Peter Sagal
The Catalyst
Ideas with a spark, energy, range and the ability to start things.
Peter Sagal is a prominent radio host and writer known for his work on NPR's 'Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!'. This interview reveals his ability to connect with audiences on serious topics through humor and personal anecdotes, demonstrating his role as a catalyst for thoughtful conversation.
“Yeah, it was a little, I gotta tell you, it may be a little emotional. Yeah, it was very painful because that's what I was going to do. One of the things that I am familiar with is a lot of my peers in my business grew up watching David Letterman or stand-ups. I didn't. My thing was the comedy writers.”
“And I was accepted, and I went on jeopardy in 1988. And I remember, you know, you do these interviews and then Alex Trebeck uses these interviews. And he said to me, well, Peter Sagel, so I understand you're a writer. And I said, Yes, that was my ambition. And he said, well, that's pretty hard. How are you doing?”
“And when she did that, I was like, wow, that makes me feel a little better because Rachel Maddow is a genius. She is an amazingly accomplished person who I admire in every way. And if she struggled with it, I feel a little bit better myself. And I realized that I could kind of pay that forward.”
“So I went off. I've guided a guy named William Greer, and we ran the Boston Marathon that day, and he had a tough race, but he managed to gut it out, and we crossed the finish line, and we were sort of standing there gasping for breath and celebrating our achievement when boom, the bombs had just went off like 100 yards behind us.”
The Axe Files with David Axelrod — Ep. 271 — Peter Sagal
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