Podcast Script

Welcome back to the LearnedLeague Study Guide podcast, your quick post‑match companion to get a little smarter after every day of trivia.

I’m your host, and for the next little while we’re going to walk through all six questions from this match day. We’ll revisit the exact wording, talk through the correct answers, and then add just enough extra detail to make these clues stick in your memory for next time.

Remember, everything I mention here is backed up with fuller notes, names, and resources in the study notes on our website, llstudyguide.com. If something catches your ear and you want to dive deeper, just head there after you listen.

This set has a nice thread of European history and culture to start, then shifts into books, movies, and modern sports greatness. Let’s jump into Question 1.

Question 1 WORLD HIST - What term for a formal assembly of representatives, derived from a Medieval Latin word and used for a 1521 gathering in an imperial free city on the Upper Rhine near Frankfurt, is (per that Latin word’s literal definition) intended to describe a meeting lasting only one day?

The answer is: DIET.

So here, “diet” has nothing to do with food. It’s a political term. In Medieval Latin, there’s a word often given as “diaeta,” which got associated with the Latin word for “day.” That led to this idea of a “day” set aside for a formal assembly.

In the Holy Roman Empire, a diet was a big, official gathering of princes, nobles, and representatives. The most famous one you want to lock in is the Diet of Worms in 1521. That’s the event the question is hinting at: an imperial assembly held in the city of Worms, an imperial free city on the Upper Rhine, not too far from Frankfurt. That’s where Martin Luther was ordered to appear before Emperor Charles the Fifth and asked to recant his writings. When you see “1521” and “Upper Rhine near Frankfurt,” your brain should immediately shout “Diet of Worms,” and then remember that the type of meeting is called a “diet.”

One neat modern echo is the National Diet of Japan. That’s Japan’s parliament, and it uses this same sense of the word. So if you see “Diet of Japan” in a news article, you can mentally connect that back to the same root: a formal assembly or legislature.

If you want to build around this topic, you can check the study notes for:

• The Reformation and the key moments of Martin Luther’s life, like the 95 Theses and the Diet of Worms. • The structure of the Holy Roman Empire and what an Imperial Diet actually did. • And other uses of “diet” as a legislative term, especially in Japan.

All of that is laid out more fully in the notes on our website.

Let’s move from political assemblies to physical geography for Question 2.

Question 2 GEOGRAPHY - At 9,554 feet, Corno Grande in the Gran Sasso d’Italia massif is the highest peak in what mountain range?

The answer is: APENNINES.

Corno Grande, which means “Great Horn” in Italian, is the tallest peak in the Gran Sasso d’Italia massif, in the region of Abruzzo in central Italy. That whole massif is part of the Apennine Mountains. The Apennines run like a long spine down the length of peninsular Italy, from the north near the Alps all the way down toward Calabria in the south.

Elevation can help you here. Nine thousand five hundred fifty‑four feet is high, but not Alpine high. The big Alpine peaks like Mont Blanc are way higher. So when you see a mountain that tall, clearly in Italy, and it’s not in the Alps and it’s not a volcano like Etna or Vesuvius, your best bet is the Apennines.

The Apennines show up a lot in European geography questions. If you picture a map of Italy, the Alps form the northern border, and the Apennines are the inland backbone that everything else drapes around.

Adjacent things to study here include:

• The major mountain ranges of Europe: Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians, and Apennines, and which countries they run through. • Italian physical geography: where the Alps are, where the Apennines are, and key features like the Po Valley and Mount Etna. • And notable peaks of the Apennines, like Corno Grande and Monte Amaro.

You’ll find a quick comparison chart for those in the study notes.

Now we’ll head from mountains into modern art and one of the most infamous tents in art history for Question 3.

Question 3 ART - Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, a tent appliquéd with the 102 names of everyone the artist had ever shared a bed with (not just sexual partners), which was destroyed in a 2004 warehouse fire, was the first major confessional work of what leading figure of the Young British Artists movement?

The answer is: TRACEY EMIN.

This is one of those pieces of art trivia you really want to nail as a fixed pairing in your head: the tent with all the names equals Tracey Emin. The full title is “Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995.” It’s literally a camping tent, with the inside appliquéd with the names of 102 people she had shared a bed with. And that phrase “not just sexual partners” is important: it included family members, friends, even aborted fetuses, which gives you a sense of how personal and raw her work can be.

Tracey Emin is one of the stars of the so‑called Young British Artists, or YBAs, who came to prominence in the late 1980s and 1990s. They were known for shock value, concept‑driven work, and a lot of media attention. Emin’s art is very autobiographical and confessional. Another famous work of hers that often gets quizzed is “My Bed,” which is literally her bed, complete with trash, underwear, and all the mess around it, presented in a gallery.

The tent itself was destroyed in a big warehouse fire in 2004 that took out many works by Emin and other YBAs. So if you see a question about a tent listing everyone an artist ever slept with, and it mentions a 2004 warehouse fire, that’s your giveaway: Tracey Emin.

To expand your coverage in this area, you might look at:

• The Young British Artists as a group: people like Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, and how collector Charles Saatchi helped make them famous. • Tracey Emin’s other key works, especially “My Bed,” which pairs nicely with this tent in a lot of quizzes. • The general idea of “confessional” or autobiographical art in the late 20th century.

The study notes on the website have a short list of YBA names and their signature works, which is great to memorize because they show up a lot.

From confessional art, let’s jump into the world of book publishing for Question 4.

Question 4 LITERATURE - The English imprint that, since its founding as a publishing house in 1935, has aimed to produce and market high-quality paperbacks that are affordable and accessible to the general public, was named by co-founder Allen Lane (hat-tip to secretary Joan Coles) after what bird?

The answer is: PENGUIN.

The imprint here is Penguin Books. Allen Lane founded Penguin in 1935 with a simple but revolutionary idea: high‑quality literature in cheap, well‑designed paperbacks that you could buy in places like train stations and chain stores. The goal was to make “good books cheap enough to be snapped up,” instead of being expensive hardcovers only for wealthier readers.

The question is asking not for the company name, but specifically: after what bird? That’s the penguin, the little black‑and‑white mascot you see on all those classic orange spines.

According to the origin story, Lane asked his staff for a mascot that would be, in his words, “dignified but flippant.” His secretary, Joan Coles, suggested a penguin. Then a young designer named Edward Young went off to the London Zoo to sketch real penguins, and those sketches evolved into the logo that’s still used today.

It’s also worth knowing that Penguin later spun off related imprints like Pelican Books for serious non‑fiction, and that Lane was influenced by an earlier continental paperback publisher called Albatross Books. So there are a few bird names floating around in this area, but for 1935 British mass‑market paperbacks, Penguin is the key one.

To build out this topic, you might explore:

• The history of paperback publishing in the 20th century and how Penguin changed reading habits. • The different Penguin color schemes: orange for fiction, blue for biography, green for crime, and so on. • Related imprints like Pelican and how they fit into publishing history.

We go into more detail on Lane’s story and Penguin’s design in the study notes if you want that extra bit of context.

Next, we move to the early ’90s, Seattle, and a very specific apartment building for Question 5.

Question 5 FILM - A complex at 1820 E. Thomas St. in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood serves as the central setting of what 1992 film and grunge-era Gen X classic?

The answer is: SINGLES.

This is the Cameron Crowe movie from 1992. “Singles” is a romantic comedy‑drama about a group of twenty‑somethings living in Seattle during the height of the grunge scene. The apartment complex at 1820 East Thomas Street, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, is where the core characters live. In real life it’s called Coryell Court, but among movie and music fans it’s often just “the Singles building.”

The film is packed with early ’90s Seattle flavor. It was shot on location around the city and features cameos and performances from bands like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. So when you hear “1992,” “grunge‑era,” “Gen X classic,” and a specific Seattle address, you should think of “Singles” before anything else.

If you’re mixing this up with “Reality Bites” or other Gen X movies, keep in mind those are set elsewhere and don’t have this very specific Seattle apartment complex as the central hub.

A few adjacent things worth looking at are:

• Other key ’90s Gen X movies and how they reflect different cities or scenes: “Reality Bites,” “Clerks,” “Slacker,” that kind of thing. • Seattle’s role in grunge music, including Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, and how they connect to the soundtrack of “Singles.” • Director Cameron Crowe’s filmography, since he also directed “Say Anything…,” “Jerry Maguire,” and “Almost Famous,” all of which show up in trivia.

We’ve got a short filmography list and some music cross‑references in the show notes if you want to drill into that Seattle moment.

Finally, we finish in the present day with a genuine modern sports legend in Question 6.

Question 6 GAMES/SPORT - Name the woman, arguably the greatest player in women’s basketball history, who in 2025 won her fourth WNBA Most Valuable Player award, along with Defensive Player of the Year and Finals MVP honors, as she led the Las Vegas Aces to their third title in four years.

The answer is: A’JA WILSON.

A’ja Wilson is a forward for the Las Vegas Aces, and by 2025 her résumé is just astonishing. That season, she won her fourth WNBA Most Valuable Player award. No one had ever done that before. She’d already won MVP in 2020, 2022, and 2024. In 2025 she added number four.

On top of that, in 2025 she shared Defensive Player of the Year honors, making it her third Defensive Player of the Year award. And then she capped it all off by leading the Aces to their third championship in four seasons and winning Finals MVP. So in one year, you’ve got league MVP, co‑Defensive Player of the Year, and Finals MVP, all stacked together.

When a question mentions the Las Vegas Aces, multiple WNBA MVPs, multiple titles in a short window, and it’s talking about the mid‑2020s, that’s going to be A’ja Wilson. Her dominance is that clear.

Her broader career includes:

• Four WNBA MVP awards. • Three Defensive Player of the Year awards. • Multiple scoring and blocks titles. • Three WNBA championships with the Aces: 2022, 2023, and 2025.

She was also a standout in college at South Carolina, winning national titles there, and she’s been a force for Team USA internationally. It’s no surprise that people are now putting her into the “greatest ever” discussion for women’s basketball, alongside names like Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Diana Taurasi, and Maya Moore.

To flesh this field out for trivia, you might study:

• The list of multiple‑time WNBA MVPs and which teams they played for. • The recent history of the Las Vegas Aces, their move from San Antonio, and their rise into a mini‑dynasty. • And a quick timeline of major eras in the WNBA: early Houston Comets dominance, the Sparks, the Lynx, and now the Aces.

We lay this out in a simple table in the study notes so you can see how Wilson’s awards stack up against other legends.

And that’s our run‑through of this LearnedLeague match day.

Today we touched on a Reformation‑era assembly called a diet, the Apennine backbone of Italy, Tracey Emin’s unforgettable confessional tent, the birth of cheap quality paperbacks under the Penguin banner, the Seattle apartment building immortalized in “Singles,” and A’ja Wilson’s case for being the greatest in women’s basketball.

If any of these answers felt shaky during the match, treat them as anchors for future learning. Each one opens up a whole little network of related facts you can add to your mental map.

For deeper dives, extra names, timelines, and visual hooks, head over to llstudyguide.com and check the study notes for this match day. We’ve got links, quick reference tables, and memory tips for all six questions.

Thanks for listening, and for making time to learn from your misses as well as your gets. Come back next match day and we’ll walk through another set together.

Until then, good luck in your next match, and happy studying.