Peter Sagal is or has been an author, journalist, playwright, columnist, foreign correspondent, podcaster, and, for the last 28 years, the host of the NPR news quiz Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, produced here in Chicago in collaboration with WBEZ.
In 2013, he hosted Constitution USA with Peter Sagal, a four-part PBS documentary exploring how Americans live with and under the Constitution today. In the documentary, he traveled around the country on a patriotically painted motorcycle, talking to lawyers, plaintiffs, academics, immigrants and citizens, both born and newly minted, exploring how this nearly 250-year-old document still steers our nation and our democracy. Since then, Constitution USA has become a standard part of civics education in schools around the country, and Sagal has regularly lectured on the Constitution as an amateur Constitutional scholar and student.
In 2008, Sagal accepted a Peabody Award on behalf of the panelists, crew, and producers of Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me! He's also won the Kurt Vonnegut Award for Humor from the Kurt Vonnegut Library. He's the author of The Book of Vice: Naughty Things and How To Do Them and The Incomplete Book of Running, a memoir about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and other adventures while running long distances. He's also contributed essays and reporting to The Atlantic, The New York Times, Chicago Magazine, Opera News, Saveur, Finesse, and for a decade was the "Road Scholar" columnist for Runner's World.