Friday, September 4, 2026 — Julian Xiao Cranks it Up to 11! 😱🥳

Both cohosts struggled mightily with today's crossword, the third from Julian Xiao since 2024. Here are just a few clues, to give you a taste of the difficulty level (spoiler alert: it's *high*): - 28A, Cooking term whose name is composed of two synonyms for "criticize", PANROAST (excellent!) - 57A, System by which all speech is protected?, SECURELINE (tricky *and* a debut) - 23D, First country to elect a female prime minister (1960), SRILANKA (nice!) We cover quite a few more in today's podcast, and have a terrific Fun Fact Friday segment / game for your enjoyment, so get it now, hot off the presses (um, so to speak)! Show note imagery: The Shanghai Maglev, the fastest passenger train in the world We love feedback! Send us a text... **Contact Info:** We love listener mail! Drop us a line, crosswordpodcast@icloud.com. Also, we're on FaceBook, so feel free to drop by there and strike up a conversation!