Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy

Laura Delano joins Bridget for a riveting conversation about her book, Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance, which chronicles her haphazard diagnosis with bipolar disorder at the age of 14 and the 13 year saga of unending treatments, various diagnoses and a cornucopia of medications that she went through. When she’d reached her lowest point only one option remained, leaving behind the drugs and diagnoses, unlearnin...

Graham Linehan joins the podcast to discuss his arrest in the UK, his refusal to use preferred pronouns, and the realities of pushing back against a dogmatic social movement. He and Bridget talk screenwriting and script writing, using AI as a writing tool, their different strategies for writing and downloading their "eureka" moment from the ether. They cover the joys of worldbuilding and character creation, what Graham le...

Meghan Murphy returns to the podcast to discuss the success of the UK's TERFs, and explains why the trans fad is fading in the Britain and America, but Canada, Australia and New Zealand still haven't gotten the memo. She and Bridget discuss the WPATH files and the Cass Review, the lie that puberty blockers wouldn't have permanent effects, the devastation the ideology has wrought among desperate parents and children w...

Comedian Ehsan Ahmad joins Bridget for a hilarious discussion about all things cultural including Muslims naming their kids "Jihad", the need to call out the crazy in your family, our government's meme wars, the absurdity of how Kamala lost the election by not going on a bunch of comedians' podcasts, why AI memes are to blame for your 20% energy spike, and his take on H1B visas. They also cover how there’s no sm...

Journalist Margaret Roberts joins Bridget to discuss the book she spent 20 years researching and writing, Blowback: The Untold Story of the FBI and the Oklahoma City Bombing. She describes her journey down a path of unanswered questions and loose ends that lead to questioning the "lone wolf" narrative of the case, the extent of the FBI's involvement, when surveillance crosses the line and goes rogue, the holes in the...

Elizabeth Grace Matthew joins Bridget for a comprehensive conversation about the cultural chaos of modern America. Specifically, they discuss the infantilizing pitfalls of contemporary feminism, the dishonesty of the “soft” trad wife aesthetic, the performative nature of all the “ideals” people are consuming on social media, how the reality for most women lies somewhere in between stay-at-home mom and girlboss, and the dangers of g...

This week, Bridget welcomes journalist Yaakov Katz for an in-depth conversation about his book While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East. He and Bridget tackle the intelligence and strategic failures that enabled Hamas’s surprise attack on October 7th, 2023. They cover a brief history of the conflict in the region, Israel’s misguided policy of containment, the misunderstandings caused by ...

Andrew Doyle returns to the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about his book The End of Woke, the culture shock of moving from London to Arizona, the far Left and far Right overlap in anti-Semitism, the rollback in DEI policies, why you shouldn’t use the term “hate speech, “ and the UK’s failure to enforce certain laws because police have been trained as activists. They also cover the long-term damage of COVID-era contradicti...

Senior Scholar at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Sarah McLaughlin sits down with Bridget to discuss her book, Authoritarians In the Academy: How the Internationalization of Higher Education and Borderless Censorship Threaten Free Speech. Sarah addresses the problems of foreign authoritarian regimes infiltrating American academia; from students fearing family backlash back home, to governments attempting...

Original Air Date - 10/19/23 Revisit a Walk-Ins Welcome classic Helen Joyce, author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, sits down with Bridget for an in-depth conversation about the trans activist movement, what inspired her to write the book, what's changed since the book came out in 2021, the bullshit idea that everything can be blamed on feminism, the detransitioners she's met, and how the trans movement is sending ...

Comedian Andrew Heaton returns to talk about his new book Tribalism Is Dumb: Where It Came from, How It Got So Bad, and What to Do about It. He and Bridget discuss the evolutionary and social roles that tribalism has played throughout human history and why it has become so toxic in the last 20 years. They cover Andrew’s favorite line to break the ice at parties, how our ability to work in groups is why we defeated the dolphins, why...

Greg Lukianoff returns to the podcast as he and Bridget spotlight the battle for free speech and why it’s dying in many areas of the world. They discuss suing the Trump administration over a shady deportation policy, AI’s potential for tyranny in places like China and Iran, people who are pro-free speech until it’s someone who’s not on their team, the free speech disaster happening in Europe and Canada, why free speech is a problem...

Kevin Ryan joins Bridget to discuss the ups and downs of a career in freelance writing. With AI churning out soulless content, they defend the gritty, human struggle of writing, why writing should be hard, and breaking the myth of the tortured alcoholic writer. They cover why everyone should have some revolutionary instincts in their 20s, why the loss of trust in media might be healthy, how the center has become so centerless, why ...

Amy Alkon, investigative science author, returns to the podcast for a fascinating and frank conversation about her new book, Going Menopostal - What You (and Your Doctor) Need to Know About the Real Science of Menopause and Perimenopause. She shares the unfiltered truth about perimenopause and menopause, exposing the shocking gaps in medical care that leave women navigating a hormonal Wild West. From debunking the "estrogen is...

Katie Herzog, co-host of the Blocked & Reported podcast, returns to Walk-Ins Welcome to discuss her new book Drink Your Way Sober. She and Bridget have a frank conversation about alcoholism, the steps you take to hide it from your loved ones, Katie's realization that it would kill her, and how Naltrexone helped her drink her way sober and banished the desire to drink, something she'd never experienced before. They cov...

Attorney Ted Frank joins Bridget for a frank conversation about the multitude of conspiracies about Jeffery Epstein swirling around the internet. He and Bridget tackle why it's so hard to find any non-conspiracy related information on Epstein, how Epstein was such a liar and flamboyant character it’s hard to parse the truth, how many narratives out there that are completely false, the CIA-Mossad-puppet-master myths, the storie...

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...