This episode takes listeners on a mad journey from Mesopotamia to riddle competitions in Ancient Greece and beyond! Whether you’re talking a conundrum or an enigma, or something else altogether, human beings have been trying to confound each other with clever wordplay or unfair word disguises for centuries!

We describe to listeners the interesting phenomenon of philosophical paradoxes - some of which are built to break your mind into a million tiny unfathomable pieces - just the way we like it! Ragini does a great job of taking us through the explanations and Shar - well, it’s just fun to listen to the collapse of reason within a human mind!

We also journeyed into the world of Indian riddlers, from the Vedas to more familiar characters from our childhood - Tenali Raman and Birbal! Learn about the origin of these stories that were a big part of growing up for every Indian kid as well as a little more about a character familiar to any kid the world over - some are terrified of him, some fascinated and some downright afraid to say his name!

From King and Courtier characters with a basis in history to the sands of Egypt and a very familiar part-human, part lioness! The Sphinx makes a brief appearance as does the story of her tormenting nomadic travellers (for reasons no other than hunger, a nobel reason indeed).

Ragini helps Shar uncover some hidden biases with a stumper before Shar retaliates with riddles from literature, some of which had no answers at all!

Links of Interest:

Philosophical Paradoxes

Aldhem’s Riddles (British Library)

Rack & Riddle Riddling and Disgorging Process Explained

Wine-maker Bradley Cooper gives a quick explanation and demonstration of how riddling racks work in the production of sparkling wine.

Now stop trawling through this blog post for more info and listen to the episode!

Episode edited by: Mohit Shandilya

Music for the episode: Charita Arora