The Lost Episodes: Don Lemon

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Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by EA Sports FC27. Welcome to the world's game. FC27 is introducing The Grounds, where the streets meet the stadium. Connect with friends, go pro, and express yourself, on or off the pitch. Play FC27 with the ultimate edition September 18th. Learn more at EA.com. Rated E for everyone. Includes in-game purchases, including random items. The Grounds is only available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 versions.

• 0:30Adam Friedland?

  This episode is brought to you by Major League Baseball. There is nowhere left to go. Two teams, one championship. Watch the World Series. Yeah, the World Series, presented by Capital One, on Fox and Fox One. No time like October. Visit MLB.com/Postseason to learn more.

• 0:51Adam Friedland?

  Hey, guys. Welcome back to The Adam Friedland Show. For the next four weeks, we will commence our lost episode series. This week, we have Don Lemon. I think we did it last year. Is that right, Thomas? Yeah. Probably around last year. I don't know why this was never posted. Oh, I think he got arrested afterwards and it was no longer rela-- I don't know. Guys, we have four big lost episodes coming up the next four weeks, followed by the season three premiere of The Adam Friedland Show. Real quick, I'll be on the road. Denver Comedy Works, October 22nd and 24th. And New York, New York, New York Comedy Festival, November 13th. A big-ass motherfucking show. Guys, make sure you get tickets.

• 1:36Adam Friedland?

  Adam Friedland Show.

• 1:44Adam Friedland?

  Ladies and gentlemen, media icon, Don Lemon, everybody.

• 1:51Adam Friedland?

  From Louisiana.

• 1:54Speaker 02

  That was fake trips. How are you? What's up?

• 1:56Adam Friedland?

  How are you? Thanks for coming.

• 1:57Speaker 02

  Nice hat.

• 1:58Adam Friedland?

  Thank you.

• 1:59Speaker 02

  You gave me your hat. Where'd you get that?

• 2:01Adam Friedland?

  From you. I don't think-- you guys gotta go out here and get the-- do you know what the website is?

• 2:07Speaker 02

  For what?

• 2:07Adam Friedland?

  Lemon Party.

• 2:09Speaker 02

  Oh, no. It's for-- it's DonLemon.com.

• 2:11Adam Friedland?

  What do you know? Have you heard of the website?

• 2:14Speaker 02

  Have I heard of what?

• 2:15Adam Friedland?

  There's a website called Lemon Party.

• 2:17Speaker 02

  They talk about Lemon Party. I've never-- I don't know. I've never heard of Lemon Party.

• 2:20Adam Friedland?

  Have you never shown them?

• 2:22Speaker 02

  No.

• 2:22Adam Friedland?

  I mean, it's a loose show. I could-- I mean, we're all adults here.

• 2:26Speaker 02

  Is this some, like, sexual stuff?

• 2:27Adam Friedland?

  This was like a legendary website that, like, in high school, you would, like, put into your friend's, like, family computer. I mean, it's a really-- it's a--

• 2:37Speaker 02

  Oh, my God.

• 2:38Adam Friedland?

  You've never heard of-- I assumed your family was--

• 2:41Speaker 02

  Never heard of it.

• 2:42Adam Friedland?

  --a big Lemon Party.

• 2:45Adam Friedland?

  Lemon Party isn't the most-- what is go-- guys, I'm very upset. Zachary, I need help with the iPad. I'm on it. Can you help?

• 2:53Speaker 02

  Should I buy that website now?

• 2:55Adam Friedland?

  Don, the fact that you don't know that--

• 2:57Speaker 02

  All right, I'm gonna look it up, see if I can find it.

• 2:59Adam Friedland?

  You should look it up. It's-- I mean, can someone back me up here? You guys are, like, not--

• 3:05Speaker 02

  Dude, it doesn't-- do you even have Wi-Fi in the studio?

• 3:09Adam Friedland?

  Yes, we do. And the password is [BLEEP].

• 3:14Adam Friedland?

  I found it. Well, yeah, Zach. This is-- it was a website that just-- yeah, can I see it? Yeah. On my phone? Yeah, yeah, on your phone. This is Don Lemon. It's a big deal. You can tell your mom.

• 3:26Speaker 02

  Are you big head? Which one of these is you?

• 3:28Adam Friedland?

  So, it was a website that just showed this image. And it was a big prank, growing up. And it was--

• 3:34Speaker 02

  Oh, my God. What is that? What is that?

• 3:38Adam Friedland?

  It's Lemon Party, dude. Your family started this website.

• 3:43Speaker 02

  Is that three old dudes?

• 3:44Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 3:45Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 3:45Adam Friedland?

  It's really beautiful, in fact. I didn't know that they got down like that.

• 3:51Speaker 02

  Is that what you're into?

• 3:53Adam Friedland?

  No. It's a-- guys, since fucking sixth grade, Lemon Party is, like, it's the big joke. You text someone. One time, I had Chet Hanks on, and he was getting mad at me.

• 4:02Speaker 02

  That's my favorite interview with you.

• 4:03Adam Friedland?

  Well, I did the second one where he got actually mad at me. And, I mean, he's the best guy ever. But-- well, actually, you shouted it out, I saw. You showed love.

• 4:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, that was my favorite interview with you. When I was starting my show, I looked at--

• 4:19Adam Friedland?

  You copied.

• 4:20Speaker 02

  Well, I looked to you for inspiration. Honestly, yeah, because I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what the fuck I was doing.

• 4:24Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 4:24Speaker 02

  I had no idea what I was doing. And I, like, this is my aesthetic. I like this is-- do you know what this is?

• 4:29Adam Friedland?

  This is a seren and--

• 4:31Speaker 02

  Seren and tool table.

• 4:32Adam Friedland?

  Knockoff.

• 4:32Speaker 02

  It's a knockoff.

• 4:33Adam Friedland?

  These are-- we tried to match to The Dick Cavett Show, and he used cheap knockoffs. So, we unnecessarily spent $16,000 on four of these chairs.

• 4:42Speaker 02

  Did you know that I said that when I walked in? Who was your inspiration? Dick Cavett? It looks like The Dick Cavett Show. I didn't even know that.

• 4:48Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, it's one of the most famous shows--

• 4:49Speaker 02

  These are, like--

• 4:50Adam Friedland?

  --gone, congratulations. And we all know this.

• 4:51Speaker 02

  These look like-- like, it could be Noel, like--

• 4:54Adam Friedland?

  These were Noel-- yeah, these are Eames' lobby chairs from the Noel Corporation that we unnecessarily spent $4,000 on each. And they came from a courthouse in Pennsylvania. People probably went to the death penalty for this.

• 5:07Speaker 02

  You could've gotten these, a knockoff, at Design Within Reach, probably.

• 5:10Adam Friedland?

  No, but Design Within Reach, not exactly Within Reach. You've been 1% for too long, my friend. So, tell us about St. Bart's. How's your Thanksgiving? You got--

• 5:20Speaker 02

  I have no idea what you're talking about.

• 5:22Adam Friedland?

  You got-- who'd you have? You have Katzenberg, you have Geffen, you have Sydney Sweeney. You had the guy that made Spider-Man.

• 5:34Speaker 02

  Lorne Michaels.

• 5:35Adam Friedland?

  You had Lorne Michaels.

• 5:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, you got every-- you got--

• 5:39Adam Friedland?

  You have an ambition to host SNL?

• 5:40Speaker 02

  Jared Kushner.

• 5:42Adam Friedland?

  What's he like as a guy, Jared Kushner?

• 5:44Speaker 02

  I don't-- I've never met Jared Kushner.

• 5:46Adam Friedland?

  I feel like there's just-- there's-- I can typically sense what a guy is like. He feels so, just like, what? He's like from a video game. You walk past him, and he's just on the street, and he's like-- he's like in, like, you know-- He's just a-- they call it an NPC. What are you-- like, you're like 65 years old, but you look 23?

• 6:07Speaker 02

  I'm 85. No, I'm 50. I'm in my 50s.

• 6:11Adam Friedland?

  You're in your 50s.

• 6:12Speaker 02

  Closing in.

• 6:12Adam Friedland?

  But you look incredible for 50s.

• 6:14Speaker 02

  Thank you. I looked a lot younger before Trump came to office. But to my knowledge, I've never met Jared Kushner. I've met Ivanka and all the other kids.

• 6:22Adam Friedland?

  She must be lovely.

• 6:23Speaker 02

  Yeah. But Jared's brother, Josh, is amazing.

• 6:27Adam Friedland?

  He's a--

• 6:28Speaker 02

  He's a really good dude.

• 6:28Adam Friedland?

  He's a big real estate guy.

• 6:29Speaker 02

  He's a good dude.

• 6:30Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah. He's married to the Carly-- what's her face?

• 6:33Speaker 02

  Klaus.

• 6:34Adam Friedland?

  Klaus. Klaus. Kind of a little not-- a little bit.

• 6:37Speaker 02

  She's gorgeous.

• 6:38Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, but Klaus. It just sounds like someone that's sending you to the-- to the--

• 6:42Speaker 02

  Klaus.

• 6:43Adam Friedland?

  Never mind. We don't have to get-- I get into Holocaust too early every episode. Anyway, I want to get into you, because I think you're-- I didn't know your backstory prior to, like, researching for this episode. But I think you have, like, a really interesting kind of backstory. Like, you're from the South, and you kind of, like, you did kind of an anchorman bouncing around between affiliate stations kind of situation. And then you found yourself at the top, you know? The parallel that I thought of, like, analyzing your career, was like, was Oprah Winfrey? Because she was, like, from the South. She worked in affiliate news stations, and she kind of worked her way to the top of, kind of, media.

• 7:23Speaker 02

  I think it's one of the-- who was it?

• 7:25Adam Friedland?

  Was she an inspiration for you?

• 7:26Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, of course.

• 7:27Adam Friedland?

  She's unbelievable.

• 7:28Speaker 02

  I mean, Oprah's-- she's the GOAT. She, you know, then she went the talk show route, which is sort of traditional news. Yes. I think that was one of the last-- do you know who Ben Smith is? Who's--

• 7:39Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, from Buzzfeed.

• 7:40Speaker 02

  From Semaphore.

• 7:41Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 7:42Speaker 02

  He said it was had one of the last traditional sort of news careers, where people had to go to different markets and work their way up.

• 7:49Adam Friedland?

  Does the path not exist anymore?

• 7:51Speaker 02

  It does, but not to the same extent, because you could actually go, learn the craft before the internet, make your mistakes, and then by the time you got to a big market or to network, then you were honed and you could write. You know how to do-- kids don't know how to write now. You know, you can start with this. You don't have to go around and learn. And everyone thinks that they should be, like, a network correspondent or anchor immediately, like, within a year or so. It's like, no, it doesn't-- it shouldn't work that way.

• 8:20Adam Friedland?

  How bad were your mistakes? You got someone in the electric chair or something?

• 8:24Speaker 02

  No, I mean, you know, you pronounce shit wrong. You get stuff wrong.

• 8:28Adam Friedland?

  Oh, yeah. Have you been on a news bloopers before?

• 8:31Speaker 02

  I'm sure I have.

• 8:31Adam Friedland?

  It's one of the funniest--

• 8:33Speaker 02

  It's the best.

• 8:34Adam Friedland?

  I mean, what was her name? The officer that got killed? Shit. The famous one. The lady, the mega doo-doo. You know that one?

• 8:47Speaker 02

  No.

• 8:48Adam Friedland?

  What was her name? DD mega doo doo. An officer dead in the line of duty. DD mega doo doo. News bloopers are the absolute funniest thing on earth.

• 9:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, I haven't been a news bloopers, but I have some pretty funny news moments. Well, yeah, once, once, it wasn't me. I was doing an interview and the person was satellite and their chair, the air started going out of their chair. And so the chair just started going down while she was on, that was funny. And then I have funny moments, because I didn't give a shit, and so I had funny moments. There's a funny cheesecake moment, what is it called? What's the Cheesecake Factory moment? And then there's like a, and then there was a MAGA hat funny moment. I had a bunch of funny moments.

• 9:32Adam Friedland?

  What does that mean, cheesecake MAGA hat?

• 9:34Speaker 02

  There was just a thing where we were talking about this, you know, MAGA hat, this guy wearing a MAGA hat in the Cheesecake Factory. Someone brought it up and then everybody just sort of cracked up.

• 9:42Adam Friedland?

  That was on the news?

• 9:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was on the news.

• 9:45Adam Friedland?

  So what, this guy was just wearing a hat in a restaurant?

• 9:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:48Adam Friedland?

  Sorry, I'm just, okay.

• 9:49Speaker 02

  It wasn't, it wasn't the guy in the restaurant, you have to watch it.

• 9:52Adam Friedland?

  Do you ever go to an affiliate station in a city you've never lived in before? You're like, these people are disgusting.

• 9:57Speaker 02

  No.

• 9:58Adam Friedland?

  Like, when you were in Philly, you were like, oh, I have to cover these monsters.

• 10:01Speaker 02

  No, but I.

• 10:02Adam Friedland?

  You're like, I hate all this.

• 10:04Speaker 02

  After a while, it got, it got old, like, standing in front of, you know, a place where there was, something was breaking, like, at nine in the morning and it's 11 o'clock at night, and it's like, why are we here? It's like, you know, that got old. Or just like random shootings and stabbings, I just like.

• 10:19Adam Friedland?

  What was your, like, first, kind of, major lesson that you got, like, along the way? Or, like, did you have a mentor, like, someone that, like, saw some potential in you growing up?

• 10:31Speaker 02

  I never, I never really had a mentor. I mean, folks saw potential, my first news director saw potential, because I was working here at Channel 5. That was my first news job. Fox 5.

• 10:40Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 10:40Speaker 02

  Do you know where it is? WNYW?

• 10:42Adam Friedland?

  I don't know where the building is.

• 10:43Speaker 02

  Do you remember Metro Media? You're not old enough to remember Metro Media. It's in the old Metro Media building.

• 10:47Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. Is it like this? It's kind of like.

• 10:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's kind of like this.

• 10:50Adam Friedland?

  This sounds like a Metro.

• 10:50Speaker 02

  But it's where Current Affairs started, do you remember that? It's where, like.

• 10:53Adam Friedland?

  Oh, yeah, like, uh.

• 10:54Speaker 02

  Tabloid TV started in that building.

• 10:57Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 10:57Speaker 02

  And so I worked for the 10 o'clock news. And so my first news director, one of my first news directors, I was, I was, I was a field producer and an assignment editor. And satellite feed coordinator and all that shit, and writer. And then I wanted to be on air, and I put my tape together, and she said, you're really good, I'll put you on. She started putting me on the air, and that's, that's how I built my tape.

• 11:16Adam Friedland?

  How did you know that you'd be good at that?

• 11:19Speaker 02

  I knew when I was, I knew when I was a kid.

• 11:22Adam Friedland?

  You're a good-looking guy, yeah.

• 11:23Speaker 02

  What'd you say?

• 11:24Adam Friedland?

  If you're uglier, it probably would have been scary.

• 11:26Speaker 02

  Don't come on to me, it's embarrassing.

• 11:27Adam Friedland?

  I'm not coming on to you, I'm just saying, like, when you came out of the closet on CNN, were there, like, women that were like, fuck you?

• 11:33Speaker 02

  No.

• 11:33Adam Friedland?

  You had to have had, like, ladies that were like.

• 11:36Speaker 02

  No, they were like, I don't, I don't care, he's still, or they were like disappointed.

• 11:39Adam Friedland?

  You just didn't notice them.

• 11:41Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:41Adam Friedland?

  You definitely had gals that were like, oh my god, he's the perfect man. And then they're like, motherfucker.

• 11:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:48Adam Friedland?

  Maybe.

• 11:48Speaker 02

  Why are all the good ones, they always say?

• 11:50Adam Friedland?

  Gay guys? Yeah, like, in shape and stuff. We're disgusting slops, me and my friend.

• 11:58Adam Friedland?

  You, how, how long would you consider that you've been in your field, like?

• 12:02Speaker 02

  Oh, since, uh, 1991, 92.

• 12:05Adam Friedland?

  So you're, like, that is a dramatic shift in, like, what media is and how it's.

• 12:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, I've seen it, I've seen everything.

• 12:12Adam Friedland?

  Do you conceive of it as, like, you've been in the belly of, like, a decay, or at least a decay of trust?

• 12:22Speaker 02

  Yes, a decay of trust, because it's become more corporatized over time. And that, that tends to, you know, peel away the trust. People don't trust, because they think it's too much corporate influence.

• 12:33Adam Friedland?

  You're talking about, like, CNN or, like, network news?

• 12:35Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, network news, but just corporate, just corporate media in general, just sort of mainstream media. It's all owned by companies who have, you know, their business to protect. And so you got to be careful what you say on the air.

• 12:47Adam Friedland?

  Has that, like, ever, like, conflicted with, like, like, you've had to self censor, or have you had to?

• 12:52Speaker 02

  I self censored all the time when I was on CNN.

• 12:53Adam Friedland?

  You've had to sell some bullshit crap?

• 12:55Speaker 02

  Or NBC, what do you mean sell?

• 12:57Adam Friedland?

  Like, uh, you know, the affiliate or the network wants you to, like, say, like, oh, yeah, like, we don't give you cancer from, like.

• 13:05Speaker 02

  No, I've never been told, I will say, when I was at CNN, I was never told what to say. I was never told that you must do something, except toward the last year I was there, which was not very pleasant, but.

• 13:16Adam Friedland?

  Your boss was Zucker when you were there?

• 13:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, Jeff is awesome.

• 13:20Adam Friedland?

  Does he regret not giving Trump a better contract offer for the presidency?

• 13:25Speaker 02

  No, I don't think so.

• 13:26Adam Friedland?

  Because he kind of ruined, it's kind of a little bit his fault. If Trump wasn't, like, renegotiating for the new season, he wouldn't have done the escalator and the run for president.

• 13:35Speaker 02

  That, I think that was over. I think your timeline is off there.

• 13:38Adam Friedland?

  I think he was a little bit renegotiating, he was like, Zucker, I'm going to be the president, I don't need you. And then accidentally, he became the president twice.

• 13:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:45Adam Friedland?

  It's kind of, uh, doing it twice is a little bit like, shame on him.

• 13:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, I would say it's hard to say it's one person's fault, because it takes a lot of people in the country.

• 13:55Adam Friedland?

  Zucker and Weiner, I think the two.

• 13:58Speaker 02

  Anthony Weiner?

• 13:59Adam Friedland?

  Well, had it not been for the laptop, a week, 10 days out from the election, Comey wouldn't have written the letter. It's the most damage done by any one penis of all time. We wouldn't have had, uh, literally the, uh, the end of democracy.

• 14:15Speaker 02

  I'm thinking about that.

• 14:16Adam Friedland?

  Think about it.

• 14:17Speaker 02

  Because you, you might be right.

• 14:18Adam Friedland?

  It's butterfly effect.

• 14:19Speaker 02

  Honestly, you might be right. I never thought about that.

• 14:21Adam Friedland?

  Or if they let Trump buy the Bills? He would have just been the team owner of the Buffalo Bills with Jon Bon Jovi. There's a lot of tin foil hat moments that we've had over the last couple of years. But you met your husband on election night.

• 14:34Speaker 02

  But it's kind of, how do you know this shit?

• 14:36Adam Friedland?

  Uh, well, I just thought that was, like, bizarre that you got so horny from Donald Trump winning 2016. I was sad. I was mourning, and you're like, I'm horned up.

• 14:46Speaker 02

  It's really the best story ever, honestly.

• 14:48Adam Friedland?

  Tell us the story, it's romantic.

• 14:50Speaker 02

  And we talk about it, I think, I don't know if he mentioned it in his vows, but, um.

• 14:54Adam Friedland?

  He said, thank god Donald Trump is the president, God is so horny.

• 14:58Speaker 02

  I think we mentioned it in our, like, reception speech, that there was one thing good that came out of that, but, no, it was, it's actually a really good story. Do you want to hear it?

• 15:07Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I'd love it.

• 15:08Speaker 02

  So, it was election night, and I'm not, I'm not political, I'm not a political reporter, so everything went to DC and all the folks in DC.

• 15:15Adam Friedland?

  So you were off.

• 15:15Speaker 02

  So I had the night off, and then I can't, and then Chris and I would come in the next day and, and like, do it, and then do the fun shit, or, and, and analysis.

• 15:25Speaker 02

  And so I got invited to this party at Cipriani in Soho, or downtown. And so it was, it was, it was an election night watch party, given by Harvey Weinstein.

• 15:36Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 15:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:37Adam Friedland?

  Really? So you were getting horned up with the, with Weinstein?

• 15:40Speaker 02

  No.

• 15:41Adam Friedland?

  It sounds, this is a really beautiful story.

• 15:44Speaker 02

  So he invited a bunch of people. It was, I was there, I think Martha Stewart was there, Andrew Cuomo was there, um.

• 15:52Adam Friedland?

  That had to be the best.

• 15:53Speaker 02

  Miles Teller was there.

• 15:54Adam Friedland?

  Oh, of course, uh, yeah, the drummer, yeah, yeah.

• 15:57Speaker 02

  No, yeah, whiplash, yeah, whiplash. A bunch of folks. And so we met, Tim and I met downtown, it was our first date.

• 16:02Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 16:03Speaker 02

  And we walked in, and he sat at a table like this, and you know how they make the table bigger, so it gets more people around it? And when he sat, he kicked the thing and everything fell off of the table.

• 16:12Adam Friedland?

  Oh, it's like a romantic comedy.

• 16:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was like a romantic comedy.

• 16:14Adam Friedland?

  And me, cute.

• 16:15Speaker 02

  And then when that settled down, we started seeing the numbers come in, and they were like, oh, yeah, she's still got Pennsylvania, she's still got Florida. And I was looking at my CNN email going, oh, and then we were like, let's get out of here. And then we went to the polo bar to meet my agent, and we watched the results from there, and then everyone's like, holy shit.

• 16:32Adam Friedland?

  Everyone was cheering, probably, at the polo bar.

• 16:34Speaker 02

  No.

• 16:34Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 16:35Speaker 02

  And then, um, we said, I don't want to sleep alone tonight, because this is pretty fucking scary.

• 16:40Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 16:41Speaker 02

  And he ended up staying, and I lived in Harlem then.

• 16:43Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 16:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, and so the next morning, he had to ride home on the subway with a bunch of black people, and he's like, he wanted to just go, I didn't do it.

• 16:50Adam Friedland?

  So he's a racist, your husband?

• 16:53Adam Friedland?

  So you, you met this racist guy on the night that Trump got elected?

• 16:56Speaker 02

  He voted for him. He voted for Trump, but he said, you know, because it was just a little uncomfortable.

• 17:01Adam Friedland?

  My, my parents met at a gay bar, actually.

• 17:03Speaker 02

  Did they?

• 17:04Adam Friedland?

  No, they didn't meet, but my dad sealed the deal at a gay bar.

• 17:06Speaker 02

  He had sex with her at a gay bar?

• 17:08Adam Friedland?

  No, well, I think that night. I don't know if it was at the gay bar, but, uh, they kept getting set up on blind dates, and she kept being like, this fucking guy. And she was like, this guy sucks. And it was like, three blind dates or four.

• 17:20Speaker 02

  So what were they doing in a gay bar?

• 17:21Adam Friedland?

  As the, they were, my dad was at a party, she shows up with her girls, and he's like, oh my god, it's the girl from the blind dates. He's like, maybe I'll, you know, try and chat her up again.

• 17:30Speaker 02

  Your dad was at a party at a gay bar?

• 17:32Adam Friedland?

  No, this is prior to the gay bar.

• 17:33Speaker 02

  Oh, okay.

• 17:34Adam Friedland?

  So they just go to a, a party, and it's the girl that hates him from three blind dates. And she's like, said to her girls, she's like, let's get out of here, like, I want to go dancing, right? And him and his friend, like, followed them, I guess, and they went to a gay bar, uh, like, a club. And my dad was like, oh my god, this place is gay. So him and his friend, like, held hands on the way in, because they thought that they'd get caught.

• 17:59Speaker 02

  That's the only way they could get.

• 18:00Adam Friedland?

  They'd get caught for not being gay, and I guess that, that was the bold.

• 18:03Speaker 02

  What is the test for that?

• 18:05Adam Friedland?

  It's kind of cute, it's cuter than your racist husband.

• 18:13Adam Friedland?

  It's, it's interesting, because, like, um, we're in this place in time right now where I'm kind of afforded access to, I talked to the mayor.

• 18:23Speaker 02

  It's a little nuts, isn't it?

• 18:24Adam Friedland?

  And it's just, I, I have absolutely no right, like, I, I'm just wearing glasses. Like, this grift is about to be up, but, um. What's interesting is like you talked about how like you don't have to wait in line like you did prior like going station to station. That whole pathway is gone. Is it a product of like the democratization of media? Is it a product of like everything is the media now? Everyone's a freaking journo now or like?

• 18:49Speaker 02

  Well, I don't think everything's a journo. Everyone's a journo, but I think there are different ways to get information. Like, I don't know if you would consider, I'd have to look at Larry King's resume, but a journalist, but he certainly gave information. He was in an interview. I don't think Johnny Carson was a journalist, but you certainly get information from shows like that. And some of the morning show folks are not journalists. There are people who are on now who are not, who didn't go to school for journalism, but yet they're, you know, maybe they took a path and, you know, for their career. But I think it's good and bad. Yeah, is it the democratization of media? Sure.

• 19:20Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 19:22Speaker 02

  But it's good and bad. It's bad in that there are no standards.

• 19:26Adam Friedland?

  Would it benefit from like a standardized like definition?

• 19:29Speaker 02

  It would.

• 19:30Adam Friedland?

  Right?

• 19:30Speaker 02

  It would.

• 19:31Adam Friedland?

  Why isn't there one?

• 19:34Speaker 02

  Because it's hard to control everything. I mean, the internet has made everything so hard to control. I mean, before you just had to get information. You didn't have access to information like that. You didn't have access to be able, I mean, this is basically a network in your pocket. We can go live right now and people will start watching us. You wanna do it?

• 19:50Adam Friedland?

  I don't, I don't, I'm scared of it. I mean, Zach touched the buttons.

• 19:53Speaker 02

  But you weren't able to do that and, you know, even twenty years ago, fifteen years ago.

• 19:57Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, you could have a meltdown about wearing a mask in a Walgreens, then being congress like two years later. Like, seriously, it's a, it feels a little bit like, like the class, it used to be classier.

• 20:10Speaker 02

  What, the media, you mean?

• 20:11Adam Friedland?

  It's just the country.

• 20:12Speaker 02

  Oh, the country used to be classier. Yeah, I agree with that.

• 20:14Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 20:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, look how we're dressed now.

• 20:17Adam Friedland?

  I mean, we're sloped.

• 20:18Speaker 02

  Before we'd do this, we'd have to wear like a suit or something fancy.

• 20:20Adam Friedland?

  Cause Fetterman is so hot right now. We have to, we're trying to do the thing. We're trying to like, and you know, it's just like, why can't we just be ourselves?

• 20:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, but it's good and bad. It's bad in that, again, there are no editorial rigors for the most part. And then it's good because you can actually, you don't, you're not influenced by someone else's, how they want you to tell the story.

• 20:41Adam Friedland?

  I think a lot about like when there's like, like the Boston bombing, I think was one example of this, when there's like citizen, like people on Reddit trying to like, so. There's like really catastrophic events a lot of the time, like people, like innocent people are like kind of, like, their lives are fucked with during like moments of crisis like that. And it just feels like sometimes there should be more of a, kind of a system in place to like prohibit people from like thinking that they're Batman of the media. Thinking that the dark knight of the media.

• 21:13Speaker 02

  What do you mean? What are you talking about?

• 21:14Adam Friedland?

  Well, I'm just saying like, you know, like, to me, what would make sense, cause I'm like a freaking pinko, you know, whatever, is like, there should be just a, there should be public media that doesn't have a profit incentive, right?

• 21:28Speaker 02

  You mean media that doesn't make people crazy?

• 21:29Adam Friedland?

  Well, media that's like not trying to make money for GE or something, you're like, you know.

• 21:33Speaker 02

  Well, that's what I, that's what I mean by the corporate media and that's influence. I mean, you can't fuck up a GE contract. I'm just, I'm just.

• 21:39Adam Friedland?

  But I'm trying to make money for boner pills right now. Is that, is this a better alternative? Like?

• 21:45Speaker 02

  Well, yeah, are people watching you?

• 21:47Adam Friedland?

  I think that if you have like a, a public broadcasting system with like, you know, safeguards that are kind of enumerated by, you know, legislation, like it's, it's the only way to, to kind of protect people at the end of the day.

• 22:02Speaker 02

  Well, look, I look at it differently. As long as you're not pretending, you're not pretending to be a journalist. You're, you're just being Adam.

• 22:09Adam Friedland?

  No, I was, I was gonna ask you, cause I have some headlines I wanna practice with you.

• 22:12Speaker 02

  Then that's fine, but there are people out there who pretend to be journalists and they're not, and they don't, you know, they don't have the range.

• 22:19Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 22:19Speaker 02

  And, but I don't think you have to do that. I just think, there's a difference between being an influencer, a streamer and a journalist.

• 22:26Adam Friedland?

  Not the influencer, a streamer. This is a long form Jewish style YouTube talk show. It is very important according to the newspaper. I think it's cause I'm wearing glasses. Would you feel like I'm copying you if like I went into the middle of a hurricane and just stood there with a microphone?

• 22:45Speaker 02

  There are a lot of people who do that.

• 22:46Adam Friedland?

  But you're like, that's what a journalist is supposed to do to get rained on.

• 22:49Speaker 02

  Well, that's part of it. That's what a reporter does if you're doing it.

• 22:52Adam Friedland?

  You were into that though, I could tell.

• 22:54Speaker 02

  Um, it was, it was interesting. I liked it.

• 22:57Adam Friedland?

  Were you the most extreme one? You're like, I'm gonna go to the hardest wind. Anderson Cooper doesn't have shit on me.

• 23:04Speaker 02

  No.

• 23:05Adam Friedland?

  I'm gonna go to the craziest.

• 23:07Speaker 02

  Competition like that, but it was.

• 23:08Adam Friedland?

  Why do we need a guy getting rained on?

• 23:10Speaker 02

  Well, you don't.

• 23:11Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 23:12Speaker 02

  But people love it.

• 23:13Adam Friedland?

  It's so funny.

• 23:14Speaker 02

  It is.

• 23:15Adam Friedland?

  It, it must be so fun.

• 23:17Speaker 02

  It is fun until, unless it's freezing and then you're soaking wet and then you end up, you know, with pneumonia or something, but.

• 23:22Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 23:23Speaker 02

  It is fun. It is fun because everybody watches and you're blowing around and, yeah, it's kinda fun.

• 23:28Adam Friedland?

  They have to see a guy.

• 23:29Speaker 02

  And they just, until the worst of it passes, you're just standing there and you have to come up with shit to say because they're not gonna leave you. If the, if you're aware of the bad weather hurricane or whatever it is, then they're on you the entire time. So you just have to talk and show shit.

• 23:44Adam Friedland?

  So, so coming from your background, like you're, you're from a religious family from the south. You kind of like made it to New York City. Your family backstory is pretty interesting. Like, was, is it true that you, you, there was a second family or something like that that you discovered later on in life?

• 24:01Speaker 02

  No, it wasn't a second family. My.

• 24:03Adam Friedland?

  Or there was a divorce or?

• 24:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, my, well, my mom had divorced her first husband, which is my sister's dad. My mom was like a teen, pregnant bride or whatever.

• 24:13Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 24:14Speaker 02

  And, but then years later, my mom went to work for, as she was walking to college. She passed this law office that said they needed a legal secretary needed and she applied and she got it. She went in and got the job. And then my dad was an attorney and then they ended up having a relationship. Well, my dad was married, but back then divorces were not quite as easy and he didn't divorce her. The rumor was that she was a lesbian and so they just stayed together.

• 24:43Adam Friedland?

  The other wife.

• 24:44Speaker 02

  The other wife.

• 24:45Adam Friedland?

  Sounds like your mom was a little bit being a bitch, maybe?

• 24:48Speaker 02

  No.

• 24:48Adam Friedland?

  She's like, I heard she's lesbian.

• 24:50Speaker 02

  No, my mom never said that. It was actually the other way around.

• 24:52Adam Friedland?

  Not really? She was probably cruel, yeah.

• 24:54Speaker 02

  No, she never spoke ill and she was actually very kind to the woman. And I remember, the woman never knew. I mean, I think she probably suspected that I was a dad.

• 25:03Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 25:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, for sure. She didn't know, but she didn't pry. It was like, it was kinda like, don't ask, don't tell. They, they led separate lives.

• 25:09Adam Friedland?

  So he's a lawyer, but he couldn't figure out how to get a divorce?

• 25:12Speaker 02

  No, it's not, he couldn't figure it out. He just said, you just didn't do it. And I think he was just being kind.

• 25:16Adam Friedland?

  Napoleonic code. I know what you're saying.

• 25:18Speaker 02

  Being kind, yeah.

• 25:19Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah. So he was a, he was older, is he your stepfather?

• 25:22Speaker 02

  He was older than my dad, my mom.

• 25:24Adam Friedland?

  Your mom. Is, is he Mr. Lemon?

• 25:26Speaker 02

  No.

• 25:26Adam Friedland?

  No.

• 25:27Speaker 02

  My stepdad was one of them.

• 25:27Adam Friedland?

  He was your biological father?

• 25:29Speaker 02

  My biological father. He was my biological father, but my sister is Lemon.

• 25:32Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 25:33Speaker 02

  That's her, that's their dad. My mom was married and then got a divorce, but I just took the last name, cause my parents weren't married.

• 25:40Adam Friedland?

  Was your stepdad your like, your father figure growing up or?

• 25:43Speaker 02

  He was my, everything, but he died when I was seven like that.

• 25:47Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 25:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:47Adam Friedland?

  So it was a lot of girls?

• 25:50Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah, I was nine. Would you say there's a lot of what?

• 25:54Adam Friedland?

  Girls. You have sisters, moms, grandma?

• 25:55Speaker 02

  I have two sisters. And then a stepsister, my mom remarried, grandma. It was a lot of women.

• 26:00Adam Friedland?

  They drove you nuts?

• 26:01Speaker 02

  They did.

• 26:02Adam Friedland?

  Oh, my god.

• 26:03Speaker 02

  But you learn a lot when you're, when it's all women in the house.

• 26:06Adam Friedland?

  When they're yelling at you, what do you do?

• 26:08Speaker 02

  You learn to, you have to deal with it.

• 26:10Adam Friedland?

  How do you deal with it?

• 26:11Speaker 02

  They'll yell at you, but, I mean, my sisters did, but they were also my biggest protectors.

• 26:14Adam Friedland?

  One of your biggest guests is DL Hughley?

• 26:18Speaker 02

  One of my biggest guests, well, he's a friend.

• 26:20Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, he's a friend.

• 26:21Speaker 02

  He's a lot. We do, we do shows together.

• 26:23Adam Friedland?

  And you're also DL, you're Don Lemon.

• 26:25Speaker 02

  I'm DL, Don Lemon, and at one point I was DL.

• 26:28Adam Friedland?

  You were DL?

• 26:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:29Adam Friedland?

  Is, is David Letterman active in the DL community?

• 26:37Speaker 02

  Initially.

• 26:38Adam Friedland?

  Was he? He's a, he's an inspiration.

• 26:40Speaker 02

  Did you guys get that?

• 26:42Adam Friedland?

  They didn't get it.

• 26:43Speaker 02

  Initially?

• 26:44Adam Friedland?

  Initially.

• 26:46Adam Friedland?

  Well, next question.

• 26:49Adam Friedland?

  When you moved to New York as like a young gay guy, it must've been incredible. Coming out of the south.

• 26:54Speaker 02

  In the nineties?

• 26:55Adam Friedland?

  In the nineties.

• 26:56Speaker 02

  It was really fun.

• 26:57Adam Friedland?

  Gays was over, right?

• 26:58Speaker 02

  No.

• 26:59Adam Friedland?

  No, it was like ending, right? It was on a down slope.

• 27:01Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, you didn't know it then. I mean, there was no cure. It was, actually it wasn't on the down slope. It was pretty much like, it was a height almost.

• 27:09Adam Friedland?

  What did you learn about your community? Cause like those guys that came for the decade before literally went through the Holocaust. I mean, like, you were like the next generation up?

• 27:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, the next generation up, but still, it was still part of it. I mean, like in the nineties, it was still age, AIDS was ravaging the community.

• 27:24Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 27:24Speaker 02

  And it was scary.

• 27:26Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 27:27Speaker 02

  But like people's sexual habits changed.

• 27:30Adam Friedland?

  Did it make intimacy like scary for, like, yeah?

• 27:33Speaker 02

  I think a lot of people who grew up, who are, came out around that time, I think they have intimacy issues now.

• 27:39Adam Friedland?

  I just think about those old timers. They just like, they, all of their friends died.

• 27:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:43Adam Friedland?

  I don't think that we respect them enough.

• 27:46Speaker 02

  You think they're OGs?

• 27:47Adam Friedland?

  They've been through hell and they also like, just like got beaten up and stuff prior to that, like, they were like, they weren't like on will and grace.

• 27:55Speaker 02

  No, but.

• 27:56Adam Friedland?

  They were like, thought of as like the fringes of society. They, they really took the shit.

• 28:00Speaker 02

  But it was fun then. I kinda liked it when.

• 28:03Adam Friedland?

  The thin mustache guys?

• 28:04Speaker 02

  No, I kinda liked it when being gay was like sort of special and counterculture and.

• 28:09Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 28:09Speaker 02

  Uh, now it's just, you know, all of my friends, like everyone I know is just heteronormative.

• 28:14Adam Friedland?

  It's gay of me to be straight, I feel like.

• 28:16Speaker 02

  It's what?

• 28:17Adam Friedland?

  I feel gay to be straight. You know what I mean?

• 28:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:20Adam Friedland?

  Like, I feel like I don't have tattoos and I'm straight. I'm like, I'm punk rock basically at this point.

• 28:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, do you wanna go to a gay wedding or a straight wedding?

• 28:27Adam Friedland?

  A gay wedding or a straight wedding? Why would a gay guy get married?

• 28:32Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 28:32Adam Friedland?

  What a waste of gay.

• 28:33Speaker 02

  That's what I'm talking about.

• 28:36Adam Friedland?

  Married?

• 28:37Speaker 02

  I know. I mean, my, my husband is younger, so he wanted to get married, but I didn't, I mean.

• 28:42Adam Friedland?

  Were you like, this is ridiculous?

• 28:44Speaker 02

  I did, but you can't say that. You can't say that to a generation who's now used to having the same sort of rights and accessibility as everybody else.

• 28:53Adam Friedland?

  They all went to Goldman Sachs.

• 28:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 28:56Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 28:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, so they all, you know, the younger folks are, they wanna get married, they wanna be heteronormative and for someone like me, it's all well and good. I can do it, but I did not necessarily need to have a wedding or get married. I would like the rights, the same rights as everybody else, but I didn't have to do that.

• 29:13Adam Friedland?

  Do you old head them? Do you, do you OG them?

• 29:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, fuck yeah.

• 29:17Adam Friedland?

  You're like, listen, young buck?

• 29:18Speaker 02

  Fuck yeah.

• 29:19Adam Friedland?

  Pull up your damn pants.

• 29:21Speaker 02

  I do.

• 29:22Adam Friedland?

  You, you, you're a pull up your damn pants guy?

• 29:25Speaker 02

  Kind of.

• 29:25Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah, I saw, I saw you talking about it.

• 29:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 29:27Adam Friedland?

  What do you hate most about sagging?

• 29:30Speaker 02

  Well, I don't wanna see the crack of someone's ass or their dirty underwear. It's gross.

• 29:34Adam Friedland?

  But you like, cuz it's your community, so you wanna like, you wanna be like, we, let's hold our, it's like-

• 29:40Speaker 02

  That's not, that's not-

• 29:41Adam Friedland?

  No, it's like how I like, let's not like, cause a famine and have a baby star.

• 29:45Speaker 02

  You mean the black community?

• 29:46Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah, that's how I'm critical of my community. It's my sagging is, um, let's just not bombard a civilian population with a-

• 29:54Speaker 02

  I just don't, I just don't think it's mean necessary, and it also comes from prison culture, like when you couldn't wear a belt, and so-

• 30:02Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, but so does the word punk, right?

• 30:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, but still.

• 30:05Adam Friedland?

  But, yeah, but you're not a jailhouse punk-

• 30:07Speaker 02

  How often do you use that word?

• 30:08Adam Friedland?

  Punk?

• 30:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:09Adam Friedland?

  Like punk rock, yeah. It used to meet a guy that was getting, uh, having, people were having sex with in jail, but then it became-

• 30:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, but that, and that was a different thing, that was-

• 30:18Adam Friedland?

  But punk is cool.

• 30:19Speaker 02

  It was punk is different than the way you say it would be P O N K.

• 30:24Adam Friedland?

  Punk?

• 30:24Speaker 02

  Punk.

• 30:25Adam Friedland?

  I think in the 50s it was P U N K.

• 30:27Speaker 02

  Well, that's, that-

• 30:28Adam Friedland?

  They were a prison punk.

• 30:29Speaker 02

  Punks were like-

• 30:30Adam Friedland?

  Oh, we gotta look this up on the, lemonparty.com.

• 30:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I am that guy.

• 30:35Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, you really are. Is it like, um, but is that, I mean, like, is that the same thing as trying to get married and stuff? Like, uh, kind of, uh, normativity, like, kind of like, uh-

• 30:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, there's a-

• 30:48Adam Friedland?

  Put on dockers?

• 30:49Speaker 02

  There's kind of, no, I don't think you have to wear dockers. I don't think, I'm not saying you have to dress a certain kind of way.

• 30:53Adam Friedland?

  I grew up with a lot of Jewish guys that were dressing that way, and we thought it was the coolest.

• 30:57Speaker 02

  What, with their-

• 30:58Adam Friedland?

  Sagging and like, yeah, of course.

• 31:01Speaker 02

  Oh, I mean, your generation, yeah.

• 31:02Adam Friedland?

  My generation of Jewish guys, like, grew up on hip hop.

• 31:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, but it's okay, you can get away with it.

• 31:07Adam Friedland?

  Why? What, what are you saying?

• 31:08Speaker 02

  Because white guys can get away with that.

• 31:10Adam Friedland?

  They control the weather, they control the media.

• 31:12Speaker 02

  No, not Jews, I mean, white kids.

• 31:13Adam Friedland?

  They control them, you're the one that's in the media.

• 31:15Speaker 02

  It's different than black kids who are, it's a different standard.

• 31:19Adam Friedland?

  So you're saying I should be allowed to sag, but not the, not black kids?

• 31:22Speaker 02

  You should be allowed to sag.

• 31:23Adam Friedland?

  That doesn't sound fair to black kids.

• 31:24Speaker 02

  It's okay for you, and it's easier for you.

• 31:26Adam Friedland?

  The sagging thing just doesn't-

• 31:27Speaker 02

  And it's not gonna, people aren't gonna look on you as some sort of thug or punk because you're doing it.

• 31:32Adam Friedland?

  I don't think sagging has been a thing for like 15 years.

• 31:35Speaker 02

  I still see people doing it, but, uh, yes.

• 31:37Adam Friedland?

  Who's still sagging?

• 31:38Speaker 02

  It hasn't been a thing for 15 years, you're right, and so that's when I, you know, when I said that was 15 years ago, but-

• 31:42Adam Friedland?

  You go up on the subway to a kid, you're like, you know this is from prison culture, and this means that you wanna be-

• 31:47Speaker 02

  But I see people sagging all the time. You don't see people sagging still?

• 31:50Adam Friedland?

  I don't look for it, I don't know, it's just, it's normal, it's kind of, who cares? It's worse things.

• 31:57Speaker 02

  I don't care, but if you ask me about it, I'm gonna give you my opinion.

• 31:59Adam Friedland?

  You're the one that's saying Jewish people should be allowed to do it and not black people, okay?

• 32:03Speaker 02

  I did not say that.

• 32:04Adam Friedland?

  Maybe your husband said that on election night to you.

• 32:06Speaker 02

  I did.

• 32:10Adam Friedland?

  Going back to the Oprah point, like, like, I met, I was in an elevator with her once, right?

• 32:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:14Adam Friedland?

  And I used to always have this like, kind of like, why the hell do people care so much about this lady, like, telling you to read books and stuff? And I was in an elevator, and I was like, it is, there was, she had, she's exciting. There's something so incredible about her, right?

• 32:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:31Adam Friedland?

  And like, like, coming from the South, going through news, and then kind of getting to the top of, of media. Like, um, who were like your inspirations independent of that, like, uh, like, when you were like, this is what I want in my career?

• 32:47Speaker 02

  When I started, those, this is pre Oprah, it would be like Bryant Gumbel, or Max Robinson, or even Peter Jennings, like, those were the folks that I liked. And then there was a woman who was an inspiration in my town that I saw on television, and that kind of sealed the deal, and her name was Jean West.

• 33:02Adam Friedland?

  She was local news?

• 33:03Speaker 02

  She was a local news lady.

• 33:04Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 33:04Speaker 02

  And then I saw her, and I was like, oh, well, that's like my family, it's not like, you don't mind, and so I was like, oh, I can do that.

• 33:09Adam Friedland?

  She wasn't like Jimmy J.J. Walker on the news?

• 33:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, nothing wrong with that, but that was the only representation we had.

• 33:14Adam Friedland?

  I can't imagine anyone doing that on the news.

• 33:17Speaker 02

  No, but I mean, you did not have-

• 33:19Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I know.

• 33:19Speaker 02

  You know, people who looked like me, for, a lot of people who looked like me on the news, and she was, I saw her and I was like, oh, wow, she's amazing.

• 33:28Adam Friedland?

  When were black people, like, did, was that a later thing, in the 70s?

• 33:32Speaker 02

  70s, and, yeah, it really came to prominence a lot, like, more so in the 80s.

• 33:35Adam Friedland?

  On the news?

• 33:36Speaker 02

  On the news, yeah.

• 33:37Adam Friedland?

  What a ridiculous place we live.

• 33:39Speaker 02

  I know.

• 33:39Adam Friedland?

  That's like not long-

• 33:41Speaker 02

  It wasn't that long ago, I know.

• 33:42Adam Friedland?

  And you were like the first-

• 33:43Speaker 02

  Now I'm old, old head of you.

• 33:45Adam Friedland?

  You're old head, you were the first gay anchor in like, uh, cable news?

• 33:49Speaker 02

  No, I think, well, the first one, the first person who was really out was, uh, Rachel Maddow. But she wasn't Rachel Maddow like she is now, she was, I mean, she was a big deal, and she was on MSNBC. And I don't know if Rachel calls herself a journalist, or a writer, or whatever, but anyways, um, she was definitely a television host, and she was out, which was admirable. First, she sent me flowers, she was like, one of the first people we had to reach out and say congratulations, and you're gonna be great. So, yeah, and then me, and there was another guy-

• 34:19Adam Friedland?

  It seems insane to me that, like, that's not, like, I feel like everyone's gay, I feel like the entire Republican Party-

• 34:24Speaker 02

  Well, it's a big deal, but, I mean, it's, it was a big deal back then, it's not a big deal now, nobody cares.

• 34:29Adam Friedland?

  If you were covering like, um, uh, a figure that's like, working to pass legislation that like, would damage your community, or take rights away from you, and you understood that they were-

• 34:43Speaker 02

  Gay?

• 34:44Adam Friedland?

  Gay. What is the, what is, you would out them?

• 34:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:47Adam Friedland?

  Is there, like, what is the line that you towed journalistically, like?

• 34:51Speaker 02

  For what, outing someone?

• 34:52Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I mean, like, it's just like, it, I mean, my imagine, in my imagination, like, it's like, a lot of these fellows are like-

• 34:59Speaker 02

  I don't think you need to out someone if they're not a hypocrite.

• 35:01Adam Friedland?

  Right.

• 35:02Speaker 02

  Right, so there's no, it's nobody's business.

• 35:04Adam Friedland?

  All of the Republicans are-

• 35:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's nobody's business, but if you are, you know, proposing legislation or enacting legislation that is, you know, the antithesis of what you're doing,

• 35:14Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 35:15Speaker 02

  then, of course, it should be called out.

• 35:17Adam Friedland?

  Did you ever find yourself, uh, weighing that?

• 35:20Speaker 02

  What do you mean?

• 35:21Adam Friedland?

  As a journalist, where you saw like someone doing anti-gay kind of legislation or something that you knew to be-

• 35:28Speaker 02

  No, but I've had to report on it, I mean, there are lots of figures who are in the news, but I didn't know, look, again, I'm not a DC reporter, I did not just report on politics, so I wasn't that into it, but there certainly were rumors about people, and then you'd hear about them hitting on, you know, their interns, or staffers, and that kind of thing.

• 35:43Adam Friedland?

  And then advocating for taking rights away from your community?

• 35:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's, it's so happen, people would say the more conservative they are, the more homophobic.

• 35:52Adam Friedland?

  So would you consider pulling the trigger if it ever-

• 35:54Speaker 02

  The more homophobic they are, the gayer they are.

• 35:55Adam Friedland?

  I imagine, cuz you're thinking about gay all day long, you're gay.

• 35:59Speaker 02

  Where, which is true, because if you just-

• 36:02Adam Friedland?

  It's just the way you're fixating.

• 36:03Speaker 02

  Allowed yourself to do it, you wouldn't have to think about it all day long.

• 36:06Adam Friedland?

  To be happy and be rich, like, God forbid.

• 36:11Speaker 02

  You think if you were gay, gay makes you rich and successful?

• 36:14Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, you work harder. I think gay guys work harder.

• 36:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:18Adam Friedland?

  You went into cable 2006 then?

• 36:20Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 36:21Adam Friedland?

  And so that was like, end of Bush?

• 36:22Speaker 02

  When I went into cable, initially, like, broadcast people looked down on cable, and even some local people who, if you worked for like-

• 36:29Adam Friedland?

  It was trashy.

• 36:30Speaker 02

  If you went, if you worked for a network O and O, which was a network owned and operated station, like, if you worked for, you know, W A B C, or W N B C, or K, K N B C, or whatever, and these were the stations that the networks owned, okay, that was considered prestigious, and then broadcast news was considered prestigious. And cable was like, you know, not so cool, not so prestigious, anybody could work there, that's, that was the perception, and they called it the Chicken Noodle Network, right, CNN?

• 36:57Adam Friedland?

  Oh, that must've hurt.

• 36:58Speaker 02

  But then that flipped, you, but, but it all, but actually, it started to, it flipped under Trump.

• 37:04Adam Friedland?

  Under Trump?

• 37:05Speaker 02

  Because people, yeah.

• 37:06Adam Friedland?

  No way.

• 37:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, because it became more relevant, and people were-

• 37:10Adam Friedland?

  Not during Obama, Fox News came up during, I mean, it's kind of-

• 37:14Speaker 02

  But-

• 37:15Adam Friedland?

  Bush and then into Obama, I feel like that's when it was over.

• 37:17Speaker 02

  Yes, but the, I think the, the, um, the apex or whatever, or the zenith of cable news was-

• 37:25Adam Friedland?

  Maddow telling my dad that Putin's trying to kill him.

• 37:27Speaker 02

  No, no, was, uh-

• 37:29Adam Friedland?

  That was hot.

• 37:30Speaker 02

  George Floyd, COVID, and Trump all at the same time.

• 37:32Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 37:32Speaker 02

  It was a trifecta.

• 37:33Adam Friedland?

  You witnessed all of that as-

• 37:35Speaker 02

  I saw the rise of cable news, cuz people, it was on all day.

• 37:38Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 37:38Speaker 02

  And, and, and so the internet started to come in, and people realized, I don't have to wait until 5 o'clock, or 6 o'clock, or 6:30 to get the news. I don't have to just get the news on the morning show, and then wait all day to get an evening broadcast, and so people just started watching more cable news.

• 37:53Adam Friedland?

  It's kind of too much of the news, right?

• 37:54Speaker 02

  Too much of the news, and then that's when cable became vogue and fashion, and then, then I just happened to be, it was just timing for me.

• 38:02Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, did you like, um-

• 38:04Speaker 02

  I'd never watched CNN before I went to work there, I had no idea who the people were.

• 38:08Adam Friedland?

  Did you have like a concept of like, we're part of an institution that is losing the public, and we're desperate to like, keep their attention somewhat, like-

• 38:17Speaker 02

  Wait, say again, what?

• 38:18Adam Friedland?

  Like, the, the, like, uh, did you feel like, cuz the point we're at right now is that like, faith in traditional, like, corporate media is, is like, the lowest it's ever been, I feel like. Like, people just think it's, everything's a lie, and they, you know, people watch YouTube now, right, and like-

• 38:36Speaker 02

  It's their number one network.

• 38:38Adam Friedland?

  Right, and it's like, um, did you feel it while you were in corporate media, did you feel that grip loosening?

• 38:45Speaker 02

  I did feel it loosening, but not as much as it had, because I was still in a bubble, and when you're there, because you are so, um, you know, enmeshed in it, you think that everyone is paying attention, and so I would say, oh my gosh, you know, did you hear about, I'd be covering something all day, and then I'd go hang out with friends or people, and I would say, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and they'd go, what's that?

• 39:05Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 39:05Speaker 02

  And so I think people, you know, in, especially in cable news, they think that everyone is paying attention to everything, and it's not, so, partially, it is, I think, you know, Fox News kind of started it. You know, Roger Ailes kind of started the-

• 39:20Adam Friedland?

  The goat.

• 39:20Speaker 02

  The, yeah, he kind of started people to, the distrust in news.

• 39:24Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 39:25Speaker 02

  Um, because he inserted, you know, characters, right wing, right wing characters into, you know, the prime time ecosystem. But part of it, it's partially our own fault, and I include myself as well.

• 39:38Adam Friedland?

  Do you have a regret, or is, is there something you look back on, you're like, that's fucked up?

• 39:42Speaker 02

  I can't criticize corporate media, and, cuz I was a part of it for such a long time, and it's only been, you know, three years since I've been gone from corporate news, and people still associate me with it, but there were things that, you know, I, uh, I probably could've done that would have helped, but-

• 39:59Adam Friedland?

  You're gonna save the news?

• 40:01Speaker 02

  Well, I think if I could have done, honestly, and I don't, probably at the time I can't because I'm looking back now and with a 2025 lens on, you know, 21, 20, 22, 23 when I was there. I think if I could do in that corporate structure what I do now, it would be much more beneficial for America, the world, and the corporate structure. That's what they're missing. I think the, I think the folks in those, the corporate media should start hiring people like you and like me to come in and do, yeah. But, yeah, but they don't have to, you don't, they don't have to promote you as a news show. You can be a talk show on the, on the network.

• 40:39Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that-

• 40:42Speaker 02

  Because it's hard to, you have to, you have to untrain-

• 40:44Adam Friedland?

  I'd probably get in trouble.

• 40:45Speaker 02

  No, you would. You would get in trouble now.

• 40:47Adam Friedland?

  The best thing of like me having the show here is that I have kind of creative autonomy.

• 40:50Speaker 02

  But if they allowed you to do that, then you wouldn't-

• 40:53Adam Friedland?

  They probably wouldn't.

• 40:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, they wouldn't. They wouldn't. But if they did, I think it would be much better for them.

• 40:57Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 40:58Speaker 02

  They wouldn't lose revenue and viewers.

• 41:00Adam Friedland?

  What do you think that shift is? When you say they need people that are doing more like what you're doing right now, what, what have you changed subsequently?

• 41:05Speaker 02

  Well, they need people who are authentic. The thing that I, that I had to untrain myself, untrain and retrain myself.

• 41:13Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 41:13Speaker 02

  Because I, I used to second guess myself all the time, like second, third, like before anything came out of my mouth, I was like, okay.

• 41:20Adam Friedland?

  But that's good. It's the news. You have to be careful.

• 41:21Speaker 02

  No, not always, because then people at home aren't getting what they should be getting and people, and you're not serving, it, it's not relatable. Because people at home aren't filtering themselves that much.

• 41:31Adam Friedland?

  You're saying that the presentation has to be authentic.

• 41:33Speaker 02

  The presentation has to be authentic.

• 41:34Adam Friedland?

  But sometimes when you just let it rip, you need like sourcing and you need to be sure-

• 41:38Speaker 02

  I'm not talking about source, it's a whole different thing. I'm not saying let it rip and lie. I'm saying have the conversations that people really have at home.

• 41:44Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 41:45Speaker 02

  And, and, you know, that are more productive.

• 41:49Adam Friedland?

  Do you miss the Jussie Smollett story? I just miss it.

• 41:52Speaker 02

  The Smollett story?

• 41:53Adam Friedland?

  It was just so nice. When you think back to it, it's like, whoa, that was a great one.

• 41:56Speaker 02

  What was nice about that? There was nothing nice.

• 41:58Adam Friedland?

  He was just a liar.

• 42:00Speaker 02

  He's a liar.

• 42:01Adam Friedland?

  You said you, you, you got, you got attached to that somehow, no?

• 42:05Speaker 02

  I got attached to that, uh, wrongfully.

• 42:07Adam Friedland?

  They said that you were in cahoots with Smollett.

• 42:10Speaker 02

  That was a lie.

• 42:11Adam Friedland?

  You were his, you were-

• 42:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, that was a lie.

• 42:13Adam Friedland?

  Well, you were, you were the third, it was the African brothers and you, you were the third accessory.

• 42:19Speaker 02

  No.

• 42:20Adam Friedland?

  That's what I understood.

• 42:21Speaker 02

  No, stop it.

• 42:21Adam Friedland?

  I found that out on the, on the-

• 42:23Speaker 02

  No, you know what happened is, um, he, uh, I knew him from, we had mutual friends from Harlem.

• 42:31Adam Friedland?

  From the liar community.

• 42:32Speaker 02

  And I, and I knew, I knew it was, we knew it was a lie right away, like immediately. I knew it was a lie.

• 42:37Adam Friedland?

  How'd you know?

• 42:38Speaker 02

  He's, he hates me because I called him out.

• 42:41Adam Friedland?

  So you texted me, you said you're busted.

• 42:42Speaker 02

  But, but if you, but that's not out there in the narrative. They, everyone thinks like, oh my God, you, I was like, no, he's a liar. No one believed it. In Chicago, at like 10 degrees outside, that someone is looking for-

• 42:52Adam Friedland?

  With a noose.

• 42:52Speaker 02

  Jussie Smollett with a noose and a MAGA hat in Chicago.

• 42:54Adam Friedland?

  And just go to Subway?

• 42:55Speaker 02

  How would they even know what he, who he was?

• 42:57Adam Friedland?

  Well, because he's huge. Power is one of the biggest shows on television.

• 43:00Speaker 02

  It's not Power. It was Empire.

• 43:02Adam Friedland?

  Empire, yeah.

• 43:03Speaker 02

  So, um, everyone was trying to get an interview with him and I had his number, so I was trying to get an interview with him. And I said, Jussie, come on, no, nobody believes you. If you want to get your story out, you should come on. The cops don't believe you, people don't believe you. Come on and tell your story. That's what any journalist should be doing. And then, but he said, I didn't want to turn my phone over because I had texts from Don Lemon there. I don't, I didn't give a fuck if they saw my text.

• 43:26Adam Friedland?

  No, he was protecting you.

• 43:27Speaker 02

  No, he's not protecting me. He says nothing-

• 43:28Adam Friedland?

  You should say thank you to Jussie a little bit for-

• 43:30Speaker 02

  There was nothing in there that would have gotten me in trouble except for trying to get an interview.

• 43:32Adam Friedland?

  No, I think he respected you. So you said you're, they have you denserized, you liar.

• 43:35Speaker 02

  I think he was just lying. I think he was just lying because-

• 43:38Adam Friedland?

  There's something nice about a liar like that, right?

• 43:41Speaker 02

  You like that?

• 43:41Adam Friedland?

  Like a gay liar, it's, there's something charm, like, uh, what's his name? Uh, from the Republican congressman, uh, Santos. It's just-

• 43:49Speaker 02

  But who's a Santos effect?

• 43:51Adam Friedland?

  There's something kind of just like great. It's like this guy's going for it with the lies.

• 43:55Speaker 02

  Well, I don't know if he has, I don't know if he has to be gay.

• 43:56Adam Friedland?

  And it can't last forever. It can't last forever, right?

• 43:59Speaker 02

  I know, but I don't know if he has to be gay. There are a lot of heterosexual liars.

• 44:02Adam Friedland?

  No, but there's something funny, funnier if it's like, because it's more, do you think of Trump as like a campy figure or a queen?

• 44:09Speaker 02

  Trump is so gay.

• 44:10Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. And it's, it's, it's, that's why-

• 44:13Speaker 02

  I've said that before. You guys aren't surprised by that, are you?

• 44:14Adam Friedland?

  He's marketed in terms of like machismo, but if you like look at like even the interior of the house, it's Liberace.

• 44:20Speaker 02

  Look, he, he's taking over a gay anthem. YMCA, that's the gayest song ever.

• 44:24Adam Friedland?

  It's incredible. The cruising for-

• 44:26Speaker 02

  I can't even enjoy it anymore.

• 44:28Adam Friedland?

  He's at, he, his song is a cruising for dick song that-

• 44:31Speaker 02

  Yeah. At the YMCA, in the locker room.

• 44:35Adam Friedland?

  I mean, it just must, you really should do, uh, a right wing pivot. It must be so fun.

• 44:41Speaker 02

  You mean, I should become a right wing?

• 44:43Adam Friedland?

  First of all, the money's good.

• 44:44Speaker 02

  Oh, I thought about, you're way-

• 44:46Adam Friedland?

  The money's good and like, think about how much fun they, this, this batshit old queen is talking about-

• 44:51Speaker 02

  You're about 15 years too late.

• 44:52Adam Friedland?

  A golfer's dick size, like a hundred years ago?

• 44:56Speaker 02

  You're 15 years too late. Can you imagine if I had become, everyone thought, before Trump, people thought I was a black conservative on CNN.

• 45:03Adam Friedland?

  I, I still think so.

• 45:04Speaker 02

  Okay, yes.

• 45:04Adam Friedland?

  I think you're a conservative in, in, uh, whatever, your better men's clothing.

• 45:09Speaker 02

  I have some conservative leanings. I do, but-

• 45:11Adam Friedland?

  What are your main conservatives? The pulling up the pants?

• 45:13Speaker 02

  Well, that's-

• 45:15Adam Friedland?

  Come on, you gotta quit with that. It's not nice to the kids. Oh, I'm a rich guy. I'm a rich guy and I'm telling you that your problem is pants? Maybe it's just a bit, they, maybe they're, it was hand me down pants and they're growing into it. You don't, what, their butt cracks are holding them back in this world?

• 45:35Adam Friedland?

  Tom, is getting a vape? I'm sorry.

• 45:38Speaker 02

  Is there any water around this table?

• 45:39Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, let's get a water. I, I want to get, uh, uh, Velo, actually. Do you have Velo? No, I'll get him water. I'm sorry. Lemon, I was really cooking on that. This episode is brought to you by eBay Live. Here's how it goes. First, you're just watching eBay Live, seeing some rare finds, not even bidding, just lurking, and then you see a rare rookie card. Go for an absolute steal. A 90s handbag comes up and you have to jump in. Maybe put that, uh, put that rookie card in the handbag. Maybe you lose your first auction. You bid again and win. And that winning feeling, it's such a rush because you know everyone else wanted it too.

• 46:17Adam Friedland?

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• 47:27Adam Friedland?

  Kane.

• 47:30Adam Friedland?

  Do gay guys like Bob Dylan?

• 47:35Adam Friedland?

  I've always wondered. I feel like no.

• 47:40Speaker 02

  Do gay guys like Bob Dylan?

• 47:42Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah. It's, it's a good question.

• 47:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, of course.

• 47:45Adam Friedland?

  No.

• 47:47Speaker 02

  What, what do you mean? Like his music?

• 47:48Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 47:49Speaker 02

  Yeah. It's not something you're gonna dance to in a club.

• 47:51Adam Friedland?

  He's like Streisand for me. He's my Streisand, right?

• 47:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, gay, gay men like Bob Dylan?

• 47:59Adam Friedland?

  No, they like having fun and stuff. I like-

• 48:03Speaker 02

  Oh, because Bob Dylan makes you sad?

• 48:05Adam Friedland?

  No.

• 48:05Speaker 02

  And you want to be all weepy?

• 48:07Adam Friedland?

  No, it's about like, you know, it's just, it feels like it's, I don't know, it makes sense to me that gay guys-

• 48:11Speaker 02

  What's your Bob Dylan song?

• 48:13Adam Friedland?

  The, every, every single thing. I mean, like, you can't even, brother, you can't even start. Is there a competition, like, when you're at the top?

• 48:23Speaker 02

  No.

• 48:25Adam Friedland?

  Like, there are such few spots, right? Like, you were like, uh, you were at, like, do you want back in the game or?

• 48:33Speaker 02

  No.

• 48:34Adam Friedland?

  No.

• 48:34Speaker 02

  No.

• 48:35Adam Friedland?

  You don't want back in the game? But you got the desk and stuff and the suit?

• 48:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, but that's all rented.

• 48:42Adam Friedland?

  Who cares? I mean, it's just, uh, it's like, it's a, it's kind of a, I guess as legacy media fades, there is still a press, it's like why talk shows still exist.

• 48:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:54Adam Friedland?

  No one's watching fucking late night, right? But it's kind of this legacy media product that you just have to have.

• 49:00Speaker 02

  It's almost like people performing for themselves.

• 49:03Adam Friedland?

  Well, I don't know. Fallon's the only one watching Fallon, but you know, it's just kind of a thing you're supposed to have.

• 49:09Speaker 02

  No, but a lot of the people who are watching are like industry, kind of industry kind of people who are still attached to that kind of, that kind of television, which is great. I mean, I love Jimmy Fallon. I know Jimmy. I know Kim Mal-

• 49:20Adam Friedland?

  He's a colleague.

• 49:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, and, and Seth. But, great shows, um, and you know, even the, the cable news. So people still watch it. Television has a prestige. It's gonna have it for a minute, but no, I get the same-

• 49:36Speaker 02

  I get the same thing out of doing it the way that I do it that I did when I was there. Without all the pretense.

• 49:42Adam Friedland?

  It's just, you could say anything on this crap.

• 49:45Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 49:46Adam Friedland?

  I have to stop myself because like now comedians people think are smart.

• 49:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 49:51Adam Friedland?

  I'm one of the dumbest guys F, right? And I could just say Covid transmission vaccine re- and then people would be like it's on the, it's on the screen.

• 50:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:00Adam Friedland?

  There must be something to it, you know?

• 50:03Speaker 02

  But I think comedians perform a very important role. I do.

• 50:07Adam Friedland?

  No, it's too much. They're making too much of it.

• 50:10Speaker 02

  Well, I don't know. My friend DL is very important, I think.

• 50:13Adam Friedland?

  From the community.

• 50:14Speaker 02

  From the community. And he's also, he also gives information and he's very political and he's in tune with the news and I would watch him for...

• 50:21Adam Friedland?

  Don't get the news from a comedian. Get it from the news.

• 50:24Speaker 02

  Do you think that you're different than me? You think you're different than someone who's on television? We're all human beings. We're multifaceted. It's not like you're just a one-note person. No one is.

• 50:33Adam Friedland?

  I think seeing how like, you remember like when a conspiracy theorist used to be like a guy that smelled like pee at the library?

• 50:43Speaker 02

  Or like your uncle?

• 50:44Adam Friedland?

  He used to just be the smelliest like, and he was wearing like a Vietnam jacket and you're like, good luck with that library guy. Now it's literally nothing is real anymore.

• 50:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:56Adam Friedland?

  And I feel like it's, that's really, uh, it's, and, and things are happening so fast.

• 51:02Speaker 02

  Now that guy has a very successful podcast and makes millions of dollars a year.

• 51:05Adam Friedland?

  No, that guy is still in the library smelling like pee, but he's like, I should have, I, I could have done this. I could have been, that guy just still smells like piss. Well, I mean, it's, do you find yourself like engaging with this as a beat? Or as like an area of focus? Do you find that like it affects your like?

• 51:24Speaker 02

  No. I don't engage in conspiracy theories on...

• 51:26Adam Friedland?

  Well, but you're covering this.

• 51:27Speaker 02

  On my show. But, and I don't cover that. I don't cover that it was fake, but it's a lot of it, a lot of it is out there. And I believe you do have to have some sort of evidence or you become a conspiracy theorist. Like people think that there were anomalies with the election. And so, okay, it's okay to think that, but no one is pushing it through and asking people to change votes because of it. Or, you know, some investigation that's going to continue to go on and on and on forever when there's actually no evidence that it happened. But people do believe it. So that's why I asked.

• 51:54Adam Friedland?

  What was it like being on the news January 6th?

• 51:57Speaker 02

  Um, kinda surreal because...

• 52:00Adam Friedland?

  They thought they were gonna win?

• 52:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 52:02Adam Friedland?

  They were running at the building. They thought they were gonna beat the government?

• 52:05Speaker 02

  They thought that they had won.

• 52:07Adam Friedland?

  What do you mean win? They like smoked weed in the Capitol.

• 52:09Speaker 02

  They had won the election and therefore that they were going, you know, for just, it was justified to go in there.

• 52:15Adam Friedland?

  They kinda did like a, like a pranks when they got into the building. There's a guy who's like, I'm gonna fart on Pelosi's chair.

• 52:21Speaker 02

  No, they didn't do that.

• 52:22Adam Friedland?

  Another guy took a podium.

• 52:23Speaker 02

  No, they shit on stuff.

• 52:25Adam Friedland?

  They pooped. I mean, that's kind of like...

• 52:27Speaker 02

  They pooped and peed on stuff.

• 52:29Adam Friedland?

  It was one of the dumbest things that we've ever seen anyone try.

• 52:32Speaker 02

  Well, isn't that kind of the point? And that's probably why they were pardoned. Because he realized, I think at some level, that he co-opted those poor people and that he manipulated them.

• 52:41Adam Friedland?

  No, because he was probably just like, fuck you.

• 52:43Speaker 02

  They're grown ass people, but...

• 52:44Adam Friedland?

  I'm gonna get this caveman out of Gitmo. Fuck you. I'm Trump.

• 52:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 52:49Adam Friedland?

  Do you think he's ever gonna get in trouble for anything?

• 52:51Speaker 02

  Um, no.

• 52:54Adam Friedland?

  It's awesome.

• 52:55Speaker 02

  Well, now, I mean, he's president. Before, if he wasn't president, he might be in a orange jumpsuit.

• 53:00Adam Friedland?

  How many times we said that?

• 53:01Speaker 02

  No, if he wasn't president, of course.

• 53:03Adam Friedland?

  Tefloned on. He gets away with, he doesn't...

• 53:05Speaker 02

  He's gotten away with all of it pretty much.

• 53:06Adam Friedland?

  He never gets in trouble.

• 53:07Speaker 02

  Yeah. They, they throw all the cases out or they put him on hold.

• 53:11Adam Friedland?

  He really defeated you guys, I think.

• 53:13Speaker 02

  I was never at war with him.

• 53:15Adam Friedland?

  Well, what it is was like, um, the media is there to...

• 53:18Speaker 02

  But he did, he actually did damage the media a lot. Trust in the media, yeah.

• 53:22Adam Friedland?

  Because the fact check never worked, right? Because his followers know he's lying, right? So it's like if they know he's lying, but they say he's lying for us.

• 53:32Speaker 02

  No, I don't think his followers...

• 53:33Adam Friedland?

  Then what is the purpose of like a, like a check on that?

• 53:36Speaker 02

  No, I don't think they know he's lying. They just think that they don't care. So it never, it never registers with them.

• 53:41Adam Friedland?

  I think they know he's lying.

• 53:42Speaker 02

  I don't think that some of them understand that he's lying because they actually believe it. There are true believers out there. There are people who believe the economy is great and better right now.

• 53:51Adam Friedland?

  Okay, so what did you hear about that? Was it fun on the island? Like, how many people go that way? You said, you said you knew.

• 54:01Speaker 02

  On what?

• 54:02Adam Friedland?

  The island.

• 54:03Speaker 02

  What island?

• 54:04Adam Friedland?

  Was it like the, was it like sealed drums, like the Girls Gone Wild commercial?

• 54:08Speaker 02

  What island are you talking about?

• 54:09Adam Friedland?

  You know, the guy, the main, the, you know, the top dog.

• 54:12Speaker 02

  You said who?

• 54:13Adam Friedland?

  Mr. Epstein.

• 54:16Adam Friedland?

  Was he funny?

• 54:17Speaker 02

  You know you would have gotten on that plane if someone...

• 54:18Adam Friedland?

  I would have been so impressed by the wealth and then I would have gotten there and be like, Dershowitz, what are you doing? It's, uh, I mean, that's another thing where it's like, uh, it seems like there's been a break, right? Between the MAGA kind of, what is MAGA at this point? Like, uh, if Marjorie Taylor Greene is like, I'm out. Like, what, what is left?

• 54:39Speaker 02

  A lot of people are out. A lot of people are gonna, I think a lot of people are gonna fall out. I think she's kind of leading the way as an example. And I think she's more, at least for now, I don't see that she's lost any power.

• 54:51Adam Friedland?

  You fuck with her?

• 54:53Speaker 02

  No, not really. I mean, I see her for who she is, but I would sit down and talk to her.

• 54:56Adam Friedland?

  Who is she? What's her vibe like?

• 54:58Speaker 02

  Well, she's a, she's a...

• 54:59Adam Friedland?

  Is she funny?

• 55:00Speaker 02

  No. She's a bigot. She's a loud mouth. She's smarter politically than I gave her credit for. But she has all those things that she did before she started saying the right thing. Before the pivot.

• 55:12Adam Friedland?

  How many times have you met this, the gentleman, Mr. Trump?

• 55:15Speaker 02

  Oh, God, a lot. Ten, maybe.

• 55:19Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 55:20Speaker 02

  I've interviewed him many times.

• 55:22Adam Friedland?

  What do you make of him?

• 55:24Speaker 02

  Um, look, he can be charming in person, but, um, I, I find him to be very insecure. I just don't like liars. That's, lying is my thing. That's the only, that's one of the only things that...

• 55:38Adam Friedland?

  What's the last lie you told?

• 55:39Speaker 02

  I don't lie.

• 55:41Adam Friedland?

  Come on, bro.

• 55:41Speaker 02

  I know, I don't lie. That's one of my things. I will tell you, I'd rather tell you the truth.

• 55:45Adam Friedland?

  You were on the Communist News Network. You definitely lied.

• 55:49Speaker 02

  Don't lie.

• 55:50Adam Friedland?

  You've never told...

• 55:51Speaker 02

  No, I have told a lie, but I don't lie.

• 55:53Adam Friedland?

  Try to think of the last lie you told.

• 55:54Speaker 02

  The last time I lied, I think I told these guys I was excited to do the show.

• 55:57Adam Friedland?

  Shut up.

• 56:01Adam Friedland?

  I, I guess like, um, what's your kind of project? Like moving forward? You, you see your careers shifted, right? Like, what is, what's, what is the ambition, right? And how does it like, where does it fit in? Where do you see yourself fitting in?

• 56:16Speaker 02

  Well, I would like to, to build my network and have some folks who are working for me correspondents everywhere and have my own little...

• 56:24Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 56:24Speaker 02

  Network or a big network.

• 56:26Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 56:26Speaker 02

  Um, and that's it.

• 56:28Adam Friedland?

  And these guys?

• 56:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, they're, they're part of it.

• 56:30Adam Friedland?

  Are you ready for on-air?

• 56:32Speaker 02

  They've been on-air.

• 56:33Adam Friedland?

  We've been on-air. What do you guys do? What are your big hits been?

• 56:36Speaker 02

  The Clipfarmers.

• 56:37Speaker 05

  Yeah, we have a podcast that just went on TMZ.

• 56:40Adam Friedland?

  Oh, you got TMZ? That's big.

• 56:42Speaker 05

  Yeah, TMZ does.

• 56:43Adam Friedland?

  What, you TMZ'd your own guys?

• 56:45Speaker 02

  No.

• 56:45Adam Friedland?

  Yes, you, yes, sort of, yeah.

• 56:47Speaker 05

  Kinda.

• 56:47Speaker 02

  Well, I didn't put it on TMZ.

• 56:49Speaker 05

  But we were also on IRL. We went to the protests and we were interviewing people while he was in the studio.

• 56:53Adam Friedland?

  On TMZ?

• 56:54Speaker 02

  No, on my, on my show.

• 56:56Adam Friedland?

  TMZ clipped the podcast, but we do like, we help with the, the live streaming. We went to the Chicago, Miss Chicago, we covered the ICE raids.

• 57:03Speaker 05

  He goes live in the, where we go to Congress.

• 57:05Speaker 02

  Oh, we go to the Capitol and we go live in the Capitol, all the office buildings.

• 57:09Speaker 05

  Right now, that's done it, other than...

• 57:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 57:11Adam Friedland?

  Are you gonna send one of these guys to a hurricane? See what, see what they're made out of?

• 57:15Speaker 02

  I think they'd be great.

• 57:16Adam Friedland?

  Really? He looks sturdier.

• 57:18Speaker 02

  He's from Florida. His dad actually did hurricane coverage for us.

• 57:20Adam Friedland?

  Oh, you're Florida. You have the experience, but you look sturdier as a gentleman. You know, I think I can withstand those winds. Does he like bring you into a conference room and they have like a kind of a swamp fan? And he kind of tests you out, see if you're ready for the hurricane?

• 57:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 57:34Adam Friedland?

  That's actually his, that's the other... You're not category four material, sir.

• 57:38Speaker 05

  No, you're not.

• 57:39Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 57:39Speaker 02

  His dad is a meteorologist. He's a weatherman.

• 57:42Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 57:42Speaker 02

  So he does hur- his dad does hurricane coverage for us.

• 57:45Adam Friedland?

  He was on this show?

• 57:46Speaker 02

  My show.

• 57:49Adam Friedland?

  Should we get a weatherman?

• 57:50Speaker 02

  You should.

• 57:50Speaker 05

  You need one.

• 57:51Adam Friedland?

  Um, I really appreciate your time. I, I, I think it must be like, for you to have seen such a shift in your field. Uh, I think, I guess it's like, is there a course correction that's required? I mean, that, that's my main kind of thing I was left wondering.

• 58:10Speaker 02

  I, this, like, you know, getting pushed out of CNN, I think, was the, a blessing in disguise. Cause I got to, like, not many people get to reinvent themselves later and I got to reinvent myself.

• 58:21Adam Friedland?

  What about for how people consume like the news though?

• 58:24Speaker 02

  Well, that's, well, this is where people are consuming the news.

• 58:26Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 58:27Speaker 02

  And so I want to be where the audience is. The audience is on social media and, and, and streaming or digital. It's on YouTube. It's not, you know, no longer, well, it's still there at the networks, but, you know, less, less so every day.

• 58:39Adam Friedland?

  How do we like avoid like the lack of kind of formal editorial process that we can be exposed to?

• 58:46Speaker 02

  What do you mean? How do we avoid it?

• 58:47Adam Friedland?

  Like, I mean, online. You could say anything right now. You say Adam Friedland is like the fucking smartest guy in the world. And then some guy will see, it's on a screen, he'll like believe it.

• 58:56Speaker 02

  Adam Friedland is the smartest guy in the world.

• 58:59Adam Friedland?

  Don Lively. Thanks a lot, man.

• 59:02Speaker 02

  Thanks, my brother.