134 episodes

Crossnerds is the world's best—er, nerdiest—crossword puzzle podcast. Editors, constructors, solvers, and allies deliver piping-hot takes on the New York Times crossword puzzle and the vast cruciuniverse of wordplay beyond.

Crossnerds Crossnerds

    • Leisure
    • 5.0 • 14 Ratings

Crossnerds is the world's best—er, nerdiest—crossword puzzle podcast. Editors, constructors, solvers, and allies deliver piping-hot takes on the New York Times crossword puzzle and the vast cruciuniverse of wordplay beyond.

    For Thee, Ass King

    For Thee, Ass King

    Discussed! NYT crossword puzzles from Weds 2/22/23 (Adam Wagner), Thurs 2/23/23 (Joe Deeney), and Sun 2/28/23 (Will Nediger).
    Disgust! Black History Month did not seem to matter to the NYTXW. But racial representation in crosswords matters deeply to us. Find our ep with Kameron Austin Collins here.
    Also!
    OPPO: British 1960s bae? MS PAINT and Brooke's minicity masterpieces Tourney szn approacheth! The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, Boswords, and  more TK. Reminisce with the original 'Nerds interviewing Erik Agard back in 2019, right before Erik won ACPT. Anigrams. Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

    • 32 min
    Cut to Wabbit Season

    Cut to Wabbit Season

    SCENE: Season 8. Year of the Rabbit. 2023. Cut to: Rebecca & Brooke, Crossworld's most beloved showgirls, reviewing New York Times crossword puzzles. On this episode...they (we) peruse three (3) puzzles, from 2/2/23 - 2/4/23. Featuring.....:
    Bisexual lighting SARD: new year, new gem?! On app-lessness CUT TO THE CHASE: What, why, how. Jannings escapes ... AVCX is not sending people to the moon In 2022, 21% of NYTXWs were written by exclusively women (h/t XWord Info) Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

    • 28 min
    Query Theory

    Query Theory

    WORDPLAY ON THE FRITZ ⋇ DEFY THE HEGEMONY ⋇ THINK FOR YOURSELF ⋇ DO NOT PANIC

    Happy holidaze and welcome back to the show! This week, Rebecca and Brooke calmly discuss four New York Times crossword puzzles published 11/22/2022 - 11/26/22. We also poke a stick at the curious corpus of 😱 LOGIC PUZZLES 😱 such as sudoku, ken ken, and star battles! We are two kra-z kids!!!
    Plus:
    Red alert! Reds are red, but violet may or may not be blue: colors, categories, and linguistic relativity vs. universalism in this Nautilus article by Chelsea Wald PICTURE cards How not to fall for the myth of crossword's 'unwritten rules' The joy of connecting the dot dot dots Theme queries: emotional risks vs. open submissions (again) And the Inkubator is available at https://inkubatorcrosswords.com/.
    Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

    • 42 min
    Solve for x[Nerds]

    Solve for x[Nerds]

    In this ep, Rebecca and Brooke review New York Times crossword puzzles from 11/9/22 - 11/12/22.
    Including!
    The first-ever, no-details-necessary, void-where-prohibited Crossnerds challenge: ⭐ Guess Our Zodiac Signs! ⭐️ Tweet us @Crossnerds or message us to play. Also!:
    "Reduplicative names" puzzles "Reduplicative": redundant? Repeated clues: ALLOWED! Non-semantic themes Letterbanks Two takes on GOTTI Things that don't look like boats Reverse reveals The grammar of adverbs (disjuncts, e.g. "Hopefully...") Evocativeness in clues What sound owls make (hint: it is not "PEEP") Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

    • 37 min
    SOUL Shakedown Party

    SOUL Shakedown Party

    👋🤓🎙 Live from Berlin and a Dalíesque sea of toilets: Rebecca and Brooke review the week of 9/12/22 - 9/18/22 in New York Times crossword puzzles, covering such topics as:
    "Noted" in crossword clues The world's kickiest animals Triple-checked squares Does Europe have Daylight Savings Time? Green paint "Representation Without Transformation" (h/t Sally Hoelscher's USATXW blog) Wacky Wednesdays Where difficulty comes from (misdirects, vagueness) And if you don't know the Bob Marley song "Soul Shakedown Party," check it out.
    Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

    • 46 min
    Podcast...But Good(?)

    Podcast...But Good(?)

    Nerds here! Get yer Spicy Summer 'Ssnerds here! Featuring a husk of future residents (Rebecca and Brooke) discussing New York Times crossword puzzles (we selected 4 from the week of 8/22/22), PLUS PLUS PLUS Lollapuzzoola 2022 (puzzles still available here)!! Sundry chatter also includes:
    The great HOOHA-baloo Meta puzzles Towns with no business in crosswords Stacking elevens COVID content in puzzles And in hurricane news: WAIT IT OUT, or evacuate? Enjoying "Crossnerds"? Give us five ⭐️s in Spotify! Comment in Apple Podcasts! @ us on Twitter! Support us on Patreon! Or just keep listening. Or all. Ideally all. But we'll take any. Please and thank you!

    • 40 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
14 Ratings

14 Ratings

grimacetjackson ,

crossnerds - yes!

i would listen to rebecca and andy talk about anything at length, but especially crosswords - they bring both a great depth of analysis and a much-needed empathy to the discourse, all while being funny and delightful (the “cold opens” in particular always slay me).

BK2021 ,

Refreshing

I am looking forward to this podcast each week. It's refreshing to hear positive, insightful comments instead of NYT crossword bashing, which seems fashionable of late.

connisour ,

the podcast

this is refreshing, fun and creative! so enjoyable to hear these two talk about the clues, life, and meaning!!! looking forward to future 'episodes'!

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