We welcome the arrival of fall with our coziest guests!

From NPR and WBZ Chicago, this is "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," the NPR news quiz. I'm Aozel Slay, the man who sounds like a Fakuzi sweater could talk. And here's your host at the Studebraker Theatre in downtown Chicago, filling in for Peter Segal. It's Nagine Farsad. Thank you, Aozel. We are celebrating the wonders of autumn on this week's "Wait, Wait, The Chris Chill in the Air," the changing leaves. In fact, the reason Peter Segal isn't here is he fell out of a tree while Apple picking. Some men just aren't meant to go higher than five feet seven inches in the air. While God is punishing Peter for his hubris, we're going to relive some of our coziest and favorite segments from the year, starting with the great actor Sally Field's appearance on our show. She joined us just after being nominated for an Emmy for her Netflix show "Remarkably Bright Creatures." So Peter asked her about her many, many awards. First of all, congrats on the latest Emmy nomination. Did you know that you have a separate Wikipedia page just for your awards? No, no, I did not, because I don't often look for myself. I think that would be just a tiny bit weird if I wanted to Google myself. Yeah, I mean, you've done so many things in your extraordinary career. Does anybody ever come up to you and say, "Oh, God, Sally Field, I loved you in whatever it was," and you're like, "That's wonderful, and you have no memory of doing it?" No. No, it doesn't happen. I've done such strange things that I would have a hard time remembering, but they would not be things that anyone else would remember either. I've done episodic things in the late '60s and early '70s, and you know what, we're also old now. Anybody who watched it is halfway brain dead at this moment. Yeah, exactly. I'm not, you know, Sally, this is Paula Poundstone. Hi, first of all, I have the you and Lilly, and I know this beginning to bark at a squirrel out there, so just ignore him. Oh, what's the dog's name? My dog's name is Dashel Hammett. Wow. Do you think that he only really responds to death? And he responds to Dash, but he responds to Dashel Hammett, he's a great crime writer. He doesn't respond to Dashel Hammett, that's too long a name for a dog. I'm so hammett, get over here right now. Whenever we have an actor like you who's had such an extraordinary career, I'm always wondering what role they're most known for, and usually I can guess. In your case, I would have no idea, is there one thing that keeps coming up, or does it entirely depend on the person on their age, on their interest? All of that, it depends on the person, the agent, all of that, but I think the thing I most surprised about is the flying nun. Really? I love it. I love it. It's like young people. Like they were like in their 20s and 70s, they're in their, you know, teens, late teens. And they say, "I love the flying nun," and I think, "Win." "Win?" "What?" It's hard for me not to want to say, "I've done other work," you know, "I've grown." And I have to look into it or not, you know, but, yeah, it's always surprising to me. I am one of those people you mentioned earlier who's old enough to actually have watched that when it came out. And it took me a while to realize that I wasn't imagining it. There was this TV show on about this nun who flew. And I'm dying to know, how did they pitch this show to you? I would have rather just been a nun with my feet on the ground. Sure. Because that was scary and painful and stupid, you would just say. Like, Sally, you weren't actually flying. How did they make you fly? Why was it painful? It was painful because it was still the 60s and they hadn't really upgraded how you can do this. There wasn't a special effects. So it was wires. You know, I had this furnace with wires coming out of the habit. And they would, like, I was on a 50-foot crane some of the times. And they would fly me into the side of a building, and I'm like, like Spider-Man, I'm like trying to like go, "Oh, boy, here comes the building." And it was not something I should have been doing, you know? So let's talk. I watched Remarkably Break Creatures, your film on Netflix for which you were nominated for an Emmy. We have fans here, and it's interesting because you play a woman whose life is changed by a guardian angel that happens to be an octopus, which means you have acted opposite an octopus and Daniel Day-Lewis, which was more fun. Oh, boy, that's hard to say. Was the octopus also a very method -- the octopus always insists on being an octopus even offset? Oh, gosh, yes. Oh, my gosh, yes, all the best actors do. So there you go. That's Daniel. And the dog has decided there is a creature in the house that he's going to like bark at, no matter what we do. There are scenes -- many scenes in this film in which you, Sally Field, a real human being, are interacting with an octopus. Someone, intimately, the tentacles are your whole tentacles or your whole hands, tentacles, whatever. And I assumed, apparently this is true, that the octopus was CGI. Is that the case? It's hard to train an octopus to do this kind of thing. Right. And their rates are very expensive. I think you want to spoil anybody's vision if they haven't seen it or if they're thinking of seeing it or if they want to see it, but, no, it's all in my mind. I suspect she doesn't have a dog. All this time, we haven't seen the dog. She's referred to the dog. See, for a minute, he was running back that way. I'm sure she was. Oh, sure she was. Yeah. Absolutely. I have to ask one last question, before we go to our game, you have done so many things, you have won so many awards, you have played such roles with such amazing people and directors. Is there anything left in your bucket list that you still want to do that you haven't done? Well, I'm doing it right now. Very good. Oh, my gosh. She's good. Well, Sally Field, it is a dream come true to talk to you. And we have invited you here to play a game that we're calling Meet These Remarkably Dumb Creatures. (Laughter.) So, you started the movie Remarkably Bright Creatures, so we thought we'd ask you about some remarkably dumb ones, answer two to three questions about some animals that will not be getting a Netflix movie made about them anytime soon, and you will win a prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose for their voicemail, Alzo, who is Sally Field playing for? Aaron, Piotr, and Tessa Holmes of Hillsburg, California. All right. You ready to play? Yep. Okay. Here's your first question. While looking into which animals had the smallest brains, we were shocked to learn that number four on the list was what animal? A, the bony eared ass fish, b, the twiddling dumb bug, or c, the really slow loris. Huh? (Laughter.) I thought it would be like a cow or something. No, no, cow. Cow was an intellectual giant compared to some of these. I can't even remember the bugs. The choices are, so one of these is number four on the all-time list of animals with the smallest brains. Is it a, the bony eared ass fish, b, the twiddling dumb bug, or c, the really slow loris? I'll just say one. Yes. That's it. It's the bony. (Applause.) Yes, the bony eared ass fish weighs as much as three pounds, but its brain is the size of a pebble. That's true. Here's your next question. Ostriches. Also, not very bright. Their eyeballs are each bigger than their brain, and their dumbness is a challenge for ostrich farmers. Why? A, they routinely get into fights with bushes, thinking their rival ostriches. Maybe the male ostriches tend to fall in love with their human caretakers because they find them more attractive than female ostriches. Or see, not only do they eat pebbles because they look like seeds, they seem to prefer the pebbles. (Laughter.) Yikes. It sounds like a few relatives of mine, but -- (Laughter.) I'm thinking it's three that they just eat pebbles. They just eat pebbles. The audience agrees, but sadly it was two. They tend to fall in love with their human caretakers because, you know, I mean, which would you choose a human or an ostrich? They feel the same way. I would choose a pebble every time. Every time. Yeah. All right, that's OK, because you have one more-- if you get this right, you win. Sloths aren't just slow. They're also dumb. In fact, they often injure themselves by doing what? A, jumping from one tree to another, and falling asleep in midair. B, trying to take naps on top of predators, or see mistaking their own arm for a tree limb, grabbing on, and then falling to the ground. [LAUGHTER] Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy. It's a bevy of favorites. It really is. I have thought my arm was a tree, and just like grabbed it. Yeah. I mean, so that's your choice. You're going to go with see that grab their arm. Go with it, because I have no freaking idea. Well, yes you do, because that's correct. We'll have minute words to do now. Sloths? Who live in the jungles of Central and South America can sometimes be seen falling out of trees, holding firmly onto one arm with the other. Also, how did Sally Field do on our quiz? Out of all the awards she has, this might be the best one. She got two out of three. Sally Field is an absolutely legendary actor who is up for an Emmy for her latest role in remarkably bright creatures, which is streaming on Netflix now. Sally Field, what an absolutely joy. Give it up for Sally Field. Thank you. When we come back, Robert Smigel of Triumph, the insult comic Doug fame joins us to finally tell us if our show is great for him to poop on. That and more coming up in a minute on Wayway. Don't tell me from NPR. From NPR and WB Easy Chicago, this is "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me." The NPR news quiz. I'm Alzo Slate, and here's your host at the Student Baker Theater in the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Nguyen Far Side. Thanks, Alzo. And thanks, everyone. We're channeling autumnal vibes on today's show. And the good news is Peter Siegel has fully recovered from his freak apple picking incident. The bad news is he's now being treated for pumpkin spice overdose. Stay strong, Peter. While he recovers, we're going to keep listening back to our favorite segments of the year. Next up is our interview with Robert Smigel. He's the man behind Triumph, the insult comic dog. And he's written for Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and many more movies and TV shows. But Peter started asking him about life before all that. I was amazed to discover just this week that you're not really a brilliantly successful sketch and comedy writer, producer, performer. You are a failed dental student. [LAUGHTER] Oh, is that-- Yeah, big time failure. Yes. And another thing I found out was that your father was-- Yes. --and I don't know if I've ever said this phrase before-- a legendary dentist. [LAUGHTER] Start was. He was. He dwarfs my achievements in comedy. Yeah, I'm going to say. Because he's like the Steve Martin of Dentistry. Yeah. He's like-- he sort of developed the tooth bonding technique. And he went from there and revolutionized Dentistry. And I'm very proud to be a son. Sure. But you-- [APPLAUSE] It sounds like your dad made Dentistry sexy. He did. He made it-- he made it-- and I'm making comedy gross. [LAUGHTER] And you actually tried to follow in his giant footsteps. I did. I did. I mean, I had no idea that I could succeed in comedy or television. It just seemed ridiculous at the time. But it was all I was ever good at. When did you first know you were funny? Or could at least be funny? Oh my god. I mean, when I was like four or five, I could draw really well. So I could draw a Fred Flintstone and Snoopy. And then probably a couple of years later, I started drawing them having sex. [LAUGHTER] Wait a minute. You know, I'm seven years old. I'm trying to make my friends laugh. Give me a break. They didn't have smartphones. No, yeah. Exactly. Exactly. For those who don't know, I want to turn to Triumph. You're all the e-go. Again, I just found this week that apparently you and your wife discovered Triumph, or the first version of Triumph, at some sort of knick-knack shop or antique store. My wife and I, we were newlyweds. Or actually, we were furniture shopping. And there was this quaint little store called Mables in Manhattan. And they had an even quaint or rack of puppets, rubber puppets that were just animal heads. There were dogs and cats. And there was a sheep. And there was an owl. So I just grabbed the dog head. And I was so amused by how realistic it looked that I put it on my hand and immediately sniffed my wife's [BLEEP] Yeah, well, as you would, as he would. In the middle of the store. And of course, she laughed. And that's why we're still married. All these years. So you've been doing Triumph for so long. Does he have his own personality? They're like, are there things that Triumph will say, but you could never bring yourself to say? Well, I mean, he would probably insult your show, even though I'm a big fan. Right. For example. Oh, my God. Whoa. Oh, whoa, whoa. Oh, this is so exciting. I was both-- Wait, don't tell me. Hey, can your audience know that? Wait, wait, don't tell me. It's not only a beloved NPR quiz show, but it's also the game NPR employees play when they're guessing if they're still employee. Oh, yes. Sorry, I only got one joke. It's NPR. You guys don't pay well. I was both terrified and hoping that would happen. So nice to see you, Triumph. Do people actually ask, like, oh, Robert Smigler, can Triumph, if you will, dump on me? I mean, I look in the mirror every morning, and I'm bored. I wish Triumph was there. That sure. What would Triumph say if he was roasting you? He'd probably borrow a line from Don Rickles and say, it's over, rabbi. Give it up for him. [LAUGHTER] I want to ask you about the new podcast, which is like an amazing idea. Humor me, yes. So why don't you describe it? So my wife actually came up with this show. It's called Humor Me with Robert Smigler and Friends. And every week, we have people who have called in, left a message, and they need help with some sort of task they have. We had one guy who had to make a eulogy for a father in law that he hated, and needed advice on how to make he wanted to insult him. And be tasteful. And we had one woman who wanted to break up with her mom group in a way that would make them laugh and not feel offended, but still get her out of the mom group. I'm obsessed with the idea of Triumph, the insult eulogy, don't I? Has anything ever happened in the episodes that you've done so far? We've said to somebody, this would be great. This is going to kill the eulogy, whatever it may be. And it's an utter disaster. That never happens. [LAUGHTER] Well, Robert Smigler, it is a joy to talk to you. But we have asked you to play a game that this time we're calling. Insoat dog, meat service dog. So your alter ego triumph insults people for a living. So we thought we'd ask you about dogs and other animals that help people, service animals. Answer two or three questions about these helpful creatures invests, and you'll win our prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might like from our show, including Douglass, if they like, on their voice mail. Also, who is Robert Smigler playing for? Mary Beck of Brian, Texas. All right. Here's your first question, Robert. One of the most famous emotional support animals was Wally, the emotional support alligator. True story made news when citizens bank Park and Philly would not let his owner come in with him. What ultimately happened to Wally, the emotional support alligator? A, he signed an endorsement deal, and is now the met life insure alligator. B, after a peaceful death of natural causes, he's now a set of emotional support luggage. Or that you can't take on a plane. No, yeah, that's true. Or C, somebody reported a loose alligator to the authorities. He was duly picked up and released in a swamp in Georgia and hasn't been seen again. My goodness, this is a hard one. It is. Emotional support luggage sounds so believable to us. But I'm going to go with C. You're right, Robert. Yes. Somebody kidnapped him from his enclosure, left him someplace else. Somebody saw him there called the Department of Natural Resources. They picked him up and they brought him back home to a swamp. And as far as we know, he is still there living his best. life. Alright, here's your next question. Sometimes real service animals can cause problems as when which of these happened just a week ago a seeing eye dog in Arizona got a whiff of a female dog in heat and dragged its owner into a canal be a service dog and an American Airlines flight had quote an accident on the plane causing human passengers to become ill and forcing an emergency landing or see a service dog with an undiagnosed condition gave mange to the entire South Carolina State Senate. Wow. Yeah. I'm just gonna go with B it just seems the most believable. It is in fact B. Yeah. I wanted to believe A. I know but it was it was it was be they had to make an emergency landing and had emergency crews rush the plane and normally emergency guys rushed back out going all right last question go for perfect if you can a service dog who was being trained to detect sudden changes in blood sugar was taken to the vet for a checkup and this dog alerted to the veterinarian herself what happened next A. the vet was diagnosed with type A diabetes just in time to save her life B. it was discovered the dog couldn't sense blood sugar at all it just happened to like white coats or see the vet got busted for bringing donuts to work but not sharing them with her co-workers well it's got to be a no I'm sorry the answer was actually see the dog detected the secret donut oh that's amazing isn't that something God bless these dogs also how did Robert smile doing our quiz not that bad two out of three that's pretty good that's all you need that's right Robert smile it was a writer comedian the creator of triumphs the insult comic dog his new podcast humor me which is both hilarious and sometimes kind of moving is out now Robert smile what a joy to talk to you all thank you so much for being a show care care Carol Claire Burke's best-selling novel yesterday year was the book of the summer and it's so good that we've also declared it's the book of the fall it's the story of a tribe wife influencer who has to survive after being mysteriously transported to the 1850s Peter Segel a bit of a tradwife himself started by asking Carol Claire Burke if she was a fan of real tradwife influencers you know I think that I was kind of obsessed with the videos and I didn't get why because like I'm you know I I have a degree I'm a working woman I'm secular and I was like obsessed with buying a honey bee oven and I didn't understand why I was like what's happening to me and so I think because of that I really decided to start researching the visuals a little bit Marx I kept seeing them on mine I feel I should ask this I hope for other people of like mine what is a honey bee oven okay I don't exactly know but it's beautiful it's great you have to have one yes if I can pay an artisanal carpenter to make me one from scratch I think that my life will probably improve right now speaking of your life improving this is an extraordinary story of how your first novel became the subject of a bidding war between publishers and then a bidding war in Hollywood producers but I understand you had your share of rejection before that yeah exactly I think that it's good to build a healthy healthy skin when you're a writer and I certainly did so by just applying to everything and always getting told no right and have you had your limo driver take you around to all those offices no but I really enjoyed I had a few screenshots where I was like this person's gonna know that this was their email I saw that you were showing on TV some of the rejections you got it was like we don't watch you here at Harper Collins where I am the editor but I mean it must have been a little weird because this is every writer's dream you you know you're sitting there you're working in this novel and you're saying oh my god the Hollywood's gonna go nuts for this will be a bidding war in your case there was yeah how weird was that oh it's it's psychotic I still don't fully believe it I've been very dissociative so that's a problem for my future therapist yeah I say it's like future therapists what let's talk about the fact you're not in therapy that's fascinating I wouldn't have written this book about it but your character as I've said the principal character Natalie is a tradwife influencer the novel has the feel of reality like this must be what it's like to be a tradwife influencer or an influencer you're not one how did you find out what their lives are like well a lot of this book is about misinformation and so part of the part without giving any spoilers away I didn't really take much time to try to embody any one tradwife influencer it was more just getting into the mind of a woman who doesn't want to be in the world anymore and that was kind of where I had a jumping off point from yeah I know you had to say that it's not based on anyone for legal reasons but really who is it once we get off this video just text me okay okay okay okay well Carol Clairberg it is a pleasure to talk to you and we have asked you here to play a game we're calling yesterday year meet year book your hit novel is called yesterday year so we thought we'd ask you about year books answer to your questions about those wonderful souvenirs of times we would rather not remember and you will win a prize for one of our listeners the voice of anyone they might choose from our show Alzo who is author Carol Clairberg playing for Katrina Anderson of Manchester Massachusetts all right you ready to play all right Katrina I'll try here's your first question when he was nominated for the Supreme Court some years ago the high school yearbook of Neil Gorsuch came under some scrutiny why he was voted by his class most pompous be he a jokingly listed himself as a member of the quote fascism forever club or see someone had written in it have a great summer and overturned Roe v. Wade I'm gonna go with B fascism forever that's right and I should say boy could dream he was making a little joke as far as we know there was yeah there was no as far as we know there was no fascism forever club at Georgetown prep in those years all right here's your next question despite the yearbook club's best efforts and we know they work hard sometimes errors slip through as in which of these which happened to a Rhode Island school this month a the cover of the yearbook featured a misspelled word school be all of the photos in the year book were of the graduating class of 1926 or see every single senior was listed as a member of the model railway club I'm gonna go with A you're gonna go with A they misspelled the word school you're right so that's a that's a that's a Katrina that's a bad typo yes but in future years the 2026 yearbook from Johnston senior high school will be quite valuable you're doing very well here here's your last question also this spring parents at an elementary school in Florida complained because their yearbook featured what was it a retiring cafeteria lady quoted as saying no more shoveling slop to tots or be a joke picture of the teachers all doing shots in the faculty lounge or see a picture of a toddler flipping the bird this is Florida it is yes so all bets are off yeah this is Florida so I'm gonna go with I'm gonna go with I'm gonna go with B you're gonna go with B a joke picture of the teachers all doing shots in the faculty lounge I am sure that's happened but this particular yearbook brought some criticism because it featured a picture of a toddler with her middle finger raised and here's the best part it was part of an ad placed by that child's parents you know one of those congratulations graduate ads they thought it was cute Alzo how did Carol Burke do in our quiz she did enough to out of three which is good for me there you go Carol Claire Burke's bestselling book is yesterday Carol Claire Burke thank you so much for joining us on wayway don't tell it's a pleasure to talk to you and thanks for the book take care when we come back a lot of our favorite bluff games of the year and your favorite musicians favorite musician that's when we come back with more of wayway don't tell me from NPR from NPR and WB easy Chicago this is wayway don't tell me the NPR news quiz I'm Alzo Slate and here's your host at the student breaker theater and the fine arts building in Chicago McGee for side thank you everyone if you want to see our show live will be in Kalamazoo Michigan next week for tickets and information to all our live events go to NPR presents dot This week, we're celebrating Fall, and between all the flannel and hot apple cider, we've all gone a little overboard, especially Peter Segel. I didn't even know this was a thing, but he's just been arrested for Grand Theft Heyway. Well, that is something that's completely true. Let's take a moment to hear some lies, with one of our favorite bluff-the-lisner games from earlier this year. Hi, Ron, wait, wait, don't tell me. Hi, this is Kevin from Plymouth, Massachusetts. Plymouth, Massachusetts. They're at the start of Cape Cod. What do you do there? I plot accessory dwelling units in people's backyards. Oh, you plot secondary dwelling units in people's backyards. That's exactly it. I didn't understand. I thought you were saying something else with a thick Boston accent, and I couldn't understand. Do you build or do you plan? Oh, boom. That's really cool. That's really cool. Well, congratulations on that good work. Kevin, it's great to have you with us. You're going to play our game in which you must try to tell Truth from fiction. Alzo, what's Kevin's topic? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Not just what Alzo said when he finally found out where we hide at the Good Snacks. That, of course, was also the name of the '80s band whose song "Take On Me" became a global hit back then. The band made the news this week, though, for a rather surprising reason. Our panelists are each going to tell you about it, pick the real one, and get the weight-weighter of your choice on your voice melody. Ready to play? I'm ready. Okay, first up, it's Shane O'Neal. Remember the music video for "Aha's Biggest Hit Take On Me?" The one where a woman is pulled into a comic book, and the animation is somehow like really impressive and really, really bad at the same time. Well, that woman has a name, "Buntie Bailey," and as of last week, "Buntie Bailey" has an only fans. After several recent appearances at comic book conventions where she spent hours signing "Aha Casingles," Buntie realized that she still had a devoted and very socially awkward fan base. Buntie says that she's actually rather modest, so how does she take on the challenge of adult content? Well, every time things get a little spicy, she activates an AI filter that renders her in the sketchy animated style of the music video. It's a surprise when people subscribe, she said, but most of these super fans love it. I mean, these people are super, super weird, and for the few people who are disappointed, who cares? They'll be gone! I'm sorry, we have to stop all our equipment just shattered. Oh, I can do it again. Oh, no. We got it the first time. That was very louder. They're singing in mine. The model who starred as the heroine of the famous music video now in only fans where she uses that animated effect to keep things modest your next "Aha" moment comes from Karen Chi. Earlier this year, after her beloved grandmother Peggy passed away, 28-year-old Madeline Michelson took on the sobering task of cleaning out her grandma's bedroom. Peggy had been a meticulous woman who'd served as treasurer in multiple clubs and kept records of her finances throughout her life. So when Michelson came across yet another three-ring binder, she assumed it to be some more boring tax documents. But she was wrong. Inside, she found something else. Pages and pages of obsessive details about her grandma's celebrity crushes. Said Michelson lovingly, "Oh my god, grandma was a freak!" It's true, the innocuously plain binder was actually a handwritten log about men like George Clooney and Matthew McConaughey, complete with carefully cut and pasted photos, and facts, including their zodiac signs. But even more surprising, the man featured the most, 80s band Aha's frontman Morton Harkett. Proving that no matter how old you are, you can always be a tween girl with questionable taste. A woman finds her grandma's file of her favorite huddies, and the huddest of them, the lead singer of Aha, your last story of an Aha anecdote come from Peter Gross. In the wake of their thrilling NBA championship, the New York mix revealed an unlikely secret to success. The Aha song, "Hunting High and Low." The brooding track about the obsessive search for lost love was their pre-game hype song. As their star guard, Jalen Brunson told the New York Post, "Most teams go with high energy hip hop, but my favorite music they get psyched to is Moody Nordic Pop." After they lost game three to the spurs, Brunson knew the team needed a down tempo kick in the pants, so he lit some aroma therapy candles, dim the lights, and played them the following lyrics. She sound asleep, and she's sweeter now than the wildest dreams. "There's no end to the lengths I'll go hunting high and low." I explained to Kat OG and the others that it works pretty well if you just replace "she" with NBA championship. It's a trick that worked really well in the 90s when the Chicago Bulls used to sing the Neil Diamond song "Sweet NBA Championship." So Aha popped up in our feeds this week for one of these reasons. Was it from Shane, the model from the video, now on OnlyFan, showing off her animated self, from Karen Chi, a woman found that her grandmother's meticulous records of "Huddy's" praised the lead singer of Aha as the hottest of them all, or from Peter Gross, turns out the secret to the next championship was adopting the little known Aha ballad hunting high and low as their fight song. Goodness gracious. Goodness gracious and deep sir. You know, I think it's because Shane hit the note so perfectly. I might have to go with Shane's story. You've chosen Shane's story to bring you the correct answer. We spoke to an expert on the real one. There are points in time when people seek again the celebrity crushes they had in their adolescence. That was Chapman University professor and crush researcher, Dr. Rebecca Tokachinski talking about grandma's secret binder. I'm afraid we didn't win our game, but you did earn a point for Shane and I think he deserved one for that performance. And I will do a recording under voicemail for free. I know. I can sing that song no doubt. I can be the tone even. I will say we've been talking about the song all week on our office and now here on stage and none of us but Shane had the guts to actually try to sing it. So there you go. Congratulations, Shane. Thank you so much for calling and playing with us. So you can look, bye-bye. The musician Jason Narduce has collaborated with Bob Mold, Super Chunk, Eddie Vetter, and more. And he's recently been touring the world with actor Michael Shannon performing R&M albums in their entirety. When he joined us on stage back in July, Peter started by asking him if it was true what he'd heard. That his punk band started playing in bars when he was just 11 years old. Yeah. Yeah, I got my first guitar when I was 10 years old. Thank you mom and stepped out. Yeah. And I immediately was captivated by punk rock. This is in 1982. And I lucked out and met these kids on my block who also like punk rock and we formed a band Evanston's own verboten. Oh, that's hardcore. With an umlaut. Oh, it's bars. It had an umlaut. Over the oh, so you took it seriously. Yeah. But our singer Tracy got us a gig at Cubby Bear. The Cubby Bear, which is very famous in Chicago, opening up for naked ray gun when I was 11. And I think no one would believe that that happened. But my dad drove me to the gig. Yeah. Sure. And he brought one of those 1983 camcorders. So it was an enormous, enormous thing. Yeah. And he's a very young shoulder. He's videotaped. Yeah. How could you, once you do that as 11-year-old, how could you ever do anything else with your life? Do it better. Yeah. And famously, Dave Grohl of Nirvana, and then the food fighter says that it was you. And maybe that band that inspired to get him into rock and roll. He and Tracy are cousins. Right. So he came to Evanston when he was 13 and saw his practice. And he's just very sweet to credit us with inspiring him. Right. He's like, "Sunday, I'm going to do that." Well, he made the HBO show "Sonic Highways" and interviewed me and Tracy and showed footage from Cubby Bear. My dad got paid. Fine. [Laughter] More than me. So that band, Verbotin, reunited 40 years after breaking up. They came to me. Really? My bandmates. And they said, "We heard some festivals might hire us." And I said, "You guys haven't played music for over 40 years. How are we going to do this?" And we don't have enough music to play a festival. And the music that we have, I wrote when I was 11. [Laughter] I just, I didn't, I mean, I love their enthusiasm and there are some of my closest friends, Tracy, Chris, and Zach, and John Aaron. And, but I just said, how are we gonna do this? And then I said, well, maybe I'll take some time to write new songs while you guys-- - Practice. - I guess my question is, what are the reasons a band would break up when you're 11 years old? (laughing) - We broke up when I was 12. - Oh. - Yeah, they lasted. - Oh, now they make more fun of me. - And, yeah, I just felt like I needed to go through puberty without band drama. (laughing) - So I also, I wanted to ask you about your latest project, you've done so many things, you've been touring, I believe the world, right? You've been to Europe and other places with Michael Shannon, the actor. - Yeah. - And you're doing entire REMLs. - Yeah. - And a lot of questions. Michael Shannon, known primarily as an excellent actor, Chicago Guy, when he came to you and said, "Hey man, I'm a singer, I want to do this," you're like, "Oh God, an actor who thinks he can sing, it's William Chattano." - What was your reaction? (laughing) - Golden voices. - Yeah. Well, the funny thing is, is that we've been doing this for 10 years in Chicago, where Michael would say, "I'm going to come to town, can you book a club, put together a band, and we'll play one entire record." And we do that once a year, we did a Bob Dylan record, we did Modern Lovers, we did Neil Young Zuma, we did T-Rex, we did so many records like this, but then in 2023, we put an REM record, and it just exploded. I asked Mike if he's ever done a rock tour, he said no, I said, "I think we could do one, you want to do it." He said, "Yeah, keep it short, you know, he's a busy guy." - Yes. - So we booked a nine-day tour, and the first two shows were in San Francisco, the third show was in Minneapolis, great routing in my part. And after the first song in Minneapolis at First Avenue, we finished the first song, Radio for Europe, and the 1,100 people just, "Ah, you know, there's that thing that you always wish you can hear." And I have videotape of this, Michael takes a couple steps back, and slowly walks up to the mic and says, "Holy [bleep]." - Wait, oh, sorry, that's okay, okay. Do you have videotape or do you do dad have videotape? Fill out there, still in the beta max. Well, Jason Redducey, it is a pleasure to talk to you. We have invited you here to play a game we're calling - Meet this undercover band. - So as we have established your great-of-playing covers, but what do you know about going undercover? We're gonna ask you about agents who go undercover to catch the bad guys, get to write you one of our prize, one of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose for their voice mail, also who is Jason Narducey playing for. Owen Bostwick of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. - There you go, welcome. (audience cheering and applauding) - So here's your first question, are they doing this? - Yeah. - All right. - Sometimes undercover operations are too successful, like in the case of a group of cops and Detroit who posed as drug buyers in 2017, and then did what? Was it A, bought so much drugs for themselves, the actual drug-using community stage to protest at City Hall, where he increased the local drug trade so much Detroit won City of the Year from the National Drug Traffickers Association, or C, successfully busted another group of undercover cops who were posing as drug dealers. (audience cheering and applauding) - You're so glad that you guys wrote these for a punk rock musician. - I do, yeah, I'll go and see. - You're gonna go and see, and you're correct, the undercover drug buyers successfully arranged, big buy for some big-time drug dealers and then shouted, they're under arrest at the same time, the drug dealers shouted, no, you're under arrest. (audience laughing) And this is true, a fist fight between the two groups of cops and sued. That was very good, here's your next question. Just last month, just last month, police in Peru pulled off a brilliant undercover sting, their undercover agent's got close enough to a major narco trafficker to arrest him by disguising themselves as Wat A, the World Cup mascots, B, delivery robots, or C, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. (audience laughing) - I'll go with A. - You're right, A, B, very good. (audience cheering and applauding) The cops knew the drug trafficker would be watching the opening game of the World Cup, so they dressed up two officers as clutch the bald eagle and maple the mousse, I'm sure you know, those are two of the mascots of the World Cup. All right, here's your last question, get this will be perfect. A Texas police officer went undercover to investigate a bartender suspected of selling meth. And immediately ran into a challenge when the bartender asked him, "Are you a cop?" (audience laughing) What did he do? Did he A ask, "What is a cop?" Anyway, starting a 20 minute philosophical conversation. (audience laughing) B said, "Are you a drug dealer?" Someone she said, "Yes, arrested her." Or C said, "Yeah, I'm a cop, here's my microphone." Holding out his actual microphone and then asked if she would still sell him drugs, and she did. (audience laughing) Oh, I see a lot of drug buyers here in Milwaukee. - They really want me to go and see you. - They do want you to go and see you. - I'll go and see you. - They're right, you're right, it was C. (audience cheering and applauding) Also, how did Jason and Erducey do in our quiz? - You did all right, 'cause they got them all right. (audience laughing) - You did really well. Covered that. Jason and Erducey is a musician, who's about to go on tour with his friend Michael Shannon, celebrating the 40th anniversary of REM's life's rich pageant. He's also the author of a funny and charming, and short memoir called Mostly the Van. Jason and Erducey, thank you so much for joining us on "Wait, Wait, Talk to 'em." Jason and Erducey. (audience cheering and applauding) - That's it for our special fall edition of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," we'll be back next week, but first, let me tell you that, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" is a production of NPR and WBZ Chicago in association with urgent haircut productions, Doug Berman, Benevolent Overlord. Philip Gotica writes our limbrics. B.J. Letterman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Dornboss, and Blushing Bride, Lillian King. Forget Bob and for Apples, we're bobbing for Peter Gwynn. Our vibe curator is on a joy, technical direction, Lorna White. Our CFO is Colin Miller. Our opt manager is Jussira Vardek. Our production manager is Robert Newhouse. Our senior producer is Ian Chilag. The executive producer of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" is Mike Danforth. Thanks to everyone you heard on our show this week, all our panelists, thanks to Alzo Slade, and thanks to all of you for listening. I'm Nigeem Farsad, feeling in for Peter's Sago, and we'll see you next week. [CHEERING AND APPLAUSE] This is NPR.