RockneCAST

Vince Lombardi was 45 years old when he became head coach of the Green Bay Packers.  In this RockneCast, I discuss a victory banquet at the Green Bay Elks Club on April 30, 1962, four months after the Packers won their first NFL Championship, smashing the New York Football Giants 37-0. Tim  Cohane, sports editor at Look Magazine, and noted chronicler of Lombardi, gave an epic toast to Coach Lombardi, describing how each obstacle on his way made him the perfect fit for Green Bay.  Each disappointment provided the stepping stone on his likely path from New York to becoming a legend in Green Bay.

This one one is short, the second in a seven part series on Vince Lombardi as part of my review of the excellent biography, "When Pride Still Mattered" by David Maraniss.  

For the next episode, I am going to cover the Jesuit Tradition and Vince Lombardi.  

In this episode, I begin the first of a seven part series on Vince Lombardi.  I just finished David Maraniss' 1999 biography of Vince Lombardi, "When Pride Still Mattered".  I just loved this book!  Buy it!!  Too much to cover in one episode, so I will do seven short episodes, and this is my first one.  It's on Vince Lombardi's favorite quote from Douglas MacArthur via Lombardi's key mentor, Red Blaik, the head coach at West Point Military Academy when Army was a national football power.

This quote is life changing.  Listen to see why.  

In this episode, I review the book The Circadian Code, a 2018 book by Dr. Satchin Panda, Director of Center for Circadian Biology at the University of California San Diego.  I'll discuss his super simple recommendations to turbocharge your energy, lose weight, and to get jacked!  Best yet, it's all free!  You just need the knowledge.

Together you and I will explore his three key take recommendations relating to when we sleep, eat and move.  To optimize all three, you'll need to understand the relationship to light and its relationship to sleep.  

This is covered in depth in this book and in this episode: how to align your circadian biology with the sun, a process resulting from over one billion years of evolution.  

Align with the sun and get, healthy, happy, and fit.  Fight it and you'll likely get sick, tired and depressed.

Even though its a billion years in the making, the key findings of this field have only emerged within the last 30 to 40 years, and some of those were only made in 2002 by scientists like Dr. Panda.  I learned about Dr. Panda through my man-crush, Dr. Andrew Huberman, a fellow professor who actually believes, like Dr. Panda, that his research should be accessible to a larger audience (in contrast to many academics).  Dr. Huberman discussed Dr. Panda's work in his episode on time restricted eating, a key interest of mine, and I really wanted to learn more in depth about optimizing food intake based upon a daily circadian sleep/wake cycle. 

I also share my own story when I was 300 pounds.  Though  I largely ate a healthy diet, my circadian biology was all out of whack, leading to being fat, stressed, and unfocused.  That all changed when I started aligning my circadian biology with the timing of when I ate, or time restricted eating as Dr. Panda calls it.

This book lived up to its promise of losing weight, supercharging energy, and transforming health.  Whoa... this one was super fun to do and I can't wait to start doing regular weekly podcasts again!!

In this second episode on a landmark 16:8 fasting study, we cover another significant deficiency of the New England Journal of Medicine 16:8 fasting article, "Calorie Restriction with or without Time Restricted Eating in Weight Loss" (April 22, 2022). It omits any discussion of the controversy surrounding "statistical significance", a topic that is hotly debated within the professional statistics community.    

The study clearly showed a weight loss difference between the fasting group and the control group, but the difference was reported as "no difference" because the difference was not "statistically significant".  

So, in this episode, we cover the seemingly boring, but actually very interesting topic of "statistical significance", a topic which has generated significant controversy in the professional statistics community.  From drugs to mask policy, this concept affects nearly public policy and consumer  science policy decision.    

How do we determine whether variable x actually causes Y or is at least associated with Y to such a degree that we can actually make policy on that basis?    

For a long time, the statistics community has identified "statistical significance" as a way to make such decisions, but more and more professionals are questioning not the underlying methodology, but the language statistical significant to determine what is important and not important.   We cover this issue more broadly and as it relates to this "study".    

Fasting works!  This study sucks!!  Toss it!!  Reach out with comments and feedback at either [email protected] or [email protected].

In this episode, I respond to a recent journal article in the New England Journal of Medicine called "Calorie Restriction with or without Time Restricted Eating in Weight Loss".  It was published on April 21, 2022.     

This study addressed two groups eating the same amount of calories and macros of carbs, protein and fats.  The first did a 16:8 protocol and the second group did the standard three meals a day along with snacks.    

Calories and macros were the same, and the only difference was the one group had an eight hour eating window from 8am to 4pm, and the other at standard times for breakfast, lunch and dinner along with snacks.  Food portions were closely monitored, a diet journal was kept and both groups received diet coaching.   

I discuss results of the study, questions that I have about the study, the meaning of "statistical significance", and the viability of time restricted eating after this landmark study.    Is fasting just a mental hack to cut calories to lose weight?    I  don't think it is... In this episode, I explain why.    Fasting is a powerful weight loss tool remains viable even after this study.

In this episode, I discuss my recent 44 hour fast: how much weight I lost, my hunger, my mental state, whether I should be proud of my results, and how I ate after the 44 hour fast.

Whoa, I just discovered the awesomeness of matcha green tea, a tasty caffeinated beverage that is even better than ordinary green tea in a bag, which is ok, but kind of tastes like like grass.  Matcha is way better, and much more pleasant to consume.   I'm talking about the matcha powder and not the green tea you find in a tea bag.   

In this episode, I describe two key health benefits relating to weight loss and the cognitive enhancement.  Matcha is so awesome that you may well want to consider starting your own matcha smoothie shop.  it is seriously that good.  There is a reason that monks take it before mediation and Samurai warriors consumed it before battle.  It brings relaxed, focused alertness and definitely a life changer.  

Seriously love me some matcha tea!

In this episode, I interviewed Dr. Michelle Dynes about her incredible journey from Waukon, Iowa to being a high credentialed public health researcher in Thailand.  She graduated from my hometown high school, Decorah, Iowa, and my alma mater, Luther College.  We are high school and college classmates!

This was a very fun to do as we explored her journey from Decorah to Yale to Atlanta to Thailand, just north of Bangkok.  She also shares the insight she gained along the way for anyone interested in building such an incredible career as she has done.  We discuss women's maternal health, history of nursing, her career as a midwife (and its true meaning), her career path that led her to get a PhD from Emory University before joining the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, two book recommendations, and one self care recommendation from Dr. Dynes.  

Her story reminded me of the Marcus Aurelius quote about assembling your life "action by action." Just in the middle career, she has already achieved great things, step by step, action by action.  

We also learned that Waukon just may be a hotbed for public health talent as we learned about another top infectious disease researcher, who also hails from Waukon!  You'll have to listen to find out who also hails from Waukon...

Send me episode feedback at [email protected]. 

This episode is by far the most most meaningful RockneCast episode to me.  I interviewed Dr. Lillian Erdahl about her dad, Clemens Erdahl.  

Clemens passed away suddenly at the age of 71 on October 2, 2019.  He wore many hats: a lawyer, a traveler, a dad, a mentor, a husband, an Iowa City councilor and a colorful story teller.  In life, I knew only Clemens.  He focused primarily on state and federal criminal defense at all levels: trial, appeals and post-convictions.  We worked on several cases together, and he taught me a lot about the practice of law.  When he died, I met his family members, and have been piecing together parts of his incredible life ever since.

His daughter, Dr. Lillian Erdahl, a successful oncology surgeon at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, graciously accepted my invitation to be interviewed about her dad, Clemens.  We discussed his incredible life, his love of poetry, his philosophy, and what it was like growing up with Clemens as her dad.  Clemens was in many respects like a real life Atticus Finch, and it was such an honor to practice law with him.  He left us far too early.

Clemens' early and sudden death impacted me greatly and was one of the major reasons I decided to start the RockneCast.   Life is short.  We must seize every moment that we have because we all have only so much time.  We never know when our number will be called.  

Clemens left such a wonderful and inspiring legacy to every single life that he impacted.  I am grateful that I had the opportunity to know Clemens and that Dr. Erdahl took the time to be interviewed.  I would love to do another one with just her.  She is just as amazing and inspiring as her father!  This was a very rewarding interview.  You'll love this one!!