KEALOA is a quiz game invented by Brian Cimmet involving two different words of the same length which may have one or more common letters. These words are often clued in such a way that there is no way to be sure of the correct answer without getting at least some of the crossings. Without any crossings, the only choice for the solver is to guess.
The game is played by two people: the clue giver and the guesser. The clue giver first chooses a pair of suitable words for the game, then chooses ten puzzles from the NYT crossword archive, some of which contain the first word as an entry in the grid and some of which contain the second word. The guesser is read the clue from each puzzle and must guess the correct answer with no crossings. The guesser is usually given additional context, such as the date of the puzzle's publication and the name of the puzzle's constructor.
On the Fill Me In podcast, Brian Cimmet is usually the clue giver, and Ryan Hecht is usually the guesser.
The name KEALOA derives from the first pair of words used in the game played on air: KEA and LOA, typically clued as "Mauna ___".
| Ep# | Date | Words | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 375 | 2023-01-03 | KEA vs. LOA | 5 | |
| 376 | 2023-01-10 | ROAM vs. ROVE | 5 | |
| 377 | 2023-01-17 | ACME vs. APEX | 5 | Played with Ben Zimmer (The Barnacle) (score: 8). |
| 378 | 2023-01-24 | ELUDE vs. EVADE | 6 | Final puzzle used both ELUDE and EVADE with the clue "Dodge". |
| 379 | 2023-01-31 | UGH vs. ICK | 4 | Played with Shannon Rapp (Norah Sharpe) (score: 4). Shannon won the tie-breaker. |
| 380 | 2023-02-07 | A TON vs. A LOT | 6 | |
| 381 | 2023-02-14 | CHAR vs. SEAR | 7 | |
| 382 | 2023-02-21 | LENTO vs. LARGO | 6 | |
| 383 | 2023-02-28 | AVER vs. AVOW | 6 | |
| 384 | 2023-03-07 | STAT vs. ASAP | 8 | Ryan got the first 6 correct. |
| 385 | 2023-03-14 | EON vs. ERA | 6 | |
| 386 | 2023-03-21 | CREED vs. CREDO | 7 | |
| 389 | 2023-04-11 | SCARCE vs. SPARSE | 6 | |
| 390 | 2023-04-18 | GAWK vs. GAPE | 7 | |
| 392 | 2023-05-02 | DOPE vs. DOLT | 4 | All but one answer was DOPE. |
| 393 | 2023-05-09 | BAA vs. MAA | 6 | |
| 396 | 2023-06-13 | ALTER vs. AMEND | 6 | Return of KEALOA |
| 399 | 2023-07-11 | DARN vs. DRAT | 6 | KEALOA is back |
| 401 | 2023-07-25 | OHO vs. AHA | 4 | |
| 402 | 2023-08-01 | ERS vs. ORS | 7 | 3-player KEALOA with Shannon Rapp and Will Eisenberg. Ryan came in second, and Will set the FMI record with 9/10 |
| 404 | 2023-08-15 | MONET vs. MANET | 3 | Ryan's worst-ever KEALOA performance |
| 405 | 2023-08-22 | SO DO I vs. SO AM I vs. AS DO I vs. AS AM I | 1 | Special 4-way KEALOA for the Season 8 Finale. Ryan sets the all-time world record for 4-way KEALOA. |
| 406 | 2023-08-29 | PSST vs. AHEM | 5 | |
| 409 | 2023-09-19 | EBAY vs. ETSY | 9 | KEALOA is back, and Ryan ties Will Eisenberg's record! |
| 410 | 2023-09-26 | ALPO vs. IAMS | 9 | Ryan ties his own record |
| 411 | 2023-10-03 | THIS vs. THAT | 7 | Ryan knows his sexless pronouns! |
| 412 | 2023-10-10 | A BIT vs. A TAD | 4 | |
| 414 | 2023-10-24 | IOTA vs. MOTE | 6 | Ryan also went 2 for 3 in the Extra Credit round |
| 415 | 2023-10-31 | SIS vs. SIB | 9 | Ryan wins in the long-awaited rematch with Shannon Rapp and Will Eisenberg! Shannon got 8; Will got 6. |
| 416 | 2023-11-07 | BLOB vs. GLOB | 6 | |
| 417 | 2023-11-14 | EGRET vs. HERON | 3 | |
| 418 | 2023-11-21 | I WIN vs. I WON | 9 | |
| 419 | 2023-11-28 | GEEK vs. NERD | 7 | Bazinga! |
| 420 | 2023-12-05 | AYE vs. YEA | 4 | |
| 421 | 2023-12-12 | SAMBA vs. TANGO | 6 | A "surprisingly delightful" performance from Ryan |
| 422 | 2023-12-19 | MAJOR vs. MINOR | 6 | A special "audio" KEALOA in which Brian played clips of the music being clued |
| 424 | 2024-01-09 | AVERT vs. AVOID | 9 | Ryan got the first 9 correct but managed to fight shy of a perfect score. |
| 425 | 2024-01-16 | LOAN vs. LEND | 2 | The first 8 answers were LEND. |
| 426 | 2024-01-23 | SOBA vs. UDON | 7 | |
| 427 | 2024-01-30 | SOUP vs. STEW | 8 | Ryan also went 7 for 10 in the “unfair” bonus round BEAT vs. BEST |
| 428 | 2024-02-06 | THEE vs. THOU | 8 | |
| 430 | 2024-02-20 | KEATS vs. YEATS | 7 | |
| 431 | 2024-02-27 | SPATE vs. SURGE | 3 | |
| 432 | 2024-03-05 | ARAL vs. URAL | 9 | |
| 433 | 2024-03-12 | ATOP vs. UPON | 7 | |
| 434 | 2024-03-19 | SEALY vs. SERTA | 9 | The reason Ryan didn't get 10 for 10 is because he got one of them wrong. |
| 436 | 2024-04-02 | ILLS vs. WOES | 7 | |
| 439 | 2024-04-23 | LYRE vs. HARP | 9 | Ryan got the first 9 correct, and even after claiming that he knew he would get the last one wrong, didn't change his answer and, in fact, got the last one wrong. |
| 440 | 2024-04-30 | JUDO vs. SUMO | 8 | |
| 442 | 2024-05-14 | YIKES vs. YIPES | 6 | |
| 445 | 2024-06-04 | COLA vs. SODA | 9 | Ryan had one chance to get 10 things right... and he didn't. He also played a second round using non-beverage clues and got 8/10, for a total of 17. |
| 451 | 2024-07-16 | RHINE vs. RHONE | 8 | Featuring the return of Lorelei. |
| 453 | 2024-07-30 | SCAT vs. SHOO | 5 | |
| 456 | 2024-08-20 | AGREE vs. ALIGN | 5 | |
| 458 | 2024-09-03 | OFFS vs. ICES | 5 | KEALOA is back by popular demand for Season 10! |
| 459 | 2024-09-10 | YAK vs. GAB | 5 | Ryan has a 4-week streak of going 5 for 10 and learns about eccentric rods. |