🚨🎙️ New Episode!
A vendor at the 1964 World’s Fair changed American breakfast forever. One little girl was there every weekend to witness it — and she grew up to be David’s mom. 🧇
💐 Joan Spira joins PG’s Playhouse for Mother’s Day: Belgian waffle history, childhood stories, and the word “ostentatious” used correctly at age two.
Today’s game is called Tasting Bee, and it’s all about foods from around the world that have a country or place baked right into the name.
#belgianwaffles #podcast #trivia #brainteaser #puzzles
Funerals are usually pretty somber affairs, right? Everyone wears black and gathers to respectfully mourn the dearly departed.
In parts of rural China and Taiwan, they’ve decided to put the fun in “fun”erals. More people attending a funeral procession usually means more honor to the deceased.
Well, some enterprising relatives decided to up the ante by not only hosting a party with a live band, but they also invited dancers! This spectacle guaranteed a large crowd for their lost family member, which apparently appeased the spirits.
Author and podcaster A.J. Jacobs joins us to chat about this little known funeral practice. Today’s game is called Going Topless, where each answer is a word that becomes another word when you remove the first letter.
If you enjoy PG’s Playhouse, we highly recommend A.J.’s podcast Hello Puzzlers, @hellopuzzlers which contains bite-sized puzzle snacks, perfect for listening on the go
#puzzles #funeralstrippers #trivia #braingames #wordplay
Many common last names today came from medieval occupations. Can you guess the celebrity from the clues?
We’re joined by puzzle and rap genius @zachsherwin ! He’s written and performed for @epicrapbattleihistoryhistory and has an incredible live show called The Crosswordshow.
Check out our episode on The Canterbury Tales to play along!
#podcast #trivia #puzzle #brainteaser #canturburytales
We had @thewildoptimists on PG’s Playhouse to play a version of Taboo where all the answers contain the word “black”.
How many were you about to guess before Ariel? Check out our episode on Backlight to listen to the whole game and play along.
#podcast #trivia #puzzle #brainteaser #blacklight
Our topic today is The Canterbury Tales. This is the story of a group of pilgrims who gather around the fire to tell stories, primarily in verse.
Zach Sherwin, our guest today, knows a thing or two about storytelling in verse. He’s a longtime writer and performer on the Youtube channel Epic Rap Battles of History. This show pits two historical characters against each other, battling it out for rap supremacy.
Zach has also created The Crossword Show, a hilarious live show where comedians solve a crossword while Zach performs about the topics. He also shares a few puzzles with us today as well.
Today’s game is called Name Dropping, and it’s all about modern names that come from medieval occupations. Drop your guesses below!
#puzzle #wordplay #trivia #podcast #canterburytales
The official groundhog for Groundhog’s day is called Punxsutawney Phil, and has been making weather predictions for over 100 years.
How many different “Phils” do you think there have ever been?
Check out PG’s Playhouse E40: Groundhog’s Day featuring Chris and Blaine from @morningfromhell
#podcast #trivia #puzzle #brainteaser #groundhogsday
Are you looking to turn your party into a rave? Black light. Trying to find that pet stain you missed? Black light. Hiding secret messages in plain sight? You guessed it, it’s black light!
To celebrate @roomescapeartist April Fool’s Day project – a whole cookbook and party planning guide for hosting a black light dinner party – today, we explore everything about black lights.
Joining us are @thewildoptimists Juliana Moreno and Ariel Ruben. They created the Escape Room in a Box series and have since collaborated on many tabletop games and interactive marketing campaigns.
Their newest game is Lovecraft and Poe, a cooperative strategy tabletop game. Players choose characters with variable strengths and weaknesses, and work together on an ever-changing board to defeat unique villains in every game.
Today’s game is In the Black, a Taboo-style guessing game where every answer includes the word “black.”
Lovecraft and Poe will be available via Kickstarter soon, so follow @thewildoptimists to stay informed.
#blacklight #puzzles #podcast #puzzlepodcast #escaperoominabox
It’s chonky, furry, and oh so cute! The creature slowly creeps out of its burrow, looking around for his shadow. Good news! It doesn’t see it. The weather will be hot for the forseeable future. Bad news... well, we’re also surrounded by fire and brimstone. Welcome to Groundhog Day in Hell. Chris Demarais and Blaine Gibson, co-hosts of the hilarious Good Morning from Hell podcast join us for some devilishly fun puzzles. Good Morning from Hell is a weekly podcast starring Blaine as Clayton, the younger brother of Satan, and Chris as himself. Every week, Chris and Clayton interview someone from Hell. This show is off-the-rails funny.
Today’s topic is Groundhog Day, and we explore the origins and bizarre story behind this annual weather predicting tradition. Today’s game is called Cloudy with a Chance of Puzzles, where the guests must figure out these weather related idioms.
If you want to check out Chris and Blaine’s podcasts, look for @morningfromhell or their actual play D&D podcast @stinkydragonpod
#puzzles #podcast #trivia #brainteaser #groundhogday
Salt is a mineral so essential that civilizations literally sprung up around salt and built trade routes to secure it. It’s been used as currency, to preserve foods, and in all manner of industrial manufacturing. It’s also used to make our food taste better.
You know what else makes food taste better? Puzzles! Our guest is Survivor Season 47 Winner Rachel LaMont. @rachel.a.lamont She knows a thing or two about food and puzzles, having combined them in her new game Puzzle Hungry: Umami Rush! It’s a 2–4 player Japanese food-themed speed puzzling party game with points, cards, double-sided puzzles, and sabotage elements like “health code violations,” plus interactive callouts.
Today’s game is called Stay Salty, where I’ve “seasoned” a word by adding a letter to the beginning of a word to make a new, “edible” word. Each answer will be something edible.
You can pre-order Puzzle Hungry now for a taste of competitive puzzling.
#survivor #salt #trivia #puzzles #brainteaser
Imagine no more wine bars, no more popping champagne to celebrate special occasions, and no more enjoying a glass of cabernet with your steak.
In the 19th century, a tiny little aphid nearly wiped wine off the map, decimating centuries-old vineyards globally. Eventually, wine growers figured out how to combat the phylloxera menace. David shares the story of phylloxera in this episode of PG’s Playhouse.
Joining us are special guests Garrett and Sabrina, hosts of the I Know Dino podcast. @iknowdino They share some fun facts about dinosaurs, including mummified fossils that include skin and feathers and also dinosaur cannibalism.
Our game today is “Sour Grapes of Wrath” where I’ve created before and after mashups of two phrases. The players must guess the middle word that links the phrases.
#trivia #winefacts #puzzles #dinosaur #bugs
Author A.J. Jacobs @ajjacobsinc is no stranger to gonzo journalism. He often puts himself directly into the story he’s writing, whether it’s about taking the Bible literally, or living out the Constitution.
Much like gonzo journalism, there’s no attempt or pretense about remaining objective. In A.J.’s writing, he describes in hilarious detail how his lifestyle experiments have impacted his family and work life.
In this episode, David talks about the origins of gonzo journalism, and we discuss how it differs from A.J.’s own writing style. A.J. also shares some insights he learned from his latest book, A Year of Living Constitutionally.
Today’s game is called This Game is LIT…erature. Players are given the names of chapters, and must figure out the subject of the book.
If you enjoyed this episode, check out our interviews with A.J. about his book The Puzzler on S3E11 of @realityescapepod and our interview about his puzzling podcast @hellopuzzlers on S6E13 of REPOD.
#podcast #puzzle #brainteaser #gonzojournalism #games #trivia
Can you guess the movie title from the nonsense words?
Tony from @hack_the_movies joins us on PG's Playhouse to see if he's got the chops to figure out these movie titles.
In this episode, David talks to us about Sensurround, an early 4D movie experience from the 70's.
#brainteasers #movies #games #podcast #puzzle #trivia #sensurround
