Please join me as we revisit my guest spots on Hello Puzzler, a delightful podcast hosted by AJ Jacobs and his Chief puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska. Each week, they have a celebrity guest who appears across three episodes, and they then toss puzzles at them like peanuts to an elephant. However, to me it was more like knives to a juggler who can't juggle. I tried. Really, I tried. So today you can listen to my second and third appearance. In the first one, Greg challenged me with an inventive and hilarious Sondheim theme puzzle. I'll let him explain how it works. But all you who know the names of Sondheim songs will especially enjoy playing from home. Then in my final appearance, I get to relax and turn the tables on them. I found a number of Sondheim's own puzzles from crosswords and treasure hunts, and challenged both AJ and Greg to try and solve them. Give it a shot at home and see if you do a better job than they did at… matching minds with Sondheim.

Make sure to get the book everywhere books are found, ⁠⁠or click here⁠⁠.

00:00 Introduction to the Puzzle Concept

05:07 Introducing Steven Sandheim

05:26 The Twist: One Letter Changes Everything

05:40 Example: West Side Stork

06:06 Explaining the Puzzle Format

06:13 First Puzzle Challenge

Special Links:

Thanks to everyone who contributed behind the scenes to this episode, specifically the musical stingers composed by Mateo Chavez Lewis, and the theme song to our podcast with lyrics and music by Colm Molloy, and sung by the one and only Ann Morrison, who created the role of Mary in Merrily We Roll Along.

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#14-Puzzling Through Sondheim