Thread by @EngageClimate

It’s coming up on my 10 year (!) tape-i-versary for @Jeopardy, and with this week’s #JeopardyGOAT and last week’s ABC News Special featuring #ThankYouAlex, it seemed like a good time to share my #JEffect story

@Jeopardy In early 2009, I took the @Jeopardy online test - just like thousands of other people. And like many of them, I was invited to audition in person that spring.

[p.s. The online test is coming up Jan 28-30 - you should go for it! jeopardy.com/be-on-j]

@Jeopardy At the in-person audition, the other J! hopefuls were just as nervous / excited as I was, the test game gave me an idea of what it was like to use the buzzer, and the J! contestant coordinators made everyone feel like they had a personal cheerleading section.

@Jeopardy When the coordinators asked who had come the furthest, one woman said she’d come from Ann Arbor - she’d just graduated from @UMichLaw (Go Blue!) and was planning to move to DC after the bar exam to work at @BreadfortheCity’s legal clinic.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity And then I waited….

I thought I did okay at the audition, but to get on the show you need both trivia chops and a good personality….

I kept waiting…

They’d said that J! might call anytime in the next 18 months if they wanted you…

I kinda forgot about it…

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity And then toward the end of December, I came back from a meeting and there was a voicemail from one of the contestant coordinators. Was I still interested in being on the show? Could I come out to California in January?

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity My cousin & her husband are big fans of both Jeopardy & Disney. As soon as word got around to her through the family grapevine, she took over trip planning. We made it into a mini-vacation, with stops at Disneyland, the Walk of Fame, the Jay Leno Show, and more.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity On the morning of the taping, my cousin dropped me off at Sony Pictures Studios. I looked around at my fellow contestants (J! tapes 5 shows in a single day, so there were 15 of us there) and recognized the woman from the audition.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity She didn’t recognize me. Or maybe she did, once I said I’d briefly met her at the audition. I think that she was being nice. She introduced herself as Stacy.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity After getting a rundown of the rules and procedures from the contestant coordinators - and lots of cheerleading and a few horror stories - we actually got to step out onto the set and play a few quick practice rounds.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity Remember I said that J! tapes 5 shows in a single day? You don’t know which show you’ll be on until they pull your name from a hat just before it is time to head into makeup before each show. My name didn’t get pulled for the first, second, or third show.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity I chatted during commercial breaks with some of the other contestants. Stacy mentioned that @BreadfortheCity had suggested hosting a viewing party at a local bar when her episode aired. Those of us that remained ate lunch in the Sony cafeteria.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity And then my name was drawn. I’d be playing against Manny Maldonado III, who had just vanquished 4-time champion Regina Robbins, and Stacy.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity I didn’t get off to a great start. At the first commercial break, it was Manny $4,200, Stacy $2,400, and me $600. When we came back from commercial, Alex was standing at my podium and it was time for the chit-chat portion of the show.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity ALEX: Emily Cloyd is a #climate scientist. What does that mean?

EMILY: It means that I…look at the climate and look at…uh…global warming, and what the government can do to research that.

[Not my best #SciComm moment. But wait, there’s more.]

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity ALEX: Ok. As you know, I would say the majority of people believe that global warming is a fact, but there are some pretty influential people out there who say “no, it’s all a hoax.” Where do you stand?

EMILY: Global warming is happening.

ALEX: Okay, I’ll take your word for it.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity That was it. I had my moment ON NATIONAL TELEVISION to talk about the reality of #ClimateChange and yes, I said that it was happening, so points for that, but I felt like I’d blown it.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity I’d spent lots of time with scientists talking about climate change, and I could explain what I did to them, but I hadn’t really considered how I might explain that work if I had 10 seconds to tell millions of people about it.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity This moment literally changed my life. I’d been on a path that was meandering in the direction of #SciEngage, but that chit-chat segment crystallized the importance of being able to speak concisely about my work and of having simple, clear messages about #ClimateChange. #JEffect

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity The show went on. In Double Jeopardy!, there was a category about Grauman's Chinese Theatre. You know - the place where the Hollywood Walk of Fame is. That I had been at THE DAY BEFORE. It didn't help.

I took this photo on the visit. I did not get the clue in the game.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity At the end of Double Jeopardy! It was clear that the game was a run-away:

Manny: $1,000

Stacy: $15,000

Emily: $400

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity I bet $350 on Final Jeopardy! I figured if I couldn’t win or come in second, I could at least make a nod to @350 and the importance of acting on #ClimateChange.

Final Jeopardy! was a triple stumper. I ended the game with $50.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity @350 My story might end there. But it doesn’t. Remember I said that Stacy had mentioned a viewing party? After the show, as she was getting ready to go back for game 5 and defend her title as Jeopardy Champion, I suggested that we make it a joint party.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity @350 Over the next couple of months, Stacy and I were in occasional contact as things came together for the viewing party. Although we’d taped in mid-January, the episode didn’t actually air until the end of March.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity @350 At the viewing party, we each invited friends and family in the area. Since we’d both attended @UMich (although at different times), we made sure to gather all of the Michigan grads for a photo.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity @350 @UMich My parents also hosted a party for their friends. They even got me a cake!

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity @350 @UMich After the viewing party, Stacy and I kept hanging out. Maybe some of you can guess where this is going. Maybe some of you already know.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity @350 @UMich A little more than two years after our episode aired, we went to a taping of Celebrity Jeopardy! at DAR Constitution Hall. We hand delivered a note for Alex Trebek to one of the J! staff members.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity @350 @UMich And a week or so later, we got the response card back.

Alex Trebek wasn’t going to come to our wedding, but he still sent us his best.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity @350 @UMich #ThankYouAlex - @StacyCloyd and I can honestly say that you changed both of our lives. #JEffect

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity @350 @UMich @StacyCloyd Post-script: In September of 2018, we hiked the Tour du Mont Blanc. There was only one other hiker in our tour group. It turned out that she’d met Alex and his wife on a cruise and (of course) had wonderful things to say about him.

@Jeopardy @UMichLaw @BreadfortheCity @350 @UMich We did things like attending a presentation about @IBMWatson at @USAScienceFest and creating a Jeoparpeep diorama for the now-defunct @washingtonpost peeps diorama contest.

[Watson trained for @Jeopardy by using questions from games before they aired in 2010 - including ours.]