© 2024 Iowa Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

'Brainiac' Author Ken Jennings

<em>Jeopardy</em> champion Jennings details a life-long obsession with trivia in his new book <em>Brainiac.</em>
Jeopardy champion Jennings details a life-long obsession with trivia in his new book Brainiac.

An unknown computer programmer from Salt Lake City won $2.5 million and celebrity on TV's trivia game show, Jeopardy. But Ken Jennings had to keep quiet when he finally lost.

"It had been taped nearly three months in advance," Jennings says. "By that time I was very good at keeping secrets. During the whole Jeopardy experience, I felt like I was living a bit of a double life, I would be secretly flying out to L.A. to tape new shows, hoping that none of my coworkers would notice the absence and figure out what was going on. Jeopardy tries very hard to keep their secrets."

Jennings talks about his new book, Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Tags