Dr. Lisa Gives A Sh*t

I've known John as a fellow host from 2015, so when he expressed interest in being on my show, I invited him right away. He's a serious music business guy and I was thrilled to be able to get to know him. John is a father of a 12 year old boy who is deep into SHOW music and OPERA. We do a deep dive and find out how the love of music has translated through generations of Rasos. John's show, This Music Hour is live every Monday at 5pm on Radio Free Brooklyn. More about John Raso John has been a denizen of NYC rock shows since he convinced his older sister to take him along to first rock show at the age of 8. This experience eventually lead to a career in the music industry doing publicity and marketing for labels including SST and Atlantic Records as well as a stint at LiveNation. Today, John is an executive at music rights administrator, The Harry Fox Agency. Four decades later, he still believes that a week without live music is just not a week worth having.

Emily Flake is a hugely successful New Yorker cartoonist, MOTHER, wife and so much more. She is inspiring but in the best most real way. She breaks down motherhood for me in a manageable way. Emily Flake began cartooning for The New Yorker in 2008 and has had more than a hundred cartoons published in the magazine since. Her cartoons, essays, and illustrations have also appeared in Mad, the New York Times, the New Statesman, the Wall Street Journal, the Globe and Mail, and in many other publications. Her most recent book is “That Was Awkward: The Art and Etiquette of the Awkward Hug.” More about Emily HERE: https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/emily-flake

A close friend of mine, artist Sharilyn Neidhardt was describing watching the debates with her parents while visiting them at home in California, so I knew they were Trump voters AND nice people. In the spirit of we all need to understand each other better, Carole generously agreed to come on the show and have a frank, honest discussion about the president, how she feels about voting for him....the insurrection, you name it. I think we got a lot done!

Marielina is a New York native, LaGuardia School graduate and accomplished actress. Likely you've seen her on TV. Marilena is the only child of a doctor (dad) and a trained nurse (mom) whose high level job involved running a hospital. The emotional machinations that Maralina has gone through with her parents, her mom in particular, (her dad died when she was 9) has likely contributed to her skills and success as an actress. The circumstances around her mom are emotionally confusing—I don't want to say more here as it would be out of context, but it is uplifting to hear how Marilena has negotiated her life to have a successful career and marriage. More about Marilena HERE.

This is the third year in a row that Ben has been my first guest of the year. Ben is 30 now, and if you follow Ben's story, this year is a triumph! Through hard work and going back to school, Ben has taken his beginnings as a volunteer at Radio Free Brooklyn 3 years ago to a dream job at Sirius XM. Recently, Ben was actually one of 4 people from Sirius to be on a Zoom with LL Cool J! Although personally I am sad to have seen Ben leave RFB for a great career move, I am secretly proud and THRILLED. But that's not all, Ben has improved his relationship with his family and "the ladies." Ben is in a healthy, supportive relationship which he is very satisfied and happy in. It is nice, (inspiring, really!) to see someone progress in their life in such a positive way, through their own honest hard work and efforts, But let's not get too idealistic here—he was late in getting our management reports filed a few times. If you're interested in a deep dive on Ben's up's and down's (our first episode includes a break-up),

I have been a long time fan of Guy Richards Smit and his work, so I was thrilled when he asked for a therapy session on my show. Guy has a myriad of talents and accomplishments which range from painting to music to comedy to performance. How does he even focus on one thing—or does he really want to? We dig into Guy's childhood and there is a really complex person in there. We discuss his most recent monograph, A Mountain of Skulls (and Not One I Recognize) Available HERE. More about Guy and his work HERE.

Jeanette is a professionally UCB, Second City, trained improvisor/comedian, etc. She met her husband when she was living in Chicago and moved to Los Angeles 2.5 years ago, to pursue comedy et al. She was getting going and then the pandemic hit. The pandemic has made all of us rethink a lot, but for Jeanette the situation has moved her into other areas of performing that are satisfying for her, including writing, producing and performing in this one: Livin' Notoriously Notorious RBG. In this therapy session, Jeanette reviews her thinking about why she moved to L.A., what that's been like and why she is seriously thinking of moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Check out more about Jeanette and her work here.

Anthony Haden-Guest (episode DLG249), author of The Last Party, email introduced to Myra Scheer—Myra was Steve Rubell’s assistant during his explosive years running the club that changed nightlife forever, Studio 54. Therefore, she had a front row seat. Myra talks about her growing up in Georgia and what motivated her to come to New York where she found her way into one of the most crazy and glamorous scenes in history. I talked with her about the feeling of what made "Studio" a moment in time. Myra has seen a lot but is not a bit jaded. She has a Sirius XM Radio show with Marc Beneke, the doorman/gatekeeper there:  Among other things, she is also devoted to working with The Felix Organization—a brilliant organization that helps children in foster care. Personally, I became interested in Studio 54 at this time because of a project I did in 1978. After experiencing my own rejection at the club, I made and sold Studio 54 REJECT t-shirts to the “rejects” outside of Studio 54. When I found out the Brooklyn Museum

In case you live in a part of the world with no news coverage, on October 3, 2020, Radio Free Brooklyn erected the “Wall of Lies,” a 50-foot by 10-foot outdoor mural with the 20,000+ lies told by Donald Trump (so far) while in office, documented and fact-checked by The Washington Post. The project was conceived and executed by RFB Executive Director Tom Tenney and Bushwick artist Phil Buehler. I know Tom Tenney (our RFB station Executive Director) and Phil Buehler (my very own husband) all too well, so when I did this session with them to unpack the process of them collaborating together and how they felt/managed the global coverage, positive results, and just the logistics of this extraordinary project, I was personally invested in finding out how they seemingly worked so well together. Turns out they really were a well-matched team that worked well without any of the friction I've experienced working with each of them separately. So the common denominator there is me-hmmm.

I don't usually talk about my own work that much, but I besides hosting this spectacular radio show I also have a visual art career! I have been showing my text painting series, The Thoughts in My Head for the past few years at a terrific gallery, VSOP Projects. The gallery owner/director is one of the best—Jonathan Weiskopf. The exhibition at the gallery currently is 4 solo shows, each in individual rooms. Fearing that I was the most neurotic of the group, I thought it would be fascinating to talk with the other artists making their shows at the same time to find out what each of their experiences were. I'll break it down for you: Chiaozzo—That's Terri Chiao and Adam Frezza. They are a couple that have a large, professional grade studio practice. Like creating store windows around the world for Hermès professional. As Dr. Lisa, I've decided they have it all, a great marriage/art collaboration, a beautiful child that goes to the studio everywhere with them and a highly successful art practice. Plus—they're SO

Kalup Linzy Is a genuine famous artist with his work in the collections of MoMA, The Whitney, Met, Studio Museum of Harlem, a teaching gig at Harvard as well as a Kalup's’ personal dream come true: his guest appearance on General Hospital, arranged by an admirer his admirer, collaborator, and fellow actor on the show, James Franco. I had the good fortune of meeting Kalup at the recent Satellite Art Fair. The more research I did about Kalup, I became curious about how someone from a tiny town without even a movie theater, let alone an art gallery or museum as well as having a schizophrenic mother, could become someone so respected and recognized in the art world where people are visiting museums before they can walk. So in this session, Kalup describes directly his growing up and difficulties he was faced with, but what comes through most clearly, is that Kalup had a lot of beauty in his life because he felt loved and cared for by family and community. This is a powerful demonstration of recognizing what real

David Kramer and I have been friends for a long time - and he's been on the show more times than anyone - so we had a super fun time deconstructing the inspiration for David along with the levels of irony his hook rugs, currently in his solo exhibition at Freight + Volume Gallery titled Mar-A-Lago Sunsets. It's a great study of how an artist prevails under any/all circumstances. We also discuss his recent collaboration with Celine. Check out David's work on Instagram! @dkramer5000

I wandered into one of my favorite Brooklyn places, The Brick Theater and they were having a great art exhibition by some of their most hilarious, creative performers who also make art. The artists are - Fareeha Khan, Felipe Di Poi, Lorelei Ramirez, Marissa Goldman, Tawanda Gona, Tim Platt, Whitley Watson I knew Lorelei Ramirez a bit and always loved her work so I asked her and an animator, Felipe Di Poi, who's work I loved as well, to talk about how visual art has been a good outlet for them during these trying times. I'd like to share a "before times" session I did with the Bricks artistic director, Theresa Buckheister as well. As I always maintain, artists are like cockroaches, they will remain through everything—so here's some proof of that.

GOODW.Y.N’s human force is palpable, even when you’re not in the same room as her. She is a warrior in every sense of the word. Equality is her mission and you can’t ignore her. She was born in 1980 in Bedford Stuyvesant to a mother on welfare. Always a writer, she was a good kid that eventually enlisted in the army to get out of her house and move on with her life. Her depth of experience, her access and ability to harness it is remarkably powerful—I haven’t seen anything like it to be honest. I encourage you to read her articles in the New York Times’ parentblog Motherlode: “Talking with My Daughter…” and “Why is this Happening in Your Life…” BIO: is the author of Warcries, as well as the 2018-2019 Franklin Furnace Fund Recipient, the 2018 Ragdale Alice Judson Hayes Fellowship Recipient, 2017 EMERGENYC Hemispheric Institute Fellow as well as the 2013- 2014 Queer Art Mentorship Queer Art Literary Fellow. Additionally, her work '"Desert Flowers" was shortlisted and selected for performance by the Women's Pla

Steele is an extremely talented, charming and handsome musician. He is a founder as well as the drummer for The Britneys, but during lockdown he is upstate focusing on his solo project which he thankfully started pre-lockdown. Steele shares some of his fantastic new singles in the beginning and end of this show. In my position as a comfortably old enough to be his mother self-proclaimed psychotherapist, I was able to dig into the reasons behind Steele’s completely single status until this past year—he is now in his mid-twenties. Let’s say it may have something to do with his relationship with his mother—a very good one at that! Also Steele surprises me with a conclusion at the end of the episode. Listen to songs from Steele's Top Secret Songs HERE. More of Steele's music HERE. Instagram: @steelerkratt  Twitter: @brooklynsteel_e

I knew who Anthony Haden Guest was a long time before I actually got to meet him. He has written seminal books on Studio 54, The Last Party the art world, True Colors, and has written so much more in more books and major publications. Over the past few years, I have had the pleasure of getting to know him and even having the opportunity to "psychoanalyze" him for a project I did for BAM. I was thrilled when he recently agreed to let me interview him about his Studio 54 experiences and his perspective on nightlife, etc. — how it's changed today and the circumstances happening around that. We also discuss the great exhibition, Studio 54: The Last Party which is open at The Brooklyn Museum until Nov. 8, 2020. More about Anthony's book with cartoons and verses HERE.

Sherry Amatenstein, LCSW is a NYC-based therapist and author of The Q&A Dating Book, Love Lessons From Bad Breakups and The Complete Marriage Counselor (www.marriedfaq.com). She edited the anthology, How Does That Make You Feel: True Confessions From Both Sides of the Therapy Couch. Before becoming a therapist she spent two years volunteering at a suicide hotline. She was also an interviewer for Steven Spielberg’s USC Shoah, a foundation dedicated to taking audio-visual testimony from Holocaust survivors. Sherry has a lot of training and experiences. She talks about her own life, the effects of quarantine for all of us and the influence of her parents having been holocaust survivors. More about Sherry HERE.

I've been a huge David B. Frye fan since I first laid eyes on his work at Christopher Stout Projects. From a press release by curator Mary Gagler, "Frye presents the unbridled exploitation of colonial power and the unchecked passions of founding fathers and contrasts these with ideals of free love and individual agency.While other bodies of work more directly approach his own family’s history as slaves, Frye critiques America’s internal diplomacy towards white slave owners and their attempt to whitewash the end of slavery into a tale of white heroes and grateful, compliant slaves." David is a charming, humble and extremely bright man. It's fascinating to speak with him about slavery, his art and the emotional impact and perspective his childhood has brought him.  David has been a star of the previous 2 SPRING/BREAK Art Shows-more about his work here: • SPRINGBREAK-2019-FACT-AND-FICTION-David-B-Frye-The-Lincoln-Paintings • David's work in the New York Times • More David Frye Paintings

Howard Halle is one of the least pretentious people I personally have interacted with in the name of art. He is honest, charming and has a specific insider view of the rise and future of the art world. He gave pulitzer prize winning art critic, Jerry Saltz his first staff job as a critic. One of Howards skills is identifying talent and managing a great department of art writers. As this is his last month with TONY, I thought he would be more nostalgic than he was. My personal take is he is looking forward to getting back to making some art of his own! BIO: Howard Halle is the Editor-at-large for Time Out New York as well as Chief Art Critic and Editor of the Art section. He joined TONY on August 1, 1995 as part of the staff at the launch of the magazine and has worked here since. He taught 20th-century art history at the Corcoran Gallery School of Art in Washington D.C. before moving to NYC in 1981 to serve as the Curator for the The Gallery and Performance Art program at The Kitchen, one of the city's oldest

Fariaz's Facebook post hit a nerve with many and drew me in to request a therapy session with actor and comedian Fariaz Rabbani. This session with him helped me understand the emotional trauma of being an undocumented immigrant. It also made me realize how there are people around me that i know that can be in this situation and I might not even realize it. FARIAZ RABBANI writes: Being undocumented - especially while growing up here, is not something I'd wish on my enemy. It's psychological torture. I can't express it in words. It's been a never-ending self quarantine from society. COVID is the closest example I can give. You look out and see all the things you could do, all the ways you're wasting your time on this earth, but you're stuck in a space. But before DACA it was worse - can't travel, constant paranoia about where you are and what could go wrong, because bad luck doesn't mean just going to jail - but possibly having to leave the country and go to a place that you hardly know. All the while life is p