EP 301: Matt Samet — Escaping Benzo Addiction, Rifle in the Early ‘90s, and Embracing the Moonboard in His 40s

The Nugget Climbing Podcast

Steven Dimmitt

Steven Dimmitt, Fitness, American, The Struggle Climbing Show, The Struggle, @Thenuggetclimbing, Trad Climbing, Smith Rock, Climbing, The Climbing Nugget, Education, Power Company, Alpine Climbing, Dirtbag State Of Mind, Nugget, Nuggetclimbing, Climbing Podcast, The Nugget Climbing Podcast, The, Lattice, Climbing Nugget, Dirtbag Diaries, Testpiece, Health & Fitness, Sharp End, Sport Climbing, Gold, The American Climbing Project, Project, Climbing Training, Training, Lattice Training, Climbing Gold, Enormocast, Climbing History, Training Beta, Dirtbag, Self-improvement, Training For Climbing, Wilderness, Alex Honnold, Nugget Climbing Podcast, Yosemite, Nugget Climbing, Careless, Sports, Rock Climbing, Runout, Thenuggetclimbing, Steven Dimmit, Climber, The Nugget, The Nugget Climbing, Bouldering, Talk, Struggle, For The Love Of Climbing, Climb, Nugget Podcast

4.0 • 589 Ratings

🗓️ 8 June 2026

⏱️ 131 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Matt Samet is the former editor-in-chief of Climbing Magazine, a writer and author, and a sport-climbing pioneer. We talked about his decade-plus battle with benzo addiction, his advice for people who experience anxiety or depression, what Rifle was like in the early ‘90s, how Chris Sharma broke the paradigm, embracing training to send his hardest routes, his new role with the American Alpine Club, and the inaugural American Climbing Journal coming later this year. You can learn more at americanalpineclub.org

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, friends, and welcome to the Nugget Climbing Podcast.
0:04.6	My guest today is Matt Samet.
0:07.0	Matt is the former editor-in-chief of Climbing Magazine, a talented writer and author, and a true sport climbing pioneer.
0:15.4	This was a really great interview.
0:17.7	As all of you know, I'm just as interested in people and their stories as I am
0:22.6	in climbing, and we get a healthy mix of both of those things in this episode. Matt had more than a
0:29.6	decade-long battle with benzodia addiction that started in his early 20s. He was prescribed
0:36.1	psychiatric medication for anxiety and depression,
0:39.2	which led to addiction and abuse, and it nearly destroyed his life. And he was very open about it,
0:45.9	how it happened, what the experience was like, how he eventually broke free and recovered.
0:50.9	He shared his biggest lesson that he learned from going through that entire experience,
0:56.2	as well as some advice for any of you who struggle with anxiety or depression. It was fascinating,
1:02.5	obviously pretty intense, so be aware of that before you dive into the episode. We also talked
1:08.6	about all things climbing. Matt is a beast. He was a really good
1:12.5	climber in the early 90s. He's an even better climber now in his mid-50s with a full-time job,
1:19.3	a wife, four kids, and a bunch of pets. And it was pretty cool to hear how he got there.
1:24.2	He's still climbing 514 and has a 14C project that he sounds pretty darn close on.
1:31.1	He also has a new professional role with the American Alpine Club and is getting ready to
1:35.5	launch the American Climbing Journal coming in September.
1:40.1	It's essentially a 200-plus page book that will come out every year, featuring all the most
1:46.8	badass stuff that happened in rock climbing the previous year.
1:50.7	The inaugural 2026 journal features stories from Adamandra, Katie Lamb, Connor Herson, Noah
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 27 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Steven Dimmitt, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Steven Dimmitt and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.