You and n.p.r. In Washington this is one and. There I'm Joshua Johnson today on one day Peter Segal fans love him for his work hosting N.P.R.'s comedy quiz show about the week's news but that is just one part of a fascinating life's journey one he's not shy about discussing battles with depression a rocky marriage surviving the Boston Marathon bombing even a connection to dirty dancing the sequel not the good one but we'll explore the Good the Bad and the funny with Peter Sagal and we'll find out how wait wait became a hit and we'd love to hear from you e-mail one a. Comment on our Facebook page or tweet us act one and. Laws from n.p.r. News in Washington Stevens House speaker Paul Ryan says lawmakers will vote next week on 2 competing immigration bills concerning the status of so-called dreamers a spokeswoman for Ryan says scheduling the vote heads off a threat to bypass the House leadership and force action on other immigration bills moderate Republicans and some Democrats gave their Kelly Exum till today to reach a compromise where they would force a vote on measures that they prefer a federal judge's refusing to block $85000000000.00 plan to take over Time Warner the judge rejected the Justice Department's argument that the deal would stifle competition and urge the government not to try to block the ruling N.P.R.'s Yuki Noguchi explains why this case is such a big deal the significance of the cases that other companies are closely watching this ruling which is seen as a bellwether for other mergers from c.b.s. This proposed deal to buy at the insurance company to Disney's offer to buy 21st Century Fox a ruling against the companies would have had a chilling effect on the. Acquisition of Time Warner would give it access to a mass media in its industry that includes h.b.o. Warner Brothers movie studio and Turner Broadcasting which owns c.n.n. Former Vice President Joe Biden is expressing concern that President Trump gave up too much too soon during a summit with North Korea's leader Kim Jong un without getting anything in return but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn't see it that way the goal of the United States is the quote complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. If North Korea does not prove willing to follow through we our allies must be prepared to restore the policy of not from pressure President Trump says the u.s. Will halt joint military exercises with South Korea as long as talks toward easing tensions with North Korea continue prosecutors were. In her special counsel Robert Muller are asking a judge to limit the kind of information that can be reviewed by a Russian company and other defendants N.P.R.'s Carrie Johnson reports the government is worried that the documents would be disclosed to Russian intelligence a federal grand jury in Washington indicted 13 Russians and 3 companies in February they're accused of conducting a secret information warfare campaign aimed at the 2016 election but only one defendant Concorde management consulting showed up to defend itself in court now prosecutors are worried sensitive material in the case could wind up in the hands of Russian spies they want the judge to impose a protective order so they can control who looks at the information and how it's used Concorde and its leader an oligarch known as Putin's Chef have already been sanctioned by the u.s. Government Carrie Johnson n.p.r. News Washington you're listening to n.p.r. News. South Carolina's Governor Henry McMaster has failed to get enough votes to avoid a runoff McMaster and Greenville businessman John Warren will face off in a 2nd contest on June 26th the winner will face Democratic State Representative James Smith in November McMaster was elevated from lieutenant governor last year after Nikki Haley left the job to serve as u.n. Ambassador primaries also were held today in Virginia Maine North Dakota and eventa . Washington Capitals hockey fans lined streets around the nation wall today to catch a glimpse of the Stanley Cup as the winning team paraded around the city N.P.R.'s Adelina Lansing Annis was there yet. By sweltering heat the crowd was jubilant the caps claim the championship over the Vegas Golden Knights in game 5 last week fans showed up for this victory parade hours in advance Zakhm Andras and Hayley grinder of Centerville for Genya hoisted a plastic replica of the Stanley Cup into the air it's not even a huge thing just for the caps in general is accusing for all sports fans in d.c. I mean for just the team to break that horse that 1st no playoff wins for a Washington team in the n.h.l. And I'll be your n.f.l. Offense Washington one Super Bowl in 1902 it's been a long time coming this is the caps 1st Stanley Cup win and the team's 44 year history Adelina n.p.r. News on Wall Street stocks those mixed today in light trading the Dow Jones industrials fell one point the Nasdaq gained 43 points Stephens n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the John d. And Catherine t. MacArthur Foundation supporting creative people any factor of institutions committed to building a more just vergence and peaceful world more information is that Mack founded dot org and the ne ek c. Foundation. B.c.c. Supporters include Pasadena Playhouse presenting culture clashes border town now 20 years after their show border town premiered culture clash returns to the southern border to investigate the state of affairs once again reimagine dream extend fully reloaded Bordertown now is an irreverent look at the people at the center of one of America's most controversial hot button issues and the borders and walls that divide us closes June 24th tickets are available at Pasadena Playhouse dot org. This is one day I'm Joshua Johnson in Washington I think we can agree that the weekend is never long enough so consider today's conversation a little boost to get you through the work week. Wait wait don't tell me the n.p.r. News quiz has been filling weekends with comic relief for 20 years now a lot has changed since the show debuted but one thing has not Peter Sagal has been its host for nearly all of weight weights run the show is celebrating with a 20th anniversary tour and Peter joins us now from w.b. Easy in Chicago for a behind the scenes look Peter Sagal welcome to want to well I thank you so much it's a pleasure to be here I don't get starstruck very often but I had one of the most fun nights I ever had seeing wait wait live at the War Memorial lot of tournament San Francisco you guys put on a hell of a show we every time we do the show we'll thank you and that is remarkable considering we actually don't move very much well but just people standing there but I don't have a lot of dance breaks well and I can't no I don't know if that would make the show better or worse but it is kind of amazing how much you do on stage in that time to what do you attribute the success of wait wait especially because as you said it's not a very kinetic production my punctuality There you go joke for your producers. Let's see I. We've wondered about this because one of the things that is weird about us is I personally never expected the show to be a success. It's a long story but basically the show went to me or 20 years ago and had some rocky times and it wasn't certain that the show would ever continue or continue for very long in fact there was a joke going around the public radio system I'm not sure if you were born in that. That the show was really called Wait Wait Don't cancel me and I became the host sort of a battlefield promotion in a time of trouble in May of 1980 few years after it went on the air and we sort of thought about what we should do and what we decided to do you know in the sort of you know Animal House they're going to get us no matter what we do so we might as well have a good time philosophy we just decided to amuse ourselves as much as possible until they stopped us. And they haven't stopped so all we do and I speak for myself and my producers and my writers and my colleagues is we just do things that we find amusing and we talk to people we want to talk to and much to my surprise a lot of people share our very odd sense of humor and that's why we're still here I guess when you signed on with wait wait you were one of the panelists that I was yeah what were you doing when you got the call from was it n.p.r. Did the quality it was. It was a call well the 1st call came from a friend of mine a theater director named Barry Edelstein who said hey I've got a friend who's helping put together this new show for n.p.r. They're looking and I remember this vividly he said they were looking for funny people who read a lot of newspapers I thought of you because I was a writer I was a playwright and sometimes screenwriter and like all writers I would do anything other than write so I was paid for sit and listen to n.p.r. And procrastinate and so when somebody said oh well you could actually go on n.p.r. And talk about the newspapers or reading that seemed perfect so of course I volunteered sure of love to do that got a call from a gentleman named David Greene not the David Greene you're familiar with as the host of Morning Edition but a producer named David Green who had been assigned to work with Doug Berman the producer of Car Talk and create this new show for n.p.r. Called Wait Wait Don't Tell me and they were looking for people to be on the panel and I was I guess the expression would be cast and so my 1st job in radio is basically this one so you never were you never worked in radio public or otherwise before you got on wait wait nope not once not ever Where did the idea for the show come from I wish that I had a better story something about how I created my own major in college in the game show studies how I when I was a child used to stage a little game shows of my own with my stuffed animals by the way I'd hear sometimes from parents that kids do that with wait wait don't tell me they I did little game shows with my little Fisher Price tape recorder when I was little so I can really see it now you're a natural radio guy there you know I am not. This story is much more sort of sadly corporate. This is now back in the ninety's and the older some of your older listeners might remember at the time that most public radio stations had mixed formats they had news during the week in the mornings and then they switched to jazz or other kinds of music or other kinds of programming and a lot of new research showed that that was inefficient that news listeners want to listen to the news or more news so n.p.r. Wanted to come up with more news oriented programming for the weekends because there was also. Some data that indicated that people would listen to the news all week and then go away on the weekends they wouldn't listen to whatever music or hobby programs or whatever might be so they wanted to create a show about the news that wasn't more news there was enough news so why not someone said a news quiz there you are and so it was really invented at least conceptually as something that would appeal to our listeners the people who are listening to your show right now the people who enjoy hearing people talk and more or less appropriately grammatical sentences for most of the day we want to hear a number of clips from where we don't Tom as well as we continue our conversation with Peter Sagal the program's longtime host I'm sorry Peter before I play that clip I think I cut you off limits you finish a thought No No Basically it was that so we were really born out of a kind of cold hearted corporate calculation as opposed to you know a dream in a wing and a prayer but like I said they made the mistake of of hiring me and some other strange people who knew nothing about that and cared nothing for you know demographics or. Or focus groups or research we just wanted to goof around and as I've said we happen to be lucky in that our senses of humor aligned with a lot of people out there listening to the radio Well the goofing around has been a lot of fun over the years and we wanted to play some of your more popular bits from the show one of which is from a show in Seattle in 2008 that had to do with Bill Gates one of the co-founders of Microsoft and he sir. Update a tall windows software that introduced many of us to this animated office assistant that came in a rather weird shape Gates complains at great length with the most bitter frustration and anger much like any of his customers about his experience trying to use the Microsoft website to download software Gates said quote This site is so slow it is unusable others pointed to his even more angry 999 memo titled simply Clippy must die. B b b b the. Thing that video them putting Clippy in a car hey where we go and. I pushed Cliffy. One day to the engineers at Microsoft said you know the people using our products they're frustrated they're angry but they're not insane with rage How can we focus their rage How about if just in the middle of doing something an animated paperclip pops up on the screen that's going to help you what are you doing Ok I feel. He has a lot of trees out here. To. Tell the ground you are near Redmond anymore. What is that can only. You know what you dig and what do you dig into I got to become. Like you got a baseball bat if you want to get out of the debate about me because he was. That looks like you've taken a grave this is a business grade of the. That was for an episode of Wait Wait Don't Tell me back in 2008 Paula Poundstone Adam Felber and Paul Provenza worth the panelists It seems like you know Peter I don't know if this is the way typically goes but when I saw the show in San Francisco a lot of the comedy was just riffing you had the question I guess not answering and you guys just go at it exactly that. Bit which is actually one of my favorites too so I'm glad you guys found it everything after I say the words Clippy Must Die is improvised none of that was planned and the other thing you should know is the line that was the capper that was Paul Provenza who said Is that a business grave or a personal grave I had thought of that line about 10 seconds earlier but was laughing so hard to get it out and to this day I'm bitter that he 1st and the fact of the matter is you know if there's one thing that makes us in my view somewhat more seriously stand out in you know we're part of a vast satirical industrial complex right now you know you've got everything from cold bear to Seth Meyers to the onion to all kinds of things and there's something that makes us stand out it's that we are primarily improvisational my staff and colleagues and friends that I work with we work all week we research we write we rewrite we punch we do all the things that are writing staff does but then we bring that material to our panel who doesn't know what we're going to ask them about they didn't know we were going to ask about Microsoft or make a joke about Clippy the people you just heard and then we just see what happens and I think that part of the appeal of our show is people can feel that they know this is really in the moment and I think that adds something to it because we're genuinely having a good time right there right in front of you this is not something we we have rehearsed and are pretending to do there's a lot more we want to discuss as we continue our conversation but I went curious how much of the balance of the show each week do you think is written jokes and how much is improv if you had to make it a ratio it's hard to say if we know that if we'd broadcast a show because the show as you know because you've seen it is taped almost always on Thursday nights and then edited in broadcasting on Saturday mornings across the country and. We edit the show and we know that if the show ends up edited with only me talking and most of what I say has been scripted then that's a failure we don't want a show like that this is not Peter Sagal sitting in front of a microphone and monologue and no matter how good the monologue might be this is a show about a conversation between well really friends sometimes I think of it as like the ideal dinner party conversation which we're inviting our audience to do so at the same time you know we research the show we have things we want to say we have material we've prepped and we want to use that so I know this is kind of a cop out but about 5050 I think if you listen to our show 55 percent of what you hear is written in prepared 50 percent is totally off the cuff although usually that's the best material in my view g c tweeted I've been a long long time listener and have now converted my grandchildren to listeners I bought them a radio for their bedrooms so they could listen every Saturday morning because how many kids have radios these days and s. Stone tweeted I hope that when my daughter is an adult she'll look back on her childhood with fond memories of mom listening to wait wait on Saturday mornings laughing We'll continue our conversation with Peter Segal the host of Wait Wait Don't Tell me will get more into the show and into his background and more of your questions as well I'm Joshua Johnson glad to be with you you're listening to one egg from w. Am you and n.p.r. . About 40 years ago the primatologist Frans de wall was observing chimpanzees one day when he shot 2 of them fighting and a couple of hours later I saw a big commotion in a group and I shot the 2 chimps kiss and embrace each other in that moment led him to wonder whether morality might be hardwired within us what animals might teach us about ourselves next time on the Ted Radio Hour from n.p.r. Join us tonight at 989.3. This is a test of the Emergency Alert System. This concludes this test the emergency alert system. If you're hanging on to an old car that you don't use let Kavi take it off your hands will pick it up in any condition and handle all the paperwork proceeds from the sale of your car can help keep you and your community informed support the trustworthy news you hear on Cape and get a tax deduction while you're at it it's easy visit dot org slash cars. Support for n.p.r. Comes from the station and from the doors to charitable foundation celebrating 20 years of grant making and supporting a new initiative to help retain physicians scientists with caregiving obligations learn more in D.D.'s c.f. Dot org from the Annenberg Foundation committed to supporting educating and engaging communities in the United States and globally for more than 25 years learn more at Annenberg Foundation dot org And from the sustaining members of this n.p.r. Station. This is one a I'm Joshua Johnson It's not my job to host wait wait don't tell me but it is Peter Siegel's We're speaking with him about 20 years of the n.p.r. News Quiz writes My obsession with wait wait results from being enthralled by the way their minds work so quickly with their humor I don't think that quickly and it hits me is so amazing that their humor comes so readily I've been loving it for years Mary writes It's so current and intelligent at least once a week I think his mind is so fast or he's so smart none of the other hosts comes close Peter what's your process for working with the news to turn it into comedy Are there certain kinds of news environments like today with the trumpet ministration which And it seems to crank out stories every day that make it easier or harder to do your work in joke I've been making the dealing with the trump of ministration is a little bit like that famous I Love Lucy sketch where Lucy and Ethel are working in the Chocolate Factory right that keeps coming faster and faster and faster and faster except and of course in our case it's not chocolate. The this kind of basically the way it works is today's Tuesday we will go up stairs and we will talk about all the news that we're finding and of course we're looking at you know in this case this week the Trump Kim summit and we're reading all about that that's particularly my thing I try to focus on the major stories in the week's news but I've got colleagues who are looking at that and they're also looking in the most obscure places and they find the internet to find really weird news stories the kind of things that most of our show is really about. And then we'll start talking to each other about what's funny what are we like will make lists of stories 0 which of these stories will say is the weirdest story the woman the most bizarre unbelievable details will that'll be our Bluff the Listener story and we'll put that aside and and what topic can we ask our special guest about what's funny what's interesting to talk to that person about and starting tomorrow Wednesday we'll start writing and basically we do what any writer's room does we'll just write and will come up with 20 different jokes on a given topic I will set up tomorrow and I will write 20 to 30 jokes about the term Kim summit and then I will read them along with a lot of other material written by other people out loud and then we will kibbutz and we will laugh more and more pointedly We won't laugh we will say well that's not very good what else can you do if you've ever written comedy you know that to get to a good joke takes at least 2 or 3 tries right I mean you've got to get through the the hack material that's obvious and find something that's really original and funny and shocking so that's a process that we go through it's kind of a peristalsis for the biology fans out there and then we rewrite on Thursday we do a read through with Bill Curtis at our offices again we kibitz we go back and forth we punch which is I guess the technical term trying to make things better trying to improve something you're not actually driving one another no we're not actually that has happened you know and if people are going to say this if people could listen to our private meetings we would all be arrested because we're just insanely obscene sometimes you've got to go very very far to come back and get something you can actually use well is there anything is there anything in the show that's off limits. Over the years we've developed some informal rules and they're hard to articulate a little bit like Potter Stewart said about obscenity we know it when we see it when we're going too far the rules are something like We try not to punch down we're trying to make fun of people who are weak or powerless and have suffered because of that who are victims of anything be. It's you know war natural disaster whatever. If we have one rule it could probably be stated as we want to make people feel better. And there are some things that you can if you're funny about them make people feel any better and we try to be careful about that and we monitor each other if somebody says you know that's really offensive to me because it reminds me of something bad or that just makes me think about some horrible thing then we'll listen to that because you know one of the things we're very clear about is what we really want to do more than making any political points or speaking truth to power that's pointless power doesn't listen if we just want to entertain the audience and we try to be careful to make sure that we don't offend or displease in the way to doing that now sometimes we do. Speaking of speaking truth to our least about power we've got some mixed opinions about how wait wait treats the current administration Robert wrote on our Facebook page I used to love this show but now it's all just swipes on our president however Al writes Love the show they aren't making fun of the president they're only telling us what he has done during the week the story seems so absurd and ridiculous that many think it's a comedy How are you approaching the trump of ministration it's tough and there it's tough for a bunch of reasons one of the reasons is that comedy satire works by exaggeration you take something that's true and you exaggerate it into fantastical lengths to point out how silly it is right and there are 1000 examples you know you make a joke about Marco Rubio say back in the campaign where after each stop his his. His handlers would you know put him buckled in the car seat and taken to the next one and you can make that joke because it's it's it's an exaggeration it's not true Marco Rubio looks kind of young so maybe it's funny. But Donald Trump is so far beyond exaggeration that it's very hard to come up with anything crazier than what he actually does he bragged about the size of his genitalia on live t.v. And that was just one of the 10000 things that we could never make up because it would seem too crazy Alexander pitcher who writes for The Washington Post on my very favorite satirist working today she pointed out that the problem with writing about the Trump administration is that there is no more ridiculous situation you can compare it to you can't say that for example Trump disinviting your team the Philadelphia Eagles to the White House because they wouldn't stand for the national anthem a patriotic song and then mangling a patriotic song well that's as crazy as. What There's nothing that crazy so we struggle with it. However one of the things that I'd say to the listener who wrote in about how it was we're just bashing Trump we actually only bashed trump a little bit usually at the top of the show and then we move on to something else and the reason we do that is because one of the things we found from our audience is they don't want us to talk about Trump all the time and it's exhausting they want to talk about other things animal stuck down pans people being silly and we're happy to oblige them sealed back one tweeted as a huge fan I've always been curious how Peter and the staff understand their place amidst the criticism that n.p.r. Is a liberal media outlet weight weights 1st commitment seems to be comedy but they don't hide their ideological leanings to the ever take flak for that. I would challenge that person whoever wrote in and say When have we taken a stand on a political or ideological issue because we don't we don't criticize you know health care plans or tax plans we make fun of people and sadly we have gotten to a place where it's political back in a more innocent time when Sarah Palin was the craziest person in the in the stage in the national stage I used to say that thinking Sarah Palin is foolish if that makes you liberal then sometimes Todd Pailin must be a liberal you know because that's what marriage is or like it seems as if the ideological battlefield has spread so far that whatever you might say makes you somehow identified with one tribe or another so to people who say well you're obviously liberal because you make fun of Donald Trump why is making fun of Donald Trump a liberal position he himself used to be a Democrat and many of the things he's doing are Republican positions. It's not so much that we make fun of Donald Trump because we are supposedly liberals and he is a conservative. He's not a conservative we make fun of him because he is a ridiculous figure. And we do that to Democrats and if the Democrats ever put forward a figure as ridiculous as Donald Trump we I promise you America we will say the same things about that person I really will speaking of talking to Democrats and Democratic presidents as presidents one of the most memorable wait wait appearances was when Barack Obama appeared on the program as a senator before he had become president here is a clip from that show each of us have these little desks that you can't write anything on because they're too tight they're like the desk you have an elementary school and parents when you go to you know Parent Teacher Day and you're sitting there squatting that's obvious but when you pull the drawers open there are the names carved inside of all the previous occupants of the desk and so in my you know you'll see names like lodge and and Taft and where you also see names like Bobby Kennedy and Paul Wellstone and it really gives you a sense of sort sweep of history that you're part of them and I supposed. I suspect the 1st couple of guys were Yeah but. I think they now. I don't think people realize the far reach of graffiti. The other little I was thinking about taking a spray can. And that's how we do that after Has the only African-American the you know. That was then Senator Barack Obama on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me I don't know if you noticed this Peter but politicians can be really hard to interview they walk in with their talking points they want to get in and get out and having said exactly what they want to say the way they want to say it that doesn't really work well for comedy How do you get politicians or other high high profile guests to loosen up because we don't ask the same questions everybody does. And that actually is something that some of them have noticed. Most prominently Patrick Fitzgerald the u.s. Attorney who 10 years ago had prosecuted Scooter Libby then to have Scooter Libby convicted and his sentence commuted and everybody wanted to talk to Scooter Libby about how he felt about that and Scooter Libby I'm sorry that Scooter Libby Patrick Fitzgerald Patrick Fitzgerald would not do any interviews except he agreed to appear on our show in front of by the way 10000 people at Millennium Park here in Chicago and I asked him backstage is why did you agree to do our show and he said because your questions I can answer and one of the things that I think we do to maybe you know advance the public discussion I hope a little bit in a benevolent way is we invite public figures on and we don't ask them about the latest controversy position political issue we ask them about themselves if about their lives so for example we had Jeff Flake on the show some years ago in Arizona and this was the newly elected senator was in a bit of trouble because he had reversed his position on a on a gun control issue and the audience there in Arizona was not happy with him and they weren't particularly thrilled when he said that's going to be who Our guest is but we brought him on we didn't ask him about that. We asked him about his bizarre habit of vacationing on a remote desert island by himself and other weird things that he does and he came across as being a perfectly reasonable if quirky human being and the audience enjoyed him and we enjoyed him and he enjoyed it which I think is very important for our audience because one of the things I tell our guests is the more fun we have with each other the more fun our audience will have so you don't feel like you have a responsibility on the show and that's fine if it's how the show is done but you know with with a newsmaker like that it's you don't especially if there's someone in the news that kind of exchange it sounds like you're trying not to let it be a news quote on exactly we have a juror that responsibility openly and proudly n.p.r. You everybody has many shows in which their job is to press newsmakers on the issues of the day that's what Steve Inskeep Does that's what Ari Shapiro does that's what you do. We don't and I you know I think that it's not only Ok that a show out there like ours does that or doesn't do it but it's kind of important one of the things that people tell me is that they enjoy our show because it's a break from the constant broil that media has become everything is a conflict you know and it's it's absolutely maddening I experience this is a listener and a viewer of media you know you watch. Some cable t.v. Panel where people are shouting at each other and even if you agree with one of them even if you're glad that person a is being taken to task by person b. Because person a really deserves it it's just exhausting and I find it's I don't know I find it pleasurable to take a little break from that and just listen to people joke around as if they're normal human beings and I hope our audience does too yeah I think that gets to the comment that Lisa wrote Lisa tweeted during what for me are extra troubled political times . I listen to wait wait twice every Saturday at 10 and 11 on my local n.p.r. Affiliates thank you for being my dependable and funny coping mechanism number and that and that's and that that that's sort of what I talk about people I mean people have come to me and said Man things are so hard sometimes they refer to the news sometimes they refer to personal difficulties and they say our show helps them get through it and when I was a younger man I thought you know I changed the world with my brilliant wit and now I am an older more mature man and I realize that to give people comfort for an hour a week is is a noble and worthwhile goal and I'm happy to be doing it Jenny is listening from Noblesville Indiana Jenny writes My Levin year old son went as Peter say gold not once but twice for hollow Wein at ages 6 and 8 if he could pick his ideal job his is what Adam would choose that's wonderful I'm dying to know what Peter Sagal cost him looks like you know what Jenny if if you if you're listening I would send it to us we'd love to see it one day at w.a.m. You dot org Or tweet us at one and if it's Ok with you Jenny We'd love to share that picture I would love to see it is it an ill fitting suit and a shaved head I mean you know what could it possibly be I'm sure he was very dapper and very suave although I have to say having seen the show I love what you do on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me But frankly there's another role that if I had to pick would more be my choice. From n.p.r. And I'm going to be easy target this is wait wait don't tell me in the n.p.r. News quiz I don't cancel here's your host at the Lerner theater in Elkhart Indiana Peter Sagal. Carl Kasell was always my favorite the former announcer the late announcer and score keeper of Wait Wait Don't Tell me who passed away recently quite a few of you are sharing your recollections of Carl as well Diane writes I won Carl Kasell voice on my daughter's answering machine for her 40th birthday present that gets to a question from Ariela who wrote on our Facebook page whose idea was it to give a Carl voicemail greeting message as a prize for winning the quiz. Karl you know it's funny with Karl's passing recently I've been of course listening to a lot of tape or Carl as we just did and every time I hear his voice it makes me a little wistful I love that man and worked very closely with him for a long time Caro was always an element of Wait Wait Don't Tell me he was recruited by Doug Berman who served as our co-creator and executive producer because he found out as everybody at n.p.r. New the Karl had a wonderful sense of humor and Caro helped us so much in those early years when we were as I mentioned kind of struggling because for so many n.p.r. Listeners Carl Kasell was the voice of n.p.r. I mean he was probably the most heard voice in n.p.r. Because even stations didn't carry all of Morning Edition carry the newscast so he woke up millions of people with that voice every morning for years and he lent us kind of that authority and that legitimacy. And in terms of the answering machine message you know it was in the early days and the show was being developed and it was going to be a quiz and people were going to call in and answer questions What do you give them Well Wolf come up with something you know like a gift bag or a dictionary or something when in the meantime you know just just just as a placeholder let's just give away Carl's voice and we'll come up with something better. Later and we never did it with something better turns out it was the perfect prize for our show because it was a prize that was both priceless you couldn't buy it for any amount and worst Lisp because you couldn't sell it for any amount it was the perfect prize that represented what our show was which was a very silly comedy show disguised as a quiz show and who it was for which was public radio listeners we want to shift gears from talking about wait wait don't tell me to talk about you in just a moment Lynne wrote on our Facebook page I follow Peter on Twitter and since the suicides of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain he has offered some very personal insights into his own mental health which I found both heartbreaking and inspirational Peter Segal himself has had a fascinating life and quite a lot to tell we'll get into some more of his life in just a moment stay close. During . 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Back now to our conversation with Peter Sagal the longtime host of Wait Wait Don't Tell me which is celebrating its 20th anniversary more I want to ask you about the show but we'll get to that in a minute let me talk a little bit more about you and your background in addition to play writing as you mentioned you've also done some screenwriting you have a number of credits to your name including for the sequel to dirty dancing of the southern 3rd for the music. Without. Thinking walking around our Take a look you've got to know you don't have to yeah you're right if I do always you know later maybe next week. I'm Katie Courteney have it. So what like 5 words it's funny maybe 10. Now Dirty Dancing Havana Nights is one more film credit than I have that movie came out in 2000 force I'm not knocking when you want to say I'm not knocking it man you've got a film credit to your name and you've told a story on This American Life before but but it's how do you reflect back on having had anything to do with the sequel to I should say that I freaking love it. This is this is the very short version I wrote a play that got some attention and because of that play I was asked by that time pretty prominent movie producer Lawrence Bender to come and write a film for him and the project they decided on was based on the life experience of a woman a new woman enjoying Jansen who had been living in Havana at the time the Cuban Revolution so I wrote a screenplay research and wrote this screenplay about the Cuban revolution which by the way is an amazing story that has not yet adequately been told in popular entertainment and it's centered on this young girl who you just heard played by run my garage I think her name is and and a boy who turns out to be a Cuban evolutionary played by a guy who was that was a big a loon I think and. It involved all kinds of things that. Really happened including the CIA and. And Castro and the and the bombings and the various things that were quite real about that historical incident and they took that they fired me and rewrote it to make it dirty dancing too. And that story is very very typical in Hollywood how things get taken from one writer because you're doing it for hire and given to some other writer and completely transformed and. And it's oh Ok. It's what Hollywood is like it's not what I thought I was doing what I like to say is I helped write dirty dancing to without ever meaning to. Which is guess if you're going to have to do it right away if it also made me very very popular with young women who were 16 at the time the movie came out they're much more impressive me for that than anything else I've ever done if you see the movie this is a little bit of trivia No I wrote none of that dialogue nothing you just heard the general plot is mine the broad is that once but there is a scene in which the heroine is at school it's a school for expatriate kids that actually existed and there's a teacher who has a couple of lines that roll is something I wrote and I wrote it for myself I figured I'd be on the set obviously and I would need a cameo obviously so I wrote in I described it like I looked at the time and that was supposed to be me so there is an actor who was in Puerto Rico where they filmed the movie who actually got a role because I'm an egomaniac speaking of love stories there's a tweet you sent on June 8th that reads quote next Saturday I'm marrying a woman who has made me finally late in life understand all the groupie love stories I used to mock because I couldn't understand what that kind of happiness would be like unquote you are getting married this Saturday I am congratulations thank you that's awesome and you've talked quite a big. About your your difficulties with your previous marriage to ga his wife and and the difficulty and in what to do with your 3 girls and how that works you've said a bit about that but talk about it that at that in the lens of what's happening Saturday I've talked about that kind of obliquely which obviously is in the best interests of everybody involved raising my children and my ex-wife and I will continue to do so I'm not going to tell you much about that I will say that it was very very difficult and I went through a very very hard time in some ways it's not yet over it's not resolved there has been some losses there that probably will never be repaired. And one of the things that I realized is when you're going through something like this a real serious domestic tragedy you feel very isolated because this is most associated with Facebook you look on Facebook and everybody seems so happy everything seems so great and when something is terrible going on in your own life you're like well there's something uniquely wrong with me. And one of the things I found out is that if you dare to talk about it people will respond with their own stories because a lot of people carry around painful experiences they've been through or have gone through and so that's why I decided to go on John Moe's podcast called the hilarious world of depression the very 1st episode of fact and talk about it for that reason I once heard Rachel Maddow who I admired tremendously I think she's incredibly intelligent and very good at what she does talk about how she struggles with depression and she often feels inadequate and overwhelmed and terribly sad and I'm like wow wow fft Rachel Maddow feels that way I guess it's Ok if I feel that way sometimes and it occurred to me that if that if I were to be public in somewhat the same way then other people might get that same benefit to realize that they're themselves not alone of someone and I'll be you know I don't know if this counts as ego but if someone like me with a prominent job that seems like I'm doing great can be struggling with stuff then maybe people will feel a little better about whatever they're struggling with at least the fact that they are and that happened I'm proud to say that people got in touch with me sometimes privately sometimes in person and they let me know that hearing that was a great boom one person a number of people said that hearing me talk about that sent them to get help whatever the help they needed be it therapy or medication one person told me that it turned them away from a path that might have led them to suicide and you know and I can't say if that's true but you know if it is then then it's. You know it's quite I don't know gratifying and makes me think that I did the right thing about going public in the way that I have you know and you've been among the folks who's been tweeting about depression in the wake of the suicides of fashion designer Kate Spade and chef Anthony Bourdain by the way boarding appeared on Wait Wait Don't Tell me back in 2016 here is a clip from that appearance on the show. Here can I ask you this is Tom Bodett I I like your show and eat a lot of really horrible thing. On it sometimes he can you just eat bad food. Let's look at Johnny Rockets you know wait a minute. I should say I mean I'm there I'm just to say that Johnny Rockets is a chain of burger places that's intentionally kind of a replica of the old fifty's the fifty's in Bulgaria right exactly how I was going to be cook standard bearer manager and a counter guy that I order a burger and they just sort of quell the pre-cooked burger put it ought to look up what you want to point off up on the region of the fried basket you know grab some old fries they don't need to dump them in the hot grease and then they bring them over to me and they all stand there and we all kind of share this moment looking at each other. We all know that you know we are where we want to be right now. Part of Anthony boardings appearance on Wait Wait Don't Tell me back in 2016 Lisa in New Hampshire writes at the end of 2005 my son was stillborn a few weeks later I was cleaning my kitchen and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me came on the radio there was one joke something about President Bush and his zip code in Michigan and I laughed I laughed so hard I couldn't speak in that moment I knew I was going to be Ok and could get through my hearty thank you. Another heartache that you've written about and talked about including on the moth which was so compelling was about your experience of running the Boston Marathon in 2013 you were serving as a guide for marathon runners who were visually impaired you completed the race if memory serves at about 4 hours and 5 minutes past the starting gun at 4 hours and 9 minutes past the starting gun the finish line was bombed How do you write how do you reflect back on that day now and how does it affect your avid marathon running Well that's an interesting question you're right I told that story in the moth and actually that story is if I may be so bold the 1st chapter of the book that I'm publishing this fall called The incomplete guide to running or the incomplete book of running will come out and tells that story and some other stories about my life is a midlife marathon or yeah I was I had just crossed the finish line with my friend William Greer who had guided his visually impaired across the marathon finish line we were sort of recovering he was pretty wiped out and we were sort of celebrating when boom. And it was and it's very hard to talk about because if I were to say that I was a witness Well certainly let's just get one thing out of the way I'm not a victim of the Boston Marathon bombing I was not hurt in any way. I wasn't even really a witness because my view of the bomb site was blocked by the big. Finish Line superstructure you know the big holding up lights and cameras and stuff like that so I didn't actually see the terrible things that people just 100 yards away from me were looking at the blood and the injuries. Nonetheless you know I carry that with me that I was there that day and I think mostly about the extraordinary good fortune that I had if we had been a little slower if William as he wanted to do because he was not feeling good had walked that last mile rather than you know gathered whatever courage he had and run it like a hero we would have been right in front of the bombs I have no idea what would have happened and it's it's just it makes me think a lot when I think about it about the pure randomness of life you know there were people there who didn't come home and the only reason they didn't come home was because they happen to be standing in the wrong place there were people who were sorely injured for the same reason and these things happen to people's lives and you know it's it's it's sometimes sometimes there's no explanation for the things that happens and except just sort of bad luck and malice and it's certainly something that made me think. About how fortunate I am let me put it that way a few more questions I did want to ask you if we could kind of lightning round our way through some more questions about wait wait don't tell me because there's plenty more we'd love to discuss one thing I wanted to make sure I asked you about there have been a number of efforts to adapt Wait Wait Don't Tell me for television but none has succeeded why not true that is a good question I think I'm very good looking and I don't understand why the television audience doesn't agree there were 2 attempts one which was a pilot that was filmed at great expense by c.b.s. As a possible network show the other by b.b.c. America that was actually broadcast. And it didn't work in both cases and I can't tell you why one reason might be is that we're a little weird I mean we're show is is a show in which we're both our panelists are sort of playing the game and also the people call him playing the game and it was Carl Kasell who means a tremendous amount to public radio people but not that much to people who don't listen to public radio so it was I think it's very hard for television audiences as opposed to public radio audiences to up. But also I think that what we do could really only exist in public radio because we are completely free of the commercial pressures that commercial broadcasting is under I referenced earlier in the hour that the show was struggling if we had been a commercial venture on commercial radio or television in those early days and getting the reactions that we did we would have been executed immediately because we just weren't bringing in the eyeballs viewers' ears that would have justified the expense but public radio being public radio it doesn't have that commercial pressure we were given a little chance to breathe and we were given a chance to improve and it really took us a year of broadcast shows before we started to do something that people actually really enjoy and I think it's all part of the same thing we can only exist in public radio and that's why I'm very very grateful to be part of this community we're low on time but last year we had a conversation with Tom Hanks after he guest hosted Wait Wait Don't Tell Me Here is what he said about that experience you had guest hosted Wait Wait Don't Tell Me On n.p.r. Back in January the greatest gauge in the world wait wait don't tell me in it fun well I'm thinking of having somebody just inadvertently hit Peter say gold with their car not to hurt on not only to this is just to take his legs out for a little bit don't say that to the studio and they need me again you're the nicest guy in Hollywood don't say that Tom Hanks I don't know you're seeing you're seeing the below and the fabric of my goodness so Peter you've been warned I don't know how you feel I basically am waiting for Tom Hanks to come through with his part of the bargain to let me start a major motion picture I don't know why it hasn't happened so you don't even swap is no swindle you 2 could just kind of do a job swap for that I don't think anybody would notice given my natural charm come on by the way Jenny the mom I told you about with the sun dressing as you for halloween Yes she wrote back and then went to Jenny wrote yes it was an ill fitting suit and a bald cap. Perfect. Going to get that picture before we go 2 more quick questions Todd in Ohio wants to know where did the name of the show come from Believe it or not it was invented by Bob Garfield the host of on the media now that he was at n.p.r. And I am told I was I think he confirmed this one of our conversations that there was like a focus group at n.p.r. Trying to come up with a name and he said how about we don't tell me nobody said great and if I ever see Bob Garfield again I will punch him because that means that for 20 years I've had people coming up to me and going Hey wait wait don't tell me are you Peter Sagal which is sort of like my friend Tom but at curse of having people come up to him and say hey leave the light on for Mr Motel 6 when asked what it is it's a curse one last question Renee in Baton Rouge asks I swear you say urgent haircut productions every time during your ending credits is that really what it is it really is it's Doug production company and if you ever saw Doug in person United are stand what he called it that. Before I let you go are you having fun doing wait wait if I didn't I would have left I mean it during I don't want to go to one about my personal troubles but I honest to say if I didn't have the chance to get with my friends and have a great time once a week in front of the best audience in the world in person and on the radio those times would've been a lot harder I have a great time doing the show I enjoy myself and when you hear me laughing like a maniac that's totally genuine I am enjoying the heck out of myself I have just been informed by our producer that we have the photo we don't have the photo we will tweet that as soon as we conclude this conversation with Peter Siegel the longtime host of the n.p.r. News Quiz Wait Wait Don't Tell me which is celebrating its 20th anniversary on n.p.r. Peter Congratulations about your nuptials the Saturday and thanks for talking to us thank you so much it's a pleasure to talk to you and welcome to the wonderful world of public radio you guys are doing great this program comes to you from am you part of American University in Washington distributed by n.p.r. Until we meet again I'm Joshua Johnson thank you for sharing your questions and your stories and as always thanks for listening this is one as. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from vital projects found supporting the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan where bogus Isaac Kinga lez city dreams is on view more info and tickets at Moma dot org from the Walton Family Foundation where opportunity takes root more information is available at Walton Family Foundation dot org. And from the Pew Charitable Trusts marking 70 years of nonpartisan research and data learn more at Pew Trust's dot org slash 70 k. P.c.c. 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