About this podcast
Half advice show. Half survival guide. Half absurdity-fest. (Wait, how does this work again? We're not numbers people.) Each episode, we answer all your burning questions, from how to survive a public bathroom to how to get close to a panda. When we don't know the answer, which is roughly 92% of the time (again, not numbers people), we bring in overqualified experts to help out. So you'll eventually walk away knowing how to do everything. That's what happens when you're one & a half shows. From the team at Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
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Episodes
- Burritos and Handshakes · 26 minIan and Mike help a caller solve a handshake issue. Plus, how to mourn the loss of a favorite dish. You can email your burning questions to [email protected]. How To Do Everything…
- Crushes and Smells · 17 minThis week: How to tell your crush you like them. Plus, do smells really linger in your nose? You can email your burning questions to [email protected]. How To Do Everything is…
- Sheets and Blankets · 26 minThis week: Ian and Mike help a couple figure out who exactly is responsible for stealing the covers at night. You can email your burning questions to [email protected]. How To Do…
- Crickets and Clowns · 17 minThis week: How to tell the temperature outside without a thermometer. Plus, how clowns trademark their unique looks. Featuring Marlene Zuk and Julie Proctor. You can email your…
- The Breakfast Rule · 23 minThis week: How the Wait, Wait team decides what jokes are too inappropriate for the airwaves. Plus Mike and Ian help a caller with a personal grammar problem. Featuring author…
- Curling Stones and Halfpipe Lines · 19 minMore behind the scenes at the Milan Cortina Olympics with unsung heroes of the Winter Games. Mike and Ian talk with a curling legend, find out where those big stones come from…
- Forks and Ice Masters · 18 minThis week: Mike and Ian talk with an Olympic Ice Master, help a listener who keeps meeting people with their same name, and get to the bottom of a mysterious survey glitch. You…
- Torches and Ski Jumps · 23 minMike and Ian are back, just in time for the opening ceremony at the Winter Olympic Games in Milan/Cortina. Olympians and Starfleet Captains share how to carry the torch, fly…
- Eggs and Bald Eagles · 20 min[Headphones recommended for this episode] Closing out the season with another episode from the archives: Mike and Ian learn how to clean the greatest ceiling in the world and…
- One-Liners and Free Throws · 27 minIan and Mike help a listener lighten the mood with her clients, help another listener mess with an opponent’s free throw shot, and Peter Sagal shares his secret for falling…
- Volcanoes and Roosters · 18 minThis week from the archives: how to make s’mores with a volcano. Plus a barn animal sanctuary worker wants to know how to live harmoniously with roosters. You can email your…
- Carsickness And Traffic Jams · 19 minIan and Mike look to the skies to help a listener solve her problem with motion sickness. Plus, a survivor of the longest recorded traffic jam in history shares how she got…
- The Gilligan Rule · 17 minThis week from the archives: a fire captain puts out a fire with the help of an unexpected beverage, showrunner Vince Gilligan discloses when it’s appropriate to drop a spoiler…
- Broadway Musicals And Best In Show · 18 minThis week: A Broadway star tells us how he finished the New York Marathon and then performed in two shows back to back, a wife seeks advice on how best to shave her hairy…
- Talent Shows & Phone Call Etiquette · 19 minThis week from the archives: how to stand out at a talent show, how to go to the bathroom during an important phone call, and an unlikely way to check the Wifi on a plane. Plus a…
- Motivation, Secret Messages, and Stealing Your Thunder · 18 minThis week: Filmmaker Alice Wu shares a clever trick to help you finally finish that thing you’ve been working on, why teenagers are taking over the comments sections of old…
- Signs of Winter, Mystery Smells, and Blimps At Night · 24 minThis week from the archives: Mike and Ian search for signs of winter, and Peter test-smells a mystery scent from a professional flavor chemist. Plus a Goodyear blimp pilot…
- Earthquakes, Dentists, and How To Talk To Your Dog · 27 minOn today’s episode: a bold new way to help out when an earthquake hits, and Mike and Ian help out a listener with the help of a friendly dentist and a dog named Stella. Plus, our…
- Snack Bags, Shrek and Barry Manilow · 20 minThis week from the archives, Mike and Ian help a high school student nail his performance in the school play. Plus, a listener asks how to compose a catchy jingle, so Barry…
- AI, War, and Exercise, with Arnold Schwarzenegger · 27 minOn today’s episode, how to get rid of Google’s AI summaries, and we help a listener who wants to exercise in her car during a long commute–with an assist from a very…
- Apple Stores, Cow Chips and Miracles · 16 minOn today’s episode from the archives, Apple’s top-secret guide on how to be a human being. Plus, how (not) to scam the airlines, and a competition you might want to avoid. You…
- How To Make Lasagna Without An Oven, with Peter Sagal · 25 minToday, Mike and Ian recruit the help of legendary Taste-Tester-Turned-Public-Radio-Host Peter Sagal to rate a new, unorthodox approach to making lasagna. Plus, a listener calls…
- Gum, Frogs and Fred Armisen · 14 minOn today’s episode from the archives, Fred Armisen helps a grad student set up her wifi router. Tips on how to keep your milk fresh using nature’s little creatures, and how to…
- OOO Baby, with Andy Samberg, Kate McKinnon, and U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón · 21 minWe are so back! How To Do Everything returns for a packed second season. This episode, one listener asks Mike and Ian how to write the perfect “out of office” message. So, they…
- "How To Do Everything" is so back · 2 minHow To Do Everything is back for season two! With more taste tests, more life hacks and more help for our beloved listeners. This season, Rick Ross gives advice to The Pope…
- Congress has voted to eliminate government funding for public media · 2 minAct now to ensure public media remains free and accessible to all. Your donation will help this essential American service survive and thrive. Visit donate.npr.org now. See…
- Heckling, Yawning, and Imitating, with James Austin Johnson and Patton Oswalt · 27 minOn our season finale, when a young listener has a question on behalf of her fifth grade class, we call up an old friend/chimp butt expert to help her out. And Saturday Night…
- Pee-Rex · 15 minToday from the archives, a chance to win a free t-shirt if you have a sharp ear for dinosaur moans. And we help a listener with a question about public bathrooms. Plus, why both…
- Don't Get in the Fridge, with Jesse Eisenberg · 25 minRinging in 2025: Mike and Ian knock out a New Year's resolution with the help of filmmaker Jesse Eisenberg, and a listener calls in to settle a high-stakes bet on the sturdiness…
- Moo-ey Christmas! · 10 minFrom the archives: When cows need help, Ian and Mike create a Christmas miracle, with the help of some adorable reinforcements. You can email your burning questions to…
- A Holiday Special with the NFL's Gerald McCoy and the NPR's Peter Sagal · 18 minOn this week's archive episode, Mike and Ian learn about a unique Catalonian Christmas tradition that celebrates nature's calling. And when a listener calls into question her…
- The Perfect Christmas Present with James Patterson and Gillian Flynn · 21 minOn today's episode, Charlie needs help writing a children's book for his wife. So, Mike and Ian call up some of the greatest minds in modern literature, Gillian Flynn and James…
- Hollywood's Mommy Problems · 18 minOn today's archive episode, when one listener wonders how TV shows get a hold of actors' childhood photos, Mike and Ian ring up a Hollywood mom. Plus, one listener needs help…
- The Friendliest Sound in the World, with Olympic medalist Molly Seidel · 23 minThis week on How To Do Everything, a listener calls in asking how to avoid startling innocent pedestrians when she goes on runs. So Mike and Ian recruit the help of an Olympic…
- Fiddlin', Gruntin', Snorin', and Carlin' with David Axelrod · 20 minThis week from the archives, how to instantly summon 40 worms from the ground. Plus, former Obama advisor David Axelrod addresses listener concerns about engaging with their…
- Yes We Pecan, with Martha Stewart · 15 minTwo roommates disagree about how to pronounce "pecan," so Mike and Ian call up Martha Stewart–and others–to help. Plus, an Italian town in the shadow of the Alps spent three…
- Bear Grylls stays (disgustingly) hydrated · 17 minThis week from the archives, all things wilderness survival. Mike and Ian take a trip to Denali National Park in Alaska to learn how to survive a bear attack. And when a listener…
- Josh Gad defeats earworms, and we make a pitch to Pete Buttigieg · 21 minThis week on the show, when a mother can't get her four-year-old's favorite song out of her head, Mike and Ian call up Broadway's beloved Josh Gad to help. Plus, Ian has a formal…
- BONUS: Halloween with Amy Sedaris · 6 minOn this Halloween bonus episode of How To Do Everything, comedian Amy Sedaris tells Mike and Ian how to terrify the neighborhood children, and they bring in Wait Wait...Don't…
- Pumpkins, Spiders and Henry Winkler · 24 minThis week from the archives, a teenage math wiz helps Mike and Ian optimize the Reese's chocolate pumpkin, and a tip on the spookiest (and most strategic) way to heal an open…
- Maury Povich and Sleeping Between the Pretties · 22 minThis week Mike and Ian recruit television icon Maury Povich to help a listener reveal some hard truths, and we create some helpful (and unhelpful) reminders for when you should…
- Sir Patrick Stewart, Pricklouses and Root Beer · 18 minOn today's episode, how to defoam your root beer and how to insult someone, medieval-style. Plus, one listener has a question about British cows, and Sir Patrick Stewart offers…
- Mascots, Cheerleaders and Beethoven · 23 minThis week, Mike and Ian help a caller who's curious about mascot races – with the help of a talking sausage. A police inspector in Finland reveals his creative hack for keeping…
- Nick Offerman, Trapper Keepers and Bee Stings · 22 minThis week, we bring you the best of How To Do Everything's first life. Nick Offerman cures your hiccups, our intern downvotes our segments, and we learn the most painful place to…
- Tom Hanks, Hot Dogs and Chimp Butts · 21 minOn today's episode, the great Tom Hanks teaches us the art of being adored, and Mike and Ian help a listener who's curious about world fame. Plus, a bottoms-up approach to…
- The Champ · 23 minEvery other week on How To Do Everything, we're giving you the best stuff from our first life. Today, from the archives, how to make your friends cry and how to keep your fries…
- Haircuts in Space, Tutus, and the Nasal Ranger · 19 minMike and Ian are back. On this episode: how to cut your hair in space, how to clean your tutu, and how to tell if you smell. You can email your burning questions to…
- How To Do Everything: Kind of an advice show. Kind of. · 2 minOn each episode of How To Do Everything, underqualified hosts Mike Danforth and Ian Chillag find overqualified experts to answer all your life questions. How do you survive…
