SYSK Gets Weird Playlist: The Creepy Legacy of the Hotel Cecil

Josh Clark (0:02)

The Hotel Cecil is probably best known as the site for the very sad death of Elisa Lamb in 2013, or maybe you know it as a setting in American Horror Story. It turns out that Elisa was just one in an unusually long line of deaths that took place in the Cecil, which seems to have had way more than its fair share of tragedy since it was built in 1924

I'll leave it to you to get to the bottom of what's up with the Hotel Cecil.

Chuck Bryant (0:32)

Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

Josh Clark (0:41)

Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant over there and Jerry's hanging around in the sun here, lurking. Like a haunted spirit in a haunted hotel.

And this is Stuff You Should Know.

Chuck Bryant (1:00)

Yeah. Can we do a couple of quick announcements?

Josh Clark (1:04)

Yeah, sure.

Chuck Bryant (1:05)

Without singing that announcement song?

Josh Clark (1:08)

Did we have an announcement song ever?

Chuck Bryant (1:10)

Well, not us, but like Summer Camp.

Josh Clark (1:12)

Okay.

Chuck Bryant (1:14)

You never did that?

Josh Clark (1:15)

No.

Chuck Bryant (1:16)

Well, I'm not going to sing it now, then.

Josh Clark (1:17)

I kind of want to hear it now.

Chuck Bryant (1:19)

No, no, no, no, no.

Josh Clark (1:20)

Was it like announcements, announcements? It's announcements time.

Chuck Bryant (1:24)

It sort of, almost. Yeah, that's close enough. Trigger warning for this one, first announcement, because there's some grizzly stuff in here.

I guess that's all we need to say.

Josh Clark (1:38)

Okay.

Chuck Bryant (1:38)

And then also, we've been remiss in that we haven't mentioned the fact that there's a Stuff You Should Know board game out.

Josh Clark (1:44)

Yeah, it's not grizzly at all.

Chuck Bryant (1:47)

No, it's very family friendly, in fact.

Josh Clark (1:49)

It's one of the highest honors that's ever been bestowed upon us in Stuff You Should Know, Chuck, because out of the blue, out of nowhere, about a year and a half ago, maybe?

Yeah. Trivial Pursuit, the makers of Trivial Pursuit got in touch with us and said, we want to do a Stuff You Should Know Trivial Pursuit game.

Chuck Bryant (2:10)

And they did.

Josh Clark (2:11)

It wasn't a practical joke.

Chuck Bryant (2:13)

The fine people at Hasbro, who I got to say, I mean, we've worked with a lot of outside companies for various projects. And boy, Hasbro is about as tight and buttoned up and awesome as any company we've ever worked with.

Josh Clark (2:26)

Right. But also like super friendly, super fun, super nice. And not in like that creepy, everybody's trying to be nice way. Like they're all just like a genuinely pleasant group to work with. But yes, they are super buttoned up as well. Very rare.

Chuck Bryant (2:40)

They make games.

Josh Clark (2:41)

Yeah, they make games.

Chuck Bryant (2:42)

They all seem like they make games for a living, which would mean that you have a pretty cool job. And developing the game with them was fun. And the questions are based on real Stuff You Should Know episodes. And it is not just Trivial Pursuit. It is co-branded. So it is not, do not expect to get the Trivial Pursuit game with the little pieces of pie.

Josh Clark (3:02)

No, no, they said we want to make up a brand-new game for this.

Chuck Bryant (3:06)

Brand-new game.

Josh Clark (3:06)

And they did. They made up a game. And this is the Stuff You Should Know Trivial Pursuit game.

Chuck Bryant (3:12)

That's right. And you can get it wherever you get games. I recommend your local little indie toy gaming store if they have it.

Josh Clark (3:19)

But otherwise, we would love the support. You got a weirdo in your town who dresses up in wizard clothes and goes to work, go buy your game there.

Chuck Bryant (3:28)

Great Christmas gift, by the way.

Josh Clark (3:29)

Yeah, for sure. Also, why just stop there? It's great for dads, grads, moms, proms, everything.

Chuck Bryant (3:38)

I think it's like 20 bucks, right?

Josh Clark (3:40)

Yeah, it's like really, really reasonably priced, if you ask me. Twenty dollars, 20 bucks. You got two 20s in your wallet, you could buy our book and the game at the same time.

Chuck Bryant (3:50)

So we did the TV show, we did a book, we do a podcast.

Josh Clark (3:57)

Don't forget our YouTube series.

Chuck Bryant (4:00)

Sure, who can?

Josh Clark (4:02)