⚠️ Content Note: This episode includes discussion of religious manipulation, abuse, and leaving high-control religious environments.

This week on The Awakening, Tamara and I sit down with Jen Smith — host of the Unholier Podcast — for a conversation that feels like sitting down with a friend who finally says the thing everyone else was too afraid to say out loud.

Jen's deconstruction story is one of survival. She navigated manipulation and abuse inside religious spaces, found her way out, and is now doing the slow, sacred work of figuring out what faith actually means to her on her own terms — outside the walls, outside the rules, outside the fear.

But Jen didn't just heal quietly. She picked up a microphone. The Unholier Podcast was born out of her own journey and her conviction that women need spaces where they can be honest, messy, and real with each other. We talk about what led her to start the show, what she hopes it does for the women who find it, and why community — real, honest, woman-centered community — is one of the most powerful tools for healing there is.

This conversation is warm, fierce, and full of the kind of honesty that makes you feel less alone.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• Jen's personal deconstruction story

• Manipulation and abuse inside religious spaces — and how she got out

• Rediscovering faith on her own terms

• The power of women coming together in honest community

• What led Jen to start the Unholier Podcast

• What she hopes her show does for the women who find it

Connect with Jen Smith & the Unholier Podcast:

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unholier_podcast

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@unholier_pod

Connect with Your Hosts:

Heather: https://linktr.ee/Happyheathersmiles

Tamara: TikTok @feralatheistjezebel321 | Instagram @tamarajo321

🎥 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAwakeningPodcast-w6s

📩 Be a guest: [email protected]

If you've ever sat in a room full of people who all agreed on the same thing and felt completely alone — this episode is for you. You are not too much. You are not too broken. And the women who have walked this road before you are holding the door open. You belong here.

If you like what you here, check out other great pods on the BIG Media LLC Podcast Network!

Barrett and Zac host The All About Nothing: Podcast, discussing everything from news and politics to entertainment and sports! All About Nothing, but All About Something too!

Zac and Barrett host What The Pod Was That with Cari Simmons, available everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Take a deep dive down the rabbit hole with Amii on the pod Welcome to Wonder Land.

Check out Black White and Blue In the South, With Dr. Jumelle Brooks and Bill Kimler!

Politically Speaking with Erica Sampson, Kirsten Pruitt, and Emily Mayer is a sharp, engaging podcast breaking down politics with insight, wit, and a fresh perspective.

The Preach Jacobs Podcast is hosted by Columbia South Carolina's very own Ambassador, Hiphop Artist, Columnist and Owner of SoulHAUS Art Gallery, Preach Jacobs!

All of these fantastic podcasts can be found on the BIG Media LLC Podcast Network!

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