Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy

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 (...

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 b...

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...

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, an...

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 ...

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, crea...

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 brai...

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 ide...

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 Aust...

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...

Carol Roth returns for a breakdown of Trump’s tariffs and a nuanced examination of America’s economic challenges. She and Bridget discuss the tariffs’ disproportionate impact on the 35 million small businesses in the US, the alarming debt-to-GDP ratio that has reached unsustainable levels, the truth about American companies with overseas supply chains, the prevailing misconceptions about tariffs, and why a precision approach to the...

Riot season has returned with Antifa activists throwing poo at an event in Portland and pro-Palestinian activists causing damage at the University of Washington. 

0:00 - Patriarchy So Crafty 
6:13 - The Perfect Jean 
8:00 - Weather 
8:24 - Parade of Morons 
13:13 - Sheath 
14:17 - Parade of Morons Continued 
16:21 - Phetasy News 
17:17 - The Internet Is Glorious End Music 

- Sweetfire performed by Lightmak...

Kate Compton Barr, a North Carolina state senate candidate, deliberately ran a campaign she knew wouldn't win to highlight gerrymandering issues. She and Bridget discuss how politicians strategically redraw voting districts to maintain power, techniques like "packing" and "cracking," and why it’s one of the most extreme problems facing our country right now. They cover her background in behavioral science, ...

Accidental urban warfare expert, John Spencer, joins Bridget for a discussion about navigating the concrete jungle of modern combat. He shares his evolution from a 25-year active duty service member, to analyzing hypothetical US military operations in mega-cities, teaching strategy and tactics at West Point, to finally setting up a research center called the Modern War Institute, and becoming an unofficial analyst of the war in Ukr...

Brooke Urick, author of Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge: Sexual Exploits and Secrets from Inside a Sugar Daddy Website, joins Bridget to discuss the seductive lies of sugar daddy websites, the murky world of "soft prostitution," and how these platforms prey on young women. They cover the long term repercussions of being on OnlyFans, what porn and online gambling are doing to young men, pushing boundaries to the extreme, the dang...

Sarah Rose Siskind returns to Walk-Ins Welcome for a fascinating chat about AI, exploring its strengths, quirks, and why it sparks insecurity in so many. She and Bridget unpack humanity’s love-hate dance with robots, wrestling with the paradox at its core: Will robots become too human? Why aren’t they human enough? They dive into AI’s struggle to nail comedy (despite being a comedian’s secret weapon), its transformative role for wo...

Coleman Hughes returns to the podcast for a wide ranging conversation with Bridget about his new teaching position at University of Austin, their mission to rescue free speech from the clutches of woke academia, what a healthy version of DEI might look like, and the course he's teaching about the legacy of slavery and what aspects of American society today are part of the long-term consequences of slavery and what are not. The...

Editor at Large of Reason magazine, Nick Gillespie returns to the podcast discuss the current state of libertarianism, why he feels it’s moving into a revival, Trump’s tariff tantrums, what’s wrong with the deportations, the problem with Europe, pondering how California lost Hollywood and Silicon Valley and what it will take to recover, and whether or not bitcoin can fix money. He and Bridget cover the reality of the middle class, ...

Bridget sits down with Meghan McCain to discuss her new show Meghan McCain’s Happy Hour with 2Way, which provides live feedback from the audience and keeps her in touch with what the normies are actually worrying about. They address concerns that popular independent podcasters have been co-opted by the right wing, mirroring the way left wing media has historically been influenced. They also cover the truth about being a nepo baby, ...