474: Jeff Childers—Coffee & Covid
3/10/20262 hr 10 min
Mike chats with Jeff Childers—the attorney-turned-writer behind the wildly popular Coffee & Covid Substack—for a wide-ranging conversation about media narratives, pandemic politics, and the strange new world of citizen journalism. What began as a daily blog written during lockdown has grown into a must-read for hundreds of thousands of devotees looking for sharp legal insight, media criticism, and a dose of wry humor with their morning coffee. Jeff explains what it takes to crank out 2,000 to 6,000 snarky words every single day of the week, why he started writing in the first place, and how an attorney accidentally became one of the most widely read independent commentators on the internet. Along the way, he talks with Mike about the stories that keep him up at night—and why, despite all of it, he remains surprisingly optimistic about where the country is headed. ☕🎙️
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Clips
Showing 10 of 12Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMike Rowe· Host0:00
[bass music] Well, here we go again. It's The Way I Heard It. I'm Mike Rowe, and he is Chuck Klausmeyer And, uh, our guest today, dare I say, Charles- Yes ... is, uh, somebody we both have, uh, have been enjoying/admiring for the last couple years.
Chuck Klausmeyer· Host0:19
Let me just tell you, I was really excited knowing that Jeff Childers was coming in to, uh, spend time talking to you.
Mike Rowe· Host0:27
Jeff is a lawyer, but don't hold that against him. [chuckles] Uh, he has a practice and has had one for many years in the Gainesville area, in the great state of Florida. And, uh, he was just being his lawyerly self, you know, minding his own business, and the world went crazy, and there were lockdowns, and there were mask mandates.
Chuck Klausmeyer· Host0:45
Mm-hmm.
Mike Rowe· Host0:46
And Mr. Childers Esquire, uh, had objections.
Chuck Klausmeyer· Host0:50
Yes.
Mike Rowe· Host0:50
And he began to voice those objections, and he was right there at the very beginning of the craziness. And, um, he filed a suit against, uh, the county where he lives in northern Florida. Long story short, um, started a Sisyphean battle. And, um, you'll hear how it turns out early on in our conversation. I really didn't invite him here to talk too much about lawyerly stuff, although, now, as I think about it, it was really important, and it's a really interesting backdrop for what he's become.
Chuck Klausmeyer· Host1:28
Well, it's how he got involved as well