We tackle the SOTU and Olympian Lilly King talks trash

10:47Josh Gondelman:How many times you pass gas? Exactly. Technically. Is there anyone?

10:53Alonzo Bodden:That's a very classy way to answer that, Alonzo.

10:55Josh Gondelman:Well, we're at a university. I would have just said you're fighting, kid. Exactly.

11:00Alonzo Bodden:Let her rip.

11:01Josh Gondelman:What my question is, is there anyone who doesn't know? Are people just letting it go and not realizing like, oh, wait, that was mine. Wait a minute. I got to add that one to the list. Oh, shoot. It's almost midnight. I got to get my farts in today.

11:18Faith Salie:What number are you shooting for? Well, here's the thing. Apparently, it will answer a lot of questions about digestive health and most importantly, answer the question about who dealt it. And it is being called, of course, the Fitbit for farts because the fart watch smart watch didn't do well in the focus group.

11:38Josh Gondelman:You're in the elevator. Yeah. You ruin the elevator. Right. And then you're like, sorry, I'm trying to keep my numbers up. Exactly.

11:50Faith Salie:Coming up, move over, Rick Steves. Our panelists are the travel gurus in this week's Bluff the Listener Game. 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. And just a reminder that we exist on two different planes of reality. We're flesh and blood humans in a theater in Chicago, but we're also digital entities who can automatically be transmitted to your phone as a weekly podcast. Don't forget to tap follow so you get every new episode automatically.

12:20Alonzo Bodden:This message comes from Mint Mobile. If you're tired of spending hundreds on big wireless bills, bogus fees, and free perks, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans at mintmobile.com slash switch. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. This message comes from WTTW. Join Jeffrey Baer as he tells the story of how railroads shaped Chicago. Riding the Rails with Jeffrey Baer premieres April 13th at 7 p.m. on WTTW. you. This message comes from Mattress Firm. If mornings hurt, your mattress might be why. Mattress Firm's sleep experts can match you with a Tempur-Pedic Adapt. Its unique material absorbs motion and delivers pressure-relieving support.

13:04Upgrade to a Tempur-Pedic and get next-day delivery. For the great sleep you deserve, visit Mattress Firm and learn how to get 3 % back with special financing. They make sleep easy. Restrictions apply. Next-day delivery available on select mattresses and subject to location. See store for details. This message comes from Fisher Investments. Senior Vice President Michael Hosmar explains the importance of providing a comprehensive approach for clients. The culture at Fisher Investments, it's about helping. It's about improving our clients' financial situation, advising not just for now, but all the way through, hopefully to their next generation.

13:43A well-designed financial plan will cover a number of important topics, and many of these topics are connected to each other. Fisher Investments possesses the professional expertise across all these important disciplines, from investment management to tax minimization to estate planning, you name it. Learn more at fisherinvestments.com. Investing in securities involves the risk of loss.

14:12Josh Gondelman:From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is, wait, wait, don't tell me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis. We are playing this week with Faith, Seeley, Josh Gundelman, and Alonzo Bowden. And here again is your host at the IU Auditorium in Bloomington, Indiana, Peter Segal.

14:34Faith Salie:Thank you so much. And thank you, everybody. Right now it is time for the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me Bluff the Listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play our game on the air. Hi, you're on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Hi, this is Tim Josephs. I'm calling from Greensboro, North Carolina. Greensboro, North Carolina. What do you do there? I spend time with my twin nine-year-old boys. A lot of parks, a lot of, you know, a lot of kid-related activities mostly. I bet. By the way, you have nine-year-old boys. We have news about a new medical device they're just going to love. Well, Tim, it's really nice to have you in the show.

15:14Faith Salie:You're going to play our game in which you must try to tell truth from fiction. Bill, what is Tim's topic? A new travel hack. Everybody loves travel hacks. Can't sleep in hotels? Just bring your own pillow. Are you flying Spirit Airlines? Don't fly Spirit Airlines. This week, we heard about a new travel hack to make being on the road a little easier. Our panelists are going to tell you about it. Pick the one who's telling the truth, and you'll win the wait waiter of your choice. on your voicemail. You ready to go? I am ready. All right. First, let's hear from Alonzo Bowden.

15:45Josh Gondelman:Marcus Anderson loves to travel, but hates to pay for it. So he's mastered the crying hack. Marcus, a freelance videographer, does over 200 nights a year at hotels and said he got tired of being nickel and dimed with room charges. One recent work trip, he filmed an acting class as they learn to cry on cue. Marcus decided to try it. Turns out he has a gift. Now, whenever he interacts with hotel staff on business trips, he is actively sobbing. I've had charges removed. I've been given upgrades. Once I got a free room when my card was declined, I just told him I maxed out my card on my travel for the kids game and the kids lost.

16:27Josh Gondelman:He almost got caught once. Just as he was getting his sports tiers ready, the desk manager at a Boise Holiday Inn asked how his kid's piano career was going when Marcus remembered he'd used the piano story there before. How'd he get through it all? By crying, of course.

16:48Faith Salie:A frequent traveler who's discovered that simply by crying at the right time in front of the right people gets them all kinds of perks. Your next travel tip comes from Faith Saley.

17:00Alonzo Bodden:Ever find yourself on the road without enough clean underwear? Well, fitness influencer Tara Woodcox has a hack for that, so don't get your knickers in a twist. Actually, do wad up your panties, she says, and shove them into the hotel room coffee maker. You close it, you press brew, and it puts scorching hot water through it, Woodcox explains on TikTok. You got yourself a cleaner pair of underwear to wear. You always thought hotel room coffee tasted generally like crap. But now you can really detect the flavor of thong. She then suggests drying them with a blow dryer so you're not walking around with fresh-brewed drip.

17:48Alonzo Bodden:Woodcox's followers can hardly wait for more hacks, like perhaps how to use the coffee creamer as a leave-in conditioner. And if you're really lazy, the ice bucket as a chamber pot.

18:04Faith Salie:Run out of underwear in the road? Just clean your old pair in the coffee pot. What else are you going to use it for? Your last road remedy comes from Josh Gondelman. Pet stores across the United States have reported shortages of Siamese fighting fish after a viral TikTok blew the lid off a decades-old long-haul trucker practice. Truck drivers don't want you to know this, but when they have to stay up all night, they keep a little fish tank in their cab and let the fish bite their fingers to keep them awake. Said Dr. Points, the rewards god, an adult man who calls himself that, slash travel influencer.

18:40And he was right about the truckers wanting to keep their secret, because now all the fish are being snapped up by college students trying to pull all-nighters during finals. Young adults are calling the trend finger-baiting, either despite or because of how gross it sounds. I can't find any dang fish anymore, lamented Clem Swenson, a career long hauler. I've had to resort to biting my own hand or slathering my fingers in barbecue sauce and enticing a stray dog to do it. On a brighter note, the paucity of betta fish has caused Swenson to bond more closely with the one he already has. He even gave his aquatic companion a radio call sign of his very own, Vince Gills.

19:28All right.

19:29Faith Salie:So this week we learned about a travel hack being offered by someone who assures us it works. Is it from Alonzo Bowden, our frequent traveler, who says if you can learn to cry on cue, there's no end to the upgrades you can get? From Faith Saley, if you run out of underwear, just use your hotel coffee pot to clean it. Or from Josh Gondelman, the secret the truckers have known for years, you want to stay awake? Put your hand in a bowl with a betta fish. Which of these is the real travel hack we learned about this week? Yeah, I, sadly, I think I have to go with the grossest one, with the coffee. So your choice is Faith's story.

20:08Faith Salie:Well, to bring you the correct answer, we spoke to an expert in this particular field. You would be better served washing underwear in the sink with shampoo if you were in a hotel than you are just putting it in the Kureg. That was Patrick Richardson, a.k.a. the laundry guy, a preeminent laundry influencer, talking about what you can do that's better than putting your underwear in the coffee maker. Congratulations, you were right. It was, in fact, Faith's story. You won a point for her.

20:39Alonzo Bodden:Thanks, Jim.

20:39Faith Salie:She always appreciates. And you've won our game. Thank you so much for playing. Thank you. Take care.

20:46Josh Gondelman:It's time for coffee. It's time for tea.

20:56Faith Salie:And now the game where we ask people who have won everything to try one more game. We call it Not My Job. After dominating national collegiate competition as a swimmer here at Indiana, Lily King went on to win multiple medals at three different Olympics, including two golds and setting one Olympic record in the breaststroke along the way.

21:22Faith Salie:She probably would have won gold at last week's Olympics, too, if they'd only let you swim down the bobsled track. We are delighted she is with us now. Lily King, welcome to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. It's great to have you here. Now, I know now that you still live near here, here in Bloomington, right? Where you, of course, you went to college after going up not far from here. And I was going to ask if you're still recognized some years after graduation when you walk around campus, but based on the reaction you got, I'm guessing yes?

21:55Alonzo Bodden:Yeah, I mean, every once in a while. I kind of live a little away from campus now, so I think everybody in my neighborhood kind of recognizes me, which is weird when you're trying to take the garbage out with your robe on. um but but yeah every once in a while you get a get a hay here there and that's how my life is now

22:11Faith Salie:it also you also train you still train here at the pool I I have to say I retired in August

22:17Alonzo Bodden:retired from from competitive yeah all done but yes uh I did train there all through my career and

22:22Faith Salie:um yeah about 10 years in that pool wow did you enjoy after you graduated coming back here and getting in the pool with all these younger swimmers and just continuing to kick their ass

22:31Alonzo Bodden:Yes, always.

22:32Faith Salie:Always. Yes. Because you really...

22:39Faith Salie:You're not that old, but you don't have to be old to really enjoy beating younger people. It's just... Oh, for sure. It's a thing. No, it doesn't get old ever. When you were growing up, you came from an athletic family. Your father's a track coach, right? How did you know, A, that swimming was your sport, and B, that you were particularly good at it?

22:56Alonzo Bodden:Well, I was really bad at everything else, so that was a good giveaway at the beginning. Wait, maybe I'm an Olympic swimmer then. You never know. Have you tried Olympic swimming, Josh?

23:08Faith Salie:You never know. It's the last one I've been waiting to attempt.

23:13Alonzo Bodden:Gymnastics career didn't really take off. It did not pan out. You know, I was about this size at 14, so it didn't work for me either. So it's okay.

23:20Faith Salie:I love this story. I understand that your husband, who was a fellow member of the IU swim team, proposed to you after you had just won a meet or an event?

23:32Alonzo Bodden:Yes. So I got proposed to at Olympic trials. And the security at Olympic trials is, like, really tight. Like, you know, trying to get up on the pool deck, there's guys with, like, army guys with machine guns, like, ready to... It's wild. I'm like, guys, this is a swim meet. It's not that deep.

23:50Faith Salie:You're all wearing bathing suits. Where do they expect you to be hiding a weapon?

23:53Alonzo Bodden:Exactly. so I walked down the stairs and I'm gasping for, you know, I just finished the race. I'm exhausted. And I saw he was on deck and he was not supposed to be on deck. And I was like, how'd you get down here? Like, they're going to take you out. Like, what are you doing? He had murdered 11 security guards. Well, I'm pretty sure he used to be in the CIA, but we don't have to talk about that. So yeah. So then he proposed right then and there.

24:19Faith Salie:Really? Did he do the classic thing? Get down to one knee. Oh yeah.

24:21Alonzo Bodden:Like you had a swim cap on when he proposed to you. So this is funny. So I didn't because one of my best friends who I trained with here, Annie Laser, she's Olympic bronze medalist from Tokyo Games. And she was a coach. So she told me, she's like, hey, just take your cap off after your race. And I was like, we're very honest with each other, sometimes to the point where it's not so nice. And I was like, if you just tell me I look awful in my cap, like just tell the truth. And she's like, no, just you got to trust me to just take your cap off. So funny. So I got a good friend. It is. So I get out after my race.

24:55Alonzo Bodden:I take my cap off and I'm looking in the stands for her and I couldn't see her. And I was like, what the hell? I took it off for nothing. I know. I'm like rolling my eyes.

25:04Faith Salie:Did you then hear her voice yelling? You also might want to put on some makeup.

25:08Alonzo Bodden:Yeah, no, it was too late. It was too late. Why did you tell me to do my nails for the Olympic trials? Exactly.

25:14Faith Salie:And there your husband was and he got down on one knee and he proposed right there in the deck.

25:16Alonzo Bodden:There you go.

25:17Faith Salie:Right.

25:17Alonzo Bodden:Yeah.

25:17Faith Salie:And do you think he would have proposed if you had lost?

25:23Alonzo Bodden:So I was very confident that that wasn't going to happen for myself. The engagement. Or the losing. Right. Oh. Sorry. But he was like, well, if you got third, I thought I'd make you happy. I was like, that was a very kind thought. But I don't, I would have said yes, obviously. I don't think I would have been super happy at the moment when it happened.

25:49Faith Salie:So you're saying, and I've met enough really high elite athletes knowing that they all expect to win. You all expect to win every time, which is part of the secret. And so I imagine that if you hadn't won that day and made the Olympic team, you would have said yes to his proposal. But it might have been more like a, okay, fine.

26:06Alonzo Bodden:Maybe, maybe. It was, you know, separation of church and state there. so lily if you if you expect to win which is part of what makes you a champion do you get nervous did i know you're retired did you get nervous yeah yeah absolutely especially like olympic trials when you go in and the whole the whole point of the meet is you gotta you gotta be top two so there's usually you know 100 to 150 people in your event and only two make the olympic team so pretty much especially if you're expecting to make it going into that final you just gotta I think don't mess up.

26:35Josh Gondelman:Do competitors talk? Do you talk to me? Like you said, it's 150 people. And I'm guessing the top group you expect to win. Do you guys like talk smack to each other before you jump in the pool?

26:46Alonzo Bodden:I do. They didn't like it that much. No, wait a minute. Okay. What is it? Hold on.

26:51Faith Salie:We had read that one of your secrets is you like, you psych out your opponents. You play some mind games. Looking pretty dry today. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, fine. Trash talk. I get it. Some of the greatest athletes do it. but how do you trash talk someone when you're both underwater?

27:06Alonzo Bodden:Yeah. You know, in one Olympic final, I did make eye contact with another girl off of a turn. So that was, I think, as close as we could get in the water. That was pretty crazy. You should be an American girl doll. Thank you. I'll take it.

27:21Josh Gondelman:So in the swimming world, sorry, Peter. It's okay. But in the swimming world, you're like out of control. Like you're talking smack on the block. Are they happy you retired? Yeah, they should be.

27:30Alonzo Bodden:I was off the rails there for a couple of years.

27:32Josh Gondelman:She was the Dennis Rodman of international.

27:35Alonzo Bodden:I take that as a great compliment.

27:37Faith Salie:You should. Well, yeah. Well, Lily King, we are delighted to talk to you, but we've asked you here to play a game we're calling.

27:43Josh Gondelman:Lily King, meet these Lil Kings.

27:48Faith Salie:That's right. We're going to ask you three questions about short kings.

27:52Alonzo Bodden:All right. All right.

27:55Faith Salie:Two or three questions, right, about men of less than average height. and you win our prize, one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose for their voicemail. Bill, who is Lily King playing for?

28:06Josh Gondelman:Olivia Trevino and Leo Burton of Bloomington, Indiana.

28:10Faith Salie:I'm guessing your fans. Are you ready to do this?

28:15Alonzo Bodden:I'm ready.

28:16Faith Salie:Okay, here we go. Here's your first question. For centuries, psychologists have talked about the Napoleonic complex or the idea that short men can be more aggressive or ambitious than taller men. but a 2007 English scientific study disproved it. How did they do that? Was it A, by hitting short men with sticks and seeing if they got angrier than tall men, B, by asking short men how much they might enjoy conquering Europe, or C, simply by asking a bunch of short men if they were compensating for something, and they all said, no!

28:55Alonzo Bodden:I'm going to go C.

28:56Faith Salie:You're going to go C? Yeah. Your choice is C. They just asked them and they all yelled no. No, it was actually A.

29:01Alonzo Bodden:No.

29:01Faith Salie:It was. What they did, and this is true, is they would wrap men of various heights on the knuckles with sticks. And they noted that shorter men would react with less anger than taller men.

29:16Alonzo Bodden:Interesting. Yeah.

29:17Faith Salie:All right. Two more chances. You get these right, you win. Here we go. It might surprise you who is a short king or was, as in which of these examples? A, Neil Armstrong, the astronaut, who meant to say that's one step for a small man. B, Joseph Stalin, who was so short, Harry Truman used to call him Lil Squirt. Or C, Dwayne the Rock Johnson, who originally wrestled under the nickname The Pebble.

29:49Alonzo Bodden:All right, it's not The Pebble. I know that. I'm hearing B. B sounds good.

29:55Faith Salie:Yes, it's B.

29:57Alonzo Bodden:You guys gotta like give me some YMCA. It all sounds the same.

30:03Faith Salie:I'm just asking though, did you rely on the audience that you're swimming? It's like, what stroke? What should I do? Oh, fast? Fast? Okay, everyone wants to go out and go fast. A little bit. Yeah, he's called Little Squirt, you know. Alright, last question. If you get this one right, you win. Alan Ladd, a star from the golden age of Hollywood, was only 5 '6". And to make up for that, the producers of his movies would do what? A, dig holes for his taller co-stars to stand in, B, put one foot high lifts into all his shoes, or C, make sure that every other actor in the entire movie was five foot two or shorter.

30:40Alonzo Bodden:They're all saying A.

30:42Faith Salie:They're all saying A.

30:43Alonzo Bodden:I feel like I'm really using my phone a friend. You are. Okay, I'll go A.

30:46Faith Salie:It was A, yes.

30:48Alonzo Bodden:A hole? The lifted shoes makes way more.

30:51Faith Salie:So if he was talking to, say, a taller woman, they would dig a hole and the woman would stand in the hole and appear shorter. And you're maybe saying, well, wait a minute. Great. Okay. A hole. What if the actor had to move during the shot? Easy answer. They'd dig a ditch.

31:06Josh Gondelman:Bill, how did Lily King do in our quiz? Six time Olympic medalist wins the big one. Two out of three on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

31:15Alonzo Bodden:With a lot of help.

31:16Faith Salie:With a lot of help. That's all right. Lily King is a six-time Olympic medalist and a legend of Hoosier athletics. Lily King, thank you so much for joining us on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Thank you. Lily King, everybody.

31:37Faith Salie:In just a minute, we finally take pickleball down in our Listener Liberty Challenge game. 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.

31:56Alonzo Bodden:This message comes from Mint Mobile. If you're tired of spending hundreds on big wireless bills, bogus fees, and free perks, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans at mintmobile.com slash switch. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. This message comes from WTTW. Join Jeffrey Baer as he tells the story of how railroads shaped Chicago. Riding the Rails with Jeffrey Baer premieres April 13th at 7 p.m. on WTTW. This message comes from Mattress Firm. If mornings hurt, your mattress might be why. Mattress Firm's sleep experts can match you with a Tempur-Pedic Adapt. Its unique material absorbs motion and delivers pressure-relieving support.

32:40Upgrade to a Tempur-Pedic and get next-day delivery. For the great sleep you deserve. Visit Mattress Firm and learn how to get 3 % back with special financing. They make sleep easy. Restrictions apply. Next day delivery available on select mattresses and subject to location. See store for details. This message comes from Fisher Investments. Senior Vice President Michael Hosmar explains the importance of providing a comprehensive approach for clients. The culture at Fisher Investments, it's about helping. It's about improving our clients' financial situation, advising not just for now, but all the way through, hopefully, to their next generation.

33:19A well-designed financial plan will cover a number of important topics, and many of these topics are connected to each other. Fisher Investments possesses the professional expertise across all these important disciplines, from investment management to tax minimization to estate planning, you name it. Learn more at FisherInvestments.com. Investing in securities involves the risk of loss.

33:48Josh Gondelman:From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis. We are playing this week with Josh Gondelman, Faith Saley, and Alonzo Budden. And here again is your host at the IU Auditorium in Bloomington, Indiana. Peter, there you go.

34:07Faith Salie:Thank you so much, everybody. Thank you. Coming up to celebrate the 50th season of Survivor, we're going to play the 50 ,000th season of the Listener Limerick Challenge. If you'd like to come help celebrate, give us a call at 1-888-wait-wait. That's 1-888-924-8924. But right now, panel, it's time to introduce a new game that we call... Cleaning Out the Cabinet. While President Trump got the attention this week, his cabinet has been busy making news too. In fact, there's so much of it that we have to go through it all rapid fire, true-false style. You ready to go? Oh, boy. Okay, we'll start with Josh.

34:48Faith Salie:Josh, true or false? On a recent flight on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's luxury jet, her closest aide, Corey Lewandowski, demanded the pilot turn around and go back because Noem had forgotten her phone. False. It was like a blanket. Yes, she had forgotten her favorite blanket. Alonzo, true or false, when the pilot wouldn't turn around, Lewandowski fired him in the middle of the flight. True. Right. Faith, true or false, the pilot then pointed out that if he was fired, there'd be nobody to fly the plane, so Lewandowski had to unfire him. True. Right. Josh, true or false, more recent reports say it wasn't a blanket at all.

35:30Faith Salie:it was Gnome's, quote, mystery bag with something in it so embarrassing they had to come up with the blanket story instead. I'm just going to vote with my heart and say I hope it's true. It is true. Wow. Alonzo, true or false, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez de Ramer is under investigation for taking luxury vacations at government expense, drinking during work hours, taking her staff to strip clubs, and having an affair with a member of her security team. Absolutely true. It is true. Faith, true or false, because of this, her husband, Shonda Remmer, has started spending every day at the Labor Department just to keep an eye on her.

36:07Faith Salie:False. Right, it is false. He has been permanently banned from the department for sexually harassing female employees there. And that is our cabinet clean-out. We'll do it again as soon as the cabinet gets filled up again.

36:24Faith Salie:All right, panel, some more questions for you about the rest of the week's news. Faith, there's a new exciting bedtime trend, taking what with you to bed?

36:33Alonzo Bodden:Oh, isn't it kind of everything?

36:35Faith Salie:Yes, it's everything. That's the answer. It's called bedtime stacking. And it works like this. You don't want to get out of bed, so you bring all your lotions, your lip masks, your journals, your books, your drinks and snacks, and stack them all around you in the bed. And you can stay there. Now, you don't have to bring your mice. they'll show up by themselves in a few hours.

36:57Josh Gondelman:That sounds like not stacking just your first apartment in New York City.

37:03Alonzo Bodden:It also kind of sounds like depression.

37:07Josh Gondelman:A little bit.

37:08Alonzo Bodden:Because, like, you just don't want to get out of bed.

37:10Faith Salie:Exactly. But all this stuff, I'm just old school. When I'm in bed, I just want a book, good lighting, my fingers in a tub of hummus, you know?

37:22Alonzo Bodden:I don't know if I wanted to know that.

37:26Josh Gondelman:I don't know who does these studies.

37:29Faith Salie:This is like, this is a thing that somebody put themselves on. So when I go to bed, I like to do bedtime stack. I like to put everything in my bed so I never have to go to bed. I have access to all my things. And it went viral and now it's a trend and people are doing it.

37:41Alonzo Bodden:You know, it occurs to me, some people just shouldn't have influence.

37:45Faith Salie:Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's like, you don't need to do that. Right.

37:52Alonzo Bodden:Just because you saw somebody do it and tell you about it Yeah

37:56Faith Salie:We should be able to like take that away from Great We should get There should be people that are outfluencers Yes That see that trend taking off and they go Stop it Stop it

38:07Josh Gondelman:Yeah that's called your mom Mom just walks in the room What the hell are you doing And just smacks you Put that stuff away

38:16Alonzo Bodden:Get your fingers out of the hummus, Peter

38:25Faith Salie: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 back at the Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago, our home, or you can catch us on the road. We'll be in Savannah, Georgia on March 26th and in San Diego on April 30th. For tickets and information to all of our live events, Just go to nprpresents.org. Hi, Yaron. Wait, wait, don't tell me.

38:53Alonzo Bodden:Hi, Peter. This is Katie from Burnsville, Minnesota. Oh, Burnsville.

38:56Faith Salie:I actually know it. Out there near the Twin Cities, what do you do there?

39:01Alonzo Bodden:I am the administrative manager and graduate program coordinator for the Department of Pharmaceutics at the University of Minnesota.

39:09Faith Salie:And you have a business card the size of a 9x11 sheet of paper, right? About, yeah. I love the golden gophers. They're a fine place. Well, welcome to the show, Katie. 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, two of the limericks will be a winner. Ready to play?

39:28Josh Gondelman:I'm ready.

39:29Faith Salie:Here's your first limerick. At cross country, my teeth I am gripping, and the sweaters I make are well-fitting.

39:37Josh Gondelman:After stitches and pearls, through the slopes I will hurl. My powers to ski come from...

39:46Faith Salie:Knitting? Right! After winning a silver medal at the recent Winter Olympics, cross-country skier Ben Ogden credited his success to his hobby of knitting, saying it helps him relax. Isn't it sweet? He needed something to take his mind off the stress of skiing, but he still wanted to be holding little poles.

40:10Alonzo Bodden:I see like a season two of heated rivalry with this as a subplot. There's something very... Why are you looking at me like that? Is it because you're a straight? No. There's something very sexy about a hot athlete knitting.

40:26Faith Salie:But that's the thing. Like a heated rivalry about this guy is like, oh, I like to knit. And the other guy's like, oh, I like to knit too. And they sit there and they knit for six episodes.

40:33Josh Gondelman:No, it's the knitting guy versus the crocheting guy. Oh, yeah. That's the rivalry. The obviously the crocheting guy. Needles clacking.

40:41Alonzo Bodden:and it's also just the expansiveness of their personality. That's the sound of romance, clapping. Clacking.

40:52Faith Salie:All right, here is your next limerick.

40:54Josh Gondelman:At this age, heavy stones we're not hurling, but on ice we will set them a-twirling. In the house we score points with our old creaking joints. After pickleball, we'll take up... Curling?

41:10Faith Salie:Curling, yes. According to Bloomberg News, curling clubs are trying to leverage the excitement of the Olympics to make their sport the new pickleball. Just like pickleball, it's easy to learn and fun to play. And of course, there's nothing seniors like better than walking on ice. They call it the devil shuffleboard. Yes. Imagine shuffleboard, but you can break your hip at any time. All right, here is your last limerick.

41:43Josh Gondelman:We've all heard this warning before, G. There aren't enough bees. We need more, G. So I'm bringing my queens to some real swinging scenes. For my bees, I'm thirsty and... Yep.

42:00Alonzo Bodden:You know, you're really pushing this Minnesota nice right now. Orgy. Yes, orgy. Oh, my gosh. Or as they call it in Minnesota, a potluck. We know what you're doing. Yeah, that's right.

42:16Faith Salie:Okay. A bee orgy in Belgium. I'm jealous. I can't even score an invite to a sea orgy. So the bee orgy is exactly what it sounds like. Thousands of beekeepers bringing an endangered species of bee to Belgium just so their bees can get freaky with each other and that will save the species from extinction. It's all fun and games for the queen bees, right? That's what it's about. Once they've mated, they go home and establish their own colonies. But when a male bee mates, his penis falls off and he dies. As it should be. Am I right, ladies? Bill, how did Katie do on our quiz? Three in a row. Katie's great.

43:02Faith Salie:You won. Well done, Katie. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Thank you for playing. Take care.

43:10Alonzo Bodden:You too. Honey, honey, honeybee. Honey, honey, honeybee.

43:16Josh Gondelman:Be my bee, my honeybee. Love is what you bring to me. Even sugar's not as sweet as my honeybee.

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45:15Faith Salie:Now I'm afraid it is 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 is now worth two points. Bill, can you give us the scores?

45:26Josh Gondelman:Josh has three, Alonzo has four, and Faith has five.

45:31Faith Salie:Oh, my goodness. Well, that means we know who's going first, and that would be Josh. The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank. On Thursday, Hillary Clinton testified in a congressional investigation into the blank files. Epstein. Right. On Monday, a bomb cyclone left several states on the East Coast dealing with over two feet of blank. Snow. Right. This week, the White House announced it was withholding$250 million in blank funds from Minnesota. It's health care. Yeah, Medicaid. On Tuesday, the U.S. lifted a shelter-in-place order for Americans in blank. Mexico?

46:05Faith Salie:Right. This week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said a grandfather would be allowed to keep his personalized license plate that reads blank. Horny grandpa? No. His plate, which he now can use, is PB4WeGo.

46:29That's pretty good.

46:31Faith Salie:On Monday, researchers said they developed a single vaccine that could protect against cold, flu, and blank. COVID? Yes. Wow. On Thursday, the 2026 NFL blank began in Indianapolis. Combine? Right. This week, a man in Ohio running from the police was caught after he hid in a curbside trash can until blank. He sneezed and they found him? No, until the garbage truck came along and tried to put him in the truck. All right. The whole thing was caught on video. You can see it. The guy jumps into it. A little while later, truck pulls up, attaches it to the thing. The machine picks it up. And the next thing you know, the guy jumps out of it.

47:05Faith Salie:Garbage man is freaked out. The guy starts running away because the cops, it turns out, were like right there. He was caught. and in addition to the charges they were arresting him for, he was fined$10 for being in the recycling bin. And he clearly should have been in the hiding from the police bin. Bill, I think Josh did pretty well, right?

47:24Josh Gondelman:Very well. Six right, 12 more points. 15 is the total. Very good.

47:31Faith Salie:Thank you, Bill. Very good, Josh. All right, Alonzo, you were in second place, so it is your turn now. Here we go, fill in the blank. On Thursday, nuclear talks between the U.S. and blank began in Geneva.

47:41Josh Gondelman:Iran.

47:41Faith Salie:Right. On Tuesday, Representative Al Green was escorted out of the blank for protesting.

47:45Josh Gondelman:State of Union.

47:46Faith Salie:Right. In response to last year's multi-million dollar heist, the director of the blank announced she was resigning. The Louvre. Right. This week, a man in California was charged with a misdemeanor after he filmed himself blanking. Ooh. Scooping up the hummus. No. No.

48:03Faith Salie:He filmed himself giving a wild hawk a sip of his buzz balls alcoholic beverage.

48:10Josh Gondelman:I did hear about that, yeah.

48:12Faith Salie:According to a new study, forever chemicals may be causing men to blank faster.

48:16Josh Gondelman:I don't know, die faster?

48:17Faith Salie:Give it to you, age faster so they die sooner. On Monday, budget airline blank reached a deal that will keep it from going out of business. Spirit? Right. This week, the infamously unflattering picture of the former Prince Andrew in the back of a police car after his arrest was briefly on display in blank.

48:36Josh Gondelman:Everywhere?

48:37Faith Salie:No, yeah. No, but it was framed and displayed briefly at the Louvre. This is the second time in two months that someone managed to sneak a framed photo into the Louvre and hang it on the museum's wall until it was found and removed. But this time, there is some artistic merit to it. If you haven't seen it, this photo of Andrew really answers the question, what if Edvard Munch's The Scream was a painting of an old pedophile?

49:06Faith Salie:Bill, how did Alonzo do in our quiz? Very close game.

49:10Josh Gondelman:Five right, 10 more points, 14, just one behind Josh. All right.

49:20Faith Salie:How many, then, does Faith need to win? Five to tie, six to win. Here we go, Faith. This is for the game. On Wednesday, confirmation hearings began for Casey Means, Donald Trump's nominee for blank. Surgeon General. Right. Following a Supreme Court ruling, FedEx sued the Trump administration demanding a blank rebate.

49:39Alonzo Bodden:Tariff.

49:40Faith Salie:Right. This week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Postal Service could not be sued for intentionally withholding people's blank. Mail. Right. On Thursday, police in New York said they'd arrested a man who they claimed was involved in a massive blank fight. Snowball. Right. This week, a man in Italy got in trouble with authorities after he trained his dog to blank.

49:58Alonzo Bodden:To do mountaineering.

50:00Faith Salie:No, to take his trash bags and bring them out and illegally dump them by the side of the road. Good dog. On Monday, NASA once again delayed their mission to the blank. To the moon. Right. On Wednesday, Wu-Tang Clan, Lauryn Hill, and Joy Division were named as possible nominees to the blank. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Right. This week, police in the UK were able to apprehend a suspect who jumped the fence into a farm as he was running away, but was stopped there by blank. Uh, uh, pigs. No, a herd of llamas. Ah. Cops say the man was trying to evade police by trespassing onto a farm, but got caught because he was immediately confronted by eight llamas who formed a circle around him and would not let him leave.

50:41Faith Salie:I don't know about you, but I'm going to be very disappointed if this does not result in a new cop show called Llama Force. Bill, did Faith do well enough to win?

50:51Josh Gondelman:She got six right for 12 more points with a total of 17. Faith is this week's winner.

51:02Faith Salie:In just a minute, we're going to ask our panelists to predict, now that they've done American Girl Dolls, what will be the next famous toy to get an update? 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 Godica writes our limericks. Our public address announcer is Paul Friedman. BJ Lederman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Dronbos, and Lillian King. Yes, we've got one too. Special thanks to Blythe Robertson and Monica Hickey.

51:31Faith Salie:Peter Gwynn is our llama wrangler. 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 Chillog, and the executive producer of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is Mike Danforth. Now, panel, what toy is getting the next big update? Alonzo Bowden.

51:49Josh Gondelman:Hot Wheels cars will come with Apple CarPlay. Faith Saley.

51:55Alonzo Bodden:G.I. Joe is going to become G.I. Bro, and he comes with a rucksack full of protein powder and a podcast studio. And Josh Gondelman. microplastic machines. The toy car is small enough to go straight into your bloodstream. Well, if any of that happens, panel, we're going to ask you about it on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

52:16Faith Salie:Thank you so much, Bill Curtis. Thanks also to Alonzo Bowden, Faith Saley, and Josh Gondelman. Thanks to the staff and crew at IU Auditorium. Special thanks to Amy O'Shaughnessy and Alex Chambers at WFIU. Thanks to our fabulous audience who came out to see us here in Bloomington. and to all of you wherever you may be for listening. I'm Peter Sagal. We'll see you next week.

53:03This is NPR.

53:06Alonzo Bodden:This message comes from Mint Mobile. If you're tired of spending hundreds on big wireless bills, bogus fees, and free perks, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans at mintmobile.com slash switch. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details.