Checks and Balance: Merry Quizmas
Checks and Balance from The Economist
The Economist
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2021
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this special holiday episode the team highlights the stories we didn’t get a chance to cover on the podcast this year. Plus a couple of mystery quiz masters from The Economist family join, and listeners try to out-fox our trivia champion Jon Fasman with questions of their own.
John Prideaux presents with Charlotte Howard and Jon Fasman.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | With heavy gold chains and mohawk and the arms of his crimson suit cut off to expose |
| 0:08.1 | his bulging biceps, the former wrestler made an unusual Santa Claus. A petite elegant |
| 0:14.6 | woman perched on his knee. She planted a gentle peck on his partially shaved head. |
| 0:20.0 | Oh wow, now that'll start some scandals, Santa cried. |
| 0:25.2 | It was December 1983 and the front pages of the next day's papers were covered with |
| 0:29.8 | photos capturing this moment between Mr. T and Nancy Reagan. The first lady was giving |
| 0:35.1 | the press corps a tour of her White House holiday decorations. She'd invited the star of the |
| 0:40.0 | 80's to play Santa. A year into her just say no campaign, Nancy Reagan was impressed |
| 0:47.0 | by Mr. T's anti-drug advocacy and she thought the popular actor could help shed her uptight image. |
| 0:54.0 | The pair formed an unlikely friendship and continued to work together on anti-drugs campaigns, |
| 0:59.5 | a Christmas miracle of sorts. When Nancy Reagan died in 2016, Mr. T was invited to the private funeral. |
| 1:08.1 | This is Chex and Balance. |
| 1:14.2 | I'm John Prado, the economist, US editor, and this week we have something a little different, |
| 1:19.2 | special Christmas episode looking back on 2021. |
| 1:26.6 | Today we're going to talk about the stories we didn't get to cover on Chex and Balance this year. |
| 1:36.5 | We'll have a couple of surprise guests who will test how much we remember about 2021 |
| 1:41.5 | and we'll find out if our listeners can outfox our undisputed trivia champion, |
| 1:46.0 | John Fasman, with some fiendish questions. |
| 2:06.4 | With me to enjoy this exercise in public humiliation are Charlotte Howard, |
| 2:10.4 | the economist New York Bureau Chief and John Fasman, the US Digital Editor. Charlotte |
| 2:15.1 | How is New York and are you feeling festive? |
| 2:17.2 | I'm feeling very festive and very much looking forward to the quizzing of John Fasman where he will |
... |
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