Drew Pinsky


David Drew Pinsky, commonly known as Dr. Drew, is an American media personality and internist, addiction medicine specialist. He hosted the nationally syndicated radio talk show Loveline from the show's inception in 1984 until its end in 2016. On television, he hosted the talk show Dr. Drew On Call on HLN and the daytime series Lifechangers on The CW. In addition, he served as producer and starred in the VH1 show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, and its spinoffs Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew, Celebrity Rehab Presents Sober House. Pinsky currently hosts several podcasts, including The Dr. Drew Podcast, This Life with Dr. Drew, Dr. Drew After Dark on the Your Mom's House network, and The Adam and Drew Show with his former Loveline co-host Adam Carolla.
Pinsky is a former staff member at the Department of Chemical Dependency Services at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, California, and Huntington Memorial Hospital. He currently maintains a private internal medicine practice in South Pasadena.

Early life

Pinsky was born to a Jewish family in Pasadena, California. His father, Morton Pinsky, was a physician whose parents emigrated from Ukraine. His mother, Helene Stanton, was a singer and actress who came from a "highly Victorian upper-middle-class family in Philadelphia". Pinsky attended Polytechnic School. He majored in biology at Amherst College, graduating in 1980, and earned his M.D. at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in 1984. He served his residency in internal medicine at USC County Hospital and became chief resident at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, and later moved into private practice.

Career

As The New York Times described it in February 2008, Pinsky's dual career in medicine and the mass media has required him to "navigat a precarious balance of professionalism and salaciousness."

Radio work

In 1984, while still a medical student, Pinsky started appearing in "Ask a Surgeon", a segment of a Sunday night KROQ-FM show hosted by Jim "Poorman" Trenton and "Swedish" Egil Aalvik. "Ask the Surgeon" soon combined with "Loveline", another Sunday night segment, into a show of its own, co-hosted by Trenton and Pinsky.
Loveline went national in 1995, and the television version launched on MTV the following year, hosted by Pinsky and Adam Carolla. The exposure on both radio and television made Pinsky the "Gen-X answer to Ruth Westheimer, with an AIDS-era, pro-safe-sex message." The MTV show ran for four years, while the radio show continued until April 2016 with cohost Mike Catherwood.
On November 27, 2007, Pinsky began Dr. Drew Live, another nationally syndicated talk radio show where he focused on a wider range of health issues. It originated from KGIL in Los Angeles, originally airing weekdays from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm PT The show was canceled in December 2008.
On January 5, 2015, Pinsky launched a new weekday program, "Dr. Drew Midday Live with Mike Catherwood," on KABC in Los Angeles. Leeann Tweeden became the co-host of the show starting on January 7, 2019.
On April 21, 2016, Pinsky announced Loveline would wrap up on April 28, 2016. Adam Carolla re-joined him as co-host for the final show.

Television

Pinsky's first television appearance was as a contestant on Wheel of Fortune in 1984, though he did not win. He also served as "health and human relations expert" on the first season of the U.S. TV series Big Brother in 2000.
He has also hosted several shorter educational television series, starting with Strictly Sex with Dr. Drew, which ran for 10 episodes on the Discovery Health Channel, followed by Strictly Dr. Drew which addressed everyday health issues. He later hosted the MTV series Sex...with Mom and Dad.
In 2008, Pinsky starred in Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, a reality television show which involves celebrities in a drug rehabilitation facility. The show was filmed at Pasadena Recovery Center, with Pinsky serving as the resident medical expert. The series premiered January 10, 2008 on VH-1, and has been renewed for multiple seasons. A follow-up show to Celebrity Rehab with many of the same celebrities was Sober House, which began its first season in January 2009, and included celebrities from the first two seasons of Celebrity Rehab continuing their recovery in a sober living facility. In November 2009, Pinsky starred in a spinoff of Celebrity Rehab, Sex Rehab with Dr.Drew, which depicted celebrities being treated for sexual addiction over the course of three weeks at the Pasadena Recovery Center.
Pinsky makes guest appearances on various news programs where he usually gives his observations on the relationship between controlled substances and high-profile individuals. He has frequently given his views on the deaths of people such as Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson, arguing that their fates should set examples of the seriousness of misusing drugs.
Pinsky has acted in several TV appearances, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Dawson's Creek, Family Guy. The Adam Carolla Project, Minoriteam, Robot Chicken, My Gym Partner's a Monkey,, Code Monkeys, and The Midnight Gospel. Pinsky also appeared in the films New York Minute and Wild Hogs.
In early 2011, Pinsky began hosting his own show, Dr. Drew On Call on HLN that focuses on news involving health and addiction topics. On August 26, 2016, HLN and Pinsky announced that the show's last episode would be September 22 of that year.
On October 9, 2019, he was revealed to be the Eagle on The Masked Singer

Views on COVID-19

Between February to Mar 2020, Drew made a series of statements concerning the COVID-19 outbreak where he downplayed the seriousness of the pandemic, stating that it was not as bad as the flu, and suggested that it was a "press-induced panic". A 5-minute compilation of the statements was posted by DroopsDr on YouTube, but was temporarily taken down "due to a copyright claim by Drew Pinsky Inc." The video was later re-instated after several attorneys and many others defended DroopsDr.
Drew subsequently apologized and urged people to follow the advice of Anthony Fauci.

Other work

In 1999, Pinsky co-founded an Internet-based community and advice site for teenagers called DrDrew.com with Curtis Giesen. Among their early backers was Garage.com. DrDrew.com soon ran out of funding, and the company was sold to Sherwood Partners Inc., a corporate restructuring firm, which sold the remnants to DrKoop.com in November 2000. Pinsky re-acquired the site circa 2013 and began using it for general information about his books, radio and TV shows, as well as hosting his independent podcast, The Dr. Drew Podcast. In September 2012, Pinsky announced on The Adam Carolla Show that he will be doing a podcast on the Carolla Digital network.
In 2003, Pinsky authored , recounting his experiences as the medical director of the Department of Chemical Dependency Services at the Las Encinas Hospital drug rehabilitation clinic in Pasadena, California. He also contributed to the book When Painkillers Become Dangerous: What Everyone Needs to Know About OxyContin and Other Prescription Drugs, published in 2004.
In addition to his media appearances, Pinsky speaks at college campuses and other public venues. When Adam Carolla and Pinsky were teamed as hosts of Loveline, Carolla and Pinsky spoke at colleges.
Pinsky was the voice of 1-800-GET-THIN, advocating lap band surgery on radio ads and in a recording played for those who called 1-800-GET-THIN.
He also appeared with his dogs in a PETA ad campaign promoting the spaying and neutering of pets.
Pinsky also narrated for the 2014 documentary "Divorce Corp" and "Teen Species".
In early 2019, Pinsky started an online podcast "Dr Drew after Dark”. The podcast is hosted at Tom Segura's studio "Studio Jeans".
Pinsky was featured in the first episode Netflix series "The Midnight Gospel".

Honors

is named in his honor.
Pinsky was honored with the Larry Stewart Leadership and Inspiration Award at the 12th Annual PRISM Awards in 2008.

Personal life

Pinsky married on July 21, 1991, and he and his wife, Susan Sailer, had triplets Douglas, Jordan, and Paulina in November 1992.
Pinsky lives in Pasadena, California. Interested in fitness since his early teens, he goes running and does weight training regularly. In addition to his hobby of traveling, he also enjoys singing opera, as his mother was a professional singer. Pinsky stated on the June 24, 2009, episode of Loveline that at one point, he was torn between practicing medicine and becoming a professional opera singer. Pinsky stated that he auditioned for a celebrity singing show, but that the show passed on his appearance when he made it clear to producers that he could not sing pop songs but did perform an aria on Turn Ben Stein On.
Pinsky's father, Morton, died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage on October 27, 2009. A title card at the end of the season 3 finale of Celebrity Rehab dedicated the episode to him. Pinsky's mother, Helene, died on June 7, 2017, at age 91.
Pinsky is a nonobservant Jew; he admits to abandoning most Jewish practices but claims to retain a continued desire to learn about the religion. He explains that religious as well as philosophical studies affect his medical practice and his speeches, and that his background places "an indirect coloring on every answer."
In September 2013, Pinsky revealed that he had recovered from prostate cancer surgery performed earlier that June and July, after which Pinsky did not require chemotherapy or radiation.
In a 2011 interview on Kevin and Bean, Pinsky stated he would speak to any media outlet including TMZ and The National Enquirer but would not speak to the Los Angeles Times, explaining "They distort, and they mislead, and they take things out of context. I really am stunned at how shoddy their journalism is, so I stopped talking to them."
Politically, Pinsky has increasingly spoken of the 'tyranny' of governmental overreach and the need for a “Liberty Party.”

Filmography

Notable productions in which Pinsky has appeared include:
Film
Television

Journal publications

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