Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! is NPR's weekly hour-long quiz program. Each week on the radio you can test your knowledge against some of the best and brightest in the news and entertainment world while figuring out what's real news and what's made up. On the Web, you can play along too.
It takes more than a couple brain cells to make this show what it is... so let's give credit where credit's due.
Peter Sagal (delivering news by sidecar) and Carl Kasell Photo: Tony Nagelmann
|
• Check out the Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! Frequently Asked Questions.
Peter Sagal -- Host
Prior to becoming host of Wait Wait in 1998, Peter had a varied career including stints as a playwright, screenwriter, stage director, actor, extra in a Michael Jackson video, travel writer, essayist, ghostwriter and staff writer for a motorcycle magazine. He lives in the Chicago area with his family, and is working on a book titled The Big Book of Vices, about how people -- other people, of course -- misbehave. Since he now has his own Web site, he is finally a real boy.
Carl Kasell -- Official Judge and Scorekeeper
Carl Kasell is an all-around genius and great guy. He has also been a newscaster for NPR's daily newsmagazine Morning Edition since its inception in 1979. His newscasts on Morning Edition can be heard at the top of the hour, every weekday morning on public radio stations nationwide. A veteran broadcaster, Kasell launched his radio career more than 50 years ago. He sometimes moonlights as a magician.
When Carl Kasell talks, Peter Sagal listens. Photo: Tony Nagelmann
|
Doug Berman -- Executive Producer
Doug Berman is the Peabody Award-winning producer of NPR's Car Talk and Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! For the last 15 years, he's been on a one-man crusade to get NPR to lighten up. He was a news director at NPR member stations WFCR in Amherst, Mass., and WBUR in Boston before giving up his legitimate career for this stuff.
Mike Danforth -- Producer
Mike Danforth joined Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! in November of 2000, after a distinguished tenure at Prairie Home Companion in his home state of Minnesota. His first week was spent weeding through numerous hanging chad jokes to find the best ones. He also tutors the staff in Foley-like vocal sound effects. And does not look like Andy Dick. At all. A note from Mike.
Melody Kramer -- Assistant Producer/Director
Mel used to be a Kroc Fellow at NPR in Washington, D.C. Little did she know that she would use what she learned there to find experts in Viking poop and heavy metal during her first two weeks at Wait Wait! She misses her parents and her brothers Steve and Mike in Cherry Hill, N.J., but Mel was happy to move to Chicago -- though she will never, ever, ever root for the Bears (E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!).
Emily Ecton -- Associate Producer
We can only assume, when Emily was standing on the White House lawn, dressed in a 6-foot high Arthur (the PBS Aardvark) costume helping Lynne Cheney preside over the Easter Egg roll, she must have said to herself -- "Life can get no better than this." But she was wrong! Soon after, she left the exciting world of PBS Media Relations and moved herself, her strangely squished-looking car, and her dog, Binky, out to Chicago to join Wait Wait, where she serves as the Official Reality Television Expert.
Lorna White -- NPR Chicago Bureau Engineer
Lorna White began working at NPR in 1984. She engineered most of the NPR network programs, including All Things Considered, Performance Today and Morning Edition, where she became the first technical director to yell at Rod Abid. Being hopelessly Midwestern, she moved from Washington to NPR's bureau in Chicago in 1996. A year later, a guy named David Greene knocked on the door and in a matter of weeks, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! was on the air. Two years later, David left to work on a public radio show about cars. Thankfully, Rod was willing to work with her, and she hasn't yelled at him since. When not working on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, Lorna's day job includes managing audio production at the NPR bureau.
Robert Neuhaus -- Technical Director
After many years spent as an award-winning theatrical sound designer and audio theater producer, Robert Neuhaus went in search of even larger egos than the theater can contain and found them at Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! Robert has served as a recording engineer based in NPR's Chicago Bureau since 1988, but he still moonlights from time to time creating storms and battles for Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
