Lawrence resident Laura Lorson poses with Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek during a taping of the game show.

As moderator of “Quest,” a televised quiz bowl competition for Kansas high school students, Laura Lorson is used to dishing out tough questions. On Wednesday, audiences nationwide can watch Lorson as a contestant on “Jeopardy!” — where she’ll be the one on the hot seat.

Up until a few months ago, competing on the long-running quiz show was only a “distant hope” for Lorson, who finds herself constantly immersed in pop culture and world news headlines as the local host of “All Things Considered” on Kansas Public Radio.

Lawrence resident Laura Lorson poses with Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek during a taping of the game show.

“It’s the sort of thing that you shove back in your mind, like, ‘If it ever comes up, I’ll try it,'” says Lorson, who enjoys playing trivia games when she’s not on the air.

But it did come up, in fact, during a trip to Council Grove in summer 2013. There, during a speaking engagement at the local Rotary Club, Lorson met Dennis Wright.

Turns out, the Council Grove welder had netted more than $25,000 on “Jeopardy!” back in 2012, and he thought Lorson might have the makings of a champion, too.

On Wright’s suggestion, Lorson began the “long and involved process” that would ultimately result in a trip to Culver City, Calif., in early January.

“Once you’re actually playing the game, it’s simultaneously going in slow motion and happening so fast,” she says. “You have to disassociate yourself from everything going on, and just keep moving forward.”

The episode took an entire day to film, which began with spending time in the makeup chair, going over the rules and practicing with the all-important buzzer.

Buzz in too early, Lorson explains, and you’ll find yourself locked out of the question. Buzz in too late, and the other contestants will beat you to the answer. It’s “100 percent the key to the whole enterprise,” Lorson says.

Another highlight: meeting host Alex Trebek, whom Lorson describes as pleasant, engaging and incredibly professional.

“He knows that for a lot of people who are on that stage, this is it — this is the biggest moments of their lives. And for him, it’s just Wednesday,” Lorson says. “He does a great job balancing that.”

Indeed, for some contestants, appearing — and winning — on “Jeopardy!” is more than a goal. “It’s their identity,” says Lorson, who tried not to put too much pressure on herself throughout the process.

A lot of the game boils down to luck, not smarts, Lorson says. The prospect of failing not just locally but on a national level — without much control over elements like “Jeopardy!” categories or chances of landing a Daily Double — was frightening at first.

But Lorson ultimately got over it, and she’s glad she did.

“The benefit of this entire process was realizing failure won’t end your life. Not trying things because you’re afraid of failure — that’s where you go wrong,” she says. “It’s like winning the lottery, getting chosen to go on. I feel grateful that I have the chance.”