美国国家公共电台 NPR Knowledge By Nature

Knowledge By Nature

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0006:56repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser 1 to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. JONATHAN COULTON: From NPR and WNYC, coming to you from The Bell House in beautiful Brooklyn, N.Y., it's NPR's hour of puzzles, word games and trivia, ASK ME ANOTHER. I'm Jonathan Coulton. And now here's your host, Ophira Eisenberg.

(APPLAUSE)

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST: 

Thank you, Jonathan. We have a great show for you. Four brilliant contestants 2 are backstage entering the "Hamilton" ticket lottery 3. And depending on how that goes, they might come out and play some nerdy games with us. But only one will be our big winner. And we've all already won on this show because our special guests are ridiculous. Starring as Alexander Hamilton in the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, we have Javier Munoz. And starring as Police Chief Jim Hopper in the Netflix series "Stranger Things," we have David Harbour.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Now, both of these actors are in hugely popular shows, shows that your friends won't stop asking you if you've seen. And they both take place in America's past. One is set during a time when presidents were white males, technology was antiquated 4 and money equaled power and the other is a Broadway musical about Alexander Hamilton.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Let's get things started with our first two contestants. First up, Vanessa Konkel. You're applying to nursing school and you are really good at giving homemade gifts.

VANESSA KONKEL: I try to be.

EISENBERG: OK.

KONKEL: (Laughter).

EISENBERG: I just love these two things about you immediately.

KONKEL: (Laughter).

EISENBERG: You're taking care of people in every way. Let's talk about the gifts. What kind of gifts are you making?

KONKEL: Well, I make a lot of candles. We've been making bacon (laughter) and meat products...

EISENBERG: Listen, OK...

KONKEL: (Laughter) OK.

EISENBERG: ...I'm going to give you candles. Candles sound tough to make but...

KONKEL: It's not hard at all (laughter).

EISENBERG: But the bacon - when you say you're making bacon...

KONKEL: We don't make the pigs.

(LAUGHTER)

KONKEL: We get pork belly 5 and then we brine it and smoke it and then slice it and freeze it (laughter).

EISENBERG: And then you give that away.

KONKEL: We mostly eat it.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: All right, so this is an idea of a gift you could give but then it's like, no.

KONKEL: Yeah, but it's too good to give (laughter).

EISENBERG: Yeah, very good. Your opponent is Jessie Gillan. You are a web designer for an art gallery and live update the gallery's website during big auctions 6. Are you ever surprised at the amount a masterpiece goes for?

JESSIE GILLAN: Totally, yeah.

EISENBERG: Like, as in...

GILLAN: It's fairly gross to think about how much money people spend on artworks, yes.

EISENBERG: Yeah?

GILLAN: Yeah, when, like - I would think, like, a - you can buy a car, obviously, for a lot of the money that people spend on artworks, which is shocking to me.

EISENBERG: Yeah, they should spend less on art.

GILLAN: Yeah, I mean, it's an investment, I guess. That's what we say. But, like, I don't know if it - I mean, sure.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: I'm just sort of making fun of the idea of it. But can you give me, like, an approximate price of a, like, I don't know what kind of artists you're dealing 7 with.

GILLAN: Picasso, Moreau, Dali.

EISENBERG: Yeah, yeah, OK.

GILLAN: Like, big names, yeah.

EISENBERG: Sure, OK, so the last Moreau that sold, what kind of money are we talking?

GILLAN: Usually around maybe 10 to 15,000.

EISENBERG: Ten to $15,000 dollars, that's it?

GILLAN: That's it. You can have one. You can bring the museum home.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: I mean, that sounds strangely affordable 8, right?

COULTON: Yeah, why are we not buying art all the time?

EISENBERG: I know.

(LAUGHTER)

GILLAN: Yeah, just do it, I guess.

EISENBERG: I mean, I could buy that, like, after this show, you know? One of these shows.

(LAUGHTER)

GILLAN: NPR.

COULTON: We get all that sweet public radio money.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: OK, Vanessa and Jessie, the first of you who wins two of our games will move on to the final round at the end of the show. Are you ready to play?

KONKEL: Sure.

GILLAN: Sure.

EISENBERG: OK, so we're going to start with a trivia game called Knowledge by Nature. The song "O.P.P." by the band Naughty By Nature is more than 25 years old. Yeah, let that sink in, everybody. So we're celebrating that life is both fragile and fleeting 9 with a game where every answer is three letters that rhyme with "O.P.P."

COULTON: So if I said, you down with a bacon, lettuce 10 and tomato sandwich? You'd answer, you down with BLT? Groaning 11 is appropriate.

KONKEL: Yeah, you know me.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Exactly. So buzz in to answer and the winner will be one step closer to the final round at the end of the show. Here we go. You down with the cable TV channel that airs "The Walking Dead" and "Better Call Saul?"

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Vanessa.

KONKEL: You down with AMC (laughter)?

EISENBERG: Yeah, that is correct.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Are you a fan of "Better Call Saul?"

KONKEL: Yes. I like AMC. They do a good job.

EISENBERG: They do a...

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: You down with the three-letter suffix 12 at the end of a verb that indicates a present participle or a gerund?

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Vanessa.

KONKEL: You down with I-N-G?

EISENBERG: Yeah, that's right.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: I feel like our listeners more than other listeners know what a gerund is.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: That is probably true.

EISENBERG: It's not just a guy I dated.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: You dated a guy named Gerund?

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: Hey, it's Gerund. What are you doing?

EISENBERG: Leaving.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: You down with a form of long-term birth control that's considered 99.9 percent effective?

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Vanessa.

KONKEL: You down with IUD?

EISENBERG: Yeah, that's right.

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COULTON: You down with the number 45 in Roman numerals?

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Jesse.

EISENBERG: Yeah.

GILLAN: You down with - Sorry, I should talk it out.

COULTON: Yeah, you've got to think about it a second.

GILLAN: V-L, no, never mind.

EISENBERG: You're close. No, talk it out. You're doing great. I'm with you.

GILLAN: L-V - that's it. That's all I know. Oh, L-V-V? That's not right.

EISENBERG: OK.

GILLAN: Oh, I know what it is now.

EISENBERG: You know what it is now?

GILLAN: Yeah.

ART CHUNG: I'll give her a shot.

GILLAN: Ok, X-L-V.

EISENBERG: Yeah, that is correct.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: But I feel like you bring up a good point, Jessie. When are we going to pull the plug on Roman numerals already, right?

(LAUGHTER)

GILLAN: Any day now.

COULTON: Yeah, they're no good.

EISENBERG: What do we need them for?

COULTON: They're worse numerals.

EISENBERG: All right, this is your last clue. You down with the country where you'd find Dubai and Abu Dhabi?

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Vanessa.

KONKEL: You down with the UAE?

EISENBERG: That is correct, yes.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Puzzle guru Art Chung, how did our contestants do?

CHUNG: Well done, Vanessa, you're one step closer to the final round.

(APPLAUSE)