Chelsea had a full-body panic attack on a Chicago bus commute home. Not because something was wrong — because everything was fine. Stable job, great coworkers, paycheck, health insurance. And that's what terrified her. This was going to be the rest of her life. Ten days of PTO a year. Forever.

Until she couldn't anymore.

She quit the job, moved to Australia, started living like the movie credits were about to roll. She started asking: “if I'm going to die someday and watch my life flash before my eyes, is this movie good enough?” And more importantly: “What will people say about me when I'm an angel flying around?”

Now, Chelsea Riffe is a cultural philosopher, pitch coach, and host of In My Non-Expert Opinion, a Top 1% podcast obsessed with the bigger questions: what's this all FOR? She lives like the movie credits are about to roll. She asks "what will they say about me when I'm an angel flying around?" And she recently decided she might become an actress because why the fuck not.

This conversation is about reclaiming the parts of yourself you've been told are "too much." It's about the deathbed practice — living like you're watching your life flash before your eyes and asking if the movie is good enough. It's about manufacturing luck, shooting your shot, and finally admitting: you want to be the main character. And you're allowed.

We dive into:

• The bus breakdown that changed everything — realizing "this is my life forever" and deciding it absolutely could not be
• How Chelsea was supposed to be a twin (and what the psychic told her mom about why he chose to go back)
• The deathbed practice: living like you're watching your life flash before your eyes and asking "is this movie good enough?"
• Love, safety, and belonging as the three core human needs — and why we conform to get them (even when it kills us)
• The lighthouse metaphor and why Ashley was told to never jump in the water
• "Curiosity might be what kills the cat, but curiosity is also the reason it has nine lives"
• How Heated Rivalry (yes, the book) gave Chelsea permission to be enthusiastically, intensely herself again
• Friends as books on a bookshelf — some you're reading right now, some live in the top corner you haven't touched in years

Connect with Chelsea Riffe:

Instagram: @chelseariffeWebsite: chelseariffe.com

Listen to Chelsea:

• Notes From the New World Podcast
• The Art of the Ask Podcast

Work with Chelsea:

• SUPERNOVA: The room to develop your school of thought through philosophical conversation, synthesis, and making meaning of everything that interests you
• Pitch Perfect (Spring 2026 | Doors open through May 8th): The Visibility Glow-Up for Deep Thinkers, Creators, and Multi-Hyphenates readyto enter new rooms, stand on bigger stages and shape culture through their message.

About Chelsea:

Chelsea Riffe is the host of the hit podcast Notes From the New World, a Top 1% show known for asking the bigger questions around the cultural zeitgeist, our inner worlds, and what's this all FOR? She's a Cultural Philosopher, obsessed with understanding how we think, and how seemingly unrelated things relate HARD (her favorite threads to pull are how reality TV is the ultimate mirror for our psyches—don't get her started).

She closed her books for the first time in nine years. Not because she had to, but because her Higher Self was screaming that it was time. Full availability suddenly gone, just space to write and dissolve and rebuild. This is what it looks like when you Feng Shui your entire life so the next version of you has room to breathe.

Kate Van Horn is a tarot reader, spiritual mentor, Feng Shui consultant, and author of The Inner Tarot. She's in her cocoon phase right now — that primordial goo moment where you dissolve everything you've been so something truer can emerge. And in this conversation with Ashley, she's sharing what it actually means to create a home that matches the frequency of who you're becoming.

This isn't about minimalism or perfection. It's about curating a space where your Higher Self feels so at home that she can guide you to paths you don't even see yet. It's about turning your apartment into a sanctuary, your routine into ritual, and your stuff into a conversation with the life you're calling in.

We dive into:

• Why Kate intentionally closed her books for readings for the first time in 9 years (and what emerged in that space)
• Feng Shui as energy architecture: making sure your manifestations can move through your space as easily as your body can
• "Would your higher self still own this?" as the decluttering filter that changes everything
• The waffle maker story and why Sunday rituals become sacred without you even trying
• Belonging as being in a state of longing — you know something belongs to you when you yearn for it
• Finding your signatures: the same cleanser for 7 years, the red dress you bought before you were ready, expired pantry goods feeding you less life force
• Creating a home that holds both your hunger for more and your need for sanctuary — how to nest when you're someone who always wants the next thing

This episode is for:

• The ones ready to Feng Shui their entire life so their higher self has room to move
• The ones who've been in the same chapter for years and can feel the expiration date approaching (and are ready to honor it)
• The ones living in temporary spaces but ready to make them feel like home anyway
• The ones whose higher self keeps whispering "slow down" and are finally ready to listen
• The ones who find meaning in everything and want to learn how to love fewer things more intentionally
• The ones ready to turn their space into a reflection of who they're becoming, not who they've been
• The ones who know they're ready to nest, to claim sanctuary, to build a home their future self will walk into and say "thank god I'm here"

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Connect with Kate Van Horn:

Instagram: @kate.van.hornTikTok: @kate.vanhornSubstack: Intuitive Living

Work with Kate:

• Book a Reading
• Home Energy Blueprint

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About Kate:

Kate Van Horn is an intuitive reader, author, and sacred space consultant focused on the relationship between people and the spaces they inhabit. Her work sits at the intersection of intuition, creativity, and the home as a living, responsive system. She's moved more than twenty times as an adult, and those transitions deeply shaped her understanding of space as something that mirrors, supports, and sometimes challenges us. Alongside that, she's been practicing intuitive work for over a decade, blending psychic perception with grounded tools like Feng Shui, ritual, and somatic awareness. Writing has always been part of her path — she's the author of The Inner Tarot and currently working on her second book, which explores the home as a healing and co-creative force.

I used to think I was broken.

Not in a dramatic way — more in a quiet, maddening way. Like, why do I keep ending up here? Different year, different person, different city — same feeling. Same pattern. Same crash out.

And then I heard a quote by Carl Jung that changed everything: "Until you make your unconscious conscious, it will rule your life and you will call it fate."

That was the moment I stopped calling it fate and started calling it what it actually was — a cycle I didn't know I was in.

The Cycle of Transformation is a framework I discovered three years ago when my neurodivergent pattern-matching brain started seeing the same four stages echoed literally everywhere — in the phases of the moon, the seasons, the butterfly's metamorphosis, the menstrual cycle, ancient archetypes, numerology. When something shows up that many times across that many different systems, that's not coincidence. That's truth.

And when you know which stage you're in? You stop white-knuckling through your life and start actually living it.

Go with the flow? Duh, bestie. You've got your intuition, the tool you need to navigate it.

We're diving into:

• The four stages of the Cycle of Transformation — the Void, the Growth, the Peak, and the Learning — and what each one actually feels like from the inside
• Why the ancient Greek word for butterfly is psyche — which also means soul — and what that tells us about why we're here
• The difference between looping and spiraling, and how intention and intuition are what turn one into the other
• Where I am right now in my own cycle across love, money, business, and my move to New York — and how I'm using this framework to break patterns I've been stuck in for years
• How to figure out what stage you're in and what to do once you know
• Why surrender actually speeds everything up

This episode is for you if:

You're tired of feeling like life is happening to you. You keep ending up in the same situation with different people and different circumstances and you cannot figure out why. You want a framework that gives you clarity without taking away the mystery. You're ready to stop calling it fate and start calling it what it is — a cycle you can finally work with.

The next cohort of Metamorphosis — the six-step process to go from being your own #1 hater to your very best friend in just 12-weeks— begins March 17th. DM me or email me at ashley@ashleybjones.com if you want in.

A Rotten Fridge, Clogged Pipes, and My Initiation into New York City

I five months in near-total silence on my grandparents' home in Topeka, Kansas trusting myself and embracing the quiet nothingness of the in-between. After being sent a blaring sign from The Universe that it was time to leave Denver and move to New York City, I knew I needed to deepen my relationship to myself and nervous system before I did. Then, it was time. Every step of the process of finding a new apartment and planning my trip across the country, I checked-in with my body and waited until it felt warm, light, and gooey before I said yes.

And then I pulled up to my new Brooklyn apartment, walked through the door, and the place was trashed. Literally.

This is my first ever solo episode. I'm pulling back the curtain on the last year of my life. The breakup that broke seriously engrained pattern. The profound boredom that cracked everything open. The decision to stop running away from places and start walking intentionally toward them. And what it actually means to be in the egg phase of the cycle of transformation instead of the cocoon — because they are not the same thing, and the distinction changes everything.

In today’s episode, we’ll dive into:

• The "What Would My Favorite Self Do?" experiment that started as a response to a breakup and became a complete life overhaul
• Why I went to Kansas before I went to New York — and why that was never the consolation prize
• The four stages of the transformation cycle and how they map onto the lunar cycle, the seasons, the menstrual cycle, and the butterfly
• What the void actually feels like from the inside (hint: 50 shades of gray, not in the fun way... but also kind of in the fun way)
• The difference between running away from a place and intentionally walking toward one
• How a rotten fridge, three plumbers, and six hours with Kevin became a spiritual initiation
• What it means to check your body for a "yes" — and what warm, light, and gooey actually feels like
• Why my inner child panicked when I crossed back into New York — and how I handled it
• The ventilator metaphor — and what it actually costs to take yourself off life support
• Saturn into Aries, synchronicities in the street, and the weekend that made the decision for me
• Why talking about the move would have taken me out of it — and what I chose instead
• The caterpillar phase: what it looks like to consume, grow, and stretch without ripping
• How Magnetic Habits Bingo kept me grounded through 305 days of complete upheaval

This episode is for:

• The ones who are mid-void and needed someone to tell them what's actually happening
• The ones who have run away from every place they've ever lived and are starting to wonder if it's them
• The ones whose body is screaming "not like this, not this fast" even when the decision is right
• The ones who have been calling it "the cocoon" when really they've been in the egg this whole time
• The ones whose external world is currently a complete disaster and are desperately trying to find the metaphor
• The ones who are ready to stop settling for relationships and cities and versions of themselves they've already outgrown
• The ones who want permission to do the big thing slowly
• And anyone who’s nosy and just wants to know why I went dark for 3+ weeks on social media

Ready to go through your own transformation?

The waitlist for Metamorphosis — my 12-week group immersion for self-alchemy — is now open! Over three-months starting in March, you'll meet and build unbreakable self-loyalty with your Inner Self, Younger Self, Shadow Self, Higher Self, and Future Self (and Spirit Guides) so you can stop suffering your own worst enemy and start thriving as your own best friend. There are only 13 spots. Want in?

Join the waitlist here: ashleybyjones.com/metamorphosisOr DM me directly to learn more.

Wanna come yap with me about the cycle of transformation or moving insanity?Instagram: @ashley.b.jonesWebsite: ashleybyjones.com

What if play isn't just for kids? What if it's the practice that keeps you tethered to yourself when everything falls apart?

Rachael Renae spent over a decade as a civil engineer, building what looked like a stable life while her creative soul screamed to get out. Then her dad got sick. She moved home. He passed away six months later. And suddenly, she couldn't fake it anymore. So, she quit her corporate job, started making weird paper mache sculptures taller than herself, and discovered that play isn't optional when everything falls apart — it's survival.

This conversation is about what happens when grief cracks you open and, instead of trying to put yourself back together the same way, you let yourself become something new.

We dive into:

• Why matching your mug to your outfit is an act of survival during hard times
• Play and creativity as a tether to your authentic self when everything else is falling apart
• How grief expands your capacity for joy (not just pain)
• The spell book her mom found and the shame of having your creativity discovered
• Closing her stationery business because monetizing joy killed the magic
• Being terrible at stained glass and why that's perfect information
• Jealousy as a roadmap to what you actually want
• Why creativity is human nature—from field hollers to concentration camp art
• Naming your inner child and becoming your own best friend
• Building trust with yourself through tiny daily choices that compound
• "It should feel like the book"—her framework for relationships that feel resistance-free
• The difference between making art to sell vs. making art because you're obsessed

This episode is for: anyone navigating grief or loss, people who dismiss play as frivolous, burnt-out corporate workers who feel that crunchy agitation of "something's not right," anyone who thinks they're "not creative," the ones who need permission to be gloriously bad at things, anyone protecting their joy from monetization, people rebuilding their life from scratch and terrified they're doing it wrong.

Free resources from Rachael:

• Silly Questions for Creative Connection - Deepen your relationships through play
• 80+ Play Ideas + Exercise - Discover your version of play

Rachael's book Paradise Play comes out June 2026

The Juice Box community: Rachael's year-long creative container where you pick a play priority each season and actually follow through. Opens for new members April 2026.

Where to find Rachael:Instagram: @rachael.renae Website: rachaelrenae.com

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Rachael Renae is an artist and creativity hype gal! I help creatives use play as a tool to overcoming blocks, connecting with themselves, and living their big, juicy lives!

The Power of Ravishing The F*ck Out of Your Life with Giana Cerasia

What if shadow work isn't about digging through your trauma—but about throwing the most exquisite dinner party for every version of yourself you've been taught to exile?

Giana Cerasia has been a lot of things: a Title I teacher with 150 students a day, a prison reformer, a government lobbyist fighting for educational equity, a CrossFit athlete, a 4th generation Italian witch. She's also someone who brought her husband AND their girlfriend home to her mom's house for the holidays—and sat in the discomfort while her family spun out. Because Giana knows something most of us are terrified to accept: wholeness doesn't come from fixing your broken parts. It comes from learning to ravish them.

This conversation isn't about healing in the "love and light" way. It's about getting feral with your shadows, sitting in discomfort until you find play on the other side, and refusing to collapse yourself into a single story just to belong.

In today’s salacious convo, we dive into:

• What shadow work actually is (spoiler: not rehashing trauma),
• the half-closed loops we carry and why they keep us stuck,
• how sitting in discomfort creates intimacy,
• why the opposite of trauma is play,
• loving the good girl and the control freak instead of exiling them,
• bringing your husband and girlfriend home to your mom's house,
• and the one exercise you can do right now with the person who pisses you off most.

This episode is for:

• anyone exhausted from trying to "fix" themselves,
• chronic people-pleasers managing everyone else's feelings,
• humans who've been taught to pick one identity but know they're multifaceted as fuck (the ones ready to stop performing and start ravishing),
• women hungry to descend into shadow and alchemize it into power.

Where you can hang out with Giana:Instagram: @giana.cerasia | Podcast: Kitchen Table Sauce | Substack: Giana's Substack | Free Monthly Women's Circle: Sign up here

Giana is launching her Apprenticeship in Depth, Paradox and Power - a 7-month journey (starting in April, ending in Scorpio season) where you'll play, dig, and experiment your way into ravishing your life. Join the waitlist at her Instagram or website.

About Giana:Giana Cerasia is a strategist, coach, and modern-day medicine woman for people who refuse to live half a life. She's obsessed with complexity—how we hold contradiction, inhabit our bodies, and stop collapsing into binaries in cultures addicted to simplicity. She's been many things: teacher, prison reformer, lobbyist, athlete, corporate executive, coach, and a 4th generation Strega. Each bearing the same lesson—simplification of identity is seductive, but wholeness lives in the mess. Today, she runs Ravish where she works with women hungry to descend into shadow, tend their paradox, and alchemize it into power, creativity, and embodied leadership. She also runs And/Also, a business strategy studio, and hosts free monthly community spaces for women.

What does it take to completely blow up your entire life and hit the hard reset button?

Well, my friend Edila has done it MULTIPLE times. A couple years ago, she sold everything she owned (literally gave her furniture away to people on her apartment floor), bought a one-way ticket to Mexico, and hasn't looked back in four years. She's traveled and worked across 15+ countries, rebuilt her business from scratch, and discovered versions of herself she didn't know existed. Recently, she burned her design business to the ground and is starting over again because she knows she can.

Now, today’s convo isn't a "quit your job and travel the world" fantasy. We get into environmental disruption and how to intentionally putting yourself in uncomfortable situations to meet different parts of yourself, confront your biases, and figure out what you're actually capable of.

In our convo, we explore: the screaming sensation that tells you it's time to leave, burning down what no longer serves you, traveling slow vs fast (and why slow wins), creating structure within chaos, confronting unconscious biases, why fun isn't unproductive, and building IRL community in a world that wants to keep us behind screens.

This episode is for: anyone who feels trapped in their current life, people who crave change but don't know how to start, digital nomads or aspiring travelers, anyone ready to prioritize pleasure and fun, the ones who want their dreams to be louder than their doubts.

Join Edila in Portugal (June 2026): The Link Up is where internet friends become IRL soulmates. No worksheets, no business talk, no goal-setting sessions. Just real-time connection that reminds you why you chose this life. Save $700 until February 1st

Where you can hang out with Edila: Instagram | Threads | Website

Edila Stace-Smith is an IRL experience curator, business mentor, and remote life educator for the ones in motion — creatives, coaches, and entrepreneurs who've outgrown the version of their business (and life) that once fit, and are ready to build from who they're becoming. Having traveled and worked across 15+ countries the past four years, her work lives at the intersection of disrupting your environment often, prioritizing pleasure and fun above all, and letting your dreams be louder than your doubts — so you can create a life and business that's by design and wildly epic.

Someone cast a spell on Heated Rivalry. There's no other explanation.

My friend KP and I are backkkk for round two of what is now our (and your) emotional support group. It's been a month since we first watched the show, and instead of subsiding, the possession and obsession has simply only gotten worse. I'm glued to my phone. My entire feed is Heated Rivalry. Anderson Cooper is talking about it on New Year's Eve. Brandi Carlile is gobsmacked. It’s hit mainstream news.

And we're still at the cottage. Literally cannot leave.

It’s why KP and I are back for round 2. This time we're deep diving into two main topics.

1. What happens when you take a collective psychosis moment and actually translate it into your real life?
2. How do you become the art you love instead of just consuming it?

In today's episode, we chit and chat about: spell casting and artistic intention, confessing our phone addictions, how to use social media as a tool instead of a world, failure tolerance and rejection, the Magician as the horniest tarot card (we're serious), and setting 2026 intentions that actually make you feel alive.

This episode is perfect for: anyone still in the trenches, people struggling with phone addiction, anyone who wants to stop consuming and start creating, the freaks who are ready to make their life the spell.

Spoiler warning: We discuss the Quinn audios and Heated Rivalry post-episode 6.

Let KP build your editorial content world: https://www.jupitercontent.co/

Where you can keep hanging out with KP: Instagram | Threads | Substack

Join Ashley's Magnetic Habit Bingo 101 (starts January 12): Sign up here

KP is an editorial content strategist hell-bent on ensuring the weirdos inherit the earth by taking up more space online. They believe liberation is for all, capitalism sucks, and only we can save us. When you show up as your weirdest, wackiest self online, it's easier to make money, build community, and have fun with it. KP is a 30-year-old Pisces sun, Aquarius rising, married queer person who loves talking about social media, gender, and why being a little freak is actually revolutionary practice.