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In the mid-22nd century of another timeline, & began their career acting in a low-budget art film directed by their friend, Tetra Halt. Viewers were intrigued by &'s odd style, quirky persona, and unique way of speaking. Their breakthrough came when they appeared in a highly acclaimed movie called Virtuous Filth, directed by the famed Joey Lakomy. After that, & became known as a character actor. But acting wasn't where their passions lie. Soon, they began hosting an informative segment on daytime radio, which looked into different topics around how ordinary people lived in the distant past. It was an unexpected hit. Public radio had been hanging on by a thread, but thanks to & and their co-host Liz, more people than ever were tuning in.

If radio talk shows were hanging on by a thread at that time, talk shows on TV were even worse off--there was maybe one still in existence and it got terrible ratings. So, it was a big surprise to everyone when & announced they had been given the go-ahead for a brand new talk show called & Then What?. They would time travel and interview people from the past. An intriguing premise, but due to the dead medium, nobody really expected it to be a success.

When the pilot was filmed in front of a live audience, it was just about the most transcendant thing anyone had ever seen. In fact, it seemed too good to be true! The executives were certain the interview must have been staged with an actor. They threatened to drop the show due to &'s perceived dishonesty. But the show wasn't staged. The crucial piece of information: & was omniscient, and they had utilized their omniscience to create the best possible version of the show. & and their crew wrote a document defending the integrity of the show's production, and that was where & was forced to disclose this information. But the document was soon leaked, and &'s claim of omniscience, at the time highly doubted, caused a media frenzy.

After extensive testing, the executives accepted &'s explanation and allowed them to produce a first season of & Then What?. The aforementioned media frenzy ensured the show would be watched by millions of people curious whether such a thing as omniscience really did exist.

Present Day

&'s show was indeed successful. More than just successful; it launched them into worldwide fame and became the most-watched talk show in all of history. It also led to the resurgence of TV as a medium, although no other show could hope to compare.

Most episodes of & Then What? follow a similar structure. & starts by introducing the place and time period of the week, giving a bit of background on what the technology, politics, and social climate was like. Then, the guest is brought on. & lets the guest introduce themself and describe their life in their own words. After that, & asks the guest a series of questions, which vary highly from episode to episode, but which often focus on the guest's personal views, memories, ambitions, and anecdotes. The guest is usually a person of little notoriety, as &'s goal is to bridge gaps across time and space and the best way to do that is focus on ordinary people and how we are not so different. It's entertaining while also fostering empathy through time and educating the public on history. & has been known to say that history is as much about ordinary people as it is about politicians and military leaders. After all, everyone is witnessing history every day without even thinking about it.

A subject of some contention is the relation of &'s powers to their show. Undoubtedly, & owes much of their show's success to their omniscience. They can use their power to help them choose someone to interview, and when they're writing the interview questions, they use it to know what subjects are a good or bad idea to broach, what the most interesting views/experiences the person has are, how the person might respond to each question, etc. But don't get the wrong idea; there's still a lot of work on &'s part that goes into making the show good. & is a well-spoken, interesting person and a charming host, a great speaker who can write excellent questions. Omniscience can do a hell of a lot, but it can't tell you which subjective opinion is correct. & must use their own judgement for a lot of things. (Omniscience can tell them what will go over best with most viewers, but they are more concerned with their own morals.) Point is, the viewers watch not just for &'s super cool omniscience but for & themself.