Today’s guest is J. Kenji López-Alt — and this one is especially fun for me, because we went to high school together.

I knew Kenji before he was a New York Times bestselling author, before The Food Lab became a kind of home-cook bible, before his name turned into a citation people use to win arguments on the internet. And the funny thing is: I “rediscovered” him the way you rediscover anyone from your past now — online. Around 2009, I got hooked on these incredibly obsessive, weirdly readable deep dives on Serious Eats about things like In-N-Out burgers and hard-boiling eggs, and I remember thinking…that is a very specific name. That has to be the Kenji I knew.

What I love about this conversation is that it’s not really about food — it’s about what happens when your opinions become canon, when strangers feel entitled not just to your expertise but to your life, and how you draw a line between being open and being available, especially when it comes to topics like, say, divorce. And sobriety.

We talk about the culture of internet rage, why “best” is a dangerous word, and the very specific kind of success that looks less like a yacht and more like…being able to buy the good cheese without thinking twice. I didn’t expect this one to go in the direction it did. I loved it so much.