Podcast Script

Welcome back to the LearnedLeague Study Guide podcast, your quick post-match review to turn those brain cramps into future gets.

I’m your host, and in this episode we’re walking through Match Day 10 from Season 107. As always, the idea here isn’t just to relive the pain or the glory of today’s questions, but to lock in some patterns that you can reuse later.

If you want all the extra detail, links, and deep dives, you’ll find them in the study notes on our website at llstudyguide.com. I’ll mention a few side topics as we go, and you can just remember to check the show notes on the site instead of trying to write anything down.

Today’s set leans hard into 20th‑century media, brands, and institutions: early television, iconic chocolate packaging, a key investing buzzword, a ‘90s action classic, two legendary music festivals, and a presidential career path question. Let’s get into it.

Question 1.

Here’s the exact wording:

“TELEVISION - The first game of a doubleheader on August 26, 1939 at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field, between the Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds, which the visitors won 5-2, is the first major league baseball game with what distinction? It’s one shared, in a thematic sense, with Bulova watches, the New York World’s Fair, and the 1954 Tournament of Roses Parade.”

The correct answer is: FIRST TO BE TELEVISED.

So this is pointing to the first Major League Baseball game ever broadcast on television. On August 26, 1939, an experimental NBC station, W2XBS, put cameras in Ebbets Field and aired that Dodgers–Reds doubleheader. It wasn’t a big national broadcast the way we think of sports TV today, but historically it counts as the first MLB game to be televised.

Those other clues—Bulova watches, the New York World’s Fair, and the 1954 Tournament of Roses Parade—are all basically “TV firsts.” Bulova is famous for the first paid TV commercial in the U.S. in 1941. The 1939 World’s Fair is where NBC rolled out regular TV programming. And the 1954 Rose Parade is remembered as one of the early nationally promoted broadcasts in color.

So when the question says the game shares a distinction “in a thematic sense” with those things, you want to look for the common medium, not the subject matter. We’re talking about early milestone broadcasts on television.

For next time, remember a couple of patterns:

First, early‑TV clues around 1939 and the New York World’s Fair almost always tie to NBC and the dawn of regular TV. That’s a nice anchor year if you see television plus 1939.

Second, in LearnedLeague, when you see a list like Bulova, World’s Fair, Rose Parade, and a baseball game, it’s probably not about sports or watches or parades. It’s more likely about technology—television here, but it could also be radio, the internet, or color film.

If you want to build out that theme, check the study notes on the website for more on the first TV commercial, early color broadcasts, and other “first on TV” trivia hooks.

All right, from early TV screens to snack bars.

Question 2.

“FOOD/DRINK - A trademark feature of what German chocolate brand is its 3.5-ounce square bar, divided into sixteen smaller squares in a 4×4 grid? Popular varieties include milk chocolate with hazelnuts (brown wrapper), milk chocolate with almonds (green), and dark chocolate with marzipan filling (red).”

The answer is: RITTER SPORT.

Ritter Sport is the German chocolate brand that leans hard into its shape. The standard bar is 100 grams, or 3.5 ounces, and it’s a perfect square, broken into sixteen little square pieces in a four‑by‑four grid.

They’ve really built the whole brand around that square. There’s even a backstory about designing a bar that would fit into a sports jacket pocket without breaking. The wrappers are color‑coded by flavor—brown for milk chocolate with hazelnuts, green for almonds, red for marzipan, and so on. Their slogan in German is basically “square, practical, good.”

From a quiz‑brain standpoint, a few takeaways:

One, some brands are basically defined by shape. Toblerone is the triangle. Kit Kat has the fingers. Hershey’s Kisses are little cones. Ritter Sport is the square bar, in a 4 by 4 grid. Any time you see “German chocolate,” “square bar,” and “3.5 ounces,” you should lock in Ritter Sport.

Two, those wrapper colors are classic question fodder. The brown‑green‑red trio pointing to hazelnut, almond, and marzipan is exactly the kind of packaging detail that shows up in food questions.

And three, brand‑shape questions show up a lot beyond candy: the Coke bottle silhouette, the Pringles tube, the Nutella jar. If a question spends time on physical shape or packaging, your mind should go to trademarks and distinct design.

If you want to see pictures of the bar, the color grid, and that famous slogan, check the study notes on our website. There’s also more about their trademark fights to protect the square shape, which is a fun intersection of trivia and law.

Let’s shift from chocolate bars to financial bars you’re trying to beat.

Question 3.

“BUS/ECON - In securities investing, what letter-named measure (i.e., it is named for a letter, but it is not one character) indicates an investment’s ability to outperform the overall market? A popular crowd-sourced financial news and investing website takes its name from investors “seeking” this edge.”

The answer here is: ALPHA.

In investing, alpha is the measure of how much an investment beats or lags its benchmark, after adjusting for risk. So if a fund is expected, based on its risk profile, to match the market, and instead it does better, that extra slice of return is its alpha. Positive alpha means you outperformed; negative alpha means you underperformed.

The question’s second sentence is the big hint: a site called “Seeking Alpha.” Once you remember that’s a crowd‑sourced investing site, the word alpha should pop right into your head.

This is also a nice place to distinguish alpha from beta. Beta is about how volatile something is relative to the overall market—how much it moves when the market moves. Alpha is the “skill” part, the extra performance that isn’t just market exposure.

A couple of patterns to hold onto:

First, when the question says “letter‑named measure” and it explicitly says it’s not one character, that’s a signal to think about Greek letters written out as words: alpha, beta, gamma, sigma, that sort of thing. In finance, if the clue is “outperform the market,” that’s alpha.

Second, LearnedLeague loves to clue jargon via brand names. When you see a site, app, or fund name like Seeking Alpha, Betterment, Robinhood, or Vanguard in a business question, there’s probably a concept hiding in the name.

If you want to go a level deeper into alpha, beta, and how they show up in models like the Capital Asset Pricing Model, check the study notes on the website. There are some quick summaries there that can turn this from a half‑guess into a lock.

All right, let’s move from financial speed to literal speed.

Question 4.

“FILM - “Get ready for rush hour” was the movie poster tagline for what film, directed by Jan de Bont and released widely in the US in 1994 one week before O.J. Simpson’s low-velocity freeway chase in Los Angeles?”

The answer is: SPEED.

This is the 1994 action thriller starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, directed by Jan de Bont. The central premise is pretty simple: there’s a bomb on a Los Angeles city bus that will explode if the bus drops below 50 miles per hour. Hence, speed.

The tagline on the poster was “Get ready for rush hour.” The question also gives you 1994, Los Angeles freeways, and a release date just a week before the O.J. Simpson Bronco chase that was broadcast all over TV. That cluster of clues—LA freeways, 1994, rush hour—basically screams Speed.

A couple of film‑trivia angles to bank:

One, it’s surprisingly useful to remember a few famous taglines. Things like “In space no one can hear you scream,” or “You’ll believe a man can fly,” or, in this case, “Get ready for rush hour.” You don’t have to memorize dozens, but a handful associated with big hits can pay off.

Two, Jan de Bont as a director is a very short list. He’s best known for Speed and Twister after working as a cinematographer. So if you see his name and you know the clue is mid‑90s action, Speed should be right near the top of your guesses.

Three, LearnedLeague sometimes ties movies to real‑world events close in time—like this one coming out right before the Bronco chase—to give you another foothold. If you catch the year and the city, that can push you over the top.

If you’d like to review more ‘90s action movies, their taglines, and directors, check the study notes in the show notes on the website. It’s a great “low effort, high payoff” category to brush up on.

From LA freeways, we head to a very different kind of American landmark: a harbor in Rhode Island.

Question 5.

“POP MUSIC - Muddy Waters, Norah Jones, Brittany Howard, and Brandi Carlile are among those who have performed at both major genre-based music festivals founded by George Wein, one in 1954 and the other in 1959, in what northeastern U.S. city?”

The answer is: NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND.

The two festivals here are the Newport Jazz Festival, founded in 1954, and the Newport Folk Festival, started in 1959. Both were created by promoter George Wein, originally with backing from local patrons. They’re held in Newport, Rhode Island, now centered at Fort Adams State Park, right on the harbor.

These festivals have huge historical footprints. Newport Jazz helped bring modern jazz and blues to big outdoor audiences. Muddy Waters’ 1960 performance there is legendary. Newport Folk is famous for big moments like Bob Dylan going electric in 1965. More recently, artists like Norah Jones, Brittany Howard, and Brandi Carlile have played at both festivals, blurring the lines among jazz, folk, blues, and rock.

When you see the years 1954 and 1959 plus George Wein, those are almost always pointing to the Newport Jazz and Newport Folk Festivals. Once you have those names, you just need to remember the shared city: Newport, in Rhode Island.

Some patterns to remember:

First, festival + Newport should trigger “Newport Jazz” and “Newport Folk” almost automatically. There aren’t a lot of other famous music festivals that share a city name in their title like that.

Second, the years matter. Mid‑50s for jazz, late‑50s for folk is a nice pair to memorize. If you see a question about early American music festivals in the 1950s, Newport is a strong first guess.

Third, pay attention to founder names. George Wein is strongly tied to these two festivals, the way Bill Graham is tied to the Fillmore, or Quincy Jones is tied to certain big jazz productions. Founder names often serve as shortcuts to the venue or city.

The study notes on our site go into more about key performances, like Muddy Waters at Newport, and how artists like Norah Jones and Brittany Howard have appeared at both festivals. If music history is a weak spot, that’s a great place to spend a few minutes.

Now, for our last question, we move from music careers to political careers.

Question 6.

“AMER HIST - Who is the most recent U.S. president to have previously served in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives?”

The answer is: RICHARD NIXON.

Before he became the 37th president, Richard Nixon had a classic climb through Congress. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from California’s 12th district starting in 1947, then won a U.S. Senate seat from California in 1950. He served in the Senate until 1953, when he became vice president under Dwight Eisenhower, and eventually president in 1969.

Several earlier presidents had followed a similar path—serving in both the House and the Senate before the White House. John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson are examples. But after Nixon, no president has checked both of those boxes.

Later presidents with congressional experience, like Barack Obama and Joe Biden, came from the Senate only, not the House. Others, like Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter, came from governorships instead of Congress.

When a question asks for the “most recent” president with some specific career pattern, it often pays to work backward from today and mentally tick off each president’s background. Recent presidents: Biden, Obama, both Bushes, Clinton, Reagan, Carter, Ford—all of them either had only Senate experience, only House experience, or came from state offices. You eventually land on Nixon as the last one with both House and Senate service.

A couple of learning angles:

First, it’s worth having a short mental list of presidents who served in both chambers: John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Nixon. Even rough familiarity helps for elimination.

Second, “career pathway” questions show up a lot: governors‑turned‑presidents, generals‑turned‑presidents, former vice presidents who later became president, and, like this one, presidents with House and Senate time. Investing a little time in those patterns buys you a lot of coverage for American history rounds.

You can find a summary table of presidents and their prior offices in the study notes on the website if you want to build or review your own mental list.

All right, that’s all six questions from Match Day 10.

We covered:

– The first Major League Baseball game to be televised, and how it ties into other early TV firsts. – Ritter Sport and its trademark square chocolate bar. – Alpha as the measure of market outperformance that investors are always “seeking.” – Speed, with the “Get ready for rush hour” tagline and its eerie timing around the O.J. Bronco chase. – Newport, Rhode Island, home to the Newport Jazz and Newport Folk Festivals. – And Richard Nixon as the most recent president to have served in both the House and Senate.

If any of these tripped you up today, don’t sweat it. The whole point of this podcast is to turn those misses into the answers you’ll never forget next time.

For deeper dives, examples, and links to articles and videos, head over to llstudyguide.com and check the study notes for this match day. You’ll find everything we talked about here, plus some extra connections and memory hooks.

Thanks for listening, and good luck on the next match. Come back after your next day of play, and we’ll walk through that set together too.