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
2168 episodes
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...
Monday, September 21, 2026 — 🎶 🫖 Tea, For Two, and Two For Tea 🫖 🎶
Today's crossword was a great start to our puzzle-solving week. The theme was très amusant, as the French like to say, definitely worth the price of admission. The clues were desi...
Sunday, September 20, 2026 —Tracy Gray Shows Off Her Crossword Super Powers
Tracy Gray has had 38 crosswords published in the NYTimes, including 13 Sundays. We'd call today's work a typical TG puzzle, except for the fact that there is no such thing: her c...
Saturday, September 19, 2026 — Playing a Ukitar's Easier When Wearing a Unitard? Riiiiight ... 🙄
This was a lively Saturday crossword, thanks in part to Hannah Slovut's talent at working exciting new answers into the grid: there were a total of 10 debuts, not too shabby at al...
Friday, September 18, 2026 — A Splendiferous Way to Wrap Up the Workweek
Ryan Mathiason's third NYTimes crossword, and his first Friday, was an elegant piece of cruciverbial magic. We like clues that educate —13A, Modern tech aid whose design was inspi...
Thursday, September 17, 2026 — 🎉 Woo-hoo, 250,000 Downloads and Counting!! 🎉
According to BuzzSprout, our podcast has had over 250,000 downloads, and so, to celebrate, we're ... going to do another podcast 😀 Your cohosts had slightly different impressions of
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 — Bonjour, BASENJI!
Today's crossword was an homage to a state that seems to be bursting at the seams with National Parks, and that state would be ... [REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE SPS (SPOILER PREVENTIO...
Tuesday, September 15, 2026 — All Cohosts Present and Accounted For, Suh!
There was cause for much celebration at JAMDTNYTC HQ, as the J of the aforementioned podcast made her triumphant return to the studio. She chose an auspicious day to do so, because
Monday, September 14, 2026 — 🎶 Daylight Come and Me Wanna Go ... Solve a Crossword 🎶🙄🍌
Today's crossword — a joint effort by Andrea Carla Michaels and Dena R. Verkuil — had a lot of appeal, and if that generates peals of laughter, then this sentence will ha...
Sunday, September 13, 2026 — Hey, It's a Tiny Escape Room 😀
Today's crossword — a very nice piece of work by Henry Lin-David and Frank S. David — featured an adorable, tiny escape room! You can't miss it — it's right in the center of the g...
Saturday, September 12, 2026 — An *Effervescent* Saturday Crossword!
It's not often that we get to haul "effervescent" out of long-term storage, dust it off, and plant it where it needs planting, but today is one of those days, for the crossword, b...
Friday, September 11, 2026 — Robyn Weintraub Is Back, and We Are Better for It!
Considering that this is Robyn Weintraub's 37th Friday crossword(!), she has certainly earned the sobriquet, the Queen of Fridays. We hope she wears her crown at a ...
Thursday, September 10, 2026 — Simeon Seigel, aka "Mr. Thursday", Strikes Again!! 🥳😱
Today's crossword, by Simeon Seigel, featured another "puzzle-within-a-puzzle", and we loved it, from 1A, TikTok stars, to many, IDOLS, all the way down to 61A, Filler akin to "li...
Wednesday, September 9, 2026 — Argh, It's Write Crosswords Like a Pirate Day!
Our cohosts had very different experiences, solving today's puzzle. Jean cruised through it like the QE2 on a serene summer's day; Mike's journey was more reminiscent of the Vasa's...
Tuesday, September 8, 2026 — A Terrific Tuesday Debut! ❤️
We are pleased to report that Sunny Maharjan has joined the elite pantheon of NYTimes crossword constructors. This, his debut, is a gem. It was a quick solve (especially for Jean),...
Monday, September 7, 2026 — Alas, Poor Muzak, We Hardly Knew Ya'!
For the of you who are feeling nostalgic for Muzak, you have two choices: this crossword, or Urgent Care 😀. We recommend the former, because Jeff Chen and Stephan Prock have put to...
Sunday, September 6, 2026 — Lights, Camera, ... Really Cool Crossword!
John Kugelman has written 24 crosswords for the NYTimes, including an impressive 17 Sundays. Today's was novel, in that for the first time it featured color illustrations — Gray La...
Saturday, September 5, 2026 — We'd Be Lyin' If We Said We Weren't Curious About the LION Dance 🙄
Both cohosts found today's crossword easier than yesterday's, but just as entertaining. It featured some phenomenal clues, including those discussed on today's episode, bu...
Friday, September 4, 2026 — Julian Xiao Cranks it Up to 11! 😱🥳
Both cohosts struggled mightily with today's crossword, the third from Julian Xiao since 2024. Here are just a few clues, to give you a taste of the difficulty level (spoiler alert...
Thursday, September 3, 2026 — Holy ingenious crossword theme, Batman!🦇😉
If it seems like you've been seeing Zhou Zhang's name in the crossword a lot, lately, you are not imagining things: her name has appeared in the masthead a whopping 7 times ... and the year's not over! The reason she is app...
Wednesday, September 2, 2026 — MMMMagnificent! 😋
Mac Motz has produced a mmmmagnificent debut crossword. We are not entirely sure how he came up with the theme, but we thought it terrific — we are such suckers for allite...
Monday, September 1, 2026 — Javan Rhino, Nine O'Clock High ... Sipping a Latte??
This was a relatively rare event, a double debut for Paul Hudes and Margot Kohn. Kudos to both for an excellent job. The theme sparkled, and clues like 53A, Like J...
Monday, August 31, 2026 — A Gooey-licious Monday Crossword 😀 😋
This was another fine Monday crossword by Christopher Youngs. The theme was delicious, and the clues maybe a tad more feisty than usual for a Monday. As an illustration, ...
Sunday, August 30, 2026 — Tempus Fugit? Perhaps Tempus Has a Terrible Memory 🙄
Today's crossword relied on an anagram-adjacent concept, that of a letter bank: all the letters in the clue can be used as many times (but at least once) in the answer. Once you realize this (which may only happen once you get the revealer figu...
