PETER SAGAL, HOST:
In just a minute, Bill offers free limerick delivery for members of Amazon rhyme. It's the Listener Limerick Challenge. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. Right now, panel, some more questions for you from the week's news. Roy, researchers in Germany have developed a new robot that is reportedly better than humans at what specific task?
ROY BLOUNT JR: In Germany?
SAGAL: In Germany. Don't go there.
(LAUGHTER)
BLOUNT JR: Is better than humans at - I don't know, give me a hint.
SAGAL: This robot could be an HR liability at work.
BLOUNT JR: Flirting.
SAGAL: Well, kind of, but flirting in a particular way. You know...
BLOUNT JR: Oh, god. Now, I mean, I don't want to say all of the things that are flooding into my mind.
(LAUGHTER)
BLOUNT JR: I have no personal experience.
SAGAL: It's like - all right, instead of - instead of ones and - instead of zeros and ones, it's x's and o's.
BLOUNT JR: Tic tac toe. No.
(LAUGHTER)
BLOUNT JR: Oh, hugging.
SAGAL: Yes, hugging.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: It is a - this robot apparently can hug better than people can. The Max Planck Institute is developing HuggieBot. It can give 12 different types of hugs, from romantic to homophobic male handshake-hug hybrid...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...To the infamous Uncle Gary.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Best of all, the researchers say it's no longer just squeezing the human until the screams suddenly stop.
(LAUGHTER)
ROXANNE ROBERTS: Does this robot have arms?
SAGAL: Yes, presumably it has arms. It can reach around and sort of give you a nice hug, a nice...
BLOUNT JR: How would it do it if it didn't have arms?
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: It's a robot.
BLOUNT JR: I'd like to see that.
(LAUGHTER)
HARI KONDABOLU: Is it actually going to feel like a hug or is it just going to feel like we're hugging a refrigerator...
SAGAL: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
KONDABOLU: ...With arms?
SAGAL: I know. Well, you know, that could - I have some of my best - my best interactions with my refrigerator, so I wouldn't mind a hug. Roy, new research coming out of the U.K. shows that what happens to your musical tastes once you turn 30?
BLOUNT JR: Your taste - your musical tastes changes. You get...
SAGAL: Well, I didn't say it changes.
BLOUNT JR: Oh. Oh. You said what happens to it.
SAGAL: I said what happens to it.
BLOUNT JR: You lose it altogether.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: That would explain a lot of dad rock. It's true.
(LAUGHTER)
BLOUNT JR: Yeah. Gosh, what else?
SAGAL: Actually, I kind of gave you the biggest hint, as I didn't say it changes.
BLOUNT JR: Oh, it just hardens...
SAGAL: Exactly. It stops. It stops evolving.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Basically after 30, your musical taste doesn't change anymore. The discovery came from research by the U.K.-based music service Deezer, not to be confused with Weezer, which is a band that people over 30 still like.
(LAUGHTER)
KONDABOLU: No, we don't.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: The research shows that most people experience a kind of musical paralysis at about age 30, a term which can also be applied to their dance moves.
(LAUGHTER)
KONDABOLU: I was the last person to know about Drake. It was very embarrassing.
SAGAL: Really?
KONDABOLU: Everybody kept talking about Drake. And initially, I'm like, why does everybody keep talking about Sir Francis Drake?
(LAUGHTER)
KONDABOLU: The man was a slaver. Why are we discussing him so much?
SAGAL: Yeah. No, apparently people's musical discovery phase peaks around age 24 and then it drops off. Twenty-four is also the same age people start to realize the American Dream is a lie.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Life is not a meritocracy and unregulated capitalism is fundamentally flawed.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Apparently we are employing socialists as writers.
(LAUGHTER)
BLOUNT JR: There's going to be a purge.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Hari, an update to a story that we have been monitoring on this show - it's about a school superintendent in New Jersey who was arrested a couple of months ago. His lawyer has now requested all the surveillance video of what alleged crimes?
KONDABOLU: Oh, boy. Was he pooping in class?
SAGAL: No, but I'm going to give it to you.
KONDABOLU: What?
SAGAL: He was...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I'm amazed - I'm amazed you didn't hear this, Hari, because we devoted our entire hour to it in a special edition of WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME some months ago.
KONDABOLU: Was I - was I on that one?
SAGAL: He was arrested for secretly pooping on the football field of a rival high school.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
KONDABOLU: Yes, I did hear about that.
SAGAL: The superintendent has been charged with vandalism, although it's not graffiti. It's gra-feces (ph).
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: An avid morning jogger, the so-called pooper-intendent (ph)...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...Committed the act repeatedly, purportedly to get vengeance on this rival school. His lawyer, who has the second-worst job in law after defending Michael Cohen...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...Has requested all the surveillance footage of the incident be released to him. So sorry everybody who has been praying for the pee tape to be revealed. God misheard you.
(LAUGHTER)
KONDABOLU: Whatever. He's a gardener. He added some manure. It's not the biggest deal in the world.
SAGAL: The case has generated a lot of interest among legal scholars, who can't wait to see the outcome of Board of Education versus Brown.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BROWN EYED GIRL")
VAN MORRISON: (Singing) Do you remember when we used to sing? Sha la la la la la la la la la la dee dah - just like that - sha la la la la la la la la la la dee dah. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.