A summer treat for you: Emmy Winner Jeff Hiller is back on Death, Sex & Money!
Jeff was first on the show back in 2024, when we talked about how he landed a starring role in HBO's Somebody Somewhere—one of my favorite TV shows of the last decade—after putting years and years of effort into New York’s improv scene. We also talked about his growing up in Texas, starting his career in social work, and meeting—and podcasting with—his husband Neil.
Since that episode came out, Jeff won the Emmy for his role of Joel on Somebody Somewhere, and he gave a beautifully moving speech that ricocheted around the internet for days after. We talk about that this week, and about how winning one of Hollywood’s top acting awards does, and does not, change your life. We also talk about money, hairpieces (“I’m juicing,” he says), and how Margaret Atwood’s rooster inspired his own Substack newsletter writing.
This year, he’s shown up on two more buzzy TV shows: Pluribus and Widow’s Bay on Apple TV, and earlier this summer, he was on Broadway as part of the revolving cast of the show Celebrity Autobiography, where celebrities read from other celebrities’ memoirs on stage. Jeff could not have been more prepared for this, because he’s been a long-time student of the form. And he also wrote his own celebrity memoir, Actress of a Certain Age: My 20-Year Trail to Overnight Success.
You’ll hear in our conversation that I am a fan of this book, and of this person. Jeff is someone whose creative work I got to know first, and then had the pleasure of having fandom blossom into actual real-life friendship.
I think you’ll enjoy spending time with him as much as I do.
p.s. In your Death, Sex & Money Plus feed this week, I hear a cautionary tale about taking an unauthorized peek into your partner’s AI chat history. Our advice? Don’t do it. Listen here to Reading My Boyfriend’s ChatGPT History Led to Our Breakup.
This very entertaining edition of DRAFTING W/ RUN-A-MUCK featuring Jeff Hiller.
Book publishing can be so mysterious, so it was satisfying to read Daniel Lavery share numbers about his book deals with NYMag’s Book Gossip newsletter.
“The Colorado River has been struggling for more than two decades now as warming temperatures have ramped up across the Southwest. Dwindling snowpack and steady use have widened an existing gap between water supply and demand. But 2026 is putting the river into uncharted territory.” Come for the “electrofishing” videos and stay to get to know the people doing the work in Luke Runyon’s piece for National Geographic on the Colorado River’s long drought summer.
Another banger from Sarah Ramsey’s Rural Magic newsletter, about living in a community where housing is so inexpensive that renovations and maintenance don’t pencil out.
Until next week,
Anna
This newsletter is free to you, but let me urge you to support the Death, Sex & Money team by becoming a member of Death, Sex & Money Plus. What do you get? Ad-free listening and special member-exclusive podcast drops. Please join us at slate.com/dsmplus or through Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
6/30 Emmy-Winner Jeff Hiller Returns! Talking Bodies and Money in a Changing Hollywood
6/30 DSM Plus: Reading My Boyfriend’s ChatGPT History Led to Our Breakup
6/23 Was Dad Being a Creep? And Other Childhood Memories to Decipher
6/16 Spouses Peter Dinklage and Erica Schmidt on Bad Interviews, Fame, and Parenting
6/16: DSM Plus: This Meditation Will Help You Find the Courage to Open Up
6/9 Something Rotten at Stanford
6/2 DSM Plus: A Hands-On Retreat Where Men Learn to Flirt (and More)
5/26 The Parent-Child Anxiety Trap
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