Kathy Hester is a cookbook author, gear and gadget junkie, and vegan wizard. She's also a neighbor of mine, and a hilarious and warm and wonderful human being. This is her third appearance on the podcast - and frankly, I got tired of talking about food and not getting to eat it! So for this episode, I invited Kathy into my kitchen, to teach us all how to use the air fryer to get low-fat plant-based deliciousness into our lives. Read more »
Jesse Herrera is founder and chief visionary of Urban Theory, which I'd categorize as a "think tank" and an "act tank" for social and economic and environmental justice. Jesse is a former gang member, as well as a recovering architect. An urban planner. A visionary realist. We met at the World Healthcare Congress this past May, and immediately bonded by nerding out over sustainable small-plot agricultural tools and strategies, such as 2-wheel Italian tractors and compost tea. And discovered that our missions aligned. I work with individuals and organizations, while Jesse targets cities and communities. His passionate vision and clear-headed appraisal of obstacles and opportunities makes for an inspiring conversation. Read more »
Linda Carney, MD, returns to the podcast to talk about a wholistic approach to treating depression. It turns out that while adverse childhood events, genetics, and traumatic life circumstances all contribute to the onset and severity of depression, we do have choices and tools and strategies to prevent and recover from this debilitating mental condition. We can change our thoughts patterns, for example. And - and this is even easier and more straightforward - we can improve our diets. Read more »
Josh LaJaunie returns to the podcast for a fifth (?) time, for a conversation about our relationship with nature. We talk about the beauty and grandeur of nature, and the ways human beings benefit and grow from being exposed to that loveliness. And also about nature’s dangerous and scary and yucky and itchy and hot and humid and freezing and soaking and uncomfortable aspects - and how we need those experiences in equal measure with the pleasurable ones. Our sport, ultrarunning, is an invitation to both faces of nature. To the beauty and grandeur, and to the hassle and discomfort. To the nurturing and the threatening. We also explore the lessons nature holds for us; in trees and eddies, in cycles of live and death, growth and service. Read more »
Emma Passé is Chief Operating Officer at E-Powered Benefits, one of the renegade benefits brokers challenging a bloated and broken healthcare system. I first met Emma a year ago at a healthcare conference, where she brought down the house with a spirited, entertaining, and incisive look at how health plans negotiate prices with providers. You might not think that the topic of "reference-based pricing" would be all that interesting to the non-wonks in the room, but Emma has a way of making it relevant and fun. And, when you discover how you've been overpaying for healthcare all these years, you might become outraged as well. When I found out that Emma was going to be in Charlotte, NC for the day, I drove for a couple of hours with my portable podcasting studio and met her for an interview. Read more »
Philip Shepherd is the author of Radical Wholeness: The Embodied Presence and the Ordinary Grace of Being. I was introduced to Philip's work by my friend and teacher Mark Leuchten. About 12 pages into Radical Wholeness, I felt my entire worldview shift. Some of the cultural blinders that had blocked my understanding of wholeness were revealed, and I began to understand where I was in conflict with myself, and why, and what I could start to do to harmonize myself. I needed to know more. Read more »
Ramona and Dustin LaJaunie are part of a family that has lost over a thousand pounds through plants and running. The mother and brother, respectively, of Josh LaJaunie, Mona and Dustin are now the cooks in the family. And one of their biggest challenges was abandoning all the classic southern recipes that they loved and took pride in making and sharing - gumbos, jambalayas, turnip stew, cabbage rolls, and all the delicious desserts - in favor of low-fat, plant-based fare. They decided that there had to be a way to have the best of both worlds - their cherished traditions, and their health. Read more »
Olivia Kelly is CEO and co-founder of WellStart Health, the fabulously amazing startup that I also co-founded. So everything I'm going to say about her is totally unbiased. Olivia and I have been jetsetting this spring, attending healthcare-related conferences in exotic locations like Washington, DC, and Raleigh, NC. And because we're trying to take a "systems approach" to solving our chronic-disease fueled healthcare crisis, the conferences we attend are quite diverse in goal, scope, and attendees. In fact, I'm almost positive that Olivia and I are the only elements in the intersection set of the World Health Care Congress (WHCC) and the Plant-Based Prevention of Disease Conference (P-POD). Read more »
Dr Wayne Jonas is a pioneer in integrative, healing-based, patient-centered healthcare. He was director of the NIH Office of Alternative Medicine from 1995-1999, and led the World Health Organization's Collaborative Center for Traditional Medicine.In our conversation, we look at the triply oxymoronic "Health Care System" (produces about 20% of public health, doesn't provide much quality care, and is not an integrated system), and what it's missing and how to reimagine healthcare. Read more »
Our lives have changed dramatically since 2007, when the first iPhone was introduced.As today’s guest, Glenn Murphy, points out, if we handled any other object over 1000 times a day, we would be considered severely OCD, or addicted, or certainly life-impaired in some way.Yet that’s exactly how many times most of us reach for our smartphones in a typical day.And this behavior pattern is not just weird - it’s damaging to our productivity and mental health. Read more »