Matt Buechele breaks down the impossible cost of modern life, and why everything feels like a luxury experience or a gambling app. Then, on his way to jury duty, Matt reflects on America’s inability to sit quietly in a room for three hours without pretending to be racist to get out of it.

Then he sits down with writer and journalist Chloé Cooper Jones for a conversation about chaotic weekends in upstate New York, swimming in lakes that may or may not heal you spiritually, and the strange intimacy of male friendship. They also talk about disability, ambition, why reading is sexy, and the freedom that comes with getting old enough to stop caring what strangers think of you.

Topics covered: 

- The Fiddler on the Roof audition 

- Disability in the media

- Writing for the 14-year-old self

- Looksmaxxing & longevity biohacking through reading

- The “saintly” trap & disability as inevitability 

- The labor of being seen

- Mortal peril as a love language

- The Anti-Inspiration Narrative

- G-suite infidelity

Chapters:

00:00:00 Dynamic Pricing and the Rising Cost of Living 

00:01:26 Matt’s Jury Duty Experience 

00:03:13 The Used Swim Goggles Gift 

00:05:28 The Farm Stand Fiasco & "Trump Ate My Dog" Shirt 

00:11:52 Lake Minnewaska and the "Pearl vs. Maniac" Dynamic 

00:17:17 Running 18 Miles to the Beaches of Normandie 

00:25:22 Growing Up in Kansas and the Power of Libraries 

00:31:38 The Theater Audition That Changed Everything 

00:40:42 Rejecting Expectations and Chloe's "Easy Beauty" Memoir 

00:58:04 Dilemmas: Sharing a Car with an Ex & G-Suite Infidelity 

01:08:55 Teaching Writing at Columbia and the Reality of AI 

01:18:19 Final Predictions: Politics, Handwriting, and Florida 

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