Peter Sagal, best known as the host of NPR’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! radio show, joined arts and humanities college dean Stephanie Shonekan Friday for a discussion about the arts and their importance to democracy.

Hosted at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Sagal’s appearance was part of a larger event called “Humor, Hope, and the Humanities: Why Creativity Matters” within the Dean’s Lecture Series. 

Their lively discussion served as a formal launch of the arts and humanities college’s new five-year strategic plan, a roadmap to increase creativity, growth and engagement in the humanities.

“We wanted our attendees to leave having engaged with the conversation that I had with Peter Sagal, having engaged with the music that we presented on stage and come away understanding this is where the arts and humanities has been, and this is where the arts and humanities will go further,” Shonekan told The Diamondback. 

As a long time listener of Sagal, and with his background studying humanities, Shonekan knew he was a guest who could help the audience understand the importance of the arts and humanities in the context of current events. 

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The conversation dove into Sagal’s career, hitting on highlights such as his passion for theater and performing, working as a playwright and screenwriter and his journey to becoming the host of Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! in 1998.

In 2013, Sagal hosted the PBS documentary Constitution USA with Peter Sagal, in which he traveled the country investigating the U.S. Constitution’s role in modern society. Sagal and Shonekan discussed the importance of the Constitution to Americans and the ways it’s interpreted.

“For one of my classes, we just read the Constitution,” said sophomore English major Rebeca Ventura. “Hearing him talk about it was very interesting because he was saying that most Americans don’t know the Constitution … that’s something that I definitely felt when discussing it with my class.”  

Shonekan called the timing of his visit “serendipitous,” because this university’s First Year Book selection this year is the Constitution.

“With the Constitution as our First Year Book and the fact that he’ll be on campus, I thought what a wonderful part of the event to have him talk about something he cares deeply about,” Shonekan told The Diamondback.

Shonekan closed the discussion by naming each department within the arts and humanities college and asking Sagal to say the first word or phrase that came to mind. Sagal was his typical witty self, responding with jokes such as “learn it before they take it away” to history and “I don’t understand” to communication. 

Juliana Messinger, a sophomore immersive media design major said she had “no expectations” coming into the conversation but enjoyed hearing Sagal speak.

“I’ve listened to Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! since I was a kid. So when I saw Peter Sagal was coming, I really wanted to hear what he had to say,” she said. 

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Shonekan wanted Sagal’s appearance to invite all attendees to reflect on how the arts and humanities interact with American society.

“With so much technology around, with the rise of AI, we are, at the end of the day, still human beings who have really wonderful histories and cultures and worldviews,” Shonekan said. “It’s the arts and humanities that reminds us of our humanity, and so my conversation with Peter Sagal was really very much about that.”