gub and i had so much fun at the atlanta recording of wait wait…don’t tell me at the fabulous fox theater last fall! we are huge fans of the npr program, so it was interesting to see how they pull everything off recording the show live.

our panelists were mo rocca, faith salie and roy blount, jr. it turned out both faith and roy grew up in the atlanta/decatur area, which seemed random. cdc director thomas frieden was the ‘not my job’ special guest and we were fortunate to have carl kasell announce the performance, he had been taking time off from the show. and of course, peter sagal was the host.

the entire performance was about two and a half hours, which they edited down to a one hour program. they finished the actual show in roughly two hours. at that point they re-recorded a few lines from the show that were stepped on or didn’t sound well. the audience had the option to leave or hang out for a q&a after they finished. we stuck around and were treated with 20 minutes worth of q&a with peter, carl and the panelists.

i have to admit it was pretty cool going to a show on a thursday and hearing the polished version on the radio 36 hours later. we had an amazing night and, as expected, the fabulous fox theater was a perfect venue for wait wait…don’t tell me!!!

you can download a podcast of the atlanta performance here.

– ryan & gub