AUG 25+26 | Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!

Now in its 24^th season, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! is NPR’s Peabody Award-winning quiz show. Host Peter Sagal leads a rotating panel of comedians, humorists, journalists, listener contestants, and celebrity guests through a comic review of the week’s news. The fast-paced program boasts a weekly audience of four million listeners on more than 700 NPR stations nationwide and surpasses a million podcast downloads monthly. Impressively, the show’s audience has grown nearly every ratings period since its January 1998 premiere. Contestants vie for the quirkiest and most coveted prize in all of public radio—a custom-recorded greeting by any of the show’s cast members for their voicemail.

Peter Sagal is, has been, and perhaps someday will be again, a husband, father, playwright, screenwriter, author, journalist, columnist, marathoner, Jeopardy contestant, dramaturg, podcast host, documentary host, foreign correspondent, wedding officiant, and magician’s assistant.

As a playwright, his work has been produced or commissioned by the Long Wharf Theater, Seattle Rep, Actor’s Theater of Louisville, Florida Stage, and many others here and abroad, and he’s won awards from the Lannan Foundation, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and fellowships from the Camargo and Jerome Foundations. His screenwriting career began and pretty much ended with Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights, which he wrote without meaning to.

In 1997, Sagal got a call from a friend telling him about a new show at NPR, which was looking for “funny people who read a lot of newspapers.” He auditioned and appeared as a panelist on the first broadcast of Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me! in January of 1998, and moved with his family to Chicago to become the host in May, alongside the original judge and scorekeeper, Carl Kasell.

In 2008, he accepted a Peabody Award on behalf of the panelists, crew, and producers of this show. He’s also won the Kurt Vonnegut Award for Humor from the Kurt Vonnegut Library. He’s the author of The Book of Vice: Naughty Things and How To Do Them and The Incomplete Book of Running, a memoir about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and other adventures while running long distances. He’s contributed essays to Opera News, Saveur, Finesse, The New York Times Magazine, and was the “Road Scholar” columnist for Runner’s World.

On TV, Sagal has made appearances on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and other shows, and hosted Constitution USA with Peter Sagal for PBS and National Geographic Explorer for the NatGeo Channel. He also appeared on a narrowly popular podcast, Nerdette Recaps Game of Thrones with Peter Sagal, because he is a giant nerd.

Biography provided by artist management.

Bill Kurtis is the judge and scorekeeper for NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!

For many, Kurtis was the face, the voice, and the hair of the news in Chicago. Along with his co-anchor, Walter Jacobson, Kurt brought authority and integrity to CBS-affiliate WBBM. Since then, he’s produced and hosted such shows as Investigative Reports, American Justice, and Cold Case Files. He was also the narrator of Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy. Essentially, if you hear Kurtis saying your name, you’ve either committed a terrible crime, or you’re Will Ferrell. Kurtis is also the founder of Tallgrass Beef Company, where, every night, he lulls his grass-fed cows to sleep by reading them a bed time story.

Biography provided by artist management.

Tom Bodett used to do interesting things—log, fish, build houses. Drink. Now he does this. He left a promising career doing interesting things in Alaska to become a writer and subsequently a commentator on All Things Considered beginning in 1984. He is the author of seven books and a boatload of audio programs. His voice has been heard on Saturday Night Live, National Geographic Explorer, and Steven Spielberg’s Animaniacs, and he can still be heard saying “We’ll leave the light on for you” about 110 times a day. He lives in Vermont with his wife and sons in the middle of a hay field near a fore

Roxanne Roberts has been a feature writer at The Washington Post for three decades and was featured on the very first broadcast of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! She spoils her son and cats, and fritters away her remaining free time baking, playing poker, and building gingerbread houses.

Alzo Slade is an Emmy-winning correspondent for VICE News. Since joining VICE News in 2018, his coverage has spanned a wide range of topics from President Trump’s border wall, to hair weaves for men. Slade recently won an Emmy for his reporting in “Moment of Truth,” VICE News Tonight’s special episode following the historic testimony from Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh. In addition to his work for VICE News, Alzo Slade is a professional documentary/fashion photographer and stand-up comedian. He’s also a former professor at The College of New Rochelle in New York where he taught philosophy.

Biography provided by artist management.

Luke Burbank grew up as one of seven kids, learning early on how to vie for attention. Those profound childhood issues have propelled him to various media projects including This American Life, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, CBS Sunday Morning, Live Wire, and the daily podcast Too Beautiful To Live. Burbank keeps telling himself you’re chanting Luuuuuuuuuke and not saying Booooooooo because you’re not doing that, right? Wait, seriously, you were booing? At a public radio show? This would never happen to Ira Glass.

Karen Chee is an Emmy and WGA award-nominated comedian, writer, and actor. She’s currently writing/performing for Late Night with Seth Meyers, developing a movie, and working on a book, among other projects. She likes doing multiple jobs at once because the crushing weight of work distracts her from the crushing weight of everything else. Previously, she’s written for the Golden Globes and Yearly Departed (Amazon), helped develop pilots for Netflix and Comedy Central, acted in HBO’s High Maintenance, and contributed regularly to The New Yorker. She’s also been published in places like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and McSweeney’s, which was very nice of them. Before the Apocalypse, she spent most evenings doing stand-up comedy and would like to do that again someday. She was equal parts honored and mortified to be on Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2022.

Peter Grosz began his improv training at iO Chicago and wrote and performed in four reviews on The Second City’s ETC stage. Films include Stranger Than Fiction, Slow Learners, Aardvark, and Rough Night. TV credits include Key and Peele, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Inside Amy Schumer, Vinyl, and a recurring role on Veep. He wrote for Late Night with Seth Meyers, received two Emmys for his writing on The Colbert Report, and was an executive producer and plays Mike Pence on The President Show.

Biography provided by artist management.