The Inconvenient Truth About Divorce: Bridget Phetasy on staying together for the kids.

The Unspeakable Podcast

Meghan Daum

Society & Culture

4.8 • 784 Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We hear all the time that children are resilient — and should be even more so! But do divorcing parents overestimate their kids’ resilience to justify their actions? Should “staying together for the children” come back into style? Returning guest Bridget Phetasy talks about her recent article for The Spectator about an aspect of divorce that rarely gets discussed: the ripple effects over decades as adult children and grandchildren are spread thin among multiple families and step-families. Bridget’s parents, who had five children under 12 when they divorced, followed the logic that parental happiness is better for children than “staying together for the kids.” But is that really true? Bridget’s essay kicked off a huge conversation online and touched a lot of nerves (and ruffled a lot of feathers) and she and Meghan continue that conversation here.

They also talk about their shared desire to quit the content creator hustle and move to the woods. Also, Bridget apologizes to Meghan for a microaggression that’s been haunting her, even though Meghan has no memory of it.

GUEST BIO

Bridget Phetasy is a Spectator columnist and contributing editor. She is also the host of the Weekly Dumpster Fire on YouTube and the Walk-Ins Welcome podcast. Follow her on Twitter, Rumble and YouTube, or join her community at phetasy.com.

You can read her article for The Spectator here: https://bit.ly/465I5yv

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HOUSEKEEPING

✈️ 2024 Unspeakeasy Retreats — See where we’ll be in 2024! https://bit.ly/3Qnk92n

🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women: https://bit.ly/44dnw0v

🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell: https://aspecialplace.substack.com/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I remember my mom coming up and I was listening to Led Zeppelin and I was 12 years old and she was like, you know, we had all known that my dad was moving out and she was like, you can cry and I just wouldn't let myself cry.
0:19.2	I was like, why would I cry? You're both like dating other people
0:23.4	already. Welcome to the unspeakable podcast. I'm your host, Megan Down. Before I introduce my guest,
0:32.5	Bridget Fetasy, I have two announcements. The first is that the unspeak-easy School of Thought,
0:39.0	that is the official educational wing of the unspeak-easy,
0:42.9	a co-ed institution, is offering three writing courses this fall.
0:47.3	I'm officially announcing them now.
0:49.6	They are a memoir workshop taught by legendary author Sherman Alexi. This is just a regular memoir workshop,
0:57.7	first person material, book stuff, personal essay stuff, memoir. Taught by Sherman, incredible opportunity.
1:04.8	Second is a fiction workshop taught by acclaimed novelist Chaley Wolfson Widger. That would be novels, short stories, fiction,
1:13.4	things that are not true, made up. And finally, a comedy writing course, comedy, humor,
1:18.5	satire, everything like that, taught by bestselling author Neil Pollack. Neil is also known
1:24.8	by his own designation as the greatest living American writer.
1:29.2	Can you believe the faculty we have here?
1:31.1	These courses will run for eight weeks on Zoom.
1:34.2	They will start the week of September 16th, and you can find out how to apply by going to
1:38.8	the unspeakeezy.com and pulling down the school of thought menu.
1:43.8	We are working on a new website for the unspeak easy,
1:46.6	but in the meantime, this is what you're going to do, and you should be able to find it pretty
1:50.1	easily. This is an awesome opportunity, so I really encourage you to take advantage of it.
1:55.0	And again, this is co-ed for everybody, not just for the ladies, for everyone. Second announcement is that guest speakers for our final unspeak-easy retreat of the year in
2:05.6	Woodstock, New York in October, have been announced.
	...

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