NPR’s Ask Me Another, and related fun!

I’m so excited, you guys. Grant and I are going to face off against each other in a Spouse Battle on NPR’s Ask Me Another! If you’re not familiar with this game show, you should go take care of that right now: it’s SO much fun. We’ll be live at The Bell House in Brooklyn on June 4th, and you can buy tickets here!

The host, Ophira Eisenberg, is a snappy and delightful comedian who does a great job of facilitating loads of geeky and hilarious puzzles and questions. The Puzzle Gurus are masterful at weaving trivia with linguistic word play, pop culture song lyrics, and other nonsense to make it a whole lot more playful (and easier for brains like mine to solve) than more traditional quiz shows like Jeopardy. In fact, Ophira makes fun of contestants who instinctively answer questions with “What is ____?” because this ain’t no Jeopardy. PLUS, the musical guest is usually Jonathan Coulton, who’s a delight all on his own.

Image: Lam Thuy Vo/NPR

This has been in the works for a while, and I’m so pleased it worked out to coincide with our trip to New York. (We actually had to shift some travel dates around to make it work, but it was worth it!) And actually we’re only 99% sure that Grant will be on the show too, as I applied first. But it seems very likely, and my own presence is a sure thang.

I’m just as excited to meet and greet the host as I am with competing. Ophira Eisenberg isn’t just a hilarious comedian and host; she’s also a super-sharp savvy dater. Her book, Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy, is a charming and totally appropriate way to approach settling down in the long run. It’s also damn funny so far! Sure, her approach might not work for everyone, but in our society today I really think the best way to settle down is to be open to going out with unexpected people, and to date a bunch of people who might be kinda wrong before you figure out who might be right.

Obviously, you do this with the proper physical protection, and the proper emotional calibration: It’s hard to sleep around sometimes without getting attached. Sometimes you get attached and you think someone is the one and it takes you two and a half years of being together to realize how very much wrong you were. But the fact is, all these experiences all over the place help you figure out who you are, what works for you, what you really want, and when you’ll be ready to chill out and go for that instead of continuing to play the field.

Glenn Fleishman did a fantastic interview at BoingBoing with Ophira about her book and her life history. It’s a great listen for those who, like me, haven’t had time to devour the entire memoir just yet. (Don’t worry Ophira, it’s on my iPad for airplane time while I’m headed your way!) Click on over or just listen with the embedded thing below.

And lastly, I’m packing some consulting into my travels, but it’s really going to be  busy so get in touch ASAP if you’d like to hire me while I’m on the east coast!

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