Whereas the world could change and calendars chronicling issues just like the upcoming 2025 TV schedule transfer alongside, some issues are shining constants in our world. The presence of Jeopardy (which is able to lastly begin streaming in September) is one such recurring thread, which sees its host, Ken Jennings, staying on high of the information pyramid each weeknight. Sadly, there’s a draw back to how contestants, and the world at giant, proceed to eat info – and Mr. Jennings just lately shared how this loss has triggered a little bit of disappointment.
Go away it to one of many largest winners in Jeopardy historical past to focus on popular culture hyperfocus as a present development that acts as a double-edged sword. Beginning with the positives of being an skilled on any given topic or area of interest, Ken Jennings supplied The Los Angeles Instances these positives:
I really feel I’m a part of the final era that needed to justify having nerdy pursuits. It was sort of shameful and made you the punchline of jokes in film comedies and stand-up. Immediately, it appears self-evident to everybody youthful than us that, properly, after all you’d simply be obsessive about lunchboxes or about Battlestar Galactica or fossils. That’s completely normalized, and it’s really good.
What some would name “nerd tradition” does exist in a really completely different area in our fashionable tradition. I’m nonetheless shocked after I see individuals who could have mocked my center faculty obsession with Star Wars quoting The Mandalorian, proudly displaying their children holding Grogu stuffies.
To maneuver away from that kind of shaming is the kind of factor that provides nerds like me and Mr. Jennings hope for the longer term. It additionally retains Disney+ subscription numbers at a wholesome stage, which in flip helps individuals be taught extra about their favourite pockets of fictional historical past.
Alas, that is the place our Jeopardy quiz grasp shares that “loss” that he’s been mourning. Flipping the coin of data to the opposite facet, Ken Jennings offered the one factor that the obsessive mentality has robbed from contestants of the current and potential future:
However I’ve additionally been mourning the lack of generalists, individuals who knew a bit bit about every part, which is what Jeopardy! celebrates, nevertheless it’s not trendy. We dwell in a siloed society of specialists. And I actually assume we’d be higher off if everyone knew a bit bit about every part.
Evidently the “know-it-alls” of the world nonetheless appear to be struggling in a really bespoke method. Solely the issue this time is the truth that the kind of mindset that might see an individual learning up on any and all corners of normal pursuits has shifted to being an skilled in a handful of areas.
That kind of method adjustments the candidate pool radically for the long-running quiz present. It might additionally cut back the chance of long-running champions like Ken Jennings, Amy Schneider, or the most recent Jeopardy superchamp, Scott Riccardi. Fortunately, it is an issue that may be corrected, particularly with somebody like Jennings ringing the proverbial alarm bells.
Which results in among the best methods an aspiring mind field can maintain their psychological libraries totally stocked – watching extra Jeopardy! So you’ll want to test your native listings earlier than buzzing in at house, and all the time you’ll want to phrase your reply within the type of a query.