Dave Rubin, Sage Steele, Dr. Drew Pinsky, and Jillian Michaels reflect on 2025's chaos, citing Charlie Kirk's killing and the alarming statistic that 20% of young leftists justify political violence. They discuss the "Laba Boo" doll controversy, predict a potential Republican midterm victory via tax cuts, and warn of a psychotic uprising if the left feels defeated. While Dr. Drew forecasts EU collapse and Sage hopes for an end to Trump's print interviews, the group concludes by calling 2026 a year of normalcy after sharing viral moments ranging from grief to terrorism disarmament. [Automatically generated summary]
So listen, I'm super excited about this show because unlike last week's show, where it was very serious and very serious topics and kind of depressing, we are going to close out the year 2025 on a high note and reflect.
Is that a fair way to encompass what this is about to be?
The laboo boo, my 10 year old niece uh, I went over to my sisters and she was talking about the labooboo and she, she has one laboo boo because they can be insanely, insanely expensive and yeah, they put them on their bags and I guess, on their jeans and whatever.
But you know a little doll like this, that when we were kids it would have been a three dollar doll, but what it is is like.
When I was I don't know what sixth, seventh grade or maybe it was fifth grade everyone wanted cabbage patch kids.
You guys remember when that went absolutely insane and mothers were beating the crap out of each other at malls so that the kids could get a cabbage patch kid.
Well you, it depends if you're asking like state of the world or or personally, or whatever.
Like personally, this was a great year for me.
Like, like you know, the kids at this age, going from two to three, is such an incredible age.
As you, the words start bursting and the sense of humor and all that kind of stuff.
And just, you know that I can show them my toys from when I was a kid now and they're into it and like all that stuff's great.
So I always tell people like what goes on here in my little castle is amazing.
The state of the world i've never been more concerned about.
So that that's one thing i'm always grappling with.
It's why I like doing this with you guys, because it's like we talk about heavy stuff, all of us in our own little avenues, when we're doing our, our other gigs, and then, and then we get to come here and kind of like hash out some other things together.
Um, so I yeah, I would also say that at 49 years old, the years are going by way quicker.
Like it feels like it was new year's three weeks ago, like it's just, and then obviously there were just crazy things that happened this year between you.
Know obviously, Charlie being killed was the was the main one, but it's just, it was a, it was a weird year and I, I would say, in terms of western civilization, it's ending particularly weirdly.
Uh, but but my little fiefdom over here is pretty good.
I have a granddaughter now, a grandson coming, and that's you.
You know, when you can engage with the next generation, it really makes everything meaningful.
Frankly, it's it's nothing's more important than that.
And then yeah, I have the same experience, which is it's I. You know, I sort of see the whole world now as Pre-covet and Post-covet, and as we move away from Covet, I feel like we're coming back to reality, like reality is reasserting itself, but boy, it's doing it in a very strange or kirky, jerky kind of way, and I look forward to us all being back in reality.
And to be able to have an opportunity to start over again at 50, I'm now 53, so I got married at 52.
And with my kids, there, it's not, you know, with divorce, it's not, there's so much bad.
And then you see this one silver lining, one of, I guess, many, where it's like, gosh, my kids were old enough not just to be there to witness this second chance and to hear the vows and to see the love and the transformation, the evolution.
And hopefully they take this forward into their lives with their decisions with partners in the future, you know?
So like that was beautiful.
The health of my parents, which has been a tough year with that, tough ending to the year with that.
But they got to be there to witness it.
So I'm just so grateful for so much.
And I think back to how the year began with the inauguration.
I mean, not only, yeah, it was freaking cold as you know what, but like the, I remember just being in awe being there.
And like, look at what we did just by having conversations and talking and communicating and evolving with our opinions, which we'll talk about later on this show.
But like to think about how much our world has changed since January 20th.
Thank God, you know, with a lot of work to be done, but I cannot imagine what 2025 would have been like had the other person on the ticket won.
It's like, and it's, it's, it's been just a weird year in that way.
But having said that, I'm exceptionally grateful for the time.
It's like the only time where you don't even have to, I don't even do my homework because I know that if I make a mistake, I'm amongst friends who will gently correct me or educate me.
And it's just the ultimate safe space.
I'm so grateful for that.
And I'm so grateful, as mentioned, for my wife, my family, my brother, my children.
Like when we met about a year and a half ago in Los Angeles, when you did my show, I had just started off.
And the, I don't know, you've just put yourself out there so much and taken a beating in some crazy ways, but you stood out for yourself and you've stood by the why behind your thought processes and your decisions.
And I'm, I've, I guess, probably been on the right longer than you.
And not that you are the right.
I'm just saying, you know, with certain opinions.
And I just want you to know that like there's for as much hate as you get for going onto the octagon and for going on Piers Morgan, all of us.
And I hope you take that the right way, not like in a motherly way, but it's hard.
And I think the key is when you are just true to yourselves with whatever that is, even if we don't agree on something on this show, like you're true to yourself.
It ends up being easier, but you're such an example.
And there's so much more good when you speak the truth.
There's so many more good people who agree with you, actually, than the opposite.
She shows up with you and Dave and she doesn't care.
And it's like, and dude, like, you just don't like, if it's trendy, suddenly on one side or another to go after gays or go after Jews or go out, you don't subscribe to any of that shit.
And I, I cannot tell you how much that means to me and how brave you would have to be as a religious conservative when everybody.
Anyway, without saying more and digging a deep hole, and I, again, like, I hate to kind of bemoan that point, but I have been feeling like a little bit freaked out.
But that's also why I love doing this show with you every week.
And why I said the alt title of the show could be creator therapy, because it's like, we come here and then we, and we do this.
And it's, it's sort of an easy lift with literal actual friends.
And then it like helps me think things through for the rest of the week because we all know we don't have to, we don't have to drop names at the moment.
We've all watched some people in our circles go kind of crazy this year and you get disappointed by people and all of that.
And, you know, when I look at the three of you now, it's like, man, Drew, literally, the first TV show I ever did was Dr. Drew Show in LA.
We had never met before we did that TV show.
That's over 10 years ago now.
Sage, when you walked into my studio less than two years ago, we had never met.
We had maybe texted before, maybe spoken on the phone.
And the second we looked at each other, I was like, this is like my long lost sister.
We ended up spending all day together.
You literally, I had a dinner in Palm Beach.
You drove me like four hours while talking to your kids the whole time.
And then, and then Jillian, it's like you just got, you just got somehow flung into this world in this like white, hot, crazy thing that is the MAGA Maha thing.
And, you know, you and I text all the time, like as we're going through the fights and everything else.
And usually what I'm saying to you is something to the effect of, I've been through all of this and just keep going and you're going to be fine.
And you are.
You know, you really wear your emotions on your sleeve.
You have a very like thin force field around a lot of it.
I think that's the beauty about you, but it also makes it tough.
You know, one of the things that Jordan Peterson talked about for a long time is that the architecture of the internet sort of means that everything that is fringe will get pulled to the center, right?
Because everything that's fringe becomes viral because it's crazy, it's out there and whatever.
So what we've ended up doing basically is we have like a black hole that's sucking in all of the stars constantly.
And what we have to worry about is what happens when every fringe idea is centralized or just stuffed together, then what do we have?
But again, that's why I love doing this with you guys because, yeah, that all sounds, it's all nuts out there.
But, you know, it's not like we're nobodies.
Like we all have audiences.
We all are speaking to people and our people are speaking to people.
Well, the funny thing with you, Jillian, is usually when you're calling me in a meltdown mode, it's because someone that I either used to work with or knew is saying something horrible about you.
I got one, which is against all conventional wisdom.
I think the midterms are going to be just fine for the Republicans.
I think they're so far away.
I just sat down yesterday with, I was in DC.
I did 12 interviews, 12 interviews with senators and congresspeople.
Only one Democrat will talk to me, Ro Khanna.
The other 11 were all Republicans.
But everyone said the exact same thing, which is that the big, beautiful bill, which has all sorts of tax cuts, deregulation, stuff, other things that are going to help the economy, none of it's kicked in yet.
It all kicks in this year.
So I think if that happens, I think if Trump can move a little Russia-Ukraine towards peace, I think, you know, clearly the Middle East stuff is calming down.
I think there will be a shift.
And if they can message it properly and show that what we're really up against for all the little fights on the right is a completely bananas, Marxist, communist, jihadist left.
I know it's completely against conventional wisdom, but that's what I'm going into the new year with.
I like how all of your hands went on a swing on that one.
But me, my, my son's always been so easy and so kind.
And, you know, but it's bigger than just gender.
It's, it's definitely who they are innately.
But I, I, um, can I not be as lame?
Thank you, Julian, for going personalized, trying to go more worldly.
I am convinced that this year I'm going to finally take better care of my health, Dr. Drew, because I've taken it for granted for a long time and really, really let it go.
If my prediction from the earlier one was right and Republicans are winning the midterms, I think you're going to see a psychotic uprising by the left like you've never seen before because they're so thrilled that they think they're going to crush this time.
And if it goes the other way, as most people are predicting, not in the direction that we would all want, I think we will all kind of be freaking out because it will signal that the Trump thing that has loomed so large over the universe for the last decade is on its way out and none of us will know what comes after it.
I think I promised that I wouldn't bring up her name for a month and I think I failed, but my point is, she's not going away.
AOC reposted the most recent poll that she was leading as far as potential presidential candidates for 2028, two points ahead of JD Vance, and she posted some obnoxious things.
So like these crazy, psychotic women on the left are not going anywhere.
And I think that we need to pay very close attention on the right.
Can I start by saying coming off of planning and executing a large wedding in four and a half months?
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey wedding, because I think it's going to reverberate in that wedding world where from the flowers to the dress to the ring and the obsession.
I mean, it broke the internet the day they got engaged.
I mean, unfortunately, I'm going to go very black pill here, but I mean, I think radical Islam is on the march and I think it's going to be escalated severely in a very kinetic way throughout the world over the next year.
I think we're starting to see that, obviously, with Australia and a couple of other things.
And it seems to me that's the next layer of the kind of evil that we're all going to have to confront.
I was watching him talk about the ways in which the radical elements on each side are being elevated by these accounts out of like India, Pakistan, Russia.
But then what ends up happening is the New York Times picks it up and goes, look at this huge movement of madness over here on the right.
And I wonder if it's a similar effect on the left.
But I think that I think this is going to play a much bigger role than people think.
Oh, well, my best internet moment unquestionably was on an absolutely horrible day, which was the day after Charlie died.
And I went on Piers on that ridiculous panel nonsense and I busted out the receipts to my old boss, Jank Uger, about the amount of times he had called Charlie Hitler and Trump a Nazi and all of those things.
And well, you know what, Jank, I'll ask you a question directly, actually.
But I do also want to point out, as they're in the middle of crying now, although Charlie was smiling ear to ear throughout the entire video, thinking, yes, I'm now the victim.
unidentified
And I'll get to claim that my rights have been abridged.
I think the coolest for me, selfishly personally, was it was right after they started in the White House press briefing room about bringing in the podcasters.
And I was the third one to go and ask Caroline Levitt a question as you know.
That special seat there, if you're standing where she is off to the right.
And it was super cool and an honor, especially so early in that process and also nerve-wracking.
I have asked so many of the top athletes in the world, including a former president, a quest of questions and live TV.
I was so scared for that, but it was such an honor.
And it was just a very full circle moment.
Like, what am I doing here?
The former sportscaster and all that, it was just an honor.
And I was, I'm very grateful for that moment with Caroline Levitt and her team at the White House.
And this one is a negative based on the story.
I'm very uncomfortable doing the direct-to-camera reactions that I know are popular and probably smart business-wise, etc.
I think the best internet moment to provide a little bit of perspective and juxtaposition was that fruit vendor, Ahmed Al Ahmed, disarming the terrorists shooting Jews.
I think I cried for 20 minutes watching that guy.
And I just, I was so touched because it's like, it goes against, I don't know, I just thought, wow, what a radical act of heroism.
You know what the thing with the CNN is, is that I am not sorry.
I am not sorry.
And the only thing that bothers me is that Abby Phillip is too much of a wuss to actually finish this conversation despite suggesting that she'd be willing to have it.
This is a conversation that needs to be had.
And, you know, I've often said, like, the more you demonize all white people for all the evils in the world, the more they're going to turn to, you know, again, the alt-right, the people that I think need no name.
This is a conversation we have to have.
The thing with Piers is that you just sit there and no good comes of it.
And like one guy, I'd say the worst moment is when I actually don't even remember his name.
It was Riley Gaines and I and two guys.
And the guys just sat there and called us like bigots and racists.
And one told me I purchased my daughter and she's a house slave.
I don't think I need any litigation from a woman who tried to downplay slavery, who tried to all lives matter slavery to actually purchase a black child.
I could say that about each of you, but Jill, I'm going to pile on you for a second, which is that you have the qualities that I want to put into that octagon.
And I think that that's, Jillian, that's one of the things people underestimated you, which is crazy based on everything else you've already accomplished in your career.
But it's one thing with the physical stuff and to motivate people.
And I mean, I used to cuss you out doing your DVDs and the like.
My ass looked so good back then.
People underestimated this part and this part, like this, and how smart and well-read.
I'm going to end with a little bit of a challenge to my three good friends over there, which is that the challenge for all four of us and for everyone watching this is that for as crazy as all the politics got this last year, for as wacky as some of the news and depressing as some of it was and all of that stuff, and that's all legit, how about we make it a little more incumbent on the four of us and everyone watching to make 2026 the year of normalcy and decency.