Recreational Thinking

Contestants: Dan Blim, Jayanthi Martins, Nick Salyers

We may not have pumpkins, but we do crown a Pun King (or Queen?) in this seasonally appropriate episode featuring vampires, Hitchcock, the Saw franchise, and strained wordplay galore!  From Koopas to Kansas, from Mario to Mitski, from Princess Peach to the Dolphin Princess ... like the humble tomato, this episode traverses the globe, stopping in to quiz our hilarious contestants on folk dancing, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Stephen Sondheim, RuPaul's Drag Race, and much, much more.  Yes, it has more potential for entertainment than a 22-year-old Sutton Foster and will leave you smiling bigger than a Laura Benanti fan in Times Square.  So give it a listen, learn the difference between a kiki and a ceilidh, and get ready to root for that greatest of all superheroes: Bhangra-man!

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Contestants: Nathan Flynn, Bradly Martin, Danny Dogget

Full circle!  We recorded this Gilliganverse-heavy episode the day Better Call Saul premiered its final half-season, and I'm releasing it right as that series airs its finale.  Kismet, huh?

Welcome to one of our most atypical episodes, as the contestants are recruited not from quizzing circles but from an informal network of podcasters and pop culture commentators that I stumbled into a few years ago ... but don't worry; what they lack in quizzing experience they make up for in humor and high spirits!!  I learned a lot researching some esoteric (even by this podcast's standards) topics that they suggested and I think you'll learn a lot from this episode.

NOTE: This is easily our least family-friendly episode, with a toilet literally being worked on in the background and questions built around profanity and sex acts, plus an extended detour into the female reproductive system.  Listener discretion is advised.  Also, this is always the case but I feel a need to reiterate here that opinions expressed by my guests are their own and do NOT necessarily represent the views of this podcast.

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Contestants: Mike Jeziorski, Tucker Warner, Jack Rousseau

Enjoy Episode 10?  Then you'll love this SUPER SIZED reunion of all three members of that classic lineup, now with 95% less baseball.  Never fear, though, for I Am the Pretty Thing that Writes the Questions, and so we make up for it with more nods to growing up in Illinois than a Sufjan Stevens album, more video games than a Lana Del Rey album, and more references to illicit drugs than a Willie Nelson album.  Get ready to pull the Walker, Texas Ranger lever and discover the hidden connections between Tucker and 24, Conan O'Brien and Jorge Luis Borges, Neil Patrick Harris and ZZ Top, a huntress from Greek mythology and a terrorist action thriller set during Jesus' crucifixion, a billionaire heiress and her desire to cosplay as a poor person, and, of course, Marjorie Merriweather Post and the entire known universe in this longest-ever episode of Recreational Thinking!  (Yes, it's so long that I elected to extend it by including at the end a discussion of how long it is.)

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Contestants: Mike Samuelson, Colin Smith, Ryan Palmer, Dan Schroeder

Stay hungry, stay foolish, and stay listening to this SPECIAL CROSSOVER REUNION EVENT in which Recreational Thinking yet again meets The Soccer Thread!  For the first time since Episode 5, the host and the majority of the contestants are occupying the same physical space, and for the first time EVER that space is OUTSIDE!!  Yes, you can listen to the birds chirp and the delivery truck engines idle, as I somehow allowed myself to be dragged into nature for this taping.

That's not the only innovation ... pay close attention and see if you can hear our youngest ever guest!  (You can't.)  Come for the Blue Star donuts and the assault on Episode 33's steal record, stay for a "tight 45" on bats, a discussion of comparative health care in Boston and Portland, an introduction to the Sixx Orange oeuvre, and a chance to hear the contestants talk about me behind my back.  Oh, and to find out what Arnold Palmer *really* did that day.

NOTE: My cut of this episode comes from a rather rough version of the audio.  The one The Soccer Thread is preparing will be of much higher quality.  Listen to that one as well, and you'll pick up a few extra jokes!

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Contestants: Matt Jackson, Jenna LaFleur, Ben Rothenberg

Buon giorno!  A Jeopardy! legend and two of his DC-area pub-quiz-mates join us in this exhilarating episode, albeit with one Zooming remotely from Rome, and as if by magic a surprisingly high number of questions sprout Italian connections.  (These unconscious mini-themes — last time's was Game of Thrones — are starting to become a regular feature of this podcast.)  Whether you prefer tennis or theater, Joss Stone or James Bond, M&Ms or clam chowder, one thing's for certain ... this installment of Recreational Thinking is a LOT shorter than the previous one!  You're welcome.

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Contestants: James Lasker, David Plotkin, Manas Sarma

"I can't believe that went longer than our technical difficulties episode!" -David

As only our second episode to cross the 3-hour mark, this one had better justify its length ... and it does!  Episode 6 was the first truly great episode of this podcast, and though I was only able to reunite 2/3rds of its contestant lineup, I've bottled so much magic here that Dr. House diagnosed me with lupus!  (Deep cut.)  Truly, the limit of this episode's quality does not exist.

Did I really construct a question so complicated that I literally consulted four astrophysicists in the process of writing it?  I did!  Do I actually attempt to prove the individual with the (alleged) World's Highest IQ wrong?  I do!  Is this the episode when my hubris finally catches up with me and I fall flat on my face?  Only one way to find out!

From Lovecraft to Lagrange, from mathletics to the Mafia, from chess streamers to Chernobyl, this ambitious episode is a banquet for hungry minds.  Enjoy the feast? Consider donating via PayPal or Patreon, and remember to leave a review and/or rating on iTunes!

Contestants: Aaron Lichtig, David Goldfarb, Greg Fanoe

You know what you doing?  For great justice (and knowledge), make your time for the next 2.5 hours and enjoy this experimental episode of RECREATIONAL THINKING featuring a categorical collision unlike anything we've ever seen before!  If you're curious about superhero comics, Italo Calvino, Janet Jackson, the Hugo Awards, all sorts of bridges (from Staten Island to contract), and the *real* reason the autopilot was invented ... well, like a seemingly washed-up pitcher who strikes out 13 batters in a World Series game, this episode is full of triumphant surprises.

NOTE: We wrapped up the tape session a bit early; the last ~15 minutes are just post-mortem'ing.  There's no more Q&A, and it's not fact-checked, but if you stick around you might learn something!

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Contestants: Daryl Sng, Dargan Ware, Anthony Garino

Brain work ahead?  Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does!  Learn about snarky YouTubers, resilient Czechs, murderous Mannerist madrigalists, Freudian chessmasters, poetry-writing Ouija boards, gentleman safecrackers, and technical fouls galore in this installment of RECREATIONAL THINKING so full of meaty twists and turns that one contestant's mother's cousin's husband would feel right at home!  (That will make sense once you've listened to the episode, I promise.)  We run a true gamut here: Poetry, college basketball, classical music, chess, tennis, and the great nation of Singapore are all on the menu.  Oh, and speaking of menus ... is Pepsi okay?  It sure is!

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Contestants: Alexander Darby, Peter Broda, Ben Zimmer

Who made the man behind "Happy" cry?  What are E-Girls, and why are they ruining my life?  What innocuous nursery rhyme did Paul McCartney turn into a UK Top 10 hit?  Which James Bond theme drew inspiration from the Hebrew Bible?  How does one stuff a wild bikini?

Let's Talk About Love, learn How to Truly Listen, and study pataphysical science as we tour the world of popular music in this single-subject episode that covers proto-punk, punk-pop, thrash metal, '80s synthpop, '90s indie rock, drummers and drumming, the careers of Stevie Wonder and Frank Zappa, and our friendly neighbors in the Great White North alongside several topics that no one requested, including children's TV, French literature, Hindi slang, historical gangsters, BBC quiz shows, the Queens neighborhood where I used to live, and lots and lots of Beatles content.  And You Will Know These Contestants by The Trail of Knowledge they display!

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Contestants: Anu Kashyap, Dan Feitel, Chris Ottolino

Welcome to 2022!  It's our first episode recorded since May 2021.  (If you're curious what's been going on in the interim, feel free to check out the streaming show I attempted to launch: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYyq5QTgHTmLfy4kyrnM7j7fHz87ohqSy .)  A former National Spelling Bee champion joins me alongside two frequent quizzing teammates, one of whom is hoping to make up for his paper-thin loss in E30, so of course the banter flies thick as we cover (among other things) the joy of spelling, the history of Pixar, the fantasy of football, the Silver Age of Comics, and also for some reason ABC's Big Sky, despite no one picking it as a topic.

Yes, like an NFL player who gets a PhD in mathematics from MIT, at RECREATIONAL THINKING we don't believe in disciplinary boundaries.  So if you're curious about the non-fun kind of Zoot Suit Riot ... if you want to know which '90s alt-rock icon tells a lie in the very first line of her most famous song ... if you remember Microsoft's short-lived "Ms. Dewey" ... oh, and if you'd like to learn about the NFL player who got a PhD in mathematics from MIT, then this episode is for you.  

Enjoy what you hear? Consider donating via PayPal or Patreon, and remember to leave a review and/or rating on iTunes!