Mike Rowe
@therealmikerowe·1.3M subscribers·663 videos
How A Small Town Lawyer Sparked A National Conversation | Jeff Childers #474 | The Way I Heard It
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March 12, 2026
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1:54:37Now PlayingIf the last few years have left you feeling like you’ve been living under a kind of existential fog—where experts don’t agree, the headlines don’t add up, and everybody seems absolutely certain about everything—you’re not alone.
My guest this week is Jeff Childers, a commercial litigator from Gainesville, Florida, who stumbled into a second career during the pandemic when he did something most lawyers would strongly advise against—he sued his own county over a mask mandate. What followed was a crash course in constitutional law, media narratives, expert testimony, and the strange new world where a lawyer with a spreadsheet and a stubborn streak can accidentally build one of the most widely read independent news blogs in the country.
Jeff is the author of Coffee & Covid, a daily column that mixes law, news, commentary, sarcasm, and—somehow—relentless optimism. Millions have read it. Hundreds of thousands subscribe to it. And according to at least one friend of mine, it’s become something of a lifeline. I had a chance to talk to Jeff about how someone who never planned to be a writer wound up challenging governmental mandates, why the pandemic shook so many people’s faith in the “expert class” and what happens when independent voices start filling the gaps left by legacy media. Among other things, we also talk about propaganda, persuasion, the future of AI, and the increasingly tricky business of telling the difference between what’s real and what merely looks convincing.
You won’t agree with everything Jeff has to say. I don’t either. But he’s funny, thoughtful, relentlessly curious, and—perhaps most unusual of all these days—genuinely optimistic. Which, according to a recent Harvard study, might actually help you live longer. At least, that’s the way I heard it…
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