The Weekend Quiz Podcast
By John Leary
The Weekend Quiz PodcastMay 01, 2020
Kates – McLennan and McCartney
The very first episode of the podcast in it's new form as The Saturday Quiz.
The Kates take on the quiz from The Saturday Paper and really only falter when the question of which monarch started the House of Tudor comes up.
If you subscribe to the podcast here, it'd be great if you could swap over and follow The Saturday Quiz wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks for being such a great audience.
Where is a wimple worn?
What word beginning with ‘i’ refers to the tendency of matter to retain its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line?
and which British monarch founded the House of Tudor?
Episode 21. Eucatastrophe with Luke Arnold and Chris Ryan
In the final episode of season one of The Weekend Quiz, John is joined by Chris and Luke who go incredibly close to correctly answering every single question. And Chris' feats of imperial to metric and back again are something to behold.
What mountain is the highest peak in Africa?
Which British poet wrote, “ ‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all”?
and What is Australia’s oldest chocolate bar?
Episode 20. Hotels with Amanda Brotchie & Adam Zwar
Real life married couple, Amanda and Adam, Zoom in to do the quiz from seperate hotel rooms in two different cities during their 14 day quarantine. The distance between them counts for little as they blitz through the questions.
What does a sphygmomanometer measure?
Ninety per cent of the world’s earthquakes occur within which seismic belt?
and What is Mr Darcy’s first name in Bridget Jones’s Diary?
Episode 19. Existential Crisis with Yael Stone and Jack Manning Bancroft
This episode, the podcast threatens to go off the rails as the anxiety of the quiz almost gets too much for guest, Yael Stone. Nevertheless, she and Jack do really well with quite a few tricky questions - even managing to successfully phone a friend early on.
The US Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4 of what year?
Starting with “T”, what musical instrument is played without the physical touch of the performer?
and Which “barbarian” mercenaries sacked Rome in AD410?
Episode 18. This Goes With That with Sean Kelly & Anne-Louise Sarks
I'm so glad I asked Sean and Anne-Louise to be on this podcast because not only do they do a smashing job of answering the questions, but unbeknownst to me, the quiz holds a special place in their relationship... or it does for one of them at least.
Where in the body is the ethmoid bone?
In what country do lions, tigers and leopards live in the wild?
and
Who was the first actor to win an Oscar playing a comic book character?
Episode 17. Brought To You By Toblerone with Laetitia Lemke and Rob Collins.
Not actually sponsored by Toblerone...
This episode, answering the questions are Laetitia and Rob from their home in Darwin.
They get some really tricky ones in this quiz, but they bring it home at the end.
Which planet in the solar system has the most moons?
What type of instrument is a sackbut?
and What geographic feature is part of the Toblerone logo?
Episode 16. Dithyrambs, Petrology and Alfred Butts with Geraldine Hakewill & Mark Winter
Geraldine Hakewill and Mark Winter are delightful humans. Geri manages to keep her competitive nature in check and Mark provides some very canny answers and at the end of the day, we've all learnt something. Like what a dithyramb is.
Which UK band produced the 1990s hit song Things Can Only Get Better?
Pembroke and Cardigan are breeds of which dog?
and Which is bigger: Neptune or Uranus?
Episode 15. Sea Breeze with Tim Minchin and Toby Schmitz
Two Perth boys get more than their fair share of questions about Western Australia. And they manage to get a good deal of the answers to the questions outside their areas of expertise - but it's the ones inside that pose the greatest challenge.
Who was the first Australian to play in the US NBA?
Lake Taupo is the largest lake by surface area of which country?
and Which has never been an Olympic sport: squash, tug-of-war or horse long jump?
Remember to subscribe, rate and review, and follow @weekendquiz on twitter.
Episode 14. Don't Overthink It with Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope
Joining John on this episode are Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope, neither of whom know who is claimed to have said: “Doctor Livingstone, I presume." But then, who does know that?
Plenty of bonus points on offer in this quiz. And sometimes you find that the first thing that pops into your head is the correct answer... but also, sometimes you're way off.
What word denotes both a bureaucrat of imperial China and a kind of citrus fruit?
What country uses the internet domain extension fj?
and which city was the first to host the Olympic Games outside of Europe and North America?
Episode 13. Helmeted Honeyeaters with Zoë Coombs Marr and Kate Jinx
Sure, the quiz seems a little easier than normal, but Kate Jinx and Zoë Coombs Marr smash this one out of the park. They don't get every question right, but they go very close. If it wasn't for those damn helmeted honeyeaters, they'd almost have a perfect score!
What was the aim of the US-led Manhattan Project during World War II?
What is the Battle of the Little Bighorn commonly known as?
and Which two Aboriginal nations had first contact with the British?
Listen in to find out.
Episode 12. Infinite Monkeys Never Giving Up with Adele Vuko and Christiaan Van Vuuren
Tackling the quiz this weekend are Adele Vuko and Christiaan Van Vuuren, and they get off to a rocky start. It's not until question 6 that they get their first points on the board. But thereafter, they manage to knock together a very decent score.
And they do it much quicker than an infinite number of monkeys at infinite typewriters ever could.
They know what a mandrake is.
They know what Domino Theory refers to.
And they know how many strawberries the Very Hungry Caterpillar eats.
Do you?
Episode 11. Things Fall Apart (or little bells) with Toby Truslove and Michala Banas
Who won the first ever ISF World Surfing Championship in 1964?
Starting with “P”, vitamin B6 is also known as what?
and Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well is based on a tale from which book about social isolation during a pandemic?
Episode 10. Red Faces with Celia Pacquola and Luke McGregor
Also, what do the initials CT stand for in CT scan?
From what Italian phrase do we get the word "quarantine"?
And which explorer circumnavigated Australia with a cat called Trim?
Episode 9. Perineal with Benjamin Law and Que Minh Luu
Even though she claims it's not her area of expertise, Que nails the sports questions. As well as the linguistic based ones which are more her speed.
And Ben has the literature and Geography topics covered pretty nicely.
It's only when we come to the science questions that they fall down a little.
Have you ever had a periorbital hematoma?
Do you know what to do with taleggio, asiago or comté?
And if you were at karaoke and these words flashed up on the screen: “It’s a little bit funny, this feelin’ inside” would you know what song you were singing?
Episode 8. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better. With Andy Lee and Bec Harding.
Episode 7. Everyone's Zooming From Isolation
This week he is joined by two very clever cats over Zoom, Alex Lee and Benedict Hardie.
They do a sterling job and are very likely the top scorers on the podcast (not that it's a competition).
Can you name all of Henry VIII's wives?
Do you know in what year France last used the guillotine?
And what is prosopagnosia?
Find out on this week's episode.
Episode 6. What Are People From Tokyo Called?
What are people from Tokyo called? is not actually a question from this week's quiz, it's just something that stumped me during the recording.
This week, Alison Bell is once again the sole guest on what is fast becoming a view on a marriage in quarantine. And the rain doesn't stop falling on the tin roof. But there are 25 questions to be answered, including:
What is the name of Radiohead's third album?
In geometry, which shape has an infinite number of sides?
and
Marie Curie was awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize for discovering polonium and what other element? (hint, she didn't discover penicillin)
Episode 5. Minister for Defence
Which Australian town is named after a date?
Which Australian tennis player was known as the "Rockhampton Rocket"?
and Who is Australia's Minister for Defence?
are just a few of the questions Alison struggles with.
Episode 4. Lockdown
Alison claims not to have any general knowledge, but she actually does really well - at least at the beginning...
Find out what part of an eye a sclera is.
Which plane hasn't flown since 2003.
And what capital city Ngambri is in an Aboriginal language (hint: it means cleavage!)
Episode 3. The Marieke Hardy Quiz
Episode 2. Egyptian Cotton.
John is joined by fellow Australian expatriates in America, Alison Bell and Christopher Baker.
Alison is the extraordinary Co-creator/co-writer and star of the hit Netflix show The Letdown.
Chris has been in Ozark, Gotham and True Detective, and will appear in the forthcoming Stargirl.
But they don't know what strait separates Europe from Asia, or who the husband of Queen Nefertiti was, or what the Latin word Nemo translates to in English. Do you?
Play along and keep score and let me know how you do.
Episode 1. It's the first Bonus Episode
John is joined by Patrick Brammall and Virginia Gay as they try and answer such questions as: Which three countries are the world's most populous? What is a maker of clocks called? And which branch of physics is involved in the study of sound?