Pizza, Panic & Power

🎙️ SHOW NOTES — SASSY POLITICS
Sassy Politics with Christi Chanelle

Release Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2026
Episode Title: Pizza, Panic & Power: What the Epstein Files Did to Our Minds

EPISODE SUMMARY

Pizza isn’t just pizza anymore. In this episode, Christi breaks down the latest Epstein file release, why the word “pizza” reignited Pizzagate, and how raw document dumps plus social media chaos are scrambling our nervous systems in real time. From sitting in leadership meetings while the world feels like it’s on fire, to watching people spiral over conspiracy clips, Christi asks the bigger question: how do we stay grounded when the truth is messy, terrifying, and overwhelming? This is not just about Epstein — it’s about how we process power, corruption, and trauma without losing ourselves. And yes, there’s Super Bowl energy, halftime hype, and a very clear ick list.

What you’ll hear in this episode

Why the Epstein file dump feels so destabilizing

What actually happened with Pizzagate and Comet Ping Pong

Why “pizza” showing up in documents reignited a firestorm

The story of the man who shot Comet Ping Pong — and his recent death

The mental whiplash of living in “corporate spreadsheets vs. moral collapse”

A raw clip of public panic — and what it says about our collective psyche

Why mental health and alignment matter in moments like this

How to care deeply without breaking under the weight of it

A hopeful, grounding close you can carry with you

Watch & Listen

New episodes every Tuesday at 9:00 AM CST on YouTube and midnight wherever podcasts are streamed.
Daily Shorts on YouTube and TikTok.

Available on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever podcasts are streamed.

Connect with Christi Chanelle

Instagram: @ChristiChanelle

TikTok: @ChristiChanelle

YouTube: Sassy Politics

Threads: @ChristiChanelle

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/christichanelle.bsky.social

Facebook: Sassy Politics

Website: ChristiChanelle.com

Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/LinkedWeStand

DISCLAIMER

This content may include satirical commentary, altered media, or opinion-based analysis intended for educational, entertainment, or advocacy purposes. Any video clips, images, or quotes that have been edited or recreated are clearly intended as political or cultural critique — not factual representations. Viewer discretion and independent research are encouraged.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Word That Lit A Fuse
• 0:34 Leadership Class Vs. Doomscrolling
• 2:06 Living In Split Realities
• 2:53 Super Bowl, Music, And Politics
• 4:17 Epstein Files And The Pizza Spiral
• 6:03 Pizzagate Debunked And Lingering Doubts
• 8:03 Timelines, Coincidence, And Suspicion
• 9:12 We Were Never Taught To Process This
• 11:05 Viral Meltdowns And Collective Strain
• 12:36 Don’t Assume Everything Is True
• 14:09 Protect Your Nervous System
• 15:20 You Are Not Powerless

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Pizza. A word that just sent half the internet into a collective spiral and forced the rest of us to ask a very uncomfortable question. What do we do when the truth finally shows up? And are we actually ready for it? Welcome to Sassy Politics. I'm Christy Chanel, and this is Sassy Politics. So here's what I've been doing this week. I was on my final trip for my leadership program with my job. Meetings, strategy, operations, and workflows. How to make a work order move smoother. How to lead a team better. How to build something functional in a world that pretends to be normal. And meanwhile, in my phone, the world is on fire. The Epstein files are dropping. People are talking about pizza, codes, abuse, corruption, and babies. Real or not, half true or not, it is frickin' heavy. I'm sitting in a conference room talking about KPIs while my group chat is blowing up about elite pedophiles and global corruption. Two realities at once. Corporate spreadsheets and moral collapse. Professional calm and existential dread. And I know I'm not the only one living in that whiplash right now. Luckily, I had someone with me in this program I could talk to about all of this. And trust me, we had a few drinks about it. We we got it all out, and then the next day went back to spreadsheets. But a lot of people don't have that person. They're just consuming this alone, doom scrolling, spiraling, and feeling helpless. And that's really what today's about. And then there's the other half of people who just are not in this at all. The I don't do politics crowd. I'll be in a conversation and someone will say, Oh, I heard you have a podcast. And I'll say, Yeah, it's political. And they'll immediately go, Oh, I don't do politics, I'm sorry. So we are living in completely different realities right now. And honestly, I still love those people. No judgment. Maybe a little bit. Okay, okay, there is. There is, there is, there is. I don't want there to be, but there is. It just shows how split our world really feels. Also, quick reality check before we dive deeper. It's Super Bowl week. By the time you're watching this on Tuesday, we'll already know who won. I really have no dogs in the fight. As you know, I'm a Cowboys fan, and yes, it comes with a lot of bullshit. I accept that it's in my blood, there's nothing I can do. But in this house, we're going for Seattle. My daughter picked them before they were even doing well. And honestly, iconic energy, right? But even more than the football game itself, which again, I don't truly care about. I am here for this halftime show. Bad Bunny. Do you know that he showed up for the Grammys in a bulletproof vest underneath his outfit? Do you know he didn't bring his loved ones to the Grammys where he won, by the way? Like I want you to sit with that for a minute. So Bad Bunny and Green Day, and we already know how political Green Day is, right? Freaking chef's kiss. I will be up, out of my seat, going crazy. I'm I'm the most excited about that. And I will say, if you watch Turning Point instead, respectfully, you're on my ick list. Just keep moving. There will be judgment on you. A hundred percent. Okay, back to the pizza. The latest release of the Epstein documents was massive. Not a clean, neat, here's the truth. No. It was millions of pages of raw investigative material. Emails, tips, leads, rumors, real allegations, and unverified claims. It was everything the FBI and other agencies looked at, and that's whether it was true or not. Which means it is a hot mess. And in that mess, the word pizza shows up a lot. Actually, hundreds of times, which instantly reignited Pizzagate. And look, that's been around for a long time. I remember having lunch with one of my friends, who I trust immensely, by the way, about five years ago. And she was telling me about all of it. And in my mind, I believed her. I believed that she believed she found something. She had a whole group of people looking into it. But honestly, I don't think I was ready to go into that world at that point. And I get why people aren't ready now either. Because once you go in, you can't unsee it. You can't go back. Especially when it comes to children. So let's be very clear. The original 2016 Pizzagate theory about comet ping pong was investigated and debunked. Okay, so so it's been debunked, right? Okay, here's where this gets complicated, and where a lot of people are reconnecting those dots. After the original Pizzagate claims, a man named Edgar Madison Welch drove from North Carolina to comet ping pong with a gun. He was believing the conspiracy. He fired shots inside before surrendering. Thankfully, no one was hurt. He later said he was wrong. He admitted there was nothing there. But around that same time, people online were circulating disturbing images from an Instagram account they claimed was connected to the restaurant or its owner. Some showed children in strange or troubling positions with hands taped to tables. Those images were deeply, deeply upsetting to a lot of people. But no official investigation ever used those images as evidence of trafficking. But for many, they became part of why Pizzagate felt real, even if the central claim about the restaurant might not have been. And here's another part that people are now talking about. What date was Edgar Welch killed by police during a traffic stop? What date did it happen? And when did the Epstein file dump happen? So I want to see how much time was in between. Edgar Welch was shot and killed by police during a traffic stop on January 4th, 2025 in North Carolina. Officers. Officers identified him during a routine stop, and he was fatally shot after re after he reportedly pointed a gun at the officers. Okay, cut and dry, right? You point a gun, you're at risk of being shot back. The U.S. Justice Department released a major batch of Epstein-related documents over three million pages and images on January 30th, 2026. Hold on. When was the first Epstein batch released? What was the first batch? Okay, so I'm just asking to see when the first batch was released. Okay, so the Epstein Files Transparency Act was signed November 19th, 2025. First Transparency Act released was December 19th, 2025. Belch was shot January, 2025. I mean coincidence, maybe. Maybe. Maybe all of this is bullshit and we are making stuff up. That's not for me to tell you. I mean, maybe everything's made up, but these are the facts. November, December, January, right? So some people do see that timing as a coincidence. Others see it as suspicious. Either way, it's part of why this moment feels so charged. Now here's the part that I think we really together we should sit in. We've never been taught how to process information like this. We've never been prepared. It's a lot. It's a lot to comprehend. It's a lot of people, it's a lot of power, and it's a lot of confusion over how to react. So what do we do with that? How do we stay grounded? How do we stay sane? How do we care without losing ourselves? For me, this is where mental health and alignment become political. You cannot fight corruption if you are mentally shattered. That's what they want. You can you can't build community if you are constantly spiraling. You can't see clearly if you are living in fight or flight. I am not a therapist, but I am someone trying to learn how to hold hard truths without breaking under their weight. And in the community I'm building, we have social workers and retired therapists. They all understand trauma. I want to lean into that. I just I just think I want to process all of this with you responsibly. Because seeing a clip of someone in Atlanta screaming, people are eating babies.

SPEAKER_02: 10:45

All of y'all are at the fucking normal. And all of y'all are acting normal. All of y'all are acting normal. They can laugh, but y'all can googling. They can laugh, but y'all can googling. The FC fouls have memories. And all of y'all are acting normal. All of y'all are acting normal.

SPEAKER_01: 11:22

Everybody's close. Shut the fuck up. Wait, don't say that. What I'm reading.

SPEAKER_02: 11:31

She said what I'm reading. And everybody in this room can read. If you phone Google.

SPEAKER_00: 11:41

Whether that claim is factual or not, and I seem to lean towards factual, that is my opinion. The fact is that people are that emotionally unhinged. The fact that people are screaming in public airports, and ironically, it was Atlanta, which ironically I was also in, I was just in a different terminal. Right? Coincidence. Absolutely. But jarring nonetheless. People are that emotionally unhinged. And that should tell you that this moment is affecting us in such a way that nobody truly understands how to move through it. If you take one thing from today, let it be this. Do not assume everything in those files is true. I got caught up in this picture of two frozen chickens and then a baby's leg and foot in the center. Everything else was redacted in the middle. I got caught up in that picture and absolutely spiraled because of it. Right now we have absolutely no proof it was real. Was it in the files? Yes. But was it something that was sent to the FBI and they were investigating, so they just released it in this pile? Um most people think that's the case. Again, we don't have any proof of that picture. So we really should go through the things and decide what is factually true and we can we can follow the trail back and what might not be. I think that may help in deciding what we absorb and react to versus what we kind of push out as a maybe but not a fact. I hope that makes sense. I I know that that picture really screwed with my mind. Do not assume everything in those files is true. I'm gonna say that one more time. Do not assume everything in those files is true. But do not assume everything is false either. Sit in the uncomfortable middle. Ask questions, check sources, talk to people you trust, take breaks from the news, protect your nervous system. We need you in this fight with us. You are allowed to care about children and justice without drowning in the panic. They want you to drown in the panic. I want to be your floaty. I want to help you make it through it. I need you to be my floaty. So here, this is what I want you to leave with. Okay? Something real, something you can hold on to. Right now, the world feels dark, confusing, chaotic, and a lot of us feel small in it. Like, what difference do we make? How can we even move forward? But you are not powerless. Your voice matters, your clarity matters, your community matters. If you are overwhelmed, reach out to a safe person tonight. Just one text them, call them, or just sit with them, go have a drink. You do not have to carry this alone. If you are spiraling, step away from your phone for an hour. Drink some water, take a breath, ground yourself in something simple and human. Take a walk. Go in the backyard, take your shoes off, and touch some grass. There has been some known things from doing that. And I want you to remember this. Truth may be messy, but we are still capable of building something better together. United. Because honestly, that's where our strength is. Our strength is in each other. Our strength is in our community. Our strength is in our connection. Don't isolate yourself. We can care deeply without breaking. We can seek justice without losing our ever-loving fucking minds. We can walk through this moment side by side. I know it sounds hokey and ridiculous, but I know that the moments that I have actually felt better, it's been because I have shared my grief, my hurt, my craziness with someone else. You are not alone. I promise you, you are not alone, and that matters. I will see you next Tuesday. Okay? Until then, take care of your mind, your heart, and each other. This is Sassy Politics, and I'm Christy Chanel. See you next week.