Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek took a break from delivering clues with a stop on former contestant Austin Rogers’ podcast amid his cancer battle. The subject of the interview was far from cancer though, as it allowed the 79-year-old living legend to talk about his love of carpentry and fixing things.
Trebek stopped by Rogers’ podcast A Lot to Learn with Austin Rogers, where he talked about his interest in home improvement, inherited from his uncles.
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“All of my mother’s brothers were involved one way or another in the construction industry,” Trebek told Rogers when asked how he learned to make repairs, reports PEOPLE. “Either in carpentry, painting, manufacturing, windows, doors, things like that. And so I watched them as I was growing up.”
Trebek said his father was not a handyman, but he paid close attention to his uncles.
Later in the podcast, the two talked about fast cars and the difficult Los Angeles weather. A second episode with Trebek centers on his recent visit to the Yorkshire English countryside and the Bronte sisters, and will be released on Oct. 24.
Rogers was a memorable contestant on Jeopardy! in fall 2017. The New York bartender won $466,000 over a 12-game winning streak.
Trebek’s appearance on Rogers’ podcast came just a few weeks after he gave a dire update of his cancer battle on Good Morning America in September. Trebek has been fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer since March. It was thought to be in remission, but he revealed he needs another round of chemotherapy.
“In terms of getting my strength back, that hasn’t happened, unfortunately,” Trebek said in September. “I was doing so well, and my numbers went down to the equivalent of a normal human being who does not have pancreatic cancer, so we were all very optimistic. And they said good, we’re gonna stop chemo, we’ll start immunotherapy.”
He continued, “I lost about 12 pounds in a week and my numbers went sky high — much higher than they were when I was first diagnosed, so the doctors have decided that I have to undergo chemo again.”
In an interview with CTV earlier this month, Trebek said he was not afraid of dying.
“I’ve lived a good life, a full life, and I’m nearing the end of that life … if it happens, why should I be afraid that?” Trebek said. “One thing they’re not going to say at my funeral, as a part of a eulogy, is ‘He was taken from us too soon.’”
Sources close to Jeopardy! told TMZ episodes have been filmed two and a half months in advance, so new episodes can air even if Trebek needs a break.
Trebek told CTV he will keep hosting the show “as long as my skills do not diminish.”
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