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Learn more at capella.edu. From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz.

I'm the old acquaintance that won't ever be forgot. Bill Curtis.
And here's your host at the Studebaker Theater of the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Bill.
Thanks, everybody. 2024 is finally over.

Thank goodness. bill thanks everybody um 2024 is finally over thank goodness but we're hoping to delay finding out what 2025 has in store by staying in bed with the lights off and when that doesn't work i call up my friends jack daniels and jack ambien while we try to remain blissfully unaware that a new year has even begun, we want to salvage the reputation of the last one a little by bringing you some of the highlights of our show.
Let's start with Kristen Kish, who joined us in Milwaukee, where she had just filmed her first season as the new host of Top Chef. Peter started by asking about her experience as a contestant on the show.
So let's jump right in. You won your season of Top Chef after fighting your way through a redemption round.
And a big turning point for you in the show was you were all challenged to prepare this seafood specialty in Seattle, the gooey duck. Correct.
And I don't know if I will ever recover watching. Who knows what a gooey duck is? You guys know? Yes? Yeah, no? It sounds like pate or something? Who knows what a penis is? They look identical.
It is not the thing that I wanted to cook and have, like, my first moment dunking the gooey duck in hot water to then remove the... Foreskin? Yes, yes, I'll let you say that.
And to slide it off and that was my first moment, but it was the quickest thing that you could cook in 30 minutes. Wait, so you moiled a...
Wow! Hey! Beautiful. It's a very easy procedure.
You do that, you give it a fountain pen, and you move on. And I...
I'm very gay, so shocking that I knew what to do. Yeah, exactly.
Well, you know, that makes sense. That makes sense, though, that you're like a penis dipping in boiling water.
I think that's the advantage you had over the rest of the contestants. Yeah, exactly.
Complete emotional detachment. I don't care.
I don't care. So now, so you went to the one Top Chef, hugely popular winner.
You've gone on to do a lot of things. And then they called you up and they said, Padma's retiring.
We want you to take over the show. Well, so they didn't even say that.
I saw anyone that is a fan of the show saw that on Instagram when Padma posted it. And it was like, it caught me off guard too.
I was like, who's going to take over that job? Not me. Certainly.
It's probably going to be one of you. You all are very funny and clever and very witty and charming.
I did think it was going to be me. And it just happened so fast.
I got a call. I was flying from Thailand back to New York and I was in Dubai and I got a call from my agent and it just things started rolling.
And how did you find the, of course, necessary moment at the end of every episode where someone has to go home? Do you use the famous catchphrase, pack your knives and go? Oh, pack your knives and go is still there. And you, our top chef, is still there.
They have been there since season one. You didn't change it? You weren't like, f*** off? Well, I did.
You did? No. Did you pitch your own? Did you pitch your own? The first day I was like, maybe what if I do just say, go the f*** home? Yeah.
Really? Yeah. But I felt like, I was like, there's a lot of people I don't want to say that to, so I was like, I'll be nice to everybody, so we can't tell, you know.
You are a very positive person. You filmed the next season of Top Chef will take place entirely here in Milwaukee and other areas of Wisconsin.
Chef's all from all over the country, flew here to. And how many episodes, how many episodes were there? Are there? I have no idea.
You're not. A lot of episodes.
No. So like 20 episodes.
How many of them are entirely about cheese curds? Listen, as soon as we, as soon as we touched down, I had cheese curds, custard, butter burger and I know

Wisconsin is much more

than had cheese curds, custard, butter burger.

And I know Wisconsin is much more

than just your dairy, but your dairy is

exceptional. It's true.

And most people don't know this, but when you arrive

at Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee,

you are greeted with strings

of cheese curds that they

place around your neck as the traditional

welcome here. It's very nice.
And in Wisconsin, your dairy is exceptional, qualifies as dirty talk. Well, Kristen Kish, we are so delighted you came back to Milwaukee to join us, and we have asked you here specifically to play our competition, and this time we are calling it...
Top Chef, meet the Top Jeff. You host Top Chef, so we thought we'd ask you about the world's top Jeff, Jeff Bezos.
Answer two out of three questions correctly about the founder of Amazon, and you will win our prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose for their voicemail. So, Bill, who is Chef Kish playing for? Heather Rayne of Racine, Wisconsin.
Did you get down to Racine while you're here? Get a Kringle? I can't say anything. Oh, I'm sorry.
It's all secret. Sorry.
But also, if I lose, does Heather still get the prize? Because this is a lot of pressure for me. I want to do good for somebody else.
And then if I don't do good and then she doesn't get the prize, I'm going to feel really bad for the rest of my life. Here we go.
We'll see how you do. Here's your first question.
To demonstrate his personal philosophy of how one succeeds in business, Jeff Bezos once did what? A. Actually stole candy from a baby.
B. Ate an octopus for breakfast., or C, drove his Mercedes S-Class the wrong way down I-5 in Seattle? God, see, I was really bad at quizzes, and I always did C when I didn't know the answer, but there's only...
He ate the octopus. He ate the octopus.
That's right. There you go.
You see? See, you know what's crazy? Get back in your head. You do it right.
Right. You think you know the answer, and then you...
Talk yourself out. Someone once asked me at a food and wine festival, side note, you know, Le Creuset, Le Creuset, the cookware.
Someone was like, how do you say Le Creuset? And I've been saying Le Creuset the right way my entire life. And someone goes, how do you say it? And I was like, have I been saying it wrong? And I go, Les Crusettes? And they're like, no, I would, I, this is what happens.
I overthink. I overthink.
So what happened was, is he ate this octopus for breakfast at breakfast with his, with the head of a company he wanted to acquire. And then Bezos said, and I quote, you are the octopus I'm having for breakfast.
When I look at the menu, you're the thing I don't understand, the thing I've never had. I must have the breakfast octopus.
That was Bond villain. It really was.
Wow. All right.
Here's your next question. Jeff Bezos is not the only famous member of his family.
His biological father, Ted Jorgensen, also had a claim to fame. What? A, he was the most beloved small independent bookstore owner in Seattle until Amazon put him out of business.
B, he invented the male cosmetic buttock implant. Or C, he was an avid unicyclist who founded the world's first unicycle hockey club.
Does C qualify as a claim to fame? I personally like B. I like the thought of white men getting BBLs.
A. No, I thought I told you.
The answer is always C. Wait, how many do I have to get right? Two? You have to get two.
Okay. This is just like Top Chef.
You lost, but you're not out of chances. You can come back and win it all.
You know how I do well under pressure? I don't do very well. What happened in high school once is I was a really great free throw basketball person.
They threw me on the team because I was tall for my age. It's not because I was actually good, but I got really good at just aiming and standing one spot.
So then what happened is there was a game. We're playing our rivals.
And it was tied game. Like everything that you think of, like when you see something really suspenseful in a sports game, that's what's going to happen.
All right, let's go. Tied game with this team rival.
You're fouled. Game's in the line.
You're at the free throw line. Yes.
Go.

And I go, whoop, and an air balled.

Oh.

It was devastating.

Devastating.

So this is how I feel now.

So go ahead.

Ask your question.

Ask your question.

Come on, triggers.

All right.

Here's your last question.

Get this right.

You win.

I think I'm ready. All right.

You get this one right.

You win.

So Jeff Bezos is famous for insulting his employees whenever they displease

Thank you. You win.
I think I'm ready. You get this one right, you win.
So Jeff Bezos is famous for insulting his employees whenever they displease him, which apparently they do a lot. Which of these is a real insult that Jeff Bezos has been reported to shout at his underlings? A, I'm sorry, did I take my stupid pills today? B, if I hear that again, I'm going to have to kill myself.
Or C, why are you wasting my life? Well, C. C, yeah, C.
C, you're going to go with C. All right.
All of them, all of them. What did you decide? All of them.
All of them is the correct answer. Wow.
Wow. For the win.
Yes. For the win! I have had a lot of wonderful people in the show.
I've never been on such an emotional journey with any of them. But hey, wait a minute.
The demon has not vanished until Bill says the words. Bill, how did Kristin Kish do in our show? Two out of three.
You won! Yay! Oh, my God. Kristen Kish is a Top Chef winner and the show's new host.
The latest season filmed in Milwaukee will air on Bravo this spring. Kristen Kish, thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you. And just for fun, here's a panel question that we've never broadcast before.
Joelle, the movie Wicked just came out this weekend. You're excited.
I saw it already. Oh, you did? I did.
I'm special. Well, maybe.
Then I bet you'll be able to figure this out quickly. The New York Times is reporting that some movie theaters have had to crack down on all the theatergoers doing what? Singing at the top of their damn lungs.
Did that happen at the screening you saw? No, it didn't, but I could tell the little theater kids next to me were vibrating. So many fans have complained about all the other fans singing at the screenings that some theaters have started posting signs saying they will have dedicated sing-along screenings, so would you please shut up at this one? The singers,

meanwhile, are undeterred. I think you should be allowed to

sing. And absolutely, because if

you go to a movie at a black theater,

black people are going to be talking.

There should be a judge of your

tone. If you're off...

I was about to say to Joelle, you say you're

fine with it. Wait till you hear my version of Defying

Gravity. When we come back, an economist who won a Nobel and a rapper who cannot win at pickleball.
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From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz.

Thank you, Bill. Thank you, everybody.
Thank you all so much. We're spending the first week of the new year lost in nostalgia for the old one.
Consider it a challenge, you baby year. Try to beat this.
For example, 2025, I bet you won't be sending us a Nobel Prize winner as fun as economist Claudia Golden, who appeared with us last March. First of all, I guess it's not that long ago, so we can still congratulate you on the Nobel.
Oh, thank you. Yeah.
Now, Peter, how did you... I don't know that there's a statute of limitations on congratulations on your Nobel Prize.
Well, I mean, you know, it was just last year, and, you know, it's still fresh. I mean, can you tell us about the experience of getting the call? Yes, the call arrived at 4 30 in the morning and I was sleeping in a bed with the person behind me.
Now we should establish, by the way, that you are speaking to us from your home and with you and is your husband, Larry. Hello.
The great labor economist. The great labor economist.

That's right.

He's also the father of my dog.

Wow.

And the call came,

and you have to just get into action

because the person at the other end of the phone says,

you have 90 minutes to prepare for a press conference.

Oh, my God. because the person at the other end of the phone says, you have 90 minutes to prepare for a press conference.

That doesn't sound like a prize.

It sounds like a threat.

Hello, this is the Nobel Committee.

In 90 minutes, there will be a press conference.

And what did you do, Professor?

I said, Larry, take the dog out. Now, the Nobel Prize in Economics, or the Nobel Memorial Medal in Economics, is awarded separately from the other Nobel Prizes.
Who has better parties, the economists or all those lame scientists?

We share the parties. You do? Really? Yes.
We had one big party, and there was dancing, music, things that you would not expect Nobel laureates to do. That's right.
That is, in fact. Now, I wanted to ask about your husband, who, again, I just want to let everybody know we have you on screen here, and he is sitting directly behind your shoulder, staring at

us.

He is also an acclaimed economist.

And we recently had, I know, your good friend, Janet Yellen, also an economist, Secretary

of the Treasury.

She is also married to an economist. Are all economists married to other economists? This is an extraordinarily good question.
It's not all economists married to other economists. There are very few female economists in various age groups.
A disproportionate number of those are married to male economists.

Right.

But the male economists can't be married to the female economists because there are too few of us. Oh, I see.
There would have to be polyandry. By the way, answering my question about are all economists married to other economists with a breakdown of the data of the numbers of female versus male economists and thus the different proportions of marriages is such an economist way to answer.
Now, before we get to the game, we heard that you asked a chatbot to predict what we would ask you about, and well what did it say? Yeah, so I said to the chatbot, first I said, what will Peter Sagal ask Claudia Golden on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me in the Not My Job segment? And the chat bot came back and said, I don't know

what Peter is going to ask. So I changed the question.
I said, what might Peter ask? Blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah. And then it came back and it said, how do you think your career would be

different if you pursued your true passion of competitive yodeling. Where were you on that one, Peter? So the chatbot thought I would ask you about your true passion in competitive yodeling.
Is that by any true passion? No. No.
Thank goodness. You're safe from robot replacement right now.
For the moment. All right.
Well, Claudia Golden, we've asked you to play a game we're calling... Economy? How about first class? You know the economy, but we're going to ask you about a guy who knows first class.
Tom Stuker, who is the most traveled airline passenger in history, and he did every one of those 23 million miles in first class. Answer two out of three questions about Mr.
Stuker. You will win our prize for one of our listeners.
Bill, who is Professor Golden playing for? Laurie Craig of Olympia, Washington. All right.
Here's the first question for the both of you. Mr.
Stuker started his odyssey when he bought a lifelong pass for unlimited first-class travel from United in 1990 for $290,000. As you can imagine, having flown farther than any other human being in the decades since, he has lots of advice for travelers,

including which of these? A, despite what you've heard, people like it when you take off your

shoes on planes. B, always lie to the chief flight attendant that you remember them.

Or C, air sickness bags make great hand puppets for the kids.

B. B, you're going to say B.
Hold on. Larry, can you hear me? You concur in the choice of B.
Yes. Big nod from Larry.
You're both right. Yes.
He says that when you meet the chief flight attendant as you walk onto the plane, say, oh, hi, I remember you from my last flight. You were so great.
It's great to see you again. Now, they, of course, don't remember you, but they're not going to admit that.
So instead, they will just treat you exceptionally well during the flight. Word to the wise.
All right. Two more questions.
Because he has earned frequent flyer miles with every flight, he's also been able to swap those miles for all kinds of goods and services, meaning that Mr. Tom Stuker once used frequent flyer miles to get himself a what? A, an entirely new face from a plastic surgeon, be a guest spot on the TV show Seinfeld, or C, a majority ownership stake in United Airlines.
Whoa. Okay, Seinfeld.
It's Seinfeld. Yes, that's right.

That's why Kramer looked different in season seven. I know, yeah.
No, he donated his miles to a fundraiser, and the prize was a guest spot on Seinfeld. So you can see him in the episode

in which George's fiance dies from licking envelopes. All right, here's your last question.

Despite what you might think, United Airlines doesn't mind him costing them millions of dollars

Thank you. episode in which George's fiance dies from licking envelopes.
Alright, here's your last question. Despite what you might think, United Airlines doesn't

mind him costing them millions of dollars

in free flights. In fact, they once did what

for him? A, they let him pilot

the plane, part of a trip from

Dallas to Hawaii, but quote, only

over the ocean.

B, they let him be CEO

of United for a day.

Which is why the airline went from giving people peanuts

to the much superior Stroopwafels.

Or C, they named not one, but two aircraft after him.

It's got to be C.

That's right, it is C.

Next time you see United aircraft,

check to see if it says Thomas R. Stuker,

customer on the fuselage.

Bill, how did Dr. Claudia Golden and her husband Larry do in our quiz?

Well, they both may not have won the Nobel Prize, but they certainly both won this contest.

Thank you so much.

Dr. Claudia Golden is a Nobel Prize winner and the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University.
Dr. Golden, thank you so much.
We know that 2025 is already intimidated by everything we have played so far, so let's hit it when it's down. We went to Austin, Texas last February and talked with rapper Danny Brown.
Danny had moved there after revolutionizing hip-hop in his hometown of Detroit. Peter asked him about his distinct style.
You do something that I don't think a lot of the people in your field do is that you use different voices when you rap, right? Yeah, I try to use different voices. Just whatever emotion I'm feeling or the emotion of the song.
I try to let that convey through the voice. Do you have like names for your voices that you use? Like these are verses that this guy's going to do? Yeah.
Yes. Do you know any of those names offhand? What is it called? Adderall.

Where did you get that name?

That's fascinating.

So we were reading about you.

You grew up in Detroit.

And you said that you were rhyming almost as soon as you could talk, right?

You're right?

Yeah.

My mom used to read Dr. Seuss books to me all the time.
So she said when I first started talking, I just talked him rhyme.

Really?

Yeah.

He was killing them on the playground.

Green eggs and ham. You feel me? You also won a lot of rap battles in high school, right? Yeah.
I lost a lot, too. Did you really? Yeah.
I mean, I'm the professional rapper now, so I guess I won it. Yeah, I guess so.
I was going to ask who you lost to. Let him know.
What kind of contract contract does that guy have did you is there like a secret weapon to running rap battles because I couldn't on a bet Oh, I mean it was always like I was kind of quiet in school to be honest Really? So every time like some kid will rap I go. Oh, it's my time to shine That was the Adderall boys right there.
That was it. So you had this huge album about 10 years ago when you were about 30 called XXX or 30, right? Yeah.
And you have a new album, Quarenta, Italian. Quarenta.
Quarenta, excuse me. You got a row to R.
Quarenta. See, he battling you already.

So your album 30 when you were 30 and Italian for 40 when you're 40.

Has Adele ever called to say you're stealing my bit?

No, I actually met Adele once.

She's really nice.

Yeah, at Wembley Stadium.

Yeah, she was really nice. I think I made a crude joke and she got up out of there after that.

Really?

But most part, she was pretty cool.

She was nice, yeah.

And it was when you all first met. Yeah.
Yeah, it was like first thing. I didn't know it was Adele, though.
You didn't know. Wait a minute.
I came because I was actually opening for Eminem, and she just was there to see Eminem, obviously. And I just had the empty dressing room that she can hang at, and she was chilling.
I just thought it was just a cool white lady back there. I was drinking a lot back then.
I'll blame the alcohol. Yeah.
Is alcohol a name of one of the other voices? At all, there's alcohol. Speaking of which, if you don't know about your struggles with addiction and substances and drink and stuff, you can find out about it because Quaranta, let me get that right, it has a lot of verses about your struggles and some regrets.
I mean, it's like a, forgive me, it's like an older guy's rap album, right? Yeah, it was a midlife crisis. Speaking of midlife crisis, we understand that you, among your many enthusiasms these days, you're into pickleball.
Yeah, I actually just started playing. Really? Yeah.
I actually went to an old folks' home. That's not fair, bro.
No, they was whooping my... They were killing me.
So what inspired you to go play pickleball? I mean, it started out as a joke for me to go. It was a sketch for me to go play pickleball with all these old people.
And, you know, I guess I was supposed to win, but it didn't work out like that. I was like, man, they really moving fast out there.
So I fell in love with it. So I'm playing.
Are you planning to get good, go back to the old? Yeah, man, I'm trying to get my revenge. I feel like those old folks, they pride themselves on baiting young people into the sport.
Yes, they did. They was like, oh.
Did they hustle? You were like, oh, yeah, my knees are shot, my man. No, they was in great shape.
I was like, man, it really was inspiring. I was like, I want to be like that when I get your age.
When you do your 70 album, that can be all about the pickleball. Have you, in fact, put pickleball into a rap yet? No, but it's coming.
What? Yeah. It's coming.
Yeah, in a weird way, the pickleball rap is coming for all of us, if you know what I mean. Yeah.
Well, Danny Brown, it is a pleasure to have you. We have, in fact, asked you here to play a game we're calling...

Danny Brown meet Dan Brown.

So we are going to ask you, Danny Brown, three questions about Dan Brown,

the author of The Da Vinci Code and many other bestsellers.

Okay, if you get two out of three right, you will win our prize for one of our listeners.

Bill, who is Danny Brown playing for?

Heather Clark of Austin, Texas.

Yeah. All right.
H Austin, Texas. Yeah.

All right. Hometown, man.
Hometown. Ready to do this? Yeah, I guess.
Yeah, I'm telling you, man. I'm sorry, Heather.
No, it's all right. Ignorance is absolutely a blessing in this game.
You think you know something, that's where you go into trouble. Here we go.
So Dan Brown is now one of the best-selling authors of all time, but before that, he tried to make it in the music business as a singer-songwriter. He only sold a few thousand copies of his album, probably because it contains songs like which of these? A, Cypher, a song whose lyrics were a string of letters the listener had to decode.
B, a song about pancakes called Flap My Jacks. Or C, an ode to phone sex called 976 Love.
I'm going to go with C because that just seems cooler. You're right.
It's an underrated song. I was about to say, for people who don't remember 976 numbers, it was like a crude analog-only fans.
All right. That was very good.
You got that. You see? Instinct, man.
That's where you go with it. After he became famous, Brown's life did change in some surprising ways, like which of these? A, when he forgot his ID at the airport, he got through security by showing them his author photo on a copy of The Da Vinci Code.
B, he got so much Fandale, he started using it as free bedding in his horse barn. Or C, he was gifted a lifetime supply of communion wafers from the Catholic Church.
I'm going to go with A.

You're right again.

This was around, he says he drove to Boston Airport from his home in New Hampshire.

He's like, oh my God, I'm in line.

I don't have my license.

What am I going to do?

The person in front of him, as everybody was doing at that time, had a copy of the Da Vinci

Code.

And he said, can I borrow that?

And he picked it up and said, that's me.

And it was.

So he got on the plane.

All right, one more question.

You're doing exceptionally well here.

There have been tributes to Dan Brown and his work everywhere, as in which of these? A, in 2004, Crayola Crayons unveiled the color Dan Brown. B.
In 2006, a judge worked a Dan Brown style puzzle into his ruling when Dan Brown was sued for plagiarism.

Or C, in honor of his 2013 book Inferno, Brown University went by the name Dan Brown

University for an entire semester.

Well, I guess I'll go with C.

You're going to go with C, that Brown University called itself Dan Brown University. No, it was actually the judge.
The judge, you see, if you knew Dan

Brown, he's always like hiding codes in his books. It's all about cracking the codes.
And the judge

did rule, however, that Mr. Brown was not found guilty of plagiarism.
So Bill, how did Danny

Brown do in the quiz about Dan Brown? Well, he won with two out of three. That's our winner.
Danny Brown is a rapper and host of the Danny Brown Show. His new album, Quaranta, is out now.
Danny Brown, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you guys for having me.
Give it up for Austinite, Danny Brown. When we come back, we continue our celebration of the year that was with two more stars, one from the NFL and one from Broadway.
That's when we're back with more of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me from NPR. This message comes from Schwab.
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From NPR at WBEC Chicago, this is, wait, wait, don't tell me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis, and here is your host at the Studebaker Theater in the Fine Arts Building in downtown Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sago.
Thank you, Bill. Thank you, everybody.
Thank you so much. Now, this week we are challenging the new year to be as good as the old one, at least for us.
Yes, it's a kind of tough love, but how else is it ever going to learn? That's right. 2025.
Are you going to feature something as delightful as going to Pittsburgh to talk to that city's most beloved native son, Super Bowl winning coach, Bill Cowher? I think not. Our guest today needs no introduction in his hometown of Pittsburgh.
Everybody comes up to him and thanks him for his 15 years coaching the hometown team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, leading them to their first Super Bowl win in decades, which may be why he had to move to New York. Coach Bill Cowher, welcome back to Pittsburgh and welcome to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.
Thank you.

So I want to establish something first that I wasn't, I wasn't kidding about that, that after you became the hometown hero who took over the team, brought them back to the Super Bowl and won it, it kind of got hard for you to wander around town. Is that right? Yeah.
I mean, kind of. So, you know, I said when I came back here, if I can just make three years, I can go back to my 20th high school class reunion as a head coach of my hometown team.
And ironically enough, that third year, we lost in the championship game to the San Diego Chargers. And we had the reunion.
And it was on a boat on the side, the gateway clipper. And I just thought, okay, my wife says, you know, we're not going back there.
She goes, we're not going back there because you're going to sit there and just be with all your buddies. And I go, no, no, no.
We'll just stop there and we'll say hi. Right.
Right. So we got on the boat and we started talking.
Then the boat took off. So just to set the scene.
This was like a three-hour cruise. I'm like, oh, man.
You are stuck on a boat with your high school classmates. And my wife was getting madder and madder as the night's going on.
And then the guys were getting drunker and drunker and telling me all the things I did wrong in the San Diego Charter. And they'll ask me, why? Oh, you think you're too good for us to get us tickets? So everyone wanted tickets.
Like, oh, now you can't talk to us anymore. So I got off the boat.
My wife wasn't talking to me. I made half the people there mad.
And it was kind of to put the tipping on that year because we lost the championship game to a team we should have beat so it was kind of like that was kind of my career yeah I love the fact that you were yourself a professional football player you were fearless in the field but you couldn't handle the Steelers fans in your face yeah I was one of them at one point I know what they're about oh yeah they. Now, you became a coach at a young age, so that means you had to learn quickly what I assume are the essential skills of coaching, which include doing these interviews on the field sometimes and after the game in which you managed to say nothing.
Right. And so is there a secret to that? Yes.
So ask me a question. I know what I want to say, and your question is irrelevant.
Right. All right.
We'll try it. We'll try it.
I'm going to ask you. I'm going to ask you.
Because I want to control the narrative. All right.
All right. Okay.
So we're going to test you because I'm going to ask you a tough question now in front of this crowd. You're going to show me how it's done.
So I understand you have lived many years now in New York City. Is New York better than Pittsburgh? You know, one of the greatest things about New York City is the diversity.
One of the greatest things about living in Pittsburgh is the upbringing. And when you combine the two of them, you recognize that your core values that you've learned came from the city of Pittsburgh.
But yet, it was able to allow you to sit there and go to this great city of diversity in New York City with multitudes of people, but it's that grounding that you had in Pittsburgh that allows you to survive. How are you wanting politics? So what's your takeaway? Can I try a question? Yes.
Coach Cowher, you have one of history's great jaws. Is it true that you once opened a can of tuna fish with your jaw?

No, but if you ask me one more question, I can open up your head.

I'm good, no, we're good.

Well, Coach Cowher, we are delighted to talk to you, and we've invited you here to play a game that we like to play,

and this time we are calling it... Bill Cower, meet these cowards.
All right. So you clearly have some guts as you have sown.
So we are going to ask you, Bill Cower, three questions about people who chickened out. Get two right.
You'll win our prize by one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose

for their voicemail.

Bill, who is Coach Cowher playing for?

Josh Smith of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

He's out there.

Ready to go?

Yeah.

Here's your first question.

Robert Ford, or as he is known to history,

the Coward Robert Ford,

famously shot Jesse James in the back.

He said, Here's the first question. Robert Ford, or as he is known to history, the coward Robert Ford, famously shot Jesse James in the back.
He was so widely condemned for that act that he spent the next few years doing what? A, finding anyone with the last name James and apologizing to them in case it was a relative. B, touring the country with his brother, reenacting the murder live on stage,

or C, allowing people for a five-cent fee to shoot him in the back with a BB gun.

It's hard, isn't it?

It is.

What was number two?

Number two was he toured the country with his brother,

reenacting his murder of Jesse James live on stage. Number two.

You're going to go with number two.

You're going to have a number of the second choice.

That is correct. That's what he did.
They didn't have a lot of options for entertainment back then before pro football. All right.
Next question. The producer William Castle made horror movies back in the 50s and 60s, and among his many marketing gimmicks, he once offered customers refunds if his movie was too terrifying for them.
So many people took advantage of the deal that Castle finally did what? A, he required people present a genuine pair of wetted pants to prove how scared they were. B, make them go to his quote refund office to get it, which he put on the top of a greased

hundred foot pole.

Or C, forced anyone who asked for that refund to go sit in the coward's corner where a recorded

voice would yell, watch the chicken, watch him shiver in coward's corner.

That's so weird.

I'd say C.

That's right.

So not only that, not only that.

It's a coward's corner?

Coward's corner.

You can have coward's corner in the show if you want.

But no, not only did he do that, but in order to get to coward's corner, you had to walk

down a path with the sign, cowards keep walking, and they had to quote nurse to take your blood pressure. All right, last question.
You can go for perfect and win it all. Napoleon Bonaparte, French emperor, was not known for cowardice, but he did run away once from what? A, a group of schoolchildren making fun of him for putting his hand in his jacket like that all the time.
B, a horde of a thousand hungry rabbits. Or C, a bunch of taller officers who liked to rest their drinks on his head.
A. A, you're going to go for A.
All right, Let me try your style of coaching here. A, you think the answer is A? Peter's trying really hard to get you to think it's not A.
Okay, B. B, it's B.
Yes. That was on the rabbit.
So, for relaxation one day,

the emperor went out and was supposed to be

in one of these arranged hunts for aristocrats

where they would release the rabbits,

but the rabbits, who were domestic,

thought they were going to get fed,

so they rushed the party of hunters.

And Napoleon and his retinue all ran away.

Bill, how did Coach Gower do in our quiz?

It's what the Chargers score should have been.

Three right for a win.

Bill Gower is the Super Bowl winning former coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Bill Gower, thank you so much for joining us on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

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Not available in all states. Finally, one of my personal highlights of the year was talking to Renee Elise Goldsberry, who I had seen on Broadway in the original cast of Hamilton.
She told us that after decades of being a working actor, becoming a huge star on Broadway was a little disorienting. It was head spinning.

And it's also crazy because people would say things to me like,

thank God.

Like, I thought my career was great before Hamilton,

but it just encouraged people, you know,

kind of like if you thought you looked good and then you lose weight,

and people all of a sudden tell you now you look good.

I felt like a medium-time actor, a really solid medium-time actor. And if anyone has watched Girls 5 Ever, you know what I mean.
Yes. We can get into that because there's a moment in the finale of season one of Girls 5 Ever where somebody says to your character as they offer you some presumably great job, for the rest of your life life people in sweatshirts will come up to you in restaurants and ask for a selfie and I'm like that's probably true is that is that like is that your life can you go out it's not my life all the time I always say never um never underestimate how invisible a middle-aged black women can be.
Do you hear me? Do you hear me? I can hear you. I hear you.
I hear you and I see you. That's why I needed you to come on so you could see me.
Thank you. How do you think I feel right now? All right.
Girls 5 Eva is about a girl group from, like, the early 2000s that broke up, and they're trying to get back together in the present day. And we found out you were actually in a girl group, weren't you? I was.
I was. And it's so funny.
they make fun of me because i didn't remember that i was in a girl group until we're on fallon and we'd finished shooting the entire first season that's how long i've been throwing random things against the wall to see if they stick i could not remember that i was actually in a girl group and also um it was easy to forget because we didn't have one hit we had no hits hits. Right.
But we were, so when people say a one-hit Wonder Girl group is somehow or another a failure, I'm like, really? Because they have that hit? What was the name? What was the name? I don't remember the name of the group. I just remember the song that we had.
It was, yes, you can, yes, you can find you a good man. But when you do, you got to treat them right.
Make sure your love is out of sight now. And I just had no idea how stereotypical it was to have a one hit that didn't even make it, that was only about how you could treat a man right.
That's what we do on Girls5eva. We really, like, with comedy, just spoof this idea that we are defined by, you know, how we make a man feel.
And we take it to a wonderful degree. We have songs called Dream Lover, Dream Girlfriend, because our dads are dead and you never have to meet them.
We just parody lyrics of that time and it feels so good. Yeah.
Well, Renee Lise Gold Goldsberry, we are so delighted to talk to you and we have asked you here to play a game we're calling Hey Goldsberry, let's look for some buried gold. So, your name obviously put us in mind of buried gold, hidden treasure.
We're going to ask you three questions about the people who search for it. If you get two right, you'll win a prize for one of our listeners, a pirate chest containing a voicemail.
Bill, who is Renee Elise Goldberry playing for? Brian Holland of Southampton, Pennsylvania. All right, here we go.
In 1979, a man named Kit Williams published Masquerade, a picture book that was also a complicated puzzle concealing the location of a real golden treasure buried somewhere in Britain. Now, the treasure wasn't discovered until 1982.
How did the winner find it? A, he just walked up to a random bench in a public park and checked to see if there was anything under it. B, he programmed an Apple II computer to solve it and then just waited three years for it to finish.
Or C, he started dating Kit Williams' ex-girlfriend who just told him where it was. C.
Yes, that's right. So if you do want to hide a treasure in a nationwide contest, don't tell your girlfriend where it is.
Alright, here's your next question. Tommy G.
Thompson was a treasure hunter who found the most valuable shipwreck in America, a ship that had been carrying gold from the California Gold Rush. He then ran away with the treasure, and authorities say they found evidence he had been planning to disappear for a while.
What did they find? A, a deluxe child's disguise kit with the fake mustache and eye patch missing. B, a book titled How to Be Invisible.
Or C, a series of fake IDs, each with the name of a Harry Potter character. A.
A. You're going to go for the child's disguise kit with the fake mustache and eye patch.
It was actually B, a book called How to be Invisible. And it was apparently...
It seems that way now. It was a good book because they couldn't find him for two years.
And this is what's interesting. They found him back in like 2010.
And they still haven't found where he put the gold. So if you're out there, look around.
All right. Here's your last question.
If you get this, you win. In 2018, two British friends using metal detectors found $250,000 worth of ancient Roman coins, but they were very disappointed when what happened after that.
A, they shipped the coins home on a boat, which sank. B, the mayor of Rome sued to get them back because they were Roman and he won.
Or C, they found out the

coins were actually just props

from a show about

friends who use metal detectors

to find gold

coins.

Sting!

See, that's right!

Yeah, the TV show

is called The Detectorists and it is

apparently quite funny.

Bill, how did Rene do in our quiz?

Thank you. Yeah, the TV show is called The Detectorists, and it is apparently quite funny.

Bill, how did Rene do in our quiz?

Two out of three.

Rene, you're the winner!

Rene Elise Goldsberry stars on Girls 5 Eva on Netflix.

It's hilarious.

Season three is out now. Rene Elise Goldsberry, what a pleasure.
Thank you so much for joining us on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Thanks for helping me claim my name.
I love it. That's it for our Beat This 2025 edition.
We'll see if the new year can live up to the standard set by the old one. But before that, let me tell you that.
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is a production of NPR and WBEZ Chicago in association with Urgent Haircut Productions, Doug Berman, Benevolent Overlord. Philip Godeker writes our limericks.
Our public address announcer is Paul Friedman. Our tour manager is Shana Donald.
BJ Lederman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Dronbos, and Lillian King.
Special thanks to Monica Hickey. Peter Gwynn is our big glittery ball descending on Times Square.
Our vibe curator is Emma Choi. Technical direction Lorna White our CFO is Colin Miller our production manager is Robert Newhouse our senior producer is Ian Chilaga and the executive producer of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me is Mr.
Michael Danforth thanks to everybody you heard this week all of our panelists, our special guests and of course Mr. Bill Curtis thanks to all of you for listening I'm Peter Sagal.
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