Misfits Among Us

Sudden paralysis, chronic illness, medical uncertainty, disability, love, independence, resilience, and finding reasons to laugh when life stops going according to plan.

Nicki Almes spent much of her childhood as a competitive dancer. She was athletic, independent, and used to having a body that could do almost anything she asked of it.- Everything changed.

Unexplained symptoms, autoimmune diagnosis, and a COVID infection, Nicki began experiencing repeated seizures. She was eventually diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a genetic connective tissue disorder that helped explain many of the symptoms doctors had struggled to connect.

One day she woke up from a seizure unable to move her legs.

Today, Nicki uses a wheelchair, navigates serious health challenges, and relies on Ruben, her seizure-alert service dog, who has become one of the most important companions in her life.

But Nicki's story is not just about losing the ability to walk.

It's about refusing to lose the things that make life worth living.

With a sharp sense of humor, a loving partner, a dog who seems to know what's coming before anyone else, and an extraordinary ability to find joy in everyday moments, Nicki has built a life that looks different from the one she imagined, but is still entirely her own.

Her story raises a question worth asking:

When life takes away the future you planned, how do you learn to love the one you have?

In This Episode:

• Growing up as a competitive dancer
• Being diagnosed with autoimmune arthritis at 16
• Years of unexplained symptoms and medical uncertainty
• How COVID preceded a major decline in her health
• Developing seizures and losing control of her body
• Being diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS)
• Waking up from a seizure unable to move her legs
• Being told her paralysis would be temporary
• Why humor became part of her survival
• Meeting Ruben, her seizure-alert service dog
• Experiencing eight seizures and paralysis from the neck down
• Learning to drive with hand controls
• Celebrating victories most people take for granted
• Falling in love and preparing for marriage
• How her relationship survived major life changes
• Living with an unpredictable medical future
• Finding strength, gratitude, and humor in an unexpected life

 ABOUT NICKI ALMES

https://www.tiktok.com/@nickilynne0

https://www.instagram.com/nickischleifstein/

ABOUT MISFITS AMONG US

Misfits Among Us is a conversation-driven podcast exploring how people develop their beliefs, identities, and worldviews through life experiences.

Every episode dives into real conversations about identity, reinvention, trauma, success, personal growth, belief, risk, and transformation.

No talking points. No safe lanes. No topics off limits.

Because the misfits aren’t rare.

They’re among us.

If you know someone who has a great story and lived a great life, reach out to Misfits Among Us at:

[email protected]

Find Misfits Among Us everywhere:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MisfitsAmongUsPodcast
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/misfits-among-us/id1874680505
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3pn5swLhuTnRDL4TeiPXq3
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@misfitsamonguspodcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/misfitsamonguspodcast

This is a conversation about identity, family rejection, foster care, faith, transition, dating, politics, difficult questions, and the determination to live as yourself even when the people closest to you refuse to understand.

Chelsea grew up in a Missouri town of roughly 350 people, where everyone knew everyone and being different could come at a steep price.

After a childhood shaped by addiction, violence, and religious expectations, Chelsea discovered what it meant to be transgender through an unlikely source: Jerry Springer. She began transitioning at 15, entered foster care when her family would not take her in, and eventually built a life on her own terms. Today, she speaks candidly about her experiences, from gender-affirming surgery and dating to the disagreements she has with parts of the trans community. Her grandparents, who once rejected her, now proudly call her their granddaughter.

But Chelsea’s story is not just about transitioning.

It is about what it costs to be yourself, why people can change, and what becomes possible when we are willing to have uncomfortable conversations.

In This Episode:

Growing up transgender in a tiny Missouri town
Addiction, incarceration, and a difficult childhood
Being punished for acting like herself
The Jerry Springer moment that changed everything
Starting hormone treatment at 15
Coming out to her Southern Baptist grandparents
Being rejected by family and entering foster care
Finding stability and support through foster care
Becoming the big sister she needed
Learning womanhood without a guide
Dating before, during, and after transition
The difference between attraction and being accepted
Her experience of bottom surgery and recovery
Why she speaks openly about difficult medical realities
Her perspective on transition and detransition
Why she challenges ideas within her own community
Rebuilding trust after childhood rejection
How her grandparents eventually embraced her
Dating conservative men and crossing political divides
Why she wants people to ask uncomfortable questions
Living as a person first, not just a label

ABOUT CHELSEA
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tarnishedgf
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tarnishedgf
Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tarnishedgf

ABOUT MISFITS AMONG US

Misfits Among Us is a conversation-driven podcast exploring how people develop their beliefs, identities, and worldviews through life experiences.

Every episode dives into real conversations about identity, reinvention, trauma, success, personal growth, belief, risk, and transformation.

No talking points. No safe lanes. No topics off limits.

Because the misfits aren’t rare.

They’re among us.

If you know someone who has a great story and lived a great life, reach out to Misfits Among Us at:

[email protected]

Find Misfits Among Us everywhere:
YouTube: @MisfitsAmongUsPodcast
Apple Podcasts: http://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/...
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/show/3pn5swLh...
TikTok: @misfitsamonguspodcast
Instagram: @misfitsamonguspodcast

This is a conversation about kink, shame, fantasy, relationships, desire, communication, safety, identity, and what happens when someone stops hiding the part of themselves they thought made them strange.

Amanda Dames spent years believing something was wrong with her.

As a child, she knew she was drawn to spanking before she had the language to understand why. As a teenager, she discovered BDSM through late-night television and realized, for the first time, that maybe she was not alone. Years later, she would live a double life: corporate media professional by day, professional dominatrix by night.

But Amanda’s story is not just about kink.

It is about what happens when a hidden part of you becomes impossible to ignore.

In This Episode:

Amanda Dames realizing she was kinky from a young age
Growing up with shame around taboo desires
The difference between a kink and a fetish
Why spanking became central to Amanda’s sexuality
Discovering BDSM through late-night television
Trying to be “normal” in relationships
Marriage, sexual incompatibility, and divorce
Why hidden desires can become overwhelming
Wall Street by day, dominatrix by night
Working inside a New York dungeon
The difference between fantasy and real life
Safe words, role play, and dungeon etiquette
Medical fetishes, spanking parties, and kink conventions
What people misunderstand about BDSM
Why kink is often more innocent than people think
The danger of hiding fantasies for too long
Consent, safety, and hard limits
Why communication matters in relationships
How to bring up kink with a partner
Becoming The Kink Consultant
Helping people remove shame around desire
Finding love with someone who truly understands her
Why being seen matters more than being “normal”

 ABOUT AMANDA DAMES
Website: https://www.amandadames.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thekinkconsultant
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thekinkconsultant
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_kinkconsultant

ABOUT MISFITS AMONG US

Misfits Among Us is a conversation-driven podcast exploring how people develop their beliefs, identities, and worldviews through life experiences.

Every episode dives into real conversations about identity, reinvention, trauma, success, personal growth, belief, risk, and transformation.

No talking points. No safe lanes. No topics off limits.

Because the misfits aren’t rare.

They’re among us.

If you know someone who has a great story and lived a great life, reach out to Misfits Among Us at:

[email protected]

Find Misfits Among Us everywhere:
YouTube: @MisfitsAmongUsPodcast
Apple Podcasts: http://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/...
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/show/3pn5swLh...
TikTok: @misfitsamonguspodcast
Instagram: @misfitsamonguspodcast

If this story challenged your perspective, subscribe, share the episode, and join the conversation.

This is a conversation about sex, shame, confidence, motherhood, business, intimacy, judgment, freedom, and what happens when someone refuses to apologize for who they are.

Whether you understand Michelena’s life, judge it, admire it, or completely disagree with it, her story raises a difficult question:

What happens when someone stops hiding and starts living completely out loud?

In This Episode:

• Michelena Rose’s childhood on a 400-acre farm in Pennsylvania
• Growing up between strict Italian Catholics and wild biker energy
• Family, acceptance, and open conversations about sex
• Becoming comfortable in her own skin
• Divorce, motherhood, and rebuilding her life
• Entering the adult industry
• Making money through Snapchat before OnlyFans exploded
• Turning confidence into a business
• Becoming a Playboy model
• The business behind OnlyFans
• Fan relationships, attention, and emotional labor
• Sex coaching, massage, and personal boundaries
• The difference between fantasy and real life
• Going viral and being discussed on major podcasts
• Why people are uncomfortable with women who own their sexuality
• Motherhood while working in adult entertainment
• The human being behind the porn star label
• Confidence, shame, freedom, and self-expression
• Building a future beyond adult content
• Never apologizing for her lifestyle

ABOUT MICHELENA ROSE

Personal Website: https://itsmichelenarose.com/

TikTok: @itsmichelenarose

Instagram: @itsmichelenarose

X: https://x.com/michelenarose7

ABOUT MISFITS AMONG US

Misfits Among Us is a conversation-driven podcast exploring how people develop their beliefs, identities, and worldviews through life experiences.

Every episode dives into real conversations about identity, reinvention, trauma, success, personal growth, belief, risk, and transformation.

No talking points. No safe lanes. No topics off limits.

Because the misfits aren’t rare.

They’re among us.

If you know someone who has a great story and lived a great life, reach out to Misfits Among Us at:

[email protected]

Find Misfits Among Us everywhere:
YouTube: @MisfitsAmongUsPodcast
Apple Podcasts: http://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/...
Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/show/3pn5swLh...
TikTok: @misfitsamonguspodcast
Instagram: @misfitsamonguspodcast

Peter Young’s story does not fit neatly into right or wrong.

As a teenager, Peter became vegan, found the animal rights movement through punk rock, and quickly moved from protest into direct action. What started with stickers, protests, and late-night vandalism became something much bigger: breaking into facilities, rescuing animals, releasing thousands of mink, going on the run, living under a false identity, and eventually becoming one of the FBI’s most wanted.

But this episode is not just about what Peter did. It is about why he did it.

In this conversation, Joey and Peter talk about animal liberation, veganism, punk rock, the Animal Liberation Front, mink farms, fur farms, federal charges, fugitive life, prison, refusing to inform, rebuilding after incarceration, and how a man once labeled a terrorist eventually became a successful entrepreneur.

Peter’s life is a story about conviction, risk, freedom, consequence, and the strange line between rebellion and purpose. Whether you agree with him or not, his story forces a bigger question: What are you willing to risk for what you believe?

This is FBI’s MOST WANTED with Peter Young.

Because the misfits aren’t rare. They’re among us.

Peter Young Links:

• https://peteryoung.me/
• https://amzn.to/3RqfhNO
• https://x.com/PeterDYoung
• https://www.facebook.com/peter.young.forever

About Misfits Among Us:

Misfits Among Us is a conversation-driven podcast exploring how people develop their beliefs, identities, and worldviews through life experiences. Each episode focuses on real conversations about identity, reinvention, trauma, success, and personal growth.

No talking points. No safe lanes. No topics off limits.

Because the misfits aren’t rare. They’re among us.

If you are if you know someone who has a great story and lived a great life, please reach out. Misfits would love to chat!

• [email protected]

Find us everywhere:

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@MisfitsAmongUsPodcast

Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/misfits-among-us/id1874680505

Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3pn5swLhuTnRDL4TeiPXq3?si=03bed449dc2547ba

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@misfitsamonguspodcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/misfitsamonguspodcast

Allie Grack was adopted at birth, placed in foster care by age eight, and moved through 11 placements before adulthood.

She learned early how to read danger, survive chaos, and become whoever the room needed her to be. But the child labeled “too much” grew into something much harder to ignore: a mother, a strategist, a business owner, and a woman who stopped apologizing for the messy, painful, perfectly imperfect life that shaped her.

In this episode of Misfits Among Us, Allie opens up about adoption, foster care, trauma, teen motherhood, survival, control, building Workhorse Marketing, finding her biological family, and learning that imperfection is not something to hide from — it is often the thing that makes us whole.

This is a conversation about survival, identity, motherhood, ambition, healing, and what it means to build a life on your own terms.

Because the misfits aren’t rare. They’re among us.

_____________________________

Follow Ali Grack
https://teamworkhorse.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alliegrack18

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@allie.grack

 _____________________________

ABOUT MISFITS AMONG US:

Misfits Among Us is a conversation-driven podcast exploring how people develop their beliefs, identities, and worldviews through life experiences. Each episode focuses on real conversations about identity, reinvention, trauma, success, and personal growth.

No talking points. No safe lanes. No topics off limits.
Because the misfits aren’t rare. They’re among us.

If you are if you know someone who has a great story and lived a great life, please reach out. Misfits would love to chat!

·       [email protected]

Find us everywhere:

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@MisfitsAmongUsPodcast

Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/misfits-among-us/id1874680505

Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3pn5swLhuTnRDL4TeiPXq3?si=03bed449dc2547ba

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@misfitsamonguspodcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/misfitsamonguspodcast

At 52 years old, Al Isaacs found out he was adopted after a casual call with his mother’s oncologist revealed a secret his entire family had kept from him.

What followed was not just a search for answers. It was a journey through grief, identity, DNA testing, old adoption papers, family secrets, and one nearly impossible name: Mary Smith.

In this episode of Misfits Among Us, Al shares how he discovered the truth about his adoption, found a sister who had been searching for him for 20 years, uncovered the story of his birth mother’s music career, and eventually reunited with the woman he never knew he came from.

This is a story about family, timing, forgiveness, and what happens when the life you thought you knew turns out to be incomplete — not wrong, just incomplete.

Because the misfits aren’t rare. They’re among us.

______________________________

Follow Al Isaacs:
https://www.alisaacs.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/al.isaacs/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authoralisaacs

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/al.isaacs/

Book: https://amzn.to/4cKESJL

______________________________

ABOUT MISFITS AMONG US:

Misfits Among Us is a conversation-driven podcast exploring how people develop their beliefs, identities, and worldviews through life experiences. Each episode focuses on real conversations about identity, reinvention, trauma, success, and personal growth.

No talking points. No safe lanes. No topics off limits.
Because the misfits aren’t rare. They’re among us.

If you are if you know someone who has a great story and lived a great life, please reach out. Misfits would love to chat!

·       [email protected]

Find us everywhere:

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@MisfitsAmongUsPodcast

Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/misfits-among-us/id1874680505

Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3pn5swLhuTnRDL4TeiPXq3?si=03bed449dc2547ba

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@misfitsamonguspodcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/misfitsamonguspodcast

Roxie Anderson’s story is one of the most unusual, emotional, funny, and deeply human conversations we’ve had on Misfits Among Us.

Raised in a loving Mormon family, Roxie spent much of her life wrestling with faith, shame, depression, body image, identity, and the belief that she was never quite good enough. Over time, those feelings became harder to hold. After years of suppressing her creativity, sexuality, spirituality, and sense of self, Roxie experienced a profound mental health break that led to psychosis, hospitalization, and a long road back to herself.

But this is not only a story about breaking.

It is a story about survival, self-love, art, humor, and the strange, beautiful way Roxie learned to give voice to the parts of herself she once tried to silence.

Today, Roxie uses puppets, music, performance, and storytelling to talk openly about mental health, bipolar disorder, psychosis, suicidal ideation, religious trauma, healing, sexuality, shame, and the complicated work of becoming whole.

In this episode, Joey and Roxie talk about growing up Mormon, questioning faith, hearing voices, following signs, hospitalization, the woman who helped save her life, and how puppets became a powerful tool for processing trauma and reconnecting with herself.

This conversation is heavy, funny, uncomfortable, brave, and completely Roxie.

Because sometimes the voices do not disappear.

Sometimes they become puppets.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of psychosis, hospitalization, suicidal ideation, religious trauma, sexuality, and mental health. Please take care while watching.

If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to a trusted person or local crisis resource. In the U.S. and Canada, you can call or text 988 for immediate mental health support.

Roxie Anderson:
https://roxieanderson.com/

Instagram

TikTok

YouTube

ABOUT MISFITS AMONG US:

Misfits Among Us is a conversation-driven podcast exploring how people develop their beliefs, identities, and worldviews through life experiences. Each episode focuses on real conversations about identity, reinvention, trauma, success, and personal growth.

No talking points. No safe lanes. No topics off limits.
Because the misfits aren’t rare. They’re among us.

If you are if you know someone who has a great story and lived a great life, please reach out. Misfits would love to chat!

·       [email protected]

Find us everywhere:

YouTube

Apple Podcast

Spotify

TikTok

Instagram

What if becoming yourself meant risking the one thing you loved most?

In this episode of Misfits Among Us, Joey sits down with Dylan Holloway — singer-songwriter, storyteller, former X Factor artist, and the artist behind Dylan And The Moon — for a powerful conversation about identity, music, transition, family, fear, joy, and the courage to live authentically. Dylan grew up knowing he was different long before he had the words to explain it. Music became his access point to joy, his hiding place, and eventually, his way back to himself.

After appearing on The X Factor and building momentum as an artist, Dylan reached a moment where everything changed. To become the person he knew he was, he had to risk the one thing that had carried him through life: his voice. That journey became Tomorrow’s Too Late — a deeply personal story about transition, music, self-acceptance, and the terrifying beauty of choosing yourself before it’s too late.

This conversation follows Dylan from childhood in Cornwall, to X Factor, to the COVID lockdown that forced him to slow down and listen to himself, to coming out to his family, to recording music that allows him to duet with his past self.

It is a story about being trans.

It is also a story about something every person understands: the cost of hiding from yourself, and the freedom that comes when you finally stop.

No scripts. Real people. You don’t have to agree. You just have to listen.

Because the misfits aren’t rare. They’re among us.

_____________________________

Follow Dylan Holloway:
Dylan And The Moon
Instagram
TikTok

YouTube
Spotify
Tomorrow’s Too Late

ABOUT MISFITS AMONG US:

Misfits Among Us is a conversation-driven podcast exploring how people develop their beliefs, identities, and worldviews through life experiences. Each episode focuses on real conversations about identity, reinvention, trauma, success, and personal growth.

No talking points. No safe lanes. No topics off limits.
Because the misfits aren’t rare. They’re among us.

If you are if you know someone who has a great story and lived a great life, please reach out. Misfits would love to chat!

·       [email protected]

Find us everywhere:

YouTube

Apple Podcast

Spotify

TikTok

Instagram

Most of us spend our lives learning how to achieve.

We learn how to perform, compete, lead, build careers, raise families, and push through adversity. What we rarely learn is how to navigate loss.

In this episode of Misfits Among Us, I sit down with Dina Bell-Laroche, certified thanatologist, speaker, facilitator, and advocate for grief literacy, to explore one of the most universal—and least understood—parts of being human.

After losing her younger sister Tracy to a rare form of cancer, Dina began a journey that would ultimately reshape her understanding of grief, belonging, leadership, and resilience. What followed wasn’t just a personal healing journey. It became a mission to help individuals, organizations, athletes, and leaders better understand how loss impacts every aspect of our lives.

Together, we discuss why grief isn’t something we “get over,” how loss extends far beyond death, the hidden cost of pretending we’re fine, and why belonging may be one of the most powerful tools we have for healing.

This is a conversation about grief.

But it’s also a conversation about love, connection, identity, leadership, and what it means to be fully human.

_____________________________
CONTACT Dina Bell-Laroche

• [email protected]
• https://www.griefunleashed.ca
• Substack: https://dinabelllaroche.substack.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grief.unleashed/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dblaroche/

_____________________________
ABOUT MISFITS AMONG US:

Misfits Among Us is a conversation-driven podcast exploring how people develop their beliefs, identities, and worldviews through life experiences. Each episode focuses on real conversations about identity, reinvention, trauma, success, and personal growth.

No talking points. No safe lanes. No topics off limits.
Because the misfits aren’t rare. They’re among us.

If you are if you know someone who has a great story and lived a great life, please reach out. Misfits would love to chat!

• [email protected]

Find us everywhere:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MisfitsAmongUsPodcast

Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/misfits-among-us/id1874680505

Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3pn5swLhuTnRDL4TeiPXq3?si=03bed449dc2547ba

TikTok: tiktok.com/@misfitsamonguspodcast

Instagram: instagram.com/misfitsamonguspodcast