This week, on The Small Business Radio Show, I talked with Amy Schneider whose claim to fame is being the second most successful Jeopardy! Champion. She won 40 consecutive games on the quiz show from November 2021 to January 2022 and the November 2022 Tournament of Champions. Amy is the most successful woman contestant ever to compete on the show, in terms of both the length of her streak and her $1.6 million in winnings. Her success carried added significance since she represented the show’s most successful transgender contestant ever.
Amy is known for her skill in the Final Jeopardy! Round, having responded correctly 30 out of 41 times in her run. She has a new book called, “In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life” which is actually a series of questions.
In eighth grade, she was voted “most likely to appear on Jeopardy!” by her classmates”. (How did they know?)
We discussed:
- Why she always liked to ask the question why and how she became fearlessly curious.
- How she retained so much information and trivia? Do people come up to her and try to stump her?
- How she played Jeopardy! at home with her parents and how it took her over a decade to qualify for the show.
- How she likes being famous and its perks of being well known!
- Why she wrote the book even though she has a love and hate relationship with writing.
- Why the book shows the messiness of your life and when she realized she was a woman. (She discusses how the book is not intended for her youngest fans.)
- How she feels about being a de facto spokesperson for trans people?
- What is society in general getting right or wrong about trans people?
- What her advice is for other transgender people specifically teenagers?
Listen to the entire interview with Jeopardy! champion, Amy Schneider.
Image: Amazon
