From n.p.r. And w. N.y.c. Coming to you from the bell house in pupil Brooklyn New York it's N.P.R.'s hour of puzzles word games and trivia ask me another I'm Jonathan Coulton Now here's your host Ophira Eisenberg. I. Give everybody a look at this is right welcome to ask me another the show that is bar trivia for people cleaning their bathroom. This is exciting we have a great show for you we have 4 brilliant contestants they're backstage right now we're going about something they said to a coworker 3 weeks ago that soon they'll be up here to play some nerdy games with us and one of them will become our big winner and we have an amazing thanks. Aparna actually came up in the Washington d.c. Improv scene which I believe is the only place in Washington d.c. Where you'll hear the words yes and. I'm going to talking to her about her career and her comedy one of the things I love about her comedy is I mean it's smart and it's right but also she talks openly about her depression anxiety in a very thoughtful and hilarious walk about on stage but I feel at this point of the year right now India York I can no longer tell if I'm depressed or if it's just the lack of light. Well luckily I live in New York so I'll never know. I'll never know I actually think New York City I always think like why people come here they're like What do you love the most about New York City you have tourists come here and they're like What do you love about being here sure and what do you tell them sometimes it's hard to come up with any. Because you know the convenience like there's so many great things about you it's really really Broadway shows the museums. You know which I'm constantly going to museums Broadway shows. Every day as a resident of New York I wake up in the morning I had to Broadway show to. Spend a night at the museum did a big you know a big cheese thank you they could from a whole areas character. I think it is one of the number one cities in the world to cry in public it. Is wonderful to cry no one bothers you when you cry in public here you are finally left alone to experience New York. In any way you choose I like crying my care place a crisis actually on the subway because right because I'm on an emotional journey and I'm going somewhere so you know it's like multi-tasking I'm getting a lot of things done. And I like crying on the line the AC line is my favorite line to cry yeah the blue line is the saddest line. Later in the show we're actually going to be playing a game about phone numbers almost sounds antiquated phone numbers and charming and you know with the way you get spam calls now there is a certain different ways they try to trick you like how about the ones where it kind of looks like your phone number you guys get those that is the weirdest psychology like you might be like mom calling me. I wonder what I would say. I don't pick those up either I'm like I don't want to talk to her. All I do is try to figure out how to get her to shut up. Already or males play some games. And. Our 1st you contestants will play a game because Jack a freelancer. First Adrian that Claremont you're a med student at Cornell Yes that's right yes very that's inspiring specifically to me because you said you took off about 10 years and then decided to go back to med school how are you enjoying the actual workload. So something that a lot of people might not know is that the pre-clinical part the classroom part of the school is actually all pass fail oh so we say p. E. Equals m d. Yeah which I'm sure everyone finds very reassuring and I know I see through very. Right Adrian when you ring in well you're this your opponent is Nicole Linden you work in marketing for a software company and you love Hallmark movies I do I really do you. A specific genre or them on as a whole well so I love them as a whole but there is a specific genre that my best friend and I have labelled business Christmas which is about how. It is a balance hard business woman living in a big city who's that know how it ends up in a small town falls in love with a local handyman and realizes that Christmas is more important than business. Nicole would you ring in we'll hear this. New call whoever is more points after 2 games will go on to our Final Round So this trivia game is called Please quit your day job Jonathan I will tell you about early careers of famous thinkers and you're going to ring in and tell us who we are describing all right here we go how many former telegraph operators does it take to screw in a commercial incandescent light bulb ask this guy because he invented them. Thomas Edison That is correct thank you. This 911 Nobel winning chemist was no free radical 1st she worked as a tutor to send her older sister to medical school then she got to pursue her interest in radioactive elements. Carey Yeah that's right. Why not she's selling. Montgomery author of romantic thrillers by day she's the Georgia politician who delivered the Democratic response to the State of the Union . C.c. Abrams Yeah that's what you. Call the hidden sins. Wildchild Mara Reed is on the run from 2 murderous thugs and she goes into hiding in her small Texas home town there an unexpected savior comes to her aid Dr Ethan Stewart a hunky anthropologist. Whose heart tomorrow once broken be trade and he's the only man she's truly ever loved Well that's a hallmark. This mathematician got his start in the patent office and went on to come up with the theory of relativity which helps explain why Time slows down the closer you get to marrying your cousin. Nichelle Albert Einstein that is true yes. Before supporting the u.s. Government has its 1st female secretary of state this diplomat advocated for a different kind of support bra's she sold them in her local department store as her 1st paying job. Madeleine Albright you got it. This is your last clue this man had a summer job scooping ice cream at a Baskin Robbins in Honolulu. Barack Obama Yeah that's correct. All right great game we have a soda right now it's. Ok. Next we'll play a game about phone numbers you know instead of answering the phone with Hi I like to answer with why. This is an audio quiz called sing the phone book I'll read a phone number from the lyrics of the famous song ring in and. Identify the artist and if you need a hint we will play the clip and the points are doubled whoever wins this will go to our Final Round whoever loses are in turn will text you every day with just the words Hey. Here we go 867-5309. Ok let's play the hand. Well I obviously knew the song was 867 yesterday I think shiny. And it's a one hit wonder who is potentially when I need. No No Ok Many things work you drink you steal you know Ok the answer is Tommy 2 to No and. Here's your next 14894608. The truth is looking at me like this is the game. This is the game all right let's play the clip. You need to. Listen to. Me. Who was that. In particular Ok anyone out there. Song diary 678 triple 98212. Banks wasn't hurting ready it was to. Adrian Salter Point That is correct. In the u.k. There is Number of an actual middle aged British couple who think they are bombarded with phone calls at the height of their songs popularity and one half of the couple told reporters I suppose it's amusing but we wish you would stop. The very British I think. This is your last clue 60060842. Now that's not just in your head all the time all right let's play the clip. I mean the future will play a game about 2 factor authentication. So great all right great game Adrian that you are the winner and you'll be headed off to our final round of Hannah Coming up we'll find out who will things off against Adrian in our final round and we'll talk to a part of Manchuria last place of grace on corporate to the Comedy Central show you know working in an office well there and hop on a conference call so we can circle back and get the ball rolling I'm up here I'm. Going to. Cup. Maker of Tito's handmade vodka founder Tito beverage discovered his passion by exploring what he loved to do and what he was good at 80 proof you don't have any time get used to stills and bottles in Austin Texas and visit St Pete Clearwater home of 35 miles of white sand beaches daily Sam says celebrations and the Gulf Coast Trail featuring over 40 craft breweries at visit Clearwater dot com. This is ask me another N.P.R.'s hour of puzzles word games and trivia I'm Jonathan Coulton Now here's your host Ophira Eisenberg was extended welcome our special guest she's one of the top comedians working today she recently appeared in a Super Bowl Please welcome our partner and then surely was thank you well Ok thank you I learned right before you came on the show that you RINGBACK used to be an n.p.r. Interview. In the d.c. Office yes what show were you working on I believe I was working oh my gosh I can't even remember I was a web interned Ok so I kind of flowed in church I think I mean we worked on the home page. I mean it's a woman yes yes it's the friend what do you call it judges everything by how long were you there I mean was there I guess it's person Mr Right it's like for college I was out of college but you know I was figuring out life sure through radio yeah radio and how did you like the environment of the n.p.r. D.c. Office I have a confession that I did not know that much about n.p.r. Like I had friends in high school listen to n.p.r. And I was like seems like something I should get you know and. Then when I started interning people would be like you know like oh I was in elevator with you know Siegel Yeah and I was like how did they know because it's radio you know. As I think he just does vocal exercises in the elevator I also read that you seriously considered going to West Point Oh yes this is a big. Why and so it's. So I know very little about this why other than West Point is a military academy Yes Ok well the simplest way to say it is I grew up during the Gulf War and I fully was brainwashed by the military propaganda in such a way that I was like I have to serve my country. Really Yes Ok It feels very vulnerable to say that in Brooklyn Ok you know. That once like she's a soldier. You better be fighting for the right to support the troops and the almost troops in the orchestra. Ok so you you change your mind though and decided to go to a liberal arts college. You know the natural alternative. But what was the moment where you just stopped this path I ring in track and cross country and high school RINGBACK and college I went to ended up going to was Amherst and they were like you can run for our track team so I was like Ok I'll still be pushing myself. Just going to have the machine gun but yeah it. Looks a lot better stand up for the 1st time on your 20th birthday Yes Well now you've got the new. N.p.r. Baby. This is like. Deciding to do stand up for the 1st time on your birthday to me is incredible high stakes it is it isn't it isn't because you I definitely brought it up like within the 1st 10 seconds I was on stage of course to milk the sympathy Yeah yeah I'm thinking that my birthday is my 1st time. And it was a Best Western Hotel Yeah. So they had to show yeah it is showroom it was really. Like where a lot of truckers went to like have a drink because it was like where a lot interstate intersect Yeah it was pretty much a dream 1st time. It was this or amateur later open mike Yeah it was like they had like Tuesday Wednesday open mike night and anyone could sign up and some of my friends and I we went there like earlier in the summer and we kind of sussed out the scene because 2 of us wanted to try it and we were like well does it seems like everyone is in you know. At a professional level so we could try and I do think like I got a lot of sympathy just because people are like why is she doing this. Oh yeah and I think it was just like a lot of like loud white men and then this like little ghost Yeah. 2013 you went on to do a late night spot on Conan and this is a specific moment too because it was you were hailed as the 1st South Asian female standup comic to appear on late night and I will say that I and a friend planted this information in the news you did yes. Because I was working it totally biased. With a colleague of mine Hari Kondabolu who's also a comedian and after I did that Conan sprite he was like Are you the 1st Indian American and I was like I don't know I think I can't think of anyone else and he was I think you are I'm going to take off just about. Really the most Brooklyn sentence ever say. I'm going to. But we basically he put it out there in the hopes of being corrected and then we weren't And speaking of your act you know around 2014 you became a little bit more confessional talking about your own experiences with depression anxiety on stage and use. In that for comedic fodder and also make it actually you know what for you did you decide like no I actually want to do this yeah I think honestly I started talking about mental health. As a byproduct of actually really struggling with it at the time that I started writing that it was almost that I was having trouble writing in general because it was consuming so much of my brain so I was like I was right about this you know and these voices are not going to shut down put it in the air right you know yeah. Now I sometimes I almost worry where it's the opposite extent where they're like we were on the show you know we're like we're your brand now and then like. You're depressed. And she you you know and then recently you were in a Super Bowl commercial it's true so. Yeah if you had to pick a celebrity come on you obviously knew you were auditioning for a Super Bowl commercial or was it something that you asked me Ok I like I have I.D.'s because it's a seltzer command you know and the last night said I did I did pro Seltzer material so that's. So they're like We need someone who's not coming down hard on some. Yeah and you currently play a woman who works in h.r. Grace yes on Comedy Central's corporate did you base the character of grace on anyone that you know or have met I think I just based it on every office job I've ever had. And being like half checked out. Have you had a lot of offers Drew I had tamped a lot when I lived in l.a. And then before that my main job was actually working at a trade magazine that studied how did it make your employees do their job. Abs Better still it's like a mad. And it was the worst I was like writing articles on how to motivate your employees it's like 17 or so thing. That is kind of like working in a jar. It was like an h.r. Magazine yet is that magazines still happening yeah I believe it's called should I say I guess what are they going to do. Yeah pretty sexy All right partner are you ready for and you're Ask Me Another I know about this game Ok we'll see why aren't we we asked you what would you like to play a game about and you said since you were a psych major you wanted to do something to do with your brain yes now your brain the brain the brain. But then we looked on your Instagram and we noticed that you love dogs do you have a comic you know. I just kind of it I cover it yeah. So we've combined those topics in a game called Dog narrative psychology. So if you do well enough listener cupe Ok Ok most of the universe b. Or c. Dog. Came to blue that. I went hungry and researchers study did they find a dogs can't distinguish human voices from other non dog animals detect emotion or see dogs can tell the difference between. Have downs and name for a comedy album a study published in a play what was or impulse what Ray swapper more sorry humans do that. Yet we can. 400 dogs found it interesting to know it's going to shadow yeah you know maybe they're just maturing famously good sense I mean devoted but according to our Morse through flange n a n N's now they're being given that one or next pair and Instagram are Next you can tell noble of it like Anne Hathaway or an actor what is something you potter love it because it is I did watch the movies I just didn't want to read the books but I saw the 3rd movie and I was like This is a great movie and the 5th book is just coming out so I got to read all 5 books in a row and like 2 years through the last 2 so yes I didn't like really good right through binge let That's where you read books. Ok Stephen when you ring in we'll hear this. Your opponent is Eli Robinson you're the c.e.o. Of a technology company what is something you used to hate but now love say my brother . I mean we got to we had a real slow start. Yeah but he's really grown on me you're not going anywhere so glad to have him. When you ring in we'll hear this. Remember Steven in the u.i. Whoever has more points after 2 games will go to our Final Round Let's go to your 1st game so genius isn't always appreciated and now popular things that were critically panned when they 1st appeared ring and identify what we are describing here we go surely after this Parisian buildings construction writer to mope a song through his baguette on the ground and the noun stood as a giant and just graceful skeleton. Tower that is correct yeah. He said that he enjoyed eating in the Eiffel Tower because it was the only place where you couldn't see the tower. Of the sea. Burn right now that's pretty good 3 to go in 1011 French general and World War One commander Ferdinand frosh called the Wright brothers all wrong saying their invention was an interesting toy of no military value. The airplane Yeah that's right. This artist sent his friend a lithograph of what would later be considered his 1st masterpiece the potato eaters his friend called it superficial and replied You can do better than this. And go yeah that's right. In 19 you know to The Washington Post called this 2 wheeled transportation device a passing fancy in tandem the New York popularity of the wheel is doomed later they all had to back pedal even the bicycle let. The New Yorkers 1st pop critic described this $969.00 music festival as quote worthwhile at its core and said we should insist that the capitalists who produce rock concerts offer a reasonable service at reasonable prices at least a wimp better than the fire festival. See them Woodstock Yeah you got it thank you. Festivals are very reasonable now I'm glad someone responded to that. I think it's wonderful when a bottle of water is only $12.00. And you pee outside Ok. This is your last clue this men wrote many symphonies and like innings in a baseball game it was the 9th one that put the patience of the audience to a severe trial according to an 18 hundreds Journal. Bach. Sorry that is incorrect you had yes Stephen can you steal I think I can tell him that is. All right great game it's ready. To not be a contestant go to a meeting it's dot org to find out how coming up we have a game about stores that went out of business next year the game will be called What's a store. I want your eyes Bergen this is Ask me another from n.p.r. . Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from the new I'm offering a personalized weight loss program that uses psychology and small goals to change with the goal of losing weight and keeping it off for good learn more at noon and 000000 m. Dot com and 5th generation incorporated maker if you just hand made 5 Born and bred in Austin Texas live music capital of the world 80 proof Tito's handmade 5 k. Is distilled and bottled in Austin Texas. This is N.P.R.'s ask me another I'm Jonathan Coulton Now here's your host Ophira Eisenberg thank you Jonathan before the break we made our contest in Steve in the line in the play a game about bygone retail chains you know I used to go to the mall to get everything close pizza boy friends now I just order them online. Let's check in with our contestants Stephen a year ago so you taught yourself how to knit Yes Very fun I want to do it what if you mate I made a hats got to have with me tonight I made 2 baby blankets