From the Kitchen Table: The Duffys - Britney Spears' Bombshell Memoir & Why Taylor Swift's New Relationship Can Work

Episode Date: October 27, 2023

Rachel is joined by her daughter and writer at The Federalist Evita Duffy-Alfonso as they discuss Britney Spears revealing in her new memoir that she had an abortion while dating Justin Timberlake and why it was important for the music star to share her story. Later, Rachel talks about why she loves the romance between Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, and why she believes this relationship has the right elements to last. Follow Sean & Rachel on Twitter: @SeanDuffyWI & @RCamposDuffy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Hello, everyone, and welcome to From the Kitchen Table. Today, my special guest is my daughter, Evita Duffy.

Evita, welcome to the kitchen table. Thanks for having me. Well, today we have three topics that I'm dying to get your take on. Thanks for having me. will make you want to get it. But she talks about a very powerful subject, which is her abortion, an abortion that she had with Justin Timberlake as the father of her aborted baby. And so she reveals some information about that. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey. I'm not the hugest Taylor Swift fan. I love her music, but not always loving her,ving her in love this time. And you and I are going to discuss that.

Here's a little bit of a different take on that, if you'd have. We talked about it briefly, and I said, don't say anything else. Because you and I do not agree on this Taylor Swift romance thing. And then you wrote a fantastic, very interesting article about a TikTok trend called the tube girl. Is that right? Yeah. The tube girl trend. Yeah. And it's fascinating. Something that kind of reveals the narcissism of your generation, but it's, it's very interesting. So I hope people will stick around for that because it's the number one story on The Federalist with all the news going on in the in the world today. Your article about this TikTok trend is actually the number one story at The Federalist.

So we're going to talk about that. It wasn't. It was. It's not today, but it was at number one during this week, which shocked the heck out of me. So we are going to get to that as well. But let's start with Brittany Ibita because, as you know, her book comes out, came out today, I believe. And as I said, it is a bombshell memoir, The Woman in Me. And she has a lot to say. I mean, you're really young and probably, I remember when Britney came on the scene, when Britney Spears came on the scene.

She was, I mean, she was the number one star. Everyone wanted to be like her. They, I mean, hit me, baby, one more time. We talk about her a lot, actually, on Fox and Friends, Evita, because Pete Higson is obsessed with Britney Spears. I think she was like his coming-of-age crush, and I don't think he's ever quite gotten over Britney Spears. So she's

always in and out of the news because of things that have happened in her life. She lost her conservatorship was terminated in 2021. And since then, she had a lot of people rooting for that. And then, of course, she everyone was rooting and thinking she finally found love and happiness, and she has this hot husband. And then all of a sudden, things started to spiral down. And here we are now with this bombshell memoir. And in it, Evita, she talks about her abortion. I'm going to read to you what she says in it, because it's just, it's so heartbreaking. It just really takes your breath away because you realize how young she is when she says, when this happened. And you can hear it in her, in the words that she, you know, how she describes it. she says of the abortion or the pregnancy,

she said, and the abortion, she says it was a surprise, but for me, the pregnancy, I'm sorry, it was a surprise, but for me, it wasn't a tragedy. I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I had anticipated, together one day. This would just be much earlier than I had anticipated. But Justin definitely wasn't happy about the pregnancy. He said, we weren't ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young. If it had been left up to me alone, I would never have done it. And yet, Justin was so sure that he didn't want to be a father. To this day, it's one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life. Just breaks your heart, huh? Yeah, I thought it was really, really sad.

I think that it was one of those situations where you and I talked about this before the show, but you're not really allowed to talk about post-abortion trauma in our culture. Yeah. It's like the one taboo, right? The left says it's not real. And then they need to say that, right? For their, for their, you know, for the abortion movement to exist, you need to do two things, right? You need to say abortions have no effect on women and that it's just a clump of cells because otherwise their whole, this whole movement of theirs falls apart at the seams so i think this was a really interesting pop culture moment to see as flabbery that people have revered actually expressed having post-abortion trauma um and and

actually associating that with the way that her life has turned out because Britney Spears is really a tragedy all around. If you look at the rising star that she was to who she is today, it is horrifying to watch. And now everybody has to admit that this agonizing abortion that she went through was a part of that and contributed to who she is today and the pain that she goes through all the time. And then also, I mean, Justin Timberlake, what a beta male, what a terrible example to young men that he's face-to-face with this kind of situation, this hard situation that a lot of people have to go through, but admittedly can be difficult for anyone who is not sure about their partner um or unsure they're ready to be a parent and his reaction is instead to say let's kill the baby let's not you know think

about what britney wants or or what's right for for my unborn child i think that was he came off really like a villain from this memoir yeah and he's worried about the way he's come off by the way his own wife just uh jess Jessica Beal has had her people, you know how that works. They have each other's people talk to all the tabloids. And so Jessica's people are like, well, you know, Justin feels terrible about this. And, you know, they're trying to clean up the mess a little bit because they're worried that he does come off badly in this. And of course we weren't there. We're hearing Brittany's side of the story. And we do know that men often experience post-traumatic

abortion syndrome as well and deal with a lot of the guilt of that. And so it's interesting to see, you know, his ex, I mean, his wife, you know, cleaning up the mess from his ex-girlfriend's memoir. Maybe you're right about being a beta male. Maybe he should have come out and said something himself in this, but let's go back. I mean, you know, you may not remember you were really, really young, probably when this happened, maybe not even alive. I can't even remember. But the first signs that Brittany was sort of going off the rails and probably dealing with a lot of this trauma from both being a child star and all of the pressure that that puts on people. And then on top of this,

coming from a very Christian whole, which we know she has Christian values and kind of came from that, that, that, you know, POV, if you will, in Louisiana, in the deep South, that she, you know, she must have struggled a lot with this. And it's very clear from the memoir that she did. The first signs of this was, I remember that she, you know, shaved her head bald and everyone was like, what the heck happened to Britney Spears? And it was from that point forward that we just started to see her spiral and eventually her parents you know her sort of these stage parents and in so many ways um jumping in and she had this conservatorship and just

everything was so crazy for her um when i read about, she decided to include this story about her abortion in the memoir. I thought about a couple of things. I thought about the first thing you said, which is that, you know, post-abortive trauma is real. I just this past weekend, I was talking with a woman who went through that and still is dealing with, you know, her feelings. She's trying so hard to make something positive out of it. In fact, she runs a pregnancy crisis center, started an incredible pregnancy crisis center in Florida as a result of that. And there's just two of them now that she runs as the executive director. But, you know, and, as a result of that, that there's actually just two of them now, um, that she runs at as the executive director, but, you know, and they have a post, uh, post-traumatic, um, abortion,

uh, group for, you know, a mental health, um, therapy group for women who are going through it. It's called Rachel's Vineyard. Um, and so they provide that kind of counseling for women. But it's interesting, you know, if you truly, you know, the other side of the issue, the pro-abortion side will say, well, we are the ones who care about women, but they don't acknowledge, because they don't acknowledge that it's real, they don't offer therapy or mental health help

for women who have gone through that trauma. They have to live, as you said, by the belief that, you know, or by that narrative that nothing was there. It's just a clump of cells. So the only people, and by the way, the medical community is the same way. They don't recognize post-abortive trauma either. And so it's really the pro-life community that has been there for women, helping them get through these moments. Yeah, I think that that is very true. This is going to be sort of, I hope that will be a

clarifying moment for a lot of people who have still been in denial of the effects of abortion. I also, I kind of want to talk about what this means for us as a culture that we have promoted Britney Spears and viewed her as an idol. And really, this was just a really young girl who was cute and had some talent. Right. And that I mean, the child stardom that she experienced ultimately destroyed her. And she turned out to be a terrible example for a lot of young people who used to idolize her. But then I think, okay, so instead of looking up to the superstars of the world, the pop stars, the singers, who should young people look up to? look up to? The doctors at the AAP who are telling us to view, you know, we have to redefine male and female genitalia to be these absurd, you know, pro-trans names that I won't even repeat because I think they're so bad. We don't, nobody, my point is that we don't have anybody to look up

to. The people in our society you think should be the ones giving a good example in medicine in politics in in education and history aren't doing a good job either and then of course britney spears isn't doing a good job so what what do american kids who do they have to look to? It's a real vacuum. It's a real vacuum. It's an excellent point. By the way, the people you're bringing up, the politicians who are fetid, AOC, for example, or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or these doctors that you talked about, all of them promoting the lie that abortion has no effect, it's just a clump of cells, it won't affect you. They make

women believe that they can end their problem, this unplanned pregnancy. And all it does, the abortion, is begin a whole new set of problems, give women a full new set. We know that women who are post-abortive have, you know, alcoholism, depression, drug addiction at extraordinarily higher rates than women who haven't. So we know it's real. It's, I mean, I think about growing up, you know, I'd watched the Oprah Winfrey show. Everybody my age loved the Oprah Winfrey show. I think post-abortive, you know, therapy, I mean, post-abortive trauma is maybe the only topic that was never discussed even on Oprah where they discussed every other kind of trauma, you know? Here's the other thing I think that this, that's Britney Spears story brings to mind. And that is that,

you know, women who end up getting abortions often, more often than not don't want the abortion, and they get pressured by men, just like she got pressured by Justin Timberlake. I saw a poll not too long ago, Ibita, where they said 80% of women who had an abortion said if they had just had one person offered to give them support and help, they would not have had an abortion. And I really believe that. I think it's absolutely true. It resonates with me when I talk to so many post-abortive women. But also, I don't just say I was lied to. I really believe the lie that this was not a baby. And it wasn't until I had a baby and I began to understand fetal development and started to, and all of them, by the way, also count the ages of the age that their child would have been. It's just so heartbreaking. The other thing that I think this brings up, Ibita, is that most abortions, you know, you hear the abortion side always talking about these medical emergencies that

require people to have even, you know, late-term abortions. The truth is most abortions are because of convenience, as in the case here. I mean, here you had two, I mean, they were young, no question about it, but they were multimillionaires. There's no way they couldn't have afforded to take care of the child. And there's no way that I'm sure both of their parents would have helped them with this situation as well. There certainly was no shortage of money. Yeah. It's complicated. I think even with all the money, it still created a complicated. I think it, I think even with all the money, it's still created a complicated situation because right. You know, they want their professional ambitions, right? Yeah. That, and, and then, you know, Brittany might want to get

married to somebody else or Justin wants to get married to somebody else in the future. And I have a kid with somebody else and that's, that's really complicated and it throws a wrench in things. But, um, but I think when I think when you look at the reality of the situation, which is it is a human, and I think a lot of women believe that in their hearts too. Otherwise, nobody would have any qualms about having abortions. There wouldn't be 80% of women saying, I would have done it if I had had this, that would have had the support. That doesn't happen if it really is just a clump of cells. You don't get post-abortion trauma if it really is just a clump of cells. And so I think looking at the reality of the situation, you can't really kill innocent human

life to fix your problems. That's never the answer. It brings a whole new set of problems. And you know that trauma is going to increase because when Britney Spears had that abortion, she went to a clinic, she had it that way. And usually what they call the contents of the abortion, which are the baby, the girl or the woman having abortion never sees it. Today, almost 50% of all abortions are chemical abortions, which means they're being given pills. They're being told to go home or to a hotel. I'll talk to you about that in a minute because there's a thing now called, you know, it's abortion. They're basically vacations for you to go have an abortion on your own in a hotel. So what happens is they get these pills and essentially we're turning young girls and women into the abortionist.

So they go to their bathrooms and they wait until the pills take effect. they wait until the pills take effect and then they pass the baby full into the toilet. And often, of course, they're going to see what that is. And there's no denying when you see that what's happening. And you can imagine that that only amplifies the trauma. I met a young woman once who told me that she works at a hotel. She's a manager there, a very high-end hotel in a sort of resorty area. And she said over the last few years, the hotel was getting these exponential numbers of something they haven't seen before, of, you know, something they haven't seen before of emergencies. You know, you know, they're having to call people, you know, somebody who's staying at the hotel,

calling women, calling down saying, I need an ambulance. It's an emergency. I'm hemorrhaging. And after a while, they're like, what is going on? How can it be that all these young women are hemorrhaging? Well, it turns out, and this young woman figured out what happened, is that they're going to get these pills. They come for this sort of staycation, vacation, abortion, and they're being told when they get these pills, they have to call the emergency room. They have to call 911, not to say that it's for an abortion, just to say you're hemorrhaging. And so that's why they kept getting, you're hemorrhaging. These women are hemorrhaging. So it's getting crazier as the ability to get an abortion becomes easier. But actually, it puts a lot more burden on the woman because we're turning these young girls into the abortionists themselves. We'll have more of this conversation after this.

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Rate is annual, calculated daily, and will vary based on account balance. Visit scotiabank.com slash rightsizesavings for full details. The abortion pill is a really interesting topic because over the last 20 years, the FDA has slowly deregulated the pill and made it much more easier for you to get at a younger age. And it is not safe. This is not a safe pill. Oh, there's 40% more complications than with an abortion, a traditional surgical abortion.

You're absolutely right. And women die. I mean, they become infertile from it. There are so many complications that come with these, you know, chemical abortions. And actually, this is going through the courts now. There was a judge who tried to go back to the restrictions that were on it, I believe, 20 years ago and say, hey, you guys expedited all of these deregulations on the abortion pill this it has proven not to be okay and also they weren't allowing um hospitals to document uh how many women were actually uh coming to the hospital because of these chemical abortions so or dying from these chemical abortions so there was there was they were messing with the numbers and we knew that they that there was actually was actually hurting more women than we were being led on to believe. And the Biden administration is now fighting that in court and they want to keep

driving it up to actually go back to the way it was with all the deregulations, which ultimately, if you're a real pro-abortion person and you care so much about the health and wellness of women, which is what they always say, the chemical abortions, I mean, have done irrevocable harm to countless women. And to say we're going to deregulate it just to make abortions more accessible to the detriment of women, I think is really, really hypocritical. It's very revealing, isn't it? I've always said that, you know, it's such a lie that they care about women. They've never cared about women on the other side. If you cared about women, if you wanted to empower women, you would want them to see their ultrasounds before they had an abortion. The information is

power. The abortion lobby has fought tooth and nail to keep women in the dark, to keep their lie going. They don't want women to know what's really growing inside of them. And too often, young women find out what they did after they have another child and figure it out, or tragically, Vida, after they are infertile, and they don't know that these were the risks. The other side, the abortion side of the, those, those advocates, those activists present it like it's no big deal. It's just part of healthcare. They like to call it, you know, healthcare. And, and it's not, it's a very, very serious and, and traumatic, psychologically traumatic experience to go through. And too many

girls don't know about it. And that's the last thing I want to say about it is that healing is possible. And I've met, as I've told you before, dozens and dozens of women who have had abortion and have healed from it, but they have had to work on that healing. They have gone to places like Rachel's Vineyards or their church ministries. Again, it's not Planned Parenthood helping women after they leave the clinics. It's always the pro-lifers. And that's why I always say that pro-lifers are the feminists in this conversation. They are the ones looking out for women and children and wanting to make the conditions

better so they don't have to choose between themselves and their dreams and their life and a child. And I think that the other side tries to present to women that somehow you can't have a life if you have children. And I have nine kids and I can tell you, it's possible to achieve possible to, you know, achieve your dreams and have a child at the same time, much harder to go through life with the guilt and the trauma of an abortion, in my opinion. And stats bear that out when you look at alcoholism, drug addiction, and depression rates among the post-abortive. So I hope that this story about Brittany, it's very sad, but I hope it's instructive.

I hope it also is instructive to men who can see, you know, what Justin did. Maybe he has a lot of regret about it. I know he certainly has a lot of PR regret about it, that it came out in this memoir. But I don't want to undermine what he may be going through. He may have a lot of regrets about it too. And I think, you know, he was probably fed the same lie that Brittany was fed. And so many young girls are fed that it's not real. By the way, Brittany has two adult children.

Well, young adults, Sean Preston, 18, Jaden, he is 17. So, I mean, these these children also are going through it. They lost a sibling in that abortion, and now they know about it. So that's a sad story, but let's move to a happier story. So Taylor Swift, I don't know, I kind of know how they met. Like, I guess Travis Kelsey, this, you know, famous NFL football players for the Kansas State Chiefs, you know, she was coming to Kansas the Kansas State Chiefs, you know, had, she was coming to Kansas City for a concert and he's always had a crush on her. And somehow he made it publicly known that he wanted to meet her. I don't know how they ended up meeting,

but they eventually met and boy, it's hot. It's heavy. Every time there's a game, he seems to perform better. I have a lot to say about that because I think that's not a coincidence but she looks happy she looks so happy Evita and I couldn't believe when I told you that I'm not like the hugest fan of Taylor Swift but I have been loving watching her be in love and you were so cynical about it. Why? Okay. So first of all, I will just say I'm not a football fan, but I feel for all of the real football fans who have been playing that

every single game, they have to see Taylor Swift show up every five seconds on the screen. Or then also that the NFL has changed. At one point, it changed its Twitter background to Taylor Swift. And football fans, men who don't care about Taylor Swift, are just like, I'm done. Stop with the Taylor Swift. But why don't you bring in a new demo?

I love that. It's not a new demo. Everybody who didn't watch football is not about to go watch it because Taylor Swift is showing up on the screen. I don't think. Okay, my opinion on Taylor Swift and her new love object. Taylor Swift has moved from man to man to man throughout her whole young adult life. This is a woman who has never had a real long-term relationship.

She's always really in love in the beginning. And then she drops people. And actually, there's a lot of rumors that she actually cheats on people. This is Taylor Swift's way. And actually, what's really annoying is she will break up with someone. Someone will break up with her. And she'll write a song about it. This is what with her and she'll write a song about it. This is what she always does.

She writes a song about it. People make fun of her for doing this after every single one of her breakups. And then she calls you anti-feminist. You're anti-woman because you criticize me. It's the most obnoxious thing ever. And I do not believe that this is going to be a relationship to last because Taylor Swift has proven that she's not a great partner. At one point, you have to ask if you've been through this many partners and they always

seem to add really, really poorly, except for maybe one or two, maybe the problem is Taylor. Maybe. Okay. So I'm going to push back on this a little bit. So first of all, maybe okay so i'm going to push back on this a little bit so first of all um he seems different than all the others she seemed to have been attracted in the past to these very effete british type guys artists musicians um and that's kind of weird too because i think it's really hard to have two people in the same industry i mean she is she is a super, super, superstar. And I think that that would be, that would make any man who's in the same field as her feel, you know, a little insecure. So this new guy, Travis is with the, with the exception of his, there's, there's only one small beta thing about him and that's that he shills for Pfizer, which is really gross, but let's just put that aside for a minute. Um, cause he's probably just making a crap load of

money off of it. Uh, but he is very manly. I mean, he is buff and strong athletic. Um, he's, you know, he seems to have sort of this all-american you know very alpha male kind of sensibility about him she seems to be madly in love with her and i don't know i i i i you know she's she's making friends with travis's you know teammates wives and doing crazy little like handshakes or whatever they're doing up on the stands. And I know everyone says it's really cheesy and, you know, everyone's making fun of her, but I love it. I think, you know, she's up there. She's having fun. She's watching his games. He's performing better. His coaches have said, keep this going. Every time she's at a game, he is performing his best. I can tell you, Vida, not the same thing. But your dad, when I met him,

was doing lumberjack competitions. And he was a three-time world champion. And he also performed better whenever I was at his competitions or when he would do exhibitions, he would climb that tree faster or chop that thing quicker. Even now, if I catch him in the workout room, if he hears me and I can tell he can see me coming in, he seems to just try harder. I'm loving this. I'm loving the effect they're having on each other. I have a prediction. And you may be right in the end of ita but i believe in love and i think this one might actually last because this

guy seems like all american i saw you know his mom she seems like a very typical american mom then he comes from a very typical american family um I don't know. I think that the normalcy of him could resonate with her and bring her back to her own roots because she came from, you know, a normal middle class family. I love the optimism i think it's i think taylor's track record shows that as a realist this is not gonna work out this is just gonna be and i and and part of it i think is is the feminist ideology that that she prescribes to i mean this is this this is a woman who has fully bought in to the selfishness of feminism and and the the perversion of them and the disrespect toward men of feminism that there there are you think that writing songs about these breakups you think that's disrespectful no i want to no i well i think that's i think that's inappropriate but sometimes it is right i mean sometimes an artist has to you know act on her feelings at one point it seems to be like she's using her

relationships to to you know make songs right there's something weird about that when it happens every single time but what i'm saying is she she fully prescribes to the feminist movement, which at its core is anti-man. It's something that does not view men as a positive force. It calls their masculinity toxic. And there are many women out there who actually say, I wish that I could be with some of these Republican guys because they're buff and they're strong and they look good, but I just don't agree with their politics. And he's probably a liberal guy. So I'm not saying that, that Travis Kelsey, he shows for Pfizer, maybe it sounds like kind of a liberal, but, but let me, let me push back on that. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, I was just saying that

I think that she has prescribed to an ideology that makes having a genuine relationship really, really difficult because it's all about her and it's not about compromise and it has an inherent tinge of hating men. Yeah, I will concede that it will be hard for somebody as famous and pampered as Taylor Swift to adjust to sort of what it takes to be in a relationship where there has to be give and take. But let's be real. This guy is super famous in his own right. You and I are not football stars. I'm a football watchers, but he is a massive star. He's at the top of his game in every way, shape or form. And I think he's formidable in that regard. He's in a different sphere. He's just as successful, you know, or almost as

successful as she is. If you just look at them in their different, in their different fields. That said, I can't, I think she actually came from very, a very normal point of view. And then she got really famous in selling to that crowd with that horrible Lena Dunham crowd of like, you know, really miserable, young and single feminists. And I think she did go down that track. Right. And I think she also wanted to be accepted by Hollywood in a big way. I remember for a while she was, you know, stubbornly refusing to weigh in on politics. And then they pressured her and pressured her and pressured her. And she was young and susceptible to this kind of pressure. And then eventually she just, you know, was like, can't beat him, join him. And she jumped in full force and started to, you know, express herself

politically. And I think alienated some people in the process, but clearly not enough because she is like, you should see these concerts. They are, you know, packed to the brim. She's making billions of dollars. She's got this movie coming out. I think a little bit of it was her trying to fit in. And I wonder, Evita, if she is with this guy who seems to be the only kind of guy that can match her, you know, she needs someone who can match her in strength that he is just tough and strong and seems to be very sure of himself. And maybe this is what it will do to break the Lena Dunham spell that has taken over Taylor Swift and turned her into such an obnoxious sort of feminist figure in America. Maybe she

should just go back to her roots. And you know how it is. A lot of people, they get married, they have babies, and they were like, what was I doing back then? So I'm just going to say this. I'm loving it. I saw an article that said that the sign that she's truly in love and head over heels is that there were pictures of her kissing him where she didn't have her signature red lipstick. And so they're saying this is a sign of how comfortable she is. She's able to not wear all the makeup and just kind of be herself. And doesn't it look like she's having so much fun up there in that box at the football game with all of his friends and whatnot and his family? I am so sick of the Taylor Swift fawning articles.

I can't win you over woman her concerts are awesome i'm sure because it's full production even if the music isn't amazing it's it is a very well put on show i know people who've gone to those concerts they say it's amazing makes sense that doesn't mean that she's an amazing artist uh i think i think i think uh my mark hemingway the federalist you guys had on a while ago we had him on to talk about this very subject but i don't think that that her what did he say we had him on because he wrote an article that that made him like famous in like an like an infamous way um he was in the Daily Mail.

He was getting skewered all over because he was the bravest man in America to come forward. And his article basically said that the rise of Taylor Swift, her stardom, her superstardom is basically a sign of the end of our empire. Yeah, yes. And I don't know if I would go that far, but I understand the criticism. And I'll also say that in a relationship in the very beginning,

it's always awesome. And there's always puppy love and it's exciting. And so, of course, I believe that she's in love. Do I believe that she has proven herself to be somebody who can handle a long-term relationship, who can be a good partner, who doesn't revenge cheat? No. So I don't have a lot of high hopes for her, but I appreciate your optimism, mom. Yeah, I'm optimistic. My advice to Travis Kelsey is to drop all the beta stuff, get rid of the Pfizer stuff, and just be that alpha male that Taylor Swift needs. That is what will tame that beast, an alpha male. And I think that combination of both of them having that kind of success and rooting for each other in each other's sphere and not competing with each other but but building each other up. I'm a sucker for love. I'm loving it, Evita. We'll have more of this conversation after this.

Welcome to the A World Business. Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore, and Jon Hamm star in a new Paramount Plus original series. The world has already convinced itself that you are evil and I am evil for providing them the one thing they interact with every day. You're all right. Here we go. From Taylor Sheridan, executive producer of Yellowstone. Get everybody back. You just put a giant bullseye on this place. We rolled the dice one last time. Landman, new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount+. I also loved your article about the two-girl trend on TikTok and Instagram. So why don't you, for those who don't know about this trend, why don't you just lay out how the trend got started and what it is?

So there's this young girl who lives in London. Her name is Sabrina, and she hosted a video of herself in in the London Underground. They're like the London train, basically public transit that they called the two. And she's dancing to music with her headphones. And so the music is playing in her headphones and it's in point five zoom. It's it's kind of cutting all over the place. And it's it's just her sort of feeling herself dancing, looking fun, carefree while she's on public transit. And people started to emulate the trend and say, well, we're going to do it in New York or in Philly or in Philly or in L.A. on our way to public on our way using public transit as well with the 0.5 zoom kind of dancing to random songs. Um, and then they use the hashtag hashtag tube girl, and it has over a billion views on TikTok.

Hashtag does this. Was she famous before? Was it, what was her name again? I forget her last name, but her first name was Sabrina. So was she an influencer before this, or is this what made her famous? I think she, I mean, I think that she was sort of like semi TikTok famous. Like she might've had a few videos go viral, but as far as I know, she's not a famous girl. She was actually on her way to one normal fashion internship that she had in London. So she's not, she's not a celebrity. She just sort of sparked this, this trend, this movement, which she says is an exercise in self-confidence. I think it's an exercise. So that's what, well, let me just pause for one second. So that's what has spiraled this is she

says, this is about empowerment and this story about her doing it has been picked up by, you know, everything from Good Morning America to, you know, as you said, you know, a billion, you know, users or viewers views and, you know, all this emulation, which, of course, you know, just keeps spiraling this trend upward and upward. And it's because there's the claim is this is girl power. This is so empowering that you can, you know, record yourself. So let me ask you that is somebody else recording her as she's doing as she's singing and dancing with her headphones on or just propping up her phone. Oh, she's holding her phone. Got it. So she's holding her phone and she's dancing. And so everyone is watching her dance. Got it. So she's holding her phone and she's dancing. And so everyone is watching her dance. They don't hear the music. And somehow overcoming that sort of social anxiety or fear that you might have of looking crazy on your bus or your subway train or the tube, as they call it.

That is what's empowering. Apparently, that's what she says. And is it no so i my argument in my article that that you know did well on the federalist kind of oddly enough um is that it it's it's not really about self-confidence the reason that they're making themselves all these girls are making themselves look really foolish on public transportation is to be part of the trend and to get a lot of likes and views on TikTok. It's not for themselves. It's for validation on the internet. And I think it's a horrible sign that young people would sacrifice their dignity in person in real life to then look cool on social media. I think that's completely backward.

And I also think it shows a real lack of respect for the people around them because, you know, it's a distraction. It can be, depending on how crowded it is, it can be a hindrance. And also, they're in the background, right? All these people on their morning commutes or evening commutes back home are in the background of all these videos. They didn't consent to that. It's kind of the funny part about the video, right? Like she's dancing and singing. They have no idea what she's dancing or singing to. And you just see these people just kind of looking straight ahead. They just want to get to their, to their job, you know, on the subway. I, here's what I thought was interesting about it, Vida,

and this might show my age. When I saw it, my thought was the narcissism and not the narcissism in the way that, you know, just posting on about your day, like I'm on the subway, like everyone should care. I don't mean it like that. That's been discussed over and over again, but that this, whatever it is that she's doing is just for herself or specifically for, as you said, these anonymous people, you know, on, on her social media. And I say it in the sense that I remember when people would do flash mobs and you might go to the mall and all of a sudden everyone busts out and they're singing, you know, old English Christmas carols, or they bust out and they're dancing, you know, to, to some coordinated song, you know, at grand central

station. And once on Fox and friends for a birthday gift for one of my co-hosts. Someone from the network who's a dancer at Fox Business organized all these people to kind of come into the studio and surprise them with this flash mob of this dance. So that's something that actually brings joy to other people. I remember I've been in that situation where a flash mob suddenly happened and it just made me happy.

I was like, that's amazing. But this is purely for your own enjoyment. The other part is it's supposed to be so empowering and it takes so much courage. Do you know what takes courage? Doing a flash mob in Iran, which was done and all those people ended up in jail, you know, just trying to be happy. I think that was the song they danced to, I think, Be Happy or something like that by Justin Timberlake. And a bunch of them got arrested and sent to jail for that. That's courageous. Just being on the subway and looking like a crazy person and making everyone around you feel uncomfortable.

Not that empowering to me. Yeah. not that empowering to me. Yeah. And that was something that I brought up in the piece, because I think I'm not trying to say that you should never look foolish in front of people like that. You should always be afraid of what other people think around you. I think having having self-respect and respect for those around you and politeness and good manners is a really positive thing. But sometimes you need to be impolite to do what's right. And that happens all the time for, for Christian conservatives.

In my view, I mean, we live in a culture that's closing in on you all the time. And anytime that you do anything, um, that is, that is right. Oftentimes you're deviating from the norm.

So that can be really hard in college. I'll take like, I mean, I was, I was on the outs all the time, constantly getting called a racist, xenophobic, you know, crazy person, but it was for a reason. I was willing to do it for a reason. The girls in Iran who were dancing are doing it for a cause. There's no cause here. This is just about themselves and looking stupid and making other people uncomfortable for themselves. And I think that is selfish. I don't think it's empowering. And I don't know why the corporate media is constantly encouraging this kind of narcissism and foolishness. It's really annoying on their part. Yeah, I just think it also speaks to just your generation. I feel so bad in so many ways that, you know, social media has really done a number to the social life of so many young people.

And you and I have talked many times with dad on this podcast about how social media has impacted people's dating lives. And people think it's positive, right? Like I've got a dating app. Well, the reason why people need dating apps is they're not meeting anymore in social settings that used to be sort of the way people did before, whether it's in the workplace because of meet you, people are afraid to meet there. But mostly I just think kids are on their phones at home instead of, you know, clamoring to their mom and dad like I did every single day and night

trying to get a chance to get out of the house and go meet my friends. And we wanted to be social. We wanted to be together. We wanted to talk. We wanted to have slumber parties. You know, nowadays, even when little when young girls have slumber parties together, they're on their phones, you know, they're not engaging, they're not talking, they're not socializing. And then you transfer that into the dating sphere and you see where people are at. I just feel bad that so many young people turn to these silly little trends. And listen, I mean, I get it. I don't want to overthink it either. I mean, you know, I'm sure there's a ton of things I, you know of things that me and my friends did. I remember on homecoming, oh my gosh, if my friends aren't listening, they're going to just be mortified that I outed it. But we all were going to a dance and we were all dressed up and we got to a red light and we were like, let's all get out and just take our picture in front of the car because the headlights were there and the lighting was there.

And we all jumped out of our car and you know someone you know we stacked a picture and and then we got in the car and we thought it was so amazing or it was just so funny that we did that um you know kids do stupid stuff i get that you know that was probably not a really smart thing to do but um these tiktok trends to me it's the homogeneousness of it, right? Like this girl in London does it, now everyone across the world is doing it. And maybe that's unifying in some way, but there's also something really kind of sad and pathetic about it as well. I think what's really sad and pathetic is if you look at the amount of time that young people spend on their phones i guess they say that gen z years which is you know like 18 to i'm probably i'm butchering the numbers but

you know late later teenagers young adults that that age group spending like seven hours or more on their phone a day of that i mean that's that's almost that's a huge portion of your waking hours consumed by your phone. And they're wasting the best years of their life, right? I mean, there's never a better time to experience life than when you're young. And so to me, it makes perfect sense why if your life is your phone, you would be willing to sacrifice looking, you know, foolish in person to look cool online. But it's such a it says it says something really sad about the state of of young people and and and probably why it's really important to not let your kids have a phone when they're young. Or if you have a phone.

My husband talks about, Michael talks about it with me all the time. He's like, you just got to get off your phone because it's true. It's meant to be addicting. It's meant to be all consuming. It's designed. It's by design to be addictive. Yes. And it's not, and I'm not, I'm not trying to be holier than thou because I get on my phone all the time. And sometimes I'm just as addicted and I, and I have to watch it too. And dad is also telling me, you know, I don't use a laptop. So like all the articles I read are on my phone. Everything is there and it's so easy and you can access it so easy, but you can also get sucked in. I, you know, somebody might send me a video, which takes me to an Instagram reel and I'll watch that. And then suddenly there's another one and there's another one and there's another one. And, and, and, and if you're not careful, you know, it's,

it's a time suck. So, so yeah, but I think more importantly, back to your point, it's just people need authentic relationships, real, real relationships. And the phone creates, um, these, these virtual spaces make you believe that the people who are on your social media are your friends. And it's not, it's virtual. Yeah, or makes you feel like you have human connection. That's right. And it's not authentic connection. Correct. And you know that inherently.

So if you're feeling lonely, you're on your phone and there's always somebody that you can talk to on social media or that you know you're getting likes on TikTok. Suddenly that fills in a void of loneliness that you have. But it doesn't do a good job because in our minds, we really know that it's not real. It's not genuine because it's virtual. And I think that has led to a lot of problems for Gen Z. This is the most mentally ill generation to date. They have an astronomical rates of suicide, depression, anxiety, and they cannot form real human relationships, starting with romantic relationships. I mean, the vast majority of young men have never approached a woman for a date.

I mean, there are less relationships. There's less intimacy had. And I think that this trend is a reflection of all of these problems that's facing the youngest generation in America and really the future of America. I remember about 15 years ago, I was starting to hear from young women saying, the guys at my university, they don't date. They want to talk to us by phone. They want to hook up, but they're not asking us on dates. And I was like, why? I was so confused by what was happening.

But I realized people think by texting, it's a date. That's not a date. That's not getting to know each other. That's not showing any kind of investment in another person. And yeah, social media is replacing authentic connection. And as you said, they're losing people skills and you can track they, they have, we've had people on our podcast who've done these kinds of studies and looked at these kinds of studies where they can literally see the date, the year that sort of social media took off and they and you you see social media taking off and you see mental mental health issues and uh you know uh and depression going right along with it they're

hand in hand because as you said those um those interactions online just can't fill us. And it's just not real. And there's no substitute for real people. So it's an interesting trend, the tube girl trend. I wish her luck, but sadly, it's a reflection of some deeper stuff going on for young people in emptiness. That I think only probably God can fill. So that's a whole other topic. Evita, great talking to you. Three really great topics on a tough week. It's nice to take a break

from some of the hard stuff. So I really thank you for joining me this morning. If you've enjoyed the conversation, I know I did uh let us know subscribe rate and review this podcast at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you download podcasts you can always listen to us ad free with the fox news podcast fox news podcast plus subscription on apple podcast and amazon prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app. When you get us, subscribe. You'll get alerts that you know when the next episode's up and gives you access to all of our library of past episodes. We hope to see you around the kitchen table later on this week.

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