In short
Julia Fox discusses her memoir Down the Drain (2023) and the self-examination she finds in Kat Murnell’s How to Murder Your Life, emphasizing candid, unapologetic honesty about addiction, abuse, and loneliness. She argues flawed women should own themselves rather than reshape to fit society’s “box,” and that respect doesn’t require perfection.
Key claims
Murnell’s book feels like a journal—truth without self-pity or shame—and its anecdotes are “hard to digest” but empowering.
Notable examples
Fox recalls hanging out with Murnell in the Lower East Side, seeing orange pill bottles in her kitchen, and reading about a man who insulted Fox and still used her couch to stay.
Guests
Julia Fox (actor/writer) is the featured guest; Kat Murnell is discussed as the author of How to Murder Your Life.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOJulia Fox Discusses Kat Marnell's Memoir
0:45 to 3:18
Julia Fox shares insights on the impact of Kat Marnell's memoir on her life.
“She was just such an icon, and then she'd give me beauty advice at 4 a.m.”
Empowerment of Flawed Women
3:18 to 3:46
Fox emphasizes the importance of flawed women owning their truth.
“and I think that more flawed women need to own who they are instead of trying to change or mold or reshape themselves to fit the box that society has carved out for us.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00KCRW sponsors include Netflix, presenting Beef, the most Emmy-nominated limited series of the year, starring Emmy nominees Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton, and Yoon Yee-jung. Esquire Rave's Beef is, hands down, the best TV show of the year. Welcome to The Treat. I'm Elvis Mitchell. Actor and writer Julia Fox has lived her life out loud and is unafraid to dissect her steps and her slip-ups in public. Her 2023 memoir, Down the Drain, opens up that life in unblinking detail. For The Treat, she looks at another self-examination of equal power.
0:45I'm Julia Fox, and this is The Treat.
0:55a book that really inspired me and kind of opened my eyes to what I could do and maybe just kind of reaffirmed my hopes and dreams and being a writer was How to Murder Your Life by Kat Murnell
1:19I used to hang out with her a lot in the Lower East Side, and we were both drug addicts, and I'd be at her house until the sun came up with a bunch of graffiti writers, and it would just be a mess, and her whole kitchen and refrigerator was all those little orange pill bottles. She was just such an icon, and then she'd give me beauty advice at 4 a.m. while we're doing not such beautiful things, let's put it that way.
1:57and the book is just amazing because it's so candid and so vulnerable and you can tell that she's just not ashamed at all of who she is and she she really just doesn't give a what anyone is thinking. It kind of feels like that was like her journal or something. And she doesn't even care what the reader is going to get from it. Like that's her truth. And that's it, you know, take it or leave it.
2:31There's no self pity. And I'm telling you, reading a lot of those anecdotes in her book is really hard to digest. Like even when she was talking about the man that was using her to crash on her couch and he would say horrible things to her like that she was a loser and and ugly and she's stunning by the way she is so beautiful like she looks like a mermaid and then you know she would still let him crash in her house because she didn't want to be alone even though he was abusing her I mean reading that was just so felt like a kick in the gut you know because we've all been there where we just don't want to be lonely
3:17yeah Kat Marnell how to murder your life so insightful so real raw honest and unapologetic and I think that more flawed women need to own who they are instead of trying to change or mold or reshape themselves to fit the box that society has carved out for us. We don't have to be perfect and we are still entitled to being taken seriously and we're still entitled to having just basic respect.
4:04Actor and writer Julia Fox on the book How to Murder Your Life by Kat Marnell. The Treat is produced by Rebecca Mooney and mixed by Katie Gilchrist. I'm Elvis Mitchell. It's The Treat.
4:27KCRW sponsors include Netflix, presenting Beef, the most Emmy-nominated limited series of the year, starring Emmy nominees Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton, and Yoon Yee-jung. Esquire Rave's beef is, hands down, the best TV show of the year.
From the publisher
Actress and author Julia Fox hasn’t shied away from addressing the painful parts of her life. Her 2023 memoir Down the Drain is an unflinching look at her struggles with drugs and mental illness. For her treat, she recommends another raw memoir from a friend who also dealt with addiction, which inspired her to be open about her own experience.