Answer: She’s a federal law clerk who lives in Chattanooga and recently was a contestant on “Jeopardy.” Question: Who is Julie Podlesni? If Podlesni had been the subject of Final Jeopardy on the January 9 episode of the popular quiz show, the 28-year-old legal professional might have won. A different question came up, though, and champion Dan McShane successfully defended his crown.
Podlesni was okay with losing. She says the experience helped her to get better at failing.
“I tend to be risk-averse because I’m more afraid of failure than I should be. So part of my personal challenge in going on ‘Jeopardy’ was to learn to become better at failing, and I had a two out of three chance of losing,” she says.
Not that Podlesni didn’t try to win. She was strong out of the gate and was in the lead at the end of the first round - called the Jeopardy round. But during the Double Jeopardy round, McShane repeatedly beat her and the other competitor on the buzzer to enter Final Jeopardy with a slight lead.
“If you ring in too early, you get locked out, but if you ring in too late, you get beaten. I was probably ringing in too early because I was getting locked out, and it got worse during Double Jeopardy. I rang in on about 70 percent of the questions, but it was impossible to beat Dan,” she says.
Although Podlesni answered Final Jeopardy wrong, her wager allowed her to finish in second place, which gave her enough money to cover her travel expenses.
“I don’t think anyone goes on ‘Jeopardy’ as a cash making venture. That wouldn’t be a reasonable business plan,” she says.
The Nokesville, Va., native’s “Jeopardy” adventure started last February when she took the online test on a whim. “A friend told me I should take it. I was one of the nerds in high school who did the academic thing, and I have a lot of diverse interests,” she says.
Podlesni did well enough for the show’s producers to call and ask her to audition, but she was reluctant. “I wasn’t sure about being on TV. And I thought, ‘That’s a whole day I have to take off work, and it’s a long drive to the audition,’ but my friends said they’d do something terrible to me if I didn’t go, so I said ‘Okay.’ It seemed like it would be fun, and I need to be more adventurous,” she says.
Podlesni drove to Lexington, Ky., in July for the audition. She did well on the written test and the practice round, but thought she blew her chances during a group interview with over 30 other hopefuls.
“I was the first person they picked, and they asked me what I was going to do with all of the money I was going to win. To me, you don’t go on Jeopardy expecting to win because you’d be expecting to beat other people who are just as smart as you are, so I said I’d probably be boring and save it. Everyone else had an awesome travel answer, and I thought, ‘Son of a gun!’
Regardless, the show’s producers called Podlesni in October to let her know she was in the contestant pool, and then called again in November to ask her to travel to Culver City, Calif., to compete on the program.
Podlesni enjoyed the experience of taping the show, despite her bad reaction to the make-up. “I had red splotches all over my neck. They had to hold up the production while the make-up person fixed it,” she says.
The young law clerk says “Jeopardy” host Alex Trebek was “perfectly pleasant” and announcer Johnny Gilbert did a good job of pronouncing her last name.
“I have an unusual last name. He asked me ahead of time how to pronounce it,” Podlesni says, laughing.
Since the episode in which Podlesni appeared aired, she’s been enjoying her moment in the sun, even though she’s a reluctant celebrity. “It’s been interesting to find out who watches the show. When I dropped off my dog at the kennel, the girl said, ‘Oh my God! I saw you on ‘Jeopardy’ last night!” she says.
Podlesni earned her undergraduate degree at William & Mary, attended the University of Virginia School of Law, and then worked as a practicing attorney for two years in Washington, DC before moving to Chattanooga in 2010 to work for U.S. District Judge Harry “Sandy” Mattice. She says she loves the Scenic City, but does not know where she’ll go when her time with Judge Mattice ends later this year.
“I’ve always wanted to be a prosecutor. The problem is no governments are hiring right now,” she says.
Wherever Podlesni winds up, she’ll take her “Jeopardy” experience, and the things she learned, with her, including her newfound bravery. She says she’s going to have to work on her voice, though, especially if she wants to be a litigator.
“I sound like an 8-year-old on TV. I need to work on deepening my voice.”