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
1992 episodes
Saturday, March 21, 2026 - An Elegant Saturday Solve
Today's crossword was replete with awesome clues — pretty much all of them were fresh, imaginative, and entertaining. We covered a slew of them in today's episode, but ev...
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Season 15
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Episode 98
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11:06
Friday, March 20, 2026 - Rafael Musa and Rebecca Goldstein, Together Again!
This marks Rafael Musa and Rebecca Goldstein's 4th NYTimes crossword collaboration, and it is a fine piece of work. Being a Friday, it was themeless, but there were oodles of admi...
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Season 15
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Episode 97
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15:17
Thursday, March 19, 2026 - Welcome to EUROPA, a *very* popular tourist destination (um, in the 2080s) 🚀
Today's crossword was full of surprises. The theme? A surprise. The correct spelling of DADAIST? A surprise (at least to Mike). The fabulous 51D, Nation whose name sounds like a p...
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Season 15
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Episode 96
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16:03
Wednesday, March 18, 2026 - A cracking good Wednesday crossword
Adam Vincent has turned in an ab fab Wednesday crossword. The theme was highly amusing, and the rest of the clues equally awesome. We cover a lot of them in today's podca...
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Season 15
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Episode 95
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12:21
Tuesday, March 17, 2026 - Finally, MADISON gets its 15 minutes of fame!
MADISON, Wisconsin is a wonderful city that has received many accolades over the years, but one has always eluded it: recognition in the NYTimes crossword. We are pleased to report that those sorrowful years are now in the past, for in...
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Season 15
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Episode 94
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14:07
Monday, March 16, 2026 - ☃️ 🎵 Snowbody knows, the trouble we've seen, snownobody knows at all 🎶
This was a superb and somewhat crunchier than usual Monday crossword, a side-effect perhaps of an excellent, and about as NYTimes-ish as you can hope for, theme. For all those rea...
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Season 15
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Episode 93
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13:31
Sunday, March 15, 2026 - Beware, ARSENE Lupin is lurking in the grid 😱🇫🇷
Today's crossword was a real deal — two themes for he price of one. But, here's the kicker (and the reason why this puzzle was worthy of the NYTimes): the two themes were slyly re...
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Season 15
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Episode 92
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16:15
Saturday, March 14, 2026 - GOTTA like a crossword with GOTTA and ATTA 😉
Kameron Austin Collins (aka KAC) has a reputation for writing streak-killing crosswords. Today, however, KAC is playing against type — and the result is a tough, doable puzzle tha...
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Season 15
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Episode 91
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12:12
Thursday, March 12, 2026 - One HARDCORE Thursday crossword!
Today marks Joe Marquez's sixth NYTimes crossword. Having started in 2023, that amounts to about 2 crosswords per year — not too shabby! This particular puzzle was particularly no...
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Season 15
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Episode 90
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15:43
Wednesday, March 11, 2026 - Eureka!
Today's crossword was an homage to proponents of the "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" philosophy, and it made for an awesome theme — tales of happy accidents t...
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Season 15
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Episode 89
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16:57
Tuesday, March 10, 2026 - Mmm, give us a bowl of that ol' BABAGHANOUJ 😋
Just like the dish in the title, today's crossword was yummy. We found the theme delicious, the clues tangy, and like all good crosswords it left us wanting more. Just to give you...
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Season 15
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Episode 88
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13:50
Monday, March 9, 2026 - May we have the envelope, please?
This was a fine Monday crossword, straightforward but with a wry theme and clues that spanned a wide gamut of years. For instance, 3D, Bobby, Peter or Greg, to Carol Brady...
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Season 15
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Episode 87
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9:48
Sunday, March 8, 2026 - Happy International Women's Day!!
Kelly Richardson has crafted a delightful and timely puzzle in honor of INTERNATIONALWOMENSDAY, in which all of the crosses are the names of famous women — all the way from I
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Season 15
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Episode 86
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15:20
Saturday, March 7, 2026 - Red Alert! There's a Saturday Streak Smasher™️ at 12 o'clock, closing fast!
If crosswords were animals, then today's, by Fritz Juhnke, would be Godzilla, smashing its way through streaks like nobody's business. Fritz was relentless, piling tough clue atop tough clue. From 28D, Dry streamed, WASH, to 66A, Ninny...
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Season 15
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Episode 85
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21:18
Friday, March 6, 2026 - Adrian Johnson dials it up to 11!
Ah, this was a rigorous Friday crossword — the kind that, after you've solved it (er, if you've solved it), makes you feel a little taller, and compelled to ...
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Season 15
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Episode 84
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17:24
Thursday, March 5, 2026 - Pee Wee REESE, champion of the oppressed and a *colossus* on the playing field
Making any crossword is challenging; but making a crossword like this one seems almost impossible. Fortunately, constructor Hanh Huynh doesn't know the meaning of the word...
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Season 15
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Episode 83
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17:15
Wednesday, March 4, 2026 - Wowzers, this crossword was aaaaaaawesome!!
Wayne Bergman has crafted a brilliant Wednesday crossword, with several genuinely LOL clues. We discuss several in today's episode, but we'd also like to give a shoutout to 14A, Ap...
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Season 15
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Episode 82
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12:23
Tuesday, March 3, 2026 - By gum, this crossword really SLAPS! 😀
This was a terrific Tuesday crossword by Drew Schmenner, his seventh for the NYTimes since 2021. As expected, it ticked all the right boxes:a kind, gentle yet clever th...
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Season 15
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Episode 81
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16:38
Monday, March 2, 2026 - Mmm, pass me another slice of that ol' tres LECHES cake 😋
This was a very pleasing debut crossword by Leslie Benson, who provides, on xwordinfo.com, an amusing description of this puzzle's construction — some of which apparently took plac...
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Season 15
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Episode 80
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14:40
Sunday, March 1, 2026 - In like a 🦁, out like a 🐑
Some of the NYTimes' finest crosswords were created by university students. For example, consider, oh, say, today's, by Western University students Matt Proulx and Jeffrey Martinov...
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Season 15
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Episode 79
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16:51
Saturday, February 28, 2026 - A FEDORA in the grid? Now *that's* class! 😀
This marks Adam Levav's fourth NYTimes crossword in just over a year, and you can see from today's awesome puzzle why he keeps getting published. This themeless beast had scads of...
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Season 15
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Episode 78
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10:03
Friday, February 27, 2026 - Happy AEOF (Almost-End-of-February) Day!
Today's crossword was a debut by Caroline Hand. Getting any crossword published in the NYTimes is an incredible achievement — and to debut on a Friday doubly so.An...
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Season 15
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Episode 77
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16:13
Thursday, February 26, 2026 - BYGUM this was a brilliant crossword!
Yitzi Snow has created a masterpiece of a crossword: perhaps it's not hanging at the Louvre yet, but we know it'll get there someday. Why, you ask? For three main reasons...
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Season 15
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Episode 76
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16:43
Wednesday, February 25, 2026 - EMO hair, it's gonna be big!! 🙄
This was Brad Lively's second New York Times crossword, and it was stunning, especially, as one might imagine, the ingenious theme. None of the clues were too over the top — with the possible exception of 11A, ___ hair (edgy 2000s tren...
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Season 15
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Episode 75
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18:26