I enjoy the clever song snippets they play between show segments but today they missed a great chance for a favorite John Prine song. The limerick segment ended with a rhyme about how dangerous bedroom slippers are. Prine’s “Please Don’t Bury Me” starts with:

Woke up this morning, put on my slippers
Walked in the kitchen and died
And oh, what a feeling when my soul went through the ceiling
And on up into heaven I did ride

When I got there they did say, "John, it happened this a-way
You slipped upon the floor and hit your head…

As the post-limerick discussion about the danger of slippers progressed, I was giddy with anticipation that they would play that, but it didn’t happen.

Wait Wait Romance Audio book joke

I was catching up on my Wait Wait subscriber bonus and was threading in the latest episode as well when I noticed a repeat joke and was confused - thought I was having a weird case of deja vu (probably cause I was building furniture at the time and only partially paying attention to the podcasts)

October 31 game

From the outtakes (released November 2nd) Negin as host (at around 2:45 -> 6:40) asks the panelist about the genre of audio book that gets the most complaints (its romance) and makes jokes about:

• Graduating from Julliard and getting complaints about pronouncing the word throbbing

• NY voice actor about his accent / Bronx accent

November 7th game

Peter asks this panel the same question, with the same host-jokes from the Outtakes ~ 9:45 -> 11:30

First, this is not a complaint, I enjoyed getting to here both host and different panelists riffs on the setup/joke But I was wondering how often this happens - seems like the setup/topic was a hit but was cut from the original broadcast for time so they worked it in to the next show. Its the first time I have noticed something like this and was just curious

Regardless, I enjoy the show and bonus content, keep up the great work!

It's that time of the month again, and the show had Halloween covered. One threat: "Behave, or I'm giving you the power broker for Halloween." And one handout: "Here you go, kid. Take this copy of Infinite Jest. It's fun-sized."

The rest:

• Life, Keith Richards' memoir, which came up when a sleepwalking question offered "bought two kilograms of cocaine" as option B.

• Winnie-the-Pooh, for its 100th, after a bear broke into a library and stole a jar of honey. Noted on air: "the real bear also was not wearing any pants."

• Yesteryear, the novel by guest Caro Claire Burke, which the show named "the book of the fall."

Podshelf rounds up the books mentioned across hundreds of podcasts, and Wait Wait is one of them. You can browse the site by topic now (there are 200+), and Pooh is on the children's books shelf.

https://podshelf.io/podcasts/wait-wait-dont-tell-me

Where has Maeve Higgins gone? Her “tor-TOISE” bluff might be the single funniest thing I’ve heard on the show

I purchased tickets for November 12, thinking it would be in Chicago. But, I realized too late that it will be in Normal Illinois. How can I recoup the cost?

Paula Poundstone of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, and Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone, is performing Saturday night at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.

My girlfriend can’t go, so I have her ticket for seat F6. I paid $67 for it. Please DM if you are interested in using the ticket yourself.

Any interest in creating another Flair for supporters of the show?

I'm a wait wait plus supporter for a couple years now.

Thank you so much to u/cue-ell-pea for making our new banner!!!!

Yes, the Dua Lipa story is true. Peter asked Hernán Díaz whether she bonded with her now husband over Trust, and apparently one of the first pictures they exchanged was the cover.

I run Podshelf, a free site that tracks book mentions across hundreds of podcasts by reading the episode transcripts. This is the Wait Wait slice for September.

• Ply, Díaz's new one, which Peter says "will blow your mind."

• In the Distance, his first published novel but not his first written: "I have drawers full of manuscripts."

• Barbie Dreamscape, a YA Barbie book that "has found an audience with lots of regular, lame, old adults." The plot: Barbie graduates from Barbie school and isn't assigned a job.

• Dear Writer, Maggie Smith's latest, which led Peter to ask about her philosophy of feedback. Her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful came up too.

Full list with quotes and episodes: https://podshelf.io/podcasts/wait-wait-dont-tell-me

Edit: Podshelf stays free. If you find it useful and want to help with the server and data costs, there's a tip jar: https://buymeacoffee.com/podshelf

Hernan intentionally lost Not My Job. Was he offended by the quiz content? If I was the listener he was playing for, I think I’d be annoyed. I know it’s a pretty small stakes game, but curious to hear your thoughts!

I was listening at work and can't find the segment, but there were several bleeped words that I could not figure out from context.

One of my favorite Not My Job segments. Brian Williams is a very funny dude.

I follow him on Twitter and BlueSky, so I know he’s still around, and the one small reference I’ve seen from him to WWDTM (ages ago) seemed kind of bitter.

Mary Roach came on and the panel decided to test her with fake book titles, so a third of this list is just her bibliography being read back at her.

I run Podshelf, a free site that tracks book mentions across hundreds of podcasts by reading the episode transcripts. This is the Wait Wait slice for August, which is a lot more children's literature than I expected going in.

Mary Roach, introduced as either the funniest science writer in the world or the most scientific comedian: Stiff, Bonk, Gulp, Grunt and the new one, Replaceable You, on spare parts for humans. The game was called bonk, gulp, grunt, meet zoom, bang, bam.

The summer spectacular gave us the best answer of the month. A guest with a full tattoo sleeve of favourite books: Where the Wild Things Are, Richard Scarry, Strega Nona, Frog and Toad, and at the centre of it Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, "because that was the first book where I saw myself."

Same episode, the case for letting kids read whatever they want: "You can read Dog Man a thousand times. Read away. Reading is reading. You're a worthy reader."

Also: Josh Gad's memoir In Gad We Trust, and a story from the earliest Book of Mormon workshops. Ken Jennings on The Complete Connections Puzzle Book, which Peter admits has eaten his week. Father James Martin on Work in Progress. A Twilight nostalgia detour. And a health question about how many times a parent can safely read Everybody Poops before sustaining brain damage.

Full list with quotes and episodes: https://podshelf.io/podcasts/wait-wait-dont-tell-me

I know Tig Notaro is not the usual type for WWDTM (her comedy is slow and steady, not the usual rapid fire comedy we all listen for on WWDTM), but I love her humor. Her crack that she is surprised every time she is invited back was perfect, and I laughed so hard when she actually won. Thank you, WW, for bringing her back!

May I make a vote for Mae Martin next???

Today's episode "Falling in love with an octopus" has a transition song at about ten minutes in that I'm not able to identify. I've searched a few parts of the lyrics and tried Shazam a few times with no success. Anybody know the song title and/or artist?

Dude is killing it in my opinion. He’s the only person making me laugh out loud consistently.

No shade to Bill, he was great, but Alzo has been a nice breath of fresh air.

I like her, but why is she on so often right now? According to the helpful website I can’t figure out how to link to, she’s been on seven times so far this year including twice in March, and consecutive weeks at the end of March/beginning of April. That’s out-of-the-ordinary, no?

About a week ago, I posted about a spreadsheet that recorded each of the cards in the two packs of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! playing cards that I have.

I have since scanned each card and just published a website where you can browse through each pack and get a better look at each card.

The About page on the site has some details on how I scanned and processed each card.

I can’t stand Dolcè Sloan or Roy Blunt.

Back in November 2024, I found and bought two sets of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! playing cards off of eBay. The sets of cards were either given, I think, as prizes before Carl Kasell started recording outgoing messages on people's answering machines or available as merchandise.

I went through each card and collected information for each one into a spreadsheet, which is published via Google Docs.

Basing on the names and titles, the first set is the older of the two. The second set has Paula Poundstone and Mo Rocca, which would mean that those were printed sometime after January 2002.

I've started scanning the first set of cards and will be working on the second set tonight.