WWDTM: The Calm Before the Storm

Speaker 1 This message comes from NPR sponsor Patagonia. As environmental progress stalls, Patagonia believes it's on businesses to step up.

Speaker 1 The company knows it isn't perfect, but it's proving businesses can make a profit without bankrupting the planet. Explore more at patagonia.com/slash impact.

Speaker 1 Hey, it's Peter Sagal here, and I want to tell you about some exciting things that are coming up in this podcast feed.

Speaker 1 Other than the than just me telling you about exciting things coming up in the podcast feed. The Democratic National Convention is in Chicago this year and we realized so are we.

Speaker 1 So WaitWait is going to the convention. We'll be bringing you bonus podcasts with our exclusive convention coverage talking about the things no one else is brave enough to.

Speaker 1 And WaitWait producers Ian Chilog and Mike Danforth are bringing back How to Do Everything. It's my wife's favorite comedy podcast from NPR.
And I wish I was kidding.

Speaker 1 We'll have fresh fresh episodes for you right here in the feed. Get ready for all this new stuff coming your way.
Don't be scared by what's new. Embrace it.
You'll love it.

Speaker 3 From NPR and WBEZ, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR news quiz. I'm the man who sounds like I'm six feet two inches of pure lung.

Speaker 3 Bill Curtis, and here is your host at the Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal.

Speaker 6 Thank you, Bill.

Speaker 7 Thanks, everybody. Thank you for time.

Speaker 1 So we are continuing our summer break this week in honor of President Joe Biden, who taught everyone that sometimes it's okay to sit back and let other people do the job.

Speaker 3 Also in honor of Joe Biden, I got a completely new set of teeth.

Speaker 1 And since we're thinking election thoughts, why not start with our talk last year with a woman who might have been president if Bill here hadn't found an old monkey's paw in 2015 and wished for some new material from the next administration.

Speaker 3 Lesson when dealing with ancient demons. Be specific.

Speaker 1 Our guest today is the former First Lady of the United States, the former U.S. Senator from New York and Secretary of State and the first woman to be nominated for president by a major party.

Speaker 1 She is the author of many books, including a memoir called Living History, History, a thriller called State of Terror, and a horror story called What Happened.

Speaker 1 Hillary Rodham Clinton, welcome to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

Speaker 1 Thank you, Peter. Thank you.

Speaker 1 I gotta tell you, they were excited to see me. Then I told them that you were going to be in the show, and I was completely forgotten.

Speaker 11 Well, I've listened to your show for years, and you've got such an enthusiastic following, me included, so it's a real joy to be with you.

Speaker 1 You are so kind. We understand that next week is a big deal.
It is the second annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative since the pandemic, right?

Speaker 2 So you're getting people together. Right, right.

Speaker 11 This was brought back after the pandemic because, you know, there's such a

Speaker 11 strong desire for people to try to be with each other again and come up with, you things to do that make a difference.

Speaker 11 And so whether it's climate resilience or getting clean water to people or helping in Ukraine, whatever your interest or your passion might be,

Speaker 11 there's going to be others who will share that and you can come and be a part of it.

Speaker 1 Okay, thanks. I appreciate the invitation.

Speaker 2 I'll be there Monday.

Speaker 1 Okay, Gary, you've got to go fix the Ukraine.

Speaker 2 I've got to take care of that.

Speaker 11 Yeah, Peter, we need you.

Speaker 2 Clearly. Clearly.

Speaker 1 Go to Zelensky, from one short Jewish comedian to another. Let me tell you.

Speaker 10 I want to.

Speaker 1 I really agree. I really agree with something you said, which is that during the pandemic, after the pandemic, we all became so desperate to go out and be with people.

Speaker 1 I specifically would love to be with Matt Damon and the Pope, who will both be there next week.

Speaker 1 I am guessing that, yes, the panels, the charitable commitments, the ideas for fixing the world, that's that's great. But what really rocks about CGI is the parties, right?

Speaker 11 Well, they're not bad.

Speaker 2 Oh, well.

Speaker 11 You know, if you're going to be earnest and working hard all day, you deserve to blow off some steam.

Speaker 7 I agree.

Speaker 1 And so, I mean, I'm just imagining it can be surreal, right? With like Janet yelling and the Pope, say, comparing gowns.

Speaker 15 I mean, what is...

Speaker 11 Well, you just never know what might happen. That's why you need to come.

Speaker 10 Exactly. All right.
I might leave right now.

Speaker 16 Secretary Clinton, this is Faith Saley, and I recently had the privilege of telling your husband this story, but I didn't get to tell you. And it's really about you.

Speaker 16 My nine-year-old daughter saw a picture of her grandmother with your husband. He clearly took the selfie because she doesn't know how.
And my daughter said, who is that man with grandma?

Speaker 16 And I said, well, that's President Clinton. And she kind of cocked her head.
And she said, you mean Hillary's husband?

Speaker 16 So

Speaker 15 I don't think you have to worry about the voters under 65.

Speaker 9 That's funny.

Speaker 16 And your husband thought it was funny too, to his credit.

Speaker 6 Didn't think it was funny enough to pass it on to his wife, though.

Speaker 1 It is very strange.

Speaker 1 I will say this. It is strange talking to you because obviously you're a serious public figure who's done serious work, but you've also been this public icon for many, many years.

Speaker 1 You're a very, very well-known person, which shows up in different ways. So for example, have you ever seen Pete Davidson's tattoo of you?

Speaker 1 I have.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 You have?

Speaker 9 Yes, I have.

Speaker 1 So wait a minute.

Speaker 11 Not in the same way other women have seen it.

Speaker 2 I was about to say.

Speaker 2 You've seen pictures. You've seen pictures.

Speaker 10 No, no.

Speaker 11 I was with Pete, and, you know,

Speaker 11 he lifted up his pants leg, and he showed it to me.

Speaker 11 And I was a little bit worried when he said that he was going to start removing his tattoos, but I saw him later, and he assured me that one would stay.

Speaker 2 So I hope it's still.

Speaker 2 How often do you hang out with Pete Davidson?

Speaker 11 You know, I am a big fan of Pete.

Speaker 11 When I did did Saturday Night Live years ago,

Speaker 11 I got to meet Pete and Colin Jost

Speaker 11 and I really was very touched by both of them because, you know, Pete's father was a firefighter who died on 9-11.

Speaker 11 And, you know, Colin's family was very much involved with the New York Fire Department. And I did a lot of work with them after 9-11.

Speaker 11 So I I really felt um a connection and I find Pete to be a, you know, a very um appealing guy and I just wish him the best.

Speaker 11 I mean I really hope that you know he has a great life because he deserves it.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 1 Get a tattoo of her in your leg. She'll say nice things about you.
Okay.

Speaker 1 I just took a note.

Speaker 1 Well Secretary Clinton, I cannot tell you how exciting it is to talk to you. But we have asked you here to play a game that we're calling.

Speaker 3 You can do anything with CGI.

Speaker 1 You are part of one CGI, the Clinton Global Initiative, so we thought we'd ask you about another CGI, that is computer-generated imagery. That's quite popular in the moving pictures these days.

Speaker 1 So just answer two or three questions about the CGI. You will win our prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose on their answering machine.

Speaker 1 Bill, who is Secretary Clinton playing for?

Speaker 3 Forbes Fox of Wilmington, North Carolina.

Speaker 2 Forbes Fox.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 I don't know how competitive you are with your husband, and I mean that honestly, but I will point out when he was in the show some years ago, he got all three right. I'm just saying that.

Speaker 11 Oh, I've heard that, Peter.

Speaker 20 Have you?

Speaker 9 Like every year.

Speaker 10 Oh, so that he told you. Okay.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 1 Here's your first question. CGI is often used in big comic book movies like Blade Trinity.
In that movie, CGI was used to create the illusion that the lead actor, Wesley Snipes, was doing what?

Speaker 1 A, paying his taxes.

Speaker 1 B, saying the lines in the script rather than what he wanted to say. Or C, keeping his eyes open.

Speaker 15 Oh my god.

Speaker 14 Oh wow.

Speaker 11 Keeping his eyes open.

Speaker 6 That's right.

Speaker 2 What happened

Speaker 1 was that the moment in the movie called for him suddenly opening his eyes to prove he was alive or something? And on that day on the set, Mr.

Speaker 1 Snipes was very angry at the director and refused to do it.

Speaker 1 So they said, what the heck? And they just used CGI to put eyeballs on his eyelids.

Speaker 11 That is hilarious.

Speaker 11 But I knew nobody in an action movie pays their cactus. That's true.

Speaker 1 I just pictured him getting so into it that he closed his eyes like a drummer and it was just like really vibing.

Speaker 10 All right, next question.

Speaker 1 Petty queen. Steven Seagal has continued his career as an action hero into the fourth decade, but there are some things, well, he just can't do anymore.

Speaker 1 In a recent film, they use CGI to depict him doing what difficult stunt? A, walking,

Speaker 1 B, treating the other actors with respect,

Speaker 1 or C, performing a triple axle in pairs figure skating.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. god.

Speaker 1 Oh, walking. Yeah, it was A, yes, walking.
Now, to be fair, he wasn't just walking, he was also pointing his gun in various directions as he did it.

Speaker 1 Before we get to this last question, Secretary Clinton, you'll probably be thinking that after all of your achievements and prominence in public life, you cannot believe that you are being asked this kind of question.

Speaker 1 And I just want you to know I share your disbelief.

Speaker 1 Movies employ vast teams of CG CGI artists. Of course, you can see all their names in the credits.
But one particular graphic artist working on the movie Cats was given a very specific job.

Speaker 1 What was it?

Speaker 2 A

Speaker 1 matching the cast's movements as cats to footage of actual cats doing the same dance numbers.

Speaker 1 B, swapping out the animation on James Corden, who had accidentally been rendered throughout the movie as a dog.

Speaker 1 Or C, removing all of of the very anatomically correct CGI cat butts that a previous team had put on all the actors.

Speaker 11 Well, it could have probably been all three of those given how the movie turned out.

Speaker 9 But I think.

Speaker 14 Wow!

Speaker 1 You think you know, and the answer is.

Speaker 11 I'm gonna say the answer is three.

Speaker 6 That's right.

Speaker 1 C and

Speaker 1 somewhere out there, there is apparently a quote butthole cut of cats.

Speaker 1 Bill, how did Secretary Hillary Clinton do on our quiz?

Speaker 3 She won them all.

Speaker 1 Good going, Hillary.

Speaker 10 Does that mean

Speaker 1 I get to beat a voice?

Speaker 2 I hear a good voice.

Speaker 1 That's between you and the Secretary, I'm afraid. Hey, y'all, it's Hillary Clinton.

Speaker 1 I'm not here right now.

Speaker 2 That sounds pretty good. No, no, no worries.

Speaker 1 The Clinton Global Initiative 2023 is taking place September 18th and 19th. Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, thank you so much for joining us here on Wait Wait, Don't Tell me.

Speaker 1 I'm getting a few cheers here. Thank you, Hillary.

Speaker 1 When we come back, two of the most gorgeous movie stars in the world, Chris Pine and Zazzie Beats, who are grateful to be in the radio so we can concentrate on their intellect.

Speaker 1 That's when we come back with more of Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR.

Speaker 21 This message comes from NPR sponsor CNN. Stream Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown Prime Cuts Now exclusively on the CNN app.

Speaker 21 These rarely seen, never-before-streamed episodes dig deep into the Parts Unknown archives with personal insights from Anthony Bourdain and rare behind-the-scenes interviews about each season, Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown, Prime Cuts, now streaming exclusively on the CNN app.

Speaker 21 Subscribe now at cnn.com/slash all access, available in the U.S. only.

Speaker 1 This message comes from NPR sponsor Patagonia. As environmental progress stalls, Patagonia believes it's on businesses to step up.

Speaker 1 The company knows it isn't perfect, but it's proving businesses can make a profit without bankrupting the planet.

Speaker 1 Out now is Patagonia's 2025 Work in Progress Report, a behind-the-scenes look into its impact initiatives from quitting forever chemicals and decarbonizing its supply chain to embracing fair trade.

Speaker 1 Explore more at patagonia.com/slash impact.

Speaker 1 Support for this podcast and the following message come from Dignity Memorial. For many families, remembering loved ones means honoring the details that made them unique.

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Speaker 3 From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. The NPR News Quiz.
I'm Bill Curtis, and here is your host at the Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago, Illinois, Peters Sagoltz.

Speaker 1 Thank you, Bill.

Speaker 7 This week.

Speaker 1 We are taking a well-deserved break in order to get ready to cover the stories that are coming our way this fall.

Speaker 3 With my Anchorman heritage, I can put my ear to the ground and hear the approach of a great stampede of news. We must prepare.

Speaker 1 While we limber up, let's return to happy times and delightful people.

Speaker 1 In April of this year, we talked to Chris Pine, an actor who made his mark as a handsome prince in Princess Diaries 2, but in his directorial debut, Pool Man, he depicted an eccentric obsessive barely holding down that titular job.

Speaker 1 I asked him about moving to the other side of the camera. Terrible.
No, it was, I have to say,

Speaker 22 the directing and the acting of it, I don't know how

Speaker 22 people will view it, but certainly the experience of it was pretty joyful. And I had an incredible cast, Anette Benning, and Danny DeVito, and Jennifer Jason Lee, and a bunch of incredible people.

Speaker 1 The movie is a lot of things, but it is also a kind of love letter to L.A. Unlike a lot of people who do what you do and therefore live there, you grew up there, right?

Speaker 22 I grew up in LA, and my father was on a really

Speaker 22 successful show in the late 70s and early 80s called Chips.

Speaker 23 Oh, wow.

Speaker 1 We know. We know.
Oh, yeah. We just basically got you here so we could talk about your father.

Speaker 9 Oh, I know.

Speaker 1 We read, and I'm surprised if this is true, so I'm interested to see if you'll confirm it, that your father advised you not to go into the business.

Speaker 22 My father is a workaday actor.

Speaker 22 When I was growing up, it was him going out on auditions all the time and I think his advice was really born from more than anything else like knowing just how difficult and how hard our business can be what with rejection and the real possibility of of struggling to make a living so but then I remember I went to what was at school and I did a play and

Speaker 22 My mother came up to me afterwards and looked at me very worriedly and said, are you sure you don't want to become a lawyer?

Speaker 23 And

Speaker 22 I said, said, absolutely not. And she said, well, go with God.

Speaker 1 Well, that's lovely. And so did your first big movie role, as I understand it, was the male lead in Princess Diaries to a royal engagement?

Speaker 1 And this week, every woman I have met, about 30 or below, told me that it was, that is the greatest movie ever made, or at least they thought so when they were in junior high.

Speaker 1 And I'm just wondering if that has been your experience of life that women come up to you and go, oh my God, when I was 13, you were just it.

Speaker 22 I'm so fortunate to have been given that opportunity by Gary Marshall. I just wish for that role that I would have just

Speaker 22 had someone put hair gel on my hair

Speaker 22 because my hair is so

Speaker 12 uncontrollably large in the film.

Speaker 1 I noted that. I watched it this week.

Speaker 5 Brutal.

Speaker 9 Why did you do that?

Speaker 12 Why did you do that?

Speaker 1 I just assumed, because the movie is so perfectly calibrated to the tastes of young women.

Speaker 1 Well, I figured that's just what young women want.

Speaker 1 They want an incredibly handsome prince who seems, you know, a little dark and a little evil but turns out to have a heart of gold, who has enormous hair. That was part of the whole thing.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 So you went from the Princess Diaries eventually to playing Captain Kirk in the fabulous new rebooted Star Trek movies. So how much of your performance was based on William Shatner?

Speaker 1 I think the biggest correction that JJ ever had to me was less Shatner.

Speaker 2 Really?

Speaker 12 You were overdoing it?

Speaker 14 Because

Speaker 22 it's so deliciously fun. I mean, anything from how he sits in the chair to how he does like a double tape.
There are many, the Shatnerisms are long and deep, and they're beautiful.

Speaker 22 They're beautifully crafted things.

Speaker 1 There's a bit where you bought, you eat an apple, and I didn't realize that William Shatner ate apples in a certain way until you did it. And I was like, oh, that's a Shattnerapoli.

Speaker 10 A Shatnerapoli.

Speaker 2 A Chattanrapoli.

Speaker 9 It's a Chappelle.

Speaker 1 I have to ask you one last thing before we get to the game, which is, I don't know if you are aware of this, but the celebrity magazines very much enjoy talking about the Hollywood Chrises.

Speaker 1 It's currently you, Mr. Hemsworth.

Speaker 12 We talk about it on our WhatsApp chain.

Speaker 10 Well, that's what I was going to ask.

Speaker 1 So the Hollywood Chrises are obviously Mr. Pine with us now, Mr.
Hemsworth, Mr. Evans, and Mr.
Pratt.

Speaker 1 And the question was, when you get together, and I imagine when that happens, it's called the full toffer.

Speaker 19 Whoa.

Speaker 2 Not Christmas? Whoa.

Speaker 1 I feel topped.

Speaker 9 I feel one up.

Speaker 1 Do you actually like, because there are rankings. I don't know if you're aware of that.
Like, who's the number one Chris of the moment? And I was wondering if you guys worry about that.

Speaker 22 It really depends on which clubhouse we're at.

Speaker 9 Oh, sure.

Speaker 22 But if we're in Los Angeles, I mean, you know, I think the current reading,

Speaker 22 I'm at least 48 points above the other guys, which is, look, that's this week.

Speaker 7 Yeah, let me just go through their IMDb.

Speaker 1 No, I don't see any writer-directors on there, so you take the cake.

Speaker 1 There you go. There you go.

Speaker 1 I win. You win.

Speaker 1 Well, Chris Pine, we have invited you here to play a game that we are calling.

Speaker 3 Ah, the scent of fresh crisp pine.

Speaker 1 Not only crisp pine, but balsam, vanilla, and clove. We're going to ask you three questions about, sir, air fresheners.

Speaker 19 Ready to go. All right.

Speaker 1 Answer two to three questions, and you'll win our prize for one of our listeners, Bill. Who is Chris Pine playing for?

Speaker 3 Chris Owens of Minkelman, Nebraska.

Speaker 1 Another member of the Chris Club. All right, here's your first question, Chris.

Speaker 1 While air fresheners help mask at least 30% of the smells in that cab you are now riding in, they can also cause a little bit of trouble as in when which of these happened: A, a line of human pheromone-scented fresheners called a spate of terrible marriages back in the 1990s.

Speaker 1 B, the pine-scented ones have been known to attract bears.

Speaker 1 Or C, a school in Baltimore was evacuated and hazmat crews were called in thanks to the smell of a pumpkin spice air freshener.

Speaker 2 B.

Speaker 1 B, that the pine-scented ones attract bears?

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 1 Which is why you see all those bears chasing the Ubers up and down.

Speaker 14 Exactly right.

Speaker 12 It happens to Los Angeles all the time.

Speaker 7 That's absolutely true.

Speaker 1 That's how we get them out of the woods. No, I'm afraid it was actually C, the school in Baltimore had to be evacuated because of the overwhelming effect of the pumpkin spice air freshener.

Speaker 1 Nobody died. Five people did go to the hospital with pumpkin spice related trauma.

Speaker 1 All right. It's not a problem.
You have two more chances.

Speaker 10 I know.

Speaker 1 With the ubiquity of air fresheners, people are demanding changes to cope with them, such as which of these?

Speaker 1 A, Febreze being classified as a controlled substance by the federal government, B, an option in rideshare apps to request a car without them, or C, edible air fresheners to make your farts smell nice.

Speaker 22 I desperately want to say, Steve, but I'm pretty sure, I'm pretty sure it's B.

Speaker 1 It is is B, yes. Many people.

Speaker 14 Yes.

Speaker 1 And apparently our audience agrees that Uber and Lyft should bring this to us because many people would much prefer not to have that in their car. It makes sense.
The worst. It's the worst.

Speaker 1 It makes some people very sick. All right.

Speaker 2 It's just the worst. All right.

Speaker 1 Last one, if you get this right, you win. If you're putting on air freshener in your car,

Speaker 1 always use one of those little trees. Just do that so you don't end up like the man who used a spray and had what happened?

Speaker 1 A, he filled the car with so much aerosol air freshener that when he then lit a cigarette, his car exploded.

Speaker 1 B, when it dried, it became opaque and all of a sudden he couldn't see out the windows. Or C, it was absorbed by his skin and he spent the rest of his life smelling like cinnamon sugar.

Speaker 1 Oh, God.

Speaker 9 One, one.

Speaker 10 You're right. Yes.
Yes. Yes.
We made it.

Speaker 15 He got it. Yes.

Speaker 15 They're going to use it.

Speaker 1 This happened in the UK.

Speaker 1 He lit a cigarette. The propellant or whatever caught fire.
The car windows were blown out. Nearby buildings were damaged.
But amazingly, the driver himself had only minor injuries.

Speaker 1 I don't know how, but that's what happened. Bill, how did Chris Pine do on our quiz? Two out of three.

Speaker 4 Wow.

Speaker 9 What a win, Chris.

Speaker 12 Good luck.

Speaker 1 Captain, my captain.

Speaker 1 Well, Chris Pine is an actor, writer, and director now. Chris Pine, what a joy to talk to you.
Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Whitley Concumber.
Thanks, guys.

Speaker 14 Thank you. Take care.

Speaker 1 Thanks, Chris. Bye-bye.
See ya.

Speaker 1 Bye.

Speaker 1 In 2022, toward the end of the pandemic lockdown, we invited actor Zazzie Beats onto our Zoom call. Zazzie starred in the acclaimed series Atlanta and also played a superhero in Deadpool 2.

Speaker 3 Mo Raka, though, wanted to know about her origin story.

Speaker 25 Is it true that you got your acting superpowers at LaGuardia High, the school from fame?

Speaker 26 Yes.

Speaker 25 I just have to say that for so many of us you have to understand like growing up it was like a fantasy if you lived outside of New York to be able to go to the fame school that high school.

Speaker 26 It's so funny because honestly it's it's like it's a public school. Like I don't think people realize like it's I don't know.

Speaker 26 I felt like, yes, it was this wonderful opportunity, but also really just felt like school.

Speaker 25 But it's not just school they block off the traffic so that you can dance on top of taxi cabs and stop traffic that's true don't all schools do that i mean and you're dancing on the cafeteria table singing hot lunch i mean it was it was impossibly exciting to watch that movie and tv series

Speaker 1 well you know that's i i thought everybody had that but i guess it's just it's just strange you have you are known i am told and please correct me if i'm wrong okay for like making your own uh health products like your own kombucha and body butter.

Speaker 28 Is this true?

Speaker 26 It's so funny. Like I feel like that's totally become a thing that people ask me about all the time.
I just do this at home, like for fun.

Speaker 26 I mean, I used to do it to save money because I was like, I want a face mask, but I'm not paying 20 bucks for that. And so I would just make my own stuff.

Speaker 26 And with the kombucha, I was just interested in that whole fermentation process.

Speaker 26 And then your SCOBY basically is like, it's like a pet, like you have to take care of it and well for for people who don't know tell everybody what a scoby is what is a scoby so it's the it's essentially the like bacteria that help um that create the environment that helps it's the slime it's the slime from which kombucha emerges right exactly but it's actually like you can hold it it's like a little it's like a sourdough starter but yeah just way grosser exactly but you can hold it it's like a little jello thing and it's like you have to take care of it other it otherwise does your size does yours have a name no i didn't name mine but uh she had many children because they keep making layers of new scobies and you can like separate them and then so then oh my god

Speaker 1 sitting in the corner of your room multiplying yes

Speaker 27 yes and

Speaker 1 listen i have a cat and i had a scoby i don't have scoby anymore do you ever hear it whispering things to you that maybe you don't want to do but it really wants you to

Speaker 26 Um, my SCOBY is a very positive SCOBY, so it only whispered kind and gentle things to me.

Speaker 17 My sister's SCOBY tried to kill us in the night one time.

Speaker 28 You see what I mean?

Speaker 1 Here, wait a minute. Here's a question: Since you were already into like making this disgusting goo for your friends, when the pandemic started, what new hobbies did you pick up?

Speaker 26 Um, what new hobbies? Uh, returning text messages. Um,

Speaker 26 um,

Speaker 1 I started That's a good half hour every day.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 17 Rocking in the idle position.

Speaker 26 In two days, I went through 823 unread text messages.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 27 Wow. What?

Speaker 28 See, Mike.

Speaker 20 You were not up on your texts.

Speaker 1 I'm not as popular as you, so I don't have that much of a problem.

Speaker 1 But when I don't return texts for, say, a week, I just decide it's easier never to speak to that person ever again. So they assume I'm dead.

Speaker 28 Yeah,

Speaker 28 that was my approach.

Speaker 26 And then I was, you know, so lonely for the pandemic.

Speaker 1 Well, I'm sure when you texted all your friends at last, your SCOBY was very proud of you.

Speaker 26 Yeah, and a little jealous because she wanted the attention. Of course.

Speaker 1 Well, Zase Bates, we are so delighted to talk to you, but we have asked you here to play a game that this time we're calling Zassi Bates meets Sassy Beats.

Speaker 28 Specifically,

Speaker 1 the beats of longtime Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, who died last year at the ripe age of 80.

Speaker 1 Answer two to three questions about Charlie Watts, and you will win our prize for one of our listeners, the voice of their choice and their voicemail. Bill, who is Zassi playing for?

Speaker 3 John Day of Durham, North Carolina.

Speaker 1 I got to ask, are you a Rolling Stones fan?

Speaker 26 Not enough for this game.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 As I often say, ignorance is often the best choice if we go into this because just a little knowledge will lead you astray. All right.
Great.

Speaker 1 so here's your first question charlie watts had some interesting habits while touring the world for decades with the rolling stones yeah he always did what a he saved all the underwear thrown at them on stage resulting in a collection that filled an entire wing of his house b he sketched every single hotel bed he slept in or c he ate in alphabetical order having apricots for one meal beets for the next etc all the way around until he started again I hope it's the first one, but I think it's B.

Speaker 1 You are right. It is B.
He sketched every single hotel bed he slept in. He had started as an artist, did some early album covers for the Stones, and I don't know why he did that.
Next question.

Speaker 1 That was very good. Charlie Watts, like the other members of the Stones, liked to collect classic and expensive cars, but he did it his own way.
How? A.

Speaker 1 He just collected the same car, the 1978 Dodge Aspen, until he had 106 of them. B, Watts never got his driver's license, so he just put on suits to match the car and sit in the cars in his garage.

Speaker 1 Or C, whenever a bandmate bought a car, he'd get the matchbox version and then brag about how much money he'd saved.

Speaker 28 Oh, that's so sweet.

Speaker 26 I think it's A, though.

Speaker 1 You think it's A that he just collected 1978 Dodge Aspens. That's it.

Speaker 1 That's the first car I was interested in until he had 106 of these identical cars, presumably in different colors at his assistance.

Speaker 28 Hopefully. Yes.

Speaker 1 No, I'm afraid it was actually B. He never got his driver's license.

Speaker 26 To be fair, I got my driver's license three years ago.

Speaker 1 Well, you're a New Yorker, right?

Speaker 2 It's a New Yorker. Yes.

Speaker 1 Right. So that's a natural New York thing.

Speaker 1 Well, you have one more question. If you get this right, you win.

Speaker 1 Once, while the Rolling Stones were on tour, Watts was woken in the middle of the night by a phone call from a very drunk Mick Jagger demanding, my drummer. How did Watts respond?

Speaker 1 A, he sent him 14 pounds of chicken drumsticks via room service. B, he said, I'm sorry, I don't recognize your voice, sir.

Speaker 1 Or C, he woke up, shaved, dressed in a suit and tie, put on some freshly shined shoes, went up to Jagger's room and punched him in the face, yelling, never call me your drummer again oh

Speaker 28 spicy

Speaker 1 I like this spice let's go for C oh very good choice Sassy that's in fact what happened the story was permanently featured in all of his orbits and what happened then was after he had punched Jagger in the face and said that he then yelled and you're my singer he said wow yes there you go I love the fact that he shaved and put on a suit he was apparently a man who cared about such things He was, he cared about such things.

Speaker 1 He did. Bill, how did Zassi Bates do on our quiz?

Speaker 24 Two out of three. And she won.
Yay!

Speaker 1 Zassi Bates is starring in Atlanta on FX. Zassi Bates, you are a delight.
Thank you so much for joining us on WaitWait Don't Tell Me.

Speaker 20 Thank you so much. This is so fun.

Speaker 1 Take care. Thank you, Zassi.
Bye-bye. Bye.

Speaker 1 When we come back, the British actor who played America's greatest hero and a woman who became a TV star because selling weed in high school didn't work out.

Speaker 1 That's when we're back with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR.

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Speaker 3 From NPR and WBEC Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Be, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis and here is your host at the Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagar.

Speaker 6 Thank you, Bill.

Speaker 1 So this week, all of us at the show are off at our summer boot camp, which is like Navy SEAL training, except for dealing with the news.

Speaker 3 75% of candidates wash out of the program, leaving only the best of the best to deal with the worst of the worst.

Speaker 1 So while we get ready for the challenges to come, here are some older pleasures.

Speaker 1 In January of this year, we were joined by actor David O'Yellowo, who had dozens of credits in his native UK, but is most well known in America for playing Dr. Martin Luther King in the movie Selma.

Speaker 3 Peter asked him if people here are surprised to find out he's actually British.

Speaker 18 Very surprised, which is both a compliment and at times feels like I'm under threat because people feel quite upset about it. I remember doing a number of Q ⁇ A's after we did

Speaker 18 Selma to screenings and African Americans particularly were like, man, you from Harlem.

Speaker 2 Come on, man.

Speaker 1 I have other questions, but I'm sort of stunned by how good that was.

Speaker 9 That was really good.

Speaker 1 I wanted to talk a little bit about your background, which is fascinating to me because I'm a theater guy.

Speaker 1 Is it true, the story we heard, that you first got into acting because you wanted to impress a girl?

Speaker 18 It's very true. It's very true.
Theater was not something that was on my radar at all. What was on my radar was my pastor's daughter, who used to work the overhead projector at my church.

Speaker 18 And I was so obsessed with her, I never listened to a single sermon for an entire year. And one day, she asked me to the theater.
I thought it was a date.

Speaker 18 It was actually to join a youth theater group.

Speaker 18 And I was so enamored with her that I kept going, and that's what led to me becoming an actor.

Speaker 2 That is.

Speaker 20 Chasing the pastor's daughter?

Speaker 16 That's the name of his memory.

Speaker 18 Don't make it sound unholy.

Speaker 18 I wasn't trying to do anything nefarious.

Speaker 9 I just liked her.

Speaker 1 And that was like 30 years ago. You think she's impressed yet?

Speaker 1 Oh, she's full of regret.

Speaker 18 She sees me in movies and she's absolutely gutted.

Speaker 10 Really?

Speaker 18 It's absolutely true. Every time I'm in a movie, I get a very sad email from her.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 That's a love language, I think.

Speaker 10 I was going to say.

Speaker 1 Do you remember? I mean, it's funny. I usually ask this question of athletes, but it just occurred to me I could ask it of you because of the story you just told.

Speaker 1 You stumbled into this, you hadn't wanted to do it, but there you were. Was there a moment when you first realized that you were quite good at it?

Speaker 18 Yes, yes,

Speaker 18 there was a moment. I mean, you know, the first thing I did was being part of that youth group where I had followed that girl too, and the reaction afterwards was pretty eulogistic from everyone else.

Speaker 18 The unfortunate thing is it was offset by my mother, who could never quite draw the line between make-believe and reality and would just say why were you kissing that girl that is not your wife that is not your girlfriend leave her alone and and and she actually did that during the performance

Speaker 1 that's when you that's when you said I have to get into TV where they don't allow anybody in

Speaker 1 exactly because she imagine she shouted that at many screens. I want to get to your movie.

Speaker 1 The movie's called Roleplay, as people will find out when they watch it, which you should, because the key plot element is this married couple decides to do some role play to spice up their relationship.

Speaker 1 Love language. Exactly.

Speaker 1 And your character, ironically also named David, turns out not to be very good at that.

Speaker 1 How does a very good actor play a bad actor?

Speaker 18 Well, you tend to be around a lot of bad actors and you're just doing an important thing.

Speaker 14 Oh, really?

Speaker 1 Oh,

Speaker 1 that guy I was in repertory with, he sucked.

Speaker 14 I'll just do him.

Speaker 18 Yeah, you now have several actors I've worked with second-guessing their careers right now.

Speaker 1 Well, it is absolutely lovely to have you with us, David, and we have asked you here today to play a game that we're calling Rolling, Rolling, Rolling.

Speaker 1 So your new movie, as we've discussed, is called Role Play, so we thought we'd ask you about the other kind of role play, games you play by rolling things answer two out of three questions correctly and you will win our prize for one of our listeners bill who is david oyelowo playing for chris creel of morristown new jersey all right

Speaker 1 uh ready to do this very ready all right one of the most popular rolling games is of course bowling One of professional bowling star athletes, Mike Machuga, is a two-time national champion, but he is perhaps most famous for his signature move as a bowler, which is what?

Speaker 1 A, the Machuga chop, where he throws the bowling ball overhand,

Speaker 1 B, the Machuga hop, a shot where his ball goes into the gutter, then bounces out to hit the pins, or C, the Machuga flop, where he rolls the ball but doesn't let go of it and slides halfway down the lane on his stomach.

Speaker 18 I'm going to say B.

Speaker 1 So it was actually C, the Machuga flop.

Speaker 6 What?

Speaker 1 He does this apparently to entertain the crowds because it turns out in bowling, if you don't let go of the ball, it's not a foul, even if you've crossed the line.

Speaker 1 So he does this thing where he rolls it, doesn't let go, slides himself halfway down, gets a lot of applause, comes back, and rolls.

Speaker 10 That's a thing he does.

Speaker 1 Here's your next question. There is a sport called Zorbing, where you climb inside this giant inflatable hamster ball and roll around.

Speaker 1 But just rolling around, not exciting for some people, which is why you can also do what? A, in San Francisco, you can zorb down the famously crooked and very steep Lombard Street.

Speaker 1 B, in Florida, you can race other Zorbers through alligator-infested waters. Or C, in the Rocky Mountains, you can try bungee zorbing.

Speaker 18 I'm going to say

Speaker 5 C.

Speaker 16 David, have you heard of an American phenomenon called Florida Man?

Speaker 18 I'm going to say B.

Speaker 14 Yeah,

Speaker 1 it is Florida, so of course they climb into these things and then run as fast as they can in them across the alligator swamp. All right, last question.
In France, as you might know,

Speaker 1 they have a version of lawn bowling or bocce they call patanque. And almost every patank court throughout France has a statue or a picture of a woman named Fanny nearby.
Why?

Speaker 1 A, per tradition, any team that gets shut out in a patank match is required to get down on their knees and kiss Fanny's, well, Fanny.

Speaker 1 B, it is an image of Fannie Merlarnau, a 19th-century wife from Lyon who invented the game to get her husband out of the house and stop annoying her. Or C, it's just a coincidence.

Speaker 1 There happens to be a lot of pictures and sculptures in France of women named Fanny, and some of them are near patonques.

Speaker 18 I'm going to go with my friend who said A.

Speaker 1 Right, yes, that's correct. To be

Speaker 1 shut out, to be shut out in a patank match is called être fanny or being fanny and you're required to kiss the fanny and I

Speaker 1 should say by the way that in France and French fanny means fanny is the same it does in America not what it means in Britain

Speaker 1 Bill how did David do in our quiz?

Speaker 3 In the final tally I think David got all three

Speaker 1 Sure he did. Absolutely he did.
Well David Yellowo is starring in the new film Roleplay, currently streaming on Prime. David Ayelo, thank you so much for joining us on Wake Wake Down Common.

Speaker 1 It's an absolute pleasure to talk to you. Take care, sir.

Speaker 9 Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.

Speaker 14 Bye-bye.

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Speaker 1 Finally, also in January, we spoke to one of the most distinctive actors around Natasha Leone from Russian Doll and Orange is the new black.

Speaker 1 I asked her if she was recognized more for her appearance or her voice.

Speaker 29 You know, if I have straight hair, I can pretty much move through the city like,

Speaker 29 you know,

Speaker 29 it's not me. But then as soon as I talk, I'm f ⁇ ing.

Speaker 2 Right, exactly.

Speaker 1 And when people are like looking at you, my God, you're Natasha Leone, and then what do they tell you that they love most?

Speaker 29 I I guess, you know what I like the most? I don't know what they're necessarily saying, but what I like is

Speaker 29 a sort of like a little bit of a sly handshake

Speaker 29 down the street that keeps moving from a real New Yorker. Like they give me a little hand movement or I like...
I sort of like a deli interaction. I guess that's why I wrote it into a session dollar.

Speaker 29 That's one of my favorite type of New York interactions. I mostly enjoy it in Manhattan on the move, I think.

Speaker 1 Right, and that's cool. I mean, one of the great things about New York as opposed to LA, in New York, they're all too cool to get excited when they see a celebrity.
They just give you the high sign.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I know who you are. I'm not impressed.

Speaker 29 Real New Yorker, like part New Yorker, part leprechaun. And I like that.

Speaker 2 I understand that.

Speaker 1 I found out some amazing things about you this week that I had not known, even though I was a fan.

Speaker 1 For example, I read that you were thrown out of your pretty prestigious school because you were, I think, selling pot. Is that right?

Speaker 29 It's a rite of passage as a teenager.

Speaker 7 Yeah, I understand.

Speaker 29 It was a private school on the Upper East Side, and I was a scholarship kid, so I think I had a bit of a resentment.

Speaker 29 So I would get, you know, just a dime bag, and then I would go to the corner head shop. Well, there weren't as many of them back in those days, and

Speaker 29 I'd buy like a little $2 pipe, and I'd put like a single-hit weed in it, but I'd smoke the green off it.

Speaker 29 I'd take the first hit, I'd put my passive bag, and then I would sell them the pipe and the single once-smoked hit.

Speaker 9 Like, really careful.

Speaker 1 That's good business. So, not only, this is amazing.
Not only were you selling the pipe.

Speaker 2 Experience.

Speaker 9 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And then,

Speaker 1 this is what I thought was the kicker. They threw you out.
And then, because you were like, even then, becoming a famous actor, you were on Letterman and they wanted you to come back.

Speaker 29 Yeah, it's true. It was a scam.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 I have been watching episodes of your new show, Poker Poker Face, which was created by Ryan Johnson of Knives Out Fame.

Speaker 1 And it is amazing, especially to someone of my age, because I grew up with Colombo and those TV shows. And I'm watching it, and I realized this about halfway into the first episode.

Speaker 1 You get to be Columbo,

Speaker 1 which has got to be the coolest thing ever. And I'm assuming you're enjoying it, doing it as much as I'm enjoying watching it, right?

Speaker 29 Well, you know, Peter Falk is such a cutie.

Speaker 1 And you look good in the trench coat, is what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 Oh, thank you.

Speaker 1 But first of all, did you grow up because you're younger?

Speaker 1 Did you grow up with those shows, like those Macmillan and Wife and the Mysteries of the Week, where you had a detective who solved a new murder every week?

Speaker 1 Maybe Murder She Wrote was a later but classic iteration of that?

Speaker 29 I mean, I'm going to go ahead and say, no, not really.

Speaker 9 Are you old?

Speaker 13 I'm old.

Speaker 1 She's vibrant.

Speaker 29 I come to my love of sort of

Speaker 29 Philip Marlowe style characters, I guess, really through, you know, Altman's The Long Goodbye, or even Chinatown, or even books, you know, like John Fanta and Raymond Chandler and just noir in general.

Speaker 29 And I think my love for Peter Falk is really from all the Cassavetti's films or Wings of Desire in a way. And of course, I'm I, you know, I also, I do, I do like that

Speaker 29 sort of character, you know, a great deal. But I would not say you necessarily want me on an actual murder scene.

Speaker 29 Not sure I could definitely crank the case. I have a measure of street smarts, though.
That is true.

Speaker 29 And I definitely share with Charlie an obsession with a sort of John Lennon, just give me some truth.

Speaker 1 The flip side of that, though, is could you get away with a murder?

Speaker 29 Ah, that's a great question. You know, the few I've committed so far.

Speaker 2 Yes,

Speaker 10 apparently, yes.

Speaker 14 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 I'm fine.

Speaker 29 Here I am on NPR. No cops at my door.
Yeah.

Speaker 29 So far, so good. And honestly, those people deserve to die.
I don't want to name them.

Speaker 1 You know, I got to say, if they pissed you off,

Speaker 1 I can't blame you.

Speaker 29 And thank you. And thank you.

Speaker 1 Well, Natasha Leon, it is really a pleasure to talk to you after watching you for so long. But we have asked you here today to play a game we're calling Poking Faces.

Speaker 1 So, your new show, which we've been discussing, is called Poker Face. We thought we'd ask you questions about poking faces.
That is Botox injections.

Speaker 1 Answer two to three questions correctly. You will win our prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose on their voicemail.
Bill, who is the amazing Natasha Leon playing for?

Speaker 3 Jeremy Noel of Chicago, Illinois.

Speaker 1 All right, you ready to do this?

Speaker 29 Yes, dear. Okay.

Speaker 1 So, Botox is a trade name for botulinium toxin, that is the substance that causes the disease botulism. But before it was called that, the disease was called what? A.
Sausage poisoning. B.

Speaker 1 Satan's musk, or C,

Speaker 1 Stewart.

Speaker 9 Yeah,

Speaker 29 I guess, yeah, why not Satan's musk?

Speaker 1 Satan's musk. No, it was actually sausage poisoning.
Yeah. Yeah, because botulism is a food disease and it was first studied in the middle of the past.

Speaker 1 It does. It was first studied in Germany and in Germany they eat a lot of sausage.

Speaker 29 Okay, well I look forward to losing here.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, you have two more chances.

Speaker 1 You have two more chances and we're fans and we'll help. All right.
So botulism, or rather, botulinium toxin Botox is approved, as we know, for clinical uses. But it is unique among medicine.
Why?

Speaker 1 A, you need at least one million dollars of life insurance to be allowed to open a bottle of it.

Speaker 1 B, instead of milliliters, it is measured in mouse units or the amount of Botox needed to kill one mouse.

Speaker 1 Or C, it can be used as legal tender in Palm Beach.

Speaker 29 Kill a mouse.

Speaker 1 It's in fact killing mouses. Yes, mice.

Speaker 1 MUs, mouse units. That's how they measure it.
It's such a toxic substance that that's how it is measured. So that's great.
You have one more question. If you get this right, you win.
Botox injections,

Speaker 1 in addition to their cosmetic effects, right, it paralyzes your skin.

Speaker 1 It's been shown to have a positive side effect. In addition to that, what is it? A, it makes your skin as hard as Pyrex, preventing facial injuries for people who topple over.

Speaker 1 B, it can alleviate depression literally by turning your frown upside down.

Speaker 1 Or C, because it makes you look younger, it improves your taste in music.

Speaker 29 Turn your frown upside down.

Speaker 7 That's it.

Speaker 1 That's exactly right.

Speaker 1 Botox does have a proven antidepressant effect, and one of the theories as to why is it literally makes it harder to frown. Bill, how did Natasha Leon do in our quiz?

Speaker 3 Two out of three, that is a win.

Speaker 13 Oh, there you go.

Speaker 1 Natasha Leon is the creator and star of the Emmy-nominated Russian doll, her new show, Pokerface, is streaming on Peacock now.

Speaker 1 Natasha Leon, thank you so much for joining us, and congratulations on your amazing television show. It's fabulous.
Bye, guys.

Speaker 12 Bye-bye.

Speaker 1 That's it for our summer boot camp edition. Remember to tune in after Labor Day to see if all that training paid off.
But first, let me tell you: wait, wait, don't tell me.

Speaker 1 So, production of NPR and WBEZ Chicago in association with Urgent Haircut Productions, Doug Berman, Benevolent Overlord. Philip Godeka writes our limericks.

Speaker 1 Our public address announcer is Paul Friedman. Our tour manager is Shana Donald.
Our vibes curator is Emma Choi. Thanks to the staff and crew here at the Studebaker Theater.

Speaker 1 BJ Lederman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Dormboss, and Lillian King.
Special thanks to Monica Hickey. Our drop-in, give me 20 is Peter Gwynn.

Speaker 1 Technical directionalist from Lorna White. Our CFO is Colin Miller.
Our production manager is Robert Newhouse. Our senior producer is Ian Chillock.

Speaker 1 The executive producer of Wait Wave, Don't Tell Me is Michael Danforth. Thanks to everybody you heard.

Speaker 1 All our panelists, our guests, of course, Bill Curtis, our fabulous and patient audience here at the Student Acre Theater.

Speaker 1 And thanks to all of you out there for listening. I'm Peter Sagan.
We'll be back with a new show next week.

Speaker 2 This

Speaker 1 is NPR.

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