Pablo Torre Finds Out - "Celebrity Jeopardy!" Film Study (Championship Edition) with Mina Kimes and Domonique Foxworth

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

How is preparing for a game show like playing in the NFL? What's the first rule of "Jeopardy!" Fight Club? And why would you bet zero dollars with a million on the line? Plus: Katie Nolan's secret pep talk, Daily Double brain glitch, Spygate... and a buzzer bibliography.Previously on PTFO:• "Celebrity Jeopardy!" Film Study with Mina Kimes and Timothy Simons• Behind the Scenes of Pablo's History-Making "Family Feud" AdventurePlus:• Subscribe to "The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny"• Subscribe to "The Domonique Foxworth Show"• Support SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Pablo Torre finds out. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is. Right after this ad. You guys got some filter set up, or maybe I got a filter set up. You do look suspiciously... Right? Smooth? I got a filter. How do I take this shit off? I'm fine with being real, baby.

Sorry about that. It wouldn't open for some reason. I think I think we're good now. Settings. Video effects. Oh, yeah. It's all the way turned up like I'm some type of ugh. It's out here. Mina, Dominique has had his AI touch-up

activated to the maximum possible setting. Oh. I didn't know that was the thing. I need to, let me do that. I hate that shit. It's on zero now. Let's take that off. You don't want a little bit?

Just a little bit. Nah. It's a little, little real. I, I, I'm real. I'm tired of creating these unattainable beauty standards for young black men. I am bucking the system. You also look tired now, incidentally. You visibly are tired.

It's real, baby. It's real. I am tired. You two one kid having asses out here acting like you tired. Sorry, guys. I have a heart out, and I know it's my fault for starting late because I couldn't get to work. You win one celebrity jeopardy. All-Stars Championship and suddenly Mina is too good. It's not because

it's because David Dennis Jr. Who himself has a hardout. It's a trickle effect of hard outs. Hard outs all the way down. Dominique, how did you congratulate Mina? I don't know. Say congratulations. How did you congratulate her? Where were we supposed to do something? Forced her onto the show to make

content for me. That was my congratulations. You used her as you do. The ultimate compliment. The ultimate compliment. The ultimate compliment. It's not. Is it? I also didn't theorize before the broadcasts, because I had theories about what was going to happen in the championship.

So confidentiality was my ultimate gift, I dare say. That actually, more so than Pablo forcing people onto this podcast being the ultimate compliment, Pablo keeping his secret really is the ultimate compliment, if you know Pablo. You told him, though. So, like... Yeah, and the fact that he didn't actually do anything with... it is honestly a testament to our friendship. That's right.

Nice job, Pablo. So how jealous are you? Let's get to the point. Let's turn about you. You are. This is why I'm so glad we're doing this with Dominique. Let's keep it real, man. My ally.

My son of a soldier. There's nothing in you. We know you, man. And I've said this about you, too. You are the most selfish person that I actually like. I've told you this a number of times. and I know how your brain operates. I know part of you, and like Mina won't be upset

because she knows this is you too. Part of you, especially in arenas of trivia or intellect, part of you is like, fuck, that could have been me, right? I need to be very clear about something because Dominique is saying things that I'm sure that many haters and losers out there fully agree with. I am merely here to clarify that Mina did one of the great things for me in my life.

we were teammates in celebrity family feud and due to Dave Chang's incompetence, he only realized late that Mina and I could not be the tag team to do the final thing. And Mina said to me in a gift that I can only aspire to repay one day, you go do this, it'll be good for your podcast.

And Chang and I tag teamed and won. Name of coins. you throw into a fountain to make a wish. You said the penny. Yes. Survey said. Oh, my God. And I have to thank Meena Kimes for that.

I owe her a debt beyond repayment. Why didn't you do this back then? Do what? When that happened, and it was a big deal, and it was like bouncing around the internet, and everyone was like, wow, Pablo, this is pretty cool. At that point. I said it on the episode we did about it that you did not listen to.

I think Pablo, Dominique, in his retelling of the Family Feud story, is echoing your point about me, which is that my most powerful driving animus is competitiveness more so than envy. In fact, in that moment, I was very mad at David Chang for being terrible at Family Feud, and that was the competitiveness, and I was happy to let Pablo finish and win the game, because I knew he would rise to the occasion. Thank you. I'm about the team, man. In that moment, my driving motive.

Pablo, right? Like, in that moment, there was a choice to be made, and it was meanest to be made. She would have to defer to you. And you tried, rather than just answering this question from the start, we could have got off this shit. You're just honest from the start. You went a roundabout way to try to pretend like what I said wasn't true.

I am not. And then you try to put it on her and say that she's like, but you just then told a story that demonstrated that in a moment when she could have gone for the glory and the attention and the celebration, she chose to give it to your needy ass. When I watched Mina go and dominate Celebrity Jeopardy All-Stars, there are things that I will feel this about and have felt this about. But this one was like watching my friend go to space. Like, I've never competed at this.

I was entirely and purely psyched to do this podcast until now. No, I think you are, and I think you were happy for Mina. I think that you could be just as happy for Mina as me or anybody else, but I also think that this is not like going to space because you're not a fucking astronaut. This is a game that's based on knowledge and strategy. That's something that you believe yourself to be good. that. That's all I'm saying. This is where I need to reveal to the audience something. Did you do quiz bowl in high school? You look like you did quiz bowl in high school. Yeah, and the profiling is just

impressive. It's not profile. Call it what you want. You can't beat me. Did you do it or not? This is where I need to tell the people who are not the three of us talking to each other that I did do quiz bowl. I do think that it would be very embarrassing. This is what I did think. I thought if I get invited to do Celebrity Jeopardy, I probably shouldn't do it because there's so little upside for me, I will only reveal myself to be not only not a champion, but like we'll probably embarrass myself and that'd be bad. I actually think that that's a deterrent for a lot of people. Jeopardy as opposed to other celebrity game shows, right? It gives you the highest risk of exposure, especially because the questions are easier than regular Jeopardy. So not only can you

be exposed as maybe not knowing stuff, but you're exposed as not knowing stuff that a lot of people at home know or think they know without sort of getting at how much harder it is in the moment and how much more nerve-wracking it can be. So the risk for embarrassment in celebrity jeopardy is pretty high. I mean, I agree. I think I would say about Mina, the thing that I think is pretty impressive is you have the ability to turn on the back against the wall, urgent. the contract year level intensity that I don't have unless I'm actually in a contract year. Well, that's why we're here. That's why we're here today, Dominique, because you are, you are, I will disclose this.

You are a competitor on Sports Jeopardy, the new show hosted by Joe Buck. And you cannot talk about this, but I am spoiling every agreement that you may have made. Is this the result of your investigative reporting? I haven't told anybody about this. We are constantly investigating and constantly fetishizing awards in the course of investigation. And we're going to do film room because what we both have to learn from our friend Mina, I think, is meaningful for you. It's news you could use as a contestant. And for me, it is something that I need to make peace with because, yeah, it's probably like 99 to 1.

I'll grant you, there's a 1% where I was like, oh, I'm going to hear about this for a while. And I want to start actually with our other friend who I did think about and really felt, terribly for in all of this celebrity jeopardy all-star Katie Nolan. And she is how I first got into the film room at the very beginning of our decision as a show to really commit to doing celebrity game show journalism because it was Mina, it was Lisa Ann Walters from Abbott Elementary. It was the semifinal of Celebrity Jeopardy All-Stars, Mina, and this happens. A blue-white super giant that will go out of supernova.

Rygel shines on in this constellation, known for a three-star fashion accessory. Isle known for a three-star fashion? Mina? What is a... I don't understand the question. The fashion accessory is a belt because this is Orion. Oh, okay. Rigel is found in Orion.

But you only lose $1,500. That's right. Now you're tied with me. Tied with Katie for second place, solidarity. What happened that's actually not shown on the tape is we went to, I think, commercial break, not long after that, because I remember I had to do an interview when I was way down. You do two interviews, right? And so every Jeopardy. And the first one, I think I was either winning or whatever. The second one, I had just completely, the reason I was down is I had gotten two daily doubles. I suck at daily doubles,

which I've learned in the process of doing Jeopardy, by the way. Something about that with the lights and the timing where my brain just completely glitches. And what happened there is we went to break. And there's break between the tapings. And Katie leans over and gives me a pep talk. that's not shown on camera. And she's such a good friend in that moment. I wanted to highlight it. She leans over and she's like, hey, just play your game. This isn't over.

And it's really true. There's three rounds and Triple Jeopardy's were so much more that really the first two rounds don't matter that much. And she says that to me. And like, it was so sweet and nice. I wish it was shown on television because it really helped calm me down after I was so awful in that, I think, double Jeopardy round.

If I'm ever on Jeopardy, I would love one day to be on that show in some capacity. However, I'd say that Mina demonstrated again. Like, share the spotlight. I think this episode is not going to be about Jeopardy. It's going to be about Pablo learning from Mina to be a better human. Well, this takes us to Final Jeopardy. Here are the stakes.

Lisa Ann, 9600, U-8,000, Katie Nolan, 5100. For people who are not familiar with, again, the behind-the-scenes stuff, What is the vibe before that last moment? So you get a pen and paper, a pencil and paper, and you get to work out the math of your wagering. And I don't know what Katie and Lisa Ann, if they had noticed that I was literally filling my entire page up with calculations.

But I was like, because this was the exact scenario that I had prepared the most for. So going into the Jeopard finals and semifinals, I really didn't prepare it all. I was like during the football season, I showed up. I didn't think anything of it. But there was one thing I prepared for going into this game, which was Final Jeopardy Wagering, which folks who are really into Jeopardy or who compete on Jeopardy spend a lot of time thinking

about this. It is arguably the most important thing you can prepare for in Jeopardy because it's the only where you know what's going to happen versus the categories. So Final Jeopardy, the way it works is first place is, kind of the only known variable. If you're in first place, 99 times out of 100, certainly in Celebrity Jeopardy, they're just going to bet to double up second. Now, folks say, well, what if you know second place is going to do this strategy? You don't, you can't, you don't do it, right? Like, if you're in first place and you have a lead, you simply cannot bet anything other than

against the possibility of second place doubling up on you. Does anyone have any questions before? Yeah, who are the folks? You keep on referencing folks say, who else is talking about this? So in my research, I had just kind of like was searching for Final Jeopardy strategy. I came across some really helpful Reddit threads where people had laid out different scenarios. There's also a great website. I found it's the first one that comes out when you search for wagering strategy that laid out every possible scenario. I actually spent time in my trailer before Jeopardy.

The only thing I did was practice some scenarios with handed paper just to see how it would go. So, anyways, that's first place. Second place is where things get really interesting. If you are in second place and you are over two-thirds of the way to first place, which is what I was and I realized at the end there, right, you should bet zero dollars. Now, you also have to bet to cover third, which is what I did. And third place will get to that is a complete wild card in all of this. But the reason why you don't bet much money and potentially zero dollars if you don't have to cover third is your only chance of winning is if first place is wrong right like and because you have so much money first place has to bet a lot which leic santa walter did to cover you so if you bet zero or very little money if they're

wrong which is your only chance you have to live in that world if you're right you'll win but if you're wrong you will also win because of what first place had to do was forced to do and and Ultimately, that's the scenario that played out with me and Lisa. And we were both wrong. We can get to Katie a second. And because she had to bet, I think she bet $7,000 to cover me, she fell down below me. Put much more like simply is the only way you can win is if first place loses. Because if first place gets it right, it doesn't matter what you bet.

Right? And so, and then, yeah. But it's hard. Honestly, like, it is hard to go up there and bet $0. And people don't do it. This brings us to what happens. Let's see how this goes. Katie Nolan's in third with $5,100. Squinching up her face a bit. She wrote down Alexa, and she's correct. A nod to the Library of Alexandria. That's why it's named Alexa.

Hey, hey. How much did you wager, Katie? Okay, you didn't wager a thing. You still have $5,100. Mina Kimes was in second place with $8,000. Did she know it was Alexa? Ah, she guessed, Claude. How much did you risk? Another small wager, 2,210. She now has 5,790. Lisa and Walter had the lead coming into Final Jeopardy. Did she think of Alexa?

What is Babylon? No. How much did you risk? Oh, a big wager. The biggest one takes you down to 2,600. And Mina Kimes, you're going to the Celebrity Jeopardy All-Star's final.

I didn't get it. Congratulations. Okay, so, yeah, Katie did get the answer right, and she bet $0. and she has talked about how she went back and forth on what to do. The final of Celebrity Jeopardy last season, I risked it all, and I got it wrong, which means I ended with zero.

This year, I get to the end, I'm like, fuck it. I'm just going to risk it all. I risk it all as my wager, and I'm sitting there. And then I go, don't make the same mistake twice. So I had to call them over and go, can I change this to zero? And at first they were like, no. And I was like, no, please, I don't think. They had to, like, consult to see if it was.

allowed. They changed it to zero for me. Mina goes, I didn't even get it right. I was like, I know. Are you trying to turn me into the Joker? I know. You didn't even get it right. And I said in the aftermath, like, you got to, everybody was like, it's so obvious. She should bet it all. It is not obvious. Like, why would Katie think, why would anyone think in Celebrity Jeopardy that second place would not bet at all. And I've watched some Celebrity Jeopardy games. They usually do, right? Like, typically, I went back and looked at Ike Barronholz, who we're going to talk about

his final, Pat Nalswell bet at all. And second, like, it is not at all unreasonable for third place to think that first place and second place would cancel each other out. And Katie also correctly knew her only chance is if we were both wrong. I mean, it's the obvious situation where your instinct is, if you're trailing, like, I got I got to go for it. Like that's your, I think while it seems obvious now that Mina's explained it to you, if you were put in that situation, your instinct is always like, damn, I'm in second place.

I got to catch first place. Like, if I double my score, I won't catch them, but what the hell? I got to try to catch them and then hope they get it wrong and fall underneath you. But you have to understand that no matter what, they have to get it wrong. So if they get it wrong, what's the least amount that you can put at risk to still put yourself ahead of. But this is the thing where this... Katie got the answer right.

And that sucks so much. I know. I mean, just like the... I felt awful watching it. But it speaks to like the whole thing of this is a game in which the meta of the game is actually essential in ways that are beyond merely knowing the right answer.

I'm so impressed in the NBA, in the NFL, when there is like this optimized strategy that for some reason has not become obvious to everybody else. And so the time in which you can benefit from both having the knowledge and the strategy, Vina, like, this is the thing that blew my mind. I'm like how, the amount of time that goes to the strategy, that's what blew me away and really impressed me is like how you, how you did all that stuff that no one ever saw. That part, I mean, honestly, isn't that much time.

Like, you just have to like, it was literally the night before I was like, oh, this is what I should do. And the other thing I want to add is, like, I really didn't want to be in third place because of what we're describing with Katie, because I didn't feel there was an optimal betting strategy in third place. I read all the way to, right, like, to be clear, in third place, if you are playing third place and you are in regular jeopardy, you should anticipate second place doing what I did and then do the complicated math to figure out how far second place will fall and how far first place was fall. But why would you think that in celebrity jeopardy, like I, and I, and I, and I. And I. And I. I was thinking of that, too. I was, like, if I'm third place and it's Celebrity Jeopardy, I am not, I'm going to assume second place bets at all. Like, I would. So I just want folks to lay off her. I don't know. I was upset by, like, her and I texted a lot afterwards, and I just, like, felt so awful the way it all played out, especially because she was so sweet to me during the taping and she's my friend.

But I also want to emphasize, like, what she did was not everybody's hounding her. And I don't think it's as obvious as people think. That's all I want to say. What happens in sports dumb, in real professional sports, right? It's like you narrowly win something and you're like, oh, I got away with one. And that's where I just laugh at what Mina does once she has survived a near-death experience like that. So I wrapped up taping. I was shocked.

And then they told me the final is not going to be for two months. And then they told me. Getting into the final, you get $200,000. If you win, your charity does. If you win, they get a million dollars. My nonprofit, and I've been playing for them, and I've raised my for them, I've done some stuff with them over the years, and I played for them last time.

It's called CELA, and we could talk about them at some point in the show. But they are here in Los Angeles. They are a small nonprofit. That is double their operating budget. It's wild. And so I thought, I remember in that, moment thinking, okay, so if I win this silly game, they can, this is going to completely change the trajectory of, sorry, I felt like I'm sounding self-aggrandizing, but it is a big

freaking deal for them. All I have to do is outwork everyone for two months. And just the mental calculus, I was like, do whatever it takes to win this. Don't just show up next time. I think the hardest part of studying for certain things, and I'd like to hear your guys' thoughts on this too, is not the actual studying, but knowing how to study. Does that make, especially for something like Jeffrey? It's like, what do you even do to prepare? It reminds me...

That's the hardest part. On this show, I say all the time when Dominique's on, what his AOL screen name was, to give you a sense of like how committed a person can be to a goal and how to practice and prepare for something. Because that, to me, is still the gold standard. is like, I'm going to do this, I need to do this, I'm going to be NFL bound, whatever the number was.

And I'm going to- It becomes your identity at that point, which is probably pretty unhealthy and unsafe going forward, but mean as identity a little bit better than mine. I'm a sacrifice so I can save people. I was like, let me get this money and these girls. Also, I wanted to win. I did want to win.

I am very competitive. We know that about myself. But Pablo was talking about how you had like the goal, you're making the NFL. Yeah, like a lot of, people want to be in the NFL, but like you not only do you have to be willing to put in the time, you actually had to figure out how to spend that time, how to optimize that time. And I think that was the hardest thing for me with Jeopardy Prep is like even knowing what to do. I was fortunate

in that I had two people both named James who I was able to connect with and lean on in this process early, who kind of helped me chart that path of studying because if it was just me, I don't think I would have known how to prepare for Jeopardy. It's a weird conversation to have, and as a sports person, I think I could. It's a pretty good parallel because, yeah, it's about the focus and the commitment and the hard work. And then it's also about knowing the right things to do. Like, when I was going to college, I played a bunch of positions in high school. I got offers to play different positions in college, and there were different positions that would have been more glorifying, a little easier or whatever.

I was like, no, corner's the hardest position to play. It's the most difficult and it's most likely I can come in and start and make an impact. So I decided after scoring a bunch of touchdowns and I was going to like, I'm going to be a corner. And then I decided I'm going to go to Maryland because I think their corners stink and I could start right away. And that was like the first decision for me that it felt like a series of decisions that made it feel less and less like fun football game I love and more like strategy, job, like optimization. and generally one of my major critiques about sports in life right now is like all of our drive to like optimize everything. I got into it with one of my Silicon Valley friends because he tracks his sleep and calories and everything. And it's like I was out there for the Super Bowl and we went to dinner and he was like, you're going to have me drinking.

It's going to fuck up my sleep score. I was like, what? You're a sleep score. We all have a good time, maybe let's be happy. This is why Dominic and I are so similar. Don't you feel like, for me, balance in life is figuring out which things you want to optimize and which things you don't. And I think being so, like, dialed in in other parts of my life allows me to be more relaxed in others. Do you feel the same way?

Unfortunately, I, too tell Liz, this is what being chill is. me working really obsessively on a story we're doing to the detriment, admittedly, of just like focus on other things. For me, I think work ethic is one part of it, obviously, and certainly like the horsepower is another part of it, intellectual or physical. But the other one is just like obsession and like being really fucking invested in trying to do this thing you set out to do. Like, I actually enjoy that process. It's not like I am miserable when I'm working on something that I care about. I'm like really into it.

You are not like that in every other part of your life at all. Correct. Yeah, socially, you're like a very relaxed person. Go with the flow. I don't know. I just think that, you know, there's definitely, Dominic, you're definitely right. Like being obsessive about work can kind of drain some of the fun for sure. But I think it also opens you.

up to be more relaxed in other realms of your life. The idea of like tradeoffs in general is something that comes up for me and just about everything that I talk about and think about. And it's a helpful way to think about everything for me, at least right now. And I think you're making it clear that those tradeoffs come. And I think while I'm listening to Pablo, so to be honest, as long as I had known Pablo, I'd never seen that particular gear until this show that he wanted to launch. And I was like, oh.

He got a little bit of dog in him, I guess. Because Pablo's always, like, clearly very smart and very talented writer, but was always the guy that was like, I'll go with it, I want to have fun, more jokes than, like, analysis when you're working with. And like, that was Pablo, that was who he was. And then all of a sudden it was like, and he was always available. Like, you call him, you want to hang out, Pablo's free, Pablo's ready, Pablo's going to dinner, Pablo's going to a game.

They really are always available for dinner, which. And then, And then it's like Pablo would call you, just want to talk. And then he started his show that it was like, Pablo's calling because he's trying to mind you for an idea. Pablo doesn't care about anything. Guys, we're talking right now, baby. We're talking right now, baby.

The feeling I despise most in life is feeling unprepared. Well, this is why, I mean, according to, of course, Ken Jennings, the host of Jeopardy, is, quote, out here buying Jeopardy buzzers on the dark web. So I mentioned that two Jameses were influential. So I want to talk about James Tyler in a second who works at DSPN and who was massively important in this for me. But the first person I was introduced to was James Holtsauer, who is one of the most winningest contestants of all. I think he's won the most money, right? Like a per game of all time.

Arguably revolutionized the game with someone to his tactics was a little bit divisive. I love watching him play. He's super cold. He's sports better. Anyway, so my agent represents him. When I told him I was in the finals, he asked if I wanted to do a Zoom with him. He graciously spoke to it with me. And the number one thing we talked about was the buzzer, because it is the thing that trips

people up the most in jeopardy. It is the number one reason why people who are come in knowing all the answers lose. The way it works is you cannot buzz in too early or you get locked out, but you want to buzz in obviously faster than everyone else. It's like a weird little device. There's nothing like it. It's kind of like a video game controller. And buzzing is unlocked. I mean, you can buzz in when the lights go on or when Ken Jenning stops answering the question. So I felt that I was not great at buzzing. I still felt like that the first two games. And Jeopardy James gave me a link to a buzzer that I was able to buy for, I think, like about $80 on the internet somewhere. And it's a little different from the Jeopardy buzzer. It has a little less give. But, It's a good practice tool. And then he also sent me a book.

I gave him Fritz-Holtznagle about buzzing. What the f***. It's an 80-page book about buzzing. So the other thing he did was he sent me a list of books that he thought would be helpful. Can we take a second place for the buzzer, a moment for the buzzer conversation? So there is, to tie this back to the other thing that Mina was saying about like a level of preparedness and it's a very sport. concept of like give it your all, push through whatever difficulty, do the best you can, study hard. And you can honestly and like earnestly feel that you've done that without then also having

the creativity and ingenuity to find a different level. So like the concept from a sports standpoint is like lift as much you can when you're tired keep running like keep doing that like this is a different level of like maybe everybody's doing it wrong maybe i can find another way to even work harder there is a thin line between mean has optimized jeopardy and mina's doing spygate now she's doing jeopardy spy gate most jeopardy contestants i came to learn a lot of them own this buzzer People who are serious about Jeopardy by the buzzer. I think everything I did, by the way, is completely of normal for people who are on regular Jeopardy. I think the only thing that makes it weird is that it's Celebrity Jeopardy.

I think that the people who get on normal Jeopardy, this is their moment. This is their chance of a lifetime, right? Like, this is they've been trying to get on Jeopardy. This is a chance for them to make a lot of money and have big success. People who are on Celebrity Jeopardy, it's like, hey, let me promote my movie and maybe win a couple bucks. One of the celebrity Jeopardy producers told me something which was no one who competes on Jeopardy

actually wants to be on TV. They just want to play Jeopardy. Which just cracked me up. It's not really even about the money for a lot of them. Like, they just want to win Jeopardy. Because they're all people who, like, love trivia. I just realized I would, sorry, I just realized

that I would not like Mina the person who is Mina for Rex Sports. Like, that's, like, Meena came to the rec sports league with all the headbands and the fancy shoes. Shooting sleeve? They've been training all season to win the men's league title. And I'm like, well, this dude, get a load of this. It did actually just cook.

In the chain of Southern Litt, his library at Roanoke has the last novel he read. William Styren's Lie Down in Darkness. Mina. Bliss Faulkner? That's correct for 500. The Gobie Desert stretches 500,000 square. between China and this landlocked country. Mina.

What is Mongolia? Right again. Though associated with the bike, this company founded in 2012 offers a rowing machine that works 86% of your muscles in just 15 minutes. Mina. What is Peloton? Peloton also has a rowing machine.

Arkansas jazzed up pickles by mixing in this drink that comes in packets. And all we can say is, oh yeah. Mina. What is Kool-Aid? Right. I actually think, Dominique, there was a moment in that show that, like, in the finals that captured exactly what you're describing

where both Ike, Baron Holtz, and Stephen Weber look at me. My agent, Mike, was like, well, I represent James Holstower if you ever want to talk to him. Wow. So I actually connected with him a little bit, and he gave me some buzzer advice that I will not be sharing. Shout out James. You've gone to great lengths, I think, to work on your buzzer technique, right?

I also bought a buzzer. You bought a buzzer? It's different. It's a buzzer. It's different. It's, James. You bought a buzzer. It's different.

It's just... What a bottle. It's different. Yeah. I think there, somebody else noticed there was a moment where they kind of show the cross talk before going to break where Ike was like, what the hell? Who's lovely? I'm so lovely.

The other thing James did was give me a list of books, which I have them all here. There's more? You know, books on kids' books, books on, like, history. And then I, this is a book I don't. The 1910s is what the title of this. These books were amazing. They're by the company that used to make BrainQuest, yeah. And it's just like a 500-page book about world history and U.S. history.

So, you know, this was all during the football season. I traveled to Monday night for NFL Live every game. And leaving football, you have football to watch. But when you're going to football, you don't have football to watch. So I would just read these books on my plane trips during the football season as I was preparing. Which is to say that all of this shit paid off. Judy Garland is to Liza Minnelli as Melanie Griffith is to her. Ike.

Who was Tippy Hedron? No, I'm sorry. Mina. Who is Dakota Johnson? That's correct. Judy is Liza's mom. Wrong direction, I... Peace.

Don't get mad. Get everything. It was a tagline to the film adaptation of this novel about a trio of spurned spouses. Mina. What is the first wise club? Right. This psychic waitress pays a visit to Club Dead, where vampires like her B.F. Bill Compton can sip true blood.

Mina. Usuki Stackhouse? That's correct for 1,500. And I was looking, I was like watching this happen, and I was looking like, when are we going to get the heat check? When are we going to get a Mina Kimes heat check? And anyone who has watched this show or done television with Mina, Dominique, knows what Mina's confidence really sounds like

because it sounds like this. It would be especially appropriate to use this cockney greeting with California's Gavin Newsom. Mina. What is? Hello, Govna. Oh, man. It's like I'm in London.

That's amazing. Okay, so that moment right there At my watch party, everybody was like, Ken wants me to win. When he laughed at my stupid joke. That's true, but I did want to mention the other thing I did to prepare it, but the other James, if that's okay.

So my friend James Stiler, who edits soccer at ESPN, is a former Jeopardy competitor. He won a regular Jeopardy game. He is an absolute gem of a human being. And the last time I was on, he was so encouraging, and he was like, if you ever want to train, his words, we can train. And I was like, it's over, it's fine. The second time, I remembered that, and when I made it to the finals, I said, hey, so how about that offer?

So in that process, I discovered that a lot of Jeopardy competitors are in discords. And James is friends with many other former Jeopardy winners, including some who have won quite a few, and that occasionally we'll get together to play old Jeopardy games. And he said, we will play with you. So for about four hours a week, Saturdays when my kid was napping in particular, I would use my buzzer. So this is how I got good at the buzzer, actually. And they all had buzzers too. And we would do what they call Fight Club, which is play Jeopardy via Zoom. And I would get my ass kicked by these guys.

And I'm not revealing all their names. They're like a data analytics person in Vancouver, a doctor in Toronto. It's just like, you know, a principle, like just normal, smart people with real jobs. And they would just smoke me in jeopardy. And it was super dispiriting, but they kept saying, Mina, like, you are playing Jeopardy was like, freaks. When you play with celebrities, it's going to be taking off the weighted vest. I didn't believe them until I showed up and realized that basically getting my ass kicked, Rocky style for two months, had actually made me stronger as a player.

Turns out the first rule of Jeopardy Fight Club is not the same as the first rule of Fight Club Fight Club. I want to thank them mostly because they did it for no reason other than to help me. And also just because, I mean, I'm sure they enjoyed beating my ass. It builds to a final Jeopardy that I got to say as a guy who has, because of his friends, Katie and Mina, and Tim Simons, by the way,

who Mina destroyed en route to this championship, I've watched so much, so much, Celebrity Jeopardy. And this was, again, a beautiful scene because of Mina's friendship and also deeply anticlimactic. It's the name of an 1873 novel, subtitled A Tale of Today, a Period of U.S. history, and a TV drama that debuted in 2022. 30 seconds, finalists, good luck. Ike Barronholz had $5,100 coming into final. What response did you think of?

You wrote down, what is the Gilded Age? And that is correct. The Mark Twain novel, the historical period, and the new hit show for HBO. So you're going to be adding to that 5,100, Ike. In fact, you'll double it. 10,200. Will it be enough?

Let's find out first, starting with Stephen Weber, 10,700. Did he think of the Gilded Age? Things to come. No, unfortunately not. What did you wager, Stephen? You'll lose 8,000, leaving you with 2,700. So this tournament comes down to Mina Kimes, 12,500. Did she come up with the Gilded Age?

She has it. What did she wager? Sh-dating grin. Ugh, Jess. 8,910. Takes for the 21,000 of celebrity Jeopardy, All-Stars. I just got to say, the acting. The acting.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So folks have asked me about this. And so Cila had a watch party, and they sent me reaction videos from the party. And they were all like, no. And I didn't realize until watching it back

that I had, the producers all say, don't give it away if you know it. And I think I leaned into the not giving away a little too hard because they were genuinely upset in that moment. I was not fooled, Dominique. I was not fucking fool. I mean, I guess maybe

if I didn't know Mina and I was watching, I would say that's incredible acting. But I think I also knew the results. I was watching to see the bad acting. And then after that, we saw a momentary glimpse of the true Mina before she went into fake humble. Yes. Because that was the best one.

She was like, show that. She was like, I might lose. Got your motherfuckers. Oh, look at me. I did it. It was ridiculous. You know what folks, people, did notice was, because they show the whole

final jeopardy clips here, I wrote it down immediately, so I kind of gave it away, because I, you know, I didn't, and then I tried to do a fake thinking face for like 30 seconds, however long it is. But the entire time, I was thinking about after I won, I was already thinking about, like, I got, I was

like, I'm going to call CELA, the woman who runs it, and I was thinking about exactly what I would say on the phone call to tell her I won, because I knew I'd won, and it was right. And I was just, like, fantasizing. I was pre-fanticizing about the call that I would get to make in a half an hour. Can I say something else that I realized as we were talking about this? It popped into my head listening to Pablo earlier

and also listening to how Mina prepares that. We used to joke back when I played football is like, I'm glad football exists because I don't know what else ex-person would be doing if they didn't have football. I heard the same thing when Pablo was talking about enjoying the misery of like preparing for something. And I was like, I'm glad Pablo found his thing. Because if he didn't find his thing,

he would have found somewhere to put all that goddamn energy. It may not have been great. It would have been a very different, yeah, a very different bunch of people that would be willing to hang out with me, I think. Yeah. You know who wishes that Pablo had found something else? O's the mentalist.

How heavy is this trophy? Can we watch, can we just watch? Because every good sports movie, of course, culminates with a proper ceremony. I'm crying, actually. I don't know if they didn't really show in on the broadcast. I was starting crying. Shit is fly, though.

I love that. It's the hardest I've ever smiled in my life. That's incredible trophy. I was going to say, I asked you a couple days ago, did you get to keep this? Yeah, I haven't added it to my TV background. You have it? You have it just in your house?

Yeah, I'll get it. I'll go ahead. One second. Maybe your listeners can debate for me. Is this too douche to include in my TV backdrop? I haven't been able to decide. Hold on. Put it square in front of the camera so we can fully... Put it on the pole.

Take in. Jesus Christ. You're asking a cornerback? Nah, put that shit up. You want it. Put that shit up. Did you dent the J? It's like... Oh, my God. Okay, I fixed it.

Probably my kid. You fixed. Fixed. Yeah. Yeah, you got to put that up, man. I mean, people put emma's up behind them. Well, I do that because everybody does that. It is, man.

I've never seen this before. This trophy has three different punctuation marks. Question mark, exclamation point, and hyphen in All Stars is an incredible, I think, singular aesthetic. It is so blinged out. There's a lot going on. I haven't won a trophy this big in a long time. And I got to say, felt pretty good. I also got to do the giant check yesterday.

guys. I was going to say, is there a giant check? Yeah. That's a pretty big moment for me too. Yeah, ABC and L.A. here came out. We did a little check presentation. The check was signed by Ken Jennings, which doesn't feel like legal, but it's fine. I love

the generic project. For people who live in L.A. Cila is like truly one of the most amazing organizations. It's the tiniest nonprofit. They have like five employees and hundreds of volunteers. and they run drop-in centers for homeless folks around Los Angeles in East L.A. They're going to get to open an entirely new one now with this money.

They're buying a van, emergency care, food, hygiene kits, things like that. In the past, I'd help them raise money to have a mobile shower program. But they also do all this, like, nerdy stuff that people don't talk about when you think about the housing crisis in Los Angeles. For example, to apply for housing. And something they do is they help a lot of people who want to apply for housing. You need an ID. to need an ID. You need a birth certificate. To need a birth certificate. You need an address.

And so they're able to help people actually like get on computers, do this like paperwork, have an address that they can have it sent to. And that's the kind of stuff nobody talks about. That's really, really important in those services. And just getting to see them do that firsthand. And knowing what they're going to do with the money has been just one of the most magical experiences in my life. So CELA, please check it out. Celia, Neighborhood, Homeless Coalition in Los Angeles. Thank you. Pablo didn't follow up because he's a shit journalist, but you said that it's been a long time since you won a trophy this big.

What was the other trophy? The second grade spelling bee trophy, which has come up recently. Transition. That photo, yeah, because I've been listening to Spelling Bee next week. Dominique hosting the show. I mean, I do everything, man. What can't I do? You know what, guys, the word that I want to spell at the end here is F-R-I-E-N-D.

S-H-I-P? It's beautiful. It's really good. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye, guys. I gotta go.

All right. See you. This has been Pablo Torre finds out. A Metal Arc Media production. And I'll talk to you next time.