W. Kamau Bell
W. Kamau Bell is a Peabody Award winner, 4X Emmy Award winner, documentary filmmaker, stand-up comedian, Celebrity Jeopardy! champion, Official Ambassador of the band Fishbone, self-proclaimed #1 Bruce Lee Expert…
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The interview opens with Kamau welcoming Ken Jennings and reflecting on how they first met at a Seattle Bumbershoot festival through comedian Doug Benson’s podcast. They bond over the classic era of Twitter, agreeing that their generation of Gen Xers had one social media platform they tolerated before it deteriorated.
Kamau shares his admiration for Jennings as a Jeopardy! host, recalling how smooth and natural Jennings appeared when Bell appeared on Celebrity Jeopardy!. The two discuss how Jeopardy! built itself around Trebek over decades, and Jennings admits he was skeptical the show would survive after Trebek’s passing.
Jennings describes the difficult circumstances of stepping into the hosting role, explaining that he was originally scheduled to guest host while Trebek underwent cancer treatment, only to receive a call the morning he was due to rehearse informing him that Trebek had died overnight. Jennings felt compelled to continue because crew members told him he reminded them of Trebek.
The conversation turns to Jeopardy!’s cultural significance, its loyal multigenerational audience, and its role as a rare steady long-term job in show business. Jennings discusses his hosting philosophy of receding into the background, following Trebek’s ethos that the show should be about the players and clues.
The interview then addresses Jennings speaking out politically on issues including immigration enforcement, trans rights, and reproductive rights, with Jennings framing this as a matter of personal conviction rooted in his Latter-day Saints upbringing.
Donate to World Central Kitchen at wck.org and support Scarecrow Video at scarecrowvideo.org. Support families in Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan at anera.org. Donate to immigration relief at alotrolado.org.
Who’s With Me is produced by Rabbit Grin Productions. Music by Chris Dowd. Distributed by Pushkin Industries.
Hey everybody, it's me, W.
00:16
Speaker 2
Kamau Bell, coming to you live from Oakland, California, but recorded by the time you hear this. Today is episode 17 of Who's With Me, my podcast, and my guest today is Ken Jennings, best known as being the host of the game show Jeopardy. I've known Ken for a while now. I've actually known him since he was just a Jeopardy champion. We weren't best of friends, but we were on the podcast circuit together, as we talk about in this. And I've gotten to know him better because I... was your 2025 Celebrity Jeopardy champion. So we did a lot of events together when I was the Celebrity Jeopardy champion. And then I competed again in Celebrity Jeopardy All-Stars this year where I was not the Celebrity Jeopardy champion. It was Mina Kimes. But anyway, happy to talk to Ken. Happy he took time out of his day. I was in Seattle for a gig, and he lives up there, so he politely took time out of his weekend to come be on the podcast. Thanks to Ken. Thanks to the studio up there. Really appreciate it. Uh, we'll talk more about him in a little bit. Uh, stand updates again, Stanford, Connecticut, September 25th and 26th. That's coming up soon. Please get your tickets soon. Uh, Stanford university, October 1st, and then coming up not so soon, Bellingham, Washington, February 20th, 2027. Just to be clear, I do other things other than standup comedy. I have other things coming up doing facing race. That's coming up in Louisville, Kentucky, just Google facing race. If you want to go See me at Facing Race. I just tend to only promote the stand-up dates, but yeah, I'm always doing random speaking things and appearances and giving my opinion when people want it, so thanks for that. Also, pre-order my debut children's book, Rock, Paper, Scissors, Cheese, that I wrote with Adam Mansbach and the artist by Brianna Chambers. Pre-order the links below for my stand-up dates and also the pre-order for that. Please pre-order that book. Very excited about it, as I've talked about before. We'll talk about it more as it gets closer.
02:04
Speaker 1
Also, shout out to Lindsay Ellis.
02:05
Speaker 2
Last week when I talked about Dolly Parton, I shouted out Lindsay Ellis, who's a great video essayist on YouTube and also on Nebula. And I said I'd watch her tribute to Dolly Parton, and that's how I learned a lot about Dolly Parton. And then she apparently was watching the podcast while I was shouting her out, and she pre-ordered my children's book. Thanks, Lindsay. Lindsay, come be a guest on the podcast. I would love to talk to you. I'm a big fan of video essayist on YouTube. I have visions of doing that myself someday, but I already have too many jobs, but I really respect that hustle. I also talked to FD Signifier. I've been on a couple of his videos. He owes me a podcast. Yeah, I'm a big fan of YouTube video essayists. But yeah, that last week, as we talked about, was my good white people episode, talked about how Dolly Parton had passed away, talked about Moe and Cher Williams. And this week, let's open the podcast talking about the opposite of Dolly Parton, Milo Yiannopoulos.
02:57
Speaker 1
Oh, Milo.
02:58
Speaker 2
So Milo Yiannopoulos, who became famous or infamous in the 2010s for being early to the alt-right movement that ended up sort of turning into MAGA, an avowed white supremacist, openly gay man from England, but avowed white supremacist, which is funny because white supremacist people don't like gay people, but somehow a lot of these MAGA people happen to be openly gay and think that they won't be come for eventually. But Recently, Milo was come for. Am I saying that weirdly? So Milo Yiannopoulos, who is a citizen of England but has lived here for many years, apparently had overstayed his visa and recently was scooped up by ICE and sent back to England. Now, first of all, I don't wish that on anybody. ICE is an illegal terrorist organization that is unfairly scooping people up, whether or not they have citizenship or not. They are just taking people randomly. They've taken citizens. They've killed people. ICE is a terrorist organization. Milo Yiannopoulos, one of the things he's known for is being anti-immigrant. He's been that way the whole time he's been on the scene. He's been anti-immigrant. And so for him to overstay his visa and think that his status as a Donald Trump supporter or right-wing person would protect him, and the fact that it didn't, mm, mm. A cue of my friend Francesca Ramsey, who I also hope to get on the podcast, Q Francesca Ramsey and her song. I never thought the leopards would eat my face.
04:31
Speaker 1
The leopards have eaten Milo's face. And we've talked about Milo.
04:36
Speaker 2
On the show a little bit before we referenced him because Milo, in addition to everything else, when he was the editor of Breitbart News, reviewed Leslie Jones and the Ghostbusters movie and went after Leslie Jones in such a way that it sent the hordes of the right wing internet after her. She got doxxed. She was abused. Her website was hacked. She had nudes that were released. I mean, it was ugly. We talked about that in the Leslie Jones episode, but Milo was the leader of that. So he is a real piece of shit. He's a real anti-Dolly Parton. He's the real reverse. He's the real Uno reverse of Dolly Parton's. And here's the part that is the most, the killing part of it. So first of all, he's scooped up by ICE, but he doesn't go to some sort of detention facility. He's not deported to some foreign land that he's never been to before, which is what happens to some people who are scooped up by ICE. He is sent home to England. So a few nights later, he's on Piers Morgan talking about it. So Milo, apparently, even though he's not in the good graces of MAGA anymore, still has the MAGA Plus package. He's still got the Deportation Plus package. So he went immediately, they sent him immediately back to the land he came from. He didn't have to suffer in detention for a long time. He wasn't sent to a foreign land where he didn't speak the language. They just sent him home. So even white supremacy even exists in how ICE handles people, which is, you know, to quote Radiohead, no surprises. Then he was on Piers Morgan, both disavowing his support of Trump, saying like, if I had known Trump was going to be this, I wouldn't have ever supported him, which is like Trump always said he was going to do this. He literally ran on mass deportations. You're saying if it didn't happen to you, you wouldn't have supported him? That's what you're saying. So Milo talked about how brutal the arrest was and how the ICE people really felt like an assault. And now he's talking about how he feels like he's been traumatized by the whole thing, which I'm sure is true. But he was sort of resolved it by saying, I just didn't know it was like that. I didn't know it was that bad and how ICE was that bad.
06:32
Speaker 1
I had no idea.
06:33
Speaker 2
They're treating everybody they arrest as an MS-13 gang member. And it's like, hey, man, did you not see, hear, listen, read? trust the stories of other people who had been brutally assaulted by ICE.
06:50
Speaker 1
I don't know.
06:50
Speaker 2
ICE has killed multiple people this year illegally. Like that didn't get to you. And this is the defining characteristic of MAGA is a lack of empathy. As far as I can see it, it's they, the lack of like, I see something happen to somebody else. And I, because I'm a human and have emotions and feelings, I can imagine how that feels. And that looks like that would feel bad. So we should stop that from happening. There's a lack, a profound lack of empathy. I think that is what MAGA has done to the Republican Party. And I'm not here to defend the Republican Party, but I think that is the key element there. They have turned empathy into a bad thing. And, you know, I can quote the late Charlie Kirk on that, that he was not a fan of empathy. I wrote about that on my sub stack. We can put the link down there. But yeah, Charlie Kirk, who's one of the leaders of the MAGA movement, was not a fan of empathy. And I don't think any of them are. Because if you have empathy... then you want your fellow human, no matter whether they're like you or not, to do well because you want to do well too. And you don't want them to be hurt because you don't want to be hurt. You want them to have justice because you want to have justice. But the MAGA movement has done an incredible job of teaching the perils, scare quotes, of empathy. And that's how you get to Milo going, oh, it wasn't until I was arrested by ICE that I realized how bad ICE is, which just sounds like madness. I can realize ICE is bad because I've seen it, read about it, heard people tell the stories of it. Wow, that sounds bad. I don't need ice to come from me for me to go, that sounds bad. And again, that lack of empathy is how they look at immigrants. They are able to demonize immigrants. They're able to demonize black people, even if they're black, Byron Donalds. How MAG is able to demonize trans people. How MAG is able to demonize even gay people, Milo. Because if you're not me, even if I'm gay, but if you're gay over there, I can demonize you because I have a lack of empathy.
08:39
Speaker 1
So, you know. And he wants to come back to America, which I think is really because his whole life is here. So, yeah, man.
08:45
Speaker 2
It's just the thing that Milo fought for is the thing that kicked him out of this country. Apparently he is beefing with Laura Loomer and she called ice on him, which is just.
08:53
Speaker 1
Like, I don't know.
08:58
Speaker 2
You give what you get. So a little bit of a story time. I have a slight connection to Milo. In 2017, some sort of right-wing– student group at Cal Poly booked Milo to come and speak. And this is 2017 when Milo is at the height of Milo-ism. He was doing campus tours just to troll people. So Cal Poly, in an effort to counter-program Milo, booked me. And I think there was also more on the program, but I was one of the big features of the program.
09:24
Speaker 1
And I remember... I don't think I even stayed the night of the gig.
09:26
Speaker 2
I got a ride down to the gig and I got out and I've never seen so much security at a gig. And I feel like we were maybe even in the same building, like whatever giant building it was in.
09:37
Speaker 1
I was in the theater.
09:37
Speaker 2
He was like maybe down the hall technically, but there was security everywhere. The gig went great. It was great. Cause I think, you know, obviously it went great. People who came to see me didn't want to see him. I'm sure we had a bigger audience, but the gig went great. Cal Poly was great. I never felt unsafe, but there were, lots of law enforcement everywhere to make sure that we are, I guess, to make sure that the paths of these two different groups didn't cross and they didn't. And I think at the end of the gig, I got back in whatever car that I had and went straight back home. I was like, I don't think I need to stay the night here in a hotel. But yeah, so that is my brush with Milo Yiannopoulos. This is all Google-able. I wrote about it in my subsect not that long ago. The lesson here is Bad things shouldn't have to happen to you for you to understand that bad things are bad for other people. Interestingly, I talked to Ken Jennings about this. When I was doing research to learn about Ken Jennings, I mean, I knew who he was, but we always do research here to figure out things that we don't know about people by we, I mean me. I found out that Ken Jennings was Mormon. And I didn't know that he was Mormon before that, but the way that Ken presents in the world, I did an episode of United Chains of America on the Mormons in Salt Lake City. It was specifically about LGBTQ issues in the Mormon community. And while we have a lot of, uh, many of us have a lot of stereotypes about Mormons. Like there's certain religions where we feel free to stereotype in the church of Latter-day Saints, which is how they actually like to be called, not Mormons. We feel free to stereotype them. And they're certainly, there are aspects of the religions that are super conservative and there's things about it. Like they didn't let black people in the church until the seventies. There's a lot of things, but we also forget that there are people who grow up in those churches and take the good stuff from those religions. And just go, I'm going to leave the other stuff over here. And Ken Jennings is clearly doing that. He's very outspoken online. He is not a fan of ICE. He is pro the LGBTQ community. And to think that he was a Mormon and feels free to do that. And he has what we talk about in the show, one of the last factory jobs in show business on Jeopardy. He's not like dialing back his social and political viewpoints so he can sort of like just keep the Jeopardy job. He's in fact using his platform on Jeopardy to– to sort of share his political beliefs, but not his political beliefs, but things he believes about the world. Because I would say that he doesn't even think of them as political. It's just how the world is supposed to be kind, inclusive, and supportive of all. And at the end, he gives the longest lists of causes that I've ever had a guest give when I say, is there.
11:59
Speaker 1
A cause you want to support?
12:00
Speaker 2
He's like, because I think he wants to be clear that we need to create more kindness and support in the world. And he also feels lucky that not only did he win on Jeopardy and win $ 3 million when he was a contestant, but now he's the host of Jeopardy. Again, he'll have this job until TV's burnout and there's no more networks so that he wants to use his windfall as a way to make the world a better place. If you don't know a lot about Ken Jennings, he's a very layered individual and a fun guy and a funny guy and just a gentle soul, but also a clear, a clear soul. So check out this interview with me and Ken Jennings.
12:36
Speaker 1
Hey, thanks for watching an episode of Who's With Me. If you're on YouTube, please like and subscribe, share, hit that hype button. I hear it makes all the difference. Please like, subscribe, share, hit the hype button. Thank you. Ken Jennings.
13:00
Speaker 3
Hey, Kamau.
13:01
Speaker 2
First of all, I start every episode by giving people their flowers because I think it's important that people hear the things that people like about them. And for me, it's also important to let people know, like, I know you, but I don't know you know you.
13:13
Speaker 1
And so I want to tell you.
13:14
Speaker 3
Guests probably like that, but I'm just going to be embarrassed by it. I don't.
13:17
Speaker 1
Perfect. I like that too.
13:19
Speaker 2
Ted Danson also didn't like hearing his flowers either.
13:21
Speaker 1
So we met. initially on doug benson's podcast oh yeah it.
13:26
Speaker 3
Was like a seattle bumbershoot thing all the comedians used to come through because that festival was so fun yeah yeah.
13:31
Speaker 2
And at that point you were just like this guy who won a lot on jeopardy yeah and and nobody at that point had any like good for that guy for doing that thing.
13:39
Speaker 3
The spike of that had passed and i was just like a professional ex game show contestant and.
13:44
Speaker 1
You had sort of i think you were pretty very accepted by the comedy world because you revealed yourself to be a good podcast guest.
13:49
Speaker 3
Oh, I didn't know that. Maybe that's Doug's fault, actually.
13:51
Speaker 1
That's right. It's probably his.
13:52
Speaker 3
Doug is— Because he was like, who's good at movie trivia? Well, maybe this guy.
13:55
Speaker 2
Well, and he's good at identifying non-comedian podcast guests.
13:59
Speaker 3
Well, the last thing I wanted was for people to know I was a good podcast guest. That doesn't pay.
14:03
Speaker 2
And I remember, so I met you on, I think it was Doug Lugg's movie. First of all, Doug Benson, great person, great guy. Always high. Which I think is his brand. Uh, but yeah, great guy. And, and I enjoyed you that day. And I think we later, I remember seeing you at an after party and, and finding out you lived up here. And then I think that was shortly after, like, then Twitter was where I mostly saw you and we would interact on Twitter sometimes.
14:26
Speaker 3
Good times, right?
14:27
Speaker 1
Yeah. I do want to give special respect to the classic era of Twitter. And, you know, we can talk about that as much or as little as you want to.
14:38
Speaker 3
It certainly broke our brains, you know, making us into posters. But at least we have the souls of posters now.
14:44
Speaker 1
Yeah, we do.
14:44
Speaker 3
We do.
14:45
Speaker 1
I was talking to somebody today about, like, they asked me, it was a person younger than me, like, why? are you on Facebook? I was like, no, I think my generation of Gen Xers were Twitter people.
14:53
Speaker 3
We had one social media platform we thought was okay. Yeah. And then when it became the worst social media platform, we were like, yeah, we're done.
14:59
Speaker 1
Yeah, we're just, we're scattered to the streets.
15:01
Speaker 3
It was like if you had one drug and then they started putting like PCP in it.
15:05
Speaker 1
It was not my thing anymore.
15:08
Speaker 2
So impressive you as a person, but to be on the set of Jeopardy and to see you at work and to also have some sense of what it is to host a television show, although my show hosting was way different than yours. but also knowing that when you're the center of attention and to know all the pressure that was on your shoulders.
15:24
Speaker 1
I just remember when I.
15:25
Speaker 2
Did that first episode of Celebrity Jeopardy, I was like, so impressed with how, just how smooth you were. Nobody would have known if they'd come down from outer space that this guy hadn't done this for like 20 years.
15:37
Speaker 3
I wish you could have seen Alex do it because like you would not believe just the grace and the precision. You know, he just never had to do anything over. It was like, he was just built in a tank, you know, to host Jeopardy.
15:51
Speaker 2
And I totally respect that, and I think it makes sense. I mean, he sort of got to sort of build the tank, though, as he was in the tank, I'm sure.
15:57
Speaker 1
It's true. That's right.
15:57
Speaker 3
The show kind of built up around him like a coral reef.
16:00
Speaker 1
Like, people realized it existed before him.
16:02
Speaker 3
That's true.
16:03
Speaker 1
But he— it' s.
16:04
Speaker 2
Like the idea of one person maybe pioneering something, but then somebody actually perfects it, you know?
16:09
Speaker 3
He perfected it. And he was just some kind of a regular kind of good time, daytime game show host. Yeah, yeah. Who then kind of turned.
16:16
Speaker 1
Into this— Yeah, yeah.
16:18
Speaker 3
Eminence agrees as as jeopardy kind of molded itself around him and they just became inextricable and i was very skeptical that the show would survive his retirement and so i'm i feel very lucky that a it did because it was always my favorite show and especially now that through some weird set of circumstances um I'm still associated with the show. I feel very lucky.
16:40
Speaker 1
You're a little more than associated.
16:43
Speaker 3
It's a real honor.
16:44
Speaker 1
Yeah.
16:45
Speaker 2
Well, it's clear that you think it's an honor and you take it seriously. And I think that like, but I just wonder why, why do you, because you, yes, you were a contestant on Jeopardy, but I've stood next to, like I say, I was on Celebrity Jeopardy. I've stood next to real Jeopardy contestants.
16:59
Speaker 3
Celebrity Jeopardy champion, W. Kamau Bell, by the way.
17:01
Speaker 1
Believe me, that is now, if I'm on stage at a comedy club, that's the last thing. That's the last thing.
17:07
Speaker 2
It's pushing United Shades out of the way.
17:08
Speaker 3
People must go nuts.
17:10
Speaker 1
They absolutely.
17:11
Speaker 2
And I didn't realize how, I mean, I was always proud. And, you know, my family was there. So it's become quite a family story that is told, like, you know, gather around while dad tells a Celebrity Jeopardy winning story. The lore.
17:22
Speaker 1
The lore, yeah.
17:23
Speaker 2
And that's the thing that's so great about it. Both my kids who were there feel really like a part of it, you know. But it was like I was on the road doing stand-up comedy after I'd won. And my opener, Dwayne Kennedy, a very great comedian from Chicago, would say, like, you've known him from this. And you've known him from Celebrity Jeopardy. And United Chains of America.
17:42
Speaker 3
And I was like, I think we've got to flip that.
17:45
Speaker 1
I think we've got to. The audience has spoken. They're more impressed by that.
17:49
Speaker 2
One season of Celebrity Jeopardy versus, like, seven seasons of United Chains of America.
17:53
Speaker 3
There's just so much goodwill around Jeopardy because, as you say, it's, you know, over 60 years old. Yes. The secret of it is that everyone has fond memories of watching it with, you know, with their mom or with grandma or whoever it was in their house. Or, you know, freshman year of college, we all would, the whole dorm would watch Jeopardy. Whatever that is, people have this fond nostalgia for the show.
18:12
Speaker 2
Well, it's one of those shows that was like, like you said, you said back to the old days of community, like what do they call it?
18:18
Speaker 1
Community watching.
18:18
Speaker 2
Like you watch the, you know, co-watching where you watch a show with other people and you're all sort of engaged with it at the same time.
18:25
Speaker 1
And pre-cell phones, nobody's on their cell phone.
18:26
Speaker 2
Everybody's just watching and trying to play with the people on TV.
18:30
Speaker 3
And it weirdly still has that. Like it's a weird anachronism where people still will watch Jeopardy at seven o'clock or whenever it airs in their city. And it's like kind of a ritual of their evening, you know? So there's a few TV shows that are institutions, you know, Sesame Street and SNL, these shows that have been on our whole lives. But like, Jeopardy's kind of a ritual for people who watch it.
18:51
Speaker 2
And I think the difference between Jeopardy and those shows you mentioned is that kind of we can all There's a sense that we can all be a part of that.
18:59
Speaker 1
People can get on it. You can watch Jeopardy. You can like it. I've loved Sesame Street. They have not yet invited me on. I used to think, I want to be like Eddie Murphy on SNL. Never happened. Somehow I ended up on Jeopardy. You know what I mean?
19:12
Speaker 2
So I think there's also the fact that we all feel like we own a piece of it because you may know somebody or you may feel like you're good at it at home.
19:19
Speaker 3
It's just like a normal person. You're like, oh, this guy's just, you know, this guy works in a grocery store like me, and she's talking about how she crochets like me, but now look, they're on.
19:28
Speaker 1
Now they're on Jeopardy. They're on Jeopardy.
19:29
Speaker 2
Yeah, so I think there's... And the other thing I was very aware of when I was there, and I really want to talk about this, is that I was very aware, because, like, the woman.
19:36
Speaker 1
I've told this story many times.
19:37
Speaker 2
You may have heard me tell this story, but, like, the woman who did my hair just sort of let it slip.
19:41
Speaker 1
Like, yeah, I've been doing Vanna White's hair for 30 years. And I was like... What? Vanna White's hairstylist was doing my hair? My hair's never looked better.
19:50
Speaker 2
Very seriously, I was like really impressed with how she did it.
19:53
Speaker 1
Even though me and Vanna have slightly different hair?
19:55
Speaker 3
I would imagine. But Renee does my hair too. She's multi-talented.
19:59
Speaker 1
Clearly.
19:59
Speaker 3
She's confident with Vanna. She's confident with black hair. She does it all.
20:02
Speaker 1
So first of all, shout out Renee. I'm glad you said her name.
20:05
Speaker 2
But the thing I was wearing was like, this is one of the last factory jobs in show business.
20:11
Speaker 1
Like where people work here for like, Their career. Yeah. And you work until you either move on or you decide to stop working. And there's something really special about that.
20:21
Speaker 2
So that you stepped into a place where all these other people were like, in some sense, a new host means, oh, we still can work at this factory.
20:28
Speaker 1
Yes. We're still going to produce game shows.
20:29
Speaker 3
They're not shutting down the factory.
20:30
Speaker 1
Yeah, we're not shutting down. Or, you know, we're not working part-time because we're just doing Wheel of Fortune. And so.
20:35
Speaker 3
Yeah, it is a family, kind of like you say. It's a rare steady job in showbiz. The guy who is going to mic me up on Jeopardy! Day After Tomorrow is the guy who mic'd me up when I was a contestant in 2004. Renee is going to do my hair. Sandy will make me up, and she made me up in 2004. So you're right. But then there also is the weird dynamic of, oh, and here's the contest winner who took over the factory.
21:01
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
21:02
Speaker 3
And that was very hard coming in.
21:05
Speaker 1
Was it hard?
21:06
Speaker 3
Well, it was especially hard just because of the accident of timing. I was supposed to come in and guest host for a few weeks because Alex was going to go in and get a new round of treatment maybe for his pancreatic cancer. And so that was already in the works. I was going to come in on this Sunday to rehearse. And then the night before... Alex passed away. I woke up that morning instead of to go into the studio. Instead, I get a call saying Alex passed away last night. And I had talked to him like a day and a half before just to kind of get his blessing and chat. And so by the time we, you know, we didn't make it in that day, obviously, but like a couple of weeks later. we do 230 Jeopardy's a year. You know, we have to feed the beast. The show must go on.
21:48
Speaker 1
Yeah.
21:48
Speaker 3
And the morale was not great because nobody, I didn't want to see anybody else hosting Jeopardy. I didn't want it to be me. I wanted it to be Alex, you know? But the show must go on. And many people said to me, like, you know, at least it's, At least it's you. And I was like, you don't want me. I'm not even a broadcaster. And they were like, yeah, but you remind us of Alex, you know? So I had the good vibes that came from people associating me with the show's past. And I'm very happy to coast on that because that's the one thing that kind of kept me going. That and having seen Alex host.
22:20
Speaker 1
I mean, I think that... It just says so much.
22:23
Speaker 2
I mean, I think, so first of all, it makes, it is, it is perfect that you're this guy who was at one point, somebody broke your record of winning us, right?
22:29
Speaker 1
Is that true? Yeah.
22:31
Speaker 3
Nobody's broken most games because of a bunch of tournaments. There are people who have won more Jeopardy bucks than me.
22:37
Speaker 2
But anyway, you had this incredible like marathon record. So they had already been around you a lot.
22:43
Speaker 3
Yeah, weirdly, they kind of felt like I was part of the family, even though nobody was allowed to talk to me then.
22:48
Speaker 1
Well, I saw a clip of Alex talking about it, about, like, he ran out of things to talk to you about.
22:53
Speaker 3
Yeah, for sure.
22:54
Speaker 2
At the little, like, two-minute, like, interview segment. Like, after 74 shows, he'd gone through everything to talk to you about.
22:59
Speaker 3
It used to be a five-game limit. You know, somebody would win a fifth game, and they'd get a car, and it'd be like, okay, we'll see you next summer in the Tournament of Champions or whatever.
23:06
Speaker 1
Yeah.
23:06
Speaker 3
But so they changed that rule right after I tried out for the show. So just some fluke of luck that I'm on when suddenly you can go longer than five games. And so this had never happened before. They've got months of me in the can and they're worried about, is this the thing that'll kill the show?
23:20
Speaker 2
What if people don't like this guy? People are going to be excited about the athletic achievement of it and worried about like, are they going to be tired of seeing the same guy every week?
23:29
Speaker 3
Because it had never happened. And now, of course, in hindsight, we're like, oh, yeah, even if they don't like the person, some will cheer for them, some will cheer against them. We treat it like a sports streak. But this was all new technology in 2004. And Alex, of course, had never really had anybody on for longer than a week. So I think that was kind of fun for him.
23:45
Speaker 1
Well, it's funny.
23:46
Speaker 2
So I live in the Bay Area. Obviously, I'm wearing my identification badge. So after I had my first episode aired, I was in Berkeley with my kids at this food court, Epicurious in Berkeley. And this woman walks up to me and goes, I saw you on Celebrity Jeopardy. And I was like, you were very good. And I was like, oh, thank you. And then she introduced herself. She's like, I actually am a Jeopardy champion. And it was Sandra Gore. And she won five games in a row.
24:08
Speaker 3
I know the name.
24:10
Speaker 2
Of course you know everything, Ken. And she was like, I won five games in a row. But at that time, it was the limit. But she was the longest winning one at one point. And there are a lot of Jeopardy people in and around the Bay.
24:23
Speaker 3
People pop up. And Bay Area is really punching above its weight. I mean, Oakland has you and Amy Schneider.
24:28
Speaker 2
Yes, me and Amy Schneider. Oakland's killing it. Yeah, I'm kind of the Robin to Amy's Batman, I think, if anything.
24:34
Speaker 3
It's like a different sport. You're in the Celebrity Jeopardy arena.
24:37
Speaker 2
Well, as I say, I don't know if you've heard me say this, but winning Celebrity Jeopardy is like being declared the strongest two-year-old.
24:46
Speaker 1
Feel free to repeat that if you want to.
24:48
Speaker 3
But I understand why you have to say that. But just for the record, like, Celebrity Jeopardy is not the way it is on SNL, you know, where it's a punchline. And no, it's not states that rhyme with Delaware, you know, like. Like, celebrities have to know real stuff.
25:04
Speaker 2
My favorite moment from my, I think it was maybe the first or second episode, I forget what the question was, what the answer was that you gave. And I buzzed in and I was like, what is Shintoism? And you're like, you surprised me. I was like, I don't think I ever said that word out loud.
25:16
Speaker 1
You know what I mean?
25:17
Speaker 3
You were a vessel for something. Exactly.
25:19
Speaker 1
Somehow my brain was like, you know this one. I was like, I don't know.
25:22
Speaker 2
So there are hard questions. But I also tell people, to be fair, they do actually, with Celebrity Jeopardy, they do want the celebrities to have fun.
25:31
Speaker 1
Right. So we're not as like laser focused.
25:34
Speaker 3
And it may depend on category like if there's a showbiz category like that can maybe be harder on celebrity jeopardy and.
25:39
Speaker 2
More embarrassing too like yeah nobody expects us to know about uh the roman empire but you better know hit makers of the 2020s right like.
25:46
Speaker 3
If it's like quantum physics we you know we might not expect your average but comedians we have learned our smart like a comedian has won yeah the first three years of celebrity jeopardy i guess now mina kimes broke the streak.
25:57
Speaker 2
Yeah yeah which i was really hoping comedians would keep the streak but i love mina.
26:01
Speaker 1
So I would say this. A little bit I'm mad at you, Ken.
26:04
Speaker 2
Because you represent Jeopardy for this one reason that I had to go back for Tournament of Champions.
26:10
Speaker 1
That's a new rule.
26:11
Speaker 3
That's not me.
26:12
Speaker 1
I know. But I can't talk to Michael Davies. He's not here.
26:15
Speaker 2
So I was happy to go back. And then to stand on that stage with real Jeopardy, it is just a different... That's how I know it's a strongest two-year-old. Because the level... To be quite honest, some of those questions... you would read the answer, somebody that you would read the answer, and to me, I heard, this, yada de yada de yada.
26:34
Speaker 3
It's like the teacher in Peanuts.
26:35
Speaker 1
It's a little bit like the teacher in Peanuts. And I was just like, you got it? Nope. You got it?
26:41
Speaker 2
And then the worst part is if neither one got it, and you'd be like, can I even take a stab at that? No kidding, I do not want to take a stab at that.
26:47
Speaker 3
I'm just here because I don't want to get fired.
26:49
Speaker 1
I don't even know what the area of answer is at. I don't even know.
26:53
Speaker 2
So it's just the level of depth. I mean, I'm saying I'm mad, but I was so impressed and also so aware of how much more nervous the contestants are.
27:03
Speaker 1
Oh, man. versus the celebrities.
27:05
Speaker 3
Well, the celebrities are on camera. And for a contestant, that's the hard part. Of course I'm going to be able to answer trivia questions about Warren G. Harding, but there's cameras and lights.
27:15
Speaker 2
And those cameras and lights are real, and the studio is bright and everything. And plus, one of the guys next to me, he was on a cast.
27:22
Speaker 1
Oh, yeah.
27:23
Speaker 3
I remember that.
27:24
Speaker 2
And it was just like, so I was like, this guy's playing injured. And I'm in here just like, hope I make it to Final Jeopardy.
27:29
Speaker 1
And I did.
27:31
Speaker 3
Clearly, we love the production value of having the Celebrity Jeopardy folks come back.
27:35
Speaker 1
It's fun.
27:36
Speaker 3
I was a little bit skeptical. But then what ruined it was Ike Barinholtz actually going deep in the tournament. Yeah.
27:42
Speaker 1
Yeah. He's sort of doing us celebrities too proud. Don't make us all look smart. Yeah. Yeah.
27:46
Speaker 3
Yeah, like maybe the first year should have been somebody else.
27:48
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
27:49
Speaker 3
Because now everybody's like, well, Ike almost went to the finals.
27:51
Speaker 2
Like I said, somebody told me, you made it to Final Jeopardy. That's pretty good. I was like, great, I'm going to take that with me.
27:55
Speaker 3
I remember there were a couple good categories for you in that show, and that's what I always tell Jeopardy contestants is like, Not everybody's going to win. That's just not how the format goes. But like, there's going to be little moments where you're going to feel like, hey, like something, like Shintoism, something in my head paid off in the real world. And that's such a good validating feeling. It's really the engine, I think, that keeps Jeopardy on the air is that amazing feeling of I remembered something, and then it actually worked in public.
28:23
Speaker 2
There was a Charles Darwin category on one of my Celebrity Jeopardy, one of my championship.
28:27
Speaker 1
Run, that I nailed a bunch of them in a row.
28:29
Speaker 2
I felt like, look at me knowing about Charles Darwin, even though I didn't know I knew about Charles Darwin.
28:33
Speaker 3
Somewhere, some high school or college professor is so proud of you right now.
28:37
Speaker 2
We talked a lot about that. Yeah, so why do you think you took to hosting so... Like, I'm sure there was rough edges, but by the time you got to hosting the show... you just seemed like you were such a natural. What is it about you specifically that, because not everybody is going to be able to do that.
28:53
Speaker 1
Not every celebrity Jeopardy! champion is going to be able to segue into just being the host of Jeopardy!
28:58
Speaker 3
Maybe that's true, but I think you do have a- 100% that's true. Well, you have a leg up is what I'm saying.
29:02
Speaker 1
Yes.
29:03
Speaker 3
Because the show is so much its own thing, it moves at a weird speed that other shows don't. It's very, it's got this kind of straitjacketed format where like, if you watch Jeopardy! tonight, Almost to the second, it's going to feel like a show from 1994 or 1974. Like, the format is all.
29:20
Speaker 1
Yeah.
29:21
Speaker 3
And then the knowledge is all. Like, really, like, the show was kind of powered by your sense that Alex was kind of in charge and did kind of know that stuff.
29:30
Speaker 1
Because he did.
29:31
Speaker 3
You know, like, he was a smart dad with a basement full of National Geographic.
29:35
Speaker 2
And I also imagine by hosting the show over many, many years, you're also you're also you're hearing those questions and answers over and over again.
29:42
Speaker 1
Yeah.
29:42
Speaker 3
At first, maybe he was just kind of like a regular guy. Yeah, just a regular kind of a dapper guy with a mustache and real cream in the hair.
29:50
Speaker 1
And yeah.
29:50
Speaker 3
And then suddenly he kind of became this authority.
29:53
Speaker 2
It's like a performance enhancing drug over many years. Like suddenly now you do know how to do the thing.
29:57
Speaker 3
I think that's true.
29:58
Speaker 1
Yeah.
29:58
Speaker 3
And so it really gives the show credibility because you're like, oh, well, the Alex seemed to, he said that in a very convincing accent or if he was like, oh no, not the 30 years war, Ken, you were, you were thinking of the hundred years war, you know, like he really knew that kind of stuff. And there's not a lot of shows that have that kind of authenticity, you know, where you're aware that there's no prompter and anything can happen. And so I guess it just turned out, it was easier to take somebody who understood Jeopardy and let them figure out how to be a broadcaster. But to take a broadcaster and have them figure out Jeopardy. Because I did not have any kind of performance background.
30:32
Speaker 1
Clearly.
30:33
Speaker 2
That's why I want to dig down on this. Because I do think you had some... It's like almost all those years of being on Jeopardy helped. Then all those years of being on all those podcasts and.
30:43
Speaker 1
Being out in the world. I want to give comedians some credit. I never thought about that.
30:45
Speaker 3
I should thank Doug Benson.
30:46
Speaker 2
But yeah, I think you should thank Doug Benson. I never thought about that. Because there's also part of it like knowing.
30:54
Speaker 2
Being comfortable standing quietly when the thing is happening, not, you know, being comfortable, like walking out and start. Cause that's, you did that thing that people do. Like you don't see him until it's time to go. And then the lights turn on and you're out there. There's nothing about that. That seems like you're still getting your sea legs. You know, you, so that's the thing I think that, I want to make sure average people know not it doesn't matter how smart you are. There's just a there's a way in which you have to be on TV that you can learn. But you got to have some sort of like predisposition for it because not everybody can learn it.
31:25
Speaker 3
I guess like when I was a little kid, I did some community theater, but I was never in high school plays. I didn't have a band, no improv or whatever.
31:33
Speaker 1
But like, you know.
31:34
Speaker 3
You understand as a comedian, like just being on the road kind of shapes you because you get a sense for, well, that worked better last night than two nights ago, you know? And so part of that was Jeopardy for me because it's a great, cure for stage fright. Yes. As you know, everything after Jeopardy is kind of less stressful than Jeopardy.
31:50
Speaker 1
For sure.
31:51
Speaker 3
Especially as a civilian, like I was. You're a performer, but I was just some guy.
31:55
Speaker 1
Yeah.
31:56
Speaker 3
Computer programmer. And I think maybe another part of it is just having seen Alex... do it, I realized you could always just kind of do an impression of Alex and you couldn't go wrong. You know, you would, it would be a mimeograph of Alex, but it would still be like, oh no, he had the right instinct here. Like, like you mentioned holding still, like Alex was very much like the shit was not about me. his ethos was like, this show should be about the players and the clues. And I kind of would go further than that. Like to this day, I kind of think if you notice anything I'm doing on Jeopardy, odds are something's gone wrong. Like the host should kind of recede. And that was an amazing thing that Alex knew that's very unusual in show business. Like less of me, please. But I think it's important for Jeopardy.
32:39
Speaker 2
Well, and it means that when there is a moment when You have a fun moment. You really shine through or Alex would shine through when there was a fun back and forth.
32:48
Speaker 1
You got to pick your spot. You got to pick your spot.
32:56
Speaker 2
These days, there are more people than ever telling you how to manage your health. Your social media feed is packed with wellness trends telling you to cold plunge, protein max, and so much more.
33:05
Speaker 1
But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? And what's just plain wrong?
33:09
Speaker 2
Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association breaks it all down. Emmy-nominated host Trace Dominguez talks to health influencers, real people, and most importantly, to doctors to separate fact from fiction. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Listen to Health vs. Hype wherever you get your podcasts. And that's another thing, knowing how to pick your spots, because you can very easily pick too many spots. I just think there's a precision to hosting that show that I noticed being up close. I would say that by being on that show 75 days in a row, you could have just not paid attention, but clearly you were watching his precision, so then you were able to emulate it because you've seen this guy do this so many times. Even things like repeating a flub, can get somebody in their head. We're like, oh, I got to say the thing again. But I saw you do that. So I was like, what?
34:08
Speaker 1
Okay. And you were back in.
34:10
Speaker 3
I know. Okay. If I pick it up here, I know that at this point, I know like, well, the camera's not on me at this point. I can just pick it up there. And that's something you have to learn. But I had seen Alex do it thousands of times at home because I was a kid who would run home from school every day to watch Jeopardy.
34:25
Speaker 1
You may have been the kid.
34:26
Speaker 2
Yeah.
34:28
Speaker 3
It's a kind of kid.
34:29
Speaker 1
No, you're right. Fair.
34:30
Speaker 3
You know what I mean?
34:30
Speaker 1
Like the kid.
34:31
Speaker 3
That just carries around the Guinness Book of World Records and loves the amazing facts.
34:35
Speaker 1
For sure.
34:36
Speaker 3
The kid from Jerry Maguire, basically.
34:37
Speaker 1
Yeah, there you go.
34:38
Speaker 3
Like that's a type of kid. And I think they just come out of the faucet that way. And I don't know what it is about us. But it really does define you when you... And when you're that kind of kid, you know, if you have any self-awareness, you're like... oh, I'm kind of a weirdo.
34:53
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's good to learn you're a weirdo early so that it doesn't surprise you out in the world.
34:57
Speaker 3
And like nowadays, I think a kid will be like, well, I'm a weirdo because that's how the culture is.
35:01
Speaker 1
I'm a Jeopardy weirdo. But in the 80s, it.
35:03
Speaker 3
Was like, none of my friends are like this into Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit. And so it was amazing to turn on the TV because Alex would create this kind of safe space where people were celebrated for knowing weird stuff about anything, science or golf or who cares.
35:17
Speaker 1
And applauded, yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:18
Speaker 3
Yeah, like, oh, this guy just won money. She just won a coffee table. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so that was very formative for me. And you had to listen to Alex's voice because that was the timing of the buzzer. You know the buzzer's tricky.
35:30
Speaker 1
Oh, yeah, that's what I tell everybody.
35:31
Speaker 3
So, like, things about his performance you would zero in on because you would realize how the game kind of was him and his voice.
35:37
Speaker 1
Yeah.
35:37
Speaker 2
Yeah, again, like I think because when there was the period where they were letting other people sort of try out as host.
35:43
Speaker 1
Right. And you're up against like people who are on camera all the time.
35:46
Speaker 3
Anderson Cooper, Katie Couric.
35:47
Speaker 1
Exactly.
35:48
Speaker 3
Legendary broadcaster.
35:49
Speaker 1
Anderson Cooper. I don't want to compete against Anderson Cooper.
35:51
Speaker 3
Robin Roberts, like amazing people.
35:53
Speaker 1
Yes, yes.
35:54
Speaker 2
And probably the only thing you had on your side is many of them were too busy to actually.
35:57
Speaker 1
Take the full-time job.
35:58
Speaker 3
That was huge for me.
35:59
Speaker 1
Anderson Cooper's like, I'm at 60 Minutes and I'm at CNN. I probably can't fit in Jeopardy.
36:03
Speaker 3
I'm sure Robin Roberts would love to host Jeopardy, but, like, morning shows needed her at that time.
36:07
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, when you got to get up at 2.30 in the morning every day. Exactly.
36:10
Speaker 3
And a lot of those people, like, I heard, Anderson Cooper interviewed me after that, and he said, like, you know, I've... I've taped in war zones and nothing prepares you for Jeopardy. Technically, it's a very hard job. And I've had people tell me, I heard this from Peter Sagal of NPR, who was a Jeopardy contestant back in the day. And he just remembers Alex grousing kind of in general about how nobody understands this job's so hard. Most game shows can just show up and- But this job requires so much, and he wasn't wrong. It's a difficult job. No, it is different.
36:40
Speaker 1
I mean, no shade to other game shows, but a little bit of shade. Because at the end of the day, it's not about, let me be clear, one of my favorite all-time game shows is Deal or No Deal. So good.
36:49
Speaker 2
Because it's just, can you say numbers out loud? If you can say numbers out loud, you can play the entire game. There's nothing else happening. And if the host can repeat the number you said, then he can play the entire game.
37:02
Speaker 3
Yeah, but he's trying to compete without dramatic briefcase reveals.
37:05
Speaker 1
No.
37:06
Speaker 3
We do not have dramatic briefcases.
37:08
Speaker 2
Nobody's in an off-the-shoulder dress unless the contestant wants to wear one.
37:12
Speaker 1
True. Which they don't seem to encourage that. It seems to be very sort of business casual.
37:15
Speaker 3
That's right.
37:16
Speaker 2
But so that like, and as you know, from social media, if you mess up something.
37:23
Speaker 3
Yeah, people love that.
37:24
Speaker 2
People are going to say something, and they're going to be happy to say something, and they're becoming, you know.
37:28
Speaker 3
Nowadays, contestants are like, I just don't want to go viral, you know? And that's, I'm very glad I was on in 2004 when that was harder.
37:35
Speaker 2
You know, the idea that, like, if the host messes up something, then people are going to talk about it. The other thing I want to ask you about, which I am happy to see, just because I feel this, I live in Oakland. I would imagine when you became the host of Jeopardy that some people, people were in your ear.
37:52
Speaker 1
Going, you need to move to LA.
37:54
Speaker 2
Oh. You need, now, because also, now that you got this opportunity, we can really turn you into, you know, you can be a Mission Impossible 9, you know what I mean?
38:02
Speaker 1
Or you can be the new spokesperson.
38:03
Speaker 3
For- That famous Jeopardy to Mission Impossible pipeline.
38:06
Speaker 2
Yeah, no, or you can be the new spokesperson for, what is that, the, the whatever Ed McMahon used to do with the publishers. But there's, there's opportunity. Cause now you're immediately like 90% more famous cause you're the host of jeopardy and there's more business opportunity. And you should come down here and audition for the best friend in a sitcom.
38:25
Speaker 3
You know, it is a big bump to, to host jeopardy rather than like be that one guy from jeopardy. And I did not expect that. Um, Was there any sort of lightweight talk? I think people think I live there, honestly.
38:38
Speaker 1
Well, of course they do. You're the host of Jeopardy!
38:42
Speaker 3
It's a very easy commute from Seattle. I have really good Alaska Airlines status at this point.
38:46
Speaker 1
Oh, that's funny.
38:46
Speaker 3
But I was not really tempted to. And a lot of it, I think, it goes back to winning on Jeopardy! in 2004 and just thinking.
38:54
Speaker 3
I cannot let this blow up my life. Like, because you hear about the downsides of fame, the downsides of money.
39:02
Speaker 1
It's kind of like being a lottery winner.
39:04
Speaker 3
Exactly. Like you would read stories about all these lottery winners who would just do the, you know, like half of them are out of money in five years. And like a lot of them just tell their bosses to shove it. And then a year later, they're like, can I, you know, or a week later, they're like, can I have my job back?
39:17
Speaker 1
Can I clean up where I told you to shove it? Can you do that?
39:21
Speaker 3
And so I was just one thing that I was lucky in is that I was already like pushing 30 at the time it happened. You know, I was not in a boy band or whatever, you know, like I was old enough to know better. And we already had like, my kid had been born. I was happily married. We had a little starter house outside Salt Lake City. Like we were pretty good. And I was like, at all costs, let's not F this up. And so that happened again here. Like my kids were still, I still had a kid at home in high school when I started hosting. We're very happy in Seattle. It's kind of low key here. Um, the last thing we wanted was to, to blow anything up.
39:55
Speaker 1
I just would imagine, like, I've never lived in LA or New York.
39:57
Speaker 2
I lived in New York for two years when I had a TV show, but like, I've never lived in LA and I've always just been like, if you need me down there, I'll come down there. And I mean, we're not in the same exact type of show business, but I would just imagine that like, there would be somebody being like, if you came down here, we could really make you, you know, that there's like, there's, there's more we can get out of this. That when Alex had Jeopardy, it was enough to just be a game show host. But now in show business, it's like, what else are you doing? I know some Jeopardy. What else you got going on? What other projects are you working on?
40:23
Speaker 3
Maybe in my case, it's so clear that I like really could not do any other show business job. I mean, I do have people who are like, you know, we could put you on Dancing with.
40:31
Speaker 1
The Stars like that. That's what I'm talking about.
40:34
Speaker 3
When are you doing Amazing Race?
40:35
Speaker 2
Those random like sort of TV reach outs. Like, you know, you can compete on the... the biggest littlest brother or the, you know, yeah, you could be on Traders or whatever.
40:44
Speaker 3
I'm very lucky, like weirdly lucky where, like I would have so little to gain from that, you know? Like if I went on Traders, maybe I'd have fun. Maybe I'd look like an idiot. It's unclear. But you know, I could just not go on Traders. What if I just stay home and watch Traders because it's an amazing show, but then I don't have to like, you know, be jet lagged.
41:04
Speaker 2
Well, also, I mean, I would imagine that some of this, well, this is the other thing I'm talking about because there's a part of you that feels like, that you understand the mantle of Jeopardy, which I think is different than the mantle of other game shows, as we've talked about.
41:16
Speaker 3
Just because of the heritage of it. The legacy of it.
41:18
Speaker 1
And also it's about knowledge.
41:20
Speaker 2
It's not about like, I mean, nothing against Drew Carey, but Price is Right and Jeopardy don't have the same, they both hold a lot of cultural space, but not the same sort of like cultural import.
41:32
Speaker 3
If somebody tells you at a party they won on Price is Right, you would be interested.
41:35
Speaker 1
I would like to hear the story.
41:36
Speaker 3
I would love to hear it. But if somebody tells you they won on Jeopardy, it's like a very different story.
41:39
Speaker 2
No, you step back and go, wait, what? And you start, what's your name? You really want to know the story of, you go, oh, I didn't realize you were a genius.
41:47
Speaker 1
You know what I mean? It's like the, that there's a level, like you're a Jedi. I didn't realize you were a Jedi, you know, so.
41:52
Speaker 3
It really does have that. And I feel very lucky to be like on the coattails of that.
41:55
Speaker 2
So that means you have to carry the weight of like being the Obi-Wan of this thing, you know?
42:00
Speaker 3
Yeah, and I guess luckily, like, this makes Alex the Liam Neeson guy?
42:05
Speaker 1
Qui-Gon? I guess so.
42:06
Speaker 3
Or Yoda? I guess Alex Trebek is a good Yoda.
42:09
Speaker 1
Are you Luke Skywalker? I feel like maybe you're Luke Skywalker.
42:10
Speaker 3
I've never thought about this.
42:11
Speaker 1
I think you're Luke Skywalker.
42:12
Speaker 3
I kind of like Alex as Yoda because he's kind of cryptic.
42:14
Speaker 1
Oh, yeah, you're right, you're right. That still makes you Luke Skywalker.
42:16
Speaker 3
Like, Canada is kind of a remote, swampy planet.
42:18
Speaker 1
Yes.
42:19
Speaker 3
You know, to the north.
42:21
Speaker 1
Yeah, this is all tracks.
42:23
Speaker 3
And Alex was kind of full of like kind of gnome-like wisdom, you know, quiet. But when he talked, you would be like, I believe that because it's Alex Trebek.
42:30
Speaker 2
Yeah, but he also seemed like he had a— Yoda has a little bit of a sarcastic streak.
42:33
Speaker 1
Yeah, exactly.
42:34
Speaker 3
Alex was a little bit sassy and snarky and people like that.
42:37
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
42:39
Speaker 2
But also, I want to give you a lot of credit because you— The thing about Jeopardy, and I saw, like you said, Alex talked about this, like not wanting the show to be political. Right.
42:48
Speaker 1
Or politically aligned, I guess. Right. Because to me, everything's political based on choices that are made. Thank you.
42:53
Speaker 3
Thank you for that Marxist reading of game shows.
42:56
Speaker 1
That's what we need.
42:58
Speaker 2
Well, there goes my hosting duties. But, like, not being politically aligned with the weather. And I love the fact that it's just based on knowledge, which for me is like, that.
43:07
Speaker 1
Actually makes it really political now.
43:09
Speaker 3
Weirdly, now that's a political stance. That, like, on Jeopardy, you can't say, what is the moon landing never happened, Ken? You know, like... Like, we're not going to go to the tape for that one.
43:19
Speaker 1
No, no, no.
43:20
Speaker 3
You don't need to turn to the table and be like... No alternative facts on Jeopardy. Like, on Jeopardy, questions have answers. Or I guess answers have questions.
43:28
Speaker 1
Yes.
43:28
Speaker 3
And that's like... I think that's kind of refreshing.
43:31
Speaker 1
It's totally refreshing.
43:31
Speaker 3
Because we have, like, a very diverse audience. It's young.
43:34
Speaker 2
It's old.
43:35
Speaker 3
It's blue states. It's red states. It's not just like... you know, blue haired baristas watching Jeopardy, like America watches Jeopardy. So the fact that we, for half an hour and I, we agree that like, actually, these are the facts, no matter what the podcaster told you about vaccines. These are the facts.
43:50
Speaker 1
Yeah.
43:51
Speaker 2
These are the facts that according to, and we will cite our sources if you need us to.
43:54
Speaker 3
Exactly. Like, so for half an hour, expertise and scholarly consensus still matter. And maybe that's a way forward, I.
44:02
Speaker 2
But yeah, I think, and so I appreciate that, that it's like, we're not, we're not here to talk about, we're only talking about politicians as trivia questions, not as like who the leader, not who you should be voting for, but you know.
44:11
Speaker 3
Exactly. And I do still get, you know, people will still get annoyed. Like, hey, why did you do that clue about, you know, some Kristi Noem or, you know, some, some divisive figure? And I'm like, well, you know, we, you know, we also asked about like, uh, Goebbels that night, you know, like, yeah. Like, it's not an endorsement. No, no, no. We ask about Stalin, you know? A Jeopardy clue is not an endorsement. It just says we ask about everything because that's the Jeopardy ethos.
44:36
Speaker 2
And I do appreciate the fact that knowledge is sort of like, knowledge is just the thing.
44:40
Speaker 1
It's just stuff.
44:43
Speaker 2
So the more you know about the more things you know, the better it is for you generally, even if those things.
44:48
Speaker 3
Are— It's like building blocks of, like, becoming a person and making better decisions if you know more stuff.
44:53
Speaker 2
And so I think that's great. And then there's the social media version of you. Which I'm a fan of, I want to be clear.
45:02
Speaker 3
I guess Alex was always very careful to be apolitical in the sense that, you know, he didn't want people to know what his convictions were because... You know, that was— he came up in a world where he was actually a news broadcaster on the CBC. You know, he did everything, including the news. And that was kind of his view of how Jeopardy should be. With me, they just got to me too late. You know, by the time I was guest hosting Jeopardy, like, people already knew what my politics were.
45:28
Speaker 1
You'd already said some things.
45:29
Speaker 3
And also Alex, you know— Alex didn't have to host in the times we're in now, you know?
45:34
Speaker 2
No, there was a very different... I mean, Alex is almost out of the studio system of Hollywood, like, era.
45:39
Speaker 1
It's not.
45:40
Speaker 2
It's a very different time and space of... And show business is a much smaller business, and yeah.
45:45
Speaker 3
If your assumption is that Alex shares your politics just because he never said what the other guys say, like, I think you would have been very surprised. Like, an Alex Trebek who is still alive and hosting Jeopardy in... 2026 probably would have been a lot less circumspect because we're in a very difficult, different time.
46:00
Speaker 1
Well, that's what I appreciate. Cause I would imagine I've been in this position too.
46:03
Speaker 2
I worked at CNN for seven years where there's like a sense of like, I know they know who I am, but maybe I shouldn't say this at this moment because of X, Y, and Z. And often I'd be like, I think I gotta say it, but I'm in a different position than you are. And I would imagine that there, you could feel whether or not I was, you know, I often say that like, they don't pay you to say things sometimes.
46:21
Speaker 1
They pay you because they know you're not going to say them. You know what I mean? Like, some people get paid.
46:25
Speaker 2
It's like, we don't have to worry about this person because they already know what the deal is.
46:29
Speaker 1
You know what I mean? We don't have to.
46:30
Speaker 2
But you're... You have been very... You've said many things politically. I'm like, I agree with that. You know what I mean? And express support for things that I think... That I could see a version of you that's like.
46:42
Speaker 1
I agree with it, but I don't want to mess... You know, I'm new to Jeopardy. I don't want to, you know.
46:45
Speaker 3
Here's the problem.
46:46
Speaker 1
Like....
46:48
Speaker 3
The things that I believe in, I think are... Like, Jeopardy is so important to me. But, like, if I had to sacrifice either my favorite game show or, like, my convictions of right and wrong, like, that's not really a close call. You know? Like, if I'm watching... If I'm watching Ice in the Twin Cities.
47:06
Speaker 1
There we go.
47:06
Speaker 3
You know?
47:07
Speaker 2
Like.
47:08
Speaker 3
That's going to make me mad. And I'm not going to react out of anger.
47:11
Speaker 1
Yeah.
47:12
Speaker 3
But I'm going to like, my rights as a citizen include like, I might go to a protest and people might see the host of Jeopardy to protest. People could look up my political contributions. Like, it's just not a secret anymore, you know? And I don't think we're in a moment where it's going to age particularly well to keep your head down.
47:31
Speaker 1
So first of all, I just, I want to give you a lot of credit.
47:35
Speaker 2
For that because that is just not what a lot of heterosexual straight white men among a certain level of income.
47:43
Speaker 3
Gen X.
47:44
Speaker 1
Yeah, Gen X, yeah.
47:45
Speaker 3
Politically the worst leaded gasoline brain generation.
47:50
Speaker 2
Yeah, so it's just not a thing that a person in your position always does, even if they know the difference. And so for me, you know, If you say something that is like, like, I don't agree with what's happening with ICE in Minneapolis. It just, I think it is, it is super helpful to people on the ground because they're like, look, even he's saying this.
48:10
Speaker 3
I want to normalize it. You know, like, and luckily.
48:12
Speaker 1
Normalize speaking up.
48:13
Speaker 3
Sorry. Yeah, I don't want to normalize ICE raids in Minneapolis.
48:17
Speaker 1
I thought we'd switched. Was it not clear?
48:20
Speaker 3
No, like when I see Jimmy Kimmel just talking in a loose but very direct, sincere way about what he believes about health care or whatever, I think, thank goodness that there's somebody on TV just being like a normal guy saying it's okay to have these opinions. And I think, you know, I don't love this culture of fear. Like, you know, athletes shut up and dribble, you know, like.
48:45
Speaker 1
No.
48:45
Speaker 2
Game show hosts, shut up and give the questions.
48:51
Speaker 3
I do shut up and get the questions, and that's fair. People would love to imagine that everybody they see on TV agrees with them in every respect.
48:58
Speaker 1
Or they just go home into a box and don't ever look at the outside world.
49:01
Speaker 3
Right.
49:02
Speaker 1
In a gold-plated box.
49:02
Speaker 3
But all these people just discovering now that nine-inch nails is not mega or whatever, you don't get to have— weird, fringy beliefs and assume that like Bruce Springsteen has your weird, fringy beliefs.
49:15
Speaker 2
Like you don't get both, you know? That Tom Rollins had that happen with Rage Against the Machine sometimes. Stay out of politics.
49:21
Speaker 3
Exactly, exactly.
49:22
Speaker 1
If you know, this band wouldn't exist without politics.
49:24
Speaker 3
Have you been following 20, 30 years of Tom Morello?
49:25
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I think that's fair.
49:29
Speaker 2
But like I said, I just want to give you again, give you your flowers for like because you could just choose to not because it would be easier.
49:36
Speaker 3
It would be much easier. It would be easier for me.
49:38
Speaker 2
I want to say I want to fan the flames of like keep doing it because it I know when I say stuff sometimes I'm like, I don't know if I again, same thing. This is making me angry. Again, never social media angry. That's how you lose jobs. But if you think it through and have a good post or a good thing to say, then say it. And I know sometimes I say it because I know it's... Fame is weird. You know, celebrity is weird. You know, I only found out I was a celebrity because you guys asked me about Celebrity Jeopardy.
50:06
Speaker 3
That's how you know.
50:07
Speaker 1
That's how you know. Seal of approval.
50:09
Speaker 2
This platform, if it's going to mean anything, it's going to be because I at least said something when things were wrong. And right now, a lot of things are super wrong.
50:16
Speaker 3
A lot of things are wrong. And listen, I don't like. I'm not trying to be inflammatory. Like there was a time when I was pretty much freelancing and I could just go on social media and poke the bear. Yeah. And you know.
50:28
Speaker 1
And you got some pushback for that.
50:30
Speaker 3
Well, sure. Like everybody was saying dumb things on Twitter in 2012 and I'm no exception.
50:35
Speaker 2
And I, it's funny you say that because I feel like whenever I see a celebrity and you got, when you were interim host of Jeopardy, they found an old tweet. I feel like any tweet before like 2015 is kind of like, we didn't know. Like we, Now, people can say horrible things that I don't agree with.
50:50
Speaker 3
It was basically a John Hughes movie. We were just doing awful things on Twitter.
50:53
Speaker 2
Well, also, I remember when the idea of Twitter was sold to me by a couple of other stand-up comedians.
50:58
Speaker 1
It's like an open mic. You can say anything was how it was sold to me. And then I think Justine Sacco, the woman who... I'm sure you know who Justine Sacco is.
51:05
Speaker 3
I remember.
51:06
Speaker 1
The woman who said.
51:07
Speaker 2
Something horrible, then got on a plane to South Africa, and by the time she got off, she was an internationally trending story and had been fired from every job and has since disappeared from... That was when I was like... Oh, it's not that, but yeah.
51:19
Speaker 3
Yeah, and I'm actually, like, I'm totally aligned with the second point of view, you know? Like, you know, people should have, I should have thought more before I tweeted any given thing, you know?
51:30
Speaker 2
Yeah.
51:31
Speaker 3
But, like, nowadays, like, now that I'm not freelancing, I really do think, like, I don't say things just to, like... piss off an imaginary villain who disagrees with me. You know, that's a bad way to post.
51:43
Speaker 1
Yes.
51:43
Speaker 3
But like, if you say, for example, like, here's the kind of candidate I think the opposition party should nominate next time, because here are the problems we face. Like, Like, that's my right as a citizen, you know?
51:55
Speaker 1
For sure. And your right as a game show host.
51:58
Speaker 3
I don't know. I don't know if that's a special set of rights, but I don't think it should be a more constrained one.
52:02
Speaker 1
No. For sure. Well, that's good.
52:04
Speaker 2
Well, like I said, it really means a lot to see you and I've seen you say things about ICE and trans rights and things like that.
52:10
Speaker 3
I mean, it's stuff that affects me and my family, you know? Like, that actually, like, law enforcement kidnapping my neighbors, that affects me. My trans friends and family, like, not having the same rights they did. Women not having the same health rights they did for 50 years. Like, these things actually affect me. It's not a soapbox, and it's not performative.
52:30
Speaker 1
No.
52:31
Speaker 3
I'm just a person.
52:50
Speaker 1
We've really underestimated.
52:51
Speaker 2
It's selfish to want everybody to have rights and access to everything they need because it makes your community better. Like if you, if everybody in the community has everything they need and feel safe and protected and educated and well-fed, that's a better neighborhood, you know?
53:04
Speaker 1
Yeah.
53:04
Speaker 3
Like, yeah, I, I do. And I'm, I'm not a doomer online. Like I do believe in a better America and a future like that. that has all those rights and protections for all of us. I think it's possible.
53:15
Speaker 1
Well, I'm glad you're declaring your candidacy for presidency here. And that's why. Feel free to take this however you want to take it.
53:23
Speaker 2
And this is, again, the, no, this is meant to be, but like, so in, on the United States of America, I did an episode in Salt Lake city about the Mormon, about the LDS church of Latter-day Saints. And what I learned is I think a thing that Americans don't, that many people don't realize who are not, in the Church of Latter-day Saints.
53:39
Speaker 1
I've learned Mormon is not what you say.
53:41
Speaker 3
I still say Mormon.
53:42
Speaker 1
I know a lot of Mormons do, but I feel like I want to be, I'm trying to be good.
53:46
Speaker 3
With my age demographic, you can say Mormon because that's how we came up.
53:49
Speaker 1
Okay. Well, so that just like Christianity, there are different levels and shapes and types of Mormons. And I think that we, when many of us hear the word Mormon, we assume they're the most sort of like observant, conservative, old-school version of that thing.
54:05
Speaker 3
Well, you're picturing big love, probably.
54:06
Speaker 1
Yes, exactly, yeah. That probably didn't do a lot for the faith. And so I didn't realize that you would come from that faith, and I don't know if you're still practicing or whatever, but it was another way in which I understood, because there's a thing I learned about Mormons in Seattle. I'm not in Seattle. There's a thing I learned about Mormons in Salt Lake City that there is sort of a....
54:24
Speaker 2
A way to interact with the world that is about kindness and politeness and sort of community is turned up a notch, that can be taken to a bad way. But as soon as I found that about you, I was like, oh, like that is a thing I noticed about Mormons when I was in Salt Lake City.
54:41
Speaker 1
Well, that's good. Yeah.
54:42
Speaker 3
I'm glad your takeaway wasn't like, you know, the beer is weak and the people are insular, you know?
54:46
Speaker 1
No, no, no.
54:47
Speaker 2
Because I met like gay Mormons and trans Mormons and now they had like, had different levels of where they felt connected to the religion.
54:54
Speaker 1
And rightly so.
54:55
Speaker 3
And rightly so.
54:56
Speaker 1
And certainly I.
54:57
Speaker 2
Met Dan from Imagine Dragons, the lead singer, and he built this house for LGBTQ Mormons. And so, but it was still like, oh, this is just like any religion. Like I would consider myself a Christian. I don't go to church all the time, but I know in here the way in which I act with the world is from my black Christian upbringing, you know?
55:14
Speaker 3
Like when I say that like I have convictions of right and wrong that run deeper than my desire to keep my religion extremely well-paid job. And if I ever had to choose, I would go with the convictions. Like, that's all from, like, my church upbringing. And it's funny because it's not the black church. It's actually a very conservative-leaning institution. But, like, the thing about Mormons or Latter-day Saints— thank you.
55:36
Speaker 1
Thank you. Thank you for correcting it for me.
55:39
Speaker 3
Like, it's very geographically— dependent, you know, like if you're imagining like somebody, a Mormon in a small town, you know, a rancher in Idaho or a small town, like your stereotype of somebody with very conservative views might be right. That's why there are a lot of conservative Mormons, because there's a lot of Mormons in the Mountain West. Those are red states.
55:59
Speaker 1
And also the rural areas where you're not seeing lots of different types of people.
56:02
Speaker 3
Exactly. Not the most diverse part of the country. Whereas if you're going to go to a Mormon... If you go to my Mormon congregation tomorrow in Seattle, it would look very different from a small Idaho town.
56:12
Speaker 1
Yeah.
56:13
Speaker 3
And it would be apolitical, of course, because... But the... if you ask people how they voted, it would not be the same as that mythical small Idaho town. So Mormons are not a monolith.
56:24
Speaker 1
Yeah.
56:25
Speaker 3
And I do feel like, like having that anchor of faith really is like, was a very important part of keeping myself grounded when I was like, well, suddenly I'm.
56:35
Speaker 1
Just won $ 3 million.
56:38
Speaker 3
Yeah, by my original standards, I'm rich and famous somehow.
56:41
Speaker 1
Yeah.
56:41
Speaker 3
On a game show, like, what do you do? You know, like, what's the right way to be in that situation? I... The thing about like this kind of hardy pioneer Mormon upbringing is you kind of think it's a little bit unseemly to be rich and famous. Like, well, no, like we're a thrifty people. You know, we shouldn't have all that big fancy Hollywood money.
57:00
Speaker 1
Yeah.
57:01
Speaker 3
So then the calculus becomes like, well, how do you become a good person and how do you stay a good person and do the right things with the weird– With.
57:13
Speaker 2
The weird new thing you've been blessed with. With the evils of society raining money upon you.
57:18
Speaker 1
Exactly.
57:19
Speaker 3
Exactly. And so I did and do think a lot about that. And I think it informs how I am publicly. It informs, like, what I try to do with the money and with the platform. And hopefully, like, that helps, like, reinforce the idea that you found out in Salt Lake, which is, like, Mormons are not an insular conservative monolith.
57:43
Speaker 2
Yeah, and I think we understand that with, like, evangelical Christianity. That's one version of Christianity.
57:49
Speaker 1
Right. We generally, as a society, understand that that's not the same as.
57:51
Speaker 3
Like— There's Lutheran moms on the barricades in Minneapolis. Yes. And they're not the megachurch Baptists you're caricaturing in.
57:58
Speaker 1
Texas, you know? Yes, yeah, yeah. So I think that we don't understand— it' s funny, we don't understand that with Muslims, and we don't understand that with Mormons. It's weird.
58:05
Speaker 2
And so thank you for letting me talk about that, because I really did, when I found out that— I didn't know that you were in the Church of Latter-day Saints.
58:11
Speaker 1
I'm not going to say— I didn't know.
58:14
Speaker 2
And then I was like, it's sort of like a part of you sort of snapped in place, like, oh, that's what I'm responding to, because that's what I, when I was in Salt Lake City hanging out with the Mormons who were at different levels of the faith.
58:24
Speaker 3
One thing I will say about Mormons is they don't tend to be prosperity gospel Christians. They don't tend to think, well, I've got a car dealership, so I'm better than them. Like, there is, you know, the ethos of coming up with a lot of humanitarian service, you know, spending time volunteering. Mormons don't have a professional ministry, so everybody kind of pitches in. Like, you know, just some dentist for down the street is going to give a sermon on Sunday, and the Sunday school lesson will be from, you know, the guy who delivers your fertilizer. And it's just a different kind of a community. And so— like the stuff that Christians should take to heart about like how Jesus actually treated marginalized people.
59:02
Speaker 1
What would Jesus do?
59:03
Speaker 3
Exactly.
59:04
Speaker 2
As my minister, Pastor Michael McBride, who is my minister, even though I don't go to his church ever, but he is my minister.
59:09
Speaker 1
It's like, what did Jesus do? What did he actually do? Not what would he do?
59:13
Speaker 3
Who was he spending his time with?
59:14
Speaker 2
Yeah, who was he spending his time with? What was he doing in his life? Do those things and you'll be on the right side of things.
59:19
Speaker 3
And I think I was very lucky to have that grounding. I think I feel like as an adult, I'm the kind of person who really actually benefits from that. Like having that background really makes me think a lot about what the right thing is to do and say in a situation. And I'm far from always doing it, but like... You know, think what an a-hole I would be without that kind of upbringing, you know?
59:38
Speaker 2
Yeah.
59:39
Speaker 1
Boy, yeah.
59:40
Speaker 2
It sort of makes sense that, like, a person who had that upbringing and was instilled with those values, that you wouldn't be knocked off of your square by, like, the wildness of suddenly I'm the most winningest Jeopardy! champion ever, and I've got $ 3 million. You're not suddenly going to, like, I'm going to the VIP room at the Viper Room in L.A.
59:58
Speaker 1
Make it rain. Yeah, make it rain. You know, you're like, contribute to climate change organizations.
1:00:03
Speaker 3
There's so few strip clubs in my Jeopardy success story.
1:00:08
Speaker 1
Well, that's... I mean, if people like to go to strip clubs, that's fine, but it seems like with you, let's keep it that way.
1:00:12
Speaker 3
It wouldn't be me.
1:00:13
Speaker 1
That wouldn't be you. So first of all, thank you for letting me have this talk with you. I really appreciate it.
1:00:18
Speaker 3
It's a lot of fun.
1:00:19
Speaker 1
I've always liked you.
1:00:19
Speaker 2
From afar, and I do feel like I'm a part of the Jeopardy family, and people online remind me of that. And it is absolutely one of the most proud accomplishments of my life that I won last season. I wish I didn't have to come back right away and defend my title, but good for me in a kind. I wish I'd just been able to, like.
1:00:33
Speaker 1
Walk around.
1:00:34
Speaker 2
Although, can you help me get my C back? My C fell off my Celebrity Jeopardy trophy.
1:00:38
Speaker 1
Oh, no.
1:00:38
Speaker 3
Wait, your trophy's broken?
1:00:40
Speaker 2
It's missing a C. Right now, it's an Elebrity Jeopardy trophy.
1:00:43
Speaker 3
And you don't want to be an Elebrity.
1:00:45
Speaker 1
I don't want to be an Elebrity. I really prioritize the celebrity.
1:00:48
Speaker 3
I know some people at Jeopardy. I'm going to reach out.
1:00:51
Speaker 1
Well, thank you.
1:00:52
Speaker 2
My penultimate question, and I know you know what penultimate means. Is there a charity or organization you'd like to shout out? I give people homework. Is there some organization you'd like to shout out or even a cause just generally if you don't have a specific organization?
1:01:06
Speaker 3
I mean, I'm a big believer in like, I had to kind of teach myself philanthropy because suddenly I had this windfall.
1:01:12
Speaker 1
Yeah.
1:01:13
Speaker 3
And, you know, you hear about all the— First.
1:01:14
Speaker 2
Of all, that's not what everybody who has a windfall says. Now I need to learn about philanthropy. So you're already revealing something about yourself.
1:01:21
Speaker 3
Well, think about these billionaires where, like, you know, Warren Buffett apparently has to work on Bill Gates for years at the bridge table to get him to start a foundation, a developing world foundation or whatever, like— You know, thank goodness there are those wheels turning, but, like, I kind of had to figure it all out. And, of course, I'm from a tradition that tithes, but, like, that should not be the end of your giving, you know? Like, I love that idea that, you know, just a reminder that, well, you know, none of this is mine. This all, for whatever reason, this has come from above to see if I'm going to be a good steward of this. And I think tithing is a good way to think about money, but really that should be the beginning and not the end. And So now it's very much like, I was kind of inspired by what Mackenzie Bezos said about like, you know, like instead of building a big kind of narcissistic infrastructure around your.
1:02:12
Speaker 1
Wealth, like- Yeah, the Ken Jennings Foundation. Exactly. The Ken Jennings Family Fund.
1:02:16
Speaker 3
I love that she is just like, I'm going to find an organization that's already doing the right thing on the ground for the stuff I believe in. And I'm just going to give them a hundred million dollars, you know, like your homelessness approach works. Here's a big check.
1:02:27
Speaker 1
Here you can do more.
1:02:28
Speaker 3
You know, your anti-malaria approach works. Here's a big check.
1:02:30
Speaker 1
Yeah.
1:02:31
Speaker 3
So that's kind of what we do. And it feels so good. Like if you're mad about Gaza, just write a check to ANARA or World Central Kitchen or whoever is in the trenches doing the humanitarian work. If you're mad about immigration, a la Trelata. If you're mad about... Reproductive rights, Center for Reproductive Rights. These are just examples, but that feels really good. And it doesn't have to be a big check.
1:02:58
Speaker 1
No, no, for sure.
1:02:59
Speaker 3
Somebody making a $ 10 donation online could have that same feeling. Retail therapy, but for good. For the soul.
1:03:07
Speaker 2
Yeah, that's how I used donor shoes for years. I mean, I'm on the board now, but it just... I'm just going to wipe out this teacher. She wants dry erase boards, and she needs $ 50.
1:03:15
Speaker 3
That's so good. It doesn't have to be a big organization like... The way the economy is now, like go to your social media and find a teacher who needs scissors and crayons, you know, or a family whose medical bills are mounting and they're worried about the rent, you know, like those are in your own circles. And it feels so good, even if it's, you know, whatever it is, 10 bucks.
1:03:34
Speaker 1
Name one place that you think that you used it. You just named a bunch.
1:03:37
Speaker 3
I know. Okay. So let me, after having said all that, like.
1:03:40
Speaker 1
Yeah. We can list all of them, but I just want to.
1:03:42
Speaker 3
I mean, this is just kind of a funny story.
1:03:43
Speaker 2
Like.
1:03:45
Speaker 3
Growing up, like one thing I loved about Seattle is we have the world's best video store. Yes. Scarecrow Video is like an amazing destination for movie nerds. And it was really part of my movie education was they had all the movies that nobody else had. And now they still do. Video stores declined, but Scarecrow became a nonprofit. And now they're the biggest publicly accessible company. collection of movies and other video, basically in the Western hemisphere, I think.
1:04:13
Speaker 2
I mean, physical media is a thing that we need to hold on to because our streaming services just decide, we just turn that movie off. You don't have that TV show anymore.
1:04:22
Speaker 3
There was like an Altman movie I wanted to see last week and I was like, well, which streaming service had it? And guess what? Like, 100,000 other movies, none of them did. So I drove 10 minutes to Scarecrow Video, and I watched Thieves Like Us with Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall.
1:04:36
Speaker 1
And it was amazing. Oh, that's beautiful.
1:04:38
Speaker 3
I'm on the board at Scarecrow now, so this is not disinterested.
1:04:41
Speaker 1
That's all right, that's all right. You can be on the board of good things.
1:04:43
Speaker 3
But Scarecrow just bought its building. And, you know, it's not as urgent as, you know, for sure, to Gaza and immigration.
1:04:50
Speaker 2
I mean, you mentioned a bunch of things, but I do like the idea of like a local organization. Also, the whole point of this podcast is to provide people different entry points. So some people are going to be inspired by... give to this like world central kitchen. And some of them were like, Ooh, physical media.
1:05:04
Speaker 1
Yeah.
1:05:04
Speaker 2
You know, so I, I like giving people a poopoo platter, a golden corral of things to, uh, to look at.
1:05:10
Speaker 3
So my, uh, my wife's grandma used to love going to hometown buffet. Cause she said, everybody can get what they want. And I was like, isn't that true at all restaurants? But you're right. If the thing that's keeping you from from philanthropy is that you don't have an amazing video store. Yes. Scarecrow Video in Seattle just bought its building and the future is rosy, I hope for them. And they would love you to support physical media.
1:05:35
Speaker 2
That's I mean, I think I love that's why I love asking this question, because you never know where you're going to end up.
1:05:39
Speaker 1
And it is.
1:05:40
Speaker 2
And yes, we can. And I've talked about all these lots of organizations that you mentioned before. But like, I didn't know about Scarecrow Video, so I'm happy to know about them. Uh, last question is the podcast is called who's with me.
1:05:49
Speaker 1
Are you with me?
1:05:50
Speaker 3
I am a hundred percent with you come out to the ends of the earth.
1:05:53
Speaker 1
Oh, thank you, sir.
1:05:54
Speaker 3
You're part of the jeopardy family.
1:05:55
Speaker 1
Uh, well, I, I, and it does make my whole family proud.
1:05:58
Speaker 2
So please let everybody at jeopardy know that I, that I still feel, I still feel tied to jeopardy, even though Mina kind of took my title.
1:06:05
Speaker 3
Mina Kimes played very well, but I think you're a fan favorite. We may be seeing you again.
1:06:11
Speaker 2
I just want to be like how you're the host. I want to be, remember when Jimmy Kimmel was on Win Ben Stein's Money?
1:06:16
Speaker 1
Right. I just want to be that.
1:06:17
Speaker 2
I want to be like when Jimmy Kimmel was sitting next to Ben Stein.
1:06:20
Speaker 3
Oh, you want to be Kimmel?
1:06:21
Speaker 1
I want to be Kimmel. Yeah, I don't want to be Stein. So open up a seat on Jeopardy.
1:06:24
Speaker 3
I'll be the crabby old guy. Exactly.
1:06:26
Speaker 1
I just want the epic man seat on Jeopardy, but yeah.
1:06:29
Speaker 3
We've never had a sidekick, but I think if we had a short list.
1:06:32
Speaker 1
Yeah, okay. I'm happy to know I'm making the short list, even if I don't make the show.
1:06:35
Speaker 3
You're a very promising candidate.
1:06:36
Speaker 1
Thank you. Thank you, sir.
1:06:37
Speaker 3
Come out.
1:06:41
Speaker 2
Thanks for listening to Who's With Me. Thanks to my guest, Ken Jennings. The new season of Jeopardy starts September 14th. It's funny to think of Jeopardy having seasons, but there is a new season. It starts September 14th. Again, you can also pre-order my new book with Adam Mansbach, Rock, Paper, Scissors, Cheese, my new children's book. All the links are in the show notes. So here's a list of the nonprofits that Ken supported. Again, it's a long list, so I got to take a deep breath. So first of all, Anera, then World Central Kitchen. I mentioned those two together because he mentioned them together. They both are about supporting refugees, and they've done a lot of work to support Palestinians in Palestine and Palestinians around the world, but also refugees.
1:07:15
Speaker 1
All over the world.
1:07:16
Speaker 2
World Central Kitchen was started by Chef Jose Andres, who's very famous for going everywhere in the world when people who are struggling in the midst of war need food.
1:07:25
Speaker 1
They feed many people.
1:07:27
Speaker 2
Ken also talked about Alotrolato, which provides holistic legal and humanitarian support to refugees, deportees, and other migrants in the U.S.
1:07:35
Speaker 1
And Tijuana.
1:07:36
Speaker 2
So again, a lot of that's about the damage this country does to those places. Then we have the Center of Reproductive Rights. Pretty sure you understand what that does, supporting reproductive rights, making sure that people have access to their reproductive rights and reproductive justice. And then the fun one is Scarecrow Video, which at this point, protecting physical media should be a thing we're all thinking more about is all these corporations decide when we can and can't get access to movies when they just delete things or like just what happened recently with the, uh, coyote versus Acme where the company was like, we made a movie. We're not going to do it where that's what Warner brothers did. So yeah, physical media, we need to get our gen X on and get back into physical media.
1:08:14
Speaker 1
So scarecrow video. Um, yeah. So those are the list of places that can want you to think about. Thanks a lot, Ken.
1:08:20
Speaker 2
Thanks to rabbit grin productions, Pushkin industries, and who knows best productions, which is me. Special thanks to Chris Dowd. I really can't say thanks enough to Chris Dowd from Fishbone for the theme music. And as I say every week, do something good for yourself, for your community, and for the world.
1:08:35
Speaker 1
Take care.
The Host
