WEBVTT - Dr. Drew Pinsky: Talking openly about the hard stuff 0:00:01.639 --> 0:00:03.040 I feel like I want to reach out to you 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.880 and say how courageous it is. And I know I 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:07.840 get how profound. 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:08.760 Not everyone. 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:09.720 It's really hard. 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:11.920 I get it, totally get it. 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:18.560 Welcome to off the Cup, my personal anti anxiety antidote. 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.640 The TV news and talk formats are funny. There are 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:26.400 a number of ways in. You can come in as 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.680 a celebrity. You can come in as a journalist, you 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:32.880 can come in as a specialist. I came into TV 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:35.680 news as a journalist, first working in print, then online 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:37.160 that I wrote a book and I had to promote 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:40.280 it on TV, which started my very unexpected to me 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:43.800 television career. But if you think about shows like The 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:45.920 View or the late night shows, most of those people 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:48.879 come in as celebrities, comedians, etc. Now. 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:50.800 I was happy to come in as a journalist because. 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:54.400 That's what I did, but I always envied the specialists. 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:58.720 I remember during the Somali pirate news cycle. Remember that 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.480 I was at Fox at the time and we were 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:05.679 scrambling for an expert on pirates and I happened to 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:09.480 know a maritime law expert from college, so I brought 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:11.200 him in and for a while he was our pirate guy. 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.520 That was his specialty, and specialists get to live in 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:17.720 one domain. It's the domain they know the best. So 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:20.600 you got your terrorism expert, you got a chef. 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:22.040 You got an athlete. 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:24.839 For me, as a journalist and a generalist, I didn't 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:27.640 just have to weigh in on politics, but everything from Snookie 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:29.839 to Tiger Woods to the royals. 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:31.560 And it's a lot to keep up with. 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:37.840 My next guest has had the supreme ultimate specialist career, 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:41.440 and man did he capitalize on it, unlike the pirate 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:43.640 guy who probably doesn't have much of a TV career anymore. 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:48.480 Doctor Drew Pinsky is a doctor who became a radio star, 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.400 who became a TV star, and now he talked about 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.559 anything he wants with his medical background as the foundation 0:01:56.280 --> 0:02:00.640 from Loveline to celebrity rehab with Doctor Drew. He's been 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.280 all over media for like forty years, and that is 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:07.440 quite a feat to stick around that long in this 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.480 career because this career is brutal and it's still going. 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:12.840 It's still going for him. 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:15.280 Welcome to off the cup, Doctor Drew Pinsky. 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:17.480 Such a privilege to be here. But man, you made 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.800 me feel old who for forty years? 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:21.320 Wow? 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:24.640 Yeah, But I do think about that. Sometimes I'm like, 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:28.840 what the hell forty years this? And as a result, 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:31.840 you know, and I've also all alongside of that, been 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:36.600 a workaholic physician. I've been practicing medicine in multiple different arenas, 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:38.160 and I now just want. 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:39.000 To give it all back. 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:41.840 I want to just use everything out of plus. Physicians 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:44.840 now don't get to see what I saw in the 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:47.639 sense that everything is so silent and ultra specialized. 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:49.040 And I was such a workaholic. 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.679 And I taught medicine, I taught psychiatry, I did intensive 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:55.600 care medicine, I did hospital medicine, I did outpitch medicine. 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:58.560 He did addiction medicine in a psychiatric hospital. I did 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:01.200 medical services in a psychiatric So I got to see 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:04.800 the spectrum of the human experience so broadly, and I 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:07.040 just want to try to share it. And so I've 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:09.360 had this great good fortune of just trying to do 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:12.440 good in media this whole time, trying to use media 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:13.560 to do something worthwhile. 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:14.839 I know, but here's the thing. 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:17.840 I've been on TV a long time too, and you know, 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:21.399 so we get to know, like your TV doctor, right, Yeah, 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:25.040 they don't go on to have this explosive media career 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:28.079 outside of a hit a month, you know, when you're 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:30.480 coming in to talk about some celebrity who died or 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:35.240 health crisis you have. Really, I mean, people who want 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:37.880 a career in media need to study your trajectory because 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:42.120 the thing that you've managed to do is remain impressively 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.880 present and relevant. And that's the trick. I did an 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:49.280 effort to be on TV. Like I said, I wrote 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:51.360 a book and had to promote it. But it helped 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:53.920 me promote my writing. So I did it, and I 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:56.800 found if I could stay relevant through the news cycles, 0:03:57.600 --> 0:03:59.200 not just be a one trick pony, well then they 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.520 keep having me. But it's hard to stay relevant. It's 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:04.360 hard to stay relevant to people. 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:08.040 Well, it's a great point. By the way, there's no 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.400 blueprint for anything I've done. I did not expect to 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:13.920 be doing any of this. It happened by an accident. 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:16.040 All of a sudden. I was doing radio in nineteen 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:18.920 eighty three, and I thought it was I thought I 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:21.040 was doing community service. I didn't think of myself as 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:23.280 a broadcast or anything. Yeah, and then all of a 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:25.000 sudden that went to five nights a week, and then 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:27.800 all of a sudden, some TV guys showed up. But 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:31.000 in terms of relevment, it's kind of interesting. Because I've 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:34.480 been in media that has kind of a continuous connection 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.880 with the public at large. I get a sense of 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:39.640 what's important in the moment. 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:40.479 Really. 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:45.080 So I came to radio really because of something. We 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:48.680 just stopped calling grids and started calling aids like that 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:53.000 was where that happened. Yeah, and nobody was talking about it, 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:55.359 and particularly nobody was talking about it to young people. 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:56.480 I was considered. 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:59.640 Bizarre to talk about venereal diseases to an eighteen year 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:01.880 old because why would they need to know that that 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:05.680 was nineteen eighty three. Condoms were behind the counter. You'd 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:08.400 have to get the pharmacist to bring the condoms to 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:11.200 the cash resire. It was crazy, Yeah, And so I thought, Wow, 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:13.159 I just got to keep doing this. And as I 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:15.880 listened to those audiences, the next thing I started hearing 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:20.000 about was the consequences of childhood trauma, sexual abuse, physical abuse, topanament, neglect. 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:22.440 All that was being played out then in the psych 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:25.480 hospital where I was working every day, I saw the 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:29.400 shift in personality to all cluster b personalities and the 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:32.440 importance of the addiction and how addiction was sweeping across 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:34.520 the country. Yes, so I started working in that and 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:37.400 then I got good at that, and then it then 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:40.479 that became celebrity rehab eventually again not my idea, just 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:42.160 some guys that showed up and said we want to 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:43.799 do this. I thought, well, I'd really live to show 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.000 how we treat addiction. But you can't do that. It's 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.280 just yeahm possible, And we figured out how to do it. Yes, 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:51.640 And then you know COVID and there there's always something 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:54.400 that's sort of relevant to people in the moment. 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:55.200 It really is. 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.800 You started appearing on Ask a Surgeon on k Rock 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.239 as like a med student, right, Yeah. 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:03.480 It was just fourth year medical students, and I brought 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.320 up my Kyindecology Infectious Disease textbook and I was like, 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:10.160 oh my god, these are the most important health issues 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:13.800 for fourteen to twenty four year olds and they're bringing 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.120 it at midnight to FM disc jockeys. 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:17.480 That was blew my mind. 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.080 Yeah, and I thought, and I thought, wow, this thing, 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:22.640 the sex, drug and rock and roll that radio has 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:25.839 perpetrated on young people has had such a powerful negative 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:28.520 medical influence on them and psychiatric influence. 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:30.440 Certainly there should be a way to make it good. 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:32.679 If I crawled into this thing, it sort of became 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:34.479 a part of it, or just became, like you know, 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:36.680 it became a philosophy that Corolla and I used it 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:38.640 called the you may not be old enough for this, 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:40.560 but at the time we call it the Gainsburger and 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:42.880 the pill philosophy, which is that if you want a 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:44.680 dog to take a pill, you have to roll it 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:46.960 in something. Back in the day, it was something called gainsburger, 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:49.640 and then they'd eat the pill. I'm the pill. I'm 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:52.400 the pill. I would just slip into these environments and 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:55.000 give information wouldn't otherwise be heard by the people I 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:57.200 wanted to reach, and I would just trust the people 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.080 that created media that reached them to do so. And 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.279 it was sometimes very very uncomfortable for me, very uncomfortable. 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:05.840 In the news business, we call that the meat and 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:09.720 the potatoes. So we want it. They're there for the meat, 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:11.240 so we give it to them, but we also want 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:12.280 to give them some vegetables. 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:14.960 But you know what's interesting about something you said in 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:17.600 that intro, which was You're like, I'm sorry, I'm not 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.000 a pirate expert, but we can talk about it anyway. 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:24.680 But The experts that we get on television are not 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:32.320 the typically not the biggest or most colored or decorated 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:33.720 experts on the topic. 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:35.720 Across the land. 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:40.320 Right there, people who talk right, are available, are reasonably 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.400 versed in what they talk about, and can show up 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:44.600 and we'll do it for nothing. 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:46.720 It will show up and be on TV because news. 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:49.080 Is no pet Yes, but mainly are intelligenic. 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:52.440 Mainly yeah, can you communicate something? 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:54.760 Yes? And people think when somebody's on TV that is 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:59.520 the expert. No, it is not always. The experts are 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:02.920 almost always boring, and they'll show up for one appearance 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:05.160 and that's it because the ratings drop as soon as 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:07.640 they hit it. Hit this strain, and that's it. And 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.120 you can't do that again and again. And if it 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:12.680 is an expert that does get attention, he or she 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:16.000 sometimes has an agenda. Yes, right, People don't understand how 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:18.520 news works. It's just it's very different than they imagine. 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.360 That's so true. And I want to get into I 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:23.080 want to talk about your career. I also really want 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:25.080 to talk to you about mental health because that's important 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:29.240 to me. But first I want to ask about your childhood. 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:30.240 What kind of kid were you? 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.200 I was so I grew up sort of middle upper 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:36.599 middle class, became certainly upper middle by time I was 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:41.000 a teenager. My dad was depression ey kid. He was 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:44.520 severely traumat you know, I'm a He was a first 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:48.480 generation you know, from the Ukrainian diaspora, runn away from 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:50.720 the holodomo and all this stuff. He and his family 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:52.640 got here just in time for the depression, and that 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:56.680 traumatized him like crazy. So he he was a great guy. 0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:00.280 He was a physician. He was ad exquisite judgment. Thank 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:03.520 god I got some of his medical judgment. But he 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.160 was sort of traumatizing about you know, tomorrow's the end 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.000 of the world. Tomorrow's end of the world, tomorrow the world. 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:13.079 My mother was an opera singer who became a screen 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:17.880 actress who was severely emotionally abusive, severely. 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:21.400 Alm abusive or abused, abusive, abusive. 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.800 She ran away. I found out when I was fifty. 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:27.040 Listen to this, this is awesome. I was doing the 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:29.400 book on narcissism, and I was doing with a professor 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:33.480 from USC He's a behavioral economist, and he did he goes, 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:35.400 and he goes, Oh, I'm such a fan of film noir. 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:37.120 I guess your mom was in a film noir. So 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:39.040 he goes online and looks and he goes, hey, here's 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.280 your mom, And I look at it and I go, huh. 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.920 They describe her the fifth wife of this silent film star. 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:50.040 At the age of eighteen, came to Los Angeles. I'm like, 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:51.480 what she was? 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.520 She had a previous and I had a previous step son, and. 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:57.520 Whole life that you didn't know. 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:01.680 Married married to a very famous Western silent film star. 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:04.240 She was like eighty years old at the time I 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:06.280 found out, and my sister kind of freaked out about it. 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:07.720 I was like, I said, look, if this is something 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:09.280 she wants to take to her grave, she's made it 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:09.640 this far. 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:11.400 I want to, I want to respect. Let's let it. 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:12.880 I don't want to. I'm gonna let her take it 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:13.200 to grade. 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:14.120 So you didn't bring it up. 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:16.000 Did not bring it up, but I called her steps. 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:17.800 I called it called the steps. 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.600 Yeah who was who was a retired dentist from northern 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:25.720 California and uh And he was like, oh, yeah, I was. 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:27.320 You know, was like having had a sister. You know, 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:30.640 she was eighteen, my dad was sixty and uh. And 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:32.640 one day she just left and I thought, oh, yeah, 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:33.600 that's perfect, that's her. 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.000 God, that's wild. 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:39.280 And yeah, so yeah, she had a mixed personality disorder, 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:41.240 I would say, very odd stuff going a lot of 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:42.520 unregulated hostilities. 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:44.240 So what kind of kid did all of that make you? 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:48.679 So it made me very anxious and a little bit 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:50.200 rebellious quiet. 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:51.160 I think it's funny. 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:54.360 I found some of my grade school report cards after 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.240 my parents died. I was going through it, and my 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:58.280 second grade teacher, which I thought I was a star 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:02.280 student in second grade, me as disruptive, and I thought, oh, 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:03.040 that's interesting. 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:04.160 It really was. 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:08.440 So most people in media are described that way, and 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:09.600 it probably was the trauma. 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:12.920 Right when you're a traumatized kid, you're you know. And 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.040 by the time I was high school, I was I 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:18.280 was quite depressed. By the time I hit like adolescents 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:21.120 and stuff, I was severely depressed. I was having trouble 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.280 navigating socially, and I was in a small, you know, 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.600 liberal arts prep school kind of thing by high school. 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:31.439 And I found sports in uh like high school, and 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:34.440 football kind of saved me. And I had some overcoming 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:38.160 adversity experiences in football that were deeply meaningful for me. Yeah, 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:42.000 and then around eleventh grade, I found overachieving. 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:46.160 That's a drug, right, Oh yeah, yeah, same. 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:49.439 And so now it's a theater, it's student government and 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:53.200 sports and academics and bla bla bla b and uh 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:56.320 and and then by senior year, I'm like the student 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:58.640 body president and all these things, and you know, I 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:03.280 and that was a drug for sure. Hit college and 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:05.079 I didn't have any of that at my disposal. So 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:09.199 guess what got depressed again? Yeah, and thought I was 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:11.520 going to be a physician. But I was like, I can't. 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:12.920 I can't do this. I'm not up for it, and 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:15.120 I think my brain wasn't developed enough to do it. 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:16.880 So I just drifted around for about a year and 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:19.120 a half. I left college for a while, and when 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:21.280 I came back, I was like, maybe maybe that science 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:22.400 stuff is what I meant to do. 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:27.080 And yeah, I came back with full full force of God. 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.640 Yeah, and had a wonderful experience under amazing science training 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:33.920 and and killed myself for years to get into medical 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:37.120 school and was so so so grateful to get there, 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:39.880 and thought I had the most important job in the world. 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:43.079 I remember just thinking this is so important we're doing Yeah, 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:46.680 so important. Yeah, I think the younger folks have lost 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.360 track of that a little bit. Yeah, it doesn't feel 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.400 that way to me anymore. We really, I mean we 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:54.800 were I was deep in the AIDS pandemic and we 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.679 thought this was this was I mean it was dark, 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:01.520 like so dark. We only those of us that were 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:04.439 there taking care of these men are here to tell 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:08.000 you about it. Yeah, it was so sad and so dark. 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:12.920 But we were from mind and we never ever worried 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.120 about exposing ourselves or contagions or anything. 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:17.240 We just did our work. 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:20.199 Yeah, And so anyway, does that kind of capture my 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:21.160 story a little bit? 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:24.319 It does, and it resonates so much because I had 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.160 not a similar upbringing, but I was a similar. 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:30.280 Kid, and overachieving became a drug as well. And then 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:30.880 I got to. 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:33.959 Journalism, which felt very important, right, Like this was a 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:36.480 very important this was a public service. 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:39.640 This was like a really fun job. I was on 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:42.800 the front lines. Yeah, it's definitely lost a little of that. 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:44.920 And by the way, and as it pertains to media, 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.120 you'll appreciate this that when you come to media to 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.719 make a difference because you want to do something good, 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:54.640 it's a different thing. I'm sure when you look around 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.719 and see people in media, yes, name any names who 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:01.240 either a haven't had a day job, haven't really worked, 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:03.400 or be they're there because hey. 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:03.559 It's me. 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:06.480 It's me, and it's money and it's fame. 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:10.160 Yeah, that's not that they are not happy people. They 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:12.439 are not fun people to be around now, and I 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:16.040 wish people wouldn't watch them so much because they don't 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:17.880 necessarily have your interest in mind. 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:19.480 Yes, and there's a lot of that. 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.040 When I say it's not as it doesn't feel as 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:24.120 important and meaningful anymore, it's because it's a lot of 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:29.760 those people and the project has has changed, Like anyway, 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:31.360 it's not about me, and it is. 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.000 But listen, it's it's a I saw it happen in 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:35.600 real time and I wrote a book about It's the 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:38.120 narcissistic shift. Yes, and we're all guilty of but we 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.600 all have some of it. Yeah, some people really have it. 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:45.320 And it's and it's a dangerous thing because they lose empathy, 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:51.280 they act out envy and they project, they're aggressive and 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:53.560 they don't care when they destroy people. 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:55.920 That's very dangerous to have ropping around these days. 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.960 Well, and it's also it's deeply this affects my mental health. 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:04.720 When I'm in this environment, I care deeply. I'm empathetic 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:08.000 to a fault, and genuinely I've had to work on that. 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:09.640 I think we were separated at birth. 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:11.280 I know, seriously. 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:15.480 Yeah, and so good news. Here's the good news for me. 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:17.320 I'm a fan of yours. I always liked you, so 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:18.880 that's a good thing for both of us. 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:19.640 I guess I'm a. 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:22.600 Fan of yours too. That is a good thing. And 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:25.360 I take it personally like when my of course, when. 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:29.160 People in my profession aren't taking it as seriously or 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:33.560 responsibly as I think they should, I take it personally. 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:34.280 It really bothers me. 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:37.480 I say about medicine, same with me. Covid was covid 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:39.040 was mind body? 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:41.600 Oh, I'm sure it was, just I couldn't. 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:42.280 I couldn't. 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:44.600 I still I will never get over it. I'll never 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:46.360 go And I keep saying, I thank god my dad 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:48.160 had died before because it would have killed him again. 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:51.760 Yeah, right, right, right, So you mentioned Okay, so you 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:53.360 do ask a surgeon as a med student. 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:55.760 It turns into left line on the radio because. 0:15:55.520 --> 0:16:00.280 The TV shows Ask a Surgeon was a segment. These 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:02.320 guys were doing a show middle of the night midnight 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:04.200 to three am on Sunday night, and they were just 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:06.760 opening the phone lined up and giving advice to their listeners. 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.000 Hey, this is your buddy giving them advice. Well, that 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:10.359 station became. 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:13.400 Extremely popular overnight and all of a sudden got all 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:17.160 this attention. Their number one radio station, K Rocky was 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:19.760 not no one had ever heard of it five minutes before. 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:21.120 Okay, And at the same so. 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:23.360 The program Judger goes, shit, we got to do our 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:24.920 community service hours. 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:26.520 So you guys are going to be it. 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:28.320 You got to figure out how to make this community 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:31.000 service show. I lived like across the street, and so 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:32.800 somebody went to piskeys in medical school and he can 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:34.520 come up and sort of do something to make this 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:35.000 all right. 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:35.840 I know what it'll be. 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.680 Ask a surgeon, it'll be funny. I'm like, I don't 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:41.080 know what you're talking about, but I was convinced to 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:43.600 kind of go in. It was love Line at that point, 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:44.680 it was already love Line. 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.720 Oh okay, okay, and then that becomes the MTV show 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:50.040 that we know with Adam Krolla. 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:55.280 Welcome a very live version of love Line on Fabulous 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:58.120 New York. I'm Adam Krolla. That is doctor Drew, doctor 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:01.360 cruz Aboard, certified physician and medicine specialized. 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:06.280 How did you handle having your own big cable TV show? 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:07.879 Well, I was. 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:13.040 I would say the headline from that show would have 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:17.520 been leave me alone, because I was doing two or 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:22.440 three simultaneous medical careers at that time. Yeah, And they 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.119 came along to do a TV when Loveland went to 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:27.480 five nights a week, I could barely understand how I 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:27.920 would do it. 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:29.960 And my poor wife, I don't know how she made 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:30.320 it through this. 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:32.560 Yeah, And when they came along to do a TV show, 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.920 I said, well, look, all I can manage is Friday 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:39.600 afternoon after one and Saturday after noon. 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:40.359 That's it. 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.880 If you can do this show, then well I can 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:46.680 do this. And so we would do six shows a week. 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:48.800 We would do three. We would do a show. 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:51.680 We just we just interviewed for an hour and day calls, 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:54.920 change our clothes, do another, do another. And we didn't 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:57.080 know that that was unusual. We just thought, okay, let's 0:17:57.119 --> 0:17:58.760 see me. I guess all right, here we go, and 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.840 and we did that for like five hundred shows or something. 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:08.200 Yeah, but how did because now you're famous, and how 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.000 do you process that again? 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:14.840 If you've had a day job, I'm not impressed. 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:16.800 You know, it was fun. 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:21.680