The Dr. Phil Podcast

Two mothers who lost their children to filicide... and refused to let it be the end of the story. According to the FBI, approximately 500 children are killed by a parent every single year in the US. Nearly 10 a week. And most of the time, there were warning signs that courts and law enforcement ignored ... until it was too late. Hope Hooton warned family court repeatedly that her estranged husband was dangerous. The court still gave him unsupervised custody. In May 2024, he shot and killed their two children, 7-year-old Alec and 6-year-old Lydia,  and turned the gun on himself. Hope r...

Religious parents don't have to sit down and shut up. Dr. Phil explains the Supreme Court ruling that backs them. A Christian father is suing the Lake Washington School District in Washington State after it denied his religious opt-out request from LGBTQ lessons, Pride Month instruction, and pronoun requirements at Henry David Thoreau Elementary School. Dr. Phil breaks down the lawsuit, Alliance Defending Freedom's role, Washington's 2024 LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum law, the Supreme Court's 2025 Mahmoud v. Taylor ruling on parental rights and religious freedom, and the Religious Liberty Commission report on how parents can respond when a school says no. Know...

Kary-Ann Parkinson let her 5-year-old son Sam walk half a mile alone to a pond in their Williamsburg, Virginia, gated community. Now she's a convicted criminal, placed on Virginia's Child Abuse and Neglect Central Registry for 7 years for trusting her own kid. Dr. Phil breaks down the case, dividing parents: is this justice, or the criminalization of independence?

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Beni Sabti lived under the Iranian regime—and risked everything to escape it. Now a leading Iran expert, he joins Dr. Phil to share what life is really like inside the country, why protests keep erupting, and whether the regime could fall in our lifetime. From nuclear threats to propaganda campaigns, Sabti breaks down what Americans need to know—and what could come next.

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A family massacre. A teen charged. And ChatGPT, an alleged accomplice. A 17-year-old in Massachusetts is charged with murdering his mother and 14-year-old brother after investigators found he'd used ChatGPT to search "fantasy stories" about killing them. It's the 4th murder case now linked to AI chatbots. Is the technology to blame? We go back 50 years to teens blamed for murder over playing records backward to answer that question. Plus the warning signs every parent needs to see before it's too late. If you or someone you know is in crisis: call or text 988.

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Dr. Phil sits down with neuroscientist and educator Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath for a wake‑up call every parent needs to hear. Across the country, kids are more distracted, more anxious, and less interested in school, even as classrooms fill up with laptops, tablets, and “learning” apps.​ Dr. Horvath issues a chilling warning: the very school devices families were promised would boost achievement may actually be quietly eroding children’s attention, memory, and motivation. He and Dr. Phil expose how classroom tech can blunt deep thinking, lower test scores, and reshape developing brains in ways most parents never see coming.​ In...

With their hands full grooming dogs and their phones ringing nonstop, the new owners of an established dog-grooming business turn to HighLevel and Dr. Phil for help attracting new customers and keeping their growing business on track.

Learn how to build a business that serves your life, not one that consumes it.

Sponsored by HighLevel: If you own a small business, don’t skip this. Reclaim your life. Automate your business. Transform your overwhelmed business into an automated powerhouse in just minutes. Visit: https://DrPhil.com/Business and get your life back on track.

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Another Epic UAP Failure. Dr. Phil breaks down why 93% of Americans have no official way to report a UFO/UAP sighting. Thousands of civilian UAP reports sit untouched while the government turns a blind eye. In today's Real Story, Dr. Phil exposes the broken UAP reporting system: no public reporting channel through AARO or PURSUE, 1,855 "Tier One" credible UFO sightings sitting in NUFORC's database, and two former U.S. presidents (Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan) who saw UFOs with nowhere to report them.

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She wasn't just a country legend — she was family we never met. Dolly Parton's passing revealed a real psychological phenomenon: parasocial grief, the one-sided bond that makes losing a stranger feel like losing a loved one. From the wildfire relief fund she launched in 48 hours, to the Imagination Library that's put hundreds of millions of free books in kids' hands, to a million-dollar check written out of her own pocket after Hurricane Helene — Dolly proved family isn't about blood, it's about who shows up. This is The Real Story on why the world grieved her like kin. 💔🎶 

S...

21 days of testimony. Seven days deadlocked. And the Lindsey Clancy jury still couldn't agree. Everyone's got an opinion on this case. But Dr. Phil says most people watching had no idea what the jury was actually deciding. He breaks down the real legal test, why 11 of 12 jurors sided with her, and how "hired gun" witnesses turn tragedies like this into a battle of the experts. But here's what should actually scare you: postpartum psychosis. Not depression. Not the baby blues. A psychiatric emergency that can hit a new mother — and Dr. Phil lays out the exact warning signs before it...

Stop kidding ourselves. Iran's terrorist regime has hated America from day one — and the past is the clearest proof of what's coming next.

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October 7, 2023 was the deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust. Nearly three years later, survivors are still fighting to be believed. Nova Music Festival survivor Noa Beer escaped a terrorist ambush, pulled wounded strangers into her car, and received a chilling voice note during the attack itself. Now she joins Dr. Phil to respond directly to a mainstream media report that reignited a firestorm over media accountability, antisemitism, and whose trauma gets believed.

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Burned-out teachers making 73 cents on the dollar. Overworked, underpaid, and walking out the door 7 in 10 quit within five years. This is your kid. Your classroom. Right now. Dr. Phil says it's time to stop talking about fixing education and start doing it. 

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Dr. Phil discusses the dangerous and deadly national takeover trend that thousands of teens and young adults are participating in throughout small towns, and big cities, across the country. A trend that is being promoted on social media and results in hundreds of minors and young adults taking over streets, beaches, parks, malls, and even abandoned properties.

Dr. Phil sits down with parents, Terri and Ivan, who say they had never heard the words "Teen Takeover," until it was too late. Tragically, their beautiful and loving 17-year-old daughter, Ali, lost her life after being shot while caught...

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are moving back to England after 6 years away and it's bigger than a headline about the royals. Dr. Phil breaks down the real story behind their reconciliation: why family estrangement happens, what it actually takes to come back together, and why so many of us wait too long to make the first move. If you've ever pushed someone away and wondered if it's too late to fix it, this one's for you. 

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20 years ago, Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed prophet and leader of a polygamist and religious sect, called the FLDS, was captured – leading to a conviction, and life sentence for aggravated sexual assault against two minor females. But one year prior to Jeffs apprehension, Dr. Phil received a guest submission that introduced him to 2 teenage girls, both named Fawn, who claimed to escape the religious sect. At just 16 years old, both girls, in the middle of the night, claimed they ran away from their families who were embedded in the FLDS community. Both Fawns claimed that if they hadn’t escaped, they...

20 years ago, Warren Jeffs, the self-proclaimed prophet and leader of a polygamist and religious sect, called the FLDS, was captured – leading to a conviction, and life sentence for aggravated sexual assault against two minor females. The FLDS has been described by numerous experts, news outlets, and survivors as a dangerous cult, where young girls, many of whom were minors, were being forced to marry men three times their age, and bare as many children as physically possible. But one year prior to Jeffs apprehension, Dr. Phil received a guest submission that not only placed his focus on Warren Jeffs, bu...

Is holding your child back a grade really the key to gaining an edge in youth sports? Dr. Phil examines the growing trend of “reclassing,” where parents delay a child’s academic progression in hopes of creating a competitive athletic advantage. With NIL deals and direct college payments dramatically increasing the financial stakes of amateur sports, Dr. Phil explains why more families may be tempted to view an extra year as an investment in their child’s future. But for most young athletes, he argues the potential academic, emotional, social, and financial costs can outweigh the benefits. The goal should n...

Dr. Phil argues that American schools are masking declining academic achievement through grade inflation, lowered proficiency standards, generous grading floors, and pressure to pass students, leaving parents and students unaware of their actual capabilities. He cites falling standardized-test and reading scores, remedial college placement among high-school graduates with high GPAs, and international performance gaps as evidence that diplomas increasingly fail to represent mastery. He also warns that excessive classroom technology may weaken learning by replacing handwriting, deep processing, and independent problem-solving. He urges parents to independently assess their children’s reading and math skills, calling for an education system th...

Dr. Phil discusses how young adults, specifically teens, are being targeted online by sophisticated predators who work to entice victims into sharing explicit photos or video of themselves, and once the content is sent, the second part of the plan ensues and the threats begin … it’s called Sextortion. The sextortionist will threaten to share the images everywhere if the victim doesn’t comply with their demands which can include sending more images, money, and sometimes convincing victims to commit sadistic acts, self-harm and even suicide. Dr. Phil sits down Adam, a devoted and caring father who says he had ne...

Dr. Phil examines the disturbing case of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother charged with killing her three young children, and the critical question at the center of the case: Were warning signs of a severe postpartum mental health crisis missed? He breaks down postpartum psychosis, how it differs from postpartum depression and the “baby blues,” and the potentially dangerous symptoms including hallucinations, delusions, extreme insomnia, disorganized thinking, and loss of contact with reality. As the defense prepares to argue that postpartum psychosis and multiple psychiatric medications contributed to the tragedy, prosecutors are expected to point to Clancy’s alleged planni...

Everyone knows the Idaho murders. Tonight, you meet Kaylee's mother. Kristi Goncalves is the one who got the knock on the door ... the one who asked the deputy if the other girl was Maddie, her daughter's best friend. Tonight, she tells her story in her own voice: the online trolls who wounded her most, the plea deal her family fought, and the moment she looked her daughter's killer in the eye and told him hell would be waiting. But this isn't only a story about loss ... it's about what she built from it. In her darkest days, a stranger st...

Dr. Phil and Robin McGraw celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary with one of their most personal conversations ever, sharing the love, laughter, struggles and surprising stories behind five decades of marriage. From Robin knowing it was love at first sight and asking Dr. Phil about marriage almost immediately to starting out with little money, raising Jay and Jordan, building a family and eventually creating the Dr. Phil show together, they look back at the moments that shaped their life. They also confront years of Dr. Phil and Robin divorce rumors, including the outrageous claim of a $400 million settlement, and...

David Grusch stunned the world when he testified under oath that the U.S. government has recovered what he says is craft of "non-human origin." But behind the headlines is a human story. Dr. Phil talks with the intelligence officer turned whistleblower to explore the courage, the cost, and the psychology of a man who lit his own life on fire to tell the truth.

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A father just became the first parent in America convicted of murder for his son's school shooting. Colin Gray gave his 14-year-old son an AR-15 for Christmas — and ignored every warning sign along the way. Now he's facing 15 years in prison. Dr. Phil breaks down the Apalachee High School case, and the pathway to violence researchers have identified over decades of study.

The warning signs almost every school shooter shows:

- Early childhood trauma that goes unresolved

- A visible crisis point — a noticeable change in behavior from their baseline

- A gr...

Austin Metcalf became a symbol. His father wants you to remember the son.

When 17-year-old Austin Metcalf was stabbed to death at a Texas track meet, the case exploded into a national fight over race ... and the boy at the center of it got lost. Dr. Phil sits down with Austin's father, Jeff, on grief, forgiveness, and the noise that swallowed his son's story, joined by community advocate Dr. Bruce Carter, who sees the case very differently and became Jeff's unlikely friend anyway.  

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Your kids are grown, the house is finally quiet — then knock knock, "Can I move back in?" Dr. Phil breaks down what an adult child moving home really does to your marriage — and the difference between a "launchpad" and a "hammock" that determines whether your relationship survives it.

✔️ Why the empty nest is the most fragile stage in a marriage

✔️ The "gray divorce" trend explained

✔️ Launchpad vs. Hammock — how to tell the difference

✔️ How to protect your marriage while still showing up for your kid

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When comes to UAP sightings, some of the most reliable witnesses are our pilots, but only 5% of them are reporting their UAP sightings, largely due to fear of what may happen if they do. Dr. Phil speaks with "Kurt," A major U.S. airline pilot, speaking on condition of anonymity, to discuss the fear he claims is keeping pilots from reporting UAP sightings seen from the cockpit, including losing their careers, or even being deemed medically unfit to fly. Plus, find out why "Kurt" claims its pilots themselves, that are largely to blame for keeping other pilots from reporting t...

A Navy SEAL trainee who says he was wrongfully convicted of murder and abduction to defile for a crime the actual killer later confessed to committing alone, served 31 years of an 82-year sentence before walking out of prison. This is his first interview. SHOW DESCRIPTION: In 1995, 20-year-old Navy SEAL trainee Dusty Turner watched his swim buddy Billy Brown strangle a 21-year-old pre-med student named Jennifer Evans in a Virginia Beach parking lot. Dusty says he tried to stop him, but he failed. Bound by the SEAL code to protect his teammate, he helped hide the body. Eight days later, con...

Kalshi and Polymarket are the candy cigarettes of gambling — and they're targeting your kids right now. Prediction markets are classified as "financial markets," not gambling, to dodge age limits, betting caps, and consumer protections. Add paid influencers deceiving kids on their social feeds. And if that isn't enough, gambling habits start even earlier — with so called “loot boxes” in your child's video games.

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United States Border Czar, Tom Homan, returns to address with Dr. Phil the false narratives, lies, and scrutiny, he claims U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and its agents are currently facing.  Plus, what Tom Homan believes is the direct cause that has resulted in the historic increase in threats and violence against ICE and its agents.

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The government is walking us toward the biggest announcement in human history ... a hearing here, a report there, a file at a time. Clinical psychologist Dr. Jennice Vilhauer says we're getting the truth with no instructions. She joins Dr. Phil to explain why disclosure isn't an information problem but a human one, who's most at risk when it lands, why witnesses have been misjudged for seventy years, and why "we'll be fine" is not a plan.

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DON'T GET STRANDED WATCHING LOVE ISLAND. Millions are watching. Millions are talking about it. But if you want real relationship advice — you found it. This summer, Robin and I celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. After five decades together, people always ask us one question: "What's the secret?" In this episode of The Real Story, Dr. Phil answers that question — and explains why Love Island, The Bachelor, Love Is Blind, and other reality dating shows may be teaching an entire generation the wrong lessons about love.

You'll discover:

• Why real love is built in private — not performed...

A top realtor's career was thriving — until a cancer diagnosis changed everything. In this episode, Dr. Phil sits down with a real estate powerhouse facing cancer recovery, career burnout, and rebuilding her business from the ground up. Dr. Phil delivers a wake-up call on resilience, work-life balance, and reclaiming success after a health crisis — with real advice on healing, mindset, and moving forward without losing what matters most.

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800,000 college students are paying full tuition — to earn LESS than a high school grad. Not a typo. The government just cut off federal loans for degree programs that don't pay off. Dr. Phil names the schools cashing the check anyway — USC, Juilliard, NYU, Reed — and breaks down why $260,000 can buy you a $40K salary. Before your kid signs that loan, listen to this. 

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Dr. Phil continues his coverage of the government's UAP disclosures by speaking with former U.S Navy Lieutenant and F-18 pilot, Ryan Graves, who has over a decade of service, including two deployments in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Inherent Resolve. While flying with the NAVY, Ryan witnessed firsthand advanced UAPs and is considered the first active-duty pilot to come forward publicly about regular UAP sightings. Dr. Phil will speak with Ryan about the UAPs he’s seen as a pilot, the flight maneuvers they are performing that are not of this world, and the fear that is keeping ma...

A multicultural celebration meant to unite a Michigan elementary school erupted into controversy after children were offered political stickers, including one depicting an assault rifle and another containing an anti-Zionist obscenity. The mothers who organized the Palestinian heritage table say the stickers were accidentally included in a bulk online order. The school district called the material discriminatory and antisemitic, barred the women from volunteering for the remainder of the year and launched an investigation. Then the backlash escalated: one mother says her address was posted online, her employer was pressured to fire her and her 10-year-old child was confronted...

A wealthy New York writer admits to shoplifting from Whole Foods — and says everyone else should try it too. Dr. Phil breaks down the trend some are calling "microlooting," where privileged, high-earning Americans reportedly justify stealing from big corporations as a form of protest.The backlash started with a New York Times podcast, where writer Jia Tolentino — who reportedly owns a $2.5 million Brooklyn brownstone — admitted to shoplifting from Whole Foods "on several occasions," saying she didn't feel bad about it and telling listeners to "try it, see what happens." Political commentator Hasan Piker echoed the sentiment, arguing stores already factor...

Countries around the world are moving to protect children from social media. So why is America still waiting? The United Kingdom has announced plans to ban social media for children under 16, joining a growing international movement demanding stronger safeguards for young users. In this episode of The Real Story, Dr. Phil examines the research linking excessive social media use to anxiety, depression, loneliness, cognitive decline, cyberbullying, self-harm content and dangerous viral challenges. Dr. Phil also shares the devastating stories of parents who lost children after online harms, explains how algorithms are engineered to keep young users scrolling and examines...

It’s been reported that we are approaching 1 million registered sex offenders in communities throughout the country. To protect communities, states have a sexual offender registry which was enacted to keep track of registered offenders, reduce re-offending, and to deter individuals not on the registry from committing sexual offenses. Tonight, Dr. Phil will discuss whether or not the sex offender registry is actually succeeding in what it was intended to do. Dr. Phil will speak with Dani, a parent who recently discovered a registered sex offender, convicted of an offense against a 12 year old girl years earlier, was performing mai...