Author Max Brooks grew up surrounded by Hollywood royalty, but he never felt like he fit the part. Before World War Z and before he advised the U.S. military on disaster planning, he was the child of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, who obsessed over niche interests and tried to survive school one awkward lunch at a time. In this episode, Max explains why being an outsider became his greatest advantage, how Gen X turned nerd culture into a superpower, and what happens when you finally stop pretending to be someone else. We talk zombies, obsessive research, and the strange freedom that comes from not caring whether anyone thinks you're cool. Max shares the long road from dismissed ideas to global influence. If you've ever felt different, this conversation hits home.

Watch the entire interview @ jonsmalltalk.substack.com

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More than three in five Gen Xers are not confident in their ability to achieve a dream retirement and nearly half think they'll outlive their savings. We have far less confidence in our futures than generations before us. Kerry Hannon and Janna Herron, co-authors of Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future, explain how we got here and what we can do about it. They offer some useful, realistic tips about how to retire happily, even if it might not happen as soon as you'd like, including:

• How to build meaning and purpose into the second half of life.

• The mindset traps that keep us stuck, and how to break them.

• Reasonable retirement numbers for a typical Gen Xer.

• Biggest money leaks Gen Xers make.

• What a realistic reinvention timeline looks like

• Understanding Social Security, retirement accounts, and healthcare.

• Getting out of credit card debt.

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Former Hollywood TV writer Amy Suto walked away from her dream job to build a seven-figure writing business. She has a new book out called Write for Money and Power: The Anti-Starving Artist's Guide to Becoming a Seven-Figure Writer, which argues that writers need to stop romanticizing poverty and start building sustainable businesses. In this conversation, she reveals the three pillars creatives should focus on if they want to make money. Topics include: why self-publishing beats traditional deals, how she made $300K on Upwork, the Substack tweaks that added $100K in value, where freelance writers actually make money in 2025, why cold emails still work, and how to stop romanticizing the starving artist myth. This interview is packed with actionable strategies you can use today.

Small Talk

Amy Suto

Lili Zarghami spent decades working in women's magazines before realizing none of them were speaking to women like her anymore. After turning 40 and getting laid off, she decided to create Jenny Mag—a digital magazine for Gen X women who don't fit the cookie-cutter mold of traditional women's media. In this conversation, we discuss why dating stories outperform health content, the complicated relationships Gen X women have with their Boomer mothers, what it's like running a magazine on nights and weekends with zero budget, and why owning your platform matters when you've been disposable to corporate publishers one too many times. Lili also opens up about empty nesting with twins, being back in the dating world after 25 years of marriage, and creating content that makes readers say "I thought it was just me."

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Jenny Mag

One minute you're helicoptering your kid to games and recitals, nagging them about their messy room. Then they're gone. An empty bedroom. An empty chair at the dinner table. You know this is a healthy part of their development, but it still feels like a piece of your own life just vanished. Some feel sadness. Some feel empty. Some even feel relief. But nobody really tells you how to navigate this. So I asked Larry Cornett to come on Small Talk. Larry is a former Silicon Valley exec with a PhD in psychology who spent decades at places like Apple, Yahoo, and eBay. Now he helps people reinvent at midlife. This episode digs into what empty nesting does to us emotionally, how to stay close to your adult kids without smothering them, and how to rebuild your identity in this new phase.

Jonsmalltalk@substack.com

https://larrycornett.coach/