DNTO outline

Here's what you'll hear in the first hour of this week's Definitely NOT The Opera, on CBC Radio One (1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., Saturday, May 13 (listen online) -- I'm part of the show:

What exactly makes a geek? Do you just have to be smart? Wear glasses? Like science? We’ll find out when we talk to a guy who likes science, and is one of the smartest folks on CBC Radio -- Quirks and Quarks host Bob McDonald.

And while we’ve got Bob around, let’s pit his wit against a young lady who has a way with words. What with documentaries like Spellbound, spelling bee champs are more chic than geek these days, as we’ll find out when we talk to 12-year-old champion speller Leslie Newcombe - and find out if she can best Bob in the great DNTO spell-off.

And we’ll ask Bob and Leslie to help us out with an entirely different contest - Lost In Translation.

Our comic in L.A., John Wing Jr., will give us his take on geeks in his latest Letter From America.

Science fiction -- it’s not just for geeks anymore. We’ll talk to award-winning sci-fi author Robert J. Sawyer about why the genre is more popular than ever.

But you know, geekery isn’t just about science or fiction or science fiction. You can also be a music geek. Our own resident musicgeekocologist, Mark Rheaume, will tell us about history’s ultimate music nerd.

And speaking of nerdy music... we’ll have tunes from Weezer, Cake, the Five Man Electrical Band, Elvis Costello, and Van Dyke Parks.