[1] In 1980, Junod graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the State University of New York at Albany.

lead singer Michael Stipe, in which he satirically fabricated information for an interview that never happened.

[8] Among his controversial articles, Junod came to regret the tone of his 1997 profile of Kevin Spacey for Esquire that "more or less outed the actor".

"That story had the reek of bad faith to it, to be quite honest with you," Junod admitted when interviewed by Atlanta Magazine in 2019, noting that the negative response to his Kevin Spacey profile had stalled his career prior to his 1998 Fred Rogers assignment.

[10] In 2011, Junod won the James Beard Award for his essay "My Mom Couldn't Cook", published in Esquire in September 2010.