December 15, 2023
Smarty Pass Bonus: Stranger than Fiction Food Headlines
Subscribe
Oh no! Forever Ago host Joy Dolo has trapped producer Rosie duPont in a sticky situation. And it looks like the only way out is by playing Joy’s new game: Stranger Than Fiction! Will Rosie manage to get free? There’s only one way to find out. Grab your Smarty Pass and listen.
Audio Transcript
Download transcript (PDF)
NARRATOR: Now entering Brains On Headquarters.
[BEEPING AND DOORS WHOOSHING OPEN]
JOY DOLO: Hey, smarty pal, Joy Dolo here. You've caught me in the middle of a sticky situation. As you know, we've been hard at work on a new batch of episodes of Forever Ago. But sometimes, I like to mix things up. So I've been setting traps around HQ so I can find contestants for my fun new game, Stranger than Fiction.
ROSE DUPONT: [SCREAMS] Ah! I'm stuck. What is it? What is this?
JOY DOLO: And it looks like I caught someone. It's producer Rose DuPont.
ROSE DUPONT: Joy, help. I was off to return my favorite book, 1001 Fart Jokes for Sophisticated Gents and Ladies when I stepped on this super sticky floor.
JOY DOLO: I know. You stepped in my glue trap. Now you have to play my game or stay trapped here forever, or at least three hours until the glue dissolves.
ROSE DUPONT: You can't just trap me like some feral animal or Sanden Totten.
JOY DOLO: Mwahahaha. Can't I? Can't I, Rosie? [LAUGHS] OK. Now, get ready because we're going to play Stranger than Fiction.
[MUSIC NOTES]
In this game, I'll read you three news headlines. Two of them are real. One of them is fake. It'll be up to you to guess which one is fake.
ROSE DUPONT: [SIGHS] If I guess right, will you let me out of this glue?
JOY DOLO: Fine. Yes, I'll let you out but only if you play.
ROSE DUPONT: OK. Thanks, Joy.
JOY DOLO: OK, here are your three headlines. Try to guess which two are real and which one is fake. All right, number one, Georgia restaurant goes viral after charging parents a $50 fee for poorly behaved children. The second one, Swedish man eats 13.85 ounces of fermented fish in one minute. Or local dog devours $300 worth of wagyu beef.
ROSE DUPONT: OK, so I think it's completely reasonable for a restaurant to charge parents $50 if their children are screaming, being generally very naughty and disruptive because children like that are a nuisance. So I would say I think that is true.
JOY DOLO: OK.
ROSE DUPONT: I know that Sanden Totten is obsessed with Sweden. So I have a feeling that he invented the second one. And then the third one, honestly, everybody loves wagyu beef, so I think it's true. So I think number two is fake.
JOY DOLO: OK, time for the reveal. The fake headline was--
[DRUM ROLL]
--local dog devours $300 worth of wagyu beef.
ROSE DUPONT: No!
JOY DOLO: Yeah, so the Swedish man that eats 13.85 ounces of fermented fish in one minute that was true. And it's also a little gross. Yeah, it's disgusting.
ROSE DUPONT: Oh, that is so gross. Oh, my gosh. Can you imagine-- I mean, fermented fish? That's like-- so it's like pickled fish?
JOY DOLO: Well, apparently. So a Swedish man ate 13 ounces, essentially a pound, of fermented fish during an event organized by the Disgusting Food Museum.
ROSE DUPONT: What?
JOY DOLO: So the museum organized a speed eating competition for surströmming, a traditional Swedish delicacy consisting of fermented herring that has been salted just enough to prevent it from rotting. And so the winner of the competition was a 71-year-old man who, besides winning the competition, also earned the world record for most fermented fish eaten in a minute. So he's like a two-time winner. And for anyone that's a little skeptical of the record, you should just the smell of surströmming is known to make people sick, just the smell of it.
ROSE DUPONT: [GASPS]
JOY DOLO: And he ate a pound of it.
ROSE DUPONT: Ew. Ew. You know what I wonder, Joy? I wonder if after he gobbled all of that nasty, stinky fish down in one minute, if then he smelled like the fish for days. I bet it was coming out of his-- the stink was coming out of his pores. I bet he was wobbling around. Oh, that is disgusting.
JOY DOLO: People probably shunned him on the street. [LAUGHS]
ROSE DUPONT: I also want to say, there's a disgusting food museum? That is amazing. I want to go.
JOY DOLO: That's true. And I bet mayonnaise is on display there.
ROSE DUPONT: I don't know about that, Joy. Actually, not everybody has bad taste.
JOY DOLO: Listen, Rosie-- [LAUGHS]
Yeah. The other real one was the Georgia restaurant goes viral after charging parents a $50 fee for poorly behaved children. That was true. And so this story comes from Food and Wine Magazine. And a Georgia restaurant went viral after a picture of its menu was posted. And the menu featured a surcharge for, quote, "adults unable to parent," which is just like the biggest burn.
ROSE DUPONT: Whoa.
[LAUGHTER]
That's so judgmental.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, and so supposedly it was a charge that came out to about $50.
ROSE DUPONT: Wow. You know what? It's not the kids' fault. We all have a big emotion sometimes. And sometimes there are meltdowns. There are things that happen in our lives, and we need to express ourselves. So I really-- actually, I side with the kids and the parents in that situation, not the restaurants.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, I agree with that. And also, Rosie, sometimes I have big emotions.
ROSE DUPONT: Oh, my god, me too.
JOY DOLO: You do?
ROSE DUPONT: Actually all the-- oh, all the time. In fact, my younger brother told me that was my best quality.
JOY DOLO: Oh, well, I think it's a good quality that you can just let it out whenever and wherever. [LAUGHS]
ROSE DUPONT: I agree. I agree.
JOY DOLO: Well, you were such a great player, Rosie. See, wasn't that fun?
ROSE DUPONT: Oh, fine. I'll admit it, Stranger than Fiction is fun. Now, will you please let me out of this glue?
JOY DOLO: Oh, but of course. I'll get my instant glue dissolver. But first, you just need to--
[SQUISHING]
Uh oh.
ROSE DUPONT: Did you just step into the exact same glue trap that I did?
JOY DOLO: Yeah. Don't panic. But we're going to be here for a few hours.
ROSE DUPONT: Oh, my gosh. Well, I guess good thing I still have this book I didn't get to return. [SIGHS] Oh, do you want to hear a pretty good fart joke, milady?
JOY DOLO: I would love that, milord. That's it for this Smarty Pass episode. It was made by [INAUDIBLE], Anna Weggel, and Anna Goldfield. Our executive producer is Beth Perlman. And the executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kavati, Joanne Griffith, and Alex Schaffert. Brains On is a nonprofit public radio program. Thanks, Smarty Pass friends.
ROSE DUPONT: Bye!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[BEEPING AND DOORS WHOOSHING OPEN]
JOY DOLO: Hey, smarty pal, Joy Dolo here. You've caught me in the middle of a sticky situation. As you know, we've been hard at work on a new batch of episodes of Forever Ago. But sometimes, I like to mix things up. So I've been setting traps around HQ so I can find contestants for my fun new game, Stranger than Fiction.
ROSE DUPONT: [SCREAMS] Ah! I'm stuck. What is it? What is this?
JOY DOLO: And it looks like I caught someone. It's producer Rose DuPont.
ROSE DUPONT: Joy, help. I was off to return my favorite book, 1001 Fart Jokes for Sophisticated Gents and Ladies when I stepped on this super sticky floor.
JOY DOLO: I know. You stepped in my glue trap. Now you have to play my game or stay trapped here forever, or at least three hours until the glue dissolves.
ROSE DUPONT: You can't just trap me like some feral animal or Sanden Totten.
JOY DOLO: Mwahahaha. Can't I? Can't I, Rosie? [LAUGHS] OK. Now, get ready because we're going to play Stranger than Fiction.
[MUSIC NOTES]
In this game, I'll read you three news headlines. Two of them are real. One of them is fake. It'll be up to you to guess which one is fake.
ROSE DUPONT: [SIGHS] If I guess right, will you let me out of this glue?
JOY DOLO: Fine. Yes, I'll let you out but only if you play.
ROSE DUPONT: OK. Thanks, Joy.
JOY DOLO: OK, here are your three headlines. Try to guess which two are real and which one is fake. All right, number one, Georgia restaurant goes viral after charging parents a $50 fee for poorly behaved children. The second one, Swedish man eats 13.85 ounces of fermented fish in one minute. Or local dog devours $300 worth of wagyu beef.
ROSE DUPONT: OK, so I think it's completely reasonable for a restaurant to charge parents $50 if their children are screaming, being generally very naughty and disruptive because children like that are a nuisance. So I would say I think that is true.
JOY DOLO: OK.
ROSE DUPONT: I know that Sanden Totten is obsessed with Sweden. So I have a feeling that he invented the second one. And then the third one, honestly, everybody loves wagyu beef, so I think it's true. So I think number two is fake.
JOY DOLO: OK, time for the reveal. The fake headline was--
[DRUM ROLL]
--local dog devours $300 worth of wagyu beef.
ROSE DUPONT: No!
JOY DOLO: Yeah, so the Swedish man that eats 13.85 ounces of fermented fish in one minute that was true. And it's also a little gross. Yeah, it's disgusting.
ROSE DUPONT: Oh, that is so gross. Oh, my gosh. Can you imagine-- I mean, fermented fish? That's like-- so it's like pickled fish?
JOY DOLO: Well, apparently. So a Swedish man ate 13 ounces, essentially a pound, of fermented fish during an event organized by the Disgusting Food Museum.
ROSE DUPONT: What?
JOY DOLO: So the museum organized a speed eating competition for surströmming, a traditional Swedish delicacy consisting of fermented herring that has been salted just enough to prevent it from rotting. And so the winner of the competition was a 71-year-old man who, besides winning the competition, also earned the world record for most fermented fish eaten in a minute. So he's like a two-time winner. And for anyone that's a little skeptical of the record, you should just the smell of surströmming is known to make people sick, just the smell of it.
ROSE DUPONT: [GASPS]
JOY DOLO: And he ate a pound of it.
ROSE DUPONT: Ew. Ew. You know what I wonder, Joy? I wonder if after he gobbled all of that nasty, stinky fish down in one minute, if then he smelled like the fish for days. I bet it was coming out of his-- the stink was coming out of his pores. I bet he was wobbling around. Oh, that is disgusting.
JOY DOLO: People probably shunned him on the street. [LAUGHS]
ROSE DUPONT: I also want to say, there's a disgusting food museum? That is amazing. I want to go.
JOY DOLO: That's true. And I bet mayonnaise is on display there.
ROSE DUPONT: I don't know about that, Joy. Actually, not everybody has bad taste.
JOY DOLO: Listen, Rosie-- [LAUGHS]
Yeah. The other real one was the Georgia restaurant goes viral after charging parents a $50 fee for poorly behaved children. That was true. And so this story comes from Food and Wine Magazine. And a Georgia restaurant went viral after a picture of its menu was posted. And the menu featured a surcharge for, quote, "adults unable to parent," which is just like the biggest burn.
ROSE DUPONT: Whoa.
[LAUGHTER]
That's so judgmental.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, and so supposedly it was a charge that came out to about $50.
ROSE DUPONT: Wow. You know what? It's not the kids' fault. We all have a big emotion sometimes. And sometimes there are meltdowns. There are things that happen in our lives, and we need to express ourselves. So I really-- actually, I side with the kids and the parents in that situation, not the restaurants.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, I agree with that. And also, Rosie, sometimes I have big emotions.
ROSE DUPONT: Oh, my god, me too.
JOY DOLO: You do?
ROSE DUPONT: Actually all the-- oh, all the time. In fact, my younger brother told me that was my best quality.
JOY DOLO: Oh, well, I think it's a good quality that you can just let it out whenever and wherever. [LAUGHS]
ROSE DUPONT: I agree. I agree.
JOY DOLO: Well, you were such a great player, Rosie. See, wasn't that fun?
ROSE DUPONT: Oh, fine. I'll admit it, Stranger than Fiction is fun. Now, will you please let me out of this glue?
JOY DOLO: Oh, but of course. I'll get my instant glue dissolver. But first, you just need to--
[SQUISHING]
Uh oh.
ROSE DUPONT: Did you just step into the exact same glue trap that I did?
JOY DOLO: Yeah. Don't panic. But we're going to be here for a few hours.
ROSE DUPONT: Oh, my gosh. Well, I guess good thing I still have this book I didn't get to return. [SIGHS] Oh, do you want to hear a pretty good fart joke, milady?
JOY DOLO: I would love that, milord. That's it for this Smarty Pass episode. It was made by [INAUDIBLE], Anna Weggel, and Anna Goldfield. Our executive producer is Beth Perlman. And the executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kavati, Joanne Griffith, and Alex Schaffert. Brains On is a nonprofit public radio program. Thanks, Smarty Pass friends.
ROSE DUPONT: Bye!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Transcription services provided by 3Play Media.
