WWDTM: Brian Tyree Henry

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 3 From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz.

Speaker 4 I'm Bill Curtis.

Speaker 3 Accept no substitute.

Speaker 3 But by all means, accept Peter Sagal's substitute. Here at the Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Illinois, it's Karen Chi.

Speaker 3 Thank you, Bill.

Speaker 3 That's great.

Speaker 6 I'm Karen Chi, filling in for Peter Sagal. He's at home recovering from a fight with another NPR host right now.
I don't want to name any names, but let's just say Steve Inskeep is is a biter.

Speaker 6 You're all in for a treat because later we're talking to Oscar-nominated actor Brian Tyree Henry.

Speaker 6 You probably know him from Atlanta or his new show Dope Thief, or as I know him, as the voice of the absolutely jacked Smokey the Bear.

Speaker 6 But first, it's your turn to call in to play our games. The number is 188-WAITWAIT.
That's 1-888-924-8924.

Speaker 6 Hi, you're on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

Speaker 7 Hey, Karen, this is Kevin Stroud. I live in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Speaker 6 Ah, Kevin, hi, welcome.

Speaker 8 Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 6 Kevin, what do you do in beautiful Raleigh?

Speaker 7 By day, I am a mental health therapist.

Speaker 6 Oh, wow, that's an amazing job. Thank you for doing that.

Speaker 6 I'm sure you're doing great in your business, but if you need any referrals, I do have a lot of ex-boyfriends.

Speaker 8 Well, we said we weren't going to talk about that, Karen.

Speaker 6 All right, Kevin, let's introduce you to our panel. First, a comedian and fashion designer whose new summer line and new novel, Silken Silencer, will be available May 15th on bbespoke.shop.

Speaker 6 It's Brian Babylon.

Speaker 11 What's up, man? How are you?

Speaker 12 Come well, Jimwell. How are you doing? Good, bro.

Speaker 5 Good, good to hear.

Speaker 6 Next, the host of the daily podcast, TBTL, and the public radio variety show LiveWire, which will be live at the Rezzer Center in Beaverton, Oregon on May 1st, 1st. Luke Burbank.

Speaker 8 Hey, Kevin.

Speaker 6 And a comedian and host of the podcast Fake the Nation, who you can follow on all the social media platforms that you keep meaning to delete, it's Nikin Farsad.

Speaker 5 Hey!

Speaker 6 Welcome to the show, Kevin. You're going to play Who's Bill this Time.
Bill Curtis is going to read you three quotes from this week's news.

Speaker 6 If you can correctly identify or explain two of them, you'll win our prize, which is any voice from our show that you choose on your voicemail. Are you ready?

Speaker 7 Absolutely, let's do it.

Speaker 6 Amazing. Your first quote is from a spokesperson at a gambling site.

Speaker 3 It's our biggest non-sporting event of the year, and we expect the betting to really pick up as we head toward the conclave.

Speaker 6 So people are betting on who is going to be the next what?

Speaker 7 The voting for the next for the papacy?

Speaker 6 Yes, that's correct.

Speaker 6 People are betting on who is going to be the next pope.

Speaker 6 People mourned Francis's passing all over the world, but no one more than the producers of the movie Conclave who said, hey, couldn't he have at least done this during our Oscar campaign?

Speaker 6 It is a sign of how in touch the Pope was with the people and the church that he was like, wait, Conclaves are huge right now. We gotta ride this train.

Speaker 13 I love that idea that he was so into pop culture because I feel like he had a really great sense of humor and I feel like he was like guys wouldn't it be funny if I met J.D.

Speaker 5 Vance and then I died.

Speaker 5 Because that's the timing.

Speaker 5 That's what happened to

Speaker 5 his commitment to the bit.

Speaker 4 Famously.

Speaker 8 He wrote an encyclical on being committed to the bit.

Speaker 5 He lived it.

Speaker 6 What Nagina is saying is true. The vice president met with the Pope the day before he died and said to him, it's good to see you in better health.

Speaker 6 Which incidentally, it's good to see you in better health is also what J.D. Van said to the stock market in March.

Speaker 8 And the national championship trophy before that. That guy is on a tear.

Speaker 8 I feel like more industries should sort of announce the new head of the company through smoke and its colors.

Speaker 8 It's just a fun kind of way to do it. it.

Speaker 13 I also think, you know, how you can like carry around a little personal fan from your hat? I think personal smoke machine for when you just want to like share

Speaker 13 detail about your life.

Speaker 5 Right.

Speaker 6 Wait, I just want to bring it back to the smoke, though, because I want to say, if you're betting on the new pope, remember if the smoke is blue, it's going to be a boy. Right.

Speaker 5 And if the smoke is pink, it's also going to be a boy.

Speaker 6 The pope is always going to be a boy.

Speaker 5 It's always a boy. Yeah.

Speaker 8 The world's least interesting gender reveal.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 6 All right, Kevin, your next quote is some words costing someone tens of millions of dollars. Please and thank you.

Speaker 6 This week, a tech CEO said that we cost his company millions of dollars when we say those words when typing requests into what?

Speaker 9 Oh, into ChatGPT.

Speaker 5 That's correct.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 6 Open AI CEO Sam Altman says please and thank you cost his company tens of millions of dollars because it's unnecessary data for ChatGPT to process.

Speaker 6 And I just want to say, if this is costing him money, I love that.

Speaker 6 I'm going to be extra polite. I'm going to start using ChatGPT just to give it a forehead kiss after each answer.

Speaker 8 I love it. It's like I'm from the Pacific Northwest and I've lost friends in the war.
And by the war, I mean coming to a four-way stop when someone else came to the same four-way stop.

Speaker 8 and everyone's waiting for the other person to go. That's like next level politeness.
We need to to do that with these programs.

Speaker 10 Just completely lock them up.

Speaker 14 But you know, also, like, I got into it with ChatGPT a couple of nights ago where

Speaker 14 it didn't, it was telling me it was going to do something. I got this plan, that plan.
You download this, you download. Hey, ChatBG, the link's not working.
Ugh, I know, I know, that's my bad.

Speaker 14 I said something that I couldn't do. Sorry for over-promising.

Speaker 4 And I'm like, why would you do that?

Speaker 14 Ugh, I don't know.

Speaker 5 It really went to this whole thing.

Speaker 5 I know, I'm so sorry. I won't do it again.

Speaker 13 So, how many like icebergs melted because of this lover's spat?

Speaker 14 It was it was a lot because I had to like tell it like, hey man, don't tell me any more BS. Like, get on your square.

Speaker 5 Yo, he's like, yo, okay, I will.

Speaker 14 And then he had a meltdown.

Speaker 8 All of that cost that guy, Sam Altman, money, right?

Speaker 6 Yeah, I was gonna say it's costing him money, but it's also requiring a lot of power and electricity.

Speaker 6 So when you're asking in a request, you have to remember that saying something like, write my term paper is fine, but please, hi, will you write my term paper?

Speaker 6 Thank you, burns down an entire Brazilian rainforest.

Speaker 13 But also, I wonder, I mean, so the argument for being friendly to

Speaker 13 the AI is that eventually they'll take over and be our masters and they'll know which ones of us were nice.

Speaker 5 Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 13 So, and okay, so I have a question, which is,

Speaker 13 like, do we have a quota as people for how nice we can be? And if and then if we are nice to AI all the time, are we then mean to our moms?

Speaker 5 Is it a zero-sum game of niceness? Right.

Speaker 13 And then, and if you're mean to your mom, how many icebergs does that melt?

Speaker 6 Wait, Nagin, do you wake up every morning being like, I can only say five nice things to yeah, is that how we all do it?

Speaker 8 Did you see the color of her smoke backstage, Karen?

Speaker 8 It was, I've used up all of my nice things.

Speaker 5 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 All right, Kevin, now we are on to our last quote.

Speaker 3 I really don't care about plant-based.

Speaker 6 That was someone speaking to the New York Times about new data that finds what is back on American plates.

Speaker 9 Hmm.

Speaker 7 You got a hint for me?

Speaker 6 A hint is, it is something that was once alive.

Speaker 5 Meat? That's correct!

Speaker 6 That's right. Meat is back.
Or, depending on which state you live in, meat is the same.

Speaker 8 it's what's still been for dinner yeah

Speaker 6 after years of decline sales of meat hit record highs last year and this is due to a number of factors it's that high protein diets are in we're getting tired of plant-based meats but more than anything we just don't like those cows attitudes

Speaker 8 am i the only vegetarian on this panel okay i'm not oh i'm not i am i am a vegetarian the fake meat is not what it is cracked up to be

Speaker 8 I'm not surprised to hear that people are, I don't know if they're going away from that and towards real meat, but that stuff is not.

Speaker 8 I don't care what it's on the box, what it looks like.

Speaker 8 You get that thing home and you cook it up. It is not fooling anybody.

Speaker 5 No.

Speaker 6 I do agree with what you're saying, though. I mean, we did go too crazy with the plant-based stuff.
Like, I used a plant-based shampoo, which I'm pretty sure is just normal shampoo.

Speaker 6 But now that we're over-correcting, I can't wait to see the new Windex now with lamb.

Speaker 5 Oh.

Speaker 6 Bill, how did Kevin do?

Speaker 3 Kevin rocked with three in a row.

Speaker 5 He won.

Speaker 6 Kevin, congratulations and thank you so much for playing.

Speaker 7 Of course. Thank you so much, Karen.

Speaker 6 Right now, panel, time for you to answer some questions about this week's news.

Speaker 6 Luke, Luce Lipped Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says he's wasteful spending at the Pentagon and he is making changes according to CBS News. He's adding a what to the Pentagon's briefing room.

Speaker 8 A makeup studio.

Speaker 5 That's correct.

Speaker 6 Pete Hegseth is adding a makeup studio and we know this because he texted his stylist, hey, I can't wait to try this new eyeshadow. Also, here are the nuclear codes.

Speaker 8 So this CBS News, I think, reported this initially, that there was money being allocated to sort of remaking, remodeling this green room. And so then somebody over there said, this is totally made up.

Speaker 8 This is BS, here's the room. And then they tweeted out what was clearly a photo of a makeup room.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 8 It was pretty much as advertised.

Speaker 6 It was also, they went one step further, actually. The DOD struck back at this report saying, and this is exactly what you want your spokesperson to say if you are the Secretary of Defense.

Speaker 6 They said Pete Hegseth doesn't need a makeup room because Pete Hegseth does his own makeup.

Speaker 13 I love the idea of like a four-star general showing up at the Pentagon and a PA being like, Should I take you to hair and makeup?

Speaker 8 I did my own glam.

Speaker 5 Can you imagine?

Speaker 8 Yeah, can you imagine Don Rumsfeld showing up in full glam?

Speaker 5 You're so pretty.

Speaker 5 Oh, so pretty.

Speaker 5 You really knock me

Speaker 5 off

Speaker 5 my feet.

Speaker 6 Coming up, the only thing we have to fear is you missing this week's Bluff the Listener game. So call 1-888-WAIT WAIT to play.

Speaker 6 We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR.

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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.

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Speaker 3 From NPR and WBEC Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis.
We are playing this week with Luke Burbank, Brian Babylon, and Nageen Farsad.

Speaker 3 And here again is your host at the Student Makers Theater in Chicago, Illinois, Karen Chi.

Speaker 3 Thank you, Bill.

Speaker 6 Right now, it's time for the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me Bless the Listener game. So call 188 WaitWait to play our game on air or check out the pinned post on our Instagram page at WaitWaitNPR.

Speaker 6 Hi, you're on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

Speaker 11 Howdy, this is Chris Robinson calling in from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Speaker 6 Chris, how are you doing this week?

Speaker 11 Pretty good this week. I'm in law school right now, so I decided to, you know, take some time out and do a fun NPR show and try to relax a little bit before finals come up.

Speaker 6 Nice, I love it. I love when a true nerd calls into NPR saying, I'm taking a break from finals by doing a quiz.

Speaker 6 Thank you so much for joining us. You're going to play our game in which you must try to tell truth from fiction.
So what's the topic, Bill?

Speaker 3 Childhood fears come true.

Speaker 6 You know, the classic kid fears like the dark, the boogeyman, the creeping realization that you've peaked at age seven.

Speaker 6 This week, somebody's childhood fear did come true, and our panelists are going to tell you about it.

Speaker 6 So, pick the one who's telling the truth, and you'll win our prize, the wait-waiter of your choice, on your voicemail. Chris, are you ready to play?

Speaker 5 I'm ready.

Speaker 6 All right, first up, it's Naguin Farsad.

Speaker 13 As a kid, the only thing Ronald D'Souza feared more than getting pants was was escalators. He feared that if he didn't tie his shoes before getting on an escalator, it would eat his legs.

Speaker 13 To this day, as an adult manager of the Macy's in Palm Desert, California, Ronald takes a beat too long to step on, waiting for the right step, missing the right step, and then waiting again for the right step.

Speaker 13 One day, he was doing a VIP tour with vendors when the laces of his Oxfords came undone. He didn't notice and led the group to the escalator.
That's when the escalator began to eat his shoe.

Speaker 13 He was reflexively pulled to his knees and that's when his pant leg got sucked in, pulling his trousers down and showing off his tidy whities.

Speaker 13 It was a double whammy childhood nightmare.

Speaker 13 He was rescued, but only after his client and a steady stream of shoppers were treated to the rear end of a man perched like he was getting a public prostate exam.

Speaker 13 Coworkers cut him out of the pants after which he scurried to the men's section looking business on top, party on the bottom.

Speaker 13 Nowadays, Ronald takes the elevator.

Speaker 6 That is a workplace pantsing from Naguin Farsade. And your next story of a wee one's worry come to life comes from Brian Babylon.

Speaker 1 This week, Mitchell and Brianne of Traverse City, Michigan had their first date.

Speaker 14 They decided to go hunting for rocks. That's what romance looks like in Michigan.

Speaker 14 So they headed up to the beach looking for some special bluestones, sort of like a Bachelor and Indiana Jones spin-off. Now, Brianne sees a spot near the water and says, that looks dangerous.

Speaker 14 Mitchell hears that and just like a typical man, goes, oh word, well that's exactly where I'm going.

Speaker 14 This fool steps into the danger zone and gets snatched up to his waist in two seconds by quicksand.

Speaker 14 And get this, he wasn't even shocked. He said, oh, not this again.

Speaker 14 Again, how many times have you been in quicksand, bro? What kind of lifestyle is this?

Speaker 5 Who raised you? Shaggy from Scooby-Doo?

Speaker 5 But here's the real rom-com moment.

Speaker 14 During the 911 call, they both accidentally dropped the girlfriend and boyfriend title for the first time to the 911 caller.

Speaker 14 The firefighters finally showed up and pulled Mitchell out like a human cork.

Speaker 14 Moral of the story, if your date starts with yard work and turns into a rescue op and then ends with relationship titles, congratulations, you're not in love, you're in a lifetime movie.

Speaker 6 And that's a story about how quicksand is real from Brian Babylon. And your last story of a fear becoming fact comes from Luke Burbank.

Speaker 8 Kylie Hogan of Cooper Petty Australia knew she wasn't losing her mind.

Speaker 8 The married mother of three kept telling her husband, Paul, she was hearing something or someone under the bed after he'd fall asleep at night. But his response was, narr,

Speaker 8 it's just your imagination.

Speaker 8 But in fact, as the Cooper Petey Times reported recently, narr, it wasn't just her imagination.

Speaker 8 The noises were coming from under the house, in the ground, where a sinkhole was slowly opening up.

Speaker 8 When the city finally came out to investigate, it turned out the hole was part of a rich vein of opals.

Speaker 8 Unfortunately, the family had to move out of their home, which was torn down, but fortunately, they now own the rights to a very profitable opal operation, allowing them to build a huge new home just down the street, complete with toilets that flush in the normal direction, and a beautiful fenced backyard where the family's pet koala, Crikey, can relax with her babies, safe from area dingoes.

Speaker 6 Okay, Chris, so you've got Naguin's story of a man getting pants by an escalator during a big day at work, Brian's story of a man getting stuck in quicksand on a first date, and from Luke, a woman who finds out that the monster under her bed is actually a sinkhole.

Speaker 6 So which one do you think is real?

Speaker 11 I think I'm gonna go with Luke's because it sounds more realistic.

Speaker 5 Hopefully I'm not wrong.

Speaker 6 Okay, so your choice is Luke's story about a a misadventure in Australia. To find out the correct answer, we spoke to a reporter covering the real story.

Speaker 9 There are probably easier ways to get a girlfriend than getting stuff from quicksand.

Speaker 5 Wow.

Speaker 5 There is.

Speaker 6 That was Kara Berg of the Detroit News talking about the quicksand romance. I'm so sorry, Chris, but Brian had the real answer.

Speaker 5 You got to go with your heart.

Speaker 6 You got to go with your heart, and that's how you should think about your law school finals.

Speaker 6 Chris, I'm sorry you didn't win, but you did earn a point for Luke. So thank you so much.

Speaker 6 And now the game we call Not My Job. Brian Tyree Henry is an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony nominated actor who first came to national attention playing the rapper Paperboy in FX's Atlanta.

Speaker 6 Since then, he's been a superhero, a transformer, and in his new show Dope Thief, a small-town grifter pretending to be a DEA agent. Thank God I flushed all my drugs before the interview started.

Speaker 6 Brian Tyree Henry, welcome to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

Speaker 9 I didn't flush mine, so that's all.

Speaker 6 Oh, great, okay, I'll have my toilet burp mine back up then.

Speaker 9 Please don't ever say that sentence again.

Speaker 6 Brian, I wanted to ask: you've been nominated for an Oscar Atonian and Emmy, so my next question was: How does it feel to achieve the pinnacle of cinematic success? By which I mean voicing Smokey Bear

Speaker 9 to be honest with you, it feels like the role I was born to play.

Speaker 5 Oh, wow!

Speaker 9 I truly love going to national parks shirtless as often as possible.

Speaker 9 So I feel like it was a method acting gig for me.

Speaker 14 You know what, Kate? I just realized Smokey the Bear did not have a shirt on.

Speaker 6 I never realized that.

Speaker 9 If you look at him recently, he's gotten quite buffed, which I was like,

Speaker 9 I was like, is that for me?

Speaker 6 Listen, you joke, but I literally wrote down the question, are you the reason Smokey Bear is hot now?

Speaker 4 I hope so. It better be.

Speaker 6 Okay, Wade, going off of this, though, I did have a question. Mary, Kiss, Kill, Smokey Bear, Paddington Bear, and Winnie the Pooh.

Speaker 5 Okay,

Speaker 9 Mary, I would say Mary

Speaker 9 Smokey for the benefits.

Speaker 9 You can get it to any national park you want, so clearly. Right.

Speaker 3 Mary

Speaker 9 Kiss, I would kiss Paddington because, you know, he deserves it.

Speaker 9 And he'll taste like marmalade. So that's that.

Speaker 5 Nice.

Speaker 9 And you got to kill Winnie because put your pants on.

Speaker 6 I have another question, which is that you've been in Transformers, The Eternals, and Spider-Man. These are all huge franchises.

Speaker 6 And I wanted to rewind all the way back in time and ask, do you remember what your very first role was

Speaker 9 yes embarrassingly enough I was Santa Claus and my preschool production I don't even know what this play was about, but I remember I had like a cotton ball beard, you know, when they glued this beard together.

Speaker 9 And, you know, all the parents were there and I was the final part of this Christmas play. And I'm playing Santa Claus and I have Mrs.
Claus with me. And we've been rehearsing all week.

Speaker 9 And literally, as it comes to me, I pull my beard down and go to my teacher off the side of the stage. And I go, What's my line?

Speaker 9 Which, in a photo that my mother captured, you can see this woman full of rage, going, Merry Christmas, Brian.

Speaker 14 He pulled it, like, what's my motivation? Like, what's my motivation?

Speaker 9 And here I am now, a Tony,

Speaker 8 He's like,

Speaker 5 ho, ho, line, line,

Speaker 5 ho.

Speaker 9 Yeah, it was, it was, it was great, but I, but I nailed it just to be very clear.

Speaker 6 Well, now when you do win an Oscar, you have to start off your speech by saying, Merry Christmas.

Speaker 4 Mary, what's my line?

Speaker 9 Yeah.

Speaker 6 I also wanted to ask about a different role, which I read about and I wasn't sure if it was a rumor. Is it true that you played a tree in Chekhov's The Three Sisters?

Speaker 9 Who sent you?

Speaker 9 I did.

Speaker 9 It definitely humbles you.

Speaker 5 And my only line in that play

Speaker 9 was what?

Speaker 9 I was like, well, at least this tree gets to speak. At least there's some depth there.

Speaker 13 Did you always remember that your line in that one?

Speaker 9 Oh man, I must have been on so many drugs at that point I don't remember what that was.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I wonder if your line was actually what or if that's what you said because you couldn't.

Speaker 5 Or if that's what I said.

Speaker 9 Both can be true, honestly. Both can be true.
Nuance is what they say.

Speaker 6 Going off of that, I wanted to ask, you've been a part of so many iconic projects, both on stage and on screen. What are you most recognized for when you're out in the world?

Speaker 9 I believe there's a black person on this panel. Did I hear you?

Speaker 5 Yeah, it's me.

Speaker 5 I'm here.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 9 Wait, wait, don't tell me. It's this guy.

Speaker 9 Paperboy. It always, I mean, I can be in places where there's a population of 300 people and somebody.
is going to scream paper boy at me.

Speaker 9 But it's changing.

Speaker 9 It's changing.

Speaker 9 I went to my local grocery store not too long ago because, yes, I like to buy my own groceries everywhere.

Speaker 9 And this woman was like, Hey, I just want you to know that I just want to know, are you the actor from Dope Thief? And I threw my arms around her. I was like, Thank you.
Thank you so much. Yes, I am.

Speaker 9 Thank you so much.

Speaker 9 So it's all shifting, but Paperboy is usually the thing that.

Speaker 14 Were you at? Was it the grocery store?

Speaker 4 Was it Irwan? Was it the dread grocery store?

Speaker 9 I'm close.

Speaker 5 Close.

Speaker 9 It was Sprouts. Oh,

Speaker 5 yeah.

Speaker 5 How dare you? How dare you?

Speaker 5 Erwan.

Speaker 5 All right.

Speaker 6 All right, Brian Tyree Henry, we've actually invited you here to play a game that we're calling BTH Meet BTS.

Speaker 5 That's right.

Speaker 6 You are Brian Tyree Henry, BTH. So we're going to ask you about one of the biggest bands in history, BTS.

Speaker 5 So answer three questions about the K-pop icons and you'll win our prize for one of our listeners.

Speaker 6 Bill, who is Brian playing for?

Speaker 3 Britton the Trinite of Round Rock, Texas.

Speaker 9 Bless your heart for thinking I'll know any of these answers, but let's go.

Speaker 6 Okay, here's your first question. After forming in 2010, BTS became one of the biggest bands in the world.
They're so popular that which of these is true?

Speaker 6 A, They were the only band that Pope Francis had on his iPod.

Speaker 6 B, the crowds at BTS concerts are so loud that the noise is faintly detectable from space.

Speaker 6 Or C, almost one in ten visitors to South Korea go there for BTS-related reasons.

Speaker 9 I'm gonna say the last one, one in ten go to Korea.

Speaker 9 Yes, that's correct.

Speaker 6 NPR reported that BTS adds $5 billion annually to South Korea's economy.

Speaker 5 Wow. Wow.
Oh, my God.

Speaker 8 What can K-pop do for you?

Speaker 6 All right, Brian, here's your next question. BTS thinks a lot about their lyrics, so much so that they do what before recording them.
A, run them by a women's studies professor.

Speaker 6 B, have their official fan account send out definitions for any particularly big words.

Speaker 6 And C, make sure they sound just as screamed out loud or whispered to yourself alone in your bedroom.

Speaker 9 Well, the last one I do myself, so that's.

Speaker 9 I'm going to say the second one about having someone look up the words that seem.

Speaker 6 Hmm, do you want to guess again?

Speaker 9 I only want to be on games that gaslight me like this one. Thank you.

Speaker 9 Okay,

Speaker 9 the third one.

Speaker 6 listen I'm gonna give you one more guess

Speaker 8 Merry Christmas

Speaker 6 all right here's your last question Fans were worried about the future of BTS because all South Korean men are required to complete a year and a half of military service before the age of 28.

Speaker 6 So, as BTS neared their deadline, the government got involved.

Speaker 5 How?

Speaker 6 A, they negotiated a special two-year truce with North Korea to make sure BTS would stay safe.

Speaker 5 That's all it takes.

Speaker 6 B, they passed a special law allowing anyone to defer their service as long as they're in a hit K-pop band.

Speaker 6 And C, they amassed a, quote, strategic BTS song stockpile.

Speaker 9 Refer their service?

Speaker 5 That's correct.

Speaker 6 After a bit of deferring for a world tour, all of the BTS members have since enlisted. So, Bill, how did Brian do on our quiz?

Speaker 3 Brian, you did great. You get him all right.

Speaker 5 You're a winner.

Speaker 9 Bill, are you sure you don't want to ask what your line is just to be safe?

Speaker 6 Brian Tyree Henry is starring in Dope Thief on Apple TV Plus. Brian, thank you so much for joining us on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, you express it.

Speaker 6 In just a minute, find out what happens when BFF meets PU. In our Listener Limerick challenge, call 188-WaitWait to join us on air.

Speaker 6 We'll be back in a minute with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR.

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Speaker 16 This message comes from EasyCater, a business tool for food, helping organizations order food for meetings and events from favorite restaurants, set up meal programs for their employees, and manage food spend, all in one place at easycator.com.

Speaker 3 From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Squiz.

Speaker 5 I'm Bill Curtis.

Speaker 3 We're playing this week with Nageen Farsad, Luke Burbank, and Brian Babylon. And here again is your host at the Student Acres Theater in Chicago, Illinois, Karen Big Dog.

Speaker 5 Thank you, Bill.

Speaker 6 In just a minute, there ain't no party like a limerick party, because why would you have limericks at a normal party, you nerd?

Speaker 6 So if you'd like to play, give us a call at 1888-WAIT WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924.
But right now, panel, some more questions for you from the week's news.

Speaker 6 Brian, this is exciting. Scientists say they've discovered a new color.
And if you want to see it, all you have to do is what?

Speaker 14 This has nothing to do with mushrooms, right?

Speaker 5 Here's a hint. Yeah.

Speaker 6 It involves a laser, and the last thing you should ever do with a laser.

Speaker 10 Oh, yeah, it's called, well, in my neighborhood, they call it like light sword, lightsaber syndrome.

Speaker 11 But it's like you're not supposed to look into a laser.

Speaker 6 Do you live on the death storm?

Speaker 14 You're not supposed to look straight into a laser.

Speaker 6 I'll give it to you. That's correct.
Thank you.

Speaker 5 It's...

Speaker 6 Shoot a laser into your eye.

Speaker 6 So scientists have discovered a new color and all you have to do to see it is to shoot a laser into your eye.

Speaker 5 So what is it is the color called blind? Yeah.

Speaker 4 Oh man, blind.

Speaker 6 This is a good question because the color is called Olo for Olo, my eyes.

Speaker 8 How did Blind Brian get his nickname?

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 14 You know what? If you ever want to go YOLO, just see Olo.

Speaker 5 Yeah, right?

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I honestly though, apparently the color is supposed to be like a blue-green, which I gotta be honest, I don't think it should count if the brand new color can be described by two pre-existing colors.

Speaker 4 And who told them that? Like what?

Speaker 5 I'm saying like what test subjects.

Speaker 14 All right, you ready? Yeah, ready.

Speaker 4 Okay, what do you see? Uh blue, green.

Speaker 5 I don't know.

Speaker 13 But also, they're like, it's a color I've never seen before.

Speaker 8 Like, how do they know?

Speaker 5 Worth it.

Speaker 13 I've seen blue-green. I don't need it.

Speaker 6 That's a good point. I really want them to find a new color and be like, this one is spiky.

Speaker 6 Okay, Nagin.

Speaker 6 This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that now more than ever, Americans are no longer giving each other what?

Speaker 13 High fives.

Speaker 13 Can I get a hint?

Speaker 6 Yeah, a hint is that only 20% of my friends call me Big Dog anymore.

Speaker 5 Oh, nicknames. That's correct.

Speaker 6 Nicknames.

Speaker 13 Wait, there's like a decline in nicknames?

Speaker 6 Yeah, nicknames appear to be on the decline partly due to young people being very mindful about building their professional presence online, which is kind of good practice, right?

Speaker 6 Because you don't want your interviewer's first question to be, so do you prefer Elizabeth or Pizza Slot 35?

Speaker 6 But luckily, nickname levels remain high among Little League baseball teams, construction sites, and bodegas where the owner just calls you boss.

Speaker 8 Are you saying this is bad for my longtime friend Camaro Kev?

Speaker 8 In my friend group, everyone had a dumb nickname.

Speaker 6 What was yours?

Speaker 5 Luke.

Speaker 8 That's what was most hurtful. My parents gave it to me.

Speaker 13 So my husband had a friend group in college where every single person had a nickname as well. And it's funny because to this day, I don't know their real name.

Speaker 13 So, I just refer to these people like, oh, are you going to call up baby hairs and see if he's enjoying this weekend?

Speaker 13 We should, what's your boy Jeans up to? Like, they were also weird nicknames that didn't make sense, like, out of context.

Speaker 6 Baby Hairs is definitely the nickname for Peter Sichel.

Speaker 6 Moving on, nobody tell him I said that.

Speaker 6 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 188-WAITWAIT.

Speaker 6 That's 1-888-924-8924.

Speaker 6 You can see us most weeks here at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago or catch us on the road.

Speaker 6 We'll be in Portland, Maine on June 26th and 27th, and at Tanglewood in western Massachusetts on August 28th. For tickets and info to all our live shows, go to nprpresents.org.

Speaker 6 Hi, you're on wait, wait, don't tell me.

Speaker 18 Hey, this is Celine calling from Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Speaker 5 Wow!

Speaker 5 Welcome!

Speaker 6 Yeah, Steamboat Springs is such a lovely name. It feels like a city from a picture book.

Speaker 18 Yeah, and, you know, Steamboat's a great place for, you know, a landlocked mountain town.

Speaker 5 So.

Speaker 6 Well, welcome to the show, Celine. Bill Curtis is going to read you three news-related limericks with the last word or phrase missing from each.

Speaker 6 If you can fill in that last word or phrase correctly on two limericks, you're going to be a winner. So here's your first limerick.

Speaker 3 To my brain, a sweet signal you send. It's a pizza and late night talks blend.
It's that wonderful sense of letting me vent.

Speaker 3 Thank you for being a

Speaker 8 friend? Yeah.

Speaker 5 That's correct.

Speaker 6 According to scientists, a person's smell can be more influential than their personality when you're deciding to be their friend.

Speaker 6 I can see how that could work on like a subconscious level, but someone audibly smelling me is not my secret to friendship.

Speaker 13 This would give like a show like Sex in the City such a different look if they were sitting around having brunch and sniffing each other.

Speaker 6 And being like, no, thank you, Samantha.

Speaker 5 and then they were like at that point I realized

Speaker 5 Master Big smelt great

Speaker 3 Celine here's your next limerick if your car's nearby maybe you should check her he's a mirror and shiny car hood wrecker lots of damage occurred from this hard-headed bird Now our town lives in fear of a

Speaker 3 woodpecker?

Speaker 5 That's correct.

Speaker 6 An ordinary woodpecker has destroyed over 20 car windows and mirrors in Cape Ann, Massachusetts. He's pecking windows, glass, metal.
He's not a woodpecker. He's just a pecker.

Speaker 13 So what? Wait, where is this pecker now?

Speaker 6 I think still there.

Speaker 13 So he's just out like ravaging the town.

Speaker 6 I assume at this point the mayor of the town.

Speaker 5 Yes.

Speaker 5 But that's Cape Ann Law.

Speaker 8 He is now the mayor.

Speaker 6 All right, Celine, here is your last limerick.

Speaker 3 Viral infections are dumb, but the thought of a shot leaves me numb.

Speaker 3 They don't yet have slurpees for flu or for herpes. I will chew on this germ-killing

Speaker 13 gum.

Speaker 5 That's correct.

Speaker 6 Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a chewing gum that helps fight against viral infections like influenza. Its working title, juicy flu.

Speaker 5 Oh, no.

Speaker 6 The gum is made from a kind of bean that contains a protein that essentially traps viruses. So in the lab, this gum neutralized two strains of flu and two strains of herpes.

Speaker 6 So if your spouse is always coming home late, chomping on gum whenever they're working late, I've got some bad news for you.

Speaker 13 Wait, so you, and you can chew it like all the time, or how does it like Nicorette or just yeah, or you just do it like, or you do it like a vaccine you do it you just chew on it once a year.

Speaker 6 Oh, I think it's like pretty often so every time you kiss somebody you're like uh

Speaker 6 chew chew chew

Speaker 5 or you're like oh my god I'm real itchy. Chew chew chew.
Right. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 That's the slogan for the gum chew chew chew.

Speaker 5 Gums and trains.

Speaker 6 Bill, how did Celine do?

Speaker 3 She did wonderfully. Three in a row Celine, get going.

Speaker 5 Yay!

Speaker 6 Celine, thank you so much for playing.

Speaker 18 Yeah, thanks for having me. Yay!

Speaker 2 This message comes from Fisher Investments. Senior Vice President Michael Hossmar shares why he believes in empowering clients with knowledge at every step of their financial planning journey.

Speaker 19 At Fisher Investments, we prefer to use a sizable group of experts with a diverse skill set, diverse knowledge, all collaborating together to deliver what hopefully is optimal advice for our clients.

Speaker 19 I believe the best and maybe the only way to properly address client expectations is through education.

Speaker 19 Once I've met with a prospective client for the first time, I hope they feel that they've learned something.

Speaker 19 I hope they feel they've made some progress and they understand not only the financial markets and financial planning better, but they understand their own personal goals and objectives a bit better as well.

Speaker 19 I hope they have a little bit more peace of mind.

Speaker 2 Learn more at fisherinvestments.com. Investing in securities involves the risk of loss.

Speaker 6 Now, on to our final game, Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank.

Speaker 6 Each of our players will have 60 seconds in which to answer as many fill-in-the-blank questions as they can, and each correct answer is worth two points. Bill, can you give us the scores?

Speaker 3 McGee and Brian each have two, and Luke is skyrocketing at four.

Speaker 5 What? Whoa!

Speaker 8 That's what that bluff will do for you.

Speaker 5 Doesn't make any sense. I know.

Speaker 6 All right, Nagin and Brian, you're tied, so Naguin, I'm just going to arbitrarily say you're up first. Great.
The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank.

Speaker 6 On Monday, Marco Rubio unveiled plans for a massive reorganization of the Blank department.

Speaker 13 Oh,

Speaker 13 the hair and makeup department.

Speaker 6 Right, the State Department. On Wednesday, long-serving Illinois Senator Blank announced plans to retire.

Speaker 13 Dick Durbin.

Speaker 6 Right, this week, health officials warned that if vaccination rates continued to decline, the U.S. could see millions of new cases of blank.

Speaker 5 Measles. Right.

Speaker 6 This week, a couple in Pittsburgh got married at their dream location, Blank.

Speaker 13 A quicksand

Speaker 5 thing.

Speaker 6 Not far. The mosh pit of a cannibal corpse show.

Speaker 5 Oh, I was going to say that.

Speaker 13 I didn't say that.

Speaker 6 On Wednesday, Olympic gymnast Blank won her fourth World Sports Woman of the Year award. Oh, Simone? Yeah, right.
Biles.

Speaker 5 Simone Biles.

Speaker 6 This week, NASA celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Blank telescope.

Speaker 5 Hubble. Right.

Speaker 6 After celebrating a bachelor party, a man in Ireland spent the next three weeks trying to blank.

Speaker 13 Um,

Speaker 13 annul

Speaker 13 his wedding.

Speaker 6 Trying to remember where he parked.

Speaker 6 After parking his car, the man went out, partied, and completely forgot where it was. He then spent the next three weeks searching one neighborhood at a time.

Speaker 6 Thankfully, he's now found the car just in time to get wasted at the wedding reception and lose it all over again.

Speaker 6 Bill, how did Naguin do?

Speaker 3 Five right, ten more points. Total to 12 puts her in the lead.

Speaker 6 All right, Brian, you're up next. Fill in the blank.
On Wednesday, Russia launched a new wave of drone attacks on blank. Ukraine.
Right. According to a new study, nearly half of U.S.

Speaker 6 teenagers say that blank has a negative effect on their mental health.

Speaker 5 Social media. Right.

Speaker 6 This week, the White House denied Arkansas's request for federal aid to help people affected by blanks.

Speaker 11 The flooded tornado.

Speaker 6 Right. On Tuesday, rescue workers in New Jersey warned that a blank in the southern part of the state had expanded to cover over 8,500 acres.

Speaker 5 Fire. Right.

Speaker 6 In a huge rule change, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said that members need to blank before voting for the Oscars.

Speaker 14 Watch the damn movie.

Speaker 5 That's correct.

Speaker 6 Kenyan runner Faith Kipyagon announced she would attempt to become the first woman to break the four-minute blank this summer.

Speaker 10 A mile? Right.

Speaker 6 On Thursday, the 2025 blank draft began in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Speaker 14 Go Bears, NFL.

Speaker 5 Right.

Speaker 6 This week, a man in Indonesia escaped with only minor injuries after he drove off an uncompleted bridge because blank.

Speaker 14 Bogus ass Google Maps.

Speaker 5 That's correct.

Speaker 5 Because Google Maps,

Speaker 6 because Google Maps told him it was the fastest route.

Speaker 5 It is. To a stairway to heaven.

Speaker 6 Even though he crashed into the road below and then ran into a whole bunch of trees, the man escaped with pretty much no injuries.

Speaker 6 Then really bad stuff happened after the ambulance driver that picked him up was like, don't worry, I know a shortcut.

Speaker 6 All right, Bill, how did Brian do?

Speaker 3 For the first time in 10 years, I'm honored to say that Brian got every single one.

Speaker 3 Eight right, 16 more points, total of 18.

Speaker 6 So how many does Luke need to win?

Speaker 3 Seven to tie and eight to win.

Speaker 5 All right.

Speaker 6 Okay, Luke, this is for the game. As part of their ongoing battle, Blank University filed suit against the White House this week.

Speaker 5 Harvard.

Speaker 6 Right. On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund warned that Trump's trade war was putting the world closer to a global blank.

Speaker 8 Recession.

Speaker 6 Right. This week, the White House proposed tariffs of up to 3,500% on solar panels from Blank.

Speaker 8 China.

Speaker 5 Right.

Speaker 6 According to a new report, blank pollution levels are getting worse across the U.S. Fair.
Right.

Speaker 6 After being accused of stealing over $200,000, a bank employee in Arkansas defended herself by saying blank.

Speaker 8 I was trying to buy my baby a new tooth.

Speaker 6 That she was just borrowing the money.

Speaker 6 Citing a loss of journalistic independence, the executive producer of CBS's blank resigned.

Speaker 10 60 minutes.

Speaker 8 Right.

Speaker 6 On Wednesday, human runners competed against 20 blanks in a half marathon in China.

Speaker 5 Robots. Right.

Speaker 6 After a driver accidentally drove away with a woman's woman's kid still asleep in the back seat, Uber refused to connect the woman and the police with the driver, but they did blank.

Speaker 8 Hire the kids.

Speaker 6 They did offer her a $10 credit for a future ride.

Speaker 6 I first want to say everyone in the story is okay, and the police got the girl back safe and sound, no problem.

Speaker 6 And I just want to say that nothing says, we're sorry, like a $10 credit for a future ride.

Speaker 6 Oh wait, I'm so sorry, that's in Canadian dollars, so a $7 credit for a future ride.

Speaker 6 Bill, did Luke do well enough to win?

Speaker 3 Six right, 12 more points, total of 16. It was close, but not a win.

Speaker 3 Brian is the champion.

Speaker 6 In just a minute, we'll ask our panelists to predict who will be the surprising new Pope.

Speaker 6 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 Goteka writes our limericks.

Speaker 6 Our public address announcer is Paul Friedman. Our tour manager is Shana Donald.
Thanks to the staff and crew at the Studebaker Theater. BJ Lederman composed our theme.

Speaker 6 Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Dornboss, and Lillian King. Special thanks to Mohaned El Shecki and Monica Hickey.
Additional production from Peter Teensy Weetsy Dog Gwyn.

Speaker 6 Emma Choi is our vibe curator. Our jolly good fellow is Hannah Anderson.
Technical direction, Lorna White. Our CFO is Colin Miller.
Our production manager is Robert Newhouse.

Speaker 6 Our senior producer is Ian Chillag. And the executive producer of WaitWait Don't Tell Me is Mike Danforth.

Speaker 6 Now, panel, who is going to be the next pope? Brian Babylon.

Speaker 3 It will be Pope GPT.

Speaker 6 Naguen Farsade.

Speaker 13 taking a page from the Daily Show and MSNBC, the papacy will have a rotating cast of popes changing every night of the week.

Speaker 6 And Luke Burbank.

Speaker 8 In a move both Vatican ownership and the fans will immediately regret, it's Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 3 And if any of that happens, we'll ask you about it on Wait, wait, don't tell me.

Speaker 6 Thank you, Bill Curtis. Thanks also to Brian Babylon, Nageen Farsad, and Luke Burbick.
And thanks to all of you for listening. I'm Karen Chee, filling in for Peter Sagal, and we'll see you next week.

Speaker 5 Karen Chi. Karen Chee, everybody.
Karen Shea.

Speaker 5 Take care.

Speaker 6 This is NPR.

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