Chapter 1: What are the highlights and reflections on 2025?
Hey, it's Peter Sagal. We are almost at the end of 2025. And if I may, I will speak for everybody at NPR and at your local stations and in public media and say, good riddance. But despite the loss of federal funding for public media, despite attacks on the free press, we are still here for you. And we will be next year. With your support, NPR will keep reporting the news.
And here at Wait, Wait, we will try to, you know, lighten the load at the end of the week with some jokes about the news and some fun conversations with interesting people. And yes, the occasional fart joke. If you are already an NPR Plus supporter, thank you so much. We see you and we are so grateful for you.
If not, please join the community of public radio supporters right now, before the end of the year, at plus.npr.org. Signing up unlocks a bunch of perks like bonus episodes and more from across NPR's podcasts. Plus, you get to feel good about supporting public media while you listen. Visit plus.npr.org today. And thanks.
From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm the gift you get for the person who has everything. Alzo Slade. And here's your host at the Studebaker Theater in the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Alzo, and thank you, everybody. Thank you so much for being with us. Well, everybody, we made it.
We made it through 2025, a year that began with terrible apprehension about the future and has ended the exact same way. My motto is, instead of worrying about what's about to happen, enjoy some things that already did.
So, this hour, we're going to relish the great things we got to do in 2025, such as talking to the legendary sportscaster Bob Costas, which we did in September, along with guest scorekeeper Che Reinfest-Smith. Now, I asked Bob if, as per the cliche, he had started talking about sports because he couldn't play them. You know, I wouldn't say that I failed.
I wasn't that bad by schoolyard standards, but I couldn't make my high school baseball a basketball team.
And the baseball coach, who was also a math teacher, that's the way it works in high school, he actually said to me something to the effect of, you're not bad with a glove and you can run a little bit, but I don't think you can hit your weight and I don't think you weigh 130, which might have been true when I was 16 years old. And then he actually said, you know...
you're always talking about baseball and you know more about baseball than any of my players. Have you ever thought about broadcasting? And I said, that's pretty much all I think about. And he actually said, as if it was a movie, good, try that. Whoa. That's awesome. And have you ever gone and like found any of the guys who didn't make the team and say, how long did your career in sports last?
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Chapter 2: How did Bob Costas start his journey in sports broadcasting?
15-minute shorts who really need to use the restroom, I understand. Right, exactly. So I come off of it, I think it's completely harmless, and the people on the set laugh. I said... Isn't a competition to see who can walk the fastest a little bit like a contest to see who can whisper the loudest? Eventually, don't you just like cross over and start running?
Now, you would think that was completely harmless, but the very small race walking community wanted my head on a pipe. And that's why you can never go back to Romania.
Yeah.
Well, Bob Costas, it is such a pleasure to talk to you. And we've asked you here today to play a game we're calling... And the Emmy goes to... We are right now in the eye of the Emmy storm. The Creative Arts Emmys were last weekend. The Primetime Emmys are this weekend. So no one is talking about anything but the Emmy Awards. Ooh. We're going to ask you three questions about these JV Oscars.
Answer two correctly and we win our prize, one of our listeners. Rhymefest, who is Bob Costas playing for? Bob is playing for Matt Johnson of Houston, Texas. All right. Ready to play? Here is your first question. Where does the name Emmy for the award come from? Is it A, it's the initials M.E. for Mamie Eisenhower, who presided at the first awards?
Is it B, strangely, it is named after our own panelist, Emmy Blotnick, Or C, it was named for the image-orthogon tube, an important bit of early TV technology. I'm going with C. You're gonna go with C, and you are right. The image-orthogon tube was known as IMI. Huge advance, TV technology, so much so that Emmy was named for it. Here's your next question.
The whole point of the Emmys, of course, as you know, is to promote TV, but at the 2015 Emmys, Andy Samberg went above and beyond to encourage people to watch the HBO show Game of Thrones. How did he do it? A, by wearing a handmade 15-foot-long dragon costume on stage. B, by giving out to the live international audience his actual HBO login and password.
Or C, by playing a video in which his head was CGI'd onto every character in every sex scene from that season. You know, I should know this, but somehow I missed that particular telecast. I'm just going to guess B. You're going to guess B. He gave out his HBO login and password to the universe. He did. Yes.
And people report, everybody first immediately ran over to their televisions or whatever, and it worked for a few days. All right. Very good, Bob. Here is... Two for two. Two for two, right. As someone in your profession might say. Yes. You're batting 1,000. He is. He's batting 1,000. Let's see what he does with this pitch.
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Chapter 3: What skills are essential for sports broadcasting according to Bob Costas?
Not for me. The best thing I saw in Hawaii was me standing there in Hawaii. That's right. Alzo and I were there. We did two shows in the Aloha State, and now we are going to hear part of that never-before-broadcast second show. We saved it for a moment when we needed it most, like now.
First, a Bluff the Listener game with panelists Shane O'Neill, Dulce Sloan, and Helen Hong, and then a visit with one of the greatest surfers ever, Honolulu native and Olympic champion Carissa Moore. It is now time to play the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me Bluff, the listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play our game on the air. Hi, you are on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha, yes.
My name is Rich. Hello, Rich. Where are you calling from? I'm calling from Kailua, Oahu, Hawaii. Can't beat it. You can't beat it. What do you do there? I'm recently retired, and I'm very active in Rotary, and I volunteer as a mediator at the Mediation Center of the Pacific. Really? Really. I'm sorry.
I mean, I know I'm a visitor to these lovely islands, but I can't imagine anybody ever has a problem they need to mediate. It just, it all seems like a happy place. Well, Richard, great to have you with us. You're going to play our game in which you have to tell truth from fiction. Also, what is Rich's topic? Carpe diem. Sometimes you have to seize the day. Climb that mountain.
Tell her you're in love with her. Move to Europe forever because things got really awkward after you told her you're in love with her. This week we heard about somebody really going for it. Pick the one who's telling the truth and you'll win the weight-waiter of your choice in your voicemail. Are you ready to play? Yes. Yes. I'm sorry, did somebody in the room with you have to tell you to say yes?
No, no, that didn't happen. That didn't happen, okay. No, it didn't happen. Didn't happen.
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Chapter 4: What memorable mistakes has Bob Costas made on live TV?
Standing there on your own, your own talents, brains, brought to this, no help at all. Let's first hear from Shane O'Neill.
Kristen Elliott of Maple Bluff, Wisconsin, is a busy woman. A resident at the UW hospital, she puts in 24-hour shifts in their emergency room. She goes to Pilates classes three times a week and volunteers at the soup kitchen at her local church. But when an invitation came for an ex-boyfriend's wedding, she knew she needed to squeeze in one more thing into her busy schedule, finding a date.
So last Saturday, she set up 18 hours worth of mini dates. That's 180 dates in one day. She kept track of the marathon day with a spreadsheet adding numerical ratings and columns for physical attributes, red flags, hygiene, and whether they showed up in a fleece quarter zip. Sadly, none of these dates seemed suitable. So she plans to schedule a second day of seven minute long second dates.
Unfortunately, with the extra two minutes, I can only book 73 dates in a day, she said sadly, before strapping on a helmet, climbing onto her scooter, and rolling off to a sip and paint party where she plans to finish half a bottle of wine and no fewer than three paintings and two ceramics pieces.
A woman seizes the day by scheduling 18 hours of speed dates during them. The next story of someone capturing the moment comes from Dulce Sloan.
Rusty Albertson of Cleveland, Georgia retired from being a middle school geography teacher for 47 years. His wife, Jeannie, also retired from nursing, and now they finally have the time and money to travel. Growing up in Cleveland, Georgia, Rusty was always fascinated that the names of cities can repeat in other states or even countries. So Rusty wondered if there were any other Clevelands.
Much to his excitement, there are seven other Clevelands in the United States for a total of eight Clevelands. As a fan of the rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, he always wanted to visit Cleveland, Ohio, but now there are six other Clevelands for Rusty's Cleveland tour. Jeannie, on the other hand, was less enthusiastic.
She said, well, I thought he meant traveling to somewhere fun, like all the cities named Paris or Miami, to which Rusty supplied all the Miamis. I don't mind going to Indiana or Missouri, but I'll be damned if I ever go to Texas.
A man sets off in his dream to visit all the towns in the country named Cleveland. Your last DM Carpade comes from Helen Hong.
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Chapter 5: What unique experiences does Carissa Moore share about her surfing career?
A, 100 baby ducks, B, the boy band New Kids on the Block, or C, Marvel's quarterly financial report and future projected earnings?
See question, answer question. Exactly. Number three.
Number three. You're right. It was the Marvel Annual Report, which was printed that year as a comic book in which the Hulk discussed publishing revenues with stockholders. Here's your next question. That's very good. In Dr. Seuss's book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the Grinch is shown in black and white. And the Grinch only became green for the animated TV version.
How did animator Chuck Jones decide the Grinch should be that shade of green? A, it happens to be the exact same shade as stomach bile. B, it was the same color as the really ugly rental car he took to meet Dr. Seuss. Or C, his ink supplier was having a sale on that shade the week they went into production.
I'll go with C. You're going to go with C. His ink supplier was having a, make them green, it's cheap. No, it was actually the color of the rental car. Nonetheless, I mean, you're used to this. You get a couple of chances to get a hit. Okay.
Okay.
Here's your last question. Sesame Street's green monster, Oscar the Grouch, has been living for decades in a trash can that never gets emptied, which is a good thing because which of these, according to Sesame Street lore, is in that trash can? A, three tons of Big Bird guano. B, 17 elephants, a bowling alley, a skating rink, and an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Or C, 36 human bones.
B. B. And, ladies and gentlemen, he hits it out of the park. It is B. Oscar's trash can, canonically, is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Bill, how did Jim Rice do in our little game?
Two out of three. Hall of Famer.
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