iHeartMedia, A.J Jacobs Team for Daily Puzzle Podcast

Christy Piña
·2 min read
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A new kind of daily puzzle is on its way.

iHeartMedia and author A.J. Jacobs have announced a joint daily puzzle podcast, The Puzzler, releasing this fall. It received an initial order of 260 episodes.

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The shortform, daily podcasts will challenge listeners and celebrity guests with original, audio-friendly puzzles that are complete with weird history, fun trivia and lots of laughs.

The celebrity guests will be featured alongside fellow puzzle fans who will test their skills in real time with Jacobs, before challenging listeners to solve the puzzles themselves.

The Puzzler was inspired by Jacobs’ most recent book, The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, From Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life, which explores the enduring power of puzzles — why people love them, what they do to people’s brains and how they can improve the world.

“I truly believe that puzzles and games unite us,” Jacobs said. “There’s a huge community of puzzle lovers out there, and I’m excited to entertain and befuddle them on a daily basis via audio.”

The author, who considers himself a “human guinea pig,” is also known for his books The Year of Living Biblically and The Know-It-All. His stories have been featured at The Moth, a wide range of theme-based storytelling events across the U.S. and abroad, often featuring prominent literary and cultural personalities.

Jacobs will be regularly joined on the show by “chief puzzle officer” Greg Pliska, a longtime puzzle creator whose work has been featured in the New York Times‘ “Puzzle Mania,” an annual special puzzle section in the print edition of the Sunday paper. It includes Sudoku, a Cryptic Crossword, word games, visual puzzles and more.

The Puzzler is produced by Neuhaus Ideas and will be distributed by iHeartPodcasts.

July 9, 5:35 p.m. PT: Updated headline and story to clarify that the partnership is between iHeartMedia and A.J. Jacobs.

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