#339 The Ballad of Marion Zioncheck (Live in DC part 2)
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 11 June 2025
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben tells the story of Marion Zioncheck, inventor of the Zioncheck Zipper* and the only sitting member of congress to escape from an insane asylum.
This is the second part of our live show featuring guests Major Garrett (CBS News), Margaret Talev (Syracuse University/Axios) & Doug Heye (too many to list). Check out the first part in episode #338 Murder & Mayhem in the Capital City.
Special thanks to Rivers Langley of The Goods from The Woods for recommending the Zioncheck story to Ben.
If you enjoy this trivia round, make sure to check out Perfect Timing, the comedy game show that Ben hosts monthly at The Lab at Zanies Nashville! You can follow us on instagram at @PTgameshow
The conversation was recorded on May 29, 2025 at The Hamilton Live in Washington, DC. Thanks to Matt Burton and the crew at The Hamilton for hosting us and to everyone who came out to the show!
This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.
* 2oz rye
3/4oz honey syrup
6-8 mint leaves
Muddle mint, stir, serve in a double old fashioned glass with crushed ice and a mint sprig for garnish
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Ben Sawyer and this is the road to now. |
| 0:04.4 | Today, in a special midweek episode, we have the story of Marion Ziontchick. |
| 0:10.4 | One of the most bizarre stories of an American congressman who kind of went off the rails, |
| 0:16.0 | but did it in a very public and, I don't know, you'll hear the story. |
| 0:24.3 | I did this as my big contribution to the live show we did in D.C. The first part of that aired in the last episode. If you want to check it out, |
| 0:29.1 | our guests are Margaret Tilev, Doug High, and Major Garrett. But I've got to give special thanks here |
| 0:34.7 | to Rivers Langley from Goods from the Woods podcast, who is not |
| 0:38.0 | on the show, but who gave me the idea to look up Marion Zion chick. A few weeks before the show, |
| 0:44.4 | I just texted him and said, hey, looking for a story that fits murder and mayhem in the capital |
| 0:49.3 | city. And he just texted back Marion Zionick. It was a fun deep dive. |
| 0:54.5 | There's far more to this guy's story than we cover here. |
| 0:57.3 | But we did it in a three-part trivia as we normally did to wrap up the live shows. |
| 1:01.9 | We drew Heidi Lang as our patron to play for. |
| 1:04.9 | So Heidi looked for a correspondence on Patreon about all this. |
| 1:09.6 | If you enjoy this kind of offhand trivia, make sure to check out my comedy game show |
| 1:14.1 | Perfect Timing at PT Game Show. |
| 1:16.6 | We're monthly at the lab at Zanies Nashville, the big comedy club here in Nashville. |
| 1:21.3 | And you can follow clips on PT Game Show, and you can also come see us if you're in town. |
| 1:25.7 | You just check the calendar for Zanies Nashville or go to find us on social media. Again, on Instagram and TikTok that is at PT Game Show. TikTok's barely developed. But we're getting there. And finally, again, shout out to the Hamilton Live in Washington, D.C. for being such a great host for this show, including Matt Burton, who ran the sound for the show. |
| 1:45.5 | Thank you to everyone who was there. And as always, thank you to the patrons. Patreon.com |
| 1:50.8 | slash the road to now. If you like this and you actually want to see the visuals and everything, |
| 1:55.6 | that's on Patreon for all of our patrons to see the full video of the live show. So this is at the very end of it. |
... |
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