A.J. Jacobs is an author, journalist, and host of The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs, a daily iHeart show in which he gives audio puzzles to celebrity guests. His books include The Year of Living Biblically, Thanks a Thousand, and The Puzzler.
Perhaps, like me, you enjoy having your brain teased. Not teased in a mean way. I don’t want my brain bullied or humiliated. Just teased in a gentle way with charming and diverting puzzles, trivia, and games. The good news is, there are some great podcasts that will do just that type of teasing. Including the very podcast I host, The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs, which I felt it was important to include in the list. Just as an objective observer! Here’s that one, and eleven others.
Good Job, Brain!
This show has filled my head with a lot of random facts. Maybe not 100 trillion random facts, but a lot. One hundred trillion, by the way, is the highest denomination in the history of currency. The 100 trillion Pengo bill was created by Hungary in the wake of World War I hyper-inflation. That’s the kind of random fact I’ve learned from this podcast, where the hosts give trivia quizzes and spout useless knowledge with abandon.
FourPlay
I love the Connections puzzle in the New York Times. This show has a similar concept, and it works just as well in audio. Hosted by Carmela Smith, the show features a guest (and listeners) trying to figure out what is the thematic link among four items. For instance, “10-percenter, orange, TV’s Carter, and G-man.” I’m going to reveal it in 3-2-1. It’s Agent. They all have to do with agents. I particularly like it when the contestants talk through their thinking.
The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs
Neil Patrick Harris calls this show “delightful,” and who am I to contradict him? The show comes out every weekday, is about ten minutes long, and is hosted by me, along with Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska. We give fun audio puzzles to our celebrity guests, interspersed with banter and trivia. I’m having a blast hosting the show. Highlights have included stumping Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings on a Jeopardy!-themed puzzle, creating new types of audio puzzles such as “Guess the ChatGPT Prompt,” and hearing Dax Shepard crack himself up with an elaborate bathroom pun.
A Way with Words
Here’s a question: What makes the following sentence special? “Excited mystic zebras quickly gallop from the very crowded watering hole just before noon.”
It’s a pangram – which is a sentence that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet. Pangrams are just one type of word nerdery you’ll hear about on this delightful show that delves into the history and trivia about the English language and answers caller questions. Hosted by Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett, it makes me as excited as a mystic zebra.
Triviality
This trivia show features bantering contestants trying to answer wide-ranging trivia questions. For instance, there was a question about which Spanish-born artist painted “Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a second before awakening?” The answer was Salvador Dali, which led to an amusing discussion about the late artist’s moustache.
Past Perfect
I was on this show as a guest! I loved being a guest, and I love listening to it. The questions are about (generally recent) history. Host Simone Polanen quizzed me on various Jacks through history, including Jack-ie O’nassis and Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock. I had a great time, even if I mildly embarrassed myself by showing my Jack-based ignorance. It’s good, nostalgiac fun.
Omnibus
Ken Jennings is the host of Jeopardy! and, perhaps more importantly, a former guest on The Puzzler podcast. He’s also, of course, a master of the strange-but-true facts. On his own podcast, Omnibus, Ken is joined by co-host John Roderick as they dive into a different arcane topic every episode, whether that’s The Rachel haircut, the 1859 Pig War, or the Monty Hall logic problem. The conceit is that Ken and John are compiling an encyclopedia of weird for future generations. Important work.
Ridiculous History
Ridiculous History is ridiculously entertaining. Hosts Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown are knowledgeable, funny, and menschy. Every episode, they take us on a tour of the bizarre, fascinating and overlooked corners of history, stuff we weren’t taught in school. You’ll learn about waging war with hallucinogenic honey, the history of snake oil, and much more. I was honored to come on and talk about puzzle history – including the crossword puzzle that (helped) save the free world.
Go Fact Yourself
This show sort of reminds me of the old Hollywood Squares game show, but without geometric shapes or Paul Lynde. Two celebrities (actors, comedians or musicians) battle against each other by trying to answer trivia questions. After they give their (often wrong but amusing) answers, a fact-checker chimes in with the real solution.
The Incomparable Game Show
This is a game show with an emphasis on games. Each episode has the contestants and hosts playing a different type of game, whether it’s word puzzles, trivia games, or audio versions of classic board games. I’m impressed with the variety.
Ologies
There’s a lot of ologies out there. There’s oneirology (study of dreams), vampirology (study of vampires, duh), chickenology (study of chickens, double duh). This podcast takes on a new ology every episode, and its witty host Alie Ward interviews an expert. If you like puzzles, which I hope you do, there’s an episode on enigmatology, the study of puzzles.
This Day in Esoteric Political History
Hosts Nicole Hemmer, Kellie Carter Jackson, and (my friend and Puzzler producer) Jody Avirgan discuss fascinating events that have been overlooked, often because they involve disenfranchised groups. As the podcast title hints, the episodes are released on the anniversary of the event. So a July 11 episode might delve into the day Skylab satellite crashed to earth on July 11 of 1979. But the show is a joy no matter what month or day you press play.
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