the NUANCE // a community health podcast.

Gregory Scott Brown, M.D.,  is a board-certified psychiatrist, a contributing columnist for Men's Health magazine, and an affiliate faculty member at the University of Texas Dell Medical School. His first book, The Self-Healing Mind: An Essential Five-Step Practice for Overcoming Anxiety and Depression, and Revitalizing Your Life was published in June 2022 for Harper Wave. Dr. Brown believes we can work together to fight mental health stigma by having open and honest conversations about mental health. He is an advocate for evidence-based integrative care that includes incorporating exercise, mindfulness, meditation, and nutrition with standard-of-care treatments for mental illness. Dr. Brown completed a fellowship in integrative medicine at the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine, specialty training in general psychiatry at the University of Texas Dell Medical School, and received an M.D. from the McGovern Medical School in Houston. Prior to his transition to medicine, Dr. Brown studied music at The Juilliard School in New York. Follow Dr. Brown on social media @gregorysbrownmd. ------ Today, we talk about the state of mental health today and how he has seen it change during his practice. We  talk about the 5 pillars of self care. We discuss the importance of purpose, balance, and contentment. Dr. Brown’s book The Self-Healing Mind is such an important read, giving us tools to help prevent and address our anxiety and depression on a daily basis.

Dr. Taylor Sittler is Head of Research at Levels. He is a physician and entrepreneur, his career has focused on personalizing medicine, starting companies in genetics and women’s health, including co-founding Color Health where he was Chief Science Officer. Prior to that, he completed his residency in clinical pathology at UCSF and started a genetics research group in the computer science department at UC Berkeley with David Patterson. Taylor received a Howard Hughes Medical training grant and scholarship during medical school at University of Massachusetts and UCSD. He has published papers on pathogen detection and characterization, genetic sequence analysis and algorithms, and several other topics related to systems biology. He is an avid skier and hiker, and enjoys all things outdoors. levelshealth.com

Rob Hopkins is a cofounderTransition Network, and the author of The Transition Handbook, and most recently, From What Is to What If: unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want. He hosts the wonderful podcast series ‘From What If to What Next‘ which invites listeners to send in their “what if” questions and then explores how to make them a reality.   In 2012, he was voted one of the Independent’s top 100 environmentalists and was on Nesta and the Observer’s list of Britain’s 50 New Radicals. Rob is an inspiring speaker, who has spoken at TEDGlobal and three TEDx events. His ideas and perspective on imagination are crucial today in order to solve our most pressing issues, like climate change. He is thoughtful, open-minded, and imaginative.  He blogs at transtionnetwork.org and robhopkins.net and tweets at @robintransition. Follow us on TikTok @medicineexplained and IG @medicine.explained. If you want to search our entire library of video explainers - go to our Youtube @MedicineExplained

Christopher Palmer, MD received his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine. He did his internship and psychiatry residency at McLean Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. He is currently the Director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education at McLean Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. For the past 25 years, he has been an academic physician with administrative, research, educational, and clinical roles. Dr. Palmer has been involved in psychiatric research for over 23 years. He has served as a research physician in the Behavioral Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory and the Sleep Research Laboratory, both at McLean Hospital, where he worked with teams pursuing wide-ranging research in the areas of addiction and sleep. Most recently, his research interests have turned to the areas of metabolism, metabolic disorders, and their connection to mental disorders. Interestingly, the connections are widespread and span across numerous mental and metabolic disorders. He is focused on combining and understanding epidemiological data, basic science research, and clinical studies in order to better understand what role metabolism plays in mental illness. Link to Dr. Palmer's book: https://www.chrispalmermd.com/

Monica Aggarwal, MD, is a board certified cardiologist and adjunct Associate Professor in the University of Florida’s Division of Cardiovascular Medicine where she conducts research on the impact of nutrition in chronic illness. She also serves as the Chief Medical officer of the not-for-profit, 4Roots Farm which is looking at how to improve food quality to improve human health. Dr. Aggarwal’s own path to understanding the impact of nutrition in illness started w/ her own journey, which she will share details about in this podcast. Through learning about the microbiome (gut), its impact on the immune system and the role of nutrition in affecting the gut, she was able to truly heal and became determined to change the face of medicine. Dr. Aggarwal gives talks around the community, country and internationally. She was named a “Next Generation Innovator” by Cardiology Today. She is the author of the book “Body on Fire: How Inflammation Triggers Chronic Illness and the Tools We Have to Fight It,” and Body on Fire Cookbook which provides whole food, healthy recipes to help implement change. This is not medical advice, this is intended for educational purposes only. For full privacy policy, please go to MedicineExplained.org.

Dr. Rose Goldman, MD, MPH is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Professor of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is the founding Chief of Occupational; Environmental Medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance, and currently Director of Faculty Affairs for the Department of Medicine. Her career has combined clinical occupational and environmental medicine (focus on toxicology) with public health and education, and has authored numerous publications.

Mary Purdy, MS, RDN is an award-winning Integrative Eco-Dietitian and nutrition educator with a Master's Degree from Bastyr University in Seattle, Washington (USA) where she has been adjunct faculty since 2015. She teaches and lectures for numerous Universities, institutions and professional educational platforms and is a regular speaker at national and state conferences on both nutrition and sustainability. She has been in clinical practice for over 13 years using a personalized medicine and functional nutrition approach and is currently the Nutrition and Sustainability Adviser and Community Builder for Big Bold Health led by Dr. Jeffrey Bland. She is also the Director of Education for The Planetary Health Collective which serves to leverage the skillsets of nutrition professionals in the movement around the climate crisis. Additionally, she regularly moderates educational panels, hosts the podcasts “The Nutrition Show” and "The Good Clean Nutrition Podcast" and authored the books “Serving the Broccoli Gods" and "The Microbiome Diet Reset." She adores kale, chocolate and avocados.

Dr. Scott Stoll is the co-founder of The Plantrician Project, The International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention, and the Regenerative Health Institute, a unique collaborative project with the Rodale Institute that integrates a regenerative vision for human health, agriculture, and the environment. He is a member of the Google FoodLab, serves on the advisory board at Whole Foods for their healthcare clinics and served as a member of the Whole Foods Scientific and Medical Advisory Board. Every year, Dr. Stoll hosts the very popular one week health immersion, Dr. Stoll’s Total Health Immersion and helps attendees restore and optimize their health, overcome addictions, and develop a sustainable regenerative lifestyle. Dr. Stoll has authored several books, scientific articles, and featured in numerous documentaries. As well as being a published author and member of the 1994 Olympic Bobsled Team, he is a highly sought-after international speaker. https://plantricianproject.org/

Greg Dalton founded Climate One at The Commonwealth Club in 2007 after traveling to the Russian Arctic on a global warming symposium with climate scientists and journalists. Today Climate One produces a weekly radio show broadcast on public stations in California and across the country in addition to a podcast that is heard around the world. Greg also hosts a monthly TV show on KRCB TV 22 on Comcast and DirecTV. Climate One is the only regular talk show that engages high-level leaders from business, policy, advocacy and academic circles in a conversation about building sustainable economies, resilient communities and a healthier future.

Ellen Vora, MD is a board-certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist, and yoga teacher, and she is the author of The Anatomy of Anxiety. She takes a functional medicine approach to mental health—considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the root. Dr. Vora received her B.A. from Yale University and her M.D. from Columbia University. We speak about the root causes of mental health and some interventions that we can take to prevent anxiety. We talk about the nuance of psychiatric medication and the holistic approach she takes to mental health. We talk about the mind body connection and how the mind is always informing physical health and our physical health from things like diet, toxicants, or sleep can affect our mental health.