What happens when you stop performing the version of yourself that other people approved of?

Angelica Faith joins Tammy and Lori for a conversation about deconditioning: unlearning the shoulds, retiring the strong independent woman hat she has worn so long it fused to her, and getting radically honest about what actually lights her up.

She shares the download that told her to write a musical. She describes the moment on a coaching call when two halves of her life finally clicked into one, and the Broadway dream she had never told her closest friend about. And she says a sentence out loud for the first time in her life: good girls aren't angry.

Lori shares the message that came through in the bath. I am a powerful creator, divinely connected to the universe. She talks about pulling her energy out of frequencies that were feeding something she did not want to feed, and about two days on the floor with her grandbabies with the phone face down.

Tammy gets honest about living the dream she chased for ten years and still fighting guilt for not working. She talks about worthiness that is not earned. She talks about the three years she survived one AA meeting at a time.

It is a conversation about intuition, about receiving, and about the fact that not everything is meant to come with you. Letting go is allowed to be ugly.

Life is meant to be lived together. Your people are already waiting for you.

Content note: this episode includes honest discussion of depression, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts. If any of it lands close to home, please reach out to someone you trust or a local line. In the US, call or text 988.

New episodes weekly.

Angelica's contact: @angelicafaithllc

(00:00) Welcome to Episode 15

(01:38) Being honest without a title yet

(06:16) Retiring the strong independent hat

(08:13) Why The United States of Us

(11:07) What deconditioning is teaching her

(13:17) You are going to write a musical

(17:15) Two halves of her come back together

(19:43) I am a powerful creator

(22:32) Tammy's 2024 download: unity

(28:32) Enough room at the table

(34:52) Living the dream and feeling guilty

(37:13) I am not arriving

(44:07) Good girls aren't angry

(49:36) Tammy's three years in the dark

(56:13) Life is meant to be lived together

Nadja Marks-Shafton doesn't work for money. She works for God. And she says that's the actual source of abundance.

On this episode of the spiritual podcast The United States of Us, Tammy and Lori sit down with the award-winning artist, educator, and creative leadership mentor behind Casa Nadja and Free Art Skills. After two episodes on the Divine Masculine, this one brings it full circle with the Divine Feminine. Nadja shares the three stops of her virtual art school, the Krishna story that reframes surrender, why choosing purpose over money is the real abundance mindset, and how she teaches oil painting for beginners so complete non-artists go from blank canvas to a painting they'd hang on their wall in one month.

This conversation covers creativity and spirituality, art as healing, emotional expression, and leaving corporate America to build a life that fits like a glove. If you've ever said "I'm not an artist," this one's for you. Bring it. Put it on the altar.

Connect with Nadja:
Instagram: @CasaNadja
Art and gatherings: CasaNadja.com
Learn to paint free: FreeArtSkills.com

Timestamps:
(0:00) Welcome and Nadja's introduction
(1:34) A Leo birthday and shining the light
(5:16) Three stops on the train: skills, soul, and why
(10:33) Krishna and the bamboo flute
(13:00) Leaving corporate and the gilded prison of safety
(18:19) Squirrels over screens: choosing presence
(26:15) A system for creating anything from a blank canvas
(30:50) Turning a home into a permanent exhibition
(33:42) Emotions are fuel, not something to numb
(36:09) A life that fits like a glove
(39:37) Inside the Soul Journey: your inner visual language
(48:56) Bring it to the altar
(53:38) Where to find Nadja
(56:11) When a commission becomes a divine appointment
(59:06) The divine feminine is in you

Therapist, somatic practitioner, and 15-year Navy veteran Nick joins Tammy and Lori for an honest conversation about healing the whole person — body, mind, and spirit.

Nick shares the founding of Ronan Relief, his work bringing somatic and plant-medicine modalities to veterans, and his own reckoning with fear, anger, and sex addiction. Together they explore merging the divine masculine and feminine, retraining a nervous system built for combat, and the quiet ways TV, dopamine, and scrolling pull us out of the present. Lori offers a vulnerable reflection on the hidden forms of "porn" in everyday life, and the three land on the daily practices — meditation, gratitude, a non-inflammatory diet, and A Course in Miracles — that bring them back to love instead of fear.

A tender reminder that we came here to remember who we really are.

Note: This episode discusses trauma, addiction, and mental health. If you're struggling, please reach out to a qualified professional. In the US, dial or text 988 (Veterans press 1).

Find Nick here: https://www.roninrelief/projects/

00:00 Welcome & meet Nick

01:16 Nick's path: therapy, somatics & 15 years in the Navy

02:38 Healing the whole person & the documentary dream

04:36 Merging the divine masculine & feminine

05:57 Facing fear, anger & sex addiction honestly

07:14 Seeing the "wounded child" behind men's behavior

08:36 Safety, vulnerability & re-identifying with God

10:40 Why we made this podcast: unity over division

11:38 Matriarchy vs. merging — uplifting women

14:24 The military, PTSD & men's bottled-up emotions

16:13 Retraining the nervous system & alchemizing energy

17:44 Meditation as the daily foundation

19:04 Building the men's program from lived experience

22:01 Tracing addiction to its childhood root

23:12 Lori's confession: smut books are porn too

25:40 Dopamine, escalation & "feeding the machine"

27:21 When pleasure starts robbing the present moment

28:01 Sex & shame: Europe vs. America

31:25 Throwing out the TV & turning it into an altar

33:32 Subliminal messages & your subconscious operating system

36:05 Horror films: intentional vs. compulsive watching

39:36 "Tell-a-vision": co-creating what we consume

41:12 A Course in Miracles: ego, fear & surrender

47:18 Remembering we are spirit

48:46 Food as medicine: the body as temple

51:42 Releasing control & the urge to fix everyone

53:09 Closing gratitude & goodbyes

Ask a man how he's doing and you'll almost always hear "I'm good." But are we, really? In Episode 12, Tammy and Lori sit down with Norman Robinson — a leadership coach and therapist who's spent decades working with men — to talk about his new program helping men reconnect with their emotions, their relationships, and themselves.

We get into why men are taught to keep it all in, the difference between fixing and being present, the quiet power of asking for what you need, and what real leadership looks like at home. It's honest, warm, and full of wisdom — and it was Norman's first podcast ever.

0:00 Welcome to Episode 12

1:05 Meet Norman: 50 years in the room with men

2:10 "I'm good" — the lie almost every man tells

3:50 The word that broke him open: "neglect"

4:10 Inside the program: emotions, embodiment & the nervous system

8:45 "There's a lane for you": leading with inspiration

12:35 Why men are taught to shut down

15:15 Don't fix it — just be present

17:05 "I just need you to listen": Lori & her husband

22:10 Two timelines: choosing a different path

24:35 The marriage lesson: just ask

29:15 The 10 days a month men never knew about

32:40 "It gets to be easy": redefining leadership

36:55 How the world makes men look small

42:10 The crisis facing young men

44:05 Women, voice & the divine masculine

50:10 Tammy's story: making amends & breaking the cycle

56:05 Connection, disconnection & repair

59:59 Slow down — "the thing is not the thing"

1:02:10 Where to find Norman + goodbye

New episodes of The United States of Us every week. 💛

What happens when you finally stop replaying the story of what was done to you — and start asking what it's here to teach you?

In Episode 11 of The United States of Us, Tammy and Lori have one of their most honest conversations yet. It starts with a post called "The Victimhood Loop" and turns into something neither of them planned: a live, unscripted, and emotional exchange about a real moment when Lori felt "not chosen" — and how she moved through it instead of staying stuck in it.

Together they unpack why healing is a responsibility (not a fault), what forgiveness really means, and how the emotions we refuse to feel end up living in the body. Raw, tender, funny, and deeply human.

In this episode:

• The "victimhood loop" and how identity fuses with a wound
• Why what happened to you is not your fault, but healing from it is your responsibility
• Forgiveness that frees YOU — not the person who hurt you
• Lori's real, never-before-shared story about feeling left out before Tammy's move to Spain
• Perfectionism, unworthiness, and "earning" love
• How children process emotion — and what we unlearn as adults
• Feeling it to heal it: crying, screaming into a pillow, dancing, movement
• "The Body Keeps the Score" and how buried emotion becomes physical
• Giving yourself (and others) permission to be vulnerable

Mentioned in this episode:

• "The Victimhood Loop" — a post by Katherine Keeler
• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

Timestamps:

(00:00) Catching up & checking in

(02:00) Reading "The Victimhood Loop"

(06:00) Not your fault, but your responsibility

(10:00) Lori's story: feeling "not chosen"

(18:00) Taking your power back

(22:00) Perfectionism, unworthiness & earning love

(30:00) How children feel emotion — and what we unlearn

(36:00) Feeling it to heal it: tears, screaming, movement

(48:00) The body keeps the score

(58:00) Permission to be who you are — closing thoughts

New episodes weekly. If this one resonated, follow the show and share it with someone who needs to hear it today.

Some weeks the world moves so fast you lose track of what's real. This is one of those weeks.

This time it's just the two of us. Tammy and Lori, at the table, talking about what happens when the ground keeps shifting under your feet. Relationships that used to take years now start and end in months. People you trusted turn out to be someone else. Information comes at you from every direction and you can't always tell what's true. It can leave you ungrounded and doubting your own read on anyone.

So we talk about disillusionment. The kind that hits when you learn something that doesn't fit the picture you'd built of a person, or the story you were sold your whole life. We talk about the rot that's becoming visible right now. And we talk about why you can't heal a thing until you expose it to the air.

Lori shares the prayer she says to release what isn't hers. She tells the story of the 25-year secret she finally told her husband, and what happened when she did. Tammy talks about the grief that shows up without warning. About her mother. About carrying the belief that she was the burden who changed her mother's life.

Then we come back to the ground. Box breathing. Feeling your feet on the floor. Humming, and what it does to the vagus nerve. Turning the noise off. Small things that pull you out of the story in your head and back into the room you're standing in.

And we land on freedom. It's Independence Day week. It's the country's 250th. It's Hope's birthday. This year the word means something different to us. We are not waiting for a country or a system to hand us our freedom. Freedom is here. It's right here.

This one is for anyone who has seen the picture they trusted come apart, and had to find their own footing again.

New episodes of The United States of Us drop every week. Come sit with us.

(00:00) Welcome to Episode 10, and why the name matters (01:46) Bombarded with information: fear and propaganda (03:11) Relationships are speeding up (04:44) Disillusionment when people aren't who you thought (06:43) Our nervous systems were never built for this (09:39) "They" versus us: we are the co-creators (11:22) The rot was there the whole time, and why healing needs air (15:16) Everyone was doing their best: clean vessels and attachments (18:48) Releasing what isn't yours (20:28) Why we can't watch what we used to (24:43) The release prayer, spoken in full (27:44) We do not consent to this fuckery (29:11) Grief, consciousness, and a spiritual end of the world (32:02) Discernment and loving every version of yourself (34:32) When awakening strained a marriage: the secret she told (38:12) Soul contracts and unconditional love (40:43) Divorce is not a failure (42:47) Tammy's parents and the burden she carried (47:16) Redefining family, and the mothers who kept showing up (49:51) Coming back to the ground: breath and presence (53:11) More tools: meditation, humming, the vagus nerve (56:02) The future we're choosing: community and enough (59:49) Independence Day, the 250th, and freedom that's already here

Lis Doggett built a career she loved. Then something broke.

Tammy and Lori sit down with Lis Doggett, a purpose and leadership coach who spent more than 20 years helping people align who they are with what they do. Lis left the job she swore she would retire from. She walked her father home in his last years. And she came out the other side saying the thing most of us are afraid to say out loud. This is who I am now.

This episode goes underneath the work. It goes to the fear. It goes to the courage it takes to leave. It goes to the stories we tell ourselves to stay small.

The three of them trade the moments that cracked their old lives open. The 17-hour call weekends. The session that ended a corporate career. The 30 percent loan that became a line Lis would not cross. The bill collectors and the hat.

If you have ever told yourself it's fine, this one is for you. If you have ever dismissed your own instincts to keep the peace, this one is for you.

Lis launches her own podcast, Everybody Gets to Go, in July. We cannot wait.

Observe, don't absorb.

👉 Find out more about Lis and schedule a consult at www.hanaicareers.com!

Listen to The United States of Us wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every week.

(00:00) Welcome and meet Lis Doggett

(01:23) From Hawaii to the South, and walking her dad home

(04:47) It was never about the job

(05:56) If you think you're burned out, you already are

(07:19) Why Tammy left healthcare and moved abroad

(08:38) Lori walks away from corporate

(10:32) Letting go of the 8 to build the 10

(13:41) The two-year pause and the life algorithm

(15:25) The choice between work and a sick child

(16:54) You are replaceable, and that is freeing

(21:03) The energy bank

(24:47) I wasn't asking permission

(30:42) The lending job she walked away from

(33:17) Bankruptcy, divorce, and the hat

(35:20) The small cog and the decision to be small

(38:32) Changing the ecosystem of every room

(45:08) That day is today

(47:16) Observe, don't absorb

(51:27) Feeling everything as an empath

(52:44) Goodbyes

career burnout, leaving corporate, midlife reinvention, purpose coaching, authenticity at work, finding your purpose, women over 40, self worth, quitting your job, meaningful work, female friendship, identity

Jamey LeVier had his first drink at six years old. He spent the next four decades drinking. Then one morning at 4 AM he made himself a promise.

This week Tammy and Lori sit down with Jamey LeVier, the man behind Sober Man on a Mission. Jamey got sober without staying in the rooms and without accepting that his brain was broken for good. He built his own way out. He calls it seeing yourself as a person who doesn't drink. Not a person who can't. A person who doesn't.

We talk about the night everything turned. We talk about rehab and what it got right and what it got wrong. We talk about the identity shift that made sobriety stick. Lori shares her own story. Tammy shares hers, 32 years of it. Three people, three paths, one table.

Jamey built Sober Man on a Mission for the high-functioning man who looks successful from the outside and is fighting alcohol in private. He priced the whole program at 23 dollars on purpose. He is not doing it for the money. He is doing it for the man he used to be.

This one is for anyone who has made the 4 AM promise and watched their 5 PM brain break it.

Find Jamey: Sober Man on a Mission on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUBA7nczySdv2_cSDZHoDTg

0:00 Welcome to Episode 8 and meeting Jamey1:55 The first drink at six years old3:10 Sneaking it as a kid4:02 A conversion at football camp5:18 Faith on Sunday, beer at night6:09 Divorce, and meeting Jennifer7:30 The 4 AM promise9:20 Telling his son, then checking into rehab10:33 The message he refused to accept13:00 A text that confirmed the path14:22 Wayne Dyer and becoming a person who doesn't drink15:38 Four years, and the beer he let walk by16:39 When you commit, the universe meets you19:25 A foreigner in his own land20:12 Zero-alcohol beer as a tool24:16 Writing it down: the 7-day method25:36 Who Sober Man on a Mission is for28:38 The 4 AM promise and the 5 PM brain29:36 Lori's story33:14 Tammy's story: 32 years36:19 Every reality begins with a thought37:55 Staying in your lane, and the new world43:06 Why the program is only $2345:29 The mission over the metrics48:13 Closing thoughts and where to find Jamey50:42 The United States of all of usA note on keywords