Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy

Heather Heying is a scientist, educator and author. She and Bridget discuss the possibility of a vaccine passport and why they’re so unsettled by the idea. They reflect that nothing good comes from being told that in order to do something you have to show your papers, that once you give up a certain amount of liberty or power, it’s much more difficult to get it back, how being against the idea of...

Nick Gillespie is the host of The Reason Interview podcast and editor-at-large at Reason Magazine. He and Bridget discuss the need to create meaning in our lives and why this has driven a lot of American culture insane, how he became a libertarian, Burning Man, his time working for a teen magazine, and why we need a government that does fewer things, but does them well. He shares how attending hig...

Nancy Rommelman, journalist & author, sits down with Bridget for an in-depth conversation about her feature for Reason Magazine The Dream of The 90’s Dies in Portland, covering the Portland protests. They discuss what the endgame is for people whose skill set only involves destruction, how people are starting to behave in real life the way they do online, how people can become addicted to thei...

Cherie DeVille is an adult film star who offers Bridget an inside look at today’s porn industry. They cover how Cherie got into porn, how her parents reacted, why she loves it, the secret to her decade-long career, the perception versus the reality of the industry, the social stigma that comes with it, how it’s changed in the last 10 years, and how women have more power and control in the industry...

Jeff Charles is a political commentator, podcast host, and freelance writer. He and Bridget discuss a variety of issues including why Republicans seem more interested in making it more difficult to vote than winning over hearts & minds, how even though most conservatives aren’t racist, they fall into a trap that lets the left paint them as racist, why the far left doesn’t really care about bla...

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a research fellow, former member of the Dutch parliament, and author of the new book Prey: Immigration, Islam and the Erosion of Women’s Rights. She shares her story with Bridget and discusses fleeing an arranged marriage, seeking asylum in the Netherlands, the methods women in oppressive countries have developed to cope with or avoid being harassed, and the failure that occurs...

Bridget and Jeren sit down to discuss their recent trip to South Africa. They discuss traveling during Covid, the importance of leaving the United States on a regular basis, what you learn when you travel internationally, their families’ attitudes towards traveling growing up, and their adventures in the wildlife parks they visited. They also get into the differences for traveling between men and...

Story Hour with Bridget Phetasy is a segment where Bridget reminisces with cousin Maggie and tells stories explaining who she is and how she got here. Bridget’s globe trotting tales really kick off with the first leg of her months-long journey. Hear how a spontaneous opportunity to go to Burning Man, led to a weed farm in Oregon, to an ashram in Australia, and wwoofing on a horse farm in New Zeala...

Mark Normand, stand-up comedian and podcast host, connects with Bridget to make fun of Gwyneth Paltrow’s vagina candles, the absurdity of people on Twitter telling you to reach out if you’re feeling depressed or suicidal when they’re the ones calling you Nazis, political hypocrisy and posturing, and people wielding the word “complicit” as a weapon. They cover why doing stand-up seemed like becomin...

Yannis Pappas (stand-up comic) stops by to mock everyone and everything with Bridget, including: Bill Gates, white people presenting as POC, China, Tom Cruise, the two cults running this country, Scandinavians, and comedians being taken seriously as political pundits. He and Bridget also cover how things have changed since he became a dad, what Kurt Cobain would be like if he were still alive toda...

Sarah Tollemache, stand-up comic and podcast host, joins Bridget for a hilarious conversation about anything and everything, including what they miss about live stand up, defending their right to be hyperbolic, worrying about being caught in the background of a viral video that would get them cancelled, and their shared fascination of black market arms dealing and money laundering. They discuss th...

Kmele Foster is a partner at Free Think, a media company that tells stories about the people and ideas that are changing the world, he’s also a co-host of The Fifth Column podcast. He and Bridget discuss the weirdness of signs like “Black People Welcome Here,” and how they give him a Get Out sort of feeling, what he would teach kids about media literacy right now, why he prefers lukewarm takes ove...

Ryan Long, comedian and filmmaker, connects with Bridget from New York and they discuss his move from Canada five months before the pandemic hit, why NYC is a sadboy town, the challenges of being a self-starter and your own boss, the outrage economy, why good editors are so hard to find, and why Canada is dead to him. In the middle of their conversation Bridget receives breaking news of the lockdo...

Adrienne Iapalucci is a stand-up comic, podcast host, and Bridget’s “spirit human.” She and Bridget discuss how their dysfunctional childhoods are probably what led them to stand-up in the first place and what keeps them grinding long after most normal people would quit. They talk addiction, the stand-up scene in NYC vs LA, their shared belief that things will always get worse, and why they both d...

W. Keith Campbell is a nationally recognized expert on narcissism, society and generational change. He and Bridget discuss social media and narcissism, whether everyone with a big platform is inherently a narcissist, why Keith thinks Kylie Jenner is a genius, how technology always leads to status inversions where the wisdom of age gets crushed by youth’s expertise in tech, and why narcissism is es...

Harleen Kaur is a former NASA space engineer and current CEO and founder of Ground News, the world’s first news comparison platform. Ground News aggregates news stories from around the world, shows you how they are being covered by different media outlets, and helps you identify the media bias on the different coverage. Harleen founded the company to solve a problem she herself had, when it came t...

Johann Hari (Chasing the Scream, Lost Connections) sits down with Bridget to discuss the rise in depression, anxiety and addiction in society, particularly during Covid, and what that means about their underlying causes. Through extensive traveling and research for his books, Johann has explored the idea that the roots of all three are not just biological, but also psychological and social, and th...

Desi-Rae is a sociopolitical commentator, crypto enthusiast, and artist who started her talk show Just Thinking Out Loud, after she realized she felt conflicted about honestly speaking her mind. Originally from Jamaica, she offers her perspective on US politics, how you used to be able to disagree with someone and still be friends with them, why she hates identity politics, and how people were alw...

Tori Perrotti, aka “Target Tori,” talks with Bridget about her experience going viral, cyber-bullying, cancel culture, and the amazing positive support she received that inspired her to found the Pause. Be Kind platform. They discuss what they’ve each learned in the service industry, being an only child vs. the oldest of five, trade stories about being bullied in high school and how those experien...

Cydnee Black uploaded her first makeup tutorial to YouTube in 2013, at that time, she was one of the few African Americans doing makeup tutorials. She now has over 1 million subscribers and is considered an “influencer” even though she despises that term. She has since transitioned into researching moments in history that interest her and creating informational videos about topics such as the Clar...

Corey DeAngelis is the director of School Choice at Reason Foundation and the Executive Director at Educational Freedom Institute. Corey and Bridget discuss school choice, which would mean allowing a tax payer’s education dollars to follow their child to wherever they’re getting their education – public school, private school, or charter school – rather than automatically being paid to their local...

Doug Schoen (author & campaign consultant) drops in to discuss his most recent book The End of Democracy?: Russia and China on the Rise, America in Retreat. He and Bridget have a frank conversation about the fact that we are so divided in this country we are failing to pay attention to the larger threats of Russian and Chinese influence in the world. They cover how a lack of common purpose and...

Karol Markowicz (New York Post, Spectator USA, Time) and Bridget discuss the effect of the pandemic in NYC, how nobody in California seems to be able to connect policies they hate and the people they’re voting for, why large portions of immigrant communities love Trump, looking back and seeing their own blindspots going into 2016, and the best and worst case scenarios for how the 2020 election mig...

Bridget & Maggie reminisce about 100 episodes of Walk-Ins Welcome. What they love, what they’ve learned, favorite episodes, and they marvel at their unprecedented consistency. They explore Bridget’s gift of gab and her genuine love for talking to people (inherited from their grandmother), discuss the need for a Hero’s Journey and how lost we can become without one, and plan for the future and...

David French (The Dispatch, Time) stops in to talk about his latest book Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation. He and Bridget cover how he sources his news, the liberation of shedding the partisan mindset and meeting in the wasteland of the center, the rise of journavism, being expelled from your tribe, taking precautions against being “swatted” by online troll...