Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy

Tim Urban, writer/illustrator and co-founder of Wait But Why , a long-form, stick-figure-illustrated website, sits down with Bridget to discuss his new book What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies . In a fun and free-wheeling conversation they talk about Tim's decision to write the book because the defining characteristic of our time is mass confusion and smart people falling for incorrect and fake narratives and he wanted to parse what was going on in our culture. They cover how his Left wing/Right wing thinking fell apart and where it led him, why it’s liberating to not have to pretend you know everything, vertical vs horizontal thinking, how people develop a preference for what they want to be true, why it would be so fun to be a culture warrior, how to know when you've slipped into tribalism, why unearned righteousness and hypocrisy are so annoying, why AI is a magic wand, and how Instagram knows exactly how old your child is.Sponsor Links:Progressive Insurance - https://pgrs.in/3Dp5ZIWOur Fake History Podcast - https://bit.ly/wiw-ofhpodcast This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.phetasy.com/subscribeSupport the show

Jena Friedman, comic and author of new book Not Funny: Essays On Life, Comedy, Culture, Et Cetera , has a frank conversation with Bridget about motherhood, parenting, and losing her mom while she was pregnant with her son. They cover the perils of turning to the internet for advice on sleep training, what gets you through grief and a staggering loss, the writer's strike, the middle class struggle, feeling disconnected, and what happened when comedians started to turn on each other. They also discuss trans activism, abortion rights, gun violence, media bias, and the process of writing a book - among other things. Sponsor Links:Allegiance Gold: https://bit.ly/trustbridget-wiwThe Jordan Harbinger Show: https://spoti.fi/3LhJBTPYour Welcome: https://bit.ly/WiW-YourWelcome This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.phetasy.com/subscribeSupport the show

Kat Timpf, co-host of Gutfeld! and author of You Can't Joke About That , sits down with Bridget to discuss writing a book about some of her most intimate, traumatic, and gut wrenching experiences. They talk about the importance of being able to joke about your own trauma, why humor is healing and we have to be allowed to joke about everything, people who try to police your grief, how grief is so misunderstood in this country, and the weird things that can happen when you’re grieving. They also cover why safe spaces aren’t real, expecting the world to revolve around your feelings, the idea that intention doesn’t matter, being able to talk about the people you’ve lost, the reality of watching someone die, outrage culture, why erasing things we find offensive from our past is not the answer, why coming after the arts is sinister, and why art is a necessary tool for reviving humanity. Sponsor Links:Storyworth - https://bit.ly/storyworth-wiwYour Welcome Podcast - https://bit.ly/WiW-YourWelcome This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.phetasy.com/subscribeSupport the show

Comedian and Dumpster Fire writer Dave Yates, sits down with Bridget for a long overdue conversation about comedy, addiction, sobriety, and making peace with a brain that is mean to you. They cover Dave's entrance into comedy when he quit drinking because he needed something to keep him busy, why the worst thing that can happen to you is doing well the first time you do stand up, how he stopped letting the job define him, the reality of pursuing stand up comedy and factoring in the possibility that you might wind up homeless, and why comedy is a mental illness factory. They also discuss why wanting to kill yourself when you quit drinking is probably a sign you should quit drinking, trying to work smarter, being of service to those in front of you, learning to be gentle to yourself, why you never negative self-talk your way into better behavior, and learning to love the parts of yourself that aren’t the best. Check out Dave @yatescomedy on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, and buy some of his excellent hot sauce at hahahotsauce.comSponsor LinksAG1 - https://bit.ly/AG1-WiWThe Jordan Harbinger Show - https://spoti.fi/3LhJBTPYour Welcome Podcast - https://bit.ly/WiW-YourWelcomeProgressive Insurance - https://pgrs.in/3Dp5ZIW This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.phetasy.com/subscribeSupport the show

Mediated Series - Part 6:Published in 2005, Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live In It , became Bridget's bible for understanding the changing media landscape and how it is affecting our society and behavior. Now she sits down with author Thomas de Zengotita for a multi-part series discussing the book chapter by chapter. In Part 6, Bridget and Thomas discuss the implications of technological advances and that the important thing to realize is that at the end of the day it isn’t the technology itself, it’s the way that it forces us into a whole new set of social situations that didn’t used to exist. They explore how hard it is to get people to pay attention to technological advancements when they’re concerned with social and ethical ones, people collaborating in their own disintegration by yielding to the social pressures that get generated by the technology, the way it alters our social arrangements, making the thing without stopping to think whether or not you should. They also cover the history of suicide, how the instinctive need for acknowledgment and attention that we’re all born with has been hijacked by the media environment, wanting to feel like you have authority, audience capture, and the Bill Clinton scandal and shift it signaled regarding shame in our society.Sponsor Links: - I've Had It Podcast - https://bit.ly/WiW-IveHadIt This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.phetasy.com/subscribeSupport the show

Independent journalist, Leighton Woodhouse, sits down with Bridget for an in-depth conversation about the Censorship Industrial Complex, which is an effort to create new gatekeepers so that the elite can regain control of the media narrative by controlling visibility into the distribution of information and throttling the ability to see politically inconvenient information. They discuss the difference between disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation, why there’s no reason to believe that these tools would not be used by the national security state since that is where they came from, why the effort to reinstill gatekeeping will probably succeed, the terrifying openness of young people to authoritarianism, our path towards a kind of Chinese-style social credit system, how humanity is not capable of controlling the pace of technology, and that the true danger of all the AI spectacles and deep fakes is not that people are gonna believe the fake stuff - it’s that they won’t believe the real stuff. They also cover flash trading bots, DAs who prosecute drug dealers vs the ones who don’t, gifted programs, reporting about the death of civilization from the ground, and both being Gen X Californians, which makes them bitter. Check out Leighton's Substack with Michael Shellenberger: Public Sponsor Links:Headspace - https://bit.ly/WiWHeadspaceI've Had It Podcast - https://bit.ly/WiW-IveHadItThe Jordan Harbinger Show - https://spoti.fi/3LhJBTPProgressive - https://pgrs.in/3Dp5ZIW  This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.phetasy.com/subscribeSupport the show

Bridget sits down with Polish-born artist, Agnieszka Pilat, who is best known for her series of heroic portraits of technology and for paintings co-created with a quadruped robot, Spot. They discuss Agnieszka's experience going from Communist Poland to non-Communist Poland, the true realities of toilet paper shortages, why you would never make casual conversation in Poland, the spirit of benevolence in America, and her perception of the US vs. the reality when she came to live here. They also cover her work with robots as an artist, how it got started, why she likes working for machines, the parallels between AI and God, her desire to be Diego Rivera for machines, whether it's possible for robots to bring the soul that humans bring to art, the adaptability of humans, the agency they assign to robots, how there's no predicting what might happen in the future with these technological advancements, and why she thinks it’s our responsibility to engage with technology. Check out Agnieszka's art here: pilatart.comSponsor Links: Allegiance Gold - https://bit.ly/trustbridget-wiwProgressive Insurance - https://pgrs.in/3Dp5ZIWThe Adam Carolla Show - https://bit.ly/WiW-AdamCarolla This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.phetasy.com/subscribeSupport the show

Garand Thumb Youtuber, Mike Jones, sits down with Bridget for a frank conversation about gun culture and all the factors that go into the gun debate, his time in the military as a SERE specialist, the complex topic of school shootings, their mutual love of America, and why social media plus AI might be the end of us. They also cover the importance of vulnerability among men - not just with their families - but with each other, how being a good leader is knowing when to be a hard ass and when to allow for vulnerability, why role models for men are hard to find, how your success or failure in tough situations is 100% about your mental state, the Second Amendment, traveling, the reality of being a killer, stoicism, humility, and the importance of realizing you're average. Bridget defines the word TERF for Mike, and Mike promises to teach Bridget the survival skills any 6 year old in 1830 would know.  Sponsor Links: Headspace - https://bit.ly/WiWHeadspaceThe Jordan Harbinger Show - https://spoti.fi/3LhJBTPThe Adam Carolla Show - https://bit.ly/WiW-AdamCarolla This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.phetasy.com/subscribeSupport the show

Andrew Doyle returns to discuss his latest book The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World . Andrew wrote the book for people who are confused by what's going on in the culture right now. He and Bridget have a riveting conversation about what actually happened during the Salem witch trials and how it can be applied to today's culture--how you might not get hanged but you could have your life ruined. They also cover why the gender ideology movement is one of the worst things that happened to the gay movement, how this progressive ideology is making us more racist, and authentic racists are starting to feel more emboldened, why there's a focus on race, gender, and sexuality, but not class, money, or poor people, why seeing the culture war as a left vs right thing is misleading, loss of trust in the media, and the sad truth that where they’ll burn books, they’ll burn people too.Sponsor Links:- Hello Fresh - https://bit.ly/WiW-HelloFresh- Athletic Greens - https://bit.ly/AG1-WiW- Progressive Insurance - https://pgrs.in/3Dp5ZIW- The Adam Carolla Show - https://bit.ly/WiW-AdamCarolla This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.phetasy.com/subscribeSupport the show

Steve Krakauer is the author of Uncovered: How the Media Got Cozy With Power, Abandoned Its Principles, and Lost the People . He and Bridget sit down for a discussion about what's changed in the media landscape in the past 10 years, Trump’s ability to harness the power of Twitter, how the major news outlets became subject to audience capture, laziness and incompetence in journalism, and why supporting censorship under the guise of stopping misinformation is so catastrophic to the principles of what journalism and media is supposed to be about. They cover building an audience of people that are intellectually flexible and along for the ride even when you say something they don't agree with, the problem with experts, how normal POVs are not represented at all in media these days, the balance of independent media vs putting something out that you know might lose you subscribers and affect the bottom line, why we should be applauding when news media outlets correct something, and the fact that people who are willing to put themselves on the line and say things, consequences be damned, are really growing in power and audience these days.Sponsor Links:Headspace - https://bit.ly/WiWHeadspaceStoryworth - https://bit.ly/storyworth-wiwThe Jordan Harbinger Show - https://spoti.fi/3LhJBTPProgressive Insurance - https://pgrs.in/3Dp5ZIWThe Adam Carolla Show - https://bit.ly/WiW-AdamCarolla This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.phetasy.com/subscribeSupport the show