Failure, Freedom, and ‘Friends’ with Maggie Wheeler

Fail Better with David Duchovny

Grace Cohen-Chen

Society & Culture

4.6 • 534 Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2025

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

While Maggie Wheeler is known by millions as the iconic Janice on ‘Friends’, she has been my real-life friend for even longer. Back in the late 80s, we made our film debuts together, playing former lovers, which is a distinction we shared in real life, even at that time. And we’ve stayed close even as our lives and careers went off in the various ways lives and careers go. She and I talk about things that I knew she went through, and things I didn’t know until now. The mistreatment that Maggie experienced behind the scenes, and sometimes out in the open, still shocks me, and it reinforces the fortitude, creativity, and generous spirit that Maggie has always had. It’s my deep pleasure to be able to share my experience of who Maggie is with you all. Follow me on Instagram at @davidduchovny. Stay up to date with Lemonada on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia. Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our shows and get bonus content. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's morning in New York.
0:02.8	Oh, God.
0:06.2	Hey, everybody.
0:07.3	I'm Mandy Patinkin.
0:08.7	And I'm Catherine Grady.
0:09.8	And we have a new podcast.
0:11.7	It's called Don't Listen to Us.
0:14.1	Many of you've asked for our advice.
0:16.1	Tell me, what is wrong with you people?
0:19.2	Don't listen to us.
0:20.3	Our Take It or Leave a Adv Device show every Wednesday, out now.
0:24.7	A Lemonada Media Original.
0:36.5	I'm David Decoveny, and this is Fail Better, a show where failure, not success, shapes who we are.
0:42.3	Maggie Wheeler is an actress best known for her role as Janice and Friends.
0:46.3	For those of you who didn't watch the show, for those three people out there, Maggie played Matthew Perry's first love interest.
0:52.3	She had a thick New York accent and a laugh.
0:55.0	You couldn't forget. Maggie and I go way back. She was one of the first actors ever met,
0:59.9	and she believed in me when I failed to. We worked together on a few projects like New Year's Day
1:04.7	and the X-Files, and we even dated for a while way before any of that. Having known Maggie for
1:10.4	so long,
1:11.0	I've seen her fight really hard to land jobs that didn't come easy.
1:14.2	Even when things didn't work out, she took risks
	...

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