Imaginary friend
30
MENTIONS
10
EPISODES
10
PODCASTS
Search complete. 30 mentions across 10 episodes found for "Imaginary friend".
Sep 24, 2026
DaveHOST
fictional.
DaveHOST
Well, you've heard of Imaginary Friends.
LeahHOST
I've read a short story called it, perhaps.
DaveHOST
Perhaps you have.
BryanHOST
I love it.
KittyGUEST
[laughs] I'm gonna go with, uh, Imaginary Friend.
KittyGUEST
[laughs]
BryanHOST
Okay.
BryanHOST
... that doesn't happen very often.
BryanHOST
[laughs]
KittyGUEST
No, no, I think it's better than Imaginary Friend, 'cause it wasn't a friend, but that was the best I could come up with.
BryanHOST
On Shudder on October 9th...
Bella PoarchGUEST
And then I always just, yeah, having...
Bella PoarchGUEST
Not to sound crazy, but I had imaginary friends growing up, and yeah, they were my friends.
Zach SangHOST
And you drew...
Zach SangHOST
Th- th- they're a part of this album.
Bella PoarchGUEST
Yeah.
Zach SangHOST
BonBon, sorry.
Bella PoarchGUEST
So he's, he's a mixture of four of my imaginary friends growing up.
Bella PoarchGUEST
That's why he looks a little wonky like that.
AdamHOST
There is, in fact, another epidemic lurking next door...
AdamHOST
This section's called Real Data, Imaginary Friends.
AdamHOST
Although the data does not show that people are more lonely, it does show that people are more alone.
AdamHOST
Derek Thompson has made this point particularly well.
WillHOST
There is something very interesting about how it pulls back the curtain a bit and is like, okay, let's look at this.
WillHOST
And let's look at all of these other imaginary friends from these different perspectives.
WillHOST
Just for a moment.
WillHOST
For really great comic relief.
WillHOST
But at the same time, there is something about Rick Miles performance here that really just like, I don't know, it just shakes the movie up in a way that like makes the themes resonate just as much as the comedy, which is a very important element for this movie, especially.
WillHOST
Yeah.
CoreyHOST
The the production design or like costumes and like the sets talking about like the imagery that scene, especially because, yeah, all the other imaginary friends are so distinct.
CoreyHOST
Yes.
Anthony WardGUEST
Yeah, there's a major twist.
S.J.D. ConnellGUEST
Yeah, and as Anthony was saying, you know, both of us are dads and we've got children and we have been around our children's experiences and some of them have had some imaginary friends and some of the children have had experiences that have made us question ourselves.
S.J.D. ConnellGUEST
Are these really imaginary friends?
Anthony WardGUEST
Yeah, like my wife's oldest daughter, when she was born...
Anthony WardGUEST
She, uh, her, uh, her great grandfather was very ill and, uh, you know, he, he hung on to, so he could meet his first biological great granddaughter.
Anthony WardGUEST
And, uh, she was speaking to something up on the wall and very happily saying abuelo abuelo, which in Spanish means grandfather, where she never got a chance to meet this man, but she was talking to somebody and she does not speak Spanish to this day.
S.J.D. ConnellGUEST
Yeah.
S.J.D. ConnellGUEST
And, uh, one time I was, I was telling Anthony about a story of my own daughter, um, who often, you know, from very early on had some imaginary friends that, you know, my wife and I thought were pretty charming.
MikaylaHOST
[laughs]
KylieHOST
My second one is Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky, which is, he is the author of Perks of Being a Wallflower.
HannahHOST
Oh.
KylieHOST
This book was 600 pages, and so freaking dumb.
Forrest BurgessHOST
You fill in the gaps your brain does or wants to when you don't have that in-person thing.
Forrest BurgessHOST
And that's what we're talking about with imaginary friends.
Scott PhilbrookHOST
Yes, imaginary friends.
Scott PhilbrookHOST
I don't think I ever had one, at least that I remember.
Scott PhilbrookHOST
I could have and might've forgotten at this point, but there's a well-known body of research from the University of Oregon and the University of Washington that says, By age seven, roughly two-thirds of children have had an imaginary companion of some kind.
20 MINS LATER
Scott PhilbrookHOST
Well, there's a couple things.
Forrest BurgessHOST
One is our very good friend Veronica had told me before about she had an imaginary friend as a very young child, which through talking about with her mother, I believe, and I don't want to screw up the story, but they believe may have been a deceased child within their family.
Forrest BurgessHOST
they came to visit her and became imaginary friends.
Tony BruschiHOST
Like, like it was never like that pretend thing, but I never did either.
Tony BruschiHOST
Like, you know, some people have their imaginary friends and they pretend like there's somebody sitting across from you at the table.
Tony BruschiHOST
Like I didn't ever did that.
Tony BruschiHOST
I mean, no, I
6 MINS LATER
LynnAUDIENCE
It's the boy that lives in the closet.
LynnAUDIENCE
Of course, I took notice of that very quickly being a parent and asked him, I said, well, who lives in the closet? They said, well, there's a boy that lives in the closet and his name's Jerry.
LynnAUDIENCE
And so I just kind of listened to him about, okay, imaginary friends, you know, the whole works like that.
LynnAUDIENCE
Later that night, I put the kids to bed and Closed the closet door, got up the next morning, closet doors open.
HarperHOST
Yeah, definitely.
Carol HughesHOST
Well, let's talk about an imaginary friend Um, so this story goes, um, "My name is Adrienne.
Carol HughesHOST
I'm in Utah now, but this happened when we were living in Texas.
Carol HughesHOST
I was about 12 years old.
Carol HughesHOST
My little sister was four at the time, and for close to a year, she had what everybody assumed was an imaginary friend.
Carol HughesHOST
At first, there was nothing strange about it.
Carol HughesHOST
She was four, so nobody questioned it.
7 MINS LATER
Carol HughesHOST
She even remembered that he didn't like going outside.