Ask Dr. Drew - Mike Sorrentino: Jersey Shore Star Kept Painkiller Addiction "Situation" Secret From MTV + Dr. John Gaitanis & Eric Metaxas – Ask Dr. Drew

Episode Date: July 3, 2026

Jersey Shore star Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino kept his addiction secret from MTV – but now he's 10 years sober, founder of his own rehab centers, and says he's thinking about running for New Jersey governor. Mike joins Dr. Drew to talk recovery, second chances, and the "Situation."After eight months in federal prison, Mike rebuilt his life around sobriety and family. He founded Archangels addiction rehabilitation centers, with a goal of one in every state, and is floating a run for NJ governor on a platform he hints starts with "no property tax." Dr. Drew and Mike get into the addiction, the prison time, and what really happened on season 2 of Jersey Shore – when Mike was in withdrawal from painkillers while keeping it a secret from MTV's film crew and their millions of fans. Also on today’s show: Dr. John Gaitanis, pediatric neurologist and co-founder of Meadow Biosciences, on leucovorin for autism and why families face 18-to-24-month waitlists. Eric Metaxas discusses his new bestselling book “Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World.” Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino is a TV personality, bestselling author, entrepreneur, and recovery advocate best known for his role on MTV’s Jersey Shore. Now nearing 11 years of sobriety, Mike transformed his platform into one centered around family, wellness, second chances, and personal growth. He is the founder of Archangel Centers and his latest book is “Reality Check: Making the Best of The Situation – How I Overcame Addiction, Loss, and Prison.” Follow at https://x.com/ItsTheSituation⠀Dr. John Gaitanis is co-founder & chief medical officer of Meadow Biosciences. He is a board-certified pediatric neurologist with over two decades of clinical and research experience in autism spectrum disorder. Learn more at https://meadowbiosciences.com/⠀Eric Metaxas is the founder and host of Socrates in the City and host of The Eric Metaxas Show. He was appointed to serve on President Trump’s Commission on Religious Liberty. He is the author of “Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World.” Follow at https://x.com/ericmetaxas 「 SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS 」 • 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 • 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 「 ABOUT THE SHOW 」 This show is for entertainment and/or informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Executive Producers • Kaleb Nation - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://kalebnation.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ • Susan Pinsky - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/firstladyoflove⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Content Producer • Emily Barsh - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/emilytvproducer⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, we're getting going with Mike, the situation. You know him from Jersey Shore. Of course, his addiction spiraled right there on the show. He's now 11 years sober. He has a great project called Archangel. He's 11 years sober now. And he's just, his recovery has really been stellar. And I've just been admired it.

Last time I saw him was in Las Vegas during the pandemic. He and I will tell you about that. it was actually during a filming of the show. After Mike, it's John Galantis, Galantis, a pediatric neurologist, co-founder of Meadow Biocciences, Lukavoren for autism, and why many families are now stuck

on a two-year wait list. We'll get into that. And then finally, Eric Metaxis to discuss New York Times bestseller revolution. The Supreme Court's ruling on last week's birthright citizenship. You can follow Eric at Eric Mataxis, Eric with a C,

Mike, the situation, I'll give you his social media handles right after this. Our laws as it pertain to substances are draconian and bizarre. The psychopaths start this, he was an alcoholic because of social media and pornography, PTSD, love addiction. Fentanyl and heroin, ridiculous. I'm a doctor for, I say, where the hell you think I learned that? I'm just saying, you go to treatment before you kill people. I am a clinician. I observe things about these chemicals.

Let's just deal with what's real. We used to get these calls on Loveland all the time. Educate adolescents and to prevent and to treat. Do you have trouble? You can't stop and you want to help stop it. I can help. I got a lot to say. I got a lot more to say.

Mike's book is Reality Check, making the best of the situation, how I overcame addiction, loss, and prison. That is where you should learn more about Mike's story, which is phenomenal. You can follow him on X. It's The Situation. and you can learn more about the Archangels project by going to Archangels, Archangelcenters.com. Mike, welcome.

How are you, Dr. Chu? Thanks for having you, brother. I was just saying the last time we saw each other was when for the Jersey Short production, you and the boys and the girls took over an entire resort. Nobody there. It was the craziest thing.

But it was a pleasure to see you guys, nevertheless. Yeah, it's good to see you. And yeah, that was quite a production. We took over a whole hotel and, you know, we had to follow COVID protocols. And but still the show had to go on and we had to make TV. And I thought we did a good job of it. It was a very, very good show. No, it was good.

You were riding mini bikes down the halls and you had crazy inflatable or latex dolls. And I was like, like, what? What? but okay how's everybody getting along now by the way I mean listen

you know life is not perfect I mean currently I'm sure you guys have seen the news but but for the most part everyone's doing good

the Jersey Shore family vacation is on Thursdays which is on tonight 8 7th Central only on MTV and if you don't mind Mike I'm sure

you've done this a million times but just from my audience kind of sketch over your story and your recovery and then we'll talk about how Archangels is one of your prouder moments now?

Well, I mean, listen, I have quite an in-a-depth story, hence why I wrote the book, which is reality check how I overcame addiction, loss, and prison. And currently now 11 years clean and sober, but once upon a time, I couldn't even get a day, you know, the first season of Jersey Shore. I had just gotten out of rehab. And I didn't want to tell the producers because I didn't think that they would asked me. Needless to say, the show went on and I played the game of what's called substitution at the time. So my first stint in rehab right before Jersey Shore at the seaside Heights happened.

I went to rehab for pills at the time. So when the Jersey Shore first started happening, I was like, you know what? I didn't have much knowledge about addiction. So I just played the game of what's called substitution where I said, you know, I'm not going to do pills anymore. I'm just going to drink. And then obviously, you guys saw Jersey Shore Seasons 1. And things definitely intensified in Jersey Shore season 2 when we got our big raises. And that's when the addiction really, really took over. It got so bad to the point that I was probably doing in the early Jersey short seasons probably in season two i started doing about four to six roxies three times a day maybe by season the italy season it got to 10 roxies

three times a day and i'm lucky to be alive dr drew i mean because i could have easily overdosed right when the cameras were were shooting me um so that was definitely quite the situation I can't, it's so gratefully, you weren't doing all that when the fentanyl was creeping into the supply because that's how the overdose would have been like no problem. That and then if you add the benzodiazepines, you add the Valium drugs, the out of anasteph, that's the other way people overdose. Yeah, I mean, listen, that was definitely in the equation. I fell in love with Percocet, but it was definitely, like I said, you know, the Percocets throughout the day, which were the 30 milligram. axi-codones. And then at night, I would go to sleep with some valiums. So that was definitely a recipe for disaster. That gets dangerous. And was a doctor giving you these things? Or were you

getting them off the street? Early on, it was definitely off the street. But then once the, you know, the years went on. Once the seasons went on, I also got them from doctors too. And they no one would say no to me. It's always shocking. I know it's always so shocking. That drives me insane. At that time, my peers were killing people like all over the place without any seemingly concern for it. But I love the addiction thinking, the addict thinking, which is, I'm just going to drink and smoke weed.

And so I'm going to do that now. It's going to be fine. Just weed, just alcohol. I played that game a couple times. times, you know, I played it in season one when I said, I'm only going to drink. And I really did only drink. But once season two came along and the money, in the excess, and the fame in Jersey Shore was pretty much the biggest show in the country at the time, that's when the addiction sort of intensified. And then it turned into sort of a wolf of Wall Street

situation where in my book bag, I had a pharmacy of everything from benzos to weed, sometimes cocaine and I was playing my own chemist. And I remember when you slammed your head into that wall. It was such a scary thing to see. Oh, my God. Right around there? That was the beginning of the end. Yeah.

I was going through withdrawal live on TV on one of the biggest TV shows in the country. And I remember thinking to myself, like, oh, my God, how is this happening? You know what I mean? And like, I went into Italy. with 250 roxies in my left shoe and 250 roxies in my right shoe, right? And with my calculations, right, I was only supposed to have like six a day, right? Of course, addict mentality, I probably had eight or nine per day. I love it.

I love it. It's fantastic. And then after about 30 days, I ran out and I started to go through withdrawal. And in Italy, it didn't have, you know, those type of prescription painkillers. and I started to go through withdrawal and America saw it. It's interesting to me. A lot of people hear the war stories like, oh, my God. To me, it's just, I think addicts are so funny, the way they think and the way they plan and stuff.

And of course, it always goes saywire. And you can laugh at it in retrospect. It's so dangerous when it's happening. But when you got a wonderful recovery under your belt, it's funny. Yes. listen, you know, if you guys get a chance to read my book, you know, those crazy times, it's almost like an action movie, right? And it's like the test in the testimony. And that's what makes my story so good because it's a very unlikely comeback story. And we all know, America loves a good comeback story. And that's where we led to Archangel centers where I'm at now. I have a couple of quick questions before we go to Archangels which is that to my eye

all the boys pretty much at the beginning of the show at least seem to be dabbling with steroids and that that was the thing I don't know if you were or not but but the young men that do steroids who are trying to get sober don't stay sober it's not even the drinking

you know what I'm saying? Yeah no yeah I totally agree I mean listen when you're in early recovery you can't do any substances at all. I mean, for me, I promote abstinence, and that was the best for me, because those substance will be mind and mood altering, which will cause you to make decisions

that you normally wouldn't make, which may even lead you to your drug of choice. So I do agree with that. Typically, typically will lead you there. I mean, the other thing that worries me is that young male addicts that keep doing steroids die. It's just so common. It's just, they just die.

And of many, many, many different causes, but mostly going back to their drug of choice. So I was worried for you guys, you particular for that. But you're here, your recovery. Your recovery's been great. Tell them about Archangel. Yes. I'm now 11 years clean and sober. I have founded the Archangel Centers, which is essentially a treatment center.

Our first treatment center was in Titten Falls, New Jersey. And that we've launched about six months ago. And we've been doing such great things for the community, the families, and everyone in the state of New Jersey. And we have done so well that now we're expanding to North Carolina, July 24th. And then after July 24th, our next center will be in Princeton, New Jersey. Then we have another one in Florida and another one in Vegas. So essentially right now we have five signed and funded. locations. So, you know, we got our hands for right now.

Yeah, that is hard work. It is hard, and I'm certain that you'd be, you know, with your current recovery would want it to be recovery based and high quality. It depends so much on the treatment team that you guys put together. Who's helping you with that? We partnered with the Ascend Behavioral Health Network, and they've been owned and operated centers for for for many many years um ian has you know like 17 years of sobriety this year and and sam has i believe she might be going on 18 or 19 so they have owned and operated many centers for many years and i was linked up with them over over the last year or two um because oh for the past maybe seven to 10 years i've when i'm not on tv i've worked for treatment centers and for a couple

years and I was the face of this treatment center. I was the face of that treatment center. And then eventually I was linked up with these owner and operators and now we have Archangel centers. Somebody's asking in the chats here, do you treat cratim addiction? And yeah, cratim addiction is happening all the time these days. It's just straight up opiate addiction. Yeah, we're seeing a lot of crate them right now as well. We're seeing a lot of fentanyl, a lot of opiates. I'm seeing, and it's probably one of the most dangerous. dangerous ones. I'm seeing a lot of alcohol. And it's very sad that, you know, most people don't know that you can die from alcohol. And we've actually lost a few already, which was pretty sad. People forget about alcohol. Alcohol is the only drug from which the withdrawal can be frequently fatal. Just the withdrawal. The withdrawal from Hobies is horrible, but it's not fatal. The drug itself, the alcohol, is literally a carcinogen to all human tissue. you plus the liver disease plus I mean it's just one thing after another and we just we all just

sort of you know sort of nod at alcohol no big deal you know but but he once it gets you mad it is rough it's so sad I mean I'm seeing so many people that you know their addiction is alcohol and you know they have cirrhosis of the liver that you know there's organ failure I'll be honest you dr. draw lost somebody last week I got the phone call and that we were trying to save his life And for me, saving someone's life is altering the trajectory of their life from active addiction into recovery. And during that process, because he's a drinker, he eventually died because of that, because of, you know, some unrealized, you know, health concerns that he never. Just going to drink. I'm just going to drink.

I'm sure he told himself that too. So let's talk about recovery because I'm a huge advocate for recovery. And I've seen it under attack for the last 20 years or so. have you seen that and how do you help promote the process of recovery? Well, I promote the process of recovery by example. You know, I think I'm very loud and vocal about my comeback story. I wrote a book called Reality Check, how I overcame addiction loss in prison.

And if you see any of my pages, I stand for family and God. And now I have my centers, which are Archangel centers. So I believe I'm a big advocate for the recovery community. And I have a major platform that I've been on TV for 17 years. And I believe that my story is very loved and very respected. And I believe I have a chance at changing the stigma of addiction. I have a chance at, you know, helping families and doing a lot of good in our country. So I'm in the midst of it right now.

Yeah, I am so mortified the way people think and talk about recovery. because they expect it to be a magic cure. They expect it to be car wash when you go through treatment. This is a daily process that takes years. It's hard work. And that's what makes it tough, right? You got to get people engage in this process we call recovery. And a lot of them won't do it, can't do it, you know, for various reasons.

But there's so much more, and I'm going to ask you to, I'm going to hand off to you on this point, so much more to recovery than taking some pill to reduce your. cravings or something. There's a whole spiritual, interpersonal, emotional, interpersonal journey that you have to go on, right? Yeah, it's a lot of hard work. And I've been dealing with it myself for the last 11 years. For a very long time, I was wondering why I was, you know, getting all these bad consequences, you know, the government was coming after me. They wanted to send me to prison. I'm like, oh my God, what is happening here? I need to change my life. And then I realized that, I had an addictive personality and I was always going to have that.

Nothing was going to change it. And I read a quote that I just really loved. And it was a very profound proverb. And the proverb read, there's a good wolf and there's a bad wolf inside of us. Good wolf is, you know, love and light and hope. And the bad wolf is darkness and despair. Which wolf are you going to feed? And then it just all made sense for me because I'm,

As a young man, I had, it was just a lack of knowledge of self. And I fed the bad wolf, the excess, the parties, the women, the drugs. And I wondered why I got all these negative consequences. Once I was able to retain and apply that amazing things started happening, the miracle started to work for me. I obviously had to put the work in one day at a time. I necessarily did and took every suggestion that was given to me because my life was going 100 miles an hour in the wrong direction.

And when I say I took the suggestions, that means the suggestions were to do the 60 days of residential. And then after the 60 days residential to do the aftercare. And then I did six months of aftercare. And then after the aftercare, I did three months of one-on-ones. I did the 90 days, the 90 meetings and 90 days. I did the sponsor, the Recovery Network. I did all of that because it was suggested.

But also the reason why I mentioned the length of care is because studies show and it correlates that the longer length of treatment that you do, the more success that you have in recovery. So if you did the calculations from what I just said, I almost did about a year treatment. And that is the reason why I have 11 years clean and sober. And still to this day, I run a clean program. I run an honest program, which means I don't lie, I don't cheat, I don't steal, I don't drink, I don't drug, I don't smoke, I don't speed. I don't do any of that stuff because they don't want to feed the bad wolf. And also I move through life a lot quicker than most people because if I'm not making any new mistakes, I can fix any old ones, which I already have. So recovery is a lot of hard work, but it is worth it. And if Mike the situation can do it, Then anyone can, right? And that's what I preach. There you go, man.

And treatment works and a year is not an uncommon duration of engagement necessary to get ongoing sobriety. Lastly, Mike, who is eligible for treatment at the Archangel centers? Anyone that needs help? You know, all you have to do is... Is it cash? Is it insurance? I mean, Medi-Cal, is there resources available for people? it's really anybody that needs help they can reach out to me i will either place you in my center i will

place you in another center i will get resources for you i have a scholarship that i give out monthly that's dedicated to my wife's late brother um so every single morning i look at my dms and they're full of everyone that needs that they need help and my team we reach out to them and we help as many as we can so that is on x it's the situation and then go read the book reality check make the best of the situation. Mike, it's such, you're always an inspiration, my friend. It's good to see you and to continue the good word. Thank you, brother.

Good to see you. Thanks for having me. Thank you. You bet. All right. So again, he said he will, if you need this kind of help, it's the situation on X. It doesn't get better than that. He'll help you place.

We'll talk to you from the standpoint of attic to attic, which is very, very important. And there's the Archangel Centers. That's the website, which is Archangel Centers. com. All right. So next up, Dr. John Gayant-Gatanus. He's a pediatric neurologist with over two decades of clinical and research experience in Autistics, in Autism Spectrum Disorder. And he has got some really interesting observations. He works in cerebral folate deficiency. And wants to talk to us about some of the options for treatment there, right after this. If there was ever time to be

rationally ready, it is now. I urge you to consider getting one of the emergency kits from the wellness company. Because TWC has seven different kits that are customized for a variety of situations. Wouldn't be a bad idea to take a look at each, considering, say, what we've just been through in California with the fires. I was happy to have the field kit on hand. And the contagion kit, in particular, is suited for what is being predicted to be the next outbreak. That would be the H1N5 or avian or bird flu. Of course, the same. Experts from the COVID era are freaking out about this potential pandemic, but don't panic. Just arm yourself with the meds you might need if this comes to pass.

Contagionionionicidone, hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, Tamiflu, and Budesonite, an inhaler that is good for airway reactivity and tightness, as well as reducing viral replication in the airways. Go to Dr.doo.com slash TWC for 10% off your purchase. Hey, Dr. Drew here. When I am traveling, I am always so grateful that we bring along Paleo Valley. products both this is the grass-fed venison which is delicious one of my favorite also they have the grass-fed and finished beef as well with chicken and pork and the superfood bars which have saved me a million times it's made from the bone broth which again is 100% grass-fed finished beef bone

broth and it's made from real bone not hides and other superfoods within this bar including blueberries and cashews check the label this is a great supplement and wonderful to have on hand when we're Now if you want to see stars, you have to watch them dance, dive, or go to rehab with Dr. Drew. Dr. Pinsky told me that you are having some issues. He says I'm depressed. Are you? Meadow Biosciences is the organization. John Gittanis is a pediatric neurologist.

John, welcome the program. To me. So, there we are. So talk to us about the folate story. I know Lucavoren is something that has been advocated. Tell me what that story is. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's a story that goes back a couple of decades. So what we have seen over those decades and through a number of clinical trials is that there

exist a pretty large subset of kids with autism who have antibodies to the transporter for folate. So folate is vitamin B9. Vitamin B9 is critical for every function the brain does. If you have antibodies that block the transport, then your brain is. deficient in B9. And so what we do is we give Luke of Warren, which is a version of B9 that can bypass the transporter and correct the cerebral folate deficiency. And what's really critical here is that we, from that, we see improvement in some of the core symptoms in autism, including language. Are they, or do you have sort of extraordinary stories

or kids go from being nonverbal to verbal? So some do. So the, well, first to go through a little of the clinical trial data. There have been four double-blind placebo-controlled trials here, and those involved 255 patients. Language was one of the things that demonstrated improvement. We do have some patients who have shown pretty remarkable improvement, and I don't want to advertise that as what would be the expected outcome, but we definitely have had patients who've suddenly gone from nonverbal to verbal. We have seen that. As a side note, it actually can improve epilepsy, too. So it's one of these things that might be beneficial for both, because if you, if you, If you lack folate in the brain, seizures can also be an outcome.

Are autistic children routinely being tested for this antibody? No, no. So this is not part of standard tests, nor is Lucavorn part of standard treatment. So it's worth noting that lots of major medical centers, including a few in your neck of the woods in Los Angeles, but ones here in Boston in my area, have prevented their doctors from writing prescriptions for Lucavorn. Despite the fact that it's a B vitamin. Well, it's a good question. I'll tell you what they don't restrict. Let me start with that, because we just had Mike Sarentino on to talk about addiction.

So let's put that in perspective for kids with autism. We have right now approximately half a million kids with autism who are on antipsychotics long term. I'm just putting this as a comparison. There's no restriction to writing those prescriptions, right? And the clinical trials that led to the first antipsychotic getting FDA approval was only 101 kids, of which only 50 had received them at three weeks, right? And now we have half a million who are receiving antipsychotics, not for weeks, but for years. So I would say, I would argue that the medical community.

Yeah, it's got it upside down. I mean, that's treating behavior, not treating the autism, right? It's just treating unpleasant, you know, sort of manifestations. It treats the behavior, exactly. So, like, we're not treating core symptoms when you use an antipsychotic plus the side effects. You have weight gain. You have breast development in young boys. You have potential for movement disorders.

So it feels a little like we have an addiction in this country, but it seems like it's more the medical community that may be addicted, and they may be addicted to chronic use of long-term psychiatric meds, as opposed to trying a different approach, which is to really test for the underlying root causes and kids and treat those, some of which might be treated with the vitamin. John, I spent a lot of time these days thinking about Galileo and about the bureaucratic and authoritarian Stonewall. he was presented with because that's the way our profession seems to be operating these days. It's the oddest thing. It didn't used to be like that. But it is all ossified, bureaucratic. It's, you know, on high, it's authoritarian, it's algorithmic. I don't even recognize it half the time. It's, you know, doing this for, well, I graduate medical school 30 years ago. So now three decades in, I would say I've, I've felt rather discouraged by the fact that we're using chronic meds in kids that were not really studied chronically.

And we don't have an off-ramp. And when something presents itself as simple as vitamin B-9 as a treatment, and yet it's flatly rejected with significant resistance. I mean, I have no other examples of a situation where a large academic medical center has prevented their doctors from writing a prescription. I mean, this is the one, and they chose to do it. COVID. COVID, that was standard behavior of academia during COVID to destroy people who tried to prescribe things that they didn't necessarily sign off on. But is lukevore, I mean, it's used in

cancer sort of treatments. Is it so widely needed that there's a shortage or something? What's their justification for being like this? So there are a couple of limitations. I can't speak to the justification. I think what is said here is that there's not sufficient data. But, you know, we have to get those data by doing the studies. And some of the studies have to be on things that address things that are outside of the purely genetic model of autism and the purely psychiatric approach to autism, right? And it's worth noting that the same people who claim we don't have data have to acknowledge that our data for the use of antipsychotics really only goes up to about eight weeks.

We have a couple of longer-term trials. but here we have a treatment in Lucavoren that has been studied for longer on more patients and is far safer. And it treats core symptoms. So across the board, it's a win, but partly because of the resistance for doctors to write the script, partly because there is now a shortage because of this increased interest, and the fact that it's a generic. It's a cheap med, easy and cheap to produce. So there's not a lot of incentive financially for anybody to produce more.

So now patients are in short supply. So that's the challenge. Yeah, if you're a parent and you want to try this, you either have a doctor that won't write the script, you have a pharmacy that can't obtain the script, maybe an insurance company that won't cover you. So it's just been challenge after challenge after challenge for the families. I don't want to dilute your case,

but I'll just bring up that I talked to a guy, I think he was a neurosurgeon, but he had a son with severe autism and he started trying intrithical stem cells and his own son went from nonverbal, non-functional to employed. Have you heard of

things like that? Or I'm sure you've heard things like that. Have you heard of that particularly? Yeah, so stem cell, I would put that at almost a more extreme level of some of the medical approaches being used in autism. We have a lot of low-ing... And even more, even way more

speculative, right? Not enough evidence. Sure, not enough evidence. But some of the anecdotes are like impressive. So some are, and I think we do have to begin to try to understand those. But there's low-hanging fruit here. We have evidence that treating the gut microbiome can help. We have evidence that using mitochondrial cocktails of vitamins can help.

So, you know, why not follow those pathways? If it means kids are getting better, then why wouldn't we just pursue those? And those are really safe approaches. Tell me about this mitochondrial cocktail. That sounds interesting. Yeah. So there is not only is there. evidence that about 70% of kids with autism of cerebral folate deficiency, but roughly the same

percentage have evidence for mitochondrial dysfunction. It's different than a disorder. Mitochondrial disorders when you have a genetic abnormality of the mitochondria. Disfunction means that there's something affecting the function of the mitochondria. And so when 70% of kids have mitochondrial dysfunction, it makes sense to treat that because the treatment really involves very simple and very safe vitamin approaches. Such as, I mean, can you tell me a little bit about what's your putting in there? I'm just curious what the mechanism is you're thinking. Yeah, some of those are things I take. So, for example, CO-10 in the form of ubiquinol, ubiquinol, that's a really safe thing to take. My wife is on a statin. She takes ubiquinol because statin's lower CO-10, but a lot of adults use it

for heart disease for a host of reasons. It includes, mitochondrial cocktail includes high-dose B vitamins. It includes vitamin E, vitamin D. And then you have a few other additions you might not find in a general multivitamin. They're creatine, carnetine, beta alenine are all part of what would be included in a standard mitochondrial cocktail. What is your theory about what is it going wrong with the mitochondria? I know it's sort of in the, I don't know if mainstream has caught on to this yet, but I do hear a lot of noise about mitochondrial metabolism and dysfunction and even carcinogenicities. What is it that you think is going on there? Well, let's talk about what we call the terrible triad, and that's inflammation, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial dysfunction.

Those three things often coexist, and those affect the brain in a host of ways, not just for autism, but when you look at conditions like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, across the board, inflammation is really bad for the brain, oxidative stress, which really comes from many of the toxins that we ingest and can't clear. and then a lot of those things ultimately lead to mitochondrial dysfunction. There's one more part to it, too, is when you have oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction, you also are more prone to having spontaneous mutations. So these things may relate to some of the downstream effects that might lead to even cancer or other conditions that lead to mutations because cells require normal mitochondrial function

to have normal replication. How did you get interested in this? Well, I'm a neurologist. So I'm a child neurologist. So I'm interested in all conditions. No, I know, but I mean, but you could have just stayed in the infrastructure that's coming after you. You know, you started thinking a little, trying different things to help these kids that weren't getting better. Well, I mean, I think you said it there.

It's trying to help the kids. So, yeah, I could wait another couple of decades until we have more research and tell the families it's, sorry, it's too late for you. But, you know, there's nothing we could do. or I could actually start to think about, well, just general wellness in kids of developmental disabilities. How can I maximize how this kid is going to achieve over their life? And anything I have, I'm thinking about from the parent approach sometimes, any advantage I can get to help development I'm going to reach for. And so that's just part of the contract I have with me and the families that work with that.

We have to really maximize that outcome. And I know people listening are like, isn't that every doctor's contract? Yeah, it should be. It's exactly right. But what John and I've been complaining about is something has adulterated our profession in recent years. How did you get funding for this research on the Luke of Oren? A lot of it was conducted from a colleague of mine, Richard Fry. He's really the world expert in this area of Luke Warrin. Edward Quattros also did a lot of the background research. One of my partners in Meadow is the second author on a lot of the pivotal papers on Luke Warran. and so knowing his background and seeing that there was an inability of patients to obtain lukevorn, we opted to start a company that where patients can do exactly that, where we can make sure that they have access and they're not denied. And that's meta biosciences, and that's a Zoom, that's a telehealth setup, yes?

That's correct. That's right. Okay, so there is hope for kids that people want to try this. Do you try it empirically or do you do antibody? testing or both either? So right now empirically, because 70% of kids, as many as 70% of kids will have the antibodies, but we'll build the antibody component into it. And over time, we're looking to build mitochondrial treatment, gut microbiome treatment, with further testing.

So we really want to achieve that goal of maximizing development in many, many different avenues. Do you want to expand that to sort of other conditions or wellness generally? I think we will. I think for sure there's a great need for many areas here. So other developmental disabilities, for sure. I think we have a great need. There's a condition called Pans Pandas where kids have inflammatory conditions that cause psychiatric symptoms. And it's very hard to achieve care there. And there may be another role there for telehealth. And the pandas is post-strap, correct? Or mostly post-strap? Yeah, the PANDAS refers to post-strap, but Pans is a broader term.

and that really refers to any kind of inflammatory condition that may be accompanied by primarily neurologic or psychiatric symptoms. And it's something that is very hard to achieve treatment for in our current model. I think inflammation and oxidative stress and the overlap between them is the huge area for many different medical things in the future. It's just longevity, wellness, psychiatric feelings, you know, vitality and stamina or endocrine problems I can see getting better with this stuff. We're just, we're in the infancy of all of it.

And it's, there is some headwinds. There's some headwinds. I get it. Yeah, that is the basis of probably all chronic disease right there. That's, that it sums up why we have this chronic disease epidemic. But I, but I, but I, the reason I took a beat there is that all, I would just say all it, I, we, the term inflammation is tossed around very casually. And I think it's a complicated.

series of things that fall under that umbrella. And for instance, I don't know if you saw the data during COVID on the Sigma 1 receptor, which is technically anti-inflammatory and that levoxamine had some very powerful effects there. I actually took it during my long COVID period and it worked really well. And I had no other feelings or side effects other than sort of improved energy and clarity. And that probably is an anti-inflammatory effect, not anything to do with SSRI. That's an interesting side note.

It has nothing to do with the autism piece, but many of the SSRIs we use also reduce inflammatory cytokines. And it does raise the question about what's the actual mechanism by which they're helping, particularly in situations like long COVID or chronic fatigue. Yep, yep, that's exactly right. And I think a lot more to be worked on.

So that's one kind of inflammation. And there's oxidative stress and breakdown in apoptosis, and there's endothelial inflammation, which is, you know, arterial problems with, you know, how the immune system and the lipid system is interacting with the lining of the arteries. And that what happens when the arteries aren't healthy, just so much for us to get into. And it's just so odd to me that it's not, there's not a giant movement in that direction. But you're telling me that even the little attempts you've made here have met with headwinds. And I just, I don't get it because it's harmless.

That's the other thing. You're not, it doesn't have side effects the way we're so used to having with these very powerful pharmaceuticals. Well, that's right. I think these are all things I try to do for myself, my family, lower inflammation, reduce oxidative stress, you know, nutrition, counseling, all these things. Exercise, sleep, improvement, very basic things. This is how you reduce and prevent chronic disease. Why shouldn't we allow kids with developmental disabilities the same benefits of enhancing their general health? Why deny them that?

And as a side note, it really does enhance their development. That's enough said. Meadow Health is the X. It's Meadow underscore health on Instagram. And Meadow Biosciences.com is where you can find out more. John, I might pronounce your last name correctly, Gaitanus. Gatanis. I should have checked beforehand.

Yeah, yeah. That's okay. I'll make sure I, before I let you go, that I'm actually pronouncing your name the way God intended it. All right, well, listen, keep up the great work. I'd love to hear more as more is revealed. That'd be great. I love the opportunity.

Thanks for having me. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right, we're going to switch gears yet again. Eric Metaxus is founder of and hosts of Socrates in the city, hosts of the Eric Metaxus show. Appointed this year to serve on President Trump's commission on religious liberty and distinguished presidential fellow at the Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

He has a new book. It's called Revolution, the birth of the greatest nation history of the world, which is true, as well as a letter to the American church. And we'll get into all that. You can follow Eric on X-E-R-I-C, Metaxus, M-E-T-A-X-S. We'll have him with us right after this. Hey, Dr. Drew here, and we are interested in health and longevity, and the longevity nutrient is Fadi 15, discovered amazingly by a veterinarian who was responsible for the Navy's fleet of dolphins. Turns out dolphins are healthier when they have adequate amounts of pentadecinoic acid, which is C-15. It also, for us, it helps humans as well, reduces the oxidative stress on our cell membranes, which is part of the aging process called ferruposis. So she takes it. I take it. Whole family takes it.

And if you'd like some, go to Dr. Drew.com slash fatty 15 for yours. There are discounts there. Oh my God. Look, Drew. It's a dolphin. Oh, my gosh. Hey, Dr. Drew here. And even when we travel, we bring the new convenient fatty gummies.

They're delicious and they're portable and they're great. And remember, this is a longevity ingredient. It fights against the oxidative stress on our cell membranes. We call that process feroptosis discovered in dolphin research by Dr. Ben Watson. And I'm taking this every day, even when I travel. It's fatty 15. I don't see the profession doing anything to really build trust beside you. Happy to be on here. Thank you for having me. You and I see the world the same way.

What is it like for you to be the most chiseled and best-looking man in media giving us the information we need? Thank you for the truth. My pleasure. We are going to take your calls at 8333-D-R-E-W. The book is Revolution, the birth of greatest nation, the history of the world. Eric Metaxis, E-R-I-C-M-E-T-A-X-A-S- on X and Ericmetachs. Eric, thank you. Welcome to the program. Glad to be here.

And your previous guest was also Greek. I just, I don't know if you ever had two Greeks in a row. I've not done so, but I actually tried to learn a little Greek years ago when I had long COVID, because I had this feeling that it would. clear the fog and it did. But I feel like I've lost most of it. The only thing I can say is adoxi and protemo. And the great people are so nice.

Like they say like, oh my God, your language skills are so good. You're pronouncing perfectly. I'm like, they're either bullshitting you or they're super nice. Like when you learned them. Well, let's talk about this great country. And it's an interesting, interesting that we sort of, start this off with a conversation about the wonderful mix of nationalities and ethnicities that was able to be successfully put forward because of some brilliant ideas at the beginning.

And my understanding is your sort of point of view is that no one had ever delivered on a revolution before or since. And I went deep into the French Revolution recently when I saw all the mob behavior. And I'm wondering if mobbing is part of the problems of revolution. is not working out? Well, that's why the book is titled Revolution and not the American Revolution, because I said this is the only revolution, the only revolution in the history of the world that delivered on what it said it was going to do.

And the short reason for that is because the founders knew that if we get rid of a king, we need basically to look to God. In other words, we need to be virtuous ourselves. themselves. And they understood that that involves God. They were looking back to the Israelites in the Old Testament and saying that when they got out from under Pharaoh, out from Egypt, they were alone in the wilderness. They looked to God. So you cannot legislate that everybody goes to church, everybody's a Christian, but they understood that's part of the mix. And in the French Revolution, what did they do? They kill the king and the queen, and then they start killing the priests and the nuns.

And as you know, because you've studied it, it is a bloodbath. It's a disaster. And what do they trade? What do they get? They don't get success. They basically get a dictator, emperor named Napoleon. So it's kind of an amazing thing. And I got to tell you, you know, the subtitle, Revolution, the Birth of the Greatest Nation,

the history of the world, I'm proud to be Greek. I love my Greek background. But America, there has never been a country like American. I think most Americans, we don't really realize that, that what we did 250. years ago is really and truly something to celebrate. It's not like Bastille Day that's kind of mixed. No, this is an unadulterated victory, and we need to know that story because it's a beautiful story. I cannot agree with you more. It's so brilliant what they put together. I don't think people appreciate the brilliance of the system and its resiliency. But really quickly, though,

well, not quickly, but the thought that occurs to me is, I mean, there have been other revolutions, I think, about the establishment of the Florentine Republic. And McIvelli always pointed out that you need a strong man. Wait, hold on. Then you can get a republic if you're lucky kind of thing. That's sort of where it goes. If you're lucky, if you're lucky. But the one thing neither McEvalley know the Florentines either succeeded in addressing was how do you sustain it?

And God knows we have many challenges here. And part of the reason we've been able to sustain it is because of the brilliance of the opening system. But what are the challenges today that we need to pay attention to? Well, by the way, I mentioned in the forward of my book, I talk about this stuff, and I talk about the Greek Revolution. I mean, that was essentially successful in 1821, they're under the Ottoman Turks. But what we're talking about in the American Revolution is another order of magnitude. It is the creation of a nation where the people govern themselves, where we are genuinely free. That never happened in the history of the world.

And the fact that we've been able to sustain it for 250 years, it doesn't sustain itself. You know, just because you've got a constitution. So what? It's a dead piece of paper. It doesn't do anything. The people have to buy into the system. And that's why, you know, people need to assimilate and understand what we have and how it works and what do I need to do to keep it going.

Because if you want to be enslaved or you want to work, you want to be, you know, if you're living in China, all you have to do is what they tell you to do and not do what they tell you not to do in this country if you really want to be free it requires something and it's a privilege it's an incredible and I in writing the book I really you know I don't necessarily talk about all this stuff I just tell the story

because I said at the heart of everything we need to know our story we need to know what happened what was Lexington and Concord what was Bunker Hill and when you know the stories and the characters you kind of get sucked into it and you say you know what this is exciting I want to I want to be a part of this ongoing revolution

I want to keep it going It was extraordinary. And I sort of feel like, I don't know if you, I can't wait to read the book because I love books like this. And I sort of feel like DeTockville alerted us early to the potential problems that we could get into. And I feel like a lot of that stuff is coming to bear now. Well, of course. Listen, even the founders understood this. They understood that if we don't take this seriously, it goes away.

The natural state of affairs is not for us to be free. The natural state of affairs is not for us to have hope and be able to fight for a candidate that we believe in. The national state of affairs is somebody strong tells you shut up and do as you're told and you have no choice. And so we really, we have to take this seriously. And I say we're in the third existential crisis of our history right now. There are huge threats to everything we have. And people who act like, oh, everything's fine. The pendulum swings back and forth.

That's garbage. The pendulum doesn't swing. You tell the people going to, in box scars, to Auschwitz, that the pendulum swings, everything's going to be fine. There are horrors in history, and we need to take that seriously. And I really think that, I mean, I wrote the book, you know, for the 250th because I said, we need to take stock. We need to know where we came from who the players were.

And we have a debt to these players, that they saw. suffered, many of them died so that we could have these liberties that, you know, we're not aware of. So we need to know the story. And it is a beautiful story. And by knowing the story, it kind of makes you understand that I'm supposed to be part of this story. So I thought around the 250th, this is the time for Americans to, you know, to take it seriously. Because liberty is on the line, I'm not just saying that. It is. Yeah, I never thought at my age, I'd be, I say this all the time, be worrying and thinking about being able to speak freely. That's just the weirdest thing in the world to me.

But you said there are three major threats. I'm guessing Civil War was one. I think the revolution. I know. I think that the revolution was the first existential. You know, in other words, if we had not prevailed. And by the way, if you read my book, you realize we should not have prevailed. It was really huge odds against us.

But Washington and the others honestly believed God is with us. This is a sacred cause. What we're doing is not just, you know, for our self-interest. This is a sacred cause. And so it was an existential crisis. And it's effectively miraculous that they won independence. The civil war is the same thing. But I think we're in the same situation right now.

And it's only when things get bad and when the threat is serious that people kind of wake up and say, okay, what do we need to do here? because for most of our lives, you know, everything's sort of fine. And, you know, it's, uh, it, tip O'Neill is, uh, he, you know, he's the opposition, uh, if you're a Republican. It's not like there's that big of a difference, but we're starting to see some real existential threats when people are talking about Marxism. That's not going to be good.

Marxism doesn't believe in liberty. So we, we need to know our history. And I think, again, when you know the history, you sell, you want to celebrate it. It's beautiful. Some of the characters in, in, in my book, you know, obviously this is this is nonfiction this is all true these are beautiful human beings and what they struggled with what they did we get to be the beneficiaries of it we need to know their names we need to know their stories so i would say this summer uh is the time to take that seriously

arguably back to the french arguably it's their blockade that that really tilted the scales and not arguably i mean it appears to have been the case and um i think was yorktown was Is it not? But one quick switch in a different direction. Birthright citizenship and the recent decision by the Supreme Court. I understand you've got some ideas, some thoughts about this. Well, I mean, I think it's insane. Listen, this is what's crazy.

I think most Americans think it's insane that you can hustle here legally or illegally give birth and like Shazam. Your kids are an American citizen and gets all the benefits. It's like everybody knows that's a joke. You're gaming the system. But what happens is if the Supreme Court delivers that kind of stuff, it makes people cynical about government. It basically starts saying like, you know what, there's nothing I can do. It's a game.

That's bad. I wrote about it in a previous book called If You Can Keep It. We have to be engaged and we have to work so that we don't get cynical. And so I think when something like this happens, we have to figure out how. How do we fix this? There's got to be a way to fix this because most Americans know that's insane. You know, and even if you're for it, you know it's kind of, I'm game in the system. That's not the way America's supposed to work.

Most Americans know that. And I think that, you know, it's a privilege to be an American. My parents came to this country as immigrants from Greece and Germany. And, you know, they were naturalized in 1960. That was like the greatest privilege of their lives. And, you know, people want to be Americans. but you can't you can't play that game. And I think that it does make people cynical.

And the Supreme Court needs to think about that when they're making their rulings. Are we undermining public trust in the Supreme Court, in government? That's a serious issue. And the issue of cynicism and corruption in the book I talk about the British, they were very cynical and quite corrupt. And so, you know, that's something that we should never become. Well, living here in the great state of California, it's hard not to be cynical, particularly as it pertains to the voting process, because it feels hopeless here. So it's easy to get cynical. But nevertheless, we...

I get it. At least in New York, all that has to happen is people need to turn out. You need to get people to vote. Here they vote, but it's all very manipulated. it's always i mean listen hope is a virtue despair is a sin like we have to do what we can do and sometimes it's very difficult but honestly

another part of the reason i wrote the book is that when you know what some of these guys went through what they suffered and how they fought and what the odds were against them it inspires you to say like if what i'm doing is the right thing then god is with me i need to do what i can't do but what I can do, I can do. And I think we need to be inspired. We need to understand that there are always battles, and there are always, you know, very tough spots and tough moments and, you know,

temptations to hopelessness. But I just think that our system really works, but we have to be involved. We have to know the history. So I'm cautiously optimistic, but I am genuinely optimistic. What was this really sort of my last question? question about the most inspiring story for you as you wrote the book? Well, there's several, and I'm not just saying that, but one that I had to put in there. I learned about this in fifth grade, long time ago.

My teacher was telling us about Henry Knox, his 25-year-old, who Washington tasked him with getting the cannon from Fort Ticonderoga. It is one of the most insane feats in history. He goes with teams of people to get, there were no canon. In other words, you cannot beat the British if they've got cannon and you don't, right? So he goes 300 miles from Boston to Taekonda Roga, which is basically at the top of Lake George, where the fort is. And they had all these cannon. He had to bring back 120,000 pounds of cannon.

Some of the cannon were 5,000 pounds apiece on sleds through winter, over the Berkshire mountains using oxen and horses. It's an insane story. Every American should know the story of Henry Knox, getting the cannons from four-contactgandr. If he hadn't done that, we probably couldn't have won the war. So it's a huge piece of the puzzle, and it is inspiring. Wow.

Well, thank you for writing the book, and thank you for the shows. Where do you want people to find you? If you can spell my Greek name, Ericmetaxis.com. Eric Metaxus, you know, on Instagram, on whatever. And the book is available everywhere. This week, it's number three on the New York Times bestseller list. It's been selling so well. So I'm really very, very grateful.

It's an exciting time. So thank you. Congratulations. I look forward to reading it. I posted all the links on X on at Dr. Drew on X. So if you have that, you can go over there and just click on the link. Great. Thank you, Eric.

Thank you. Give us a little. Give us a little like while you're at it. So happy 4th of July, everybody. Happy 250th. It's worth pointing out that it really is Abraham Lincoln was one of the first politicians to point at the Declaration of Independence as the actual birth moment of this country, that it was not the Constitution. It was not the winning of the Revolutionary War. It was not the establishment of the presidency and the government.

it was the codification of an idea that all men are created equal. He always pointed at that. All Lincoln's thought emanated from that one phrase that everything had to be built off that and that that was the founding notion of the founding document. And that's what I believe, I guess we're celebrating the final signatures placed. but we are celebrating that document for the July celebrations, and this is the 250th year since that document was signed. Susan, anything on your front?

No, I'm just ready for our little holiday, and I'm looking forward to seeing our grandkids, and just being grateful for the fact that we're so lucky in California to have a celebration and everywhere. Like fireworks everywhere. Good. I'm looking at the restrain. Of course, we don't have them here in Pasadena.

We don't have them here in Pasadena. Last year they did a drone show at the Rose Bowl. Was that last year? Yes. And I was very disappointed. We usually get, we have a vantage point from a friend of ours home there. And it was not good from the side. You had to be right up in it.

Well, compared to what goes on in China, those, those, those, those, those, those, those, those Drone shows are insane. Part of the reason they did is because we had the fires in Altadina, which was right next to it. And they were trying to be respectful for the people who had their homes lost. But nobody showed up. Unfortunately, they didn't

sell a lot of tickets either. But, oh, well. Also, keep an eye up on July 15th for the show, Nation's Dumbest that I'm in. You'll like it. Everyone's in on the joke. It's very funny. And it's a really good show. I call it Survivor

meets trivial pursuits. But Caleb, upcoming guests, let's just put them up there for a brief look. There we are. I'm going to actually just talk to John Bowden again. He's got some new dad. Of course, Nick Frituss, Uncle Cliff. Yay.

Andriang in here. Speaking of July 15th, he's in the cast with me. And we will see you. Caleb needs to make that bigger for you. It's like, and scroll down because it's really small. Yeah. Caleb. So next week, we are going to miss.

Thursday show because our daughter is getting married. At the Madonna. I'm not going to say at all. But anyways, we're going to have all our friends and family together next week. So we're leaving Thursday. Sorry.

So we will be out of town. We'll be here Tuesday and Wednesday. Right. See you then. Ask Dr. Drew is produced by Caleb Nation and Susan Pinsky. Emily Barh. She's our content producer. 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 physician, 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 Dr.do.com slash help.