Wait Wait goes wild on spring break

This week on Up First, one trend emerging this election season. President Trump actively opposing Republicans he sees as disloyal and endorsing their primary challengers, who've toppled incumbents in multiple states. We're watching key primaries on Tuesday in Kentucky and elsewhere to see if that narrative holds up. And what those races might tell us about November. Listen to Up First every morning on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Easy Chicago, this is Wait Wait, don't tell me the NPR news quiz. I'm the seven time winner of the Fort Lauderdale Wet Blazer contest. Bill Karnitz. And here is your host at the Studebaker Theater of the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Illinois, Peter Sago. Thank you, Bill. Thanks everybody. It is spring break and just like we did in college, everyone on our show is taking the opportunity to stay home and catch up on our homework. Speak for yourself, Dweeb. I'm at a karaoke bar in Cabo, absolutely lit on Tequila, singing Chapel Roan at the top of my lungs. Okay, fine. Now Bill is having fun, the rest of us are reviewing our notes from the past year or so. Delroy Lindo may not have won an Oscar for his role in the movie Sinners, but I am sure he was just as happy to join us back in January to talk about his amazing career. Thank you. I'm such a big fan of yours. I feel like I've seen you in movies and TV for a very long time, but I don't really associate you with one role and I was wondering, do other people, do people recognize you mostly for one thing or another? One thing or another, meaning different audience members have different references for me based what they've seen me do. There is not one part in particular. That said, it has always occurred to me watching you in all kinds of different things that your characters have a certain quality that they all share. I actually heard you tell a story you were on stage quite recently with your good friend Denzel Washington. You told a story about how early on in your career you were approached by a guy on a bicycle. I think it was like you were getting your car. That guy seemed to nail it. I was wondering if you could tell that story to us. So it's okay to curse on this show, right? I think people get a sense. Go right ahead. We have beeps. I was parking my car on Park Avenue. This is many, many, many, many years ago in New York City. And a bicycle messenger passed me, young African American gentleman. He stopped, backed his bike up, came to me and said, hey man, you're that actor, right? And I said, yeah, brother, yes I am. And he said, you know what I dig about you in the movies, man? And I said, what, brother? And he said, nobody ever f*** what you want to move is, brah. And that, am I right, guys? Yes? And as I explained Denzel, for me, I interpreted that as him having a certain kind of respect for whatever it is he had seen me do. Yeah. It's true. As we have mentioned, you and Denzel know each other for years. Students together at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, where a lot of great actors came from. He says that you gave him one of the greatest bits of advice you ever got as a young, starving actor. You said you could survive. What was it on a loaf of wheat bread, a jar of honey, and a jar of peanut butter? That's how I did it. What I needed to. The point being, that was a kind of a go-to that one could get protein and get all of the nutrients that one needed. Yeah. And I want to ask immediately, though, when you first started making money, or maybe just the first time you got a paycheck for acting, what was like the good thing to eat, the first thing that you bought? Okay, you will learn this about me. I'm not going to answer the question, but I will give you an answer. Oh, please. When I first made a little bit of money as an actor, the thing that gave me the most joy was to be able to send money to my mom as proof that, thank you, as proof that not only was I gavefully employed, but I was sufficiently gainfully employed that I could send her some money. You know, I don't think you're doing that well, and I would like to adopt you. Your mother, if I'm not mistaken, was a Jamaican immigrant to Great Britain, where you respected you. That is correct. So I'm assuming like all immigrant mothers, she wanted you to make a nice living, like become a doctor or lawyer, something respectable. It might have been appalled. Apparently, you know, when I was two and a half, I said, when I grew up, I want to be a doctor tomorrow, and my mom never let me forget that. You promised me. What's amazing, another story I learned about you, is that you caught the acting bug at the age of five. I did. I did. You've done your homework. Yeah, as a result of being in the nativity play at my elementary, my primary school, that is correct. Right. What character in the nativity scene did you play? The black king, bro. I want to talk to you about Sinners, which is an amazing film, one of the biggest movies of last year, which will hopefully reap a lot of awards. This is a movie, again, filled with music, brilliant music, and you play a musician, a singer and piano player. Did you have to learn? Was that the talent you brought to the table when you walked on set? No, I received a lot of instruction. I had one, two, three brilliant musicians, New Orleans-based musicians, who worked with me on my relationship to the keyboard. Right. And I also had instruction on the harp, the harmonica. So I had a lot of instruction. Yeah. Do you still play now that the movie is all wrapped into the past? No. I have, God bless them. The producers gave me one of the keyboards. I've been so busy, frankly. I haven't had a chance to get back to it. I don't know, man. If you don't practice, you may not... Absolutely. Yeah, I know. It's true. I want to ask you this before we move to our game, which is we understand that one of your legacies as your youth in Britain is that you were a big fan of soccer. I am. Man you, right? All day long. All day long. I mean, you're a pretty prominent guy. Has the team honored you? Have they had you there? I mean, they have a lot of fans, but you're pretty... Man, they have not, and give them a call. I will. I'm not gonna be happy. It's only I'd known. Are you then very excited for the upcoming World Cup? I am. Yeah. I really, really am. Yeah. Very, very much so. I'm not sure. I don't have tickets yet. Anybody in the audience who has influenced me and gave me a call. Yeah, I'm really excited. I'm really excited. Yeah. I mean, it's a sad thing when someone like you has to ask us. But... Yeah, right. But do you have any divided loyalties? You grew up in England. You live here. It's where your career has been. Are you gonna be written... You know who you're written for? Actually, that's a really good question. And I would say the answer, do I have divided loyalties? I would say I'd like to see the English team do well. I'd like to see the American team do well. So I guess I've got my feet in both sides of the fence there. Okay. You're gonna be torn if it comes down to those two teams. It will not. Yeah, I was about to say. No. No way. It's not gonna happen, man. No, it's not. I'm hardly a fan and even I know that is not going to happen. It's not gonna happen. No. Well, Delroy Lindo, it is a pleasure to talk to you and we have invited you here today to play a game and we are calling it Sinners Meet the Saints. So you star in the movie Sinners, as said, so we thought we'd ask you today three questions about saints, specifically the New Orleans saints of the NFL, which, if you're not a fan, in this last season, 2025, improved on the prior years, five and 12 record, by going six and 11. So if you answer two or three questions correctly, you will win our prize. One of our listeners, the voice of anyone from our show they might like on their voicemail. Bill, who is the great Delroy Lindo playing for? Kevin Harman of Detroit, Michigan. Here's your first question. The saints have been playing in the NFL since 1967 and for the first few decades they weren't very good. After a one and 15 season in 1980, disappointed fans in Orleans started calling them what? A, the New Orleans aintz. B, the New Orleans taints. Or C, the Houston saints. I'm going to say the New Orleans taints. I wish it were, but it was the New Orleans aintz, I'm afraid. They took the s off, New Orleans aintz, they ain't very good. Here's your next question though, you still have two more chances. The saints are credited with an innovation in pro football. What was it? A, they were the first team to hire a choreographer for their end zone dancers. B, they were the first team to have a fan in the stands where a paper bag over his head from embarrassment. Or C, they were the first team to make uniform pants tighter to increase fan appeal. Am I allowed to ask for the right answer from somebody in the audience? You are welcome to poll the audience, but the audience is yelling B. I'm going with B also. That is B, yes. The man first to put a bag on his head out of embarrassment while watching a football game was named Mike Dilberto. He was a saints fan and sometimes broadcaster. He was the first to do it, but hundreds soon followed. All right, here's your last question. You get this right, Delroy. You win it all for one of our listeners. The saints at one point seemed to have a rather unlikely fan, who was it? A, Pope Francis, who regularly accidentally tagged the team while trying to tweet about the other kind of saints. B, a very popular burlesque dancer in Nola who changed her name to the nude Orleans saint. Or C, a man who remained loyal to the team despite proposing to three different women on the Jumbotron on three different occasions and getting rejected by all of them. The Pope. The Pope is right. Pope Francis. Give out, man. Devoted to the Catholic saints, but not very good at Twitter. He kept tagging the new Orleans saints whenever he would praise the saints of the Catholic church. Bill, how did Delroy Lindo do on our quiz? Two out of three is a winner, which proves Don't F with Delroy. When we come back, Paula Poundstone gets called out by our celebrity guest and we are joined by the People's Princess himself. That's when we return with more of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me from NPR. For poor people in one of the world's fastest growing mega cities, development means displacement and violence. We're homeless now. No one to stay. No one to sleep. On the Sunday Story, the human cost of building Lagos, Nigeria into the Dubai of Africa. Listen now to the Sunday Story from the Up First podcast on the NPR app. From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, the NPR News Quiz. I'm Bill Curtis and here is your host at the Studebaker Theater and the Fine Arts Building in Chicago, Theaters Sago. Thank you, Bill. Thanks, everybody. So, like I said, we are on spring break and we are spending the time reviewing our past work just in case anybody gives us a pop quiz on it. If that happens, I'll just sit next to you and copy your answers, nerd. I hope you get tested on our conversation with Ray Seahorn, the star of Better Call Saul and Pluribus because I have practically got it memorized anyway. What can I say? I'm a fan. So much so, in fact, that Peter asked her if it was true that in Better Call Saul, she went from being a supporting player to a star because creator Vince Gilligan liked her so much. I mean, I don't know all of the inner workings of it. I do know that they told me after the fact that they weren't sure how long I would be there or if I would just end up being the one that got away to Jimmy or some mythological thing that he wished he had risen to. I do think they enjoyed my performance, but I also think they realized it was a very good storytelling tool. Right. You could have just admitted to sucking up, but that also was a lovely story. Better Call Saul, for the people who don't know, was this prequel to Breaking Bad and your character, Kim Wexler, is not in Breaking Bad. So like every other fan of Better Call Saul, I was terrified every episode that you were going to get killed. Right? As was I. Well, that was the question. Because I wondered, was it like on the Sopranos where every actor famously would open the script that week wondering if their number had come up? Yeah, exactly. I mean, I'm thinking the Game of Thrones people had it even worse. Yeah, sure. Yeah, my good friend Patrick Fabian and I would just, the first couple of seasons, I would say, we would get our scripts and just call each other, flipping through and just go, I'm not dead, I'm not dead, I'm not dead. And he didn't tell me that he knew he was going to die in that last season. I got surprised reading the script and we all, Bob and Patrick and I lived together for most of the seasons of shooting and I ran upstairs and was like, I can't believe you kept this for me. And he did, and he even kept it from his wife who watched it. Really? Watched it when it aired and was like, what? This isn't my situation or it doesn't sound like kids, but I can't imagine being in a marriage where you're like, how does she react when she sees me die? I was just thinking that. Just watching to see if there's like an unconscious grin. Did you just giggle? You have to talk about Pluribus, which I love and am just so excited that every episode comes. Thank you. I hear Paula won't watch it. It's not that I won't watch it. Listen, I love Ray Seahorn to death and I would watch anything. I would watch like a cleaning product commercial with you, but I don't know how to do streaming or any kind of paid television. So I watched Better Call Saul so many times that I know so much more about it than what any of you are saying because I watched it on DVD. So if it doesn't come out on DVD or there's not like a puppet show version of it, I don't know. I'm going to buy you an Apple TV and then paint it to look like a VCR. Oh, it could also come out on VHS, Ray, because I still have a VCR. I was just with Vince this morning doing an interview and told him I was coming on. He says hi. He also loves this show and literally said, Paula, he's going to find out if there's a way for us to make VHS tapes of the show. Thank you. In addition to being a huge fan of yours, I respect you immensely because you spent a lot of times in the trenches in theater and doing what work you could. And I wondered if you knew at this juncture what your first listed credit on IMDb.com is. What does IMDb say? IMDb says your first credit as a professional actor was playing the tutorial sorceress in the Magic the Gathering video game. That was a very early job. In the original game, in the original length, it was software of the game, of the card game. But it came with a tutorial and on the back of the box, it would be like a teeny tiny window on your screen would be the tutorial about how to navigate through the game. And me and an actor named Reggie, we were playing Sorcerer and Sorceress and it was so low budget that they didn't have shoes, but they wanted us to look like we were wearing a gladiator, so we were just wearing tube socks with electrical tape in criss-cross fashion. Oh, wow. Yes. If you look carefully at Gladiator, that's what Russell Crowe wore. That's true. It's on YouTube. You can watch the whole thing as I did. If you are a Ray Seahorn completist, it's out there for you. Well, Ray Seahorn, it is such a joy to talk to you and we have in fact asked you here to play a game. We are calling it this time. It's Christmas Carol. So as everybody on earth in Pluribus knows, your character's name is Carol. So we thought, given the season, we'd ask you about Christmas Carols. Answer two or three questions. You'll win our prize for one of our listeners, the voice of anyone. They might choose giving holiday greetings on their voicemail. So Bill, who is Ray Seahorn playing for? Alex Jumson of Seattle, Washington. All right. First question. Just this year, a famous person tried to put their own trademark on a new Christmas Carol. Was it A, Tyra Banks song, Santa Smize, B, Dwayne The Rock Johnson's Can You Smell What Santa Is Cooking, or C, Rick Astley's I'm Never Gonna Give You Gifts? Okay, I'm going with A. You're going with A. Tyra Banks song. Yeah. Santa Smize, You're Right. Wow. Named by The Washington Post as one of the five worst Christmas Carols of the year. So all right, that was very good. An instinctual and very good. All right. Next question. In 1953, a child singer named Gaila Peavey recorded and released a song called I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. Big hit. The result, A, the response to the song was so negative, she eventually became a nun and took a vow of silence. B, stuffed hippos were going in the black market for $5,000 in today's money, or C, somebody actually gave her a hippo. I think C. You're right. It was C. Yes. It was a huge hit. She sang it in the Ed Sullivan show and somebody gave her a hippo and she eventually donated, said hippo to the Oklahoma City Zoo. Okay. You're being perfect at this as you have been in all things. Here's your last question. John Denver put out a Christmas album once, Rocky Mountain Christmas, which included which of these less than merry Christmas songs? A, please daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas. B, my gift for you is my love, parentheses because that's all I can afford. Or C, poisoned by the mistletoe. Wow. With A. You're going to do it with A. Again, please daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas. You're right again. That is pretty impressive. I totally think people that are caroling should add that John Denver song. I think it'll bring some issues to the forefront. I think it's good. I think honesty is what we need. Bill, how did Ray Seahorn do in our quiz? She was perfect. She got them all right. Ray Seahorn is nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in Pluribus. I am betting the first of many such nominations. You can stream it on Apple TV now. It's amazing. Don't read a word about it. Watch it. Ray Seahorn, thank you so much for being with us on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. We're such big fans. We're so grateful. Thank you guys. This is a dream come true. Thank you. It was for Vishal. Take care. Love you, Ray. Everybody loves it when their friends do well, right? Which is why we were so happy when our friend Andy Richter had an amazing run on the most recent season of Dancing with the Stars. And we were even happier when Andy joined us live on stage in Phoenix in December. We were delighted to see our friend Andy Richter on this season of Dancing with the Stars, in which he inspired a whole lot of supporters online to call themselves Fandies. He and his dance partner Emma Slater lasted far longer than most expected into the competition with Andy being dubbed by the judges, the People's Princess. We are delighted her highness could join us here on stage in Phoenix. Andy Richter, welcome back to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Thank you. Thank you. So, and I should say, it wasn't the judges. It wasn't the judges. It was just somebody online started calling me the People's Princess. Okay. Yeah, which is incredibly flattering. It really is. Yeah, yeah, I really am hoping for a T.R. for Christmas. Why not? So I have to ask, were you, were you, Dancing with the Stars has been around for a while? Did you always want it to be on it? No, quite the opposite. It always seemed like a terrifying prospect. And then I didn't work very much for a little while and it seemed kind of a good idea. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you seek them out? Did they call you? No, no, I got it. It was way back in April. I got an email from my agent saying, you know, they've offered you this and I've told this before. My first instinct was say no and don't tell my wife that they asked. Right. Like just because, you know, and then a minute later I was, I felt like I have to do this. And so I said yes. And then as it got closer, I just thought, oh, I've made a terrible mistake. Tell me about your dance experience and expertise before this all began. I'll just tell it to you in an anecdote that my wife reminded me of when I said yes to Dancing with the Stars. For our wedding, my only requirement for our dance was that the song be the shortest one possible. Right. Because I just, I wasn't comfortable. I mean, I can dance, you know, with some drinks at a party. The song was it like the boot up tone from Microsoft Windows? What was it? Yeah, it was just, it was my ring tone. Yeah. And so what was, what was the preparation? So like you show up and say, I've been to the gym. I've been doing my cardio. You start, you start dancing. You start, you start being taught a routine. You get assigned a partner in your case, Emma. I was lucky enough to get Emma Slater, who is an angel and really an amazingly talented person, an amazing choreographer. She understood me. She understood like how to teach me. Because I'm not, I don't enjoy being pushed. Right. You know, like the hard line kind of thing that I just say, F this, goodbye. So I need to be treated, you know, and also she's very fun. And she also, part of her genius was that she said, Oh, and by the way, every day we're going to make two or three TikToks. Uh-huh. And very quickly she's, she would point and say, look how many views this got. And I'd be like 1.3 million. Right. Like that's what? And this is that number has never been connected to me other than for taxation purposes. I watched a lot of your dances and I'm saying this with complete love and respect, speaking as a man that for good reason has not danced in public for 25 years, but it, it kind of seemed like your job was to stand still and watch with amazement while your partner did an amazing dance move sort of around you. I, I will, I would do it. Andy, Andy, don't let him do you like that. But, but, but, but, but, and here was the charming part. You made a lot of very expressive faces as you watched her dance about. No, no, no, no. I, you make it sound like, I mean, you weren't tired. Yeah. I moved from one point to the other and there was footwork that I had to remember. Really? Yeah. Yes. Yes. I learned to cha-cha a foxtrot. You know, I pulled off a foxtrot. So yeah. Yeah. And thank you. Thank you. And I, and by the end too, I was with each new week's dance. I would learn it in one rehearsal. It was like one rehearsal. I did have the ability. One rehearsal. Yeah. I can, I can remember. Yeah. Wow. You, you, you sort of learned that muscle. There's like, thank you. I, I tried to emulate the real dancers because I would do the dance that we were doing that week and think, ah, I really nailed that one. I really got it. And then we would look because we'd recorded on our phones and I'd look at it on the phone. I'm like, look at that old man stomping around. Is he waving his arms? Yeah. I tried to, I tried, you know, in different times to sort of emulate the sort of more sort of fluid movements. And it's, you know, I was a rhino in a gazelle contest. Yes. I'm never going to be a gazelle. There you go. The People's Princess. Well, Andy Richter, it is always such a pleasure to have you on our show. And as always, we'd like you to play a game that this time we are calling. Gotta Dance. So given your performance on Dancing with the Stars, we thought we'd ask you about somebody who was really good at dancing, Jean Kelly. I'm going to turn to three questions about the legendary song and dance man and you will win a prize for one of our listeners. Also who is Andy Richter playing for this time? Fermat and Barry Kipnis of Prescott, Arizona. Not far from the point. All right, ready? Here's your first question. Jean Kelly went from being a dance instructor in Pittsburgh to one of the biggest movie stars of all time. What was among his many secrets of success? A. Custom made motorized tap shoes. B. Pants that were one size too small to accentuate his butt. Or C. Whatever the music you heard watching him on screen on set, he was always dancing to the same song, Home on the Range. I think it's the butt pants. You're right. And if you've ever seen him, you'd know that's true. Not only did he have his pants made a little tight, he would sometimes make sure his male co-stars pants were a little loose. Okay. Kelly went on after his own career on screen to be a director. He directed the movie Hello Dolly. And the star of that film, Michael Crawford, said that he got the part after Kelly said which of these to him. Was it A, quote, you remind me of a young me before I knew how to dance? B, quote, we can shoot somebody with talent from the waist down and edit it in. Or C, quote, we're looking for an attractive idiot. My wife thinks you're attractive and I think you're an idiot. Boy. I think maybe the third one. The third one. Yeah, about the wife and the idiot. You're right. You know this business. You know these people. That's exactly what he said. And he has kind of an attractive idiot in the film, so it works out. All right. Last question. You can be perfect here. My wife hosted these massive parties for his famous friends in Beverly Hills and a main stay of those parties was what? A, Kelly's toe tap and punch, which was just as it turned out, grain alcohol and red food coloring. B, Kelly challenging any guest there for the first time to a dance off. Or C, a cutthroat version of charades that could last for 24 hours straight. It's got to be the charades. It is the charades, Andy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A man who's been to his Hollywood parties. 24 hours. 24 hours. They would sometimes, it was called, it was known as the game. Yeah. We're going to play the game. Wow. Yeah. True story. Also, how did Andy Richter do in our quiz? He danced his way to a perfect score, three out of three. You did. Thank you. There you go. Andy Richter was the people's princess on this year's run of Dancing with the Stars. He is the host of The Three Questions with Andy Richter podcast, which airs Mondays on the Sirius XM app. Or wherever you might get your podcast, please give it up to our friend Andy Richter. Thanks so much. Andy, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you. Thank you. Come on. Thanks a lot. Thanks so much. When we come back, our panelists go all out to earn their meager paychecks. And John M. Chu, the director of the Wicked Movies, explains how it really isn't easy being green. That's when we come back with more, wait, wait, don't tell me, from NPO. We flush a lot of things down the toilet. You know, the obvious ones. But drugs like cocaine are also going down the drain and into our waterways. That's changing the animals that live in it. It's definitely present in most ecosystems on Earth now, unfortunately. We're only sort of really starting to scratch the surface and do our understanding. The potential consequences of that. Get cocaine banned. Learn about cocaine salmon on shortwave in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. From NPR and WBZ Chicago, this is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the NPR news quiz. I'm Bill Curtis and here's your host at the Studebaker Theater in the Fine Arts building in Chicago, Peter Sago. Thank you, Bill. So we are not the only ones enjoying a deserved spring break. So are our panelists. Do you know how hard it is to appear regularly on a quiz about the week's news? Sometimes for years and still never seem to know the answers to the questions? Here's some proof. Joelle, yes. Joelle, the Consumer Electronics Show was this week. That's the big show where all the tech people bring out their cool new tech products for people. Cool. So here's our attention. It's called the eye polish. It's the name of the device. What is the eye polish? The eye polish. Yeah, it doesn't polish things. It takes the place of a kind of polish. Like for bald men's heads? No. No one cares about that. I care? Maybe like you'd be saying to your boyfriend, oh, hold on. Before we go out, let me download my French manicure. Oh, it's for nail? Yes, it's digital nail polish. All right. So eye polish, the product is digital press on nails. You never have to paint them. They display up to 300 colors just with the push of a button. Wow. So, yep, exactly. That's exactly so. Basically little digital screens, little digital panels, the shape like fingernails that light up in whatever color you choose. And someone who bites my nails, and I do, I think would really help it if every time I did it, I was electrocuted. It's just, you know, when you hear about like that's the product that's catching people's eyes and that's the great thing that's coming out of the world of technology, it's hard to believe that the international world rules-based order is on its way out. It's just like, if you read that in the paper, like if that was the headline, it just seems like how can we even be thinking about that? Yeah. So, it'll be like, we'll be living in this dystopian or Wellian hellscape, but we will have like lightbrights on our fingernails. Exactly. Right. What's a paper? Panels, this week we read a term in the news that was new to us, and you each get one guess at what it means. What are clanker balls? Peter Grims. Clanker balls? Those things in the offices that you clank and they knock into each other and they go clack, clack, clack. That's the first thing I thought of. That's a euro. Why? What are the other implications? Joyelle, what do you think clanker balls means? The type of parties Trump's going to have in the ballroom. Rachel, where'd your mind go with it? I don't want to say right away, but clanker is AI, usually a term for AI usage, am I close? Yeah, no, you're close, but that's not. I'll tell you. Oh, can I guess again? Is it the things that go on the back of a truck? That's also a really good guess, but those are truck nuts. Sorry. Sorry. They have a better name for that. Truck nuts with a Z. So, okay. Clanker balls are balls that hang above a road before a low bridge to warn trucks they're going to crash. So if any of you guessed that, you're right, but you're also boring. Like Peter. Did something happen this week where it was like? I think what happened this week is that the wait, wait, don't tell me why writers were like, oh my God, you guys, have you heard of clanker balls? I think that's what happened this week. I'm confused though. They're hanging from the bridge that's, they're like right in front of the bridge before you. Yeah, so they're like a block before some amount of space before the bridge. So then you, they're called clanker balls because they're engineered to let out a loud clang when something crashes into them, which differs from the sound you hear when something crashes into regular balls crying. There's no exit after the clanker balls. They just let you know you're about to die. Yeah. You're about to experience a world of pain. No, I guess there's like enough room for you to break and then turn around or whatever. Sounds like standard highway behavior. Yeah, I love that. Just turning around the truck. Oops. But to your point, Rachel, earlier, like a while back on this show, we actually talked about how clanker is a derogatory slur term for robots, which would suggest another meaning for clanker balls. And if you think the idea of those clanker balls is absurd, you've never taken a look under R2-D2. Are you sure? Are my right ladies? So we're not supposed to say clanker with a hard R? Paula, question for you. It is spring cleaning season, but this week real simple magazine warned that when you're decluttering, you should not be tempted to declutter what? Well, money. Yeah, do you have a hint from me, Peter? I do. I mean, you need to get this around because if you run out at home, you can't ask someone to hand you some under the stall divider. Oh, toilet paper? Toilet paper. Who would get rid of all toilet paper? Get rid of your toilet paper. Apparently enough people are doing that that real simple had to tell you not to. That's absurd. Why would anyone get rid of toilet paper? Exactly. I mean, if it's used, that's different, but that's ridiculous. Apparently, this is a problem enough. They declared you should not get rid of your toilet paper. This is true now. It's always been true. That's why in ancient Egypt, when someone died, they would wrap that person and they're left over toilet paper. This sounds like something that Costco's pushing. Really? Oh, yeah. Do people get to an age where they don't use toilet paper anymore? I mean, I'd say like on my deathbed, I might roll over to somebody and say, you can get rid of that toilet paper now. It can be hard to keep up with all the new movies on streaming services. How do you tell the good ones worth watching from the bad? Or the silly ones you can laugh along with? Or at? On NPR's Pop Culture happy hour, we're recommending some fun movies you may have missed. Listen via the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Finally, I grew up on Movie Musicals, a form that died out years ago when everyone realized that in real life, people don't just burst into song. So I was grateful to talk to John M. Chu, director of In the Heights and the two wicked movies who might have single-handedly revived the genre. He didn't grow up singing and dancing. Instead, he worked in his family's legendary Chinese restaurant in the Bay Area. 56 years later, my dad's still there. He's 82. It's called Chef's Choose. And he's there all the time. He loves to work and loves to eat. Wow, yeah. Were you ever tempted to go into that business? Never. Not once. Not even a little bit. A restaurant being raised in a restaurant, it's great because it's a house of stories. Everyone's telling stories to my dad. My dad's telling stories to them about me. And it's the people in that restaurant, because it was in Palo Alto and Silicon Valley, that people from Adobe gave me software to edit with, gave me cameras, gave me computers. So it was a very beautiful place for me. Wow. And that's what I meant, that you were identified pretty early as somebody with a flair. Yeah, so you went to film school and you made a short film which got a lot of attention. And I was able to find the trailer for it online. Cool, man. And it's called When the Kids Are Away, right? Yes, yes it is. If I understood correctly, because it's just the trailer, the idea is little kid leaves for school with all his friends leaving for school, leaving their housewife mothers, their all sort of traditional housewives. And as soon as they're gone, the housewives break out into these fabulous big choreographed musical numbers. Yes, what they do when the kids are away. And I watch this and I'm like, oh my god, it was true. But the twist of the movie is at the end, I'm just going to ruin it for people, but at the end, because you'll never find it, the end of it is that this kid gets found and he starts to share his moves. He thinks he's in trouble, but he shares his moves and he actually introduces new moves to them. And we find out that he's actually little Michael Jackson and that it's the passing on of the old musical to the new musical Kids From Then On. He knows how to do that. Wow. Oh, I'm just thinking. It was very deep. Yeah, it was very deep. You were a dancer. You studied tap dance for a long time, right? I did. I mean, I was forced to tap with my sister because my mom was in the car when she would take all her brothers' sisters to different dance things. So I did tap with my sister. I didn't want any other people in our class. So me and my sister did our local talent show, our school talent show every year. Wow. Were you any good? If by tapping well, you mean like glitter and gloves. And I did this one, me and my shadow with my sister, and we got in a fight right before we're doing it in front of our school. And my mom brought in the wood panels and my mom, my sister and I are fighting. And so she's really shy. And I don't sing along with her. So she had to sing in front of our whole school by herself. And I'm in this big black unitard as her shadow. And so I haven't lifted down since then. Really? I actually still feel very guilty about that. And she's never seen any movie you've ever done because she's still mad. So you grew up on musicals. And so you must have like been excited when you got to direct the movie version of probably the biggest musical of the last 20 years, right? Wicked? Yeah, I was psyched. I saw Wicked before it was ever on Broadway when it was at San Francisco because we had season tickets. And my mom called me up. I was at USC at the time. She said, come watch Stephen Schwartz's new musical. So I got to watch it sort of as patient zero before anyone knew anything about it. I just have to ask, to personal reasons, when you were watching Wicked, were there any middle aged men in the audience sobbing at defying gravity? Did that happen at all? We were all sobbing. We were all sobbing. Okay. So I have to ask you about this, especially with the first installment, Wicked. There were so many marketing tie-ins. There was Wicked branded crocs, Wicked mac and cheese cups, Wicked Barbies, Wicked Stanley cups and Wicked Build-a-Bears. I'm assuming you own all of that? Whippers? Yep. Yep. You have it all? Now I know who sponsors this show. Do you have a favorite of those that they threw at you? Listen, the Swiffer is pretty cool when you go to Target and you see the Alfa and Galen sections and they're there. I mean, it's not a broomstick. Well, you know, but it's close enough. Wicked Swiffer's. What makes sense? Honestly, no. That would be, that's a good way to get your kid to clean the house, like your kid that loves Alfa Buzz. Like, I'm defying gravity. I got one more question. So I watched before Wicked, some years ago, you made not one, but two movies with Justin Bieber. And I'm watching the second one. I had to. It's the one that's leaving Netflix soon. And here's the thing. You designed the concert in addition to filming the movie of the concert and including, which I thought was intensely cool, Justin's entrance into the concert in which he is, he flies in foreshadowing Alfa Buzz, right? With these enormous wings. And I was wondering, speaking to you as a creative genius, if you have any idea that how I can improve my entrance. Because I just kind of walk out. You need some lasers. Yes. And you need your wings. You know, his wings were made of all the, all his things that he actually knows how to do. It's built of all the things that have carried him. And, you know, again, I'm very deep guys. You have to find your wings. Wow. So my wings, all the things that got me here would be standardized tests and anti-depressants. I could see it. John Chu, it is a pleasure to talk to you. We have invited you here today to play a game we're calling. That's Wicked Good. Since you directed Wicked for Good, we thought we'd ask you about a famously Wicked Good place, Boston, Massachusetts. Oh, God. We're, by the way, now that I think of it, Wicked Swiffer sounds like something they'd say. A Wicked Swiffer. Anyway, answer two or three questions correctly. You'll win our prize fund of our listeners, the voice of anyone they might choose in their voicemail. Bill, who is John Chu playing for? Joe Robbins of Seattle, Washington. All right. You ready to do this? All right. Let's go, Joe. I got you. Okay, man. Here we go. Here's the first question. Scientists have tried to study what makes people from Boston become people from Boston. And one actual study discovered which of these findings, A, Bostonian skulls are 5% thicker than the average American. 15% of Boston toddlers drink coffee or see all Boston school districts have a unit on how to climb light poles. Oh, my God. The one that is like crazy enough, but not too crazy would be the coffee bee. You're right, John. That's the one. What? I'm curious. Here's the next question. Boston sports fans are known for their enthusiasm. During the parade to celebrate the New England Patriots' first Super Bowl win in 2002, what happened? A, the crowd started chanting Yankees suck, even though they play baseball. B, three fans were arrested for trying to throw beer bottles right into the hood of Bill Belichick's sweatshirt. Or C, fans crowd surf Tom Brady all the way from his duck boat to a nearby bar. I'm going to go A. You're right. That's what they did. I mean, of course that's what they did. That's what I would do. That seems fun. Yankees suck. I got to tell you, I saw it on TV. It was Wicked Swiffer. Here's your next question. Later this month, Boston's WBZ News I team launched an investigative report after a man had something he'd been saving to pass on to his kids ripped away from him heartlessly. What did that man lose? A, his Red Sox season tickets located where his heckles could be heard on TV. B, a 1981 Pontiac Trans Am that was missing both axles. Or C, 93,000 Dunkin Donuts rewards points. Ripped away from him. I'm just going to go with my, what I think is just the most logical. I'll go C. You're right. That's what it was. He had accumulated 93,000 rewards points at Dunkin. He was hoarding them to hand out to his children as his only legacy and then Dunkin changed the rules and they vanished. Isn't that sad? He had. That's terrible. It's terrible. Listen, we had a great partnership with Dunkin for Wicked for good. You could get these little Munchkin tins. It was great. It's fantastic. Of course. You could get these little Munchkin tins. Can you talk to them about this guy's points? I think we should talk to them. Come on, come on. Dunkin Donuts, if you're out there, help this guy out. Bill, how did John Chu do an air quiz? Three right answers is wickedly good. Look at awesome. Look at awesome. Look at awesome. John M. Chu is the award-winning director of the Wicked movies. You can stream Wicked for good now. John M. Chu. Thank you so much for joining us, and thank you for these wonderful movies. I cry like a baby. Take care. That's it for our own Spring Break edition. We'll be back next week, Tanned and Nursing a Hangover. But first, wait, wait, don't tell me it's a production of NPR and WB, Easy Chicago, an association with urgent haircut productions, Doug Berman, Benevolent, Overlord, Philip Kugodica, writes our limericks. Our public address announcer is Paul Friedman. BJ Liederman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Jennifer Mills, Miles Dornbosch, and Lillian King. Special thanks to Monica Hickey. Peter Gwynne is the only body we'll do shots off of. Our vibe curator is Emma Choi, technical director is from Lorna White, our CFO. That's Colin Miller. Our production manager is Robert Newhouse. Our senior producer is Ian Chilock, and the executive producer. Wait, wait, don't tell me. This is Mike Danforth. Thanks to everybody you heard on our show this week. All our panelists, our guests, our guest scorekeeper, Alzo Slade, and of course, Bill Curtis. Thanks to all of you for listening. I'm Peter Segel. We'll see you next week. This is NPR. This week on Newsmakers, Dana White, the head of the UFC. We're at a place where people can't even talk anymore, and if they find out that I'm friends with the president, I'm a mega piece of shit. I mean, I'm talking to NPR right now, right? I talk to everybody. A dialogue with Dana White about the future of the UFC is Everybody, a dialogue with Dana White about politics, culture, and masculinity on NPR's newsmakers. Listen or watch wherever you get your podcasts. This message comes from Avallera. What's it like running a business with Avallera? No thinking about tax and compliance. It's handled. Calculating, filing, validating, accurately and audit-defensively. 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