Alex Trebek2020A memoir in short essays
Reflections on My Life
For decades his job was asking the questions. Near the end of his life, he answered a few of his own: about home, work, Jean, kindness, and the illness he faced in public.
The core idea
Alex Trebek was born in Sudbury, Ontario, in 1940, began his broadcasting career at the CBC, and hosted the quiz show Jeopardy! from 1984 until his death in November 2020. He wrote this short memoir after announcing in March 2019 that he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It is a set of brief essays rather than a full autobiography. They cover his childhood in Sudbury, his early years on Canadian radio and television, his move to American game shows, his marriage to Jean, and his life with illness. Running through them are the things he cared about most: curiosity, kindness, steady work and keeping the attention on other people.
There is no method here and no system to follow. The book is closer to a long conversation with a man who spent his career keeping the spotlight on other people, and who turns it on himself only when he has a reason to. The short format suits that: one memory, one point, then on to the next.
What gives the book its weight is when it was written. A diagnosis made the questions it asks more urgent: what mattered, what did not, and how he hoped to be remembered. Those questions do not need an illness to be worth answering, which is why this page turns them into cards you can answer yourself.
A philosophy student who spent his working life around questions on every subject. Learning was something he kept choosing.
A host's real job is to help the people in front of him do their best. Attention given away comes back as trust.
He named his illness himself and kept working through it. Honesty gave other people a way to help.
Interactive · reflection cards
Twelve cards, two for each theme the memoir keeps coming back to. Answer in a sentence or two, in any order, and skip what you like. Your answers collect on one card you can copy and keep.
A street, a kitchen, a first job, a language.
These cards are for reflection. They are not a substitute for professional care. Some touch on illness and loss, so go gently and skip any card you want. If you are in danger, call your local emergency number.
0 of 12 answered
Answered cards collect here, in deck order.
The questions are HourLife's, drawn from the memoir's themes, not the author's words. Everything you type stays in this browser and is never sent to HourLife.
Concept anatomy
A memoir has no framework, but it has a shape. The essays move through a life roughly in order, and the same few concerns keep surfacing along the way.
Born in Sudbury, Ontario. Grows up speaking English and French.
Studies philosophy at the University of Ottawa and starts work at the CBC.
Moves to the United States to host a game show for NBC.
Begins hosting the quiz show he keeps for the rest of his life.
Marries Jean Currivan.
Announces in March that he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
The memoir comes out in July. He dies at home on 8 November.
HourLife's reading of the memoir's recurring themes, each tied to a stretch of his life. Pick one to answer its two cards.
A mining town in northern Ontario, a bilingual home, and the parents who shaped him.
Philosophy at university, a lifetime of reading, and a job made of questions.
Years of CBC shifts before the famous one, and a host who kept the focus on others.
How crew, contestants and strangers who wrote in were treated, day after day.
A diagnosis made public, treatment, and going back to work through it.
Jean, family, and what a life adds up to when you look back over it.
Community insights
HourLife's takeaways from the memoir, in our own words, ranked by reader votes.
Card 01HourLife takeaway
Trebek studied philosophy at the University of Ottawa and spent his working life surrounded by questions on every subject. The memoir treats learning as something you keep choosing, long after school ends. Asking one more question is a decision you can make every day.
Card 02HourLife takeaway
Trebek described his job as helping contestants do their best, not performing for the camera. The same rule works at a dinner table or in a meeting: your job is to make room for others. Attention you give away tends to come back as trust.
Card 03HourLife takeaway
He grew up in Sudbury, a mining city in northern Ontario, with a Ukrainian-born father and a French-Canadian mother, and spoke both English and French. The early essays show how much of the man came from that home. They also show a young man leaving it to find his own work.
Card 04HourLife takeaway
His career began at the CBC, where he read the news and hosted a range of programmes before moving to American television in 1973. Hosting a famous show came after years of ordinary broadcasting work. The craft was built one shift at a time.
Card 05HourLife takeaway
The memoir keeps returning to how people are treated: crew, contestants, and strangers who write in. None of it is dramatic. Decency, in this telling, is mostly routine.
Card 06HourLife takeaway
Trebek writes warmly about his wife, Jean, whom he married in 1990, and about how much her care meant during his illness. The love story here is not grand gestures. It is two people showing up for each other, day after day.
Card 07HourLife takeaway
He announced his diagnosis himself in March 2019, in a short video, instead of letting it leak. Viewers answered with cards, letters and prayers, and he said that support mattered to him. Being honest about a hard thing gave other people a way to help.
Card 08HourLife takeaway
Trebek kept hosting through his treatment and taped episodes while he was ill. He did not pretend it was easy, and he did not stop. The book shows courage as getting up and doing what the day asks.
Card 09HourLife takeaway
A memoir written in the shadow of illness keeps asking what a life adds up to. The answer it points to has less to do with fame than with how you treated the people around you. You do not need a diagnosis to ask that question.
Action steps
Take five index cards. On each, write one question from this page, such as what you are curious about now, and answer it in two sentences. Keep the stack where you will see it.
Call a parent, grandparent or older friend this week and ask where they grew up and what their first job was. Record it with their permission, or write it down the same day.
Pick an age when things felt uncertain. Write one page telling that person what turned out to matter and what did not.
Ask relatives which serious illnesses run in the family, and at what ages. Write it down and take it to your next check-up so your doctor has it.
List three people whose quiet work makes yours possible: a colleague, a partner, a neighbour. Next to each, write one specific thing they do.
Each evening, write down one thing you learned that day and where you learned it. Tell someone about it at dinner if you can.
In your next three conversations, ask a follow-up question before you tell your own story. Let the other person finish.
Every Friday, write a short note to one person by name, saying what they did and what it meant to you. Paper is best, but a message works too.
On the first of the month, read your answer cards again. Cross out any answer that is no longer true and write the new one underneath.
The last card
Live today the way you would like to be remembered. Stay curious, and be kind on the way.HourLife note after Alex Trebek
Pick setup actions and daily habits from The Answer Is . . .: Reflections on My Life, choose a start date, and download a printable checklist with real calendar pages.
Alex Trebek was born in Sudbury, Ontario, in 1940, began his broadcasting career at the CBC, and hosted the quiz show Jeopardy! from 1984 until his death in November 2020. He wrote this short memoir after announcing in March 2019 that he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It is a set of brief essays rather than a full autobiography. They cover his childhood in Sudbury, his early years on Canadian radio and television,...
HourLife’s key takeaways include: Curiosity is a habit you can keep for life, not a trait you either have or lack. A good host makes the other person look good. Where you start shapes you, but it does not decide where you end up.
It's a strong pick for readers exploring Character & Integrity, Grief & Meaning, and Life Direction & Youth. HourLife distills its core idea into key insights and practical actions worth trying.
Write your five answer cards — Take five index cards. On each, write one question from this page, such as what you are curious about now, and answer it in two sentences. Keep the stack where you will see it.
About five minutes. The HourLife summary distills The Answer Is . . .: Reflections on My Life into its core idea, 9 community insights, and 9 practical actions you can apply right away.
One idea from one book and one small habit from another, every week or once a month, on the day and around the hour you pick, where you are. Nothing else, and one link stops it.
Print it, pin it, post it. Ways to take The Answer Is . . .: Reflections on My Life off the screen and into the world.
The core idea, key takeaways, and how to apply The Answer Is . . .: Reflections on My Life, as one clean, readable page.
Read summaryEvery action from this page as a printable to-do list, with a 7-day tracker.
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Save the insights that land, build the habits that stick, and keep what you learn from The Answer Is . . .: Reflections on My Life working long after you close the page — inside HourLife.
