Vertically Unstable

Wellness. Apparently, we're supposed to be doing more of it. Sleeping better, moving more, getting sunlight, connecting with people, managing stress, finding joy... honestly, who has the bloody time? 😂

This week, we're joined by Tricia Nichols, author of The Currencies of Wellness, to talk about why wellness might be a whole lot simpler than we've been making it.

We're talking morning sunshine (which is a lovely concept if your dog doesn't wake you up at 5 a.m. in complete darkness), singing in the car, the magic of a good belly laugh, the challenge of making friends as an adult, and why sometimes a little human connection beats another expensive wellness hack.

Tricia shares her five currencies of wellness and explains how the everyday things we often overlook can have a bigger impact on how we feel than we realize. We get into comfort, play, togetherness, legacy, and the unexpected ways brands can influence our wellbeing.

And naturally, we have a few thoughts. Kelly makes a compelling case for pandas in the snow and baby goats as legitimate wellness interventions. Christy questions whether we're all doing better than we think. And we collectively wonder when wellness became a full-time job involving 25 supplements, a complicated morning routine and a liver detox.

Here's the thing: somewhere along the way, a lot of us high-achieving women turned enjoying life into another thing to optimize. Maybe it's time to stop treating happiness like a performance review.

Tune in for a funny, surprisingly thoughtful conversation about feeling good, finding connection and remembering that your life is meant to be lived, not constantly improved.

Because if wellness needs its own project plan, we're already tired.

This Halloween, we paid tribute to two absolute icons: Dolly Parton and Moira Rose. One gave us rhinestones, big hair, business brilliance and a coat of many colors. The other gave us 200 wigs, vocabulary that requires its own dictionary, and the ability to make a simple sentence sound like a Shakespearean declaration. Naturally, we dressed accordingly.

But this isn't just about the costumes. It's about women who know exactly who they are, own every glorious inch of it, and have never once felt the need to make themselves smaller for anyone. We're talking unapologetic confidence, being gloriously extra, and why sometimes the best thing you can do is let your freak flag fly. Preferably with excellent hair.

Along the way, we got into Halloween traditions, questionable reality-TV relationships, competitive Christmas decorating, the hazards of being a parent, and why Kelly believes a woman should be allowed to put up her Christmas tree whenever the hell she wants.

So grab your rhinestones, fluff that wig, and prepare to be positively besotted. It's Halloween at Vertically Unstable, and subtlety was never invited.

Because life is too short to be underdressed, under-decorated or anything less than entirely yourself.

We thought we were going to talk about falling apart. Instead, we covered Botox, bad backs, disappearing eyelashes, a $3,000 accidental purchase, a microwave repairman who accidentally became our therapist, and why pickleball may be the final straw for our aging bodies.

Welcome to midlife, where everything hurts, nothing works, and maintaining your appearance has somehow become a full-time job with a luxury-car budget. We're comparing our bodies to Range Rovers with check engine lights, debating whether one expired condiment invalidates an entire refrigerator, and asking the important questions, like why does getting out of bed require a strategic plan?

Plus, embarrassing injuries, household chore politics, the indignity of being told you look tired, and Christy's journey to becoming Dolly Parton for Halloween.

The truth? Sometimes your body, your house, your hormones, and your entire life seem to break at the same time. You can cry about it, or you can laugh until you need a chiropractor.

You're still hot. You're just temporarily under repairs.

Tell us: what body part betrayed you this week?

Welcome to Vertically Unstable. Follow, share, and come fall apart with us.

Fall is here, and apparently that means pumpkin spice, questionable fashion choices, preteen attitude, and absolutely no agreement on what makes a proper autumn.

Kelly and Christy attempt to talk about fall, but naturally get sidetracked by everything from pumpkin hummus and the horrors of sweaty gym faces to the great leggings-as-pants debate. Christy declares war on pumpkin, Kelly proposes turnip spice lattes, and together they tackle the real challenges of the season: dressing for wildly unpredictable weather, surviving kids' sports schedules, and trying to have a social life when everyone's calendar is booked until March.

Plus, there's the fine art of parenting a preteen, why all the fun should come without the responsibility, and a discussion of cuffing season that raises an important question: do you actually want a partner to hibernate with, or would you rather sleep alone in your own damn cave?

It's fall, y'all. Grab your cozy clothes, pour something delicious, and join us for another episode of Vertically Unstable, where the tangents are plentiful, the opinions are strong, and pumpkin spice is very much on trial.

We tried to make a serious episode about imposter syndrome.

We failed.

Spectacularly. 😂

In this episode of Vertically Unstable, Kelly and Christy attempt to unpack imposter syndrome, including why accomplished women can still feel like frauds, whether men experience it too, whether we ever actually age out of it, and what happens when your brain conveniently forgets every piece of evidence that proves you belong.

There are statistics. There are thoughtful questions. There are legitimate insights.

And then there are tangents, questionable preparation, wine, parenting stories, existential crises, and at least one moment where we realize we may be the least qualified people to host an episode about feeling unqualified.

In fact, by the end, Christy admits she has imposter syndrome about the imposter syndrome episode because she wasn't prepared enough for the topic she wanted to take seriously.

Which is honestly the most on-brand thing we've ever done.

So if you've ever walked into a room thinking, “Who the hell decided I was qualified to be here?” pull up a chair.

Apparently, neither did we.

Come for the imposter syndrome research. Stay for the extremely qualified demonstration of it.

Competitive sports will teach your kids discipline, resilience, teamwork and how to lose their shit when the ref makes a bad call. And apparently, it teaches the parents a few things too.

Kelly and Christy are joined by writer, artist, advertising powerhouse and mom of three boys, Julia Melle, for a very honest conversation about raising competitive athletes. They get into the fine line between supporting your kid and becoming the parent everyone hopes won't sit next to them, why no referee has ever overturned a call because you yelled louder, and the difference between cheering, coaching and quietly talking shit to yourself on the sidelines.

They also talk about knowing when you're investing in your kid's dream versus your own, the realities of college recruiting, using your professional skills to become a full-on momager, the pressure and opportunities of playing college sports, injuries and recovery, and why sometimes the best thing you can give an athlete is a little space after the game.

Plus: sports parents by sport, booming dads, secret sideline signals, cowbells, bleach bottles, questionable hydration, the emotional trauma of lacrosse rules, and why every sports parent eventually needs to find their people.

Because you're not just raising an athlete. You're raising a human who has to learn how to compete, lose, recover, lead, make decisions and eventually tell you to shut the fuck up from the field.

And yes, Julia still recommends a Blow Pop for the sideline.

After two divorces from the SAME MAN, Christy is back in the dating pool and asking the question nobody warned her about: Do I actually want a husband, or do I just want a man who makes my life better?

Kelly is happily remarried, but she has opinions. Together, they get brutally honest about dating apps, questionable profile pictures, wildly inappropriate messages, chemistry, marriage, independence, and the difference between a partner and a full-grown adult you somehow ended up parenting.

Christy wants a life partner. She just isn't sure she wants the legal paperwork, the merged identities, or another person adding to her already-full plate.

They get into the red flags we've ignored, the green flags we've overvalued, why chemistry matters, why your man's ability to make coffee might actually be hotter than his abs, and why a long history of friendships may tell you more about a person than their carefully curated dating profile ever will.

Because at this age, we're not looking for someone to complete us.

We're looking for someone who already has their own damn life, makes ours better, and doesn't need a tutorial on how to operate a washing machine.

Man, not roommate. Partner, not project.

We came to talk about memory. We think.

What happens instead? Poop. Vegas. Backstreet Boys. Body image. Cocktails on work calls. Nails. AI warning labels. Movies. Music. Monday-morning brain fog. Taylor Swift’s wedding dress. Ear infections. Party planning. Ted Lasso. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, we remember we were actually supposed to be talking about memory.

This episode is a pretty perfect demonstration of the problem we’re trying to solve: why can we remember the lyrics to a song from 1998 but forget why we walked into the kitchen 30 seconds ago? Why can some of us recall an obscure movie scene from 25 years ago in stunning detail while completely losing track of what happened last Tuesday? And why does Monday morning appear to delete approximately 40% of our brain capacity?

Kelly and Christy dig into selective memory, ADHD, the weird things our brains choose to store, why music and movies seem to stick, and the systems we create to compensate for the things we absolutely cannot remember.

We also wander spectacularly far off topic. So basically... we proved our own point.

🎙️ Welcome to Vertically Unstable.

Apparently adulthood is just one giant operations department and nobody bothered to tell us there would be this much fucking logistics.

Kelly is back after a 40-hour cross-country drive, hauling her daughter's life from California to Canada while her husband somehow managed to drive across the U.S. twice. Christy has returned from a "vacation" with the kids in Florida and is now running on approximately three minutes of sleep while everyone panics about back-to-school.

We catch up on the chaos of summer: road trips, moving across borders, 127-degree heat, questionable McDonald's decisions, Austin work trips, loud restaurants, car sickness, cocktails, tater tots, and the eternal question of why nobody can just make a normal French fry.

Then there's the emotional stuff. Christy's kids are heading back to school, complete with middle-school anxiety, team assignments that apparently determine the fate of civilization, and approximately 47 back-to-school events. Meanwhile, Kelly is saying goodbye to California and trying to emotionally prepare for a new chapter in Washington that she hasn't even experienced yet.

Because apparently in midlife, you're simultaneously managing everyone else's logistics while wondering where the hell your own life went.

So grab your Diet Coke, wine, or whatever beverage is getting you through the week. We're catching up, oversharing, judging French fries, and trying to figure out what the hell we're doing.

Welcome to Vertically Unstable. 💋

What would happen if two slightly unhinged Gen X women suddenly had unlimited money?

Spoiler alert: We'd become completely unbearable... and we'd love every second of it.

In this episode, Kelly and Christy dive headfirst into the fantasy of "stupid rich" life. Not regular rich. We're talking private jet, glam squad, house manager, personal chef, yacht, sports suites, custom pajamas, and someone whose full-time job is making sure your Diet Coke magically appears exactly when you want it.

From debating whether we'd own a yacht or charter one, to hiring assistants for our assistants, building art galleries, rescuing donkeys, buying entire wardrobes without repeating an outfit, and planning philanthropic world domination... absolutely nothing is off limits.

Along the way we also ask the important questions:

• Would money actually change us?
• Would we become completely insufferable?
• How many luxury homes is too many?
• And why do rich people somehow get everything for free?

Expect plenty of laughs, ridiculous hypotheticals, a few unexpectedly wholesome moments, and the realization that while we'd definitely become bougier... we'd still be the same sarcastic women underneath it all.

🎙️ Grab a drink, suspend reality for an hour, and come imagine the most gloriously over-the-top version of life with us.

Because if we ever hit the lottery... our friends are getting on the private jet whether they like it or not.