Listen to our Tough Cookie: The Wally “Famous” Amos Story podcast
Tough Cookie: The Wally “Famous” Amos Story, named the Tribeca Festival’s 2025 Nonfiction Audio Storytelling Award winner, tells the story of a Black pop-culture icon and cookie mogul, through his booms and busts spanning the American century, from the perspective of his daughter, Sarah Amos. Famous Amos was an overnight hit, leading to a life of glamour, prestige, and cookies for Wally and his family—for a while. But all the charisma and fame in the world couldn’t save Wally from a string of bad business decisions and a family fractured by his choices.
From Vanity Fair, this six-part series unravels decades of family drama—alternately hilarious and heartbreaking—against a backdrop of ’70s and ’80s pop-culture nostalgia while asking the question: Can you ever really escape your family’s past?
From Vanity Fair, this six-part series unravels decades of family drama—alternately hilarious and heartbreaking—against a backdrop of ’70s and ’80s pop-culture nostalgia while asking the question: Can you ever really escape your family’s past?
RECENT EPISODES
PODCAST
The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Cookie Maker
In the third and fourth episodes of Tough Cookie: The Wally “Famous” Amos Story, hosted by Sarah Amos, his daughter explores how her dad turned a simple cookie into a national phenomenon and then lost it all.
PODCAST
Famous Amos: The Secret Life of A Cookie Mogul
Vanity Fair’s new podcast, Tough Cookie: The Wally “Famous” Amos Story, tells the story of a Black pop-culture icon, through his many booms and busts, from the perspective of his daughter, podcast host Sarah Amos.
Listen & Learn
With the Famous Amos Podcast, Sarah Amos Is Running Toward Her Father’s Complicated, One-of-a-Kind Legacy
On Wednesday, the Tribeca Film Festival premiered a visual preview for the forthcoming podcast about the American mogul, which later took home the Nonfiction Audio Storytelling Award.