The Adam and Dr. Drew Show - Classic #650: Of Course!

Episode Date: August 18, 2026

Aug 23, 2017Adam and Drew open the show discussing Drew's recent eye surgery as well as Adam's recent trip up to Laguna Seca to race his newest Paul Newman Porsche. They also discuss Adam's annoyance and unwillingness to participate in some of the more ludicrous waivers and release forms that have infiltrated our society. They also talk to a caller who has thoughts on how so called 'safe spaces' are impacting his ability to function as a psychotherapist.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Well, it's time for another throwback episode. This number of 650 from August 2017. I talk about my recent eye surgery, which is still plaguing me, as well as Adam's recent trip to Laguna Seca. She's just been doing that recently here as well. He is newest Paul Newman Porsche at the time. We discuss Adam as an annoyance and unwillingness to participate in some of the more ludicrous waivers and release forms that have been foisted on all of us. And we speak with the caller who has thoughts on how to you. We discuss. Adam. We have thoughts on how you. so-called, quote, safe spaces, which is almost an anachronistic term now, are impacting his ability to function as a psychotherapist. Oh, my God, if we could only predict it, how much psychotherapy would have become captured. Enjoy this throwback episode from 2017. Recorded live at Corolla 1 Studios with Adam Carolla and board certified physician and addiction medicine specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky. You're listening to The Adam and Dr. Drew show. Yeah, get it on. Got to get it on. No choice but to get it on mandate. Get it on. Welcome the show. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for telling a friend. We rely on you, right, Drew?

We rely on you. What's going on, Drewski? Yeah, all messed up. You got your eye surgery? Yeah, how'd you know about that? I keep track. I watch on Facebook. Oh. And then I watched on eye book. They focus really on one part of your face. Cornea plant. The window to the soul, my friend. I follow you closely. Yeah. And did you see me trying to do a podcast, like looking like Stevie Wonder? For a week, this was me. Dark sunglasses on.

Really, because I shut all the time. This is basically how I spent my time. Shaking his head. I described what Drew does. Thank you. I knew you would. Yeah. So I messed up. But what's going on? You and I had a little break. Well, you were, you were, well, yes. You had to go get your surgery. Right.

I went off to Laguna Seca. and they... You got the better into the bargain, I think. I did not... Yeah, mine had a lot of potential downside, though. Why? Because I'm driving a $5 million car that I could destroy. I'm literally confused because you look so forward to that,

and I get that that's how I would be driving that car. I do. I didn't expect you to be that way driving that car. The reason I was that way... Well, I'm not that way. I said that mine had potential downside. I didn't say I didn't enjoy myself. I said mine had potential downside.

Sounding better. I had potential downside. I don't make a big deal out of stuff. I don't sweat the details. But I had a fairly major... I have this kind of world that I want to live in where I sort of shake people's hands. I shake their hand

I look them in the feet I don't like to look at people's eyes I look them at the feet I shake their hand and I just go whatever I said I was going to do we're done because I said I was going to do it

it's done that's how I go through life and I'll tell you where I'm leading at I'll make sure I understand can I ask so you're saying when you have an agreement with somebody to do something

I have a agreement that's my agreement agreement is a shake of hands and it's over and you know it's done by virtue of the handshake yes we're sitting in a warehouse the warehouse was purchased

with 10, 11 months on a lease agreement for a guy who sold flooring. When I bought this warehouse 12 years ago, I said the guy, I'm looking forward to bringing my cars and junk in, making a kind of clubhouse here. But I know there's 10 months left on the lease. And he said, I'm looking for a new place. And I said, well, when you find that new place, the sooner the better. And when you move out, I'll rip up the lease and we get on with our lives.

And he said, fine. I said, great. And that was about four months later, he said, I found a new place. Now, the thing that was comical is in that four months, I had bought that huge old Spanish house on top of the hill, which was basically a 55-hour-a-week job for two years. So I just bought that place, and then this guy calls and he goes, hey, good news, I'm moving out. And I was like, not, now I don't, because this place was a project too, and I just got into this project.

So I remember kind of at the time, kind of going, now you're moving out. A different kind of project, too. That when you were cleaning off wood with a toothbrush. Yes. Yeah, massive, massive, very detailed project. But I said to the guy, all right, you may move out. And he said, not until you sign a release.

Oh, I remember that. For the lease, which is what we've all become. And I said, yeah, I'm not going to do that. And he said, why not? And I said, because I told you, you could leave and you're going to leave. And if you want to leave, I'll rip up the contract and we'll get on with our lives. And he said, yeah, but how do I know you're not going to whatever? And I said, because I told you I wasn't going to do it.

And that's how I lived my life. And he said, well, I'm not going until you sign the release. And I said, well, then I'm not signing a release. So do what you want to do, which is this is the part of life that really gets distilled down to. Tell me what you think he did. He stowled you a bit and just waited for you to sign it. Yes. Yeah.

No, absolutely 1,000% incorrect. No, why would I sign it? I told him I wasn't going to sign it. No, no, to point, he would just then stonewall. You're just saying, right? Stonewall me, how? He's paying me rent. He's living in my warehouse.

How was he going to do to me? I see. I thought he might just not move out. Your instincts are horrible. He moved out. I never signed anything. Life goes on. That's a 99% of it works.

I never needed to sign it. And by the way, when he's given the decision about whether me signed, it or he signs the new lease and moves out to his new location in Tarzana, guess what he does? He moves out. He says he's not going to move out. He says he can't move out. He says he can't move out. But guess who moves out?

He does. And when somebody comes over here and films and they say, now you need to sign a release so we can use the film. And I go, no. And they go, hey, if you don't sign a release, we can't use this footage. I go, okay, don't use it. But I told you you could film at my warehouse. And that's what I told you. And I don't need to sign a release.

I told, we're at my warehouse, and we're filming in my warehouse. So I told you you could do that. And they go, yeah, but then we won't be able to air it. And I go, well, then don't air it. And then I leave. Guess who airs it? They do. Guess who has almost everyone, get,

he signs. I will tell you why. I'm signed. I wish I could get my own notary so I could forge everything. It's all started, really all started in the medical system. And ain't nobody doing nothing without signatures. Right. But I'm not interested.

being a sheet. I'm just telling you. No way does anything get done without that. Right. That's what I have Matt for. Matt signs on your behalf. Everything. Okay. Yes. Everything because it never happens. I'd have him sign. I had him sign a $500,000 contract with telepictures. I was taking a nap. I don't give a shit. No one ever looks at it. It's the most worthless, useless thing in the world. It never comes up again. Because it's all built around attorneys. All that counts is what's on paper. Right. They're wasting their lives. What are we doing wasting our lives? Well, they're wasting our lives. Well, not my life. I have an assistant who signs everything.

So now I was going to go race my race car and a company that lent me the money for half the price of the car said no racing. Oh. You don't get to race. It's in the contract. Oh. Yeah. Uh-oh. But we all kind of know that if you just go do it, what are they going to do?

Well, they can invalidate the contract. Yeah, that was the concern. And what would that mean? That would mean what? It doesn't, it means I got to give them all their money. And then they can sue you for that. Yeah, but here's what you have to understand in life. But here's the deal.

I got Mark Geragos on it. Don't worry about it. No, I understand. But you also didn't wreck the car, right? No. Can I ask, can I ask a question? Is there a worst-case world-ending scenario? where if something had happened and they said give us $3 million right now and you didn't have it,

that they could take the car and do with it what they pleased? They take his house. Well, first they're going to take the asset. Yeah, they put that on a flashbed. I don't know. There's a lot of worst case scenarios that I just frankly... You know the worst case scenario? It goes to court and you spent $3 million on lawyers.

Sure, absolutely. I'm just wondering if he could lose the car in question because I know it's to be someone new and important. It's kind of a... it's kind of a mutually assured destruction kind of thing what we had with Russia, which is they don't want this, I don't want this. And so there'll be a lot of saber rattling. Did marketing point go out of Adam? You don't race his car.

No, that's the difference between Mark Garrigas. Mark Garagas, everyone else was like, hey, the contract says you can't race the car. You can't race the car. Mark Garagas says, let's figure out a way to race this car. Yeah. What do you do? started looking into insurance, but they don't really, track insurance doesn't really exist, on the track, going to the track and home from the track exists, but not on the track, per se.

And then a lot of... The sports started looking more and more insane to me every moment we talk about it. What's that? The sport that you're engaged in starts to look more and more insane to me every minute. Yeah, I should, Gary, I'll show you a lap. Gary will cue that up. I mean, everything about it now is insane. It's dangerous.

It's a car you value and have paid greatly for and you're putting it on the line. You're risking your house. You're risking everything. Your life, your home, your kid. It's a great metaphor. I thought to myself, coming from what I'm coming from, I went out to Pebble Beach a year ago and I raised my, better on the big screen. I raised my paddle on a car. that was worth $5 million

and I announced to everyone I'm racing it a year from now. So that's what I'm doing. And that was based on what the car would need to be able to do so? What does that mean? You needed repairs to, you need to work on it for a year to get it?

No, the race is every year. The race is in the year, I see. No, boy. I didn't know where you bought it. I bought it and went to Pebble Beach. Come on, Drew. It's all the auctions are. So we've got to drive through this huge throng of people to get out onto the grid.

That's sort of cool. Yeah, it's kind of cool. And they pull you out onto the grid, and they know your qualifying space. So out of like 50 cars, they tell you where to slide in. They give you a lot of like hand signals and stuff and tell you where. What's the steering electric on these cars? It looks different than normal steering. It's like sports.

sports car steering, but you got to understand the slicks are so wide on the car that when it's not rolling very fast, it's pretty hard to turn the steering wheel. And then they pull you out onto the track and you do a lap to try to warm up your tires and then they start the race. Now you've got to turn it up, Gary. We've got to hear the sound. Fast as you would be gone, you know, 130, 125. The crazier part is... I see that. How did you do? The car wasn't making as much power as I would have liked,

because I think the engine needs to be rebuilt. But I was 16 out of... Now, as I had to say this to Sunny. First off... He wasn't so why you didn't win? He said there are 40 cars in a race, and Daddy got 20th. I said there were 50 cars in a race, and Daddy got 20th. I said there were 50 cars in a race.

and daddy got 16th. He's like, 50, there are only 42 cars in there. I said, 50 showed up. 42 on Thursday or Wednesday. 42 gridded up on Saturday. And listen, not breaking the car or crashing the car or doing whatever to the car between Thursday morning practice session and three in the afternoon Saturday race. That's part of a miracle.

Yeah, I always count. I don't count. If 50 people signed up, then you're 16th out of 50, not if five cars didn't make it because it's because those guys broke. Or somebody did something stupid or wrong or whatever it is. So, but it felt good to make good on the promise, which is I'm taking the car back and I'm racing it. That makes sense to me. And it also felt good to be like, who are you? Where do you come from?

and this would be the exact opposite of anybody or anything in your family that would ever would ever do this. That was like, for me, it was just going to be that, I'm going to be the guy buys a $5 million car and then takes it and races it. And I will treat it no differently than a $30,000 car. That would be the same. I'm glad. You're interested in me. By the way, I can barely see. I haven't talked about my vision.

No, no, no. I want to go to calls. Maybe Nick tomorrow will talk about it or something. We'll see. I'm all messed up. I'm all messed up. It's really good. Such a fuss.

I thought, no, I'm, well, I'll talk about it. Matt, 39, Atlanta. Get it on, y'all. What's going on, man? Long time, second time. Love y'all. Love everything. Love you.

Yeah, I was just, thank you, Adam. It's my day. I needed that. I needed that today. I'll give you more. Keep it coming. It's been a long day, man. So my comment was, I'm going.

The psychotherapist. I worked with young adults, mainly young adult addicts, been doing this for 10 years. And what I've noticed is the whole safe spaces thing is fucked up the therapeutic environment. Meaning like they got, like in therapy, you know, you'll be like, hey, let's create a nice safe space for therapy. And they'll be like, oh, here it goes again. Fucking safe spaces. We can't say what we want. And I tried to explain to them, look, you know, they're, the college. environment, that's where free speech is all about free speech, but this is therapy. Don't say

fag because the guy next to you is probably struggling with latent homosexuality, so we're trying to keep it safe, so they can talk about that or the fact that they've been, you know, molested or some crazy shit, but they're just like, oh, they tune out. They're like, fuck this. This is all the same thing, safe spaces. So I just want to throw that out there. Yeah, it's, I had not encountered that, I'm not surprised that's happening. Now, when you talk about safe spaces that they take issue with, you're talking about a group setting, right? Yeah, like the group therapy or the mill you, the mill you setting. Right.

But you know, in individual therapy, they're able to understand that's not just safe. It's, you know, sacrosanct is confidential, right? They get that. Yeah, they get that, but they may still even, like with the way I phrased, like help them with their language, which they might still think I'm policing them. You should know, you know, Matt, it's Matt, right? I can't quite see across the room, but I was talking to Bob Forrest yesterday about this. Mm-hmm.

And he was talking to, you know, a group, and there was somebody in the group going, you know, I just don't think that this is this thing you're, this, you keep saying disease is addiction. I just don't think it is. And he just goes, you're fucking 19. I'm 35-year-a professional in this field. why the fuck should we be listening to what you say? You're authoritarian and stormed out. You're authoritarian. And the whole group attacked him for being authoritarian as opposed to going, no, no.

Somebody needs to tell a 19-year-old they don't know what's going on. Their brain isn't working right. They shouldn't declare their absolute categorical knowledge of very complex topics. They have no experience with it. Don't confuse Google search. with experiential knowledge. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, well, let's drill down.

Yes, let's please. Because I on my show, the Adam Carolla show, yesterday, was talking at a guest named Christine Hassler, who's a life coach. And she also worked for the man show a million years ago. Oh, yeah. Long story. But anyway, we're talking about Wah-Wal-Wovesi, and you are the coolest, and everyone's the coolest, and just be yourself,

and everyone will know you're the coolest, and all the self-esteem movement, right? Yeah. The self-esteem movement is bound to lead to misery. And the reason I sort of discovered it is Christine was talking about young, pretty, went to Northwestern. Like I sort of had the world by the short hairs. And she was like, I don't know, 26. And she was depressed.

Like, life wasn't going. Right. I mean, when you're her, she's beautiful. She's bright. Obviously, when you're a 19-year-old version of her. her at Northwestern. You're supposed to graduate and take over the world, you know, then all of a sudden, you know, you have real problems. Regular problems, like regular folk. Like life isn't just, everything's not just falling over in your path while you just

make your way to the top of Mount Sarabachi and plant your flag. And by the way, there's resistance. That was then. Now they all have that problem. They all expect. Right. So she said when she was 25, 26, she started to have kind of a sort of quarter life crisis. And I said, I was 25, 26, I was just looking for free food. I was just trying to get, you know, who's got a beer, you know, what's going on this weekend? Who's got some pot? Yeah, you're trying to survive. But I wasn't unhappy.

I wasn't disappointed. Yeah. See, she was let down. She felt like all this potential, all these promises, all this education, all this background, all this family. And look at me, look at me here today. I was 25, 26, kicking around with Ray and Chris. No one felt unfulfilled or on anything. or everyone is ahead of their, you know, everyone's ahead of their family because their family

didn't do anything. So if we build up people into thinking that the world is just going to kind of part that the seas will part for them and that they're the coolest and they're number one and they don't have to try. If you imbib that into every young person early and often, so it's in their DNA and their muscle fiber, of course they're going to be miserable when they're 19 or 23. Of course. Yep.

Of course. It can't go any other way. Of course you're going to be disappointed. Of course you're going to be angry. And you're going to have no ability to reflect on it. It's all going to be pushed out at whoever the faculty is or Bob Forrest or whomever. And so it's a recipe for misery, which is a weird thing. I think if you said to almost any parent.

what would you least wish for your child? I think being miserable would be like the top of the list, right? Like, hey, look, I think we could all make some room. Like if you said, what if they weren't educated? And you went, yeah, but what if there was something like computer program or something that they really took to? Well, okay. All right, I could forego the formal education, as long as they found something that could really sink their teeth into. Their sexuality, you know, if they met someone who's the same gender, they were happy with that person, that'd be good.

Good for them. You know, like most even, how about not having a lot of money? Well, as long as they were doing something that satisfied them and had a partner that they were happy with and they had a life that was satisfying, I would be. But being miserable, I don't know any parent that would sign off on being miserable, right? Lots of potential, but miserable. No. Right.

You are creating this in a de facto kind of way by blowing all this smoke up. Your kids' ass their whole life and doing every. thing for them and explain to them that they are the coolest, like Wawa Wobsey said, this is a recipe for misery. They will have no choice but to be miserable. And I don't know that it's 100%, but it's in the mid-90s in terms of unhappy. So why we are inflicting this upon them and society's inflicting it. Well, we're doing it because we can't stand.

Our narcissistic asses can't stand to see them disappointed or struggling or other other than having the perfect whatever. But there's a larger thing going on. So the micro version of it is, that's the micro version. That's the micro. It's the parents, you know, not ever wanting to let them skin their knee or learn their lesson or whatever it is. The best thing I ever did with my daughter in terms of this is when she would launch herself off the bed, she's such a weirdo daredevil that at age four, she'd just launch yourself superwoman.

Now, it's sunny, you'd have to be touching the. edge of the bed with your shins in order for him to jump into you? Like, you'd be on, you'd be in the bear. Finghips up you'd touching him, too. You'd be into the, if it was airspace, you'd be in the bed's airspace with your upper body, and then he'd walk over to you and lean against you. But Natalia, you'd get, pubble, blah, blah, blah. She'd get running, like Stewie from the family guy, and she would launch herself, launch,

head first. It was crazy. I wouldn't do that when I was four. And she just said, less forward. She didn't know how to say move back. She would just say less forward, less forward. And she'd waved me back. And I just kept walking back.

And then I got back to the threshold. And I'm good this way. Like I knew exactly what her range was. And I know exactly what my range was. And I'm long and I'm real long. And I'm strong. So I knew I could cover a lot of ground. But she said move back.

She said, not move back. Less forward. One more time. I said, I step back here and I'm not catching you. And she said, less forward. She waved me back. And I said, I'm not going to get you. I can't get you from here.

She said, step. Less forward. She waved me back one more time. All right. She got to run. She got a launch. Went full head first. Bed's pretty high off the ground.

You know, it's about three foot off the ground. She went full head first. She planted it right in the carpet. I couldn't get her if I wanted to get her. And I told her I wasn't going to make it from here. She told me to move back. And that's when she ate carpet. And.

Honestly, you laugh? Huh? Did you laugh? It was funny, but I think Lynette came in while she was screaming and red-faced and stuff, wondering what was going on, you know, and I was explaining, well, she told me this. But here's a deal. Love to have seen that interaction. She learned. You're Lynette.

Right. Like, what? She learned like that. Yes. Experiential learning is the best. That has never happened again. Look, it's a great example. And it will never happen again.

Experiential learning is the most profound. teacher. Profound. You don't have to explain the details. You don't have to get into the dynamics. It's just learned. Got it. You know, experience.

Carpet burned into her soul. And that's it. And Drew, we've done a lot of stuff and thrown her in the swimming pool and whatever on the shoulders and off the thing. And I think. But she has never questioned my, like, you're not going to make it from here. Or we're not going to do this. It's never come up again. She's got it.

She got it, but it couldn't be explained to her on a chalkboard. She had to feel the sting of the carpet. You could have explained it to her 10 times on the chalkboard, and she would have gotten 30% of it. You know what I'm saying? That's kind of the way people work. You can go over the concepts, over and over and over and over. They kind of get it. One experience in.

Wow. So I have been experiencing in the air of life. sort of low-grade misery. Amongst everybody. Not me, but everyone else. I'm turning on the news. I'm not sure it's misery, but go ahead. I know what you're talking about.

Low-grade unsatisfied, unhappy, on whatever. By the way, here's what? Negativity. This is called low-grade negativity. I'll give it that. Well, here's the difference. Things around me are bad, and I can't, I'm powerless. I can't change that.

I can. But that's the classic victim's role, position. Yeah. So we were talking micro, which is convince your kid, they're special and everything at this point. Right. The macro version of that, which I have been railing against for years now, but no one ever listens to me, although I'm always right. Taking groups, black people, gay people, lesbians, Hispanics, whatever, women, Muslims, and convincing them there's a target on their back is a straight line to misery.

Sure. It could be no, you could have no other conclusion in life than miserable if you really thought there was a target on your back and forget about this. Coming up with phrases like systemic racism, how could you be anything but miserable if you were lived in a system where there was systemic racism and you're a black person? you would have no choice but to be unhappy. And systemic implies sort of stuck, too. It's like it's in the system and that's it.

Yeah. That's it. Now, it doesn't exist, but still, it's a great narrative or the school to prison pipeline. None of it actually exists, but it's a great quote. But it's a great narrative to sell if you're trying to sell newspapers, but it's a slow poisoning. It's a poisoning.

But there's another point here, which is this, this frenzy to sell news, whether it's on cable or newspaper as these companies strive to survive, they're going for messages that are about misery because that's what attracts the eyes. Right. So it's reinforcing this negativity. Yep. I mean, but in a way that's like, you can't escape it. I can.

No, I don't watch it. I understand. You're special. But you know what I'm saying? No, I get it. I don't. That's sort of the infecting agent or the thing that's sort of growing it, right? And it's all, they're just trying to get eyes.

They don't give a shit. They just need to survive. You see the only time switched editors today completely or yesterday? No. Well, I'll tell you what. Let's continue this tomorrow, shall we, Drew? All right. You guys tune in.

I got a lot talking about it. I got a lot of talking about it. I got a clip to play you. Ooh, for me? Yeah. All right. I'll tell you about my eye surgery tomorrow. We'll start with you.

Oh, yeah, eye surgery. Write that down. So, until next time, Adam Crowell for Dr. Dr. Sane. Mahalo.