"beyond all polarities - i am."
Figuring Sh!t Out - A Living Archive of Being & Becoming
Hosted, created, and produced by Vanessa Fontana from her own coming-of-age in New York City, Figuring Sh!t Out began as a personal experiment in honesty: an attempt to give language to the chaos of survival, healing, and self-discovery.
What started in her bedroom quickly grew into a platform that resonated with a generation navigating the complexities of adulthood, spirituality, and creative living.
IN WHAT WAYS ARE YOU STILL
FIGURING SH!T OUT?
From Survival to Self-Expression
Vanessa’s story is rooted in resilience and reclamation. Growing up in chaos, she learned to survive by hiding her truest self and chasing achievement as a safety net. She graduated college early, landed her dream corporate job, and moved to New York City - only to find that success without alignment felt hollow. Even as she checked every box, she remained stuck in patterns of disconnection and survival.
Her turning point came through healing and creativity: EMDR therapy, somatic work, and inner child healing cracked something open. A creative awakening demanded expression - and with it, Figuring Sh!t Out was born in April of 2023. The podcast quickly became not only her outlet, but a mirror and a movement for thousands who resonated with its raw honesty.
Within its first year, Figuring Sh!t Out reached over 200,000 downloads and streamed globally in 124 countries. Listeners resonated deeply with Vanessa’s raw honesty, poetic storytelling, and ability to bridge spirituality, healing, and lived experience. The show became a mirror for thousands navigating the messy, beautiful process of becoming.
Leap and the Net will Appear?
By the end of 2024, as Figuring Sh!t Out continued to grow alongside Vanessa's inner growth, she reached a quiet but undeniable realization: she had outgrown this life of survival, hustle, and living every day as if it was a means to an end. On paper, she had done everything “right.” A thriving career in tech and AI. The polished calendar. The side projects squeezed into the margins. But inside, she felt disconnected, a quiet ache tugging at her to live more honestly, more creatively, more fully.
So, the road less traveled began. She left her corporate job, traveled to Bali to deepen her study of yoga, spirituality, and somatics, and gave herself permission to live the questions that had been calling her.
This leap became the foundation for The Road Less Traveled, season 3 of FSO and her signature 5-week community journey designed for those who feel that same pull.
The Road Less Traveled
Since its creation, The Road Less Traveled program has been run live through three powerful cohorts, guiding dozens of participants through transformation. Now, it is evolving into an accessible community platform where this growing circle of “Travelers” can connect, share, and weave together - extending the journey beyond a single program into an ongoing space of clarity, creativity, and courage.
Blending deep inner work with tangible outer action, The Road Less Traveled combines subconscious rewiring, somatic practice, yogic wisdom, creativity, internal family systems, and community-powered transformation. Each journey unfolds through themes like presence, creativity, fear, and surrender, grounding these concepts in both the body and lived experience. With live workshops, guided meditations, exclusive podcast teachings, and collective support, it offers the bridge between fear and freedom, confusion and clarity, survival and self-expression.
For those who feel stuck in patterns of survival or caught between ambition and authenticity, this space becomes a mirror, a catalyst, and a homecoming. It is the exact framework Vanessa wished she had during her own leap - the bridge between fear and freedom, confusion and clarity, survival and self-expression.
Walking the Path
Beyond the program & community, Vanessa now guides breathwork and meditation classes and holds creativity & connection workshops in New York City while continuing to host and produce Figuring Sh!t Out, write new works, and create art that reflects the messy, beautiful process of becoming.
Now entering its fourth season, Figuring Sh!t Out has grown into a top 5% global podcast, reaching tens of thousands of listeners each month across 124 countries. What began as Vanessa’s personal experiment in honesty has become a living archive of being and becoming - a space where spirituality, healing, and creativity meet real life.
As both a podcast and a movement, Figuring Sh!t Out continues to evolve: into community, workshops, live events, and new ways of weaving people together in the art of courageous living.
