Portrait of Paula Poundstone

Birthday profile

Paula Poundstone

Paula Poundstone, American comedian and author

Born
December 29, 1959
Age in 2026
67
Zodiac sign
Capricorn
Birth year
1959

About Paula Poundstone

Paula Poundstone (born December 29, 1959) is an American stand-up comedian, author, actress, interviewer, and commentator. In the late 1980s, she performed the first of several HBO comedy specials. She provided backstage commentary during the 1992 presidential election on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She is the host of the podcast Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone, which is the successor to the National Public Radio program Live from the Poundstone Institute. She is a frequent panelist on NPR's weekly news quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me, and was a recurring guest on the network's A Prairie Home Companion variety program during Garrison Keillor's years as host. She stayed in San Francisco, where she became known for improvisational sets at Holy.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Paula Poundstone was born

Paula Poundstone was born in 1959. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1959

  • #1 song"Mack the Knife" – Bobby Darin
  • Top movieBen-Hur
  • Top TV showGunsmoke
  • Best-selling bookGoldfinger – Ian Fleming

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentIngemar Johansson knocks out Floyd Patterson for heavyweight title
  • Top headlineAlaska and Hawaii become the 49th and 50th US states
  • Technology milestoneMicrochip (integrated circuit) invented
  • Defining fadBarbie dolls
  • Notable inventionBarbie doll
  • World population2.98 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
  • Sports championLos Angeles Dodgers (World Series)
  • Also wonBoston Celtics (NBA)
  • U.S. population177.1M

1959 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Paula Poundstone's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19592026
Gas$0.31$3.45/gal
Average home$12,400$435,000
Average income$7,000$67,500
Minimum wage$1.00$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.69$11.95
Postage stamp$0.04$0.73
Population177.1M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.