News for the rest of us

National Public Radio has long and often been ridiculed as the radio station for geeks, as the station brings a plethora of programs devoted to the stock market, analyzing political figures, and other serious and worldly news.

However, for those of us who enjoy stupid criminals, sexual innuendos, and weird connections, NPR has a program that delivers obscure news as well as the standard set of stories, called Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!

In a quiz-show style format, a group of three panelists answer questions such as this one:

Police pulled over a man in Australia for driving with a five-year-old crawling around without a seat belt. When asked, the driver responded that he needed the seat belt for something else – What? (Answer: A case of beer).

There are also call-in segments in which callers can play games such as “Bluff the Listener.” The object of this segment is to guess which panelist is telling a real (and extremely weird) story, while the other two panelists tell fakes.

Another segment called “Not My Job” brings celebrities such as musicians, TV personalities, and the occasional sports player and politician, and asks them questions about things that, based on their professions, they should know nothing about. For example, humorist Dave Barry was asked about mascots of government agencies, and musician Weird Al Yankovic was asked about actress Pia Zadora.

The prize for all games is slightly unusual. Scorekeeper Carl Kasell will record the answering machine message on the winner’s answering machine. (Celebrities win for chosen listeners). These messages though are prized by the listeners, as Kasell will do just about anything, including his own rendition of the song “Boogieman.”

Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! will allow you to appear smart by knowing current events (as well as hearing the latest adventures of Paris Hilton, and who got kicked off of American Idol). The Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! podcast appears every Sunday afternoon. It can be found on their website, waitwait.npr.org. To hear it live, tune in to KQED FM 88.5 on Saturday mornings and nights from 11-12 AM/PM.

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