So somehow my son and I ended up in front of his laptop with Hulu open. I don't recall what he wanted to show me, but it ended up not being very interesting. So, cultural rubber-necker that I am, I was drawn to a thumbnail of a show I had never heard of: My Strange Addiction. Apparently it ran for six seasons on TLC, starting in 2010. Apparently I had missed this cultural phenomenon entirely Read more »
Amber Antonelli and Anthony Esposito run the Awaken Your Soul iboga retreat center in Costa Rica. Iboga is the name of a plant native to Gabon and neighboring West African countries that acts as a psychedelic, or as Amber and Anthony put it, a "teacher plant." Read more »
Emily Lindsay, PhD, is lead author of an uber-important scientific paper on how to mitigate loneliness through mindfulness and acceptance training. Lindsay is a research scientist in the Psychology Department at University of Pittsburgh who studies how mind-body practices like mindfulness and meditation affect our physiology and ultimate health outcomes. It's an important field of study, because negative mental and emotional states can be terrible for our health. Read more »
When Grace Smith resolved to quit smoking in 2011, she began with the most common approaches: nicotine gum, the patch, going cold turkey (is there a vegan equivalent to that phrase?). When a single hypnotherapy session led her to quit that same day, she turned from a skeptic into a avid promoter. Read more »
Amy Baglan is both a Type A Entrepreneur and a committed mindful meditator. The founder of MeetMindful, an app and movement that connects spiritually engaged people for both dating and friendship, Amy drives hard for achievement, and also consciously aims for that "being OK in the moment" vibe that doesn't depend on external success. Read more »
Emily Fletcher is one of the new faces of an ancient practice. Former Broadway star and founder of Ziva Meditation, she talks funny, dirty, relatable, and wise about one of the simplest, cheapest, and most profound of wellness practices: going within ourselves. Read more »
Michael Klaper, MD, is one of the world's most eloquent, convincing, passionate, and persistent advocates of a plant-based diet. He's studied the health effects, the environmental ramifications, and the psychological aspects of eating meat and junk food, and can put the most complex science in totally accessible terms. Here's how he explains the vast majority of chronic disease in the Western world: "We're putting diesel fuel in a gas engine." Read more »
Jeff Stanford combines a scientist's mind with a vegan's heart and a mystic's soul. He's co-founder of the Stanford Inn by the Sea in Mendocino, California, an eco-resort complete with a fully vegan restaurant, The Ravens. Sid Garza-Hillman, who's the nutritionist at the Stanford Inn, suggested that Jeff would provide fascinating content for the podcast, and Jeff did not disappoint. Jeff's a longtime spiritual seeker, an old-school "back to the land" hippie, and a philosopher. And an advocate of a vegan diet, from all the usual perspectives as well as some that are uniquely his. Read more »
Rob Greenfield has put the fun and friendly into environmental activism. Known for his eye-catching and media-worthy campaigns and adventures to wake people up to the destruction we're causing to our planet, Rob brings a positivity and sense of humor and humility to what is too often a dreary scold-fest. Rob was originally on track to live an opulent American dream, complete with nice stuff, fast car, big house, and enough money to do whatever he wanted. A life in which he never had to think about the downstream consequences of his actions, choices, and consumption. Read more »
When Ken Lander disembarked from a plane on December 16, 2016, he lost his breath, stumbled, and couldn't make to baggage claim. When the 430-pound Lander was examined in the emergency room, it was determined that it was a very sick heart that had nearly cost him his life that day. Further tests revealed a 90% blockage in the left descending artery, and severely compromised heart efficiency ("ejection fraction" in cardio lingo). Read more »