Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword
A short, fun and occasionally not unintentionally educational podcast in which two fans of the New York Times crossword describe their puzzle-solving travails.
Episodes
2191 episodes
Friday, October, 16, 2026 — No, You Can't Play an EBOW With An ELBOW 🙄😂
Today's crossword was a debut for Adam Shapiro — but it wasn't for a lack of trying. He has had 15 previous submissions to the NYTimes rejected, so today's puzzle is a monument t...
Thursday, October 15, 2026 — You Can't Hide from the Ides 🙄
Today's crossword was an absolutely terrific debut by McKay Fritz, with another one of those delightful and, as expected, thoroughly unexpected themes that the NYTimes is legenda...
Wednesday, October 14, 2026 — Happy National Curd Day Eve 🧀 😍
Today's crossword, by Jacob Stulberg, celebrated a scourge of modern civilization, a negative answer to the phrase made famous by Verizon — "Can you hear me now?". It made for a ...
Tuesday, October 13, 2026 — Happy National Train Your Brain Day!!
We would classify today's crossword as a tinge crunchier than usual, for a Tuesday. Certainly 57D, Ceremonial Maori dance, HAKA, did not leap to mind. Likewise 7D, Whole...
Monday, October 12, 2026 — Happy Canadian Thanksgiving, Everyone! 🇨🇦
While today's crossword did not have a Thanksgiving Day theme, it did have a theme for which we are thankful: one that was relatively straightforward but still quite amu...
Sunday, October 11, 2026 — 🎶 Ya Gotta Have Heart, Miles and Miles and Miles of Heart ❤️🎶
Today's crossword was a splendid work from an always entertaining constructor, aka Michael Lieberman. The themed clues in particular appear engineered to put a smile on you...
Saturday, October 10, 2026 — SIA, SZA and Rhianna Walk into a Grid ...
This was a very entertaining and relatively straightforward Saturday crossword by David Levinson Wilk, arguably easier than Friday's — but, as always, YMMV dependin...
Friday, October 9, 2026 — For Some, Spelling SYSIPHEAN is, Well, SISYIPHEAN — or, Third Time's the Charm — SISYPHEAN🙄
Now this was a Friday crossword — themeless, tricky, and highly entertaining. We have to applaud 39A, It's mine, all mine!, EGO; scratch our heads at 44D, "Gymnopédies" c...
Thursday, October 8, 2026 — Oh, No, It's an ONO 🐠 😀
Rachel Grey and John Kugelman have collaborated on a very clever Thursday crossword, based on a dizzying theme that it took both cohosts no little time to suss out. Fortunately — ...
Wednesday, October 7, 2026 — In the Great ROTI v. NAAN Contest, ROTI Scores Again!!
Listeners may recall that the appearance of ROTI or NAAN in the grid immediately drives us to xwordinfo.com to check out the number of times each has appeared in a crossword. As a consequence of
Tuesday, October 6, 2026 — Adam Vincent's Got Our Number!
This was definitely a Tuesday crossword, and we say that not just because of the calendar. The clues were slightly trickier than yesterday's, but still eminently doable w...
Monday, October 5, 2026 — Ah, Those Tsky Tusky animals 🐗🙄
It's been a hot minute since Chase Dittrich's last NYTimes crossword, but he's here now with a fine Monday effort. The theme was engineered for Monday solvers, and while most of t...
Sunday, October 4, 2026 — 🎶 Mercy Sakes Alive, Looks Like We Got Ourselves a Convoy! 🚛🚚 😀
Kathryn Bale's absolutely fabulous debut crossword is in honor of a holiday that we had no idea existed until tackling Kathryn's puzzle. In our defense, the holiday first came int...
Saturday, October 2, 2026 — KAC Is Back with a Chef's Kiss of a Saturday Crossword 😘
Kameron Austin Collins, aka KAC, specializes in tough Friday and Saturday crosswords. Today's is a perfect example, with cunning clueing everywhere you look in the grid. We can't ...
Friday, October, 2, 2026 — Finally, Epictetus Gets His 15 Minutes of Fame!
This was a perfectly crafted crossword to wrap up the work week — not too hard, not too easy, but juuuuust right. It included some awesome clues, for example:57A, Figu...
Thursday, October 1, 2026 — Do Not Rebel, But Rather, *Revel*, For RAVEL is Back! 🙄😉
Jill Singer's fourth NYTimes crossword was a great way to start October, with a legion of edutaining clues — and if that's not a real portmanteau, let's just call it slan...
Wednesday, September 30, 2026 — A Crossword with a Lot of PANACHE
Unsurprisingly, themed crosswords rise and fall on the strength of their themes. In this case the theme causes the crossword to rise, but there are a slew of other clues in the puzzle that make it soar. Besides the awesome ones covered...
Tuesday, September 29, 2026 — Hanh Huynh Hits a Plakata!! (Fear Not, We'll Explain 😀)
This was a fine Tuesday crossword by Hahn Huynh. The theme was novel, and the supporting cast of characters elsewhere in the grid were plentiful and suitably perplexing. We had to...
Monday, September 28, 2026 — We'd Never Lead You Down The Garden Path ... But this Crossword Might😱😉
This, Helen Chen's second NYTimes Crossword, slung a lot of slang (which for the sake of argument let's pretend is grammatically correct 🙄), but it was all for a very good cause, ...
Sunday, September 27, 2026 — A Crossword Engineered to Make Your Head Spin!
Adam Wagner's 35th NYTimes crossword was a doozy that just might make you dizzy, so strap in before you try it! And once you have, come back right here to check out our analysis o...
Saturday, September 26, 2026 — 🎶 🎸 Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting ... Clever Crossword Constructors Like Brian Callahan 😀
Now this was a Saturday crossword, and there are two key tells that give it away. First, of course, the calendar never lies — it's Saturday. Secondly, the clues were deli...
Friday, September 25, 2026 — Rafael Musa's Back with Another Baffling (but Fabulous!) Friday Crossword
We would venture to guess that today, Friday, is Rafael Musa's favorite day of the week. He certainly knows how to construct Friday-level crosswords, with just the right ratio of confoundment to merriment.
Thursday, September 24, 2026 — Another CFTA (Crossword For the Ages)!! 🎉
The NYTimes crossword has its standards (as in an expectation of excellence: no dreck allowed) and its standards (rules/conventions that must be followed). We are pleased to announce that its standards (former) remain as high as ever, and that ...
Wednesday, September 23, 2026 — An OBOE's a "Sprightly Companion"? Um, Okaaaaay ... 🤔🧐
There were several quite intriguing clues in today's grid. Your cohosts found 62A, Instrument also called the "sprightly companion", OBOE, to be the intriguiest* of the l...
Tuesday, September 22, 2026 — A WONDERful Tuesday Crossword 😉❤️
The name "Erik Agard" has been known to cause crossword solvers to quake in their boots, because the esteemed gentlemen has crafted some very challenging puzzles in his time. Since today's was a Tuesday crossword, however, Erik did man...
