PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Panel right now some questions for you about this week's news. Marina, a Canadian city is considering a major change that they say will make their children's lives better. They're going to make the city playgrounds more what?
MARINA FRANKLIN: To make it a better playground...
SAGAL: Well, they want to make it better for kids but in a surprising way.
FRANKLIN: (Laughter) Oh.
SAGAL: Maybe, maybe the pit of spikes at the bottom of the slide is a little bit much.
FRANKLIN: Oh, dangerous?
SAGAL: Yes, they want the playgrounds to be more dangerous.
FRANKLIN: So...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
FRANKLIN: Oh.
SAGAL: Yes.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: I don't know if you have been to a playground of late, but they're incredibly safe. The ground is very spongy. The monkey bars are low...
FRANKLIN: I don't go to playgrounds. It's not good for me.
SAGAL: No. (Laughter) What happens...
FRANKLIN: I can't be a grown woman just hanging out at a playground.
(LAUGHTER)
FRANKLIN: Seriously.
SAGAL: Try being a grown man. I'm just saying.
(LAUGHTER)
FRANKLIN: You're right.
PETER GROSZ: It's so hard being a man.
SAGAL: I - honest to God - no, no...
GROSZ: Very hard.
TOM BODETT: Seriously...
SAGAL: And child development experts are now saying that these ultra-safe playgrounds deny children important lessons they can only learn through play on the playground, lessons like gravity and the ground is hard.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: They have a point. I mean, going through some tough times in childhood is how you learn. For many of us, it was only the endless games of dodgeball in middle-school gym that keeps us today from trying to catch things with our crotch.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: So the city of Richmond...
GROSZ: I thought you were...
FRANKLIN: Can I just say? My lesson on a playground was a girl throwing up on the bottom of the slide right before I went down.
SAGAL: Oh, that's terrible.
BODETT: Yeah.
GROSZ: They're going to do that all the time now in Canada.
SAGAL: Yeah.
BODETT: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
GROSZ: They're going to hire government ministers to vomit at the bottom of the slide.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TEETER TOTTER LOVE")
(LAUGHTER)
(LAUGHTER)
THE BEACH BOYS FT. JASPER DAILEY: Teeter totter love goes up. Teeter totter love goes down. When I went down, my baby went up. And she came down, and I went flying up.
SAGAL: Coming up, our panelists do something they should not, and they enjoy it. It's our Bluff The Listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play. We'll be back in a minute with more of WAIT WAIT... DON’T TELL ME from NPR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.