Updated with new questions at 12:55 p.m. ET on February 10, 2026.
You won’t find this in Cortina d’Ampezzo over the next few weeks, but for several decades of the Olympics’ history, the contest awarded medals not just for sport but for art too.
In the Summer Games from 1912 to 1948, musicians, painters, and plenty of other aesthetes went brain-to-brain in events such as lyric poetry and chamber music. “Town planning” was even contested one year under the umbrella of the architecture competition.
Lest you think the arts’ inclusion odd—one wonders what muscles need stretching before going for gold in watercolor—the submissions had to be at least about sports.
The Olympic committee ought to bring these events back. Well, maybe not town planning—but add trivia to the mix instead. Organizers can throw in a few sports questions for good measure, but with trivia, if you’re not working up a sweat thinking, you’re not doing it right.
Find previous questions here, and to get Atlantic Trivia in your inbox every day, sign up for The Atlantic Daily.
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
- The inaugural Golden Globe for Best Podcast was awarded last month to Good Hang, hosted by what comedian (and four-time Golden Globes emcee)?
— From David Sims’s review of the first episodes of Pete Davidson’s new podcast - At the opening ceremony of this year’s Winter Olympics, the musician Giovanni Andrea Zanon played a 300-year-old violin built by what master famed for his long-lasting string instruments?
— From Ellen Cushing’s article on the retro feel of the Olympic kickoff - In the capital city Ashgabat, a 40-foot-tall golden statue honors Saparmurat Niyazov, former president of what country?
— From Gal Beckerman’s essay on President Trump’s monuments to himself
And by the way, did you know that—well, where to begin with Ashgabat? The massive statue of Niyazov is, like, the ninth thing you notice about the city.
All the marble hits visitors first. The capital has nearly 550 buildings clad in white marble, the highest concentration anywhere in the world. Combine that with the desert setting and the wide avenues that international visitors report as spotless and eerily empty, and you get an otherworldly effect.
Hoping to get around the ghostly city? Enjoy your ride in a white car; darkly colored cars are outlawed. You can head to the airport modeled on a flying white falcon, or to the world’s largest enclosed Ferris wheel, made of white steel. There is also the massive (white) Palace of Happiness, which can accommodate seven weddings at once. And in case you were wondering, brides in the country typically wear—got you here!—red.
See you tomorrow.
Answers:
- Amy Poehler. To begin with, David isn’t really sure that Davidson’s new project is a “podcast”: You can watch it only on video and, then, only on Netflix. But if we’re judging it as a podcast, then we should judge it a failure, David says—too slack, too slouch. Celebrities hanging out does not always a hit podcast make. Read more.
- Antonio Stradivari. His instruments—each of which is known as a Stradivarius—are a core part of Italy’s heritage, which skews very, very old; Ellen writes that Italy is “a country whose best-known cultural influences lived during the Renaissance.” But she imagines that’s not the sole reason this Games’ opening show was so focused on the past. Read more.
- Turkmenistan. If the size of the statue that Niyazov built doesn’t telegraph his opinion of himself, consider that it used to rotate 360 degrees every day so that it always faced the sun. Likewise, Gal writes, Trump’s instinct to monumentalize himself is clarifying—and alienating—for anybody watching. Read more.
How did you do? Come back tomorrow for more questions, and if you think up a great question after reading an Atlantic story—or simply want to share a fact—send it my way at [email protected].
Monday, February 9, 2026
- What is the name—all too familiar to athletes—of the knee ligament between the femur and tibia that acts as a stabilizer for pivoting motions?
— From Sally Jenkins’s essay on Lindsey Vonn’s Olympic spill on the ski slopes - The tradition of crotch-related controversies at the Super Bowl halftime show can be traced to the 2007 performance by what artist (or “the artist formerly known as” what)?
— From Spencer Kornhaber’s article on Bad Bunny’s buoyant performance - Despite its name, what beverage actually contains only 3.25 percent fat, rather than the full 4 percent or more that naturally occurs?
— From Sarah Zhang’s article on what happens to all that extra fat
And by the way, did you know that humans have a bone that does not connect to any other? We think of the skeleton as pretty contiguous, but in the middle of the neck, the hyoid bone, which supports the base of the tongue, is articulated only distantly to the rest of the skeleton by muscles and ligaments. It is, as scientists call it, a “floating bone.”
Because it’s not readily attachable, the hyoid is often left off of model skeletons. High-end ones hang it with string or wire.
You know how to select a good avocado (squeeze) or watermelon (slap); now, next time you’re skeleton shopping, you’ll be able to pick a winner.
Answers:
- ACL. Vonn, the American favorite in this Olympics’ downhill-skiing competition, tore her left ACL just more than a week before competing. But, as Sally writes, the 41-year-old who had spent decades pushing her body to the limit was never going to bow out rather than risk further injury. Read more.
- Prince. Spencer writes that the sight of (and scattered pearl clutching over) Bad Bunny’s crotch grabs is actually refreshing—that amid the suffocating “fascism discourse” elsewhere, some sexy gyrating feels “subtly throwback-y and weirdly wholesome.” Read more.
- Whole milk. As Sarah reports, the milk that cows produce hovered for decades around 3.65 percent fat by weight, but selective breeding in recent years has pushed it as high as 4.24 percent. This has led to a great butterfat glut; cheese makers find the milk too rich to work with, and dairy farmers selling whole milk at 3.25 percent fat have to figure out where to put all the excess. Read more.
