The First Crossword (1913) w/ A.J. Jacobs

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2023

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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It’s December 21st. This day in 1913, the New York World published the very first crossword puzzle — originally called a “word cross.” Soon, a bona fide puzzle craze was sweeping the country.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by author and podcast host A.J. Jacobs to discuss what that first crossword looked like, why it was such a hit, and how puzzling can help explain the world.

A.J. is the author of “The Puzzler” and also host of the new daily puzzle podcast of the same name — which is produced by Jody and Brittani Brown! Learn more at thepuzzler.com

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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.
0:06.7	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:08.6	This day, December 21st, 1913, the very first crossword puzzle was published on the
0:17.0	fun pages of the New York World newspaper.
0:20.5	This was the invention of a British journalist Arthur Wynne who'd been living in the United States since the 1890s or so
0:26.2	And I don't think I need to convince you listeners that the arrival of the newspaper crossword is a momentous occasion and as we'll get into crosswords and word
0:34.0	puzzles become a total sensation over the next two decades and we are now once again living in a golden
0:39.9	age of puzzles but also this first crossword puzzle maybe helps us understand a moment in
0:45.5	newspapers as well a time when tabloid journalism was taking off there's a lot of pressure to find
0:50.5	new readers and new eyeballs.
0:52.9	So let's talk about the first crossword and why we have loved puzzles ever since.
0:58.0	Here, as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.
1:02.4	Hello, Jody. Hello there.
1:03.4	Hello Jody.
1:04.4	Hey there.
1:05.4	And our very special guest for this episode and actually will be on for the next episode as well
1:09.2	is the great A.J. Jacobs.
1:11.1	He is one of my favorite authors, the man behind books like The Year of Living
1:14.4	Biblically and Drop Dead Healthy, and also the book and new podcast called The
1:19.5	Puzzler. A.J's book is all about the world of puzzles and his new podcast is a short daily puzzle
1:24.7	podcast where he presents a series of fun and challenging puzzles for you to play along with at home.
1:29.3	It is really great.
	...

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