What started as a comedy podcast among friends—absurd and often in bad taste—has evolved into the vanguard of the new media interview. Adam Friedland’s eponymous show is entertainment for disillusioned Internet denizens who aren’t quite ready to sell out all their empathy.
When you were little, what were you known for?
Only had adult friends.
Name an influence of yours that might surprise people.
Toussaint Louverture.
What would you be doing if you weren’t working in your field?
Something in the civil rights space.
What’s one work of art that got you through an important moment in your life?
I read Philip Roth’s book Patrimony while I was helping take care of my mother at the end of her life. The book details his experience taking care of his father, who also had an inoperable brain tumor, and talks about the bewilderment and confusion that both of them experienced. Roth talked about it as something that they both went through together, and I took a lot from it during those stretches of uncertainty that happen at the end of a parent’s life.
What do you think is your biggest contribution to culture?
I invented the term “said no one ever.”
What’s been the hardest part of your career so far?
The success.
What question do you ask yourself most often while you’re making work?
What gives me the right?
What’s something people get wrong about you?
That I didn’t invent the term “said no one ever.”
What’s your biggest vice?
In my lifetime, probably Dick Cheney.
What keeps you up at night?
Usually work.
What do you want to see more of in your industry? Less of?
More kindness, less hate.
When’s the last time you laughed hysterically?
Rewatched The Hangover. It hit crazy.
What would you like the headline of your obituary to be?
Makes me too sad thinking about that.
What would you wear to meet your greatest enemy?
Nothing special.
To read more from the 2026 CULT100 honorees, see the full list here.
in your life?
