Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. James Wilks is a producer, as well as narrator and chief instigator of The Game Changers, already the bestselling documentary of all time on iTunes.He got his nickname "Lightning" during his career as a mixed martial artist (which, as far as I can tell, means that he can kill me in at least a dozen ways using just a box of toothpicks and a birthday candle), the highlight of which was winning season 9 of The Ultimate Fighter in 2009.As good a fighter as he wa...
Dec 17, 2019•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 355
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Is time linear, or cyclical?According to analog watches, time goes around in circles.According to calendars and planners and most of Western culture, time moves ever forward.And few of us take seriously the cycles of nature when we contemplate time and how we move through it.Brian Tourville has been thinking about time, and how our disconnection from the rhythms and cycles of the natural world contribute to our alienation from it. Click to subscribe to the M...
Dec 13, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 354
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Wendy Wood, PhD, knows more about the science of habit formation - and habit breaking - than just about anyone.While popular writers share their opinions about habits, Wood does the research. More than 30 years worth, as a research psychologist first at Duke University and now at the University of Southern California.Wood has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, and the paper trail of her research demonstrates a curious and creative and extremely tenacio...
Dec 10, 2019•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 353
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Ron Tibbs is a wellness coach, plant-based advocate, and all-around great guy.He's part of the core team at WellStart Health, where he coaches, guides, and cheerleads clients to make significant positive changes in their lives.Ron is perfectly situated to do this, because he's created his own massive changes in the face of very strong opposing forces. Click to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo. Support the show...
Dec 03, 2019•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 352
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Melanie Joy, PhD is a social psychologist, vegan activist, political strategist vs all the oppressive "archys" out there, organizational consultant, and relationship coach. She joins the podcast to talk about her book Beyond Beliefs - essentially a merging of the political and relational.How can we advocate for human health, environmental sanity, and ethical treatment of animals without wrecking our relationships with family members, friends, partners, and c...
Nov 26, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 351
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Brittany Sade is a vegan entrepreneur and health coach. Her company, Prosperiteez Clothing, devotes part of its profits to combatting food insecurity in impoverished communities.Brittany wasn't always a paragon of healthy living. Thanks to meat three times a day, along with a serious cheese addiction, she suffered from skin problems, arterial blockages, and overweight.It took the suffering and death of close family members to wake her to the realization that...
Nov 19, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 350
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Karen Smith is a plant-based registered dietitian, runner (sub-3 hours in the Boston Marathon, baby!), and all around good person.At Progressive Health of Delaware, which includes my Ultimate Frisbee buddy and podcast guest and lifestyle medicine superhero Dave Donohue, MD, Karen counsels patients on improving their diets and their health with a combo of skills: her RD training, her knowledge of plant-based nutrition (which she did not learn in school), and ...
Nov 12, 2019•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 349
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Kim Campbell is the culinary force behind PlantPure Nation and PlantPure Foods. She kindly agreed to visit the Plant Yourself test kitchen (which is just the kitchen in my home, cleaned up sufficiently for video) and make some delicious food for me, my wife, and my sister who was visiting from NYC.She also introduced us to nifty kitchen gadgets, one of which I promptly broke. This moment definitely deserves pride of place in the blooper reel of my life.Becau...
Nov 08, 2019•6 min•Ep. 348
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Margot Freitag is a coach who helps people transition to a plant-based diet successfully and sustainably. Growing up in Northwest Ontario (cue "Helpless" by Neil Young), she suffered from asthma, and made constant trips to the ER throughout her childhood.As a teen, she became a yoyo dieter, trying every variation she stumbled across in an attempt to lose weight: the apple-only diet, the "don't eat for a week" diet, low carb, etc. One plan she tried allowed h...
Nov 04, 2019•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 347
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Danny and Katherine Dreyer are the co-authors of three of the most valuable books ever on human bipedal locomotion: Chi Running, Chi Walking, and Chi Marathon.The promise of their methodology is that you can walk or run a lot farther and faster, without pain or injury.I can personally testify to its effectiveness, AND to my own ability to learn something great and totally forget about it for, like, a decade and a half.I met Katherine and Danny at their home ...
Oct 29, 2019•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 346
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. I interviewed Elizabeth Bell in order to record a testimonial for WellStart Health, and ended up having a conversation so compelling and instructive and inspiring that I decided - with Elizabeth's blessing - to share the whole thing.When Elizabeth first joined the WellStart program, she was more or less house-bound. A mysterious malady had taken her balance, her energy, and much of her eyesight. She was in danger of having to go on full disability, give up h...
Oct 22, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 345
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Caroline Webb is the author of the wonderfully entertaining and useful How to Have a Good Day, which is basically a cookbook on how to be an effective human in the world.She is an executive coach, economist, and speaker, and the book comes out of her extensive knowledge of behavioral science and its application in the real world.How to Have a Good Day has influenced my own health coaching so much, I wanted to talk with Caroline specifically about applying he...
Oct 15, 2019•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 344
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Juan-Carlos "Carly" Asse is a fitness trainer and documentarian. His first film, Unsupersize Me, has been viewed over 3 million times, and has inspired and guided countless people to embark on their own journeys of healthy weight loss.Carly was a guest on one of the earliest Plant Yourself Podcasts. We talked about his prison transformation: his commitment to bettering himself after being incarcerated for drug charges, his encounter with The China Study, and...
Oct 08, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 343
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Benjamin Alter, ND, treats his patients as if they actually have the power to heal themselves.This power introduces a wonderful and frustrating messiness into the scientific pursuit of truth. It's hard to control for. It's hard to randomize for. And it's hard to replicate.In fact, science has dealt with this messiness by, at best, pretending it doesn't exist, and at worst, actively denigrating people's subjective experiences of illness and healing. Click to ...
Oct 01, 2019•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 342
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Gwyn Whittaker is a change-maker, and for the past several years she's deployed her considerable "get-it-done" skills to the plant-based movement.Whittaker is CEO of Greenfare Cafe in Herndon, Virginia, which is the only 100% whole-food, plant-based (WFPB), organic restaurant either of us has ever heard of. Click to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo. Support the show...
Sep 24, 2019•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 341
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. For my money, Stephen Porges' Polyvagal Theory has done more to improve our ability to heal and grow and thrive as a civilization than any other scientific breakthrough of the past 50 years.Its advances over prior understandings of the human nervous system, psychology, and experiences of states like well-being, happiness, and love - are profound. Paradigm-shifting. And, unlike a lot of theory, incredible practical and applicable to our everyday lives. Click ...
Sep 17, 2019•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 340
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Ray Martin, aka "Old Man Skin and Bones," is on a mission to save others from what he went through: heart disease, expensive and unnecessary and potentially harmful medical care, and a bad case of the "If only I'd knowns."I met Ray through the Missing Chins Run Club (first rule of the Missing Chins Run Club: tell everybody in the Missing Chins Run Club how much you ran today), and was instantly charmed by his energy, passion, sense of humor, and fierce deter...
Sep 10, 2019•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 339
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. 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."Iboga, along with its better-known (in the US) cousins, Ayahuasca and psilocybin-containing mushrooms, appears to act pharmacologically by down-regulating parts of the human brain responsible for the mom...
Sep 04, 2019•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 338
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Jud Brewer is Director of Research and Innovation at the Mindfulness Center at Brown University, and a second-time guest on Plant Yourself.When we first talked, two years ago, Jud had just published his groundbreaking book, The Craving Mind, and was in the process of releasing mindfulness apps, Eat Right Now (for dealing with food cravings), Craving to Quit (for smoking cessation), and Unwinding Anxiety (for, you guessed it, anxiety).I wanted to catch up wit...
Aug 27, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 337
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Yeah, them's fighting words in the title of today's episode. And Garth David, MD, my lead author of Proteinaholic and co-conspirator in a mission to tell the world that chronic disease and obesity are preventable and reversible, is a fighter.He's mixed it up on national TV, giving and taking punches on The Doctors. He's scrapped with Z-Dogg, tussled on Twitter with Joe Rogan, and publicly debated many of the best-known low-carbers out there.His agenda? Good ...
Aug 20, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 336
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Jody Esselstyn is a registered nurse at the Charlottesville, VA, city schools, and docent at the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia.An unusual combo, perhaps, but Jody combines her two interests - medicine and art - in some innovative and lifesaving ways.She leads programs that help medicine students make better diagnoses, display more empathy at the bedside, and collaborate more generously with their medical peers through visits to art museu...
Aug 13, 2019•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 335
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Joe Cross was, in the words of his first film, "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" when he embarked on a 60-day experiment to escape the pain and discomfort of a lifestyle-induced auto-immune disease.His transformation story, chronicled in that 2010 documentary, has inspired millions of people to start juicing, and to add more plants to their diets.His second film, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead 2, highlights the stories of some of those people. Click to subscribe to t...
Aug 06, 2019•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 334
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. I had the best time talking with New York Times' bestselling author and love goddess adrienne maree brown!I stumbled upon her work through a sidebar article about her most recent book, Pleasure Activism, and was sufficiently intrigued to reach out to her publisher for a copy of the book and a request for an interview.Once the book arrived, I knew I was in for an education. Click to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo. Support the show...
Aug 02, 2019•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 333
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. Lauren Plunkett is a registered dietitian living with type 1 diabetes. She's also the newest addition to the WellStart care team - and we couldn't be more pleased or delighted!Lauren is a dynamo of positive energy, and a shining example of the power of lifestyle to enhance quality of life.Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 11, Lauren struggled for years to feel good and have the energy to do what she wanted to do. She went on a mission to learn eve...
Jul 24, 2019•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 332
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. 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. Click to subscribe to the Minds...
Jul 17, 2019•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 331
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. 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.Or as Jesse puts it, an "innovation lab" to prototype and scale solutions to urban poverty. Click to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo. Support the show...
Jul 10, 2019•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 330
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. 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. Click to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo. Support the show...
Jul 03, 2019•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 329
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. 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. Click ...
Jun 26, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 328
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. 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,...
Jun 18, 2019•1 hr 54 min•Ep. 327
Thoughts on the episode? Let us know. How can we better ourselves without going to war with ourselves?How can we engage in "self-improvement" - around habits of mind and habits of action - without setting up a supervisor and a supervised?How can we pursue mastery without subjugating ourselves to a master - even if that master is some part of ourselves? Click to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo. Support the show...
Jun 12, 2019•1 hr 46 min•Ep. 326
