Ask Dr. Drew - How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430

Episode Date: December 3, 2024

After the 2024 election, NY Post reports that Georgetown University deployed ‘self-care suites’ for students who were ‘stressed’ by the results, while other schools encouraged students who were ’emotionally distressed’ to skip class entirely. The paper also says the college students, whose tuition hovers around $61,000 per year – and who are allegedly grown adults – were given access to Legos, coloring books, milk, cookies, and other “goodies that wouldn’t be out of place at a child’s birthday party.” Ted Balaker is an award-winning filmmaker, former ABC Network News producer, and think tank scholar. He directed ‘The Coddling of the American Mind,’ the first ‘Substack Presents’ feature film, and ‘Can We Take A Joke?’ which received acclaim from The Los Angeles Times and The Hollywood Reporter. Balaker produced ‘Little Pink House’ starring two-time Oscar nominee Catherine Keener and is an executive producer of ‘Honor Flight,’ which holds the Guinness World Record for largest film screening. He co-founded Korchula Productions and Reason TV, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA TODAY. Find more at https://thecoddlingmovie.com Courtney Balaker is an award-winning filmmaker and professor whose work spans features, documentaries, and theater. She directed LITTLE PINK HOUSE starring Catherine Keener, which earned a historic bipartisan congressional screening. Her documentaries include CAN WE TAKE A JOKE?, THE CODDLING OF THE AMERICAN MIND, and the PBS series AMERICA IN PRIMETIME. She directed Off-Broadway theater, including the acclaimed UNCLE BOB with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. A Royal Academy of Dramatic Art graduate, she is co-founder of Korchula Productions and is set to direct the feature adaptation of TROUBLED. Learn more at https://korchulaproductions.com Lionel is a talk radio veteran, trial lawyer, former prosecutor, author, pioneer podcaster, and multi-platform legal and media analyst. Lionel has hosted shows for Court TV, WABC, Air America, and RT. He has his own subscription video channel, free from draconian limitations of free expression. Find more at https://LionelMedia.com 「 SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS 」 Find out more about the brands that make this show possible and get special discounts on Dr. Drew's favorite products at https://drdrew.com/sponsors  • CAPSADYN - Get pain relief with the power of capsaicin from chili peppers – without the burning! Capsadyn's proprietary formulation for joint & muscle pain contains no NSAIDs, opioids, anesthetics, or steroids. Try it for 15% off at https://drdrew.com/capsadyn • FATTY15 – The future of essential fatty acids is here! Strengthen your cells against age-related breakdown with Fatty15. Get 15% off a 90-day Starter Kit Subscription at https://drdrew.com/fatty15 • CHECK GENETICS - Your DNA is the key to discovering the RIGHT medication for you. Escape the big pharma cycle and understand your genetic medication blueprint with pharmacogenetic testing. Save $200 with code DRDREW at https://drdrew.com/check • PALEOVALLEY - "Paleovalley has a wide variety of extraordinary products that are both healthful and delicious,” says Dr. Drew. "I am a huge fan of this brand and know you'll love it too!” Get 15% off your first order at https://drdrew.com/paleovalley • THE WELLNESS COMPANY - Counteract harmful spike proteins with TWC's Signature Series Spike Support Formula containing nattokinase and selenium. Learn more about TWC's supplements at https://twc.health/drew 「 MEDICAL NOTE 」 Portions of this program may examine countervailing views on important medical issues. Always consult your physician before making any decisions about your health. 「 ABOUT THE SHOW 」 Ask Dr. Drew is produced by Kaleb Nation (https://kalebnation.com) and Susan Pinsky (https://twitter.com/firstladyoflove). This show is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

so much show coming your way ted ballacher award-winning filmmaker former abc news producer and think tank scholar director of coddling of the american mind you're going to hear all about that with courtney as well courtney ballacher is an award-winning filmmaker professor whose work spans documentaries theater she. She directed Little Pink House starring Catherine Keener, who's one of my favorite actresses. So we will get into their entire story and the development and execution of the coddling of the American mind.

There's a lot there. And a little surprise about Rob Henderson and Courtney. I'll share with you in a few minutes. And after we talk to them, we'll bring our friend Lionel back for us to talk radio veteran, trial lawyer, former prosecutor. Got ideas.

We haven't been an update with Lionel quite some time, so it'll be interesting to hear what he's thinking these days. You can follow him at lionelmedia.com, and I'll give you the particulars on Ted and Courtney, although it says Todd and Courtney somewhere here. I'm not sure if I got that right. I think it's Ted. Right after this. Our laws as it pertains to substances are draconian and bizarre. A psychopath started this. He was an alcoholic because of social media and pornography, PTSD, love addiction, fentanyl and heroin. Ridiculous.

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bone broth and beef sticks. So stock up now for the holidays at dr.com slash paleo valley for 15 off your first order and or 20 off when you subscribe so it is ted balaker and you can follow him on x at ted balaker b-a-l-a-k-e-r uh and let's see if i have courtney's x handle ted don't call me todd right the coddling movie.com is where you can find out more about the movie and it's thecoddlingmovie.substack.com and to give you some more specifics on Ted as a director and producer

they've done so much stuff, executive producer of Honor Flight which holds the Guinness Book of World Records for largest film screening he co-founded Corchula Productions and this Coddling Movie is the first substack presents feature film and then courtney who will be in here with him also award winner uh

documentaries theater as i said she produced i'm sorry she's the one that directed katherine keener and little pink house uh she has can we take a, one of her documentaries, which I'm interested in as well. And she's got a very important scripted series, I believe it's going to be coming up, that is supporting the project of one of our friends. I'll tell you about that in a minute. Ted and Courtney, thank you for being here. We appreciate it so much. Thanks for having us, Dr. Drew. Thank you for having us.

You betcha. And Courtney, I didn't have your ex handle. Can you give us that? I think it's- I don't think she knows what it is. I'm so bad. We're good. All right, fine, good.

That's actually, I can consider that a sign of emotional health and maturity. So let's go from there. I appreciate that. So let me, I'll go ahead So let me go reveal my first surprise. My understanding is our dear friend Rob Henderson's book, Troubled, is going to become a scripted series. And am I right, Courtney, you're going to be involved in that? Yeah, so Ted and I optioned the rights to his book.

And we don't know if it's going to be a scripted series or a feature film. That's what we're trying to figure out. But it's an incredibly powerful story about, as you know, a young man who grew up in the foster care system and defied a lot of odds that kids usually who grew up the way he did don't end up as well as he did. He went to Yale and graduated. He was in the Air Force, and he has a wonderfully productive, beautiful life, and wrote a great book about his story, and we want to bring it to the screen. I think, am I on the cover of that? I did some sort of blurbs for him.

You got the very, yeah. Yeah, right. I thought so. You got the head blurb. The little blurb up front. Yeah, this is an, if you haven't read this book, please support Rob Hennig. First, Rob is the social psychologist from Oxford

that we all know, friend of this show, friend of mine way before he even started doing this streaming show. I got to remind myself how we got involved together, but I spotted him early that there was something going on there. And his book, Courtney, the reality of his book is you're right, people don't end up as far away from where he started as he did. But the way he grew up is not at all unusual for that moment of history. And that is why it is such a crucial story to tell.

Not only because the many millions of young people who grew up like that will feel, I don't know, vindicated or supported or maybe better understood, but America has to understand itself as having been this for quite a period of time. One of the first people we discussed this project with was a very dear friend of ours who's a casting director. She's cast the past few movies that I've directed and she said something

when she read the book because we were like, we want you to work on this project. And she said something that was really interesting. She said young boys right now in our current era are looking for real stories about young boys. There's tons of superhero and Marvel movies, but you can only relate to that to a certain point. And we're really excited to make a coming of age movie about a young man who struggled and defied odds, but ultimately just had a very real experience as a young boy and became a very successful, responsible man. And I think that the marketplace apparently is really thirsting for that.

So we hope that we can do well and provide. And the textures of... Go ahead, Ted. Oh, I was just going to add, I'm actually reading the book together with our 10-year-old son. He loves it. I mean, I wouldn't necessarily recommend that to other parents because there's some spicy bits in there, as you know, Dr. Drew.

So I read it ahead of time, and so I kind of know what to skip over. But he just connects with it and, and we're almost finished with it. He loves it. So I, we're very, very keen on this project. And there's textures of the American family, you know, the changes in the American family, as well as the economic circumstances and the addictions and all that stuff. There's so, so, so commonplace. And you said you're keen on it, which reminds me to bring up Catherine Keener, who's one of my favorite actresses and people. And Courtney, you also got to work

with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who's also one of my favorite actors and people. My question is, how did they receive this movie, The Coddling of the American Mind? Oh, I don't know if they've seen it yet. I should check in with them to see if they have. I worked with Joseph a long time ago when I was directing off Broadway Theater in New York City. It was actually the first stage play he had ever done.

He had just come off of a very popular TV show called Third Rock from the Sun, and he had never done theater in New York. It was really cool to work with him. It was totally crazy. So I'd love for him to see Coddling. And yeah, I need to check in with Catherine to see if she's seen it as well. But they were both just delightful

and wonderful to work with. And before we dig into all this, so that's all just God-given talent that Joseph has? It's all just horsepower that God handed him? I mean, he's been acting since he was a little kid. You know, he kind of grew up in the Marcy Warner, you know, the production company that was making a lot of those sitcoms at the time on NBC and ABC.

And so he's been doing it for a long time. And he had never done live theaters, I just mentioned, but when he transitioned to live theater in New York, it was pretty natural. It was funny. Uh, the one thing that he wasn't used to was voice projection because obviously you're mic'd on a studio set. So we worked on that, but it is God-given talent. He's got fantastic instincts and it was, it was a real honor to work with him. Nice. So let's talk about this movie. Obviously, Jonathan Haidt is Haidt, excuse me. See, I told you I'd mispronounce his name. Lukianoff, I can get. Haidt is Haidt, Haidt. And I was aware of their thinking

long before they wrote the book. You know, Jonathan was lecturing and doing podcasts and had been talking about this kind of topic for quite some time. And Lukianoff too had been very interested in this area. And they're both sort of interested in the truth and they're interested in what's good for people. What got you guys interested and who wants to take the lead on this?

Who wants to start? I can do that. We have known Greg for a lot of years. And so when I first read the book, I was like, wow, this is an exciting book. It's so great. And then about two-thirds of the way through, he opens up about his own struggle with depression and his brush with suicide. He goes into very graphic detail about going to the hardware store and picking up plastic bags and all sorts of supplies that he he would need to end his life. And so when I finished the book, Courtney and I talked about it. We were kind of shaken because Greg is this guy who runs a very big, successful nonprofit called FIRE,

Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. He's a very brilliant lawyer. He's a guy who kind of seems like he has his act together. And Courtney and I were discussing, we think probably a lot of people have friends like that, where on the outside, it looks like everything is great. And you just don't know the demons that they're struggling with from day to day. So it was that coupled with the fact that the Gen Z mental health crisis really is one of the biggest, most important issues of our time. It could literally wipe out an entire generation. And I'm usually on the other side telling people not to panic about things. But every once in a

while, there is cause for alarm. And the third big reason is our 10-year-old son. I mentioned him earlier. We just recently learned that he's in Gen Alpha. And it's important for us, for all of us parents, to turn things around for not just Gen Z, but for our son's generation, Gen Alpha, and then the ones after that. I completely agree. So when I was first hearing about the coddling phenomenon, it felt sort of outrageous to me, and I thought it sort of made me angry a little bit because it seemed so counterproductive. And then I started thinking about it in terms of health, and I don't know why I didn't think about it that way to begin with. notion of exposure therapies were not so, when the cuddling started, exposure therapies were not so clearly the road to mental health and resiliency. And now that is not a debatable point. That is what humans need. They need exposure to stimulus that is problematic and stimulating and tolerable exposure, but they need the exposure.

How do we reconcile the fact that we're doing exactly the opposite, which we know, and how we allow these institutions to continue it, where they're, you know, Georgetown is giving milk and cookies and Lego. It continues in the face of the knowledge that it's the exact opposite of what humans need for health. Yeah, you're exactly right, Dr. Drew. And I'm feeling myself getting angry all over again thinking about those milk and cookies at Georgetown, especially because we've been through this.

It happened when Trump got elected the first time. In fact, a young woman named Kimmy in our movie goes through how she literally thought she was going to die when Trump first got elected. But the saga of the coddling has been going on for almost a decade now. I mean, John and Greg's book was based on an Atlantic cover story that came out in 2015. It got a massive amount of attention. And all these administrators at universities, they see the Gen Z mental health crisis up close every day. They cannot not know about the crisis. And yet, as you point out, they continue to coddle. They think

they're making things better, but they're making things worse. When you coddle somebody, when you overprotect them, you are telling them that they are weak, that they cannot handle the struggle. That only increases anxiety and depression. It's a brilliant way to make young people miserable. And it's a national scandal. It's time that they recognize that and turn it around. And when it started, Courtney, I kind of thought it was the parents because there was a parental coddling too that went on before the institutions really institutionalized it, as we say. And I remember, I think that's why my outrage was sort of directed at the parenting.

It was sort of the aftermath of the self-esteem movement and part of the self-esteem thing which of course was a catastrophe also uh was this coddling that followed that and then the institutions picked it up am i getting that arc right and courtney does the movie cover that arc we do a little bit and it's very well spoken through uh jonathan height actually uh you can even track it back to the disappearance of Adam Walsh, which was a horrific kidnapping of a little boy from Sears back in the 70s and the milk carton era. And parents were basically told, your child will be abducted.

And instituting this fear, I have it. I'm guilty of it. I have huge problems not seeing my 10-year-old son at the park for four minutes. I panic. I'm just so used to that instinct to not let him be free range, not let him. To answer your question, yeah, I think a lot of it does come from parenting and parents wanting themselves to be comforted and comfortable. So what makes me as the parent more comfortable is not necessarily the best thing for my child. You literally wire the brain when you are up against conflict, when you're doing something difficult, when you're uncomfortable, because you have to react to it. You have to adjust to it. And if we're just protecting people from being

uncomfortable and doing hard things, then the brain just isn't wired to react to it appropriately. It's very dangerous. I think parenting is a huge problem. Hyde also talks about social media. Now, when Ted and I were growing up, we didn't have Facebook and Twitter and X. We didn't have our most embarrassing moments in our middle school years and our high school years on display forever. Uh, that matters too. And there could be a protectiveness, which I completely relate to as well from parents. Don't get your feelings hurt when they do get their feelings hurt. It lives forever online. There are a lot of different factors, but it's hard as a parent to say, yeah, my kid needs to fail. My kid needs to

experience discomfort. You don't want to watch it, but we all did. We all grew up feeling uncomfortable and that was really good for us. And we all failed and that's really good for us. Yes, a friend of mine wrote a book called The Gift of Failure. It's a parenting book and I recommend it. And you know, it's funny we're having this conversation because I just have me thinking yesterday,

I forget what got me to this place, my thinking, but I remember my own mother having three obsessional thoughts that were nonsensical, but rained down on me constantly. I'll tell you what they are in a second, but it occurs to me now, it's, oh my God, you're right. It goes back to the milk cartons. It goes back to a public health messaging around bullshit once again, where safety uber alice is the goal. Safety above all else. Life isn't safe. Being biological is not safe. Safety is not a virtue. It's like it, all things being equal, but it's not virtuous to be safety uber alice. The three things she worried about was don't pick up that stick.

You're going to put someone's eye out. Number one, number two, throw away immediately, throw away the cellophane from a, like a cleaners, whatever, because, because a baby will wrap his head in it and asphyxiate. No babies in our house, but still obsessing about it. And then the milk carton, then being abducted, being abducted. And I, in the 60s, remember being deeply frightened about that because they did a public health. I'm sure, did you guys get frightened that secondhand spoke, we're going to give you cancer for sure? I mean, these public health campaigns that use fear are disgusting and they hurt people. I hope COVID was the end of that philosophy because we certainly took it to the absolute ad nauseum of place, the absolute limits of what fear and panic can do.

So Ted, you seem to want to talk. Go ahead. Yeah, I'm just agreeing with you, Dr. Giroir. It's so infuriating. I hope and pray that COVID is the last of it. I don't know. I think our public health intelligentsia probably can sink to even deeper depths, so I don't have much confidence in them. But I think it's such a boomerang effect there because you're exactly right that we shouldn't have safety uber alice. And not only does it make you miserable, but it actually contributes directly to what we're seeing, sky high and record levels of anxiety and depression among Gen Z because of all this overprotection, because of all the coddling. So the cruel and great irony is that all these parents, administrators and other coddlers think that they're helping their kids,

they're keeping them safe. But then when they turn 20 and they can't deal with the world and they're scared of everything and they have anxiety and depression, it's kind of too late at that point to turn back the clock and to realize that, unfortunately, they all made a big mistake by overprotecting kids rather than letting them scrape their knee, letting them fall down, and being the snowplow parents to make sure everything is pristine for little Johnny and Susie as they walk through life. It seems in the moment like the right thing to do because we as parents are scared. And like Courtney, I feel that as well. But we have to kind of get over it because we

can't just be so focused on the here and now. We have to think about what our kids are going to be like 10, 20 years down the line. Yeah, you got to remember, our fears also need to be put to the test of exposure, right? We need to regulate our fears by exposing ourselves through exposing our kids. And guess what? We will regulate, we'll be able to better tolerate it. It's natural that given the upbringing that we all had, we'd have a little anxiety about parenting, but we need exposure also by allowing our kids to fail. Courtney, you know, Greg's depression, I've talked to Greg about it myself, and I was really surprised to hear this, that he really felt a large part of that depression was because of the hopelessness he was experiencing around his efforts to protect free speech on campuses. It really, really deeply affected him.

So my question is, did you encounter any other, in the course of researching and producing and directing these films, did you develop any hopelessness or helplessness? Did it affect your thinking about the future for kids? And did you come up with solutions or do you have solutions? What really struck us, as Ted mentioned, Greg is a very dear friend of ours. And we had known him for years until before he released this book with height. And we did not know that he was suffering from that level of depression. And we did not know he was contemplating suicide. We did not know he went to the lengths as detailed in the book and the film.

As Ted mentioned earlier, going to a hardware store to buy the plastic bags and the duct tape to end his own life. It was shocking. And it was heartbreaking because we just didn't know that our dear friend was going through this. And what we found as we started interviewing people, finding our young Gen Z interview subjects was really astonishing that so much of the depression, so much of the negative thinking that they were experiencing was so avoidable. And Greg, that's really what drew him to write the book with height. He's like, you know what was pushing me to suicide?

The catastrophic thinking, the mind reading, all the things that we all do as human beings, which is normal, it's not generation specific. We all do it. The things that I was doing, I'm seeing happen on college campuses, catastrophic thinking, mind reading, us versus them. And I found my way out of it. He found his way out of it through cognitive behavioral therapy, which he credits as saving his life. That one weekend that he went to an institution and he said, I see it happening in young people and it doesn't have to.

And not only is it happening, it's almost being taught to them by administrators. It's almost being created in a culture on a campus where if you're upset, have a warm cookie, go color in a coloring book, protect yourself, leave that space of discomfort. And as Ted just said, I mean, this is where people become terrified of the real world. They experience anxiety much higher. We all do if we continue to do that. So I hope this is answering your question. As we were talking to these young kids, so much of this was, yeah, I thought people

didn't like me because I didn't have an activism or something that I was on board with. I didn't have my crew. I didn't, or I was saying one thing, but thinking another because I didn't want to be ostracized. What a miserable way to live. How do you live like that? You're thinking one thing, but you're saying another. I mean, that's really a huge part of it. And we all do it a little bit, but when you're doing that on a daily basis, and that's how you're forming relationships or finding your interests. It's very cognitively dissonant.

And that was what was really concerning how many young people we were talking to that said, oh yeah, but it was very encouraging that they saw the light. Like, you know what? I don't have to experience life. I don't have to think that way i can put my thoughts on trial as we all should is this negative thing that i keep thinking true put it on trial what's the pro-con list what's the evidence that i'm a horrible person or i suck or all of these things that are very normal to being a human put it it on trial. And it does affect young people.

And, you know, I don't think we're beyond the point of no return. I think that there's a lot of hope and just let's start that conversation and get them on that path. Oh my God, I hope so. Your mouth to God's ears. Ted, talk to me about the movie.

What's the pitch why do we want people to go see it well if you care about the future of the next generation and following generations you should see it if you care about free expression you should see it if you care about ending this obsession with victimhood culture you should

see it if you care about ending this obsession with dividing people on the basis of race, sex, and other immutable characteristics into two buckets, victims and oppressors, you should see the movie. And frankly, if you want to have a good laugh, you should see the movie. I can guarantee that it's the funniest movie about anxiety, depression, and suicide you'll ever see. Oh, I like that. That's a good pitch just by itself. Where do people go to see it?

Everything is at thecoddlingmovie.com so you can find out all the information there. You can also just check it out at Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play. You can watch it on Substack and also subscribe and join us in our ongoing journey with the Coddling Movie. So there are a bunch of ways to see it. But again, thecoddlingmovie.com is your one-stop shop for all things Coddling Movie.

I asked you about a couple of actors and their response, but how's the general response? What kind of feedback are you getting? What do people say, both positive and negative? I'm just interested in how would somebody be critical of something like this, but tell me about it. Yeah, we've had some of it. I'm happy to report that overwhelmingly it's been positive. Steven Pinker at Harvard invited us there. He loves the movie.

We've had Michael Smirconish of CNN loves the movie. And really the most heartening responses come from Gen Zers and their parents. They tell us things like, I'm stronger than I was told. We need to tell kids more stuff like this. And we shouldn't be afraid of free speech. So we're now embarked on this global tour where we've been in five countries, more than 50 campuses. And the students, by and large, are really responding positively. The administrators and professors, and sometimes when you get the DEI professionals, they're the people who tend to get upset with us at Q&A. We had our posters torn down at Cornell, you know, the Canadian University.

They asked us if, you know, making this movie itself was an act of privilege. And you kind of have to deconstruct. Sometimes you almost need a translator to figure out what the questions are because it's so laden with jargon and it's like how would making a movie be an act of privilege but i've kind of uh learned that language enough where i can where i can respond but by and large um i'm happy to say the response has been

uh very very positive and and how do you respond to these bizarre distortions? I guess it depends on the question. Yeah, take a deep breath. Wait, I want to hear Courtney. Courtney, go ahead. Well, sorry to interrupt you. A couple people said, well, why didn't you make the case for DEI training being good? Because our film goes a little bit into DEI,

and is that helping people? Is that making people happier and really better to other people? And when I was posed that question, Ted and I discussed it, and we're like, well, that argument has kind of already been made. I teach at a college, for instance, here in San Diego, and I had to do DEI training. It was online, virtual. I didn't have to go to a room with a bunch of people and someone talking to me about it.

I just answered questions online, and I found myself personally uh answering questions not truthfully but answering giving the answer that I think they wanted to hear because I didn't want to get in trouble and these were like very you know innocent questions it was just like but some of them were very convoluted right and I wish I could think of one right now but I think we all know if we've gone through DEI training or any sort of corporate or educational training. And I'm like, is that really making us better

or get along better if we're falsely answering just to pass the quiz? So my response to, well, why didn't you have, you know, a case in the film of when DEI really knocks it out of the park or helps people? I think it's because that's what we're all exposed to sort of on a day-to-day basis, that this is good, that we need this corporate. Haidt talks about it in the film. Corporate America demands it. You can't avoid it if you teach at a university or a college.

So I feel like our film was like, well, what about the other side of the argument? Right. And I think I just, didn't I just read a large study that showed that it actually made things worse, the majority of these trainings, that people end up sort of seeing trouble where there is not trouble or manufacturing it. There is. That's the article there. DEI programs can actually escalate hostility and tensions. This is a new study from the New York Times accused of spiking the story. That's from the Post.

So, again, it's all objective data. We'll see what it is on both sides. I'm not saying that thus sayeth the Lord because there was one study, but it's just interesting that it's not necessarily the case when it's subjected to scrutiny that it makes things better. Well, listen, guys, I appreciate you being here.

I feel like I could talk about this all day. I'm fascinated that Pinker brought you in too, who I think of as in the same breath as Height sometimes. And these guys are, do they, I guess what's the next move? I guess that would be the question. Other than going out and doing Rob's movie about Troubled,

which I think is getting at the same phenomenology in a strange way, but they're backing into it. What do we do next? I'll let you each say,ology in a strange way, but they're backing into it. What do we do next? I'll let you each say, give me a little frame, and then we'll wrap up from there. Well, yeah. Well, for the movie, we need to get the word out.

It's not just people in Q&As who want to shut the movie down. We've had lots of experience with the Hollywood monoculture. I write about that a lot on our sub stack. So number one is just to spread the word, get more people to watch it. We'd love to get into college campuses as part of the curricula or as freshman orientation. We had one young man at UCLA who went to a DEI training in the morning and then in the evening went to a coddling screening. And we'd love to replicate that throughout the land. Maybe high schools even. And Courtney, your thoughts? Yeah, I think that the more parents who have kids in the Gen Z generation can watch it. That's been another

wonderful response we've gotten from that demographic. Parents are like, thank you for making it. Thank you for laying this out. We raised our child with a certain set of values. They went to college four years later. They came back a different person. And that's really frustrating. And yeah, we would encourage parents, if you're confused or dealing with questions like this, watch the movie. Reach out to us. We love to keep the conversation going. And we're really grateful to you for having us on so that we could do that.

Our pleasure. It's thecoddlingmovie.com, thecoddlingmovie.substack.com. Ted is at Ted Ballaker, B-A-L-L-A-K-E-R. In terms of reaching out, do they reach out at the website or DM you or where do you want people to go? Actually, probably Substack is the best way to go.

We're most active there. Okay. Okay, great. thank you guys good luck and I look forward to hearing more about Rob's movie we'll get you back for that when that gets going sounds great thanks so much Dr. Drew thank you so much Dr. Drew thank you guys and congratulations on that movie that's a stroke of genius to make that a movie

so Lionel comes up in a minute we're going to take a little break before we bring him on in here. Of course, he's a talk radio veteran, a trial lawyer, former prosecutor. We need an update from Lionel. And I've got something else I want to, speaking of updates,

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The Cozy Earth from Ask Dr. Drew podcast. That is C-O-Z-Y-E-A-R-T-H dot com slash Drew. Great products, great gifts for Christmas. So before we bring Lionel in here, I want to give you Lionel's particulars. I know I'm certain his engines are running. He's ready to rock here. At Lionel Nation on YouTube, at Lionel Media on X and lionelmedia.com. But before we go to him, I want to talk about something I mentioned yesterday. So again, people have lost their ability to think and reason and hear what is being said. What I said yesterday was when the word hydroxychloroquine was spoken by, say, President Trump,

or the word ivermectin was issued by somebody from the FLCC or something, you immediately had an opinion assigned to you by the press that this is terrible and dangerous. The press that day had literally learned how to pronounce the word ivermectin or pronounce the word hydroxychloroquine. Now, the reality is hydroxychloroquine is such an inert, benign medication. It's over the counter in most countries. The American Board of Internal Medicine recommends it be continued during pregnancy. It's the only medication I know of that is recommended to continue during pregnancy. It's crazy how inert it is. And yet, think about it. People had opinions about it the day they

learned to pronounce it. Never mind, I've been prescribing it for 20 years. You learned it that day, you had an opinion. And I noticed a similar phenomenon when it came to the Surgeon General recommendation by President-elect Trump. You suddenly had an over-the-top opinion about Dr. Jeanette and whether she was qualified for this position, what she should be doing, who should be selected. And my point was, name for me a single appointment to Surgeon General during the roll-up to administration that you A, knew about, and B, had an opinion of, and C, knew what the policies of that of individuals are, including the current

individual's policies. Do you know what her policies are? Do you know what her qualifications are? But you have an opinion. Did you know that President Biden had a nurse in the job as Surgeon General for a while? Can you tell me who Bill Clinton's Surgeon General was? Can you tell me who President Obama's Surgeon General was? Did you tell me who President Obama's Surgeon General was? Did you know who it was when he was getting ready to run his administration? If you did, did you have an opinion about this person, an over-the-top opinion? Think about it. I just want people to check themselves.

When they come up with these massive opinions about something, all of a sudden, you should check yourself. So I said that yesterday. And Gemtress on Twitter says, let me put this as respectfully as possible. You can F all the way off. A large portion of the population are actually paying attention. So you're going to try to shame people.

F all the way off. Because I told you, I didn't say, first of all, I didn't say you couldn't have an opinion. I said, check your opinion. Why suddenly? And by the way, Chemtras, did you know that President Biden had a nurse in the job for a while?

Do you have an opinion about that? Did you have an opinion at the time? Why an opinion now? That's the question. Why now? And actually, she wrote an interesting thread. I read the whole thread. It's a long thread.

And she mentioned how- It's going to take me an hour to read all of this. Give me an hour, Drew. There's something for you and for Susan in that thread. Okay. And that is that she was watching when I was doing this and I guess I sneezed or something. It was during, no, no, it was during, I think she said it was during our interview

with Salty Cracker. And I sneezed during that interview. And she said, I got snot on my lapel. And you guys did not pick that out. I did. You should have stopped me and cleaned it up. What's wrong with you guys that you didn't help me? I did.

I had you clean it up at the break. I wasn't going to interrupt you. Okay. So we did clean it up at the break. I did. Don't you remember? So good on Gem Trust for pointing that out. On one hand, good for her for pointing that out.

No, I know, it's like, what's on your jacket? And he goes, oh shit, I just sneezed. So, okay. But on the other, but on the other, he really needs to remind him how well celebrity songwriters should be. I want this person to have an opinion. Okay.

Okay, go, have an opinion, but. Okay, go. Have an opinion. Yeah, no, it's good. And there was her whole thread there and she spent a lot of time on it. Half of us don't even know what Attorney General does. The point is she didn't listen to my point. Listen to my point.

Why do you suddenly, what is going on in the world that you suddenly have over-the-top opinions about, let's say, positions in government that you never knew about before, you've never had an opinion about before. And by the way, she goes on in here to say,

hang on, the Surgeon General is a leading spokesperson of public health. No, that's not who the Surgeon General is. The Surgeon General supervises 2,600 health officers and they have opinions about public health. Military people. And they affect sort of the public health. Military people. And they have the effect of the public health PR campaigns and things.

No, they're in the military too. Well, sort of. But the point is, maybe it needs a revamping. Maybe whatever the policies are, there's certain stuff. It does need to be something that we take into account

and recommend that it be changed in some way. And maybe Jeanette is not a great selection for it. I don't know enough about the office to even know, and I know her well. And so how come I can't have an opinion? And this has been back to the hydroxychloroquine and the ivermectin. I use these medications all the time.

Why do you have an opinion about it? You just learned how to pronounce it. Well, maybe this particular person knows more about it than we do. And it's not a good choice. Read the thread. Read the thread. I know. But thank you for noticing that he's done his lapel.

Just listen to my point. The point is we should be checking ourselves, all of us, in terms of our opinions when they're over the top about something that either we know nothing about or we never knew anything about or we maybe shouldn't be so exercised in our opinion because it all smacks of sort of Trump derangement. Right, Lionel? I know you have an opinion. You never check yourself. And I'm not sure I want you particularly to check yourself, but let's hear what you have to say about this. Well, first of all, I've never seen you so excited. Last time I saw you just aroused

was when they canceled the Ropers. But you know, Drew, by the way, did you know I am nine days your senior? Both of us were born exactly in the same time, same astrological sign. Both of us are feces. the same time, same astrological sign. Both of us are feces. And you know, you did something right now, which I think was very interesting. First, you were trolled. And I can't believe a man of your, je ne sais quoi, your bande de soleil, your pate de foie gras, how you could do that. Now, what I do is when somebody does waste their time with these threads,

these voluminous excoriations, these gravamen, you know, these indictments of you, after you're done, you must respond with, what do you mean? Question mark. Now, they're going to have to say. I usually comment about their hairstyle i like your bangs no but but i always but i always wait and then they'll come back and then you say for example what and then they'll say do you not and you'll see how far can i take these people but

you bring up a very good point and this is so interesting i myself have, it's this instant expertise thing. I don't know if this is the Grundig, whatever, but my particular thing was, I'll give you mine. Women who claim that they have lost rights, they have no rights under President Trump. And for some reason, they believe that Roe against

Wade and everything. So I said, oh, this is interesting. Oh, so you know about Roe, right? He goes, yes. Oh, I see. So what about substantive due process did you find not problematic? It's like me arguing Ivermectin with you. But they

have this idea that, well, no, no, somehow that means something. I said, well, do you know the history behind, do you know what privacy is? And how that came from Griswold in 1965 and how it basically was made up. And they'll look at you and you know what? Nothing, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you say. None of it matters. Well, because these are really ultimately, Lionel, these are assigned opinions by a lying,

inaccurate press. They are brainwashing people. That's what I'm concerned about. I want people to check themselves and really pay attention to what they're thinking and saying. And you know, Drew, if you don't want me calling you Drew because Marianne would make no sense.

But you know, I think that what's important is that we need to bring back to our vocabulary, we must unpack the notion of people who are retarded. And for a long time, we said, oh, that's a bad word. There's no, you know, when I say, what are you blind? What are you deaf? I'm not making fun of these people.

But there are people who I think that for whatever particular reason, they're just born stupid. And I think that we have to call them out. We have to adjudicate them stupid. And we have to come up with, instead of the insanity defense, stupid. Because a lot of people are just stupid. Beoceans, dimwits, dullards, I mean, absolute jadrules, as we say here in Hell's Kitchen. So that aside, but remember, if you don't

run into these people, you're not doing something right. I do this all the time. You mentioned, for example, I thought we were going to talk a little bit about Ukraine and Israel and the Middle East or Trump or what he said and what he didn't say.

And it's I don't know what it is. You mentioned critical thinking. You know, in law school, we had this thing called IRAC. It was this acronym for Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion. And it was this blue book. Whenever you had a legal issue, you say, first of all, what is the issue? What are we talking about? Let's make sure we know what we're talking about.

For the case of ivermectin, the issue is, is it harmful? Is it, you know, what are we talking about? Let's just make sure we, you know, we home in, not hone, but home in on this issue. Now, what's the rule? Well, this is where your expertise comes in. What does the literature say? What do the studies say? What does it do?

What is ivermectin? It's inert. It's inert. Hello? What do you need to do? What about inert? Why are we even having this? Here, take this thing.

It's like the placebo. It's a sugar pill. Whatever you want to call it. So that's the rule. You analyze it. You take the issue. You take it. And then you make a conclusion.

That's called critical thinking. That's just what we do. That's, but the first rule people should say is, I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't know. I don't know anything about this subject. You know, history favorite, a Tolstoy said history would be a wonderful thing if only it were true. And I get this all the time. People will just make things up and

they will. And then once they commit themselves to not liking you or what you said, they're steadfast. They're intransigent. They're not going to budge. And what's interesting is all of a sudden, do what I do. Agree with them and then disagree with them and you'll drive them crazy. You're absolutely correct. However, wait a minute. What? And play with them. Because, Dr. Drew, have you ever had a cat?

Have you ever seen a cat with a mouse? Cat doesn't kill the mouse. Drives the mouse crazy. Goes like this. That's what I do with people. You really have to learn. Goes like this. That's what I do with people. You really have to- I like that. And it really does,

you get, what is this? What are you doing? Putting up there. This definitely applies. It's an article I read earlier. So to fight all of these phone scammers that are calling up your grandma and your grandpa all the time,

a company created an AI granny that will sit on the phone with these scammers for hours, running them in circles like this, saying, I don't know how to turn my computer on. Where's the foot pedal for this computer? And drive them nuts. They've spent a thousand hours already with scammers talking to an AI grandmother. So we need that for our trolls.

Normally, I don't read stuff, but occasionally I do read things. I never do. Things get through. trolls i you know normally i don't read stuff but occasionally i do read things and and you know things get well but they they you know you read stuff and it it always hurts because and my always reaction is why do you think it's okay to talk to somebody like that it's like you you took your time yeah you took your time to go to somebody you don't know and be to harm them. That's such a weird impulse. It does not speak well of you. Well, it also, but you have to, you know, and your beloved Susan must have to deal with this because you come across like such a nice guy and you must go home at night and just take a shot of tequila and just slap that because you can't be this nice all the time. You can't be this, you know, perspicacious understanding. There's got to be a real wild man inside you that wants to scream and

frankly, choke people to death. And there's nothing wrong with that. Go with that. I live like that all the time. So I'm very well balanced. I, I basically hate people.

I'm missing. I'm misanthropic. I, I, I'm sorry. I missed that. What was that? Was that a slight?

It was a slight, but it was, it Was that a slight? No, keep going. It was a slight, but it was not meant to be heard. Keep going. Well, I don't really care. I just want to hear it because if it's a good one, I'm all for it. I just said something like, evidently not. Well, and that, of course, is your wit. And that's fine.

And it'll have to suffice. But here's the thing. Remember, you only take flack when you're over the target. People think they know you. And you do this stuff. And you say, excuse me, madam, hi. Apparently you've confused me for somebody who gives a shit about what you're saying. And then move on. And they'll say, did Dr. Drew say that? Did he say that? Yes, he did. Let me tell you one of my favorite examples of how people are just so bloody stupid.

Years ago, I was in a talk radio show where the pharmacist, remember when RU486 came out, RU against it, right? The spontaneous abortion pill or something. So I spent the entire hour with this pharmacist scientist talking about abortion, spontaneous abortion, and the woman has to go through, sift through. It was just horrible. Anyway, abortion, abortion, abortion, abortion, abortion, abortion, abortion, abortion. The whole hour. They said, we have time for one more call.

Go ahead. And this was in Florida where, you know, the average age is deceased, you know, at the time. So this woman called up. She says, yes, I just have one question. Is there any negative effects on the child? Now, this is after talking. And I just stopped. And we went right.

There was no music. No nothing. We just just went i thought to myself this person probably drives as a car yeah as sharp objects and there are people like this who were just so stupid but that was you got to remember you've got to remember that the IQ test was designed with the average at 100. And 100 is not a really high IQ. No. And half the people are below. I mean, for the most part, a big population are below and a big population are above in a bell curve distribution, roughly half and half.

Right. And that's where we are, that a lot of people are not able to reason this way and to listen or to hear things. Well, and to your point about that is that, well, by the way, terms like retarded, imbecile, idiot, these are all clinical terms. They have measurable IQ zones associated with them. But I would just say, what you're asking for is the reinstating of judging. It's good to judge is what you're saying. And I think that's true. I think we should be judging people or we should at least be able to express how we judge things.

And I am the judge. In order for you to say, if I were to say, Dr. Drew, you are very good at this. And by the way, can I say something professionally? Because I've been doing talk radio since like the 80s. Your spot load is fantastic. You can cram more commercials into a show than anybody. I am so in awe of you. You can do commercials within commercials.

You're like Paul Harvey used to do. Did you ever hear Paul Harvey? You would think it's a story. It's a commercial. He goes, and I turned to Angel. I said, there's my Buick. I said, God damn it, it's a commercial. Anyway, you're fantastic at that.

No, I mean it. And people believe you. See, you have this thing where you could say, and does this come from from seagull species but lionel to me to be to that point we try we select everything carefully so it's stuff we do is i do stand by and i mean the things i say and this is by the way susan and caleb at their at work so they're actually delighted with what you're saying and emily yeah oh no so go ahead i love it I love it. I love it. In fact, what you do is you thoroughly check it. Make sure they're done and Bradstreet rated.

Make sure the check's clear. Make sure they don't skip out. Or you check them, all right, and you should. Listen, you're not. You know, I used to have on my business cards, I'm not a missionary. I'm not putting on this planet to just dispense great advice. I'm not a missionary. I'm not putting this planet to just dispense great advice. I'm here for this. Not money.

This. But anyway, let's talk more about... Lionel, do you have a producer? No. I'm my producer. Alright, yeah. A bunch of those ads are there to feed my babies. So... Let me tell you, I had,

I had, I love, have you ever done a spot where you didn't know what it was? Remember, I've done talk radio. They handed stuff to me.

I didn't even know what it was. There was a commercial years ago called Collage. And it was, I think, it was a, it was a meditation,

a series of CDs and music where you would play. I think that's what it was. And it had a mask. One of those, you know, Arlene Francis kind of like, look, I used to call it the Polish Lone Ranger. You know, there's no eyes. It's Tonto. Anyway, you wear the mask. That's a Polish joke.

I'm sorry, please. It's from our generation, Drew. It's when we could joke. Remember Mad Magazine and National Lampoon? Anyway. So I did this spot. And I say, can I do whatever I want? He goes, yes.

And I said, when you come home at night and you're feeling bad, you put on collage. Anyway, I didn't even know what it was. Do you know they sold out? They kept upping the schedule. They said, keep doing it. I said, what is it? I don't even know what it is, but I was selling it out. There was a Barnes and Noble and I didn't know what it was. That's how good I was. So let me tell you something. Well, you're doing what it's... Hang on, but hang on. So one of the great privileges, you know, I've done radio too. On a radio, you So let me tell you something. What you're doing right now. Hang on. But hang on. So one of the great privileges, you know, I've done radio too. On the radio, you do what they tell you to do.

Really? One of the great privileges of digital. Yeah. Digital is you, I get to, first of all, I'm required to say whether I use these things and what I actually think about them. And if I don't know them, I have to signal that. That's the way it is. And I'm required to call it like I see it if I'm going to represent something here.

But I'm back in when you're working for somebody else. You're right. You end up just reading the material that they give you because that's what you're required to do. But even then, I would always try to say, you know, I always have to say, I've never used this product. I can't say that this is necessarily the case, but really. Who the hell wants to buy that? I would say that because. Hello, I'm Dr. Drew.

I don't know what the hell this is. I've never used it. But listen, if you want to take a chance, that's selling it. But listen, aside from that, what you're doing right now is so important and so critical. Because the thing, remember what you're doing. You're their friend. It's not about what you say. They know you.

And you know what else is good about you? Can I say something? As a professional? The balance. I love the balance. I love the balance. You bring your crew into it. The laughing.

A lot of these jerk-offs in the business don't want anybody, you know, hornying on my time. I like it. It's fun. Because the bottom line is people have to like you. And if they like you, that's the most important part. So many times you hear these people on TV and they're miserable. That notwithstanding, we were supposed to talk about theoretically, what, Ukraine? You want to talk about Ukraine?

Be honest. Do you really want to? Sure. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about theoretically what ukraine you want to talk about ukraine be honest do you really want to let's talk about it let's talk about it because i hear lots of you know i hear lots of crazy scary stuff uh and i don't know what to believe here's the biggest problem lionel the biggest problem is i now believe nothing that comes out of any press outlet, particularly print. But nothing, maybe local news, I can kind of believe sometimes, but that's about it. And so when it comes to something as complicated as a military conflict in a historically very complicated region of the world, I have no idea what should be done. I don't know where to go to read and get a good source about it to be able to have an opinion. Nor maybe should I have an opinion. I certainly don't believe the press.

Well, first of all, we're using, you see, Drew, we're from a time when we had the press. We had Cronkite. Remember that night when Cronkite spoke? Kids don't even know what that means today. This guy was it. Like LBJ purportedly said, when you've lost Cronkite, you've lost middle America. And by the way, let me add something

to your mother about the dry cleaning bags. I heard that one too. Because I heard they would actually move. They would come at you in the middle of the night. They moved. But you mentioned a thing poking your eye out. Mine was breaking your neck. And my father was an absolute Arden fan. My father was an Arden fan of if you eat and go swimming, you will die.

You will get a cramp and sink like a rock. That's another one. That's another one. But that's all public health bullshit. Yeah, but it's a waiting. I said, but it's a waiting pool. It's a waiting pool. Years ago when laughing, when we were kids laughing, there was a guy named Alan Seuss.

And there was a joke that I saw. It cracked me up then. I was a kid. Somebody threw a bucket of water on him. And he yelled, cramps. I've got cramps. Now, nobody thinks we get it. But you mentioned before somebody, your prior guest, was talking about the milk carton.

It was Eitan Pates. It was here in New York. And I remember there was, and I want to say this, and I think we were very lucky, and maybe everybody says that when they were kids, but I did things like, for example, one of my favorite games with my sisters and my friends, we would call jump off the roof. We put a towel around us. We thought we were Superman. And we would jump. And one day, my father was watching. And he saw this.

He saw kid after kid. And he came out and referred to me. I thought my name was God damn it until I was like 35. God damn it? What are you kids doing? And I said, we're jumping off the roof he says okay and he closed the door like I just want to know what you're doing not don't do it you're gonna break it yeah I just want to know what it's called I just want to make sure I know

what it's called I had and maybe you did too not BB guns but pellet guns and it was a it was oh the crossman with the pump and you get this thing. And one time, did you ever read Boy's Life magazine when you were a kid? It was like this. I remember seeing it. Yeah. A little bit. It's going to be in the doctor's office, that kind of thing. That was highlights. Highlights. Highlights. Highlights. Yes. Highlights. You were so bored because you went into, you went into a doctor's office and you weren't going like this. You were so bored because you went into a doctor's office and you weren't going like this. You were saying, what the hell do you got? Gem cutters quarterly.

What are you, a sadist? Give me a life. And you would sit there and you had nothing to do. And we could somehow amuse ourselves. We used to travel in a car from Florida to Canada in a 66 Impala, my sister and me, and we didn't get bored. We were sitting there, is that a Stucky's? And we didn't get, we didn't need to be coddled. We didn't need any medication.

It was like, what were we, stupid? We just found things interesting. And I know I saw like every guy our age, but it was a different time. Anyway, back in the boys' life, there was this one thing about, hey, is that a daisy? Remember the daisy? And somebody said, oh, my God, I shot my eye out. That's right, with a daisy, Red River Special. Notice that clean wound.

And they would joke. We would joke about things. National Lampoon wouldn't even be, put it this way, go to National Lampoon online, everybody, and look up foreigners around the world. T.J. O'Rourke, don't show anybody this. You will be indicted. If you have this in your possession, it goes after every race, every ethnicity so brutally, it is hysterical. Because Drew, we had this thing called a sense of humor. Do you remember when Archie Bunker came out for the first time, 1971, 72, and people said, what's that? Nobody lost their mind.

They said it was funny because we saw through it that Archie was the idiot. The racist was the idiot. Not today, because through this not systematic desensitization, not a kind of a Skinnerian, but the opposite, a systematic sensitization. And DEI, as you brought up from that, we've lost our minds. And let me tell you something. The pendulum is going to swing back like a wrecking ball. And thank God for this man right here, Trump. Whether he did it, whether it is the, you know, look at this.

I got my talisman here. I'm all in because after four years of this demented, wizened, dotard, this fool, and this monosyllabic, logoreic, this emotionally incontinent fool, I thought to myself, am I the only one? Do you remember Drew when they were saying, do you think Biden's up for it? He's wizened. He's hobbled by decrepitude.

Would you let this man drive you to the airport? What the hell is the matter with us? Maybe. That's the question. Maybe something is coming back. I swear to you, this was an experiment. This was a weird kind of a Rod Serling twilight zone. I'm expecting somebody one day to pull back for Karine Jean-Pierre to pull that thing off her head and said, I'm kidding.

It's a joke. I was seeing how long it would take before you'd say, we're not going to take this anymore. Everything. And Elon Musk. God bless this man. Can you imagine what's going to happen? Listen up, Susan. Can you imagine what happens when the view is owned by him and he says, oh, I'm not canceling you.

You just can't speak forever. I own you now. You can't speak. I've never heard more people, not in love with, in hate with the media. You say the media. We despise these people. These sock puppets, these windsock cretins who were just these apparatchiks.

The Alec Baldwin, they're probably your buddies because you're into that LA scene. Well, they're not mine. And I love them. And I saw, I think that was Rob Schneider you were talking to. Was that correct? Yep.

Also my friend. God bless him. And look at the crap that man went through. Tell me one thing he ever said. Tell me one thing. No, I'm going to say whatever I want. He said everything right. He said everything right.

That was what he and I review all the time. God bless him. He did it. He stood up. And all of a sudden, these people, you know, these people that stood, just said, I'm not backing down. Good for you. And thank God you, in your own way, you're very careful, because you're always a statesman, but you're a miserable profession when you put us through that crap with all that COVID and all that nonsense and all that stuff. And all we wanted to do was just live.

And you tried very carefully. I know you tried to say, no way, Melissa. And then you've got somebody from some stupid Wikipedia office decide, get him. Somebody says, get him. What do you think about a source what do you think about an encyclopedic source that has as its first rule this is not an authoritative that's like having a pill that says don't take this it'll kill you yeah but we fought through it and you know what good news is we got we've got jay badacharya at NIH. That is the best news of all time.

And then it's so poetic. It's such justice. It's so incredible. Marty's great. But I've been saying since the beginning of this whole thing that Jay Bhattacharya is the poster child for the excesses, the devastating takedown of a fringe epidemiologist, all this bullshit.

People don't understand even how poetic this is, that he is the head of NIH, is now Fauci's boss. He is Francis Collins, and it will be exceptional. Lionel, I've got to wrap this up. We didn't do much on the Ukraine. Maybe we'll have to come back and revisit that. Good is fine with me. There's still scary stuff coming out about it that I'm struggling with. You don't want to know. But again, who am I? It's worse than you think.

I don't want to know. It's awful. It's awful. Don't go. I want to know. Give us a sentence. It's awful because? World War III.

World War III. Because these sick- If we continue. These weird eschatological- And by the way, the Middle East, you've got these eschatological, War III because these sick these weird eschatological and by the way the Middle East you've got these

eschatological by the way the emphasis on scatological eschatological no I understand eschatological yes

end of world people yes yes Nazi shit people the end of world end of time Nazi shit people got it tribulation Armageddon this is what we're waiting for this is this is Yes. Nazi shit people. The end of world. End of time. Nazi shit people. Got it.

Tribulation. Armageddon. This is what we're waiting for. This is nonsense. But in any event, and it's a weird time when you say, very frankly, when I find, you know who I agree with regarding Ukraine? Putin. What the hell is going on here? This man makes more sense than anything I've ever seen. And when I tell people that, it'll look at me like,

well, what are you? I heard somebody, you're going to love this. They call me a Ruski or a commie. I said, you're so commies. And then we'll talk about that. It's a very, very scary time. But listen,

happy Thanksgiving to you and your family and everybody else. God bless you. Yes. We'll bring the Ruski back one of these days soon. You can follow the Ruski at LionelMedia.com. Also, Lionel Nation at Lionel Nation on YouTube and at Lionel Media on X. Lionel, have a great Thanksgiving.

Thank you, Mr. Ruski. We'll catch up with you soon. By the way, you got a schmutzig on your capillaries. I still do? I can't rely on my team here to protect me. You have a burger in your nose. Cheers. Talk to you soon.

Bye-bye. Thank you. Oh, goodness. Goodness gracious. Bless his heart, as they say. Let's see. Let's see if anybody reacted. Did anybody react to my rant on Twitter?

Did you see anybody? Or did anybody just let that pass? Hang on, I'm checking. Which was funny, Susan. When you did have that schmutz on your jacket, I was like, what is that? Well, I'm glad somebody noticed. I think you need to get that jacket clean. You go, oh, I just need it.

Who put the relax sort of meme up there? Was that Caleb? Was that you? Was that Susan? Was that you? Was that Susan? Was that you? Yeah, that was me. What relaxed meme? This relaxed meme.

It's right here. It says it's a GIF. Must be Caleb. Sometimes I make snarky comments to people, but I do it from the Ask Dr. Drew account instead of my own so that I don't get in trouble. Interesting.

Yeah, I'm not getting much interest. That was a good segue into Thanksgiving, World War III. Yeah, let's bring it home for the holiday. Thank you, Zankokuna333. I see you. Let's see if there's anything else here. When I mentioned World War III and somebody said, China's going to win. That's see if there's anything else here. When I mentioned World War III and somebody said China's going to win,

that's what they said. Well, I think you've been predicting that in the current state. They're waiting. They're all sitting. They're just sitting and waiting for that moment. I'm watching you guys on the rants. I'm watching you guys on Restream.

All right, we got to wrap this up. Have a great Thanksgiving holiday, everybody. Let's get our coming up. We'll be back with Alison Monroe on the second. Kelly Victory going to sit in for me with that doubt. On the fourth, just- We have some travel coming up. Yeah, the fifth will be from Florida, right?

Right. Okay. With Elijah from- With Elijah. Justine Bateman coming in. I think she might be in. She can be in studio. Slightly offensive.

Slightly offensive is Elijah's pod. Check it out. It's very popular. Jeff Dye in studio. Matthias Desmond, Aaron Cariotti. It should be amazing. Oh, I can't wait for that. I produced that one.

Justin Hart and Toby Rogers. All great stuff coming our way. Pay attention. So our next is, I believe, a Monday, correct? Which is December 2nd, correct? 3 o'clock Pacific. Also, we're going to have Stephanie Van Watson on from

the fatty. Stephanie Van Watson is going to come in and give us an update on all the fatty material and all the antioxidant. You know, oxidative stress on your body, on your cells is the enemy in aging. And we can find ways to reduce that. Fatty is one of them, particularly the cell membrane.

She'll talk about that. DrDrew.com slash Fatty15. She's the veterinarian I talk about in that ad that Lionel attacked me for. Can you just say you're good at throwing ads in? Yes, indeed. And also, thank you, Emily Barsh, for all the hard work you do for content and also bringing us great sponsors, as well as Caleb Nation. We're just really lucky to have sponsors we genuinely get behind.

Think about it. The people we get, the Czech genetics, the wellness, these are all extremely high-quality health care opportunities. Yeah, and I think one of the things also, I mean, we didn't mention mention this earlier but it's like he's not seeing how many sponsors we don't take like we're very selective with him these are all ones we actually like he's he's just poking the bear he's being funny i'm thankful we've had a good year the show's doing well and everybody's done their job and let's have another one i thank you thankful for my for my team and also for my husband for continuing to fight the good fight here. And thank you to Susan and Caleb who invented this whole thing.

This has been quite a fun little project. And I'm really, really enjoying it. I think you did it. No, no, you guys were the one. I remember you guys were sitting when the table was over there. You're both, Caleb was going, you know, it's time for a high quality streaming show.

And I'm like, what's that? I was like, people want to see Drew's face. I'm like, they don't podcast. Do you remember that conversation? Oh, I remember.

I remember just sitting there and it had all the couches and all the stuff from the old playroom and the old yellow, like that carpet and everything. And I was like,

we can just do it right here, guys. Like, you don't need a higher studio. Just change this room. I know. So funny. And then Drew did the Masked Singer

and we thought he was going to be gone for a week working on it. And he got voted off the first week. I was so pissed. It was like, ooh, we don't have a studio right now. It's all ripped up. No, but that was your idea and you did a great job. All right.

Thank you. We're very thankful. We're very thankful, Drew, and you did a great job. All right. Thank you. We're very thankful. We're very thankful, Drew, that you're still going strong. We have a tech check with Hannity's people in five minutes. Oh, we do? We're going to have to do that, so we're going to wrap this up. Nothing says Thanksgiving like Hannity. That's an interesting topic coming my way, so we'll go.

Say happy Thanksgiving. Everybody have a great day. Thanks for building the studio, Caleb. You don't have to work overtime. By the way, one of the things I'm addressing with Hannity is people, you know, separating from family members because of politics. Don't do that. Just don't do it. Let's be adults.

Also, you know what? I just want to thank all our fans who show up on a holiday because usually, you know, it's hard to get viewers this time of year because everybody's running out and getting ready for the holiday but thanks to the uh fans who have kept the show afloat and also for supporting our our sponsors we appreciate that very much and we'll we look forward to another year we're not going anywhere so good excellent and great guests and again any suggestions contact at drdrew.com. If, you know, we get all kinds of interesting kinds of things through that, that those emails. So we,

we watch them, we look at them. So send stuff there that you think we would be interested in. Also tell everybody how excited you are about Jay Bhattacharya. Yes. Support Jay. I mean, and think about,

you know, Jeanette too, as a surgeon, look at who she is and what she's done. Well, you want a clinician in there. I mean, you can have an opinion about her. I'm not saying don't have an opinion.

I'm saying that you have an over-the-top opinion. Oh, my God, she's terrible. She's great. Whatever. That's, look. Didn't you say that with Jay getting this appointment is sort of like the happy ending of a movie? It's literally the end of a movie where people are literally the, it's the end of a movie where people are slow clapping

and then the whole audience starts clapping because some amazing thing just happened, some triumph on behalf of the protagonist. I'm telling you, he was the protagonist

in this struggle. He was treated so unfairly. And Aaron Cariotti. Cariotti, well, hopefully, he'll have his own sort of justice in the courtroom, hopefully. But in terms of now a guy of his caliber of professionalism, professional standing, training, and human being

in that position, it's just so, so poetic. So he will, and let's all support him. And have a great holiday, Barry. We'll see you on monday god bless ask dr drew is produced by caleb nation and susan pinsky as a reminder the discussions here are not a substitute for medical care diagnosis or treatment this show is intended for educational and informational purposes only i am a licensed, but I am not a replacement for your personal doctor and I am not practicing medicine here.

Always remember that our understanding of medicine and science is constantly evolving. Though my opinion is based on the information that is available to me today, some of the contents of this show could be outdated in the future. Be sure to check with trusted resources in case any of the information has been updated

since this was published. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, don't call me. Call 911. If you're feeling hopeless or suicidal, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255. You can find more of my recommended organizations and helpful resources at drdrew.com slash help.