Stephan Esser, MD is a physician, author and motivational speaker specializing in sports medicine and lifestyle modification. He is dedicated to empowering individuals to achieve their best health and maximize fitness, fun and function. Dr. Esser completed a Bachelor of Science at Palm Beach Atlantic University, Medical School at the University of South Florida College of Medicine, a residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School/Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, an...
May 09, 2019•33 min•Ep. 49
Douglas Amis, Ed.D. is a Co-Founder of Health Zone Life and creator of the Health Zone Life Model along with Dr. Pankaj Vij. Dr. Amis set out on this project with the objective of providing an open source model that medical professionals could freely use both as and educational tool and in their practice. The website’s goal is to provide platform for professionals who are leading the efforts to improve the health of individuals in the face of epidemic levels of diabetes and related diseases. Pre...
May 03, 2019•36 min•Ep. 48
Virginia Shearer, the Eleanor McDonald Storza Director of Education at the High Museum of Art, has more than 20 years of experience in museum education. Ms. Shearer oversees all areas of the High’s Department of Education, where she focuses on creating a platform for engagement and connectivity that extends the museum’s reach and deepens the High’s relationships with the Atlanta community through experimental, collaborative, and research-based practice. Since joining the High in 2005, she has in...
Apr 25, 2019•33 min•Ep. 47
Dr. Heather Prayor-Patterson is a clinical psychologist with an emphasis in health psychology. Over the last 8 years of practice, her focus has been on using cognitive-behavioral interventions to treat psychological concerns related of chronic medical conditions including insomnia, obesity, diabetes and chronic pain, as well as, using evidence-based treatments for depression and anxiety disorders. She completed her graduate training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and additional heal...
Apr 18, 2019•35 min•Ep. 46
Brian Asbill, M.D., is a cardiologist at Asheville Cardiology Associates and Medical Director of Preventative Cardiology for Mission Health CHIP (Complete Health Improvement Program), an intensive therapeutic lifestyle change program offered through Lifestyle Medicine Institute for the prevention, management, and reversal of vascular disease. He serves on the Board of Directors for ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project). Dr. Asbill believes the foundation of good health is based on g...
Apr 11, 2019•37 min•Ep. 45
Steven Lawenda, MD is a board-certified Family Medicine physician in Southern California Kaiser Permanente. Dr. Lawenda graduated from UC Davis School of Medicine in 2001 with Honors in Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine. He completed his Family Medicine Residency at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island / Brown University in 2004 where he was awarded Resident Teacher of the Year. In 2013, Dr. Lawenda transformed his own health with plant-based nutrition and has since co-created Lifestyle Medic...
Apr 04, 2019•41 min•Ep. 44
Timothy Harrison is Associate Director for CBCT® (Cognitively- Based Compassion Training) at the Emory University Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics. He oversees the many CBCT programs, including multiple research initiatives and the rigorous teacher certification process. Tim regularly teaches CBCT nationally and internationally in academic institutions and healthcare settings, and he advises on the tailoring of CBCT for research with unique populations including cance...
Mar 28, 2019•40 min•Ep. 43
Garth Davis, MD, is the medical director of the Davis Clinic at the Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. He is certified by the American Board of Surgery and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a Fellow of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. He is also boarded in medical management of obesity. Dr. Davis is the author of two books: Proteinaholic: How Our Obsession with Meat Is Killing Us and The Expert’s Guide to Weight-Loss Surgery . Having spent 17 years i...
Mar 21, 2019•36 min•Ep. 42
David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP, FACLM earned his BA degree from Dartmouth College (1984); his MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (1988); and his MPH from the Yale University School of Public Health (1993). He completed sequential residency training in Internal Medicine, and Preventive Medicine/Public Health. He is the founding director (1998) of Yale University’s Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, Immediate Past-President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, and...
Mar 14, 2019•32 min•Ep. 41
Sujit Sharma is an Atlanta-based pediatric ER doctor and CEO of Chuice, the innovative JuicySuperSalad redefining convenient snacks. He holds a Bachelor’s in Philosophy from University of Michigan, received his medical degree and pediatric training at Wayne State University/Children's Hospital of Michigan, and served his three-year fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School/Boston Children's Hospital. He is currently Vice Section Chief at the department of Emergency Med...
Mar 07, 2019•39 min•Ep. 40
Born and raised in Oyster Bay, NY Juliet Peters has found great success in an unexpected place. Her career as a chef took her from New York City to London and back before she found her dream job in Atlanta. A job that allows her to teach, inspire, and give back to a community, all through cooking. Chef Juliet Peters: "The Westside of Atlanta is considered the most impoverished, dangerous area in the city, plagued with homelessness, joblessness, addiction, and overall lack of opportunity. Through...
Feb 28, 2019•36 min•Ep. 39
Dr. Jennifer Rooke is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine. She is the founder and Medical Director of the Optimal Health and Wellness Clinic at Morehouse Healthcare. The Optimal Health and Wellness Clinic is a Lifestyle Medicine Clinic. Dr. Rooke’s professional goal is to expand the scope of clinical preventive medicine to include treatment with evidence-based lifestyle interventions such as plant-based nutrition; s...
Feb 21, 2019•34 min•Ep. 38
Joel Kahn, MD, of Detroit, Michigan, is a practicing cardiologist, and a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Michigan Medical School. Known as "America’s Healthy Heart Doc", Dr. Kahn has double board certification in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Medicine. He was the first physician in the world to certify in Metabolic Cardiology with A4M/MMI and the University of South Florida. Dr. Kahn has autho...
Feb 14, 2019•32 min•Ep. 37
Gina Price Lundberg MD FACC is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Emory University and Clinical Director of the Emory Women’s Heart Center. She is a Preventive Cardiologist and has practiced at Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital of Atlanta since 1998. She was invited to join the Emory University faculty in 2012 and led the development of the Emory Women’s Heart program with six locations across the metro Atlanta area. She attended the Medical College of Georgia and trained in Internal Medicine at ...
Feb 07, 2019•35 min•Ep. 36
Dr. Salvatore Lacagnina is the System Medical Director of Wellness and Employee Health for Lee Health. In this role, his mission is to motivate, educate and empower people to improve their health and wellness. Dr. Sal, as he likes to be called, is one of Lee Health’s champions responsible for developing a comprehensive health, wellness and preventive care program for more than 19,000 employees and family members. He is the Medical Director for the LH Employee Health clinics and the Medical Direc...
Jan 31, 2019•33 min•Ep. 35
Brenda Davis, Registered Dietitian, is a leader in her field, and an acclaimed speaker at nutrition, medical and health conferences internationally. She has worked as a research dietitian, public health nutritionist, clinical nutrition specialist, nutrition consultant and academic nutrition instructor. Brenda serves as the lead dietitian in the Diabetes Wellness Project in Majuro, Marshall Islands. As a prolific health writer, Brenda has co-authored nine vegetarian and vegan nutrition classics w...
Jan 24, 2019•40 min•Ep. 34
Arvinpal Singh, MD is a Medical Director at Emory Bariatric Center and an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Singh is certified by American Board of Obesity Medicine and American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Singh cares for bariatric patients presenting for surgical and nonsurgical weight management, and manages not only their weight, but their obesity related co-morbidities. Dr. Singh lays out a comprehensive map for a whole health approach to weight m...
Jan 17, 2019•33 min•Ep. 33
Lois Ellen Frank, Ph.D. (Kiowa) is a Santa Fe, New Mexico based Native American Chef, a Native foods historian, culinary anthropologist, educator, James Beard Award winning cookbook author, photographer and organic gardener. She is the chef/owner of Red Mesa Cuisine, LLC a Native American catering company specializing in ancestral Native American cuisine with a modern twist. Dr. Frank has spent over 25 years documenting and working with the foods and lifeways of Native Americans in the Southwest...
Jan 10, 2019•36 min•Ep. 32
Milton Mills, MD practices urgent care medicine in the Washington DC area, and has served previously as Associate Director of Preventive Medicine and as a member of the National Advisory Board, for Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). He has been a major contributor to position papers presented by PCRM to the United States Department of Agriculture regarding Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and has been the lead plaintiff in PCRM’s class action lawsuit that asks for warning lab...
Jan 03, 2019•39 min•Ep. 31
Howard Jacobson, PhD is co-founder and Chief of Behavioral Science at WellStart Health. He is the host of the Plant Yourself Podcast, and contributing author to Whole, by T. Colin Campbell, PhD, and Proteinaholic, by Garth Davis, MD. At WellStart Health, Howard guides clients to adopt and maintain lifestyle and dietary habits in alignment with their health goals and life values. Howard has been coaching high performers since 2001. He sits on the advisory board of the International Coach Certific...
Dec 27, 2018•45 min•Ep. 30
Dr. James Lah graduated with honors from Duke University in 1984, and subsequently enrolled as a Medical Scientist Program Fellow at Ohio State University, where he earned his MD/PhD in 1992. After an internship in Medicine, Dr. Lah completed his Neurology Residency at Emory from 1992 to 1996. At the end of his clinical training, he was awarded a Clinical Investigator Development Award from the National Institutes of Health and joined the Emory Neurology faculty. During his career, Dr. Lah has l...
Dec 20, 2018•41 min•Ep. 29
Mike Bacha has been the Executive Chef for Emory University Hospital for close to nine years. Prior to Emory, Mike was the opening Chef de Cuisine of Repast restaurant in midtown. The restaurant was named best new restaurant in America by Esquire magazine, top five best new restaurant in Atlanta by Jezebel and best wine driven menu by Wine Enthusiast. Other notable positions include saucier at The Ritz Carlton Buckhead and Chef de Cuisine at Chateau Elan Winery. Mike have spent the past nine yea...
Dec 13, 2018•35 min•Ep. 28
Michael Staufacker is a Director of Health Management in Central HR Administration at Emory University in Atlanta and has served in this role since 2012. He develops, implements, and evaluates health management programs and services for 30,000 university and healthcare employees. He partners with Emory’s benefits department to ensure health plan (48,000 members) and other vendor partners are accountable for health improvement (pharmacy benefit management, case management, disease management, mat...
Dec 06, 2018•38 min•Ep. 27
Dr. Elizabeth (Beth) Pegg Frates, is a physician and certified health and wellness coach. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, as a double major in psychology and biology. Then, she attended Stanford University Medical School where she chose the specialty of Physiatry. Dr. Frates came back to Boston for her internship in internal medicine at MGH and residency at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in the Harvard Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. There, she serve...
Nov 29, 2018•36 min•Ep. 26
Mladen Golubić, MD, PhD, joined the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute in 2009 after completing residency training in internal medicine at Huron Hospital in East Cleveland, Ohio. He is currently the Medical Director of the Center for Lifestyle Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. Dr. Golubić is a graduate of the University of Zagreb School of Medicine in Croatia. He earned his doctorate at the same university after five years of post-doctoral fellowship at the Max-Planck Institu...
Nov 21, 2018•35 min•Ep. 25
Joe Burton is the founder and CEO of Whil, the leading mindfulness training platform helping employees to reduce stress, increase resilience and improve their sleep and performance. He is an entrepreneur in scientific wellbeing, former President of Headspace and spent fifteen years as a global COO in public companies. Joe is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, authorof Creating Mindful Leaders and regular contributor to Forbes, Business Insider and HuPost. He's worked in over 50 countries and...
Nov 15, 2018•35 min•Ep. 24
Why is it that when service members are preparing for combat we call it "training", but we call efforts to transition back to living in peaceful environment "seeking help"? What if we reframed this approach... What if it was NOT "seeking help", but "training for peace"? This week our host Dr. Sharon Bergquist sits down with Shaun Lewis, the Lead Veteran Outreach Coordinator for the Emory Healthcare Veterans program. Shaun is a 17-year Army Veteran, with three years Active Duty and 14, and counti...
Nov 08, 2018•37 min•Ep. 23
Brian E. Hill, MD is a Founder, President and Chief Medical Officer at HIPnation, an innovative healthcare delivery company with the mission to provide high-quality, accessible, affordable, 24-7 primary care services. Dr. Hill is a partner and practicing physician with Urology Specialists of Atlanta, is on the board of the Medical Association of Atlanta and is a delegate to the Medical Association of Georgia annual House of Delegates. He has been selected to the League of Leaders with the Instit...
Nov 01, 2018•38 min•Ep. 22
Bruce Friedrich is executive director of The Good Food Institute (GFI), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes innovative alternatives to industrially produced animal products. Bruce has penned opinion pieces for USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. Bruce is a popular speaker on college campuses and has presented repeatedly at most of the nation's top universities, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT. Bruce co-authored tw...
Oct 25, 2018•32 min•Ep. 21
Michael C. Hollie, MD is a practicing physician board certified in Asthma, Allergy and Immunology. He received his undergraduate degree from the College of Idaho. Dr. Hollie attended Loma Linda University School of Medicine in Loma Linda, California, and received his medical degree in 1985. Subsequently, he trained in Pediatrics at Loma Linda University Medical Center and T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital, Chattanooga, TN where he was Chief Resident. He completed his asthma, allergy, and immunol...
Oct 18, 2018•30 min•Ep. 20
