Peter Sagal

On Tuesday, January 23, Michigan Radio will present its next Radio Speaker Series event, this time featuring NPR Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! host Peter Sagal.  Sagal will be interviewed by Stateside host April Baer.  They'll discuss what it takes to do a show like "Wait Wait," his favorite guests, how they keep it funny every week and more.

In 1997, Peter Sagal, who had never had, or even dreamed of, a career in radio, got a call from a friend telling him about a new show at NPR, which was looking for "funny people who read a lot of newspapers." He auditioned and appeared as a panelist on the first broadcast of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! in January of 1998, and moved to Chicago become the host in May, alongside the original judge and scorekeeper, Carl Kasell.

In the 25 years since, he has traveled the country with the show, playing in venues such as the Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park, Red Rocks, Tanglewood, the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, and Carnegie Hall. He's interviewed two Presidents; a number of Nobel Prize winners; astronauts and rocket scientists; musicians Elvis Costello, Yo Yo Ma, and Ice Cube; actors Tom Hanks and Scarlett Johansson; and many, many others.

Wait Wait has grown from 50,000 weekly listeners on nine stations at its launch to over five million listeners on more than 700 stations, making it the most listened-to hour in public radio. In 2008, Sagal accepted a Peabody Award on behalf of the panelists, crew, and producers of this show.

To purchase a ticket for this 7 p.m. online event, register here. Guests will have the opportunity to submit questions during the event.