One for the 'bucket list': St. Norbert College philosophy professor to compete on 'Jeopardy!'

DE PERE - He’ll take “Philosophy” for $1,000.

Ben Chan, an assistant professor of philosophy at St. Norbert College, made the cut to compete on “Jeopardy!” His episode, hosted by Ken Jennings, will air at 6 p.m. April 12 on WLUK-TV in the Green Bay-Fox Valley viewing area.

Chan, who has been at St. Norbert College since 2013, can’t remember a time in his life he wasn’t a fan of the quiz show, including as a kid who also watched a lot of PBS programming.

After one of his best friends passed away unexpectedly in 2021, he said he took stock of his own life.

“I’ve never made a 'bucket list,' but I think that experience made me realize that being on ‘Jeopardy!’ was on my bucket list,” he said.

It was "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Chan said. In addition to brainpower, he acknowledges there's also a lot of luck involved. Two of the all-time greatest "Jeopardy!" champs, Jennings in 2004 and Amy Schneider in 2021, came close to losing their first games.

“So my goal going in was to be super prepared and then to play with joy. I figured I would have no regrets if I did those two things,” Chan said. “I enjoyed the preparation a lot. I learned a lot of things I should have known years ago, and I discovered some new study tools that I think I can pass on to my students.”

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Chan grew up in New York. His parents emigrated from Hong Kong and Guangdong in the late 1960s, met in New York City and started a restaurant there.

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. from the University of California-Los Angeles. He then completed a postdoc in the bioethics department of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

He is also a former Uihlein Fellow of Ethics at Lawrence University in Appleton.

St. Norbert students, faculty and staff members will join Chan for a watch party on campus on April 12. He also plans to live tweet during the episode at @JeopardyBenBen.

Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KendraMeinert.