Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, look back on 2023 and reflect on where they were at this point last year, the changes the year had in store for them, what they’re most proud of and what they’d do differently. They discuss the differences between intentions and resolutions, their move to Texas and what they’ve found in a new community, seeing Christmas through their daughter’s eyes, having the space to make mistakes, looking ahead to 2024, and how grateful they are that they don’t have to deal with the world of dating anymore. Questions:* When you look back on the year, what are you proud of?* What would you do differently?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.phetasy.com/subscribe

This episode will remain open to the public for 2 weeks and then go behind the paywall.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, discuss the struggles of early sobriety. They cover what their individual rock bottoms were, and how different they looked, the lives they were leading at the time which finally led to the decision to get sober, why facing the wreckage of your life and past mistakes is the only way to change, how difficult large life changes in general can be, not realizing something’s a cope until you’re on the other side of it, feeling like their lives were never going to be any different, and how they can both honestly tell any newcomer that it does get better.Questions:* When has there been a time in your life that you’ve had to make a drastic change and you couldn’t see a path forward? How did you get through it?* When was there so much pain or fear keeping you from making a change and what got you to make the change? What prevented you from making the change sooner?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.phetasy.com/subscribe

This episode will remain open to the public for 2 weeks and then go behind the paywall.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, decided to talk about optimism this week to bring a little more positivity into the world. They discuss whether being in the real world is a more optimistic place than being online, the concept of a happiness set point and the scale of people’s baseline happy point, why the idea that there’s always someone worse off than you doesn’t usually help most people, the different definitions of optimism as both a noun and a philosophy, why it feels like we’re at some sort of existential tipping point in the world today, dealing with hypochondria and anxiety, being so open minded your brain falls out, letting the petty shit take too much importance, not wanting to raise their daughter in a stew of nihilism, and why happiness is a practice. Questions:* What is your most optimistic song?* When you’re feeling pessimistic, how do you tap into optimism?Referenced materialThis Is Water by David Foster Wallace:Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

This episode will remain open to the public for 2 weeks and then go behind the paywall.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, discuss discipline this week. They talk about their first exposure to the concept, what it looks like to them, whether they agree with the idea that discipline equals freedom, the line between acceptance and making excuses for yourself, exploring discipline in both your actions and your emotions, their parents’ attitudes towards discipline, discipline regarding diet and exercise, where they find their weak points, what life looks like “on the beam” and how loss of discipline in one area can lead to a snowball effect in every area.Questions:* When were you the most disciplined, what did that look like and where are you now* Where did your concept, idea or definition of discipline come from?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

This episode will remain open to the public for 2 weeks and then go behind the paywall.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, discuss pets this week. They talk about the ups and downs of pet ownership, their first pets, having traumatic experiences with pets, and how their dog Hope changed both their lives. Bridget shares how Hope appeared in her life and how having a dog forced stability, routine and consistency upon her, they discuss the realities of pet ownership, losing a pet, the bond you share, and what pets can teach you.Questions:* Tell us about your first pet* How do you feel about pets?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, talk about the gifts they’ve found in sobriety. They discuss how they feel about the phrase “this too shall pass,” the relationship between stoicism and some of the AA teachings, recognizing that sobriety wouldn’t just automatically solve your problems, their own personal addictions, destructive behavior patterns that sobriety has allowed them to recognize and leave behind, and how sobriety has allowed a new level of maturity. They also cover how people’s brains are developing differently depending on whether they are online or offline, how relationships heal, the compounding benefits of being in a long term relationship, maintaining psychological flexibility, and their different experiences in sobriety.Questions: * What’s something in your life that you’ve changed that has had a long term benefit to your life? What has the gift been?* What is the go to emotion that knocks you off the beam when you’re doing really well?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, discuss self-awareness this week. They debate whether self-awareness alone will help you change your subconscious patterns, bad habits and things that hold you back, the importance of building trust with yourself, humility vs. low self-esteem, overcoming fear, and what it takes to get out of your own way. Bridget talks about trying to balance being humble, having ego, knowing when you’re being undervalued when you’re being offered a bad deal in business, Jeren discusses how overthinking can bog him down, and they both share their insights for what helps them when they’re feeling caught in a bad pattern. Questions: * What are signs that you are off the beam? What do you do to right the ship or get out of your own way?* When was the last time you asked someone for help and what was that like for you?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist sit down to discuss being late bloomers. They talk about giving up on themselves, failing young, and how living in such a youthful culture can make it feel like you missed the boat if you haven’t gotten your career together and found the love of your life by the time you're 30. They cover why you need to find your way and take responsibility for your actions going forward even if events of the past have been out of your control, you reach a point where you can’t just blame your parents forever, and how to build resiliency by not identifying as a victim for the rest of your life.Note: This is a previously broadcast episode.Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, talk about the “fuck its” this week. They discuss what they are, where they come from, how they fight them, and when they surrender to them. They cover maintaining a routine and allowing for slips off the beam, letting yourself down, getting the “fuck its” with alcohol, getting the “fuck its” with eating, how the holidays can wipe out your gains from the whole year, making more decisions from a place of discipline and routine, dialing the systems in more and more every year, having goals and being grounded in values and systems, focusing on the small things you can control, and how knowing your values helps you automate your decision process.Questions:* What is a goal you said “fuck it” to at the beginning of the year that you still can do before the end of the year?* When was the last time you had the “fuck its”? What did that look like? What’s the theme, where or when are you most likely to say “fuck it?”Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, finish their discussion of the 3 pillars for mental and physical well-being by talking about exercise. They cover the sports they played as kids, how active they were, how active their parents were, when they actually had to start consciously focusing on exercise and working out, what their favorite methods of working out are, and what their biggest obstacles to maintaining a workout and fitness regimen are. They also discuss injuries, modeling good behavior for their daughter, the close links between diet and exercise, how much more information is available to us today, why youth is wasted on the young, gaining weight when they got sober, and how they fit exercise into their schedules today.Questions:What would your ideal exercise routine look like?What’s your relationship to exercise?Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, talk about sleep as one of the 3 pillars for mental and physical well-being. They discuss how much sleep contributes to mental health - probably more than the average person realizes, what their sleeping patterns were like as children, what their sleeping patterns are like as adults, learning how to sleep in sobriety without the aid of drugs or alcohol, when they became aware of “sleep hygiene”, the overwhelming exhaustion of being a parent, the guardrails they try to put up around their sleep routines and whether or not they’re successful, when they were getting the best sleep of their lives, and what their ideal sleep routines would be. Questions:* What does your ideal sleep pattern or hygiene look like? What is it actually like now?* When do you feel like you got the best sleep of your life? What’s preventing you from sleeping that way now?Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, explore the topic of creativity. They discuss what the word means to them, the preconceptions they have about being creative, what it means to go into a creative field professionally, and why creativity can be found in virtually every aspect of human experience. They also cover the stories we make up about ourselves that we carry with us into adulthood, the discipline it takes to be a professional artist, what they wanted to be when they grew up, how you can’t connect the dots looking forward, the rituals around creativity, and why the advice to follow your passion is garbage. Note: This is a previously broadcast episode.Questions of the week:* How do you define creativity?* How are you creative in your daily life?Here are the materials they reference:Tibetan monks and sand:Galloway and passion:Steve Jobs commencement address:Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, discuss their relationships with food. They talk about how they were raised, what family meals looked like, whether or not they learned to cook, what their parents modeled for them about healthy eating, and what they’d like to model for their daughter. They also talk food waste, eating disorders, sugar addiction, holiday meals, food and weight, being comfortable in a kitchen, what changes about meals when you have kids, and the foods they could eat forever.Questions:* What’s your last meal? Be specific* What’s your best memory associated with food?* What’s your signature meal?* What’s your seal the deal meal?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, talk comedy, humor, and the ability to laugh at yourself. They talk about laughter as a factory setting, the infectious laughter of children, the comic strips, comedians, and shows that shaped their senses of humor, the attitude towards humor in their families, being taught how to be able to laugh at themselves, whether or not there’s a class divide regarding humor and the different types of humor across classes, how the culture started taking itself so seriously, their favorite memes, and the fact that the more seriously you take yourself the less funny you are.Questions: * How did your sense of humor develop? * What is your favorite standup of all time? * Post your favorite memeSubscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, talk about impostor syndrome this week. They explore the definition, when they first understood what it was, and discuss where and when they’ve felt it in their lives. Bridget pinpoints that there’s a relationship between the effort she puts into something and whether or not she feels imposter syndrome when she receives attention, reward or accolades for it, how it ties into being a procrastinator and being lazy and feeling like she’s fooling everyone. Jeren discusses the similarities and differences in the way his own impostor syndrome manifests, and what seems to work for him in counteracting it. They talk about the challenge of speaking up and potentially looking like a fool, the difference between perception and reality, doing enough vs. not doing enough, how to know when you’re successful, and being able to celebrate your successes. Questions:* Do you experience imposter syndrome or are you one of the people who doesn’t?* What is the feeling that comes up when you talk about imposter syndrome? Shame, guilt, fear, anxiety, judgement, depression?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, talk about America and what it means to them for the 4th of July. They cover how they were raised and the ideas about the country and patriotism that their families held, how they feel about the 4th of July, the Olympics, the ideals the country was founded on, the idea that there’s still the opportunity for upward mobility here, and the prevalence towards ambivalence to the country in large swaths of academia and certain areas of society. They discuss their anti-America phases, traveling the world and the perspective it gives on the country, how the rest of the world sees the USA, why it’s nice to live in a place where flying the flag is not a political statement, the atrocities in the country’s history, the melting pot aspect of America, whether or not kids still say the Pledge of Allegiance in school, and their love and appreciation of the country overall. Questions:* What do you love about America, even if you’re not American?* What is your 4th of July playlistBonus Question:* Do Texans consider themselves part of the South?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, wax nostalgic about summer this week. They share their vastly different experiences of summer, what it means to them, sense-memories that come to mind at the word, the feelings it evokes, and what they would like to give to their daughter for the summers of her childhood. Questions:* What does summer mean to you? What’s the first thing that comes up for you?* Tell us a summer story.Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, discuss procrastination this week. They explore whether or not there’s a difference between procrastination and laziness, how Bridget has always struggled with procrastination vs. Jeren’s ability to knock things off his list immediately. They cover what feelings and emotions procrastination evokes, what purpose it might serve, Bridget’s new writing process, confronting her procrastination and inability to focus, how disorganization and procrastination are related, how much can be done with focused effort, and creating tiny habits and stringing together wins as a way to establish means of overcoming procrastination.Questions:* Are you a procrastinator - if you’re not, how do you do it?* If you’re not a procrastinator where are you on the spectrum?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, discuss their introverted and extroverted tendencies this week. They cover the definitions of introversion & extroversion, what it means to them in their lives, what they were like in their childhoods vs. what they’re like as adults, how their introverted and extroverted tendencies affect them. They also talk live music, the selective memory of motherhood, the ideal number for a dinner party, learning new things about yourself in your 30s, and living in the suburbs.Questions:* Where are you on the introvert/extrovert spectrum? Did you understand early on that you were one or the other? Has it ever changed? Where do you land now?* Do you want to be more of one than another? Are there people you admire or are there people who repel you?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, cover hypochondria and health anxiety this week. Bridget shares her past experience with debilitating hypochondria, where it came from, how it manifested, and the treatment and habits she created to break the mental loops she was stuck in and help her beat it. They discuss the difficulty in parsing real illness from your own hypochondria, how health anxiety robs you of joy, panic attacks, addiction to fear and worrying, how the pandemic exacerbated health anxiety for many people, and why Bridget would take depression over anxiety any day.Questions:* Do you or someone you know suffer from health anxiety and what is that experience like?* What percentage does sleep, diet and exercise play in your overall anxiety?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, talk about marijuana addiction. They recall their first experiences with weed, their various levels of addiction to it - Bridget being a full-time stoner and Jeren who could take it or leave it - having stoner pride, yet marijuana addiction was laughed at in rehab among other addicts. Bridget discusses why marijuana was the most difficult substance for her to quit and took the longest for her to recover from, the reality of marijuana addicted psychosis, and why weed addiction is so insidious.Questions:* What was your first experience like smoking weed? If you’ve never smoked it, how did that happen?* What is your relationship to marijuana?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, talk about the role God has played in their lives in the past and what they believe now. From Bridget’s Catholic upbringing to Jeren’s childhood with no religion of any kind, they come from very different places on this topic and have very different ideas, beliefs, and baggage when it comes to God. They discuss how guilt and God went hand-in-hand for Bridget with Catholicism, Jeren’s fascination with people of deep faith, their personal concepts of God, whether their faith would hold up in a tragedy, what gets people through life, and their atheist phases.Questions:* What is your current relationship to God?* If you were to found your own religion, what would it look like?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, discuss negative self-talk and the inner critic this week. They attempt to untangle their experiences with substance abuse, parental divorces, their own natures, and when that snowballed into negative self-talk, whether it’s part of the human condition, what they say to themselves, when they struggle with it most, and the tools they use to combat it. They explore the relationship between impostor syndrome and their inner critic, why being the face of the brand might not be the best thing for Bridget’s mentality, how putting yourself out there requires a certain level of vulnerability, why the destruction of your routines can be damaging, and having a child full of joy around can help heal a lot of the negative self-talk.Questions: What is your negative self-talk voice like? Is it your voice? Someone else’s? Do you have one? What do you do to combat it?If you do have negative self-talk, when did you first notice it? What does it look and sound like? Is it about something specific? Free-floating? Work related? Body related?Is this across cultures or is this a Western neuroses phenomenon?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, discuss depression this week. They talk about their own personal experiences with it, their first exposure to the concept of “depression”, how much therapeutic language has crept into everything, whether we’ve pathologized a lot of behavior that’s somewhat normal in order to be able to prescribe medication, why two drug addicts were both resistant to prescribed pharmaceuticals, and their Factory Settings around medication for depression. They also discuss what being on anti-depressants feels like, the red flags they’ve noticed when they’re slipping into a depressive state, psychiatrists vs psychologists, how depression can lie to you in your own voice, the feeling of hopelessness and inability to do the things you know you need to be doing in order to feel better, and the importance of asking for help.Questions:* What was your first experience with depression - either your own or someone else’s?* What are the red flags you notice when you or a loved one is going into a depressive state? Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, a licensed marriage & family therapist, discuss leaving Los Angeles as they prepare to move to Texas. They share how many times they’ve moved in their lives and their different expectations and experiences; Jeren having lived in Los Angeles for nearly 40 years, and Bridget being a nomad most of her life. They cover their different packing styles, wondering if they’re doing the right thing, the pros and cons of leaving, feelings of failure, grief and the end of something, excitement over a new adventure, busting out of a rut, and honoring the voice that says “it’s time to go”.Questions:* What is your experience with leaving?* Assuming you could remove any obstacles, be they financial or interpersonal, where would you move? Where would you live if you could live anywhere?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, contemplate meaning this week. They discuss when they first started thinking about meaning, the search for it, when your life can be defined by a lack of meaning, how they’ve found it in their lives, and true meaning vs. false meaning. They also cover the role drugs played in their quest for meaning, Bridget’s early existential crisis, Jeren’s belief that meaning is independent of a group, why having children can provide instant meaning in your life, and why often the way out of a meaningless existence is a journey inward. Questions* What gives you meaning in your life? What gets you out of bed?* What were the times when your life felt meaningless? How did you get out if it?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, talk about STUFF this episode. How much stuff most people have, particularly in America, what their relationship to stuff is, who likes to shop and who hates it, their mutual love of purging, keeping things you think you might need, and giving a thought for the people who will go through your stuff when you die. They also discuss what your stuff reveals about you and who you want to be or wish you could be, their factory settings around stuff and what their relationship to it was like as children. Questions* What’s your relationship to stuff? Are you a hoarder, a minimalist, or just average?* What are your factory settings around stuff?* If you have ever lost everything due to some sort of catastrophe, how does that change your perspective of stuff?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Due to popular demand, Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, discuss AA slogans this week. They share the ones they love, the ones they hate, the ones they used to roll their eyes at but have come to embrace, and the ones they use every day. They break down the meaning and effectiveness of their favorites and analyze why specific slogans work for them while others don’t. Whether you’re sober or not, you might find a slogan that will help you in everyday life. Questions of the week:What are some slogans or mantras that you were raised with or have incorporated into your life? What are ones that drive you crazy?Jim Valvano speech mentioned by Jeren:Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.comWe Answer A Question Asked By A SupporterQuestion: Since listening to this podcast, it seems that you and Jeren really use your recovery as something that you two can relate to each other and bonds you. My question is, how does someone like me who doesn't have a substance addiction and honestly doesn't quite understand addiction, relate to someone who t…

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, discuss body image in their latest episode. They cover the clinical definition of body dysmorphia, when they’ve felt their best and worst physically in their lives, fat shaming, the damage we can cause to others, Bridget’s struggle with gaining pregnancy weight, and the difficulties of losing weight. They also talk about struggling with negative self-talk, how much what they eat effects their mental health and self-talk, the positives and negatives of the body positivity movement, and being aware of how they talk about themselves and their bodies in front of their daughter.Questions of the week:* How do you feel about about your body and your body image in particular? Is it something you never had to think about?* When did you first become aware that your appearance mattered?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, share their personal primary education stories from K through 12th grade. They each talk about how many times they moved and/or switched schools and the effect it had on them, share their public vs. private school experiences, discuss how they both nearly failed out of school in 11th grade, debate the merits of homeschooling, and try to decide what they’d like to give their daughter.Questions of the week:* How did you choose where to send your kids? What was that process like?* What did you get from your primary education that you felt was great and what didn’t you get* If you had kids now how would you do this? What would you do differently?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, debate whether trust in media is dead and whether anything could revive it. They discuss where they got their news growing up, why media corporations and channels have to define themselves as THE TRUTH and make you believe other media organizations are lying to you, how money has no allegiance to anybody, how consuming information or media responsibly requires a fair amount of work, and whether the true believer vs. the liar is more scary.Questions of the week:* Did you ever trust the media* If they’ve lost your trust is there any way they could regain it? How?* Where do you get your information from?* If you do trust a news source, who is it?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.comWe Answer A Question Asked By A Phetasy Supporter3 Part Question: * Which factory setting has been the most difficult to overcome?* Are there any that now that you are each around your midpoint of life and know yourselves as well as you do think aren't really solvable and just are and always will be?* Since the term Factory Settings has a slightly critical un…

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, discuss the hardships of making friends as an adult. They talk about making friends as kids vs. making them as adults, the friendships they made as children that they’ve managed to maintain their entire lives, how moving every year and a half factored into Bridget’s friendships, how Jeren was torn between being an athlete and wanting to be popular and having a bunch of nerdy friends he played D&D with, and why Jeren is not Bridget’s “best friend.” They cover who they’d get on a plane for if they needed help, the weirdness of making “couple friends,” argue about which one is most liked by others, the people you can be your true self around, and whether or not you can have more than one best friend.Questions of the week:* When was the last time you made a new friend? Tell us about it.* Who’s your best friend? Can you have more than one?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, discuss self-censorship this week. They talk about what it means in today’s society and how the higher your social status the more fearful and self-censoring you become. They share instances where they’ve found themselves self-censoring, when it can be useful, the importance of having good boundaries, the madness of today’s higher education institutions, Jeren being aware that what he says on this podcast could affect his career and clientele and being okay with that, and Bridget believing that comedy is the Church of Free Speech and when she finds herself wondering if she should make a joke on Twitter or self-censor, it’s usually a sign to her that she should make the joke.Questions of the week:* How are you self-censoring in your own life, if at all?* Where do you wish people would self-censor more?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.comWe Answer A Question Asked By A Substack SupporterQuestion: I'm curious about your parenting expectations. I'm sure you want your daughter to avoid the issues you both faced. But does that mean limiting her freedom to explore and take risks? Are you hoping for a traditional path college, business school, running a hedge fund or something more adventurou…

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, explore the topic of creativity. They discuss what the word means to them, the preconceptions they have about being creative, what it means to go into a creative field professionally, and why creativity can be found in virtually every aspect of human experience. They also cover the stories we make up about ourselves that we carry with us into adulthood, the discipline it takes to be a professional artist, what they wanted to be when they grew up, how you can’t connect the dots looking forward, the rituals around creativity, and why the advice to follow your passion is garbage.Questions of the week:* How do you define creativity?* How are you creative in your daily life?Here are the materials they reference:Tibetan monks and sand: Galloway and passion:Steve Jobs commencement address:Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, tackle the topic of porn this week. They discuss their first exposure to it as kids, how much access to it has changed since then, the pornification of everything, Bridget’s short-term addiction to it, and whether or not it’s possible to have a healthy relationship to it. They also cover the unrealistic expectations it can create, trying to have sex like a porn star, the damage it can cause to relationships, the rise of Only Fans, deep fakes, AI porn, all the disturbing things kids are being exposed to online, and the complicated factors when it comes to legislating porn. Questions of the week:* What is your experience - negative or positive, with porn? * How have you managed to navigate the ubiquitousness of porn online? * What’s too far for you from tasteful nudes, to erotica, when does it turn to porn and you think it becomes damaging? * How would you handle/legislate this from a societal standpoint?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, talk about love and relationships for Valentine’s Day. They share their first “spark” moment, and how their first date had them literally walking down an aisle together, their past relationships, previous marriages, confusing lust for love, wanting a love at first sight moment, their patterns with other partners, and what they’ve found in their relationship with each other. Questions of the week:What are your thoughts on Valentine’s Day?How has your concept/definition/belief of love changed from when you first experienced it to now?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.comJoin us for our first ever Factory Settings Q&A! Question: What was the most difficult situation that either of you had to deal with after getting sober, and how did you deal with it?Bed bugs, broken hearts and our beloved dog, Hope—the struggle is real.Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, a…

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, discuss money and financial anxiety this week. The talk about their first awareness of money, the roles their parents’ divorces played in financial stress, the dichotomy of being stressed about money and also being aware of how good they have it, how much our parents influence our behavior with money, and what their early jobs say about their personalities. They both lament over the amount of money they spent on their addictions in their 20s and 30s, and discuss preparing for their financial future now that they’re married with a child, both of which neither one of them foresaw. They cover the motivation in being a starving artist, being financially dependent on someone, how to put price on what your service is worth and not attach your self-worth to it, and the primal fear of financial insecurity because it’s about survival.Questions of the week:What’s your relationship like with money? Do you have financial security? Is there a dollar figure you think will make that insecurity go away?What comes up for you around money?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, talk about therapy this week. They share their own experiences with therapy and how effective it’s been for them, what made Jeren want to become a therapist, the difference between understanding something, being self-aware, and allowing those emotions to be expressed, looking at the subconscious patterns for why you act the way you do, intellectualization as a defense mechanism, and how therapy can pay long dividends into the future. They also discuss the difficulties of finding a good therapist, or the right therapist for you, and Jeren shares some tips that might help.Questions of the week:* What was your worst therapeutic experience?* What are your thoughts about therapy? If you’re resistant to therapy or think it’s bullshit, tell us why.Psychology Today article Jeren referenced: How To Choose A TherapistSubscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, dissect self-disclosure in both private and public spaces in this week’s episode. They cover self-disclosure in our culture, the rise of therapy, how if you self-disclose publicly you’re opening yourself up to other people’s opinions and interpretations of you personal experiences, when self-disclosures can be putting you at risk, and whether you might be self-disclosing for the wrong reasons, such as the search for validation. Bridget talks about how self-disclosures in her writing help her connect to people, Jeren weighs the delicate balance of self-disclosures as a therapist, and having to judge the benefits and potential costs of being so open about his life on a podcast. They discuss vulnerability as a strength vs. weaponized vulnerability and empathy, sharing parts of your story that contain other people, and their encounters with the old school ideas that good therapists don’t self-disclose and good writers don’t either.Questions of the week:* Where are you vulnerable in your life and where do you wish you could be more or less vulnerable?* What are your perceptions about self-disclosure?* What current event or current media fad do you want Bridget & Jeren to cover through the lens of their factory settings?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, discuss social media this week. They both share their first interactions on social media, when they started to be immersed in the online world, Buddyhead, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit & Instagram. Bridget talks about the surprising impact Dane Cook had on her Twitter evolution, how they feel about sharing details about yourself on the internet, the ability to create community online in a healthy way and to establish connections with others, how social media can help you when you feel completely alone and isolated, and also how it can exacerbate those feelings, their attempts to put up guardrails around their use of social media, and the balance between using it for work and letting it waste your time.Questions of the week:* If you had to choose one social media site to be on for the rest of your life, which would it be?* What was your first experience with social media? And/or do you have any kind of crazy social media kismet stories?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, sit down to discuss commitment this week. They talk about what comes to mind when they hear the word commitment, how Bridget ran from it for years, and how their parents’ marriages, divorces, and their mothers in particular affected their views on commitment and relationships. They cover how their dog taught them about commitment, why they decided to commit to a marriage to each other and what that means to them, commitment in sobriety, and why commitment is largely within our control but can be so hard at times.Questions of the week:* Where is an area of your life that you struggle with commitment?* Where in your life have you found it really easy to commit and why?Shane Parrish’s 7 Questions to reflect on - https://fs.blog/annual-review/Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, talk about willingness this week, both as a concept and in practice. Bridget acknowledges a tiny window of willingness that came at the right moment that led to her getting sober, and they discuss what that meant for her life, what the definition of willingness is, connecting the idea of willingness with something she doesn’t want to do, and what happens when willingness goes away. They cover where willingness shows up outside of sobriety, willingness vs. willfulness, stoicism, whether or not we are just puppets of our subconscious, and why driving her car on Empty is one of the last vestiges of living on the edge for Bridget.Questions of the week:* Where have you found your willingness tested - what was the limit you reached?* Where do you feel resistance to something that you know you should be willing to do?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, talk about goals and resolutions in anticipation of the New Year. They discuss setting goals and creating systems that help support those goals, their relationships with discipline and organization, ambition and creativity, learning to bend before you break, and how having a daughter has shifted their goals and priorities. Bridget shares the goal-setting process that she does every New Year, and Jeren talks about what works for him and what doesn’t when it comes to setting goals. Questions of the week:What’s your relationship to goals and intentions through the year? What works for you?What hasn’t worked for you in the past?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, consider the topic of gratitude this week. They discuss when they first became aware of gratitude as a concept and when it became a regular practice in their lives. They cover whether or not gratitude was modeled for them in their lives as children and what they’d like to do for their own daughter, the differences between gratitude and guilt, gratitude and relief, gratitude and faith, how it’s hard to feel grateful when you feel afraid all the time due to anxiety or depression, and what a powerful tool it can be as the antidote to many defects of character.Questions of the week:Where do you find connection and gratitude - either within religion or outside of it?How does gratitude present in your lives and how do you practice it?How do you model gratitude for your kids? Did someone model it for you?Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist discuss regret in their latest episode. They talk about the idea of living a life with no regrets, the role regret plays in society, the 4 different types of regret, and which emotions regret is linked most closely to for them both. They also share their biggest regrets in life, letting regret drive the decisions you make, the link between maturity and regret, how if someone has no regrets that can often be the sign of a serious psychological disorder, and being proactive and taking action to pre-emptively avoid regret.Question of the week:What function does regret serve in your life? And what emotion is it linked to?Read Bridget’s article: I Regret Being A SlutOr watch her read it herself and discuss the response it received: One Of My Biggest RegretsArticles referenced by Jeren:The 4 Major Kinds of RegretStanford Neuroscientist: How to Train Your Self-Control So You Don't Mess Up Your LifeThe Psychology of RegretSubscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist sit down to discuss being late bloomers. They talk about giving up on themselves, failing young, and how living in such a youthful culture can make it feel like you missed the boat if you haven’t gotten your career together and found the love of your life by the time you're 30. They cover why you need to find your way and take responsibility for your actions going forward even if events of the past have been out of your control, you reach a point where you can’t just blame your parents forever, and how to build resiliency by not identifying as a victim for the rest of your life.Episode 9 drops November 22nd. New episodes will launch bi-monthly on Tuesdays.Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.We’re rounding out Sober October with a bonus episode brought on by so many questions about the 12 steps. Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, explain the 12 steps in their latest conversation. They cover what they are, the process of “working the steps,” which ones they love, and which were the most challenging for them. They also discuss the myriad of different ways there are to work the steps, their issues with the word God, how the steps continue to unfold throughout sobriety, how they teach you how to live sober and give you a community to live sober with, and how asking the question “What step can we apply to this?” is always helpful when they’re having an issue.Episode 8 drops November 8th. New episodes will launch bi-monthly on Tuesdays.Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, continue their discussion of addiction and sobriety for sober October. This week they cover 12 step programs - specifically Alcoholics Anonymous - their first exposure to the program, what worked for them, what drove them crazy, the problems people can encounter, and the barriers to entry that they might have to overcome. They also discuss what stuck with them, what got them through rough moments, working the 12 steps, overcoming their own resentments towards AA, whether or not alcoholism is a disease, and whether they think the program will survive wokeness. Episode 7 drops November 1st. New episodes will launch bi-monthly on Tuesdays.Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, discuss addiction and recovery with their personal stories of drug abuse and their paths to sobriety. This week it’s Bridget’s turn to share. She talks about her first addiction - sugar, the first time she ever drank, why marijuana was love at first smoke, developing a party girl personality, the first time she ever did heroin, and she and Jeren explain “junkie pride.” They also discuss whether or not addiction and alcoholism is genetic, why Bridget has a theory that only kids who come from good homes love psychedelics when they're young, why it's so hard to get sober and face the wreckage you've wreaked in your life and in your family, Bridget’s rage at not being able to drink anymore, the shame and regret of the time wasted, and the truth behind the phrase “Don't leave before the miracle.”Episode 6 drops October 18th - We will have 3 episodes for Sober October.New episodes will launch bi-monthly on Tuesdays.Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, discuss addiction and recovery with their personal stories of drug abuse and their paths to sobriety. This week Jeren shares how doing meth made him feel like exactly the person he thought he should be - smarter, funnier, charming, and able to connect with people, what led him to his addiction, trying to manage it, how getting arrested probably wound up saving his life, his first exposure to a 12 step program, and how his vanity and diligent research kept him from losing his teeth while he was a tweaker. He and Bridget cover how they met, why Bridget was so torn when they first started dating, Jeren’s montage sequence, and how the beauty of 12 steps is that it evolves - your program can evolve into whatever you need it to be at the time.Episode 5 drops October 11th - We will have 3 episodes for Sober October.New episodes will launch bi-monthly on Tuesdays.Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, sit down to discuss the joys and fears of new parenthood. They discuss being in the newborn bubble and deciding to take time and space just for their new family unit, Jeren's fears about who he was going to be after the baby, Bridget dealing with the hyper-vigilance of whether or not the baby is breathing, worrying whether they’re too selfish to be parents, the struggle of trying not to project your own fears and anxieties onto your children, doing something that's hard for your child that you know is good for them, and the love and fear that go hand-in-hand as parents.This week’s question:* How do people (new parents in particular) manage, deal with, or get over their fears? Episode 4 drops October 4th - New episodes will launch bi-monthly on Tuesdays.Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.This week Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist, discuss parenting. They talk about how they were raised and what they learned from their parents, which parent they take after, and how they never really expected to become parents themselves. They also cover their relationships with their fathers, what they think is important to instill in their kids, which phrases they heard most often growing up, what their mothers are like, having compassion for their parents, and how having a child has changed their perceptions of their parents. This week’s question: * What did you not get from your parents that you wish you had growing upEpisode 3 drops September 20th - New episodes will launch bi-monthly on Tuesdays. Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Bridget Phetasy and her co-host/husband Jeren Montgomery, an associate marriage & family therapist and recovery coach, sit down to discuss where the idea for a podcast about “factory settings” came from. It began when Bridget entered the culture wars and started noticing all the things that she took for granted, and beliefs that she'd never really evaluated. Their conversation covers what factory settings are and how you won't even know what you take for granted about the culture you grew up in until you start examining other cultures. They also discuss seeing a general lack of compassion for someone else's worldview in today’s society, being able to put yourself into position to have your ideas challenged, confirmation bias and what happens when you're forced to confront something that doesn't align with your world view, why it's easier to live in tribal oblivion, when everything thinks they're on the right side of history, and the hyper politicization of everything and everyone.This week’s questions: * What do you believe about yourself?* What do you want to get out of this podcast?* What do you consider a meaningful life?Episode 2 drops 9/6 - New episodes will launch bi-monthly on Tuesdays. Subscribe to Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy to submit questions, suggest topics and access all Factory Settings Bonus Episodes. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe

Episode One drops August 16th!Factory Settings are the default positions. They're less about conscious choices and more about the operating system that was installed when you were a child. Think of your body as the hardware in a computer and your factory settings as the initial operating system. It's all the things that are absorbed throughout your formative years and into adolescence.These settings are acquired from the world around you, often from your parents and rarely with your consent. From geography, family of origin and socioeconomic status to political affiliations, relationships and education, all of these things play a part in creating your factory settings. And boy, are they hard to change.So what happens when those default programs become interrupted by experiences that run counter to our built in narratives? Factory Settings is a podcast exploring politics, culture, relationships, mental health, addiction, and media, through the lens of how our built-in biases affect the way we consume information and form opinions.Every worldview has an origin story.Subscribers will receive access to the Factory Settings monthly Q&A podcast where Bridget and Jeren answer select questions from community members. They will also have the ability to suggest topics. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bridgetphetasy.substack.com/subscribe