A Tall Boy and a Pack of Smokes

Spill your ReligiosiTea directly with the show host! Let us know your reactions, stories, and more!Content Note:This episode touches on mental health, religious disaffiliation, family stress, and folk healing practices, including a brief discussion of an attempted exorcism.Ever wonder what happens when a devout Catholic upbringing meets a restless, science-first mind? In this episode, we sit down with Isela—a self-described fronteriza raised in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands—to talk about stepping away from church, finding grounding through therapy, and what “spiritual health” can look like when you don’t subscribe to a single creed. The conversation moves easily from holiday foods and Guadalupe processions to panic attacks, somatic stress, and the quiet relief of letting go of religious guilt without letting go of cultural roots.Isela shares stories from a goth adolescence, her parents’ separation, and a moment of family crisis that led her mother to seek help from a folk healer in the hills of Juárez. What followed wasn’t a dramatic exorcism, but something far more ordinary: limpias, tarot cards, incense and herbs—and payment in cigarettes and a tall beer. Years later, a card reading from that visit would map uncannily onto Isela’s shift away from bench science and toward public health and community work.Together, we talk about agnosticism as a posture of curiosity rather than certainty, how to respect personal experience without turning it into doctrine, and why cultural humility matters when engaging spiritual practices that don’t belong to us. We also get practical—what well-being looks like when mental, physical, and financial health are all in play, how chronic stress shows up in the body, and why therapy, grounding skills, and safe relationships can matter as much as any ritual.If you’re reevaluating faith, sitting with doubt, or figuring out where science and spirit meet in your own life, this conversation offers clarity without clichés—and permission to keep asking better questions.If this episode resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.Follow me on Instagram and Threads: @ReligiosiTeaYou can use the link at the top of the show notes or email me at [email protected] to share your stories, thoughts, insights, reactions, and much more! I'm waiting for you to spill your ReligiosiTea!