What Is...? A Jeopardy! Podcast

Much like a certain Jeopardy! category, we are BULGING with content this week as we say goodbye to superchamp Adam Remsen and we get one of the games of the season in the wake of his farewell to the Alex Trebek Stage. Plus, some olds online get weird about Ken on vacation, Ken has one of his cattier moments of the season, and we dive deep (sort of) on Lin-Manuel Miranda. If you want to dive deep o...

John returns to the show after a week off just in time to watch Adam Remsen become a super champion with a very strong week of games. We also get a very strong Response of the Year candidate with the rare "kibbitz with Ken" left in the edit and a previous Response of the Week crosses over into Minor League Baseball. Plus, Emily provides us with some more updates on being the cool aunt and we dive...

John’s out this week, so Emily is joined by reigning TOC champion Paolo Pasco to recap another week of Adam Remsen. Despite some strong play this week, we are spoiled for choice when it comes to Response of the Week, and Paolo keeps his cards close to his chest about his Masters prep. This week’s JFAF has us asking, should retirees watch Jeopardy!? The answer may surprise you! Plus, we dive deep o...

After Jamie Ding's imperial run and three consecutive ToC invites, the inevitable finally happened: we saw a bad game of Jeopardy!. Of course, all games of Jeopardy! are great, but this week finally served as a reminder that the game is hard and we've been watching some very impressive runs. This week, Peter McFerrin's run comes to an end, we get a few tough games, and we get a Final Jeopardy! res...

The Tournament of Champions invites are getting handed out like candy as we went from Tristan Williams to Chris D'Angelo to now Peter McFerrin, who ends Chris' impressive run and racks up 5 wins of his own, dominating the week in the process. He also spurs on a debate about his accent the likes of which we haven't seen since Harrison Whitaker, and he gives a Response of the Week while trying a Fre...

We learned a lot about Chris D'Angelo last week and even heard from his sister, but this was TRULY Chris D'Angelo week on J! as he has a fantastic run of games and earns his way into the Tournament of Champions. We also get a contender for Response of the Year, it's a tough week for anecdotes, Emily works on her French accent, and we dive deep on Pilates. If you wanna really stretch out with our p...

Tristan Williams cements his superchamp status this week...just in time to lose it to Chris D'Angelo, who begins a little run of his own after a fortuitous math error in Final works out in his favor. Also this week, we get a quintessential Canadian contestant we love, Ken puts in a very strong nominee for Ken's Korner of the Year, and we dive deep on Sputnik. Plus, "Quiz Lady" writer and producer...

It's Tristan Williams week on Jeopardy! as he gets himself a ToC invitation and much more, playing solidly across all 5 games this week. He gets a couple of close scares though, as we discuss a charming southern U.S.A. anecdote, the show seemingly taking a few shots at right wing America, and Ken introduces a game in a way we've never heard before. Plus, we dive deep on the Gutenberg Bible. If you...

It's a Canadian week on Jeopardy! as a contestant from a small Ontario town near where John grew up gets blessed with a Final Jeopardy! category about Canadian music. We also get a a show first: a contestant and listener who purposely steered their anecdote to be about something we have professed our love for on our podcast. Elsewhere, Ken decides a specific contestant is his opp for some reason,...

It was a wild and weird week for Jeopardy! as superchamp Jamie Ding meets his end at the hands of Greg Shahade, a chess master and very solid champion who dominated the news cycle this week for not his gameplay but uhh...other reasons. We bid farewell to our beloved Jamie and discuss a very fun week of games as we get an anecdote flex, two Response of the Year candidates, and we dive deep on the G...

Jeopardy! proves that you don't have to be horny to mention a horse's "equipment", and quite frankly, we approach feeling horny ourselves for one of the best games in Jamie Ding's entire run, as him and Patrick Nolan have a fantastic back-and-forth in Thursday's game. Plus, we get a real gunslinger in Lydia who answers so many clues her tongue gets twisted, John gets scared by an Emily anecdote pr...

We aren't on cocaine while recording this episode, but for some reason it comes up more than once, as Emily forgets to finish writing a recap joke about it, John remembers that he's seen the 2001 drug-dealer movie "Blow", and TaoTao brings a manic energy to the Alex Trebek stage. Plus, Stephanie bows out in a joyous way, Jamie Ding continues his run of dominance, and we dive deep on Helen Keller's...

John is back as Jamie Ding survives a near-loss scare and then rebounds to win the rest of his games this week in a convincing fashion, etching his name into the 20-win club. We also get a Name of the Year candidate, one of the longest responses to a single J! clue ever, and Jamie is once again flexing with a wrong answer. Plus, we dive deep on Leon Trotsky. If you want to dive as deep as a pickax...

John is out covering curling this week, so we're joined by friend of the show and friend of handsomeness everywhere, Handsome Kevin Seccia! We have a great time chatting about another INCREDIBLE week of Jamie Ding, including Kevin's flawless Jeff Foxworthy impression. PLUS: we travel back in time to the first ever Jeopardy champion, and instead of going deep, we go incredibly shallow discussing Ke...

It's another Jamie Ding week on Jeopardy! and that means another tough week for our show, as his dominance makes our jobs just that much more difficult. But we find a way, as an Emily joke turns into a complete giggle fit for John, Jamie gives a very classy incorrect response, and there's heartbreak in BFJ. Plus, we dive deep on the company history of 3M. If you want an episode that wasn't difficu...

John is BACK and not a moment too soon as he issues his "Canadian corrections" to last week's episode regarding a certain word pronunciation and Emily and Paolo not understand the importance of the Heated Rivalry fleece. Elsewhere, Jamie Ding continues his march towards superchamp status and also J! legend status as he plays one of the best Jeopardy! games of all-time. Plus, we dive deep on Anasta...

John is out sick this week, so we are joined by TOC Champion and bona fide WIAJP patron Paolo Pasco! He helps us recap a fun week of games with a record breaking number of cuties + honorable mentions for response of the week. Plus, we get a deep dive on the Rainbow Coalition and we talk about Traitors and movies longer than John would ever allow on a normal episode. Some are saying he's the new Jo...

A Jeopardy! contestant answers a common question on the show with such speed that it becomes a Response of the Year contender as we get a bit of an up-and-down week on the show that features a little 3-game run for Quentian (as Emily spelled it in our show document) and a whole lot of gunslinging. Plus, J! fans want to see a celebrity join the show after Ken goes to a play, John gets a little punc...

Regular play Jeopardy! is BACK and once we get over the initial whiplash, we get some great games with some huge final scores, some massive DD wagers that turn out both good and bad, and we get back to our regular dose of actual funny responses of the week, including one this week about synchronized hippos. Plus, J! fans are asking questions about Andrew He's hair and we dive deep on the Sears cat...

The 2026 Jeopardy Invitational Tournament is in the bag, and with it, the conclusion to the extensive–and this year, very difficult–Jeopardy! postseason. And what a way to go out, as Andrew He claims victory for his first major Jeopardy! tournament win in a slugfest three-game final against Long Nguyen and Roger Craig. We get Roger delivering a correct response in the strangest way possible, TV In...

Jeopardy! crosses over into the true mainstream as Alison Betts' Final Jeopardy! joke actually pays off in another week of Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament action. We debate whether the boards have simply gotten too hard, actually, as contestants sputter all over the place. But we get some great anecdotes, we see some wonderful contestants from years past, and we get Andrew He's glorious new hair...

That's right, one of our patrons, Paolo Pasco, has won the Tournament of Champions in dominant fashion, and so of course that means, in some small way, we won it too. We break down Paolo's fantastic performance and then we turn our attention to the JIT, which sees the immediate return of some of our faves. Emily was in attendance for a number of the games so she gives some expert opinion on that,...

The Tournament of Champions continues apace this week, as we finish off the quarterfinals and the semifinals and get ready for next week's finals by...watching an exhibition game. We have some thoughts on that as well as some of the stellar gameplay this week including a "Welcome to Next Year's JIT" performance from Tom Devlin and a down-to-the-wire finish between Cameron Berry and Paolo Pasco. Em...

The Tournament of Champions is HERE and we love to see a bunch of our faves back on the Alex Trebek Stage. John nails a bunch of his predictions (including the one about the herbal candies), we get some great sports-related anecdotes, and we see some great gameplay as we continue on with this Jeopardy! postseason. Plus, John finishes watching Heated Rivalry, Emily updates us on what fans think is...

The Champions Wild Card finals are here, and they are a doozy, as we get the Jeopardy!-Honored "Game of the Year" and some stellar (no pun intended) play from a fantastic group of contestants. We also get a very self-deprecating response from Harvey Silikovitz, a Julia Child impression, and we preview the upcoming Tournament of Champions. And in a week of boring FJs, John manages to find an intere...