![Max Wolf Friedlich](https://cdn.magzter.com/1373332177/1705127574/articles/kQo6jQjzR1705430731607/MAX-WOLF-FRIEDLICH.jpg)
MAX WOLF FRIEDLICH is 29 and so grew up seeing, and sometimes seeking out, all sorts of crazy shit online. Perhaps as a result, he has a certain unbothered, buttonpushing bravado. This is true in person, I realize when we meet, a few days into the New Year, for lunch at Shopsin's, the diner in Essex Market. There, he declares that, even as I make some tepid chitchat about resolutions and minding my carbs, he is still planning to "eat like a little piece of shit" in 2024. But also in his clever, psychologically harrowing play Job, which I couldn't stop thinking about after I saw it in the fall at the Soho Playhouse (it begins another run at the Connelly Theater in the East Village this month). The show is about a millennial content moderator named Jane who, after having an office breakdown that goes viral, is mandated by her Facebookesque employer to see a technophobic boomer therapist; upping the drama, she brings a gun along to the session. It’s 80 anxiety-inducing minutes long, and I was so distracted by the final plot twist that I couldn’t hold a conversation with my friends over drinks afterward.
At lunch, just as our food arrives, I ask Friedlich what is the most disturbing thing he’s ever witnessed online. “Sorry, we’re eating,” he says, before admitting that as a kid he was “obsessed” with watching a video of an American journalist being beheaded in the Middle East. “I watched it so many times just being like, Whoa,” he says between big bites of his brisket-andchorizo sandwich. It is a blithely unaware, or perhaps blithely calculated, thing to say to a journalist.
This story is from the January 15-28, 2024 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the January 15-28, 2024 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
![What Did Brooklyn Bridge Park Get So Right?](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/t5US-5buj1719831859747/WHAT-DID-BROOKLYN-BRIDGE-PARK-GET-SO-RIGHT.jpg)
What Did Brooklyn Bridge Park Get So Right?
Nearly 20 years after we broke ground, it's more impressive than ever.
![No Man's Land](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/OBymLdeju1719831080836/NO-MANS-LAND.jpg)
No Man's Land
Rachel Cusk's gender fundamentalism fully surfaces in her latest novel, Parade.
![Faust Goes to Fidi](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/jQ5FFpHrc1719830822863/FAUST-GOES-TO-FIDI.jpg)
Faust Goes to Fidi
The producers of Sleep No More are back with the whirlwind immersive-theater project Life and Trust.
![The Renegade](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/5KrmkC8Kq1719830565866/THE-RENEGADE.jpg)
The Renegade
June Squibb has the perfect first lead role: a granny gone rogue.
![The Empty Seat](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/S4W_Wz0td1719830135111/THE-EMPTY-SEAT.jpg)
The Empty Seat
At Paris Couture Week, one question everyone's lips: Who will lead Chanel?
![The Hidden Dutch Colonial](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/PuABw96on1719829868361/THE-HIDDEN-DUTCH-COLONIAL.jpg)
The Hidden Dutch Colonial
When Nicholas Howey and his late husband, Gerard Widdershoven, bought this 1925 house tucked away behind the hedges in Bridgehampton, they did little more than paint it-and fill it with art.
![The Next Shishito?](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/VTbJ0FOpY1719829644148/THE-NEXT-SHISHITO.jpg)
The Next Shishito?
Jimmy Nardello peppers, long beloved by chefs, are set to break out.
![The Shrimp Show](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/WOZUjvCf11719828573976/THE-SHRIMP-SHOW.jpg)
The Shrimp Show
San Sabino makes maximalist seafood for the social-media age.
![The WEIGHT of a BOEING 787](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/-D4AybBb21719827869960/THE-WEIGHT-OF-A-BOEING-787.jpg)
The WEIGHT of a BOEING 787
Mitch Barnett spent years fighting one of the world's largest aircraft manufacturers. It cost him his life.
![By age 43, I'd come up with many explanations for my perpetual strangeness with other people. - Then the autism diagnosis arrived.](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/bFZnox1Zc1719826883563/BY-AGE-43-ID-COME-UP-WITH-MANY-EXPLANATIONS-FOR-MY-PERPETUAL-STRANGENESS-WITH-OTHER-PEOPLE-THEN-THE-AUTISM-DIAGNOSIS-ARRIVED.jpg)
By age 43, I'd come up with many explanations for my perpetual strangeness with other people. - Then the autism diagnosis arrived.
SIX YEARS AGO, my now-husband, Sam, asked my father if he could marry me.