MAURY POVICH Talks Drama, Conflict and Why We Can't Look Away

Summary

The Adam Friedland Show

Episode: MAURY POVICH Talks Drama, Conflict and Why We Can't Look Away
Date: April 22, 2026
Guest: Maury Povich, legendary daytime talk show host

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Episode Overview

Adam Friedland sits down with Maury Povich, the iconic host whose show defined daytime TV drama for over three decades. The conversation ranges from inside media stories and celebrity encounters to reflections on politics, anti-Semitism, and the golden era of TV talk shows. Povich shares behind-the-scenes anecdotes about his career, his relationships with presidents, the evolution of the news business, and, of course, the enduring appeal of televised chaos and paternity tests. The episode is brimming with candid banter, self-deprecating humor, and surprising insights into American culture, media ethics, and personal lives.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Tone: Banter and Media Self-Parody

• Opening Jokes & Banter
  • Adam and Maury riff on calling Adam’s girlfriend, with Maury nailing a running joke on the third try ([00:01]–[00:36]).
  • Adam jokes about needing a paternity test for his newborn, leaning into Povich’s on-air legacy ([00:44]).

2. The Interview That Almost Wasn’t

• Interview Magazine Mix-up
  • Adam and Maury recount a hilarious incident where both thought they were being interviewed for "Interview Magazine."
    • “The concept of two people thinking that they're being interviewed… That's the craziest moment in terms of interviewing that I’ve ever, ever had.” — Maury ([06:31])

3. Growing up in Washington, D.C.

• Early Life Reflections
  • Maury describes the unique citizenship status of D.C. residents before home rule ([07:18])
  • Reminisces covering politics and Marion Barry’s rise from civil rights leader to mayor ([08:28])

4. Presidential Encounters and Golf Buddies

• Stories of Power, Politics, and Golf
  • Maury reveals personal anecdotes with George W. Bush, golfing and annual White House lunches ([11:40]):
    • “When his father was the vice president for Reagan…Barbara was sitting in the front row…and she goes, 'Can you convince George to stop using that smoking tobacco?'” ([17:32])
  • On Bush’s post-presidency: “The best part of his life right now…is how he’s conducted himself after he got out of office.” ([09:39])
  • Observations on other presidents and vice presidents, including candid appraisals of Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Condoleezza Rice ([14:25]–[16:04])

5. Trump: From Current Affair to the Presidency

• Trump in the Limelight
  • Maury describes Trump's pre-politics ego and their prank with a Gorbachev lookalike ([21:03]):
    • “We hired this Gorbachev lookalike…Trump comes down the elevator out of Trump Tower with a necktie to give to Gorbachev…” ([21:34])
  • Thoughts on Trump as a self-promoter and personal interaction on the golf course:
    • “He’s just one of the great self-promoters of all time.” — Maury ([27:44])
    • “Never mentioned politics ever. Never.” ([28:23])

6. Jewishness, Anti-Semitism, and Personal Identity

• Discussing Identity and Prejudice
  • Adam and Maury debate stereotypes, Jewish representation, and how anti-Semitism’s public perception has shifted ([41:59]):
    • “People don’t get it. You can be for a country and against their government.” — Maury ([42:29])
    • “It kind of devalues the term anti-Semitism, right?” — Adam ([42:22])

7. The Golden Age of Talk Shows

• Craft and Chaos of Daytime TV
  • Adam recalls the “home sick from school” TV lineup, placing Maury alongside Jerry Springer and Price is Right ([29:12]).
  • Maury talks about the chaotic, yet authentic, energy of his show and distinguishes it from others:
    • “Maury’s show is the real deal. My show is wrestling.” — Jerry Springer, as quoted by Maury ([73:24])
  • How the infamous Jenny Jones incident changed TV safety and legal practices ([74:49]):
    • “We had legal teams now. We had psychologists…counselors at the show every day.” — Maury ([75:03])
  • Maury’s respect for guests, and the behind-the-scenes reality of emotional reaction cameral work ([72:12]–[72:47])
  • Standards: Maury avoided shows on race after seeing explosive drama on rival programs ([76:03])

8. Changing Definitions of News and Journalism

• Media Landscape, Then and Now
  • Maury criticizes the loss of clear news definitions and increased opinion in coverage:
    • “My problem is there is a truth…There’s a lot of fog around the truth, and it’s very difficult to find it.” ([82:54])
  • Nostalgia for the era with only three major news networks and more trusted news ([81:32])
  • Discusses the demise of the sports section and local news in print ([84:22]–[85:16])
  • Praises nonprofit journalism as potentially the healthiest form today ([95:07])

9. Famous Friends and Legendary Media Figures

• Tony Kornheiser Cameo

  • Maury calls his friend Tony Kornheiser, who delivers classic curmudgeonly lines and talks about golf and Larry David ([31:38]–[35:07]).
    • “I don’t talk to people.” — Tony Kornheiser ([32:04])
    • “I think he thought I was a jerk.” — Tony on Larry David ([33:03])

• Pablo Torre Drops In

  • More banter about media cliques, Nick Cannon, NBA access, and the absurdity of podcasting as millennial Jon Stewarts ([58:12]–[64:05])

10. Personal Stories, Family, and Legacy

• Romantic Partners and Family
  • Maury and Adam bond over being “the baby” in their relationships and share self-deprecating stories ([39:01]).
  • Maury’s daughter runs Red Hook Lobster Pound in Brooklyn ([37:05]), and his father’s legacy as a celebrated sportswriter at the Washington Post ([91:53]).
  • Maury on his wife Connie Chung’s career as a trailblazer ([88:27]).

11. Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “That’s the craziest moment in terms of interviewing that I’ve ever, ever had. I mean, I’ve done maybe in my lifetime. 50,000 interviews. Nothing tops that.” — Maury on the Interview Magazine mix-up ([06:31])
• “I played with [Trump]…never mentioned politics ever.” — Maury ([28:23])
• “You don’t talk. I never talk publicly about religion. Don’t talk about my politics. And I don’t talk about money. And we grew up that way.” — Maury ([76:41])
• “My problem is there is a truth. Right, Right. And I think there’s a lot of fog around the truth, and it’s very difficult to find it.” — Maury ([82:54])
• “There are people that call me White Chocolate.” — Maury, joking about his on-screen “hood pass” ([63:51])
• “You just had to take everything [Trump] said…just kind of diminish it a certain way.” — Maury ([27:34])
• “I mean, you have no idea what [Kornheiser] has to do to get on an airplane. I mean, he has to plan a week ahead.” — Maury ([35:51])
• “Maury Povich has never mispronounced a Black name.” — Recounting a Josh Johnson bit ([95:56])

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Notable Segments with Timestamps

• Opening riff / joke retakes: [00:01]–[00:36]
• Interview Magazine story: [04:04]–[06:44]
• Discussing D.C. statehood & growing up: [07:18]–[08:07]
• Golfing and socializing with presidents: [11:40]–[19:01]
• Behind the scenes: Trump, Bush, and Clinton: [20:49]–[23:19]
• Reflections on anti-Semitism & Israel: [41:59]–[44:29]
• Daytime talk show origins & transformations: [66:09]–[77:17]
• Kornheiser call and media friendships: [31:38]–[35:07]
• Family, romance, and self-deprecation: [39:01]–[40:31]
• On defining news in a changing era: [93:22]–[95:07]

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Tone and Style

• The entire episode is interspersed with deadpan humor, inside-joke riffing, and friendly one-upmanship.
• Adam and Maury both engage in self-deprecation (“barely English,” “I could go 45 minutes without a single laugh”), giving the episode a warm, approachable feel.
• There’s a wistful nostalgia for a media era of clear lines between entertainment and news, with a critical but affectionate look back on legacy institutions.

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Summary for Non-Listeners

In a wide-ranging, laugh-filled, and insight-heavy conversation, Adam Friedland and Maury Povich reminisce about the lost world of American media, presidential friendships, and the strange, alluring world of daytime TV that made Maury a household name. Maury is candid about his regrets, proud of his legacy, gracious about his family, and sharp on the state of journalism and politics today. Listeners leave with the sense that media – and perhaps America itself – was once more trusting, more centralized, and more innocent, but also more fun. Through it all, Maury’s humility, wit, and cultural curiosity shine, reminding listeners why he became – and remains – a legend.

Transcript

[Adam Friedland]

Can we call my girlfriend?

[Maury Povich]

No, we're not talking. Okay, I talked to her enough.

[Adam Friedland]

You've talked to my. To mine enough.

[Maury Povich]

You want me to talk to your.

[Adam Friedland]

Did he say he talked to mine enough? Oh, I thought you were doing a joke. Like, I talked to her enough. Yeah, like that would have been good. You want to run that again? Can we call my girlfriend?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, I'd like to call your girlfriend.

[Adam Friedland]

No, no, no, no, no, no. You're supposed to say, no, I talked to her enough, Maury. Okay, we'll do it a third time from the top. Okay, let's get an edit point. Can we call my girlfriend?

[Maury Povich]

Actually, no, I talked to her enough.

[Adam Friedland]

Wait. Hello, and welcome back to the Adam Friedland Show. I'm host Adam Friedland. First off, come see me live. I'm at the Regent Theater as part of the Netflix is a Joke Fest on May 9th. Justin will be there. San Francisco, California, May 29th to the 30th. Portland, Oregon, 611 to 13. My guest this week is legendary talk show host Maury Povich, who, of course hosted the maury show from 91 to 2022. It dominated daytime TV with lurid stories from around the nation. I was very excited to talk to Maury. But before we jump in, quick personal life update. I'm so excited to announce that I have welcomed my first son into the world. Everyone, please meet Adam Jr. And of course, here's my lovely wife. One big happy family. The joke is that I will be requiring a paternity test because Queen Elizabeth fucked a Chinese guy and I'm raising him as my own. I love you, Adam Jr. And maybe it's on you guys for thinking that this was from cheating and paternity tests. Maybe she was just pregnant with God's wife. God's son. God. Please enjoy the episode. We can do Asian, right? Ladies and gentlemen, we know him well, but today he has a secret to tell us. I can't believe it. We're here. This is a huge exclusive. Maury Povich, everyone. Television legend. You have a secret. You have a secret.

[Maury Povich]

I can't believe the gallery. I love it. Terrific, dude. Good to see you, Adam.

[Adam Friedland]

This is how much of a pro he is. He's in retirement, but he walks in and he's like, oh, this is. Who does this prick think he is? Competing for the ratings? I think. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And the only reason I'm here is you have big ratings.

[Adam Friedland]

Huge ratings.

[Maury Povich]

I know.

[Adam Friedland]

They're kind of not real. We hired a Russian boss.

[Maury Povich]

They're not real.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, it's the same people. Yeah, it's the same people that stole the election for Trump in 2020.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, really?

[Adam Friedland]

I don't know. Do they steal elections? You know, you probably know they don't. You know all the secrets of the. What, the world?

[Maury Povich]

No, I, I. No, you used to. You.

[Adam Friedland]

You were telling me you've rubbed shoulders with popes.

[Maury Povich]

No, I have never rubbed shoulders with a pope.

[Adam Friedland]

You told me you. You gave a back massage to Pope Benedict. Was that the Nazi one? Yeah, yeah, the Nazi, yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Who they put in Nazi, but it was Hitler Youth.

[Adam Friedland]

Let's be fair. Let's be fair. Well, we had one of the funniest introductions.

[Maury Povich]

Let's just figure this out. Let's start out this right now.

[Adam Friedland]

Yes.

[Maury Povich]

Are you interviewing me or am I interviewing you?

[Adam Friedland]

I, like. I think our thing is keeping it vague. I want to do that.

[Maury Povich]

You want to tell them the history of this?

[Adam Friedland]

Of course. I was asked to be an Interview magazine. They did a. Did you see the pictures of me?

[Maury Povich]

No.

[Adam Friedland]

Some of the most embarrassing ones ever.

[Maury Povich]

No, but. And so I was asked to get on here and talk to you.

[Adam Friedland]

Yes.

[Maury Povich]

And I thought that you were interviewing me, and obviously I was supposed to be interviewing you.

[Adam Friedland]

They cut me yelling at the magazine, if you remember.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, I didn't know that. But all I knew when we finally figured out that this was the case was I said to you, you know, you're talking a lot.

[Adam Friedland]

You say you talk a lot.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, you talk a lot.

[Adam Friedland]

You're rel.

[Maury Povich]

And then you said, well, what am I supposed to do? I'm supposed to be interviewed. I said, oh, you're supposed to be interviewed. I thought I was supposed to be.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, how would you imagine that you're not being interviewed in a thing called Interview magazine? There is no way in hell you would have said yes if you knew you were supposed to be interviewing me.

[Maury Povich]

There is no fucking way. Nothing. Why would I do that?

[Adam Friedland]

They were defrauding you. You probably got an email from Interview magazine. How the hell would you have thought you were being interviewed? They were like, yeah, we got some schmuck kid to interview you. And my kid, he's 39 years old.

[Maury Povich]

39 years old, and he's done not

[Adam Friedland]

much with his life, but.

[Maury Povich]

What do you mean? You're a big star.

[Adam Friedland]

Huge, in fact. Yeah. Massive. These days.

[Maury Povich]

You have a half a million on YouTube.

[Adam Friedland]

Just on YouTube. Yeah. Across all other platforms. It's probably 200 million. Half a billion.

[Maury Povich]

Half a billion, yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Probably. Yes. Yeah, it is.

[Maury Povich]

Don't you just say 3 billion, that'd be half the world.

[Adam Friedland]

I was talking to you. Let's go back to this Interview magazine. We had a 45 minute scheduled conversation. It was minute 35.

[Maury Povich]

Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

And you were like. Can I stop you right there? I was telling you about my family. I was telling you.

[Maury Povich]

And I was like, why are you talking about yourself like this?

[Adam Friedland]

The concept of two people thinking that they're being interviewed. It's almost as if I'm jealous. Like I, I didn't come up with it for the show.

[Maury Povich]

I've been around a long time.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

That's the craziest moment in, in terms of interviewing that I've ever, ever had. I mean, I've done maybe in my lifetime. 50, 000 interviews. Nothing tops that.

[Adam Friedland]

Is that it is but an honor, sir. And you've. You've seen it all. Yeah. I can't imagine. I have never seen this going through your mind. You're like, this motherfucker will shut up. I've been in show business for how many? Five decades? Six decades.

[Maury Povich]

Six.

[Adam Friedland]

Six decades. And this guy is telling me, who's supposed to be interviewing me about my illustrious career, is telling me about how his father's disappointment that he didn't go to law school.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah. And he ended up in Washington at George Washington University.

[Adam Friedland]

Yes, yes. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And he started in these kind of low rent comedy clubs.

[Adam Friedland]

Can you imagine if I was supposed to be interviewing you? It would have been perhaps the worst interview of all time. You, of course, are a native of our nation's.

[Maury Povich]

Not many.

[Adam Friedland]

Not many.

[Maury Povich]

I mean we, I mean we, we are so rare. Yeah. See, we grew up thinking that the President. He wasn't the President of the United States, he was the mayor.

[Adam Friedland]

Mayor Nixon.

[Maury Povich]

Right.

[Adam Friedland]

Or whatever.

[Maury Povich]

And the congress was the city council. That's how we grew up. Because we had no home rule when I was born in 1939.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And so we didn't have home rule to the early 60s. And we didn't even, you know, that was kind of a leaner. We still don't have full home rule.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. You're not really as much as a citizen.

[Maury Povich]

We got a congressperson, but she can't vote.

[Adam Friedland]

So embarrassing.

[Maury Povich]

I mean, really.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. She just has to observe.

[Maury Povich]

Right.

[Adam Friedland]

She says like, great job everyone. You're doing phenomenal.

[Maury Povich]

We're voting for a non voting.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Congressperson.

[Adam Friedland]

I was there shortly after the legendary Mayor Marion Barry.

[Maury Povich]

I covered him for so long. I covered him when he was at Howard University.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh. As a youth.

[Maury Povich]

As a youth.

[Adam Friedland]

Did you know he was. He Had a future.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, yeah. Because he was. He was a great spokesperson for what they called sncc, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. And he was. He was terrific.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And very impressive. I never knew Marion would ever run for political office because.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

You know, he was out there during the civil rights movements of the early 1960s.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I was there for Mayor Fenty, who was Rihanna's cousin, I believe. Oh, really? Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

I didn't. I was gone by then. What. What years were you there?

[Adam Friedland]

I was there 2006. I was there for the Obama, so I started 2006.

[Maury Povich]

You're a newbie.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, newbie. It was amazing night. I ran to the White House and I shouted at the building. I was like, bush, you asshole. Fuck you. Yeah, really. It was a really cool night, actually.

[Maury Povich]

He's a friend of mine.

[Adam Friedland]

George Bush.

[Maury Povich]

Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

How. He's nice, I imagine. Lovely. Yeah. Is he like. Does he feel. He feels bad?

[Maury Povich]

Feels bad, yeah. Yeah. Now.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

I mean, I think the best part of his life right now, to me, is how he's conducted himself after he got out of office.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But have you seen his paintings before?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, he never painted.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Until he left office.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Have you seen the early ones?

[Maury Povich]

The portraits?

[Adam Friedland]

He became quite a good, like, painter. He got, like, lessons and stuff. But the early naive work of Bush is really interesting.

[Maury Povich]

Scribbles.

[Adam Friedland]

No, I mean, I'll show you right now, but he's like in a. There's something about washing. You're cleansing yourself of something. He's in a shower and a bathtub, and he's looking in one direction. There's a mirror for, I assume, shaving. And his reflection is looking back at him. And it's as if the ghosts of.

[Maury Povich]

Good.

[Adam Friedland]

The Iraqi.

[Maury Povich]

Anyway, he was very kind to me. We were.

[Adam Friedland]

Does he feel bad about the Iraq war?

[Maury Povich]

Does.

[Adam Friedland]

He was like. Oh, I have no idea. Yeah, yeah. Have you asked him? You're like.

[Maury Povich]

No, I'll tell you. First of all.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

It. We were. We were golf buddies for 25 years before he ever got to be president.

[Adam Friedland]

He's good. I hear you're good.

[Maury Povich]

Decent. Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

What's your handicap?

[Maury Povich]

Five. Five? Yeah. But it used to be better. I'm going way up.

[Adam Friedland]

Trump's. Trump, he's got weird form, but he hits it straight. I saw that video of him with Bryson DeChambeau.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay.

[Maury Povich]

He hits the ball straight and then the guy. The Caddy, the four Caddy.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Throws it a little farther.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I heard he shot an 18 once. It's like a dictator would. Right. It's like Putin scoring.

[Maury Povich]

So George Bush would invite me and a buddy because we had this golf group of 12 guys that played golf every year for, like, 20 some years.

[Adam Friedland]

Who else you got? Norman Schwarzkopf?

[Maury Povich]

No, no. Jim Baker? No, no, no, no. Famous people. Oh, one. One famous person. You ever heard of Taxi, Cheers? All those Friends.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Director. Jimmy Burrows.

[Adam Friedland]

Jimmy Burrows.

[Maury Povich]

Jimmy Burrow. Jimmy. And he was one of the group. And Jimmy, basically, he and the Charles brothers created Cheers and so. And he directed all the Friends stuff.

[Adam Friedland]

And Frasier, too. That was a. Frasier too. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[Maury Povich]

And so Jimmy was part of that. That's the only other big name anyway, George W. When he got to be president, he invited me and a buddy of mine, another guy who played with us to lunch every single year of his White House. Every year we would go to there, and we go down there. The first time he shows me, he says, you want to see where Clinton and Lewinsky did it?

[Adam Friedland]

I thought it was the Oval Office.

[Maury Povich]

No, no. There's this little. I know about this big of a. Right off the Oval Office. There's this little. I don't know what you would call it.

[Adam Friedland]

Closet, Almost an annex.

[Maury Povich]

Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And so that's. He was proud to show me that. And he also showed me the gun. Saddam Hussein.

[Adam Friedland]

Cheney. Oh, no, never mind.

[Maury Povich]

Pistol.

[Adam Friedland]

Not the gun. Cheney.

[Maury Povich]

Not that gun. But anyhow, so he would say one time, I mean, he was pretty funny, he said. He says, you know, I can't run anymore, and I'm on a treadmill, and I'm flipping through the channels, and he says, how do you do that thing that you do every day with a straight face? And I said, well, Mr. President, think about all the things you have to do every single day with a straight face. And he says, yeah, gotcha. Yeah, that was it.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. So he connected with that.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

It must be hard sometimes not to laugh at things if you're the president. Yeah. If you're, like, at a state dinner with, like, a pretty funny country, you know, you have to, like, take it seriously and stuff. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

We went to a state dinner for his father once, my wife and I. Hw. Hw what state dinner it was for? Believe it or not, I think it was for Shimon Peres. Maybe it was maybe Israeli guy.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

I can't remember.

[Adam Friedland]

Do they serve American food at the same. Okay, yeah, yeah. They don't, like, put a falafel out or something.

[Maury Povich]

But Connie, my wife Connie. She, she was sitting next to hw and I was kind of like in the, I was like in the grandstand with Rumsfeld or one of those guys. I can't remember.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And was Rummy funny? He was okay.

[Adam Friedland]

He used to get pissed at the media.

[Maury Povich]

I tell you who was never funny was Chaney.

[Adam Friedland]

Cheney.

[Maury Povich]

Never.

[Adam Friedland]

It was funny. That one. Nothing.

[Maury Povich]

What you mean?

[Adam Friedland]

Caleb looks disappointed.

[Maury Povich]

What you mean the bird hunt?

[Adam Friedland]

Did he say sorry? Yeah. What was Cheney like? Was he scary?

[Maury Povich]

No, he was just, he was, he was just 100% serious all the time.

[Adam Friedland]

Palpatine kind of stuff.

[Maury Povich]

His wife was nice.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, Chaney's wife. You never hear about her.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, she was great.

[Adam Friedland]

What was her name?

[Maury Povich]

Lynn.

[Adam Friedland]

Lynn. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

She was great.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

See, because.

[Adam Friedland]

Right.

[Maury Povich]

See, I knew them back when he was a congressman from Wyoming and I was doing a show in Washington for a local, for a local station. And so I, I knew I used to have Lynn on all the time, and he wasn't worth it.

[Adam Friedland]

You would interview the Wyoming congressman's wife?

[Maury Povich]

Sure, yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

About what?

[Maury Povich]

Because she was doing something. I can't remember what, or whatever, but she was a live wire. I liked her a lot. And so, I mean. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

You remember during Iraq, Rummy would get so pissed at the press pool.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, sure.

[Adam Friedland]

He'd be like, oh, shut up.

[Maury Povich]

Another former congressman.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah. That whole crew, that was like the post Nixon kind of Republican Party.

[Maury Povich]

But you know who the star of every of that whole group was? Was Condoleezza.

[Adam Friedland]

Was she? Yeah, yeah.

[Maury Povich]

She was great.

[Adam Friedland]

What was her vibe like? She was, she was.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, friendly.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Very accommodating. Would talk to. And she would talk to the press.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I, I, I associate that, that era completely differently with my. I was an adolescent and I was very against Iraq.

[Maury Povich]

I can understand.

[Adam Friedland]

I was like. It made no sense.

[Maury Povich]

I was, you know, I ended up being against it too. Is it. Soon as I found out there were no WMEs.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I feel bad for WMDs. Yeah, yeah.

[Maury Povich]

WMDs.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's all. Yeah. I feel bad for old Cole and Powell. They were like, yeah, yeah.

[Maury Povich]

He was another fine fellow.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Was he? Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Great.

[Adam Friedland]

So were you close just with that crew or you knew everyone?

[Maury Povich]

Did I know anybody else?

[Adam Friedland]

How'd you link up with the Bushes?

[Maury Povich]

Because of George W. Because we played golf.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, because of golf.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah. All about golf. And I tell you, it was interesting because when his father was the vice president for Reagan, I would go to cover the conventions and I knew his mother and his mother knew that I was friendly with George. And one time I'm going, and there was a convention, and she. Barbara, was sitting in the front row, and I was on the floor, I guess, trying to get stories or whatever. And she goes, come over here, Babs.

[Adam Friedland]

Wow.

[Maury Povich]

She says, mari, come over here. I said, yes. She says, can you convince George to stop using that smoking tobacco?

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Maury Povich]

I said, Mrs. Bush, you got a much better chance of getting him to stop than I do. I can't get your son to stop that. But I'll tell you what I did do.

[Adam Friedland]

It wasn't tobacco, probably, right?

[Maury Povich]

No, it was.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, never mind.

[Maury Povich]

But I'll tell you what, you gotta. I give this guy credit. When I first met him, you know, we used to like to drink.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And one year he came and he said he stopped. Stopped?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Cold turkey.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

He didn't want to embarrass his father, and he stopped.

[Adam Friedland]

Uhhuh. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And I was very impressed.

[Adam Friedland]

Jeb was supposed to be the heir apparent, right?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah. Yeah. Connie knew Jeb more than I did.

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah. Connie was friendly with Jeb.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

I didn't know Jeb much. I know Marvin, his younger brother. He's in Washington.

[Adam Friedland]

Who's Marvin Bush. What does he do?

[Maury Povich]

That's another.

[Adam Friedland]

He's a soul singer.

[Maury Povich]

He was a investment guy.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, yeah? Really?

[Maury Povich]

Never, never into politics.

[Adam Friedland]

How many boys was it? Just three?

[Maury Povich]

No, Neil.

[Adam Friedland]

Neil Bush.

[Maury Povich]

How many?

[Adam Friedland]

They got four boys. What's Neil's vibe?

[Maury Povich]

Huh?

[Adam Friedland]

What does he do?

[Maury Povich]

Neil was in Colorado for a long time. He got into some kind of.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, he was the bad brother. Yeah. There's always one. There's always a naughty brother. There's like Roger Clinton.

[Maury Povich]

I don't have a brother. I don't have a naughty Roger presence.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Roger. Yeah. Roger was fun.

[Adam Friedland]

Jimmy Carter's brother Roger. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Billy. No, that was a son.

[Adam Friedland]

Was Billy Carter. He was the alcoholic. I thought that was the brother. And then, of course, Fred Trump Jr. Fred Jr. Was also a drunkard. I don't know why I said drunkard.

[Maury Povich]

Alcoholic.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Have you met our president before, Donald? How many?

[Maury Povich]

Just haven't seen him in a long time.

[Adam Friedland]

What's he like as a guy? He's Trump. He's like that.

[Maury Povich]

I knew him. I almost want to say it was a different life.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. First of all, playboy.

[Maury Povich]

First of all. Way way back in, like, the mid to late 80s. All right. And I'm doing this show called A Current Affair, which is this tabloidy, really tabloid journalism? Yes, Big time. Out front Show. And it was the time when he was cheating on Ivana with Marla Maples. And they were. It was New York Post, New York Daily News covers every single day. And Ivana had Liz Smith in the Daily News, and she was taking her side. And Donald had Cindy Adams at the Post. So he was taking her, she was taking his side. And it was back and forth. And I'm doing A Current Affair. I mean, manna from heaven.

[Adam Friedland]

It was a big story.

[Maury Povich]

This is the best.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. So we.

[Maury Povich]

I mean, we. We played in golf tournaments together. I. I mean. I mean, he. Donald was always, you know, always had this huge ego, just this and that. So, I mean. And yet I never thought it would go that far.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, it's kind of the most amazing thing we've ever seen.

[Maury Povich]

Who would have ever thought, right?

[Adam Friedland]

I. I remember being. I was like, from the Apprentices. He's the president now, right. That night was shocking.

[Maury Povich]

One time at A Current Affair. This is how much he thought of himself. Gorbachev is in the country, and Trump is trying to get a meeting with Gorbachev at Trump Tower. And Gorbachev was coming to New York, and at the last minute, he has to cancel. And we had A Current Affair. We said, okay, we're going to play this trick on Donald. So we hired a Gorbachev lookalike.

[Adam Friedland]

No.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah. Hired this Gorbachev lookalike. And we had this.

[Adam Friedland]

You put some ketchup on his head or something?

[Maury Povich]

No. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

It was perfect.

[Adam Friedland]

It had a molecule. Italy. It looked like Italy, right?

[Maury Povich]

Italy or Africa.

[Adam Friedland]

It looked like Italy, I think.

[Maury Povich]

So we had this Gorbachev lookalike, and our great Australian reporter Gordon Elliot is with him in a limousine with some girls. And we're driving by Trump Tower. And we said at the last minute, we called Trump's office. Gorbachev is. He'll be able to stop by Trump Tower to say hello to you, if that's what you want. And Trump comes down the elevator out of Trump Tower with a necktie to give to Gorbachev. He gets there, he looks at the door, and he realizes the girls are there. And finally Gordon Elliott says. I think he worked it out. He finally figured out that this was a.

[Adam Friedland]

Was this for the show? Oh, yeah.

[Maury Povich]

It was a classic segment.

[Adam Friedland]

But he. But he didn't buy it. He was. He was clever, because I remember he was on. He was the only guy that walked away from alley.

[Maury Povich]

To get him down there. Yeah, to get him down there.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah. And it was probably.

[Maury Povich]

I mean, he was trying to go. He'd go anywhere to see Gorbachev, of course.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, it's a. But he probably wanted to build some gold crap in Russia, and they would have loved it, too. They love gold crap.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, God.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

That's. To me, desecration. What he did to the Oval Office. Just desecration.

[Adam Friedland]

The East Wing or something?

[Maury Povich]

No, the Oval Office itself.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh. He closed down the Lewinsky part.

[Maury Povich]

The gold. The gold.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, okay. I thought you were talking about the Lewinsky part. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Golly.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, Clinton, I guess, desecrated a little bit, too. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

But not that way. I'll tell you, I've been in that office from Kennedy through Bush.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Each president maybe changed the rug.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Maybe they put a different picture up of one of their favorites. Maybe a sculpture or something. Never like this.

[Adam Friedland]

The plaques are pretty funny. Yeah, the plaques are pretty funny.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah. But everything is gold all over the place.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's what you get. That's what we get for electing Trump twice. Of course he's gonna put some gold crap up. That's. I don't. I've said this before, but my sister called me really mad about the East Wing of the White House.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

And I'm like, I don't know. There are, like, concentration camps right now in America. Like. Like the detention centers. Like. Yeah, like, maybe a little bit. There's worse stuff happening right now. I don't know why I even said that.

[Maury Povich]

But in other words, people are so

[Adam Friedland]

infuriated by everything right now, and I

[Maury Povich]

think that the Trump Kennedy Center.

[Adam Friedland]

Did he change it to his name or both?

[Maury Povich]

No, Trump and Trump Kennedy Center.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, that's nice.

[Maury Povich]

This is what I want to know. Are there Democratic presidential candidates making a list of all the things that they've got to throw out?

[Adam Friedland]

They're probably going to forget a couple. That's the thing. He's like, I got to put enough stuff. I got to put enough gold crap for me to forget.

[Maury Povich]

I saw the other day. He's trying to bargain with Schumer to get the. Get his name on Penn Station when they redo it.

[Adam Friedland]

I can assure you that Schumer will lose that bargain somehow. Well, just as he seems to.

[Maury Povich]

I mean, look, all these people are of my generation. We have no business running the country.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I was telling you on the phone, when I first met Zoron the mayor, it dawned on me. I was like, this is the first time someone from my generation is, like, in the game right now. It felt like that.

[Maury Povich]

I don't understand why we can't give it up. Meaning my generation.

[Adam Friedland]

You guys are doing it.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, but, yeah, I mean, there are enough defense stocks, Congress, that's not. There's no money in Congress.

[Adam Friedland]

We can't give it.

[Maury Povich]

Well, okay, there's power, but there's no money.

[Adam Friedland]

Go back to 2016. Jeb was supposed to be the heir apparent to that dynasty. I think probably was the front runner, Right?

[Maury Povich]

They thought so right before Trump started to make a move, even after he came down the escalator, Jeb was probably still in front of him.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, that to me, maybe you could know better, but that to me wasn't a real thing. I think that he was negotiating with Jeff Zucker for the new season of Apprentice, and I think that he was like, well, fuck you. I'll run for president and I'll be even bigger and you'll have to pay.

[Maury Povich]

If you took a look at the ratings. Yeah, his ratings had gone down.

[Adam Friedland]

He built it big, though. He, he built that show into like the number two rated show.

[Maury Povich]

Burnett was the, you know, genius behind the show.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. And he was a good promoter, too. Trump. Yeah, best. He would go on stir.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, he's the best.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's so good that this war. I can't. I was a huge fan of the. What's going on in Iran. Of course.

[Maury Povich]

You're a, you're a fan.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, this man just promoted it. So. Yeah, no, I mean, what I'm saying is like, obviously we now know that everyone was there at the escalator. Everyone was being paid, right?

[Maury Povich]

Oh, sure, yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

They weren't actual Trump fans and it seemed like it was. The pictures of him on election night look like, oh, fuck, now I have to be the president.

[Maury Povich]

You know, I think he thought he was going to lose three times. I really do. I think he was going to lose three times.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah.

[Maury Povich]

But that's just me.

[Adam Friedland]

What's your assessment of him as a guy from your couple times you've met him?

[Maury Povich]

I mean, you just had to take everything he said. You just had to just kind of diminish it a certain way.

[Adam Friedland]

He's a promoter.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah. I mean, he, he's just one of the great self promoters of all time.

[Adam Friedland]

But in a golf like foursome, is he behaving like he is on television? Is that just the guy he is or is that he's a little more

[Maury Povich]

serious on the golf course? Yeah, yeah, he's, yeah, he's, he's, he's all about into his golf.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Or not even golf necessarily. It's just in his life. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

I'll tell you something. I played with him one, maybe two or three. I mean, maybe I've played five or six rounds with him.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Never mentioned politics ever.

[Adam Friedland]

Really.

[Maury Povich]

Never?

[Adam Friedland]

That's. I mean, it's rude. But this is before he was.

[Maury Povich]

Before he was a politician.

[Adam Friedland]

Trump has good manners. We all know that about him. You don't mention politics or religion, so you've really seen it all. You're a newsman for a long time.

[Maury Povich]

Long.

[Adam Friedland]

Right. And your father, of course, was the head of the sports.

[Maury Povich]

He was a sports columnist writer for the Washington Post for 75 years.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. And he broke, of course, Watergate. It was in the sports page, if I remember. Yes, it was someone from the Washington Senators hit a ball into the Watergate Hotel, Right?

[Maury Povich]

No, the newspaper broke Watergate, not my father. Woodward and Bernstein broke Watergate.

[Adam Friedland]

Look into it. I'll take you in good faith, sir.

[Maury Povich]

Okay.

[Adam Friedland]

Of course, my association with you, and I told you this when we first spoke, is being home sick from school. Right.

[Maury Povich]

And you, me and Springer, I think you.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, it starts. Price is Right was the first one.

[Maury Povich]

Price is Right. Sure.

[Adam Friedland]

Because your parents are like Bob Barker. Bob Barker, of course.

[Maury Povich]

Who knew about him?

[Adam Friedland]

Who knew about what? Oh, that. Oh, he was like.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, a little dirty old man or something like that.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, are they all. You're the only gentleman in show business, from what I understand.

[Maury Povich]

No, it's not true.

[Adam Friedland]

You watch Price is Right, and then you get Springer, Maury. And then the end of the day. And it's funny. The end of the being home sick from school lineup, which was. Is around the horn. And then pti. Right. And of course, I mentioned that to you.

[Maury Povich]

Kornheiser, you love.

[Adam Friedland]

And your father hired Kornheiser. Hired Kornheiser.

[Maury Povich]

In fact, his sports editor hired him. He wanted my father's opinion of him. They hire Kornheiser. Kornheiser's kind of like the first guy they hired at the Post in the sports department to be kind of humorous.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

All right. So he writes his first few columns. My father goes to the sports editor, George Solomon, and says, I don't think he's funny. And George says, surely you don't think my father's name was Shirley? Surely you don't really. No, I don't think he's funny. So then my father, God love him, and I give him a lot of credit, about three weeks later, goes into Solomon's office and says, george, I was wrong. He's very funny.

[Adam Friedland]

He's One of the funniest guys. Yeah, I love. Are you calling him?

[Maury Povich]

I'm going to try. Let me see what the story is.

[Adam Friedland]

Hornheiser.

[Maury Povich]

Let me see if I can get him.

[Adam Friedland]

I asked Pablo to do this too,

[Maury Povich]

and he wouldn't do it.

[Adam Friedland]

He did, but he didn't pick up and I left him.

[Maury Povich]

He didn't pick up.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, but maybe for. For.

[Maury Povich]

He's going to be pissed off because he wants everything. You know, he's the Larry David of. He wants everything. He has to have everything laid out. He has.

[Adam Friedland]

I won't blow it.

[Maury Povich]

Huh?

[Adam Friedland]

I won't blow it.

[Maury Povich]

But the point is, will he even consent to talking to you?

[Adam Friedland]

You're huge.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, God.

[Adam Friedland]

If what you say goes.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, gosh.

[Adam Friedland]

Put it on speaker.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, I hope he's not there.

[Adam Friedland]

I hope he's there. We'll call Bush after that. Can we call Bush next?

[Tony Kornheiser]

Hello?

[Maury Povich]

George? Tony, George.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Hi, Maury.

[Maury Povich]

How are you?

[Tony Kornheiser]

I'm fine.

[Maury Povich]

And I'm.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I'm doing better on chip shots because of you.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, good. Your chipping is much better. Isn't that great? Now, here's the thing, Tony. I. I know. I hate to do this because I'm sitting here with a guy that Pablo loves the best, and he tried to get you to talk to him. His name is Adam Friedland. He's a big time.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't talk to people.

[Maury Povich]

Okay, all right, you won't talk.

[Adam Friedland]

It.

[Maury Povich]

You don't want to talk to him, put him on.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Is he there?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, yeah, he's right here.

[Adam Friedland]

Tony. Tony, put him on. Tony, I left you a voicemail with Pablo. I don't know if you know how to get the voicemails on the. These phones. No, I don't know how. I'm a massive.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Were you the person who compared me to Adolf Hitler?

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, no. Larry David. Larry David, yes. Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Okay. That was so odd because I sort of know Larry David.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, can you loop him in? Let's get him on the phone. Yeah, go ahead. No, sorry.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Larry David went to this camp, Camp Tioga, for one year, and I went there the next year and met the woman who then became my wife. And so everybody had Larry David stories because he was like you, almost 17 or 18. And then I met Larry a couple of times, and he. I think he thought I was a jerk.

[Maury Povich]

Really?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I mean, I think that was my sense of it. His best friend in high school was a very good friend of mine in college.

[Adam Friedland]

Bernie Madoff, of course.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, no, no, no, no. Did he go to that school? To Sheepset Bay High School.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, I.

[Tony Kornheiser]

No, my friend Jay Bloomfield. My friend Jay Bloomfield, a very good friend of Larry Davis. Anyway, I don't talk to people because I will say something, it will be the end of my career.

[Adam Friedland]

I just don't know it. Yeah, of course. And I'm looking forward to you coming on the show, Pablo.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Do you understand? I love Pablo. I won't talk to him or Levitard. I won't talk.

[Maury Povich]

Okay.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, thank you. I. I'll get you. You're gonna ruin my relationship tomorrow. Maybe. What do you.

[Maury Povich]

Tony. Tony. I'm more interested in your chipping.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yes. Well, I got it in the back of my. You told me to put the ball way back in the back of my stance.

[Maury Povich]

Correct.

[Tony Kornheiser]

The hardest thing for me is getting the. Is getting the club up high enough so that when it makes contact, it actually gets under the ball. And I don't just drill the ball right. But I'm trying. But I. I have the posture of it correct. And I. You know, sometimes. Sometimes it works. I. You know, I'm. I met a guy yesterday playing golf, David somebody or other with a long name that began with an A, who said to me, so I think you were a friend of my former law partner, David Povich.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, wow.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I said, I lived three blocks away at some point. And he talked with great fondness about your brother. And then I told stories about your dad.

[Maury Povich]

Right. Oh, well. Tony.

[Adam Friedland]

Tony, what do you think? Tony, what do you think? You think LeBron could pull it off in the first round?

[Maury Povich]

No, stop. Stop talking.

[Adam Friedland]

Tony, what do you think, what it would be like kind of a last dance? It'd be amazing, wouldn't it?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, it'd be a last dance.

[Tony Kornheiser]

I don't think it's a last chance. He's playing at 41, like, 85 of the league. Wish they could play out of 26.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I don't understand. He just coming and then.

[Maury Povich]

Tony, I'm coming down there in a week or two. We'll go play.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, can't wait. I'll be there.

[Maury Povich]

Goodbye, Tony.

[Adam Friedland]

I'll be there. Bye. That was the best moment of my entire life. It really makes up for your association with the war in Iraq, Maury. It really makes up for your planning.

[Maury Povich]

The fact that I'm a friend of George Bush's, and now the fact that you talk to Tony Kornheiser on the phone.

[Adam Friedland]

Can we call Bush? I'll be nice. I'll be respectful. I have a lot of respect for the office.

[Maury Povich]

No, I haven't Talked to him in years.

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Maury Povich]

No.

[Adam Friedland]

What happened? You had a falling out with Bush? No, I did not. This is the exclusive.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, he's busy. I'm busy.

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Did you like that?

[Adam Friedland]

It was so cool. My heart is racing. I honestly. I mean.

[Maury Povich]

But by the way, you are so right on about Larry David.

[Adam Friedland]

He is.

[Maury Povich]

He's the sports version of Larry.

[Adam Friedland]

They're just schlabazzles.

[Maury Povich]

I mean, you have no idea what he has to do to get on an airplane. I mean, he has to plan a week ahead.

[Adam Friedland]

I'll ask Pablo if we could put this in the episode. Pablo said you took the train up to go to Pablo's wedding. Took the acela back. He was the main. The star of the wedding. Everyone's excited. I said, how bad was the present? He said he didn't give me one present.

[Maury Povich]

You don't get presents.

[Adam Friedland]

Of course, of course.

[Maury Povich]

His showing up. His presence is the present.

[Adam Friedland]

His presence is the present? Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Why did you get so friendly with Pablo?

[Adam Friedland]

I met him at a game. I went to see Luca's first game against the Nets. With the Lakers.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, you were at the Barclay Center?

[Adam Friedland]

At the Barkley Center. I lived by there.

[Maury Povich]

I didn't know you lived in Brooklyn.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, I live in Forcorne in Brooklyn. My address is Avenue apartment.

[Maury Povich]

You're really crazy. You are.

[Adam Friedland]

Listen, one of the craziest towns in the house.

[Maury Povich]

Have you been to my daughter's restaurant?

[Adam Friedland]

No. What restaurant?

[Maury Povich]

In Red Hook.

[Adam Friedland]

Which one? Red Hook Tavern.

[Maury Povich]

Red Hook Lobster pound.

[Adam Friedland]

That's your daughter's?

[Maury Povich]

My daughter.

[Adam Friedland]

Yes, I have. Let's give it up for Red. Let's give it up. My hometown barbecue right next to it.

[Maury Povich]

Is that right? Yeah, but I'm telling you, she and her husband Ralph, my daughter Susan and Ralph said there are no good lobsters in Brooklyn. They went to Maine and used to truck down the lobsters every week.

[Adam Friedland]

Tell me about this Ralph, was it?

[Maury Povich]

Ralph Gorham is the best.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Southie, baby. Southie.

[Adam Friedland]

You let one of those on your.

[Maury Povich]

Absolutely.

[Adam Friedland]

That's your. That's your angel.

[Maury Povich]

My southern law from Southie.

[Adam Friedland]

He's from the. He's from the departed. This gentleman, Whitey Ford.

[Maury Povich]

Those streets, baby. Vulture streets.

[Adam Friedland]

It's probably now it's like luxury apartments at this point.

[Maury Povich]

If I had to guess, my southeast son in law. I love him. He's coming to dinner tonight, Is he?

[Adam Friedland]

Where are we going?

[Maury Povich]

My house.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay.

[Maury Povich]

What are you making tonight? We're having prime rib, baby.

[Adam Friedland]

Prime rib? You're making? No, no, you have A. You have a guy with a chef's hat carving, too? I'm getting married. My girlfriend.

[Maury Povich]

Are you getting married?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, in September. She won't let me do prime rib carving station.

[Maury Povich]

Why not?

[Adam Friedland]

I can't do anything because any idea of mine is bad. I don't even want to get started.

[Maury Povich]

Why are you getting married if every idea is bad?

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, that is amazing. I can't believe her. What an idiot. She's going to be my friend forever. I can't believe it.

[Maury Povich]

Why are you doing this?

[Adam Friedland]

It's so nice of her.

[Maury Povich]

Why are you doing this?

[Adam Friedland]

I. Because I. I mean, love her. She doesn't realize that she. That she's gonna wake up one day.

[Maury Povich]

I say the same thing that my mother said to me when I used to bring girls back to the house.

[Adam Friedland]

You know what she said?

[Maury Povich]

And I'd say, you know, mom, what do you mean? What do you think of this? She said, what do you think of this, young lady? And my. My mother would say, I don't understand anybody who would go out with you.

[Adam Friedland]

It's the same thing. Yeah, I feel that way.

[Maury Povich]

So there you go.

[Adam Friedland]

I've never, never been intimate with a woman and not had in the back of my mind. What is wrong with her? Her father. What is. Can you imagine? What is she doing to her family? What is this? She's an idiot.

[Maury Povich]

How long have you gone with her?

[Adam Friedland]

Six and a half years. Since

[Maury Povich]

my wife.

[Adam Friedland]

January 2020.

[Maury Povich]

We dated off and on for like seven.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you guys were professionals at the time and stuff. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

She was a star. I was Mr. Chung. Are you kidding me?

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, I know. Why didn't you take her name, Everett? Do you think it would have been cultural appropriation.

[Maury Povich]

Everybody in New York, everybody on the Upper west side thinks of me as Mr. Chung.

[Adam Friedland]

Really? Yeah. That's kind of cool.

[Maury Povich]

That's all right.

[Adam Friedland]

If someone gave me a different ethnic last name, I would wear it with pride. I want to take her last name. It's Italian, and I can't say it on the show, but it's a. I think people would. Caleb, would you respect me?

[Maury Povich]

Do you speak Italian?

[Adam Friedland]

Prego? No, of course not.

[Maury Povich]

You gonna try?

[Adam Friedland]

No, I have better things to do with my life.

[Maury Povich]

I'm always. I've always heard to speak Italian and couldn't speak a word.

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Do you speak any languages?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, barely English. Really?

[Adam Friedland]

Listen, you're being self deprecating. I'm being self deprecating? This is probably for the. For my dad.

[Maury Povich]

You're not self deprecating.

[Adam Friedland]

I hate. You're miserable. I'm not miserable. No, no.

[Maury Povich]

You sound miserable.

[Adam Friedland]

I do it to disarm a guest. I think I'm the greatest guy in the world. It's my trick. You were in Hard News before your talk show host a long time. For a long time, in fact.

[Maury Povich]

I used to. In the seventies. See, I know. You went to Israel for a year, right?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And you got upset.

[Adam Friedland]

Got that.

[Maury Povich]

Cut that.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay. Yeah. Continue.

[Maury Povich]

Really?

[Adam Friedland]

No, I'm just kidding.

[Maury Povich]

You worked there for a year.

[Adam Friedland]

I worked on an ambulance and I studied. I took classes for a year before college. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

I haven't been there in 40 years. But after the 73 war.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. The Yom Kippur Award.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah. I went to right where they're hap. Right where it's happening right now. Back then, it wasn't Hezbollah, it was the plo and it was Yasser Arafat.

[Adam Friedland]

Yes. All right. He looked like Ringo Starr a little bit.

[Maury Povich]

No, huh? Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, they did. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

So they were in southern Lebanon just the same way Hezbollah is.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And they were having a war back and forth, just the way they are now. So I went to cover that for. For about a week or two.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And it never ends.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Just never ends.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. It's. It's really up.

[Maury Povich]

And what I don't understand, you know what really pisses me off, that there's a certain. Like the Trumpsters, the Magas think that if you're. If you don't like the Israeli government, you're anti Semitic.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Well, a lot of people say that

[Maury Povich]

is absolutely shitty and wrong.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. It kind of devalues the term anti Semitism. Right?

[Maury Povich]

Absolutely.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

But. But more than that, it. It. People don't get it. People you can be for a country and against their government.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.

[Maury Povich]

Netanyahu, he's led the Trumpster right down the road.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. It's a real nightmare, isn't it? Yeah. The whole situation. I don't know. Yeah. It's really stressful. Do you think it's changed, like, anti Semitism here in the last three years?

[Maury Povich]

Well, first of all, it's changed the definition as to what it is.

[Adam Friedland]

I feel like a lot of people don't like Jews, but because they see Judaism associated with, like, a brutality, maybe.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

I'm not saying it's right not to like.

[Maury Povich]

And that's wrong. That's wrong.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

You blame the government. Sure.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. It's kind of tough when you see a Star of David flag and they're doing that Right, Yeah, yeah.

[Maury Povich]

I mean, it's. You know what I mean? I bleed for both. You know, I bleed for Israel and I bleed for those poor Palestinians.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. You know what the problem is, is Israel. They started. They go like. They have an. They go to the army, you know, like, it's not our thing. Like, going to war has never been our thing. Hiding. Hiding from the war.

[Maury Povich]

What, Jews?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Our thing for 1800 years. We hide from the war.

[Maury Povich]

No, no.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. We just stand back there, we're like, is it over yet?

[Maury Povich]

Come on. Come on.

[Adam Friedland]

We wrote a. We wrote a. There's a best selling book about. Sorry, sorry, Maury, don't be mad at me.

[Maury Povich]

I'm not mad at you.

[Adam Friedland]

There's a bestselling book about a Jew hiding from a war. They teach it in all the schools.

[Maury Povich]

Look, you hide from the Holocaust, right?

[Adam Friedland]

I think we hid for a long time for the war.

[Maury Povich]

But you're going to try to tell me they kind of were meek and cowardly when you take a look at the Warsaw ghetto and you take a look at all these other attempts.

[Adam Friedland]

I agree. What I'm saying is if I told my mother I was going to Afghanistan when I graduated high school, she would have killed me first. Right. We're not. Our thing is talk shows and romantic comedies and folk albums. Yeah. And making pictures, and we've done phenomenal at that. Right.

[Maury Povich]

Come on.

[Adam Friedland]

What? No. And none of us.

[Maury Povich]

You don't think.

[Adam Friedland]

Did they say thank you?

[Maury Povich]

No, you don't.

[Adam Friedland]

Did they say thank you? Not.

[Maury Povich]

What, you don't think there are any Jews in SEAL Team Six?

[Adam Friedland]

Hopefully not.

[Maury Povich]

Maybe.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, my God.

[Maury Povich]

I'm sure there are.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't think. I bet.

[Maury Povich]

Absolutely there are.

[Adam Friedland]

Wait, Thomas, look it up.

[Maury Povich]

Wait.

[Adam Friedland]

Can we look up if there's a Jew in SEAL Team six?

[Maury Povich]

I guarantee you there. I guarantee you there are Jews in the seals.

[Adam Friedland]

In the seals. Maybe in the intelligence.

[Maury Povich]

Stop.

[Adam Friedland]

My. My.

[Maury Povich]

Stop being. Stop promoting stereotypes.

[Adam Friedland]

Wait, you went to. When did you graduate high school?

[Maury Povich]

1957.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay. You went to your college?

[Maury Povich]

I was going, no. Yeah, but I got kicked out of college.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And then I went back and then I.

[Adam Friedland]

Why'd you get kicked out?

[Maury Povich]

I didn't go to class.

[Adam Friedland]

What were you doing?

[Maury Povich]

I was having fun. I went to an all boys high school.

[Adam Friedland]

So they're girls. When you went to girls? Yeah. You went to university school? Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

So?

[Adam Friedland]

Well, Old Trump went there, too.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah. I'd like to know how he got in, but that's probably from being very good at school. He didn't Start. He didn't start at Penn.

[Adam Friedland]

I think Benjamin Franklin started it.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, but Trump didn't start it. He started at Fordham, I think.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, yeah, in the Bronx.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah. Transferred. Anyway, that's not the point.

[Adam Friedland]

I'm just saying we're lovers.

[Maury Povich]

No, this is the point. This is the point. I. I got out of school and Kennedy's in, and there's a draft.

[Adam Friedland]

All right?

[Maury Povich]

Now I'm going to be drafted.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

So I go for my pre induction

[Adam Friedland]

physical, and you're like, hey, what?

[Maury Povich]

Go to my pre induction physical?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Right. In 1960 in Washington, D.C. and I'm scheduled to be drafted. And then nothing happens in June, nothing happens in July, nothing happens in August. I get married in August, and my wife. My then wife is pregnant in September, and I'm out of the draft. And I'm going, if everybody's been drafted, I wonder why wasn't I called? And then they told me, no Jews.

[Adam Friedland]

They didn't like Jews.

[Maury Povich]

Washington, D.C. because the federal government and the military was the first thing that blacks could get a good job. All of the quotas every single month were filled up by black enlistments. Really? And that's why I didn't get drafted.

[Adam Friedland]

Because you were white?

[Maury Povich]

No.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't get it. I'm confused. So why didn't you get drafted?

[Maury Povich]

Because all the blacks enlisted. Filled up the clothes every month.

[Adam Friedland]

They enlisted because it was a good job in D.C. it was a good job. Okay, sorry.

[Maury Povich]

And said, then my wife gets pregnant and I'm out of the draft.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah. You sound like a regular Jane Fonda to me.

[Maury Povich]

No, I'm not.

[Adam Friedland]

Yes, you are.

[Maury Povich]

Warner used to interview Jane Fonda right after she went to Hanoi.

[Adam Friedland]

She impregnated someone so she didn't have to go. She got. Never mind.

[Maury Povich]

Okay, I think you got it wrong.

[Adam Friedland]

I'm nervous, Maury. I'm nervous because I'm a big fan of yours.

[Maury Povich]

Half a million people on YouTube. This is pretty good.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. It's.

[Maury Povich]

In fact, my nephew.

[Adam Friedland]

Can you imagine why? I don't get why.

[Maury Povich]

My nephew's girlfriend, lebeth, as soon as she read the interview, she texted me. She said, I can't believe that you and Adam Friedland got together. He's the best. I watch him all the time.

[Adam Friedland]

Really? Yeah. Oh, well, tell her thank you.

[Maury Povich]

Out of the blue.

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Maury Povich]

Never heard from her before, ever.

[Adam Friedland]

Maybe send it to Tony. Maybe send that to me.

[Maury Povich]

You really want Tony on your show?

[Adam Friedland]

I just want.

[Maury Povich]

I've never guessed with him. When I had Wilbon and Tony on yeah, he would only be on, he would only be on audio, he wouldn't be on video.

[Adam Friedland]

We could get some, someone to play him and we'll, we'll do like AI or something. Yeah. How bad was the gift? He didn't give me a gift. I mean, that's amazing. It's morning. I'm getting ready for work. I bust out the funnies. Okay, have a Huel. Okay. The ready to drink from Huel saves me constantly. A complete meal that I can drink helps me stay consistent. Consistency is key. And that's really the magic behind the Adam Friedland show. It's because of the 35 grams of protein, 27 essential vitamins and minerals. No artificial sweeteners, colors or flavors. Gluten free, under $5 per meal. A complete meal that you can grab and go and you'll be looking like a, like a full meal. Remember that? Looking like a snack. I use the powder when I want something more built, like thicker, blended or more filling. It's the same high protein, same complete meal benefits, flexible flavors. I love it when that happens. 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[Maury Povich]

Everything.

[Adam Friedland]

How many cities were you in?

[Maury Povich]

I started in Washington and then because of my father, I said after a long time and I was very successful. I said, can I play elsewhere? So in the next seven years I worked in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia and back to Washington. In fact, to the point where Richard Reeves, then the White House correspondent for the New York Times, wrote this column in Esquire magazine. He said, for the last four St. Patty's days, I have watched my friend Maury Povich anchor the news in four different cities. He's trying to go nationwide, city by city. That's how crazy my life was.

[Adam Friedland]

So what were you doing to the Irish at these St. Patrick's days that got you fired? You said disparaging comments about the Irish.

[Maury Povich]

Do you have a list of people who have done you wrong?

[Adam Friedland]

No, no, I don't like carrying anything because it's like, what does it do for them if you don't like someone?

[Maury Povich]

In this nomadic seven year career of mine, I had a list of like five station managers or whatever. Yeah, that I said, boy, did you

[Adam Friedland]

get them back ever.

[Maury Povich]

I hope they get theirs. So believe it or not, every single one of them in subsequent years all got fired and I instead of going, I felt sorry for them.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, it's like their health insurance and their kids sad to lose a job.

[Maury Povich]

I was really surprised that I felt sorry for them rather than hold the grudge.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, they were like, maury's handsome, he'll figure it out.

[Maury Povich]

They didn't think so.

[Adam Friedland]

They didn't think you Were handsome. You were checked.

[Maury Povich]

One guy didn't think I was good anchor material. Another guy didn't think that.

[Adam Friedland]

Was there an anti Semitism thing? No. No. Okay. I don't think you could. I mean, I was just blaming.

[Maury Povich]

You can have it on your mind and anything else. But guess what?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

I don't think I ever in my lifetime experienced that in the business.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't really think I have experienced it.

[Maury Povich]

No.

[Adam Friedland]

Are you kidding?

[Maury Povich]

All the Jewish comics.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, in the business? No, because we started the business. Yeah. I got a call after October 7th for my ages, and he's like, how are you? And I'm like, my career? And he's like, no. With the impending eradication of our people. Pablo just got a call.

[Maury Povich]

Huh?

[Adam Friedland]

We have to follow up.

[Maury Povich]

You want to call Pablo?

[Adam Friedland]

Pablo just got a call from Tony. Let's see what's going on.

[Maury Povich]

If you ruin my relationship with Tony Kornheiser, I will tell you this. I will make sure that within a year, you'll have about 3,000 YouTube viewers.

[Adam Friedland]

What are you going to do? You're going to get Bush? You're going to get Bush to invade me. Pablo, why are you picking up? Hello? So, okay. Hi, Pablo.

[Maury Povich]

Hi, Pablo. Pablo, why did you say hi?

[Adam Friedland]

You said hi.

[Maury Povich]

Sad to me. I'm telling you right now, Pablo, if this, if these last 10 minutes have destroyed my relationship with Tony Kornizer, I will.

[Pablo]

Look, Maury, how do I.

[Adam Friedland]

He's not happy.

[Pablo]

No.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, he just calls me up

[Pablo]

and he immediately says, who is this Adam Friedman?

[Adam Friedland]

So what did you say?

[Pablo]

And then I become your agent.

[Adam Friedland]

So what did you say?

[Pablo]

Very popular with young people. I'm trying to, like, appeal to Kornheiser and, like, how he. How he thinks of things.

[Adam Friedland]

I'm like, thank you.

[Pablo]

Young people love him. They say he's a millennial. Jon Stewart. He's a super fan.

[Adam Friedland]

I love him.

[Pablo]

I said that. I quoted.

[Adam Friedland]

I told him I'm gonna get the Aela for him tomorrow.

[Maury Povich]

Pablo, Pablo.

[Pablo]

I mean, this is where Maury, you know, you. I mean, you, Maury. And I know. I mean, Mori's way more successful at this than me.

[Adam Friedland]

No, I wouldn't say that. You're. You're star. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Pablo]

No, well, on, on, on. Well, the level of, like, being supernova, but also, like, getting him to. Getting Korneiser to do anything.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, because. Because Maury's a, like a scratch golfer. He's amazing.

[Pablo]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

But anyway, Pablo, did you tell Adam about how we toast? How we dusted Nick Cannon on Playing spades.

[Adam Friedland]

We gotta hear this. Yeah. What's up?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, we went on Nick Cannon's replaying Spades podcast, and we dusted him in his car, me and Pablo.

[Adam Friedland]

You know, Nick Cannon has some thoughts about the Jewish Jews, you know, that did not come up.

[Maury Povich]

His doctor is Jewish doctor.

[Adam Friedland]

Dr. Sebi.

[Maury Povich]

No.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, Pablo. I talked to Tony, and it felt like flying.

[Pablo]

I was gonna say what I told him was by merely being irate on the phone with Maury about Adam. You made Adam's day.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Made Adam's day. Really? Yeah. And I meet people all the time for the show, and I'm sick in the head. I'm delusional. Like, I'm not nervous around anyone. It's the first time I've been nervous since I saw Dice at the stand.

[Pablo]

You saw Andrew Dice Clay?

[Adam Friedland]

I get nervous for the most random people. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

I don't know him. What's he like?

[Adam Friedland]

What's he like? He has his act or as a guy person? As a guy. I think he's just a Jewish guy. I think it's a character. But his act is. As if the last 40 years of culture has never happened. He had a chunk on Caitlyn Jenner. That was. That was you. You're with the. You're with the sexy girl. You reach down the front of her pants, there's a tree trunk. I think that was one of the lines. It was really. It was a blast from the past. It was.

[Pablo]

You should tell Cornheiser this. You should say that there are two people who've made me feel this way. One is you, the other is. And then you just do your impression of Andrew Dice Clay.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The other one was Jadakiss.

[Maury Povich]

Pablo, Pablo, this is important. Pablo.

[Pablo]

Yes.

[Maury Povich]

Where are you with the NBA? Are you still Persona non grata?

[Pablo]

I may or may not be detailed at various arenas.

[Adam Friedland]

Are they listening?

[Pablo]

They might be, Honestly, Depending on the. I don't know what level of Israeli spyware has been installed on my phone or by which owner, but it's non zero chance that they're also listening to us right now.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, Pablo, you told me. You told me that you think that you think this Iran thing is going awesome.

[Pablo]

I said the straight is under control. The straight of Hormuz is famously under control.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was with. I. I saw Dice performing. He's like, I was with this chick in the straight. The straight of Hormuz was closed. Yeah, it. No, I tried something there. We're gonna cut that work. We're gonna leave that in.

[Maury Povich]

You're gonna cut that and this.

[Adam Friedland]

The whore nose was closed.

[Maury Povich]

Pablo, I've been on here an hour, and I guarantee you 30 minutes of it has been cut.

[Pablo]

I was gonna say, is Maury aware of how. Is Maury aware of how predatory your edit's gonna be on this?

[Adam Friedland]

We haven't even talked about the talk show yet. We haven't even said the term not the father yet. We're just. This is just the. This is the chemistry between me and this gentleman, this legend of.

[Pablo]

Let me say this. I'm so jealous that you guys are hanging out without me.

[Adam Friedland]

You want to come over? We'll keep going for another. I don't know. Yeah, another hour.

[Pablo]

Keep it going for a couple more hours, and I'll drop in.

[Adam Friedland]

All right. You want to get Tony Reality? Maybe Woody Page.

[Maury Povich]

By the way, I love Woody Page. I love Woody.

[Pablo]

Okay, Maury, I miss you, man. And I do want to just reiterate that it was a transcendent moment of my life when we once again destroyed Nick Cannon.

[Adam Friedland]

You're such a suck up. You're such a suck up. That's crazy.

[Maury Povich]

And by the way, I got the greatest comments from mentors. You know what?

[Pablo]

I have mentors.

[Maury Povich]

You know what the greatest comment was that I saw underneath the. Underneath the podcast? You know when they put comments. You know what the greatest comment. I wear it as an honor was that one comment was, he's welcome at the cookout.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, really?

[Maury Povich]

Yep.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, Maury, that leads me to my. To my next question. So you famously got the hood pass. Is that correct? You met with the council of elders?

[Maury Povich]

There are people that call me White Chocolate.

[Adam Friedland]

Pablo, we gotta go finish this. This is the best day of my life.

[Pablo]

I cannot be happier that you're living your make a wish dream today.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, I am dying. That is true. I meant to tell you. Who told you that I'm dying? The Mossad. They know everything. All right, bye, pal.

[Maury Povich]

Thanks, Pablo. Bye. Love you. Bye.

[Adam Friedland]

Wait. I really want to get into you and your show because that era of media, like I said, your parents are at work. You're sick. You know, you can watch TV all day.

[Maury Povich]

By the way, did you ever have to fake it?

[Adam Friedland]

Usually a lady never tells, right?

[Maury Povich]

No, but this is why? Because I ask people that because, oh, I stayed home, I pretended I was sick. I said, how did you. How did you convince your parents that you were sick? They said they took the thermometer and held it up to a light bulb.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Or yeah, or like under. Yeah, like you put a coin in your mouth, like a penny in your mouth, and it'll get hot. I don't fucking. No. I mean, I would fake. Yeah. Not wanting to go to school. School sucks. TV's awesome. Teachers give too much homework. We all know this.

[Maury Povich]

I was terrible in school. Just terrible.

[Adam Friedland]

You got into Pen.

[Maury Povich]

You know, it was back in the days. Anybody could get in anywhere.

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, really. In 1957. Come on.

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah. I mean, Jesus.

[Adam Friedland]

You know, Caleb went to Hawaii.

[Maury Povich]

I didn't get into Yale, though. That's where I wanted to go.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, they didn't let us. Right.

[Maury Povich]

We had to go to Yale.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, he was the first Jew.

[Maury Povich]

No, he was not.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, I heard that. It was. Yeah, yeah. Your brother was in skull caps and.

[Maury Povich]

No, he wasn't in bones.

[Adam Friedland]

I'm trying to think of the Jewish. The Jewish skull and bones. Skull caps and. Come on.

[Maury Povich]

He was in a fraternity called St. Elmo.

[Adam Friedland]

Skull caps and moans. Skull. Skull and.

[Maury Povich]

Skull and bones.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

What goes on there? Can we call.

[Maury Povich]

I have no idea.

[Adam Friedland]

Let's call.

[Maury Povich]

Prophet George won't give it up.

[Adam Friedland]

I heard. What it is, is that it's just lame. They're just, like, doing debates, like, from people from history. They're doing, like, lincoln doesn't care. Yeah. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Anyway, so you're there as a kid,

[Adam Friedland]

watching as a kid.

[Maury Povich]

Price is right.

[Adam Friedland]

Jerry Price is right. Is the beginning of the.

[Maury Povich]

How about Ricky Lake?

[Adam Friedland]

I think Jenny Jones was. Later in the day.

[Maury Povich]

Jenny Jones changed everything.

[Adam Friedland]

She changed everything.

[Maury Povich]

And then, of course, because of the murder.

[Adam Friedland]

We'll get there. Okay. This was an area of media that was, like, so thrilling because I was TV generation. I think television is kind of now. It's all streaming and stuff. Like, it's.

[Maury Povich]

It's, you know, like, your generation is passe, and my generation is passe.

[Adam Friedland]

Passe, yeah. At this point, like, when people talk about millennials, like, when Bill Maher talks about millennials, like, in his act, I think he thinks they're, like, 19 years old. Like, we're 45 years old now. We're elders. But I was raised on television, and there was something about you and Jerry that I just loved, which was that there were just these. Like, there were these. For me, obviously, I got to stop talking about it, but there are these Jewish guys that were just controlling this chaos.

[Maury Povich]

And it was so controlling.

[Adam Friedland]

You were. No. You were hosting a show. Yeah, yeah, that's true.

[Maury Povich]

But we're not controlling.

[Adam Friedland]

I wasn't saying you were creating the chaos. You were.

[Maury Povich]

No, but there were. I Mean, there were a lot of non Jews. Okay. I mean, you had Geraldo. You had Phil Donahue.

[Adam Friedland]

He's Jewish. Geraldo's Jewish.

[Maury Povich]

Half Jewish. Phil Donahue. Phil Donahue. Oprah, Jenny Jones.

[Adam Friedland]

Oprah's Jewish.

[Maury Povich]

No, she's not.

[Adam Friedland]

Yes, she is. Who do you think?

[Maury Povich]

The media. She is not. I mean, come on.

[Adam Friedland]

But there was something about it where

[Maury Povich]

like, I. Montel, Sally, Jesse.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, there were two Jews.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, me and Jerry. That was it. At a 20.

[Adam Friedland]

Montel was a stage name. You think Jon Lebowitz is. Jon Stewart was Jon Lebowitz. Montell Jordan was.

[Maury Povich]

I love John Stewart.

[Adam Friedland]

Montel Jordan was.

[Maury Povich]

Do you like Jon Stewart?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I mean, like, that was the same era. Like, I would watch, like, when I was in high school, when I was. Hated the Iraq war and stuff. I would see comedians on television that were making jokes about it. And I remember when Colbert did the correspondence dinner, when your boy's approval. His numbers were, like, rough. It was right at the end.

[Maury Povich]

But guess what? Yeah, he went. He went and he went every year. And he took the skewer. He took the. Yeah, he took the skewing.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. And if you remember, actually, Trump decided to run the night that Obama was roasting.

[Maury Povich]

You believe that?

[Adam Friedland]

That's what they say.

[Maury Povich]

I know.

[Adam Friedland]

What do I believe?

[Maury Povich]

I don't know.

[Adam Friedland]

No. What's the truth? Tell us the truth.

[Maury Povich]

I don't know the truth.

[Adam Friedland]

You know all the secrets.

[Maury Povich]

No, but I've seen. Seen that, written that. That's when Trump said, I'm gonna get back at this guy. I'm gonna run.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, anyway, so what I'm saying

[Maury Povich]

is, so it was the golden age of daytime talk.

[Adam Friedland]

All right? There was something.

[Maury Povich]

We had 20 shows on the air.

[Adam Friedland]

Right. There was something that was, like, so funny for me as like a schmucky kid. Right. There was something, like, so humorous about, like, about the chaos of all of it. But I suppose, like, when did you realize, like, what was your first hit, like, for the show? Did the show start off differently?

[Maury Povich]

Because show started off just like every other Donahue tame talk show.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Okay. I would do, for instance, I went to do a week in Waco, Texas for the Branch Davidians and things that were happening down there.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

FBI went and killed everybody.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And so then I did a week in Nashville for country music. I mean, it was a. We did Secret Crushes.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

You know, boy, boyfriend, girlfriend, secret crushes, that kind.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, that did the. Jenny Jones. That's. That was the murder. Right. It was a guy that said he had a crush on his friend.

[Maury Povich]

Right. And so then, you know, seven, eight years in, Ricki Lake got very popular. And so Ricki Lake was a little edgy because she had a lot of young people on. They were talking about stuff. And then all of a sudden, my producer comes up with these three themes. Paternity, lie detector tests, out of control teenagers. And that just shot me to the moon.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. The boot camps. Yeah. And the scared straight things.

[Maury Povich]

Right.

[Adam Friedland]

It was funny when they came about

[Maury Povich]

the Larry David thing.

[Adam Friedland]

Did I ever tell you that that's one of my favorite episodes of Curb, The. The car salesman episode.

[Maury Povich]

No.

[Adam Friedland]

Where he's. He's watching your show, right?

[Maury Povich]

Right.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. You don't know me. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

You don't know me. Yeah. When he calls me up, right? He says, this is Larry David. Hung up on him. I said, that's a prank. Calls back up. He says, I need a clip of your show for the first episode of the series we're doing.

[Adam Friedland]

It's such a good episode, too.

[Maury Povich]

And so he's in a hotel room. Cheryl Hines, his wife, is now. They're looking for houses. He's lying in bed. He won't get out of bed.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, he doesn't have a job at the time, too.

[Maury Povich]

No, we're going to look at houses. And he's watching my show on here.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, you don't know me.

[Maury Povich]

And it. Teenagers are coming down and the audience are booing them, and they're going, you don't know me. You don't know me. You don't know me. And so Cheryl Hines says, you got to get out of bed. You got to get out of bed. And he goes, you don't know me. You don't know me.

[Adam Friedland]

You saw the audience wake up. Is that kind of like a. Was that a phenomenon that you would notice when you.

[Maury Povich]

When you start getting boos and yays from an audience, from a live audience, and you're not encouraging it, you've had a winner.

[Adam Friedland]

And you were like the moral center of the show. When someone was hurt, famously, people would. After a paternity test, they would run off. Did you ever have a camera guy just get fucked? Like, just fuck it. Just eat shit. Right? Cause those people are running. And the camera guy was just. I imagine, like, that guy is.

[Maury Povich]

It's great.

[Adam Friedland]

Did you get him from, like a. Like war. War zone journalism.

[Maury Povich]

They were great. The camera people were great.

[Adam Friedland]

They had so.

[Maury Povich]

And I would comfort the guest.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Because she found out that he. He wasn't the father when he thought he was the father.

[Adam Friedland]

And did you want to be partying with the guys sometimes? And you're like, oh, God, I gotta be with this lady, this crying lady, because this guy's doing backflips. He's break dancing. That guy is.

[Maury Povich]

I'm telling you, we had guys that could be gymnast in the Olympics.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, my God, you had so many backflips on that show. Springer was, of course, more about fights. Did you. Did you guys have. On the show?

[Maury Povich]

Not much.

[Adam Friedland]

Not much.

[Maury Povich]

But here's Jerry. Look, I knew Jerry and I started the same year, 1991. So Jerry and I were friends forever.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And he gave me the best compliment anybody could give me because everybody was talking about his show and my show, and he said, here's the difference. Maury's show is the real deal. My show is wrestling.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Which means that a lot of it was scripted, maybe. Yeah. Did you ever find out someone was on the show that was a fake or a fraud?

[Maury Povich]

Never got that far.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

They might have gotten to the. They might have. They might have gotten to the event and we found out that this is all bullshit.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I remember there was a paternity test where it was twins. Yes. And the guy was the father of

[Maury Povich]

one of them, but not the other.

[Adam Friedland]

That's real

[Maury Povich]

fraternal twins with two different. There's identical twins, which means you look alike.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

All right. Fraternal twins.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. But it's the same dad. Right.

[Maury Povich]

For the most part. There's a million to one shot that it might not be medically. Wow. Because running training, the lady is a little active at a certain period of the month.

[Adam Friedland]

Wow. Wow. I had no idea.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Were there moments where I guess, like the Jenny Jones things happened, changed everything. Okay, what did that change? So. So another talk show host, just for the audience. You could explain.

[Maury Povich]

Jenny Jones had these people on, and one guy surprised him because he wanted to be. He was gay, and he wanted to be with this other guy and

[Adam Friedland]

say, I have a crush on you. Secret crush.

[Maury Povich]

So embarrassing that after the show, later on, I don't know how many days later, one guy was killed by the other guy. And that changed the whole outlook for how we did shows. We had legal teams now. We had psychologists that. We had counselors at the show every day to make sure that everybody was treated well. We had to end up with a legal. Like, six pages of this will happen. This will happen. This might happen. This might happen. You will not be surprised. This could possibly Whatever.

[Adam Friedland]

Waivers.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And they had to sign it. So they Were never surprised by something like that.

[Adam Friedland]

Content wise. Did. Did it shift the content? No, it was just. There were more protections, right?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Was there ever a time where, like, a producer pitched you on something and you were like, this is taking it too far, or.

[Maury Povich]

First of all, I never like to do shows on race.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Geraldo got in a very big problem one time when he did a big racial show and huge fight broke out and he broke his nose.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

During the melee.

[Adam Friedland]

Jerry had a KKK guy on.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah. Jerry.

[Adam Friedland]

Jerry took it to him.

[Maury Povich]

I didn't like that. I. I didn't like. You know something? Here's the thing, Adam. When I grew up, there were three things you never talked about publicly. Three things like, I grew up in a house where there's a certain amount of gentility. You didn't talk religion. That was personal. Did your.

[Adam Friedland]

When did your parents tell you you were Jewish?

[Maury Povich]

Probably at my brisk. You didn't talk. I never talk publicly about religion. Don't talk about my politics. And I don't talk about money.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And we grew up that way. That's how we grew up.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Not now.

[Adam Friedland]

Right?

[Maury Povich]

Everything is on the table now.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

I mean, my generation is just passe. I mean, we're bygones.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Terrible. A different era. I mean, I grew up. You know, Franklin Roosevelt was president of the United States.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

First time I ever saw my mother cry was at his. Was when I was six years old. When he died.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. So you. You. That was your. It was the war, too, right? Yeah. And you were six.

[Maury Povich]

I gave bond speeches at the age of four.

[Adam Friedland]

Wow. Wait for, like, to raise war bonds.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

How did you actually.

[Maury Povich]

We need ships, we need guns, we need planes.

[Adam Friedland]

Really? Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Why?

[Adam Friedland]

Because you were cute or something. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

There's a 8 millimeter film of me doing that.

[Adam Friedland]

You've been. You were. Let's just go back again and we'll get back to the talk show. You've met every president, you said, or been in the Oval Office. For every president.

[Maury Povich]

I've been in the Oval Office. Not Trump. I haven't been to his office.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay. I hear it's great. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

The worst.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't know. You haven't seen it yet. Why are you judging it?

[Maury Povich]

I saw the pictures with the gold. I saw the gold.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. But in per. The pictures might not do it justice.

[Maury Povich]

No, no, no. The pictures, you're right. It's probably worse.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't know. I. I'm not.

[Maury Povich]

I mean, I don't. You know, I don't like to talk about him as a president, but I can tell you right now that gold in that Oval Office just drives me nuts.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, it's a. I mean, he's from Queens, right?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, well, he was. It was golden.

[Adam Friedland]

It's a real estate check.

[Maury Povich]

Mar A Lago. I mean, you ever know Mar A Lago?

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, you know. On the record? Yes. No, I've never been. Have you?

[Maury Povich]

No.

[Adam Friedland]

What is it, a place? It's his house. Where people go have dinner with him.

[Maury Povich]

It's a club.

[Adam Friedland]

It's a club, but he lives there. He lives there and no one else does.

[Maury Povich]

I think there are some other houses on the property.

[Adam Friedland]

It's kind of cool to have like your house and then everyone wants to come chill with you and they have to pay to come chill with you.

[Maury Povich]

Then he took the rose garden and made that like a patio.

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, I mean, cement patio. That rose garden was so pretty.

[Adam Friedland]

It's a real estate shyster from Kennedy, from Jamaica Estates, Queens. What do you expect? It's shame on us, I think, if anything. But going back to it, like, what did. Like what Presidents. Like, so you met Nixon, you met Ford, you met Carter?

[Maury Povich]

I don't know. Did I meet. Yeah, I met Nixon and I met Ford.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Carter.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, I met Carter. Believe it or not, I was doing a local talk show.

[Adam Friedland]

Paternity test.

[Maury Povich]

No. The day that he was going to announce for president, he came on my local show.

[Adam Friedland]

Really? Yeah. He's a very nice man. From what I understand.

[Maury Povich]

He was okay.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Who made the biggest impression on you?

[Maury Povich]

George. Who is a friend.

[Adam Friedland]

George is a friend. But I mean, like just seeing them.

[Maury Povich]

Well, you know that feeling that you. You got right now talking to Tony. Yeah. So I'm covering Kennedy for the first time. Yeah, I got that feeling.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Did it. It felt like your generation. It felt like a younger guy.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, my God, dude. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

I mean. I mean, think about it. I had. I had Roosevelt, I had Truman and I had Eisenhower. These are old guys.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Now a 42 or 3 year old. Are you kidding me? I'm 24 or 5.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I mean, how does a journalist that feels a certain way about their subject? Like you come from a different era right now. Now there's a.

[Maury Povich]

There was a wall.

[Adam Friedland]

There was a wall.

[Maury Povich]

There's a wall.

[Adam Friedland]

Obviously, Walter Cronkite had his own opinions. Sure. But it wasn't presented like. No.

[Maury Povich]

And the reason why the Vietnam War was a loser was when he all of a sudden, for the first time does this huge five minute exploration of how we're losing the war. He would never, ever have done that before.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. One of the problems, I think, with the digital era is there's a blurring of lines. Like, you remember when there were three networks, right?

[Maury Povich]

Sure.

[Adam Friedland]

There were three.

[Maury Povich]

That was it. There were three abc, NBC, cbs.

[Adam Friedland]

There were three primetime anchors.

[Maury Povich]

That's it.

[Adam Friedland]

And nowadays there's. People get their news from, like, some guy.

[Maury Povich]

They might get the news from. You.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. And I try. I genuinely. This is on a sincere note. I try not to present myself from a position of authority when it comes to things that I'm not.

[Maury Povich]

On my podcast this week. Okay. On my podcast this week, on par with Maury Povich. Thank you very much. Give it up.

[Adam Friedland]

Give it up.

[Maury Povich]

All right. So Joy Reid is my guest tonight.

[Adam Friedland]

All right.

[Maury Povich]

And I challenged her a little bit about, are you a journalist or aren't you a journalist? And she says, she describes herself, and I think that's legit. She calls herself an opinion journalist.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Is that. Okay?

[Adam Friedland]

An opinionist. Yeah. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

But. But she calls herself a journalist because she thinks her opinion is based on fact.

[Adam Friedland]

But everything is opinion. Right. Like these days. And it used to be these days.

[Maury Povich]

Definitely.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Do you think. Do you consider this to be bad for society, or do you think that journalism being democratized is a good thing?

[Maury Povich]

My problem is there is a truth. Right, Right. And I think it's all getting blurred. I think there's a lot of fog around the truth, and it's very difficult to find it. Yeah, that's my problem.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Did you ever encounter Sy Hirsch? Yes. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Used to come on my talk show in Washington.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Now.

[Adam Friedland]

Now, Cy Hirsch, I just read his memoir. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Boy, he broke a lot of stories.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Eli was the best. Probably the most important.

[Adam Friedland]

Incredible. And the Post had to stand, like, up alongside the New York Times, you know, against. They went to the Supreme Court. Is that right?

[Maury Povich]

To the Supreme Court. Pentagon Papers.

[Adam Friedland]

The Pentagon, yeah. Ellsberg interviewed him, too. Daniel Ellsberg? Yeah. Is he still alive? I don't know.

[Maury Povich]

You know, I don't know.

[Adam Friedland]

This is like two Jews having sandwiches.

[Maury Povich]

I think he died.

[Adam Friedland]

Was he still with us?

[Maury Povich]

I think he died recently.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, I think he did die recently.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Wait, so going back, I read Cy Hirsch's book, and it just. The. The budgets, like your father's sports division, right. Was just shut down, if I'm not correct, if I'm not mistaken.

[Maury Povich]

Be very upset.

[Adam Friedland]

The. The budgets. That's terrible news.

[Maury Povich]

Not only the sports page was shut down, the Metro section The local news section was closed down. Can you imagine that?

[Adam Friedland]

Is that not being a thing anymore? Is us not getting our news in a controlled way anymore?

[Maury Povich]

First of all, why would any newspaper have a sports section if we're inundated 24 hours with all the results and all the various it is stupid outlets and things like that where you can get it instantly?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. When you were a kid getting ready for school, it must be different because your dad was the head of the sports page. Right. But like, did you, like, have your cereal and then open up the sports page like you're every single. Like you're an adult. I used to do that too.

[Maury Povich]

And you know, when my father died, there were more comments from people who said, we learned to read with your father's column.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, I think I had batting averages, like, memorized.

[Maury Povich]

Sure.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Like, it's.

[Maury Povich]

I remember one time. So my father, one time, I'm a kid and he's in the dugout interviewing the hall of Fame managers. Casey Stengel of the New York Yankees.

[Adam Friedland]

Yes.

[Maury Povich]

Casey Stengel used to meander all over the place. He used to use dangling participles, misplaced modifiers. You never knew what was going to come out of his mouth.

[Adam Friedland]

He was a lot.

[Maury Povich]

So I'm there, my father's interviewing him the next day. The 800 word column was, end quote, 800 words later, out, quote. Oh, boy.

[Adam Friedland]

Who we got?

[Maury Povich]

Who we got Spam. Thank you.

[Adam Friedland]

Let's just listen.

[Maury Povich]

No, we're not.

[Adam Friedland]

Pick it up.

[Maury Povich]

No, we're not doing that.

[Adam Friedland]

Why not?

[Maury Povich]

No, no, I'm in the middle of a story.

[Adam Friedland]

No, I'll. But I'll. I'll say, shame on you. Hello? Hello.

[Maury Povich]

Good.

[Adam Friedland]

Yes, we would like to sign up. Okay.

[Maury Povich]

So anyway, the column the next morning, 800 words, starts, finish, nothing but Casey Stengel talking. Yeah, I said to him, I said, dad, I sat next to you while you interviewed Casey Stengel. He didn't say half of that. He didn't say half of the things that you printed. He says he should have. Wait, so you're going to get a dramatic license. Some of you get. When you want to have fun, you can have fun.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. So making a transition from hard news to talk shows. Yeah. Like what was there? Did you ever miss it? You know, did you ever.

[Maury Povich]

Like, I missed. I missed covering the events.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

You know, I mean, even the president has been shot.

[Adam Friedland]

You know, like.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, I would have.

[Adam Friedland]

You covered Kennedy's assassination?

[Maury Povich]

I covered. I was at Andrews Air Force Base when that plane came home and I was there when the Jackie Kennedy came off that plane with the blood on her pink dress, on her pink suit, and the coffin coming out the back.

[Adam Friedland]

Wow.

[Maury Povich]

Now, I mean, even when I was doing A Current Affair, this crazy show, I'm there at the fall of the Berlin Wall. In other words, I went places and things. That was great. Since the talk show, I haven't covered any of this stuff, and. And, yeah. Yeah, I missed the event.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. It would have been nice to cover January 6th.

[Maury Povich]

Would have been great. Would have been great. Yeah. I would have loved that.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. It is kind of the craziest thing I've ever seen in my entire life.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah. Probably your generation. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't think they're mine.

[Maury Povich]

I was working in San Francisco.

[Adam Friedland]

That's my Omaha Beach, I think.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

January 6th. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

It's Washington crossing the Delaware.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

That's what. That's what we got.

[Maury Povich]

That's my Berlin Wall. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. So, yeah, I guess, like. But the. The interesting thing about you is your. Your wife, Connie Chung was. Was doing that throughout.

[Maury Povich]

Not at all.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Doing it all.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And breaking barriers.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And so, you know,

[Adam Friedland]

what did she like? Yeah. What is it like to be with a woman that's just so much more impressive and beautiful? Can I ask that question again? I thought it was gonna be a laugh.

[Maury Povich]

No.

[Adam Friedland]

I thought we were gonna be busting bulls. What's it like to be with such an impressive, incredible person?

[Maury Povich]

I love it. Yeah. How would it be if, you know, you were attacked?

[Adam Friedland]

They're all our better halves, right? Yeah, mine is better.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, you want to talk to her. Should we call her?

[Maury Povich]

No, we're not talking to her.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay.

[Maury Povich]

We're not talking to her.

[Adam Friedland]

So. Yeah, you guys are enough. Yeah, you've talked to my. To mine enough.

[Maury Povich]

You want me to talk to your.

[Adam Friedland]

Did he say he talked to mine enough? Oh, I thought you were doing a joke. Like, I talk to her enough. Yeah, like, that would have been good. You want to run that again? Can we call my girlfriend?

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, I'd like to call your girlfriend.

[Adam Friedland]

No, no, no, no, no. You're supposed to say, no, I talked to her enough,

[Maury Povich]

Maury.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay, we'll do it a third time from the top.

[Maury Povich]

Okay.

[Adam Friedland]

Let's get an edit point.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

You know, there are better halves. These women. Let me run that again. Okay. Fourth, take four. Can we call my girlfriend?

[Maury Povich]

No, I talk to her enough.

[Adam Friedland]

Wait, are you. Oh, boy. What are you saying?

[Maury Povich]

Is your girlfriend.

[Adam Friedland]

What are you saying?

[Maury Povich]

Are your girlfriend. Much younger than you are Me armin Is your girlfriend much younger than you?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, she's. She's.

[Maury Povich]

You're 39. What is she?

[Adam Friedland]

She's 14 and a half. It's called grooming. No. Yeah, she's. She's. She's 29. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Do you like that difference? You like the decade difference?

[Adam Friedland]

It's not an aspect of the preference. I don't think I've ever, when we first started dating, dated someone. I think most of my girlfriends were two years younger. I think maturity wise, she's got a tour.

[Maury Povich]

I'm the young. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

I'm the. I'm the baby.

[Maury Povich]

Just seeing you.

[Adam Friedland]

I am the baby. I. I am a baby. Yeah. I hurt myself all the time just walking in my apartment. And she said I. She says I have no sympathy.

[Maury Povich]

I hope, I hope that.

[Adam Friedland]

She says that.

[Maury Povich]

I hope she's a neat freak because I saw your backstage Thomas. I saw your backstage life.

[Adam Friedland]

I know it's, it's. It's an embarrassment right now.

[Maury Povich]

I mean, is she a neat freak? Because she better be.

[Adam Friedland]

She has filled my life with beautiful. With flowers. We'll say it that way. Our apartment is stunning. She's lovely. I have no say in.

[Maury Povich]

Is she in the business?

[Adam Friedland]

No, she's. She's a designer. Like architectural design.

[Maury Povich]

She's an architectural design.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

That's serious.

[Adam Friedland]

She's getting her master fashion designer.

[Maury Povich]

I would say forget that. But why architecture is really.

[Adam Friedland]

Why forget a fashion?

[Maury Povich]

Well, because that won't work with you. Look at you.

[Adam Friedland]

I look pretty good. You have a six decade career in something.

[Maury Povich]

Isn't that terrible?

[Adam Friedland]

It's amazing.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah. But maybe it goes. My father worked 75 years. He died the day after he wrote his last article.

[Adam Friedland]

What the fuck old was he when he died? He wrote his last article about what?

[Maury Povich]

You know what he wrote it about. It's amazing.

[Adam Friedland]

About a bowl of hard candy.

[Maury Povich]

No.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Wrote it about. All of a sudden he was questioning Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa hitting all these home runs.

[Adam Friedland]

And then they killed him. They killed him.

[Maury Povich]

And then the next day, because he was trying to tell them Ruth is a. Ruth is the ultimate slugger. Not these two. And he was suspicious. He didn't know about steroids, but he was suspicious.

[Adam Friedland]

Naturally suspicious. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Wow. Because he couldn't understand how they were hitting all these three home run games. And so he said, especially since McGuire was saying he was. He was taking nutrition shakes to do it. And so he died the next day.

[Adam Friedland]

So he filed that in the.

[Maury Povich]

In the Post, his obit and his last column, rent side by side. Front page of the Washington post.

[Adam Friedland]

So he's 96.

[Maury Povich]

2.

[Adam Friedland]

92.

[Maury Povich]

He started at 17.

[Adam Friedland]

He started at 17 in the newspaper.

[Maury Povich]

He was a caddy in Bar Harbor, Maine.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, I thought I would assume like a X tree extry. Read all about it. Like one of those kids.

[Maury Povich]

Boys.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, no, he wasn't like that. What do you see as having changed in news and media? Where do you see it, like, as someone that can document it over so many.

[Maury Povich]

The definition of news no longer exists in my mind.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

This doesn't exist.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Every single column that I. If you picked up a newspaper, every single, Every single story you read, you believed.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. You think even in the Times, you think that's been undermined?

[Maury Povich]

I think it's been undermined because placement of stories, how big they were and the headlines and I think that if it's not opinion analysis has seeped into the coverage of news

[Adam Friedland]

in the uk they have the BBC, which is publicly funded but independent.

[Maury Povich]

Right. Which we thought NPR might be.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Well, that's gone. Which we thought Voice of America might be. Which. Gone. Which we thought PBS was.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Do you think that if we had like a robust, publicly funded news agency that their incentive wasn't profit driven, their incentive was just that, to fulfill like a congressional like order, or do you think that that would be preferable, like if we had one source that was.

[Maury Povich]

If they could absolutely determined that it was independent of government? Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah. I can't think of any other way to do it, you know.

[Maury Povich]

No, Yeah, I mean, you can't. Yeah, I, Yeah, I mean, I think maybe, maybe the best, the best kind of journalism today is non profit journalism.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, well, I. One day we're gonna getting in the black here and then I'm going to sell out. But right now you're in the red

[Maury Povich]

with a half a million YouTube viewers.

[Adam Friedland]

You know, I owe a lot of money around town, Maury.

[Maury Povich]

I don't think so.

[Adam Friedland]

I do. And I wanted to talk to Kornheiser about an opportunity for him. What is the craziest name you heard of? A guest on Maury?

[Maury Povich]

You ever heard of Josh Johnson?

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, the comic. Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Josh used I. Another reason why I'm honored. Josh used me in a bit one time was he said that the black community owes me a thank you.

[Adam Friedland]

Wow. How's that feel?

[Maury Povich]

Because Maury Povich has never mispronounced a black name.

[Adam Friedland]

Is that true?

[Maury Povich]

It's true. Because I always.

[Adam Friedland]

You had some tough ones on that show. L'. Epiphany. We wrote down.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah, Josh would say, I can't believe it. I see the baby's name on that. And there's a two in that baby's name. And the next thing you know, full chest. Maury says in the case of baby Tuane. So I'm honored that Josh did that for me.

[Adam Friedland]

That has to feel amazing.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah. You like him?

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, yeah. He's on the. He's one of the daily show.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Correspondence. Yeah. He's funny.

[Maury Povich]

Do you know what his. It's very interesting about his comedy because I've watched him. He can go two minutes and not get a laugh. Building a story. Wow. And yet I'm with. I was with Mark Norman the other day.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

He needs it every 15 seconds.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, yeah. He's a machine, Rodney. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Maury Povich]

And how about you

[Adam Friedland]

guys? You want to tell them five minutes.

[Maury Povich]

Five minutes before a laugh?

[Adam Friedland]

That's. That's even more impressive than Josh at the 2.

[Maury Povich]

If you can do that, people didn't walk out.

[Adam Friedland]

I could go 45 minutes without a single laugh.

[Maury Povich]

And you call yourself a comic. Why aren't you just. I mean, you could be Mark Twain by then.

[Adam Friedland]

Mark Twain was funny. Was the original comic.

[Maury Povich]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. That's. What. Honestly, I totally. He's on the show next week.

[Maury Povich]

Made a lot more money than Mark Tway was broke. He was. He was broke because of his investments.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Tony Kornheiser]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

He was terrible.

[Maury Povich]

Not because of his. He made a lot of money on stage.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, my gosh. Somebody's texting me.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, I think it's been a phenomenal.

[Maury Povich]

Oh, my gosh. Hi.

[Adam Friedland]

Let's hear it.

[Maury Povich]

I ordered your stuff for your colonoscopy.

[Adam Friedland]

My best friend. My best friend.

[Maury Povich]

Sam.