Ask Me Another

Sundays Noon - 1 p.m.
  • Hosted by Ophira Eisenberg, Jonathan Coulton

Exciting puzzles, word games, and trivia played in front of an audience.

Ways to Connect

Sierra Teller Ornelas: Rutherford Falls

By editor • Apr 30, 2021

Writer and producer Sierra Teller Ornelas learned some of the skills she needed to succeed in Hollywood in an unlikely place: growing up working "in the booth" at Native American art markets.

"Just being at art markets and being able to sell, and trying to quickly distill the story of your nation, your family, this piece that you're selling and explaining the importance of it, it really did help in terms of pitching," she told NPR's Ask Me Another host Ophira Eisenberg.

Good Tries

By editor • Apr 30, 2021

Product marketing is a group effort, with teams of people coming up with innovative ideas and often tons of marketing dollars behind them. Actor Mary Holland and director Maureen Bharoocha (Golden Arm) guess if the failed products described are real or fake.

Heard on Maria Bamford & Richard Kind: Yogurt Is Gold, Baby.

The Chortle Instruments

By editor • Apr 30, 2021

Actor Mary Holland and director Maureen Bharoocha (Golden Arm) listen to clips of unusual musical instruments. The title of this game is a gratuitous pun of a series of young adult fantasy novels.

Heard on Maria Bamford & Richard Kind: Yogurt Is Gold, Baby.

Yo-Yo Ma: Beginner's Mind

By editor • Apr 16, 2021

World-renowned musician Yo-Yo Ma began his musical journey at just 2-and-a-half years old when his parents placed a violin in his hands, "I was very bad and I gave it up. And my parents thought, "well the boy is just not musically talented." He rebounded quickly when at the age of 4, Ma was introduced to the cello.

Musical curiosity runs deep in the Ma family. Recently, Ma's grandson took an interest in his cello. "He figured out how to open the case, take the cello out and everything," Ma said. "He wants to take over. I don't need the competition. Just stay away, I need my job!"

Not A Lot of Hair Metal

By editor • Apr 16, 2021

Timothy Simons (Veep, The Pole) and Theodore Bressman (The Pole) listen to hair metal songs rewritten to be about fictional characters who don't have a lot of hair.

Heard on Yo-Yo Ma: Civic Duty

History of Libraries

By editor • Apr 16, 2021

Timothy Simons (Veep, The Pole) and Theodore Bressman (The Pole) are quizzed on their library knowledge. Can they Dewey Decimate this quiz?

Heard on Yo-Yo Ma: Civic Duty

Category Is!

By editor • Apr 16, 2021

Sohla El-Waylly (Ancient Recipes with Sohla) and Stella Parks (Bravetart) play an Ask Me Another challenge specifically tailored to their interests. Tarot, Marvel characters and horrors films, oh my!

Heard on Yo-Yo Ma: Civic Duty

Nasim Pedrad

By editor • Apr 9, 2021

Before Nasim Pedrad impersonated Kim Kardashian and Ariana Huffington on Saturday Night Live, she impersonated Dora the Explorer at children's birthday parties. This was a low-budget operation, definitely not sanctioned by Nickelodeon. Pedrad had to assemble her own costume, complete with a backpack from Target. "Needless to say, parents were very disappointed when they opened the door and saw that they could've, like, asked a local cousin to do this same thing for free."

Idioms Around The World

By editor • Apr 9, 2021

Sasheer Zamata and Caitlin McGee (Home Economics) translate idioms from around the world. Don't get caught holding the candle!

Heard on Spring TV: 'Chad' & 'Home Economics!' Also, Reggie Watts

Love Means Constantly Having To Say You're Sorry

By editor • Apr 9, 2021

From the ABC sitcom Home Economics, Sasheer Zamata and Caitlin McGee listen to apologies from various movies and television shows. Sorry 'bout it!

Heard on Spring TV: 'Chad' & 'Home Economics!' Also, Reggie Watts

Alfonso Ribeiro

By editor • Apr 2, 2021

As a tween with great acting, singing and dancing chops, Alfonso Ribeiro was given the opportunity of a lifetime: to be in a 90-second Pepsi commercial with the Jackson 5. At the time, he was one of the leads in The Tap Dance Kid, a Broadway musical. Ribeiro told Ask Me Another host Ophira Eisenberg that the production wasn't happy about him leaving New York.

Le Pain Unquotidian

By editor • Apr 2, 2021

Demi Adejuyigbe (The Amber Ruffin Show) and Gabriel Gundacker (Our Cartoon President) rise to the occasion as they answer trivia questions about bread.

Heard on Alfonso Ribeiro: Jokes About Butts And Mild Transgressions.

Future Past

By editor • Apr 2, 2021

Comedians Demi Adejuyigbe (The Amber Ruffin Show) and Gabriel Gundacker (Our Cartoon President) test their sci-fi knowledge as they identify movies that were set in the future when they came out, but are now set in the past. Marty, where are the keys to the DeLorean?

Heard on Alfonso Ribeiro: Jokes About Butts And Mild Transgressions.

20-Sided Quiz

By editor • Mar 12, 2021

Inspired by their podcast The Adventure Zone, Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy play a trivia game about Dungeons & Dragons. Answering correctly is only half the battle — they must also defeat monsters by rolling a 20-sided die.

Heard on Justin, Travis And Griffin McElroy: My Podcast, My Podcast And My Other Podcast

David Bro-ie

By editor • Mar 12, 2021

Podcasting brothers Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy enjoy musician Jonathan Coulton's rewrites of David Bowie songs to make them about "bro culture." Are cargo shorts for bros anymore, or is Ask Me Another's puzzle editor stuck in the early 2000s?

Heard on Justin, Travis And Griffin McElroy: My Podcast, My Podcast And My Other Podcast

McElroy Brothers

By editor • Mar 12, 2021

Brothers Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy make so many podcasts that when asked to say how many they were actively producing, they needed to think a while before they settled on "nine" as the answer.

"What does it say about us that it took about a minute of arithmetic to reach that number?" Griffin joked.

Eddie Huang

By editor • Mar 5, 2021

In 2009, Eddie Huang opened Baohaus, a Taiwanese bun shop in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Huang said his attraction to cooking began with his mother. "She would taste something at a restaurant and be able to make it. And I think that gene or whatever my mom's magic is, it got passed to me." The secret to being able to recreate the magic? According to Huang, it's about paying attention. "When you're eating to pay attention, you know to savor it, think about it. And if you do that, you can probably make it again."

B-Gs

By editor • Mar 5, 2021

Writers and comedians Keith and Kenny Lucas are stayin' alive as house musician Jonathan Coulton sings songs from the Bee Gees rewritten to be about things with the initials B.G.

Heard on Eddie Huang & 'Judas And The Black Messiah' Writers: Who Tells Your Story.

This That Or The Other: Hacker, Mushroom, Anime

By editor • Mar 5, 2021

Story writers of Judas and The Black Messiah Keith and Kenny Lucas decide whether each clue is a pseudonym of a real hacker, a mushroom, or the name of an anime.

Heard on Eddie Huang & 'Judas And The Black Messiah' Writers: Who Tells Your Story.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

By editor • Feb 26, 2021

In the pilot of Modern Family, which will have aired 12 years ago this September, Mitchell Pritchett — played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson — brings home his adopted daughter, Lily. Today, as a new father himself, Ferguson is able to reflect on being a real dad versus playing one on TV.

"The great thing about having babies on TV is when they start crying, someone sweeps in and takes them away from you. And there's not that person in real life," Ferguson laughed, "but it's been a joy. It's so much fun."

Gettin' Greasy

By editor • Feb 26, 2021

Comics Samantha Ruddy and Luke Mones are hopelessly devoted to hearing Jonathan Coulton remix classic Grease songs to be about, you guessed it, Greece!

Heard on Home Cooking With Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson & Superstore's Nico Santos

What's The Word?

By editor • Feb 26, 2021

Comics Samantha Ruddy and Luke Mones compete in this game about words that are spelled and pronounced the same, but have different meanings.

Heard on Home Cooking With Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson & Superstore's Nico Santos

Viral Moments

By editor • Feb 19, 2021

Believe it or not, there have been some things on the internet that AREN'T terrible. Actors Sunita Mani and John Reynolds (Save Yourselves!) compete in a game about delightful "viral" internet moments.

Heard on Kyra Sedgwick: Empty Nest, Barn Full Of Goats

Kyra Sedgwick

By editor • Feb 19, 2021

Kyra Segwick's acting career has spanned nearly four decades but it all started on the soap opera Another World when she was just 16 years old. "I felt like a misfit toy. Because suddenly you're different from everyone else. But I was dead serious."

You Made This

By editor • Feb 19, 2021

From the film Save Yourselves! actors Sunita Mani and John Reynolds play a game about commonly-known things that are named after less commonly-known people. Will they know John Philip Sousas from Adolphe Sax? Or will they PHONE it in?

Heard on Kyra Sedgwick: Empty Nest, Barn Full Of Goats

Broadway Brands

By editor • Feb 5, 2021

Kulap Vilaysack and SuChin Pak (Add to Cart podcast) work together in a music parody game that changes the lyrics to popular showtunes to be about brands.

Heard on Keegan-Michael Key: Key & Peele & Penguins & Shakespeare

TV On TV On The Radio

By editor • Feb 5, 2021

In this meta audio game, hosts of the podcast Add to Cart, Kulap Vilaysack and SuChin Pak, hear clips from fictional TV shows that appear within real TV shows.

Heard on Keegan-Michael Key: Key & Peele & Penguins & Shakespeare

Move To The Music

By editor • Feb 5, 2021

Lets face it, moving is a total drag unless you have a friend willing to help you in exchange for pizza. Brendan Scannell and Matt Wilkas (Bonding) play a music parody game where lyrics from songs about moving are changed to be about moving into a new home.

Heard on Keegan-Michael Key: Key & Peele & Penguins & Shakespeare

Ken Jeong

By editor • Jan 29, 2021

Jeong's first taste of comedy began with a mock-male beauty competition in high school called the "Mr. Buccaneer Pageant."

"That was where I discovered my own comedy bug," Jeong told NPR's Ask Me Another host, Ophira Eisenberg. "I was posing like Arnold Schwarzenegger and just doing all these things and I got a standing O. And I ended up singing a Lionel Richie song, The Commodores' 'Three Times a Lady' on piano, and that got another standing O."

Erroneous Atlas

By editor • Jan 29, 2021

Road trip! Comedians Cameron Esposito (Queery podcast) and Beth Stelling (HBO Max Girl Daddy) navigate a multiple-choice game about maps.

Heard on Ken Jeong: Mask Me Another

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