Introducing...Earbus: The Home Game!

0:00Hello, puzzlers! I thought today we could start with a quick puzzle. What do these words have in common? Bud, drum, wig, and worm. Bud, drum, wig, and worm. They all have something in common. The answer and more puzzling goodness after the break. Hello folks, welcome back to the Hello Puzzlers Podcast. The Siam in your risk board game puzzle. Because apparently that's a very important part of risk. They're all important. Yeah, but this is like the... It's a gateway to Australia. That is, of course, Chief Puzzle Officer Greg Pliska. And I am AJ Jacobs. And Greg, before the break, we had a little intro puzzle, but it was what do these words have in common?

1:01Bud, drum, wig, and worm. And I will give one hint. I'm guessing that you know it. I think I've got it. Don't think you need to hint, but go, go, give the hint. The whole thing is found on the president's hand. Loeb is another good guess. I know that, but it's not what I was going for. Wig was the giveaway. No, I know what it is. There are all words that follow ear. That's right. Ear, bud, ear, drum, ear, wig, which is an insect, not a wig. And ear worm, which is not an insect, but I catch you too. And I thought that this was appropriate because today we have an ear-based episode, or should I say an ear bus-based episode. Because many of our longtime puzzler listeners will be familiar with the ear bus. It's something we created, and we love. It's an audio-rebus.

2:01It's where you say a word in a certain tone of voice or accent. And that is a hint to a phrase. So the classic we always use as an example. Tied is rising tide. Yes. So we love it. We've played it many times on the show. We've played it with people like Dax Shepherd and Roy Wood Jr. We've had fun at live shows, and people were shouting the answer. And we love it so much that our producers out of Newhouse in Newly Lone said, hey, what if we made this a game, a home game? And we did. It is a home game. Hello puzzlers. First home game available for pre-order ear bus. Woo! Woo! Crowd goes wild. Thank you. EarbusGame.com E-A-R-B-U-S-GAME.com And it'll be shipping out in September.

3:02Is that right? Jess and Liza, who are our guests? Yes, thumbs up. September, that's it. Excellent. You can go there right now and order it. Read all about it. That's right. Look at the cool artwork. And today we're going to be playing. We're going to be playing the Earbus home game on the show. And listeners can play along. But we'll also be talking to the aforementioned Jess and Liza. That's Jessica Asetti and Liza Keckler, who are Chief Creative Officer and CEO of Headie Verse, which is the wonderful company that created and developed the game with us. So, yes, we are very excited. We are. I actually came up, Greg. I have a little Earbus that I thought was appropriate. We are campers. Happy campers. We are happy campers. Exactly. We are happy campers to have this all.

4:02So, welcome, Liza and Jessica. Thank you. Good to be here. We figured we couldn't play the game with you since you know all the answers. So, you're going to have to restrain yourself from shouting out the answers. Well, I bring in two very special guests who are going to be our guinea pigs. And that is Jasper Jacobs and Julie Jacobs. My son and my wife respectively. Welcome, Julie and Jasper Jacobs to the Hello Puzzlers podcast. Woo! We're excited to be here. We're happy to provide our services as your family members. Yes. Like you had a choice, Jasper. You didn't have a choice. No choice. No choice. This was invulnerable. Julie is a daily listener. Jasper is more of a semi-regular listener. So, Julie, are you going to listen to this episode? Are you going to fast forward through yourself?

5:02No, listen to it. Why not? Oh, yeah. I'm sure you'll be delightful. As for me, if I finish all my other podcasts, maybe I'll... I'm glad we're in the rotation, Jasper. We might not be in the top of the queue. Tough drive. I'm glad to know we make the subscriber loss. You like that, honey. He's got some other good ones. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of good stuff out there. Actually, most of Jasper's favorite podcast hosts have been guests on our show. That's true. That's true. All right. Well, today, as you know, we are coming out with the home version of the Ear Buster. We love the Ear Buster game available to you at EarBusGame.com. I think you know the rules, right? The game is very similar to what we do on the show. You split up into two teams. Every day, there are a bunch of cards, tons of cards with tons of Ear Buses. And you give clues to your team. And you have about... You have a minute. I think it's a minute, right, Jess and Liza? Yep.

6:02That's correct. You have a minute to get through as many as possible. You two are a team. Are you ready for your... Well, turn a pretend timer over. Imagine you're in your living room. It's game night. You're having a beverage. Jasper's over 21. You can have an adult beverage. Whatever beverage you like. Here's your first clue. Banana. No. Banana. Banana. Split. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Look at that. Simultaneously. Banana. Split. Nicely done. We split up the work. Yeah. Okay, you ready? Santa. Santa. You know what? I got it. Oh, yeah. One, two, three. Secret Santa. That's so nice that you do it at the same time. I love the family togetherness. Now, in the real game, you would not be doing that. I mean, you'd be doing that. I mean, you'd be doing that. I mean, I know what that is.

7:02Okay. What about. Old. This one, I feel mom would know more than Jasper. Because this, actually, is something that is old. Old. Yeah. No idea. Okay. I think it's old Yellor. It is old Yellor. I was doing some yelling. Do you know that? I know what it is. I know what it is. I know what the postgases are. I just didn't make it come out. All right. You ready? This was a little trickier. Oligy psych. Oh, oh, okay. Yeah, one two three reverse psychology. Nice. All right. I'm gonna give one more I couldn't even understand the word you said Tony is the word you're allowed to say it, but then I'm gonna say it's the rate. I'm saying channel glue It's not hard to do that. Oh, okay. I mean, I know what TV show

8:05Oh, oh, I know okay, I'll you can say I think it's a Prano It is Tony soprano. So those were a few from me, but we also have Jess Jess Asetti who is One of the people who developed the game she's got a few for you. So Jess take it away. All right Okay, you guys you're ready for this here we go Okay, no, you know ghost pepper. Yeah That was a very good ghost Jess There you go. That's why she's a professional I tried I try Okay, how about Genius Okay, I know you are so good at this Jess evil genius. Yeah, good job. Nice. Nice. Lee done

9:08Look at that one more if you want if you want to do it. Okay Shulter You got it I I don't know. I think I got it. I think I got it. I think it's cold shoulder. Yes Well done. I gotta say one of the things I love about this particularly You know doing this on the podcast is that Jess is doing it without Physically acting it out, right? It's just the sound that you have to do. That's one of the keys to the game Ear bus right that's hard to resist wanting to charade the whole thing and I love the trade so that is I also what I love is that I've seen all the answers and I'm still stumped because there are 900 answers. So there are hundreds of cards So it's very hard to even if you've played it before but wait We're not quite done with the the demonstration because I believe Jasper and Julie might have prepared a little something

10:10I think I know what they are up to so I'll let Greg Jess and Liza play To give the answers. All right Jasper and Julie you want to take turns giving clues or Whatever you're ready for my great performance. Jasper's going first. Okay. Hey everyone ready. Yeah ready Slope Well Well, I feel you have really inherited my singing voice Jasper so I'm pretty honored Like Pastor Lucas Should we start a band you guys? I'm just saying you know just And only you know what the band can only do ear buses So we just love like 20 songs that are we're gonna call it soap in the sopranos. It's gonna be great All right, what Julie what do you got? Okay

11:10I can say it again Dear squad That was good you got it Excellent. I thought she said squid I thought she said I was going to see food as well but I thought it was Vampire squid Jasper might be doing one more than mom do one more all right Name Let me say it again. Yeah name oh name drop Oh, cuz his voice dropped at the band nice. Yeah, nice Nice Yeah, yeah, one till boards are harder. All right. You ready for one Yeah

12:14I know what it is I got it I was like crying crying wolf Yes, we're so you got to really put in your effort Yeah, this is what I love about this game everybody just like Really breaks through an axe in ways we would never normally act to express all of this and you look ridiculous But it's so much fun But I would I am terrible at this game because I find the whole thing so amusing that I never get around to guessing I'm just busy laughing at the wonderful you know ways people are performing these things Yeah, yeah, you gotta you gotta be serious Greg when it comes to the competition when it comes to fun You must be serious. Yeah, no, no fun. Well, thank you for being our guinea pigs Jasper and Julia you did fantastic Thank you for inviting us We will be playing it at our next game night

13:17So uh, so now you're prepared Awesome look forward to it. We will be back. We are going to talk to Jess and Liza about the behind the scenes what is the puzzle of making a game which is a fascinating process and we got a front row seat So stay with us Hello Hello puzzleers welcome back to the hello puzzleers podcast It is a very special episode because we are talking about the first ever Hello puzzleers home game, which is ear bus. We just played a little and we're gonna talk games and puzzles with our two very special guests Liza Keckler who is CEO of Hettyverse the game company and Jessica Asetti who is the chief creative officer of

14:19Hettyverse so welcome Liza and Jessica very happy to be here and AJ I even want to jump in right just because you you just go reverse as a game company, but you guys really developed things beyond just You know board games and card games right? That's true. We're really I think the way that we like to describe ourselves as a development company We like to make things and we don't want to be constrained by one medium and we really see that You know games television mobile games all of these things feed each other and my background is in television Justice background is in games and board games and mobile games and we really like working together And it felt like there was this opportunity to to have it all and Hetty is H.E.D. Why not Hetty like not H.E.A. that what is this what is the Hetty part? correct, so it's Hetty named after the the famous Hetty Lamar who was an inventor and an entertainer and we felt it was

15:21A good lineage for our name of our business Had it yeah, she was like a 40s bombshell Movie actress, but also like inventor of something crazy like didn't she invent Basically Wi-Fi or she invented a secret communication system Which was a precursor to Bluetooth? Bluetooth. I knew it was one of the great. We won't go into much more detail because I believe Greg Pliska has prepared A few facts about Hetty Lamar for us. He is some fun facts. We're going to do as a quiz right after we talk about Games, but you guys kind of bridge that same gap between inventing things and entertainment Exactly. Yeah, we thought it was a nice hybrid between us. Full disclosure, AJ. I know Jess from 20 years ago. Yes So when you use some of my music in a film. I have no idea how we found each other It was a composer. It was some program where they were combining filmmakers and composers and I chose your composition

16:25Because I thought it was so beautiful. It was very cool. Love it And then I made a short film around Greg's composition. Yeah Of very and then here we are, you know 20 years later doing this with I and you know reconnecting here Which is kind of fun and wait let me just boast a very quick bit about each of your backgrounds because Jess has been doing developing games that have sold millions Including Craneum a Jacob's family favorite. Nice. And jaws Which I've played for many hours with the kids and Liza has been an entertainment and She has spent many years in unscripted TV selling this is crazy statistic 34 shows to networks and streamers including fourters That is a lot of shows 34 that's crazy When you are Thinking about games what what makes a good game? How do you come up with ideas for games? What are the problems? What makes a bad game?

17:29Yeah, absolutely So I think there's many different ways to approach making a game sometimes we just think of a really fun title and we think boy What could a game be around that title? You know and that back and create a game Sometimes you have a really interesting mechanic So something new that you're doing in a game that you've never seen in a game before and you build everything around Else around that I think I think the number one thing is some sort of You know something that makes it really unique And gives the experience that you're trying to communicate right because you're you have Very kind of simple kids games and you have party games you have strategy games So the whole experience has to has to fit Well, maybe it would help to give people a idea of how a game Becomes a reality and I thought what if we took up just a random game That you guys have developed and explained that what about ear bus

18:32Oh, sure hey, let's talk about your bus random I have a right here. There you go So how what was that well let me tell a very quickly the origin story on our side Because about five years ago Greg and I published a book Called the puzzler and it was about the history of puzzles Greg wrote amazing puzzles for it Some of which were visual And I felt a little bad when I was doing the audio book Because those listeners we're not going to get the visual puzzles So I'm like what can we do and I came up with a handful of audio puzzles including The ear bus so on the audio version of the book I give about a half dozen ear buses And then when Greg and I started the show We are like well, this could be a fun one and we did it and it was a hit and then we did it again And we did it again and we did it with people like

19:34Daq Shepard and Roy Wood Jr And and we did it at live shows because it's very interactive So that's that's where it came about on our end now you take over where did how did you get involved? So I think it started with a conversation between Adam and I so I've known Adam for a couple of years He was in the television business same as me and we just had a new house one of our super producers Absolutely, we we just had a Conversation a lot of what I do is just have conversations with people because you never know where ideas are going to come from And what the opportunities were and I knew that he was Building hello puzzlers and helping produce all of this and I wanted to share what we were doing at hei first because it felt like it was Sort of like next door neighbors And then I think we brought just into another conversation Just want to take it from there. Well, and I was super excited because AJ I've read all your books So I was like you told me that

20:36Yeah, yeah, I was very excited about the prospect of this Because huge fan of all of your books and then obviously Greg and I knew each other from our collaboration. Yeah Uh, and I think at that point we started trying to figure out okay What is the construct of this game? What's the experience that people are having when they open the box and You know, we had a couple of different iterations that we went through with different types of puzzles I think if you guys remember we think like sonic scene and and we we had some different varieties of puzzlers that are puzzles And then you know, we we came to this conclusion that the ear bus is perfect as is and it's that it's that experience that you really want to play When you're playing this game is is the is the ear bus. So We refined it and then we climbed the mountain of content and and we were developing many many clues. Yes

21:38Which is yeah extraordinary the work that you all did on coming up because there are 900 different ear buses And why do you feel we're gonna have to come up with 900 more for the sequel clear? Oh, there you go the expansion packs I mean, I also don't want to gloss over this the second you know when you say we refined it There's actually a ton of play testing involved with that right you guys testing it us testing you finding friends Not everybody knows that that's a significant part of developing a game is trying things out Absolutely, it's really important when you're developing a game is making sure that it's the experience matches with what you think You're gonna get in the box and so we do a lot of iterative play testing where we're watching people playing the game And seeing the sticking points You get to a point where you develop the game and you develop the design of it And that's another moment where you play test to make sure everything is clear There's nothing confusing and the rules play testing that's very important making sure the rules are super clear as well

22:40So that's that's a big part of making a game And also, you know, I think the uniqueness of it right that that's what we were really attracted to with the game is Making this puzzle that you have to hear is very unique and something that we hadn't seen in a game before Essentially the rebus puzzle for your ears is how we were talking about it and You know charades exist. There's already a lot of charades out there. So we thought okay This is this is unique just doing it with your voice and and that's what really got us excited and and Hitiverse wanted to be involved with that Absolutely, and I think that that I think that and the fact that you know the way a lot of information travels these days is through podcasts and through Tiktok and it's something that is really easy to quickly get through that medium as well And so I think getting that word out to people they see it. It's fun to watch people And it's fun to listen to people playing these earbuss and

23:41I've been really excited to see you know putting the cards on the table putting the box on the table sort of the moment It creates for people is really special and it's it's hard nobody wants to go to a game night and like You know go get listen to a dissertation or anything like that they can pick it up really quickly And it just enhances that moment and my son is really into improv And he said this is like a great improv comedy Tool so oh yeah, absolutely that out there. Well, thank you. That was fantastic Before we wrap up talking about earbuss just a shout out to senior puzzler Andrea Schoenberg who held a huge amount and she wrote many of the phrases. So thank you Andrea Thank you Andrea you were We love Andrea and we do but don't go away because we're gonna be right back with a Puzzle about heady Lamar who combines Curiosity science and secret messages

24:46I love doing this podcast, but keeping track of hundreds of puzzles It's a huge challenge for someone who's not super organized the good news is I have started using this all-in-one workspace called notion and it has allowed me to set up these interconnected pages for All of my work projects books essays social media and of course puzzles But it's not just for my work. It helps me organize and manage my personal to-do lists my life goals And I'm not alone. It's a super popular platform a hundred million users And it's also powerful because it lets me collaborate with colleagues and friends Teams using notion move faster cut friction and cost by consolidating tools and stay aligned It's an AI workspace where your teams knowledge projects and agents all come together in one place Learn more about how notion can support your business at notion.com slash hello puzzlers

25:46That's all lowercase letters notion.com slash hello puzzlers to try notion today and When you use our link you're supporting our show. So thank you Our podcast hello puzzlers does not have an official uniform But we sort of do because Greg and I are both huge fans of the clothes from quince As is my wife in fact every year for the last several years Julie has gifted me and our sons a bunch of quince clothing sweaters, chinos, t-shirts, long sleeve shirts I've got my favorite pieces. I keep returning to including a fitted blue t-shirt That Julie lets me wear even to nice restaurants Quince makes it easy to choose your outfit. It's all about fewer and better pieces Their clothes are made with premium materials. So they're built to last and what I love is that quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands

26:46They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middleman Find your next fall favorites at quince download the quince app For app exclusive offers or go to quince.com slash hello puzzlers Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's q-u-i-n-c-e dot com slash hello puzzlers Hello puzzlers welcome back to the hello puzzlers podcast. We're going to wrap up today We've been talking about ear bus the first ever home game From the hello puzzlers podcast developed with the wonderful folks at Hettyverse And speaking of Hettyverse. Hettyverse is named after Hetty Lamar Who's a brilliant actor from classic Hollywood also an inventor and There's lots to learn about her so Greg

27:47Took the opportunity to make a little quiz. It's alternative to you Greg Took the opportunity just 45 minutes before we started Together we had this idea like maybe we should And it's a few it's a few questions. I'm going to give you a fact about Hetty Lamar And you guys have to decide if it's true or false Okay, all right Now the example which I knew would be the example because as soon as you mentioned Hetty Lamar This is the first thing everybody you know knows which is so here's the example Hetty Lamar and composer George Antile created a secret communication system During World War II that was a precursor to modern Bluetooth technology That of course is true true as as presented earlier in this episode all right, so you guys can compete or work together however you choose I need I need their help so yeah the way A.J. Does this is he lets other people guess one And he guesses the other so that that way Someone will be right. There's always a winner. It's a cooperative. Yeah, yeah the hedge

28:50All right, here's your first one Lamar's first husband was an Austrian industrialist known as the king of ammunition He was 33 and she was 18 Oh, well, I know that she was Married to a man named Fritz which is quite an Austrian name and she is a non-100 person Yeah, so I want to say that's true, but I'm not sure about the age difference now would Greg go into that tiny detail Like was she actually 19 or something like Unless she was 36 and he was 18 like then I can see it But I don't think he would trick us in that small way. I'll go true to say true. Yeah All right, you're all going with true. You're not gonna have a name even All right, you are correct Friedrich or Fritz Mandel was her first husband. Yes. Yes And you know speaking of Fritz

29:50This is your next one he objected to Lamar's acting Including her lead role in a 1933 film called ecstasy about a younger woman with an older husband Perhaps because the story hit too close to home Okay ecstasy is a real film Uh, that is a real film from 1933. So that is true that part is true That's true was it yeah, but the other part I'm not sure I think it's true. I'm gonna go true as well I'm not even ahead all right very good. You are correct She did object and then she writes in her autobiography About how she had to leave the marriage because he was too controlling and wasn't gonna let her Do her thing Fritz Yeah, it was on the fritz Fritz was on the fritz yeah And so Talking of her marriages. This is your next one Lamar was married six times

30:51With her last wedding taking place at the age of 83 two years before she died. I want to say that's false I want to say this is false. I wish I had true for her Yeah, but she's no, I don't think you know, I think I think Greg was thinking like hmm I don't know. Let's the kind of list Taylorish. Maybe she's kind of who who similar to Hetty Lamar and Joshua had Joshua before had nine marriages So I don't know she's nothing I I too think that I would say maybe she has like Three or or the other way she might have like eight But I'm gonna say false to six Yeah, I'll false. I'll say in false you are all correct You were wrong about what was false. She was married six times between 1933 and 1965 and for the last 35 years of her life she was single Yeah, she died in 2000. She had a white 2k death. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I'm trying to six times and finally decided not for me

31:57After the six times to like nope Six times charm Six times if it didn't work six times time to move on Yeah, all right in her acting career Lamar is one of her best known roles is as the title character in Cecil B. Demille's queen ester Which tells the Purim story And Lucille Ball was one of the actresses considered before Hetty Lamar for that rule I want to say this one's false too because I don't know Greg seems like he would like symmetry So I feel like we have a true true false false So I like to play the meta game Yeah, she knows the structure of it. She's a game No, I'm in the play games with I agree I'm gonna go with Jess. I think it is true. I'm gonna say the ester part is true But the Lucille Ball part is not yeah, false All right, well, is it you gonna go along with them to I'm gonna go along with them. Yeah, you're correct But actually the Lucille Ball part is true the ester part is false. It was Samson and Delilah

33:02He he was planning a queen ester film that he wanted Lamar to be in but never happened But for Samson and Delilah he considered some 20 something actresses before settling on heavy Lamar and Lucille Ball was in fact one of them Oh, wow All right, well, let's wrap up with one more fact about her life as an inventor Lamar's inventions in addition to the bluetooth precursor that we've discussed included an improved traffic light An instant carbonated drink and 24 hour weatherproof lipstick Well, the the question is so these are things that she tried to create but they weren't actually patented So are you saying that the inventions are technically an invention if they have a patent or no? No, no, I think that she tried to invent You know that she had ideas about that okay, may or may not have it I know the traffic light thing and I know the alkycelser thing I haven't heard of the lipstick so I kind of feel like he's like these two are true But that one's as false I'm going to try and zing them. I don't think you would think it's actually I think it's actually false

34:04But the first two are true. I feel like I'm in somewhere about the lipstick Oh, I think the lipstick's false I think well, I am I'm going to have to split from Jess on this one And I lie's up are you on my side or Jess's side? I'm doing with AJ on this one You know, I'm never playing with Jess again Correct again That's right Sussing out my mind and the clever things I'm trying to do now exactly right She did do the carbonated drink and the improved traffic light. Yeah, but I made up the 24 hour All right, well if you enjoyed Yeah, we But it's going into the log that you and your husband have I played the Teddy LeMont trivia six out of six winner I love it Liza and Jess we are so thrilled to have partnered with you on this and

35:05It's a reality. It's a reality. We've been doing it for months, but now it is here. You can actually go And order the ear bus game at conveniently enough Earbusgame.com erbus.us game.com And ear bus I forgot to mention thank you to nilly loman Earbus is the actual trademark Because whenever I would when the one we first started playing it. I said as a joke Earbus trademark pending and the joke has become reality. It is an actual trademark So thank you nilly. Thank you Jess. Thank you liza Earbusgame.com and also check out Hettyverse. Yep Hettyverse.com HEDYV RSE.com And where can they find more about us AJ? Well That we have a patreon patreon.com slash hello puzzlers So check us out there we play games with our listeners and also have newsletters. We got all sorts of stuff

36:09So check us out there and of course come back in a couple of days because we have on the podcast More puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzling them