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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Bridget sits down with Batya Ungar-Sargon — journalist, author, and deputy opinion editor at Newsweek — for a wide-ranging conversation about her new book, The Jews and The Left, about American Jewish history and the political realignment happening in real time. They dig into how Jews became so deeply identified with the Democratic Party, why October 7th forced a reckoning for secular Jews who had barely thought about their identity in decades, and what it means that the loudest antisemitism rig...
Bridget Phetasy sits down with Courtney O’Dell, food blogger and creator behind Sweet C’s Designs, to dig into the viral DoorDash discourse that exploded online and ask the obvious question: how did we end up with a generation that genuinely doesn’t know how to feed itself? They get into why convenience culture has replaced basic life skills with helplessness, what food blogging actually looks like as a career, how AI is changing the industry, and why the simple act of cooking dinner might be on...
Bridget sits down with Jonathan Alpert, therapist and author of Therapy Nation: How America Got Hooked on Therapy and Why It’s Left Us More Anxious and Divided, to dig into something most mental health professionals won’t say out loud - that the therapy industry may be making people worse, not better. They cover how therapists are trained to validate rather than challenge, why the explosion of diagnoses tracks more with social media trends than actual illness, and how therapy culture has quietly...
Bridget sits down with Noah Rothman, senior editor at National Review and author of Blood And Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence in America, to trace the long, suppressed history of radical left-wing political violence in the United States — from the anarchist bombings of the 1920s to the Weather Underground to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Noah argues that this history isn't obscure, it's deliberately buried, and that the same patterns driving today's wave of violence have shown up ...
Bridget Phetasy sits down with Adam Louis-Klein, anthropologist and founder of the Movement Against Antizionism (MAAZ), to examine why the word "antisemitism" has stopped working — and what language we actually need to name and confront the Israel hatred spreading across campuses, media, and institutions. Klein traces antizionism from its roots in Nazi and Soviet propaganda through its capture of Western academia, explains how it functions as a libel machine resistant to any counterevidence, and...
Bridget Phetasy sits down with Freya India, British writer and author of Girls: Generation Z and the Commodification of Everything, to dig into why Gen Z women are struggling in ways previous generations didn't. They discuss why it's not simply a case of kids being soft, and how the mental health crisis among young women isn't just about bad parenting or weak foundations, but predatory industries stepping into the vacuum left by family breakdown, community loss, and the decline of religion — and...
Bridget Phetasy sits down with Scott Lincicome, Vice President of General Economics and Trade at the Cato Institute, to unpack what Trump's tariffs have actually done to the American economy. They dig into why the apocalyptic predictions didn't pan out, who's really paying the price, and how small businesses got blindsided by customs bills they never saw coming. They discuss the history of US protectionism, the difference between stated and revealed preferences, the truth about "buying American,...
Bridget sits down with Andrew Gold, host of the Heretics podcast and author of The Psychology of Secrets, for a conversation about cult dynamics, Islamism in Europe, purity spirals, and what happens when your online tribe starts demanding you sell your soul to keep them. Andrew breaks down how YouTube channels, political movements, and entire cultures operate on the same psychological mechanics as Scientology and Heaven's Gate — just at different points on the spectrum. They get into why the UK ...
Bridget Phetasy sits down with Elnathan John, Nigerian satirist and author of Becoming Nigerian, for a wide-ranging conversation about what happens when an entire culture loses the ability to feel shame. Elnathan argues that the effectiveness of satire is directly proportional to a society's capacity for shame—and right now, that capacity is bottoming out everywhere from Lagos to Washington. In this episode, they discuss: • The comedian's complex relationship to power • Why declaring your vote c...
Ayaan Hirsi Ali sits down with Bridget for an in-depth conversation about if and how the West can save itself. They discuss why the Constitution isn’t a suicide pact and shouldn’t be weaponized against us by those who seek our destruction, how our core values of tolerance and freedom are being exploited by adversaries who don’t share those values, the post-9/11 failure of Western elites to understand Islamic ideology and jihadist motivation, and the binary choice America faces with Iran’s regime...
In this insightful episode, Jacob Siegel discusses his book, "The Information State," revealing how the war on disinformation leverages tools from the War on Terror to impose top-down algorithmic control and erode traditional civic life. He explains how the Obama administration built censorship infrastructure used in the Trump era, how COVID-19 censorship proved more radicalizing than Russiagate, and how tech platforms consolidate power by eliminating private property rights. Siegel suggests that freedom in the digital age, intensified by AI's rise, must be discovered within the technological system itself, rather than by attempting to escape it.
Behnam Ben Taleblu joins Bridget to offer his expertise on Iran. They discuss who’s actually in charge in Iran right now, what Americans need to understand about the Islamic Republic’s ideology, why the plight of Iranian women gets ignored by Western feminists, and why this conflict is fundamentally different from Iraq 2003. They cover how the regime destroyed Iran’s environment to fund the Revolutionary Guard, how they worked with Mexican drug cartels and Canadian biker gangs to target dissiden...
Spencer Klavan joins Bridget for a fascinating conversation about why Plato's 2,000-year-old warning about the invention of writing perfectly explains our AI panic, what it's like to invent an entire language for Daily Wire's Pendragon Cycle (and how it made him finally understand Tolkien), and why AI can only reproduce the "outer word" while humans alone possess the "inner word." They discuss how Instagram reels have replaced sitcoms as the shared cultural touchstone for exhausted parents, why ...
Michael Young returns to the podcast for another epic conversation with Bridget to pull back the curtain on Beautiful Trouble—the activist handbook that’s basically Rules for Radicals on steroids. If you’ve ever wondered why protests seem to turn on and off like a faucet, why certain tactics feel weirdly coordinated, or how Minnesota went from zero to chaos overnight, this conversation breaks down the entire playbook. Michael walks us through the actual training manuals activists use: how to put...
Journalist Michael Tracey joins Bridget to dissect the Epstein moral panic currently swallowing the internet whole—and he's got the receipts on why most of it is "conspiracy-brain melted slop." As one of the only journalists pushing back on the dominant narrative, Tracey breaks down what we actually know versus what people want to believe: the FBI's fraudulent "1000 victims" number, why the Alex Acosta "sweetheart deal" wasn't actually a sweetheart deal, how Whitney Webb's "research" is a joke, ...
Independent journalist Benjamin Ryan was the only reporter who sat through all three weeks of the first-ever gender surgery malpractice trial. He and Bridget discuss the chilling testimony of a mother who was browbeaten until she consented to her daughter’s mastectomy, a 15-year-old’s 11-month sprint from questioning her gender to surgery, and why the psychologist was an “enabler” instead of a measured professional. They cover the judge who tried to scare Ryan off reporting, why detransitioners ...
Author Kylie Ora Lobell joins Bridget for a thoughtful conversation about her book, Choosing to Be Chosen, which tells the story of her conversion from atheist to Orthodox Jew. Kylie’s shift from atheism was sparked by a melting warmth she recognized as God at a Shabbat dinner, and it led her on a five-year journey of embracing kosher laws, rituals, the challenges of conversion, and a profound trust in God amid life’s darkest questions (like child suffering and October 7th). They discuss why tak...
Media maven Darvio Morrow shares his story—from launching a record label at 16 and sleeping on studio floors to keep his dream alive, to growing up amid Cleveland’s economic decline, gunshots next door, and a family legacy tied to a great-grandfather raised by a former slave. He and Bridget discuss his nuanced take on reparations, why today’s media ecosystem is trash, white paternalism as a cousin to white supremacy, and our desensitization to global atrocities like the ongoing crisis in Iran. T...
Michael Shermer returns for a fascinating conversation about the crisis of truth in our polarized, AI-driven world. He and Bridget discuss the fate of print magazines, shrinking attention spans, the challenges of discerning reality amid deepfakes, misinformation, and Shermer’s new book Truth: What It Is, How To Find It, and Why It Still Matters. They cover political violence, ICE controversies, the power of belief to shape actions (and self-fulfilling prophecies), human gullibility, the replicat...
Mike Solana joins Bridget for a fascinating conversation about America's shifting political fault lines, why critiquing tech is critiquing power, and the coming Luddite backlash. They discuss Mamdani's Marxist housing advisor calling for the seizure of private homes (especially from the white middle class), and then crying about it when confronted with questions, the social justice ideas that escaped academia, why Solana thinks that "real leftism" is coming, and why social media is probably net ...
Triggernometry co-host and comedian, Francis Foster, returns to the podcast to unpack Nicolás Maduro’s dramatic downfall. Foster’s familiarity with the country stems from his Venezuelan mother, and he references on-the-ground stories from friends and family in the wake of Maduro’s arrest. He and Bridget discuss chilling stories of a friend robbed at gunpoint by police officers, teen protesters gunned down, and a regime so corrupt it turned the world’s richest oil nation into a country so economi...
Andrew Yang returns to the podcast for a conversation about the chaos of modern life, his no-phone parties aimed at reviving real human hookups in a world that’s stopped partying, and his new phone service that literally pays you to doomscroll less. They discuss future of the Forward Party, how getting a few seats in Congress could change everything, how the terrifying speed of AI quietly erasing jobs will inevitably lead to some sort of universal basic income, why an extreme winner-take-all eco...
Original Air Date - November 16, 2024 The Dark Queen, Adrienne Iapalucci joins Bridget for a hilarious conversation about having a love-hate relationship with comedy, constantly contemplating quitting, being fearless when tackling controversial topics, the inability to be a conventional employee, and why Adrienne loves pissing people off. They cover drug escapades, allowing politics to divide families, being “white lady nuts,” career aspirations, and how her new comedy special The Dark Queen, di...
Original Air Date - 8/22/24 Comedian and host of Normal World, Dave Landau, sits down with Bridget for a fun conversation about how they should start their own morning show, Dave’s childhood in Detroit, their respective struggles with addiction, Agent Orange, AIDS, parents with mental illness, dealing with Satanists in rehab, their experiences in mental hospitals, how Dave’s teacher suggested he get into stand up, the ups and downs of his career, and stumbling into the culture wars. They cover t...
Boots-on-the-ground journalist Salena Zito, sits down with Bridget to discuss the gaping chasm between online discourse and the reality of heartland America, Salena’s eyewitness account of the Butler rally shooting from her position just feet away from President Trump, and his inspiring response to her question days later about why he said, “Fight, fight, fight.” They cover the cultural betrayals that tanked Bud Light and the NFL, the quiet resurgence of faith among young people, why Trump’s vis...
Dad Saves America podcast host, John Papola, joins Bridget for a wide-ranging conversation about everything from the Crusades to life advice for teenage boys. They discuss John’s career trajectory, how he went from MTV, to Spike TV, to documentary filmmaker and ultimately to starting his podcast after COVID hit, why he wanted to take on harder subjects as topics, why 1998 was the peak of Western Civilization, the truth about the production industry, the coolest project he’s ever gotten to work o...
Drinkin’ Bros podcast host Dan Hollaway joins Bridget for an uncensored conversation about all the third rail topics you could ever ask for, from why we should probably just invade Mexico, to how 20 million illegals and BlackRock turned 29-year-old home-buyers into 40-year-old renters, the reality behind the horseshoe theory that brings together “Queers for Palestine” and actual Islamists, and Zohran Mamdani’s "brown guilt." They explore how pure libertarianism was tried and failed during the fo...
Original Air Date - 6/21/23 Revisit a Walk-Ins Welcome classic Journalist and senior director of news at Tablet magazine, Jacob Siegel, sits down with Bridget to discuss his recent article A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century. In a chilling conversation Jacob explains the sudden pervasiveness of disinformation and how it became an organizing principle in most of the federal bureaucracy, the wholesale fraud being perpetrated on Americans, the precipitating factors, the organizations i...
Ever wonder how “15 days to slow the spread” turned into more than two years of Zoom torture, kids in masks all day, and elite children getting private tutors while public-school families got crushed? Natalya Murakhver, a former Upper West Side progressive turned “Open Schools” mom, joins Bridget to discuss her new documentary 15 Days, a forensic analysis of what happened to children during school closures, including devastating learning loss, mental health crises, and inequality. And let’s not ...
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, unlearning everything the experts had told her about herself and forging i...
