Ted Balaker
Appearances
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
Yeah, I'm just agreeing with you, Dr. Giroir. It's so infuriating. I hope and pray that COVID is the last of it. I don't know. I think... our public health intelligentsia probably can sink to even deeper depths. So I don't have much confidence in them. But I think it's such a boomerang effect there because you're exactly right that we shouldn't have safety uber alice.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
And not only does it make you miserable, but it actually contributes directly to what we're seeing sky-high and record levels of anxiety and depression among Gen Z because of all this overprotection, because of all the coddling.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
So the cruel and great irony is that all these parents, administrators, and other coddlers think that they're helping their kids, they're keeping them safe, but then when they turn 20 and they can't deal with the world and they're scared of everything and they have anxiety and depression,
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
And it's kind of too late at that point to turn back the clock and to realize that, unfortunately, they all made a big mistake by overprotecting kids rather than letting them scrape their knee, letting them fall down, and being the snowplow parents to make sure everything is pristine for little Johnny and Susie as they walk through life.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
It seems in the moment like the right thing to do because we as parents are scared. And like Courtney, I feel that. as well. But we have to kind of get over it because we can't just be so focused on the here and now. We have to think about what our kids are going to be like 10, 20 years down the line.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
Well, if you care about the future of the next generation and following generations, you should see it. If you care about free expression, you should see it. If you care about ending this obsession with victimhood culture, you should see it. If you care about ending this obsession with dividing people on the basis of race, sex, and other immutable characteristics into two buckets,
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
victims and oppressors, you should see the movie. And frankly, if you want to have a good laugh, you should see the movie. I can guarantee that it's the funniest movie about anxiety, depression, and suicide you'll ever see.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
Everything is at thecoddlingmovie.com so you can find out all the information there. You can also just check it out at Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play. You can watch it on Substack and also subscribe and join us in our ongoing journey with The Coddling Movie. So there are a bunch of ways to see it. But again, thecoddlingmovie.com is your one-stop shop for all things Coddling Movie.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
Yeah, we've had some of it. I'm happy to report that overwhelmingly it's been positive. Steven Pinker at Harvard invited us there. He loves the movie. We've had Michael Smirconish of CNN loves the movie. And really the most heartening responses come from Jennifer. Gen Zers and their parents, they tell us things like, I'm stronger than I was told. We need to tell kids more stuff like this.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
And we shouldn't be afraid of free speech. So we're now embarked on this global tour where we've been in five countries, more than 50 countries. And the students, by and large, are really responding positively. The administrators and professors, and sometimes when you get the DEI professionals there, the people who tend to get upset with us at Q&A. We had our posters torn down at Cornell.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
You know, the Canadian University, they asked us if, you know, making this movie itself was an act of privilege. And you kind of have to deconstruct. Sometimes you almost need a translator to figure out what the questions are because it's so laden with jargon. And it's like, how would making a movie be an act of privilege? But I've kind of learned that language enough where I can respond.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
But by and large, I'm happy to say the response has been very, very positive.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
Yeah, one person... Take a deep breath, yeah.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
Well, yeah, well, for the movie, we need to get the word out. It's not just people in Q&As who want to shut the movie down. We've had lots of experience with the Hollywood monoculture. I write about that a lot on our sub stack. So number one is just to spread the word, get more people to watch it. We'd love to get into college campuses as part of the curricula. or as freshman orientation.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
We had one young man at UCLA who went to a DEI training in the morning and then in the evening went to a coddling screening. And we'd love to replicate that throughout the land.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
Actually, probably Substack is the best way to go. We're most active there.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
Sounds great. Thanks so much, Dr. Drew. Thank you so much, Dr. Drew.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
Thanks for having us, Dr. Drew. Thank you for having us.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
And the textures of Red Ted. Oh, I was just going to add, I'm actually reading the book together with our 10-year-old son. He loves it. I mean, I wouldn't necessarily recommend that to other parents because there's some spicy bits in there, as you know, Dr. Drew. So I read it ahead of time, and so I kind of know what to skip over. But he just connects with it, and we're almost finished with it.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
He loves it. So we're very, very keen on this project.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
I can do that. We have known Greg for a lot of years. And so when I first read the book, I was like, wow, this is an exciting book. It's so great. And then about two thirds of the way through, he opens up about his own struggle with depression and his brush with suicide. He goes into very graphic detail about going to the hardware store and picking up plastic bags and all sorts of
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
uh supplies that he he would need to end his life and so when i finished the book courtney and i talked about it we were kind of shaken because greg is this guy who runs a very big uh successful non-profit called fire foundation for individual rights and expression um he's uh very brilliant lawyer. He's a guy who kind of seems like he has his act together.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
And Courtney and I were discussing, we think probably a lot of people have friends like that, where on the outside, it looks like everything is great. And you just don't know the demons that they're struggling with from day to day. So it was that coupled with the fact that the Gen Z mental health crisis really is one of the biggest biggest, most important issues of our time.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
It could literally wipe out an entire generation. And I'm usually on the other side telling people not to panic about things. But every once in a while, there is cause for alarm. And the third big reason is our 10-year-old son. I mentioned him earlier. We just recently learned that he's in Gen Alpha.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
And it's important for us, for all of us parents, to turn things around for not just Gen Z, but for our son's generation, Gen Alpha, and then the ones after that.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
Yeah, you're exactly right, Dr. Drew. And I'm feeling myself getting angry all over again, thinking about those milk and cookies at Georgetown, especially because we've been through this. It happened when Trump got elected the first time. In fact, a young woman named Kimmy in our movie goes through how she literally thought she was gonna die when Trump first got elected.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
But the saga of the coddling has been going on for almost a decade now. I mean, John and Greg's book was based on an Atlantic cover story that came out in 2015. It got a massive amount of attention. And all these administrators at universities, they see the Gen Z mental health crisis up close every day. They cannot not know about the crisis. And yet, as you point out, they continue to coddle.
Ask Dr. Drew
How The Coddled Generation Is Being Set Up To Fail w/ Courtney & Ted Balaker (Producers of “The Coddling Of The American Mind”) + Lionel – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 430
They think they're making things better, but they're making things worse. When you coddle somebody, when you overprotect them, you are telling them something. that they are weak, that they cannot handle the struggle, that only increases anxiety and depression. It's a brilliant way to make young people miserable. And it's a national scandal. It's time that they recognize that and turn it around.