The Friend You Needed is a podcast for people ages 16-25 who are going through it and can’t find anything that actually feels real.

We’re Maria and Julian. When we were dealing with our own shit, we realized there wasn’t content out there that got it, everything felt too polished or performative . So we made the space we wished we had.

Each episode, we talk to someone our age about the stuff nobody says out loud: family trauma, mental health, loneliness, identity crises, all of it. No experts, no scripts, just raw conversations between peers who are still figuring it out.

Plot twist: you’re not alone.