.jpg)
On this episode of The Balanced Voice Podcast, we welcome Dr. Laura Berman who you may know as a love & relationship expert, often seen on the Oprah Winfrey channel, Dr. Mehmet Oz and The Today Show, as well as 8-time The New York Times bestselling author. However, we have recently come to know her in a whole new light as she navigates the unimaginable: losing her 16-year old son to a fentanyl laced pill. In this heartbreaking conversation, Dr. Berman courageously shares her story with us to educate parents and mobilize legislators so that ultimately “not one more kid dies”.
UPDATE: Since this episode aired, Dr. Berman has partnered with episode 9 guest, Titania Jordan who is the Chief Parent Officer at BARK technologies and they, along with others, came up with #LetParentsProtect—A petition for Snapchat, TikTok, and other social media platforms to urge them to allow parents to use third party monitoring tools like BARK to protect children online. The petition argues that in order to save lives, parents need to be the ones who make the choice about whether they want to use third party safety apps and we couldn’t agree more. Sign the petition at change.org/LetParentsProtect.
Watch episode 33 of The Balanced Voice Podcast with Dr. Laura Berman, Sam Chapman, Titania Jordan, Marc Berkman, and Dr. Roger Crystal here.
More about Dr. Laura Berman:
"In addition to her clinical practice, Dr Berman is the award winning host of the nationally syndicated show, Uncovered Radio with Dr Laura Berman. She’s been honored with a Gracie Award for Best Talk Radio Show Host and recently was named one of Radio Ink’s Most Influential Women in Radio. Dr Berman is also a best-selling NY Times author of eight books, and hosted and starred in several television shows, including OWN’s In the Bedroom with Dr Laura Berman, The Dr Laura Berman Show, and Sexual Healing on Showtime. Dr Berman is a well loved and regular expert on love and relationships on television, radio and written media and is on the advisory board of the Dr Oz show. Dr Berman was raised in Glynn County, Georgia and currently lives in Chicago and Los Angeles. She is married and the mother of three sons and 2 dogs."
Instagram: @drlauraberman Facebook: @DrLauraBermanOfficial
Twitter: @DrLauraBerman
Resources:
Social media has presented an all new avenue for drug dealing. Moyle et al, (2019) take a deeper dive into this subject via their study "#Drugsforsale: An exploration of the use of social media and encrypted Messaging apps to supply and access drugs."
The results found by Moyle et al (2019) indicate that social media apps are quickly becoming a viable option for easily accessing drugs for teens. You can read their full study HERE.
Photo courtesy of the National Institute on Drug Abuse
What do social media drug menus look like?
Photo courtesy of TD1 Youth Hub the Tamron Hall Show
Are you a parent in need of support?
Dr. Berman has founded a Facebook support group for "parents who have been affected by their child's addiction and to those that have lost their child to it." You can click the image below to join the group.
Thank you for following along with The Balanced Voice. The views expressed in each episode are those of the podcast guest and do not necessarily represent the views of The Balanced Voice or Crime Stoppers of Houston.
Thank you to our Episode 24 Sponsors, Brigitte and Bashar Kalai, Hallie Vanderhider, Sippi and Ajay Khurana, and Deep Water Productions.