The World’s GEO QUIZ

Today’s Geo Texting game winners:


Eduardo in West Chester, PA

Jeanna in
Groton, MA

Angela in Queen Anne, WA

Texting Game Sign up to get the Geo Quiz delivered to your mobile phone via text message.

How do I play? Text the keyword GEOQUIZ to 69866 from your mobile phone. Instructions will follow via text. You will need to reply with your name and zip code to enter. Once you have signed up, you will receive a quiz every Wednesday. We expect to add other days fairly shortly. Simply tune-in to the show to see if you got the correct answer. Answers will also be sent via text later and posted on The World’s website at theworld.org/geoquiz.We will select three people who answered the quiz correctly and mention your first name and city during the broadcast and post here on theworld.org

What are the terms and conditions? By signing up for the Geo Quiz texting game, you are subscribing to receive text alerts from Public Radio International (PRI) and The World. The Geo Quiz is free, but message and data rates from your mobile carrier may apply. You may opt-out any time by replying STOP to a text message from PRI or The World, or by sending a request to theworld@pri.org. You must include the mobile phone number you want opted out.

Who can I contact to get more information? For more information about the Geo Quiz texting game and its guidelines email theworld@pri.org. The World’s Geo Quiz tests your knowledge of world geography, and introduces you to fascinating people and places around the globe. Produced by The World’s David Leveille. Geo Quiz Podcast on iTunes Geo Quiz Podcast via RSS

Geo Quiz theme music:

SONG TITLE: Diaraby

ARTISTS:Ali Farka Toure with Ry Cooder

CD TITLE: Talking Timbuktu

CD LABEL: World Circuit Purchase the CD here

Geo Quiz


Welsh Village With a Tongue-Twisting Name

A signboard in Betws-y-Coed village. (Photo: Ulybug/Wikiepdia)

For the Geo Quiz we are looking for a town with a name that is difficult to spell. Many visitors cannot pronounce the town and hence cannot search for it on the internet, which, the local tourism officials say, is a problem.

Read more

Canada’s Chateau Laurier Hotel Granting Amnesty to Guests Who ‘Lifted’ Items

Hotel Chateau Laurier in Ottawa is celebrating is 100th anniversary in 2012. (Photo: D. Gordon E. Robertson/Wikimedia)

To celebrate its 100th anniversary, hotel Chateau Laurier is collecting memorabilia that may have been ‘lifted’ by guests over the years.

Read more

Mdungu’s ‘The Gambian Space Program’

Benoit Martiny and Thijs Van Milligen, members of the band Mdungu. (Photo: April Peavey)

Between 1987 and 2005, Gambia had an emergency landing strip available to NASA. In their recent album, the nine-piece band Mdungu pays homage to Gambia’s brief ties with space.

Read more

Two Cruise Liners Turned Away from Argentina’s Southern Port

The Star Princess was denied entry into port Ushuaia, Argentina because of the tensions between Britain and Argentina over Falkland Islands. (Photo: Yankeesman312/Wikiepdia)

This port city in Tierra Del Fuego is sometimes called the southernmost city in the world.

Read more

Scottish Lawmaker in a Bar Brawl

Eric Joyce (Photo: Congliti/Wikipedia)

We are looking for a major landmark in London that is at the center of Britain’s political world.

Read more

Ruling on the 1804 Spanish Galleon Sunken Treasure

Odyssey discovered hundreds of silver coin concretions lying on the seabed at the “Black Swan” site. More than 500,000 silver coins, weighing more than 17 tons, were scattered over the site which comprised an area larger than six football fields. (Photo: Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc.)

We are looking for the place off the Spanish coast where a Spanish galleon sank with its treasure in 1804.

Read more

A Community North of Toronto that is Home to Several Music Bands

A street sign in Thornhill, Canada. (Photo: AndroidCat/Wikipedia)

We are looking for a small community near Toronto where Canadian singer Hayden and group The Philosopher Kings come from.

Read more

Video: Extreme Bike Race in Chile

A biker in action in Chile. (Photo: Josefina Bahamondes)

For the Geo Quiz we are looking for a city located about halfway down Chile’s long Pacific Coast that hosts an unusual mountain bike race that follows a very topsy turvy course.

Read more

Home of ‘Best’ Smoked Meat Sandwich

The smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz's deli in Montreal, Canada. (Photo: Steve Dolinsky)

For the Geo Quiz, we are looking for a Canadian city that is home to some of the world’s best smoked-meat sandwiches.

Read more

The Epic Migration of a Songbird

The Northern Wheatear is a tiny songbird that breeds in Arctic Canada and then migrates thousands of kilometres to Africa for winter. (Photo: Rolf Nagel)

For the Geo Quiz, we are looking for one of the breeding grounds in eastern Canada of the Northern Wheatear, the songbird with one of the largest ranges of any songbird in the world.

Read more

A List of Cities Compiled by International Economists

Zurich city at night. (Photo: Andyindia/Wikipedia)

Zurich, Tokyo, Geneva, Osaka Kobe, Oslo are the top five cities of a list compiled by international economists.

Read more

Slideshow: An Underground River in the Philippines

Boats approaching the Underground River cave. (Photo: Mary Kay Magistad)

For today’s Geo Quiz, we were looking for an island that is site of one of the new 7 Wonders of Nature, a river that burrows for five miles through a cave under a mountain.

Read more

‘Tintin in the Congo’ Not Racist, Court Rules

Tintin in the Congo (Cover Egmont Publishing)

“Blistering Blue Barnacles!” For the Geo-Quiz, we’re looking for the hometown of Georges Remi. You might know him by his pen name, Hergé. His depiction of life in the Congo has struck some these days as racist.

Read more

Mindful Eating Comes to America

Mindful Eating (Photo: Harvard Public Health/YouTube)

There’s a food movement called mindful eating that’s picking up speed in the US. led by Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hạnh. He has a food meditation center in southern France. For the Geo Quiz, we’re looking for the name of the French department or region where you can find Plum Village.

Read more

Indonesian Women to Get Husbands’ Salaries

The Governor of Gorontalo, Rusli Habibie, and his wife, Idah Syaidah (Photo: Government of Gorontalo, Indonesia)

Indonesian women are to get their husbands’ salaries, according to the Governor of Gorontalo Province. We’re looking for the island that Gorontalo lies on, for today’s quiz.

Read more