Charity Impact and Trophy Presentation

Welcome to Pablo Tore Finds out. I am Pablo Tore, and today we're going to find out What this sound is. It right after this ad You guys got some filter set up orr maybe I got a filter set. You do look suspiciously. Right, smooth. I got a filter. How do I take this off? I I'm fine with being a real f. sorry about that. wouldn't open for some reason. I think I think we're good now though adds videoide effects Oh yeah, it's all the way turned up like I'm some type of oook out of here Mina Dominique has had his AI touch upp activated to the maximum possibleize. Oh I didn't know that was the thing. I need to let me do that. I hate that. It's on zero now Let's take that off. You don't want you don't want a little bit? J's a little bit. No, little little little real. I'm tired of creating these unattainable beauty standards for young black men. I am buuck in the system. You also look tired now Incidentally, you visibly real babard is real I amm tired YouTube, one kid ha an ass is out here acting like you tire. Sorry, guys, I have a heart out and I know it was my fault for starting late because I couldn't get to work You win one celebrity Jeopardy All stars championship and suddenly Mina is too good. Not because of me, it's because of David Dennis Junior who himself has a hardout. It's a trickle effect of hardouts. Hardouts all the way down Domini, how did you congratulate me Um, I don't know. Say congratulations How did you congratulate her? Were we supposed to do something? Forced her onto the show to make content for me? That was my congratulation. You use her as you do. The ultimate compliment The ultimate compliment is not. Is it? I also didn't theorize before the broadcast because I had theories about what was gonna happen in the championship Confidentiality was my ultimate gift, I dare say. That actually, more so than Pablo forcing people onto his podcast being the ultimate compliment. Pablo keeping a secret really is the ultimate compliment if you know Pablo. You told him though so like Yeah, and the fact that he didn't actually do anything with it is honestly a testament to our friendship. That's right. nice job, Pablo So how jealous are you? Let's get to the point. Let's turn around you. Oh. You are This is why I'm so glad we're doing this is Dadique. Let's keep it real, man. Like my ally. a soldier. There's nothing in you. We know you, man. L and I've said this about you too. You are the This is not what I'm herear most selfish person that I actually like. I've told you this a number of times and I know how your brain operates. I know part of you and like Mina won't be upset because she knows this is you toobe partart of you, especially in arenas of trivia or intellect, part of you is like Right. I need to be very clear about something because Dominique is saying things that I'm sure the many haters and losers out there fully agree with I am merely Here to clarify that Mina did one of the great things for me in my life teammates. In celebrity Family Fud And due to Dave Chang's incompetence, he only realized late that Mein and I could not be the tag team to do the final thing. And Mina said to me, in a gift that I On Fpire to repay one day. You go do this. It'll be good for your podcast. And Chiang and I tag teamed and won. Name a coin you throw into a fountain to make a wooish. You said The penny. Yes Survey said Oh my God And I have to thank Mina Kimes for that. I over debt beyond repayment. Why didn't you do this back then Do what? When that happened and it was a big deal and it was like bouncing around the internet and everyone was like, wow, Pablo, this is pretty cool at that point. I said it on the episode we did about it that you did not listen to I think Pablo Dobinique is in his retelling of the Family Fud story, is echoing your point about me, which is that my most powerful driving animus is competitiveness more so than envy. In fact, in that moment, I was very mad at David Chang for being terrible at Family Fud, and that was the competitiveness And I was happy to let Pablo finish and win the game because I knew he would rise to the occasion. Thank you. But I'm about the team, man. Yeah in that moment, my driving modotelo right. Like in that moment there was a choice to be made And it was mean as to be made. She had to she would have to defer to you And you tried rather than just answering this question from the start. We could have got off this. You just honest from the start. You went a roundabout way to try to pretend like what I said wasn't true. And then you try to put it on her and say that she's like you, but you just then told a story that demonstrated that in a moment when she could have gone for the glory and the attention and the celebration She chose to give it to your need ass When I watched Mina go and dominate celebrity Jeopardy All stars There are things that I will feel this about and have felt this about. But this one was like Wing my friend go to space I've never competed at this. I was entirely purely psyched to do this podcast until now I think you are and I think you were happy for Mina I think that you could be just as happy for Ma as me or anybody else, but I also think that this is not like going to space because you're not a astronaut This is a game that's based on knowledge and strategy. That's something that you believe yourself to be good at. That's all I'm saying. This is where I need to reveal to the audience something. Did you do quQizowl in high school? You look like you did quQiz Bowl in high school. Yeah, the profiling is just not profiling. calling it what you want. You can't beat me. Did you do it or not This is where I need to tell the people who are not the three of us talking to each other that I did not do quQiz bowl. I do think that it would be very embarrassing. This is what I did think I thought if I get invited to do celebrity Jeopardy I probably shouldn't do it because there's so little upside for me. I will only reveal myself to be not only not a champion, but like willll probably embarrass myself and that' be bad. I actually think that that's a deterrent for a lot of people jeopardy as opposed to other celebrity game shows, right? It gives you the highest risk of exposure, especially because the questions are easier than regular jeopardy. So not only can you be exposed as maybe not knowing stuff, but you're exposed as not knowing stuff that a lot of people at home. know or think they know without sort of getting at how much harder it is in the moment and how much more nerve wracking it can be. So the risk for embarrassment in celebrity Jeopardy is pretty high I mean, I agree. I think I would say about Mina the thing that I think is pretty impressive is you have the ability to turn on the back against the wall urgency, the contract year level intensity that I don't have unless I'm actually in a contract here. Well, that's why're That's why we're here. That's why we're here today, Dominique because you are. You are. I will disclose this You are a competitor on Sports Jeopardy, the new show hosted by Joe Buck and you cannot talk about this, but I am spoiling every Is this a result of your investigative reporting? We are I haven't told anybody. We are constantly investigating and constantly fetishizing awards in the course of investigation And we're going to do film room Because what we both have to learn from our friend Mina, I think, is meaningful for you It's news you could use as a contestant And for me, it is something that I need to make peace with because yeah, it's probably like ninety nine to one I'll grant you, there's a one percent where I was like, o, I'm going to hear about this for a while And I want to start actually with our other friend who I did think about and really felt terribly for. in all of this Celebrity, Jeopardy all Star Katie Nolan. And she is how I first got into the film room The very beginning of Our decision as a show to really commit to doing celebrity game show journalism. because It was Mina. it was Lis Anne Walters from Abbott Elementary It was the semif final of Celebrity Jeopardy All Stars, Mina And this happens bllue white super giant that will go out of supernova, Rijl shines on in this constellation knownown for a three star fashion accessory. What is a cess. The fashion accessory is a belt because this is Orion. Oh. Rijl is found in Orion. But you only lose fifteen hundred.orry, now you're tied with me. Tied with Katie for second place, Solidarity What happened that's actually not shown on the tape is we went to I think commercial break not long after that Be I remember I had to do an interview when I was like way down. You do two interviews, right? In ceb of Jeardy. And the first one, I think I was either winning or whatever. The second one, I had just complete the reason I was down is I had gotten two daily I suck at daily doubles, which I've learned in the process of doing jeopardy, by the way. somethingomething about that with the lights and the timing where my brain just completely glitches. And what happened there is We went to break and there's break between the tapings And Katie leans over and gives me a pep talk. that's not shown on camera And she's such a good friend in that moment. I wanted to highlight it. She leans over and she's like Hey, just play your game. this isn't over. And it's really true. there's three rounds and triple Jeopardies were so much more that really the first two rounds don't matter that much. And she says that to me and like it was so sweet, nice. I wish it was shown on television because it really helped calm me down after I was so awful in that, I think double jeopardy round. If I'm ever on Jeopardy, I would love one day to be on that show in some capacity. However, I'd say that Mina demonstrated again, like shared the spotlight. I think this episode is not going to be about Jeopardy. It's going to be about Pablo learning from Mina to be a better human. This takes us to final Jeopardy Here are the stakes. Lisa Ann, nine thousand six hundred, you, eight thousand. Katie Nolan, five thousand one hundred peopleeople who are not familiar with again, the behind the scenes stuff, what is the vibe before That last moment. So you get a Pen and paper, pencil and paper, and you get to work out the math of your wagering And I don't know what Katie and Lisanne, if they had noticed that I was literally filling my entire page up with calculations. But I was like because this was the exact scenario that I had prepared the most for. So going into the Jeopardy quarterfinals and semifinals, I really didn't prepare at all. It was like during the football season, I showed up, I didn't think anything of it But there was one thing I prepared for going into this game, which was fininal Jeopardy wagering, which folks who are really into jeopardy or who compete on jeopardy spend a lot of time thinking about this. It is arguably the most important thing you can prepare for in Jeopardy because it's the only thing where you know what's gonna happen versus the categories So final Jeopardy, the way it works is first place is kind of the only known variable. If you're in first place ninety nine times out of one hundred, certainly in celebrity Jeopardy, they're just going to bet to double up second. Now Folks say, Well, what if you know, second place is can to do this right? you can't You don't do it, right? Like if you're in first place and you have a lead, you simply cannot bet anything other than against the possibility of second place doubling up on you. Does anyone have any questions for you? Yeah, whoo are the folks? You keep referencing folks, say who else is talking about this? In my research, I had just kind of like was searching for final Jeopardy strategy. I came across some really helpful Reddit threads where people had laid out different scenarios. There's also a great website I found. It's the first one that comes out when you search for a wagering strategy that laid out every possible scenario. I actually spent time in my trailer before Jeopardy, the only thing I did was practice some scenarios with hand and paper just to see how it would go So Anyways, that's first place Second place is where things get really interesting If you are in second place And you are over two thirds of the way to first place, which is what I was, and I realized at the end there, right You should bet zero dollars. Now you also have to bet to cover third, which is what I did And third place we'll get to that is a complete wild guard in all of this. The reason why you don't bet much money and potentially zero dollars if you don't have to cover third is, your only chance of winning is if first place is wrong Right? Like And because you have so much money, first place has to bet a lot, which L Sana Walter did to cover you So if you bet zero or very little money, if they're wrong, which is your only chance, You have to live in that world. If you're right, you'll win But if you're wrong you will also win because of what first placeace had to do, was forced to do. And ultimately, that's the scenario that played out with me and Lisne. We were both wrong. We can get to Katie in a second And because she had to bet, I think she bet seven thousand dollars to cover me, she fell down below me put much more like Simply is the only way you can win is if first place loses because if first place gets it right, it doesn't matter what you get And so and then yeah, but it but it's hard honestly, like it is hard to go up there and bet zero dollars and because people don't do it brrings us to what happened. Let's see how this goes. Katie Nolan's in third five thousand one hundred dollars. Winching up her face a bit. She wrote down Alexa, and she's correct A nod to the library of Alexandria. That's why it's named Alexa. Hey hey. How much did you wager, Katie Okay, you didn't wager a thing. You still have five thousand one hundred dollars Mina Cimes was in second place with eight thousand dollars She knowew it was Alexa. Uh she guessed Claude. How much did you risk Another small wager, two thousand two hundred and ten. Sheina has five thousand seven hundred and ninety. Lisane Walter had the lead coming into final Jeopardy. Did she think of Alexa What is Babylon No? How much did you risk Oh, a big wager. The biggest one takes you down to twenty six hundred and Mina Kyes to the celebrity Jeppy All Star final. I didn't get it Okay, so yeah, Katie did get the answer right and she bet zero dollars. And she has talked about she went back and forth on what to do. In the final of celebrity Jeopardy last season, I risked it all And I got it wrong which means I ended with zero. This year I get to the end, I'm like I'm just going to risk it all. I risk it all as my wager and I'm sitting there. And then I go Don't make the same mistake twice. So I had to call them over and go, can I change this to zero? And at first they were like, no And I was like, no, please, I don't know if they had to like consult to see if it was allowed They changed it to zero for me. Mina goes, I didn't even get a. And I was like, I know Are you trying to turn me into the joker? I know. You get it right. And I said in the aftermath, like You got to everybody' like, it's so obvious, You should bet it all. It is not obvious. Like why would Katie think why would anyone think in celebrity Jeopardy that second place would not bet at all because and I've watched some celebrity Jeopardy games. they usually do Right? Like typically, I went back and looked Ike Barnholdtz so we're gonna to talk about his final Kat Oos wellell bet at all and second like it is not at all unreasonable for third place to think that first place and second place would cancel each other out. and Katie also correctly knew her only chances if we were both wrong. It's I mean, it's the obvious situation where your instinct is if you're trailing Like I got I got to go for it. Like that's tr. I think while it seems obvious now that Min has explained it to you, if you were put in that situation Your instinct is always like, damn, I'm in second place. I got to catch first place. L if I double my score, I won't catch him, but what the hell I got to try to catch them and then hope they get it wrong and fall underneath you. But you have to understand that no matter what, they have to get it wrong. So if they get it wrong with the least amount that you can put at risk to still put yourself ahead of But this is the thing where this Katie got the answer right And that sucks so much to just like thes awful watching it. but it speaks to like the whole thing of this is a game in which the meta of the game is actually essential in ways that are beyond merely knowing the right answer. I'm so impressed the NBA and the NFL when there is like this optimized strategy that for some reason has not become obvious to everybody else. And so The time in which you can benefit from both having the knowledge and the strategy, Mina Like, this is the thing that blew my mind. I'm like, how the amount of time That goes to the strategy That's what blew me away and really impressed me is like how you how you did all that stuff that no one ever saw part, I mean, honestly isn't that much time. Like you just have to like it was literally the night before I was like, o, this is what I should do And the other thing I want to add is like I really didn't want to be in third place because of what we're describing with Katie because I didn't feel there was an optimal betting strategy in third place. I read all the To be clear, in third place, if you are playing third place and you are in Reular jeopardy. You should anticipate second place doing what I did and then do the complicated math to figure out how far second place will fall and how far first place will fall. But why would you think that in celebrity Jeopardy? Like And I was thinking that too. I was like if I'm third place and it's celebrity Jeopardy, I am not I'm going to assume second place bets at all. Like I would So I just want folks to lay off her. I don't know. I was upset by H and I texted a lot afterwards and I just felt so awful the way it all played out, especially because she was so sweet to me during the taping and she's my friend. But I also want to emphasize like what she did was not everybody's hounding her and I don't think it's as obvious as people think That's all I want to say. What happens in sports in real? professional sports, right? It's like you narrowly win something And you're like, oh, I got away with one And that's where I just laugh what Mina does once she has survived a near death experience like that So I wrapped up taping, I was shocked And then they told me the final is not going to be for two months And then they told me, Getting into the final, you get two hundred thousand dollars If you win, your charity does.. If you win, They get a million dollars My nonprofit, and I've been playing for them and I've raised money for them. I've done some stuff with them over the years. and I played for them the last time. It's called CLa. and we can talk about them at some point in the show, but they are here in Los Angeles. They are a small nonprofit That is double their operating budget. It's wild And so I thought I remember in that moment thinking, okay, so if I win this silly game They can this is going to completely change the trajectory of sorry I feelelt like I'm sounding self agronizing, but it is a big freaking deal for them All I have to do is outwork everyone else for two months. And just the mental calculus I was like Do whatever it takes to win this. Don't just show up next time. The hardest part studying for certain things, and I'd like to hear your you guys's thoughts on this too is not the actual studying, but knowing how to study. Does that mean, especially for something like J? It's like, what do you even do to preparevise That's the hardest part. On this show, I say all the time when Dominiqu an what his AL screen name was to give you a sense of like how committed a person can be to a goal and how to practice and prepare for something. Because that to me is still the gold standard is like I'm going to do this. I need to do this. I'm going to be NFL bound, whatever the number was I I mean it becomes your identity that point, which is probably pretty unhealthy and unsafe going forward, but Mina's identity a little bit better than mine. I'm a sacrifice so I can save people I like get this money and these girls. also I wanted to win. I wanted to win. I did want to win. I am very competitive. We know that about myself. But Paul was talking about how you had like the goal, you making the NFL. Yeah, like a lot of people want to be in the NFel, but like you not only do you have to be willing to put in the time, you actually have to figure out how to spend that time, how to optimize that time. And I think that was the hardest thing for me with Jeopardy prerep is like even knowing what to do. I was fortunate in that I had two people both named James who I was able to connect with and lean on in this process early who kind of helped me chart that path of studying because if it was just me, I don't think I would have known how to prepare for jeopardy It's a weird conversation to have and as a sports personerson, I think I could it's a pretty good parallel because yeah, it's about the focus and the commitment and the hard work. and then it's also about knowing the right things to do Like I when I was going to college, I played a bunch of positions in high school. I got offers to play different positions in college and there were different positions that would have been more glorifying, a little easier or whatever. It wass like, no. Corner's the hardest position to play It's the most difficult and it's most likely I can come in and start and make an impact. So I decided scored a bunch of touchdowns and I was go like I'm be a corner. And then I decided I'm going go to Maryland because I think their corers stink and I could I could start right away. And that was like the first decision for me that felt like a series of decisions that made it feel less and less like fun football game I love and more like strategy job, like optimiz and generally one of my major critiques about sports in life right now is like all of our drives to like pt toimize everything. I got into it with one of my Silicon Valley friends because he tracks his sleep and calories and everything. And he's like, I was out there for the Super Bowl and we went to dinner and he was like, you gonna have me drinking M must sleep score. they white? Your sleep score, We o have a good time. Maybe let's be happy. This is why Dummy can are so similar. Don't you feel like For me, balance in life is figuring out which things you want to optimize it, which things you don't. And I think being so dialed in other parts of my life allows me to be more relaxed in others. Do you feel the same way? Unfortunately, I too tell Liz This is what being chill is. me working really obsessively on a story we're doing to the detriment, admittedly of just like focus on other things For me, I think work ethic is one part of it, obviously. and certainly like the horsepower is another part of it, intellectual or physical. But the other one is just like obsession and like being really invested in trying to do this thing you set out to do. Like I actually enjoy that process. It's not like I am miserable when I'm working on something that I care about. I'm like, but I think it is distinion. You are not like that in every other part of your life at all. L' Yeah, socially, you're like a very relaxed person. Go with the flow. I don't know. I just think that You know, there's definitely down Dominic, you're definitely right. Like being obsessive about work can kind of drain some of the fun for sure, but I think it also opens you up to be more relaxed in other realms of your life. The idea of like tradeoffs in general is something that comes up for me in just about everything that I talk about and think about. and it's a helpful way to think about everything for me, at least right now. And I think you're making it clear that those tradeoffs come and I'm listening to Pablo. So to be honest, as long as I had known Pablo, I had never seen particular gear till this show he wanted to launch. And I was like, o, he got a little bit of dog in him, I guess because Pabo' always like Clearly very smart, very talented writer, but was always the guy that was like, I'll go with it, I want to have fun, more jokes than like analysis when you're working with. I like that that was Pablo that was who he was. And then all of a sudden it was like, and he was always available. like you call him, you wantna hang out, Pablo's free, Pablo's ready. Pablo's going to dinner, Pablo's going to a game. We are always available for dinner And then and there like Pablo will call, you just want to talk And then he started his show, then it was like Pablo's calling because he's trying to mind you for an idea. Pablo doesn't care about anything.ys we're talking right now. Maby, we're talking right now, bab. All right. The feeling I despise most in life is feeling unprepared Well, this is why Mina, according to of course, Ken Jennings, the host of Jeopardy is quote out here buying Jeopardy buzzers on the Dark Web So I mentioned that two James were influential. so I want to talk about James Tyler in a second who works at USPN and who was massively important in this for me. But the first person I was introduced to was James Holtzauer, who is one of the most winningest contestants of all I think he's won the most money, right? Like a per game of all time. arguably revolutionized the game with someone his tactics was a little bit you know divisive. I love watching him play. I just he's super cold. his sports better. Anyway. so Uh, my agent represents him When I told him I was in the finals, he asked if I wanted to do a Zoom with him. He graciously spoke to with me And the number one thing we talked about was the buzzer because it is the thing that trips people up the most in jeopardy. It is the number one reason why people who are come in knowing all the answers lose The way it works is you cannot buzz in too early or you get locked out you want to buzz in obviously faster than everyone else It's like a weird little device. There's nothing like it. It's kind of like a video game controller And buzzing is unlocked, mean you can buzz in when the lights go on or when Ken Jenning stops answering the question So I felt that I was not great at buzzing I still felt like that the first two games And Jeopardy James gave me a link to a buzzer that I was able to buy for I think, like about eighty dollars on the internet somewhere And it's a little different from the Jeopardy Bzzer It has a little less give, but it's a good practice tool. And then he also sent me a book I g him Hol Snegel about buzzing It's an eighty page book about buzzing So the other thing he did was h sent me a list of books that k thought would be helpful, which take a second please for the buzzer a moment for the buzzer conversation So There is to tie this back to the other thing that Mina was saying about a level of preparedness and it's a very sports concept of like give it your all, push through whatever difficulty, do the best you can, study hard And you can honestly and like earnestly feel that you've done that without then also having the creativity and ingenuity Find a different level. So like the concept from a sport standpoint is like lift as much you can when you're tired, Keep running. like keep doing that. L this is a different level Mbe everybody's doing it wrong. Maybe I can find another way to They even work harder. There is a thin line between Min has optimized Jeopardy and Mina's doing Sygate now. She's doing jeopardy spighting Most Jeopardy contestants, I came to learn, a lot of them own this buzzer. People who are serious about jeopardy buz I think everything I did, by the way, is completely of normal for people who are in regular jeopardy. I think the only thing that makes it weird is that it's celebrity Jeopardy. I think that the people who get on normal jeopardy, this is their moment. This is their like this is their chance of a lifetime, right? L this is they've been trying to get on jeopardy. This is a chance for them to make a lot of money and have big success for people who aren' celerity Jeopardy is like, hey let me promote my movie and maybe win a couple of bucks for Jeardity. One of the celebrity Jeopardy producers told me something that day, which was no one who competes on Jeopardy actually wants to be on TV. They just want to play Jeopardy. Yeah Cack me up. It's not really even about the mudoney for a lot of them, L they just w to win Jeopardy 'use they're all people who'd like love trivia. So the just realize I would sorry, I just realized that I would not like Mina the person who is Mina for rec sports Like that's' like Mina came to the rec sports League with all the headbands and the fancy shoes. Sheoot rain in all the sh season to win the men's League title. And I'm like, what does this get a lot of this stuff? It then actually just cooked. In the chain of Southern Lit, his library at Roan Oak has the last novel he read. William Syn's Le Down in Darkness. Ina. Wiss Faulner? That's correct for five hundred. The Gobi desert stretches five hundred thousand square miles between China and this landlocked country Bina. What is Mongolia? R again Though associated with the bike, this company founded in twenty twelve offers a rowing machine that works eighty six percent of your muscles in just fifteen minutes What is Peloton? Peloton also has a runing machine. Arkansas jazz up pickles by mixing in this drink that comes in packets. And all we can say is, oh yeah Eina. What is Kugay? Right I actually think Domin there was a moment in that show that in the finals that captured exactly what you're describing where both Ike Barn Holtz and Steven Weber look at me My agent, Mike was like, why I represent Jamesoltar if everyone talked So I actually connected with him a little bit and he gave me some buzzer advice that I will not be sharing. Shout out, James. You gone to great lengths, I think to work on your buzzer technique,? I bought a buzzer. You bought a buzzer a buzzer. It's different. You bought a buzzer buzzer. It's different bought a buzzer Yeah It's cheiful. Yeah. I think somebody else noticed there was a moment where they kind of show the cross talkalk before going to break where Ike was like Who's lovely, I so lovely. The other thing James did was give me a list of books which There's more you know, books on kids' books books on like history and then this iseen ten These books were amazing. I found they're by the company that used to make BrainQuest. yeah. And it's just like a five hundred page book about world history and US history. So you know this was all during the football season. I traveled to Monday night for NFL live every game and leaving football, you have football to watch. but when you're going to football, you don't have football to watch read these books on my plane trips U during the football season as I was preparing which is to say that all of this sh paid off Judy Garland is to Liza Mineelli, as Melanie Griffith is to her Hike, it was Tippy Hedrren. No, I'm sorry Mina. W was Dakota Johnson. That's correct. Cudus lies in wrong wrong direction, I. Don't get mad, G everything was a tagline to the film adaptation of this novel about a trio of spurned spouses . What is the firstirst Wifeise Club? Right? This psychic waitress pays a visit to Club Dead where vampires like her BF Bill Compton can sip true blood Lina. T Ski stackouse? That's correct for fifteen hundred And I was looking, I was like watching this happen and I was looking like, when are we going to get the heat check When are we going to get Amina Kimes heat check And anyone who has watched this show or done television with Mina Dominique knows what Mina's confidence really sounds like because it sounds like this It would be especially appropriate to use this cockney greeting with California's Gavin Newson What is Hello Gvernor? Oh man. it's like I'm in London. That's amazing,. Okay, so that moment right there, at my watch party, everybody was like, Ken wants me to win What you laughed at my stupid joke? That's true I did want to mention the other thing I did to prepare it, the other James, if that's okay. So my friend James Styler, who edits soccer at ESPN is a former Jeopardy competitor. He won a regular Jeopardy game. He is an absolute gem of a human being. And the last time I was on, he was so encouraging and he was like, if you ever want to train His words We can train. And I was like, it's fine it's over. it's fine This second time, I remembered that and when I made it to the finals, I said He, how about that offer So in that process, I discovered that a lot of Jeopardy competitors are in discords, and James is friends with many other former Jeopardy winners, including some who have won quite a few Occasionally we were get together to play old Jeopardy games and he said, We will play with you So for about four hours a week, Saturdays when my kid was napping in particular I would use my buzzer. so this is how I got good at the buzzer actually And they all have buzzers too. And we would do what they call fight Club which is Play Jeopardy of via Zoom And I would get my ass kicked by these guys And I'm not revealing all their names. They're like a data analytics person in Vancouver, a doctor in Toronto, just like, you know a principle, like just normal smart people with real jobs And they would just smoke me in Jeopardy. and it was super dispiriting, but they kept saying, Mina, like you were playing Jeopardy was like freaks. When you play with celebrities, it's going to be taking off the weighted vest I didn't believe them until I showed up and realized that basically getting my ass kicked rocky style two months had actually made me stronger as a player Turns out the first rule of Jeopardy Fight Club is not the same as the first rule of Fight Club Fight Club I want to thank them mostly because they're just they did it for no reason other than to help me and also just because I mean, I'm sure they enjoyed beating my ass It builds to a final jeopardy that I gotta say As a guy who has because of his friends, Katie and Mina And Tim Simons, by the way, whomina destroyed en on route to this championship I've watched so much, so much celebrity Jeopardy. And this was Again Beautiful scene. because of Mina's friendship and also deeply anti climactic It's the name of an eighteen seventy three novel subtitled A Tale of Today period of US. history TV drama that debuted in twenty twenty two thirirty seconds, finalists, goodood luck. Farrenholz had five thousand one hundred dollars coming into final. What response did you think of You wrote down What is the Gilded Age? And that is correct. The Mark Twain novel, the historical pereriod, and the new hit show for HBO. So you're going to be adding to that five thousand one hundred Iike. In fact, you'll double it. ten thousand two hundred. Okay. Will it be enough? Let's find out first starting with Stephen Weber, ten thousand seven hundred Did he think of the Gilded Age Things to come, No, unfortunately not. What did you wager, Stephven? You'll lose eight thousand leaving you with twenty thousand seven hundred So this tournament comes down to Mina Kimes, twelve thousand five hundred Did she come up with the Gilded age She has it. What did you wager? Stating grin. Just. eightight thousand nine hundred N of celebrity Jeffanie Allstin I just gotta say, be acting Thank you. thank you. Okay. So Folks have asked me about this and so Sela had a watch party and they sent me reaction videos from the party and They were all like no. I realize until watching it back that I had the producers all say, don't give it away if you know it. And I think I leaned into the not giving away a little too hard because they were genuinely upset in that moment. I was not fooled, Dominique. I was notking fooled. I meaness Maybe If I didn't know Mina and I was watching, I would say that's incredible acting But I think I also like knew the results. So I was watching to see the bad acting. And then after that, we saw a momentary glimpse of the true Mina before she went into fake humble. Yes. 'cause that was the best one. She was like know that. She was likean I might lose G of muckers. Oh, look at me, I did it. It was ridiculous. You know what folks, people did notice was 'cause they showed the whole final Jeopardy these clip here. I wrote it down immediately, so I kind of gave it away 'cause you know I didn't and then I tried to do a fake thinking face for like thirty seconds or however long it is Um, but the entire time I was thinking about after I won, I was already thinking about like I was like, I'm gonna to call CL, the woman who runs it. And I was thinking about exactly what I would say on the phone call to tell her I won because I knew I'd won and it was right. And I was just like fantasizing. I was pre fantasizing about the call that I would get to make in half an hour Can I say something else that I realized as we were talking about this is it popped into my head listening to Pablo earlier and also listening to how Mina prepares that We used to joke back when I played football is like, I'm glad football exists because I don't know what else person would be doing if they didn't have football I heard the same thing when Pablo was talking about enjoying the misery of like preparing for something. And I was like, I'm glad Pablo found his thing Be if he didn't find his thing, he would have found somewhere to put all that goddamn energy and it may not have been great It would have been a very different yeah, a very different bunch of people that would willing to hang out with me, I think Yeah. You know who wishes that Pablo had found something else I was the mentalist How heavy is this trophy? C we watch C we just watch because every good sports movie, of course culminates with a proper ceremony I'm crying actually. I don't know if they didn't really show in on the broadcast. I started crying It is fly though I out there It's the hardest I've ever smiled in my life. This is an incredible trophy. I was gonna sayed you a couple days ago, did you get to keep this? Yeah, I haven't added it to my TV backp. Do you have it? have it? Yeah, I' gota get it. I'll go itold second. Maybe your listeners can debate for me. Is this too douchey to conclude in my TV backdrop I haven't been able to decide. Hold on, putut it square in front of the camera so we can fully put it on the pole. Take in. It'sushy for Ma to add. you're asking a cornerback putut this, You want to, put this. Did you dent the J It's like my God. Okay, fixed it Probably my kid. He fixed itix. Okay, you gott to put that up, man I mean, people let put Emmys up behind them. This is Well, I do that because everybody does that atS. I've never seen this before. This trophy has three different punctuation marks it Question markark exclamation point at Hyphen in all stars is an incredible, I think singular. aesthetic. It is so trophy linged out. There's a lot going on. I haven't won a trophy this big in a long time. And I gotta say, it felt pretty good. I also got to do the giant check yesterday, guys. I was gonna say say is there a giant check. Yeah it's a pretty big moment for me too. Yeah, the ABC in LA here came out. We did like a little check presentation. The check was signed by Ken Jennings, which doesn't feel like legal, but it's fine love. But for people who live in LA, CLA is like truly one of the most amazing organizations. It's the tiniest nonprofit. They have like five employees and hundreds of volunteers and they run drop in centers for homeless folks around Los Angeles in East LA. and they're gonna get to open an entirely new one now with this money. They're buying a van, emergency care food, hygiene kits, things like that. In the past, I had helped them raise money to have a mobile shower program. But they also do all this like nerdy stuff that people don't talk about when you think about the housing crisis in Los Angeles. For example, To apply for housing and something they do is they help a lot of people who want to apply for housing, you need an ID. To need an ID. You need a birth certificate. T need a birth certificate, you need an address And so they're able to help people actually get on computers, do this like paperwork, have an address that they can have it sent to. And that's the kind of stuff nobody talks about that's really, really important in those services. And just getting to see them do that firsthand and knowing what they're going to do with the money has been just one of the most magical experiences in my life So Sila, please check it out, Sila Neighborhood Hless Coalition in Los Angeles Pablo didn't follow up because he's a sh journalist, but you said that it's been a long time since you wantoned trophy this big W was out of Trophy The second grade spepelling bee trophy, which has come up recentlyition that photo. Yeah Iomin spelling bee next Domini hosting the show. I mean, I do everything, man. What can I do You know what guys? The word that I want to spell at the end here Ff R I E and G. S H IP. people really good. Thank you Helle B Bye guys, I gotta go. All right, see y This has been Pablo Torere findinds out, a Metalark media production. And I'll talk to you next time