Inside Nutrition Misinformation: Nutrition Scientist Jessica Knurick Exposes What's Really Happening to Public Health in America

This week's episode is a bit of a departure. But like Frost's road less travelled, it's a direction well worth pursuing. My podcast was borne from a love of the art of the long form conversation. Authentic expression is a predominant theme of virtually every episode. And I sheepishly admit to a slight obsession with talented people at the nadir of their creativity, expressing their specific life purpose with unapologetic conviction. Sam Jones is the embodiment and ethos of all these ideals and more. Lauded photographer, documentary filmmaker, award winning music video director, magazine publisher, television creator and podcast host. Oh yeah, he's also married with kids. As a photographer, Sam is the go to guy for top tier magazines such as Vanity Fair, Esquire, Rolling Stone, GQ and Time for creating timeless portraits of luminaries, A-list actors and musicians like Barak Obama, George Clooney, Robert Downey Jr., Bob Dylan, Jack Nicholson and Dave Grohl. All of this is super cool of course. But quite frankly it's not what motivated me to want to sit down with Sam. What really captivated me about this talented artist is Sam's newest venture, a multi-media, multi-faceted project he created entitled offCamera. It's photography. It's a magazine. It's a television show. It's a podcast. It's journalism. It's entertainment. It's art – the art of exquisite portraiture achieved through images, words and conversation. Simply put, Sam performs up close and personal, uninterrupted long-form conversations with today's most prolific cultural icons – people like Matt Damon, Sarah Silverman, Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, Laura Dern and more. Each conversation is filmed for initial broadcast on DirectTV's Audience Network and subsequently available on the offCamera website as well as on iTunes as an audio podcast. Accompanied by a formal portrait, the interviews are also reformatted in print to comprise a printed magazine. After listening to Sam's intimate dialog with Robert Downey Jr., I was left to ponder this question: where else could I possibly listen to (or watch) someone like this converse for a full hour on the particulars of life and art? Nowhere. You can't. Blame our soundbite obsessed world, but conversations like these are extremely rare if not altogether nonexistent in publicly available form. Complemented by his extraordinary attention to detail and quality, these are all reasons why Sam's work is such a gift to us all. I have been so moved by offCamera that I felt compelled to turn the mic around, point it at Sam and get to the bottom of his story. Thank you Sam for your willingness to engage me in a dynamic conversation that explores the intersection of art and commerce; the importance of authenticity in the expression of one's creativity; and what can be learned from working with the most prolific musicians, actors, filmmakers and artists in the world. In the words of Sam, “it has taken me a lifetime to develop my attention span, and I want to use it.” Me too Sam. Me too. I sincerely hope you enjoy the listen. Peace + Plants, Rich

19 Jan 20151h 59min

If we want to repair our broken health care system and move culture towards true, long-term sustainable wellness, then medicine must embrace a a new approach to healing. An approach that's so new, it's old. Less reductive, more holistic. Less diagnose & prescribe and more all-encompassing, functional and preventive. Let’s kick start that conversation. This week's guest is nutritionist, acupuncturist, herbalist, Reiki Master and expert Chinese Medicine practitioner Heather Lounsbury, author of Fix Your Mood with Food*. Although she gave up meat nearly 30 years ago for ethical reasons, Heather was a junk food vegetarian with zero interest health until hers hit the skids. Moody and constantly fatigued, she began experimenting with nutrition and was astonished to discover the extent to which she could modulate her physical and emotional vitality relative to the types of foods she would eat. This realization lead Heather to pursue graduate degrees in nutrition and Chinese medicine. Today Heather is a well respected clinical practitioner with over a decade of experience treating patients with a wide variety of mental, emotional and physical issues. Her basic message? Live natural. Live well. Food has a far greater impact than we recognize on not only our physical health but on our mental and emotional health as well. Not only can proper diet (amplified by additional holistic healing measures) alleviate stress and elevate your mood naturally, it can prevent and often reverse a wide variety of chronic infirmities, including heart disease, elevated cholesterol, digestive issues, diabetes (diabesity!) and more. Over the course of our conversation we discuss: How pain and digestive disorders can be holistically managed and alleviated; How holistic healing practices can be used to treat mental health & addiction issues; The importance of progress over perfection; The role and function of certain herbs on physiological functions; Primer and origin of food allergies; Thoughts on GMO’s, Omega- 3 EFA's & Supplementation; and Addressing the social barriers that impede healthy eating. Lots of good stuff to chew on this week. I hope you enjoy the conversation. Peace + Plants, Rich

12 Jan 20152h 12min

Welcome back to our second spin around the listener Q&A merry-go-round! Due to popular demand (and all the great questions flooding our inbox), we're happy to once again banter on the subjects, issues and topics you want addressed. In this episode Julie and I cover a ton of ground, name dropping resources like an over-caffeinated publicist. Here's a top down view on the landscape: * The importance of the morning ritual to optimize your day; * Inspirational and educational books, websites, podcasts & other online resources; * Resources to facilitate your shift to a Plantpower lifestyle; * A few (very brief) thoughts on high carb / low carb / gluten and nutritional density; * More brief thoughts on certain foods to avoid and others to embrace; and * A few closing thoughts on running volume. No need to break out pen and paper. Due to the hard work of my trusty right hand Chris Swan, everything is detailed, itemized and hyperlinked for your convenience in the below show notes. So just sit back and enjoy. Special thanks and shoutout to everyone who submitted questions. Keep them coming! Peace + Plants, Rich

8 Jan 20151h 3min

What if the path you think you're meant to be living isn't your path at all? I grappled with this mental and spiritual Rubik’s cube for decades. Only now — at 48 — do I feel like I have any insight whatsoever into this quandary. Not so with today’s guest. After a drunken car accident at age 19, Jake Ducey had an epiphany: maybe, just maybe, the traditional promise of the American Dream isn't my path to happiness and personal fulfillment. What did he do with this realization? He up and quit school, walking out on a collegiate basketball scholarship to instead light out and travel the world. Along the way, Jake chronicled his journey, distilling his insights down to a book entitled Into the Wind . Undaunted by being turned down by every publisher, he nonetheless self-published his book. And without any marketing budget or publicist, Jake still managed to self-promote Into the Wind to Amazon’s top 300 – no small accomplishment. Jake subsequently piqued the interest and mentorship of people like Chicken Soup for the Soul* author Jack Canfield and Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus* author John Gray. He became a TEDx speaker. And at 23, Jake became the youngest author to land a motivational book publishing deal at a major publishing house (Tarcher/Penguin). The Purpose Principles* – hitting book stores this week — is the product of Jake's journey to date, drawing on the stories of success, failure, and the common threads among some of today’s most successful and influential people to illuminate a plan for living your best life in a changing world – a theme not inconsistent with this show. I’ve hosted more than a few impressive young and precocious twenty-somethings on the show over the last two years because I love getting the millennial perspective on life. I like young people and as a parent of two teenage boys and two soon to be teenage girls, I truly want to understand what makes the next generation tick. What is important to millennials? What is the lens through which they perceive their environment? And how will this perception frame and shape the world they will soon inherit and steward into the future? But let’s face it – at 48 I'm likely older than Jake's father. So is there really anything (anything at all?) that this 23 year old (or any 23 year old for that matter) could possibly teach me? Maybe I'm being a snob (probably). But it's a question worth asking, isn't it? What kind of insights could such a young person possibly have that would legitimize a book of any legitimate merit or substance?

5 Jan 20151h 54min

Welcome to Part 2 of our second annual Best of the RRP Anthology series. If you haven't already, I suggest listening to The Best of 2014 Part 1 first. Once again, this is a compendium of some of my favorite conversations of 2014. Our way of saying thanks. Our way of giving back. Our way of trying to catapult you into the new year armed with the information and inspiration required to make it your best year yet. Once again, it's worth reflecting upon the incredible year that was 2014. My blessings are many. My gratitude is overflowing. This is my way way of saying thank you. I appreciate you. Here's to an extraordinary 2015 — the year we manifest our greatest dreams into reality. Join me, and let's do this thing together. Peace + Plants, Rich

1 Jan 20151h 49min

This is the time of year for celebration. This is the time of year for giving back. This is the time of year for gratitude. This is the time of year for reflection. So let's do all those things. Welcome to the second annual Best of the RRP Anthology. This is our way of reflecting back. Our way of expressing gratitude. Our way of giving thanks for taking this journey with us. I pride myself on bringing a wide variety of personalities, opinions and attitudes to the show. When I look back over 2014, even I am surprised by how many incredibly interesting and unique people and perspectives I was honored to entertain and share with you. Second listens brought new insights. Another reminder of what a gift this show has been to me. A gift that gives and keeps on giving. A compendium of some of my favorite conversations of 2014, the next two episodes of the podcast are certain to catapult you into the new year inspired. If you’ve been with me all along, these offerings will bring certain insights back into the forefront of your consciousness as you contemplate your trajectory heading into the new year. If you're new to the show, then these episodes will definitely inspire you to peruse the catalog and listen in full to some of the guests and or episodes you may have missed. Links to the full episodes excerpted in this anthology are enumerated below. It has been an incredible year. My blessings are many. My gratitude is overflowing. This is my way way of saying thank you. I appreciate you. Here's to an extraordinary 2015 — the year we manifest our greatest dreams into reality. Join me, and let's do this thing together. Peace + Plants, Rich

29 Dec 20141h 45min

At the highest echelons of sport, all the athletes are supremely talented. All have devoted their lives to being the best they can be. All train as hard as they possibly can. And all are optimizing their sleep, nutrition and recovery to glean every extra edge imaginable. So what distinguishes the gold medalist from the also ran? Is it luck? Talent? Support? Resources? Of course every result is significantly influenced by some combination of these important variables. But all things being equal, the athlete with the mental and emotional edge will stand atop the podium every time. Once the embarrassing last stop on a flailing athlete’s career, the world's top sports psychologists now enjoy a highly influential and respected role proactively honing the mental and emotional edge of today's most successful athletes, CEOs and creatives looking to elevate peak performance beyond the imaginable. Enter Dr. Michael Gervais- the go to high performance psychologist everyone is talking about. Director of the High Performance Psychology arm of DISC (Diagnostic and Interventional Surgical Center) Sports & Spine Center in Marina Del Rey and a key member of the Red Bull High Performance Program, Michael works in the trenches of high-stakes environments, where there is no luxury for mistakes, hesitation, or failure to respond. With the vision of helping his clients thrive under pressure, Michael has created a performance model — melding state-of-the-art brain mapping techniques with an approach grounded in high-performance psychology — that allows people to achieve their maximum potential, whether on or off the field. Dr. Gervais' results are staggering. If you follow the NFL, then you might recall Michael as the guy Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll credits as integral in their Super Bowl win for the meditation, mindfulness and other crucial team building techniques he helped foster and instill into the fabric of the Seahawks organization and team culture that paved the team’s path towards incredible success. You might also remember that Felix Baumgartner’s now-infamous Red Bull Stratos jump from an altitude of 128,000 feet almost never was simply because Felix simply could not overcome the high level of anxiety and claustrophobia he experienced every time he donned the jump suit. It was none other than Gervais who helped Baumagartner resolve the issue and get Stratos back on track. No Gervais, no history making jump. In addition to the Seahawks and Red Bull's North American athletes, Dr. Gervais has worked with the US Olympic Team, snowboarders, golfers, basketball players, track and field athletes, an impressive array of top collegiate programs, and professional sports organizations including the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB and UFC. In addition, his work has played an integral role in the US Military, as well as several collegiate and high school programs. While Dr. Gervais’ roster includes some of the sports world’s most elite, this isn’t just about high performance athletes, its about high performance life. To coin his phrase,

22 Dec 20141h 59min

And now for something completely different… In an effort to create a little more intimacy, a little more community, and a little more connection with you — the audience — I thought I would open the show up to your burning questions. Talk about what you want to talk about for a change. A few weeks back I put the word out for question submissions and you responded — our inbox was flooded with e-mails. So here we are. My first spin with a Q&A format. I picked a handful of queries I thought would make for an interesting and broadly applicable discussion, asked Julie to occupy the co-pilot seat (talking into a microphone alone is really hard, and not that fun) and we gave it our all to answer your questions to the best of our collective abilities. Topics discussed and questions answered pivot around the following: How to pursue your dream when your partner is non-supportive; How to escape an unfulfilling career when you don't know what you really want; How to balance physical fitness against spiritual fitness; How to manage extended family put off by your life choices and dietary preferences; and How to raise a healthy toddler plant-based. Special thanks and shoutout to Jen B., Tommy F., Pete D., Dawn and Hugh for the great questions. Not sure about whether or not you want to be identified publicly, so I'm going to err on the side of anonymity. Did you guys like the episode? Is this format something you think I should I do it again? Was it too long? Too short? How about rotating guests for co-pilot duty?  If the demand exists and I continue to get great submissions from you, then I’ll keep doing it. Maybe not every week, but we’ll see. In the interim, send your questions for an (anticipated) future episode to: info@richroll.com and leave your comments below. Peace + Plants, Rich

18 Dec 20141h 13min