The Daily Signal - The Daily Signal Presents "Problematic Women" - How The Left is Losing the Culture, From Tragedy to Taylor Swift | Feat. Isabel Brown

Episode Date: August 31, 2025

The Left and Right’s reactions to the events of this week provide a telling insight into why the Right has a hold of the culture, and the Left, decidedly, does not—from the tragic shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic School to Taylor Swift’s engagement announcement.   On today’s episode of Problematic Women, we begin with the tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minnesota. We share what is currently known about the incident and how some Democrats have chosen to respond, including attempts to minimize prayer and politicize the tragedy.    We also highlight the data showing how President Trump’s recent crime crackdown in Washington, D.C., has led to real results—lower carjackings, fewer robberies, and even nearly two weeks without a homicide.   Speaking of Trump, his marathon three-hour cabinet meeting on Tuesday ran longer than The Godfather. We sat through the entire thing so you don’t have to, and we break down the biggest takeaways, from Trump’s surprising stance on Chinese student visas to his pushback on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s call for “non-violent resistance” to potential National Guard presence in Chicago.   And of course, the biggest pop culture story of the week (and possibly the year) is that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged. Travis’ father, Ed, shared a statement on the two’s “shared values, strong work ethic and future family goals,” begging the question: will Taylor and Travis’ new domestic era inspire a marriage and/or baby boom in America?   Isabel Brown joins as our Problematic Woman of the Week, bringing thoughtful commentary on the issues that matter in politics and pop culture. Follow us on Instagram for EXCLUSIVE bonus content and the chance to be featured in our episodes: https://www.instagram.com/problematicwomen/   Connect with our hosts on socials!   Elise McCue X: https://x.com/intent/user?screen_name=EliseMcCue Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elisemccueofficial/    Crystal Bonham: X: https://x.com/intent/user?screen_name=crystalkatetx   Isabel Brown: X: https://x.com/intent/user?screen_name=theisabelb Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theisabelbrown/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theisabelbrown   Check out Top News in 10, hosted by The Daily Signal’s Tony Kinnett: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjMHBev3NsoUpc2Pzfk0n89cXWBqQltHY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, this is Virginia Allen, and I'm excited to share this episode of Problematic Women, one of the Daily Signals, other podcasts. Each episode, we navigate the biggest stories in politics and culture. And we have a lot of fun doing it, too. If you like what you hear today, make sure to subscribe to Problematic Women for weekly episodes. Welcome back to Problematic Women, where every week we check in on the pulse on politics and pop culture. Today with us, we have our lovely guest host and Problematic Woman of the week, Isabel Brown. problematic woman of the week sounds good.

I want to like make a t-shirt or a button of that to wear on the show. I'm hearing the crown. That's a good idea. I like that. I'm hearing we need t-shirts immediately. Maybe some merch. I don't know. We'll see.

Here's what we have on deck for today's episode. Trump held a marathon cabinet meeting. And I personally watched all three plus hours of it so you don't have to. So we'll break down the highlights and what they mean. And also the biggest pop culture news of the week, maybe even of the year is Taylor Swift is engaged. Honestly, maybe the decade. I know. Who knows.

Of the era. But first, of course, we will have to address the tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minnesota, what we know so far about the incident and how some Democrats have decided to react to it. So strap in, get cozy. We are breaking it all down today for you on problematic women. Welcome back. I'm Elise McHugh. I'm Chris Levinam.

And I'm Isabel Brown. Isabel, how have you been? We have not seen you in a brick. I know. A couple of weeks now, which is awesome. I feel like every time I come in a whole month has zoomed by. and my baby's at a totally different stage. My life's at a totally different stage.

We are getting ready for the relaunch of my show with Daily Wire, which is so exciting. When is that like happening? Tentatively mid-September, we're giving everybody more details very, very soon, but shooting all of the test pilots and everything right now. Built out a beautiful new set in my basement from my home studio, which is awesome, and we're hard at work scheduling all kinds of exciting guest interviews right now. I love to see and love to hear. I've actually been following your show since high school college.

way. So this is pretty insane to sit next to you and also to hear that your show is just getting bigger and more people, more eyes are going to be on your show. So I'm so proud of you. Thank you. Happy to hear everything and just, I'm so excited to catch up with you again. It's a very, very exciting time for all of the women in the conservative movement right now for sure. Absolutely. Well, first off, I do think we need to address the biggest and most tragic news of the week, possibly of the past few weeks. The tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. What do we know so far? What's gone on? Who's investigating what and what have some of the reactions been? Unfortunately, there were a few deaths of children. They were at their first mass at this Catholic school, at this Catholic Church, and many people were injured. And FBI director Cash Patel confirmed that the shooter is Robin, formerly Robert Westerman, a man who I did. identifies as a woman. This, this just like absolutely rocked my world when I heard about this. What, what were you guys thinking when it all happened? I just had flashbacks to the Nashville shooting from not too long ago, right? Really kind of similar themes, a lot of chaos and confusion and just sadness. Yeah. Obviously on the part of the victims who were killed or injured in their families, but also for like these perpetrators, right? It's just devastating to see the what has wrought

our generations and upcoming generations brains with the chaos and confusion. I'm still just unbelievably devastated and the more news that comes out the more horrified I am I think everybody feels the same way what's really troubling I think is all this

information from this manifesto that's coming to the surface and I generally tend to have something I like to call the 48 hour rule with school shootings I try not to rush in and provide a ton of commentary on exactly what we know about the motives or the potential perpetrator or whatever because so much information still has yet to come to light. But I think what's really particularly horrifying to me and not sitting well in my soul is how the media is responding to this and how politicians are responding to this. I'm not surprised that they're using this opportunity to

politicize the tragedy, but this weird attack on prayer and Christianity and almost insinuating that it's because they were in Catholic Mass that this tragedy happened is new. And it's really disgusting. And it genuinely has just broken my heart in so many different ways. Almost immediately that was their reaction. I mean, we saw Minnesota mayor, no, Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey immediately go on CNN, talk to the president and say, they were praying. This, it's not about thoughts and prayers.

And then CNN's Dana Bash reacted to it. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota reacted to it. and so did so many people. And thank goodness on Thursday morning, Vice President J.D. Vance was like, this isn't about prayer with no action. And, you know, Republicans are trying to get action, but it's not the action that the Democrats want.

And so obviously they're taking this moment to just politicize and use this tragedy. And if I was a parent or part of that community, I would just feel so unsupported by my elected leaders who immediately their first reaction is to shame us for praying. Well, I think that's the part that's so gross to me about the politicization of prayer and our faith. Yes, these children were in mass. It is tragic that this happened during Catholic Mass.

It's tragic if this happens at any point, but particularly that it seems religiously motivated and some sort of potentially dark demonic influence associated with some of this. I cannot imagine being a mom or dad of one of these children that have tragically lost their lives or have been shot by a depraved individual. the only thing I have left to fall back on is my faith and knowing that God never abandons us and knowing that we can very safely rely on the fact that martyrdom still happens all over the world, but it is a gift to be united with God in heaven. And then to see my mayor or my governor or my whatever talking head on CNN, all of a sudden use my grief as an opportunity to say that my faith means nothing.

Like what an unbelievable slap in the face to those parents. And I can't imagine the feelings they must have seeing these tweets all over the news, seeing live news commentary from people like Dana Bash saying prayers mean nothing enough with your prayers. Stop doing that. That's so disgusting. Well, we can pull up. We have a screenshot from an interaction between circle back Jen Saki, the former press secretary, and Vice President Vance, who is a Catholic convert himself.

So, you know, obviously very meaningful to him. And I'll just read this. We'll put it on the screen. But Jen Saki says, prayer is not freaking. enough. Prayers does not end school shootings. Prayers do not make parents feel safe sending their kids to school. Prayer does not bring these kids back enough with the thoughts and prayers. To which Vice President Vance to his credit says we pray because our hearts are broken because we know God listens. We pray because we know that God works in mysterious ways and can inspire us to further

action. You can see the rest of it on the screen. But just finally someone with some moral clarity stands up and says something and puts these leftists in their place. You know, I think it's interesting. I've been wrestling with how to talk about this for the last few days, but I often say that we feel so shell-shocked by genuine Christian persecution in our country because for so long, especially during our lifetime, it's been relatively quite normal to be a Christian, right? Most of the people in your school classroom are Christian,

most of the people who live on your dorm hall, celebrate Christmas. Most of the people that you go to work with are celebrating the same holidays and reciting the same prayers on the way to work. And it's generally the undertow of our American culture. So when we think persecution, I think we think about an Instagram post getting taken down or you lose access to your bank account or, God forbid, you might lose your job.

Or, oh, no, a new law says that nuns have to provide birth control in their health care plans, right? And that's so insane in terms of persecution. But we are forgetting that literally, every single day, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of our Christian brothers and sisters are beheaded for going to church, for praying outside publicly,

for openly worshiping Jesus Christ. And I think martyrdom as a concept often gets looked at as a footnote in a chapter of Christian history from thousands of years ago, that this is something they dealt with in the Coliseum of the Roman Empire, but it's an active reality for people all over the world trying to actively practice their faith.

And to see this prayers mean nothing thing from Jen Saki or from the mayor of Minneapolis or whoever is so ridiculous. out of touch with where the church is at in the world today, it's almost like they're trying to sweep under the rug the fact that evil still does exist, that there is a level of spiritual warfare that, of course, is happening all around us at all times. And I know we overdo the everything is demonic thing all the time. Like, no, not everything. Taylor Swift is not demonic. Probably, okay, people? But some things, some things are. Some things legitimately are. And when you're looking at

these doodles of somebody, you know, seeing themselves as a demon in the mirror or right, on magazines for firearms that this is my body take of it and eat openly mocking the mass. There is a level of that evil there to immediately sweep that under the rug and say, don't pray about it. Don't have any sort of hope about it. Don't even touch it because that does nothing. It's so out of touch. It's so weird.

And also the immediate reaction of don't pray about it, but then also don't be mean to the trans community. I'm seeing a lot of that coming out right now. And Jacob Frey is like, don't use this as an opportunity to attack. I think he said villainize. People are villainizing the trans community. And I'm like, dude, your own constituents just had children's lives, age eight and 10, by the way, the two children that have been confirmed dead so far, taken by someone who is mentally unstable because of transgenderism and gender dysphoria.

Talk about unbelievably out of touch with the people you were elected to represent. And I read on the New York Times, no, New York Post this morning that recovered from this individual's YouTube account, he said that he feels very tired of being a transgender individual. He can't cut his hair because that's the last thing he has connecting him to being trans. So obviously he was hurting. He was in a poor mental state, but he was enabled. And yeah, just saying that prayers don't work. Like that's, why was that your first reaction?

You mentioned Jen Socky talking about that. And she also mentioned how the National Guard is just about to get. Yeah. Kind of hard pivot-ish, right? sticking with our theme of circle back, Jen here, she posted also in regards to the school shooting when kids are getting shot in their pews at a Catholic school mass and your crime plan is to have the National Guard

put mulch down around D.C., maybe rethink your strategy. But Isabel, I think to your point, it's spot on about how disconnected the left is in general. It's not just Democrats. It's like this entire leftist regime. They're so disconnected from what the American people want and what their concerns are. there's a new poll out just this week.

99% of Americans agree that crime is an issue in big cities. 99. I mean, you can't even make that up. People, I see so many talking heads and experts on TV saying, these are all 80, 20 issues, and the left are continuously on the 20 side. It's like, this is even worse.

Yeah, 99.99% of Americans think that crime is an issue in our big cities. Of course it is. And you would be insane to think even remotely that it's not an issue, right? These are the same people who live in these cities. Of course, they live within like a two block radius of the National Mall probably. So security details of their own. Exactly. Personal security at their building and driving them around and everything else. But it takes me back to, I think it was the Washington Post running a bunch of stories right after the National Guard takeover happened here in D.C. a few weeks back, a local resident like came forward anonymously because

they didn't want their name to be out and said, oh, I've always felt safe here. You know, except for this instance, in this instance, but I don't want to give my name. And it's like, well, of course you don't want to give your name. You're going to be targeted for something like that. You're saying the quiet part out loud. It's not safe to live here. And the sheer number of journalists like Jenzaki, I don't know that she actually said anything like this, but people who work with her who have said, oh, well, I live in the D.C. area. I live in Arlington, but or I live in Virginia or Maryland, but D.C. is totally safe. You live there for a reason, people. Okay, just connect the dots for two seconds. And our past problematic woman of the week,

Reagan Reese said that she even moved to Virginia out of D.C. because of crime. And then crime started happening on the cities very close to D.C. So it's just like, it's a fillover effect for sure. Absolutely. So let's break it down to, and I want to play this clip of Mayor Bouser, Muriel Bowser, the D.C. mayor who can't hide it anymore. We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city. The most significant thing that we are highlighting today is the area of crime that was most

troubling for us in 2023. Now, we have driven it down over the last years, but I'm going to get my glasses so I can make sure I can see it correctly. But for carjackings, the difference between this period, this 20-day period of this federal surge, and last year represents a 87% reduction in carjackings in Washington, D.C. We know that when carjackings go down, when use of gun goes down, when homicide or robbery go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer. So this surge has been important to us for that reason. She can't gaslight us into thinking that, you know, Trump's ending the National Garden and really stepping up since August 7th, security in the District of Columbia hasn't helped.

So we can roll that clip really quick. You've seen the, yeah. So Merrill Bowser herself, the mayor, says that she can't deny. She has to give Trump credit. The carjackings are down 87%. It was so hard for her to get through that sentence, too. Like, when I first watched that, I was like, She doesn't want to be saying any of this, but she,

and she'd never specifically thanked Trump, but it's the implication and not even implication. Like she was like, thank you so much for the extra help. We actually have a really big, steep decline in crime this period compared to this time last year, and I'm like, just say it. Oops, what could possibly have caused that? Not to mention, didn't we have the first chapter in like modern history with no homicides for almost two weeks?

Almost two weeks, no homicides, which the fact that that's even a statistic that we have to try out is absolutely insane. So you've got that. They have arrested eight gang members so far in the past couple of weeks, and they have found four missing children. Wow. That's big. Wow. Which is huge, like reuniting kids with their families. And, I mean, this all started on August 7th. There's been over a thousand arrests.

All these agencies are involved, and it's people are not mad about it. No, absolutely. Actually, in his cabinet meeting this past week, President Trump talked about how there are people he sees on TV. And sometimes when he tells stories, I'm not a thousand percent sure, like, where are you seeing this Trump? But he was like, I see black women on CNN saying, we want Trump. We want Trump in Chicago. And the people of Chicago, other than Governor J.B. Pritzker, like really want a crime crackdown here. And that is one of the things that he mentioned in his marathon cabinet meeting.

Can we talk about this cabinet meeting for just a second? and like a 30,000-in-foot view. This thing was longer than the godfathered the film. It's the longest cabinet meeting in history. Over three hours on, God bless the reporters that had to, like, stand in the room the whole time. I'm about it out myself. Well, probably not really as a theater kid,

but can we just like make these like the cabinet battles in Hamilton where they just wrap it out for three minutes? I love that. I really help me in a push. Secretary Rubio would win. Oh, poor guy. I feel so bad for him. Someone needs to get that man like a permanent caffeine patch

because I just, I can only imagine what it's like to carry the weight of basically half the cabinet as one person, but he's doing great. God bless it. Have you guys seen that kid movie, Meet the Robinson? Yes. With the caffeine patches. I just rewatch that not that long ago. Tearjerker, by the way, if you don't remember. As a grown up, oh my gosh, I was stopping my eyes out holding my baby watching that movie. Anyway, this cabinet meeting was fascinating to me for that reason. I do hope that they expand this program. I really do. And I think it's a controversial thing to say for whatever reason. People around the country are saying that would be such a totalitarian, fascist, authoritarian regime move. Classic talking points for everything that Trump has ever done.

There wasn't a problem, but there is totally a problem. But I look at cities like Denver, I grew up about 30 minutes outside of Denver. Colorado used to be one of the safest places in the country. We literally never locked our door to our house ever. My entire childhood, everyone left their garage doors open all summer. The worst thing that could happen to you was a bear would get into your trash. And that was pretty much it. And now Denver is one of the number one cities in the country for carjackings, for violent crime, for sexual assault, for homicide, for everything. My parents won't even go to Denver anymore, except if they have to go to the airport.

They just refuse to go. And we saw what happened with all of the gangs in Aurora and all of the media cover-up of stuff like that. I think we need a really hard reset button in most of the metropolis areas around the country in Denver and Seattle and Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York. And I would be so curious to see this program repeated over. over and over again. People are criticizing Trump for calling this a national emergency.

But if this isn't a national emergency that people can't go outside of their house, I don't really know what else would classify as one. Yeah, I mean, it's really basic, like Maslow hierarchy of need stuff that we're talking about, basic physical security that you can go outside of your home and not have to be worried that there's a threat to your life. Like this is so simple, so simple. And you have governors like J.B. Pritzker and others, like refusing. What leadership would it show if you're, especially on the

other side of the aisle and you're like okay like we're going to call the sky blue facts are facts we can't deny what they're doing in dc is working and maybe we pick up the phone and call president trump and say hey come help us out we'll take it yeah so i got to give it to muriel bowser dc mayor for kind of conceding that i ever want to give her anything but i ever thought i would say that especially here but i got to give it to her because the opposite is j b pritzker encouraging nonviolent protest if the National Guard is sent there. Actually, our White House correspondent here at The Daily Signal, Elizabeth Mitchell asked Trump about that.

And Trump basically said what you said, he would respect him so much more if he just picked the phone, called him and said, hey, I need help in my city, but instead he's encouraging nonviolent protests. Like, who's going to draw the line there to just helping out constituents? And I would be so mad if I lived in these cities,

Republican or Democrat or apolitical. I would just be like, well, there's a problem. and you're actively working against my safety. Yeah. Well, it's going to be really interesting too, especially coming out of the school, the mass shooting this week. There's always this reaction period, right?

And over decades now, we've seen a slow erosion of our Second Amendment rights, red flag laws, all kinds of sneaky ways that don't really get a lot of coverage in the media other than every town being like, ban guns, gun-free zones. and it's like, D.C. is a gun-free zone. Chicago, gun-free zone.

New York City, gun-free zone. All three of which have some of the highest crime in the entire country. You can't tell me that just straight up abolishing weapons, guns, is solving any problem. Well, I think about even a firestorm story kind of taking social media by storm at the moment

with the picture of that young girl in Scotland holding a knife and an axe in each hand because we don't know the whole story. Some of the information is still coming out, but allegedly because she and her sister were afraid of being sexually assaulted by migrants in Dundee, Scotland, of all places, and didn't feel safe walking out of their home without some level of protecting themselves as 12 and 14-year-old girls. This is happening all over the world. Like there is an evil problem happening in our society, particularly in the West,

far more than there is a problem of what particular weapon is at the problem of the chapter of the century here, right? I mean, the UK has the highest knife crime rates in the entire world, and their violent crime. crime rate is roughly the same as the United States per capita. They love to point the finger and say, oh, guns are so the problem in America. Look at the gun crime rate, gun crime rate, everything, firearms, get rid of firearms. But Europe has its own problems too, and it has its own fair share of wrestling with this concept of evil. And I think this is an interesting moment concurrently with the cleanup of DC happening for people to stop in their tracks to think, okay, what is going to be the solution here? How can we keep as many people safe as possible without violating as many rights as

we possibly can. And make sure we prioritize our humanity again. That's really the part that's been missing about all of this. It all boils down to the weapon or it all boils down to whatever the political talking point of the day is. But how can we see each other in the eyes of all being made in the image of God again? How can we protect the most vulnerable out there? Because there's no 12 year old that should be walking around a huge ax and whatever

you said it was. But also, maybe we should have her on the show. I am just like imagining it right now. I have not seen the picture, but that sounds really cool. Coolest 12 year old ever. Also in this cabinet meeting, something that we've talked about quite a bit is Trump's statements on Chinese student visas. He did quite the turnaround. And in the cabinet meeting, he did mention that they will welcome up to 600,000 Chinese students to be allowed to come into our country and study.

Previously in May, the State Department revoked a bunch of student visas. So, Crystal, I think you're more familiar with this subject than I am. So give us the rundown. Well, it's too soon, frankly, to know exactly. I mean, we experience this with the tariff issue, right? What President Trump does, he is a marketer in chief. He's a negotiator in chief. So a lot of what he says publicly is for use in those negotiations.

We're clearly, the Heritage Foundation has been saying this for several years now. We've issued a landmark paper on it a couple years ago. We are in a new Cold War with China. it's undeniable in so many different ways from the tech angle to the Confucius institutes, these professors that have been caught in, I think it was Michigan, with some bacteria that, like,

poisons crops and things like that. There's no doubt that we are in a cold war with China. But that does not mean that we are not still at the negotiating table with them on a whole host of issues, right? And so I think that this is one angle for the president. We'll see how it plays out. but I think this is one area that he's identified is I can use this as leverage.

Yeah. Like this might work for our negotiations. Yeah, I tend to want to give the president the benefit of the doubt on these things. Of course, I think it's wildly concerning that we are giving 600,000 spots at elite universities away to foreign nationals rather than prioritizing American citizens. And I think people are rightfully confused about that or concerned about that. But I do find it fascinating that the media, particularly the left wing media, is trying to attack him on this saying he's like abandoning his business.

or abandoning conservative values. This isn't a new policy. This has been the status quo for a very, very, very, very long time. We have always given out these foreign student visas, essentially. So they're spinning this as if Trump just, like, invented this as a means to negotiate with China. This was literally the norm last year. So I don't know why everybody's paid to get that way.

And not two, three months ago, they were the ones throwing a fit about revoking these student visas, calling it racist, calling it every name under the sun. Now it's staying the same as what it's always been. and there's always something to complain about. But that's just what I think on this. I do feel confident, though, like if that is the case that we're going to expand Chinese student visas or allow more Chinese students to take part in the American university system, that the State Department under Secretary Rubio, they have done such an excellent job

in figuring out who's overstayed their visas, who's not here with good intentions, things like this, that like if we are to expand that, I feel pretty good that under his leadership, they will have better oversight and more transparency in that. Yeah, I totally agree with that. That man has a great work ethic. We have seen. Save in the country one day and a time. So, yeah, I'm not too worried about this just yet.

Yeah. And that is probably the other, that was just like the biggest piece of news to come out of that cabinet meeting that really shocked me, except for this next thing. But before we get to it, because I know you guys are all on the edge of your seats,

can probably guess what I'm going to say. I just want to say, please follow us Problematic Women on Instagram because we have some exclusive bonus content, some interactive things. You can really sound off and give us your opinions. And also, if you're not watching on video, Problematic Women right now, if you're just listening, great, welcome. Happy to have you here. But please watch us on YouTube Rumble. We have some great outfits on and a great new set. This is actually Isabel's first time in the new set. I know. I love it. It's really cozy and fun. I love it. I love it so much. And maybe we'll get some fall decor when it comes around. I'm really

excited. But please just thank you so much for watching problematic women. And if you want a more consistent daily news rundown, check out Top News & 10 hosted by Tony Kinnett. He also hosted Tony Kinnett Cast all daily signal products. You can pop it on in the morning on your commute, on your walk to work, whatever you do in the morning. Ten minutes, news of the day. Here's what you need to know for today. And a little recap of yesterday's news. It's great. I listen to it. So I walk into work and I actually know what I'm talking about. So thank you, Tony. And we'll have links. to everything I just mentioned in the comments. But first, the biggest news, at least in my opinion, to come out of this cabinet meeting,

not to come out of it, but our previous problematic woman of the week, Reagan Reese, broke the news to the cabinet meeting that Taylor Swift is engaged to Travis Kelsey. This is also, it's like two-ish hours into this. Yeah, she like just interrupted the meeting and said, I'm so sorry. I got to say this. It was hilarious. I was clipping the cabinet meeting and I get a bunch of texts for my sister and I'm just like, I'm swiping them away.

I have to pay attention to this meeting. And I get a call from her. And I'm like, this, I don't know what it is. Maybe she's my nephew's doing something funny. And then she texts me, T Swift Engage, T. Swift Engage. And I was like, SOS. Okay, two thoughts. I was like, oh my gosh, I never thought this would happen.

And second, I just wasted two hours of my life because this is going to totally eclipse anything from this cabinet meeting. And I was right. But I'm so excited. Do you guys ever think she was going to get engaged? I don't know. I guess I hoped for her at some point. I think generally I'm.

pretty tempered on the Swifty media. I like Taylor Swift. I like her music. I used to be a really big fan of her in like middle school and high school. Haven't loved the last few albums as much. My last truly favorite album was 1989. And allegedly, the new album is very much 1989 vibes. So I'm quite excited for it. Same producer, Max Martin.

There you go. Nice. But, you know, I mean, she's probably the most single influential woman on the face of the planet without any hesitation to say that. And of course, I love when somebody at that stature and with that much cultural influence has their happy ending. It gets to inspire so many other people to get married and potentially start families. I'm genuinely so, so happy for her. She seems really settled with who she is, like watching the podcast with her and Travis. We've never seen her interact with the boyfriend ever in

public. So that was new for people. But I think I've seen her more at peace with herself, at peace with her life. She feels gentler and softer and not quite as abrasive lately. She's just like in her happy baking sourdough trad wife era. And I'm genuinely so happy. So, fever. She really is. No, it's so funny because you just use that adjective. It's the same thing that popped in my mind. It's like this softening of this like radical feminist energy where she's like embracing her femininity, embracing this like and their engagement was so traditional. It was beautiful. It was beautiful. It's like this whole thing where it's like we've watched them over the past what year and a half years. Two years. Yeah. And you've just kind of seen this evolution of Taylor Swift into

this woman and not just an angry girl anymore. Exactly. And it's like that I'm here for. And also I'll say this is the closest thing we as Americans will ever get to a royal wedding. True. My mom texted our group chat. I have two sisters, so it's three girls. And she texted our family group chat and said let the royal wedding commence.

And it was really cute actually. This is our royal wedding. And I am here for it. I wonder if it'll be televised. I also wonder who's going to be the maid of honor. That's, there's a lot of memes about Blake lively doing some damage. clean up work now about hopefully getting invited back into the wedding party. But truly, I'm just blown away at this evolution of her.

I think what we last saw in terms of a deep dive into her personal life was the documentary about her that came out a few years ago. And she was very abrasive, very sharp, very rough around the edges. She was very liberal, political oriented, upset at pretty much everything. And that was a totally different person from who I saw on that podcast. So we love a healing moment for any girl, obviously, especially when you've had such a troubled dating history. I think any girl can probably tell you after you've had really bad breakups.

Of course, you're very negative about the world and you don't know who you are. Very jaded. Yeah, and that's been kind of the theme of her last several albums. So I think a marriage album would be a fantastic listen. I hope that's our 13th album from her. And fun little anecdote I was seeing on social media today. People were analyzing the pictures of her getting engaged. And there's a big indent in the curl of her hair right here that looks like where the headphones were sitting from the podcast.

So a lot of fans are speculating. that they invited her to do this podcast to announce her new album. But while they were recording it was when he set up in the backyard and then took her out there to ask her, which is so sweet. And he just seems to me to be a true gentleman

in so many different ways that way. He seems softer too, right? I mean, he used to have a very kind of gangster punk energy earlier about him and now he's in his happy boyfriend era. So there you go. Talking about bread puns with her on the podcast. Actually, yeah, so from that clip where it showed the, well, the picture showed an indent.

someone found the clip in the New Heights episode when she's talking about like oh i love this podcast it brought me everything it's brought me my boyfriend and then Travis and jason kelsey give each other a knowing look oh they knew they knew but yeah they posted about it so beautiful it's a little secret garden wedding and they the caption was very millennial and i loved it they're very true to themselves they said your english teacher and your gym teacher are getting married with a dynamite stick and that stands for like boom TNT

oh I would have never even seen that oh that's good the whole symbolism thing I don't get very deep into the lore because frankly I have way too much going on I don't have the time

you have a child but that's amazing I didn't never think about that that's my little millennial tidbit for the day I love that you learned something new on the show every day apparently the ring was between

seven and ten carrots I don't know what that means but it is is estimated to be between 3.5 and $5 million. Wow. Isn't there like a rule for guys where it's supposed to be like three months of your salary? There's a great episode of the office about that where Michael Scott thinks it's three years

of your salary. This is fantastic. Hey, my boyfriend's watching it is supposed to be three years of your salary. Well, it is also funny and coinciding with the summer I turned pretty in the very sad ring situation there. It's funny to see everyone commenting on Taylor Swift's ring for sure. Oh, my gosh. Those two fandoms are so intertwined.

I saw so many memes about the Jeremiah ring versus the Taylor Swift ring. It was so great. But I do want to get to something that I absolutely loved about this engagement. I was introduced for the first time to Ed Kelsey, Travis Kelsey's dad, because he just like has no media training at all. He's talking about the engagement. I love it. I mean, even his mom just like posted a meme of them as kids. It was a tweet.

It said like these two are getting married. So cute. I love it. It's so relatable too. And for everyone who said that this was a PR stunt, like they're getting engaged now. So take that. But anyway, back to Ed Kelsey. He has been telling the press a lot about this engagement process.

And something that really stood up to me that he said was they share a bond not only in love, but also in their shared values, strong work ethic and future family goals. Let's go. Let's go. And I genuinely, I do not think Taylor Swift is trad. And I think that's totally okay. And a lot of people are trying to be like, oh, her new era is like, she's genuinely a trad wife and whatever. I'm like, it's reminiscent, but it's not really, and that's fine.

She's like a businesswoman, girl, boss, but she, like, married the right person. It is getting married to the right person at the right time in hearing that it's not just, oh, they love each other. But they have strong work ethics, shared values, and a future family goal that they share. That is amazing to hear coming out of the most powerful woman in culture right now. I would argue in the world. Yeah, I'm certainly the most culturally influential woman in the world. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I think there's this rush, especially from conservatives to basically demand that, like, anyone remotely

adjacent to conservatism has to be a conservative. I think we've seen that a lot with Joe Rogan, we've seen that a lot with Elon Musk over the years. Like, no, not everyone has to agree with every single thing that you believe in in order for you to be happy for them or to be positively optimistic about the impact that they're having on culture. Taylor Swift is probably never going to become like a raging conservative. And that's okay. Like that she doesn't have to be by any means. But imagine the impact that she will have on an entire generation of mid-30s millennial women who have constantly been screamed at by every single influence in their life that children are evil and that marriage is evil all of a sudden i mean she's what 35 yeah all of a sudden these 30 to 35 year old

women are probably saying huh if she couldn't have her happy ending maybe i can still have my happy ending and i think that is so powerful absolutely and i love seeing her get her happy ending not with these scrawny very moody artist types even though i love mattie hilly so much, but I think it says something so much about the culture that we have wholeheartedly, with open arms, embraced Travis Kelsey, toxic feminism in human form, as we talked about last week on the podcast. But as we've gotten to know him through Taylor Swift and all the media, we realize that these stereotypes aren't true.

And seeing that she's just getting her happy ending, living a pretty domestic life with this masculine man. Wow. That's a win. It's amazing. All about it. So I guess what do you think? When do you think?

Oh, I've not thought about that. When do you think? I am kind of torn. Part of me is like I think they'll just do it quickly. Yeah, I think I'll get married really fast. It'll be a really intimate thing. They're not going to make a huge deal out of it because I think, to your point, like I think they do want to have kids.

She's 35 and that's not. I mean, I'm 30s too. And it's not like that crazy. But it's like, okay, if you want to have kids, like time to get to work like time to get started taylor yeah the idea of waiting a year for a big wedding or something like that i don't see that happening no i don't see that happening either especially because she literally like cannot go outside right now with the whole world mobbing her i wouldn't necessarily want the most intimate moment of my life to be so publicly shared with everyone and that's what i was

really surprised by with the podcast interview that she did you know she hasn't really been out in public much since the heirs tour and she let people in on the fact that she wants to be in the kitchen baking and gardening and like doing all these things at home quietly away from the public's perception into what she's doing in her life so i could imagine that they might even do an elopement they might be very very into just immediate family i mean there's been a lot of speculation that they were already married yeah very quietly behind the scenes so we never know you never know what someone's really doing in their their personal life before the end of the year interesting i think she'll adopt a kid oh that's interesting too i just

a la Millie Bobby Brown. This is interesting. Yeah, this totally eclips every pop culture thing this week. But can we quickly talk about that? Millie Bobby Brown started Stranger Things when she was, what, 12? I think she's a little bit younger than me. Yeah. And the show is still going on.

And in that time, she is... Stranger Things is still going on. Oh, the final season is about to drop. And we have been waiting for years. I am so upset with how long this is taken. I was the summer before high school when it started. And now I am like a full-grown adult. That's crazy.

And so is Millie Bobby Brown because she dated Jacob Sotorius. I don't know if you guys remember him. But anyway, maybe he's more my age group. He's like a TikTok star. Dated him, broke up with him. So that's fun. Got married to Bon Jovi's son and now has adopted a child. That is crazy to me.

This show's gone for so long. And I'm genuinely so happy for her. Everyone rushed to attack her for that somehow, that she like ruined her life getting married at 21 and then adopting a baby. So I saw so many horrible tweets about that last week with people saying that she basically like bought a child the same way as going into a pet smart and picking out a pet. It was disgusting. Genuinely, tell me you know nothing about the adoption industry without telling me. But it was interesting because generationally when we were quite young, I remember in our parents' generation, it was all the thing for the celebrity women to be adopting children, particularly from overseas.

You saw that with Angelina Jolie and several other celebrities. Now adoption is like evil somehow. and people were suggesting that instead she should have used a surrogate, which is way worse. So I have no idea how people mainstreamed that idea. But that's interesting. You think Taylor Swift might follow suit and adopt a child.

I mean, I feel like you know this. It takes so much of your life. It takes your entire life to carry a child and then have a child. She has this new album coming out. I don't see her dropping this album called Showgirl and then not doing a tour and not doing all this stuff. I don't think she's going to pause her career, which my hot take is I think like Rihanna that was doing

while she was pregnant. Didn't she do the Super Bowl while she was pregnant? She did but still no album. It's been like 10 years. Well this is my hot take. I think Taylor Swift's last album is going to be her 13th album. I think she's going to drop a marriage album and then just be out and be like, all right. She reveals she's pregnant at the Super Bowl halftime show when she's maybe. That was a whole deep floor of the podcast too. But regardless, you know, we talked a lot about a Trump baby boom right after the inauguration because there's so many really powerful policies going into effect nationally that it's going to make it so much easier for people to have families already. That's made a huge difference in my family's life. And we like to joke that we kind of

like started the Trump baby boom, all of us that had babies this spring. But could you imagine a confluence of circumstances where we have great family, pro-family policies being championed in the White House? And then there's a Taylor Swift baby boom that a lot of people are predicting on social media. I think we could totally fix our fertility crisis. Amen. Amen. And that's what we're what I'm seeing. I'm so excited for this. And I guess that can be our question of the week. Do we think Taylor Swift will inspire a marriage and or baby boom after this announcement? I think so. I think everyone who has a boyfriend is looking at their boyfriends with a little bit of a knowing look now. The number of tweets I've seen in the last 24 hours of, I've been dating my boyfriend for five years and maybe I should be evaluating that.

I'm like, yeah, probably. So true. You know what? Yeah. I mean, not like we've been saying that type of stuff on our side for a while. but good for Taylor Swift for inspiring some thought. But last week's question of the week was, of course, New York Times reported that the Democrat Party lost over 2.1 million registered voters since 2020. So the question was, can Democrats save face with their voters and how? We got a number of responses. Thank you guys so much for responding on Instagram, problematic women. A lot of people just said, no, too late.

It's over for them. Dear friend of the podcast, Emma Dayton said, take that mask off, face mask and circus mask. both work and maybe they'll save face. I'm like, you know what? Yeah. So true. Go off. Another person said by cheating again, that's how they'll save face. And America Battelle said, they would need to just stop being delusional and I just don't see that happening. You know, for her sake, I don't see it happening too and that'd be fine with me. But no, I don't know. What do you guys think? Do you think?

Delulu is not the salulu as the kids say. I don't know. I mean, from what I'm seeing, the response to reclaim young men in particular is all about making men embrace more BLM, more communism, more gay policy, more abortion. Pete Buttigieg just went on this whole tirade a couple weeks back on a podcast when they asked him, how should we recapture young men? And literally he was like, make them care about abortion

and LGBTQ issue. And I'm like, dude, you are way, way out of touch with where young men are at. They are running as fast as they can in the opposite direction. I am fascinated by this rebrand of Gavin Newsom. I'm curious to see where this goes. Obviously, if you pay attention for longer than five seconds,

it's just desperation trying to capture the attention of young people. Do you think that liberals actually like the rebrand? I don't know. I think it makes them feel good about themselves because their whole thing is conservatives don't get that we're mocking Trump. And I'm like, I think if you have to explain the joke, it's not funny. Exactly. It's not working.

So I don't know. it's going to take a lot more than they realize to especially recapture the attention of young voters, let alone their entire voter base. They seem to be doing okay with older people protesting all over the country with the no kings protests and the Elon protests and every protest is all like 85 year olds retired who were busted from the retirement communities to a park. Nobody is under the age of 35 at these things. So they have a long way to go if they want to prove themselves to the next generation. I think the like millennials and younger all count us in. we're not counted out yet.

But everyone's just tired of being angry. Yeah. I think we're all trying to do our jobs and our careers and our families and live our lives. The last thing we need to be told what to think, how to think, and that we should be angry about anything and everything. It's like, no. Absolutely. It's not appealing.

I think I've said this so many times in the podcast, but just liberal fatigue. It's real. It's really. I mean, we felt it for our whole lives, basically. But especially now, even last night, I was sitting out on my porch and I hear in the distance, a bunch of people screaming, free, free, free Palestine with like their pots and their pants. And I'm like, okay, can't rock. Like, go off. But it was, I was like, how long are you guys going to be doing this? Because I got to go to bed soon. So I think everyone on the right and the

left, I think Democrats are generally smart, maybe not the ones that we see all the time. But there are people in that party who do know what the solution is. The right knows that the left knows that they just need to be normal. It should be normal. Just be a normal person. But they won't. Don't figure it out. Yeah, I'd be okay if they didn't, frankly. I keep waiting for them to. keep pushing Justin Crockett and Pete to Judge and Gavin Newsom. Yeah, I'm here for Vance 28, 32, Ruby. Yeah, I would pay a lot of money to watch a Vance Newsom debate for president of the United States. That would make me quite happy.

Maybe that should be the Hamilton-style cabinet. There would be fun. There we go. Oh my gosh. Well, Iswell, it's been so much fun having you on the podcast today. And I'm so looking forward to having you back next time. Again, tell our viewers how we can watch your new show with Daywater. Yes, indeed.

Just a couple weeks away. you can find it on all of my existing social media platforms or if you're a subscriber to the Daily Wire, it will live on all of their streaming platforms as well. Can't wait to share all the details with you guys. So excited to get the backstage view of that when it comes out. But yeah, thank you so much. And we had so much fun. And thank you guys so much for hanging out with us today. Be sure to follow us on all of our social so you never miss an episode or bonus content. And we will see you back here next week.