Jennifer Romolini is one of my favorite thinkers about ambition, and workism, and the stories we tell ourselves about what we must endure in order to find a modicum of security and pride — and she also happens to be a true scholar of all things Ben Affleck. Months ago, I asked her to come on the podcast to talk about the intersection of Affleck and ambition, but we held the episode for a bit to give it some distance from the (also excellent!!) J.Lo episode. But we’d had it scheduled for today for several weeks — and I’m writing this intro just hours after the news broke that Lopez had filed for divorce.

The good news is that everything Jenn and I talk about re: Affleck’s star image, ambition, striving, his relationship to stardom just generally — all of that still holds true. Just ignore the part when I say that I don’t think they’re going to get divorced. And I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.