Dr. Carole's Couch

Today's show looks at two men with troubled beginnings who became polar opposites: one a mass murderer and one a scientific advisor to presidents. The murderer was Devin Patrick Kelley, who made headlines for shooting up a Texas church. The scientist is Mark Kingston Levin. Both came from dysfunctional homes and showed signs of trouble from an early age. But, Devin fell through the cracks and mani...

The opioid epidemic is staggering! Opioid overdose deaths soared to over 200 percent since 2000, and at least 91 Americans die each day from an opioid OD! No wonder President Trump just declared it a public health emergency. Today's guests, Dr. Alexis Carayannopoulos and Dr. Joseph Audette, are top addiction and pain medicine experts. We follow them into the complex world of painkillers, patients,...

Dr. Carole rants at today's headlines and urges you not to be lemmings and accept fake news or no news-which seem to be our only choices these days. She puts the three top news stories on her couch and analyzes them for you-berating the 'authorities' and media for what they're not telling us about them. First, she takes the lid off the group of therapists who are using their credentials to promote...

What a paradox: we are surrounded by death in the news every day - from terrorism to natural disasters to contagious diseases - yet it is the last topic we want to think about. Get ready for some gallows humor on today's show, as Gail Rubin shares her story about how she became The Doyenne of Death and how she helps people overcome the taboo. Her journey began in college when she satirized Ingmar...

What made Stephen Paddock become the perpetrator of the largest mass shooting in American history? Was he following in the footsteps of his dad, a notorious bank robber and prison escapee on the FBI Most Wanted List, who was labeled psychopathic with suicidal tendencies? Was he desperate because of mounting gambling debts? Was he a political fanatic trying to kill Republicans, who he assumed would...

What happens to kids who are abused or neglected? They end up with mental illnesses, dropping out of school, sometimes in foster home placement, not getting the psychiatric treatment they need, and ending up in prison. Indeed a new study reveals that over half of the inmates in U.S. prisons have a mental illness with roots in childhood. Today's guests are proof! They urge society to wake up and st...

Today, Dr. Carole gives her listeners a sneak preview of her upcoming book: LIONS and TIGERS and TERRORISTS, OH MY! How to Protect Your Child in a Time of Terror, before it is launched in NYC in time for 9/11. Why haven't parents and teachers been talking to their kids about terrorism? Why do they need to? How is terrorism like sex? (Hint: both are taboo topics that make parents uncomfortable.) Wh...

Today's show takes you behind the scenes and into the life of the number one Donald Trump impersonator in the world: John Di Domenico. Find out what made him grow up to want to become an impersonator and how the fates conspired to make him a Trump impersonator - from the time Trump was a celebrity businessman to host of The Apprentice to candidate for president - and now as The President. But, imp...

If you've ever been in a custody battle, you've likely been stunned and disturbed by the primal feelings it brought up inside of you-the rage towards the other parent trying to steal your child. And if you've never been in a custody battle, you've surely seen the headlines about parents kidnapping-or even killing-their child to prevent the other parent from getting custody. Just recently, a South...

It used to be so easy: pink for girls and blue for boys - and girls will be girls and boys will be boys was a common saying. Now it's yellow for non binaries? These days, too many parents think they're being cool and trendy to encourage their girls to be boys and boys to be girls. The result? A very confused generation. Today's guest, Michelle Cretella, M.D., President of the American College of P...

The statistics are staggering! Did you know studies show that the older kids get, the more likely they are to stop reading? Why is this important? Because books are the foundation of kids' intellectual and emotional development! The books kids read influence them to choose a career, develop a love of animals, cope with childhood traumas like bullying and many other magical things. Today's guest, L...

Celebs feel lost once they've fallen out of the spotlight, so many turn to self-destructive behaviors. But, today's guest, George Green, is the epitome of reinvention and how to shine in other spotlights. For years, he worked at KABC Talk Radio, including as President and General Manager, putting his station on the map as the first 24/7 all talk radio--until a new company took over KABC and brough...

Today's guest is living proof that it is never too late to turn your life around. Julie D. Summers, author of an upcoming memoir, OFF MY KNEES: From Skid Row to Sunset Boulevard, has seen it all. With a troubled and unavailable mom, who sends her off as a teen with a man who rapes her, and a dad who died when she was 12, Julie was left to fend for herself. An unwed mom at 18, persuaded to give her...

Do you want to live like a millionaire, but feel stuck in a barely-making-ends-meet job? Then today's show is for you. Marilyn Anderson, author of the new book, How to Live Like a Millionaire When You're a Million Short, has figured it all out and put it together on a silver platter just for you. Marilyn is the embodiment of the adage: necessity is the mother of invention. Not a millionaire hersel...

Got stress? Who doesn't? Whether it's finding a soulmate in this crazy online dating world, worrying about family, friends or finances, or about terrorism and other chaos in the world, we are stressed to the max these days. Today's guest, Pamela Robins, author of Meditating with Animals, has the answer. After being faced with a relentless series of major life challenges, including the death of her...

Has Pope Francis changed role of the papacy to be more political than religious? Does this hurt devout Catholics? According to today's guest, George Neumayr, the answer is a worrisome Yes. And, as a Catholic who loves the church, he wrote his new book, The Political Pope: How Pope Francis Is Delighting the Liberal Left and Abandoning Conservatives, to awaken the church to the danger. This book is...

Today's guest, Fiona Lewis, has just released a most charming memoir, Mistake Were Made (Some in French). Although she's had a glamorous life as a model, actress and writer who has traveled the world, all women will identify with the personal conundrums she lays bare. And men will be intrigued. Struggling to find her identity, she is unconsciously drawn back to the South of France, the site of her...

Doctors are dropping like flies these days. Indeed, at least one doctor commits suicide every single day in America! And these are more likely the better doctors - those who have become depressed and disillusioned by the changes in medicine that have turned them into hamsters on a treadmill-to-nowhere but burnout! Today's guest, Michael F Myers, M.D., a 'doctor's doctor', has devoted himself to pr...

In honor of May being Mental Health Awareness month, today's show features Allison Kugel, author of the newly released book Journaling Fame: A Memoir of a Life Unhinged and on the Record. Allison is a celebrity journalist who has interviewed more than 200 stars, from the Kardashians to Kristin Chenoweth, Stan Lee to Soprano's Joe Pantoliano, Melissa Rivers to many more. Allison speaks of her doubl...

Before dating websites and apps searched for happily-ever-after's, singles looking for 'the one' knew that real life matchmakers could be their best chance at finding love. This goes back to the 1940's when matchmaking businesses started to pop up. Today's guest, Penrose Halson, is the author of The Marriage Bureau: The True Story of How Two Matchmakers Arranged Love in Wartime London. In 1939, wi...

On the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day, it is important that people remember that the Holocaust is not just a horrid historical event from the past, but something that is still very much 'present' for victims and their families. Today's guests exemplify this presence. Leonia Kallir Kurgan is a Holocaust survivor who, at 4 years old, barely escaped from Poland, as the Nazis searched for and m...

Dr. Carole puts today's headlines on her couch and analyzes what lurks behind them. Since the world is getting crazier each day, she provides you with an oasis of sanity by giving her psychological perspective on the news of the day. Dr. Carole takes you deeper into the stories, illuminating what makes these people and their situations tick. Today, she goes inside the mind of three top newsmakers:...

Political Correctness is not only stifling the American spirit, it is trying to take away our first amendment rights. And today's guest, Dr. Dathan Paterno, is a chilling example. Dr. Paterno, a clinical psychologist, was faced with being fired from the school board, having his license revoked and received death threats... all over a few tweets about the Women's March that some found offensive. Th...

Do you ever feel your problems are insurmountable? Well, today's guest, Janine Shepherd, author of DEFIANT: A Broken Body Is Not A Broken Person, will inspire you to never give up. Her memoir chronicles her remarkable life as an Australian elite ski racer, known as "Janine the Machine," who was hit by a truck during a bicycle ride in the Blue Mountains of Australia, just before competing in the Ca...

With the world so on edge, there are undoubtedly more people contemplating suicide these days, so this episode explores: what could make a person feel that they can no longer go on living? Why would someone think that ending their life is the only option? Today's guest, Adele Paula Royce, author of The Little Black Book of Suicide Notes, presents a 'semi-fictional' look inside the mind and heart o...