Sandra and Ashley, both raised Catholic and both long gone, get into Welcome to Plathville, Death of a Pastor’s Wife, and how religion keeps ending up as a way to control women. Ashley also coins “autistic for God,” and Sandra talks about how she DNF’d the Bible.

Content note: this episode is about religion, specifically Christianity, from the perspective of two women who were raised Catholic and left the church. The critique is aimed at institutional religion and how it treats women, not at individual faith, and there’s no room here for anti-Semitic or Islamophobic commentary. If this one’s too personal, skip it with no judgment.

Links and Resources Mentioned:

@alexandrthecity on TikTok (the Holy Biblay book club series): https://www.tiktok.com/@alexandrthecity

What Happened This Episode:

• 0:00 — Content note
• 1:08 — Spooky season decorating and “house beauty is pain”
• 5:26 — Telling people you found Jesus vs. telling people you have a podcast
• 16:15 — Welcome to Plathville, deconstructing, and patriarchy in the church
• 29:52 — “Autistic for God” and growing up Catholic
• 39:21 — Why they left, and the world religions class
• 51:45 — Death of a Pastor’s Wife
• 1:02:09 — DNF’ing the Bible
• 1:07:05 — Religion, control, and shame
• 1:22:02 — Mormon Wives updates and a podcast check-in

Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review on your favourite podcast platform! And come hang out on social media, @unwell_actually ✌🏻✌🏽

Ashley's been flattened by a month-long flare and Sandra's a year and a half post-hysterectomy and still figuring out what her body's telling her, so this one goes deep on chronic illness — the self-blame spiral, the grief nobody warns you about, and a Threads argument they stumbled on about disability gatekeeping that neither of them can stop thinking about. Also: Lacey from The Valley is their new best friend now, whether she knows it or not.

What Happened This Episode:

• 0:00 — The dump truck month, and the Threads post that named the feeling
• 3:54 — Dancing, bodies, and the grief chronic illness leaves behind
• 14:21 — Small talk is a lie, and the pain-free day thought experiment
• 25:13 — The cane discourse they found on Threads: who gets to be disabled enough
• 29:56 — The OnlyFans hair pivot
• 33:33 — Parenting through a flare, and twenty-two years to a diagnosis
• 45:29 — Miss Pat's butler and Lacey from The Valley
• 51:33 — The hysterectomy decision and the kissing ovaries fertility surgery story
• 1:10:15 — ARFID, food textures, and the foods that make them gag
• 1:13:02 — A hard day and a big apology

Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review on your favourite podcast platform! And come hang out on social media, @unwell_actually ✌🏻✌🏽

Sandra and Ashley kick off with a parenting exercise that accidentally turns into a childhood trauma audit, then dig into House of Stassi's messiest dynamics, Ashley's accidental Threads main-character moment over a bow on underwear, and what actually counts as "frivolous.”

What Happened This Episode:

• 0:00 — The Circle of Security parenting exercise, and what their results revealed about how they were each raised
• 4:00 — Show updates: individual Instagram profiles are live
• 8:00 — House of Stassi premiere: the Canadian release schedule rant, Katie's redemption arc, Bo and his sister's boundary-free dynamic, and the casting-couch red flag theory
• 25:00 — Women succeeding by embodying the patriarchy, from Bo-as-stay-at-home-dad to JLo and Shakira's Super Bowl documentary
• 31:00 — Bowgate: Ashley's Threads post about bows on women's underwear goes viral for all the wrong reasons
• 50:00 — What actually counts as "frivolous," capitalism vs. patriarchy, and pre-cut fruit as a neurodivergence accommodation
• 56:00 — Ice cream confessions and the brother-husbands theory
• 1:03:00 — Am I the Asshole segment teased, plus the great "what color is August" debate
• 1:07:00 — Catholic school flashbacks: color-coded subjects and the one world religion class they were allowed to take
• 1:10:00 — Wrap-up and where to find them

Links and Resources Mentioned:

• Circle of Security — free parenting counseling program through the hospital, mentioned by Ashley (Canadian listeners) — https://www.parentresource.ca/circle-of-security-parenting-group

Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review on your favourite podcast platform! And come hang out on social media, @unwell_actually ✨✌🏻✌🏽