The Megyn Kelly Show - Bridget Phetasy on the Value of Regret, Who Can Get Pregnant (and Her Own Baby), and Tua's Awful Injury ｜ EP. 402

00:00:00.540 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations.

00:00:11.100 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show and happy Friday.

00:00:15.540 It's the end of our two-year anniversary week and we have a great show for you today with a guest.

00:00:20.380 I'm so excited to welcome back for the first time in almost two years.

00:00:25.820 Bridget Phetasy is a comedian, a brilliant writer, and host now of a couple of different podcasts and shows. 0.64

00:00:33.760 She has a hilarious show on YouTube called Dumpster Fire. 0.61

00:00:37.520 That's like such a great name.

00:00:38.860 In addition to her podcast, Walk-Ins Welcome, and she recently launched a brand new podcast.

00:00:44.480 This one's different.

00:00:45.560 She co-hosts it with her husband.

00:00:47.340 It's called Factory Settings.

00:00:49.440 A husband, by the way, who the world learned about during the first time we had Bridget on this very show

00:00:54.540 back in December of 2020.

00:00:56.080 We were like her New York Times announcement, only better.

00:01:00.220 Wow, that was like a great, great episode.

00:01:02.140 We wound up rerunning that episode a couple of times just by popular demand, and everybody loves Bridget.

00:01:07.900 We talked about her family, about the Me Too movement, the media, and so much more.

00:01:11.600 It was powerful.

00:01:12.520 It was emotional.

00:01:13.140 It was a hilarious conversation.

00:01:15.380 And so much has changed since then, so there's a lot to get to today.

00:01:19.580 Welcome back to the show, my friend.

00:01:25.540 How are you, Bridget?

00:01:26.920 Hi, how are you doing?

00:01:28.080 It's so good to be back.

00:01:29.820 So good to be with you, and now we're doing it via video.

00:01:32.260 The first time we didn't have video.

00:01:34.180 Yes, this is a little unnerving being the first media hit I've done, I think, postpartum. 0.97

00:01:41.560 You're not going to show us your boobs, are you? 0.97

00:01:43.860 No. 0.72

00:01:44.220 We don't have the explicit warning on the YouTube, only on the podcast.

00:01:50.740 They're occupied by one little human now.

00:01:55.400 Yeah, well, I mean, that's, I will say, and I'm not embarrassed to tell the world, as like a normal B cup, I was so excited to go up to a C cup when I had my kids.

00:02:04.320 I'm like, yeah, this is awesome.

00:02:06.280 I loved what happened.

00:02:07.780 And then, of course, was the come down after the fact.

00:02:10.920 Deflate gate that occurs.

00:02:13.400 Yeah, that's right.

00:02:15.320 Yeah, it's been wild.

00:02:17.900 As somebody who has shown her breasts and loves the boobs in general as a source of joy and happiness for the world, have you been pleased with what's gone on since you became a mother and started breastfeeding?

00:02:28.980 Yeah, it's really funny.

00:02:31.140 Like, you realize the body is actually functional.

00:02:34.260 There's like a utilitarian aspect to it and not just some kind of vanity project.

00:02:39.780 That was really the most amazing thing about pregnancy was just how, what a miracle our bodies are, the female bodies. 0.99

00:02:48.840 They're just, it is insane what we can do.

00:02:52.080 And even just breastfeeding, I've only, she's been breastfed only.

00:02:56.240 Luckily, it came easily to me.

00:02:58.940 She latched right away.

00:03:00.220 It's, I know, I was worried because I've heard so many stories from women who struggle and it's not always that easy.

00:03:06.420 This was one aspect that was.

00:03:08.540 And just the fact that I can keep this little being alive just with the milk I'm making is so crazy.

00:03:14.140 And she's, she's a big, she's a little, she's a big little girl. 0.90

00:03:18.460 Aw. 0.99

00:03:18.940 Once again, your boobs came through for you. 0.99

00:03:21.320 Yeah. 0.99

00:03:22.120 Yeah.

00:03:22.500 I know.

00:03:23.180 It was really funny.

00:03:24.360 Right. 0.97

00:03:24.620 After I, right after I had her, they, the, the nurses were like, your nipples are amazing. 1.00

00:03:31.160 Do you know you have perfect nipples? 0.95

00:03:32.620 And it was like, right, you know, in recovery. 0.99

00:03:36.040 And she's like, you have perfect nipples. 1.00

00:03:38.220 Does anybody know this? 0.98

00:03:39.320 And I had to stop myself from like the comedian in me was like, well, the internet knows.

00:03:43.700 The whole world, madam, knows this. 0.99

00:03:46.500 But are they as good as the nipples of that Canadian shop teacher, Bridget? 0.99

00:03:51.560 I mean, there's good. 0.99

00:03:52.700 And then there's like enormous protrusions coming out of the bottom of like two watermelons.

00:03:58.120 That's how we did it. 0.61

00:03:59.060 That has to be a troll.

00:04:00.640 That's a good question.

00:04:02.080 A lot of people have asked that.

00:04:03.400 Do you think?

00:04:04.920 I mean, there was something going around and who knows what's real because it was on the internet

00:04:08.860 where there's, there's some, someone said that this person was in their class and that this guy

00:04:15.060 was actually hated by the, like the teachers.

00:04:19.360 And he was, he was getting in trouble for his toxic masculinity.

00:04:24.900 And this was his way of trying to make the administration eat their own policies.

00:04:30.280 And his long game was to get fired and then sue for discrimination.

00:04:34.360 But who knows if, who knows what's real?

00:04:36.880 Well, I mean, either way, the point is this is bad for kids.

00:04:41.720 Either way, it's horrible for the students.

00:04:45.520 But if that's true, I mean, some, some level of respect to the guy is owed because he got 0.97

00:04:51.500 international attention and Canada looks ridiculous and the school looks ridiculous.

00:04:55.640 So, but if it's true, the big reveal needs to come like ASAP.

00:05:00.180 Maybe he needs to say, okay, a hundred percent.

00:05:03.900 I feel like I, who's talked about it more than I have.

00:05:06.180 Very few, if any, I'm horrified by what he did. 1.00

00:05:08.880 If this is real, he's a sick mofo who belongs nowhere near children. 1.00

00:05:12.660 If it's a troll, some level of respect. 0.99

00:05:15.260 Cause you know, there are certain ways you can draw attention to stories like this and

00:05:19.100 they don't get anywhere near as much attention as the way this guy went about it.

00:05:23.200 It's still bad for the kids though.

00:05:25.000 How are they going to learn anything?

00:05:26.900 Unless they're in on it.

00:05:27.920 Like what if the kids are in on it and they're also anti-woke little Canadian, like prisoners 0.94

00:05:32.340 and this lunatic system.

00:05:34.760 Two of my producers work in Canada.

00:05:36.000 I'm doing this for their children.

00:05:37.100 I'm trying to save their children from being subjected to this nonsense.

00:05:40.460 When I heard that it was Canada, I was like, uh, no, it's probably true. 1.00

00:05:44.380 It's probably a real story.

00:05:47.240 Canada or San Francisco.

00:05:48.340 San Francisco just today. 0.99

00:05:50.180 No, they're not saying you can parade around your giant false nipples as a man who's dressing 0.97

00:05:54.080 as a woman, but they're are, they're doing these, they instituted this crazy gender protocol 1.00

00:06:01.400 that's, I mean, K through five that the parents cannot opt out of saying the kids will be subjected

00:06:08.580 to gender, uh, ideology and sexual identity discussions.

00:06:12.860 And you can't opt out because this is important.

00:06:15.360 This is life.

00:06:16.000 So you can't drag your kindergartner out of this nonsense, even if you want to.

00:06:19.140 I mean, this is part of the reason I need to get out of California.

00:06:25.060 Yes.

00:06:26.400 It's funny.

00:06:27.140 I was, you know, the culture wars were something I was able to mock and had take us almost like

00:06:33.540 that sneering nineties chick in the back of the class. 1.00

00:06:37.280 Who's like, Oh, everybody's such a, you know, cares so much.

00:06:40.800 And then I had a kid and now suddenly the culture wars come to you.

00:06:45.240 There's no opting out of it.

00:06:47.160 And there's, there's no, the kind of mama bear in me really got activated because I don't,

00:06:53.940 I don't, I want her to learn.

00:06:55.780 I don't want her to be distracted about gender and all of this stuff.

00:07:00.420 I wanted to learn math and science and why, what, why this, this hyper focus on this gender 0.99

00:07:08.120 stuff is so, Hey, it just feels inappropriate.

00:07:11.700 I didn't think about any of that stuff when I was a kid, they, it just feels like, let

00:07:15.840 them be kids.

00:07:17.500 I don't know.

00:07:18.500 I suddenly, I suddenly am like, maybe, maybe I'm a mom activist.

00:07:24.880 Becoming a mother does change you for sure.

00:07:26.520 And, and becoming a father, I mean, it's just becoming a parent changes the way in which you

00:07:30.220 look at the world, but here's what they're doing in San Francisco.

00:07:32.760 And this is, this is the public school system.

00:07:34.860 Okay.

00:07:35.100 This is public.

00:07:36.200 They have created a system.

00:07:37.540 And Chris Ruffo got his hands in these documents because people leak to him now.

00:07:41.220 God bless Chris Ruffo.

00:07:42.840 They've created a system for facilitating child sexual transitions for the K through five

00:07:50.060 students telling children, they may choose a different name and set of pronouns than the

00:07:54.900 ones they use at home.

00:07:56.080 And that this new identity will be kept secret from their parents.

00:08:00.220 Can you imagine?

00:08:01.040 I've got a third grader right now.

00:08:02.240 Like, how dare you talk to him that way and tell him you can have a secret with him.

00:08:08.100 That's, that is the road to hell, creating secrets between weird teachers and young single 1.00

00:08:13.320 digit children.

00:08:14.580 The, again, parents don't have the right to opt out of the lessons on gender identity

00:08:18.400 and sexual orientation.

00:08:20.140 And then in middle school, they begin promoting a program called Q Groups, which is designed

00:08:25.840 to quote, connect students to mental health professionals and clinics.

00:08:30.560 And so far I'm like, okay, mental health professionals, this is good.

00:08:33.200 Then it goes on and clinics that offer gender affirming health services, such as puberty

00:08:39.260 blockers, hormone therapy, and gender surgery.

00:08:41.520 So they promote this program, which will connect your kid to the gender surgery clinic and effectively

00:08:49.120 creating what one critic has called a school to clinic pipeline, beginning in elementary school

00:08:54.800 with secret child sexual transitions and concluding in middle and high school with referrals to

00:08:59.600 gender affirming medical treatments.

00:09:02.300 This is outright child abuse in the public school system.

00:09:05.700 If the people of San Francisco who recalled Chesa Boudin do not get this pulled, then they

00:09:12.660 deserve what they get.

00:09:13.340 It's so unsettling because they're still pushing a lot of this transitioning and surgery when

00:09:19.900 in Europe, they're backing off all of this stuff.

00:09:23.040 You know, the science is showing them that maybe don't give these kids puberty blockers.

00:09:28.520 Maybe you can't reverse some of these drugs that you put them on young.

00:09:33.600 Maybe the gender affirming care isn't the way to go and the best solution when it proves that 1.00

00:09:41.640 it often doesn't have any effect on their mental health.

00:09:45.660 And in fact, sometimes things get worse.

00:09:48.040 So why in America does it seem like there are places where it's still full steam ahead?

00:09:54.600 I got to take back what I said.

00:09:56.720 They deserve what they get because it's really about the kids.

00:09:58.900 And it's like, this is abuse.

00:10:00.020 And no kid deserves to be abused and parents who are allowing this are effectively allowing

00:10:04.500 the abuse of their children.

00:10:06.080 So I'm less sympathetic to the parents who allow it, but I am sympathetic to the children

00:10:10.080 who get pulled into this by authority figures and told, you know, pick your gender like it's

00:10:14.940 pick your socks.

00:10:16.300 And by the way, I thought of you, Bridget, because I'd read the whole packet.

00:10:19.040 You know, my team gets me ready for these interviews and they give me a big packet and

00:10:22.260 I'd read yours and everything was interesting.

00:10:23.780 It had so many of your articles, many of which I want to talk to you about.

00:10:26.340 But this article on the news was given to me after I'd read it all.

00:10:31.560 And this is this part stood out to me and you'll know why this district.

00:10:35.160 Same thing.

00:10:35.660 San Francisco now.

00:10:36.980 Not only do they have International Pronouns Day that they celebrate, but they they teach

00:10:43.380 the students.

00:10:44.920 Here's the term that they can diverge from, quote, vanilla sexuality and become part of the, 0.99

00:10:52.020 quote, bisexual umbrella, which includes fluid, pansexual, omnisexual, homocurious and heteroflexible.

00:11:00.800 They are intent on, quote, affirming students who use the pronoun it.

00:11:07.540 It doesn't like it when you call it he or she.

00:11:11.360 It needs to go to the bathroom. 0.99

00:11:13.340 It needs to wear something other than the uniform today.

00:11:16.840 They say this.

00:11:17.760 It's funny. 0.94

00:11:18.440 It's disgusting. 0.72

00:11:19.160 They say this used to be a way of dehumanizing trans and gender nonconforming folks. 0.89

00:11:25.520 It was our N-word, but it can be reclaimed as African-Americans have done with the N-word. 0.99

00:11:31.940 This is the district's messaging now.

00:11:34.040 So your kid could go to school, be told that he's potentially an it, be put on the gender

00:11:38.520 affirming care clinic pipeline, and the promise will be made that no one will tell.

00:11:45.020 At the same time, they're talking to your daughter or your son, but your daughter, this

00:11:49.080 is where it's relevant, about how she might diverge from vanilla sexuality. 0.96

00:11:54.480 And here are all the options available to her.

00:11:59.060 It's so toxic.

00:12:01.280 This stuff is just toxic.

00:12:02.880 There's no other word for it.

00:12:04.800 I guess this is a hill I'll die on.

00:12:09.220 I just don't think you should be teaching children about this, particularly at such a

00:12:13.800 young age.

00:12:14.340 They're already exposed to so much in their teen years and on the internet.

00:12:18.760 But at this young age, when they're so innocent and impressionable, the first thing you teach

00:12:24.400 your kid is not that if somebody says, you know, keep this a secret from mommy, it's they're

00:12:29.780 generally a predator.

00:12:31.700 So why is this suddenly OK for schools to do to keep these things?

00:12:36.860 This is basic stuff, too.

00:12:38.660 What I'm saying should not be transgressive.

00:12:41.220 This is this is this is like parenting 101, I feel like, and raising a child to be healthy.

00:12:48.260 And it feels like we're it's it would be very confusing as a child to have all of this gender

00:12:54.140 stuff taught to you.

00:12:55.800 And they I mean, a lot of people push back and say, oh, no, they get it.

00:13:00.320 They're they're not confused.

00:13:01.460 And I I don't know.

00:13:03.920 I feel I feel some some compassion for the parents, because I know in these situations

00:13:09.400 when their kids are coming home and they're threatening to, you know, they're saying they're

00:13:14.120 depressed and that they're maybe suicidal, that these desperate parents don't know what

00:13:20.300 to do and they turn to professionals who are giving them an oftentimes horrible advice.

00:13:24.760 And they're in a community that's very, you know, open to all of this.

00:13:30.540 And I I feel like I just what I don't understand is how it's become so institutionalized.

00:13:37.740 That's what is baffling to me.

00:13:40.360 And then you point out the difference between us in Europe, San Francisco and Europe.

00:13:43.160 It's like Europe's liberal, too.

00:13:45.380 It's not like they've abandoned their liberal values.

00:13:47.220 They're just open minded to science in a way our liberals are not, whether it was covid

00:13:51.240 or these gender clinics like why is our left gone so crazy and their left is still willing 1.00

00:13:57.680 to engage with real facts.

00:14:00.200 Yeah, that's that's when people say, you know, it feels like a cult.

00:14:03.580 That's what why people say this, that that it feels like a cult, because you're not looking

00:14:09.060 at facts and it's like everybody's just walking off the cliff the cliff together.

00:14:14.180 And I don't know, it just it's so unsettling to me because I I know people who work with

00:14:22.260 the youth population and I see just how confused they are coming after two years of the pandemic

00:14:27.640 where they're already seem so lost and they lost years of education.

00:14:31.760 And now this is the focus.

00:14:33.920 You know, can we make sure they're reading?

00:14:36.080 What are what are the numbers in California for literacy and for math?

00:14:40.200 They're not good.

00:14:41.680 No, the proficiency on a national level for reading and math is in one third.

00:14:45.500 One third of eighth graders are at the proficient level.

00:14:47.620 Eighth graders in America.

00:14:50.100 And that puts us something like 22 on the list of international countries.

00:14:53.560 We're we're we're not even top tier.

00:14:56.120 China's number one, by the way.

00:14:57.320 OK, somebody recently said China is giving their children broccoli and they're exporting

00:15:01.380 opium to our kids with that.

00:15:03.180 With all the.

00:15:04.280 Yeah, exactly.

00:15:05.100 So we and we shove it down our kids throats.

00:15:07.500 We willingly shove the opium down our kids throats.

00:15:09.880 And this is a different form of it in schools where we poison them.

00:15:13.260 And the Chinese are laughing all the way to number one positions in education and soon 1.00

00:15:17.180 the economy and the military and so on.

00:15:20.020 Just as a second point, Chris Ruffo, again, it was on Tucker the other day and he he explained

00:15:25.900 to Tucker that the NEA, the National Education Association Union, is, quote, mainlining queer 0.93

00:15:31.040 theory in the into the public schools, promoting a how to guide on fisting for children, for

00:15:38.420 children.

00:15:39.220 If you don't know what it is, you can figure it out.

00:15:41.200 Use your imagination.

00:15:41.840 It has no no place in a classroom, in an education facility or in front of children.

00:15:48.340 We if we don't fight this, honestly, like moms, dads, get the get up, get up off your couch.

00:15:55.420 Yeah.

00:15:55.660 Make a phone call.

00:15:56.540 Get down to the PTA. 0.56

00:15:58.100 Raise hell this.

00:15:59.460 We can't allow this to go on.

00:16:01.700 Do you think that people are fighting it?

00:16:04.800 Do you see from from what you've been hearing and just do you feel like people are fighting

00:16:09.920 back?

00:16:10.280 Do you think we'll see that in the midterms?

00:16:12.480 I think we were for a while, you know, with the whole center of Virginia thing and the

00:16:16.500 mask thing that got people out there like it spurred parents to action.

00:16:20.540 They were ready to fight because they could see that mask and the damage it was doing on

00:16:24.020 their kids every day.

00:16:24.960 But I feel like we've taken our foot off the gas and we've kind of forgotten there's a lot

00:16:29.180 to fight like the deeply damaging things are ongoing.

00:16:33.660 Maybe we started to look away once the masks came off.

00:16:36.560 But that damage is ongoing and hasn't stopped even a little.

00:16:40.620 Yeah, I wonder, too, if do you think it's the Roe v. Wade that that have people take their

00:16:49.360 foot off the gas or feel you feel like the momentum was lost a little or I think parents

00:16:55.300 I think most people are not activists.

00:16:57.180 You know, I'm not an activist either.

00:16:58.880 They just want to live their life.

00:17:00.400 You know, they they want their kids to be taught the right things.

00:17:03.660 And it's not like schools don't teach any math or history or reading.

00:17:06.800 So, you know, they're they're going back to work.

00:17:09.220 They're trying to put food on the table.

00:17:10.500 They're worried about inflation, the economy.

00:17:12.520 Just think like unless this is in your face, you're watching Tucker, you're listening to

00:17:16.420 me, Ben Shapiro, you, you know, you're reading Chris Ruffo's tweets, which look, we're all

00:17:22.760 doing well.

00:17:23.360 But the vast majority of Americans are not consuming news like this.

00:17:26.600 They don't know.

00:17:27.840 They don't realize this.

00:17:29.280 And you've really if you've got a kid, it's like your parental responsibility to stay tuned

00:17:34.220 in right now, because we have, in some cases, enemies of wellness teaching our children.

00:17:42.300 Is this just in public schools or are they finding this in private schools, too?

00:17:47.980 Hell no.

00:17:48.560 I mean, that's I came from the New York City private school system, which was as crazy

00:17:53.300 as they were on race essentialism. 0.91

00:17:54.900 They were even crazier on the trans stuff. 0.99

00:17:57.220 Our old boys school doesn't refer to boys as boys anymore or sons.

00:18:01.460 They refer to them as your student, your student.

00:18:04.100 And that was another thing that came out of this San Francisco report from from Chris Ruffo,

00:18:09.760 which was one of his documents revealed that they urge teachers now to refer to parents

00:18:14.520 as caregiver one and caregiver two, because God forbid you say mom and dad, you've offended

00:18:19.780 somebody. 0.75

00:18:20.240 Meanwhile, it's like two of my best friends are in a lesbian marriage. 1.00

00:18:23.680 They couldn't give a shit whether you use the term mom and dad. 0.99

00:18:26.220 There's no normal person who's offended by that. 0.99

00:18:29.340 Yeah.

00:18:30.420 Yes.

00:18:31.020 That's that's usually the case.

00:18:33.180 There's people getting offended on behalf of a population that's usually not offended

00:18:37.180 and doesn't care. 1.00

00:18:38.340 And they're like, stop dragging us into this crazy shit. 1.00

00:18:41.460 Right. 1.00

00:18:41.760 Right. 1.00

00:18:42.000 You're lunacy. 0.99

00:18:43.380 Now. 0.98

00:18:43.780 OK, so it's not just in the schools, of course.

00:18:45.880 You've got the trans issue. 0.92

00:18:48.200 I mean, it really has crossed over to like a place where, again, you can't worry about

00:18:53.660 being called a transphobe to fight this stuff.

00:18:55.560 You will be called that.

00:18:56.540 You're not if you oppose what's being done.

00:18:59.680 They dragged this guy from Planned Parenthood in front of Congress the other day.

00:19:05.120 And his name was Dr. Kumar.

00:19:07.420 And they get into one of these discussions about who can become pregnant.

00:19:11.160 And I do think this is an important discussion to have.

00:19:13.360 It's about language and what's real.

00:19:15.780 What is real?

00:19:17.180 The fact is only biological women can become pregnant. 1.00

00:19:21.500 That is a fact.

00:19:23.020 OK, science people.

00:19:24.680 That's a fact.

00:19:26.040 Listen to this guy who shows up in front of Congress on that question from Planned Parenthood.

00:19:30.120 Dr. Kumar, can biological men become pregnant and give birth?

00:19:39.420 So men can have pregnancies, especially trans men. 0.81

00:19:43.080 Somebody with a uterus may have the capability of becoming pregnant, whether they're a woman 0.68

00:19:46.880 or a man.

00:19:48.060 That doesn't make a difference.

00:19:48.680 OK, we're done.

00:19:49.540 Not every person with a uterus has the ability.

00:19:52.240 Can't believe it's necessary to say this.

00:19:54.360 But men cannot get pregnant and cannot give birth, regardless of how they identify themselves.

00:20:01.120 Thank you, sir.

00:20:02.540 Thank you.

00:20:03.260 The question was, can biological men, biological men?

00:20:06.800 And the guy dodges it.

00:20:07.980 I love men can have pregnancies, especially trans men.

00:20:13.420 What?

00:20:14.520 Especially?

00:20:15.740 So you're positing doctor that biological men can get pregnant? 0.58

00:20:20.820 OK, no, they cannot.

00:20:22.180 Goodbye.

00:20:22.840 Get out.

00:20:25.140 That's how it should have gone.

00:20:27.320 I just this again.

00:20:31.280 This is I don't know how it's got to this level.

00:20:34.280 I just I don't understand.

00:20:36.240 It's like something is in the water.

00:20:38.340 I don't get it.

00:20:39.160 I don't understand how this is something.

00:20:41.500 You know, I'll be called a TERF.

00:20:42.740 I get called a transphobe.

00:20:45.000 I I the trans women are women. 1.00

00:20:49.220 Trans men are men. 1.00

00:20:50.660 That mantra, you can repeat it as often as you want.

00:20:54.160 But reality remains undefeated.

00:20:56.000 It is it is a biological man cannot get pregnant. 1.00

00:20:59.840 That is that should not be something we are arguing about as a society. 0.56

00:21:04.700 It is bonkers that we are.

00:21:07.980 I don't this is again.

00:21:09.560 I just always keep coming back to how is this something that we're fighting about?

00:21:14.660 What what is your take on that?

00:21:17.060 They they well, I mean, they like to police language as a way of controlling us, the discussions

00:21:23.040 we have and so on, and then there are just who they be like the AOCs of the world, the 0.95

00:21:28.280 people who are, quote, woke or in this 10 percent of the left who have this bizarre agenda

00:21:34.760 that they want to shove down our throats and they want everyone to submit.

00:21:37.640 And their way of getting us to is to call us names that historically have been deeply

00:21:41.620 offensive to try to silence us.

00:21:44.040 Here was AOC in response to that exchange.

00:21:46.040 I just played for you.

00:21:47.500 Here's how she responded.

00:21:48.560 Listen.

00:21:48.740 The same folks who tell who tell us and told us that COVID COVID's just a flu, that climate

00:21:58.860 change isn't real, that January 6th was nothing but a tourist visit are the same are now trying

00:22:06.160 to tell us that transgender people are not real.

00:22:09.980 And I would say that their claim is probably just as legitimate as all their others, which

00:22:17.600 is to say, not very much at all.

00:22:21.200 So if you say only biological women can get pregnant, you're positing that trans people

00:22:27.400 are not real.

00:22:29.280 What we're positing is that biological sex is real and that only women, only biological 1.00

00:22:35.360 women can do one miraculous thing, which is give birth to a baby. 1.00

00:22:40.860 Sorry.

00:22:41.420 That's the way it is.

00:22:42.480 Yeah, it's that that is not the correct argument.

00:22:47.120 You're not saying that trans people aren't real.

00:22:50.080 If you're saying biological women can have children, only biological women can have babies. 1.00

00:22:56.160 You're those two things aren't even the same.

00:22:58.760 That's not I hate these arguments.

00:23:01.380 Also, it's good to know that AOC and I have a similar like my background is about as good

00:23:07.380 as hers.

00:23:07.960 I just want to say I felt a little bit comforted.

00:23:12.100 I noticed in her in her little bit, she's looking off to the side.

00:23:15.820 So she's clearly checking notes.

00:23:17.240 She's like Kareem Jean-Pierre.

00:23:18.780 She's not able to get through a 20 second little bit that she wants to go viral without 0.98

00:23:22.520 checking her notes so she can read.

00:23:24.120 All right, Bridget, let me stand you by because there's much, much more to get to.

00:23:27.100 And we're going to go someplace weird with Bridget next.

00:23:29.540 And that is to the gridiron.

00:23:32.560 We're going to talk football.

00:23:33.640 I'm really interested in what happened with this Miami Dolphins quarterback, and I want

00:23:37.580 to discuss it and we'll take it up next.

00:23:40.140 First, though, we want to bring you another of our memorable moments from the first two

00:23:43.180 years of this show.

00:23:44.220 This one, oh, this one's personal.

00:23:46.700 And it's a moment that resonated.

00:23:48.500 We are told with you, our audience, because we asked a lot of people to weigh in on what

00:23:51.580 moments they remember.

00:23:53.840 It's from the show after a traumatic event had my son Thatcher in the hospital last March

00:24:00.520 after a spring break skiing accident.

00:24:03.540 And it remains our most viewed YouTube video ever.

00:24:07.700 You can watch the full video there.

00:24:09.580 If you just search my name with son, it should come up or you can download the full episode

00:24:14.360 in our archives.

00:24:15.080 It's from March again of this year and episode 287.

00:24:19.740 Listen.

00:24:19.960 It wasn't until we walked out of the hospital and I hugged the nurse, Alyssa, that it finally

00:24:30.220 hit me, right?

00:24:31.640 Like feeling it now.

00:24:34.380 You know, the amount of stress and the love that you have for your children and the fragility

00:24:41.820 of these little bodies who totally depend on you and the enormous responsibility you have

00:24:48.280 for their well-being, you know, for making huge decisions and the importance of family

00:24:55.520 and friends, right?

00:24:56.600 And good colleagues.

00:24:58.360 I had Doug.

00:24:59.880 I don't know what people who are single parenting do.

00:25:02.940 God bless you.

00:25:03.800 God bless you.

00:25:04.760 It must be so hard, you know, and I'm sure you've had the feeling of loving your friends

00:25:11.480 and your family even more.

00:25:13.440 My two older, Yates and Yardley, were so delightful.

00:25:17.280 They were so supportive of Thatcher.

00:25:23.760 So Bridget, I don't know if you're a sports fan.

00:25:27.020 My audience knows I'm not a sports person.

00:25:29.100 I only discuss sports if they cross over into my realm, which is news.

00:25:33.260 And every so often they do.

00:25:35.740 And one of those times was a few years ago when I was at NBC and CTE was in the news.

00:25:42.180 You know, it stands for chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

00:25:46.540 And it's this brain injury that you get if you're a sports player.

00:25:50.200 It could be a baseball player who gets hit in the head too many times, a soccer player

00:25:53.900 who heads the ball too many times, too roughly.

00:25:56.500 And most often a football player who gets hit in the head, you know, as a part of the normal

00:26:02.640 course of business for these guys.

00:26:04.820 And I had Brett Favre, Kurt Warner of, you know, formerly the St. Louis Rams, Abby Wambach,

00:26:13.140 one of the most famous, successful soccer players in American history, come on to talk

00:26:17.340 about their CTE, their fears of it.

00:26:21.020 Brett Favre absolutely believes he has it.

00:26:22.580 So does Abby.

00:26:23.040 They all did.

00:26:24.000 But the thing about CTE is it can't be diagnosed until you die.

00:26:26.720 They have to dissect your brain to know.

00:26:30.220 So you can't say, I know I have it.

00:26:32.960 You just can suspect you have it.

00:26:35.080 This is, they made the NFL, or the movie about the NFL was made, Concussion.

00:26:39.320 And the NFL has made reforms since it got outed for not paying anywhere near enough attention

00:26:46.000 to the health of its players, just putting them out there like they weren't humans, and

00:26:51.620 over and over and over again, subjecting them to danger.

00:26:53.800 Brett Favre told me personally, made news, tons of news when he said it, that he believed,

00:26:59.180 he thought he only had three to four concussions in his 20-year career.

00:27:02.580 But 17 years into it is when they first started to test for concussions and learn more.

00:27:07.440 And he later found out that what's referred to in the NFL as being dinged, as getting dinged,

00:27:12.160 D-I-N-G-E-D, is like, you know, you get your bell rung, and you get sort of like ringing

00:27:16.980 in the ears.

00:27:18.000 That's a concussion.

00:27:19.240 And he said, once he learned that, he told me he believes he had thousands of concussions

00:27:24.640 during his time playing as a quarterback.

00:27:26.980 And so it's a dangerous thing.

00:27:29.480 I've been thinking about it lately because I have, well, I have three kids, and my oldest

00:27:33.360 is 13.

00:27:34.120 He's in seventh grade, and they had to choose one of three sports to play after school.

00:27:39.000 It's good.

00:27:39.440 I like that they're making him play sports.

00:27:40.680 It was like water polo, soccer, or football.

00:27:43.040 And he'd done flag football, so he's like, I'm going to do tackle football.

00:27:45.920 And I support this.

00:27:46.900 And I'm not worried about CTE from, you know, a year at seventh grade sports.

00:27:50.560 But it's been on my mind, you know, since I'm a newswoman.

00:27:52.820 So I always think we're going to get eaten by sharks, and we're going to get mesothelioma,

00:27:56.460 and we're, you know, going to get CTE in seventh grade.

00:27:59.580 I know it's not true.

00:28:01.000 But it was that thing in your head.

00:28:03.760 Anyway, then this happens this week.

00:28:05.900 And this is the reason why participation in tackle football has gone way down at the peewee,

00:28:10.580 in the lower school level, because moms and dads don't want CTE happening to their kids,

00:28:17.100 and they don't trust officials like the NFL to take care of their kids.

00:28:25.060 And this is the reason why.

00:28:26.020 All right.

00:28:26.220 So there's a guy, forgive me to the sports fans.

00:28:28.640 His name is Tua Tango Viola.

00:28:32.400 That's not right, Steve, is it?

00:28:34.120 He plays for the Miami Dolphins.

00:28:35.540 It's Tago, say, he doesn't have it.

00:28:40.100 Steve also doesn't have it.

00:28:41.580 T-A-G-O-V-A-I Loa. 0.99

00:28:44.220 Tago Viola.

00:28:46.060 Forgive me, Tua.

00:28:47.500 And this guy's a star quarterback for the Miami Dolphins.

00:28:50.140 He's in his third year.

00:28:51.860 So on Sunday, Bridget, he goes out there and he plays a game as the quarterback.

00:28:56.460 And he gets knocked down.

00:28:59.480 We're going to show the video.

00:29:00.580 So for those of you listening, go watch it on YouTube later.

00:29:03.080 And clearly the guy gets considerably hurt.

00:29:06.180 I mean, we'll play the video and react to it.

00:29:08.980 And then four days later, Thursday night, they put him back out there.

00:29:15.220 Now, it's very clear.

00:29:15.840 We're going to play the videos back to back in a second.

00:29:17.680 But four days later, they put him back out there.

00:29:20.440 And it is the most disturbing tape I've seen in a long time.

00:29:24.640 He falls down.

00:29:25.620 And everybody knows after you have a concussion, you're not supposed to go back out there.

00:29:28.920 The second concussion is the one that can kill you and seriously damage you.

00:29:32.760 So most doctors looking at this were saying, you should not go back out there.

00:29:38.600 And here is what happened when he went back out there last night and got hit.

00:29:42.500 And watch his hands after he goes down.

00:29:46.320 His ability to make adjustments at halftime.

00:29:49.660 To a rolling left.

00:29:52.100 With the grain and down he goes.

00:29:53.940 Slung down in his own 48-yard line.

00:29:58.620 Josh Tukul.

00:30:00.500 And, uh-oh.

00:30:04.880 Well, we saw last week and he went down.

00:30:07.560 He got up.

00:30:08.480 It was wobbly.

00:30:09.600 The training staff comes out.

00:30:11.860 And, of course, the last thing the Dolphins wanted to see.

00:30:17.140 I mean, last week it looked for all the world.

00:30:19.660 Everybody thought head injury, concussion, passed the protocol, came back second half, led him to a victory.

00:30:26.380 And Al Tupo slams him to the ground.

00:30:29.500 I mean, you're thinking about the back, the ankle, but he gets thrown to the ground.

00:30:33.820 And, again, wrenching that back, which was the issue last week.

00:30:37.720 Yep.

00:30:38.420 So they work on him a step away.

00:30:40.640 Oh, my God, Bridget.

00:30:41.820 So his fingers are like, they are bent back in a way I can't even do.

00:30:47.040 Can't even do on this set.

00:30:48.180 But they're like flipped back.

00:30:51.880 And it's a brain injury.

00:30:53.520 I mean, what's happening to him is a brain response.

00:30:55.520 It's not that he broke his fingers.

00:30:56.960 They call it a fencing response, which suggests potentially a serious brain injury.

00:31:04.900 What did they do, the Dolphins, that night?

00:31:06.700 They sent him to the hospital to be observed.

00:31:09.380 And he was later released almost immediately so he could fly home with his team.

00:31:13.400 He was not kept overnight for observation.

00:31:14.960 The Dolphins coach, Mike McDaniel, is saying, okay, well, when I saw that just last night,

00:31:22.480 he obviously had a concussion.

00:31:23.800 He was asking for me.

00:31:25.200 And then when he saw me, I could just tell that this was not the same guy I'm used to seeing.

00:31:29.720 And he and others are blaming this person called the unaffiliated neurological consultant

00:31:35.940 who tested Tua on the Sunday game.

00:31:40.020 After the Sunday game, he went in there.

00:31:41.940 And after he got knocked down on Sunday, he tried to get back up and he stumbled.

00:31:44.960 He couldn't hold himself up.

00:31:45.800 He looked like he'd had, you know, a singularly drunk, a keg of beer.

00:31:49.740 So he's wobbling all over the field.

00:31:52.100 Then they sent him to the unaffiliated neurological consultant who's supposed to give you honest 1.00

00:31:56.240 feedback.

00:31:57.300 That guy cleared him.

00:31:59.360 He returned to the game.

00:32:01.300 And there was all this hubbub online about why the hell did they return him to the game

00:32:06.240 after anybody with two eyes could see the guy had what was clearly a head injury.

00:32:11.420 And they said it was his back and his ankle.

00:32:14.160 Okay, maybe that's true.

00:32:15.680 Nobody I've seen online believes that.

00:32:17.640 No football player I've been listening to online believes that.

00:32:20.520 He got sent back in.

00:32:22.740 And then the people were stunned they played him again Thursday night, four days later.

00:32:28.600 My daughter got a concussion one time.

00:32:31.500 They were like, she's done.

00:32:32.840 She will not be doing physical activity for a week, 10 days, maybe two, four days later

00:32:39.100 to send him into an NFL football game as the quarterback.

00:32:42.300 But they did.

00:32:44.400 And now people are the players association is saying this unaffiliated neurological consultant

00:32:51.820 owes us answers.

00:32:53.800 We don't care if he seemed lucid in the second half.

00:32:56.760 These players want to play and will play hurt.

00:33:01.780 They've had a lifetime of conditioning to do it.

00:33:04.060 It's up to the officials, the authorities, the medical personnel to say, I'm sorry, buddy,

00:33:10.520 it's not happening.

00:33:11.920 It isn't safe for you.

00:33:13.400 And the whole situation just disgusts me.

00:33:16.420 I'm upset for this guy, for America's kids, for the sport, which is a great American sport.

00:33:23.080 I don't know.

00:33:23.800 What do you make of it?

00:33:25.840 I mean, I'm not a doctor, but and I love football and it's always just heart wrenching to see

00:33:31.920 these injuries and just soul wrenching to watch them.

00:33:36.360 And I, you know, they get paid a lot of money and know that it's their choice to play knowing

00:33:43.580 the danger.

00:33:44.480 But there does have to be somebody who is saying, like you said, they'll play no matter what.

00:33:50.160 These guys love the game.

00:33:51.540 They love playing and somebody has to be there has to be kind of a grown up in charge who's

00:33:57.820 saying, no, you can't play.

00:33:59.660 You had a concussion.

00:34:00.800 It's dangerous for you because then it does start feeling very exploitative of these players

00:34:06.520 and their health.

00:34:08.080 And it's I don't know.

00:34:09.680 I wonder if football will survive.

00:34:12.160 You know, there's so much danger in that sport.

00:34:14.920 And like you said, more and more people are just opting out of letting their children

00:34:19.520 play that.

00:34:21.200 Right.

00:34:21.420 Like they did more damage.

00:34:23.500 They did more damage to their sport last night.

00:34:26.420 I mean, put Tua to the side for a second.

00:34:28.660 God bless the guy.

00:34:29.340 And I really pray for his recovery.

00:34:31.800 They're saying he's OK.

00:34:33.240 We'll see.

00:34:34.300 Again, you don't know.

00:34:36.460 And there's no way of knowing until much, much later.

00:34:39.500 And he's only 24, I guess.

00:34:40.940 I mean, you do wonder what the 44 year old Tua is going to be thinking about this.

00:34:44.940 But they did more damage, not just to him, but to the sport.

00:34:47.820 It doesn't work.

00:34:50.580 Yeah.

00:34:53.180 There was a player on ESPN, former player named Rob Ninkovich.

00:34:57.900 He is a former outside linebacker.

00:35:00.760 He's drafted by the Saints.

00:35:01.720 He played for the Dolphins and the Patriots for eight years.

00:35:04.220 He won two Super Bowls.

00:35:05.300 So this guy's been around, too.

00:35:07.120 He was reacting to this.

00:35:08.340 And I looked at everything and I looked at what Dolphins fans were saying.

00:35:12.040 It doesn't seem to be like a partisan or a game, like a game lovers thing.

00:35:17.820 Determining your opinion.

00:35:19.280 I haven't seen many people defending Miami on this.

00:35:22.360 They're mad at what happened to this player.

00:35:24.840 In any event, here's what Rob had to say about it.

00:35:27.740 For a player to go down, when you get knocked out, you don't know what happened.

00:35:33.040 I've been knocked out.

00:35:34.720 You get up, you're like, whoa, what happened?

00:35:37.460 I'm OK.

00:35:38.460 I'm OK.

00:35:38.900 I can go.

00:35:39.380 I can play.

00:35:40.560 It's up to someone else, a medical expert or someone that witnesses that to say, no,

00:35:45.720 no, no, no.

00:35:46.040 Now, you just got knocked out.

00:35:48.580 You don't know what happened.

00:35:49.840 You might say it's your back, but we know.

00:35:51.440 We saw it.

00:35:52.460 So the NFL has to do a better job in knowing what to do if they see someone get injured

00:35:58.920 the way that he got injured.

00:36:00.400 It wasn't his back.

00:36:01.600 You don't sit up, shake your head to get the cobwebs out.

00:36:04.560 Stand up.

00:36:05.180 Do it again.

00:36:06.020 Start to run and stumble on yourself if you have a back injury.

00:36:09.260 It was a head issue on Sunday.

00:36:10.900 They say it's a back issue.

00:36:13.120 He plays Thursday night, four days later, and gets a massive concussion where he's froze

00:36:17.500 up.

00:36:18.400 So that's a problem.

00:36:20.180 And it's a bad look.

00:36:21.940 I have children.

00:36:22.820 I have kids.

00:36:23.540 After you watch that, you don't want your kid to play football.

00:36:26.640 And you see all these commercials on safety of the game and future of the game.

00:36:31.240 Technology is shaping the future of the game with helmets.

00:36:35.100 But how do you protect the player on the field so where he doesn't have to fight through

00:36:39.920 an injury to say, hey, you know what?

00:36:41.320 I'm fine.

00:36:41.720 I can go out here.

00:36:42.380 I can play.

00:36:42.820 I'm good.

00:36:43.360 It's the doctors.

00:36:44.520 It's your coaches.

00:36:46.320 It's the NFL.

00:36:47.220 They need to say, no, no, no.

00:36:48.180 We need to have a better protocol in place to make sure that players don't put themselves

00:36:52.440 in harm's way.

00:36:53.060 Because the 44-year-old Tua is going to look back at the 24-year-old Tua and say, why did

00:36:58.640 I do this?

00:36:59.340 Now I have a family.

00:37:00.700 Now I have people that rely on me to be around.

00:37:03.680 And I've seen too many guys that are going through a lot of stuff.

00:37:07.240 And it's unfortunate.

00:37:08.600 I sat in that junior sale with my locker mate next to me.

00:37:11.580 And I had to see things that you don't want to see that happen to people.

00:37:15.940 So I don't want families to go through it.

00:37:18.900 And you don't know.

00:37:19.880 You don't know.

00:37:20.620 You don't know.

00:37:21.060 There's an unknown here to the future.

00:37:22.860 How long you played football with contact.

00:37:26.420 What's in store for me?

00:37:27.660 What's in store for everyone that played?

00:37:29.520 It's an unknown.

00:37:30.320 But it's your families that are going to be by your side down the road.

00:37:34.400 You know, the head coach can go up and tap you on the shoulder, give you, you know, hold

00:37:37.240 your hand while you're going off the field.

00:37:38.660 He's not going to be there 20 or 30 years down the road when you're dealing with a problem.

00:37:43.380 It's going to be your wife and your kids. 0.91

00:37:47.960 Wow.

00:37:49.140 Powerful.

00:37:49.600 Wow.

00:37:49.820 Yeah, he got very emotional.

00:37:51.980 I mean, he knows this on a cellular level.

00:37:55.400 So I really, I defer to the players and all the people who are outraged about this on this

00:38:01.020 story.

00:38:01.580 I think, like you said, it doesn't seem like there are many people pushing back.

00:38:06.080 Would you do it?

00:38:07.020 Like you, you have a little girl now.

00:38:09.380 God willing, you guys will have future kids.

00:38:11.220 You might have a little boy.

00:38:12.380 Would you let him play tackle football?

00:38:15.360 That's a really good question.

00:38:16.560 You know, my husband and I were just talking about this because of this injury.

00:38:20.740 We watch football and I'm, that's a good question.

00:38:25.380 If he loved it, would I stop him when he was young?

00:38:27.980 I don't know, but it is so dangerous and I'm such a nervous Nelly as it is.

00:38:34.500 I don't know that I'd be able to even watch a single game.

00:38:37.700 It's got to be so stressful for all of the wives and kids of these players to just even 1.00

00:38:43.740 watch a game.

00:38:44.640 And I can't imagine moms.

00:38:46.680 Yeah, exactly.

00:38:47.620 I, I don't know.

00:38:48.700 That's a, that's a good question.

00:38:50.220 I'm not, I know a lot of, um, I have a good friend.

00:38:53.940 All of his sons are pretty high level football players.

00:38:57.240 He coached it and kind of had to deal with a lot of just the anti football.

00:39:03.640 Um, the, there's a lot of just the losing ground.

00:39:08.460 This game is, is taking, but they love the game and they want to work hard at it.

00:39:13.940 So if I had a son who loved it, I, I don't know.

00:39:18.600 That's the other thing, as I point out, unless you're going to put them into like, I don't

00:39:22.000 know, swimming, you know, the, the head can get hit.

00:39:26.200 You know, like I say, Abby Wambach was one of the women I interviewed on NBC about CTE.

00:39:31.880 I pulled up just to refresh my memory.

00:39:34.340 What she said, this is the Washington post writing it up.

00:39:37.680 She said as a cavalier attitude toward concussions earlier, early in her career reflected a real

00:39:43.540 naive kid who didn't really want to face the truth about what her current situation was.

00:39:48.440 Uh, Kurt Warner for his part said there were numerous times he played through brain injuries

00:39:53.120 because the prevailing stance among football players at the time was I'll do whatever I

00:39:57.660 have to, to be out there. 0.95

00:39:59.240 And I remember Kurt Warner telling me if you didn't, you were considered a sissy. 0.96

00:40:03.960 Like you, you play hurt. 0.94

00:40:05.540 And that's still the mentality of the players, no matter what the new concussion protocol is.

00:40:11.260 And he was not put in the concussion protocol, which they've instituted now under pressure

00:40:15.040 after they were exposed for repeatedly endangering the players.

00:40:18.020 He was not because again, this neurological consultant, I guess said, this is a back slash

00:40:23.300 ankle thing.

00:40:24.560 And, um, but like, that's why they have the protocols in place because of course the player

00:40:29.280 wants to play it's millions of dollars.

00:40:31.520 It's a lifetime of being told you play hurt.

00:40:33.760 It's a tough guy scenario for a lot of these men.

00:40:36.700 So there needs to be a layer of security behind them that said, and by the way, as that, as

00:40:40.300 that other player was pointing out, um, you don't know what's happened to you.

00:40:43.660 You just got your bell rung.

00:40:45.200 So you need, you know, like you don't, you have no idea whether you're okay.

00:40:47.680 Right.

00:40:47.880 You need other unhurt professionals to say you're sitting out.

00:40:54.260 Yeah.

00:40:55.180 Yeah.

00:40:55.780 And I think there's the pressure to just be in the game while you can.

00:40:59.520 And because there's always that fear of being injured, you want to make the money while

00:41:03.860 you can make it.

00:41:04.740 And you see these career ending injuries and you think, you know, what these people have

00:41:08.740 devoted their lives to this, these moments and to then have their, they're afraid of losing

00:41:14.700 that.

00:41:15.280 Obviously in that moment, that can probably seem bigger than thinking, you know, the long-term

00:41:20.380 repercussions of these repeated brain injuries.

00:41:23.560 That second hit, the one that happened on last night, Thursday night, where his fingers

00:41:30.360 bend back in a way that is not human without anybody touching them.

00:41:35.240 He's holding for the listening audience.

00:41:36.600 He's holding his hands in front of his face after having been knocked to the ground and

00:41:41.200 his fingers are bending in the most disturbing angle.

00:41:44.700 It's clearly a brain injury and I'm with the majority online.

00:41:50.740 Sunday's injury appeared very much to be a brain injury as well.

00:41:54.900 All right.

00:41:55.140 I can't, I can't pass this moment without talking about, forgive me, but somebody else who clearly

00:42:00.900 is suffering from the effects of maybe not a brain injury, but the deterioration of one's

00:42:06.660 mental faculties.

00:42:08.340 And that is the sitting president of the United States.

00:42:10.820 All right.

00:42:10.980 I've got to talk to you about this because yesterday, President Biden was at the FEMA

00:42:14.340 headquarters in DC, right?

00:42:15.560 They're dealing with what's happening in Florida, now South Carolina.

00:42:18.460 Look at this.

00:42:18.760 He was seen walking, walking, wandering away from the podium, the wrong direction.

00:42:23.640 Administration officials tried to stop him.

00:42:25.420 They could not.

00:42:27.060 Off he goes.

00:42:28.160 This comes after Wednesday when Dr. Jill had to help her husband at a White House event

00:42:32.440 when he once again began wandering off in the wrong direction.

00:42:37.240 Look at him.

00:42:37.640 You don't, he doesn't know where he's going.

00:42:38.880 Last week, President Biden was at a global fund event.

00:42:43.080 He left the podium, began wandering around while he was still being spoken to by another

00:42:48.320 person.

00:42:48.900 Bridget, look at this.

00:42:49.940 He just decided to leave.

00:42:51.620 He just decided to peace out in the middle.

00:42:54.280 This is a pattern.

00:42:56.380 Back in April of this year, look at this.

00:42:58.240 He left a North Carolina Agricultural Academy event.

00:43:01.160 He started to attempt to shake hands with no one, no one while wandering aimlessly around

00:43:06.520 the stage.

00:43:07.800 And then we pulled this one from August of last year when he appeared to get lost while

00:43:11.100 on his way back to his house, meaning the White House.

00:43:15.900 This is just a small sample of his pattern.

00:43:20.060 It's deeply concerning.

00:43:22.000 And honestly, Bridget, I don't know what to do.

00:43:24.680 Yesterday he referred to, where's Jackie?

00:43:26.640 Jackie's dead.

00:43:27.300 Jackie passed in August and every person in there who still has their, you know, brain

00:43:32.900 in order knew that.

00:43:34.680 And then we got top of mind.

00:43:36.060 She was just top of mind, top of mind, top of mind. 0.98

00:43:38.500 If she was top of mind, he would have known that she had passed in August and that he shouldn't

00:43:42.480 be looking around the room for her.

00:43:44.260 So how, how disturbed do you think we should be?

00:43:46.580 I mean, the gaslighting that occurs in the aftermath of these events, like that one you

00:43:53.080 just described where the, the press secretary has asked about it and it's just, oh, top of

00:43:57.520 mind.

00:43:57.920 We, we all saw this again.

00:44:00.060 This is another instance where people are being told not to believe what they see with their

00:44:05.400 own eyes.

00:44:06.140 And it's, we used to make a lot of fun of, of, you know, the deterioration, his gaffes

00:44:13.060 on dumpster fire, but now it's not even funny.

00:44:16.280 It's really disturbing.

00:44:17.380 And it feels like elder abuse.

00:44:19.280 You know, you can't, I, I don't, how, how are people okay with this on a, on a human level,

00:44:25.560 not take away what party you belong to, take away your ideology, whatever team you are.

00:44:31.980 How are you okay with somebody who clearly should just kind of be enjoying his grandkids

00:44:38.440 and, uh, and also running a country in a condition that is clearly not, um, you know, he's not

00:44:47.480 functioning at a hundred percent or firing on all cylinders and we're all just supposed

00:44:52.560 to pretend this isn't happening.

00:44:54.380 I know.

00:44:55.340 That's the thing.

00:44:56.040 It's like the, the Democrats need to do what's right and save him from himself.

00:45:01.980 And save the rest of us from him.

00:45:03.840 He should not be in this office.

00:45:05.700 He should not for his, for his wellbeing and the wellbeing of the country.

00:45:10.440 Yeah, no, I mean, aside from the fact that he's running the country, let's take it down

00:45:14.580 to just a human level.

00:45:16.580 This person should not be in this position at all.

00:45:19.920 He should be, somebody should be taking care of him.

00:45:22.740 It is, it is that similar vibe of if somebody needs to say, you need to sit this game out,

00:45:29.640 sir, you are not, you're not okay right now.

00:45:33.920 You're exactly right.

00:45:35.000 The, the well professionals on the side need to step in and say, you cannot do it.

00:45:41.080 Actually, you cannot.

00:45:43.000 Yeah.

00:45:43.220 Well, if you heard him yesterday, I mean, you know, you heard that, that soundbite of

00:45:47.520 him, um, my, where's Jackie?

00:45:49.620 I don't know if we have that one here, but he's like, like, he can't even get the words

00:45:54.120 out now, Bridget.

00:45:54.760 It was like, on top of the fact that he was calling for a woman who has been dead now

00:45:59.180 for a few months, he was like, well, she's August, August 6th, like Ben Shapiro makes

00:46:07.900 fun of Joe Biden with that affect on his show.

00:46:10.880 And it's an exaggeration for humorous effect.

00:46:13.460 You understand this as a comedian, it's become the reality.

00:46:16.580 That's how he speaks now.

00:46:18.640 Yeah.

00:46:18.800 It seems like it's getting worse.

00:46:20.400 It does seem like the, there's been a big deterioration, even just in the past couple

00:46:26.120 of months, uh, it feels, and I'm not sure how they, they, they really think that he's

00:46:32.420 going to make it to 2024.

00:46:35.120 That's well, maybe they feel as, as most people do, which is if he goes while he's still in

00:46:41.000 his first term, like goes voluntarily steps down, you know, we sort of declare him incompetent,

00:46:46.120 whatever it is, look who we're going to get.

00:46:50.020 Right.

00:46:53.380 Pause.

00:46:56.120 Yeah.

00:46:57.620 It's like, it's like a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode.

00:47:02.420 Boom, ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum.

00:47:06.220 Oh, we do have a sound bite.

00:47:07.440 Let's listen to it.

00:47:08.040 Listen, he can't even string the words together.

00:47:09.500 Here it is.

00:47:11.440 And I want to thank all of you here for including bipartisan elected officials like

00:47:15.740 Representative Gover, Senator Braun, Senator Booker, Representative Jackie, are you here?

00:47:22.240 Where's Jackie?

00:47:23.320 I didn't think she was going to be here.

00:47:26.620 Yes.

00:47:28.440 Where's Jackie?

00:47:29.300 I mean, that really could be, that could be the bumper sticker of whoever takes him on.

00:47:32.360 I can't even laugh at it anymore.

00:47:33.740 It's so sad.

00:47:34.940 Oh, and her, her family handled it so well saying we feel sorry for him.

00:47:38.220 We feel sorry for him.

00:47:39.880 Bridget, stand by.

00:47:40.820 Much, much more to get to with you.

00:47:42.060 We're going to dive deep into Bridget's latest feelings on motherhood, on a past that she

00:47:48.060 would describe as perhaps more promiscuous than she would like.

00:47:52.000 She came really clean about it and in a very powerful essay, so powerful that, speaking of

00:47:56.120 Ben Shapiro, he read the whole thing live on his show.

00:47:58.020 We've got the real Bridget here to talk about it in moments. 0.99

00:48:00.580 She's staying with us.

00:48:01.300 Remember, you can find The Megyn Kelly Show live on Sirius XM Triumph Channel, 111, every

00:48:06.220 weekday at noon east.

00:48:07.680 The full video show and clips by subscribing to our YouTube channel, youtube.com slash Megyn

00:48:12.500 Kelly.

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00:48:18.300 Somebody, I am following the comments.

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00:48:27.640 And that's where you'll find our full archives with now more than 400 shows.

00:48:34.700 Bridget, I agree with Ben Shapiro.

00:48:37.120 Your piece on Substack just about a month ago, entitled, I Regret Being a Slut, is, as Ben 0.92

00:48:45.600 said, a beautiful and brave piece.

00:48:49.080 It really was.

00:48:50.640 And something near and dear to my own heart, because I've said this before on the show, I

00:48:55.700 was in a much different place than you were, and our backgrounds are different, of course,

00:48:58.560 too, but we're very aligned on virtually everything now.

00:49:02.240 But the one piece of advice I give everyone's daughter going off to college is the same, and 0.99

00:49:06.460 it is, don't be a slut. 1.00

00:49:08.580 Don't be a slut. 1.00

00:49:09.440 Don't give it away so easily, girls. 1.00

00:49:11.680 Like, make them earn it.

00:49:12.680 Remember your value.

00:49:13.960 Like, having sex, you don't have to be in love, but it should be something really precious,

00:49:18.080 and you don't just want any Tom, Dick, or Harry jumping on top of you, so to speak.

00:49:23.900 You are there, too, but you got there through a much more traumatic road.

00:49:28.940 And I will just read this one piece of your amazing Substack piece to our audience.

00:49:34.540 You write,

00:49:35.220 If I get really honest with myself, I'd say most of these usually drunken encounters left

00:49:40.420 me feeling empty and demoralized and worthless.

00:49:44.220 I wouldn't have said that at the time, though.

00:49:45.800 At the time, I would have told you I was liberated, even while I tried to drink away the sick feeling

00:49:51.020 of rejection when my most recent hookup did not call me back.

00:49:54.360 At the time, I would have said one-night stands made me feel emboldened. 0.76

00:49:58.740 But in reality, I was using sex like a drug.

00:50:01.620 You go on, the lie I told myself for decades was,

00:50:04.600 I'm not in pain.

00:50:06.020 I'm empowered.

00:50:08.000 Oh, wow.

00:50:10.900 So how did you come to that realization?

00:50:14.040 Like, how did you spend so much time in that dark place?

00:50:17.320 Was it sobriety?

00:50:18.700 Did that behavior continue after?

00:50:20.680 Like, what was it?

00:50:22.980 It was a lot of sobriety and a lot of therapy.

00:50:25.980 And I think, yeah, a lot of when I think about this, I know a lot of it is tied up with my

00:50:34.420 drinking and drug use.

00:50:36.040 A lot of that behavior, I don't think I would have engaged in had I not been drunk or high.

00:50:44.980 And so those things are very connected.

00:50:47.400 Also, post-sexual assault, when I was pretty young, 18, I really felt dirty and ashamed.

00:50:58.480 And I felt like it was my fault because I was drinking underage.

00:51:02.820 And I felt like I was valueless now.

00:51:07.680 And it wasn't like I hadn't already lost my virginity.

00:51:10.820 But I had really only just lost my virginity when this happened.

00:51:15.380 So I was still pretty early into my sexuality.

00:51:21.920 And then I responded to it by being kind of hyper-promiscuous, which is very common for

00:51:27.820 women who have experienced trauma.

00:51:30.140 They'll often just become hyper.

00:51:33.020 They'll go into being more promiscuous.

00:51:35.940 And it's a way to try and take control back.

00:51:38.580 At least it was for me.

00:51:39.700 And it was also just a way of, and at the same time, feeling like I had no value and ashamed

00:51:48.040 and saying like, oh, I don't care.

00:51:51.100 I just don't care.

00:51:52.340 And so it's been a really, I mean, the emails I've received from women and men and gay men

00:51:58.500 since I wrote that piece, I'm still getting them.

00:52:01.360 It is, it is incredible.

00:52:03.260 The stories people are telling me, the response, the, I think that there was a generation,

00:52:10.060 Gen X, older millennials, and we were raised with that kind of girl power. 1.00

00:52:15.400 You can sleep your way to empowerment and you can unyoke your heart from sex with no consequence.

00:52:22.740 And a lot of those women are coming back saying, you know, it's a trap. 1.00

00:52:28.820 Don't, don't go that way.

00:52:31.020 I always felt like if I have sex with a guy, he's always going to have that over me.

00:52:38.000 That's kind of how, I don't know if that sounds weird, but I just felt like it has to be with

00:52:43.500 somebody who I trust to never misuse it against me.

00:52:47.760 And, you know, who's not going to like, whatever, if I wind up being a lawyer, I wind up being

00:52:53.540 a journalist who's not going to be able to sit there being like, I did her. 1.00

00:52:56.620 You know, I never wanted to give that power to anybody who I didn't really trust.

00:53:01.940 Maybe I was just paranoid at the proper age.

00:53:04.000 You know, I don't know what it was.

00:53:05.580 Yeah, that's, that's interesting.

00:53:07.040 Where, where did you get your sex messaging from?

00:53:10.280 You know, I'm Catholic like you for sure, but I don't know. 0.98

00:53:14.720 I wouldn't describe myself as prude.

00:53:16.320 It's not like I wasn't fooling around.

00:53:17.820 I just was monogamous and I was judicious and how many people I, you know, offered that

00:53:24.420 to.

00:53:25.340 Yeah.

00:53:26.100 I guess, I don't know, Bridget.

00:53:28.880 I thank God I never did suffer a sexual assault.

00:53:33.700 And I did have, you know, great messaging from my parents and an example of a very loving

00:53:38.700 marriage.

00:53:40.320 And my dad died when I was 15.

00:53:42.180 But prior to that, my parents were very much in love.

00:53:44.220 And I guess I just had a good foundation.

00:53:46.180 And that's this department.

00:53:46.980 I mean, I, I was built up in terms of my ego and all, you know what I mean?

00:53:50.280 Like, not overly, but I think that is important.

00:53:53.880 And I know you talk very openly in this piece about how you had a very different experience.

00:53:57.280 You had a traumatic divorce in your family when you were young and an undiagnosed mental 0.70

00:54:01.340 illness in your stepfather.

00:54:02.420 And things started to go south for you when you were on the same track I was on for a

00:54:07.260 while there.

00:54:08.960 Yeah.

00:54:09.320 And I kind of get to the point at the end that you just said, where I, I regret that

00:54:14.680 those men can say they slept with me. 1.00

00:54:16.920 And that there's, that's, I mean, I've dealt with that even after I went on Joe Rogan, the

00:54:22.920 number of guys that reached out and were like, oh, nice to be able to say I like bang someone.

00:54:28.100 I was like, oh, this is so uncomfortable.

00:54:32.160 I hate that.

00:54:33.280 I hate this.

00:54:34.560 And moments like that have made me reflect on, you know, having to look at that, that

00:54:40.320 feeling that comes up when I hear from a guy who's like, oh, I got to say that I slept with

00:54:45.640 someone who was on Rogan.

00:54:46.920 It's just like, oh God, I feel you.

00:54:49.160 That's not. 1.00

00:54:50.620 You're even dumber than I thought you were. 1.00

00:54:52.440 Yeah. 1.00

00:54:53.260 Shit. 0.99

00:54:55.120 But you know, in your case, I see it very differently because I feel like that was a younger 0.99

00:54:59.220 me anticipating how, you know, I wanted my life to go and how I didn't want it to go.

00:55:04.160 But the older me looks at your life and says, there's zero point in regretting all of that.

00:55:09.740 You shouldn't regret all of that.

00:55:11.020 All of that went into making you this really thoughtful, wise beyond your years person who

00:55:17.620 with this one essay did so much good. 0.99

00:55:21.180 I mean, all the times I've said, don't be a slut. 1.00

00:55:23.540 I haven't done anywhere near as good for women thinking about it or who might've been tempted 0.98

00:55:28.520 to do it than you did with this essay.

00:55:31.300 But it's because I think partially and because I'm being honest about how I regret it.

00:55:37.740 And there's been a weird reaction to that word regret.

00:55:40.820 And I don't know if this is like an American thing.

00:55:43.360 We're just kind of like YOLO and regret is almost a dirty word.

00:55:48.720 And people are like, you shouldn't, you know, one of the biggest feedback I get on this piece

00:55:53.320 is the people reacting to me saying that I regret this.

00:55:57.060 And I think that, you know, I look at the arts and life is filled with regret.

00:56:02.240 I feel like that's an emotion that weirdly has become something we're not supposed to have.

00:56:08.100 And that's like a whole other piece that I could think about and consider because I do regret these things.

00:56:14.380 When I had those guys reach out to me and say, oh, I got to blah, blah, blah, the feeling that I have is regret.

00:56:23.780 Like I regret giving that to you.

00:56:25.920 I regret not valuing myself enough.

00:56:29.440 And of course, I did the best that I could with wherever I was at and all of that stuff.

00:56:34.300 But there was always an intuition that I was ignoring.

00:56:37.920 There was always and that's really what I would say to young women.

00:56:40.640 And don't ignore that intuition and and having the culture be so I grew up during sex in the city.

00:56:47.820 I hated that show and didn't watch it. 0.98

00:56:49.260 But all my friends watched it and everybody that the messaging that there was like, have sex like a man. 0.99

00:56:56.340 You can.

00:56:57.800 And the double standard is something that really always bothered me.

00:57:02.740 And I'm not sure if I'm just now resigned to the double standard or I don't.

00:57:09.100 I know that me getting naked and sleeping with men isn't going to change it.

00:57:13.280 Well, that's the thing. 0.84

00:57:14.720 So now we're getting to it.

00:57:16.200 Now we're getting to it because it's it's so what what do you regret about it?

00:57:21.120 Like if it had worked for you, if you'd been working something out and you went to have sex with, you know, one night sand or some guy you didn't know.

00:57:28.520 And the next day you were like, I feel amazing.

00:57:30.180 That was awesome.

00:57:31.160 Peace out.

00:57:32.080 You wouldn't be having these feelings.

00:57:33.620 But so for those who think that that is the feeling you're going to get, well, you're sounding a different alarm.

00:57:41.280 Yes, I'm sounding a different alarm.

00:57:43.000 But I'm also, you know, the the book I want to write or somehow the essay I want to write, because there's a piece out there that anyone can access, which is what I learned from putting nudes online on Playboy. 0.92

00:57:55.740 And there's some stuff I read that piece before I posted, I regret being a slut. 0.88

00:58:01.300 And I there's still some stuff in there that I don't disagree with in my in my what I learned from getting naked online. 0.68

00:58:10.320 And there have been moments where I felt like, yeah, you know, empowered by my own sexuality, but it was for the right reasons.

00:58:21.400 It was not because I was I was weaponizing sex because there's a there's a whole, you know, there there's a whole man eater kind of side to my persona that I leaned into pretty hard for a long time.

00:58:38.120 And to I'd be lying if I said that at the time, I didn't think there there was some fun in that.

00:58:45.520 And it's just that over time, I realized that a lot of that persona, it was like my party girl image, that it was just a lie.

00:58:54.860 And at the end of the day, I was feeling pretty empty.

00:58:58.800 So, yeah, there's a lot to work out there.

00:59:01.880 And then it's kind of a there's a lot of at the time I went, I didn't regret it.

00:59:08.060 I would have told you that I was killing.

00:59:11.280 Yeah.

00:59:11.880 And you write in your piece, there's a great line.

00:59:14.000 The culture was right there to pick me up and dust me off every time you dealt with what you call the overwhelming shame. 0.99

00:59:21.620 And so I doubled down on being a proud slut, a proud slut, part of the divine feminine. 1.00

00:59:27.700 And then you write as follows. 1.00

00:59:29.160 Oh, this is so good.

00:59:30.760 Such a great writer.

00:59:31.560 You really are.

00:59:32.380 Thank you.

00:59:33.180 You write that the saddest realization is how low I set the bar.

00:59:37.400 A lifetime of allowing myself to be the other woman taken for granted or treated like a doormat under the false pretense of being, quote, empowered, came to a head one night with the arrival of a text message from an on again, off again lover.

00:59:51.500 Quote, good night, baby.

00:59:52.900 I love you.

00:59:53.420 It said quickly followed by, quote, wrong person.

00:59:56.960 Rock bottom doesn't always look like losing everything or ending up in jail.

01:00:01.680 Sometimes it can be that sick feeling in your gut when you know emotionally you're done.

01:00:07.460 Oh, my God.

01:00:08.900 I was done.

01:00:10.100 I was done.

01:00:10.760 I remember that moment.

01:00:11.940 I remember.

01:00:12.480 It's like I remember when I quit heroin vividly in my mind, that moment that the rock bottom, whatever you want to call it.

01:00:20.400 I it's the same kind of moment.

01:00:22.340 I vividly remember walking.

01:00:25.060 He was coming to my place to I forget why.

01:00:27.880 It wasn't even like a booty call.

01:00:29.180 I forgot what why I was coming over.

01:00:31.380 And then.

01:00:31.740 I had to walk out and like give him something after he came to my place after this text message.

01:00:38.920 I had to look him in the eye.

01:00:41.380 And so it's actually way worse than than I actually even express in in the piece.

01:00:47.800 And I remember walking back into my house feeling so, you know, they say in the 12 step books, pitiful demoralization.

01:00:55.360 And that was the feeling that I had.

01:00:57.380 It was just pitiful demoralization.

01:00:59.620 And my life changed a lot after that.

01:01:02.740 I just was I was like, I'm done.

01:01:04.740 I can't do this. 0.99

01:01:05.740 I can't pretend that I'm OK being the other woman or that I'm OK just being someone's sex doll, basically. 0.98

01:01:15.600 And it took a lot of therapy and a long time because there's so much shame. 0.67

01:01:22.760 It's just shame is really hard.

01:01:25.060 And I think in women in particular really shows up in our bodies. 1.00

01:01:28.380 And so there's just so much shame that I had to unpack and try and overcome.

01:01:34.860 And it still comes up.

01:01:35.900 You see, I read the piece for YouTube and I hadn't read it since I had written it.

01:01:40.420 And I I was getting, you know, fighting back tears the whole time.

01:01:45.220 There's still a lot of pain there.

01:01:47.500 Of course.

01:01:48.280 My God.

01:01:48.980 And and that was there before and you were trying to heal it.

01:01:51.520 I mean, in a large to a large extent, it was all about trying to heal pain.

01:01:55.280 And only once you realized, which many people don't, that that was not a cure, that in fact, that was an exacerbator.

01:02:02.320 Or did you ultimately come to abandon it and try something else like love and taking care of yourself?

01:02:08.540 I think there's a real body count.

01:02:10.840 You know, I've I've heard from a lot of one of the emails that I read and in the piece when I read it, I talked about some of the responses I had received.

01:02:18.840 And one of the emails was from a man who said he had watched his mom deal with a lot of what I dealt with, with drugs and alcohol and rotating cast of men.

01:02:29.360 And and she died of an OD and I always get emotional.

01:02:36.320 Yeah.

01:02:38.640 I have a rule, though, like don't ugly cry on the Internet.

01:02:44.280 That's why I can cry on your last podcast, because there's no there's no video screen.

01:02:49.760 Yeah.

01:02:50.300 I don't need those screenshots.

01:02:52.720 Talk about it.

01:02:54.920 It is hard.

01:02:55.900 Once it starts to come, it's really hard.

01:02:57.440 It's like a cough.

01:02:58.360 You always have to let it out.

01:02:59.520 Otherwise, it's going to come out in an ugly way.

01:03:01.780 I know.

01:03:02.860 But this I think that there's that expression there.

01:03:06.840 But for the grace of God, go I and reading these stories from people about what I would say is kind of this body count to the sexual revolution.

01:03:16.280 And it could have been me.

01:03:18.920 Easily could have been me.

01:03:20.280 Easily, easily, easily.

01:03:22.640 Had I not gotten sober, it's a miracle.

01:03:25.540 I was given the opportunity to get sober because in between getting sober for the first time and getting sober this time, I'll have nine years actually in a couple of weeks.

01:03:35.660 And there was 15 years.

01:03:38.520 There was plenty of time for me to OD or die or worse.

01:03:44.420 And there were little moments where I think I was able to pull myself back off the cliff.

01:03:49.820 But I'm not really sure why I had that clarity at those moments.

01:03:56.840 Yes, our audience should know that while you had straight A's and were destined to go to Georgetown or some other equally revered school, you we've talked about this the last time.

01:04:11.000 But you started smoking weed, drinking daily at age 12 to 13, eventually led to heroin, and you barely graduated from high school.

01:04:19.880 And you wound up getting drugged and raped, which we talked about as well the last time.

01:04:24.720 And then at 19, after high school, entered a state-funded halfway house in Minneapolis for seven months, by that point weighing just 89 pounds.

01:04:33.620 Well, you should have been at Georgetown and you were in a halfway house. 1.00

01:04:37.220 And so it really could have gone a different way for you.

01:04:40.480 I mean, the fact that you're sitting here telling your story and explaining the revelations you've had is in itself a miracle, but it's also a huge gift.

01:04:50.400 It's a gift to people who are following on that path without thinking, who are dabbling, dabbling on that path.

01:04:56.860 You know, you may have sort of path-adjacent people who are like, oh, that's not me, but there's a piece of it that sounds familiar.

01:05:01.180 And one of the things I wanted to ask you about is somebody who is clearly much closer to, you know, women who are more out there, I guess, than I have been, is the following line.

01:05:12.720 You write, I'm not speaking for all women.

01:05:14.800 I know many women with a solid sense of self who happily have loveless sex. 1.00

01:05:19.080 Okay, now this, I've been having this debate with various people in my life after our friends told us a story about their 20-something-year-old son who was ordering Tinder dates to the house like a pizza.

01:05:37.580 And the parents were like, okay, that needs to stop.

01:05:41.960 You know, like you're going to move out and you're going to do what you're going to do in your home, but you're not going to be doing that in our home.

01:05:45.700 But they were describing, I was like, beautiful woman after beautiful woman, night after night was showing up at the house.

01:05:51.860 Meanwhile, half the audience is like, what was that website?

01:05:54.040 What, where is it?

01:05:56.000 Thanks to Tinder. 0.83

01:05:57.920 And my, I mean, I'm a sexist pig, I guess, because my first reaction was no woman's actually enjoying that.

01:06:04.540 Like that's a woman fishing for a husband, a boyfriend, you know, as a rich kid or a good-looking kid or an athlete or like you see something in that guy's Tinder profile that says, okay, I want to land him. 0.98

01:06:15.840 I could not get it in my head that a well-adjusted, healthy young woman would swipe left on Tinder and show up and just randomly have sex with the guy and leave totally happy. 1.00

01:06:25.220 And I got to be honest, I still feel that way.

01:06:27.960 And I've had many people be like, you're old, you know, you don't understand.

01:06:31.620 I'm like, I don't know.

01:06:32.880 I believe what I believe about women and our own sort of inherent nature. 0.62

01:06:36.760 But I'm very interested in what you have to say on it.

01:06:39.760 I know a lot of women who are very well-adjusted and they are happy to have sex and just walk away. 1.00

01:06:49.400 And I have to take what they tell me at face value.

01:06:53.780 I'm not a mind reader.

01:06:54.800 I can't project my own feelings about the lies I've told myself onto other people.

01:07:04.240 That's not fair at all.

01:07:05.980 And I, I mean, I know well-adjusted porn stars and they seem great and have businesses and seem happy and are in relationships.

01:07:16.100 And that's almost different to me.

01:07:17.800 So you're talking about just the like average, you know, run-of-the-mill Tinder, Tinder gal.

01:07:26.520 Yeah.

01:07:27.140 I, I just don't believe that it's in a woman's nature to want totally loveless sex with a stranger one night and maybe a different stranger the next night. 0.88

01:07:38.800 I'm not saying women don't like sex. 1.00

01:07:40.680 I'm just saying, I think we're built differently to where the way we really enjoy it is if there's an emotional connection with the person.

01:07:46.520 And I, I just don't see us becoming men in that way.

01:07:51.300 I get, I believe that men would like that.

01:07:53.240 I have no problem believing their program, their biologically program and want to spread their seed to as many places as possible.

01:07:58.700 It's like those of us on the other side are like, no, don't do that.

01:08:02.640 Stay.

01:08:03.480 But we've been raised a different way for thousands of years.

01:08:07.040 And I just don't think you can get over it that easily.

01:08:08.760 And I do have a judgment and it could be totally wrong that those women are working something out and it's going to come back to haunt them. 1.00

01:08:16.520 I mean, maybe they're in their twenties.

01:08:18.440 So that's when you work stuff out and that's, but I, I still, I don't know if, yeah, if they'll come to the same conclusion inevitably that I came to, maybe, maybe they don't need to come to that conclusion.

01:08:33.800 Maybe like you said, they're, they're, I think so, so many times we just don't know what we want because we are so capable of lying to ourselves.

01:08:44.640 And that is, I guess, maybe what always makes me a weird, I feel insecure in this space that I'm in being a media personality or a pundit because I, I'm so hyper aware of my ability to lie to myself being in recovery.

01:09:02.700 And as we just talked about my, around my sexuality, I don't necessarily trust myself.

01:09:09.580 And I look at people like you and people who had well-adjusted parents usually, and they have this inner core of kind of self that I just don't have.

01:09:22.780 And I don't think, I think a lot of people don't have it, but they don't even know that they don't have it sometimes for decades, sometimes ever.

01:09:31.780 You know what though, what's so great about you when I was reading your writing, as I read a ton of Bridget Phetasy pieces in advance of today, and I was like, God, she's good.

01:09:41.240 I mean, I have writing, I have little notes on the sides of this packet, like she's amazing.

01:09:44.680 She's brilliant.

01:09:46.160 Like that's where you've landed.

01:09:48.320 So I, I could never write the way you write.

01:09:51.160 I, I couldn't do it.

01:09:52.420 And I do think your life experience and having had a lot of this trauma, while not fun at all to go through along the way, has produced this beautiful, creative person.

01:10:02.280 You know, I'm much more linear, lawyer, fact-driven, you know, I have my own set of skills, but it takes all kinds, you know, to, to make beauty in this world.

01:10:10.780 And your lane is a really important one.

01:10:14.580 Yeah, I think it's funny.

01:10:16.060 I feel, I was just talking to some editors and editors are always trying to get me out of memoir.

01:10:22.500 I don't know why they just want, and I understand that because from their perspective, they want me to maybe do something more journalistic or maybe do something.

01:10:32.760 And I've done these pieces, by the way, but the pieces that always resonate with people are the navel gazy ones.

01:10:39.640 And, and I've always been insecure about this as a writer.

01:10:42.980 I would love to be a great, you know, journalistic writer who can write some piece that flows and has great prose and also has facts and is interesting.

01:10:53.120 And I try to write all kinds of different things.

01:10:56.200 I've tried to write scripts, but the pieces that just resonate and go out into the world, it's always when I'm self-reflecting.

01:11:03.960 And, and yeah, that, that's something that I, I, and I do love writing these pieces.

01:11:11.100 They feel, they come through me.

01:11:13.240 You know, this one took many years for me to be able to write.

01:11:17.120 And I think part of it was just, I didn't have the right framing.

01:11:21.340 I didn't have the courage to stand behind that piece.

01:11:24.360 And as we talked about in the last time we talked, having a loving husband and being in a nice relationship, those things are healing.

01:11:33.040 And that gives me the courage to have, to go out into the world.

01:11:36.700 And he's so supportive.

01:11:38.380 I mean, just so amazingly supportive.

01:11:42.480 And also it can give you the courage to examine your old self in a way that was too scary prior to having that, you know, having that support and feeling loved and feeling whole.

01:11:50.920 Like, it's not as scary to look back on your old behavior and be like, what was I doing?

01:11:55.480 I mean, I've definitely had that, maybe not in the sex field, but just in terms of my own choices in life and things I've done that I'm like, why, why would I, I wouldn't have done that today.

01:12:05.340 I want to ask you about, well, a couple of things.

01:12:09.540 So we talked a little bit jokingly about the boobs, but how do you think that factors in, right? 0.96

01:12:15.800 So if you're saying, if it's like, don't be promiscuous, don't have loveless, well, or just meaningless sex with just any old guy. 0.92

01:12:23.940 But like, then there's something else, which is celebrating the human body, being titillating, owning your sexuality.

01:12:31.440 Like, I love all that stuff in the, in that second lane, that second category.

01:12:36.360 But then for me too, that one can cross over to the place where I'm like, I never want to see another picture of Kim Kardashian again. 0.99

01:12:45.560 I am so sick of seeing her boobs and her ass every time I open the New York Post, the Daily Mail, whatever. 1.00

01:12:54.580 I'm sick of it. 1.00

01:12:55.600 And not just her, but all the sisters too.

01:12:57.480 Sick of it. 1.00

01:12:58.200 And I'm sick of these Hollywood actresses showing all their body, like the stupid award show. 1.00

01:13:03.300 You're at a, wear, wear some sparkles, cover your navel for the love of God, act like a woman. 1.00

01:13:09.720 You know, I just feel like it's, it can cross over to the point where even though I love boobs too, and I have no judgment about where I feel like you're in that middle lane, you know, you're in that middle place.

01:13:20.000 But it goes to the place where it just becomes like, so in your face, it bothers me.

01:13:24.400 And it's so, I think this is a really interesting, you know, we could talk for hours about this because, and I've been, I vacillate between, I've been having this conversation with this writer, Thomas De Zangotita.

01:13:37.360 He wrote this book, Mediated, and I'm talking to him chapter by chapter on Watkins' Welcome because the book has been my Bible for a mediated world.

01:13:45.400 But he always tells me that I have to caution myself about the curmudgeon effect, as he calls it, where it's like, get off my lawn, you know, like the kids these days.

01:13:56.080 And I do have to, is that just us being, I remember talking to some young women and it was during the whole Me Too era.

01:14:03.680 And they were, they, they were like, just because you old bags let guys grab your butt while you were waiting tables doesn't mean we have to do that.

01:14:12.220 And that was a kind of revelatory moment for me where I realized that I was just older and of a different generation.

01:14:19.400 And they weren't going to put up with some of this stuff.

01:14:22.320 And so is this just me getting older?

01:14:25.780 A.

01:14:26.400 Is this a culture that is hyper-sexualized and it's everywhere?

01:14:31.220 Yes.

01:14:32.180 And now, you know, we led off the show talking about how this creepy gender stuff and, and sex talk with kids is, it's so hyper-sexualized that that seems somewhat normal and it's not, it shouldn't be normal.

01:14:46.760 And I also think that we're weird in America, you know, in Europe, they're not weird about boobs. 0.93

01:14:53.940 I don't know if they're just like, we've seen some titties in our time. 0.82

01:14:56.940 We're just an older culture.

01:14:58.520 Or, you know, why they're just, they don't have that weird, the weird puritanical kind of, that we have in America.

01:15:11.240 So I think there's a lot to this and, and it has become a commodity.

01:15:15.660 You see so many women on OnlyFans and there was a teacher recently, I guess, who got fired because she was on OnlyFans.

01:15:23.340 And yeah, this is, this gets tricky.

01:15:27.700 And I have a daughter now.

01:15:28.860 And I recently did this, I, I was on an interview when I was pregnant and the, the guy was pushing me.

01:15:39.340 It was Elijah Schaefer at the, who was at the blaze.

01:15:42.280 He's not anymore.

01:15:42.940 And he was pushing me about getting naked and being pregnant and how I was going to talk to my daughter about that.

01:15:50.400 And, you know, I think it's a good opportunity for me to have conversations with her when she's old enough about if the school hasn't already had them for me.

01:16:00.660 Um, to talk about things like sending guys nudes and, you know, all these hard conversations, not that I have any idea how I'm going to talk to her about this, but I'm out there.

01:16:10.980 She's going to be able to know this and it's uncomfortable.

01:16:13.440 And then I half jokingly said, and I hope to raise her that she doesn't feel the need to do that, which was revealing to me in that moment.

01:16:23.080 You know, there's, there's something to be said for that too.

01:16:25.860 So I'm, yeah, I'm, I'm in a bit of a sticky situation.

01:16:31.620 You're on a bit of a journey there, sister.

01:16:34.260 I get it.

01:16:35.480 I get it.

01:16:36.460 I, you know, I did a saucy picture.

01:16:38.580 Can't remember what magazine it was.

01:16:40.560 Um, Trump sent it around to the world after we had our exchange on women, but, um, I, it was my 40th birthday and I was pregnant for this photo.

01:16:48.520 And they were like, do you want to sauce it up?

01:16:50.360 I'm like, why not?

01:16:51.640 I'm turning 40.

01:16:52.860 I'm pregnant.

01:16:53.940 I've got C cups.

01:16:55.220 I'm going for it.

01:16:56.740 I'm like, let's go for it.

01:16:57.920 And I loved it.

01:16:59.060 I thought it was really, I thought it was saucy, but it was classy and it wasn't too, but I've had many journalists be like, that was a mistake.

01:17:06.240 I don't feel like that.

01:17:07.900 I just don't think it was.

01:17:08.960 I still enjoyed it.

01:17:10.640 It was the only saucy picture I've ever done.

01:17:12.780 And it, for me, it's like a keepsake, you know, it was like, I was still young enough that I still felt like I still got it, even though I'm having all these babies and all this, I'm still a serious news person.

01:17:20.740 Um, so I don't regret it. 0.95

01:17:22.700 And I don't want to be like, but everybody else sucks. 0.82

01:17:25.780 You know, I don't want to be that person. 0.92

01:17:27.460 But as you were talking, something occurred to me.

01:17:29.900 It might not be.

01:17:32.120 I mean, I do.

01:17:32.880 I object to like JLo and Shakira showing their vag at the Superbowl.

01:17:36.180 Like I did, I don't want that.

01:17:37.820 It's gotta be a situation appropriate, but I don't really object to just like women embracing their bodies or showing off their bodies. 1.00

01:17:43.700 Like the pictures you see Paulina Portskova just had a really interesting post.

01:17:47.320 She showed her bottom. 1.00

01:17:49.040 She looks amazing.

01:17:50.780 Um, what I object to back on the Kardashians is the unrivaled vanity, like the self promotional out of control focus on one's self ego clicks.

01:18:06.920 They're hugely responsible for that in our society. 0.58

01:18:10.320 They didn't do it by themselves, but more than any other, they've had a terrible effect in that lane.

01:18:15.400 And I do blame them.

01:18:16.900 I do.

01:18:17.500 I asked them, I interviewed them and I said, are you a force for good or are you a force for evil?

01:18:22.060 And they gave me their answer.

01:18:23.580 But the more I've watched them over the years, the more I think net net it's evil.

01:18:27.940 I don't think this is healthy.

01:18:29.380 And that's what I object to.

01:18:30.400 It's like they're disgusting vanity, which has spread like wildfire in our society.

01:18:35.100 The, the selfie culture is abhorrent to me.

01:18:38.500 I think that's what I'm responding to as opposed to some titillation from a beautiful woman here and there.

01:18:44.160 Yeah.

01:18:45.660 Again, so much.

01:18:46.920 I mean, I've been on record screaming on dumpster fire.

01:18:50.040 I blame everything on the Kardashians.

01:18:52.100 So I loved you.

01:18:54.200 I'm always like, this is all the Kardashians fault.

01:18:58.060 I'm like, she's your fault.

01:18:59.120 You guys have to own her.

01:19:01.380 But there's something I've, I have written pieces in defense of her when everybody came after her for getting naked or something at one point.

01:19:09.320 And what I react to is that, like you said, you did this kind of tasteful nude and.

01:19:16.720 No, I wasn't nude.

01:19:18.140 I wasn't nude.

01:19:19.160 Sorry.

01:19:19.380 No, just a saucy little.

01:19:20.940 Tasteful, saucy picture.

01:19:23.880 Yes.

01:19:24.060 Um, and the people in your.

01:19:26.220 That would have been funny.

01:19:27.920 That would have been amazing.

01:19:29.440 But people in your field, I was imagining like you as like the Demi Moore, you know, and she was naked on the cover.

01:19:35.140 No, by the time I was as pregnant as she was in that photo, I look like a house.

01:19:38.820 I was, that was not, nobody needed to see that.

01:19:41.040 Okay.

01:19:41.260 Keep going.

01:19:41.560 Um, yeah, I think that people in your field said that was a mistake.

01:19:47.280 Why did they say that was a mistake?

01:19:48.640 Because somehow it makes you a less serious journalist.

01:19:53.000 And that's something that I react to, that a woman can't be sexy and be taken seriously. 1.00

01:19:59.200 And I'm not sure, you know, Kim, Kim Kardashian is getting a law degree.

01:20:03.960 I mean, maybe she's shattering glass seerlings on that. 0.84

01:20:07.200 Oh, stop it.

01:20:07.680 She's getting a fake law degree after failing the bar three times.

01:20:11.720 I applaud her for admitting that.

01:20:13.420 But who is she kidding?

01:20:14.280 All right.

01:20:14.600 Kim Kardashian is never going to be a great legal mind. 0.93

01:20:17.100 It's fine to try to improve oneself, but it doesn't counteract all the damage she's doing on a daily basis.

01:20:22.400 Who's she trying to kid? 0.99

01:20:23.500 Her life is one long vanity project.

01:20:25.580 That's all it is.

01:20:26.560 And she's bringing our children down with her. 0.99

01:20:28.700 That's what I object to.

01:20:29.700 She and her sisters.

01:20:31.500 So like that, like just like the name of that family now brings up this like in me.

01:20:37.560 I'm like, no, I need magazines and newspapers to stop obsessing over them.

01:20:43.280 You want to follow them on Insta like the other hundreds of millions of Americans who do go for it.

01:20:47.780 But I need them to stop holding up these women as an example to our young girls. 0.96

01:20:52.540 Because you open the paper just trying to find the news.

01:20:55.660 And there they are again with another absurd self-promotion.

01:20:59.220 I mean, my instinct is like, don't hate the player, hate the game.

01:21:03.660 You know, that's a bit of my, they're playing a game and they're succeeding at it.

01:21:09.020 They are masters of feeding the algorithm.

01:21:12.400 Everybody's trying to get clicks in whatever way they can.

01:21:16.060 All of us are looking for more followers, more downloads.

01:21:20.720 And they're very successful at it.

01:21:24.100 I would say what bothers me the most is the lie that is their bodies usually.

01:21:30.320 And Nikki Glaser actually did a hilarious kind of call out on her Instagram. 0.99

01:21:35.380 She's a comedian about Kim had posted a picture.

01:21:39.700 She looked amazing.

01:21:40.920 But Nikki was like, this is all fake.

01:21:43.360 All this whole body is fake.

01:21:45.100 And you, if you think that you can look like this, just doing squats and eating well, you

01:21:51.240 can't.

01:21:51.780 And that's what's so bothersome is that these girls, young girls and women are chasing after 0.84

01:21:57.880 this ideal. 0.85

01:21:58.740 And really what they have is a crap load of money and work.

01:22:03.500 I mean, you raise an interesting point.

01:22:05.560 Don't hate the player, hate the game.

01:22:06.840 Maybe I'm trying to ask myself, is that what I'm responding to?

01:22:09.900 I'm mad at America.

01:22:11.460 I'm mad at the game.

01:22:12.560 No, I'm mad at the Kardashians.

01:22:17.160 I'm not sure.

01:22:18.080 I'm going to think about it over the commercial break.

01:22:19.820 Let me squeeze that in and then we'll come back.

01:22:23.280 Don't go anywhere.

01:22:24.320 More with Bridget Phetasy right after this.

01:22:25.980 But first, another one of our memorable moments.

01:22:28.600 This one is from April of this year in episode 301.

01:22:33.200 You see, I decided, as you may remember, to give up swearing for Lent and it didn't go

01:22:39.460 so well, as you'll see.

01:22:41.120 Listen.

01:22:43.720 You want to talk about that piece of, and I can't say the word because I'm not swearing

01:22:47.800 for Lent.

01:22:48.440 Doing very poorly, but trying.

01:22:50.380 In his word, there's scary MFers.

01:22:53.120 Again, try not to swear.

01:22:54.320 It's Lent. 1.00

01:22:54.860 They were like, this is bullshit. 1.00

01:22:56.620 Once again, I can't ring it in my dirty mouth. 1.00

01:22:58.560 I gave up swearing for Lent, Paul. 0.99

01:22:59.700 Those who know anything about me know that I can take an enormous shitstorm in my life

01:23:04.540 without panicking.

01:23:05.420 Once again, I swore.

01:23:06.580 Still Lent.

01:23:07.620 Lord forgive me. 1.00

01:23:08.700 He must have been sitting there learning all the lessons going, oh shit. 1.00

01:23:12.220 Oh, I swore again. 1.00

01:23:13.980 I mean, dang.

01:23:15.100 Dang.

01:23:15.360 It's so hard.

01:23:16.240 Sorry.

01:23:16.520 I only have two more.

01:23:17.340 What is it?

01:23:17.640 Two more weeks of Lent.

01:23:18.540 I asked somebody if you can sub in a new something to give up in the middle of Lent and the answer

01:23:22.900 was no.

01:23:23.520 So I've just got to see it through to the end, ladies. 1.00

01:23:25.860 And I was like, fuck these guys. 1.00

01:23:27.460 Sorry. 1.00

01:23:27.800 I'm in Lent and I'm trying not to swear, but I'm really doing poorly in it.

01:23:30.920 He'll hit some agreement with the Academy that has real teeth in it with money for some

01:23:35.440 cause. 0.98

01:23:35.920 We can not, not some bullshit woke cause that half of us hate. 0.99

01:23:38.600 I cannot stop swearing. 0.99

01:23:40.100 I've got to find something else to give up for Lent.

01:23:42.720 The greatest part of that clip is where Arthur Idalla at the end is like, you give up swearing

01:23:47.000 for Lent?

01:23:47.500 I've given up booze.

01:23:48.840 I've given up this, that, the other. 0.82

01:23:50.540 Like you're so weak.

01:23:52.660 I couldn't even live up to it.

01:23:54.880 That's one of the many things I'll, I'll raise with the priest when I finally find one

01:23:58.840 who will absolve me of all my sins and not just the swearing.

01:24:01.500 If you listen to my episode with Father Mike, you know what I'm referencing.

01:24:04.100 Remember the first time that it had been revealed that Justin Trudeau, for people who don't 0.98

01:24:10.620 know he's a Canadian prime minister, many people may not because Canada is a silly and

01:24:14.260 consequential place, but he had done blackface and he was being interviewed by reporters. 0.84

01:24:19.180 So he's doing this press conference and he says, I did do this.

01:24:23.000 I did go in, in, in dress up one time and it was a very poor judgment, a mistake.

01:24:28.960 And I'm very sorry.

01:24:30.360 Thank you.

01:24:30.660 And as he's walking out, someone says, excuse me, Prime Minister Trudeau.

01:24:34.380 Yeah.

01:24:34.760 Was that, uh, were there any other moments where you did blackface?

01:24:37.780 And he turns back, he goes, uh, there was one time where I did wear makeup and I sang

01:24:42.360 Dale.

01:24:42.840 Thank you.

01:24:43.300 No more questions.

01:24:43.820 I'm like, wait, banana song.

01:24:45.660 And he just tried to skim over it.

01:24:47.440 Like he knew that was in his past and he was just trying to, and he has this, so he was

01:24:52.220 going, it's worse than old minstrel shows.

01:24:59.040 And he had to answer the question because he knew they were going to find it.

01:25:02.500 People here, they thought I was going to need a ventilator.

01:25:05.500 I was laughing so hard.

01:25:07.720 That's the kind of stuff.

01:25:08.940 That's why I'm conservative.

01:25:10.320 I love seeing pompous, uh, authoritarians taken off their pedestal.

01:25:15.060 So my God, if you don't love Steven Crowder, it's undoubtedly because you haven't exposed

01:25:20.340 yourself to enough of his material because he is hysterical.

01:25:24.740 That was his first appearance on the show.

01:25:27.120 Episode 21 from November of 2020.

01:25:30.140 That one was emotional that it hit.

01:25:32.260 We were, we laughed.

01:25:33.160 We cried.

01:25:33.500 It was great.

01:25:34.560 Um, anyway, check it out.

01:25:35.860 Episode 21.

01:25:36.820 I want to tell you that we're going to take your calls in a minute.

01:25:39.060 Call in, love to hear your thoughts about two is horrible head injury in the NFL or

01:25:43.160 any of our two year anniversary week interviews with Ben Shapiro, father, Mike Schmitz, Mike

01:25:47.660 Rinder from Scientology.

01:25:49.020 All those are doing really well.

01:25:50.300 Call me, call me now.

01:25:51.200 Okay.

01:25:51.440 It's time.

01:25:52.260 83344 Megan.

01:25:53.820 That's 83344 MEGYN, which is also 833446 3496.

01:26:00.320 Now back to Bridget Phetasy. 0.99

01:26:02.220 So Bridget, you tweeted on 926 recently had a baby.

01:26:05.400 So I guess I'm a fascist now you did a, you did a satirical piece. 0.76

01:26:10.520 I apologize for my white baby. 0.72

01:26:13.500 Um, this is actually quite hilarious.

01:26:16.500 You say, uh, my husband and I talked about adopting, but after watching that fascist Amy

01:26:21.120 Coney Barrett parade, her black children in front of America at her Supreme court confirmation 0.98

01:26:24.900 hearing to prove she's not just a racist bootlicker for the patriarchy. 1.00

01:26:28.360 We reconsider.

01:26:32.060 That piece was amazing.

01:26:33.440 How is motherhood going?

01:26:35.400 Motherhood is amazing.

01:26:36.740 It's so much more than I could have expected and everything that everyone tells you.

01:26:41.160 And yeah, my heart just burst open when she was born.

01:26:45.060 And I, I love, I love being mom so much.

01:26:49.420 I feel so grateful and blessed to be able to be her mom.

01:26:54.840 And it's overwhelming.

01:26:57.360 I feel like I'm failing.

01:26:58.960 Um, I don't know how parents do it. 0.99

01:27:02.180 It is a shit show and I'm trying to balance being a mom and working and that is proving 0.99

01:27:09.360 to be challenging as, as you know, and I don't have very much help at the moment either. 0.99

01:27:15.300 So it's just like, I got it.

01:27:16.880 I've got two hours to write if she's napping.

01:27:19.580 If even that she's, you know, she was colicky.

01:27:23.120 So there's that.

01:27:24.100 Um, we had that, I don't know if you had any of your children or colleagues, but the people

01:27:28.560 who know, no, no, thank God.

01:27:30.680 No, that's a tough one.

01:27:32.440 Um, yeah, I know that feeling.

01:27:34.480 I remember looking even just at my first, who was, I mean, in retrospect, the easiest

01:27:38.200 baby, right.

01:27:38.900 But it's still your first, so you don't know what you're doing.

01:27:40.920 And I'm like bouncing him.

01:27:42.600 It was middle of the night and like, you don't know who to call.

01:27:45.500 Like your village isn't there.

01:27:46.980 And I just remember looking at him going, I'm sorry.

01:27:51.180 I'm sorry.

01:27:51.920 You got stuck with me.

01:27:53.140 I, I'll be great later.

01:27:56.620 You know, when you're a little older, it's really going to work out well.

01:28:00.640 Yeah.

01:28:00.880 I felt very, yeah.

01:28:03.200 All the advice and people are so kind.

01:28:06.260 You know, the thing that, uh, another like hard truth that I had to come to terms with

01:28:12.420 was just how insanely self-absorbed I was when I was single, when, when my siblings, sister

01:28:20.880 in-laws, friends, when they were all talking about their pregnancies, I'm like, why didn't

01:28:25.240 I listen?

01:28:26.760 I, why didn't I listen to any of this?

01:28:29.440 Why didn't I listen?

01:28:30.340 I don't know how any of them had their kids.

01:28:32.240 I don't know if they had C-sections or not.

01:28:33.980 Now I want to know every single detail.

01:28:36.080 And, and I didn't know what was required when, you know, you have a baby and just, it's something

01:28:43.240 that really struck me in pregnancy.

01:28:45.380 And then in postpartum, because it was a, we had a tough, um, it was, she was amazing

01:28:52.720 and healthy and that's all that matters.

01:28:54.260 But there was just a string of, she was colicky and a string of events that my OBGYN tragically

01:29:00.920 died when I was five weeks postpartum.

01:29:03.440 He had a heart attack and, um, my dog, we found out my dog had cancer.

01:29:07.680 So I'm in postpartum and it's just like, it felt like I kept getting hit by wave after

01:29:12.420 wave of grief actually.

01:29:14.240 And I, I kept looking at her being like, I'm sorry, I swear I'm not usually this sad.

01:29:20.120 Well, your hormones are raging anyway.

01:29:22.300 You're not your real self.

01:29:23.420 And I would say you're, you're probably still not your real self.

01:29:26.100 You know, she's still little. 0.61

01:29:27.100 She says, well, how many months does she know?

01:29:29.120 Yeah.

01:29:29.440 You're still not like, don't base anything on this.

01:29:32.880 Yeah.

01:29:33.020 Don't, don't, don't make any big life decisions right now.

01:29:36.060 Yeah.

01:29:36.360 Yeah.

01:29:36.960 Yeah.

01:29:37.780 Yeah.

01:29:38.080 It's just, it was, it's just been so eyeopening in a different way.

01:29:42.900 And, and I, I really, you said it on one of your clips, you know, I don't know how single

01:29:49.340 parents do it.

01:29:50.160 I have God bless all the single parents out there.

01:29:54.020 I do not know how you do it.

01:29:56.140 You are.

01:29:56.600 Well, you know what they say to the LGBTQ community?

01:29:59.480 Um, it gets better.

01:30:01.320 It gets better.

01:30:02.500 It gets easier.

01:30:03.560 I would say right around four or five, they become.

01:30:06.360 Like much more independent.

01:30:07.780 It's not like, like I was just saying the other day about my Strudwick, my, my dog.

01:30:11.160 I'm like, it's like having a toddler again.

01:30:12.780 You know, you can't leave the room.

01:30:13.820 You gotta have eyes on him at all times.

01:30:15.460 It's exhausting, but you do get to this wonderful point at which they're like really interactive.

01:30:20.820 They're not like the sweet, good smelling baby, but I love the current phase of motherhood

01:30:25.760 and knowing you, you will too.

01:30:28.420 Good luck with all of it.

01:30:30.980 The one and only Bridget Phetasy, my God, so brilliant in so many ways.

01:30:34.640 Such a pleasure to talk to you again.

01:30:36.360 Thank you for having me again.

01:30:37.660 This is so fun.

01:30:38.900 Yay.

01:30:39.400 All right.

01:30:39.660 Check her out at bridgetphetasy.substack.com.

01:30:43.320 Dumpster fire.

01:30:44.060 You can check it all out and you will love it.

01:30:46.320 Uh, and thanks to all of you for joining us today and all week.

01:30:48.900 Want to tell you next week.

01:30:50.020 Got to run now, but we've got, um, Dave Rubin.

01:30:52.040 We've got Gadsad.

01:30:53.160 These things are going to be so fun.

01:30:54.340 Chloe Valdary's coming back.

01:30:55.600 And then we've got Mark Garagos and Adam Carolla.

01:30:58.540 Such a good week.

01:30:59.680 Don't forget to download our show.

01:31:01.000 In the meantime, you do have to download, not just subscribe, download and follow us on

01:31:05.120 YouTube and we'll talk soon.

01:31:06.860 Thanks for listening to the Megan Kelly show.

01:31:11.620 No BS, no agenda and no fear.

The Megyn Kelly Show - September 30, 2022

Bridget Phetasy on the Value of Regret, Who Can Get Pregnant (and Her Own Baby), and Tua's Awful Injury ｜ EP. 402

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