Why Did Justin Long Abruptly End His Podcast ‘Life Is Short’?

Justin Long has had a strange career. I first knew him from the charming weekly drama Ed, alongside Tom Cavanagh and Julie Bowen. But he’s probably best known for Dodgeball, Galaxy Quest, a stint in the Die Hard universe, and Jeepers Creepers. Some may also remember him as the one-time boyfriend of Drew Barrymore, when they starred together in the underappreciated rom-com Going the Distance.

I want to say his career between 2010 and 2022 wasn’t exactly on the skids, but it was iffy. He popped up occasionally on New Girl, The Conners, or even Ballers, but he was probably best known during those years as the voice of Alvin in the Alvin and the Chipmunks movies and as a regular in Kevin Smith’s films: Tusk (god, that movie), Yoga Hosers, and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.

He also makes a lot of B-horror movies, most of which no one has seen. I suspect that when he signed on to Barbarian, he didn’t expect it to break out the way it did. In fact, I didn’t see it for a couple of weeks because I assumed it was just another Justin Long B-movie. But the film made him something of a Scream King in horror circles, even though his upcoming filmography suggests he’s returning to the B-movies whence he came—take, for instance, the trailer for Coyotes.

He has a long and varied filmography, which means he’s worked with a lot of actors in movies both widely seen and not. That actually made him an interesting podcast host. During COVID, he and his brother, Christian Long, started a podcast, Life Is Short, which I liked because Justin often talked to actors who don’t land on the bigger podcasts like WTF, SmartLess, and Armchair Expert.

At one point, the podcast got so popular that he and his brother began running two episodes a week—one with a celebrity guest and another where Justin and Christian just shot the shit. Near the end of its run, Justin also talked a lot about his relationship with his now-wife, Kate Bosworth, about whom he was very effusive. Then, in July 2024, the podcast began airing weekly reruns until about a year ago, in September, when the feed simply stopped updating.

The podcast just … ended. No explanation. Nothing. In fact, I usually only think about it when I go into my podcast app to cull a few shows, spot it, and decide to keep it a little longer just in case Justin returns or at least tells us what happened.

It’s been a year. That doesn’t seem likely. I fell down a rabbit hole today trying to find out exactly what did happen, and I finally found some intel: Christian, who eventually started a podcast with their 80-year-old mother called Oh Honey!, addressed the sudden end of Life Is Short in the premiere episode. He remained vague on the details.

As for why it ended, Christian said, “It’s complicated. Like so many things and so many relationships, it’s complicated.”

“I will say that it was not my decision,” Christian added. “It was Justin’s decision to stop doing the show, and it was hard for me. That decision was hard for me because I enjoyed doing the show, and I know he enjoyed doing the show.”

“When it ended,” he continued, “it really hurt me, not only because I didn’t get to keep doing it, but because I read the comments on our Facebook page and people were rightfully upset and confused. They felt like they were abandoned by a friend … it was hard for me to read those comments because I wanted to address them.”

“I wanted to reach out to every single person and explain to them why it ended, but I knew that I couldn’t. Because it wasn’t my information to share … I am so sorry, and I was really hurt by it. I hate the idea that I still can’t properly explain everything. Just know that I would if I could.”

And that’s the story. Or rather, the non-story. It sounds … complicated. And mysterious. And I wouldn’t dare speculate. I will say, however, that in the most recent episode of Oh Honey, Christian shares an amusing story about going to Vegas for a week with Justin and Drew Barrymore.

Source: Oh Honey