The Champions Wild Card tournament begins and brings with it a fantastic week of games with tight races for first place in each game, strategic wagering for semifinal berths, and lots of very impressive gameplay. We also get Bill McKinley giving one of the funniest half-hearted attempts to explain away a poor Final Jeopardy! decision in the show's history. We also discuss Ken's Bluesky rants, Stella Trout's resemblance to Snail Mail, and we dive deep on guinea pigs.

If you want to be a guinea pig for what it looks like to support the show, head on over to patreon.com/jeopardypodcast! Just $5/month gets you a new bonus episode every month, access to our full back catalogue, our Discord, and so much more! Plus, our latest bonus episode reunites Lisa Hanawalt and our own Emily Heller for the first new episode of Baby Geniuses in over two years! You won't wanna miss out, join now!

SOURCE: National Library of Medicine: "Animal Models of Tuberculosis: Guinea Pigs" by Simon Clark, et al.; CBS News: "Peru Pushes Guinea Pigs as Food" by Rick Vecchio

Special thank you as always to the Jeopardy! Fan and J-Archive.

This episode was produced by Producer Dan. Music by Nate Heller. Art by Max Wittert.

How do you do, fellow kids? We try to appeal to the youth this week and so does Jeopardy!, as their older fans predictably fume about them twisting a very regular wordplay category to make a meme joke. But we love it, and we love this final week of Second Chance as some dynamite players return to the Alex Trebek Stage and we get some truly wonderful gameplay. We also discuss small town Canada hotels, Emily's Christmas gift, and we dive deep (plunge deep?) on the history of epidurals.

If you want more of this show, there's never been a better time because Baby Geniuses is BACK, baby! That's right, Emily and Lisa Hanawalt reunite for their first Baby Gs episode in almost two years, and it's ONLY on our Patreon! You can also have a bunch of bonus episodes about Jeopardy! as a treat. Plus, access to our Discord and other fun stuff. Join today at patreon.com/jeopardypodcast.

SOURCE: National Library of Medicine: "Overcoming Obstacles: The Legacy of Fidel Pagés, Founder of the Epidural, 100 Years After His Passing" by Gregory Chinn, et al.

Special thank you as always to the J-Archive and The Jeopardy! Fan.

This episode was produced by Producer Dan. Music by Nate Heller. Art by Max Wittert.

Emily is finally feeling well enough to record a pod and so we do a truncated recap of last week's games, which we are calling "Guy Branum's Second Chance, Presented by Guy Branum, featuring Guy Branum". In other news, Guy Branum joins us to discuss his run to the Second Chance Finals, from feeling like his Jeopardy! journey is satisfactorily complete to what the green room vibes were like. We also watch Michelle Tsai play so well people "react" to a FJ response of hers (they don't even fume!), John gets grilled about watching "Heated Rivalry", and we dive deep on the strange and dark origins of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".

If you want to have yourself a belated merry little Christmas, why not donate to the show? It's just $5/month at patreon.com/jeopardypodcast to support the show AND get a bunch of bonus episodes. You'll get a new one every month plus access to our whole back catalogue and we have a VERY special bonus episode coming early next week you won't wanna miss. Join today!

SOURCE: Entertainment Weekly: "How 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' Became One of the Season's Most Beloved Songs" by Chris Willman

Special thank you as always to The Jeopardy! Fan and J-Archive.

This episode was produced by Producer Dan. Music by Nate Heller. Art by Max Wittert.

Emily's constant recommendation of the miniseries "Death by Lightning" pays off as it leads to a get on an FJ, and that's really the headline of this first week of the Second Chance Tournament, where wagering errors and some extremely hard FJs play more of a role in who wins than the actual gameplay. But that's why we play the games, baby! It's high drama and the clue writers get us laughing, J! fans fume over a Ken IG post, and we dive deep on "The Nightmare Before Christmas".

If you want to give yourself a wonderful DREAM before Christmas, why not donate to our Patreon? It's only $5 a month and you'll get access to a new bonus episode every month, featuring Jeopardy! guests, live play episodes, and MORE, access to our Discord, and lots of other fun stuff. Join today at patreon.com/jeopardypodcast.

SOURCE: Forbes: "'Nightmare Before Christmas' Turns 20: From Shameful Spawn to Disney's Pride" by Scott Mendelson; Business Insider: "Inside the Tumultuous Making of 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'" by Jacob Sarkisian

Special thank you as always to the J-Archive and The Jeopardy! Fan.

This episode was produced by Producer Dan. Music by Nate Heller. Art by Max Wittert.

A category about holiday movies gets us in our Christmas bag as we discuss Christmas Vacation, Jingle All the Way, and Emily's early crush on Bernard the Elf. Will Riley jingles all the way to bank this week with cash stuffing his pockets after a very impressive run and a very, very confusing finish to it. We also have Jeopardy! fans (and the hosts) fuming over a bizarre category that made no sense and we dive deep on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

If you want to guide your sleigh to a worthy destination, head on over to our Patreon to support the show! For just $5/month at patreon.com/jeopardypodcast, you'll get access to ALL of our bonus episodes, our Discord, and you'll get a new episode every single month. This month, we sat down with recent 14-game champ Harrison Whitaker for a fantastic interview that is our most popular bonus episode ever. You won't wanna miss it!

SOURCE: Smithsonian Magazine: "The Magical Animation of 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'" by Michelle Delgado; Geekwire: "The Geeky Tech Behind Rudolph" by Frank Catalano

Special thank you as always to the J-Archive and The Jeopardy! Fan.

This episode was produced by Producer Dan. Music by Nate Heller. Art by Max Wittert.

It's a big week for superchamps present and former as Harrison Whitaker's time on J! comes to an end but superchamp Ray LaLonde's (evil?) twin, Ron, makes his debut and sets out to carve a Jeopardy! path of his own. Plus, we get another great 2-day champ in Libby Jones, we get perhaps the horniest clue we have ever read in our time as a podcast, and Ken can't stop thinking about wood. Plus, we dive deep on the humble tomato's history as a fruit and/or vegetable.

Speaking of Harrison Whitaker, we loved him so much on the show we brought him on for a full-length bonus episode interview! Don't miss the exclusive by donating to our Patreon at ⁠patreon.com/jeopardypodcast⁠ for what was a wonderfully honest and funny chat about Harrison's life and his time on the Alex Trebek Stage. You'll also get access to our entire back catalogue of bonuses, an invite to our Discord, and MORE! Don't delay!

SOURCE: Washington Post: "⁠The Obscure Supreme Court Case That Decided Tomatoes Are Vegetables⁠" by Caitlin Dewey

Special thank you as always to the J-Archive and The Jeopardy! Fan.

This episode was produced by Producer Dan. Music by Nate Heller. Art by Max Wittert.

The imperial run of Harrison Whitaker marches on, and though he faces a couple tough challenges throughout the week, he heads into the weekend a 14-day champion. Ken also gets to feel like a champion on this episode as we get a few wonderful Ken's Korner moments, Jeopardy! fans fume about his Simpsons residuals, and we dive deep on Jim Thorpe. Plus, Harrison unknowingly gives us a couple gems of anecdotes and a response that tickles us.

If you want to be tickled, why not donate to our Patreon? We won't actually tickle you, but our content might! Head on over to patreon.com/jeopardypodcast, where $5/month gets you a bonus episode every month, access to our entire back catalogue, access to our Discord, and MORE! Join today!

SOURCE: Smithsonian Magazine: "Why Are Jim Thorpe's Olympic Records Still Not Recognized?" by Sally Jenkins

Special thank you as always to the J-Archive and The Jeopardy! Fan.

This episode was produced by Producer Dan. Music by Nate Heller. Art by Max Wittert.

Harrison Whitaker is a joy to watch play Jeopardy!, but he also makes our job very hard this week, as his constant parade of correct answers makes it hard to make fun of anything. But comedy finds a way, as we have Jeopardy! fans fuming over something that makes no sense at all, we learn Harrison and John have a shared experience with the elderly, and we dive deep on Nikola Tesla.

If you want some more ELECTRIC content, head on over to our Patreon to support the show! For just $5/month at patreon.com/jeopardypodcast, you'll get a new bonus episode every month, access to our Discord, and much more! Don't hesitate!

SOURCE: Tesla Universe: "A Story of Youth Told By Age" by Nikola Tesla

Special thank you as always to the J-Archive and The Jeopardy! Fan.

This episode was produced by Producer Dan. Music by Nate Heller. Art by Max Wittert.

Now that we have your attention, it's another episode of our Jeopardy! podcast! Googling ourselves leads to some mixed results but there were no mixed results for new champ Harrison Whitaker this week, as he steamrolls the competition on his way to a fantastic week and perhaps superchampdom. Plus, we wonder about his British accent, we dive deep on Queensland, and a contestant gets absolutely brutalized by Ken in the anecdotes.

If you wanna get brutalized by more of our content, you can head on over to patreon.com/jeopardypodcast and donate to the show! You'll get a new bonus episode every month, access to our entire back catalogue immediately, and access to our very cool Discord, where we're always talking Jep! (and other stuff). Join today!

SOURCE: The Moreton Bay Courier: "The Arrival and Reception of His Excellency Sir George F. Bowen"; Brisbane Times: "Proclamation Day, When Queensland Became a New Colony" by David Gibson; Queensland State Archives: "The Birth of Modern Queensland"

Special thank you as always to the J-Archive and The Jeopardy! Fan.

This episode was produced by Producer Dan. Music by Nate Heller. Art by Max Wittert.

That's the type of hard-hitting question we answer on the show this week, as John returns from his one-week layoff to tell tales about visiting Reno, Nevada and Emily buys a hat that prompts said conversation. Emily also narrowly avoids jury duty, we meet a potentially very strong champion in Allegra Kuney, and a Jeopardy! clue has us pondering everything we ever knew about The Flintstones. Plus, we dive deep on Pong.

If you want even more of your bold J! questions answered, head on over to patreon.com/jeopardypodcast, where $5/month helps support the show AND gets you a new bonus episode every month, including the most recent, where John trains on a movie board with our friend, comedian Josh Gondelman. Plus, you'll get immediate access to our entire back catalogue AND access to our Discord. Fun!

SOURCE: The Week: "Pong at 50: The Video Game That 'Changed the World'" by Julia O'Driscoll; IGN: "Al Alcorn Interview" by Cam Shea

Special thank you as always to The Jeopardy! Fan and J-Archive.

This episode was produced by Producer Dan. Music by Nate Heller. Art by Max Wittert.