How To Do Everything
How To Do Everything

How To Do Everything

NPR

Overview
Episodes

Details

Half advice show. Half survival guide. Half absurdity-fest. (Wait, how does this work again? We're not numbers people.) Each episode, we answer all your burning questions, from how to survive a public bathroom to how to get close to a panda. When we don't know the answer, which is roughly 92% of the time (again, not numbers people), we bring in overqualified experts to help out. So you'll eventually walk away knowing how to do everything. That's what happens when you're one & a half shows. From the team at Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

Recent Episodes

One-Liners and Free Throws
DEC 10, 2025
One-Liners and Free Throws

Ian and Mike help a listener lighten the mood with her clients, help another listener mess with an opponent’s free throw shot, and Peter Sagal shares his secret for falling asleep on an airplane.

You can email your burning questions to [email protected].

How To Do Everything is available without sponsor messages for supporters of Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me+, who also get bonus episodes of Wait Wait Don't…Tell Me! featuring show outtakes, extended guest interviews, and a chance to play an exclusive WW+ quiz game with Peter! Sign up and support NPR at plus.npr.org.

 

How To Do Everything is hosted by Mike Danforth and Ian Chillag. It is produced by Schuyler Swenson and Heena Srivastava. Technical direction from Lorna White.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

play-circle icon
26 MIN
Volcanoes and Roosters
DEC 3, 2025
Volcanoes and Roosters

This week from the archives: how to make s’mores with a volcano. Plus a barn animal sanctuary worker wants to know how to live harmoniously with roosters.


You can email your burning questions to [email protected]

How To Do Everything is available without sponsor messages for supporters of Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me+, who also get bonus episodes of Wait Wait Don't…Tell Me! featuring show outtakes, extended guest interviews, and a chance to play an exclusive WW+ quiz game with Peter! Sign up and support NPR at plus.npr.org.

 

How To Do Everything is hosted by Mike Danforth and Ian Chillag. Technical direction from Lorna White.


Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

play-circle icon
18 MIN
Carsickness And Traffic Jams
NOV 26, 2025
Carsickness And Traffic Jams

Ian and Mike look to the skies to help a listener solve her problem with motion sickness. Plus, a survivor of the longest recorded traffic jam in history shares how she got through it.

You can email your burning questions to [email protected].

How To Do Everything is available without sponsor messages for supporters of Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me+, who also get bonus episodes of Wait Wait Don't…Tell Me! featuring show outtakes, extended guest interviews, and a chance to play an exclusive WW+ quiz game with Peter! Sign up and support NPR at plus.npr.org.

 

How To Do Everything is hosted by Mike Danforth and Ian Chillag. It is produced by Schuyler Swenson and Heena Srivastava. Technical direction from Lorna White.


Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

play-circle icon
19 MIN
The Gilligan Rule
NOV 19, 2025
The Gilligan Rule
This week from the archives: a fire captain puts out a fire with the help of an unexpected beverage, showrunner Vince Gilligan discloses when it’s appropriate to drop a spoiler, and what ever happened to the lost fourth Rice Krispie elf?

You can email your burning questions to
[email protected].


The first-ever NPR Pod Club Awards are coming up, and YOU get to crown the winner of the People’s Choice Award. Vote for our show here!

 

How To Do Everything is available without sponsor messages for supporters of Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me+, who also get bonus episodes of Wait WaitDon't Tell Me! featuring show outtakes, extended guest interviews, and a chance to play an exclusive WW+ quiz game with Peter! Sign up and support NPR at plus.npr.org.

 

How To Do Everything is hosted by Mike Danforth and Ian Chillag. It is produced by Stephen Tobias. Technical direction from Lorna White.


Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy
play-circle icon
16 MIN
Broadway Musicals And Best In Show
NOV 12, 2025
Broadway Musicals And Best In Show

This week: A Broadway star tells us how he finished the New York Marathon and then performed in two shows back to back, a wife seeks advice on how best to shave her hairy companion, plus, are the lyrics to Bye Bye Birdie what we think they are?

You can email your burning questions to [email protected].

How To Do Everything is available without sponsor messages for supporters of Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me+, who also get bonus episodes of Wait Wait Don't…Tell Me! featuring show outtakes, extended guest interviews, and a chance to play an exclusive WW+ quiz game with Peter! Sign up and support NPR at plus.npr.org.

 

How To Do Everything is hosted by Mike Danforth and Ian Chillag. It is produced by Heena Srivastava and Schuyler Swenson. Technical direction from Lorna White.

******

And if you’d like us to be your out of office emergency contact, use this copy:

“I am OOO from (INSERT DATES HERE). For any urgent concerns, please email Mike and Ian at [email protected]. Please bear in mind that Mike and Ian don’t know anything about anything and their help may in fact make your urgent concern worse, but they did promise to answer any email they get from this out of office message.”


Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

play-circle icon
18 MIN