Dr. Lisa Gives a Sh*t

Lisa Levy
  • 4.0 (8)
  • Comedy
  • Updated Biweekly

ABOUT THE SHOW: DR. LISA GIVES A SHIT Dr. Lisa is fixing the planet one person at a time. Tired of sanitized self-help and textbook therapy? Dr. Lisa cuts through the noise with raw, unfiltered conversations about the mental health challenges you're actually facing. As a self-proclaimed psychotherapist unburdened by institutional constraints, Dr. Lisa delivers straight talk on everything from relationship dynamics to societal pressures with zero sugar-coating and maximum impact. What sets this show apart? Dr. Lisa wields truth through humor, making even the heaviest topics accessible, entertaining, and surprisingly funny. Her sharp wit and irreverent takes transform traditional therapy talk into can't-miss radio that's as entertaining as it is enlightening. This isn't your standard "how does that make you feel?" therapy hour. It's an honest, sometimes uncomfortable, always laugh-out-loud exploration of psychological truths mainstream practitioners are too cautious to touch. Join our growing community of Brooklyn listeners who prefer their mental health wisdom served straight up, not watered down—with a generous side of humor that makes the medicine go down easy. Listen to new episodes every Thursday 2-3pm on Radio Free Brooklyn. Over 300 episodes on the archives. How Dr. Lisa was born: Dr. Lisa has been practicing unlicensed therapy since 2001. She’s worked with over 1,000 clients including artists, comedians, musicians, politicians, writers, actual shrinks, celebrities and complete strangers.In 2001, she added Self-Proclaimed Psychotherapist to her busy schedule as an art director and conceptual artist. As an art project, she conceived and produced a live show where she invited audience volunteers to have a quickie therapy session on a couch on stage with her, making fun of the fact that she had no experience, and showing off her forged diploma.Within a year she had a regular show, Psychotherapy LIVE! and a ton of press to go with it from places like, The New York Times, Time Out New York, The Village Voice and pretty much any NYC paper with a theater section. She started her radio show, Dr. Lisa Gives A Shit in 2015, and before the pandemic, continued to perform therapy live in front of audiences.With her lightning quick read of people and her forthright insights, she can get to the essence of what people are trying to communicate quickly, and her sense of humor keeps everyone out of trouble.Due to her genuine curiosity, thoughtful questioning and quick wit, Dr. Lisa’s guests/patients reveal themselves whether they are planning to or not. It takes either a willingness to divulge or a bit of courage to be on Dr. Lisa’s couch. In Dr. Lisa’s world, everyone can sit for a therapy session and anything can seem like a therapy session. https://listentodrlisa.com/ #jencatron #pauloutlaw More about Lisa HERE:

  1. 4d ago

    DLG411_Elizabeth Saloka brings humor, painting skills and unbridled creativity to rocks.

    On this episode of Dr. Lisa Gives a Shit, Dr. Lisa sits down with artist Elizabeth Saloka, aka Betty Rubble, whose career proves that you don’t need an MFA, an art-world game plan, or even a f*****g website to become a successful artist. Sometimes you just need a rock. Soloka’s art practice began about ten years ago when she found a rock that looked exactly like a Nokia cellphone. She painted it, realized rocks were basically free blank canvases, and became obsessed. Now she meticulously transforms ordinary stones into remarkably convincing sculptures of familiar consumer products, from saltine crackers to packaged snacks and household objects. The work is funny, beautiful, and surprisingly profound, exploring how advertising, food, brand loyalty, and childhood memories shape our identities. Growing up in Minnesota, where money was tight enough that she fashioned Nike swooshes out of electrical tape, Soloka developed an appreciation for resourcefulness that continues to inform her work. An adopted Korean American raised by a white family, Soloka also reflects on identity, belonging, therapy, and the complicated business of intimacy. Her mother, a fiercely independent single parent who rented out spare bedrooms to make ends meet, inadvertently gave her daughter a lifelong fascination with strangers and their peculiarities. Those childhood experiences may also explain why Soloka loves the clear boundaries of transactions: selling a rock is easier than figuring out whether you’ve overstayed your welcome at someone’s dinner party. After years of making art while working office jobs, Soloka was laid off during the pandemic and eventually moved to the Hudson Valley. Now, after a decade of persistence, her work is finally attracting serious attention, including a major exhibition at Gotham. But success brings its own problems: suddenly, the artist who once made work without worrying whether anyone cared has to contend with expectations, self-consciousness, and the terrifying possibility of actually making a living doing what she loves. Plus, Dr. Lisa discusses her Doghouse Gallery exhibition featuring Saloka’s work. Rocks, crackers, capitalism, and emotional baggage: turns out there’s a lot going on inside a stone.

  2. Oct 10

    DLG410 Front Room Gallery: 27 years of Navigating the art world and making it work.

    Dr. Lisa talks to Kathleen Vance and Daniel Aycock, the married couple behind Front Room Gallery , about nearly three decades of surviving, adapting to, and participating in the New York art world. Daniel founded the gallery in Williamsburg in 1999. Kathleen joined a few years later, bringing her own artistic practice and a more strategic approach to the business. They talk about the gallery’s beginnings , the wild Williamsburg gallery scene, art-world parties, sponsorships, the move to the Lower East Side, and the relentless force of NYC real estate. Then they get into talking how the art business actually works. Kathleen and Daniel talk about artists’ careers, why art sales and social-media popularity aren't necessarily measures of artistic value, and how online marketplaces can turn something deeply personal into a blind transaction. They also talk about artists moving upstate, and their decision to relocate Front Room to the Hudson Valley, where they’re finding a new version of the artist community that originally drew them to Williamsburg. More about Front Room Gallery HERE and on Instagram: @frontroomnyc Kathleen Vance is also an accomplished environmental installation artist. Please view here work HERE. and on her instagram: kathleenvanceart

  3. Oct 6

    DLG409 Robert L. Bowen:The Human Shutter: What Photography, 3D Vision, and Consciousness Have in Common

    Brooklyn Raii: l Robert-l-Bowen-with-Tom-Huhn/ Robert L. Bowen Vimeo Dr. Lisa talks to artist, photographer, educator, and digital-art pioneer Robert L. Bowen about his book The Human Shutter: Photographs, Stereoscopic Depth, and Moving Images. Bowen traces the book back to a strange Marcel Duchamp stereoscopic photograph he encountered in college that completely hooked him. From there, he spent decades investigating stereoscopic photography, early moving images, and the science of human perception. He also digs into the largely forgotten history of early photographers and scientists who were developing photography, 3D images, and motion pictures simultaneously—not as a neat technological evolution, but as interconnected experiments in how humans see. The conversation turns to AI, and what it means for a world where images no longer need to document something real. Bowen discusses how AI breaks photography's connection to a moment in time, while Dr. Lisa worries about technology destroying our attention spans, making us dumber, and possibly contributing to our own extinction. They wrap up by considering the importance of human creativity and why, in a world full of artificial everything, there's still something irreplaceable about making art by hand, reading a real book, and experiencing things that actually exist.

  4. Oct 3

    DLG408 Eric Bergstrom on Cancer, Comedy, and the Art of Making Shit Funny

    Insta ⁠@erikbergstromrad⁠ TikTok ⁠@erikbergstrom⁠ Erik Bergstrom is a comedian, artist, and cartoonist with a very dark sense of humor and, according to Dr. Lisa’s completely unlicensed professional opinion, possibly some complicated shit going on underneath all that pleasantness. Eric talks about growing up in Minnesota, his parents’ divorce, his sister’s death, surviving stage-four cancer, and how the pandemic affected him in a completely different way. Cancer still allowed him to get onstage and turn the experience into jokes; the pandemic took away the audience, the social connection, and eventually the desire to write and perform. He talks about his love of old-school comedians, writing hundreds of jokes a day, dating, therapy, and the strange experience of living alone during lockdown. He also discusses his visual art—paintings featuring horses, pigeons, hot dogs, mushrooms, and other creatures—and his new obsession with writing mattress jokes. @erikbergstromrad @erikbergstrom

    DLG408 Eric Bergstrom on Cancer, Comedy, and the Art of Making Shit Funny

  5. Sep 19

    DLG407 Lu Chekowsky talks about having her book about her life out in the world.— "Don't Buy What I'm Selling: On Breaking Up with Advertising and Finally Learning to Love My Whole, Fat Self ."

    Lu Checkowsky has risen to the the top level of creative people from her career spanning legendary ad agency, Weiden + Kennedy, to executive creative director jobs at Comedy Central, MTV and Facebook. Make no mistake, Lu earns this all through extraordinary talent and hard work. Lu’s worked behind the scene, managing the creative advertising of shows with just about every celebrity you can imagine — all while struggling with a serious eating disorder — at one point weighing almost 300 lbs. while excelling under crazy pressure. Subsequently, she gets seriously ill, forcing her to leave her career. The book she wrote about her experience and recovery Don't Buy What I'm Selling: On Breaking Up with Advertising and Finally Learning to Love My Whole, Fat Self, has just been published by Brown + Little. Currently she's and working on another book — this time, a novel. Three months ago, (June 2026), and we find out about how Lu feels having her life in the form of a book out in public We also talk about her mother who passed away when Lu was 22, but infused Lu with some empowering ideas as well as some good lessons she would need in the future. Personally am a huge fan of this book. Lu managed to take a stressful story so enjoyable to read, that my husband got mad because I literally wouldn’t put it down.  Buy the Book / Instagram / Website / Tik Tok Bio: Lu Chekowsky [she/they] is a writer and Emmy Award–winning creative director. In Lu’s most recent job in the advertising industry, she was lead creative director for video at Facebook. Before that, Lu was the SVP of brand creative at Comedy Central, where they developed campaigns for shows like The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, South Park, Nathan for You, and Broad City. Previously, Lu was VP, creative director at MTV, where they made ads for Teen Wolf, Jersey Shore, The Real World, and the Video Music Awards. Before working in entertainment, Lu was a creative director and copywriter at Wieden+Kennedy, where she over- saw work for brands such as Jordan, Noxzema, Delta Airlines, and The National MS Society. Lu is a 2023 New York State Council on the Arts / New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in nonfiction literature, and their writing has been supported by MASS MoCA, Vermont Studio Center, Craigardan, and Tin House. Her essays and poetry have been published in The Rumpus, Pigeon Pages, and Autofocus, and her pieces about the cultural impacts of advertising have appeared in Ad Age and Muse by Clios. Lu lives in the Hudson Valley.

  6. Sep 14

    DLG406 Comedian Joe Palana knows a lot about how humans can connect.

    Quite honestly, this session with Brooklyn based comedian, Joe Palana, is one of the most emotionally powerful that I have done. Joe grew up with a younger cousin that has both Down syndrome and autism. Joe formed a deep bond with him that as it turns out, has directed his life in ways Joe couldn’t have expected as a child. The way Joe articulates his relationship with his cousin really helped me understand that specific relationship, but more broadly, helped me imagine what it might be like to be living with Autism and/or Down Syndrome. It was a lot more uplifting than you might imagine. Joe works as board-certified behavior analyst working  with autistic children. He's a Harvard graduate (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and was co-valedictorian of his high school. HUGE SHOUT OUT for Joe’s open mic on Mondays at Pine Box. Joepalana.com Instagram @joepalana Joe's Monday 6pm open mic at Pine Box Rock Shop

  7. Aug 27

    DLG1842 Loren Munk is a gift to the art world—plus he’s a fun guy!

    Loren Munk is an amazing painter and art world chronicler. His art and videos are an amalgamation of art history. The well-known painter, Katherine Bradford said he deserves a MacArthur "Genius" Award and I wholeheartedly agree. As James Kalm, he’s had over 2 million views of his web series covering art, galleries, artists, openings and even some street musicians. There is so much to learn about this former Mormon from Utah. Loren was talented as a child but art didn’t come alive for him until he was stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army during the 70’s. Loren was a highly active part of the art world in the 80’s. He never quit, but the art world went through it’s paces and he and his wife, Kate, focused on bring up two boys. In the meantime Loren, reentered the art world with a vengeance. This is genuine inside scoop, folks. There’s even a discussion of, “What’s more important for an art career,-the work or the relationships?” Find out more about Loren and see his work here: http://www.lorenmunk.com/ Enjoy his art world videos here: https://www.youtube.com/user/jameskalm and here https://www.youtube.com/user/jameskalmroughcut

  8. Aug 18

    DLG405 Justin Linkville, comedian/improviser/writer/director/actor/BCC Training Center director makes it happen.

    Justin Linville is a huge talent and all around nice guy. The kind of guy that’s great to hang with but also great in an emergency. He currently works as Director of the Training Center at the Brooklyn Comedy Collective (BCC) as well as performing on their top house improv team, "What Makes You Laugh?" Saturdays at 8:30 PM. Justin is a great example of a creative person who makes his own opportunities while at the same time making opportunities for others. Justin shares a lot about this super cool project that he's been working on for the past few years as writer/director/actor along with a cast and production team. It's an animated series based around a claymation character Georgie, a curious, Liverpudlian-accented clay-monster character who drives a tiny remote-control car (built from RC car undercarriages glued to pencil boxes) through miniature sets, exploring environmental themes. It’s a super cool project that also promotes learning about the environment—SO WORTH SUPPORTING on Seed + Spark. We also talk about how Justin, a recent vegetarian, presses tofu overnight and that he’s also part of company, Story Pirates. It's an awesome organization, they take stories that are written by kids, like this one-page thing, and write a script and make it into a radio play. @justinmlinville Georgie on the Farm Seed + Spark For a deep dive into Justin's childhood, etc., please listen to our previous 2024 Dr. Lisa episode DLG343. Blatant Plug—I run the Dog House Art Gallery at the BCC where Justin works, in the Dog House space. — a gallery that exhibits artists that use humor in their work. Check it out + stop in! 137 Montrose Ave., BK.

    DLG405 Justin Linkville, comedian/improviser/writer/director/actor/BCC Training Center director makes it happen.
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Ratings & Reviews

4
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

ABOUT THE SHOW: DR. LISA GIVES A SHIT Dr. Lisa is fixing the planet one person at a time. Tired of sanitized self-help and textbook therapy? Dr. Lisa cuts through the noise with raw, unfiltered conversations about the mental health challenges you're actually facing. As a self-proclaimed psychotherapist unburdened by institutional constraints, Dr. Lisa delivers straight talk on everything from relationship dynamics to societal pressures with zero sugar-coating and maximum impact. What sets this show apart? Dr. Lisa wields truth through humor, making even the heaviest topics accessible, entertaining, and surprisingly funny. Her sharp wit and irreverent takes transform traditional therapy talk into can't-miss radio that's as entertaining as it is enlightening. This isn't your standard "how does that make you feel?" therapy hour. It's an honest, sometimes uncomfortable, always laugh-out-loud exploration of psychological truths mainstream practitioners are too cautious to touch. Join our growing community of Brooklyn listeners who prefer their mental health wisdom served straight up, not watered down—with a generous side of humor that makes the medicine go down easy. Listen to new episodes every Thursday 2-3pm on Radio Free Brooklyn. Over 300 episodes on the archives. How Dr. Lisa was born: Dr. Lisa has been practicing unlicensed therapy since 2001. She’s worked with over 1,000 clients including artists, comedians, musicians, politicians, writers, actual shrinks, celebrities and complete strangers.In 2001, she added Self-Proclaimed Psychotherapist to her busy schedule as an art director and conceptual artist. As an art project, she conceived and produced a live show where she invited audience volunteers to have a quickie therapy session on a couch on stage with her, making fun of the fact that she had no experience, and showing off her forged diploma.Within a year she had a regular show, Psychotherapy LIVE! and a ton of press to go with it from places like, The New York Times, Time Out New York, The Village Voice and pretty much any NYC paper with a theater section. She started her radio show, Dr. Lisa Gives A Shit in 2015, and before the pandemic, continued to perform therapy live in front of audiences.With her lightning quick read of people and her forthright insights, she can get to the essence of what people are trying to communicate quickly, and her sense of humor keeps everyone out of trouble.Due to her genuine curiosity, thoughtful questioning and quick wit, Dr. Lisa’s guests/patients reveal themselves whether they are planning to or not. It takes either a willingness to divulge or a bit of courage to be on Dr. Lisa’s couch. In Dr. Lisa’s world, everyone can sit for a therapy session and anything can seem like a therapy session. https://listentodrlisa.com/ #jencatron #pauloutlaw More about Lisa HERE:

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