Get In Loser, We’re Friction-Maxxing
ICYMI
Slate Podcasts
3.9 • 800 Ratings
🗓️ 14 January 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On today’s episode, host Kate Lindsay is joined by Kathryn Jezer-Morton, writer of The Cut column Brooding, and author of the viral article, In 2026, We Are Friction-Maxxing. Over the past fifteen years, technology has attempted to “fix” every small inconvenience in our lives, which has rendered us completely unable to endure basic hurdles such as sitting in silence, navigating unfamiliar social social interactions, and doing any kind of creative thinking. To reverse this, Kathryn proposes we “friction-maxx,” and rebuild our tolerance for the very things that, it turns out, make us human.
This podcast is produced by Daisy Rosario, Vic Whitley-Berry, and Kate Lindsay.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, I'm Kate Lindsay, and you're listening to I-C-Y-M-I, or in case you missed it, Slate's |
| 0:19.4 | podcast about internet culture. And today on the show, we are joined by writer Catherine Jezer-Morton. Welcome, Catherine. Thank you. In addition to being my Catherine with a Y name twin, I resisted talking to you about that until now, but we are both Catharins with a Y, K and a Y. I also resisted talking about that. |
| 0:37.6 | It's true. |
| 0:38.0 | It's rare. |
| 0:39.1 | It's rare. |
| 0:40.0 | We're a rare breed. |
| 0:56.1 | But in addition to that most important fact, Catherine is the writer of brooding, which is the Cut's parenting column, and the author of the piece in 20206, we are friction maxing. We'll be talking more about friction maxing shortly, but first we must ask Catherine the question we ask all first time guests on the show, which is what is your first internet memory? |
| 1:05.9 | Freshman year of high school, which was 1996 for me. |
| 1:11.2 | First using AOL chat at my friend's dad's office. |
| 1:16.5 | Oh. |
| 1:17.4 | And we were chatting with someone named acid drip 69. |
| 1:21.6 | And we were like, this guy sounds so badass. |
| 1:27.3 | Yeah. And that's the memory. I don't remember what we were like, this guy sounds so badass. Yeah. And that's, that's the memory. I don't remember |
| 1:31.0 | what we were talking about, but it was probably best forgotten. Yeah. Do you remember who, |
| 1:37.0 | like how you came to connect with acid drip 69? It was in, oh my God, I was never like a big chat person. So it was like my friend was completely conversant in this world and she was in, oh my God, I was never like a big chat person. |
| 1:45.7 | So it was like my friend was completely conversant in this world. |
| 1:48.0 | And she was like, hey, come check this out. |
| 1:49.5 | So I was just like being led blindly in. |
| 1:53.6 | It was like an AOL chat thing. |
| 1:56.8 | But like I was never an MSN person. |
| 1:59.7 | I never did that. |
| 2:00.7 | So I can't even speak. Like I know people, this is a whole world for people. Right. You don't even have the language. Yeah. Like I was a real tourist. Yeah. And I didn't really go back. I was like, this is cool, but also this feels weird. So like I, I'm, I pulled back. Yeah. I think, because I believe this is part of like the AOL instant messenger that like a little bit predates the one I was on, which is just aim, which they might be the same thing. |
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