This week, we ring in the new year by remembering what made the old one so special, including interviews with Kristin Kish, Bill Cowher, and more!Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What is the theme of the Happy New Year Edition?
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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 in the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sagal. Thank you, Bill. Thanks, everybody. Thank you.
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.
Okay, who knows what a gooey duck is? You guys don't? 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 my first moment dunking the gooey duck in hot water to then remove the... Boar skin? 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!
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Chapter 2: Who is Kristin Kish and what is her new role?
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.
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 shared 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? Yes.
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. 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.
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Chapter 3: What was the experience of Kristin Kish on Top Chef?
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 fiancée 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 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 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, I guess.
Oh, okay.
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Chapter 4: How did Kristin Kish react to taking over Top Chef?
I was. I was. Yes. You know, it's so funny. They make fun of me because I didn't remember that I was in a girl group until we were 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, it was easy to forget because we didn't have one hit. We had no 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 in? 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 gotta 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, with comedy, just spoof this idea that we are defined by 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, your name is Goldberry.
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 from one of our listeners, a pirate chest containing a voicemail. Bill, who is Renee Elise Goldberry playing for?
Brian Holland of Southampton, Pennsylvania.
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