NPR's popular weekly quiz show, "Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me!," is bringing two live taping events to Honolulu next week on Oct. 9 and 10.
Host Peter Sagal will take the stage at the Blaisdell Concert Hall with two sets of panelists — and some special guests. Both shows will be recorded for national broadcasts, with the Oct. 9 show airing that weekend.
Sagal is also the author of a book, “The Incomplete Book on Running,” and ran the Maui Marathon six years ago. HPR caught up with him to chat about past family visits, his favorite local snack, and the silliness of "Wait Wait."
Interview highlights
On visiting Hawaiʻi and his love for Spam
SAGAL: I love Hawaiʻi. I’ve been there a dozen times over the years. I'm very excited because after we spend the time in Honolulu and doing two shows on the 9th and the 10th of this month, I get to go to the Big Island for a day or two with Hawaiʻi Public Radio to do an event with them there. And I have never been to the Big Island, so I will finally check off my fourth major Hawaiian island. I'm very excited about that. … The great thing about Hawaiʻi is you can go there and have the best, most exciting, most amazing and memorable time doing nothing, just being there. And I am very, very much looking forward to that. Also, when I was in Honolulu last time, I had the finest dim sum of my life, in Honolulu. ... And of course, I will be enjoying as much as my heart can stand it, one of my favorite foods of all time, Spam musubi. Love it. I make it at home. I do. I even have a little Spam musubi mold, but it's not the same unless it has been under a heat lamp in a Hawaiian convenience store for at least an hour. So it just gets that delicious tang. So I'm very much looking forward to that.
On the relative escapism of “Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me!”
SAGAL: A lot of times, we see our job as much as distracting people from the serious news going on, as well as making fun of that news. We feel like we serve a dual purpose. It's like, sometimes the value, I think, of our show is we get to say the things on the radio or to an audience about the major stories in the news that most people just shout at their radio. We actually get to say them on the radio. That's pretty cool. But doing dad jokes and silly studies and animals stuffed in pants can also be a great boon and balm to the soul in times like this, at least that's what people tell me. And speaking for myself, I kind of agree. It's nice that I get to spend as much time thinking about all the silly stuff that's going on to take my mind off the more serious stuff.
"Wait Wait" is offering a “double date discount”: pay for three tickets and the fourth is free. The offer is valid for all remaining seats for both performances during the final week of sales. No promo code is needed, just a purchase of four tickets. Click here to grab your tickets!
This story aired on The Conversation on Oct. 3, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this interview for the web.
