Chuck Klosterman: Thanksgiving Leftovers
Your Last Meal with Rachel Belle
Rachel Belle
4.8 • 730 Ratings
🗓️ 22 January 2026
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this fantasy world, where my guests can choose anything they want for their hypothetical last meal, there is something very charming and humble about choosing...leftovers. Which is exactly what bestselling author, critic and journalist Chuck Klosterman did!
Chuck told me he’s not that into food, then proceeded to deliver hot take after hot take, passionately opining on everything from candy bar innovation to turkey consumption to his disdain of restaurant chitchat. And he asks me a surprising question no guest has ever asked me before, in the nine years of making this podcast: Why am I a guest on this show?
Do you eat leftovers? A Wall Street Journal food reporter joins the show to share new data on Americans’ relationship with the plastic containers of food piling up in our refrigerators.
Then Chuck and I chat about his new book, Football and he tells me a hilarious story about the times he’s been mixed up with other famous Chucks.
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Listen to the Prodigy episode, featuring an inmate who cooked many death row meals.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Rachel Bell, and this is your last meal. |
| 0:12.1 | The show where celebrities share stories about the foods they love most, |
| 0:15.0 | and we dig into the history, culture, or science of those meals with experts from around the world. Today on the program, |
| 0:22.7 | best-selling author, critic and journalist Chuck Closterman. Chuck has written 13 books on all kinds |
| 0:29.6 | of topics. His last one was called the 90s and his brand new book is football, a nonfiction |
| 0:36.0 | work about America's favorite sport. Chuck says he's not that |
| 0:40.3 | into food. And yet, when we talked, he delivered hot take after hot take, candy bars, turkey, |
| 0:47.0 | restaurants. This man has opinions. He is also the very first guest to want leftovers for his last meal. |
| 0:55.5 | So I chat with a Wall Street Journal reporter about America's current relationship with |
| 1:00.1 | the Tupperware contained foods languishing away in the refrigerators. |
| 1:04.4 | Oh, and make sure and listen to the very end of the episode to hear a hilarious story |
| 1:09.2 | about the other famous chucks this Chuck is often mixed up with. |
| 1:13.6 | That's all coming up later in the show. But first, my conversation with Chuck Closterman. |
| 1:24.1 | I realize this runs counter to the whole idea of this podcast, but I sometimes can't believe how much we're talking about food. |
| 1:31.4 | I can't believe it. |
| 1:33.4 | It's like, you're going out with people, right? |
| 1:36.8 | You can have drinks, then have dinner. |
| 1:38.4 | Go have drinks. |
| 1:39.2 | And while you're having drinks, you're talking about the place you're going to go and like what you might order. |
| 1:44.5 | Okay. So you're saying, okay, fine, fine. We get there. We all order the food. Then there's this |
| 1:49.2 | whole period of where you're going to talk about how amazing it is. You got to use the word |
| 1:53.1 | amazing over and over and over again. And then afterwards, people will talk about memorable |
... |
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