Desperate and Appauling

Which country has the most pyramids? What is a mountweazel? How can you always have a beautiful girl on your arm? Some of the crazy questions that Paul and Des pose in this podcast.

Shay Grewal on BBC Radio London chats to Paul Sloane about 1001 Pieces of Absolutely Useless Advice (co-authored with Des MacHale) and lateral thinking topics.

We talk about our new book, 1001 Pieces of Absolutely Useless Advice. It is packed with atrocious advice, juvenile jokes and terrible tips. Listen to this short podcast to hear many, many examples.

We chat about things that annoy us from tattoos to cancel culture, onions to ballet.

Paul is in Cork in Ireland visiting Des and they chat about words and language. There are some puzzles from their book, World's Best Word Puzzles.What word has a triple letter with no hyphens? What word has three double letters in a row? Answers in the episode

Paul and Des meet in Cork and chat about why puzzles are so popular yet mathematics is not. They also cover; What games promote thinking? Questions of morality and ethics, Lateral thinking puzzles, Assumptions, Questions and much more.

We discuss everyday examples of lateral thinking, set a lateral thinking puzzle, describe a clever idea to deter speeding in Estonia and review a proposal to increase fitness and generate electricity. Plus comments on Paul's new book, Lateral Thinking for Every Day.

Des and Paul choose and recite some of their favourite poems - tragic, heroic and funny.. Do you agree with their selections?