Think You’re a Deadhead? Play This Game Show Podcast to Find Out

Four years ago, an announcement appeared on the Grateful Dead subreddit. “Casting Knowledgeable Deadheads for Pilot of Grateful Dead Game Show Podcast — Prize for Winner,” the message read. “It’s called Guess the Year .” That was followed up three months later with an Uncle Sam-style recruitment poster , featuring a skeleton pointing to the viewer. “We still need contestants!”

These posts were written by host Mike McClure, who launched Guess the Year in October 2022. The podcast is as self-explanatory as it sounds: each episode, several Deadheads join a Zoom call, listen to the first part of a Dead live track, and guess the year it’s from, based on clues like guitar and vocal style, song selection, keyboard playing, and so on. And just like a Final Jeopardy! round, contestants silently submit their answers to McClure via chat. He then reveals the answer, and whoever is furthest off is eliminated.

As McClure wrote on Reddit, Guess the Year is “a very fun combination of intense game show and completely relaxed hang between Heads.” But as he tells Rolling Stone during a Zoom call last spring, he had reservations about it at first. “I was mortified that I was just taking up everyone’s time, just annoying them, basically,” says McClure, 35. “They’d agreed to do this for this random kid, and now they’re just waiting to get off the call. But the moment I realized it was a good idea was when everyone started playing. They seemed to have a good time.”

Guess the Year is indeed a good time — a fascinating look into the minds of Deadheads as they contemplate where a song fits into the band’s 30-year career (strictly within the Grateful Dead catalog, as offshoots like Phil and Friends or Dead & Company are not included). Listen to a single episode and you’ll hear experts from all over the globe debating minute details casual listeners would never think of. Is this “Jack Straw” from January 1978, when Jerry Garcia had laryngitis and couldn’t sing? Is this “Franklin’s Tower” from 1991, given the euphoric keyboard sounds — as one contestant put it — like Vince Welnick winning Mario Kart? What about this crisp “Eyes of the World,” and how it seemingly has just one drummer, which narrows it down to 1971 to 1974, when Mickey Hart was out of the band? Or maybe this “Scarlet Begonias” is from 1977 because it just sounds…absolutely perfect? Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century

Unlike other music expert podcasts, this one is stripped of any mansplaining or ego — picture just a bunch of music lovers in a room, sitting by a fire and going deep on how young Bob Weir’s vocals sounded in 1970. And you don’t need to be a Dead scholar to participate. “People think that I’m auditioning somehow,” McClure says. “If you email me, you will get on the show.” There’s also a guest each episode selecting the songs; past curators include longtime Dead publicist Dennis McNally, Phil Lesh’s sons Grahame and Brian Lesh, and others (including this writer).