Welcome to the Commune Podcast.

My name is Jeff Krasnow.

As we approach 700 episodes in the Commune podcast, we are now republishing some of our most popular interviews.

So this one's from 2021 with Academy Award

winning actor and bestselling author Matthew McConaughey. Matthew first gained attention with

his portrayal of Wooderson and Richard Linklater's comedy dazed and confused in 1993.

All right, all right, all right, right, right.

Three years later, he rose to national prominence as a leading man with his breakthrough

performance in a time to kill.

And in the 2000s, of course, Matthew became an American herthrob as the star in numerous

rom-coms. But behind the bright lights, there was a more

introspective and philosophical side to Matthew as reflected in his work over the last decade,

which included his Oscar-winning performance as Ron Woodruff in Dallas Buyers Club. Go see that

movie if you haven't. Throughout Matthew's life,

he has embarked on myriad walkabout's epic journeys

both inward and outward that have taken him to the Amazon

and through Mali and Australia in search of himself.

He's always been a voracious writer,

keeping journals since his early adolescence.

And in 2020, he published Greenlight, an autobiography, based on an excavation of his lifetime of journal keeping.

In writing this book, Matthew spent 52 days in self-imposed monasticism, pulling together these stories. And the result was a compendium

called Green Lights that shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. In our conversation,

...