The Puzzle Room With David Kwong Debuts on Netflix Tomorrow!

Just a quick bonus post on this day, the Mother’s Dayest of all days, to spread the word about a delightful puzzly program that will be debuting on Netflix tomorrow.

It’s called The Puzzle Room With David Kwong, and it’s a video podcast series. If you don’t know David, boy, you are missing out. He’s a crossword constructor, magician, and all-around expert in baffling people with both words and visuals.

He’s consulted on film and TV projects like Blindspot, Now You See Me, and The Imitation Game, and he’s previously combined magic and puzzles for his touring show, The Enigmatist.

Now he’s bringing his linguistic legerdemain and impressive works of mentalism to one of the world’s biggest streaming services.

Check out this promotional post from Netflix’s blog, Tudum:

Sometimes solving a challenging puzzle can feel like magic. That moment when the final piece clicks into place. The gasp before you lock in your answer. After all that time sweating, you finally feel like the smartest person in the room.

In the new video podcast series The Puzzle Room with David Kwong launching on May 11, every episode promises plenty of satisfying aha moments. The renowned magician, mentalist, and New York Times crossword constructor personalizes each puzzle for a pair of celebrity guests, leading to plenty of unexpected epiphanies and clues.

“We’re in a golden age of puzzles and games, and Netflix is the perfect home for viewers to stretch their brains with The Puzzle Room,” says Kwong. “From the intense strategy of Squid Game and the surprising twists of Knives Out, to the daily challenges of Netflix Puzzled and Best Guess Live, Netflix has long been the destination for smart entertainment. Get ready to put on your thinking caps, everyone! I can’t wait to puzzle with you all.”

Produced by Pod People, the series is designed in a way that viewers at home can play along, guests and fans face off in a race to see who can answer first. As the episode unfolds, the puzzles gradually increase in difficulty, with Kwong encouraging and celebrating every breakthrough. Each episode ends with a moment of mentalism or head-scratching illusions.

And no, Kwong won’t be sharing how he does it.

You can click here to check out a trailer for the show. Like one of his many magic tricks (either on stage or within the bounds of a crossword puzzle), I’m excited to see how David pulls this one off.

It’s Follow-Up Friday: Blind Spot edition!

[No, not THAT Blindspot. Though friend of the blog David Kwong works on that show…]

Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and bring the PuzzleNation audience up to speed on all things puzzly.

And today I’d like to return to the subject of optical illusions.

[Image courtesy of Geekologie.]

We’ve discussed optical illusions many times in the past, covering everything from the Necker Cube to the Dress, but today’s illusion is a little bit different.

The 12-dot optical illusion pictured above, also known as a Hermann grid, has been making the rounds lately, and although many puzzlers have accused people of using a video or an animated gif instead of a simple picture, that’s simply not true.

This is a static picture, but our eyes are not designed to capture 12 dots in view at once, so the others vanish when you focus on one dot in particular.

And the folks at ASAP Science have an explanation for this phenomenon! As it turns out, this illusion and others involve both how your brain processes visual information and how the natural structure of your eye creates a blind spot that some optical illusions exploit.

Check out the full explanation here:

So next time someone shares one of these optical illusions, you’ll be ready to explain how they work and show off your puzzly knowledge.


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