Kousha Navidar: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Kousha Navidar. Guess what, It's Friday and one of my favorite parts about guest hosting this show is hearing what you've got planned for the weekend. Maybe you're listening right now and thinking, hey, guess what, I need ideas, or maybe you've got a great plan or event. Let's crowdsource. What do you recommend we should do this this weekend in our area? What are you doing that you want to share with us? Call or text us now at 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC. Or you can hit us up on Social. We're @allofitwnyc.

Also, I want to forward promote Monday's show just in case on your mind is that your weekend plans include watching the Severance finale. If that's the case, we'll be talking about it on the show on Monday with Aaron [unintelligible 00:01:02] who recaps the show for Vulture and we'll talk about March Madness with sports reporter Priya Desai. If you've got any events you want to shout out that your fellow listeners should consider checking out, how do you like to enjoy New York, especially during this time of the year that we've officially entered into spring, give us a call. 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC.

In my case, I'll start off since I'm asking folks to share. This week happens to be Nowruz or Persian New Year. Saturday is also my wife's birthday so we are having a party. It will be dual purpose. For Nowruz, if you've never celebrated before, we're going to be doing traditional things like decorating a table with special items to represent spring. Decorating eggs. We're getting wooden eggs because hey, we all know how expensive they are right now, and we're going to be jumping over fire to represent cleansing yourself of all the bad vibes from last year. On the birthday side of things, we'll have cake. I'm very excited about that, and happy early birthday Elise, my wife. Just want to give a shout-out.

Let's go to our first caller that we've got. This is Matt from Brooklyn. Hey Matt, welcome to the show.

Matt: Hey there, Kousha. It's great to be on the show.

Kousha Navidar: Great to have you. What's your plans this weekend?

Matt: My neighbors were giving away tickets to see Moby-Dick at the Metropolitan Opera. I took them up on their gift, and my wife and I are going to go on Saturday night.

Kousha Navidar: Oh, wonderful. That's really great. Are you a fan of the story of Moby-Dick?

Matt: I'm a bit of a fan. I'm actually a little bit. It's been a while since I've been familiar with it, so I'm going in cold, especially in the opera version. It'll be a nice surprise. But we don't get out to the Metropolitan Opera that often, so this will be a bit of a treat.

Kousha Navidar: Wonderful. I wonder if the whale will sing, Hello. Matt, thank you so much for that call. I hope you have a great time at that show. That sounds wonderful. The opera of Moby-Dick. We've got a text here. "I'm moving this weekend, so y'all are going to have to have fun without me. Living vicariously through the show." Good luck with that move. Moving in New York City or moving in this general area can be quite tough. Wishing you the best. Thanks for listening with us.

Maybe folks, you are just tuning in and you're wondering what we are talking about. We are asking for crowdsourcing for weekend plans. Are you doing anything fun? Call or text us now. We're at 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC. Are there any events you want to shout out that your fellow listeners should consider checking out? How do you like to enjoy new during this time of the year? That's spring. 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC.

We've got another text here that I want to read. It says, "Hello there. This is Andrew from Crown Heights. I plan to spend some of my weekend volunteering at the local farmer's market and then attending my weekend jiu-jitsu class. I hope everybody has a blessed day into the weekend. Happy spring as we continue." Andrew, thank you so much. Happy spring to you, too.

All right, while we screen your calls, let's hear a bit about what team All Of It is up to this weekend, starting with producer Kate Hinds. Senior producer Kate Hinds is playing Mahjong with her friends. She's in a club that has been meeting monthly for years. They play Chinese Mahjong, not American. Plus, she's going to a Nowruz party. I wonder whose party that is. Since it's the start of the spring migration season, she will definitely spend a day this weekend birding in Central Park.

I am happy to also have our producer Luke Green in the studio now to hear what he's got going on this weekend. I'm pretty sure I have one guess because Luke is the organizer of our office March Madness bracket pool. Luke, welcome to the show.

Luke Green: Kousha, it's great to be here. As they say. I like to say it's Friday, the keys are in the lock, and the weekend's about to open.

Kousha Navidar: Oh, I love that. That's such a wonderful outlook on the next couple days. Let's talk about March Madness. Luke, you're at the bracket pool. Can you explain exactly what that is?

Luke Green: Yes. Most of you probably will know what this is already, but basically the NCAA, which is like the National College Athletic Association, it puts on basketball tournaments for the men's and women's side of the game. Basically what you do is you fill out a bracket, which is essentially just picking which team you think is going to win, and then ultimately ending up in a winner.

Kousha Navidar: For each round, for each.

Luke Green: For each round. There's a round of 64, round of 32, 16, 8, final four to the championship. What a bracket pool is is essentially everyone gets together, fills out their bracket, sends it in. You could put money on it. You also don't have to. Then the winner gets a prize. It's good, especially for offices. I think it makes a pretty fun environment for two weeks to just poke fun at each other and things like that.

Kousha Navidar: It is wildly difficult statistically to have not even a perfect bracket, but just a pretty good bracket.

Luke Green: Yes. A perfect bracket. I don't know the exact number, but it's like one multiple thousands that the odds of that ever happening. It's even just crazy that we have one coworker. Malik, who's been on the show before and is great, currently has, I think, a 99th percentile bracket with only two wrong.

Kousha Navidar: Wow.

Luke Green: Malik's sports curious. Likes to enjoy stuff, but isn't, like, watching it every game. I think that's a great example of how you don't even have to like sports that much to still be into this thing.

Kousha Navidar: It's really interesting. People get all into it. Right. Why do you think that is?

Luke Green: There's a few reasons. First of all, I think just having a rooting interest in something. Even if you don't really care that much in the beginning, it just makes it easier to get excited. I also think this competition specifically, there are-- a 16 C can go up against a 1 C and beat them. It's happened before. These 16 C, they often play for schools you might have never heard of before. Their average height might be a foot less. There's like five foot nine dudes going up against like 6 foot 10 people and they can win.

Kousha Navidar: Right.

Luke Green: Then you can pick them to win. If it happens, all of a sudden you're on the website of their university and you're trying to buy some McNeese merch. You're like--

Kousha Navidar: You have this emotional connection out of nowhere, right?

Luke Green: Right. I think that is a great example of why this tournament, why I like it so much. Because there's those underdogs, those Cinderella stories, and at the same time, you and your coworkers, maybe you're spending time together, you're just having office chat, for these two or three weeks, you can-

Kousha Navidar: Everybody has something.

Luke Green: -have something else to bond over and talk about. If someone's bracket gets busted, you can, haha, sucks to suck. You know what I mean? You can poke some fun in a innocent way that still promotes a lot of camaraderie.

Kousha Navidar: We're talking a lot about this on Monday's show. If you're interested in this, we're going to have a whole segment about it. You should definitely check out on Monday. I got to say, I graduated from Duke and I feel like I am always the bad guy.

Luke Green: Boo.

Kousha Navidar: Exactly. I'll accept it. It's very well deserved. [laughter]

Luke Green: No, no, no.

Kousha Navidar: It definitely makes me feel like I have a new way of interacting with colleagues every March, when where you went to school comes up, where are you going to pick? Let me ask you, who is your pick for the men's and women's brackets?

Luke Green: Well, I should say this with a caveat in that I am not an expert. In fact, I'm so not an expert that I'm currently in second to last place in our office pool. But I can tell you based on some experience and watching a lot of the games this year, who I have picked. On the men's side, I-- We were speaking about Duke. Unfortunately, I did pick them to win. The reason I did so is because they're the No. 1 seed. One of the No. 1 seeds and they also have Cooper Flagg, who is likely going to be the number one NBA Draft pick this year. He's just insanely good. 6′10″ can shoot a lot fast, great passer. When I was trying to think who am I going to pick to win, I was just like, this guy, they have the best player. As much as it pains me to pick Duke, I did it.

Kousha Navidar: I welcome it. Go ahead.

Luke Green: On the women's side of the game, I spent some of my childhood in Connecticut, and so I'm a pretty big UConn fan. We are heading into the last year of Paige Bueckers' season with the UConn women, or I like to call her Paige Buckets. UConn has not won in almost 10 years a national championship, but they've dominated the women's game for most of the 2000s. Coached by Geno Auriemma. They're the 2 seed this year. I just have a feeling that they're going to win.

Kousha Navidar: That they're going to go all the way.

Luke Green: I just have a feeling that in Paige's last year-

Kousha Navidar: It's going to happen.

Luke Green: They're going to make that run. They're going to beat USC, beat South Carolina, beat UCLA, and we're going to have some blue and white skies.

Kousha Navidar: There's a lot of people that are following this this weekend. Folks be sure to tune in on Monday. Luke, I'm going to you to stick around while we take some more calls from folks to see what else people have going on this weekend. Let's go to Paul in Morristown. Hey, Paul, welcome to the show.

Paul: Hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. I'm going to be at my daughter's high school performance of Les Miserable weekend tonight, two shows tomorrow and show on Sunday. Looking forward to it. With that in mind, I just wanted to mention for people on a budget, there's a lot of good theater in the area. I could speak to North Jersey, I'm sure schools like LaGuardia and performing arts schools, and all sorts of schools around the area. Whether you want to get your kid into theater or just introduce them to it or you want to go, again on a budget and you can't afford Broadway prices. Les Mis Morristown High. I think there's still some tickets available. That's where I'll be.

Kousha Navidar: Awesome. Paul, that's wonderful.

Luke Green: I love that.

Kousha Navidar: Thank you so much. It's such a good point. There is so much good theater that's happening all around.

Luke Green: You can think about going to Broadway all the time. But also, as they pointed out, North Jersey has great theater. Upstate has great theater. Westchester has great theater. Connecticut, everywhere. I think the tickets are cheaper. The quality is just as good. I was tempted to break out into do you hear the people sing? But I will spare everyone.

Kousha Navidar: Well, that'll be a special pod drop for our listeners. Paul, I just want to say best of luck to your daughter. Break a leg. Can't wait to hear how it goes. That's wonderful. Let's go to Maria in New Canaan, Connecticut. Maria, hey. Welcome to the show.

Maria: Oh, thank you. Thanks for taking my call. I'm calling to give a shout-out to the play The Skin of Our Teeth. My husband has a small part in it, and it's showing at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Westport this weekend. I hear it's amazing. We'll see.

Kousha Navidar: Skin of Our Teeth.

Maria: Yes, The Skin of Our Teeth.

Kousha Navidar: Wonderful.

Maria: Then I'm also doing-- I'm a volunteer for hair and makeup. Shout out to another Les Mis show at the New Canaan High School. Another one this weekend. We opened last night, and I heard it was amazing. I was backstage, so I didn't see it, but I'll see it tonight. It's on tonight and tomorrow, two shows.

Kousha Navidar: Awesome. Where is that, Maria?

Maria: In New Canaan High School.

Kousha Navidar: New Canaan High School. Multiple high school productions of Les Mis. That's wonderful. I love hearing how people from across the area have parallel tracks. It makes me feel like this is a community, you know? That's wonderful.

Luke Green: We're all connected.

Kousha Navidar: That's wonderful. Thank you, Maria, so much for that. Let's go to Lindsey in Morris County, New Jersey. Lindsey, hey, how you doing?

Lindsey: Hi. I'm all right. Thanks for taking my call.

Kousha Navidar: Totally. What do you got going on this weekend?

Lindsey: This weekend I'm having my annual Friendsgiving that I do in the spring instead of the fall.

Kousha Navidar: Oh. very cool.

Lindsey: Having a bunch of people over, making a turkey, doing it all like Thanksgiving, but. I like to celebrate the first day of spring as if it's the new year like they do in some other cultures. It's just a great time of year to really look forward to spring coming and summer and getting all friends together and having a good time.

Kousha Navidar: I love that, Lindsey. I got to ask you, what is the dish you're most excited about eating or making?

Lindsey: Well, I love the turkey that I do because I have a really good recipe for-- It just tastes really good. Everyone else, they don't all love the turkey as much as I do. I don't know.

Kousha Navidar: Well, that's awesome, Lindsay. I hope you have a great time at your Friendsgiving. I love that idea. Thank you so much for calling and that's wonderful. I'm going to read some texts that we got coming in. Listeners, just to check in with you. If you just tuned in, we are getting a idea of what you all are doing this weekend. Spring is here. There's so much to do in this wonderful city in the surrounding region.

What are you up to this weekend? Or are you looking for something and you want to use the crowdsource power of New York City to get some suggestions? Give us a call, send us a text. We're here at 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC. I'm going to read some more texts coming in. Luke, this one's for you. "Doing my taxes and watching my NCAA bracket. Hopefully, not go bust." That's good multitasking there. A lot of statistics in there.

Luke Green: A lot of stress in there though.

Kousha Navidar: [chuckles] Yes, a lot of stress. Best of luck. We've got. "I highly recommend the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. I was there a couple weeks ago and it's great. Christina from the Bronx. Got another one. "Taking my husband to see the Moth Radio Hour live at our amazing local jewel, the Tarrytown Music Hall." That's Maggie from Sleepy Hollow, New York. Shout out to Maggie.

We've got another good text here. "I will be volunteering at QXR's Classical Kids Fair at Brooklyn Children's Museum this Sunday." That's Caroline from Forest Hills and community advisory board member. That's wonderful. Thank you all so much for those recommendations. I want to get to some more calls before we run out of time. Let's go to Robin in East Brunswick, New Jersey. Hey, Robin. Welcome to the show.

Robin: Hi.

Kousha Navidar: Hey, there.

Robin: I'm calling because this is New Jersey Makers Weekend and I don't know about other libraries, but I know that the East Brunswick Library is having a lot of activities for Makers Day at the library. There'll be different workstations all through the library. Crafts, robotics, 3D printing,-

Kousha Navidar: Cool.

Robin: -and it's a great place to go. Runs from 11:00 to 4:00 at the East Brunswick Public Library, 2 Jean Walling Civic Center Drive, East Brunswick.

Kousha Navidar: 11:00 to 4:00 at the East New Brunswick Public Library. Did I get that right?

Robin: Not new, not new. New Jersey has three different Brunswicks, east, north, and south. This is East Brunswick.

Kousha Navidar: East Brunswick, thank you. I wanted to make sure I got that right. Thank you so much. Really appreciate that, Robin. Here's a great text that we've got. It says, "My neighborhood civic group, Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council is sponsoring an iftar with the local Nigerian mosque. All are invited on Sunday at 6:30 PM." Let's go to Katrina in the Bronx. Hey, Katrina. Welcome to the show. What do you got going on this weekend?

Katrina: Hey, y'all. My wife and I just saw Dorian Gray on Broadway. Sarah Snook is terminally unique. It's the best thing I've ever seen in my life. But on Saturday night, we're going to go see Colton Castro and his band at the Delancey at 8:30. He's a young guy from my church and he is amazing. He's moving away soon, so it's probably the last time you'll get to see Colton and his band perform in New York.

Kousha Navidar: Oh, great shout-out. Katrina, thank you so much.

Luke Green: I want Katrina's life, the coolest New Yorker.

Kousha Navidar: That is a very cool life. Great taste. Katrina, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Let's go to what some of our team is doing this weekend. Simon Close, our producer, is catching up on the finale of Severance on Friday night and a lot of people are thinking about that. Are you thinking about that, Luke?

Luke Green: I am. I plan to watch it tonight. Just to plug that on Monday, we will be recapping the season again. Plan to be with us that day.

Kousha Navidar: I'm going to read this to close this out. On Saturday, Simon will also be participating in a bar crawl/hide-and-seek game that involves a chicken costume. Someone in the group will be selected to put on the chicken costume. The chicken heads to any bar of their choice within a certain radius. The rest of the group will be split into teams and each team will try to find the chicken.

First team to find the chicken wins. If you're in Williamsburg on Saturday and you see a chicken, please text Simon immediately. Then Simon wanted me to read this so I, of course, have to. A chicken crosses the road. He walks into a bar called the other side. Simon, thank you so much. Luke, how would you rate that joke?

Luke Green: Zero.

Kousha Navidar: I would give it a 10 out of 10. Thank you so much.

Luke Green: A fat zero.

Kousha Navidar: All right. Luke, we got about 15 seconds left. Anything else that you want to point out to listeners about this weekend?

Luke Green: I would only point out that as a UConn homer, I am very much rooting for my Huskies tonight and I am rooting for them to win their third straight championship.

Kousha Navidar: Awesome. Well, Luke, thank you so much for hanging out with us. We really appreciate all your tips and for listening with us.

Luke Green: Thank you, Kousha.

Kousha Navidar: Listeners, I want to say to you, thank you so much as well for your recommendations. It's always fun to hear from them. That's all of it. Thanks for listening. Coming up on Monday's show, we'll talk about the season finale of Severance, which Luke just brought up, the new Broadway musical Buena Vista Social Club, and also why even non-basketball fans are getting into March Madness. Thanks for listening. Always a pleasure to hang out with you. Have a great weekend.