Numlock Sunday: Sarah Amos on Tough Cookie

By Walt Hickey

Welcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.

This week, I spoke to Sarah Amos, who produced and hosted the podcast Tough Cookie from Vanity Fair.

The show is excellent, it’s a personal story exploring the chaotic life of Sarah’s father, Wally Amos, who created the Famous Amos brand of cookies and built it into a nationally renown brand. The story doesn’t stop there, though, and talks about Wally’s troubles operating the brand, the lack of wealth that followed its sale, and the years he spend reckoning with the vast gulf between “famous” and “rich.”

The show can be found wherever you get podcasts.

This interview has been condensed and edited.

Sarah, thank you so much for taking the time to chat.

Oh my god, Walt, thank you for having me.

It’s been a minute. We worked together a couple of years ago.

Many years ago. Let’s not age ourselves, though.

You were doing documentaries at Vanity Fair.

At Condé Nast overall. I do documentaries, film and TV series across all the wonderful brands her…