Buzzy Cohen Hosts The Einstein Challenge

Unbeknownst to me until this past weekend, Buzzy Cohen hosted a series of shows on the History Channel called The Einstein Challenge. Buzzy is a 9x Jeopardy! champ and winner of the 2017 Tournament of Champions, as well as a co-host on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast. He is a huge favorite of many Jeopardy! fans, including Fikkle Fame!

The show is based on Einstein’s statement “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” So they bring on experts as contestants to explain various topics to kids. The experts have 60 seconds to explain their topic to a panel of 3 children. Buzzy then tests the kids to see how much they were able to retain.

The entire first season of The Einstein Challenge is available On Demand on one of our TV subscriptions so I decided to watch an episode with my 9-year old grandkids, Jax and Julie. I thought the kids on the panel were about 6, but at least some of them are 8 or older. Some are professional actors.

I chose Episode 12 which is about “food that’s hard to swallow.” My instincts were right on: they covered hot peppers (the twins are Texans) and gelatin (I love Jello!)

The panel: Eastyn, Cinai and Jacob

The experts: Colette Christian, a certified master baker whose shares her skills on Baking with Colette; and Katherine Spiers, a food historian and host of the podcast Smart Mouth

Round 1: Colette got 60 seconds to explain why chili peppers are hot. That should be a piece of cake for a master baker, right? Colette gave a very animated presentation. Unfortunately, she ran out of time before she could finish talking about the hot pepper antidote. The kids only got one question right. (They weren’t asked about the milk.)

• Where is most of a spicy pepper’s capsaicin located, inside or out?

Katherine got 60 seconds to explain how gelatin is made. She demonstrated how collagen is extracted from animal bones and turned into gelatin and what happens to it when you add water. Katherine finished her presentation with 8 seconds to spare but had nothing more to add. Again the kids only got one question right.

• What is the primary way of extracting collagen from animal bones?

The experts got $300 each for the 2 correct answers so they were tied at the end of the round.

Round 2: Katherine came back to explain how people train for eating contests. The children got 2 correct answers.

• What does our body satiety reflex normally do?
• If you have a “Roman incident” in an eating contest, what did you just do?

Colette returned to explain how coffee is decaffeinated. Again, Colette seemed to think her animated gestures would help the kids remember pertinent details. Again, the kids only got one question right.

• Name one of the ways the solvents are removed at the end of the process.

At $500 per correct question, Colette finished with $800. With $1,300, Katherine won a shot at $5,000. She got one more topic to explain: why eating fugu is so dangerous. Katherine explained how deadly the poison in the pufferfish is and the only parts that are safe to eat. There is only one question in this last round and it is only given to the child Katherine chooses. Katherine chose Eastyn.

• The deadly tetrodotoxin is found everywhere in the pufferfish except which part?

Eastyn was allowed to check his response with Cinai and Jacob. They agreed with him and he was right. So Katherine won the grand prize of $5,000. The kids on the show got 6 out of 13 questions right. Julie got 8 out of 13. Jax got 6 right but he wandered off before the final round so that was 6 out of 12.

My opinion: The experts don’t seem to know what the kids will be asked. Otherwise, they could concentrate on those details and avoid getting blamed for wrong answers. All the same, I think kids will enjoy the show and adults will certainly enjoy watching with their kids or grandkids. I did.