← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Dr. Phil One-on-One: Covid Science, Kids & Social Media and What Women Want (Part Two)
00:49:49
Loading summary
Transcript84 lines
- [00:02]
Ted Cruz
Want to tell you about Enviro Cleanse. If you are like me, you've got asthma, maybe you are allergic to a lot of different things, pollen or dust. My wife is, is just unbelievably allergic to dust. You have got to check out Enviro Cleanse. You need to choose an air purifier. Literally like your life depends on it. And this is something that is incredible. Look, no matter where you live, you're probably going to deal with bad air quality. This year alone there's been 35,000 wildfires that have devastated the US toxins and particles and wildfire smoke can penetrate our lungs and threaten our health. And that's why enviro cleanse developed military grade air purification for your home. I have this in my bedroom and this thing is a game changer. They just announced their biggest sale of the year. You can save a massive 30 off during their labor day sale. Enviro cleanse is specifically designed to wipe out airborne chemicals and viruses known to call illness allergies and difficulty breathing. Even toxic gases and particles found in wildfire smoke are nomads for Enviro Cleanse. That's why the U. S. Navy selected Enviro Cleanse to protect and purify the air in their facilities. And enviro cleanse comes with a free professional air quality monitor so you know your family's breathing purified air. Now is the time to save 30 off your air purification unit. Get the free air quality monitor and fast free shipping. That's a $250 savings right there. Go to ekpure.com that's ekpure.com use promo code verdict that's ekpure.com Use promo code verdict and save the biggest savings of the year.
- [01:50]
Dr. Phil
Dr. Phil, part two. Nice to have you with us today as well as we're talking about America, American families and everything that's going on in this country. Plus we're going to get into a very important issue and that is the issue of COVID and what impact it had on the families in this country.
- [02:06]
Unknown Host
Well, and I've got to say this has been fascinating. We've covered a lot of topics that verdict typically doesn't get into. We've covered being a parent, being a spouse. We've covered the mental health challenges facing our kids and we've talked about the desperate need for truth. And I will say if you didn't listen to part one, go back and listen to part one because you're not going to want to miss the discussion from Dr. Phil unplugged in a way you may not have seen him before, but saying things that need to be said and demonstrating an enormous amount of.
- [02:42]
Unknown Guest
Courage, well, I'm like a bad rash. You can't get rid of me.
- [02:46]
Dr. Phil
Work ethic in society today, as parents, you want to raise your kids to love the Lord, you want to raise your kids to have manners. But we're being undermined. Parents are being undermined with work ethic.
- [02:58]
Unknown Guest
We're a double income society. And you have both parents working so much that they're just really burning the candle at both ends. And some of those fundamentals really aren't being focused on. And you say, how do we get the work ethic? Senator and I were talking earlier. You and I are so aligned and focused because I said meritocracy is so important to me. If we lose that. And you know, right now we've got a government that wants to give everything to everybody for free. And we're teaching people that you don't have to work hard for what you want. And the statistics are staggering. If people spend month after month after month not full time working, they're off work. Like during the pandemic, the chance of them coming back, everybody thought when the pandemic was over, it was going to look like that scene in the movie Grease at the end of the school year where those doors flung open and it was a carnival and everybody comes running out. And it wasn't that way at all. People were intimidated. Things they used to take for granted were now intimidating. And when you don't hold people to a standard, then I've spent a lot of time in rehab. And I'm not talking about drug rehab. I'm talking about rehabilitating people with brain injuries and spinal cord injuries. And if it takes someone that has had that kind of injury and they need to turn the light on and it takes them three minutes to get over there to do it, or you could walk over and do it for them. You need to require them to do 100% of what they're able to do or they'll never get to the next level. And so you ask me, how do we get them to do that? By requiring them to do everything they can do every chance we get to do it. And right now, almost a third of fifth and eighth graders can't read. At the most fundamental level, they can't read a sentence. And the question is, how did they get in the fifth grade? How did they get in the eighth grade? 19% of high school graduates can't Read, they cannot read. How do you graduate high school if you can't read in the first, second and third grade, you learn to read. From the fourth grade on, you read to learn. So if you don't learn to read in those first three grades, you don't have that tool to learn the rest of your life. And if teachers are going to pass them either way, then you're just setting them up to fail.
- [06:33]
Unknown Host
It's utterly destructive. You know, one of the things you mentioned in that answer is you talked about coming out of COVID and I'd be interested in your judgment on what was the damage that was done from a mental health perspective from the shutdowns we had across the country, and what was the damage in particular to kids from. Tens of millions of kids across this country had their schools shut down for a year or more. And what do you see as the.
- [07:04]
Unknown Guest
Consequences of those policies when they shut down this country and the schools at the beginning of COVID and said, this is going to be for a couple of weeks, I said, I get it. When it turned into a month or two months, I went public and said, what you're doing is going to create more damage and more loss of life than the virus itself.
- [07:33]
Dr. Phil
So you saw it before. A lot of people did.
- [07:36]
Unknown Guest
Well, I actually said it and got called a complete idiot.
- [07:46]
Unknown Host
I've never had that happen to me.
- [07:47]
Unknown Guest
Yeah, me neither. I got called a complete. I got attacked from every possible way you can. And I said, I stand by what I say. And I said it. I think I've got 15 clips of different times that I said shutting this country down and taking our kids out of school for a prolonged period of time. And the epidemiological pediatricians estimate that it will cost somewhere around 15 million years of life lost.
- [08:23]
Unknown Host
Wow. Wow.
- [08:24]
Unknown Guest
For these kids. And they figure that because you got roughly 50 million kids in public school, plus the private schools, and because of what they lost, they will never close that gap. And with lesser educational achievement, they will get lesser jobs. Lesser jobs are usually higher risk jobs because they're blue collar and they're working with machinery and construction and things where they get injured. They have poor health coverage, which means they get slower diagnosis and lesser care. And so it obtains with years of life shaved off the end of their lives. And what gets me is they did this. The same agencies that advocated for this are the same agencies that had the records that say, said we have the highest levels of anxiety, depression and loneliness among our children than we've had since records were being kept. So let's shut down the schools, which we know are essential to their development. It's like throwing gas on a fire. And that doesn't even take into account that mandated reporters are in these schools who report child abuse and molestation. And referrals to the Department of Child and Family Services dropped in some areas 50 to 60%. And trust me, abuse and molestation did not drop 50 to 60%. We simply rendered those children alone with their abusers for two years without eyes on them to report it to people that could help them. We simply abandoned them to their abusers. And so many of these children relied on those schools for at least one, if not two meals per day. We took that away. And some say, well, but they delivered those meals. Some got them delivered, some didn't. So we created a huge educational gap. We abandoned the abused and molested children to their abusers and molesters, and nobody has done anything to close the gap other than that. No problem.
- [11:03]
Unknown Host
You know, I'll actually say today is an interesting milestone. I tweeted about it earlier today. Today is the. The 66th anniversary of the day that my father came to the United States of America. So 66 years ago, in 1957, my dad landed in America, and he was fleeing Cuba, and he'd been imprisoned in Cuba. He'd been tortured in Cuba, and he came here with nothing. He came here with $100 in his underwear, and he washed dishes. He made 50 cents an hour. And America gave him freedom, gave him security, gave him hope, gave him the ability to work and excel and achieve and prosper. And there is no nation in the history of the world like America. And that is. Look, on too many college campuses, the faculties don't believe it. You and I were talking earlier today about your conversations with college kids who, when it comes to looters in California, say that the looters have a right to take what they want.
- [12:08]
Unknown Guest
The shoplifters, I've had them sit in my studio. I say they're just taking what's rightfully theirs because they're not being paid a living wage. And look, I get it, but if you're sitting home in a beanbag eating Cheetos while somebody else is working their butt off for 15 years to get consequential knowledge that people are willing to pay for. You don't get the same outcome. You have to work for what you want. That's what I said. When you choose the behavior, you choose the consequences. And do we need to give everybody better chances and better choices? Yes, we need to work on that. There's no doubt about that. But you cannot tell everybody that they're going to get the same outcome. And we've got college professors that are in there supposedly teaching art history that are getting into all of this. And if I had a child in college right now that were getting taught that, I would be real upset about that. Because let me tell you, where are those professors gonna be five years later when that young man is trying to buy braces for his son or daughter and pay the rent? I'll tell you where they're going to be. They're going to be gonzo. You're not going to be able to find them with both hands and a flashlight, because they're going to be gone. They're going to be down the road somewhere. And then here's this person that got this college education and wasn't taught to cope with the real world, which is a shark tank. You get out there in the real world where somebody's looking for somebody to produce. And here was somebody taught. No, it's the employer's job to get along with them instead of the other way around. We did shows with these people that were doing quiet quitting, where they just said, well, you just do the bare minimum. Well, see where that gets you. This is not what we need to be talking about in America right now.
- [14:05]
Unknown Host
So how do we change it?
- [14:07]
Unknown Guest
We change it by people hearing what's going on, hearing that these algorithms are programmed to attack our children, hearing what's going on on the college campuses, hearing that kids are getting their feelings hurt and they're medicalizing it. There have been more professors suspended, disciplined, or dismissed in the last 20 or 30 years, since the McCarthy era, because now they're saying, no, this injured me. You didn't hurt my feelings, it injured me. And so now they say, well, we have to react to that. And so they're complaining about it. And professors are getting dismissed because they're asking students to take positions that is not comfortable for them. You know, in law school, you had to take the defense, the plaintiff, both sides. And so they put trigger warnings on everything. Trigger warnings are a myth. They don't work. Trigger warnings create the anxiety they're intended to avoid. The research is clear on that. But yet there are trigger. Something like 60, 70% of the universities use trigger warnings.
- [15:26]
Unknown Host
Look, and in fact, I'd go even further and say the purpose of education is to trigger you. The purpose of education is have you encounter uncomfortable views, uncomfortable positions, challenge your assumptions. For a number of years, I Used to teach at University of Texas Law School, and I taught a class as an adjunct professor on Supreme Court litigation. And I would have my students, I would pick seven of the biggest cases before the Supreme Court that term, and they were real cases. And I would have the students brief the cases and argue the cases. And the students, every student would get to argue two cases and the remainder of the cases, they would sit as Supreme Court justices, and they would ask the questions, and we'd do it exactly like the real argument, same time period. And it was a two hour seminar once a week. And so the first hour would be the argument. The second hour, the nine justices would retire to conference and they would discuss the case. And you were required to discuss the case in the Persona of your justice. So you might be Clarence Thomas, you might be Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and you were required to discuss the case and decide the case consistent with the jurisprudence of the justice that you'd been assigned. And then each student was required to write an opinion. And I gotta tell you, I think some of the best teaching moments is I would assign the cases, and I would assign them randomly. I'd actually just use letters and randomly assign the cases, and I sign the sides. And we had a number of students who ended up being assigned positions they hated. I remember one student who did very well in the class, was a West Point graduate, had been an Army Ranger, and he was assigned to represent a terrorist at Gitmo, challenging his detention. He didn't like that at all, but he did a terrific job. I remember another student, a very liberal woman, was assigned to argue the case of pro life protesters, which was a view she really didn't like. And I thought teaching the class those were more valuable than if I had switched their positions and let them argue the position they agreed with. They would have learned less from it. And now you have universities that seem to be behaving, saying, our job is to prevent you from encountering anything you disagree with and surround you. Only that triggers you. That triggers you.
- [17:57]
Dr. Phil
That triggers you, makes you feel uncomfortable.
- [17:59]
Unknown Host
And that their job is to enforce an orthodoxy. You must agree with what we're saying.
- [18:05]
Unknown Guest
Yeah, well, that's why they're booing and not letting speakers that are invited to universities speak. I call it the heckler's veto. Yep, the heckler's veto.
- [18:17]
Unknown Host
Well, as you know, the Supreme Court does, too. That's the phrase the Supreme Court used.
- [18:21]
Unknown Guest
And you can't learn if you just preach into the choir all the time. Which is why I say I want both Sides to come on and let people hear and make up their own mind. So you said, what do we do about this? We've got to awaken the masses to say, look, you've got to, you've got to speak up about this. You've got to find your voice and talk about this. I said earlier, the reason that these small groups of activists, this tyranny of the fringe is so efficient is because they identify an enemy and go after that enemy. And the silent majority doesn't have an enemy. They don't have a rally to attend. Because what they're trying to do is raise their family with love and care and concern and nurture them to get to the next level of life. That's what we're supposed to do as parents, is prepare our children for the next level of life.
- [19:25]
Dr. Phil
I want to ask you a question. You've said it twice, maybe three times tonight. The fear you have of these algorithms. They're targeting kids. Parents have so much peer pressure now and kids have gotten really good at saying, well, so and so has it. Well, they've got a smartphone. Well, they're online, they're on TikTok, they're on Instagram, they're on Twitter, they're on Facebook. What advice do you have to parents about the appropriate age to give them a tool that can also destroy their life, which is a cell phone, and allow them on social media?
- [19:53]
Unknown Host
45.
- [19:56]
Dr. Phil
I think it's a great number. My three boys are getting flip phones.
- [19:59]
Unknown Host
Maybe just wait till all their classmates have them. It's easy to say at the ages your kids are. Wait till they get in junior high and high school and they're the only kid and they're facing complete ostracization because all of the discussion of their classmates is through these evil black hole devices we put in our kids hands.
- [20:22]
Unknown Guest
Here's the thing, there are arguments on both sides. It's good for the child to have a device where you can reach them at any time, you can track them at any time. You can put all of these parental controls on there. They're so far ahead of us, they can, they'll laugh at us. They have workarounds and if you don't give them the devices, they're going to be on their friends devices. The better thing you can do.
- [20:53]
Unknown Host
Phil, I gotta tell you a story. So our daughter got grounded. We took her phone away and she was grounded for a month. It was pretty serious grounding and we'd taken her phone away. A couple of weeks go by and then Heidi gets An email from the phone company. It was kind of a curious email. And we discovered that before she handed her phone over, she had gone into the phone and taken out the SIM card, of course. And she got a burner phone from a friend and put it in the phone. And what was amazing is she said. She said, well, you said you were taking my phone away. You didn't say you were taking my SIM card away. And it was, you know, she's got a fabulous mind. And it was a great argument. But you're right. Our kids can run circles around us on technology.
- [21:40]
Unknown Guest
You know, I say this. I always tell people that you should talk to your children about things that don't matter. And they say, what do you mean by that? And you watch these medical shows on tv, and what's one of the first things they say when you roll somebody into the er? They say, start an IV with Ringer's lactate. Does anybody ever know what that is?
- [22:05]
Unknown Host
I have no idea. What is it?
- [22:07]
Unknown Guest
It's water and it's saline. It's an inert substance. And why do they do it? They're getting a vein open. So when they figure out what they do need, the vein is open, and all they have to do is plug something into it. That's why I say, talk to kids about things that don't matter. Because when it comes time to talk about something that does matter, you got that vein open. And if you're talking to them about something that really matters, and it's the first time you've ever tried to have a conversation with them, it's going to feel really awkward. But if you've been talking to them about their video game or shooting baskets with them about getting a dog, about who they're dating, about this, about that, just about regular things. But there's a dialogue that's going on. And then it comes time where you have to talk to them about something that really matters. It's not like you're on your first date. You know, you've got this dialogue going, and when you roll into something, it really matters, it's open. It doesn't feel so awkward. And when you start talking about the Internet and the phone, every time I do a show about these predators or these algorithms and how a significant percentage of young girls get into Instagram or whatever, and so they start getting depressed. I take all of that and send it to my granddaughter and say, read this. Let's talk about this. And she becomes aware of it and goes, wow, I don't know. And just before we walked in here, I was on the cameras, and she's over having a party, a swim party with all the adults there. She's not sitting at home. And that's what's happening right now with young people. They're watching people live their lives instead of living their own lives. And the lives they're watching, being lived are fantasies. They're not.
- [24:11]
Dr. Phil
It's only the good, not the bad.
- [24:14]
Unknown Guest
It's not even the good. It's fictional good. I've had influencers on the show who say. They get all dressed up and say, yeah, they're going to this big event, this big party. They're going to the NBA All Star Game. They're going this, going that. And as soon as they do the shoot, they turn it off, put their sweats on and go sit down and watch TV or sit down, watch whatever. They don't. That's not their real lives. And people compare themselves to these fictional lives and they get depressed because they say, I'm a loser. I'm not doing any of that stuff. I'm not going. There's a. This is an amazing thing. I actually had them on. There is a false fuselage to a private jet. It's in LA now. It was in San Francisco. It's just in a room. It's a seat with a window. They rent by 15 minutes for influencers to come on. They'll come there with like 10 changes of clothes.
- [25:17]
Dr. Phil
You can't make that up.
- [25:18]
Unknown Guest
Like, summer, Christmas, all this stuff. They sit down and do all these photo shoots so they can post them throughout the year. Like, they're off to Cabo, you know, they're off to Aspen for skiing. They're off to the. They don't go anywhere. They're going and sitting in a box in a warehouse and paying to do it.
- [25:35]
Unknown Host
That's hysterical.
- [25:36]
Unknown Guest
They used to do it with a toilet seat that looked like it was a window on. Now they actually have one. They go sit in. It's just. It's just in a room.
- [25:45]
Unknown Host
Well, you know, capitalism is incredible.
- [25:47]
Unknown Guest
Oh, isn't it, though?
- [25:48]
Unknown Host
So let me ask you. You're in Hollywood. Hollywood, at least. I think they're nuts.
- [25:53]
Unknown Guest
I'm a Texas resident.
- [25:55]
Unknown Host
I know you are.
- [25:55]
Unknown Guest
So don't be saying I'm in Hollywood.
- [25:59]
Ted Cruz
When I tell you about Patriot Mobile. If you have a cell phone like I do, and 99 of the people out there do, there's one thing that is pretty crazy, and that is where many companies are giving your money. Did you know that some of the big mobile Companies are massive donors to Planned Parenthood. Did you know they're actually fighting against your values? Now, people that did find this out. There was a problem. Where else were you going to go to get dependable nationwide coverage? There wasn't an option. Well, there is now and that's Patriot Mobile. They offer you that dependable nationwide coverage, giving you the ability to access all three major networks, which means you get the same coverage that you have been accustomed to without funding. The woke left when you switch to Patriot Mobile and this is the part I love the most, you're sending a clear message that you support free speech, religious freedom, sanctity of life, the second amendment and our military are veterans and first responder heroes. Now why do I say that? Because they take a portion of your bill and they give it back to these causes. Now they have a 100% US based customer service team. So you are dealing with a company that values American workers and they make switching easy. Whether it's for you, your entire family or a business or a small business. You can keep your same numbers, you can keep your same phones or upgrade. The team will help you find the best plan for your needs. So check out patriot mobile.com. all right, slash verdict, that's patriotmobile.com verdict. Or call them. If you use the promo code verdict, you'll also get free activation when you use that promo code verdict. 878 Patriot. That's 878 Patriot or patriotmobile.com verdict.
- [27:45]
Unknown Host
You are a resident of the great state of Texas. You live in Dallas.
- [27:48]
Unknown Guest
Yes, I do.
- [27:49]
Unknown Host
We are proud you're a Texan. But how have you not been canceled? I mean, you've dared say things you're not supposed to say and yet you work in Hollywood and you're still standing. How, what has the reaction been to you? What has the pushback been to you and how have you survived?
- [28:07]
Unknown Guest
I think the truth is I've been really consistent in owning the debate, Lane. I give both sides an opportunity to talk about their position and let people make up their own minds. And I've now seen that there's too much traction being gained and somebody needs to stand up and give this a voice. And like I said in the beginning, I'll sit around and say, you know, the media this, the media that, the media this, the media that. And Robin said to me, I guess about a year and a half ago, we were sitting in the kitchen, she said, you know, you are the media. You're bitching about the media. You are the media. Why aren't you doing something about it. And as usual, she was right.
- [29:12]
Dr. Phil
Would we ever see. And it seems that you're. And I say this as a sincere compliment, the fourth quarter of your career, and it seems that you're now thinking about where we are as a country, your legacy. Would we ever see Dr. Phil's name on a ballot? Is that something that you've ever even thought of?
- [29:29]
Unknown Guest
No. I'll tell you why. I think I can have more of an impact doing what I'm doing the way I'm doing it now than if I went into politics. First off, I don't think I know enough about it. And I think you got to know where your strengths are and your weaknesses are. I mean, Senator Cruz here, constitutional law expert, he's immersed himself in this. I could spend 20 years and not be where he was on day one. I get that he is really good at what he does. And I'm in my lane, and he's in his lane. I would rather work with him in his lane from my lane than try to get in his lane.
- [30:23]
Unknown Host
So let me ask you a different question. You may remember the movie Mel Gibson was in, what Women Want. A very substantial percentage of your viewers are women across America who tune in to you and listen and are very interested in what you have to say. So I guess my question would be the title of the movie, what Do Women Want? What resonates? And Heidi's laughing in the audience. I'm seeking counseling. See, my dear, I'm actually getting advice.
- [30:54]
Dr. Phil
This means the man's really working on this.
- [30:56]
Unknown Guest
You're asking me what women. Did somebody write stupid on my forehead? Well, Robin and I just celebrated our 47th anniversary last week.
- [31:09]
Unknown Host
Congratulations.
- [31:10]
Unknown Guest
Congratulations. Yeah. We've been together 50 years, married 47. And I've learned this. When she says what it does not mean. She did not hear what I said. It means she's given me a chance to change what I said.
- [31:33]
Dr. Phil
If you're taking notes in the audience or listening to this show, this is when you write that down.
- [31:38]
Unknown Guest
Yes, that is something to write down. So. But what I know about what women want, I haven't a clue. I know this. It is changing. And I did a show with women talking about how their role is changing in this day and time, and they were very outspoken about this. And I think, you know, I think women are people, and I think they want to be heard. I think they want to be treated with dignity and respect. I think they want to have an opportunity to be acknowledged for the contributions they make and the things that they do. And I think it is changing. But like I said, this country's not perfect and we're making progress, but it needs to change.
- [32:46]
Unknown Host
So let me ask a follow up to that. This podcast, we talk about politics a lot and policy a lot. If you look at politics right now in elections nationally, Republicans are typically winning married men, single men, and married women. But right now in elections, Democrats are winning single women by huge margins.
- [33:16]
Unknown Guest
You know, I think the difference, one of the differences I see between the messaging between Democrats and Republicans is I think Democrats do a better job of messaging about the feeling parts of the process than Republicans do.
- [33:36]
Unknown Host
Yeah, unquestionably.
- [33:37]
Unknown Guest
I think Republicans do a real good job about messaging objectives and bottom lines and quantifying those objectives in setting measurable outcomes. And that's really important.
- [33:56]
Unknown Host
And one of the things that's interesting is that getting married is strongly correlated with more conservative voting patterns, and being single is inversely correlated. Now, some of that may just be a factor of age that young people historically, Winston Churchill famously said, if you're 20 and not a liberal, you have no heart, and if you're 40 and not a conservative, you have no brain. That's been true for a long time. That young people skew left, and as they get older, they tend to get more conservative. So that's a factor. But do you see something in the divide between single women and married women that would produce a really significant delta in their voting patterns?
- [34:44]
Unknown Guest
Well, I do, in that, as I've said, I think family in America is under attack. And I think when you become part of a family, your values shift dramatically because now you're responsible for somebody other than yourself. You're responsible for your home. And we've seen marriage on the decline. People are getting married later in life now. Marriage is down now compared to what it was a generation ago. We've seen church membership drop below the 50% level for the first time ever. And one reason for that is I think we've seen our birth rate drop now to 1.6. And it takes 2.1 to sustain this society right now. And it's dropped now to around 1.6. And most people, when they have a child, they want to go to church and have the child christened or baptized or whatever. So if you're having fewer marriages and fewer children, then you have fewer families that go to church to start with and begin that tradition. I think that's all tied together. Now.
- [36:03]
Unknown Host
Do you have any theories on why fewer people are getting married, having fewer children, fewer people going to Church.
- [36:09]
Unknown Guest
I do. It's part of this whole theory I have about family being under attack. It's like in 2008, 2009, it's like I have this image of huge airplanes flying over the United States and dropping smartphones on everybody. And that's when people started watching people live their lives instead of living their own. They started dating later. They started getting their driver's license later. They have fewer friends. They stop socializing. They started social development much later and much less efficiently because they're living virtual lives instead of real lives. So social development was really arrested at that time. And if you go back and look at it, you see in 0809, that began to disrupt the social development in America. It's an unintended consequence of carrying a computer with a visual screen in your hand, and it's just gone up dramatically. And that's where the social platform started launching. And it took the place of having real friends. You say, oh, I've got. You know, I've got 300 friends. No, you don't. You have 300 followers. You don't know these people. I have these people that come on and say they're engaged. What do you mean you're engaged? You've never met this person. You've been messaging back and forth for two years to somebody, and it turns out to be somebody in a Nigerian workroom that you've been sending money for two years. That's not a relationship. But people are confusing followers and cliques for real relationships, and sometimes they fall in love with the fantasy, not even really caring whether it's a real person on the other end. They fall in love with the fantasy. So I think we've got to really encourage our kids to get off the screens and get out onto the playground and get out into the. Go to the school dances. You ask these young people today how many friends they have, you would be stunned at how few it is compared to what it was a generation ago.
- [38:36]
Dr. Phil
For everybody that's watching listening to this, you also have a podcast as well and a book coming out quickly as we wrap up this Tell everybody where all they can find all this.
- [38:46]
Unknown Guest
Well, thank you for asking. And there are going to be press releases and information coming out on that very soon. And it's not a maybe thing. We're building the broadcast center right now. I'm leaving here now, headed to Texas, and we're designing so many of the things the news department has built. My studio is under construction right now, and a huge broadcast center, and most of my Senior people from Dr. Phil 1.0 are packing up the truck and moving out of Beverly, coming to Texas and buying homes in Fort Worth, Keller, Dallas, Argyle, all around.
- [39:34]
Unknown Host
Did you tell them we have cement ponds?
- [39:36]
Unknown Guest
I do, and I told them how great it was and how values were great, but very exciting. And like I say, in late January, first week of February, we're going to be launching. That's when the book's going to be landing. And I am more excited about this than I was when we launched Dr. Phil to begin with. I'm very excited, and I hope people listening are saying, you know, does the.
- [40:05]
Unknown Host
Network have a name yet?
- [40:07]
Unknown Guest
It does, but we haven't released it.
- [40:09]
Unknown Host
Okay.
- [40:09]
Dr. Phil
One of the questions from the audience, Dr. Phil, was a question of what type of shows, what type of hosts, what type of roles is it going to be, and how is it going to be different than what you've done before?
- [40:18]
Unknown Guest
Well, I think that one of the things that I bring to the process that is unique to my particular brand or approach is that I'm a journalist and a mental health professional at the same time. And what I've always done is talk to real people with real problems and try to come up with real solutions. And I intend to stay with that format in the new show. And what I mean by that is, even though we're going to be talking about different things like social issues, whether it's homelessness or whether it's the problems we're having with the Internet, or it's this issue about the government paying people not to work instead of to work, or whatever the issue might be, I'm going to approach that by telling those stories and dealing with those issues through the eyes of the people that are impacted by them. I think one of the best examples is we talked about buying these counterfeit pills on the Internet, 40% of which will kill you. Think about that. You've got to really stop to wrap your head around that. Four out of 10 pills you buy that you can buy, whether you're 12 or 13 or 14, four out of 10 of those will kill you. This fentanyl is being manufactured in China, sent to the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico. They raided a pill factory just south of the border near San Diego that was stamping out 70 million million pills a month. One lab, 70 million pills a month. Not all of them are coming here, but a lot of them are coming to America. And when I talk about that, I don't want to have a bunch of talking head experts up there. I had four sets of Parents who had non drug addicted children that ordered pills during finals of college to stay awake or to do this or to do that, and they found them dead the next morning. And credit card receipts where they ordered one pill, one pill from a social media platform and were dead the next morning. And I approached that by telling this story through the eyes of the parents who went up and found their child dead. And that's how we got into that issue. Real people, real problems. And we did have the DEA there, we did have representatives there that were involved in every aspect of the story. But still I approached it through the angst of these parents that lost these precious young people. And that's how I intend to continue to do this, to talk about this. Not with a bunch of talking head experts like you see on the 24 hour cable news networks, but instead by dealing with real people that are impacted by these stories.
- [43:57]
Unknown Host
And as you know, the numbers are staggering. Last year, more than 100,000Americans died of drug overdoses. Roughly 70% of that is Chinese fentanyl. Coming across our southern border, that's the highest in the history of our country. To put it in perspective, 100,000 people dying is almost double the number of Americans who died in the entire Vietnam War. And that was last year. And even the word overdose is the wrong word because it's poisoning. It's poisoning. And you know, I've visited with a lot of these parents who've lost their kids. And you're right, it's not a heroin addict on the street who's a junkie. It's a teenager. It's a college kid who's at a party and someone says, here, try one Xanax, try one Adderall. And they take it. And just one, the wrong one, can kill them. You know, I had a DEA agent do an illustration that I think is really powerful. He had several of us take a packet of Sweet and Low. And he said, tear this open, empty all the Sweet and Low out of the packet. So we all did that. He said, okay, now take your pinky and just stick it in the packet and pull it out. And when you do that, you have a couple of little tiny grains on your fingertip. And he said, that is enough fentanyl to kill you. And I'll tell you, I sat down with both our daughters and I gave them packets of Sweet N Low and had them do that. But as a parent, it's terrifying because you hope the message sticks. And the problem is teenagers sometimes do dumb things. And when the dumb things can kill you. That's really terrifying.
- [45:41]
Unknown Guest
Yeah. And now there's something called carfentanyl, which is even more powerful than fentanyl. And people say, well, why would a drug dealer want to kill their client, their customers? They don't want to kill them. It's just so addictive that if they'll take it and not die, they just are immediately addicted and they come back. But they're mixing this stuff up in a bathtub with a boat or this isn't a drug.
- [46:10]
Dr. Phil
It's not high tech.
- [46:11]
Unknown Guest
No. And they don't know how much gets in this one or that one. But to answer your question, that's how I'm going to do it. And I'm going to do it because that's how my audience, the people that I've built a relationship with over 21 years, that's how they're used to getting the information from people they can relate to and what they do. Every guest I have on is a teaching tool and people don't know because I have kind of a, I guess, shoot from the hip style of delivery. But I get like a 250 page notebook for every single show we do. And we get a cross sectional history, a medical history, a longitudinal history. We have a research section and I have a 15 member blue ribbon advisory board with the top minds in medicine, psychology, psychiatry, nursing, theology, every area from the top learning centers in the country, a lot of them peer reviewed journal editors. And if I have a really complex case, I can send it to them and we talk about it and we stick with evidence based therapies and give them cutting edge information because there's an 18 month lag between submitting findings and it getting out in a peer reviewed journal. And I'm able to get it immediately. And we really try and deliver the absolute best available information to people about these key issues every day in understandable terms. And we're going to stay with that format going forward.
- [47:54]
Dr. Phil
Dr. Phil, thank you so much for being with us, being a part of this, the audience. You guys give Dr. Phil a big round of applause as well.
- [48:02]
Unknown Guest
Well, thank you for having me. Yes. Fascinating and in depth questions. Thank you so much.
- [48:07]
Dr. Phil
Don't forget, download Dr. Phil's podcast and also make sure you download Verdict with Ted Cruz wherever you get your podcast at that follow subscriber auto download button and we'll see you back here in a couple of days.
- [48:17]
Ted Cruz
I want to tell you real quick about our friends Augusta Precious Metals. And if you have been watching what's going on, the economy, you've seen some of the big bank failures that have happened. You've seen interest rates that have more more than doubled on homes now. The highest interest rates on home that we've seen in 21 years there. We've seen inflation issues and that is where it is affecting your retirement, your 401k. We know that it's important to diversify your investments especially if you are close to retirement or in retirement. That's why I want you to know about Augusta Precious Metals. They can help you protect your hard earned dollars, your hard earned investments. And that is why you should talk to a guest. Precious metals now they do things differently. It's really cool. Not only will they send you an investor's guide on gold so you can understand how gold can help you diversify and protect your assets, but they actually do a one on one web conference. They answer all of your questions. They'll talk about your strategy, your investments and tell you if a gold IRA isn't the right answer for you. You should check out what they can do for you at Augusta precious metals.com call them right now. Get the free investors guide on gold and work with a company that can that you can trust to help you protect your assets. 877-the-4, Gold IRA. That's 877-the-4 Gold IRA or online at Augusta Precious Metals.com that's Augusta Precious Metals.com.