Last Podcast On The Left - The Man With All The Answers: An Interview with Ken Jennings

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

Ben 'n' Henry sit down with author, legendary contestant, and current host of Jeopardy, Ken Jennings to discuss his new book 100 Places to See After You Die, the many faces of the afterlife, his dark history podcast Omnibus, and of course, all things Jeopardy.

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you need on your tongue, we got the spoon for you. Beach Blanket Fingo, baby. Come on, guys. Let's do it. Hey, what's up everyone? How you doing? Ben Kisalier hanging out with Henry Superhousekey. Oh, yeah. Today's guest we are honored to have him. He is a 74 time winner in a row. It's called a streak folks on jeopardy. He is also the author of a new book 100 places to see after you die. Ken Jennings is with us. Ken, thank you so much for being on the show. That's my pleasure. Thanks so much for having me on. Dude, yes. And please, you can't believe you're here. Can't believe you're here. You're

too smart to be here. This is great. And it's a you'll see immediately you'll be you'll be immediately be like, why did I do this? Yeah. Why did I take time out of the because you're in the middle of a tournament right now, right? Yeah, the the Jeopardy Masters tournament is over. But Jeopardy continues through

July and I'm on a book tour now. Many people warned me not to do this show. Can you're too smart for this they said? But I'm a big fan and I'm delighted to be here. Well, awesome. Thank you so much. So my first question is because the rise of the machines, I'm not really a fan of these

robots. He's immediately, I got to talk to you about this goddamn schmuck, IBM Watson. So he beat you and he cheated, of course, because he's got all the, he's got all the Google. What do you want to do to IBM Watson? Should we take it out in the field, office, base, hit, baseball, bats, golf clubs, destroy this absolute disgusting devil box? What are your thoughts on Watson? Just let me know. Cut a promo. I felt very obsolete back in 2011 when I lost to Watson. I felt like this was the beginning of the information, of the machines coming for these information economy jobs,

knowing stuff, learning stuff, writing stuff, it was all about to go. And then for a decade, it didn't happen. And I thought, oh, it's just me. I'm the only one who was put out of work. Jeopardy champions are out of work. But now, but now in the Chad GPT area, it looks like the machines are back.

Watson was like, Watson was the first terminator where it's just one guy, but now there's an army of terminators coming for us. Yeah, new liquid lady terminators. It's going to get very, very intense. Yeah, that was the one thing. They could have given, they could have given Watson like a mustache or something as opposed to you just like looking like you're losing to a shitty Tesla. I just must

have been infuriating all of the work that you put in. And then all of a sudden this goddamn glorified Rubik's cube comes out of nowhere. And everyone's talking about it like it has feelings. It didn't know at one. It didn't care. It was just a, it was a big black rectangle on TV. Do you know why? It was a flat screen TV turned on its side.

That's all Watson's face was and then it had a mechanical thumb and that was really its advantage. It could buzz faster than than any human. So the robots don't know more than we do yet. But they're much better at pressing a jeopardy button. Okay, it makes me feel better. We do say that was like the key because I, how do you prepare for that? Like prepare for that like because I I kind of want to know Is that an extension for how you prepared to be a jeopardy contestant like were you did you prep to be like Training you like and then yeah, like how does it translate to then fighting the same like you go against meet people Which is one thing but then you have to go against a flat screen, like how does it change your preparation?

Yeah, I do a lot of thumb yoga. Good. You know, watching the show is the best prep because you really do want to get into the rhythm of, okay, here's how fast the host reads the clues and here's one I buzz. Because the buzzer set up such that if you buzz early, you actually lock yourself out for a minute. So when you see people on jeopardy flailing away, those are not people who buzz too late. They buzz too early and lock themselves out. So a lot of the prep is just watching the show and getting into that rhythm. And of course, you know, we're in the money ball era of Jeopardy,

where players will, you know, just build simulators at home and spend hours drilling themselves on vice presidents and state birds and all the rest. There is a lot of jeopardy training that happens now. It's like a rocky montage in a bunch of nerds basements. I love that. But when you're facing the, like when you're facing a computer, was at that point, I know it was like kind of like, it was a fun thing. It was kind of like an exercise on jeopardy. But when you were like, do you feel like genuine resentment or like, do you go against

this machine? Like, would you know, like, is it like, what's it like? You're a jobber and a WWE, where you have to go lose to the rock, or do you, or you were you like, no, I'm going to go beat this machine. I thought we had a chance. I thought we had a real chance. And there were a lot of games where we're Brad and I, the two human players, we actually beat the robot.

But in the actual game, it got a good spread of categories. The things that humans would have been good at, kind of high concept problem solving, and very short clues where the computer takes a minute to chug along. And if the clue is short, maybe the human can get in there first. They're just worried enough of those. And so it was lights out for the human race. I'm sorry, I let everybody down. No, no, no, you did.

You did, it was just the first one. It was just the first true loss. That's fine. You didn't let us down. Ken. The fix was in. We also what happened in clear plane site. Obviously, Trebek had it out for you. So when it comes to you now host, so you're the star 74 straight wins. What a ride. You made jeopardy cool. Jeopardy's been around for a long time. It always ends. I will do something. Just that Alex Trebek did make it cool. But you was in you. You're continuing it, but the run that can't head, I mean, you remember all four, everyone, all of a sudden, everyone's like, you're a jeopardy. This guy's on a run. People started watching 30 wins in, 40 wins in, you know, all the way up to 74 wins.

That must have been an absolute shock. I don't know you know, all the way up to 74 wins. That must have been an absolute shock. I don't know you personally, but a lot of times people who are intellectual can also be introvert. And then all of a sudden, you're literally on the cover of magazines as the world's smartest man. How do you make a mistake after that? Can you like fuck up your Starbucks order without everyone being like, I guess it's all a show turns out it's a fraud Every single time I walk up to a door and I pull instead of push. Yes. I look around like Is anybody seeing what it's a lot of pressure to be the smartest man in America?

People often do come up to me with trivia questions. They want to stump me with and what I discovered is the play there Is to try to get it wrong because it's easier for me. It's more satisfying for them. Really everybody wins. So I'm fine being a punching bag for all these young gunslingers. Yeah, and that's what you got to do because they're all training up on you. And now you're in charge. Like do you feel that we like now that you're like hosting jeopardy like like does that like

what kind of pressure is that? Like on yourself? Like, do you feel like you can go back and win now, like do the same? No, I'm way too old. Like, I was still in my 20s when I was first on the show, which meant I had the young plastic sexy brain in a 29 year old. And now I forget things and I remember names slower. And it's all starting to go, you guys. Is that right?

So that's interesting. It's actually like an athletic venture. There's a certain time, there's a certain peak time frame for a jeopardy contestant. I mean, we all started to forget things, but maybe I just notice it sooner, the way, yeah, like you say, the way our running back notices is knees and his hips are what they were. Yeah. Before a normal person like you or I would, you know, because, because that's there, that's their, that's their meal ticket. And so I'm the same way. Like I, the last time I played Jeopardy on the goat tournament, I got lucky and I beat James Holtzauer, but I was like, I am, I'm like Danny Glover and lethal weapon. You know, I'm getting weight-jeweled for this.

I'm very happy to be hosting and retired now. That's awesome. And then with your insight and plain, have you ever seen a contestant, Andrew and just like, buddy, how did you get on the show? You are like, is it? Yeah. You, who did you have sex with? That wasn't me. This far because literally it would be like Michael Jordan doing commentary, just a viscer rating. Everyone who isn't as great as he is, is that a, that must be an interesting experience to see the newbies coming in there and sweating it out. I mean, I have so much sympathy for them because, you know, what they're putting themselves

through, playing jeopardy is a very intense experience. And, you know, having seen it on your couch for years is not really any kind of preparation. It's very intense and surreal to suddenly be there. And I remember that kind of panic. And I do everything I can to settle them down. And I remember that kind of panic. And I do everything I can to settle them down. And, you know, sometimes they have a good game and sometimes they don't. But, you know, I know that I know what they're doing. It's, it's a lot harder than it seems on your couch. I'll tell you that.

Oh, yeah, especially because the camera, the camera's right on you. And then the effect they think that I have, a lot of people have who've not been on camera a lot, within you see yourself on camera afterwards. I feel like there's like a doubling up effect. If you make it to the second night and you watch yourself perform on television the night before, you know that you're, you're like, oh, wow, I have a tell. I'm greasy. What's wrong with you just like thinking about this is growing as you're staring at yourself.

That's a, that's a great point. Did you watch, did you watch your performances with a nice champagne and a cigar or were you just scared shitless? I mean, luckily in most cases, your shows are all going to be taped months before they air. You know, we do, we do five in a day and then they air two or three months later. So in most cases, by the time somebody is able to watch their shows, they know, okay, I lost two nights after this has happened back in June. In my case, I was on long enough that, yeah, my show started to air on TV and I'm still playing. So contestants would show up to

jeopardy and be like, no, it's this guy still. Well, how can it still be this guy? Nobody was happy to see me. No, that's the best fucking thing. They're like, Oh, no, there's a fucking killer in here already. I love it. It's a lot. I love to talk to you about your, you have your podcast omnibus. Yes. We're also working. I do want to bring up like, because we are purveyors of dark history and we're really into dark. What do you feel like as a take it? Because like you kind of going through like dark obscure history for you. What's like a takeaway that you have about learning about history that you would apply to kind of like now? I wonder if I feel like the mistake we always make thinking about now is that we're different. You know, there's something special and unique about our generation and our time that is nothing like anybody else ever went through.

The weird, in the darenity, we are special little snowflakes. And I think that's the illusion. I think the more you read about the weird little back alleys of history, you find out, oh no, people were worried about something like exactly like my neurosis 500 years ago, or 2000 years ago, you know, that the human experience is pretty universal. And maybe that's reassuring because we got this far, you know, there were a ton of existential threats and we're the ones who made it. And maybe that'll happen again.

Maybe our kids are going to be okay because they'll figure it out as well. And we realized that when we covered the black plague, we talked about it at the time, like everywhere you go, you realize like the modern brain has been like this. Like we've been modern people for a really long time in human history. And so a lot of times it's what they're concerned about, like how in the black plague, they were still talking about like one of the worst fates that can happen to you is the barbs get a hold of your story and they make fun of you for generations. And that was considered a curse, which is like, it's still kind of real.

Like it's still like the power of what SNL does, what certain things do. We're just making fun of somebody and sometimes destroy everything you know about them. I mean, today on Jeff, to this day on Jeopardy, people will be like, I just don't want to go viral. Like, that'll be their one dream. I don't care if I wear it or not. Please do not, do not let me go viral. And that makes sense. Well, what causes something to go viral? Is it always a mistake? Can't something positive go viral, not just someone who randomlyqueefed? It's always, it's always like negativity feeds the internet. What was some time? Yeah, it's go on. Sometimes on jeopardy, something good or funny will happen. And that's what people like.

You know, we kind of have a gentle property. And so often it is something surprisingly good. Often, you know, often it'll be somebody doing some dumb, don't get me wrong. But if, you know, on Jeopardy, you don't expect something funny or dramatic to happen. So good stuff goes viral too, which is nice. Yeah, that is nice. Right from North way. Mr. Jennings, you're not going to make

Jeopardy more extreme, right? You're going to do things you're going to have like pranks and like things to like shoot now to people. Dude, you know, the platforms falling out like you're just going to double dare. Double dare meets Jeopardy. We need slime. Yeah, we're going to go back to fear factor. If you find the daily stuff, it's going to have to eat like donkey rectums and and sadly Joe Rogan's going to be there. Yeah. That is.

Remember that everyone was just eating cow balls at like 8 p.m. on Saturday and people are like, this is good old fashioned Christian values. He's almost a billionaire. That's crazy. He doesn't need jeopardy. He doesn't need jeopardy. No, he should bring in. Maybe there's also a possibility to bring in America's dumbest people. That's sort of well, they already do celebrity jeopardy. Dumbest celebrity you've ever met. That's not that's fine. It's better now. It's better now than the Will Farrell years. Yeah, no, we, it's celebrity jeopardy is stuck because you're trying to find famous people who are willing to do a show with no upside at all. Like if they do find nobody's going to be like, Hey, uh, Pat Noswell's pretty smart. But if they get

one thing wrong, it's like, while this guy got golden girls confused with dream girls, like, what a go. Yeah, for the rest of your life. Yeah, it's horrible. So yes, let's talk about a hundred places to see after you die. What was the motivation for writing this book and as Henry alluded to? It's a great concept. I love this concept. Yes, so fun. It seems like it's an extension, obviously, of your, your intelligence and understanding of history. What was it that you wanted to share with us? The readers, a hundred places to see after you die?

I liked the idea of a travel guy to the afterlife because I've always been super interested. Even as a kid, I was, I loved mythology and growing up when I did as a Gen Xer, you guys probably remember this time when it seemed like the Bermuda Triangle and UFOs and who and who built the pyramids were just going to be the most important things in our life. Do you remember that? It's how we got to this point with last month. I assume so. Yeah, there was a seed planted into us elder millennials. It was all time life books making us, making us think about these mysteries.

And to me, the afterlife was always one of these great mysteries. It's just maddening that billions of people have died. And they either know or don't, one awaits us. And we're here like, chumps just wondering and worrying for 80 years. And so I love this idea, you know, goes to heaven hell. I love the whole thing. And this book is, it's just kind of about the story of human kind trying to get its mind around what might await us in the in the undiscovered country, whether it's you know, all the way from ancient to ancient Egypt to Dante's and Ferno up to, you know, T.D. Shuners, like the good place. We're still worried about it today.

Does that stem for you from an understanding that so much again, obviously high intelligence, you understand humanity. You're also you have the ability to speak and be charming. Usually these things don't go hand in hand. Is it because this is actually something that is difficult to grasp? This actually still expands the brain, this idea of, you know, the, the second life. Well, it's a combination of two things. One, it's the thing we're probably most worried about, the most universal concern is death, life and death, right? It faces us all.

And then the second thing is, yeah, it's a mystery. What is it? Surely this can't be everything, right? There are, you know, if you look at whole numbers over the years, the number of Americans who are religiously observant goes down every year. Fewer people going to church or synagogue or mosque, fewer people reading their holy books, fewer people praying. holy books, fewer people praying. But the number of people who believe in the afterlife goes up every year. We're

so resistant to this idea that I won't see my loved ones again. The thing that makes me mean me might just end. I mean, maybe that's the real answer, but it doesn't seem like the most beautiful answer, right? Absolutely. I wonder if in America, a lot, especially recently, it feels that a lot of people got to hope, well, maybe it'll be better than, you know what I mean? I'm going to go through all of this horseshit now, but there's going to be, don't worry, there's going to be some place.

I'm going to be, all of this will be taken care of one day. It's so funny to look at century or millennia of human conceptions of heaven because it starts, we have records from like ancient Babylon where they can't really imagine a better life like they write about heaven and it's like the crop blight will be slightly less you know or yeah the rainy season will have less fleet and more pleasant drizzle you know they they have very achievable goals in heaven and it's only later as you know we move from hunter-gatherers to a more prosperous people, the people start to imagine, hey, what if there's amazing banquets? What if we all get gold and jewels? What if there's harems of attractive young mates, you know? That's when the imaginations start to ramp up. It's so interesting. It is wishful film. Yeah.

Why is that? Why do you think the connection to like, because I know everything changed once we stopped being like nomadic? Well, what was was that jump? Like why go from, is it because it's the only time we can really imagine the concept of having more than you need? Yeah, I guess until there's cities and kings and an actual noble class where you can be like, wow, he's got kind of a nice palace. Oh, he wears a fancy hat made of a metal I've never seen. Like until that point, you can't even imagine what a beautiful heaven would be. That's why all the old underworlds are just kind of like dark shadowy places, kind of like now, but a little less vivid, you know, it takes a while for the human race to develop the idea of reward and punishment.

Does that disprove or prove the idea of an afterlife more? The fact that it just sort of changes as people change? I guess that it would, right? Could it's all an illusion anyway, even if it's real? Yeah, it definitely shows that we know nothing, that it's a mystery. And as we move away from religious fundamentalism, obviously all the good recent afterlives are pitched

by TV showrunners instead of cult leaders. It's a different kind of cult. So the afterlives on movies and TV shows are very inventive now and delightful. You know, there's, I remember watching the leftovers and I'm not sure the afterlife was kind of like a video game. And I thought, you know, this never would have occurred to Dante or Virgil, you know, like we have all these

cool options today of what we imagine the other world could be. But of course, as you say, we're just, we're just making it up. We're whistling in the dark. Well, I can see us heading towards a, a Wally style world where if we are living into our, if we can make our meats live to 150, 175, but people don't got that money to live that life anymore, I can end up seeing extended living after lives where we are put in stasis where essentially we are like they do in anesthesia, whatever they bring you down to zero and then you're in a helmet for forever.

Like maybe that's kind of what the bardo will eventually be. Yeah, Philip K Dick thought so. He thought that Tibetan bardo was going to be reached in cold, freeze chambers. A lot of these modern, but the ones that could actually happen, I think are like, what if our brain becomes uploadable, you know, you're making fun of Watson and chat GPT, but right? There could be a human afterlife in a server somewhere, you know, if, if at the moment of our death, we can, the poetic justice, we can actually choose our heaven. Man, you downloading your brain into a computer coming back to kick the shenanigans in

jeopardy in 2100. The Ken Jennings 1000. I love it. That would be the dream. Yeah. We're going to give you a huge wad, buddy. We're not going to let that just be a normal screen. We're going to show the people how smart you are from below the waist down. Um, huge stick. I want to be like a

hologram. I want to be like hologram two-box plan, Jeffrey. Oh, well, when I think of Ken Jennings, I often think of two-box. And so when it comes to, um, so we've, we've discussed heaven. What about this idea of fucking eternal doom? What is that? Like when you were doing research on that, because obviously Henry and I and Marcus are tri-host, you know, we love the dark and the macabre and something. It's fascinating, you know, playing in the world of, you know, even Adam Sandler's little Nikki, it's like fun. What is like the darkest possible afterlife that you've explored that people have sort of fantasized about?

I feel like all these hells, it probably came about as a means of control, right? You know, if you're a religious thinker or leader, you really want to impress people with how awful the punishments are going to be and how terrible. Like, and this is what all these descriptions of hell are. You're going to be, have molten metal poured on you for this many trillion years, and then you're gonna have to drink your own pus and snob for another trillion years.

And it's very culturally universal, like whether you're Chinese or in you it or Babylonian, whatever, like the punishments are all the same. And it's funny because by the time you get to Dante, like, and Heronimus Bosch, these paintings and poems, clearly they're more interested in hell than in heaven. You know, to them, that's the vivid exciting stuff. And all their fans want to read.

It's like a fantasy novel for the Italian Renaissance. You know, Dante's Inferno came out with maps and illustrations. And in a time before Game of Thrones, you would imagine yourself, you know, exploring this crazy nine level fantasy world. Like even though we're supposed to be scared of hell, we just can't help but be fascinated with it. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. In that, in that, in that section of hell, like, do you think that they were meant to be taken literally, or is it allegorical? Like, was it supposed to be that, like, you're supposed to, was that map created so that you you think that oh you actually do go to these places or like of the time period, how do people respond to that work? Were they like, or is it just entertaining? I think a lot of them were self-adamentalist and they were like, yeah, I guess if I'm bad,

I'm going to be here on the seventh circle with the glutton's or whatever. It's one of those things you I always want to re joke on, we'll talk about the show about ancient history and we always wonder like, what do they actually believe and what were stories, like what were things and what society's thought was like legit and what do they think was like, oh, well, this is just supposed to describe things and it just, as you were saying Ken,

for control, for political reasons. And then did they actually have this? I know what I was going to say. Like if you look at the actual biblical text, it's all very vague on heaven and hell. You know, there is a lake of fire, but it does seem like it might be a vision or an allegory. It's only later where you have these very literal pastors who are really trying to put the fear of God into kids where they say, oh, yeah, you don't want to those coals burning you for thousands of years, right?

So you better straighten up. And that's, you know, it's not limited to Christianity. Lots of traditions have those, those very discerral threats. Right from your place. So what would you say your perfect after life would be? Because everyone's heaven or hell would be different. I think my, some people's heaven would probably just be left alone playing with guard. I would go crazy and be like, no one's laughing at my jokes.

I'm feel free, but that, you know, so I want like a crowd of people and we're having a great time where we're getting hammered. Someone might be absolutely weeping in the corner at that idea of heaven. What is your idea? What would be your Ken Jennings uploaded into a computer, so you're still with us destroying the robots from within, but your spectral realm, your spirit world. Where is it? You know, there's a hundred different afterlives in the book. And honestly, the one that has always appealed to me the most is the one and feel the dreams, just kind of a soothing afternoon

of old time baseball in a cornfield. That seems like a very good vibe. But if I could pick anything, like including an afterlife of my own invention, I think what I would want, and this is, I guess, pretty on-brand for Jeopardy, is I would want answers. Like I would want the version of the afterlife where you can say, hey, you know, God, what really happened to the dinosaurs? Was it a comment or what? And what happened to, like, who was Jack the Ripper?

What was the deal with that? Like how did the pyramids get built? You finally get the answers to all your questions. Like God is a librarian. I think I would enjoy that. I do love that idea, but then isn't that, but then would that become boring? No more mystery.

No more mystery, but I suppose there's always mystery. But what is satisfaction then, Ken? What is satisfaction? What happens after? Right, this is the hard part of describing heaven is there's no narrative arc. They can just say, well, it's so good you can't imagine it and it's that forever. And I think there are a lot of modern afterlives where they're like, well, forever. That seems kind of scary actually.

There are, there are whole TV shows and, and talking head songs about how if heaven did last forever, that might actually be kind of mind blowingly terrible. I did a show called Your Pretty Faces Going To Hell and the pilot of it featured heaven was like a place where it was nothing but like babes and pizza trees, right? So people in the pizza trees, who's written by David Willis who did Awatine hunger force and he literally was like, they were like, I'm sick of pizza. Like that was like the central joke is that at the end of it, you're like, well, you have as much pizza as you want and you're like, I am sick of pizza. I think that was the great innovation of the TV show, The Good Place. Like hell is not

hot irons being placed on your skin. It's just the endless banality of this life. Too many parents in the Caribbean movies. Too many clothes in yogurt places. Too much ax body spray. You know that it's not just that hell is torture. Hell is other people. It's like hell is the little, the little annoyances of this life. Well, Ken, that brings me to a great question. Why ax body spray so cold? I put it on because I had my little brother and he's an act body spray guy special needs kind of. And so I was wearing it and it's fucking cold when it comes out of there. Why? Well, you know, I think you may I misunderstand what a Jeffrey host does. I don't explain

how body sprays work to random people. That's not part of the job description. I would ask him to explain to him, Mr. Jennings, that you're just not an info booth. Like, we can't just talk to you. No, we can't just come and just ask him random things that he's even wondering about. Why is it that funny spray? So cold, there's no answer.

Okay. I think it has some highly volatile stuff in it. Like alcohols, you know, something that evaporates quickly. So when you put something on you that evaporates quickly, temperature is lowered by the chemical process. Like heat is used up. Yeah, that's pretty exciting answer, Ken. Hey, I'm sorry. I'm not asking. I don't want to throw blame here. But anyway, so let's, I mean, honestly, can we talk about Alex Trebek for a second? Yes. Um, I like it. It's, it's exactly as he appeared.

He very much was, I mean, he was more fun like, and that's hard to imagine someone less fun than he appeared on Jeopardy, but during commercials, he would tell jokes, go into the crowd. He loved to warm up the crowd himself and he was a little impressions and, you know, he was a very light, funny guy, but, you know, he had to keep the show moving because that's the job description. The things you think you know about him that he's smart, that he actually knew all those answers and wanted you to know that he knew them and it was very well read and kind of a gentleman of the old school, all 100% true.

That's right. What did you discover when you got behind the podium that you were like, oh shit, this is actually completely a different, I did not know. Was there something that you were like, did you get new, found respect for Mr. Trebek when you're now you're the captain of the ship? He made it look so easy for 30 odd years that I think we thought it was easy to host Jeffery. We'll just put in guest host, you know? Aaron Rodgers can probably do this. And what I found out was that it's extremely hard.

The game moves so fast. The host is juggling three or four things at once, trying to be a referee and a play by play guy and a stadium announcer and a narrator. You're doing all these things at once. Final Jeopardy is particularly hard because there's so much math involved. You have a little card full of numbers of permutations of what if he gets it wrong, but she gets it right and so forth. And you're trying to create drama

out of basically what looks like a sudoku. Yeah. It's still the hardest moment of the show for me. Did he give you any advice? Obviously, I think that he knew that, you know, you're going to be potentially filling, filling the unbelievable void that he left. Did he give you any, you know, inside into hosting or anything like that? Yeah, I actually ended up talking to him what turned out to be the night before the day he passed away about guest hosting format. We didn't know. We thought, oh, he's going to get better.

He's going to bounce back. He'll be hosting again. I was just going to fill in. And we talked about the game. And he gave me the impression he always did over the years, which was that he did not want to be the center of attention on Jeopardy. He was never announced as the star of Jeopardy.

He was always the host of Jeopardy. Because he thought the game itself and the contestants should be the star. And it's just such a, can you imagine anybody else in Hollywood saying, Hey, I'm on one of the biggest shows on TV, but it shouldn't be all about me. You know, it's, it's just that kind of Canadian working class grit would be so foreign to show this. And it's the respect of the game itself, right? I mean, that's what's so cool about Jeopardy and he, he, again, he led the, he led the way he was the head coach, you know, but that respect for the game.

He was absolutely right. Yeah. Yeah. That's the way to host it. Like you, I do the same thing. Like this should not be about me. This should be about these three people and the clues. And that's what people want. You're genuinely good at it, man. I'm going to say this. I never get to do this stuff like, say directly to people like, I love Jeopardy and you're, you're doing great. It's, it's really, really great. I appreciate that. It's a very hard gig, but I'm slowly figuring it out. Yeah. Have you been overwhelmed when you obviously been in the world now for 19 some years by the fandom and the support that Jeopardy enthusiasts have? Because, you know, we do a lot of the

Comic-Cons. We were just WonderCon, and it's really fascinating. I love people that are, that love stuff. What's the fandom like for Jeopardy? The funny thing is Jeopardy was a very early, parasocial relationship for people. Before we even had podcasts or knew what that word meant, like because people watch Jeopardy every night, they kind of felt like Alex was in their home, you know, it's, it's really part of the ritual of people's day in a way that no other show is anymore, you know, like Carson's gone, Cronkite's gone, but people still remember watching Jeopardy with grandma or, you know, watching it with

their friends in the dorms or, you know, it's kind of a ritual for people. And it really is nice because they see you and they feel like they know you, you know, and everybody's the most common thing I hear is, can my 90 year old grandma just loves you? Is it, can you call my grandma? Can you take a picture from my grandma? It's a, I feel like I have taken pictures for all of America's grandma's at this point. I'm doing my part. Yep. And that's the next big scandal. Yeah. Grandma lover Ken Jennings. Yep, and that's the next big scandal. Yeah. Grandma lover Ken Jennings, obviously, but someone's got to,

someone really has to. Someone's got to. This has been such a privilege for us to take your time, sir. I am glad this is your, you're like all of your current, like outside of jeopardy, like focuses or way in our alley of interest. It's great. It's all like very interesting. Omnibus is a really good sleeper podcast and you'll be like, what information

you get in there is like really very interesting. I love the Tarterian Empire. I love that whole concept. It's really, really cool. Like all it's if they keep at it, man, I can't wait to see what you do next. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you so much. I'm having a great time. I'm Jeffery's a great side gig while I do the podcast. And I feel very lucky. It came into my life. Thank you for having me on. Well, you are just, I mean, honestly, it's been so great to talk with you. You're so funny and wonderful. And again, congratulations on all your success. That's almost in pot. People don't really understand how difficult it is to go from contestant to host because there's

a lot of people that want that job that are behind the scenes clamoring for it. And for you to be able to navigate the political sphere of all of that as well. I'm sure that was that's a whole another conversation I have over beers because I can just imagine. I was for years. I was convinced I would never even get an audition because you would want a broadcaster to do that job. So I, I just have to pinch myself at how lucky I am that I, it was always my favorite show as a kid. And now, now I get to do it all the time.

It's, it's a real privilege. That's all you got to do now is go, you and Aaron Rogers need to have some kind of other kind of competition with each other where you do the combine. Yeah, let me put it this way. He has a much better jeopardy host than I would be Jets quarterback and it's not even. Well, I don't, you know, what was he an asshole? I'm a Packers fan, but was there in an asshole? I wasn't that ready. It was hosting, but I thought he was one of my, my wife said that he was her favorite guest host. When I was that little what it turns out is that means he's very handsome. That's I think that's something about it.

Something about him. Ken Jennings everybody. Thank you so much for being on the show. Ken and everyone check out the book. A hundred places to see after you die. Listen to the podcast. I'm the bus. And of course, watch Ken host.

Jeopardy. Thank you so much. Ken, you are wonderful. Good. That was so much fun. Thanky. Thank you so much, Ken. You are wonderful. Did that was so much fun. Thank you. Thank you so much, man. I'm not playing. All right. There was our conversation with Ken Jennings.

We made him dumber. We're going to hang out with them. We are going to hang out with them. I can't wait because we're going to hang out with them. We're going to get it. You know, we get them. It's who we say. He loves grandmas. We get them all out there.

We all hang out. We have a nice brunch. You go out there. We have a couple of mimosas. Sure. We go to an afternoon disco. We're all asleep by eight. Yep. Grandma's mating call. Also, Henry, rubber band, we work with get some tension for the thumb because I think out of all of us, don't tell Marcus, but I actually think you might have what it takes. I think out of all of us don't tell Marcus when I actually think you might have what it takes I think this is gonna crack. I think you would crack out of the I think it's thumb would break I mean, I could maybe get one question right. I'm pretty good. I can be good. I have a lot of arcane Yes, reveal bits of information in my mind, but I think jeopardy has gotten harder since I was a kid Will you also do a good game now you hold onto song lyrics you have a good retention in the mind. I'm, yes, I would be your number one fan out there.

I'd be there for you, buddy. I finally, they'll be like finally. Look at the, oh man. Celebrity Jeopardy. A Polish Jeopardy champion. I think honestly, if it's celebrity Jeopardy, you, the Brendan shop, I can be, I can be Brendan shop. Yeah. I give you

Brandon shop. I could be a series of other people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Me, the comedian brand. Honestly, you're pretty sweet. You got it. All right, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. Check out again, Ken Jennings book 100 Places to see after you die. I can't wait honestly I can't I honestly when I found out that he had a dark history podcast. I was all about it's pretty fucking great I want to go to the after lot for right now Okay, everyone hail yourselves

He doesn't want to die. Thank you for your money. I want to be after life. I want to live forever Yeah, I want to go to yeah, I love to go to the afterlife as long as I can come back Do you imagine if we if we did know, like the mass suicide that would happen? If people didn't know there was an afterlife? Oh, yeah, sure, sure. But that's what I have always saying. It looks like if the Pope thinks Kevin's so great, why is he still alive? Right, oh, he's dying, by the way, you see?

Oh, I know, he's sick. Yeah. We'll talk about him. Another one down! Alright, hairlier's self-spite. Man! This show is made possible by listeners like you. Thanks to our ad sponsors, you can support our shows by supporting them.

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