The Dr Suzette Glasner Podcast

Joe Rogan spent twenty minutes on Ozempic and GLP-1s recently. He said the drugs kill desire, that people fall out of love, that they treat addiction, that discipline alone would do the same job as the medication. Millions of listeners heard it as settled fact. Some of it holds up. Some of it doesn’t — and the gap between the two reveals a lot about how addiction, appetite, and reward actually wor...

In 2002, a twelve-year-old girl voiced one of the most beloved Disney characters of a generation. That same year, she terrified audiences in The Ring . Her name was Daveigh Chase, and for a moment, she was everywhere. Last month, she died in a Los Angeles hospital at 35 years old. The cause of death was sepsis — a bacterial infection that overwhelmed her body. She had been living near Skid Row, ma...

Is Cannabis Good for Depression and Anxiety? What the Science Actually Says. Millions of Americans use cannabis to manage anxiety and depression. Perceived risk is at an all-time low. And yet — the clinical evidence tells a very different story than the cultural narrative. In this episode, clinical psychologist and addiction scientist Dr. Suzette Glasner breaks down three recent studies that every...

When Howie Mandel was a guest on the Howard Stern Show, he had a panic attack triggered by a door handle. He couldn’t bring himself to touch it. He tried to get someone else to open it — and when no one would, the OCD diagnosis he’d kept secret for decades slipped out on live radio, in front of millions of listeners. He thought he was off the air. He wasn’t. What happened next surprised him. A str...

In this episode, Dr. Suzette Glasner examines a striking new finding from one of the largest health studies ever conducted: for the first time in recorded history, mental illness has become the leading cause of disability worldwide. Drawing on a major analysis published in The Lancet that tracked mental disorders across 204 countries from 1990 to 2023, Dr. Glasner explains what researchers found,...

The South Carolina Supreme Court just ordered a retrial in the Alex Murdaugh case — and the opioid defense his attorneys raised is about to get a second look. To be precise: the defense never claimed opioids made Murdaugh kill his wife and son. They claimed opioids made him lie to police in the aftermath. That’s a narrower argument, but from an addiction science standpoint, it’s actually the more...

Hayden Panettiere’s memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning , is out now. Inside, she describes a postpartum crisis that millions of mothers experience — but almost no one talks about how it’s connected to addiction. In this episode, addiction scientist and clinical psychologist Dr. Suzette Glasner unpacks what postpartum depression actually is, why it co-occurs with alcohol and substance use so often (an...

A 13-year-old in Sheffield asked her mother to add BuzzBallz to a New Year’s Eve shopping list last December. The mother — who runs a sobriety group for women — had never heard of them. Her daughter said, “All my friends are drinking them.” Today, BuzzBallz are a $500 million brand. The colorful, 15% ABV cocktails in plastic balls are the second-fastest-growing prepared cocktail brand in America,...

For most of the past decade, the conversation about phone and social media addiction has been stuck at a single question: is this real? In March, a California jury answered it. They found Meta and Google liable for designing addictive social media platforms that harmed a young user — the first time at this scale that the companies were ruled responsible for the addictive design choices baked into...

Most of the coverage of the looksmaxxing trend has framed it as a viral aesthetic phenomenon. From the perspective of clinical psychologist and addiction scientist Dr. Suzette Glasner, it looks like something else: the convergence of two clinical pictures — body dysmorphic disorder and stimulant use disorder — repackaged in the language of self-optimization and delivered to adolescent boys at scal...

When Joe Rogan recently called Ibogaine a near-miraculous cure for opioid addiction — and the White House announced it would accelerate federal research into psychedelic medicines including Ibogaine — a powerful narrative took hold: one dose, addiction gone. The viral statistic? An 80% cure rate. But what does the research actually say? In this episode, addiction scientist and clinical psychologis...

In this episode, Dr. Suzette Glasner explores a rapidly emerging question: could medications like Ozempic and Wegovy do more than support weight loss—and actually reduce cravings for alcohol and other substances? The conversation is sparked by Oprah Winfrey’s recent reflection that after starting a GLP-1 medication, she lost her desire to drink alcohol—without trying. Drawing on the latest researc...

We’re seeing more attention problems than ever—especially in kids. But what if it’s not always ADHD? And what if our smartphones are playing a bigger role than we think? In this episode, Dr. Suzette Glasner explores the growing conversation around ADHD—highlighted in part by Mel Robbins’ reflections on the nuances of diagnosis, especially in girls — and examines an often overlooked question: What...

Has Tiger Woods finally hit rock bottom — or is that the wrong question entirely? In this episode, I examine Tiger Woods’ latest DUI arrest and crash through the lens of addiction science. Despite access to world-class care, financial resources, and global support, Woods continues to struggle with a pattern of substance use and high-risk behavior — raising important questions about how addiction a...

Sugary drinks are back in the spotlight, with renewed national attention on the health risks of added sugar. But while much of the conversation—highlighted recently by RFK Jr.—has focused on obesity, diabetes, and metabolic health, there may be an important piece we’re overlooking. In this episode, Dr. Glasner explores the growing evidence linking sugar-sweetened beverages to mental health outcome...

We tend to think of digital experiences as tools, entertainment, or care. But AI companions are starting to blur those boundaries. Some users aren’t just interacting with them—they’re forming attachments. In some cases, romantic relationships. Connections that feel responsive, personalized, and emotionally meaningful. What’s driving that shift? In this episode, addiction scientist and clinical psy...

When someone we love disappears, grief becomes trapped between hope and despair. But ambiguous loss also occurs when addiction or illness changes someone we love. Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, was abducted more than a month ago — a tragedy that has captured national attention and stirred a powerful emotional response from people who have never met the family. Why do stories like this a...

Bipolar disorder can bring periods of severe depression, hopelessness, and suicidal thoughts. In this episode, Dr. Glasner reflects on a powerful conversation with Emmy Award–winning actor Maurice Benard about living with bipolar disorder and how people can find hope during their darkest moments. What does it feel like to live through the darkest moments of bipolar disorder — and choose to keep go...

In a widely viewed conversation several years ago, Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson discussed Peterson’s experience with benzodiazepine dependence and withdrawal. The exchange brought significant public attention to the challenges some individuals face when discontinuing medications like Xanax. But how closely did that conversation align with clinical evidence? In this episode, clinical psychologist...

In this in-depth conversation, Aaron Prager — son of Dennis Prager and host of American Recovery on PragerU — joins addiction scientist and clinical psychologist Dr. Suzette Glasner to share his most detailed account yet of his struggle with severe addiction and the transformation that followed. Aaron reflects on how addiction to alcohol and methamphetamine progressively took hold of his life, ero...

In this episode, Dr. Suzette Glasner addresses the core question that will be evaluated by the jury in the Los Angeles-based case initiating trial proceedings against defendants Meta and Google : are the features of social media apps designed to get kids and teens hooked? The case involves an individual identified by the initials "K.G.M." who is now a young adult, alleging that she became addicted...

In this episode, Dr. Suzette Glasner responds to actress and filmmaker Natasha Lyonne’s recent public statement about having relapsed after more than 10 years in addiction recovery. Lyonne, who has a history of addiction to opioids, stimulants, and alcohol, took to social media to share reflections about the slip with her fans, which was met with an outpouring of support. You can watch or listen t...

Addiction scientist and clinical psychologist Dr. Suzette Glasner sits down with Bill Smith, Founder and CEO of Inseparable, to examine the most urgent gaps in today’s mental health care system. Bill Smith leads Inseparable, a national nonprofit advancing bipartisan mental health policy reforms at both the state and federal levels to make high-quality mental health care accessible to all. Since fo...

In this episode, Dr. Suzette Glasner brings discusses Alan Jackson’s withdrawal from the Nick Reiner case and the future of his defense strategy with private attorney and former public defender Nathan Lockwood, whose work focuses on serious violent offenses including homicides. Upon his withdrawal from the case, Alan Jackson made a public statement indicating that “pursuant to the law in Californi...

In this episode, Dr. Suzette Glasner brings forensic psychological research on characteristics of homicide offenders who are found not guilty by reason of insanity - side-by-side with the psychological profile of Nick Reiner, who has been charged with first degree murder in the tragic double homicide case of his parents, Rob and Michele Singer Reiner. News headlines have been speculative around Ni...