Go Ask Ali

People are talking about menopause everywhere these days, which is incredible since our mothers and grandmothers and their mothers NEVER did! Women’s thirst for answers and community has exploded so our guests are right on time. Naomi Watts has created a menopause brand that educates, offers support as well as some useful products to help with, you know, all the places. Then UK menopause expert Pat Duckworth is spreading her messag...

What is it about the great outdoors? It’s joyful, liberating, powerful, calming and soulful all at once. It’s also healing. Ali finally gets to talk to her obsession, The Ebony Anglers, a powerhouse trailblazing group of Black fisherwomen about their experience with competitive deep sea fishing. Its foundation and summer camps, Black Girls Fish and Black Boys Boat were created to make sure all kids have access to nature’s healing p...

Narcissism lives in all of us to some degree as on a spectrum. And it’s easy to see how having even a tinge of narcissism could have been a valuable survival tool over the ages. But like with everything, there is a limit to what is healthy and what is toxic. Psychologist and author of Rethinking Narcissism Dr. Craig Malkin talks about the extroverted narcissist, i.e. “the narcissist we all know and loathe”, but says there are other...

ACEs, or adverse childhood experiences, are the single greatest unaddressed public health threat today, according to our esteemed guest former Surgeon General of California Dr. Nadine Burke Harris. She has been the tireless voice educating the world on ACEs and the biological effects they have over the course of a person’s lifetime. Any adult may have heart disease, migraines, depression, or diabetes, sure, but there is a good chan...

It seems most people feel obligated to cringe or shut down when the thought of the inevitable surfaces. But the simple fact exists that we will all leave this life at some point. Ali talks with Valoria Walker and Lauren Lyster-Mensh who are trained as end-of-life doulas, people who shepherd the dying and their loved ones through the often difficult, emotional, complicated process. They serve as non-medical advocates and holistic su...

Actress, writer and former supermodel Paulina Porizkova has been trying to date and, well, it’s even hard for her. No matter who you are or where you’ve been, the middle age dating scene is unfortunately no feast of riches. It’s actually, she says, more like a lunch buffet right before it gets closed down and everything is cold and dry. Ouch. But her outlook has gotten better and the main thing that changed it is her relationship w...

Pornography has been the primary blame for many relationship problems. Fingers get pointed. Feelings get hurt. Doors get slammed. Psychologist and sex therapist David Ley, PhD believes pornography gets the blame because it is the “big, sexy, shiny object” that grabs the focus when a relationship is feeling bumpy. Ley says pornography is really just a symptom of other underlying issues that are not being discussed. In fact, he says ...

Mind control, undue influence, brainwashing - that all sounds like some Hollywood fiction fantasy. But cult expert Dr. Steven Hassan says these are real and anybody could fall into the culty traps. He shares his personal story from the 70’s when he found himself dropping out of college, emptying his bank account and being trained to kill. His trap, he says, is that he thought he was too smart to fall for cult stuff. In fact, “cults...

Content Warning: adolescent suicide and ideation are briefly discussed

Dr. Lisa Damour returns to Go Ask Ali to share her new book The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable, Compassionate Adolescents. She has written this book for parents and other caring adults to help teens when so many are struggling and there aren’t enough therapists to go around. She dispels myths about their powerful emotions and offers cla...

CONTENT WARNING: this episode discusses child pornography, the pornography industry, sex addiction and potential suicide.

Actress and playwright Maddie Corman became brave because she had to be. It was crisis time. About seven years ago her husband was arrested for downloading images of child sexual abuse material* (legally known as child pornography). And while it’s important to point out that he never went further in any way, tha...

One of Ali’s most requested topics from our listeners has been how to make friends as a big person. And here it is! Dr. Marisa G. Franco has written the book we've all been waiting for, Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make - and Keep - Friends. Franco explains our connection programming, otherwise known as attachment styles, and how knowing yours can help develop and maintain those crucial friendships. She expl...

During the darkest days of the pandemic lots of people read books, played video games, mastered Zoom (sorta) or tried their hand baking sourdough. Peggy Orenstein did those things, too, but she also handmade her very own sweater and then WROTE a book about it. So what, you may be thinking, lots of people knit. No. She really made her own sweater. Like she found a sheep (well, three actually) and learned to shear them for their flee...

Entrepreneurs are “dream big” people. No risk no reward! But how do you know if you truly want to make a career out of your passion? Candace Nelson was always a joyful baker, but she also ended up revolutionizing the entire baking industry and judging everybody else’s cupcakes on The Food Network’s Cupcake Wars. In her new book Sweet Success: A Simple Recipe to Turn your Passion into Profit, and here with Ali, she shares the story ...

Nancy Jarecki, an entrepreneur and mother of three, didn’t know what was hitting her as she walked the red carpet at Ali’s Head Case premiere. What she thought was a strange little fainting spell was actually a subarachnoid hemorrhage. And while almost 50% of people do not make it, Nancy did. She shares the story of that day’s events, the brain surgeries and many months of recovery, all of which, according to her doctors, were made...

Ali brings her fabulous co-host for ABC’s The Parent Test on to dig a little deeper into his parenting expertise. Psychologist, teacher, author, researcher and the father of eight kids, Dr. Adolph “Doc” Brown, shares some of his greatest gems to help parents gain clarity and insight into raising humans. He boils all the parenting books out there down to just five main takeaways - what he calls The 5 F’s. They talk candidly about th...

Philanthropist, businesswoman, advocate for women and girls, and mother of three Melinda French Gates shares some insights and advice on ways we can all give back regardless of what’s in the bank. Call it philanthropy, volunteerism or activism, the goals are the same: help others and work toward a better society. She shares how she’s taught her kids to give back, how rolling back Roe v. Wade affected the world, what her biggest con...

Content Warning: There is conversation about spousal homicide and attempted sexual assault. If you would like to avoid this content, please see exact timecodes below.

If you watch any news or doom scroll for 20 minutes, you expose yourself to all kinds of worst case scenarios. And those are dramatic and often terrifying. Gavin de Becker is a leading expert on the prediction and management of violence who says managing fear is surpr...

Who knows if it’s getting older or having experienced a global pandemic, but Ali and Melissa are all about getting rid of life’s flashy trappings and making the simple things like friends, family and a real sense of peace their primary focus. Along the way they also touch on her life as a child star playing Laura Ingalls on the classic show “Little House on the Prairie”, setting boundaries and the bliss of a good recliner. Melissa’...

It’s been about 15 years since Facebook went mainstream and the iPhone was released. In this short time social media and our pocket computers have become indispensable, even addicting. And now we have a new frontier on the horizon, the Metaverse. You’ve probably heard this trendy buzzword, but do you know what it is? Dr. Ibrahim “Abe” Baggili, a cybersecurity and forensics expert, shares his opinion, some content and security risks...