Welcome to Season 1 of The Unqualified Yogi, where we talk about the path nobody talks about—struggles, failures, and actual practice. This is wellness content for people who think most wellness content is garbage.

Our first guest is Angie Maniscalco, a real estate agent in St. Louis who Roxanne met in yoga class. Roxanne knew within two meetings they'd be friends because Angie is authentic, funny, and wears everything on her sleeve. Also because Angie is the kind of person who, when asked "have you ever been arrested?" responds with "yes, three times" and then tells you about stealing Newport cigarettes from Schnucks as a teenager.

On ignoring your body until it forces you to listen: Angie spent years pushing through chronic hip pain because that's what you're supposed to do, right? Push through. Be tough. Except that doesn't make you a warrior—it makes you someone who needs hip surgery in their early 30s. We talk about what it actually means to listen to your body, which turns out to have nothing to do with Instagram affirmations and everything to do with getting things checked out before they become surgical.

On solo retreats that aren't content: Angie goes on meditation retreats alone. Sometimes without pants. She's not turning it into a lifestyle brand or documenting it for social media—she just goes, sits, meditates, and comes back. Novel concept. We discuss finding practices that work for you without the performative wellness bullshit, including sound baths (the kind that don't make you throw up) and singing bowls that make you feel like you're talking to aliens while flying through space.

On blowing up your life and starting over: Sometimes life explodes. Sometimes you blow it up yourself. Either way, starting over is part of being human. Angie talks about reinvention without the "manifest your new life" nonsense—just the honest reality that sometimes you have to destroy something to build something new. Roxanne shares that she's reinvented herself four times, and each time required blowing something up first. This is the conversation about change that doesn't involve vision boards.

On the completely random but important stuff: Why to-do lists might actually work. Whether people who say they love running are lying (or just trauma-informed). The correct approach to dating when you don't want anyone in your bed snoring and farting. How many laws you break in an average day. Why Angie's mom made her play soccer in jeans over her shorts. What causes itchy thighs when running (we consulted an AI about this, no clear answers). Halloween costumes. License plate theft. The whole messy, digressive, honest conversation that happens when three people actually talk instead of performing wellness.

This isn't another podcast telling you to raise your vibrations or manifest your dreams. We're credentialed skeptics—qualified enough to know what we're talking about, unqualified enough to admit we don't have all the answers, and irreverent enough to laugh at the absurdity. We reject guru energy and toxic positivity while still believing that practices like yoga, meditation, and paying attention to your body can actually help. You just don't need the spiritual bypassing or the lifestyle aesthetic to do it.

Angie doesn't have it all figured out. None of us do. And that's exactly why this conversation works. It's honest about pain, messy about change, and completely lacking in the kind of aspirational bullshit that makes you feel worse about yourself instead of better.

If you're tired of "good vibes only," if you've rolled your eyes at wellness influencer culture, if you want actual information without the woo—this might be for you. If you're looking for someone to tell you they've cracked the code to enlightenment, keep scrolling.

Real talk about wellness. Zero guru energy. Some profanity. Occasional discussions of bodily functions. Welcome to The Unqualified Yogi.

Find more at: theunqualifiedyogi.com