Podcast

PYP 082: Susan Levin on the Truth about Diet and “a Bad Game of Telephone”

December 22, 2014

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Director of Nutrition Education Susan Levin grew up on a high-fat, highly-processed Alabama diet.

After discovering for herself the benefits of a plant-based diet, she found herself stymied when trying to tell others about it. “What do you know about nutrition?” they’d sneer.

Not to be silenced, Susan completed a career about-face and enrolled in the Nutritional Science and Clinical Counseling programs at Bastyr University (and transplanted herself from New York to Seattle).

Now an expert in nutritional research as well as an engaging educator, Susan helps spread the good news about eating plants

PYP 081: Robert Cheeke on a Vegan Teen Rebellion and Refusing to be Average

December 16, 2014

Robert Cheeke was a scrawny, scrappy teenager who embraced veganism – and raised hell in the process.

Born to a family deeply steeped in animal agriculture, he took a different path. And all his life, Robert has kept that rebellious spirit alive in the service of health, fitness, and compassion.

His new book, Shred It!, is an encyclopedic reference for people who want to become fit and ripped – low body fat, fully developed muscles.

Yeah, it’s got workout routines, photos of exercises, eating plans, and recipes – but the book starts with an impassioned plea to the reader: Don’t Be Average.

PYP 080: Mike Crockett on Overcoming Addiction, Reconnecting with His True Nature, and Becoming an Unlikely Love Warrior

December 11, 2014

Mike Crockett, aka Big Bald Mike, has an amazing and inspiring story.

A young, gentle giant whose soul hungered for music and peace.

A childhood in Marlin, Texas, being fattened up like a calf for slaughter so he could dominate high school football games.

A carnivorous hunger that had him eating 2600 pounds of meat in a single year – and had him topping out at 571 pounds.

A long spiral into addiction, crime, violence, and self-loathing. A world in which numbing out the pain – physical and emotional – became a full-time job.

A dark night of the soul that culminated in a attempted-suicide overdose that would have killed five ordinary men.

And a path to redemption that includes professional wrestling, a caring lady, kale, and bunnies.

PYP 079: Plant-Based Katie on Healing Her Relationship with Food and Experiencing True Pleasure

December 4, 2014

Katie Mae grew up eating chicken, beef, mashed potatoes – and overcooked frozen vegetables (when her parents forced her). In high school she exhibited disordered eating patterns, and thought of herself as an “ice cream addict.”

Fast forward to today, and Katie is an unabashed foodie and flavor ambassador for a cuisine that most people don’t associate with hedonistic pleasure: whole food, plant-based, minus the sugar, oil, and salt.

PYP 078: Alan Muskat on Wild Foraging as the Way Home

December 1, 2014

Alan Muskat has shown some pretty famous people how to feed themselves off the ground.

As founder of the No Taste Like Home foraged food and event company, Alan has shared his “off the eaten track” (his pun, not mine) self-catering skills with such food luminaries as Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods, Andrew Weil, and The James Beard Celebrity Chef Tour. He’s also been featured by The History Channel, PBS, Southern Living, and Travel and Leisure.

He’s also author of the book Wild Mushrooms: A Taste of Enchantment.

Alan’s got a unique outlook on food: we should abandon mass agriculture and return to the food we were meant to eat: the stuff that grows all around, totally without our help.

PYP 077: Julie Piatt on Influencing Others, Coming Back to Ourselves, and “Meditating on One Foot in the Moonlight”

November 26, 2014

Julie Piatt is a musician, plant-based chef and healer, yogi, home-schooling mom, cookbook author, and contributor to MindBodyGreen.com.

She’s also the muse and support system that her husband Rich Roll leaned on to transform himself from sedentary, junk-food and late-night TV addicted couch potato to one of the world’s fittest men in the span of just a couple of years. (Read his story in his bestselling book, Finding Ultra.)

In some sense, Julie “lived the fantasy”: influencing her spouse to change in a big way.

Don’t most of us have a fantasy like that? If not about our spouse, then about our kids, or co-workers, or boss, or politicians, or customer-service reps on the other end of the phone, or – probably most common – ourselves?

PYP 076: Katherine Nilbrink on Evolution, Diet, and the 24/7 “Open For Sex” Sign

November 25, 2014

Katherine Nilbrink’s resume is too long and varied to cover here.

Highlights: avid athlete, advanced degrees in evolutionary biology, work as a fitness trainer and with Reebok, Culinary Therapist and Sustainable Living Consultant for a residential eating disorder treatment facility, Healthy Eating coordinator for Whole Foods Market, instructor at the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies, and really smart person.

PYP 075: Ann Crile Esselstyn and Jane Esselstyn on Healthy Cooking Made Really Easy

November 24, 2014

Mother and daughter Ann Crile Esselstyn and Jane Esselstyn are co-authors of the brand spanking new Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Cookbook. The recipes are inspired by two things: the nutritional profile of heart-protective foods validated by their husband and father Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, and a knack for making healthy food prep as easy and familiar as the Standard Western Diet.

When Dr. Esselstyn began his study of severely ill heart patients, he knew he’d have to start eating the same diet he was mandating for them. And since, in the words of Ann, “he didn’t know how to make toast,” he needed help. Enter Ann.

PYP 074: Tom Campbell, MD on Writing The China Study and Talking to Doctors About Nutrition

November 21, 2014

Thomas M. Campbell is a family practice doctor in Rochester, NY, an instructor of Clinical Family Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and executive director of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutritional Studies. He’s also co-author of what’s probably the most influential book on science-based nutrition, The China Study.

Despite being the child of T. Colin Campbell, Tom was never groomed for a leadership role in the nutritional or medical fields. He was pursuing an acting career in Chicago when his dad asked him to help translate decades of scientific communication into a book for the public.

PYP 073: Debra Orenstein on Gratitude and Winning the Lottery of Life

November 19, 2014

Debra Orenstein is an author, lecturer, and actor. Her many accomplishments are catalogued on her bio page at Congregation Bnai Israel in Emerson, New Jersey, where she serves as pulpit rabbi.

Plus, a wise and compassionate and hilarious human being.

PYP 082: Susan Levin on the Truth about Diet and “a Bad Game of Telephone”

PYP 081: Robert Cheeke on a Vegan Teen Rebellion and Refusing to be Average

PYP 080: Mike Crockett on Overcoming Addiction, Reconnecting with His True Nature, and Becoming an Unlikely Love Warrior

PYP 079: Plant-Based Katie on Healing Her Relationship with Food and Experiencing True Pleasure

PYP 078: Alan Muskat on Wild Foraging as the Way Home

PYP 077: Julie Piatt on Influencing Others, Coming Back to Ourselves, and “Meditating on One Foot in the Moonlight”

PYP 076: Katherine Nilbrink on Evolution, Diet, and the 24/7 “Open For Sex” Sign

PYP 075: Ann Crile Esselstyn and Jane Esselstyn on Healthy Cooking Made Really Easy

PYP 074: Tom Campbell, MD on Writing The China Study and Talking to Doctors About Nutrition

PYP 073: Debra Orenstein on Gratitude and Winning the Lottery of Life

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