The outgoing artistic directors of Sydney Festival and the Australian Ballet, Wesley Enoch and David McAllister, combine forces to battle against their impending irrelevance, by doing extremely well at the quiz. Whether it’s questions about WWII tanks or Greek mythology, these two pass with flying colours. They even ace the sports question. But like everyone else, they come undone with geography.

Guests: Wesley Enoch and David McAllister

In the paper: After the virus: Radical optimism for the arts in The Saturday Paper

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In this episode, writer, actor, activist, and recently one of Who magazine’s sexiest people of 2020, Nakkiah Lui and her tv editor husband, Gabe Dowrick, tell us how many teeth an adult human should have, figure out which European nation owns the Dodecanese islands, and discuss the number of presidents of the United States who have died in office.

Guests: Nakkiah Lui and Gabe Dowrick

Background reading: Playwright Nakkiah Lui on radicalism and family in The Saturday Paper

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Emily Barclay and Tom Ward like going to amusement parks. But Emily is too scared to go on any of the roller-coasters, so Tom has to do so on her behalf. Their approach to the quiz is much the same. Tom goes hurtling towards answers he clearly doesn’t know, while Emily chimes in from a safe distance. The daffodil is the national flower of which British country? What nationality was Hans Christian Andersen? And in what year were white Australian women given the right to vote?

Guests: Emily Barclay and Tom Ward

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Besides complaining about how much harder their questions are compared with previous episodes, Australian actors Damon Herriman and Brendan Cowell do manage to get some clean answers away. But they don’t know what’s made in the Dutch city of Delft, nor what branch of zoology ornithology deals with, nor the novelist who wrote ‘Fahrenheit 451’. They can tell you all about luge in Queenstown, New Zealand, though.

Guests: Brendan Cowell and Damon Herriman

Background Reading:

An audience with actor Brendan Cowell in The Saturday Paper

Actor Damon Herriman in The Saturday Paper

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Authors Meg Mason and Trent Dalton have both just released their second novels, but apparently neither of them are very big readers. So they don’t know who wrote the 1990s novel The Reader, but they can tell you who won the Academy Award for Best Actress in the film adaptation. And like a lot of authors, they know a great deal about formula one racing. Also Meg shows off with her truly impressive recall of all 17 books of the Old Testament.

Guests: Meg Mason and Trent Dalton

Background reading: Sorrow and Bliss in The Saturday Paper

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All the way from their home in Los Angeles, actors Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall provide more information than is entirely necessary as they stumble across the answers to this week’s quiz. We get an insight into safe work practices on film sets in the time of Covid-19, and a special bonus question about Cats.

Guests: Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall

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Actors Shari Sebbens and Gemma Bird Matheson take on the quiz this week. Gemma can tell you how many minutes there are in half a day, and Shari knows the name of Tara June Winch’s 2020 Miles Franklin award-winning novel. But neither of them have any idea where the inventor of the Rubik's Cube was born.

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In a truly collaborative effort, host of online cabaret “Choose Your Own Variety” Ali McGregor and comedian Claire Hooper are let down only by the self-confessed sports-shaped hole in their knowledge. Still, they know the chemical formula of table salt, they work out the cube root of 729, and via a circuitous route, through pop culture, they arrive at which vaccine was invented by Jonas Salk.

Guests: Ali McGregor and Claire Hooper

In the paper: A Little Night Music in The Saturday Paper

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Fearful of geography-based questions, this week’s guests – theatre maker Anne-Louise Sarks and political commentator Sean Kelly – nevertheless manage to navigate their way through the choppy waters of Caribbean nations, English cities and French history.

Guests: Anne-Louise Sarks and Sean Kelly

In the paper (this time, in The Monthly): Snapback

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What do Walloons, Novak Djokovic and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles all have in common? They’re all questions that stump actor Belinda Bromilow and her husband, Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-winning writer Tony McNamara.

Guests: Belinda Bromilow and Tony McNamara

Background reading: Oscar-nominated screenwriter Tony McNamara in The Saturday Paper

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