The guest
Bridget Phetasy: Writer, comedian, and podcaster behind Walk-Ins Welcome, Dumpster Fire, and Factory Settings; columnist and Substack author.
What this episode covers
Bridget Phetasy returns for a wide-ranging, three-hour conversation framed by new motherhood and the grind of running a small creative business. She and Joe vent about California's tax regime and bureaucracy, then move through obesity medicine, the pornification of culture, sex work and surrogacy, and luxury beliefs. A long middle stretch dissects the East Palestine train derailment and how mainstream media covered (or buried) it, plus broader distrust of institutions, the algorithm, and AI deepfakes. The episode closes on Phetasy's transformative trip to Egypt, the Younger Dryas impact theory, Göbekli Tepe, and a reflection on human fragility and not wasting life on the culture wars.
Recommended on this episode
ProductRecommended
Kindle
Amazon
“it's so much better ... the battery lasts forever”
“my husband's all about his Kindle it's so much better because you could keep 150 books on this little tiny thing and the battery lasts forever”— Bridget Phetasy
BookRecommendedISBN verified
On the Road
Jack Kerouac
“it's so good ... one of my favorite books”
“it's so good it really is when you read it you're like yeah this is why this is why it's a classic”— Bridget Phetasy
BookRecommended
Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky
“it's just so brilliant”
“the reason I always wanted to learn Russian was Crime and Punishment it's just so brilliant”— Bridget Phetasy
BookRecommendedISBN verified
The World Without Us
Alan Weisman
“a great book”
“there's a great book about that it's not long it's called the world without us”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended
Ancient Apocalypse
Graham Hancock
“it's amazing”
“the Netflix series is called ancient catastrophe okay and it's amazing”— Joe Rogan
The guest's own work
MediaBy the guest
Dumpster Fire
Bridget Phetasy
“dumpster fire feels always like I'm doing stand up we do dumpster fire live streams now”— Bridget Phetasy
MediaBy the guest
Walk-Ins Welcome
Bridget Phetasy
“Watkins welcome is so like I get to talk to people and I it's more um it's just different”— Bridget Phetasy
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
BookReferenced
War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy
“I agree that you can't read War and Peace in a week”— Joe Rogan
BookReferencedISBN verified
Animal Farm
George Orwell
“I think you could read Animal Farm in a week”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
World of Warcraft
Blizzard Entertainment
“those games are so addictive they you be it becomes your life”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
ChatGPT
OpenAI
“scares the out of me like the GPT thing is bananas did you see that Shapiro deep fake”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Erin Brockovich
“this is like Aaron Brockovich yes it is like you know”— Bridget Phetasy
Big reveals from this episode
- Bridget says the City of LA shook her down for roughly $4,000 in business-tax penalties she was normally exempt from, missed during her post-baby fog.
- Joe recounts asking Peter Hotez on the podcast whether he takes care of himself and finding he eats junk food and barely exercises.
- They discuss Seymour Hersh's Substack piece alleging the U.S. blew up the Nord Stream pipeline after it was earlier dismissed as Russian disinformation.
- Reveal that the famous 'Leroy Jenkins' World of Warcraft clip was staged/planned rather than organic.
- Bridget describes a panic-attack 'past life' experience on a balcony overlooking the Valley of the Kings, shaking uncontrollably for days.
- Joe recounts being pulled backstage between fights at a UFC event to meet Ron DeSantis.
- Bridget reveals a healthy doctor friend her age was diagnosed with a rare cancer and died within two months.
Worth remembering
- California's top income tax is cited at 14% versus Nevada's zero, fueling an exodus of Bridget's friends.
- Claim that about one-third of weight lost on semaglutide is muscle, bone mass, and connective tissue.
- Drag Queen Story Hour started in 2015 in San Francisco, created by Michelle Tea via the nonprofit RADAR Productions.
- Avian influenza killed more than 43 million egg-laying hens in 2022, spiking wholesale egg prices.
- Vinyl chloride boils at 8 degrees Fahrenheit, and burning it produces hydrogen chloride that becomes hydrochloric acid in the air.
- Stockton's UBI experiment gave about $500 a month with a net-positive effect and little spent on drugs or alcohol.
- Younger Dryas impact theory: around 12,800 years ago Earth was hit by comet fragments, evidenced by iridium and nanodiamonds in core samples.
- Gobekli Tepe in Turkey is dated to roughly 12,000 years ago and only about 5% of the site has been excavated.
- Ancient Egyptian stone vases are symmetrical to within about one-seventh of a human hair.
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