Emma and Mike talk about two of Mike's "Pun of a Kind" metas! If you've ever found yourself thinking, "I would like crosswords more if 30% of clues were puns," then oh boy have we got some puzzles for you!Links of interest:Pun of a ...

Emma and Adam talk about the first seven* Muller Monthly Music Meta puzzles from 2024! Spoiler warning for ALL of those puzzles, so go solve them first if you haven't already! *The first ~30 minutes of the episode is a discussion of the...

A long overdue discussion on the 2024 (or is it the 2023?) ORCA Awards, which were announced all the way back in March. Spoilers for all seven of the puzzles which were nominated for Best Contest Crossword this year!Links of interest:

Surprise! We played a whole 15-minute trivia game with Peter and Alex when they joined us last month that we didn't have time for in episode #31, so here it is now!Links of interest:Listen to the rest of the audio from our chat with...

Emma and Will sing about the periodic table! Wait what the... *checks notes*... who wrote these notes... *double checks notes*... this can't be right... *throws out notes*. Emma and Will talk about the May 2024 MMMM puzzle? Yes that sounds much...

The time has come! The episode that Will has been hyping for six months is finally here! Emma and Will talk with Peter Gordon, editor of Fireball crosswords, and Alex Eaton-Salners, prolific crossword constructor, about two meta puzzles Alex co...

Welcome to season four of Outside the Blocks! Emma and Will are joined by Mike Dirolf, creator of Crosshare, who they last chatted with back in episode 5, to talk about what's been going on over at everyone's favorite crossword sharing website....

Emma and Will talk about the final two Pandora's Blocks puzzles, "Form One Line, Please" and "Stepping Down." Spoilers for both of those puzzles!Pandora's Blocks may be ending, but Outside the Blocks will continue! More podcast episodes...

We're back! Emma and Will are back to talk about two more Pandora's Blocks puzzles. On the menu today is "First Place" and "Dropdown Menus." Spoilers ahead for both of those puzzles.Only two more Pandora's Blocks puzzles to go!L...

Emma and Will do some flower arranging outside a filling station! Wait... hang on a sec... *checks notes* ... Emma and Will fill in the blanks outside a flower shop? No, that doesn't sound right either... *checks notes again* who wrote these no...

Emma and Will talk about three more Pandora's Blocks puzzles! Spoilers for "Duplication Prohibited," "Get to Gettin'," and "Cold Opens."Links of interest:Pandora's Blocks: https://pandorasblocks...

Emma and Will are joined by speed solver extraordinaire, Adam Doctoroff, for a crash course in speed-solving and a discussion on the Muller Monthly Music Metas from 2023! Spoilers for 2023's MMMM puzzles ("Triple Up" and "Hope Springs Eternal" ...

Pandora's Blocks is back for one more season! Emma and Will talk about the first two puzzles of season six. Spoilers for "Do You Hear What I Hear?" and "Through the Five Hole" as well as for an older meta from over on the Muggles Forum, "Not a ...

Emma and Will take a look at some of their favorite metas from the past year! Spoilers for several metas from 2023. See below for links to solutions and other sites of interest.Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC):

Emma and Will solve a mini cryptic!Links of interest:Crosswords and Trivia by Stella Zawistowski: https://toughasnails.net/Oneth of the Month Mini Cryptic #18:

Will and Emma play Wordle and do mostly okay with geography!If you listened to our last episode, then we're sorry to say this is not the episode you want it to be - we do have a very exciting guest to talk to, but we had to postpone the...

Emma and Will explore a haunted house! Wait, that doesn't ... huh ...  *checks notes* ... oh hey that's basically right! Spoilers for Evan Birnholz's "The Haunted House" puzzle suite from Oct. 31, 2021.We're sorry to say we can't p...

Emma and Will have a hellishly difficult conversation. Wait, that doesn't sound right. Emma and Will *checks notes* have a conversation about a "devilishly hard" metapuzzle! Yes, that's it. (It's actually not that hard, don't be put off.) This ...

 Emma and Will chat with Mark Woychick, constructor of the puzzle "Fifth Wheels"  in the Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC) puzzle pack. This episode includes spoilers for "Fifth Wheels," so go solve it first if you haven't al...

Emma and Will chat with Josh Rubin, constructor of the puzzle "Half-and-Half"  in the Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC) puzzle pack. This episode includes spoilers for "Half-and-Half," so go solve it first if you haven't already!<...

Emma and Will chat with Mike Graczyk, constructor of the puzzle "Mixed Numbers"  in the Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC) puzzle pack. This episode includes spoilers for "Mixed Numbers," so go solve it first if you haven't already...

Emma and Will talk about their puzzles from the CCCC puzzle pack: "To Everything There Is a Season" and "Consider All Options." This episode includes spoilers for both of those puzzles.Guests will return next week!TO GET ACCESS ...

Emma and Will chat with Lydia Roth and Christina Bodensiek, constructors of the puzzle "That's the Spirit!" in the Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC) puzzle pack. This episode includes spoilers for "That's the Spirit!" so go solve it fi...

Welcome back to Outside the Blocks and to our first episode on the Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer puzzle pack! In this episode, Emma and Will talk to Peter Abide, constructor of the puzzle "You Can Get There From Here." Spoilers for that p...

Emma and Will wrap up season 5 of Pandora's Blocks! They also reflect on some of the other puzzles from this season, and they discuss what's next for Outside the Blocks. Spoilers for "Starting Rotation" and "The Big Four" as well as some older ...