eaten. Right. I think that would be better. It would feel like a hug for a while. Yeah, just like a big bone-crushing hug and then you lose consciousness and then, you know, you get swallowed whole. LAUGHTER

Well, Dr. Ray Wingrand, it is a joy to talk to you. We could talk to you about bears all day, but we have asked you to play a game that we're calling... I like my bears tiny, squishy, and raspberry flavored. So you're an expert on the furry kind of bear, but what do you know about the gummy variety? Oh!

We're going to ask you three questions about those sweet little gummy candies. Answer two correctly, you'll win a prize for one of our listeners, the voice of any member of our crew that they might choose on their voicemail. Lakshmi, who is Dr. Wynne Grant playing for? Stephen Holtz of Alberta, Canada. And there are bears up there, I'm told. There sure are. He might be a bear.

He's called in. He knew you were playing. He's a fan. All right. Here's your first question. Haribo, the company that invented gummy bears, has made a lot of different gummy shapes over the years, but the most unusual one came out as a special edition in 2006. What was it? A, a gummy anatomically correct heart, B, a gummy pistol, or C, a gummy human butt with ears?

I choose A. Okay, no, it was actually C. A gummy human butt.

With ears. In German, if you want to call someone, well, we would say a butthead, right? You say, oh, they're an arse with ears. So Haribo immortalized that insult in gelatin. All right, here's your next question. These days, there's a danger of people mistaking, of course, one kind of gummies with another, which is how a fifth grader near Detroit

brought some pot gummies to his class last year. And if that weren't bad enough, just a week before, what had happened at the same school? Was it A, a teacher said to the class, hey, do any of you have parents that like to hide candies from you in their bedrooms? Could you go look?

B, a kindergartner brought in margaritas for snack time. Or C, a teacher ruined an after-work happy hour by bringing in only non-alcoholic beer. Oh, boy. Well, I mean, knowing what I know about this school, I'm going to go with B, the margarita kindergarten snack time. That's exactly what happened.

To be fair to the kid who brought the bottle of pre-mixed margaritas...

Fourth grade can be pretty stressful. That was well done. That was well done. You saw that immediately. Let's see if you can get this last one. Sometimes a gummy bear is normally just the sweetest, most harmless snack. They can get you into trouble. As in which of these? A, a teenager shoplifted a ghost pepper flavored gummy bear and he was caught when he ate it in the store and immediately collapsed to the ground in agony.

B, a man using gummy bears as impromptu earplugs at Coachella was swarmed by bees. Or C, two siblings exploring the woods in Germany used gummy bears to make a trail back to their home only to be eaten by the bear who followed their delicious trail.

Oh, these are good, but I can only imagine that the ghost pepper gummy bear collapse is the real answer. And once again, Doctor, you're right. That's what happened.

This particular gummy bear is called the Lil Nitro gummy bear. It's rated at 9 million Scoville units, and the kid tried it and immediately ended up curled up on the floor. Lakshmi, how did Dr. Wynn-Grant do on our quiz? She got two out of three, and that's good enough for the win. Congratulations, you won. Roar! Roar! Roar!

Dr. Rae Wynn Grant is the co-host of the new Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom on NBC. Thank you so much for joining us on our show. What a pleasure to have you. Thanks for having me. In just a minute, a hot tip for getting to the top of the mountain fast in our Listener Limerick Challenge. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to join us on the air. We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR. Wait, wait, don't tell me.

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From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Lakshmi Singh. We're playing this week with Maeve Higgins, Tom Papa, and Adam Burke. And here again is your host at the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Lakshmi. Thank you so much.

Doing a great job, by the way. Thank you so much. In just a minute, fresh from Nantucket, three hot new rhymes in our listener limerick challenge. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. Oh, you just got it. Okay, great. That's 1-888-924-8924. Right now, panel, some more questions for you from the week's news.

Tom, it's hard to run a business unless you show up at the top of search results on Google, right? We all know this. So many restaurants and other businesses are now putting what phrase right in their name? Best ever, four star, five star. Those are all good ideas, but this is much more attuned to how Google searches, especially in like Google Maps, tend to work.

Near me. Exactly right. Really? Near me. Wow. When you want Thai food, say, most people Google Thai restaurant near me, right? Or you type Thai restaurant and it fills in near me. Right. So in New York right now, a restaurant was just renamed Thai restaurant near me. Google hits. There is, I have seen it, a barber shop near me in Illinois. Okay.

And businesses are now getting even more sophisticated when it comes to hacking Google searches. There is a coffee shop in San Francisco called When Is Mother's Day Coffee? Should I worry, strange rash bakery. LAUGHTER

Near me. That one might get some clientele, but would probably drive off a fair number of other people, right? Cowards. Yeah. Although to be, you know, I actually, I mean, you know, just because they do this doesn't mean they're bad at their business, right? I mean, I have been very happy with the service at Celebrity Feet Picks Notary Public. Yeah.

Maeve, more and more young people are using a test to decide which romantic partners are worth their time. All right? This is how you do it. Yeah. You're on a first date, maybe, maybe a second one. And all you do is you see how your date reacts when you point at what? Hmm. Oh, if they can say the name of the stars. If you're like...

Honey, what's that? You just point at a star. Yeah, like you point and then if they can tell you the different cosmos. That's Cassiopeia. Any celestial beings, that's the test. It's the Big Dipper. I'll give you a hint. You can help the test along by pointing and saying something like, oh, is that a blue jay? Oh, like a tree. LAUGHTER

You might point at, if you point at something and say, is that a blue jay? What are you most likely pointing at? A bird. A bird. Yes. Thank you very much. A bird. It is called the bird test. You point out a bird. Oh, look, there's a bird or whatever. And if your partner stops what they're doing to appreciate that bird with you,

your chances increase of staying together. If your partner then stops to eat that bird, the chances increase that your partner is a bobcat. That is actually a really good test to see what kind of a large carnivore you're on a date with. Exactly, exactly. I'm just working like New York. Oh, what's that? A pigeon?

Another pigeon. A dead pigeon. Oh, that one's dying. Yeah.

There's also something you can do on a date, which is you go to an animal home and you can take the dogs out for a walk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can do that. You can do that. Or you could go to an animal home and you could identify why different animals haven't been adopted. If he's like, look at that underbite, yuck! Then you've got to keep her... I'm just suggesting different date ideas. I understand, I understand. I like the dog walking one because you might just be dating a dog walker.

He might just be helping him at his job. An unemployed comedian. Yeah, exactly. We'll be together like birds of a feather. Some things are meant to be. One way or another, you know we'll be there together. I know he loves me.

Coming up, it's lightning fill in the blank, but first it's the game where you have to listen for the rhyme. If you'd like to play on air, call or leave a message at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. You can catch us most weeks right here at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago, or come see us on the road. We will be at Carnegie Hall in New York City on December 14th and 15th. And the Wait, Wait stand-up tour has shows coming up in Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and more. Tickets and more information at nprpresents.org.

Hi, you're on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Hi, my name is Angie Hain and I'm calling from Fairfield, Connecticut. Fairfield, Connecticut. What do you do there in Fairfield?

Well, I just started a new job this week. I am the director of faith formations at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport, which means I'm helping children and teens formulate their faiths as they go through life. Okay. I thought that it was like cool arrangements of Unitarians on a field. Like faith formations. Yes.

But I'm not very smart. Angie, thanks for calling. Welcome to our show. What's going to happen right now is Lakshmi Singh filling in for Bill Curtis is going to read you three news-related limericks with the last word or phrase missing from each. If you can fill in that last word or phrase correctly in two of the limericks, you will be a winner. You ready to go?

I'm ready. Lakshmi, are you ready to go? I am. Let's do it then. Here's your first limerick. Gen Z goes for special effects and for storylines that are complex. We think movies are dreamy if things don't get steamy. We like stories that don't feature. Stories that don't feature, I don't know, sex? Yes, sex. Yes.

Apparently, Gen Z, our young friends, do not like sex scenes in their movies and TV shows. This is a trend called no-mance. That, of course, is the opposite of yes-mance. LAUGHTER

I love that. That's such a swing in the other, because it used to be so much the other way. Right, yeah. You think you were watching a show about hospital doctors saving lives. Yeah. But actually the whole time it's just a sex show.

Yeah. I know what you mean. It was called the good old days. All right, Angie, here is your next limerick. On this climb, I will not need a respirator. I hang out, and I'm saving my best for later. There's a rail for my hand, and I really just stand. I won't hike. I will just take the...

Escalator? Escalator, yes. Do you love to go for vigorous hikes out in nature but hate all that walking? Well, a series of mountain trails in a region of China have added escalators to make it easier to see the views of all that gross exercise. Previously, the hike to the top was fairly arduous, but now it's easier for older people and young children to get right where we want them at the top.

of a sheer mountain cliff. Listen, what if you're on this escalator and you're going up and there's a bear at the top of it? How do you get the escalator back away slowly? Just turn around and you run as fast as you can. All right, here is your last limerick. Don't tell me my anger is bad. If you meditate, you have been had.

I am ultra aware when my rage starts to flare. I can solve tricky tasks when I'm mad. Yes, very good. A new study has found, somewhat surprisingly, that people are better at solving difficult tasks when they are angry. This is why, before lightning fell in the blank, Lakshmi is going to walk over there and kick you all in the shin. Oh, no. Oh.

So researchers, this is how they did it. They showed their subjects images that were designed to evoke different feelings in them. And then after that, they had them do tasks like solving puzzles or playing a video game. And the group that were shown images to make them angry did better than the groups that were shown images to make them feel happy, sad, aroused, or feel nothing at all. And by the way, what were the images...

that were designed to make you feel nothing. Oh, look, it's Elijah Wood at a Panera Bread. I feel like I've seen that movie. Yeah, the sex scene in it is really gratuitous.

Lakshmi, how did Angie do in our quiz? Fabulous. She got all three. Wow. Congratulations, Angie. Well done. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks so much for playing. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

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It is now time for our final game, Lightning Fill in the Blank, each of our players will have 60 seconds in which to answer as many fill in the blank questions as they can. Each correct answer now worth two points. Lakshmi, can you give us the scores? We've got Adam with four, Maeve with three. Close. Tom with one. The way she said it, that was cold. I'm so mad.

All right, Tom, Lakshmi says you are in third place. Sir, you're up first. Fill in the blank. On Wednesday, the first group of evacuees leaving blank were allowed to enter Egypt. Gaza. Yes. After seven years, prosecutors in Michigan ended the criminal investigation into blank's water crisis. Flint. Yes. This week, the Mexican government announced aid to businesses damaged by Hurricane Blank. Otis. Yes. On Thursday, the FBI raided the home.

of New York Mayor Blank's fundraising chief. - Eric Adams. - Yes, this week a D.C. firefighter has been dismissed from his position after he blanked on the way to an emergency call. - Uh, fell asleep. - No, stopped for Chick-fil-A.

Best known for his role as Chandler on Friends, actor Blank died this week at 54. Matthew Perry. Best known for his explosive temper, Hall of Fame college basketball coach Blank passed away at the age of 83. Bobby Knight. Yes. According to a study of Britain's COVID response, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson considered telling citizens to blank to fight COVID. Stop breathing. No, to blow a hairdryer up their nose. Okay.

According to the report, Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked experts if it were possible to kill COVID by blowing a hairdryer up your nose, an idea he got from watching a YouTube video. Fortunately, the experts quickly dismissed the idea and Johnson went back to his original strategy for fighting COVID, throwing as many in-person parties as humanly possible. Locks me, how did Tom Papa do in our quiz? So he got six over 12 more points. So he's got a total of 13. He is actually in the lead.

Wow. There you go. All right. So Maeve, you were in second place, so you're going to go next. Fill in the blank. On Thursday, FTX founder Sam Blankman-Fried was convicted on all seven charges of fraud and conspiracy. Yes. What did you say? I made a little joke. I said Blankman-Fried. It doesn't really...

I don't get it. Never mind. I'm just going to give it to you. Thank you. For new climate data, blank is accelerating faster than expected. Polar bears. Global warming. On Tuesday, the Senate confirmed Jack Lew is ambassador to blank. Oh, okay.

Canada? No, Israel. This week, a police in Ohio asked for help tracking down two men who stole blank. A car, maybe? No, they stole an entire 58-foot-long bridge. This week, a real estate listing in California surprised homebuyers because it was a six-bedroom, four-bathroom house with its own blank.

Garden. No, meth lab. The house was previously owned by a couple accused of running a meth lab out of the garage. It's currently listed at $1.5 million. And while that seems a bit high for a property that the Santa Clara Health Department has deemed, quote, actively contaminated, the listing says it's just waiting for the perfect family to turn this meth lab into a meth home. That's lovely. Lakshmi, how did Maeve do? Be a feminist, remember?

We're all proud of you. Oh, no. One right for two more points. You did great. Two more points for a total of five. Perfect. Just sort of means that you're almost there, but Tom's still in the lead. Tom's still in the lead, but I'm second. That was very empowering, I thought. Right? Girl. Okay, how many then does Adam need to win?

Adam needs five to win. Here we go, Adam. You can do this. I believe you can. Adam, this is for the game. Fill in the blank. On Monday, the UAW reached a tentative deal with final holdout automaker blank to end their strike.

Ford? No, GM. On Tuesday, the White House announced President Biden would meet with Chinese leader blank next month. Xi? Yes, Xi Jinping. This week, the Federal Reserve announced they would leave blanks unchanged. Interest rates? Right. On Wednesday, the second U.S. patient to receive a heart transplant from a genetically modified blank died. Pig? Yes. This week, a Dutch cycling event where bikers raced directly into strong headwinds was canceled due to blank. Someone literally tilting at windmills. No. Strong winds.

After he kissed a player without her consent, FIFA banned Blank's former soccer chief for three years. Spain? Right. This week, a 19-year-old mixed martial arts fighter in Poland lost her match against Blank.

Time? No. We all will eventually. No, she lost her match against her ex-boyfriend's mom. So experts predicted that MMA fighter Niccolo Alokan would easily win her match against her ex-boyfriend's mom. So everybody was shocked when the mom knocked Alokan out with a flurry of punches. It proved that sometimes passion can win over physical prowess.

and that both the ex-boyfriend and his mom are definitely handling the breakup in a mature and healthy way. Lakshmi, did Adam do well enough to win? Well, he got four for eight more points. Got a total of 12, which means Tom is this week's champion. Tom Papa. He always wins. Thank you, Lakshmi. We had faith.

In just a minute, we're going to ask our panelists to predict, now that we know about Ron DeSantis' shoe lifts, what will be the next secret revealed about a presidential candidate. But first, let me tell you...

Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is a production of NPR and WBEZ Chicago in association with Urgent Haircut Productions. Doug Berman, Benevolent Overlord. Philip Godica writes our limericks. Our public address announcer is Paul Friedman. Our tour manager is Shana Donald. Thanks to the staff and crew at the Studebaker Theatre. BJ Lederman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Grombos, and Lillian King. Special thanks to Monica Hickey and Blythe Robertson. Peter Gwynn is our Lil' Gummy Bear.

Our vibe curator is Emma Choi. Technical direction is from Lorna White. Our CFO is Colin Miller. Our production manager is Robert Newhouse. Our senior producer is Ian Chilog. And the executive producer of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is Michael Danforth. Now, panel, what secret will we learn about a presidential candidate next? Adam Burke. The next big secret is that Democratic representative and presidential candidate Dean Phillips is in fact running for president. It's not supposed to be a secret, but what are you going to do?

Maeve Higgins. Chris Christie is a virgin who can't drive. All right. And Tom Papa. We find out that RFK Jr. is made of 100% vaccines. And if any of that happens, we'll ask you about it on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Thank you so much, Lakshmi Singh, for doing such a great job.

In the scorekeeper chair. Thanks also to Adam Burke, Maeve Higgins, and Tom Papa. Thanks to our fabulous audience here at the Studio Baker Theater in downtown Chicago, Illinois. And thanks to all of you for listening at home. I'm Peter Sagal. We'll see you next week. This is NPR.

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