Unqualified


Unqualified is an American advice podcast created and hosted by actress Anna Faris. The podcast consists of interviews with celebrities and cultural figures, followed by personal phone-calls to listeners asking for relationship and other advice. The episodes were also co-hosted by Faris's producer, Sim Sarna, until 2019.

Concept

Faris was inspired to create the podcast after listening to Serial. Explaining the evolution of the idea, she said:
I love to talk about relationships; that’s all I want to talk about with my friends. And then I just thought, I kind of want a hobby, since Chris has been shooting a lot. So I started asking around to some friends, and I asked this technical producer guy what equipment I should buy on Amazon. And I just started recording my friends when they would come over. And then with my dear friend Sim, we started flushing out the whole thing, which clearly there’s still a lot more flushing out to do. It started out as a dinky hobby. It still is, for sure—we don’t make any money. We would love to at some point, but we want to know a little bit more what we’re doing first.

Format

Each episode has two portions: The first consists of a guest interview, during which Faris sometimes incorporates ad libbing or improvisational comedic sketches with the guest, as well as series of questions centered on hypothetical relationship or dating situations. In some segments, Faris plays the role of "Karen Sarducci," a disaffected studio executive with pronounced vocal fry, who often makes reference to her privileged, brilliant sons, Milo and Ventimiglia, who are often vacationing abroad or at music festivals such as Coachella.
The second component of the show consists of Faris, producer Sim Sarna, and the guest placing a phone call to a listener who has a relationship or personal dilemma and wish to have "unqualified" advice.

Persons involved

Hosts and recurring persons