The World Cup, Trad Wives, and the Wedding of the Century

10:24Shane O'Neill:This is how I feel about money. Yeah, if you earn it, it's fine. But if you steal it, it's great.

10:30Caro Claire Burke:Yeah, especially high risk, like a nice heist, good bank heist. That's how Europeans felt about Native American land here. Yeah. Oh, wow.

10:41Shane O'Neill:Yeah, Spain is fine, but have you seen the Americas? Oh, my God. Oh, boy. Have they tried this with other foods? Like fries are a particularly easily stolen food. Yeah. It has like a bisque, you know.

10:56Peter Grosz:You pick the hardest food to steal. It's like scooping bisque. I'm just imagining like Tom Cruise being lowered from the ceiling in a cable with a spoon.

11:06Shane O'Neill:A straw.

11:07Peter Grosz:Wrapping it up like a cat.

11:09Caro Claire Burke:No, the best way to steal bisque is with a piece of bread.

11:12Shane O'Neill:Yeah. This is going to be a good way, though, if it was good for other foods, it would be a good way to get kids to eat vegetables. Be like, steal that broccoli off your brother's plate. That's actually so delicious.

11:24Karen Chee:I got what you want. I got what you need.

11:32Peter Grosz:Coming up, our panelists take on our Bluff the Listener game. Find out why I said it like that after the break and call 1-888-wait-wait-to-play. We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR.

11:45Caro Claire Burke:Support for this podcast and the following message come from Rivian, makers of the all-electric three-row R1S SUV and the always capable R1T pickup. With impressive range, storage for any expedition, and technology that feels like second nature, Rivian vehicles are designed for those who seek to explore the planet and preserve it for generations to come. Learn more or schedule a demo drive at Rivian.com.

12:10Karen Chee:This message comes from BetterHelp. Summer can feel like a sprint. Kids home, trips to plan, routines flipped upside down. It's easy to slip into survival mode, just trying to get through it. Then suddenly, it's over. And you're wishing you enjoyed the days just a little bit more. Therapy can help you slow down and actually be present for the moments that matter. With BetterHelp, you can connect with a licensed therapist from anywhere, on your schedule. Don't just survive the summer. Thrive. Visit BetterHelp.com slash NPR.

12:47Caro Claire Burke:From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Alzo Slade. We're playing this week with Peter Gross, Karen Chee, and Shane O 'Neill. And here again is your host at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Alzo. Thank you so much.

13:11Peter Grosz:Right now it's time for the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. You've left a listener game. Call 1-888-wait-wait to play any of our games on the air. Hi, you're on Wait-Wait, don't tell me. Hi, this is Kevin from Plymouth, Massachusetts. Plymouth, Massachusetts. There at the start of Cape Cod. What do you do there? I plot accessory dwelling units in people's backyards. Oh, you plot secondary dwelling units in people's backyards. That's exactly it. I didn't understand. I thought you were saying something else with a thick Boston accent, and I couldn't understand. Do you build or do you plan? Both. That's really cool.

13:47Peter Grosz:That's really cool. Well, congratulations on that good work. Kevin, it's great to have you with us. You're going to play our game in which you must try to tell truth from fiction. Alzo, what's Kevin's topic? Aha. Aha. Not just what Alzo said when he finally found out where we hide the good snacks. That, of course, was also the name of the 80s band whose song Take On Me became a global hit back then. The band made the news this week, though, for a rather surprising reason. Our panelists are each going to tell you about it, pick the real one, and get the wait-waiter of your choice on your voicemail.

14:22Peter Grosz:Are you ready to play? I'm ready. Okay, first up, it's Shane O 'Neill.

14:26Shane O'Neill:Remember the music video for AHA's biggest hit, Take On Me? the one where a woman is pulled into a comic book, and the animation is somehow really impressive and really, really bad at the same time? Well, that woman has a name, Bunty Bailey. And as of last week, Bunty Bailey has an OnlyFans. After several recent appearances at comic book conventions, where she spent hours signing Ah-ha-ka singles, Bunty realized that she still had a devoted and very socially awkward fan base. Bunty says that she's actually rather modest so how does she take on the challenge of adult content well every time things get a little spicy she activates an AI filter that renders her in the sketchy animated style of the music video it's a surprise when people subscribe she said but most of these super fans love it I mean these people are super super weird and for the few people who are disappointed, who cares?

15:24Shane O'Neill:They'll be gone in a day or day.

15:39Peter Grosz:I'm sorry, we have to stop all our equipment just shattered. Oh, I can do it again. We got it the first time. Louder? They're singing in mind. The model who starred as the heroine of the famous music video now on OnlyFans where she uses that animated effect to keep things modest. Your next aha moment comes from Karen Chi.

16:02Shane O'Neill:Earlier this year, after her beloved grandmother Peggy passed away, 28-year-old Madeline Michelson took on the sobering task of cleaning out her grandma's bedroom. Peggy had been a meticulous woman who'd served as treasurer in multiple clubs and kept records of her finances throughout her life. So when Michelson came across yet another three-ring binder, she assumed it to be some more boring tax documents. But she was wrong. Inside, she found something else. Pages and pages of obsessive details about her grandma's celebrity crushes. Said Michelson lovingly, oh my god, grandma was a freak. It's true, the innocuously plain binder was actually a handwritten log about men like George Clooney and Matthew McConaughey, complete with carefully cut and pasted photos and facts, including their Zodiac signs.

16:53Shane O'Neill:But even more surprising, the man featured the most, 80s band AHA's frontman Morton Harkett, proving that no matter how old you are, you can always be a tween girl with questionable taste. Losing a loved one is difficult for so many reasons, including the fact that you wish you'd ask more questions when they were alive. And this is definitely true for Michelson, who'd give anything to turn back time and ask, Grandma, what the hell?

17:21Peter Grosz:A woman finds her grandma's file of her favorite huddies and the huddest of them, the lead singer of A-Ha. Your last story of an A-Ha anecdote comes from Peter Gross.

17:33Shane O'Neill:In the wake of their thrilling NBA championship this week, the New York Knicks revealed an unlikely secret to success. The A-Ha song, Hunting High and Low. The brooding track about the obsessive search for a lost love was their pre-game hype song. As their star guard Jalen Brunson told the New York Post, most teams go with high-energy hip-hop, but my favorite music they get psyched to is moody Nordic pop. After they lost game three to the Spurs, Brunson knew the team needed a down-tempo kick in the pants. So he lit some aromatherapy candles, dimmed the lights, and played them the following lyrics.

18:08Shane O'Neill:She's sound asleep, and she's sweeter now than the wildest dreams. There's no end to the lengths I'll go, hunting high and low. I explained to Kat, OG, and the others that it works pretty well if you just replace she with NBA championship, said Brunson. It's a trick that worked really well in the 90s when the Chicago Bulls used to sing the Neil Diamond song, Sweet NBA championship, ba-ba-ba. All right.

18:41Peter Grosz:So AHA popped up in our feeds this week for one of these reasons. Was it from Shane, the model from the video, now on OnlyFans, showing off her animated self? From Karen Chee, a woman found that her grandmother's meticulous records of Hutties praised the lead singer of AHA as the hottest of them all? or from Peter Gross, turns out the secret to the Knicks championship was adopting the little-known aha ballad Hunting High and Low as their fight song. Goodness gracious. Goodness gracious indeed, sir.

19:21Shane O'Neill:You know, I think just because Shane hit the note so perfectly, I might have to go with Shane's story.

19:27Peter Grosz:You've chosen Shane's story. To bring you the correct answer, we spoke to an expert on the real one.

19:32Shane O'Neill:There are points in time when people seek again the celebrity crushes they had in their adolescence.

19:40Peter Grosz:That was Chapman University professor and crush researcher, Dr. Rebecca Tokachinsky, talking about Grandma's Secret Binder.

19:55Peter Grosz:I'm afraid you didn't win our game, but you did earn a point for Shane, and I think he deserved one for that performance. Yes.

20:02Shane O'Neill:And I will do a recording on your voicemail for free. I know.

20:07Peter Grosz:Singing that song, no doubt. I can be the tone, even. I will say, we've been talking about this song all week in our office and now here on stage, and none of us but Shane had the guts to actually try to sing it. So there you go. Congratulations, Shane. Thank you so much for calling and playing with us. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.

20:30Peter Grosz:And now the game we call Not My Job. Almost as soon as it was published, Carol Clare Burke's novel Yesteryear was declared the book of the summer. The story of a trad wife influencer who has to survive after being transported mysteriously to the 1850s was an instant bestseller. It's already being developed into a movie starring Anne Hathaway. And we're so excited. Carol Claire Burke is joining us here on what is undoubtedly the NPR news quiz of the summer. Carol Claire Burke, welcome to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to talk to you. I devoured your book this week like millions of other people, really enjoyed it.

21:11Peter Grosz:It's a thrill to talk to you. I would summarize the book as Trad Wife Gets tratted, that's me. How would you do it?

21:21Karen Chee:Oh, I think that you're one step ahead of me. I think that's a really, really nice summary. Mine's usually much longer. Oh, really?

21:28Peter Grosz:Because I imagined, and I have no idea how it actually happened, that when you first came up with the idea, it was so simple. It's like, what if you took one of these trad wife influencers who always praises the old way of living and you actually made her do that against her will? Yeah. Yeah.

21:42Karen Chee:I mean, I'd like to sound smarter, but that's exactly what happened. It was that elevator pitch and then it was the title yesteryear. And then I was kind of off to the races.

21:50Peter Grosz:Right. And were you, as you came up with that, I know you've been in media and writing about these people, but were you like a fan of these people, the real Tradwife influencers?

22:00Karen Chee:You know, I think that I was kind of obsessed with the videos and I didn't get why. Cause like, I'm, you know, I have a degree, I'm a working woman, I'm secular. And I was like obsessed with buying a honeybee oven and I didn't understand why I was like, what's happening to me. And so I think because of that I really decided to start researching the visuals a little bit more because I kept seeing them online

22:19Peter Grosz:I feel I should ask this. Uh, I hope for other people of like mind. What is a honeybee oven?

22:26Karen Chee:Okay, I don't exactly know

22:29Peter Grosz:But it's beautiful. It's great. You have to have one

22:32Karen Chee:Yes, if I can pay an artisanal carpenter to make me one from scratch, I think that my life will probably improve right now

22:39Peter Grosz:Now, speaking of your life improving, this is an extraordinary story of how your first novel became the subject of a bidding war between publishers and then a bidding war and Hollywood producers, even before it was published, which is pretty cool, I have to admit. But I understand you had your share of rejection before that?

22:58Karen Chee:I did, yes. I was rejected for about a decade prior to that.

23:03Peter Grosz:Not this particular book, but by other ideas and other book ideas, and people are like, yeah, no.

23:08Karen Chee:Yeah, exactly. I think that it's good to build a healthy skin when you're a writer, and I certainly did so by just applying to everything and always getting told no. Right.

23:17Peter Grosz:And have you had your limo driver take you around to all those offices? No, but I really enjoyed it.

23:24Karen Chee:I had a few screenshots where I was like, this person's going to know that this was their email.

23:29Peter Grosz:Oh, yeah. I saw that. You were showing on TV some of the rejections you got. Because I imagine when I was like, we don't want you here at HarperCollins where I am the editor. But I mean, it must have been a little weird because this is every writer's dream. You're sitting there, you're working in this novel and you say, oh my God, the Hollywood's going to go nuts for this. There'll be a bidding war. In your case, there was. How weird was that?

23:54Karen Chee:Oh, it's psychotic. I still don't fully believe it. And I think that's probably a good thing. I think it's probably been a blessing for me that I don't really, I've been very dissociative. So that's a problem for my future therapist.

24:06Shane O'Neill:Yeah, I see. it's like future therapists what let's talk about the fact you're not in therapy that's fascinating i wouldn't have written this book if i was in therapy

24:16Peter Grosz:i want to get to the book in a second but your character as i've said the principal character natalie is a trad wife influencer uh it the the novel has the feel of reality like this must be what it's like to be a trad wife influencer or an influencer you're not one how did you find out what their lives are like.

24:36Karen Chee:Well, a lot of this book is about misinformation. And so part of the, without giving any spoilers away, I didn't really take much time to try to embody any one trad wife influencer. It was more just getting into the mind of a woman who doesn't want to be in the world anymore. And that was kind of where I had a jumping off point from.

24:55Peter Grosz:Yeah. I know you had to say that it's not based on anyone for legal reasons, but really, who is it?

25:00Karen Chee:Once we get off this video, just text me. Okay, okay, that's great, that's great.

25:04Peter Grosz:Because apparently there's like a lot of people saying, oh, I think it's this person, or I think there's like one trad wife influencer who's got a farm, just like Natalie does, and she's like, no, it's not me. It's really not me. Which I guess is also flattering that people are having to deny being your model.

25:21Karen Chee:Yeah, I don't think anyone would publicly come out and say, yes, I am Natalie. And so that's kind of a nice defensive reflex for my book in that way.

25:29Peter Grosz:And I say this with all sympathy, and maybe I'm not going to ask you the question, but I'll ask how you're dealing with the question. Someone like you, who has an amazingly successful, deservedly so, debut as a novelist or anything else, always gets asked, well, what are you going to do next? Have you come up with a way of dealing with that question?

25:48Karen Chee:Oh, that's not even the top five of the first questions I get asked on this tour. Yeah, I mean, I'm writing. I'll keep writing long after people aren't reading my book. I mean, I've always been a writer, so yeah, I'm working on my next novel.

26:00Peter Grosz:Right. Is it also going to be about another internet subculture?

26:04Karen Chee:Yeah, the working title is Yesteryear to Natalie in Space. Yeah, I mean, I got it.

26:12Peter Grosz:Yeah.

26:16Peter Grosz:Well, Carol Clareberg, it is a pleasure to talk to you, and we have asked you here to play a game we're calling Yesteryear Meet Yearbook. Your hit novel is called Yesteryear, so we thought we'd ask you about yearbooks. Answer two to three questions about those wonderful souvenirs of times we would rather not remember, and you will win a prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose from our show. Alzo, who is author Carol Clareberg playing for?

26:43Caro Claire Burke:Katrina Anderson of Manchester, Massachusetts. All right, you ready to play?

26:49Karen Chee:Sorry, Katrina, I'll try.

26:51Peter Grosz:Here's your first question. When he was nominated for the Supreme Court some years ago, the high school yearbook of Neil Gorsuch came under some scrutiny. Why? A, he was voted by his class most pompous. B, he had jokingly listed himself as a member of the, quote, fascism forever club. Or C, someone had written in it, have a great summer and overturn Roe v. Wade.

27:21Peter Grosz:I'm going to go with B, fascism forever That's right And I should say A boy can dream He was making a little joke As far as we know There was As far as we know, there was no Fascism forever club at Georgetown Prep In those years Here's your next question Despite the yearbook club's best efforts And we know they work hard sometimes errors slip through, as in which of these, which happened to a Rhode Island school this month, A, the cover of the yearbook featured a misspelled word, school, B, all of the photos in the yearbook were of the graduating class of 1926, or C, every single senior was listed as a member of the model railway club.

28:16Peter Grosz:I'm going to go with A. You're going to go with A. They misspelled the word school. You're right.

28:26Peter Grosz:So that's a bad typo, yes. But in future years, the 2026 yearbook from Johnston Senior High School will be quite valuable. You're doing very well here. Here's your last question. This spring as well, also this spring, parents at an elementary school in Florida complained because their yearbook featured what? Was it A, a retiring cafeteria lady quoted as saying, no more shoveling slop to tots? Or B, a joke picture of the teachers all doing shots in the faculty lounge? Or C, a picture of a toddler flipping the bird? This is Florida. It is, yes.

29:08Karen Chee:So all bets are off. Yeah, this is Florida. So I'm going to go with B.

29:17Peter Grosz:You're going to go with B, a joke picture of the teachers all doing shots in the faculty lounge. I am sure that's happened. But this particular yearbook brought some criticism because it featured a picture of a toddler with her middle finger raised. And here's the best part. It was part of an ad placed by that child's parents. You know, one of those congratulations graduate ads. They thought it was cute.

29:44Peter Grosz:Alzo, how did Carol Burke do in our quiz?

29:46Caro Claire Burke:She did enough. Two out of three, which is good for me. There you go.

29:54Peter Grosz:Carol Claire Burke's best-selling book is Yesteryear. Carol Claire Burke, thank you so much for joining us on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell. It's a pleasure to talk to you. And thanks for the book. Take care.

30:05Caro Claire Burke:Take care.

30:09Peter Grosz:In just a minute, a handbag 65 million years in the making. That's 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.

30:23Caro Claire Burke:Support for this podcast and the following message come from Rivian, makers of the all-electric three-row R1S SUV and the always capable R1T pickup. With impressive range, storage for any expedition, and technology that feels like second nature, Rivian vehicles are designed for those who seek to explore the planet and preserve it for generations to come. Learn more or schedule a demo drive at Rivian.com. This message comes from LinkedIn ads. Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first but didn't live up to the hype? For marketers, that's impressions. When ads don't create revenue, that's a tough conversation with the CFO.

31:01Caro Claire Burke:Instead, invest in results your CFO will love. LinkedIn Ads generates the highest ROAS of all major ad networks. So advertise on LinkedIn. Spend$250 and get a$250 credit. Just go to linkedin.com slash nprpod. Terms and conditions apply. This message comes from Mint Mobile. Get unlimited talk, text, and data for just$15 a month on the nation's largest 5G network. No catch, no gimmicks, no gotchas. To get your new wireless plan for just$15 a month, go to mintmobile.com slash wait. $45 upfront payment required for new customers on first three-month plan only. Speed slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan.

31:46Caro Claire Burke:Taxes and fees extra. Restrictions apply. See Mint Mobile for details.

31:54Caro Claire Burke:From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. the NPR News Quiz. I'm Alzo Slade. We're playing this week with Peter Gross, Shane O 'Neill, and Karen Chee. And here again is your host at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Alzo.

32:14Peter Grosz:Thank you so much, everybody. In just a minute, it's the game the anti-limeric media doesn't want you to know about. It's our Listener Limerick Challenge. If you'd 888-924-8924. Right now, panel, some more questions for you from the week's news. Shane, this week we learned about a new trend in travel. Catering to people who want to spend their vacations doing what? Stay inside for their whole vacation. That's almost right. It's usually an inside activity, but it's nice to do it sometimes by the pool if the light's good. Well, the last time

32:49Shane O'Neill:they called the police. Wait, oh, reading?

32:52Peter Grosz:Yes, reading. Vacation packages for people who just want to read. Smart. Right. Right. They're offering vacation packages built entirely around, quote, reading and relaxing. And no one's happier about this trend than your introverted niece who's wondering if she can just read in your office after dinner, if that's okay? These packages are aimed at those people who want to go on vacation, but they don't want to go parasailing. Thank you. They just want two hours to read by the pool without interruption. Forget sandals. We found the perfect resort for you. It's called spotty Wi-Fi. It's called chairs.

33:25Shane O'Neill:This is actually true. My friend Eric, he and his husband have been doing this for years, where they go on two vacations a year. The adventure vacation, where they go parasailing or whatever, and then the reading vacation, where they just choose a body of water and read next to it. That sounds amazing. Do you think they're looking for a third? Maybe, but I don't think it's you. I'm listening and I'm learning.

33:47Peter Grosz:Do you have a brother or cousin? This is a true story. I once took a book on vacation.

33:54Shane O'Neill:Wow, congratulations. Thank you. That's it. That's all I just wanted to say. Was this one of the ones you wrote, Peter? No.

34:05Peter Grosz:No, sadly, nobody reads those. No, so I've been really, really distracted and hadn't really been able to focus on the book, so I took it on vacation. And once I got on vacation, I opened it up to where I had left off, and I said, you know, I've been so spotty about my reading, I can't remember what's going on. I'll start again from the beginning. but vacation itself was so distracting that I actually didn't get as far in the book as I had on the first attempt. So by the end of the vacation, I had read minus 75 pages of a book, which I thought was impressive.

34:38Shane O'Neill:And then when you told this story, your wife was like, I'm going on my own vacation next year.

34:44Peter Grosz:Well, yes, but that has nothing to do with that. Karen, a home organization expert, has found that the reason many people can't declutter their homes is that they believe there is such a thing as nice, desirable what? Trash. Right. Nice garbage, nice trash, nice clutter. Nice garbage is defined for these purposes as trash that for some reason you think is just too nice to throw out even though you have no use for it. Like, you know, really pretty shopping bags from a nice store or like empty glass sauce jars. They'll be useful for something. Or shoe boxes from a particularly expensive brand. You look at that shoebox, you don't need it, but you think, man, there's going to be a day when we do need that shoebox.

35:28Peter Grosz:That hamster can't live forever.

35:33Shane O'Neill:Peter, I'm gently panicking. I've got so many nice little glass bottles. Yeah. And I didn't know what to use them for, but they're too nice to throw away, so I filled them with cereal.

35:44Peter Grosz:You can't throw that cereal out. Okay, hang on. So you have nice bottles. Yes. Like what came in the Merge Land? What kind of bottles were we talking about?

35:50Shane O'Neill:I think they were like juice bottles, but they were like glass.

35:53Caro Claire Burke:What kind of cereal are you fitting in that small little hole?

35:57Shane O'Neill:Well, this is the problem is I bought cereal to put in the... Wait a minute.

36:01Peter Grosz:So you were just like, so you were like, wait a minute. I've got these bottles. I have no use for them. I don't want to throw out. You know what would be look really decorative if I filled them with fruity pebbles? Yeah. Say. Listen, you joke.

36:11Shane O'Neill:This is my life. Wait a minute. Karen, what do you do with that gorgeous fruity pebbles box? Because you can't throw that away.

36:22Peter Grosz: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 see us most weeks right here at the Studebaker Theater in beautiful downtown Chicago. You can also catch us on the road. We'll be at the beautiful Riverside Theater in Milwaukee on July 9th. Thank you, Milwaukee and or Riverside Theater fans. And at the Green Music Center in Sonoma, California. on July 30th. Thank you. I like every place has its ambassadors. That's wonderful. For tickets and information about all our live events, just go over to nprpresents.org.

37:03Peter Grosz:Hi, Aaron. Wait, wait, don't tell me.

37:04Shane O'Neill:Hey, Peter.

37:05Peter Grosz:This is Andrew calling from Kansas City. Hey, Andrew. How are things in beautiful Kansas City, a place I love?

37:10Shane O'Neill:They're great. We've got the World Cup here, so I'm busy.

37:14Peter Grosz:Oh, I didn't realize that. I haven't been noticing the venues. What teams are playing there, and have you met any of their fans walking around Kansas City?

37:21Shane O'Neill:I haven't met any yet, but I think we have Argentina has stayed here. England stayed here. There's two others that I don't...

37:31Peter Grosz:Algeria's here. So obviously you're a very invested fan. I really am, yeah. Right, right. Well, welcome to the show, Andrew. Alzo Slade right here is going to read you three news-related limericks, but he's going to stop before he finishes. He's going to leave out the last word or phrase. You have to fill that in. If you do that two times out of three, you will win our prize, the voice of anyone you might choose from our show for your voicemail. Are you ready to go?

37:54Caro Claire Burke:I'm ready.

37:55Peter Grosz:Here's your first limerick.

37:57Caro Claire Burke:Growing dinosaur skin needs no pretext, and this great leather bag is a keyflex. Our lab-grown concoction is now up for auction. It's a purse with the skin from a... A T-Rex.

38:11Peter Grosz:Yes, a T-Rex. This week, a purse made from the recreated skin of a Tyrannosaurus Rex went up for auction in Europe. Why a T-Rex? Because nobody can name even one other dinosaur. And, by the way, if you're trying and failing, Barney does not count. Now, you might be thinking, wait, they found a living T-Rex and immediately killed it to make a purse? That's ballsy. no. What happened was they grew synthesized skin in a lab from some protein found in a T-Rex fossil, and then they took that synthesized skin and made a purse. So if you've ever wondered, what was at the gift shop at Jurassic Park? Now you know.

38:53Peter Grosz:More like Jurassic Park Avenue, am I

38:55Shane O'Neill:right? Oh my god. I actually read about this story ahead of time. Have you seen the purse? I have not myself seen the purse. Well, it looks like a bag made of T-Rex skin. And if I'm right, I think it sold for like a quarter of the asking price. I think they priced it at like$600 ,000 and it sold for like$32 ,000. Wow.

39:15Peter Grosz:A steal, as it were. All right, very good. Here is your next limerick.

39:21Caro Claire Burke:Though lost teeth and sharp falls make us shake, they are not what jolts most folks awake. What breaks nightly bliss is a slither and hiss. The world dreams of a poisonous snake.

39:36Peter Grosz:Snake, yes. Yes, according to search data, the thing people all over the world dream about most are snakes. What? And yes, people do Google the meaning of their dreams, and it turns out, you look at the data, most often they Google, why do the penises I dream about all appear as snakes?

40:00Peter Grosz:Turns out that this data is regionally sorted out. Most snake dreams happen in countries with high snake populations. Makes sense, right? You're scared of something. It's a source of tension, anxiety. It shows up in your dreams. That's why I'm always dreaming about my biggest fear, sitting on something wet on the train. So if you're in a country with a lot of snakes, everyone's dreaming of snakes. People most often have bad dreams about snakes.

40:26Shane O'Neill:So if you go to the suburbs, everyone's having dreams about golden doodles. You'd expect, right? I did move to LA last year and I have had nightmares about traffic.

40:35Peter Grosz:There you are. See? Proving the thing. There you are. Here is your last limerick, Andrew. Our dexterous side is quite deft, while the other one's weak and bereft.

40:46Caro Claire Burke:And yet when we walk, we will counter the clock. In a crowd, we all turn to the left.

40:54Peter Grosz:Yes. Yes, human beings, it turns out, all, every one of us has a natural tendency to turn left, to move in a counterclockwise direction. And scientists have no idea why. When moving in crowds, people veer to the left. Then it's one step to the right. Then you do the time warp again. So the Brits are right when they drive on that side of the street. They were more in touch with their feelings, which is the first time anybody has ever said that about British people. Alzo, how did Andrew do in our quiz?

41:27Caro Claire Burke:Three out of three. Great job, Andrew. Congratulations, Andrew. Well done. Thank you.

41:34Peter Grosz:You've won our prize, the voicemail of your choice, and a T-Rex purse. No one else wanted it. Thank you for playing, Andrew. Bye-bye. Thanks, Peter. Thank you.

41:58Caro Claire Burke:Support for this podcast and the following message come from Rivian, makers of the all-electric three-row R1S SUV and the always capable R1T pickup. With impressive range, storage for any expedition, and technology that feels like second nature, Rivian vehicles are designed for those who seek to explore the planet and preserve it for generations to come. Learn more or schedule a demo drive at Rivian.com. This message comes from LinkedIn ads. Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first, but didn't live up to the hype? For marketers, that's impressions. When ads don't create revenue, that's a tough conversation with the CFO.

42:36Caro Claire Burke:Instead, invest in results your CFO will love. LinkedIn ads generates the highest ROAS of all major ad networks. So advertise on LinkedIn. Spend$250 and get a$250 credit. Just go to linkedin.com slash NPR pod. Terms and conditions apply. This message comes from Vintage, publisher of Martyr, a novel by Kava Akbar. The story of an Iranian poet and his journey to uncover a haunting family secret, Martyr, is now available in paperback.

43:09Peter Grosz:It's time for our final game, Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank. Each of our players will have 60 seconds in which to answer as many fill-in-the-blank questions about the week's news as they can. Each correct answer now worth two points. Alzo, can you give us the scores?

43:21Caro Claire Burke:Yes. Peter has two. Karen and Shane are tied up at three.

43:25Shane O'Neill:Whoa. Hey.

43:30Peter Grosz:So Karen and Shane are tied for first. Peter, you're in seconds. That means you go first. Here we go. The clock will start. We're going to begin your first question. Fill in the blank. On Wednesday, Donald Trump signed a peace plan with blank. Iran. Right. On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot ban marijuana users from owning blanks. paraphernalia? No, guns. This week, tropical storm Arthur became the first named storm of the 2026 Atlantic blank season. Hurricane. Right. On Thursday, blanks presidential center opened here in Chicago. Oh, gosh. Obama. Right. Barack Obama's a new study found roommates, roommates share 26 % of their blank with each other.

44:10Peter Grosz:DNA. No, mouth bacteria.

44:15Peter Grosz:You don't kiss your roommate. Okay, fine. Live that way. In Argentina's first game at this year's World Cup, soccer superstar Blank scored a hat trick. Lionel Messi. Messi indeed. On Wednesday, Tom Holland confirmed he'd married Blank in a private ceremony. Mrs. Holland.

44:32Caro Claire Burke:No.

44:36Peter Grosz:I don't know who he's dating. He married Zendaya, the actress. This week, a woman in Arizona who was ticketed for going 108 miles per hour in a 65 mile per hour zone explained to police she was only speeding so she could blank. She was only speeding so that she could get to Tom Holland and Zendaya's wedding. No, she was going that fast so she could make it home in time to watch Love Island. The Arizona Highway Patrol clocked this woman driving 108 miles per hour, and they managed to pull her over somehow. And when they did she said she was only speeding so that she did not miss Love Island The police charged her with quote criminal speed That's a real thing and reminded her the opening credits of Love Island are like 40 minutes long.

45:19Peter Grosz:You don't need to rush

45:20Caro Claire Burke:Also, how did Peter Gross do in our quiz? He did all right He got four right for eight more points which for now puts him in the lead with ten Thank you, Al. For now.

45:34Peter Grosz:I'm going to arbitrarily pick Shane to go next. Here we go, Shane. Fill in the blank. On Tuesday, the UK announced it was banning kids under 16 from using blank. Social media. Right. On Monday, the FBI said it had thwarted an attack in the blank event held at the White House. The UFC. Right. This week, world leaders met in France for the blank summit. G7. Right. This week, the four-ton elephant brought out to surprise guests at the Texas State Republican and convention blanked during Governor Greg Abbott's keynote speech. Took a leak. All over the convention hall floor. That's right. This week, Yum!

46:05Peter Grosz:Brands announced the sale of struggling pizza chain blank. Oh, God, this is going to break my heart. Little Caesars? No, Pizza Hut. Oh, thank God. This week, the tragic ending of a performance of Romeo and Juliet in Turkey was interrupted by blank. Orange cats. Yes, a cat walking onto stage and biting Romeo's hair as he was supposed to be dead. Amazingly, the performers managed to keep it together when the tragic ending of Romeo and Juliet was interrupted by a stray cat getting into the stage and playfully biting the putatively dead Romeo's hair. It's not the cat's fault, though. This is just what the producers get for casting an open can of tuna to play Romeo.

46:48Peter Grosz:Alzo, how did Shane do in our quiz?

46:50Caro Claire Burke:He did well. He got five right for 10 more points, which gives him a total of 13 and the lead. All right.

47:00Peter Grosz:How many, then, does Karen need to win? Five to tie, six to win. Here we go, Karen. This is for the game. Fill in the blank on Thursday. A million fans attended the parade celebrating the New York Blanks NBA tournament win. Knicks. Right. For the first time since March, the average price of blank fell below$4 a gallon. Gas. Right. This week, Kevin Warsh held his first meeting as the chairman of the blank.

47:24Shane O'Neill:The Fed.

47:25Peter Grosz:Federal Reserve. This week, a lawmaker in Connecticut was criticized after he blanked during an event celebrating firefighters. Burped. No, parked in an emergency fire lane on Wednesday. Cool. Africa CDC warned that the blank outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo may be its worst ever.

47:41Shane O'Neill:Ebola.

47:41Peter Grosz:Right on Monday, New York wine bar Lay was named best new restaurant at the Blank Awards. James Beard? Yes, even though it's still ongoing, the best headline of this year's Pride Month is blank.

47:52Shane O'Neill:Uh, yay, gay pride.

47:57Peter Grosz:Best headline for this year's Pride Month so far is, quote, enemy lesbian nuns quit convent and marry each other.

48:07Shane O'Neill:Enemy lesbian nuns.

48:10Peter Grosz:Tale as old as time. The two nuns apparently hated each other, but after deciding cloistered life wasn't in fact for them, they left the convent, moved in together to save money, and they finally confessed their feelings for each other while watching a rom-com called Love in the Villa. And they've been together ever since. So delightful. The two look forward to getting married someday and walking down the aisle to that classic gay anthem, Ave Maria.

48:40Peter Grosz:Alzo did Karen Chi do well enough to win. Nope.

48:47Caro Claire Burke:But she got five right for 10 more points, which makes her tied with Shane. So they are co-champs.

48:57Peter Grosz:In just a minute, we're going to ask our panelists to predict what will be the big surprise at Taylor Swift's wedding. But first, let me tell you that 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 Gotica writes our limericks. Our public address announcer is Paul Friedman. Our ops manager is Jasira Vardak. Thanks to the staff and crew here at the Studio Baker Theatre. B.J. Liederman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Dornbos, and Lillian King. Special thanks this week to Blythe Roberson.

49:29Peter Grosz:Peter Gwynn is our trad wife. Emma Choi is our vibe curator. Technical direction is from Lorna White. Our CFO is Colin Miller. Our production manager is Robert Newhouse. Our senior producer is Ian Chilag and the executive producer. Wait, wait, don't tell me is Mr. Mike Danforth. Now panel, what will be the big surprise at Taylor Swift's Madison Square Garden wedding? Shane O 'Neill, the chicken dance.

49:50Shane O'Neill:Taylor's version.

49:53Peter Grosz:Karen Chi.

49:54Shane O'Neill:Their first kiss is going to be on the kiss cam. Finally, Peter Gross. She won't invite her parents, but they are going to show up anyway because they tracked her there on their phones.

50:04Caro Claire Burke:And if any of that happens, panel will ask you about it on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

50:09Peter Grosz:Thank you, Alzo. Slay. Thanks also to Shane O 'Neill, Karen Chi, Peter Gross. Thanks to our fabulous audience here at the Sudebaker Theatre here in downtown Chicago, Illinois. Thanks to all of you for listening wherever you might be. I'm Peter Sagal. We'll be back with you next week.

50:33This is NPR.

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51:17Karen Chee:for details. This message comes from Capella University. That spark you feel? That's your drive for more. Capella University's FlexPath Learning Format lets you earn your degree at your pace without putting life on pause. Learn more at capella.edu.