Nancy Rommelmann returns to Walk-Ins Welcome fresh from reporting on ICE raids for Reason Magazine. She and Bridget discuss LA's unprecedented triple crisis—immigration crackdowns, devastating wildfires, and Hollywood's exodus—and what might be next for the city, which leads to the larger question of whether America itself is resetting. They cover why Gen Z might be our saving grace, the return to real-world connections (cooking, gardening, live events, dinner parties) as an antidote to digital decay, why they still believe in Americans, why Gen X is the only generation still partying, and why you should always use the good soap. 

Sponsor Links: 

- Quest offers 100+ lab tests to empower you to have more control over your health journey. Choose from a variety of test types that best suit your needs, use code PHETASY to get 25% off - https://www.questhealth.com 

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy - Podcast Bridget Phetasy admires grit and authenticity. On Walk-Ins Welcome, she talks about the beautiful failures and frightening successes of her own life and the lives of her guests. She doesn’t conduct interviews—she has conversations. Conversations with real people about the real struggle and will remind you that we can laugh in pain and cry in joy but there’s no greater mistake than hiding from it all. By embracing it all, and celebrating it with the stories she’ll bring listeners, she believes that our lowest moments can be the building blocks for our eventual fulfillment. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

PHETASY IS a movement disguised as a company. 

We just want to make you laugh while the world burns. https://www.phetasy.com/ Buy PHETASY MERCH here: https://www.bridgetphetasy.com/ 

For more content, including the unedited version of Dumpster Fire, BTS content, writing, photos, livestreams and a kick-ass community, subscribe at https://phetasy.com/ 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/BridgetPhetasy 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bridgetphetasy/ 

Podcast - Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/walk-ins-welcome/id1437447846 

https://open.spotify.com/show/7jbRU0qOjbxZJf9d49AHEh 

https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/I3gqggwe23u6mnsdgqynu447wva

Support the show

Meghan Daum sits down with Bridget to discuss her latest book, The Catastrophe Hour, and the conversation covers everything from aging on camera, to modern existential dread, to the death of quality journalism (RIP, actual editors), the rise of "femcel cope", and pro-natalist propaganda. They discuss Meghan’s decision not to have kids, the grim reality that AI is coming for everyone's job, how we've all become buskers begging for subscription dollars, whether you should get preventative Botox because of your kid, people who argue with bots, and those who are desperately trying to raise functional humans in a world that feels increasingly unhinged. 

Buy The Catastrophe Hour - https://bit.ly/WiW-MeghanDaumBook 

Check out Meghan's podcast - The Unspeakable Podcast - https://bit.ly/WiW-Unspeakable 

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Transform your fitness with science based training. Sign up for Caliber and get $100 off your first 3 months OR get the app for free at https://bit.ly/CaliberPhetasy

 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy - Podcast Bridget Phetasy admires grit and authenticity. On Walk-Ins Welcome, she talks about the beautiful failures and frightening successes of her own life and the lives of her guests. She doesn’t conduct interviews—she has conversations. Conversations with real people about the real struggle and will remind you that we can laugh in pain and cry in joy but there’s no greater mistake than hiding from it all. By embracing it all, and celebrating it with the stories she’ll bring listeners, she believes that our lowest moments can be the building blocks for our eventual fulfillment. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

PHETASY IS a movement disguised as a company. 

We just want to make you laugh while the world burns. https://www.phetasy.com/ Buy PHETASY MERCH here: https://www.bridgetphetasy.com/ 

For more content, including the unedited version of Dumpster Fire, BTS content, writing, photos, livestreams and a kick-ass community, subscribe at https://phetasy.com/ 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/BridgetPhetasy 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bridgetphetasy/ 

Podcast - Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/walk-ins-welcome/id1437447846 

https://open.spotify.com/show/7jbRU0qOjbxZJf9d49AHEh 

https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/I3gqggwe23u6mnsdgqynu447wva

Support the show

Paul Shirley, former NBA basketball player turned productivity guru, returns to the podcast for a conversation with Bridget that takes us from his Kansas farm origins (where apparently growing your own food creates a family of giants) to battling what he calls the "Distraction Industrial Complex." Paul breaks down why we're all suffering from "informational diabetes" in an age where we consume 74 GB of data daily—the same amount our ancestors got in a lifetime. Between near-death basketball injuries, discovering Denver's anti-alcohol movement, and explaining why Gen Z has basically become a different species, Bridget and Paul discuss how our shortcut-obsessed culture has left us busier than ever despite all our time-saving tech. Paul's solution? "The Process"—a system that treats focused work like mammoth hunting and proves that sometimes the best way forward is to actually slow down and break things into 25-minute chunks of focused work. Part sports psychology, part cultural commentary, it's the kind of conversation that makes you want to immediately turn off your phone and actually accomplish something meaningful. 

Check out Paul's Book - The Art of Focused Work - https://bit.ly/44uKe6o --------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Sponsor Links: 

- Quest offers 100+ lab tests to empower you to have more control over your health journey. Choose from a variety of test types that best suit your needs, use code PHETASY to get 25% off - https://www.questhealth.com 

- In Brad vs. Everyone, host Brad Polumbo covers the most interesting and entertaining stories in our politics and on the internet from a center-right, independent perspective - https://spoti.fi/42KTKTw 

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy - Podcast Bridget Phetasy admires grit and authenticity. On Walk-Ins Welcome, she talks about the beautiful failures and frightening successes of her own life and the lives of her guests. She doesn’t conduct interviews—she has conversations. Conversations with real people about the real struggle and will remind you that we can laugh in pain and cry in joy but there’s no greater mistake than hiding from it all. By embracing it all, and celebrating it with the stories she’ll bring listeners, she believes that our lowest moments can be the building blocks for our eventual fulfillment. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

PHETASY IS a movement disguised as a company. We just want to make you laugh while the world burns. https://www.phetasy.com/ 

Buy PHETASY MERCH here: https://www.bridgetphetasy.com/ 

For more content, including the unedited version of Dumpster Fire, BTS content, writing, photos, livestreams and a kick-ass community, subscribe at https://phetasy.com/ 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/BridgetPhetasy 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bridgetphetasy/ 

Podcast - Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/walk-ins-welcome/id1437447846 

https://open.spotify.com/show/7jbRU0qOjbxZJf9d49AHEh 

https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/I3gqggwe23u6mnsdgqynu447wva

Support the show

Walk-Ins Welcome 345 

Comedian Eleanor Kerrigan joins Bridget for a hilarious conversation covering how her dreams of being an actor led to an unexpected wrestling stint, a West Wing mixup, and the one woman show that led her to realize her true calling is comedy. She dishes on behind-the-scenes stories from over a decade running the iconic Comedy Store, being a caretaker for legendary owner Mitzi Shore, epic Pauly Shore parties, and blackout rages. They cover surviving tragedy, why there’s no middle ground in comedy, how everything leads back to Tony Robbins, and how anyone who tries to help her dies. Check out Eleanor’s comedy special No Country for Old Women - https://bit.ly/WiW-NoCountry 

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Sponsor Links: 

- Quest offers 100+ lab tests to empower you to have more control over your health journey. Choose from a variety of test types that best suit your needs, use code PHETASY to get 25% off - https://www.questhealth.com 

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Bridget Phetasy admires grit and authenticity. On Walk-Ins Welcome, she talks about the beautiful failures and frightening successes of her own life and the lives of her guests. She doesn’t conduct interviews—she has conversations. Conversations with real people about the real struggle and will remind you that we can laugh in pain and cry in joy but there’s no greater mistake than hiding from it all. By embracing it all, and celebrating it with the stories she’ll bring listeners, she believes that our lowest moments can be the building blocks for our eventual fulfillment. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

PHETASY IS a movement disguised as a company. 

We just want to make you laugh while the world burns. https://www.phetasy.com/ Buy PHETASY MERCH here: https://www.bridgetphetasy.com/ 

For more content, including the unedited version of Dumpster Fire, BTS content, writing, photos, livestreams and a kick-ass community, subscribe at https://phetasy.com/ 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/BridgetPhetasy 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bridgetphetasy/ 

Podcast - Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/walk-ins-welcome/id1437447846 

https://open.spotify.com/show/7jbRU0qOjbxZJf9d49AHEh 

https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/I3gqggwe23u6mnsdgqynu447wva

Support the show

Amanda Knox returns for a fascinating conversation with Bridget about her wild ride from wrongful conviction to reclaiming her life, as detailed in her new book, Free. She candidly examines how she survived prison and what life looked like on the other side, wrestling with trust (and distrust), her relationship with the media, and the realization that when you pray to God for strength He doesn’t give you strength, He gives you the opportunity to be strong. They discuss what made her want to go back to Italy and sit down with the man who prosecuted her in court, the reasons behind the toxic relationship she entered after she was freed, what freedom truly means, and what she’s hoping people will take from the book. Look no further for a true story of strength and resilience in the face of the unimaginable. Buy Amanda’s book Free - https://bit.ly/WiW-KnoxFree 

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Sponsor Links: - Quest offers 100+ lab tests to empower you to have more control over your health journey. Choose from a variety of test types that best suit your needs, use code PHETASY to get 25% off - https://www.questhealth.com 

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy - Podcast Bridget Phetasy admires grit and authenticity. On Walk-Ins Welcome, she talks about the beautiful failures and frightening successes of her own life and the lives of her guests. She doesn’t conduct interviews—she has conversations. Conversations with real people about the real struggle and will remind you that we can laugh in pain and cry in joy but there’s no greater mistake than hiding from it all. By embracing it all, and celebrating it with the stories she’ll bring listeners, she believes that our lowest moments can be the building blocks for our eventual fulfillment. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

PHETASY IS a movement disguised as a company. 

We just want to make you laugh while the world burns. https://www.phetasy.com/ 

Buy PHETASY MERCH here: https://www.bridgetphetasy.com/

For more content, including the unedited version of Dumpster Fire, BTS content, writing, photos, livestreams and a kick-ass community, subscribe at https://phetasy.com/ 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/BridgetPhetasy 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bridgetphetasy/ 

Podcast - Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/walk-ins-welcome/id1437447846 

https://open.spotify.com/show/7jbRU0qOjbxZJf9d49AHEh 

https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/I3gqggwe23u6mnsdgqynu447wva

Support the show

Journalist and podcaster, Eli Lake, sits down with Bridget for a wide ranging conversation that wanders from tracing the evolution of comedy, from Lenny Bruce’s groundbreaking defiance to Shane Gillis’s resilience against cancel culture, to making compelling parallels between the fall of the Roman Republic and contemporary political challenges - including Pakistan’s deep state and its global implications. They cover addiction, creativity, wondering if there any third rails left, whether Kanye’s most controversial song is the price we must pay for freedom, the challenge of covering Trump, and why comparison is the thief of joy and importance of staying out of bitterness and resentment. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Sponsor Links: 

- Quest offers 100+ lab tests to empower you to have more control over your health journey. Choose from a variety of test types that best suit your needs, use code PHETASY to get 25% off - https://www.questhealth.com 

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy - Podcast Bridget Phetasy admires grit and authenticity. On Walk-Ins Welcome, she talks about the beautiful failures and frightening successes of her own life and the lives of her guests. She doesn’t conduct interviews—she has conversations. Conversations with real people about the real struggle and will remind you that we can laugh in pain and cry in joy but there’s no greater mistake than hiding from it all. By embracing it all, and celebrating it with the stories she’ll bring listeners, she believes that our lowest moments can be the building blocks for our eventual fulfillment. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

PHETASY IS a movement disguised as a company. We just want to make you laugh while the world burns. https://www.phetasy.com/ 

Buy PHETASY MERCH here: https://www.bridgetphetasy.com/ 

For more content, including the unedited version of Dumpster Fire, BTS content, writing, photos, livestreams and a kick-ass community, subscribe at https://phetasy.com/ 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/BridgetPhetasy 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bridgetphetasy/ 

Podcast - Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/walk-ins-welcome/id1437447846 

https://open.spotify.com/show/7jbRU0qOjbxZJf9d49AHEh 

https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/I3gqggwe23u6mnsdgqynu447wva

Support the show

Alana Newhouse, the mastermind behind Tablet Magazine, sits down with Bridget for a fascinating dissection of modern media, identity politics, and the resurgence of print in a digital age. They dive into the internet’s shift from a punk-rock playground to a tribal shouting match, discuss the flatness of corporate media, and analyze the quirky rebellion of magazines like Tablet and County Highway. They cover everything from mom brain, to the perils of virality, the death of gatekeepers, why reality always wins, and how tech might be robbing us of our sense of smell. 

Check out Tablet here - https://bit.ly/WiW-Tablet 

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Sponsor Links: 

- Quest offers 100+ lab tests to empower you to have more control over your health journey. Choose from a variety of test types that best suit your needs, use code PHETASY to get 25% off - https://www.questhealth.com 

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy - Podcast Bridget Phetasy admires grit and authenticity. On Walk-Ins Welcome, she talks about the beautiful failures and frightening successes of her own life and the lives of her guests. She doesn’t conduct interviews—she has conversations. Conversations with real people about the real struggle and will remind you that we can laugh in pain and cry in joy but there’s no greater mistake than hiding from it all. By embracing it all, and celebrating it with the stories she’ll bring listeners, she believes that our lowest moments can be the building blocks for our eventual fulfillment. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

PHETASY IS a movement disguised as a company. We just want to make you laugh while the world burns. https://www.phetasy.com/ 

Buy PHETASY MERCH here: https://www.bridgetphetasy.com/

 For more content, including the unedited version of Dumpster Fire, BTS content, writing, photos, livestreams and a kick-ass community, subscribe at https://phetasy.com/ 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/BridgetPhetasy 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bridgetphetasy/ 

Podcast - Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/walk-ins-welcome/id1437447846 

https://open.spotify.com/show/7jbRU0qOjbxZJf9d49AHEh 

https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/I3gqggwe23u6mnsdgqynu447wva

Support the show

Aaron Stupple, author of The Sovereign Child: How a Forgotten Philosophy Can Liberate Kids and Their Parents, joins Bridget for a discussion of a parenting philosophy that tosses out the rulebook and embraces kids as creative, knowledge-hungry mini-humans. From turning teeth brushing into a sugar-bug-smashing game to letting kids opt out of arbitrary rules, Aaron argues for problem-solving over control, drawing on Carl Popper’s ideas about knowledge creation. They cover why screens are a parenting superpower, how to raise free thinkers without coercion, the “because I said so” approach, and why defiance might just be your kid’s secret weapon. Check out Aaron's book The Sovereign Child here - https://bit.ly/WiW-SovereignChild 

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Sponsor Links: 

- Quest offers 100+ lab tests to empower you to have more control over your health journey. Choose from a variety of test types that best suit your needs, use code PHETASY to get 25% off - https://www.questhealth.com 

- In Brad vs. Everyone, host Brad Polumbo covers the most interesting and entertaining stories in our politics and on the internet from a center-right, independent perspective - https://spoti.fi/42KTKTw 

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Bridget Phetasy admires grit and authenticity. On Walk-Ins Welcome, she talks about the beautiful failures and frightening successes of her own life and the lives of her guests. She doesn’t conduct interviews—she has conversations. Conversations with real people about the real struggle and will remind you that we can laugh in pain and cry in joy but there’s no greater mistake than hiding from it all. By embracing it all, and celebrating it with the stories she’ll bring listeners, she believes that our lowest moments can be the building blocks for our eventual fulfillment. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

PHETASY IS a movement disguised as a company. 

We just want to make you laugh while the world burns. https://www.phetasy.com/ 

Buy PHETASY MERCH here: https://www.bridgetphetasy.com/ 

For more content, including the unedited version of Dumpster Fire, BTS content, writing, photos, livestreams and a kick-ass community, subscribe at https://phetasy.com/ 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/BridgetPhetasy 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bridgetphetasy/ 

Podcast - Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/walk-ins-welcome/id1437447846 

https://open.spotify.com/show/7jbRU0qOjbxZJf9d49AHEh 

https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/I3gqggwe23u6mnsdgqynu447wva

Support the show

Comedian Tre Stewart and Bridget Phetasy dive into a whirlwind of topics, from being mislabeled an anti-trans activist to navigating the chaotic shift from Bernie Bro to MAGA-curious, they unpack the absurdity of political tribalism, the hypocrisy of yacht-owning climate crusaders like Leonardo DiCaprio, and Hunter Biden’s suspiciously lucrative art. They cover the gritty realities of the comedy world, from LA, to New York, to Austin, navigating endless media echo chambers, the middle class’s fight for survival, how people in media are so far out of touch from the average American, and why it’s more about what you don’t say than what you say when it comes to networking.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy - Podcast Bridget Phetasy admires grit and authenticity. On Walk-Ins Welcome, she talks about the beautiful failures and frightening successes of her own life and the lives of her guests. She doesn’t conduct interviews—she has conversations. Conversations with real people about the real struggle and will remind you that we can laugh in pain and cry in joy but there’s no greater mistake than hiding from it all. By embracing it all, and celebrating it with the stories she’ll bring listeners, she believes that our lowest moments can be the building blocks for our eventual fulfillment.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

PHETASY IS a movement disguised as a company. 

We just want to make you laugh while the world burns. https://www.phetasy.com/ Buy PHETASY MERCH here: https://www.bridgetphetasy.com/ 

For more content, including the unedited version of Dumpster Fire, BTS content, writing, photos, livestreams and a kick-ass community, subscribe at https://phetasy.com/ 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/BridgetPhetasy 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bridgetphetasy/ 

Podcast - Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/walk-ins-welcome/id1437447846 

https://open.spotify.com/show/7jbRU0qOjbxZJf9d49AHEh 

https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/I3gqggwe23u6mnsdgqynu447wva

Support the show

If you’ve ever wondered where Critical Race Theory came from, or why the Progressive Left seems to have collectively lost its mind all at once, buckle up for a comprehensive breakdown and analysis of the history of postmodernism. Michael Young sits down with Bridget for a fascinating conversation tracking the roots of the postmodern movement and how it’s come to dominate the landscape of today’s culture wars. He and Bridget discuss the proliferation of conspiracy theories and their cultural significance, and Young deconstructs the tangled web of postmodernism from the rise of belief that the entire culture is a system of brainwashing, to the counter culture movement of the 60s, to each successive wave of academic theorists doubling down on a flawed premise, culminating in a vicious cycle of self-radicalization, the rise of critical theory, the flawed idea that there are no objective truths, and the difference between elites and experts. Pulling from a vast array of sources, Michael breaks down why postmodernist theory is inherently nonsensical and speculates about where we go from here. Check out his Substack - https://wokaldistance.substack.com/ 
Follow him on X - @wokal_distance 

Sponsor Link: 

- Quest offers 100+ lab tests to empower you to have more control over your health journey. Choose from a variety of test types that best suit your needs, use code PHETASY to get 25% off - https://www.questhealth.com 

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy - Podcast Bridget Phetasy admires grit and authenticity. On Walk-Ins Welcome, she talks about the beautiful failures and frightening successes of her own life and the lives of her guests. She doesn’t conduct interviews—she has conversations. Conversations with real people about the real struggle and will remind you that we can laugh in pain and cry in joy but there’s no greater mistake than hiding from it all. By embracing it all, and celebrating it with the stories she’ll bring listeners, she believes that our lowest moments can be the building blocks for our eventual fulfillment. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

PHETASY IS a movement disguised as a company. 

We just want to make you laugh while the world burns. https://www.phetasy.com/ Buy PHETASY MERCH here: https://www.bridgetphetasy.com/ 

For more content, including the unedited version of Dumpster Fire, BTS content, writing, photos, livestreams and a kick-ass community, subscribe at https://phetasy.com/ 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/BridgetPhetasy
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bridgetphetasy/
Podcast - Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/walk-ins-welcome/id1437447846
https://open.spotify.com/show/7jbRU0qOjbxZJf9d49AHEh
https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/I3gqggwe23u6mnsdgqynu447wva

Support the show