0:00

Hey, everybody, before we get into the episode,

0:02

I wanted to talk about a fundraiser we're

0:04

doing now. Last year y'all funded

0:07

basically the entirety of the Portland Diaper Bank,

0:09

which provides free diapers to people

0:11

who are in you know, financial crisis

0:13

and whatnot. Um, we're doing that fundraiser again.

0:15

We're trying to raise dollars

0:17

to fund the Portland Diaper Bank for the year. If

0:19

you want to donate some cash

0:21

to them, you can go to go fund me diaper

0:24

need and COVID nineteen response.

0:26

If you just google go fund me, diaper need

0:28

and COVID nineteen response, it should take you

0:30

to the fundraiser. You can also find my

0:33

pinned tweet on my Twitter at I right, okay,

0:35

we'll take you right there. So diaper need and

0:37

COVID nineteen response on go fund me. Thank

0:40

you all so much. This

0:48

is behind the Bastards podcast

0:52

where Yeah,

0:55

I don't know. I never come

0:57

into this show with a plan, like

0:59

I write ten thousand words a week to do

1:01

this show, and then I consistently

1:04

just completely fucked the introductions.

1:06

Um. I think it's nice. I

1:09

think it's I think it's fun. Brand consistency

1:12

that's that's our Robert. People

1:14

thinking that's Robert. It's you

1:16

know, it's easy to be have

1:19

a consistent brand when your brand is

1:21

being like uh

1:24

like uh, brain

1:27

damaged drug addict who is

1:29

incapable of doing anything but writing long essays

1:31

about bad people. Simple brand. I

1:33

think that's you're being reductive.

1:35

But also when people hear you say things like

1:38

that about their solves or about yourself,

1:40

like, oh, that's our Robert, I

1:42

go, my son so

1:44

so pure, so humble,

1:47

m h so.

1:50

Probably shouldn't be trusted with large machinery

1:52

anyway, definitely not. You know who else should

1:55

be trusted with large machinery because

1:57

of the horrible head injury?

2:00

Phil Okay,

2:02

I thought that was you introducing me. I was like, this

2:04

is really me, you, Jamie.

2:06

I would trust you with her heavy machinery. Although

2:09

you don't have a driver's license, do you. I

2:11

don't have a driver's license, but it hasn't stopped me from

2:13

driving. Hell yeah, yeah,

2:16

Well good

2:18

for you, Jamie. I could probably get a

2:21

keep. I get like. I'm like, I could probably get

2:23

a driver's license if I really wanted to. I

2:25

just don't want to. That's not true. I've I've failed

2:27

the test several times. The key thing about

2:29

cops, Jamie, and this is some free advice for all

2:31

of you out there. They're never ready for

2:34

you to just tuck and roll, you know, like

2:36

if this as long as you're driving a cheap car, if

2:38

they start to pull you over, just tuck and

2:41

roll and then fucking book it.

2:43

Like I guarantee you they will not be

2:45

ready. Yeah, I like it. They're

2:47

just not going to be ready. Um.

2:50

And anyway, we should probably talk

2:52

about Dr Phil sun huh sure, yeah,

2:55

totally. Probably chill out with our

2:57

fill out. I

3:02

need to go. Actually that's

3:05

fair. This

3:07

this has been the final episode behind the Bastards.

3:09

I'm so sorry. Alright,

3:12

yeah, let's chill out with our phill out. Just

3:15

a big old, pudgy,

3:17

bald headed Phil just flopping around

3:20

with a nice moostaf like

3:23

like like a skink on a hot rock.

3:26

Okay. Um.

3:30

Later that year, so Dr Phil

3:32

helps Oprah out um and

3:34

and like saves her, saves her bacon

3:37

um and she brings

3:39

him on her show and does her verdict episode.

3:42

She was getting like sued for a lot of money

3:45

and defamation and ship like it was potentially

3:47

something that would have really damaged her

3:50

bottom line, like I don't know this link. Okay,

3:53

So Dr Phil later that year would

3:55

become a regular part of her show UM.

3:57

And this was part of a pivot in Oprah

4:00

where she went from like doing a normal talk show

4:03

UM to what she called Change your Life

4:05

TV. The goal of Change

4:07

your Life TV was to take the experience

4:09

people had in Phil seminars, the very public

4:12

crowd influenced Catharsis of emotional change,

4:14

and put that ship on television for everybody

4:17

to watch. Mostly this involves

4:19

Dr Phil confronting people aggressively about

4:21

their flaws so they would cry and say they learned

4:24

something. Quote. This is

4:26

Dr Phil explaining his methodology.

4:29

In order for people to change, there has to be a dramatic

4:32

event. I think coming on the Oprah Show as

4:34

an event in itself is a watershed occurrence

4:36

in people's lives. They get told the bottom line

4:38

truth about where they are, and in that environment,

4:40

I don't think they will ever forget it. If

4:43

you embarrass people on national television,

4:45

they remember, I

4:48

mean, that's you

4:50

know that, that's not untrue. That's

4:54

okay, okay, accurate Dr

4:57

Phil? Accurate Jesus

5:02

Yeah. So UM, so

5:04

he's really like heading into the villain

5:07

years. Yeah, yeah, he's he's

5:09

solved. I mean he's been in villain territory this whole

5:11

time. Um So. On Oprah

5:13

Show, Doctor Phil focused on clients

5:16

whose problems were fit things he could justify

5:18

yelling about to them or yelling at

5:20

them. For one early case was a

5:22

husband who was verbally abusive to his wife,

5:25

calling her obscene names. Phil

5:27

could not just condemn the man, but

5:30

he like didn't just condemn the man. He made

5:32

the man's wife tearfully recount

5:34

everything he said to her on TV.

5:37

So like, he's yelling at this guy for being a

5:39

dick, but he's also demanding that this woman,

5:41

like in detail, explain every horrible

5:44

thing her husband said about her to millions of

5:46

strangers, right, like the classic

5:48

air out the worst thing, Yeah

5:51

for someone else, which I don't

5:54

think is great, you know, but

5:56

I don't think that's great behavior would

5:58

be my my take it. Not

6:00

a psychologist, but Phil isn't

6:02

really a psychologist either. Um

6:04

So, Phil, then, after making this

6:07

woman laborously explain the horrible

6:09

things your husband said to her, got to help provide

6:11

some of his own homespun wisdom

6:13

in this case, he told the wife, you taught

6:15

him how to treat you. Now.

6:19

This is a variation of one of doctor Phil's

6:21

life laws for people to follow,

6:23

which he published in his plagiarized bestselling

6:26

book Life Strategies. Quote,

6:29

we teach people how to treat us own, rather

6:32

than complain about how people treat us. My

6:34

mom has good book, Robert,

6:37

did she blame herself for people

6:39

being shitty to her? Just for a dental

6:41

about Yeah,

6:45

like strategies, self matters,

6:47

the Ultimate Weight Solution. God,

6:49

I hate all his titles. Yeah, we had

6:51

the relationship Rescue. We had

6:53

that. It wasn't on the main shelf, but it was

6:56

in the house. It was in the house, it was it

6:58

was somewhere up in there. Yeah. Well

7:00

I don't know did it. Did it rescue your relationships?

7:04

Absolutely not. I think what we got we got more

7:06

out of John Edwards. Do

7:08

you remember him or John Edwards?

7:10

Yeah, they talk to the dead guy.

7:13

Yeah, the one who would like record

7:15

people in the audience talking about the dead

7:17

people they wanted to hear from and then walking

7:20

out and being like exactly,

7:23

yeah, that's that's a

7:25

That was a fun bridge, I mean, also but also

7:27

a traumatizing one. They're all traumatizing.

7:30

They are all traumatizing grifts. That's what makes

7:32

them so satisfying. Um,

7:35

wow, we all learned

7:37

a lesson, didn't we. No,

7:40

No, we didn't. So what's up to? What's he doing?

7:43

All right? So Dr fucking phil um,

7:45

So I want to talk a little bit more

7:47

about these life laws that he that

7:49

he lays out in his first book, because this is a

7:51

major reoccurring theme, especially in early Doctor

7:54

Phil, like people will will critique

7:56

people by explaining which life law they violated,

7:58

like the one where you're responsible for other people treating

8:00

you shitty, because we teach people how to

8:03

treat us um, which

8:05

is like an inversion of the truth, which is that

8:07

if you're like abusers

8:09

and predators are good at spotting your vulnerabilities

8:12

and taking advantage of them, right, and

8:15

so you need to be aware of your own vulnerabilities

8:17

because you need to be aware of how dangerous

8:20

people might take advantage of you. That's

8:22

the non toxic way of framing

8:24

that. The toxic ways, Hey, you taught him to be like

8:26

that, Like, no, you didn't. He saw that

8:28

you had this vulnerability and you took advantage of it.

8:31

That's a fair way to the most abuse abuse

8:33

of tactics in the book, like well, actually

8:35

it was your fault and if you were so

8:38

weak, this wouldn't have happened to you. And it's like,

8:40

oh, go funk off, And I

8:43

want to try this logic with

8:45

like crimes, like the next time I'm caught speeding,

8:47

Like look, officer, you taught me how to

8:49

drive this car that way, like by

8:52

by having the road be this straight, and maybe

8:54

this drunk you kind of taught me to speed.

8:57

You know. I will say that every time I tried

8:59

to teach my dog something that is

9:02

something that it's a very low STIGs version

9:04

of that. They're like, well didn't you teach him he get google

9:06

on your floor when you don't feel like standing

9:09

up, And I was like, yes, I guess I did. Christ

9:16

in Heaven. Okay. So here's

9:19

how he introduces the concept of life

9:22

laws in his book. Quote, life

9:24

laws are the rules of the game. No one is

9:26

going to ask you if you think these laws are fair, or

9:28

if you think they should exist, like the law of

9:30

gravity, they simply are. You don't

9:32

get a vote. You can ignore them and stumble

9:35

along wondering why you never seem to succeed,

9:37

or you can learn them, adapt to them,

9:39

mold your choices and behavior to them, and

9:41

live effectively. Learning these life

9:43

laws is the at the absolute core

9:46

of what you must master in this book to have the

9:48

essential knowledge for a personal life

9:50

strategy. What kind

9:52

of he went from zero to

9:54

being? Like my laws? Much like the

9:57

law of gravity? That is like

9:59

that is galaxy

10:01

brain that

10:04

are as unavoidable and

10:08

is the tie gravity?

10:11

Oh god, you got You have to appreciate

10:13

the flagrancy on

10:15

on display there, Jesus. Yeah,

10:18

it's you know, it's it's good Jamie.

10:20

It's like you're you being abused, being your

10:22

fault to me, thought's gravity.

10:25

It's like, oh, I want to put you through a shredder.

10:28

Yeah wow, Yeah, that would be fun.

10:30

And I think we could probably get a pretty

10:32

good primetime TV audience if we actually

10:35

did that, Jamie, have someone

10:40

watch like that's seen in Fargo.

10:44

It's that that's kind of like that's where

10:46

his story is building to

10:49

present. That's a fucking hour of TV

10:51

right there. There you go, there you

10:53

go. And I'm sure he'd be happy to do it.

10:56

I'm sure he would, now, I

10:58

bet Jamie, you're hung for some

11:00

more of Dr Phil's life laws. I can

11:02

see it in your eyes. You're you're just you're

11:04

just you're just. Yeah. Absolutely, So most

11:07

of these laws are pretty self explanatory,

11:10

uh, stuff like life rewards action

11:13

and you cannot change what you do not

11:15

acknowledge. My favorite is people

11:17

do what works, which boils down to the

11:20

idea that we engage in bad behavior because

11:22

it rewards us in some way. So Dr

11:24

Phil says, if you want to stop the behavior,

11:26

stop rewarding yourself for it, which

11:29

makes sense until you think about the way say

11:31

heroin or junk food works because you

11:33

can't stop it from the reward is the

11:35

thing, right, Like these are also

11:38

so manipulatively worded.

11:40

Yeah, the next time you take heroin,

11:42

punch yourself in the dick so you

11:45

don't enjoy it as much. I don't like.

11:47

Yeah, how do you like?

11:50

Statistically, most of the kind of people who want advice

11:52

from are gonna be dealing with something like weight loss, and it's

11:54

like, no, the reward is eating

11:56

food, Like that's

11:59

that's strategy going to

12:01

to help you know. It's so frustrating

12:03

too, because it's like they're the

12:05

way they're word it is so deliberate that it's

12:07

like, oh, I understand why people

12:10

fell for this. Yeah, yeah,

12:12

yeah, it's just all it's

12:15

just very very transparent

12:17

nonsense for the most part. Yeah,

12:20

it's words in it in a certain sequence

12:22

than charging you, you know hard.

12:26

You gotta give the man credit. It is

12:28

words in a sequence that

12:31

is undeniable. That dr Phil

12:34

that was a sentence, that that's

12:36

a The man uses sentences, you

12:38

know. You gotta give that to them. You

12:40

can't take that from him. So yeah,

12:43

some of his rules are, however, a little more

12:45

sinister. Probably the worst. While one

12:47

of the worst is I don't know, there's a lot

12:49

of worse. One is you create

12:51

your own experiences. Here's how

12:53

he explains that. One. Don't play

12:55

the role of victim or use past events

12:57

to build excuses. It guarantees you

13:00

no progress, no healing, and no victory.

13:02

You will never fix a problem by blaming

13:04

someone else. That's first

13:06

of all, not true.

13:09

And that's just like, I mean,

13:11

yeah, he's just clearly not even good

13:13

at the job he's getting famous for saying

13:15

he's good at backwards.

13:18

Yeah, it's it's I mean, he

13:21

sounds like a fucking catholic, crazed he's

13:24

like, well, push your emotions down.

13:26

Okay, it's just such bad.

13:28

It's particularly all bad advice for like abuse

13:30

victims, because if you're an abuse victim, in a lot of cases,

13:33

part of the healing process is

13:35

realizing that your abuser is the

13:37

person to blame and that all these things they

13:39

got you to blame yourself for aren't things

13:41

you did wrong, and that they like

13:44

that. That's a big part of healing from that sort

13:46

of thing. And he's just like, no, no, don't be blaming

13:48

this guy because because he was beating you, maybe

13:51

you didn't do the laundry right, you know, maybe

13:53

you should have got him his beer faster. I'm Dr

13:55

Phil, I'm a doctor, you know, Like, God,

13:57

damn it, I really don't like this guy.

14:00

Yeah. I also want to read you the we

14:02

said earlier what if his rules as we teach people how

14:04

to treat us. But the actual wording in the book

14:06

of how he explains that is even creepier

14:09

than you might guess. Quote, you either

14:11

teach people to treat you with dignity and respect

14:13

or you don't. This means you are partly

14:16

responsible for the mistreatment that you get

14:18

at the hands of someone else. You shape other's

14:20

behavior when you teach them what they can get away

14:22

with and what they cannot. This is like God,

14:24

You're just like, oh God, okay, so what did you do

14:27

that you need to believe this in order

14:29

to live with yourself? Yeah? Right,

14:32

fucking Christ. Yeah, he's he's really a bad

14:34

person. I don't like him. In my house,

14:37

it was next to I like clearly remember

14:40

being next to my mom's bet. Yeah.

14:43

Like, you know, it's the good book. You gotta

14:45

gotta keep it close to you. We didn't own the

14:48

Bible. We own life. Strategy

14:50

is the John Edward book and that other

14:53

one by that guy who said he could talk

14:55

to dead people. I forget

14:57

what was Oh John Edwards, and there's a lot of

14:59

dead people talking. So despite

15:02

the fundamental emptiness of phil philosophy,

15:05

or perhaps because of it, Dr Phil became

15:07

a wild success. His first

15:09

episode ran in two thousand two of

15:11

The Doctor Phil Show, Like he spun off pretty

15:13

quickly, and he's been on the air ever since.

15:16

He instinctively knew that the real money

15:18

and this sort of TV was leaning in

15:20

towards the most tragic and risque stories

15:23

drug addiction, spousal abuse, troubled

15:26

teens, all that good ship.

15:28

He was happy to throw medical best practices

15:30

out the window. In two thousand four, he

15:32

interviewed a nine year old boy whose parents

15:35

said he was being abusive towards his younger sister.

15:37

Dr Phil said the child had nine of the

15:39

fourteen characteristics of a serial

15:41

killer. Then he added Jeffrey

15:44

Dahmer had seven Jesus

15:50

very well crafted and all that's beautiful.

15:53

Yeah, it's it's like

15:57

so any reputable psychologists

15:59

like Hiatrist will tell you that one

16:01

thing you can't do, as in

16:04

like it's forbidden in the discipline,

16:06

is to diagnose a child as a

16:08

psychopath. You you're not

16:11

allowed to do that because their children,

16:14

their brains are developing, and shackling

16:16

a child with that diagnosis

16:19

is incredibly unethical. Dr

16:21

Shils did it on national television. He

16:25

feel he isn't he's still doing it on national

16:27

television. I mean, yes, yes, yes, he does

16:29

this all yes, yes. From

16:31

a write up by BuzzFeed. Quote Dr

16:34

Phil purports to be a mental health professional,

16:36

but he's diagnosing from videotape on the

16:38

air, said then executive director

16:40

of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Michael

16:42

Fitzpatrick to The Washington Post in a two thousand

16:45

four story about Dr Phil's bad

16:47

psychotherapy. It's unethical to

16:49

do that sort of if you will pop psychology,

16:51

you don't do that for ratings. This is a

16:54

human being. A spokesperson for

16:56

Dr Phil at the time said that McGraw never

16:58

labeled the child is mentally ill, which

17:00

is technically true. He merely brought up

17:02

Jeffrey Dahmer. So there you go. This

17:04

is like just next lot, it's

17:07

it's it all rings like semi familiar.

17:10

It is kind of like interesting to think about how

17:12

how used to as a culture?

17:15

How used to? We are of like Dr

17:17

Phil saying the most funked up thing he can possibly

17:19

think of at a child, because he's been doing

17:21

it for twenty five years. And I love how

17:24

from the beginning, Yeah, I was like, oh,

17:26

that wasn't an escalation. It was just always

17:28

that. No. People have been

17:30

complaining about Dr Phil in

17:33

this way from the very beginning of his

17:35

career, and it has never made a difference

17:37

for a single second. And it's never

17:39

made him loss money. It doesn't seem like this

17:42

is so fucking bleak. I think it's

17:44

just made him more money, which is good.

17:46

I mean he picked a good life strategy. You know you

17:48

can get more money than I do. So Dr

17:51

Phil stopped renewing his license to pack

17:53

practice as a psychologist in two thousand

17:56

six. He has never held a valid

17:58

license in California, where his show is

18:00

filmed. A spokesperson for his show

18:02

confirmed that he stopped renewing his license

18:04

because he quote no longer worked as

18:06

a therapist, which I

18:09

don't disagree with, but

18:11

I would argue he is absolutely

18:14

marketing himself as a therapist and is

18:16

still in the business of therapy. He's presenting

18:18

himself as someone who has a license. He

18:20

for sure is, and he's not

18:23

just still doing therapy on his show.

18:25

He is selling products to

18:28

companies that make their whole all of their

18:30

money from doing therapy. Like hell,

18:33

I'll get into that now. A stat News

18:35

Boston Globe investigation several years

18:37

ago revealed that Dr Phil and his son

18:39

some dude named Jay started

18:41

a business called Dr Phil's

18:43

Path to Recovery and the Late Oughts.

18:46

This was a virtual reality addiction recovery

18:48

program where a VR Dr Phil

18:50

would walk you through exercises to help you

18:52

get and stay sober. From BuzzFeed,

18:55

quote users dawn virtual reality

18:57

goggles and are placed in scenarios with Dr

18:59

Phil, and one McGraw sits at a

19:01

bar, arms folded across his chest, counseling

19:04

his visitor on how to avoid the triggers of an evening

19:06

out when alcohol is present. In another

19:08

scene, he reclines in genes

19:10

on the backyard patio of his sprawling estate,

19:12

sparkling pool and fustia flowers

19:14

behind him and a wide blue sky above, and

19:16

shares coping strategies. You'll

19:19

leave these sessions feeling as though you just had

19:21

an eye opening and insightful conversation

19:23

about your life with Dr Phil. The Path

19:25

to Recovery website promises the

19:27

product is described as the culmination

19:29

of more than four decades of experience Dr

19:32

Phil has working in the mental health profession

19:34

and addiction recovery. So

19:37

that sounds helpful. That's yeah,

19:39

that was thank you for that clarifying statement.

19:43

Now, obviously there's absolutely no evidence

19:45

that this program helps with addiction in any way. A disclaimer

19:48

on the website says that it is quote solely

19:50

for general information purposes and

19:52

is quote not intended to diagnose, treat,

19:54

cure, or prevent any medical health, mental

19:56

or psychological problem or condition, the

19:59

worst kind of part in the worst kind

20:01

of person, because now he's just outright targeting

20:03

the most vulnerable people he can. It's like it was, I

20:05

didn't care when he was targeting other grifters.

20:08

Yeah, and he's not even doing it in a situation where

20:10

they can choose to be grifted

20:12

by him, because by the time they're

20:15

in addiction recovery, like they're

20:17

already paying, they probably don't even know that

20:19

this fucking thing is there. Um.

20:21

Yeah. Now, despite the fact that there's

20:23

no evidence that this thing helps in anyway,

20:26

a number of addiction recovery programs purchased

20:28

Path to Recovery to use you. And

20:30

I guess why they bought it? Fine, because

20:33

Dr Phil gave them free advertising on the show

20:35

if they bought it. No business,

20:40

boys, boy, he's really good this

20:42

boy. Yeah. Dr Phil offered

20:44

addiction treatment centers free endorsements on

20:46

both The Dr Phil Show and his spinoff

20:48

series The Doctors if they first bought

20:51

his program. BuzzFeed managed to get

20:53

ahold of audio of one of these pitch sessions,

20:55

where mccross salesman told a customer quote,

20:58

our job is to get your phones to ring and the

21:00

admissions hopefully follow. He

21:02

bragged that Doctor Phil's viewers were

21:04

older, high income people, not the

21:06

addict calling because I told my mom I'd

21:09

do it. Oh my, okay,

21:14

so we're we've arrived at cartoon villainy.

21:17

We sure have Jamie Loftus.

21:20

Okay, Well, what does

21:23

does does Oprah? Ever? Because

21:26

they forget because over the years Oprah has

21:28

endorsed a number of questionable people

21:31

and sometimes out out John of God

21:34

there and and shout out what's

21:36

his name? Who wrote a million little pieces? Oh

21:38

yeah, Jonathan? Right? Yeah, yeah,

21:40

she she's had to apologize

21:42

for having endorsed a lot

21:45

of funked up people over the years. Has

21:48

that that that moment has never happened

21:50

for doctor phill Right, She's never backed off? Did

21:53

she ever back off from him at anything? No?

21:55

No, no, no, no, no no, they're still deeply tied together. Why

21:57

would she ever back off on him? I guess

21:59

that's true? God dead

22:02

man, are you okay?

22:05

Well? That was that was the question I wanted

22:07

a better answer to. Yeah, except

22:09

the truth, the truth is that why would

22:12

she care? She's she's doing just fine.

22:15

Yeah, she has she has plenty of money, So like,

22:18

what do you what do you expect her to do, Jamie,

22:20

I don't know. I don't know. It's

22:22

like, you can't expect anyone with that much money to

22:24

be a good person. You're just sending yourself. You're

22:26

just asking to be sad because they

22:29

just ask me to whack them all right down.

22:31

Yeah, they never will be um because

22:33

it's not lucrative to be a good person. It's

22:36

the opposite of lucrative to be a good person. That's

22:39

true. Yeah. You know what is lucrative

22:41

though, Jamie Chilling the products and

22:43

services that support this podcast. Ah,

22:51

we're back and I am just having

22:54

a great time talking with my friend Jay

22:56

Loft about Dr

23:02

philamar was what's

23:04

his middle name? What's his name? All the disappointed

23:06

Philip Calvin Calvin. Yeah,

23:09

Jamie, I just talked to you about how Dr

23:11

Phil has this VR addiction treatment

23:13

thing and he basically gives

23:15

people gives like treatment centers,

23:17

free advertising if they buy it. Um.

23:21

You want to guess the quality of the facilities

23:23

that that the take Doctor phill up on this offer.

23:25

Only the best right is nothing,

23:28

Oh Jamie, It's a lot worse than

23:30

nothing in some cases, on the facility

23:33

that took Dr Phil up on this author offer

23:35

was Inspirations for Youth and Families,

23:38

a Fort Lauderdale based treatment center

23:40

for teenagers. Phil actually highlighted

23:43

the facility, run by core Cora and Walsh

23:45

on his show the day he announced his new VR

23:47

program, saying, we think outside

23:50

the box and designing what addicts need. What

23:52

you need is something that pops out of the noise, something

23:54

that rises above the noise, like a distinctive voice,

23:57

and that voice, in this case is me to

24:00

Phil then introduced Walsh, saying she

24:02

ran the nation's leading family addiction

24:04

treatment and dual diagnosis center. BuzzFeed

24:07

actually investigated the facility and found

24:09

that it had a well documented history of children escaping

24:12

and getting into danger. Stephen Sardoui,

24:14

a p I who was hired hired to find two

24:16

different girls who escaped from the facility and disappeared,

24:19

said it seems to be an ongoing problem

24:21

in that this in that particular facility.

24:23

Obviously there's a gap somewhere, a loophole

24:25

somewhere in the system where they're just leaving. In

24:28

the last two years, Inspiration staff members

24:30

made a hundred and eighty reports to police about

24:32

children and their care going missing, sometimes

24:35

the teens. Sometimes the teams left for days

24:37

or even escaped the state. One escape

24:39

he wound up prostituting herself for drugs.

24:42

A number of the teams wound up finding drugs

24:44

one way or another after getting out of the facility.

24:46

Six were arrested, two were hospitalized.

24:49

One group who escaped together later robbed

24:51

a homeless man. BuzzFeed talked to Jill

24:53

Walters of South Carolina,

24:56

who's seventeen year old escaped from Inspirations

24:58

in two thousand sixteen and wound up the street

25:00

in Miami. She explained why she

25:02

initially had chosen Inspirations to help

25:04

her boy. Quote, they touted

25:06

this we were on Dr Phil. They used

25:08

that as we must be a great facility

25:10

because we were on Dr Phil. Well, that has

25:13

nothing to do with how the facility is run. You

25:15

entrust your child to the care of these people,

25:17

and something like this happens. It's good

25:19

ship. God, that's

25:23

that that that it

25:25

wouldn't stop getting worse. That is so

25:28

fucking off. It's like, I mean, it's

25:31

pretty bad. It's pretty pretty bad. Jamie.

25:33

It speaks to like, yeah, just the level

25:36

of clout he but he's still

25:39

upfolds too. Because it's like, yeah, I

25:41

guess that if you think about it for

25:43

a while, you're like, oh, well, he's not a licensed

25:45

doctor, and look at what he's actually saying. But it's

25:47

like the world was reinforcing his bullshit

25:50

for so long. That is so

25:52

evil. Oh my god, it

25:56

is evil, Jamie. Sure, but

25:58

you know it's not evil. What

26:02

the products and services that I just advertised

26:04

on this podcast that we're not actually cutting two

26:06

again? I just I have a problem, Jamie. I

26:08

I have a problem. You can't stop thinking, and I can't

26:10

stop I can't stop pivoting to ads. You

26:13

know, you're just you've

26:15

been I mean, I'm you know what,

26:17

Jamie, I'm a I'm an addict.

26:20

Oh my god, get it. Oh

26:24

yeah, I

26:27

hated it. That one's a good one. That one's

26:29

that's a keeper. You know what we're done

26:32

with the episode go Home? I

26:34

nailed it. Wow. Wow,

26:36

We've got to end with Dr Phil ruining the lives

26:38

of children. I mean, I guess that that is where the story

26:40

is going to end, no matter what it is, It's

26:42

where it began and it's where it'll end. Yeah,

26:45

it's where Dr

26:49

Phil. Just

26:52

kill me? Now, I got Okay,

26:54

I am gonna. I am going to continue to advocate

26:57

for put Dr Phil through a gigant

27:00

human size shredder on live TV.

27:02

I think that that is the kind of dystopian television.

27:05

Like we're already at masked Singer. That's

27:07

the next logical step for me. Fair

27:09

enough, But I hated, I hate

27:12

an evil person threw a shredder. It's the

27:14

modern guillotine, big

27:16

old shredder. Yeah, it's the best way

27:18

to do anything. Really. Yeah, is

27:20

a shredder anyway?

27:23

Jamie Jay Loft

27:27

m hmm, Joe Loft.

27:32

God, we're actually

27:34

still talking about inspirations. So court

27:36

records also revealed that the center's co owner,

27:39

Christopher Walsh, is, by his own admission,

27:41

a habitual drunkard, who in two thousand

27:43

fifteen suit a resort for serving him alcohol,

27:45

saying they should have known he couldn't handle it. And

27:48

boy, how do you does it ever get worse?

27:50

Let's talk about Todd Herzog. Yeah,

27:53

oh yeah, yeah, at the end

27:55

of the inspiration stuff. But so Todd Herzog

27:58

was another was a repeated guest on

28:00

The Doctor Phil Show. Now, Todd's back

28:02

story is that he one survivor back in

28:04

the early odds he got like a million dollars and

28:06

then became a horrible, like developed a horrific

28:09

addiction to alcohol, um, like a

28:11

life threatening addiction. Now Dr

28:13

Phil and his producers must have salivated

28:15

at the combination of disastrous alcoholic

28:17

and reality TV star. Here's

28:20

how stat News described what happened next. Quote

28:23

Herzog told stat in the Boston Globe

28:25

that he was not intoxicated when he arrived

28:27

at the Los Angeles studio to film the Doctor

28:29

philm show. And his dressing room, he said he

28:32

found a bottle of smearing off vodka. He

28:34

drank all of it. Then someone handed him

28:36

a Zanix, he said, telling him it would calm

28:39

his nerves. So

28:42

this guy who had managed

28:45

to sober himself up enough to like try

28:47

to go on TV and Dr Phil's people

28:50

basically allegedly made

28:52

sure there was a full bottle of vodka and

28:54

um a fucking gave him a Zanex?

28:57

Did you just because you know? I think the reasoning

28:59

is the more of a disaster

29:01

you seem like on air, the more marketable

29:04

you are. Yeah, right right, But which

29:06

is a proven model given the star of

29:08

the show is like bachelor

29:11

levels of like Jamie,

29:15

Jamie, Ji, let's get as close

29:18

as we can killing people. Dear, dear

29:20

sweet Jamie loftus. We are

29:22

not even at the worst part yet. Oh

29:25

no, okay, keep going. Yeah. So,

29:27

by the time Herzog got

29:30

on stage, he was so wasted that he

29:32

could barely talk or function. Dr

29:34

Phil and his assistant walked them out themselves,

29:38

making a big show of helping him while highlighting

29:40

just how wrecked he was. And I want you to listen

29:43

to this, Jamie. I want you to watch this,

29:45

obviously, but um, I

29:47

want everyone at home or in

29:49

your car or pooping or whatever it is you're doing. I

29:52

can't describe the anxiety of seeing Robert

29:54

Evans has started screen sharing. I

29:57

know, I know, I know. All

29:59

right, here's the Doctor Phil show.

30:02

Dr Phil, I'm todd,

30:07

can you walk ap barely? I

30:10

have to have help. Sorry,

30:13

I'm very what's all right,

30:16

random? Once you get over there and take spot,

30:20

yeah, I'll go. I'm

30:25

sorry because

30:28

it just kepler this happening,

30:30

So

30:33

just come turn around.

30:37

So that's all I want to play of that. Um, he

30:40

can barely move. It is fundamentally

30:43

unethical to have someone

30:45

in that state on your television show.

30:48

Even I mean, even even if they had

30:50

been inebriated of their own volition

30:52

and being like sped drugs, that

30:56

even if they had consented earlier,

30:59

I know, think you can consent

31:02

to that. Yeah, absolutely

31:04

not like that is like

31:07

the the worst situation

31:10

imaginable. That is fucking evil.

31:13

Yeah, it's not. It's not

31:15

good, Jamie. It's just not a

31:17

good thing to do. I would say, I would

31:19

recommend not doing that if if

31:21

I was if someone asked me, should I

31:24

take someone who has a problem with addiction

31:27

and give them drugs and then

31:29

film them disastrously

31:32

wrecked? Um, I would say

31:34

No, that sounds like an evil thing to do. That

31:37

is absolute cruel.

31:41

God, it's cruel and good, Jamie.

31:44

Cruel and good. And

31:47

they just had that on in waiting rooms.

31:50

That was just what you watched while you were waiting

31:52

to see the dentist. So,

31:57

when questioned, representatives of the Doctor

31:59

Phil Show didn't i that they provided Herzog

32:01

with alcohol and drugs. They said, junkies

32:03

lie in essence about his claims, And

32:05

then they pointed out that they weren't a medical facility

32:08

and couldn't watch their guests at all times.

32:11

The director of the treatment facility where her

32:13

Zog agreed to go for help at the end of the show.

32:15

However, was horrified when he saw

32:17

him on television. He was so upset

32:19

by the condition that Dr Phil let her Zog

32:22

appear on air in that he refused

32:24

to ever have anything to do with the Doctor Phil

32:27

Show again. So this was

32:29

so outrageous that it convinced the head

32:31

of a treatment program that all of the free advertising

32:33

that Doctor Phil Show could provide was not

32:36

worth the ethical compromise of dealing

32:38

with that. Man, I can't, I mean, I

32:40

can't. You can't really hand it to him for

32:42

that. But that's I mean, that's sucking something

32:45

that's to late. Yeah,

32:48

yeah, it's just it. You have to really,

32:51

like, you have to really do bad

32:53

to to to convince someone

32:55

of that. I think like that's a yeah,

32:57

like that, that's throwing a lot of money out

33:00

And I don't know, I'm not going to say all people

33:03

in the rehab facility business or sketchy,

33:05

but there's a lot of sketchy motherfucker's in that

33:07

industry, you know. Yeah, yeah,

33:09

yeah, yeah, Yeah,

33:12

it's cool and good Jamie, Wow,

33:15

I feel really not very

33:17

good, Jamie. That's thank

33:19

you so much for saying that you know hear it behind

33:21

the bastards. That's exactly

33:24

what we go for At all time.

33:27

I convinced myself that

33:29

this is going to be a fun one and every time,

33:32

except the one time, I'm dead brown,

33:35

even worse than I could have conceived. All

33:37

I ever want is for

33:39

you to feel bad. Thank you

33:42

so much. That's my whole goal. You

33:44

know you're a successful person. I'm not

33:46

a hero. I'm just um. I'm

33:48

a hero. I'm a hero. You know I'm

33:52

not a hero. Todd

33:54

Herzog's story does not appear to be an

33:56

isolated one. Jordan's Smith

33:59

appeared on The Tor Phil Show in two thousand

34:01

twelve in an episode titled Young,

34:03

Reckless and Enabled. Smith's

34:05

aunt claimed she contacted to the show

34:08

to help get her niece off of heroin. When

34:10

they arrived in l A from out of state, Jordan's

34:12

started going through withdrawal. Her aunt

34:14

told a show producer that her niece needed heroin

34:17

and something or something else to help with the withdrawal.

34:19

The producer suggested that they go to skid

34:22

Row and buy heroin together. She

34:24

then told them not to say who

34:26

made that suggestion. Later, now,

34:29

guests like smith Is received free addiction

34:32

treatment and an expensive center after their

34:34

appearance on the show, which is why many

34:36

do it, But prior to taping, no

34:38

medical treatment is provided or offered.

34:41

Smith and her family were in Los Angeles

34:43

alone for two nights before taping.

34:45

A less trusting person than me might suggest

34:48

that the show does this, that these people will be

34:50

extra fucked up and sad when it comes time

34:52

for them to be on television. Sure,

34:54

sure, yeah, it's very ethical.

34:57

That is extremely

34:59

like, you have to be thinking so hard

35:01

you come up with something like that. It's

35:03

so innocuous. Seeing these

35:06

people's lives are already off the fucking

35:08

rails. How can we make it a little worse? I'm

35:10

Dr Phil. Joel King

35:12

Parrish brought her twenty eight year old daughter,

35:14

Caitlin to doctor Phil for help kicking a heroin

35:17

addiction. Caitlin was six months pregnant

35:19

at the time. Her mother assumed that when

35:21

they landed they would receive medical attention

35:24

since withdrawal could endanger the fetus,

35:26

But when Caitlin's mom asked the staff for

35:28

help, they told her to quote take care

35:30

of it. She took her daughter to the hospital,

35:33

which she left without a sheet receiving treatment.

35:35

Next from stat news quote, the

35:38

producer texted to say she should stay at the

35:40

hospital, but Caitlin would not, and King

35:42

Parrish was terrified the baby would die if her

35:44

daughter did not get medicine or drugs. King

35:47

Parrish and Caitlin went to the Doctor Phil studio,

35:49

where another show stafford joined them. All

35:52

three got into a cab headed for skid

35:54

Row. The stafford shot video which

35:56

later aired on the show. In it, King

35:58

Parrish tells the camera, I am scared

36:00

to death right now. The camera follows

36:02

Caitlin from behind she walks towards homeless

36:05

encampments. King Paris said Caitlynn

36:07

was gone for about a half hour while she shot

36:09

up Heroin, So they just like went

36:11

out to go buy a horse at skid Row and filmed it.

36:14

That's I mean, and that's like that's good

36:16

TV. Is what that is? This

36:19

is ja wine. They really mupseting. I mean

36:21

yeah, I mean, on top of the fact that that's an

36:23

extreme disservice to her, that's also like

36:25

yet another example of like

36:28

bullshit high rated TV heading

36:30

into unhoused encampments to just

36:34

frame people and completely context

36:37

list bumped up way, I hate that ship

36:39

so much that I

36:41

think it's cool and good. Jamie, Wow,

36:44

I think it's cooling good.

36:48

I hate this so much, loft

36:52

this. We do have fun on this show,

36:54

though, We sure do sure

36:58

to bust

37:00

out Franzia and really

37:02

dial Yeah, friends

37:04

out with our glands out. I don't know,

37:06

I'm stuck. I'm stuck making

37:09

that exact kind of joke repeated. I'm

37:11

still chilling,

37:13

chilling with filling.

37:16

Yeah, gross, no,

37:18

no, no idea. It's

37:20

all deeply uncomfortable, Probert.

37:24

You know what's not deeply uncomfortable.

37:27

The products and services that support this podcast.

37:30

No, every one of them will gently cradle

37:32

your head or whatever other part of your body you

37:34

you would like them to craz absolutely

37:37

or wherever. They'll just kiss you. You know, they're

37:40

just going to kiss you. That's

37:42

that's the behind the bastards promise random

37:46

kisses from a product. Here's

37:49

some ads.

37:55

Okay, So there are a bunch of stories

37:57

like this, and one of the saddest part

38:00

of all these stories is that the people who will

38:02

like who, the people who Doctor Phil clearly takes

38:04

advantage of, will still claim that

38:06

his show helped them because they were able

38:08

to receive free addiction recovery

38:11

care that they couldn't have afforded without the

38:13

Doctor Phil Show. Almost no

38:15

aspect of his show works if they're single

38:18

payer healthcare that covers addiction treatment.

38:20

The Doctor Phil Show profits off

38:23

of sadness, porn, the shock and embarrassment

38:25

people feel watching the ruined lives of

38:27

his guests, and the sassy, no bullshit

38:30

advice Doctor Phil gives them. He

38:32

earns between sixty and eighty million dollars

38:34

a year. Of course, the Doctor's

38:36

Phil Show. I know right, that's an obscene

38:38

number, isn't it? Just

38:41

make sure you want to light some ship on fire, doesn't

38:43

it? Yeah,

38:46

it sure does, Jamie, it sure

38:48

does. So. Of

38:50

course, the Doctor Phil Show would get boring pretty quick

38:52

if he only dealt with people suffering from drug addictions

38:55

and abuse of spouses. From the beginning,

38:57

a major source of content form of GRAW

38:59

was so called troubled teens.

39:02

Kids in crisis are big business for grift

39:04

t TV therapists because, being children,

39:07

those kids have no ability to regulate their

39:09

emotions and no sense of proportion. This

39:11

leads to TV friendly explosions of rage.

39:14

In two thousand sixteen, Dr Phil interviewed

39:16

Danielle Brigoli for a next episode

39:18

titled I Want to give Up My car stealing

39:21

knife wielding twerking thirteen year old

39:23

daughter who tried to frame me for a crime, which

39:26

is just a title mint to to

39:28

show up on a like like throwing twerking in

39:30

there with fucking car stealing shameless,

39:34

There was that there was a cultural hat to now

39:37

Brigolie now goes by the stage name bad

39:40

Baby b h A D b h

39:42

A b I E was a

39:44

prime time ready delinquent. She

39:46

spoke in a ridiculously affected hood

39:49

accent and pretended to basically

39:51

be a gangster in the kind of confrontational,

39:54

like nonsense teenage

39:56

way that gave Doctor Fell a lot of openings

39:59

to mock her with his witty rejoinders. I

40:01

don't want to play much of her appearance

40:03

because she was a child, and I think

40:06

what Dr Phil does by having her on is

40:08

fundamentally abusive. But I do

40:10

think it's important to play how the episode

40:12

starts, so you can see how he introduces

40:15

this segment and hear it you

40:17

listening, will hear it? Jamie? I want you to pay attention

40:19

to the looks on the faces of the

40:21

people in his audience. She's

40:24

defiant. What

40:27

has she met? Her match with

40:30

Dr Phil? You can threaten him, but

40:33

time your worst nightmare. Well,

40:38

thank you. Well, you know, I've

40:40

been doing this show for

40:42

fifteen years and I've met some truly

40:45

remarkable people, and I have

40:47

heard thousands of stories. Now in that time,

40:51

you get to thinking that you've seen and heard

40:53

just about everything that

40:55

was until today.

40:58

Meet Danielle. Now, Danielle's

41:01

mom Barbara and has written to me every

41:03

year for the past three years about her daughter,

41:07

who has stold thousands of dollars, framed

41:09

her mother as a drug user, and then called

41:12

to report her and

41:15

is currently facing grand

41:17

theft charges. Now

41:19

I answered her call for help, and I

41:22

sent my film crew across

41:24

the country to capture

41:26

what was going on inside this

41:28

home. Needless to say,

41:30

while my team was there, something

41:33

shocking and unexpected happened.

41:36

Shortly after they had finished filming, one

41:39

of my crew members noticed that Danielle

41:41

had vanished with

41:44

the keys to my crew member's car.

41:49

Now, sure enough, when Danielle's grandmother,

41:52

Barbara, went outside, she found out

41:54

that Danielle had stolen the car,

41:57

which had the crew members handback

42:00

wallet I D and cash inside. That's

42:04

not bad enough. Danielle's

42:06

only thirteen years old. So

42:09

you see. The thing that's most interesting to

42:11

me about that is the faces of the

42:13

women in the audience, um,

42:16

because they are particularly the

42:19

glee right, Like That's the thing

42:21

that's most unsettling to me, is like how excited

42:24

they are with every new aspect of this

42:26

story that Dr Phil reveals well.

42:28

And I also think that those reactions

42:31

may not even be I mean, those

42:33

reactions in themselves are extremely coached,

42:36

where I like I used

42:38

to do like audience work when I first

42:41

had moved here and had like there's no money

42:43

to my name, and you're so extremely

42:46

coached, and like before the show even starts, you're

42:48

told to do a series of facial expressions

42:50

for the editors to work with, and so

42:52

it's it's like manipulation top to bottom

42:55

with how it's handled, because it's like, not only is he obviously

42:57

not has no vested interest in

42:59

the well being of this kid, like

43:02

he also, like I I would argue

43:04

probably that editing is completely fucking

43:06

doctored as well. Yeah, I have no idea

43:08

if that's the those if those

43:11

face expressions match, like what was

43:13

actually going down. But like it's all I guess

43:15

specifically the idea that they wanted to show

43:18

those reactions because I think they're trying to coach

43:20

or response. They're trying to coach response from the people watching

43:22

at home to write this like this,

43:24

the voyeurism, Like it makes it clear none

43:27

of this is about helping anyone. It's about

43:30

laughing at quote unquote low class

43:32

people in their problems. You know. That's

43:34

that's what Dr Phil really makes

43:36

his bread doing. Sure, yeah, but

43:39

great, but fuck him. Like she went on

43:41

to like have a successful like she's

43:43

eighteen, she's she was nominated for an American

43:46

Music Award. She was I didn't know that good.

43:49

I'm glad there's a happy ending that I don't know much

43:51

about baby now.

43:54

And like she's you know, signed

43:56

a record label. I mean, and

43:59

she is standing up for what

44:01

happens. We're about to get into

44:03

that. Yeah, So Grigoli went

44:05

viral, and within the confines of the

44:07

episode, Dr Phil positions himself

44:09

as a dispenser of tough love. His

44:12

prescription was to send Brigoli to one

44:14

of his favorite therapeutic boarding schools,

44:16

Turnabout Ranch in Utah. This

44:18

is an actual working ranch where troubled

44:21

teams are sent under the impression that working

44:23

in the country and rate riding horses

44:25

will get them off of drugs, premarital sex,

44:27

and petty crime. In subsequent

44:29

episodes, Brigoli filmed an update from the

44:32

ranch where she dropped her fake accent and claimed

44:34

to feel okay with who I am now,

44:37

but she was not being honest understandably

44:40

so in two thousand and eighteen, she released

44:42

an original song and gave a different view of her

44:44

experience that turnabout quote. I

44:46

was pretty it was pretty miserable. I did

44:48

not know what was going on in the real world. This place

44:50

was far away from anything. There wasn't even service

44:52

there, she says in the song. A couple of

44:55

weeks after being home, I finally decided

44:57

that I wanted to meet up with my best friend again, somebody

44:59

who was not good for me at all. Instantly

45:01

I'd say it was. The next day we got back to

45:03

doing our old shit again, smoking, trying

45:06

to finance people for money, just doing really,

45:09

really dumb shit. Her

45:11

reintegration into society was made all the

45:13

more difficult by the fact that when she returned

45:15

to school and the internet, she realized

45:17

rather suddenly that she'd gone viral for being

45:19

a ridiculous train wreck of a person on

45:22

a nationally syndicated TV program.

45:25

She claims that this basically made her decide

45:27

to quote lean into the bad behavior

45:29

that had made her famous. Once you've become

45:32

a meme, there are a lot of ways to get a clean

45:34

slate. There's no right to be

45:36

forgotten in the US, So why wouldn't

45:38

Burgoli just keep being the person everyone

45:40

already thought she was. This

45:43

gets to one of the things I think is worst about the

45:45

Doctor Phil show. It's one thing to shamelessly

45:47

milk the worst moments and the greatest shames in

45:49

the life of an adult. It's another thing, entirely

45:52

to do that to a child who has no real

45:54

way to understand the long term Yeah,

45:57

no way that she could have possibly understood

45:59

the law long term consequences of being coming

46:01

that kind of famous. It's completely

46:04

it's like violent every level, and it's

46:06

like whatever I mean, clearly, Doctor Bill

46:09

does not give a fun no, not a not a

46:11

third of a fuck. Yeah, but it is

46:13

and and it also I think like speaks to

46:16

how especially

46:18

for a kid, which is like that should

46:20

doing what he does to children should

46:23

be illegal should yes,

46:25

you should not be allowed to do ship like that. And

46:28

on top of that, it speaks to like how,

46:30

I don't know. It's like I remember that

46:32

clip when it first came out, and there

46:35

was no popular conversation about

46:37

like the well being of

46:39

the child who's clearly being exploited

46:41

by a multimillionaire,

46:44

and and it's and and and I see

46:47

that. I mean, it's when you're introduced in the public

46:49

that way, and you are coming from a place

46:52

of poverty, and you are not being

46:54

empowered at all or protected,

46:56

Like what are you supposed to

46:58

do? Like that miserable, cruel

47:01

situation to be put in, It's it's

47:05

fucked up. Yeah, now,

47:07

Jamie, that's all pretty bad, right.

47:10

Everything we've talked about happening to Brigolie is

47:12

bad. But to make matters worse, the

47:14

ranch Dr Phil sent her and a bunch

47:16

of other kids too was about as ethical

47:18

as oh, I don't know, the drug rehabilitation

47:21

treatment programs he was also sending kids to.

47:24

I'm going to quote again from BuzzFeed. It's

47:26

not clear if turnabout is actually helpful to the

47:28

kids or go who go, or if it's just another facility

47:31

that takes advantage of the miners who were sent there to

47:33

get better. Just last week, nineteen

47:35

year old Hannah archioletta suit

47:37

the school for an alleged sexual assault

47:39

that she said happened to her while she was staying at Turnabout

47:42

at just seventeen. This is likely

47:44

to be a high profile profile case too, with

47:46

Gloria Alread representing her Turnabout

47:48

administrators provided a statement to me saying

47:50

they took immediate action after Archiletta

47:53

claimed she had been assaulted, but that her father

47:55

removed her from the facility before we could conduct

47:57

a full inquiry. The statement continued,

48:00

we would never take lightly an allegation of his treatment

48:02

to any of our students. Now that this incident

48:04

is the subject of litigation, we must withhold our

48:06

full response for a later date. Now,

48:09

the owner of this ranch is Aspen

48:11

Education Group, which was then bought by

48:13

CRC, which is now owned by Acadia

48:16

Healthcare. In an email statement to BuzzFeed

48:18

News, Akadia's director of investor Relations,

48:20

Gretchen Hamrick, said, it is my understanding

48:23

that Turnabout Ranch and Aspen Educational

48:25

Group were closed or sold prior to a Kadia's

48:27

acquisition of CRC. Health. In any

48:29

event, Akadia never operated either of

48:31

the facilities. Turnabout has gone

48:33

through multiple owners, and since two thousand fourteen,

48:36

has been owned by current and former employees

48:38

of the ranch, but Aspen Education

48:40

has been accused of multiple infractions by

48:42

former attendees, including lawsuits that

48:45

claimed psychological torture, abuse,

48:47

sexual assault, and human trafficking. The

48:49

torture suit was dismissed, but CRC, the

48:52

owner of Aspen Education at the time, declined

48:54

to address specific allegations. Arcadia

48:57

did not answer our questions about these allegations

48:59

either. So just

49:01

not only like a bunch of people involved in this

49:03

have been alleged of things including human trafficking.

49:06

There's been sexual assault allegations at the ranch,

49:08

but it like goes there's revolving carousel

49:10

of owners because it's like a shady fucking

49:13

It's just like they're pumping a quick amount of cash at

49:15

and then selling it to somebody else. It's so fucking shady.

49:18

Sure, that's yeah, I'm sure that that's the intergirl

49:20

to it being able to survive at all, to

49:23

be constantly changing hands, that's I

49:25

mean, the whole team treatment industry. Like I've

49:27

done a number of art back when I was at Cracked, I did a number

49:29

of articles survivors of these facilities, like all

49:31

of these facilities are basically child molestation

49:34

factories, and like child abuse factories

49:36

in general, not always molestation. Sometimes

49:38

they just killed them from neglect. You know, there

49:41

was there was the good ones. That's

49:43

the point where like Harris Hilton made a

49:45

documentary about it last year. Yeah,

49:47

yeah, it's Paris Hilton and actually

49:49

Danielle Burgoli Bad Baby are involved right

49:51

now with going against Dr Phil about this exact

49:54

place. So it's very interesting that

49:58

it does. I don't know much about her always mentioned

50:00

but besides the stuff that was like famous

50:02

about how shitty she was fifteen twenty

50:05

years ago, but it seems like she's been doing some like

50:07

good socially responsible stuff lately,

50:09

Paris. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, it

50:12

seems like it seems like she has.

50:14

I mean, also, I'm like, I'm not I'm not

50:16

about to I'm not going to go to back for the stop

50:19

being poor lady, but yeah, right

50:22

right, right right, But but yeah, that

50:24

that specific instance, I'm glad

50:26

if you have wealth and prominence and you

50:28

use it to take a swing at the teen treatment industry,

50:31

that gets you a couple of points in my book, because

50:33

it's a fucking nightmare. Um,

50:35

maybe we'll do a deeper episode about it at

50:37

some point. But a lot of the allegations

50:39

that we just listed about this facility and

50:41

it's many owners pre date the

50:44

episodes of Dr Phil where he gave free

50:46

advertisements to the ranch. This

50:48

means that McGraw and his staff were well aware

50:51

of the allegations against Aspen and the ranch

50:53

when they sent children there. When questioned

50:55

about this, a spokesperson for the show said,

50:58

we're aware and we're monitoring things.

51:00

Since Archiletta went public with her allegations,

51:03

Burgoli has come forward with more detail about

51:05

her own experience. She now says

51:07

she was denied food at times and that camp

51:09

administrators often refused to let inmates

51:11

change their clothes for days on end. You're

51:15

yeah, and I that's my framing,

51:17

but yes, you're helpless. You can't

51:19

call your parents, you can't email your parents.

51:21

If the state says they have to give you two pebbles,

51:23

they're going to find the smallest fucking pebbles

51:25

to give you. That's supposed to help kids

51:28

get over trauma. I would have rather went

51:30

to jail, like I one

51:32

of the girls I talked to who did this when

51:34

she was like fourteen or fifteen. Like. One of the punishments

51:36

they gave her was she had to dig up the

51:39

stump of a mature tree on her own,

51:41

which if you've never had to remove a stump, it's

51:43

something like three to four large adult

51:46

men usually do with a fucking truck and power

51:48

tools. She just spent days in

51:50

a hundred and twenty degree heat, like slowly

51:53

dying as she tried to force the stump out

51:55

as a child, like these places are all nightmares.

51:58

Um Rogoli is, of

52:00

course, not the only teenager featured

52:02

on The Doctor Phil Show. BuzzFeed writers

52:05

Scotchy Cowell announces announced

52:07

Sorry, Scotchy, I don't know if I'm getting that right.

52:09

Um alleges that while McGraw is healthy

52:12

is happy to feature children of all genders,

52:14

he gets particularly aggressive with teenage

52:16

girls. Quote their most vulnerable

52:19

private moments, screaming and crying

52:21

at home, are used on the show until the very

52:23

end, when their parents decide to send them to turn

52:25

About. Every episode

52:27

of The Doctor Phil Show ends with an after

52:29

the taping segment where the kids find out they're

52:31

going to a ranch in the middle of nowhere and usually

52:34

cry, which is of course great television.

52:37

Most kids featured in this way do not get any

52:39

updates on the Doctor Phil show, or

52:41

at most mentioned briefly once more. Daytime

52:44

TV moves too fast for the doctor

52:46

to actually check back in with most of his patients.

52:50

In two thousand and eight, Doctor Phil spun off and

52:52

created a new show, The Doctors.

52:54

Every episode of this show features a plastic

52:56

surgeon, an obstetrician, and an e er doc

52:58

who talk about different health topics. Sounds

53:01

like it might be shop waiting

53:03

room classic. We're not going to go into a lot

53:05

of detail about this, but a two fourteen study

53:07

of the show determined that about thirty seven

53:09

percent of their recommendations were not credible,

53:12

which honestly means they're doing better

53:14

than I Yeah, I expected worse than

53:17

I expected. If you're a doctor, for

53:19

example, said thirty seven percent of the time

53:22

I'm going to give you bad advice, you would

53:24

find a new doctor there.

53:26

I was like, oh, d that's

53:28

not the worst thing. Yeah, imagine a mechanics

53:31

saying that, Yeah, thirty seven percent of the time the breaks

53:33

I put in work, you know your

53:35

odds are pretty good. Okay,

53:37

fair enough. I

53:40

thought it was like, there's no way they're somewhat

53:42

correct sixty percent of

53:44

the time. Why yes, and again somewhat

53:47

being the operative word. Sure, we could

53:49

go into a lot of other case studies have particularly

53:52

egregious guest choices, but going over all

53:54

these sad people in the will way Phil exploits

53:56

them at nauseum kind of runs the risk

53:58

of being sorrow porn it's self. I

54:01

do think it behooves us to look at one last

54:03

case study, perhaps the most nauseating

54:05

guest choice of the whole series. Twenty

54:08

four year old Gabby came on The Doctor

54:10

Phil Show in February. She

54:12

had promised to act as a surrogate womb

54:14

for two different couples. Gabby had

54:17

not taken any money from them, and she could

54:19

not bear children. She is infertile

54:21

and chronically ill. Her father claims

54:24

she has psychosis, bipolar disorder,

54:26

and learning disabilities. In the

54:28

show, it's revealed that Gabby's mom died

54:30

right around the time she started pretending to be

54:32

a surrogate, which was also a period where

54:35

she was the victim of constant bullying at school.

54:37

From BuzzFeed, quote her scam

54:40

wasn't illegal because Gavy never asked

54:42

for money or items from the couple she lied to.

54:44

It's just tragic, hurtful behavior

54:46

from someone deeply isolated and in

54:48

dire need of mental health care from multiple

54:51

past traumas. Most of the episode

54:53

focuses on the producers following Gabby

54:55

around backstage, begging her to come

54:57

on stage when she clearly doesn't want to. They

55:00

all her difficult and volatile, and though

55:02

she signed an appearance release, it's not clear

55:04

to the audience that she has read and understood

55:06

it. When a producer asks her on camera

55:08

to confirm she understands the waiver, she

55:10

doesn't respond and covers her face with

55:12

the pages of the release, but she's certainly

55:15

remorseful and seems to feel guilty. In

55:17

a pre taped interview, Gabby cries to the

55:19

producers, I just want to say

55:21

sorry to everyone that I've heard. When

55:24

she walks off the stage in anguish, McGraw

55:26

merely SIPs his water. In size, the

55:29

episode is near unwatchable. Yeah,

55:31

I mean that that doesn't sound like consent was

55:34

gained at all. I mean, there were so many red flags.

55:36

It doesn't sound like she's capable of consenting

55:39

to that. Yeah, I

55:41

don't even know what to think. I mean that entire

55:44

though, because I don't trust any of the information

55:46

that anyone is presenting in this in this

55:49

way. But that's just, I mean, very

55:51

clear, there is not an issue that should be handled handled

55:54

only

56:00

that is Yeah, that is just despicable.

56:02

So Doctor Jeff Sugar,

56:04

an assistant professor of clinical psychology

56:07

at USC, provided a description of the

56:09

Doctor Phil show that I think acts as as as

56:11

good a coda to this episode as anything.

56:13

Quote, it's a callous and inexcusable

56:16

exploitation. These people are barely

56:19

hanging on. It's like if one of them was drowning

56:21

and approaching a lifeboat and instead of throwing them

56:23

an inflatable donut, you throw them an anchor.

56:25

And that's Dr Philip. Baby, d Phil.

56:29

I am so upset

56:32

about, Like I just this was like one

56:34

of my like the toughest

56:36

lessons of all times, maybe because he's just still

56:38

such a real present public

56:41

disgrace and danger, but like, holy

56:44

sh it, I I can't even enjoy Dr

56:46

Phil Needs. I was gonna show you Dr Phil Needs. I'm

56:48

not gonna fuck

56:51

it, fuck it, fuck him. Put

56:53

him through a shredder. Put him through

56:55

a shredder, and you

56:57

at home, put yourself through a shredder.

57:00

But a good kind of shredder that

57:02

makes you helpful, life affirming

57:05

kind of shredder, you know, in a way, in

57:07

a way, every is that if it

57:09

is not just capitalism yourself friend,

57:13

Well with that, Jamie, I think it's time

57:15

for you to plug a plug double and get the

57:17

get the funk out of this zoom call and go live

57:19

your your goddamn life, Jamie, go live

57:22

your fucking life. You know I'm

57:25

dying to live my life. So you

57:27

can, just you can. You can listen to the podcast.

57:29

You can listen to the the Ecto Past, you listen to

57:31

the lead Up podcast, and can listen to my You're and Mensa,

57:33

and you can listen to my new show about Kathie Comics

57:36

that comes out in June. God damn it,

57:38

God damn it, and all

57:41

your this is miserable, damn

57:43

god yourself. Yeah it was,

57:45

Jamie, it

57:48

really was all right. Well,

57:51

fight the Internet life,