Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy

Latest Episodes:

E361. Why Gen Z Is Revolting Globally - Ehsan Ahmad Oct 23, 2025

Show notes

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 small government Republicans left, why it feels like we've been in a secret recession since COVID, the importance of home ownership and how it's out of reach for many Americans, the Riyadh comedy festival, why Bernie would’ve crushed Trump in 2016, and the changes they've seen in stand-up audiences in the last decade and what that tells them about the culture.

Check out Ehsan's podcast The Solid Show - https://www.youtube.com/@UCOeKWlHQaxzhjHnUrOM_qSQ

Sponsor Links: - 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

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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.

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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

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E360. What the FBI Doesn’t Want You to See - Margaret Roberts Oct 16, 2025

Show notes

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 official story, and why some questions might never be answered about America’s deadliest domestic terrorist attack. They cover FBI whistleblowers, a lawyer's quest to find out what happened to his brother, how it's growing more difficult to trust our institutions, what's happened to journalism, the Boston bombing, Governor Whitmer, January 6th, and what needs to happen now.

Buy Blowback here - https://amzn.to/42IH1jT

- 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

- 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

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Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy - Podcast

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

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

E359. The Center Is Not Holding - Elizabeth Matthew Oct 09, 2025

Show notes

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 gentle parenting. They also cover the siloing of media, why it’s hard to build an audience and be nuanced, ideas for protecting your kids from the insanity on the extreme left and the extreme right, what happens when politics become your religion, why we’re in a technologically facilitated dark age, faith, family, and the fight for sanity.

Check out Elizabeth’s Substack - What Are Grownups For? - https://bit.ly/WiW-whataregrownupsfor

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Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy - Podcast

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

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

E358. While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East - Yaakov Katz Oct 02, 2025

Show notes

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 the application of a Western mindset to a completely different ideology, becoming complacent in their reliance on technology, misunderstanding the motives of terrorist organizations, why no one wondered what Hamas had done with the billions of dollars in aid money it had received, whether or not Israel knew about the tunnel system being built in Gaza, how key warnings were missed, and the global rise of antisemitism that has followed.

Purchase While Israel Slept here - https://bit.ly/4877hI9

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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/

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

E357. The Battle for Civilization - Andrew Doyle Sep 25, 2025

Show notes

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 contradictions, when being unwilling to say anything that could possibly be perceived as racist costs people their lives, the fetishizing of other cultures, Sweden’s immigration mistake, Charlie Kirk’s murder, extremist ideals seeping in mainstream culture, the actual definition of fascism, why assassination culture is not the way, the UK’s complete ideological capture, Graham Linehan's arrest, and why we shouldn’t be thinking in terms of “Left” and “Right” now - we should be thinking in terms of those who believe in authoritarianism and those who believe in liberty.

Buy Andrew's book here - https://bit.ly/46SUSGu

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Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy - Podcast

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

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

E356. Foreign Influence In Higher Education - Sarah McLaughlin Sep 18, 2025

Show notes

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 to silence dissenting voices in colleges outside their borders, to universities choosing foreign cash over free expression, there is a hidden free speech issue going on in higher education. She and Bridget cover the issues facing satellite campuses, Confucius Institutes, study abroad programs & research grants, how universities are not being transparent when it comes to ways they can’t challenge the local laws, how money and global ambitions are clashing with academic freedom, the disconnect between what you promise your students and what the law is, why the fight for free speech is worse both globally and in the US since she started working for FIRE, and why higher education should be a place where students from around the world can come and access the freedoms America offers.

Get Sarah's book here: https://amzn.to/4n5mwWv

- 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/

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

E355. They're Sterilizing Gay Kids - Helen Joyce Sep 11, 2025

Show notes

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 women’s rights back to the dark ages. They discuss the sense that women have been abandoned in the culture wars, queer theory, the rise of conspiratorial thinking, how much faith she used to have in the institutions of our society and why she no longer trusts them, the definition of a moral injury, how gender ideology breaks things in exactly the place they're meant to work, being told that it’s a civil right to choose your gender, why she feels she's doing exactly what she’s supposed to be doing, and why you should never validate the delusion because you will lose control of the ward.

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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

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

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

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

E354. The Evolution of Tribalism: From Caves to Culture Wars - Andrew Heaton Sep 04, 2025

Show notes

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 the decline of religion has been bad for tribalism, information overload, why Finns might be too unimaginative to be unhappy, drunk monkeys, and why comedy might be our best shot at dismantling toxic partisanship. They also talk stolen lemon trees, gnome parades, social trust, and the human urge to pick a fight.

Buy Andrew's book here - https://amzn.to/4nj0ejX

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Sponsor Links:

- 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

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Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy - Podcast

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

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

E353. Why Free Speech Is Dying and How to Save It - Greg Lukianoff Aug 28, 2025

Show notes

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 of comfort, why Greg is funding experiments in AI that defend free speech and viewpoint diversity, and why free speech is an eternally radical idea that must be continuously fought for.

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Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy - Podcast

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

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

E352. Authentic Writing Still Matters in the Age of AI - Kevin Ryan Aug 21, 2025

Show notes

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 some of Kevin's favorite philosophers and writers are critical theorists and post-modernists, how the Left became the Right and the Right became the Left, why journalism should still have gatekeepers, Gen X's moment in the sun, how to give kids the value and thoughtfulness they deserve, and how Bridget became the Forrest Gump of the culture wars.

Sponsor Links:

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

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