The Plant Yourself Podcast

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 in Asheville, where they regaled me (and now you) with tales of ultra-running and pain, and discovering how to apply the principles of Tai Chi to running, and starting a business and movement.Click to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo.Support the show

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 her professorship in astrophysics, and lose the apartment she had worked so long and hard to afford.Her beloved pastimes - reading and playing cello and piano - were also out of reach due to her dizziness, fatigue, and blurred vision.It's easy to see how Elizabeth could have felt like a victim at that point.Click to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo.Support the show

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 her tools and "recipes" to the challenges around improving diet and lifestyle.Click to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo.Support the show

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 his new career of personal fitness trainer.Carly's second film, Unsupersize Us, continued and validated the story of Unsupersize Me, this time with five participants from Carly's town of Gainesville, FL. Carly's goal was to broaden the message, and make it clear that this lifestyle and diet was for everyone, and that Tracy's transformation in the original film was not an anomaly.Click to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo.Support the show

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 subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo.Support the show

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

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 to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo.Support the show

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 determination to spare others from his fate.The before and after photos accompanying this podcast says it all. In October, 2015, Ray came out of triple bypass surgery, alive and ready to change his life.Click to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo.Support the show

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 moment-by-moment construction of the ego.Click to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo.Support the show

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 with Jud to find out how his academic research and public writing had migrated into the world. What is the state of mindfulness-based health improvement? Does he have data on how his approach compares to current best practices, like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for smoking and other addictions?Click to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo.Support the show