Keys, categories, and well-earned wrong turns.
Lockdown Trivia turns trivia energy into a structured game of keys, locks, expert categories, and bonus chances. Each episode follows players as they pick a path through niche subjects, miss, recover, and talk themselves toward answers.
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Lockdown Trivia is a quiz show with a visible engine. The engine is keys. Players pick from their own expert categories, answer their way into harder questions, and decide when to spend, save, or rebuild. That small layer of strategy changes the feel of ordinary trivia. A question is not just a question; it is a route through the board. Recent episodes move through Cozy Video Games, Weezer, Crochet, board games, Pink Floyd, MASH, The Price is Right, national parks, comic books, cartoons, health and medicine, and the Kansas City Royals. The range is broad, but the structure keeps it from becoming random. One clue might ask for a video game title rooted in the fear of ghosts. Another might turn a crochet category into a popcorn answer. A board-game clue can start in French. A cocktail question can become the lifeline that gets a player back into Potent Potables. The best moments are often not the clean wins. They are the pauses, the nervous almost-answers, and the player who talks through associations before landing on the right one. Dalton McGee keeps returning to practical board language: key counts, category choices, bonus chances, and what a miss changes next. That makes the show easy to follow even when the categories get niche. It also gives the banter somewhere to go. Players can be cooperative, competitive, cautious, or a little reckless, and the format absorbs all of it. The writing favors precise trivia with odd angles rather than generic quiz-night recall. Dates, titles, etymology, pop culture, sports, science, and geography all show up, often in the same episode. Corrections usually come with a short explanation, so a wrong answer still leaves behind a fact. The tone is casual and occasionally cheeky, but the game never loses its spine. It is a good fit for listeners who like hearing people think under mild pressure. It is even better for anyone who treats trivia as both knowledge and navigation.
Made for: For trivia players who like game mechanics, niche categories, and hearing contestants reason under pressure. It especially suits listeners who enjoy trivia banter with a clearer board and strategic choices.
What sets it apart: The key system gives each question a tactical consequence, so misses and category choices matter beyond scorekeeping. Its rotating player categories also make each episode feel custom-built rather than pulled from a generic trivia packet.
Welcome to Lockdown Trivia, the "unlock your brain" podcast quiz show. My name is Dalton McGhiey and I'll be your host as we choose four of your own expert categories and explore them together as we try to unlock the trivia game one key at a time. Build streaks of correct answers to get the keys you need to open harder and harder questions. You can play solo, with a friend cooperatively, or against a friend competitively; there's something for every kind of player on Lockdown Trivia.At the end of each episode, I will discuss the writing and research...
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Bespoke categories, strategic key play, and useful answer explanations turn each contestant's private expertise into an inviting general quiz.
Lockdown Trivia makes trivia feel less like a recital of facts and more like a game of calculated risks. Dalton McGee gives each player four chosen categories, then ties harder questions to keys earned along the way.
Dalton McGhiey turns your pet expertise into keys, then makes diamond rain guard the next lock.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A cooperative trivia round where discussion and key management matter as much as the answers.
The episode gives DJ and Charisma Carlisle a cooperative trivia round that favors discussion over speed, with Dalton McGee steering them through the Dresden Characters, Weezer, Crochet, and Cozy Video Games.
Strategy and key-count tactics keep John Fortune's turn moving.
Lockdown Trivia gives John Fortune a strategy-leaning turn through Steelers NFL questions, board games, and rhyme-time potables, while Dalton McGee keeps the score moving one key at a time.
Ian Schultze's redo ends on a planet clue that lands cleanly.
This installment gives Lockdown Trivia a clean reset, with Ian Schultze back for a do-over and Dalton McGee naming that turn right away. The path runs through MASH, Pink Floyd, The Solar System, and Our Flag Means Death, and the strongest stretch arrives when Ian says he has…
Friends titles, country names, and one missed clue keep the quiz moving.
Lockdown Trivia follows Natalie Anderson through Friends, Alphabet Geography, Grease, and Best Picture Winners, with Dalton McGee keeping the pace steady one question at a time.
A trivia show that keeps the reasoning, banter, and key count in motion.
Lockdown Trivia opens season three with Christian Hernandez, aka El Guapo from Garfield, New Jersey, and Dalton McGee moving through four categories: The Simpsons, New Jersey, Food, and Roman and Greek Mythology.
Practical D&D craft for working DMs.
Live-wire esoteric teaching in motion.
Fast clues, drinks, louder wrong answers.
Tabletop talk from years at the table.
Dalton McGee opens with a cooperative board for DJ and Charisma Carlisle.
Lockdown Trivia opens with Dalton McGee introducing the Unlock Your Brain podcast quiz show, where players pick four expert categories and try to unlock the game one key at a time.
Dalton McGee brings Ian Schultze back for a redo.
This episode of Lockdown Trivia features brothers-in-law Blake Jefferson and Albert Peter competing in a trivia game with categories including Indie Video Games, where they answer a question about the game Phasmophobia.
This episode of Lockdown Trivia features a competitive two-player game between Lucas McGraw and Nancy Skinner, where they answer questions in expert categories like health and medicine, world capitals, the Brady Bunch, and idioms.
This episode features a trivia game with guest Scott Anglemyer, focusing on categories like National Parks, U.S.
This episode features a trivia game with guest Ed Brown, who discusses his expert categories of 80s television, science, comic books, and cartoons.
Host Dalton McGee quizzes player Andrew Long on trivia questions about The Price is Right, starting with a documentary title and a cable network that aired reruns.
This episode of Lockdown Trivia features players Marty Wetherall and Joel Stewart answering trivia questions, starting with a question about the Stargate SG-1 TV show moving from Showtime to the Sci-fi network after season five.
Dalton McGee opens by saying he wants to jump around the categories early and see how they play, and Natalie Anderson is right there with him.
Christian Hernandez, aka El Guapo, sits down with Dalton McGee.
This episode of Lockdown Trivia features a competitive trivia game between three sisters from Riverton, Illinois, with special rules and off-color humor.
A trivia podcast episode where host Brandon Fellows interviews Dalton McGhiey on his 30th birthday, featuring expert categories like the 2008 Chicago Cubs and Anatomy and Physiology.
This episode features a trivia game with player Luke Leavenworth answering questions across categories including Pokemon Red and Blue, Star Wars Episodes 4-6, Final Fantasy X, and K-12 Mathematics.
This episode features a trivia game with guest David Kantorski, who discusses his expert categories and the rules of Lockdown Trivia.