Emma Eun-joo Choi, a 2018 George C. Marshall High grad, is an English major at Harvard University, which in itself is a pretty good accomplishment. But the 22-year-old is also the host of a new National Public Radio weekly podcast called Everyone & Their Mom. The short-form comedy show—segments run 20 minutes or so—looks to capitalize on Choi’s youthful exuberance as well as her experience interning in 2021 for the long-running NPR comedy quiz show Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me, of which her own podcast is a spin-off.
Behind the scenes at Wait, Wait: Choi says there are “seven or eight writers” on the show; the host, Peter Sagal, “does most of the curation; we all send our jokes to Peter, who chooses them. He’s very involved.” Sad trombone sound effect: Choi’s internship was mostly virtual, thanks to the pandemic. Happy keyboard riff: But she did get to travel with the cast to three of their live shows. Sad trombones: The annual visit to Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in her hometown of Vienna was not one of them.
What’s so funny? Choi is not a quote-unquote comedian. “I tried stand-up once,” she says, “but I didn’t get super into it.” She mostly lets the podcast guests be the amusing ones: “It’s not a standard podcast; it’s a podcast where we talk about funny things with funny people. There are a lot of bits, a lot of riffing, but it’s all very produced [in post-production], so it definitely feels like a sketch show with a through-line.”
Fantasy podcast guest? Cue the rock guitar. “I would love to have Michelle Zauner on. She’s Japanese Breakfast and is a musician that I love.” The indie-pop band fronted by Zauner, a Korean -American guitarist and singer, was nominated for two Grammy awards this year.
Was Choi funny at Marshall High? Ding ding. “I created a satire magazine when I was in high school—but a lot of stuff I kind of just kept private. People who got voted class clown definitely were a lot louder than I was.”
Wait, wait … a satire magazine? “It was called The Scuttlebutt. I think it’s still alive. I get Twitter notifications now and then. I’m not sure exactly what’s up with it right now.” (We looked: New posts are sparse, but her original posts are online.)
The name of the podcast? “It was something I said in one of the pilot episodes … We talk about things everyone and their mom are talking about, and we have tons of people on … it captures the randomness of the show and how everyone can enjoy it.”
This story originally ran in our June issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to our monthly magazine.
