The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - Brianna LaPaglia - How To Leave Toxic Relationships, Find Your Voice, & Build An Unfiltered Career

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

#933: Join us as we sit down with Brianna LaPaglia – aka Brianna Chickenfry – Boston-born creator, podcast host, & one of Barstool Sports' biggest breakout voices. Known for her sharp humor, raw honesty, & completely unfiltered take on life, Brianna's built a loyal following by saying what everyone else is thinking. In this episode, Brianna opens up about her experience on Special Forces, candidly discusses turning down hush money, finding the strength to leave toxic relationships, dives into how she built her career, & what's next for Plan Bri Uncut. To Watch the Show click HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To connect with Brianna LaPaglia click HERE To connect with Lauryn Bosstick click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE Head to our ShopMy page HERE and LTK page HERE to find all of the products mentioned in each episode. Get your burning questions featured on the show! Leave the Him & Her Show a voicemail at [phone]. This episode is sponsored by HERS It's time you get the support that actually reflects your needs. Start your free intake at http://ForHers.com. Produced by Dear Media  

The following podcast is a dear media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her.

If you've ever felt rushed through a doctor's appointment or like your care didn't fully reflect what you're experiencing, this is for you. Hers offers a woman convenient, personalized health care that actually fits real life. You start with a free online medical intake, and, if eligible, get access to treatment plans that go beyond medicine, including lifestyle guidance and ongoing support. They support care across categories like weight management, menopause, and more, all 100% online so you can check in any time. It's healthcare that actually listens. It's time you get the support that actually reflects your needs. Start your free intake form at for hers.com. That's F-O-R-H-E-R-S dot com. Join us today as we sit down with Breonna La Paglia,

aka Brianna Chicken Fry. She is a Boston-born creator, a podcast host, and one of Barstool's biggest breakout voices. You may recognize her through her sharp humor, her raw honesty, and her completely unfiltered take on life. This episode, she is so candid, you guys. We really discuss it all. We talk about friendships, toxic relationships, special forces, and we dive into how she built her career and what's next for her. On that note, let's welcome Brianna to The Him and Her show. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. You don't think I could do special forces or you do? I think anyone can do special forces if you have the mindset for it. And what was the mindset that you had going into it?

Well, I wasn't really prepared for this show at all. I came from my sister's bachelor's at night before. So I flew in was the last to arrive on set. I was hungover. I started my period that day. And you can't obviously smoke or vape on the show. So I quit vaping that day of the show. Started my period was hungover.

didn't train for it. I don't know how I lasted longer than like 20 minutes on the show. So you came up and hungover quitting vaping? That morning. Were you having nicotine with trolls? I don't, I was so emotional. I don't know where to put it because I was starting my period that day was going through nicotine withdrawals because I was vaping since I was like 16. And I was just like so they beat you down. So you don't know where all those emotions are coming from. I had multiple places where they were coming from. And they won't allow you to vape. No. God, no. You can't do it. It's like literal prison. How long is it? If you last the whole entire course, it's 10 days. Okay, so that makes it a little bit more digestible. Yes. 10 days,

I mean, every minute is like being on a treadmill, I'm sure. You would think that 10 days, oh my gosh, quick, it felt like two years. Well, imagine going to a workout for 10 days straight. So what were the points where you almost walked off? There were multiple. I really would say day one, So you watch the show and you think, okay, it's TV, right? Like, you think it has to be a TV show and it's not that intense or it's not that insane and they're going to treat you like, like, quote unquote, celebrities. No. So the first day when you get ripped off of the bus, they pulled me by my hair and like threw me on the ground, stepped on my fingers on the concrete and I'm like, holy shit, I'm getting tortured. Like, this is actually the real deal.

So 10 minutes in, I was like, I don't think I can do this. And I just didn't want to be the first person to quit. So I just kept being like, don't quit, don't quit. Then when we did the plane challenge, I don't know if you guys saw that where they dropped the plane like into the water and it sinks and you have to escape out of it. I'm like, what am I doing? I'm not a Navy SEAL. I was talking about the one where you fell out of the plane. They dropped the helicopter.

Oh, that was day one. They took a plane and dropped it in the water. From a crane from the top of a dam. It was like two, 300 feet, which we had to climb before we got into the plane. dropped the plane from the crane, the plane suburbges and the water sinks, and you have to stay under for 40 seconds while it's emerging. So like your ears, the pressure is going crazy. You have to unbuckle and then escape the plane and then swim to the surface. Let me ask you this, you know, like being in media, like you're as you're vetting different opportunities, different things,

it's like, why and how does this opportunity even come about? You know, when someone's decided like, hmm, let's build this show, how do they land on you and why do you end up saying yes? Yeah, that's a great question that everyone asks me. So my, I don't know how it came across my management's desk, but it did. And he reached out to me, he called me, and he's like, special forces wants you. Obviously, I'm going to pass. I was offended that he was like, obviously, I'm going to pass. I'm like, wait, why obviously you think I can't do it?

He's like, I don't know. I just don't think it's really you. I don't see you making it through the show, which is fair. And I was stubborn. So I was like, I want to do it. No, I want to do this. And then I did it. So when you get dropped in the water and you're suburb, like, are you freaking out?

be freaking out about that. Is it like the rest of development which like, I've made a huge mistake? The whole time, guys, I cried every single day on the show, like sobbed. The whole time, I'm like, I can't do it. I'm that annoying girl. That's just like, I can't do it. I'm crying. And when we got in the plane and it went under, I was like, you can't freak out.

You can't freak out. So Sean Johnson, who was also on the show, she was like, just sing a chorus of your favorite song and just keep singing it and you'll make it through. So I just kept singing, sitting on Doc La CLA Bay by Otis Redding and made it through. Damn. Yeah. Oh my God, though. That's the mindset shit, though. It's the mindset. It's all mental. Granted, is very physical and I was so out of shape. Like, I was throwing up the whole time. But it's more of a mental game. What is it like coming off of that show? Because it's so much adrenaline and so much cortisol. What's the drop like? It was honestly scary. So after you leave the show, whether you leave it the first day, the last day, you sit with a psychiatrist and they basically give you step by step how to put yourself back into the real world. They give you safe words to have with your family members, with your partners, because

you're very on edge and you're triggered by things. So they give you a whole plan on how to go back into society and you speak with the psychiatrists when you're stressed out or you don't know what you're feeling. And they kind of talk you through it. It was crazy. Like it was a roller coaster coming back to the real world. I still, like, I woke up in the middle of the night, like in hot sweats, thinking like, the DS is what we call them, the direct staff or like in my room. Like, I was like, I need to sleep with my boots on. It was crazy. Even after 10 days, you still had this reaction. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, because it's nonstop. So you're filming the whole entire 24 hours each day. You sleep probably like a maximum of four hours a night. And it's just go, go, go, go, go. There's no off. How much money

would someone have to give you to go back and do that again for 10 days? Definitely way more than what I got the first time. Like, I genuinely think I would need like minimum a million dollars to put myself through mentally again. So it's like it sounds like it was the mental part more than the physical. Yeah, they strip you down of all of your just everything. They put you at base level of who you are and you're so vulnerable. They make you do these challenges which they don't show on the show, but you write death letters and you have to read them to everyone in the room. So they'll come in and be like, we have to write death letters when we go on like certain missions. You are going to write death letters to everyone that you love and make them as personal as possible and apologize

for everything that you've ever done or say things that you've ever wanted to say. And then they come in three hours later after we're done writing and they're like, okay, you need to read them aloud to everyone. So you are like the most vulnerable. You're telling these strangers essentially that you met yesterday, all of your deepest darkest secrets, all of your trauma. You're all like in circles crying together. And you think like your mind is like, fuck, I'm actually going to die on this mission. Like, it's crazy. When you are listening to everyone read their stories, what kind of reaction were you having? I'm crier, man. Like, I was just

these stories, these people, they're so inspirational. Christy Rampone, she was the captain of the national team, Olympian soccer player, amazing. She came forward with just a really like gut-wrenching, heartbreaking story about like, just an abusive marriage that she was in.

And it just broke me down. And to see how strong she was, like Sean Johnson and her husband, everyone just had these stories where you would never know all of the trauma and pain that these people are hiding behind their celebrity status. It was cool to make everyone real human people, I think, to the audience as well. That's probably cathartic for everyone involved to write all that out. Oh my gosh, yeah. Yeah, I feel like that would be in a weird, like it's almost like closing a chapter

because you're able to get it out there in front, you guys are filming obviously in front of the world and each other. It was really, I felt like the scariest therapy session of my life, the whole entire show. But it was, it was therapeutic. like shows like this because, you know, like, sometimes you watch reality TV and you can say it's kind of like, in some way, some of it is a little bit scripted, but it sounds like this experience for you guys felt very real when you're in it because of the activities you had to participate in. Like it's not something that you can kind of like pretend about. Yeah, 100%. Well, there's nothing scripted about it only, I mean, they kind of do edits afterwards where they're like changed the, we would do something first, they would put it second. But you don't speak to producers throughout the show.

So you think of other reality shows where you do confessionals or you have time with producers. you're only talking to the teammates and like the staff. It seems like one of the reasons that you're successful as an individual, though, is that you are very raw and candid and yourself. And so that makes sense to me that you would do this show because I think kind of one of the reasons people like you so much is because you do tell it how it is. Yeah, yeah.

Thank you. I tried. And after the show, I didn't realize that I was like that, I guess. That's just how I've always been. And the producers of the show after we're like, I just want to thank you so much for being so real and so raw and so honest. And I'm like, I thought everyone on this show was, but I think I was kind of everyone's big sister in a way,

even though I was younger than a lot of the people. They would come to me to just be like, hey, what do I do? What am I feeling? How do I, like, portray this? Do I leave? Should I stay? And I tried to just be like a listening ear to everyone on the show. So it was really cool.

What has it been like for you to be a normal person and then kind of be thrust into the spotlight. What has that been like for you? Has it been slow? Has it been quick? I think it's been pretty gradual. So it wasn't an overnight thing, which is kind of cool. And I've seen it kind of go up and go down in a lot of different ways.

Like when I was 21 when I first started, I used to do these crazy college party tours. And we would have like five hour lines wrapped around the block. And I'd do these meet and greets and meet all these people for hours. And I feel like that's when I felt the most like on top. kind of as I'm growing with my audience and doing shows like this, it's not so much that like clicky, grabby, we're doing these parties. Like, people will come up to me on the street and, like, sob and tell me how much, like, I've changed their lives or helped them in special forces has given me this crazy new audience of, like, a lot of older people. I think a lot of older people

watch the show. What's older to you? Like 50, 55, like, my parents age. No, no, no, no. And, like, a lot of older men are like, I was in the service and now I didn't really... Oh, all the older men are coming out. Yeah, a lot of older guys, older women. Like, it's really cool to see what projects you tap into and, like, this industry that we're in, what kind of demographics you get. And it's just changed a lot. Are they just congratulating you because they really think it's amazing or do they want

to give you a hug and cop a feel? No, okay. See, there are some creepy guys. There are a lot of creepy guys, but no, a lot of them are like, like, salute to you, like, good job. And I'm like, okay, hell yeah. It's a bag of mixed. It's a mixture.

with old men, there's always a mix. You know that. Why do you think when people come up to you on the street and they're sobbing? What do you think that's from? It's mostly the women. And I think it's like me sharing my story through like going through that traumatic relationship that I went to and like being honest and open. It's just, I feel like I've become an older sister for a lot of people. And they just, they haven't had an outlet or someone that believes them or someone that they can relate to. And especially someone that they look up to being honest about going through the worst time of their life. It like, it helps them a lot. You know, we obviously we do a lot of research on everybody that comes on the show.

And I was trying to figure out, like, we all try to figure out different through lines. And obviously, like, you've discussed your breakup. And it was very public. And we can talk about a little bit, but I feel like you've done it so much. Yeah, of course. Like, one of the through lines that I, in the themes that I think we recognize and you, you feel like someone like when you are determined or when you set your mind on something, like that is the thing.

Yeah. Right. Like getting through the special forces or going through that breakup the way. Have you always been like that? Yeah, I think it was just the way that I grew up. I was basically an only child. I have like three half sisters from my dad's first marriage, but it was just me and my household growing up. My parents both worked like two jobs. So I would walk home from school alone when I was five and like go home and it would just be me. That's crazy because we have a five-year-old and we always say like it's scary to even think that.

Crazy, right? Granted I lived two blocks. I was a city girl growing up. So I grew up like in the city of Boston. But yeah, I was two blocks away from school. I would walk home. and I would just lock the door until my parents got home at like 8 p.m. So I've just always been like I can do anything on my own that's just ingrained in me. And anything that I put my mind to, I realize I can do like with anything. And anyone watching me, I tried to make that my message. Like I'm just a normal person like them. But if I put my mind to it and can do it, so can I.

That show does really nail that message. I think one thing that I really like about you is that you, is that you spoke up against someone who's powerful. Yes. And I think a lot of people are nervous to speak up against a man who is rich and famous and powerful and uses money clearly to control people. Yes.

And to me, I respect that. Thank you. I thought that was a lot of women would have taken the money. Yeah. You know? And I think it's cool that you decided you weren't going to do that and then speak out about it. Was that a decision that you made? Oh, for sure. I mean, it was daunting. Like, it was so hard to make that decision. One, because I knew ultimately I was

going to make the decision I made, but I also knew the repercussions that were going to come with it. I knew the fan base, that was going to attack me. I knew a majority of people wouldn't believe me. I knew I knew what was going to come from it, but I also knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep at night, one, if I took the money. Two, I wouldn't be proud of myself to my future daughter one day to tell her how that went down. And three, I am an example for so many people that watch me, look up to me, and a lot of young women. So in not taking the money, it was just so much bigger than what people make it out to be. And I think the people that want to see through the bullshit know why I didn't take the money and understand it. And the people that are just so like, they just want to misunderstand me.

they want to. They'll never understand and that's okay. But it was a hard decision, but ultimately I always knew I wasn't going to take it. And for context, you know, for our audience that may, I mean, I'm sure many of them are familiar with you, but we're not talking about it. It was $12 million from a very public person, musician. 12.9. Okay. See? And I wanted to, I wanted to, I wanted to, like, kind of correct me. That is not just a lot of money. That is life changing money for anyone. Life changing. Would have changed my life. I would have never. I would have never. I could have quit this job and just been okay and invested and flipped it. I would have been fine, yeah.

How does one get presented with that? Did they like email it over and say, here's a $12.9 million offer for you to shut the fuck up? I mean, essentially, yeah, they send you the NDA with all of the clauses and everything like that, yeah. And so at the moment you get it, are you like no fucking way or did it take a while to wrap your head around it? Well, up until I actually got the physical NDA, there were lots of phone calls, lots of

meetings, lots of lawyers talking to people. So it wasn't just like, you know, here's an NDA sign it. It was like they were coming to a point of what they wanted to present me with. Let me ask you this. After you came out and told this story, did you have so many people in your inbox that are celebrities, supermodels, whatever, being like, oh my God, the same thing happened to me. Oh, my gosh. Every day, every single day I still have a new person. You would be, I mean, as a woman, you wouldn't be shocked that this happens every single day and that women are silenced every single day. But the people that I love and watch some of the people. I'm like, holy shit, this happened to you and you, you just didn't say anything or you just let it happen to you. It's heartbreaking. And I think I opened up a lot of

people's eyes that it's like, you don't have to be silenced. Like, it's okay to speak up. It's crazy how often this happens. Did you know the whole time that this something like this would happen or were you shocked when it happened? Towards the end, I like I started finding out that he, he had done this before. And there was like a lot of just hush money before with not even girlfriends, just like side girls that he would pay off so that he didn't, his current girlfriends didn't find out he was cheating and stuff like that. So I started to piece everything together. But with powerful people like that and not just him, just in general, they have these crazy teams around them that make so much money off of them. They will do anything and everything to cover up anything

like negative that these people do. So it wasn't just, it's not just him, the monster. Like the monster is so much bigger. It's the whole entire system. And it's the people that allow these things to go on. It's the people that support these things, that turn a blind eye to the things. And that also just, they like get away with it as well.

There's not just blood on his hands. It's his whole entire fucking team that knew what he was doing. When you decided to come out and tell your story, what was the pushback that you got from the fans? And did he personally reach out and say, what the fuck are you doing or did he just say quiet? No, he, I mean, I don't even remember the last time we talked. I think I just like kind of stopped answering him because he was crazy.

But it kind of turned into his team, like a team war. So like his team would reach out to me. But his fans are crazy. They still are. Like I get death threats and hate comments every single day from them. And then you go like, I'll get a bad comment. You click their page. They're like at his concert.

I'm like, oh my gosh. Can you just like what did I? I didn't do anything to you. or to him. I was the one that got something done to me. It just doesn't make sense. I'll tell you what you did. You cracked their veneer of him. So they romanticized him as a fan and they put him on a pedestal. And what you did was you knocked him off with a flick of your finger. And that's why they're mad. That's my opinion. I don't know. It feels like they're mad that like they had this like romanticized version of him and you actually told the truth in what was really going on. And I think with

celebrities, people tend to do that. They'll put these people on a pedestal that maybe don't deserve to be there. Yeah. I mean, you see that every day, right? It's kind of like, don't meet your heroes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I mean, by the way, I mean, I've met people that I like love and I meet them and they're even better in person and they exceed your expectations. But there is people, you know, that you'll meet and you're like, whoa. What the fuck? Yeah. Well, I think, you know, when there's an environment that is enabling someone to exhibit bad behavior and then not only like enabling them but rewarding them for it and covering it up. It's like you also the person on the other side of that, not to empathize with him at all, but it's like you lose sight of reality. It's like you're just like operating in a way that is one, not okay, but two, it's just people around you are just cleaning everything up.

And so you think like, oh, this is fine and I can do this. Exactly. And it creates this environment. It's a toxic environment. but then the people around are just as guilty because they've got their hands out in purse string. They're just pulling everything. They're like, don't fuck this up for me. Exactly.

It's all, it's all. The root of all evilness is money. And I've just watched that happen day in and day out. It was so crazy. And not even just with them, just with the people they were in relationships with and the people they did business with. Those people are just so money hungry and they will do anything to get more money. They don't care who they hurt or who they step on.

It's crazy. So why do you think. that you face criticism. I mean, like when I was, I'm obviously just our first interaction and I'm reading your story and I'm looking at all this and we're doing the research. Like, what do you think the pushback is outside of like if he has a crazy fan base? Like in general, what do you think the criticism of you is? Because it sounds like when I read you, it's like very driven, you know, self-sufficient, turned down a lot of money for bad behavior, like building your own thing. Like to me, it was like, this is really inspiring. So what do you think it is? Yeah. I don't know.

I think I am not the perfect victim in a lot of people's eyes, and I don't think anyone is ever the perfect victim. I'm a very outspoken, loud woman. I say it how it is. I don't hold back. I don't try to fit myself in a box. If I don't like you, I make it known. If I don't like someone doing something, I'm loud about it. And I think people just don't take that the right way or don't like that, which is okay. Everyone can have their own opinions. But I think people use that against me. And they're like, oh, well, she's not perfect. She said this. She did that. She's lying. She's the worst. I don't know. It's crazy. I think when you do this job, you guys know, I'm sure. You open yourself up to speculation and to just anything, really. So I don't know. It's crazy to see how things shift because one day, like, you're God for doing this and everyone commends you. And then the next day, it's like, okay, we're building this person up too much. Let's tear them down. You kind of see it with everyone on social media. They get this big build. And then it's like, okay, they're too high. Let's all turn. on them. You're so right. It happens every day. It's crazy. It happens all the time. Michael and I were talking about the someone we saw go really high and then people just want to tear them down if you get a little too high. Yes. If you get a little too drunk off your own supply. It's very interesting. You're right. It's very formulaic. Well people, you know, like there's that old saying, like everyone wants you to do well until you're doing better than them. Yes. Right. And it's like we root for people on the climb, but we root even harder for people on the decline. Right. Like, and, you know, and, you know, it's

You know, I think that's mostly a reflection of the person who's excited about that. Like, Lorna and I are older than you. And we've been around for a little while. And we've seen a lot of people up and down, and even us, up and down. But there's this thing, especially these days on the internet, where people are happy for you to a point. Yes. And then there's words like, unrelatable or unattainable.

Or they're like, well, you know, all you can really do in this is live how you want to live and try to create a productive life. but you can't satisfy everybody on every corner of the internet. It's impossible. No, you can't. And isn't it so crazy with like the unrelatable stuff? They want you to, like, get, they want you to get famous. They want you to get all these brand deals. They want you to do all these things. And it's like, with that comes with money or like new things, shiny cars and things like that. And it's like, you're not relatable anymore. But it's like, fuck, guys, you got me here. I don't know what to do. Do you want me to just sit in what I was or build on what I'm making?

It's such a weird, like paradoxical thing. When you get comments now that are negative, does it even bother you or you're so used to? Oh, gosh, no. No. It never did, though. Like, with positive or negative, it never bothers me. As long as people are commenting, I think, like, that's the point of the internet. You just need conversation, discourse, and I love the people that support me.

But I don't hold any value in positive or negative feedback because the people don't know you. Like, if I held value in the negative, then I would, or in the positive, I would have to hold value in the negative. And these people don't know you. Do you even read through it? No, I will read. When I first post my videos, I'll read comments because I like to reply to people that, like, support me. But other than that, once it, like, goes up, I don't check it the next day or anything. I think that's a healthy relationship with the phone.

Yeah. How have you managed to do that with everything you've got going on and being so front-facing? I think it's just a boundary for yourself. If you sit there and spiral and read too much or, like, see what people are saying about you, start to warp the way that you present yourself. And it's like, holy shit, am I even doing this for me? or am I trying to be this version of myself that people want to see? And I always see that I fail when I do that.

When I try to like turn myself into what people want me to be, people can tell that you're not being authentic. So I just kind of post. I'm like a post and get off my phone type of girl. I love that. Yeah. Post and get off my phone. Yeah.

When I got pregnant, I clicked on TikTok, like right when I got pregnant. Which time? The third time. Oh my gosh. Wait, you guys have three babies? Three kids. Oh my gosh. I know. It's a madhouse. That's awesome. It's a madhouse. You guys look so like young and perfect, though.

Thanks. Three babies. End the show. That's crazy. I'll take it. I'll take it. But with my third baby, I clicked on TikTok like the week after I got pregnant. And I swear to God, the baby like intuitively was telling me no. Like don't click on that. Oh my gosh. And so for the whole pregnancy, I decided I'm not clicking on it once. I didn't click on it once. I had, I sent my team what I wanted to post and they would post it with my caption. And I would, I just didn't go on it. Well, yeah, the doom scrolling gets bad.

I just, I just, there's something about it that I just, I don't know. It didn't sit right. Anyway, after I had the baby, I didn't want to go back on it. Like there was just something in me that was like, you know what? I don't have to allow this access to me. I don't have to allow me getting sucked in a vortex. I just don't want to do it. And I still haven't gone on it.

We broke the, it's an addiction. That's what it is. we don't realize that we're actually addicted to it. So you not going on it while you're pregnant. It's like you lost the addiction. You're not addicted to it anymore. It's so weird. Yeah. It's the frequency of it pregnant. It just, it doesn't mix. I don't, I can't explain it. You just feel like you're, you're pregnant. You're happy. You're, you're hormonal, you're all these different things. And the TikTok frequency doesn't match. That should be a telltale sign. That TikTok's toxic. The pregnant lady said no. The pregnant lady said no.

Brinket ladies right. It's a bummer because like early days of social media and the internet, you would mostly only have interactions with like positive people, right? And now, and you know, it's because of the way these algorithms exist, like sometimes you have people that I guess are invited to the party or see the party, I'm just using like the post, that really like aren't there for the right reasons or aren't happy and don't even know who you are, but they just want to say something to tear you down. Yeah, the hate trains.

It's hard because in the early days of this, we used to interact and look at everything and now we do a lot less of that. Not that we don't want to talk to people, but it's just, it's too hard. I feel like today on social media, people's relationship are based off of hating the same things. Like, if they hate the same things, they feel like their besties in a comment section, and it's like a common denominator. I haven't opened up a comment section on TikTok on anyone's videos, and it's been positive in so long. I'm like, what are we doing? And hate to be brought together on hate.

If you really think about what you just said, if you're gathered around hate, hate, and hate group think, I would examine that because you're inviting that into your world. That's your energy that you give off every day. That's who you are in life. If you're doing that, if you're involved in a hate forum or a discord or a Reddit page of all hate, like think about that. You are doing something based off of hatred. That is such an evil, vile thing. It's wild. I also think that you have a thermometer of energy every single day. and if you're wasting that on hate, it's taking away from things

that could be really productive and positive. You have been transparent about cosmetic procedures. Yes, I have. So have I, who cares? Like, I'm very, I feel like this since I started the internet. It's like, what's the big deal? Is there anything that you've been curious about our audience wants to know or considering next?

Oh, I have been curious about the fact that all of my skinny friends, get liposuction. And I am like, wait, what the hell? Everyone gets lipo. I can't believe it. I can't believe. I can't believe. Agreed with you.

And like actually there's a doctor that's amazing that just works on thin people. Skinny lipo. Yeah. Is it the guy in New York? Yes. Dr. Nystead? Yes. I get my Botox at a nurse Tara at his office.

And he was like, yeah, you're the perfect candidate. I'm like, one offended. We text each other. We are in a book club together. It's just me and I call him Dr. Nynstein. What did you just call him? Maybe I called him the wrong name, Ninstein. Okay, I said Ninstein.

I'm thinking Casey Nystad. I'm thinking, but it is Dr. Ninstein. It is, yes. So we're in a book club and we text books recommendations back. He just texts me Lionel Richie's book. Michael and Michael goes, wow, Lionel Richie's book. And I said, yeah. So are you actually going to read it?

I mean, listen, I love Lionel Richie, but I saw it on the side. I was going to read it. Okay. I'm excited for you to read it. That is who I'm talking about. Yes. He does he, he's a friend. and he was telling me how most of the people that he works on are thin.

Yes. That just, it's shocking to me. I think more people need to talk about that because that is where the unrealistic beauty standards really come in, where it's like these skinny girls are so skinny. They look perfect. And it's like they're built like that. They work out. But no, they actually got LIPO.

I think it's like they want to shape a certain way. Yeah. And so what I've realized is everyone's pulling out every bag of tricks. So it doesn't matter what you look like, how thin you are, how this. you are how that you are like everyone's figuring something out whether it's Botox or filler or lipo or body sculpting Michael are you still with us I'm so with you no I'm so with you everyone's like everyone's doing something we had Dr. Dubrow and Terry Debrough and Heather Debrough on the show literally the episodes out today and they were talking all about these different

kinds of procedures that people are doing not doing what to do what not to do they were talking about was it the Forever 35 face what is that like a facelift or something it's like a lower facelift and like a little neck pinch back. Oh my gosh. So when do you get it when you're 35? Well, what they're saying is that essentially like he was saying as a surgeon who's done a lot of this stuff, like you have to be careful because you're like freezing yourself in time. Oh. But who doesn't want to do that? Well, it's, it depends like, you know, like if you have the 35 face, but you're like 65, it just looks a little like alienish. Yeah, you don't want to look like funky. You know? Yeah. You can always see that with some facelifts where it's like your lips or like you look scary.

lips are a scary thing. Yeah, you have to be careful. You have to go the right doctor. He was telling me, like, men are doing these things, but then they look like kind of crazy and feminine. Oh, okay. Wait, have you guys seen that Bradley Cooper looking different recently? I feel like maybe there's like Levine situations happening. Yeah. I'm like, what the hell is going on? Everyone like looks a little like tucked and different. Like, when did they have time for this? I'm actually 72. Oh, perfect. Forever 35. You know what one of the tricks is is change your hair color. Oh, to distract. Uh-huh. There's been a lot of changing hair colors with lots of different things. That's smart.

I mean, it's like a little subtle distraction. Like, no, I got new weave. So if you see me with bright blonde hair, you'll know that maybe I had a little nip tuck. I love that. You used to have bright platinum blonde hair and then you change your hair. Yeah, but I didn't get anything done then. I hate to break it to everyone. But you never know.

I'm not hating on anything. No. What procedure have you come out with that you've shared with the audience? So I, everything I've ever done. I knew once I had a little bit of money, I always wanted a breast augmentation and then a nose job. Okay. Yeah. So, I mean, like, it's not like you're, I mean, it's not like.

It's not too crazy. It's like, no. I always knew I wanted that. Like I broke my nose in high school. It was awful. My nose was like crooked, couldn't breathe. Always knew I was getting a no job. And I always was like, hey, guys, follow me so I can get a nose job.

Like, I was very honest about it. Does it hurt? The nose job? No. No. No. No. No, I didn't even bruise. No.

What was harder that are special forces? Special forces. I would get 14 more nose drops before I went through special forces. Weren't you worried about your new nose in special forces? Wait, so funny. So there was an episode where we have to fist fight each other. And Gia and Teresa both have nose jobs as well. Okay.

And they're like, I can't fight. I have a nose job. I can't do this. Like I'm so scared I'm going to break my nose. I, for some reason, I just go in the zone and I forget about it. But I was like, no one's going to hit my nose. nose. I'm going to hit their nose. But they were so scared about it. And I think that might be half the reason Teresa might have tapped out. You know that feeling when something just feels off

with your body, but you finally bring it up at your annual, the doctor seems rushed, or you're told everything's fine because the numbers say so, even though you know something isn't right. I've been there and it's honestly frustrating. Traditional healthcare doesn't always leave room for context, follow-up, or real conversations. Life is busy. Appointments are hard to schedule, and sometimes it feels like you're left to figure out things on your own. That's why I'm excited to partner with hers. They're rethinking health care for women by offering health care that's convenient, supportive, and actually built around your real needs. With hers, you can get a clear picture of your health through holistic lab testing if prescribed, personalized treatment plans that go

beyond medication with lifestyle guidance and ongoing support for things like weight management, menopause, and more, all completely online. Hers is about listening, supporting, and meeting women where they are. It's not just healthcare, it's care designed for her. It's time you get the support that actually reflects your needs. Start your free intake at forhers.com. That's F-O-R-H-H-E-R-S.com. for hers.com. I would be very scared if I had a brand new nose. I wouldn't want anyone coming near it. Oh my God, no, that's terrifying.

I was like, Gia, just keep your hands in front of your face. No, you don't want to mess with the nose. If there's women who are listening that feel stuck in a toxic relationship and they're afraid to speak up, and I feel like you're the perfect person to ask this, what do you want them to know? Okay, so if you're afraid to speak up in the sense of say it out loud to yourself, you need to ask yourself, what position am I going to be in in 10 years from now? That's what I kept asking myself.

I'm like, this hasn't gotten better. It's only been getting worse. I am miserable. I don't recognize myself. Look in the mirror and ask yourself, will I be happy in 10 years? Do I have the potential to be happy without this person? I think a lot of people get stuck and scared because they think without them, there'll be nothing and they can't find happiness again.

You have to remember you are a person, a whole entire human being with a life, and love before you even knew this partner existed, you can always return back to who you were because you were that person first. If you stay with this person, you're never going to get her back. So I think it's really important to remember before this toxic relationship, you were a whole being on your own. And you're not, I think with toxicity and like trauma bonding in relationships, you feel like you become one and you can't live without that person. You have to, it's a choice. You have to wake up and remind yourself that you were someone. before them and you can be someone after them. I think that's really important. When you say trauma

bonding, what does that mean to you? So with, at least in a narcissistic relationship, like abusive relationship with a narcissist, it's a cycle that they put you through where they will build you up and they'll make you the best thing in the world and then they'll break you down and then they're the only person that's there to comfort you because they isolate you. They don't allow you to talk to your family, to your friends. And then you're you're needing their love back, you're craving it. So you'll get, you'll get into a blowout fight with them because of something they did, but they don't want to hear why you're upset. They will be the person that breaks you down, but then they're also the person to comfort you. So you're trauma bonded with them

as if they're the only person that can help you because narcissists do this thing where they isolate you where you can't talk to your friends, you can't tell your family about it. And it genuinely does feel like, oh my gosh, that's my only source of anything. Like, that's all I have. If this power sources cut off. I'm nothing. It's just so not true, but I can't express, like, if you haven't experienced it, it might be hard to understand, but I can't express, like, anyone listening to this how much I understand how stuck you feel, but I want you to know you can get out of it. It takes like dedication. I felt like I was going back to school when I was trying to get better from it. Like, you have to teach yourself, and you have to learn and you have to put in the work.

It almost sounds like Stockholm syndrome. It is exactly like that. Like, isn't there also something where, like, the kid now? someone gets kidnapped and the person falls in love with the kidnapper almost because they that's what they do I think they like build you up it's like Stockholm syndrome yeah yeah they build you up and then they tear you down and then they've isolated you so there's no one that like you said can comfort them it's your only source yeah it's your only source I mean for you to be able to look back though and see that is is incredible was that therapy or just I think it was a mixture of both I I And I also think people tend to forget, I'm only one year out of this.

Like, it's just been a year, I think, yesterday. So it takes, I think, a lot more time than a year. But I'm, I think I was so checked out probably before it happened that I kind of had time to realize what was going on. So maybe it's been like a year and a half for me, technically. It does take therapy. And it takes like, you have to be so patient and give yourself grace because it's not a linear thing where I still struggle. I still have the C-P-T-S-D from it. So it's not like an overnight, oh, my gosh, I'm better.

And I think the reality of realizing you're never going to be exactly the person you were before it happened is a big, like, stepping stone. You kind of have to accept that. You're not going to be exactly the same person after going through trauma like that. That was a hard pill for me to swallow. But once I accepted that, I think I came out on the other side better for it. What was your epiphany to, like, you were done? I think that my family and my friends,

didn't recognize me anymore. It's heartbreaking to like walk into a room with your family and friends and they're on edge or they don't know how to talk to you anymore. They don't know like what's going on. They're scared. They're walking on eggshells with you. And in what way do they not recognize you is like the way that you were speaking, the way you were presenting yourself? Yeah. So I used to be very, well, I am again, thank God, but I would walk into a room the loud, not the loudest, but I'm just like outgoing. I want to talk to everyone. I'm happy. I'm asking questions. I'm very inquisitive. And throughout that relationship, I was kind of put in a corner told not to speak. I was told when I was allowed to talk and like things I was allowed to do and who I was

supposed to be because if I upset this person, I knew what was going to happen. So that translated into my friendships where, or with my family, I would go sit down and have conversations and I would just be like, I was just shell of a human. So they were like, where's Brianna? Like I don't understand where this happy, go lucky girl as you're saying that this relationship is perfect, but you're You can't even like look me in my eyes or have a, like I wouldn't make jokes anymore. I wouldn't ask questions. I would just kind of sit there and speak when spoken to. We were talking to Mel Robbins the other day and she was talking about relationships in general.

And she says, you know it's not your person and maybe the wrong relationship. If your life gets smaller, meaning like less interactions with friends, less interactions with family, it all becomes about that one person. She's like, that's a good indicator for anyone if they're wondering if they're in the right relationship with the right person. Yeah. Like your life should get bigger with the right person. She was saying that you should have more hobbies. You should have more family. you should have the person should bring more abundance into your life. It shouldn't be scarcity.

Like for example, Lauren, we've been married a long time, but in our world, it's like her family became my family, my family became her family, like grandparents, all of that. But just saying the way that you know that it's the opposite is if everything, if you become isolated away, that's just like an indicator for anyone that's listening or watching to know that like it might not be the right fit. Yes, 100%. And I think it's hard to see it while you're in it. Like you don't really realize it's happening. And in the beginning, you're like love bombed or blinded by it. And that's so true. If your life is getting smaller, it's like, damn, this probably isn't correct.

Well, a lot of time those individuals men and women have their own faults and they are worried that other people around you that have your best interests are going to see those faults. So they remove that opportunity for those people to either see you or see them for who they are. Yeah, that's exactly what happened. How did you know you were dealing with a narcissist? Because this is the thing. This is my opinion. I think everyone has narcissistic tendencies. I think some are, it's a spectrum, right?

Some are strong, some are not. Yeah. But then there's an actual real narcissist. How did you know you were dealing with like a real full blown? I mean, if you just spent one day with this guy, you guys would be like, or 10 minutes, you'd be like, okay. Oh, it's that quick. Yes. Everyone in his life knows it.

Even his people closest to him, like that would be the conversations with me. It's like he's a narcissist. But I, I am. It's hard and it's different. This is why I don't really talk about him in the aspect of telling the things because he is this like superstar. And when you're dating someone that's a superstar, you're like, okay, maybe they are allowed to have those feelings or think they're better than people because are they?

Like he would make me think he is because he like sells out stadiums or whatever. But like it was just a normal day tendency. The way that you talk about people and the way that you think you're better than everyone around you, I was like, oh my gosh, okay, this is crazy. But I didn't like really know exactly who I was dealing with until after speaking with a therapist that like specializes in narcissistic abuse. I was like, oh, fuck. I didn't even. I just thought this was the worst guy ever. I didn't know there was like a type for it, you know. If someone's listening and they think they could be in a relationship with a narcissist, what are the signs that the therapist told you? I would so, I think what I kind of talked about in the beginning is this cycle of where they minimize things and they isolate you. So they build you up and they break you down. And then they isolate you where you're their only, like they are your only source. That's where I was like, oh my gosh. And if that is a pattern that happens every day or every week, that's who you're dealing with. And it's, you're just a like a supply for them. You're not, they don't actually have any real feelings towards you. It's just what they get their supply off of you. So I would really recommend reading books about narcissistic abuse. There's one by Linda Hill, which is amazing. And there's four books in one. I think that book like saved my life. We've done episodes with psychiatrists and doctors that do nothing but starting narcissism on this show. I'm sure if people search narcissism in this show, you'll see them, and then talk to Dr. Drew and all sorts of different people.

And they say with that particular psychological issue, there is nothing you can do about it. Meaning like, nothing. No, they said there's nothing you can do except put them on stage. Yeah, but you as a person, but I'm saying like, if you're at Thanksgiving and you're with a narcissist, put them on stage. So, oh my God, that was so great what you did. That's the only way to refuse. If you're going to have an interaction. But for people that may think they're with a narcissist and they want to change them,

there's nothing. There's no changing. There's no change. Yeah. And that's what these doctors and they said it's the one kind of like psychological issue that it's a childhood thing and you're born with it and then something triggers it. And you literally can do nothing to change that person. And they can't recognize it either.

Yeah. And it sounds so, that sounds so scary and negative if you are, if you are with a narcissist. but to me that is like that was my silver lining because I kept being told that and I'm like, holy shit, that's awesome. That means that I am escaping this that would be forever. Like if you are truly with a real narcissist, exactly that you can never change them. They will never recognize it. You will be in constant hell for the rest of your life. So that's the silver lining of like, holy shit, my life will get better because they will always be this way and they'll always be stuck in those ways. I can get out of it and I can fix myself. They can't. I don't care how big your dick is,

how famous you are, how much is in your account. If you're a narcissist, it sounds like to run. Yeah, run. They just break you. And you lose yourself. And like, I'm so lucky that the positions I'm in and like, I have family, I have friends. I'm financially stable. Like, a lot of people aren't.

And like, just get out as soon as you can because the longer you stay, it's like, you're genuinely fucked. How cathartic, if at all, was it having a public platform while you were going through this? Because obviously, like, you have your own show that you do with your own show, friends and you've got your own show. Do you think that was a good thing or a bad thing when it was going on to be to have a public platform? I don't know. I think I mean, I think it was really hard because it was the darkest time of my life and I had to go through it publicly and then it was scrutinized. So I just don't think people really kind of understand the weight and gravity if they haven't gone through it of what I was going through and then to have people like dog piling on top of me.

So I think in that sense, it was a lot harder than it should have been, but also it was a little cathartic in the sense that I found this whole, like, group of people that understood what I was going through that related to me. And it was therapeutic to share my stories with people and to hear their stories. So I think there, it was a 50-50 split. When you had two male co-host, obviously Dave and Joshua, like, from what I saw, very supportive of you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They were very supportive.

It's also hard because I don't think they kind of really truly understood what happened. I think they just hated him because they knew that he hurt me. But, you know, they weren't really people that I could sit down and like, you know, shoot the shit with and kind of like have a therapy session with. They're just like, I love you, I'll support you. I think saying it out loud, I got all these new people that understood where I could talk to them about it. Guys are very solution oriented. They want to give you the solution. It's sometimes hard.

They can't sometimes listen. without like giving their opinion and how to fix it, I've really realized that. Sometimes I just, what did you say? Sorry. Sometimes it's like just like listening is like really powerful. Yes, yes. You know, it is a very powerful thing. Everyone on the internet when we researched you is obsessed with your friendship breakup.

Yeah, it's so annoying. What's going on with the friendship breakup? Why are you everyone obsessed with my breakups? I don't even want to talk about them. They do. And they're like, she won't shut up about it. Explain to me and Michael because this one I might need you to explain. Because I'm going to be honest with you.

I get very, I'm lost. Yeah. I'm lost. As a man, I'm like, I don't know. What is? It's so, like, I think personally, like, I just think there's different seasons sometimes for friendships. Agreed.

And I'm sure people are going to see this having no context of even who the hell we are. And they're going to be like mad at us for even talk. Because I don't even understand what's going on. So you guys were doing a podcast together and you don't do a podcast together anymore? Yes, no, but that's like we ended that together. We came, we ended that podcast. So it was mutual. Yes, yes.

And that was like always public and known. So I don't know what this whole like, they'd all went up in arms after my breakup with the other thing. But I've talked about it on Planned Brie, my podcast where it's like some people aren't meant to be in your life forever. They serve their purposes as I served my purpose in her life. She's served a purpose in my life. we're not friends anymore. People go through this every single day. Mine was just under a microscope and people became really fixated on it without knowing anything that happened. I totally agree with you. I think

what I've realized is sometimes you evolve and the other person evolves and it's not the same way. Yeah, it's just not that one person's better than the other. It's just you evolve in different directions. This fact that you have to be, not fact, this idea that you have to be, friends with someone forever. That's not realistic. I mean, there's different seasons. There's different, I mean, I have friends that I've been friends with forever, but then there's other friends I haven't been friends with forever. You change. And I feel like that there's an, it's interesting how people feel like they need to hold you to a stake because relationships break up too. You get divorced. I mean, it's kind of part of life. I know. And I, that's why I shared what happened because I was

being like I always am honest and vulnerable and truthful and what had happened. And it's like, damn, sometimes you are honest and open and people throw it back in your face. I think it sounds like people just really wanted to like see your friendship transpire on social. Like it sounds like they wanted. Yeah. Like what? You want us to get fucking married? Like I don't know. It's just so crazy. I'm like, why is you hold so much value in something that you don't know half of? Okay. So that's the, that's the juice, you guys. Friendships evolve. and they go in different directions. Sometimes it doesn't work out for the gals.

Also, I think it's great, too. You don't have to, like, share every speck of drama that's ever happened. Exactly, yeah. I mean, it's not high school. This is where men and women are different, and I get shit for saying this, but like, guys don't give a shit.

It'd be like, one day with a guy, unless you're not, nobody, they're like, oh, it's just like, it's over. Yeah, guys are easy to be friends with, because there isn't. But sometimes, like, there's a little different. Again, we were researching, and it reminds you know that meme with Charlie Day, from it's always sunny in Philadelphia, he's got the diagrams and all that stuff. It's just like,

it's just not that deep. I actually think it's respectful of both of you that you guys haven't laid the cadaver on the table and dissected every last organ. Yeah, I'm like, I'm just truly not going to because it's not worth it one, two. That was like a very important, beautiful friendship and relationship in my life that I'm not going to just go ahead and tell you every single detail about it because it just doesn't matter. There is sometimes people just want to have some private moments. Well, I've learned. I need to keep some things for myself, so I'm going to do that with that. Wait until you have kids. It's like you really have to think about how you want them to show up in this weird world that we're living in. Like some parents have their kids in the bathtub on social media.

And some parents show their kids being potty trained on social media. You have to like really think about how you want to present certain things. Like there are some things that are private. For me, at least. I have a question for you guys. Since having children, do you ever change the way that you show up on your shows? And like, do you want to be seen a different way by them when they get older? Like, do you think about that in the back of your head? I am 100% myself. What you see is what you get. But it's not a whole hundred percent of myself. So this is who I am, but you're not going to get the whole, I mean, there's 50, there's, I'd say there's 60, 50 percent that's private. But if we're being super honest, like last time we were at dinner

and I was saying like, we're always, like, it is, like, one, we've done it for so long. It's like, you kind of have to just be yourself. Yeah. But as it relates to our children, it's less about, like, how do we look for them? Like, we are what we are. They're going to make their own deductions about that as they get older. But I'm very protective of what we share about them personally. Even, like, when she posts them, I said, I mean, like, I would be completely fine to never show our children.

Yeah. And I know from, like a... I post, I would say I post, just to give you context, 3% of my children. That's how much of, like, I'll put, it's like a, you know the salt bay? Yeah. It's like a spec of salt. And also it's like an actor on a stage. They're like an extra.

Well, I'll relate to this as somebody who creates content. There's what I deem to be engagement farming, right? There's certain things and behaviors that you can do as a creator to go viral, to exponentially grow, to create greater monetization opportunities for yourself. For a couple, you could take pretty pay. pictures holding hands and kissing and do that like lovey-dovey stuff all the time. It works. It tugs at people's heartstrings. They relate to it. They want it. It does well. You could show your family swinging around in a park and how do you and it'll do well. If I was consulting someone,

if you just wanted to make a living online to make money, like great tactics. You could politically go extreme left or extreme right and you will get a ton of pickup and a ton of virality. Again, I think Lauren and I are very conscious of like not engagement farming. Yeah. If that makes sense. There's there's things we could do even with you on this. show that I know would be viral moments, but I just, I just think that it's lazy and also sometimes out of integrity. Does that make sense? I'm not, I'm not passing shade on people. I really don't, but for us, like, it's just, it's not how we are. Like, listen, we love each other. We've been together for a very long time, but we're not skipping around on the beach, holding hands.

Of course, yeah. Yeah, you can almost, I mean, I think because we are in this industry and we know those things, we can see right through it, but a lot of people just eat that shit right now. Yeah, I mean, and listen, I get it. Like, you know, there's a huge, we're, we're, we're you have children, there are a ton of brands and a ton of businesses that will pay you exorbitant amounts of money if you have a platform, as we all do, to showcase them. That I'm not comfortable with, right? It's like, we signed up for this. We kind of do this, but I don't think it's, and then you'll have part of the audience or some people that say like, hey, we support you. We want and are sometimes entitled to see that. And it's like, you've got to put a boundary up.

You know what I mean? You don't have to, but at least that's how we think about it. I also think If I ever do an ad, like let's say I do an ad for like laundry detergent. And they're like, put the kids in it. I'm like, no, pay them. Yeah. Pay them. Honestly. No.

Yeah. No way. But it goes back to. No, no, no. Again, though, like what I told you earlier and I mean this, like what I really respect about you and your story is you have integrity and values, it sounds like. Like a lot of people would have never passed on that money or made those decisions. And I think, you know, it would have been a real.

easy way to get a lot of money really quickly, but it would take you out of your values and out of integrity. So, that's how we think about it. Yeah, I give that to my parents. I think I was just, I have beautiful, great parents that raised me the right way. So, okay for that. Seems like you're raising your kids the same way. We're trying. We're trying. Some little badass kids coming out of you. Yeah, we're trying. We're trying to raise them with intention. Barstool. Barstool. Give us the behind the scenes at Barstool. Like, what's, okay. Give us the, your day to day, like, how, what? What is your, how do you engage there? Are you always there?

Are you there only to record? Yeah. So with me and Barstool, I've had a weird, I would say kind of different upbringing at Barstool in the sense that I came in pretty hot and I just like did all of these tours. So I didn't spend much of the time in the office. I think I don't go in that much. I go into record. I do my thing.

I'm not really involved in the sports of Barstool. I'm not really involved in like the camaraderie with the guys or any. anything like that, I kind of just do my thing and I'm my own sector of Barstool. So yeah, I think a lot of people have different experiences at Barstool. I think I have a different experience than you would say like Chicks in the Office does or Rhone has. I kind of just do my own thing. So you come in with your briefcase and you leave with it? Yeah, pretty much. So you're professional. Yeah, I just come in, do it after do, and then leave. What's the best advice that Dave's ever given you? I think in the beginning, I don't know if he directly gave it to me, but this is what he is.

instills at everyone at Barstool, and I think this is why I was successful at Barstool. When you come in, no one, like, holds your hand or tells you what to do. They're just there strictly for resources. So when I came in, I was so confused. Like, you think you show up to this media company, and they're going to tell you, like, what to do. Welcome to the job. I walked in. They're like, yeah, pick a desk. Yeah, try to make it work. I'm like, wait, what? Like, I don't have anything to do. So his rule at Barstool always is, if you want it, get it done. Just do it. So you, you started there coming in as an employee. Yeah, yeah. I think I got hired 2020. I was in college when I got found by Barstool, and I think I had 100,000 followers on TikTok, and they picked me up.

I was doing full-time, bar school, full-time college student. And then it got to a point where I was like, I need to put all of my energy into school or I need to put all of my energy into this career. So senior year of college, I dropped out, packed up a U-Haul by myself and drove to New York City. lived in a shit apartment and then just like kind of grinded it out with the college tour thing. I was like, I've got to make something work. I got a folding table. I ordered a $100 banner off of some random sketchy website and was like, I'm going to go to schools and like meet my demographics, sell my merch, whatever, turned into something way bigger than I could have ever imagined. We were doing crazy tours. We were on the road all year. We had a tour bus. We were selling like crazy amount of merch.

Parties were insane. And yeah, it was just like if you show up every day and do it and ask, hey, can I have a cameraman? I need this. I want to do that. Dave gives it to you. And if you show signs of success, then he keeps funneling money into you, which is like kind of how Barr still works. You got to prove that it's working and he'll support you. That's cool. I love that you dropped out of college. Yeah. I think it's, listen, if I, when I was in college, had had an opportunity like that. And when I was in college, it wasn't how it is now with entrepreneurs. I would have taken it in a heartbeat. And I can totally understand why you would drop out of college. There are legitimate companies now that are starting to hire kids out of high school because a lot of those schools, or not those schools, a lot of those companies now do not see a lot of the value in some of these colleges and some of the things they're teaching.

Everyone goes to college now. Like it's a normal thing. Everyone goes to college. So it's not this crazy thing. Whereas like 40 years ago was like, no, they have a college degree. This is going to be great. this is going to work, everyone goes to college. It's not something special or extraordinary anymore. So I think it, I mean, it's not a scam to say, but it's also not necessary in the means that it used

to be to go to college and be successful. I felt like college for me was an opportunity for me to find out what I didn't like. Yeah. Like I realized through college that I didn't want to be doing things like college. And I think that if I could have had that four years back and just worked on things that lit me up, which was executing on my own and being a solopreneur and an entrepreneur, that would have been a better college for me. But I also think we come from a generation where we were taught that you have to go to college in order to have a career. And I think what's happening now is people are realizing that's not necessarily the truth.

And it may be because college has become this common thing. And also people are wondering like what you're actually learning now. But yeah, as somebody who runs a media company, I can't tell you where anyone in the entire company went to college. I have no idea. I've never looked at one college degree. I didn't learn one thing for what I do in my life now in college. We have close to like 80, 100 people. I could not tell you one person and where did you go to college?

Wagner. You could have paid me $12.9 million and I would not know that. Would have never known. No, it's crazy. I don't know if anyone even, I think there's like one guy at Barstool. He went to Harvard. That's the only person I know that went to college. It's crazy.

I mean, Harvard's a flex. If I went to Harvard, like that's why I know it because he flexes it. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure he wears the shirt and the merch and the hat. and whatever but like for me I wish I went to the college of business and just worked on a business that's looking back yeah that's if I would advise anyone who's an entrepreneur to look into just actually putting the work in then having to go sit in a classroom no but I just I think about your story and what's interesting is like you recognize that you had a shot a lot of people would say okay I got to finish the degree and then take the shot yeah you know what I mean but like you you had the

shots it to me now you make a living yeah I think well for me so I was I was I was like, fuck, I think I do need to stay in school. So I was doing full-time school and full-time barstool. And for me, I'm a very 100-percent person. So I wasn't giving 100% either. I was giving 50 to school and 50 to barstool. And I was like, okay, I'm not really doing that well at barstool right now. And I'm also like getting season on my classes. This is not worth it. I need to pick one. And I just saw the future. Or, I mean, I just saw the happiness, honestly, with the career path of going the way that I did compared to school. And I was like, okay, quit school. One hundred percent of my effort and time needs to go into barstool. And I mean, when you put 100 percent and you usually see a payback. Before we go, let's put it out in the ether. What is it take to date you at this point? Who is it going to be? Oh, God. Guys, I don't know. I think I'm going to be single forever. That's okay. Genuinely. Honestly, that eliminates a lot of it. Did you see the Vogue's friggin article? We're having a guy named Scott Galloway in the show this week and we're going to talk to him specifically. So the article is basically about like it's embarrassing to have a boyfriend.

Let me ask you this. Hold on it's embarrassing to have a boyfriend. Yeah, that's what this article is. It's not chic. I think this woman that came on our show recently probably wrote that maybe. No. I'm not going to hint. I kind of get what they're saying. No, but imagine this. Imagine if the headline said for men, it's embarrassing to have a girlfriend. People would be up in arms. I don't know. I actually think it's I actually think yeah, sure, I get what they're saying. It could be embarrassing to have a boyfriend. It's not chic. I think that's funny. But for a guy to have a girlfriend, I feel like it gives them texture. Well, so what's your take on the article? Well, I think, I think the way, what the article really is trying to get at is that women don't need men anymore.

It wasn't essentially like, it's embarrassing to have a boyfriend. It's that like women can stand on their own and it's not embarrassing to be single. It's more or so what they were trying to get at. But the discourse around it has been really great because you see a lot of men getting upset, but also a lot of men being like, oh, fuck, yeah, women don't really need us, so maybe we should be a little bit better? I don't know. I think it just had a really good conversation around it. I don't think it's embarrassing to have a boyfriend. I think it's embarrassing to have an embarrassing boyfriend. Like, you need, if a man treats you right and puts you on a good pedestal and is a good man, it's not embarrassing. Agreed. But there are a lot of embarrassing men. Yes. So if it's like a good

one. Yeah, that's not embarrassing, but it's embarrassing to have an embarrassing man, which a lot of women are stuck with. I've been with my fair share of embarrassing men. Yeah, we all have. On this podcast, I mean, there was a couple, I had to kiss a couple. What's it? Frogs. No, but I mean, see, is your husband. This is different. Yeah. Yeah, but I, but I think that what the context of how you just explained, it's important, because a lot of people, unfortunately, are going to read something like that and just take it at face value. I think there's a lot of shitty guys out there. Also, there's a lot of shitty girls. I think there's a lot of shitty people. Yeah, of course. Right. Like what I worry about because I have a daughter and I have some sons.

It's like I want them to grow up and be in healthy, productive, happy relationships. I don't want them to date shitty. You want your daughter to be in a relationship? That's a lie. I can't wait to see you handle that. But also, I'm speaking from the perspective of somebody who's found happiness. So I understand that it's not easy and it's hard. But I want others to experience that kind of happiness.

Of course. You know what I mean? And I think sometimes you've got to be careful just telling people. I need to get back to what's the what's your must-haves. Oh my gosh. I don't even, I really don't even think about it because I just, you just have to feel like a safe person.

You have to be on, honestly, I think I've, I can be a little bit shallow and what I want. You just need to be like my height or taller because I dated that oompa and I'm just so fucking. Like, I was like hunching in photos and there's nothing wrong with being shorter.

If you're a confident man, that one wasn't. So like I always just felt awkward being tall. What's too short? Just be taller than me. Be 5-9. Okay, that's not that bad. That's really not bad.

Like, I'm not that shallow. I'd rather be 6-8, but... You'd like 6-8? Yeah, I'm kind of tall, though, so I'm like 5-9. 6-8 to me feels like... Slender man? Awkward to have sex with. Yeah, I guess I guess maybe.

6-4. 6-8 feels tall for me. Yeah, but like, oh, that's so cool. Like, you're just like so big and tall and strong. Yeah, I don't think I've ever did. hated a really tall guy. Don't worry about it, Lauren. You don't need to. You don't need to. No, don't you have shoes with

stills. Regular shoes. But no, I mean... He's actually not... Fartan's not too crazy short. That's like normal. Yeah, that's average, right? I wouldn't describe myself as tall. No, average. average, yeah. Yeah. Your hair adds two inches easily, too. Yeah, you know, that's important as well. TikTok calls him Lego hair.

No. But you know what? It's a bunch of receding hair people that call me that. That's fair. They probably got patchy. That's a good name to be called, because. Because the Lego of the hair goes on the head. It means you have a lot of volume. Yeah, I did a, I had a whole analysis done, and I looked at all these people commenting, and I found that they were all balding.

Well, that's always, you know, that you want someone commenting something negative, 100% of the time you don't want to switch places with them. So, you know what? 100% of that Lego hair. Okay, so they got to be over 5-9-6-8 range. I think that they need to be on the same level financially or more successful financially than me just because I'm getting older, and I don't have time to wait for you. to like build a whole business. Are you ever going to build? I like the honesty. Yeah, I mean,

you don't have to be super rich. I just want you to be on the same. I want to be on an even playing field. Yeah, I get that. Yeah. I think if I want to build a life with someone, I want, I want you to add value, whether it's emotionally, financially, I just need you to add to my life because what's the point of being in a relationship if you're not adding anything? I totally agree with you. Yeah, at this point, because I've gone through my fair shore where they don't add anything and I'm like, it doesn't get me anywhere. I love it. Yeah. It was great to talk to you. You're awesome on a mic. guys. Where can everyone go listen to you, find you? Is there a book? They're at this in the it's in the rights where we're talking. Yeah. That's what I read. That takes a long time. Yeah, listen to me. My podcast Plan Bria

uncut. It's amazing. It just came back. It's fun. It's like my favorite part of my week and watch special forces and watch all my socials. Brianna chicken fry, Brianna LaPaglia. Yeah, go find me. Thank you, Brianna.