Whenever I want to listen to the news, I don’t want to hear any boring story that makes me fall asleep or a scary story that will give me nightmares, that’s why I listen to “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.”
I’ve been listening to this podcast since I was nine years old with my family driving from ballet class, to hockey games and family vacations. The jokes and news stories make long car rides seem shorter. It’s something everyone can enjoy whether they want to test themselves with the questions posed or laugh at the jokes the panelists and Sagal make.
“Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” is a Saturday weekly news quiz podcast featuring three panelists and a special guest. The special guest is a celebrity chosen by the show’s producers for that week. A few notable guests have been former President Barack Obama, actor Tom Hanks and Anthony Fauci.
The panelists are a mixture of comedians, actors and journalists. Some of my favorites are comedians Maeve Higgins and Dulcé Sloan, journalist Faith Salie and actress Laci Mosely. Each panelist is asked questions from the week’s news and if they get it right, they earn a point.
The show is hosted by Peter Sagal, a humorist and Bill Kurtis, a journalist and TV producer who keeps the panelists’ points as scorekeeper. Each episode there are five games to play, three for callers who call into the game, the special guest who plays one game for one listener and the panelists have their own game.
The five games are “Who’s Bill This Time?,” “Bluff the Listener,” “Not My Job,” “The Listener Limerick Challenge” and “Fill in the Blank.”
“Who’s Bill This Time?” is the first game where a contestant calls in to play. Sagal introduces the panelists to the caller and starts the game. Kurtis reads three quotes found in that week’s news and the contestant has to guess who said the quotes. If they get two out of three correct, they get the choice of whichever panelist they want on their voicemail.
The next three games earn contestants the same prize. “Bluff the Listener” is the next game where the panelists read three stories based on a random topic. The listener has to choose which story is correct in order. If they get the answer right, they get the prize. If they get bluffed, a point is given to the panelist who read it.
“Not My Job” is where the special guest comes in either by phone or on stage. Sagal welcomes them and asks questions about what they’ve done recently and little things that people may not know about. Then, Sagal will ask them three questions unrelated to their job. For example, when Daniel Radcliffe was the guest, he was asked about plant potters because he played Harry Potter in all eight Harry Potter movies. If the guest guesses two out of three correctly the prize goes to whoever the guest is playing for.
“The Listener Limerick Challenge” is the last game for contestants. Kurtis reads three news stories in the form of limericks and the contestant has to guess the last word in each limerick. Like the first games, if the contestant guesses two out of three correctly, they win the same prize. This is my favorite game because it’s easy to answer.
The final game is “Fill in the Blank,” a game for the panelists to play to win based on a point system. Each panelist has 60 seconds to answer as many questions from the news. Each question is two points and the panelist who has the most points wins the game.
Additionally, the podcast is recorded in front of a live audience, usually at the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago. However they have traveled to different states, like Massachusetts at the Tanglewood Theatre, to record the show.
If you want to play, call 1-888-924-8924 or fill out the form in their bio on their Instagram @waitwaitnpr.