New York Times best-selling author A.J. Jacobs and his chief puzzle officer Greg Pliska bring a “celebrity guests” on to tackle puzzles for their podcast audience. I enjoyed being on the first two episodes below but, to be honest, I was more comfortable when, in the third episode, the tables were turned and I got to ask THEM puzzles.

Equally important, it is first time you can hear me properly using my microphone, a technique I can’t wait to bring back into my OWN podcast series.

Greg said, at one point, in praise of Matching Minds: “That’s the great thing about this book. If you are a Sondheim fan this book is a chance to discover a whole other section of his creative life. And if you’re a puzzles and games fan it’s a chance to discover a whole world of puzzles and games that’s changed what we know about puzzles and games. Just delightful stuff.”

In the first episode, Bookends, listen to me struggle to solve some very smart puzzles by A.J. followed by a very fun segment where A.J. quizzes Greg and I on the 1950s-history within Sondheim’s unproduced song “Ten Years Old”  (written for a television special called The Fabulous Fifties).

In the second episode, Sandheim Shows, it’s Greg’s turn to quiz me. It turns out while I was researching a book on Stephen Sondheim he was learning about his doppelganger, Stephen Sandheim. Yes, Sandheim, with only one letter different from Sondheim, who “wrote musicals” just like Sondheim but differing by only one letter. That was really fun!

In the final episode, Barry’s Turn, the tables were turned. I drew from the my research into Sondheim’s own cryptic and treasure hunt clues to learn how A.J. and Greg might do, while analyzing what they could tell us about Sondheim’s brilliance.

You can check out their fun podcast here.