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What is it we salute when we salute the flag of Jeopardy?
I really don't know the answer nor do I know how to put it in the form of a question.
There are some obvious answers. Jeopardy celebrates competence. It acknowledges the idea there are things worth knowing and that people who know them deserve a slightly different status than people who don't.
I think it's also a kind of fanfare for the common man. So many of its champions come with no pedigree. They were the people you'd miss at a big party and there's some kind of American myth buried there, that our plainest people can often do great things.
Today on the show, we talk about the mythos of Jeopardy and with its host now seventy-four, the troubling question of its future.
GUESTS:
- Hillary Huttenhower is a "Jeopardy!" champion and a materials engineer at United Technologies Corporation
- Arthur Chu is a "Jeopardy!" champion and blogger who has a regular column on The Daily Beast.
- Mike Pesca is the host of the Slate.com daily podcast, The Gist and co-host of Slate’s weekly podcast, Hang Up and Listen.
