He’s pragmatic, approaches America’s problems with tough love in mind, and is almost always right. Adam Carolla is more than just a podcast host. He is an American treasure with two New York Times best-selling books, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and an IMDb profile bigger than President William Howard Taft’s waistline.
“I’m pragmatic. I come from a pragmatic world. If you come from a world where you build, you tend to be pragmatic,” said Carolla, a featured host at PodcastOne. “You tend to look at things as they are. You don’t dream about what they could be. And you have to figure out the logistics of them and how to pull it off.”
Carolla, who’s been working in the media industry since the 1980s, didn’t start his adult life behind the mic. Instead, he worked in the extremely pragmatic world of construction. “There are lots of rules when it comes to building, and you have to follow those rules whether you like them or not, or agree with them. You just have to follow them.”
He gave a prime example of how pragmatism from the construction world applies to politics today:
“I’d go to people’s houses when I worked in construction, and they’d say, ‘Oh, I want to take this wall out and that wall out. I want one big great room. One big wide-open room.’ And I would say, ‘Well, we’ve got to pick up the load for the second floor, so we’ve got to put a post down at some point.’ They’d say, ‘No, I want it to be wide open.’ And I’d say, ‘Yeah, I know, but we’ve got to put a post in to pick up the load for the second floor.’ And they’d say, ‘Well, I don’t want to do that.’
“So then I’d say, ‘Okay, well, we can pass in a big piece of steel, like an I-beam or something. We can span it, but that’s going to be really expensive and hard to do.’ And they’d say, ‘Well, I don’t want to do that.’”
“And I’d say, ‘Well, those are your choices. Not a world where you dream of a super open room with no post and no I-beam. It’s just rules, and physics, and gravity. We’re going to have to live in that world, and we’re going to have to make decisions based on that, with that in mind, not a world that you dream of.’”
“Now, politicians are all dreaming of a world with no ICE, defund the police, and open borders, because no one’s illegal. But that’s a dream world you guys are living in.”
“We have to come up with a world where there are consequences, gravity, and rules. We have to work within those parameters, not the parameters of your dreams.”
Consequences, rules, parameters, whatever you want to call them, Carolla believes following these ideals is just one way to show tough love.
“Tough love is just love. For example, I want my boy to be in good shape, so every morning we’re going to do 30 push-ups together before he goes to school. Then you go, ‘That’s a little tough, isn’t it?’ And it’s like, ‘No, but that’s love.’”
Carolla reasoned, “Love is, I’m not going to let my kid have a donut for breakfast. I’m going to make him scrambled eggs. Then you go, ‘Yeah, but the kid wants a donut and is actually crying now because he’s being told to eat the scrambled eggs.’ That’s tough love, but that’s love.”
“Doing what everyone wants to do all the time, and giving people what they want, sometimes at their own detriment, that is not love. That’s being soft, and it’s also being nice.”
He went on to say, “Letting homeless people expire on the street, giving them clean needles, and creating safe injection zones is not love. Scooping them up and putting them somewhere so they don’t overdose, so they can beat their habit, is tough love, but it’s really love.”
While Carolla is extraordinarily humble about his success, his impact on the industry is undeniable. His industry debut came in 1996 as co-host of Loveline with Drew Pinsky. He later helped create several shows, including The Man Show, Crank Yankers, The Car Show, and The Adam Carolla Project. Many of these programs aired on different networks, including MTV, SPEED, and TLC, showcasing his ability to connect with a wide range of audiences.
He is also an accomplished voice actor, lending his talents to characters such as Super Death on Family Guy, Wynnchel (the éclair) in Wreck-It Ralph, and Commander Nebula in the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command series and video games.
His creativity not only defined a generation’s appetite for television, but also proved that no one can be pigeonholed into a single media role or ideology if they are willing to challenge their own ideas.
For those who believe they are lucky, funny, and creative enough to follow in Carolla’s footsteps, his advice is simple: “Find your voice. Make sure you have something to say. If you don’t have something to say, don’t bother. There are enough people just talking with nothing to say. We don’t need more of that.”
Once you find your voice, Carolla believes you need to refine, nurture, and develop it. “It’s not just about talking,” Carolla said. “It’s about trying to distill what your voice actually is. Be your own biggest critic and try to poke holes in your own theories.”
He added, “Find other people whose voices you appreciate. Tell them your theories and your thoughts. Let them hear your voice and critique it. Find cracks and fissures in your ideas, and test them with people who may not be like-minded.”
Testing ideas with people who are not like-minded is essential, Carolla explained. “You need to build a little muscle through some grappling. You can’t just have people falling down when you touch them. There needs to be back and forth. And you need to strengthen yourself and your ideas. Being in an echo chamber is probably not a good way to do that.”
The Adam Carolla Show is available Tuesday-Friday on all digital audio platforms. As of January 26th, the show now provides same-day distribution of the podcast to SiriusXM’s ‘The Megyn Kelly Channel’ (111).
Carolla also continues to perform standup across the country. For a list of upcoming dates, go here. Adam remains in business with PodcastOne on distribution and advertising of his show. The two sides recently agreed to a multiyear contract extension to continue their working relationship.
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Krystina Alarcon Carroll contributes features and columns for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
