WWDTM: GWAR, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Gad, Kara Jackson, and Amber Maykut

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Speaker 2 I'm Bill Curtis, and here is your host at the Studebaker Theater in the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Bill.

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Speaker 3 I am going to be honest with you all, the year's not even half over, and we are already exhausted. So inspired by the hit TV show, The White Lotus, we're going to take take a week off.

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Speaker 2 First up, actor Josh Gadd, the voice of Olaf, the snowman in Frozen, among many other roles. He joined us in January to talk about his new memoir.

Speaker 3 And congratulations on the book, which I devoured this week. Was it a little intimidating to write a memoir at the age of 43?

Speaker 4 Well, it was.

Speaker 4 Just sitting there and typing all the words was intimidating because I had to come up with them.

Speaker 4 And, you know, as it started to expand, it just felt like, okay, this may be a story worth telling.

Speaker 4 And then a publisher paid me, and I was like, okay, it is.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that'll do it.

Speaker 3 Now,

Speaker 3 the question I often ask people like you who've done so many different things is what are you most recognized for and you say in the book that you wish you had used a different voice for Olaf the snowman because whenever you're talking in public children hear you and go insane Yeah, it was a stupid decision

Speaker 4 I I will get recognized in like grocery stores just being like, hi, is the milk over there? It can be something as innocuous as that.

Speaker 4 And all of a sudden, three children will just give me an exorcist care.

Speaker 4 So I regret that now,

Speaker 4 but at the same time, I'm grateful that so many people

Speaker 4 love the voice of Olaf, which is me.

Speaker 4 The other thing that I'm weirdly recognized for is Bearclaw from New Girl, which makes no sense.

Speaker 2 There you go.

Speaker 3 Yeah, okay, there's some people. So I myself have never watched the show.
Why is that surprising? Who is Bearclaw?

Speaker 4 That's my question as well.

Speaker 2 um

Speaker 4 i i did two episodes of that show and what's so funny is

Speaker 4 people went nuts for bear claw he was this guy who like pined after jess played by zoe d'Echanel and i was actually with uh zoe's real-life husband jonathan yesterday and he looked at me and he goes Bearclaw and Jess should have ended up together, which is a

Speaker 2 very weird take. Yeah, from her actual husband, yeah.

Speaker 4 Yeah, there's like a small community, including her own husband, who just really love Bearclaw.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 2 Can I ask a question about Olaf?

Speaker 1 So I have a six-year-old daughter.

Speaker 2 So your voice is like in my apartment all the time.

Speaker 2 And I, your personality.

Speaker 4 This feels like less of a question and more like a threat.

Speaker 2 Like, what kind of relationship do you have with the parents of the children that go nuts?

Speaker 4 Well, one that's very volatile, like what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 Like this thing that's happening right now.

Speaker 4 You know what's funny is

Speaker 4 I've now been on the other side of it where like my girls are obsessed with wicked right now.

Speaker 2 Sure.

Speaker 4 And I'm having to listen to Ariana Grande's popular over and over and over again or Cynthia Rivo's song. So

Speaker 4 I'm with you, I'm struggling, and I know these people, and so I'm texting them,

Speaker 4 and I'm like, can we please just put

Speaker 4 a moratorium on this?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 4 This is a great job, but I can no longer listen to these songs on a loop.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 3 It's like a Twilight Zone episode thing where it happens to you, man.

Speaker 5 It took so much empathy for you to give that detailed answer instead of just saying, as I would have, Nagene, let it go.

Speaker 2 He has more dignity than that, Josh. He has more dignity than that.

Speaker 3 He's the superior Josh G.

Speaker 3 You did tell the story in the book of one person who did not recognize you, which was the director David O. Russell.

Speaker 2 Oh, God. Yeah.

Speaker 4 So David O. Russell, this is such a crazy story.

Speaker 4 David O. Russell, brilliant director.

Speaker 4 We were at the same mommy and me program because we're both mommies.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 4 we were outside, and it was after he had just been nominated for one of the many films he was nominated for. And he looks at me.
And I said, I said, congratulations on your nomination.

Speaker 4 He goes, oh, thank you. What do you do? And I said, oh, I'm an actor.
And he says, well, what do you do? What do you act?

Speaker 2 And I said, Oh,

Speaker 3 well, you know,

Speaker 4 I do this, I do that. He didn't recognize any of them.
And then I said, You know, your kid may know me from something called Frozen. And he goes, What's that?

Speaker 2 Animated movie that's sort of, you know, everywhere, but they're home.

Speaker 4 And he goes, Oh, what are you doing it? And I said, I'm a snowman.

Speaker 4 And it was,

Speaker 2 do it.

Speaker 2 He said,

Speaker 2 what?

Speaker 2 He said, do it.

Speaker 4 And I said, do the snowman? He goes, yeah.

Speaker 4 And I looked at him, this Academy Award-winning director, and I said, hi, I'm Olaf.

Speaker 2 And he looked at me and he goes, huh.

Speaker 4 And I have not been in a David O'Russell film.

Speaker 2 Really?

Speaker 2 There you go. Yeah.

Speaker 3 Should have done a song, dude. That would have done it.

Speaker 4 But then afterwards, he goes, oh, you're bearclaw.

Speaker 3 I got to ask one thing.

Speaker 3 The book does cover some of your struggle. And one story I loved is when you applied as a young man when you were living in Florida to work at Disney.

Speaker 4 There were two rides that I always wanted to be the sort of host of. One was this ride called The Great Movie Ride, and then the other was the jungle cruise.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 4 And so I said, you know, I really think that I would be an amazing skipper on the jungle cruise.

Speaker 4 And this person looks at me and goes, Well, yeah, I don't know about that, but we do have openings on our janitorial staff.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 4 And then years later, I told this story at something called the Disney Legends Award. And the head of the parks came up to me and said, would you like to be a skipper for a day on the jungle creep?

Speaker 4 So I got to live out my dream. Brilliant.

Speaker 2 And to skipper through.

Speaker 5 When David O'Reuster got in that boat.

Speaker 2 Game over.

Speaker 3 You're amazing. Well, Josh Gadd, it is a pleasure to talk to you after seeing you do so many amazing things over the years.
But we have asked you here to play a game we're calling...

Speaker 2 Josh Gadd, meet posh lads.

Speaker 3 So we've decided to ask you about posh lads, those fancy boys produced by British universities and boarding schools.

Speaker 3 Bill, who is Josh playing for?

Speaker 2 Larry Anderson of Denver, Colorado.

Speaker 3 All right, here we go.

Speaker 3 Here's your first question. In 1805, posh lad and poet Lord Byron attended Cambridge University, but Cambridge wouldn't let him bring his dog with him as dogs were banned.

Speaker 3 So Lord Byron, that scamp, did what? Was it A, he kept a bear in his dorm room instead because nothing in the rules said he couldn't do that.

Speaker 3 B, he built a doghouse 50 feet away just off school grounds with a tunnel connecting it to his room or C, he submitted a fake application that got his dog hired as a professor.

Speaker 4 I think it's the bear thing because that's just crazy to come up with.

Speaker 3 Well, you think it's the bear? Well, you're right. It was the bear.

Speaker 3 Yeah, he used to walk around, he used to walk the bear around campus on a chain. All right, Josh, your next question.

Speaker 3 The famously elite Eaton College has a long-standing tradition called the Eton Wall Game. It's a sort of combination of soccer and rugby, and it's played against this big brick wall.

Speaker 3 Yes, I've played it. You have?

Speaker 4 No, I lied to you.

Speaker 3 There's an annual game between the fanciest king scholars and the rest of the school. It's a big deal.
Even though which of these is true?

Speaker 3 A, the last time anyone scored a goal in the game was in 1909.

Speaker 3 B, the wall completely encloses the playing field so none of the spectators can actually see anything. Or C, the game is played with a 95-year-old ball that deflates if you kick it.

Speaker 4 I'm going to go with C.

Speaker 3 You're going to go with C, that is played with a 95-year-old ball. No, the answer is actually A, no one has scored a goal in this game for more than 100 years.

Speaker 3 Here's your last question. If you get this, you win.
Here we go.

Speaker 3 Eton was founded in the year 1440, so obviously a lot has changed over the years. For example, in the 17th century, what was a rule imposed on all Etonians?

Speaker 3 A, before exams, the headmaster inspected each boy to ensure his upper lip was sufficiently stiff. B, students were forbidden from even learning the cleaning staff's first names.

Speaker 3 Or C, for their health, all students were required to smoke before breakfast.

Speaker 4 I'm thinking it's B.

Speaker 4 Wait,

Speaker 4 what is your audience screaming?

Speaker 2 The audience is screaming C.

Speaker 3 The audience is screaming C.

Speaker 4 All right, well, my friend in Denver, if the audience gets this wrong, it's on them, not me, C.

Speaker 3 You're all right, it was C. Yay!

Speaker 3 We did it! They smoked tobacco, they were forced to smoke tobacco for their health. It probably protected them.

Speaker 4 I love you guys. Thank you for bailing me out.

Speaker 3 Bill, how did Josh Gadd do in our quiz?

Speaker 2 Well, how can you get a bigger winner? Congratulations, Josh.

Speaker 2 I don't know.

Speaker 3 Josh Gadd's new memoir is in Gad. We trust Josh Gadd.
Thank you so much for joining us on Wait Wait Thanksgiving. What a joy to talk to you, and what a pleasure to talk about.

Speaker 7 Stay safe.

Speaker 3 When we come back, the taxidermist to the stars and a woman affectionately known as Big Gretch. That's when we return with more.
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Speaker 2 From NPR in WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News quiz. I'm Bill Curtis, here's your host at the Studebaker Theater in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.

Speaker 3 Thank you, Bill. So.

Speaker 3 Thank you all so much. So right now,

Speaker 3 all of us at Wait Wait are off in a spa somewhere looking at custom reports on our biometrics and nodding along as if we understand them.

Speaker 2 All I know is my heart chakra is outperforming the Dow.

Speaker 3 Our therapy for you, though, is some delightful conversations we've had in the past few months.

Speaker 2 One of the more interesting was in February with Amber Maycut. She's known in the media by an unusual title, which Peter asked her about when she joined us.

Speaker 3 We saw that you were called taxidermist to the stars. What exactly does that mean? How did you earn that title?

Speaker 10 I guess that a lot of celebrities have bought stuff from me or commissioned work for me or I go to their houses and fix their taxidermy and hang it up for them.

Speaker 3 Can you describe, without breaking any confidences,

Speaker 3 the kind of work you've done for some of these people?

Speaker 10 Let's see. So

Speaker 10 for Drew Barrymore, I did some framed butterflies to hang on the wall. And then for Amy Sedaris, I did a a pheasant,

Speaker 10 and then for Adam Jones, he's the guitarist of Tool, I did a ram head with four horns on it, and a goat head for the band Slayer.

Speaker 3 I'm sure the goat heads are very popular with the whole heavy metal genre, right? They all need the goat heads.

Speaker 2 Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 3 Could you, I mean, I think people should understand this: that when we're talking about your taxidermy, for the most part, we're not talking about what they're thinking of, which is like, I don't know, a deer head, you know, mounted above a bar or in a cabin somewhere.

Speaker 3 Could you describe your work and what makes it special?

Speaker 10 Sure. A lot of what I do is called anthropomorphic taxidermy.
So it's kind of giving life human characteristics or activities to the taxidermy. So behind me here I have like a raccoon cowboy.

Speaker 10 So it's a raccoon wearing a cowboy hat and a red bandana around his neck and he's doing finger guns with his paws. And that one's actually for Justin Long and Kate Bosworth that's shipping to LA.

Speaker 10 And then the one next to it is actually a squirrel riding a horse waving a cowboy hat. Cowboy theme happening here.
And that one's for Maura Tierney, who's an actress from the show ER.

Speaker 2 Yes, yes.

Speaker 3 I have so many questions.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Let's just focus on Justin Long's raccoon with the cowboy hat and the finger guns.

Speaker 10 Yes. So that one is

Speaker 10 probably one of my best sellers that went viral online. I made one once and then I put it online in my online shop that people could just click and buy it.

Speaker 3 So you came up with it. Where did that come from? Were you like thinking about raccoons and going, you know, what would make them even better?

Speaker 10 Oh, geez. I don't know.
I write down things in the middle of the night sometimes that make no sense at all. So who knows?

Speaker 3 Is there like, do taxidermists have like their own aesthetic? Like what makes a great taxiderm meat?

Speaker 10 Yeah, a mount, a good mount.

Speaker 2 A good mount, thank you.

Speaker 10 So taxidermy is, if you see like the mannequin behind me on the one side, so this is a Himalayan goat on one side that's mounted with the skin on it already.

Speaker 10 And the one on the other side is just a mannequin with just a form. So it's an anatomically correct mannequin to that specimen.

Speaker 5 How do you get anatomically correct models of animals?

Speaker 3 Or do you make them?

Speaker 10 So there's taxidermy supply companies, dozens of them in the U.S., where you can order, you know, your deer mannequin or skunk mannequin. And then you basically, it's kind of tailoring in reverse.

Speaker 10 You whittle down your mannequin or build up your mannequin to custom fit it to your skin.

Speaker 10 And then you use glass eyes that are also anatomically correct to the specimen, to the millimeter, a wire for the tail,

Speaker 10 and then you do, you know, you kind of clay for musculature and sculptural work

Speaker 10 and sew it up, do your hair and makeup, do airbrushing, painting. So there's a lot, it's a lot of sculpture.

Speaker 6 Yeah. This is how I get ready in the morning, too.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 So you're just basically a polyphonic core. There's tons of molds.

Speaker 3 I mean, obviously, you're so deeply invested in this.

Speaker 3 I have a problem with stuffed animals because whenever I look away, I assume they're moving their heads to stare at me.

Speaker 3 And I turn and I look back and they're immediately still again.

Speaker 3 I find it discomforting to be near all those completely still animals. It's creepy.

Speaker 2 Do you ever.

Speaker 10 Thanks for having me on then.

Speaker 2 Oh, you're welcome.

Speaker 2 It was an act of courage on my part.

Speaker 3 Well, Amber Makeup, we have invited you here to play a game we're calling They're Alive.

Speaker 3 So, as we have been discussing, you specialize in putting deceased animals recreated in people's homes. So, we thought we'd ask you about three instances of live animals getting in there.

Speaker 3 Get two to three right, you will win our prize for one of our listeners. Are you ready to play?

Speaker 10 Sure.

Speaker 3 All right, Chioki, who is Amber Makeup playing for?

Speaker 8 Larry Gold of Minneapolis, Minnesota. All right.

Speaker 3 Minnesotans here. Here's your first question.
An Australian family was surprised when a koala got into their house, especially because it took them a little while to notice it. Where was it?

Speaker 3 A, on their couch next to a throw pillow with a koala printed on it. B, hanging on their Christmas tree as if pretending to be an ornament.

Speaker 3 Or C, sitting on top of their ceiling fan, until that is, they turned the ceiling fan on.

Speaker 3 No.

Speaker 2 I'm gonna go with A.

Speaker 3 You're gonna go with A, that it was on their couch next to a koala throw pillow. And they were like, oh, I guess we we have two koalas.

Speaker 3 Oh, you pick it up because you're choosing B hanging on their Christmas tree?

Speaker 10 I guess so.

Speaker 3 That's right.

Speaker 2 Oh, wow.

Speaker 3 It was like hanging on the Christmas tree. They like trees.
It makes sense, all right? Good. All right.
Next question.

Speaker 3 Some people actually welcome wild animals into their homes, including some surprising people. Like, which of these?

Speaker 3 A, Britain's King Charles, who not only lets red squirrels into his Scottish estate, but leaves jackets hanging on chairs with nuts in the pockets for them to find.

Speaker 3 B, Jamie Fox, who has a deal with local animal control for them to bring any captured foxes, naturally, to his house.

Speaker 3 Or C, Peyton Manning, who learned to imitate six different mating calls so he could attract animals to his patio.

Speaker 2 I'll go with A.

Speaker 3 Jamie with A. Britain's King Charles, you're right.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 He loves those red squirrels. He says, sometimes when I leave my jackets on a chair with nuts in the pockets, I see them with their tails sticking out as they hunt for nuts.

Speaker 3 They're incredibly special creatures.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 3 Last question, you're doing very well. It's not just houses that can have trouble with wildlife.
A high school in Little Rock had a bat infestation, but dealt with it quickly and decisively.

Speaker 3 Just by doing what? A, changing their mascot from the running rebels to the fighting bats. B, enrolling the bats as students, which allowed them access to state funds to get rid of the bats.

Speaker 3 Or C, just ceding control of the school to the bats and making all classes remote for a while.

Speaker 3 C. Yes, exactly right.
It took them about four days to clear out the bats and clean up everything and bring the students back. Jokie, how did Amber do in our quiz?

Speaker 8 Amber got three taxidermy finger guns.

Speaker 2 She is a woman.

Speaker 3 Amber Maycut is a taxidermist to the stars and the founder of Brooklyn Taxidermy. You can see her work at BrooklynTaxidermy.com.
I recommend it highly.

Speaker 3 Amber, well, thank you so much for being on WaitWait.tom.

Speaker 3 Take care. Bye-bye.

Speaker 2 In April, we all traveled to Detroit to speak to Michigan's governor, Gretchen Whitmer, who had just published a book with a title inspired by her nickname, Big Gretch.

Speaker 3 I asked her how she came to embrace that handle.

Speaker 6 So I'm named after both my grandmothers, Gretchen and Esther. And Grandma Gretchen always said, never let anyone call you Gretsch.
Your name is Gretchen. Gretch sounds like Rich.
It's not pretty.

Speaker 6 So I've always had this aversion aversion to being called Gretsch. And I don't know many women that want big in front of their nickname.

Speaker 6 So Big Gretsch, when it first came to be during the pandemic, I was not sure what to make of it. And a woman who worked with me, Shaquillah Myers, who's from Detroit, said,

Speaker 6 You don't understand. This is a compliment.
This is like the people of Detroit just gave you the key to the city.

Speaker 6 They love you. This is a nice thing.
So now it's my favorite nickname, Big Gretchen.

Speaker 3 Well, Gretchen, if there's there's not, if there might be somebody in the audience who's not as hau coron with Detroit hip-hop as you and I,

Speaker 3 it came from a, but it was bestowed upon you by a rapper, a Detroit rapper named G-Mac, right?

Speaker 6 So he made it into a song. It started in the city of Detroit, but he made Big Gretsch into a song, and that's really what

Speaker 2 blew it up.

Speaker 3 Right, and for people who don't know it, I'm not going to attempt to perform it, but the chorus is, throw the buffs on her face, because that's Big Gretsch.

Speaker 3 We ain't about to stress, we got Big Gretsch. You can find her in the press under Big Gretsch.
Fresh in a new dress. Yeah, that's Big Gretsch.

Speaker 5 And you said you weren't going to perform.

Speaker 2 It's almost like G-Mac Cash is here on this. Really? It really is.

Speaker 3 Sticking with nicknames for a second, you mentioned in the book that you've had other nicknames before Big Gretsch, one of which was Gravity Gretchen. Yes.

Speaker 3 And could you tell us how you got that particular nickname?

Speaker 6 Well, I'm a very accident-prone person. I'm a klutz.
I've run into things. I fall down.

Speaker 6 I mean, I was practicing in my state of the state last year, and I ran into one of the podiums, I had a huge bruise. It just happens all the time.

Speaker 6 But when I was in middle school, I went to church camp, and for some reason, it was out in Virginia, or West Virginia of all places.

Speaker 6 And I was running to a base and the other girl tagged me, but pushed me really hard. And I went right into the cement and knocked out my front teeth.

Speaker 6 And so I came back from church camp in a wheelchair because I got 30 stitches in my knee. Both my hands were cut up, my face was cut up, and I was missing my teeth.

Speaker 6 And my father just looked at me and said, gravity, Gretchen.

Speaker 3 And what did you do to anger God thus?

Speaker 6 It's a good question.

Speaker 6 I felt most

Speaker 6 bad about my dad because he just paid for braces to fix the gap between those front teeth.

Speaker 6 Well, but now I think I got to figure out

Speaker 2 how I anger God. Thank you.

Speaker 5 Well, something for the next book.

Speaker 3 Since we brought it up, I have to ask you about another time you fell down, or at least were found on the ground in high school, which again, I think, is a unique story among America's governors.

Speaker 3 I was wondering if you could share that.

Speaker 6 Well, I'll just say this.

Speaker 6 No dogs were shot in my book. That's true.

Speaker 6 Yeah, so when I was in high school, I ran with a fast crowd. And

Speaker 6 it was the 80s, you know, there was a a lot of, not a whole lot of parental oversight and a lot of access to alcohol. And I drank a lot before a football game and I

Speaker 6 passed out between two cars and my principal found me.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 6 I tell this story because that was really when I kind of got it together and

Speaker 6 became the best, you know, the most improved student that year and went to Michigan State and, you know, ended up,

Speaker 2 thank you, go green,

Speaker 6 ended up, on the dean's list, and then I went to law school and graduated magna cum laude. But

Speaker 6 I think it was that moment that really, it was devastating and I was punished,

Speaker 6 but it really inspired me to get my act together.

Speaker 3 Right, I get that, but in the telling of that story, which as you say is inspirational both in terms of its effect on your life and I think hopefully to the many young people who might read the book, there was a detail that you left out just now.

Speaker 3 Which is when the principal found you?

Speaker 2 Yeah. Didn't you like watching him? Oh, I threw up on him.

Speaker 5 I gotta tell you, this all sounds like Big Gretch Bay.

Speaker 2 It really does.

Speaker 2 Really does.

Speaker 3 Continuing, this is great because one of the interesting things about your life is that we can tell it in the form and like via nicknames.

Speaker 3 Another famous one, of course, you can find it on merch:

Speaker 3 That woman from Michigan,

Speaker 3 which was bestowed upon you by President Trump, or as I guess we should call him President Trump 1.0. It must be exciting.
Are you hoping for a new nickname in the second term?

Speaker 6 I mean, we'll see.

Speaker 6 We'll see how it goes. I'm going to, you know, see how it goes.

Speaker 3 All right.

Speaker 3 Yeah, but you know, the t-shirt printers are ready in case he comes up with something.

Speaker 6 That Michigan's Etsy community is ready to roll.

Speaker 3 Governor Whitmer, it is an absolute thrill to be able to talk to you here in Detroit.

Speaker 3 As we have with so many important people, we have invited you here to play a game that this time we are calling Check Out These Not So Great Lakes.

Speaker 3 So Michigan, as I'm sure you know, is the Great Lakes State.

Speaker 2 Oh, we are? Yeah.

Speaker 3 So

Speaker 3 we thought we'd ask you about some not-so-great lakes, that is, much, much smaller bodies of water.

Speaker 3 Answer two out of three questions about tiny lakes correctly, and you will win our prize to one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose for our show.

Speaker 3 Bill, who is Governor Whitmer playing for?

Speaker 2 Jeff Kruger of Livonia, Michigan.

Speaker 3 Are you ready to do this? I'm ready. Here's your first question.
One of the smallest bodies of water you can find is, of course, a hot tub.

Speaker 3 And if you happen to have a hot tub outside of your house in Monrovia, California in the 1990s, you had to watch out for what? A, a brand new STD that evolved in the heated water called Jacuzzi Rhea.

Speaker 3 B, Samson the hot tub bear, a 500-pound black bear who loved ending his day in somebody's hot tub. Or C, a business called Peeping Tim's Aerial Hot Tub Helicopter Tours.

Speaker 6 Samson the hot tub and bear.

Speaker 2 You're right.

Speaker 3 You just knew.

Speaker 3 Had a feeling. You just had a feeling because of your knowledge of hot tubs, your knowledge of bears, both, neither of them.
All of the above. All of the above.
Yes. All right.

Speaker 3 That was very good, Governor. Here's your next question.

Speaker 3 Puddles.

Speaker 3 Harmless little bodies of water, but they can cause problems from time to time, as in when which of these happened.

Speaker 3 A, a Japanese government official got in trouble for making a subordinate give him a piggyback ride over a puddle.

Speaker 3 B, a single puddle caused a massive traffic jam in Texas when when a cyber truck rolled through it and short hit out.

Speaker 3 Or C, a Florida billionaire got caught trying to get a tax break by calling a puddle on his property an endangered wetland.

Speaker 6 I mean, it's, I think it's A.

Speaker 3 You think it's A, the Japanese government official, you're right.

Speaker 2 Oh!

Speaker 3 You're right. This happened back in 2016.

Speaker 3 And there was this big typhoon that damaged and the minister in charge of like emergency relief showed up and there was a big puddle and he says he forgot to bring his overshoes so he had a subordinate pick him up and carry him through the puddle which did not go over well with the Japanese public.

Speaker 2 We had to apologize. Alright, that's very good.

Speaker 3 You have one more. Let's see if you can be perfect here.
The largest public swimming pool ever, we think, was the Fleisch Hacker Public Pool in San Francisco.

Speaker 3 It was so enormous during its heyday that what once happened? A, it was taken over by a pod of gray whales. B, it had to close twice a day for low tide.

Speaker 3 Or C, they had to put lifeguards out to patrol the pool in rowboats.

Speaker 3 C.

Speaker 3 That's right. Wow.
It was an enormous pool, now closed, now gone.

Speaker 3 Filled with seawater piped in from the ocean next door, they say, could accommodate 10,000 people at once.

Speaker 3 Bill, how did Governor Whitmer do in our quiz?

Speaker 2 She's perfect. Yes!

Speaker 3 Gretchen Whitmer is the Governor of Michigan. Her new book, True True Gretsch, is available now.
It's a foot and a half. Governor Gretchen Whitmer, thank you so much for joining us.

Speaker 3 And Wait Wait, Don't Tell me. Give it up to you, Governor, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker 3 When we come back, two of the humans behind the heavy metal aliens of Guar and a singer-songwriter with a very special connection to me.

Speaker 3 That's when we come back with more of Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me from from NPR.

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Speaker 2 From NPR and WBEC Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz.

Speaker 2 I'm Bill Curtis, and here is your host at the Studebaker Theater in the Fine Arts Building in downtown Chicago, Illinois, Peter Segal.

Speaker 3 Thank you, Bill.

Speaker 3 So by this time, at the exotic spa where we're spending the week, we've had the massages, the yoga, the meditation, and frankly, none of us are feeling any better.

Speaker 2 That's it. I'm going to find a way to relax, even if it kills me.

Speaker 3 Well, you work on that, Bill. Here are two more treatments for our audience in the form of music therapy, by which we mean interviews with musicians.

Speaker 2 We went to Richmond, Virginia in February to celebrate what the city was most famous for, the legendary shock rock band GOR.

Speaker 3 We were joined by Mike Bishop and Mike Dirks, who did something they almost never do. They got up on stage without their elaborate costumes and makeup.

Speaker 3 So I started by asking them to describe their band.

Speaker 2 It's a theatrical shock rock, shock heavy metal band that is very performative on stage and we are a theatrical show that involves a lot of

Speaker 2 costuming and set pieces and

Speaker 2 phony executions.

Speaker 2 Oh, that's very safe.

Speaker 3 Oh, that old saw. Quite literally.
They use a saw sometimes for these.

Speaker 3 We're also from outer space, though.

Speaker 2 We have a narrative.

Speaker 7 There's a band of extraterrestrial war gods that has been banished to the planet Earth for all the crimes they committed in outer space. Right.

Speaker 3 So just,

Speaker 3 and you two were right there in the beginning.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 when you joined the band,

Speaker 3 did you pick your own characters?

Speaker 7 I inherited mine.

Speaker 7 I am Balzac, the jaws jaws of death.

Speaker 3 Balzac, the jaws of death.

Speaker 7 And I was the third jaws of death. There had been a couple incarnations because the first few shows that Gwar played,

Speaker 7 it was just a collective of whoever, whatever artists and musicians they could grab from VCU and the surrounding areas to throw on these costumes and do a show.

Speaker 2 I love how folksy that sounds. You know, like,

Speaker 3 my father is Mr. Balzac.

Speaker 2 He's called me Balzac.

Speaker 2 But his grandfather was the jaws of death and his grandfather before me.

Speaker 3 And Bishop,

Speaker 3 who are you on stage?

Speaker 2 So originally I was Beefcake the Mighty, who was the bass player.

Speaker 3 Beefcake has some fans here.

Speaker 2 Yeah, and now I am the singer

Speaker 2 following the passing of the original lead singer Dave Brocki, who everybody knows and loves.

Speaker 4 I came back and now I play the Berserker Blothar.

Speaker 3 The Berserker Blothar.

Speaker 3 And for people who haven't seen it, these costumes you wear are not just, I mean, like the guys from KISS, for example, are just amateurs when it comes to you guys.

Speaker 3 You've got like enormous headpieces and huge full-body costumes that often have,

Speaker 3 shall we say, over-the-top anatomy.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 This is not your first time at NPR because famously Guar did a tiny desk concert.

Speaker 6 And

Speaker 3 by the way, I recommend everybody watch this. When you walked into NPR headquarters in the full Guar Regalia, what was the reaction from our colleagues there?

Speaker 7 It was enthusiastic.

Speaker 7 No, they made us go around the whole studios.

Speaker 2 Yeah, they were kind of using us to scare their.

Speaker 2 Wait a minute, what do you mean?

Speaker 3 It'd be like, it'd be like, hey, Scott Simon, can you step out of the office just for a second?

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Sylvia.

Speaker 3 And you, Guar is very popular in Richmond, of course, and you even have a Guar bar. We do.

Speaker 3 People have been to it

Speaker 3 for fans. And

Speaker 3 Dirks, you work there sometimes, right?

Speaker 7 I do. I bartend, and I'm one of the managers there.

Speaker 3 Right. And do people ever come in? I presumably they're Guar fans, they recognize you?

Speaker 2 We'll get people in there all the time.

Speaker 7 I'll be bartending, and people will come up and ask me, like, so do the guys in Guar ever hang out here?

Speaker 2 And Molly's like, not Not very often. No.

Speaker 3 Well, Mike Dirks and Mike Bishop, we have invited you here to play a game we're calling.

Speaker 3 You guys are Guar,

Speaker 9 meet Jaguar.

Speaker 3 We're going to ask you about Jaguars. Answer two out of three questions about Jaguars of various kinds.
You'll win our prize for one of our listeners, Jokie. Who are Mike and Mike playing for?

Speaker 9 Sharon Lowry of Richmond, Virginia.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 3 Hometown lady.

Speaker 3 If you win, maybe she'll come by the bar to thank you.

Speaker 3 All right, here we go. Now, the Jacksonville Jaguars are an NFL team that's had some good seasons, but they have also been very unlucky, including one year when their punter suffered a unique injury.

Speaker 3 What was it? A, he bet somebody he could punt a 35-pound kettlebell. and broke all his toes.

Speaker 3 B, he accidentally chopped himself in the leg with the inspirational axe kept in the locker room. Or C, he joined the team's cheerleaders for a kick line and ruptured his groin on the first kick.

Speaker 2 C sounds weird. Yeah.

Speaker 3 The kicker joining a kick line.

Speaker 7 But I know that they have strict rules against the fraternization between the players.

Speaker 7 So I'm thinking it's the, he broke his toes trying to kick him.

Speaker 3 He broke his toes.

Speaker 3 So let me get this right. Dirks, you're picking, he broke his toes trying to punt a kettlebell.
Yeah. And Bishop, you're choosing, he got in the kick line with a cheerleader.

Speaker 3 It was actually the other one

Speaker 2 the coach

Speaker 3 kept an axe and a stump in the locker room to inspire his team to quote keep chopping

Speaker 3 and one day the punter did all right that's okay guys you still have two more chances here is your next question the jacksonville jaguars mascot is jackson deville it's a person in a skin-tight suit and a big jaguar head and he has been so innovative in the mascot arts that he has actually inspired a rule change for all mascots across the NFL.

Speaker 3 What is that rule change? A, no mascot may ever mime intimate acts with the other team's mascot.

Speaker 3 B, all mascots must be drug tested before each half.

Speaker 3 Or C, no mascot may get closer than six feet to the field of play, especially not if they are carrying a life-size dummy of the opponent's quarterback that they intend to stomp on midfield.

Speaker 2 Well, it sounds like a very Guar answer, so that having the peak rubber dummy of the opposing quarterback.

Speaker 3 Yeah, it could be inspired by Guar. Maybe it was.

Speaker 2 That's the real answer, of course.

Speaker 3 The rule arose from an incident in a game against the Steelers in 1998.

Speaker 3 Okay, let's start talking about real jaguars.

Speaker 3 According to the scientists who work at a wildlife reserve in Guatemala, the best way to attract one of the big cats, they can do it without fail, is to do what?

Speaker 3 A, turn on music by Kenny G, which the jaguars find irresistible. B, wear lots of obsession by Calvin Klein,

Speaker 3 which draws them like flies, or C, dress like Jackson Deville, the Jacksonville Jaguars mass movie.

Speaker 2 I bet it's Kenny G, man.

Speaker 2 Oh, wow.

Speaker 3 The audience is saying, B. B, the audience is shouting B.
They're saying Calvin Klein, Klein, obsessioned by Calvin Klein.

Speaker 7 I don't know. Cats don't have the super sensitive smell like dogs.

Speaker 2 Yeah, well, they got that thing where they go like that. All right, all right.

Speaker 7 We're trusting these people who are obviously more intelligent than us.

Speaker 3 So you're going to go for a B and B? Yes, that's right. Congratulations, everyone.

Speaker 3 So, Jokie, how did Dirks and Bishop do in our quiz?

Speaker 9 The scum dogs of the universe do not know defeat.

Speaker 2 Well done.

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Speaker 3 Finally, in October of last year, we hosted the singer-songwriter Kara Jackson, a former Illinois and then National Youth Poet Laureate.

Speaker 2 But we, of course, focused in on her most important formative experience, being coached at T-Ball by none other than Peter Sager.

Speaker 2 Thanks for having me.

Speaker 3 Now,

Speaker 3 I have left off what I think of as one of the most important items on your resume, which is that you were one of the starting players on the Angels, an eight-year-old girls' T-Ball team in Oak Park,

Speaker 3 which I coached.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 So,

Speaker 3 a little nervous about the answer. What do you remember about

Speaker 3 Coach Sagal on the Angels and being on the Angels?

Speaker 2 You know, I was pretty good at T-ball. I've got to say, I was just really tall.
Yeah. I feel like some people struggled.

Speaker 2 Like there were some people where it was like they were shorter, so they had to like, you know, lower the T. Yeah.
But the taller kids, they would make it bigger and everyone would be like, back up.

Speaker 2 Like,

Speaker 3 there really is, there really is no better feeling I imagine than coming to bat with the tea and all the other

Speaker 2 chasing that high honestly

Speaker 3 right so you moved from t-ball to poetry and were named the Chicago youth poet laureate while you were still in high school do you remember any of those early poems

Speaker 2 well unfortunately for me I a part of the youth poet laureate program in the city every poet laureate is responsible for writing a chat book so like a mini book of poems.

Speaker 2 So I have, you know, a living archive

Speaker 2 of all the poems I wrote at that time. Right.

Speaker 3 Do you ever go back and look at them, and how do you feel about them?

Speaker 2 I think it's been a minute since I've looked back at them, but I think I have mixed emotions.

Speaker 2 Sometimes it's cringy, just because I think that having a living record of things you thought as a teenager would just be cringy probably for everyone here. Right.
It's all true. It gets very tricky.

Speaker 2 It's chances. You know, it's also like a chance for me to...

Speaker 2 I'm trying to do better the older I get to also, you know, treat my younger self with care and, you know, appreciate what I was doing at that age, because I think you take for granted

Speaker 2 a lot.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 3 My advice would be go to that young girl you once were and give her a snack and a juice box because it always worked.

Speaker 2 After the game snacks.

Speaker 3 Oh, the best part of T-ball. Oh, good.
I can see we're never going to get off that topic.

Speaker 3 You then became, and I remember hearing about this and being very impressed, the national youth poet laureate. Right.
And what kind of, I mean, that sounds like a serious post.

Speaker 3 What kind of obligations, duties, ceremonial, or otherwise come with it?

Speaker 2 Yeah, so when I became the youth poet laureate, I was the third one. So I think the program was still kind of establishing itself in terms of what it entails as a role.

Speaker 2 I think it was still kind of, you know, becoming a real tangible thing. Yeah, sure.

Speaker 3 So you were the third one, and there have been plenty since then.

Speaker 2 Yeah. So do you look at the new ones like, man, y'all got it good? You know, like how

Speaker 2 college athletes are getting paid a lot more money now?

Speaker 2 Um, I don't know. I really think I only look at the new ones with admiration because they're younger than me.

Speaker 2 So, I, either way, I think I would never trade places with someone who's like 19 at this age, like no matter what I'm going through. Yeah, yeah, but

Speaker 2 you're 25 right now. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, almost 25 in a couple weeks.

Speaker 2 You're not 25 yet? She's 24. You're at that age.

Speaker 2 She's like, yeah, back in the day when I was just 19.

Speaker 2 24 and a half, man.

Speaker 3 Let's talk about your music.

Speaker 3 So you have a song

Speaker 3 about the various losers you've dated. It's called Head Blues.

Speaker 3 It's pretty scathing, and I'm wondering, what has that done for your social life?

Speaker 2 I don't know, because I think that I am really associated with like-minded people, so I think it maybe only enhanced it.

Speaker 2 I feel like for people who needed that song, they really, you know, leaned into it. And it's been fun to travel and perform that one in front of many different audiences.
I had to perform at the U.S.

Speaker 2 Ambassador in London.

Speaker 2 And I did that song for the U.S. Ambassador.

Speaker 2 And she was really cool with it. I feel like she, you know, maybe related, possibly.

Speaker 3 And the response was, positive?

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.
Well, they are.

Speaker 3 Yes.

Speaker 2 The ambassador was like, right on, right over, girl.

Speaker 2 Sing it, girl. Get him close.

Speaker 3 Well, Kara Jackson, it is great to talk to you. And we've invited you here to play a game we're calling.

Speaker 2 It's a yes, fun party.

Speaker 3 So you wrote a song called No Fun Party. Yes.
So based on that, we thought we'd ask you about some really fun parties. Answer two or three questions correctly.

Speaker 3 You'll win our prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose for their voicemail. Bill, who is Cara Jackson playing for?

Speaker 2 Baureen Tarr of Natick, Massachusetts. There you are.
All right, you ready to apply?

Speaker 3 Okay, yeah. First question, the former executive of a company called Tycho was sent to prison.

Speaker 3 back in the day for stealing money from his company to fund his lavish lifestyle, including a 2002 birthday party for his wife, which included which of these?

Speaker 3 A, each guest getting a new Mercedes-Benz in a giant bag as they departed. B, an ice sculpture of Michelangelo's David that dispensed vodka from his little David.

Speaker 3 Or C, a musical background of instrumental versions of U2 songs played during the cocktail hour by U2.

Speaker 2 I feel like

Speaker 2 maybe it's B?

Speaker 3 It is B.

Speaker 3 So if you think about it, it's sort of like a spigot, right? The eye sculpture. Anyway,

Speaker 3 here is your next question.

Speaker 3 A British woman named Ivy Smalls celebrated her 105th birthday back in 2016. She only had one request for the party.
What was it? A, life-size blown-up photos of all her enemies that she had outlived.

Speaker 2 That's what I was more than worth. That's my kind.

Speaker 2 That's what I was more.

Speaker 3 B, hunky firefighters with tattoos, or C, pot brownies.

Speaker 2 Hmm. The first one speaks to me the most, so I'm going to go with A?

Speaker 3 Life-size photos of all the people she had outlived. No, it was actually hunky firefighters with tattoos.

Speaker 2 Really? Yeah, that's what she wanted.

Speaker 3 All right, here's your last question. Get this right, you win.

Speaker 3 Colleges are known, of course, for huge parties, and in 2017, one house party at a college in Maryland became such a rager that what happened?

Speaker 2 A,

Speaker 3 NBA scouts showed up just to recruit from the beer pong games.

Speaker 3 B, when the cops came to bust up their party, their breathalyzers all went off just from the air inside the house.

Speaker 3 Or C, the party became so big it could be seen from space.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm gonna go with B. Sorry in advance to this

Speaker 2 person. You're right again.

Speaker 3 The air was so thick with alcohol that the breathalyzers on their belts started beeping.

Speaker 3 Bill, how did Kara Jackson do in our quiz?

Speaker 2 Two out of three, Kara, you are the poet laureate who won the game.

Speaker 3 Congratulations!

Speaker 3 Kara Jackson is an award-winning poet and the celebrated singer-songwriter behind Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?

Speaker 3 And speaking from personal experience, she's a contact hitter who can hit with power to all fields.

Speaker 3 Kara Jackson, Jackson, thank you so much for joining us on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.

Speaker 3 That's it for our Wellness Retreat Edition. Wait, Wait, Don't Tell me is a production of NPR and WBEZ Chicago in association with Urgent Haircut Productions, Doug Berman, Benevolent Overlord.

Speaker 3 Philip Goteka writes our Olympics. Our public address announcer is Paul Friedman.
Our tour manager is Shana Donald. B.J.
Ledeman composed our theme.

Speaker 3 Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Dornboss, and Lillian King. Special thanks to Monica Hickey.
Our jolly good fellow is Anna Anderson.

Speaker 3 The Hutstones and Armassage, those are Peter Gwynn. Our vibe curator is Emma Choi.
Technical Direction is from Lorna White. Our CFO is Colin Miller.
Our production manager is Robert Newhouse.

Speaker 3 Our senior producer is Ian Chillag. And the executive producer of Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me is Mr.
Michael Danforth. Thanks to everybody you heard on the show this week.

Speaker 3 All of our panelists, our special guests, of course, Bill Curtis. And thanks to all of you for listening.
I'm Peter Sagal, and we'll be back next week, revivified with a new sense of well-being.

Speaker 3 This is NPR.

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