It’s Presidents Day! Join Joy Dolo as she solves a bunch of Presidential Puzzles with her boss, the President (of American Public Media)!

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ANNOUNCER: Now entering Brains On headquarters.

[KNOCKS]

CHANDRA KAVATI: Come in.

[DOOR CLACKS]

JOY DOLO: (SINGING) Happy President's Day to you. Happy President's Day to you! Happy President's Day, Chandra. Happy President's Day to you, you woo woo! Whoa!

CHANDRA KAVATI: Oh, my goodness, Joy! What's all this?

JOY DOLO: Oh, well, let's see. Three dozen roses, six dozen helium balloons.

[WHOOSH]

Four different noisemakers.

[METALLIC CREAK]

And one salty Nutella cheesecake. My favorite.

CHANDRA KAVATI: Your favorite! Wow, thank you, Joy. But I meant, what's this all about?

JOY DOLO: Well, it's the third Monday in February, which means it's President's Day in the United States. And you are the president of American Public Media, which is the company that makes Forever Ago and all the other fun podcasts in the Brain's On Universe, plus a bunch of other adult stuff that I'm not sure about.

CHANDRA KAVATI: Right? But Presidents Day is a holiday that celebrates all of the people who've been president of the United States, not presidents of non-profit media companies.

JOY DOLO: Oh, chutes and ladders! We're going to have to switch out my game.

CHANDRA KAVATI: Your game?

JOY DOLO: So I was going to have you play a trivia game all about you. It was going to be really tricky. But no, no, no, not to worry. I'll just do what I do best-- improvise!

[GIGGLE]

So the new game works like this. I'm going to give you a limerick, which is a little rhyming phrase. It'll be about an American president.

But here's the catch. You'll have to finish the rhyme with the name of the president I'm talking about. So you'll need to use your knowledge of past presidents, plus your rhyming skills to fill in the blank. You ready to play?

CHANDRA KAVATI: Ready!

JOY DOLO: All right, here we go! Here is your first limerick.

[COUGHS]

He was a towering 6' 4". Let that sink in. Our tallest president, Mr.--

CHANDRA KAVATI: Abraham Lincoln?

JOY DOLO: That's right. The 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. In addition to being super tall, he's remembered for writing the Emancipation Proclamation, which officially ended slavery in the United States. Oh, you're on a roll, Chandra. You ready for the next one?

CHANDRA KAVATI: Let's hear it.

JOY DOLO: Let's do it.

[CLEARS THROAT]

Others were against civil rights, but he was way smarter. He fought for equality, Mr.--

CHANDRA KAVATI: Carter.

[DING]

JOY DOLO: President Jimmy Carter, who was the 39th president. He always believed in equal rights for people of different races. Before he was president, Jimmy Carter was the governor of Georgia. And in his first speech as governor in 1971, Carter called for an end to racial discrimination and fair treatment for all Georgians. He was also the first president to use a nickname. One more.

[CLEARS THROAT]

He advocated for air travel, a real people mover. The 31st president, Mr.--

CHANDRA KAVATI: Hoover.

JOY DOLO: Hoover! That's right. Nice work.

President Herbert Hoover was pretty excited about a new invention called commercial air travel and passed laws and built infrastructure like runways to make it easier for Americans to travel by plane. Makes me want to plan a vacation in his honor, of course. Chandra Kavati, president of American Public Media, thank you so much for playing with us today.

CHANDRA KAVATI: My pleasure, Joy. Now let's dig into this cheesecake.

JOY DOLO: That's it for this Smarty Pass past episode. It was produced by Aron Woldeslassie. Our executive producer is Beth Perlman.

And the APM Studios executives in charge are Chandra Kavati and Joann Griffith. Forever Ago is a nonprofit radio program. Thanks Smarty Pass friends.

CHANDRA KAVATI: Bye!

[THEME MUSIC]

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