When I first stepped behind the host lectern on the quiz show \u201cJeopardy!,\u201d I was intimidated for two reasons. Most obviously, I had the hopeless task of filling the very large shoes of Alex Trebek, the legendary broadcaster and pitch-perfect host who\u2019d been synonymous with the show since 1984.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I was also keenly aware that the show was one of TV\u2019s great institutions, almost a public trust. Since I was 10 years old, I\u2019d watched Alex Trebek carve out a safe space for people to know things, where viewers get a steady diet of 61 accurate (and hopefully even interesting) facts every game. And I wondered: Even if \u201cJeopardy!\u201d could survive the loss in 2020 of its peerless host, could it survive the conspiracy theories and fake news of our post-fact era?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Facts may seem faintly old-timey in the 21st century, remnants of the rote learning style that went out of fashion in classrooms (and that the internet search made obsolete) decades ago. But societies are built on facts, as we can see more clearly when institutions built on knowledge teeter<\/a>. Inaccurate facts make for less informed decisions. Less informed decisions make for bad policy. Garbage in, garbage out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve always hated the fact that \u201ctrivia,\u201d really our only word in English for general-knowledge facts and games, is the same word we use to mean \u201cthings of no importance.\u201d So unfair! Etymologically, the word is linked to the trivium of medieval universities<\/a>, the three fundamental courses of grammar, rhetoric and logic. And much of today\u2019s so-called trivia still deals with subjects that are fundamentally academic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p> As a citizen and Jeopardy! champion, I approve! Ken Jennings: Trivia and \u2018Jeopardy!\u2019 Could Save Our Republic
https:\/\/t.co\/L5GHbBqt9B<\/a><\/p>— Meg Gardiner (@MegGardiner1) June 5, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>