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As a newly divorced mother of two small children and high-powered professional, Diane Randall had let her health take a back seat to all her responsibilities. Overweight, diagnosed with high blood pressure and high cholesterol, she was jolted into action by a doctor's warning that her current trajectory was going to take years off her life.Having seen type 2 diabetes lead to disability and premature death among family members, Randall took the warning seriously. Employing her training as a systems engineer and consultant, she approached her own health challenges strategically and methodically.She discovered plant-based nutrition, along with other modalities and practices amenable to a healthy lifestyle, and eventually came to a point where she started helping other busy professionals make health a priority in their own lives.

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Dr Josh Luke was enjoying his career in sports marketing when his grandmother got sick. He watched in amazement and frustration at the way she was treated when she didn't have the money for the treatments prescribed.

He saw the lack of communication and coordination among different nodes in the system. He saw the avoidable pain and suffering, and decided sports marketing wasn't important to him anymore.

Luke jumped into healthcare, and worked his way up from one CEO position to another, running larger and larger hospitals. And learning about – and tackling – the roots of the dysfunctions he saw from the sidelines of his grandmother's illness.

Now an author, speaker, academic, consultant, Luke shares his vision of the dystopian American healthcare landscape, as well as on-the-ground prescriptions for change.

In our conversation, we looked at the crazy economic incentives that drive much of the dysfunction. Including those six words – “Your insurance will pay for it” – that turns otherwise rational thinkers into unquestioning consumers of expensive, often unnecessary, and sometimes harmful treatments.

Luke encourages all of us to become EHC's – Engaged Healthcare Consumers – who evaluate medical treatment with the same eye toward value and risk as we deploy when shopping for cars, homes, toasters, and smartphones.

Enjoy, add your voice to the conversation via the comment box below, and please share – that's how we spread our message and spread our roots.

Links

DrJoshLuke.com

Health-Wealth: 9 Steps to Financial Recovery, by Dr Josh Luke

Ex-Acute: A Former Hospital CEO tells all on What’s Wrong with American Healthcare, by Dr Josh Luke

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Like what you hear? You can contribute to the growth and improvement of the podcast by becoming a patron. Click the “Support on Patreon” or “Donate” buttons on the right to help out.

Announcements

New WellStart Coach Training begins end of March. Find out more and apply here.

Ready to embark on your Big Change journey?

Are you tired of knowing what to do, and still not doing it consistently? The WellStart Health Big Change Program, led by Josh LaJaunie and myself, will help you take the steps to finally live according to your knowledge and values.

Go to WellStartHealth.com/program to learn more, and to get notified about the next program.

Ask your questions or share your feedback

Comment on the show notes for this episode (below)

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Music

The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.

It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.

You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.

Gratitudes

Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons – Kim Harrison – Lynn McLellan – Anthony Dissen – Brittany Porter – Dominic Marro – Barbara Whitney – Tammy Black – Amy Good – Amanda Hatherly – Mary Jane Wheeler – Ellen Kennelly – Melissa Cobb – Rachel Behrens – Christine Nielsen – Tina Scharf – Tina Ahern – Jen Vilki...

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know.

Dr Josh Luke was enjoying his career in sports marketing when his grandmother got sick. He watched in amazement and frustration at the way she was treated when she didn't have the money for the treatments prescribed.He saw the lack of communication and coordination among different nodes in the system. He saw the avoidable pain and suffering, and decided sports marketing wasn't important to him anymore.Luke jumped into healthcare, and worked his way up from one CEO position to another, running larger and larger hospitals. And learning about - and tackling - the roots of the dysfunctions he saw from the sidelines of his grandmother's illness.

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Charles Eisenstein has been challenging my thinking for about 15 years now, but never more so than with his latest book, Climate: A New Story.

Basically, Eisenstein argues that focusing all our environmental activism on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat global warming is a bad idea.

As a card-carrying member of the enlightened, scientifically-literate, progressive wing of the American populace, of course I know that human-created climate change is the single greatest threat to our civilization, and that the biggest thing we can do to combat it is to reduce our carbon footprint, individually and collectively.

Heck, that's one of the best arguments for eating a plant-based diet – that it fights climate change more profoundly than switching from a Hummer to a Prius, or eschewing air travel entirely. And since I want as many people as possible to go plant-based, of course I'll deploy this convenient, terrifying climate narrative (which 97% of climate scientists agree with) to add one more reason to the mix.

After all, the last thing I want to do is stand with the crazy, greedy, deluded, ignorant climate skeptics, right?

Well, after reading Climate: A New Story, I have a whole different view on what needs to be done.

The earth, or “Gaia,” as Eisenstein calls our home, is quite sick. Rising temperatures is one symptom, just as a high fever might be a symptom of an infection in a person. Just as the pharmaceutical industry treats symptoms and ignores root causes, so too the environmental movement has become mired in reductionist treatments of symptoms rather than addressing root causes.

A healthy planet, Eisenstein argues, can withstand perturbations like increased greenhouse gases. A sick planet, whose organs (forests, wetlands, oceans, prairies, etc.) have been destroyed by human beings, will not have the resilience to absorb the extra carbon.

Digging deeper, Eisenstein identifies the root root cause of our mistreatment of our only home: we don't view the earth as sacred.

Until we return from our illusion of separation, with its requirement that we control and dominate and bend all the forces of nature to our instrumental will, we cannot heal the planet.

In fact, approaching climate change like we approach our other problems – with a war on carbon emissions, just like our failed wars on terror, drugs, crime, disease, and agricultural pests – guarantees that we will fail. Warlike thinking is the cause of the problem. We need a different mindset to find our way out of it.

As you know, there's a fierce battle going on about whether climate change is real, and if it is, whether it's our fault, and if it is, whether there's anything we can do about it. Like all wars, this one demands that we choose sides. If you were to suspect me of being a climate skeptic or denier, you probably would dismiss me and my podcast out of hand.

Listen to our conversation, and please read Climate: A New Story. It's essentially a work of politics, economics, history, and science that takes spirituality seriously. You can map the teachings of Eckhard Tolle, in A New Earth, directly onto Climate. If you've ever wondered what enlightened public policy would truly look like, Eisenstein is a good a guide as any I've come across.

I'm thrilled that Charles agreed to share an hour with us, and I look forward to some spirited, and respectful, and loving, debate from the listeners of this podcast.

Enjoy, add your voice to the conversation via the comment box or audio recording box below, and please share – that's how we spread our message and spread our roots.

Links

Climate: A New Story

CharlesEisenstein.org 

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know.

Charles Eisenstein has been challenging my thinking for about 15 years now, but never more so than with his latest book, Climate: A New Story.Basically, Eisenstein argues that focusing all our environmental activism on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat global warming is a bad idea.

Click to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo.

Support the show

When I polled my listeners about topics or guests they’d like to hear on upcoming episodes of Plant Yourself, I got a lot of requests for a show about plant-based pregnancy.

I thought this might be a little too niche, until I reminded myself that every one of us is the result of a pregnancy, and that for the foreseeable future, all our descendants will continue to be born in this fashion. So no problem there…

When I asked my Facebook Hive Mind who would be a great guest for this topic, Micaela Karlsen’s name came up again and again.

So here we are today

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know.

When I polled my listeners about topics or guests they’d like to hear on upcoming episodes of Plant Yourself, I got a lot of requests for a show about plant-based pregnancy.I thought this might be a little too niche, until I reminded myself that every one of us is the result of a pregnancy, and that for the foreseeable future, all our descendants will continue to be born in this fashion. So no problem there…When I asked my Facebook Hive Mind who would be a great guest for this topic, Micaela Karlsen’s name came up again and again.So here we are today :)

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Andrew Taylor was tired of being out of shape, obese, and sick. An olympic hopeful in his teens, he had let his fitness and health slip away as his commitment to kayaking waned but his addictions to food persisted.His depression, largely fueled by the thought that he was far away from the person he wanted to be, always kept him returning to the trough for another supersized hit of vegan junk food.His revelation - and the spark of his transformational year of eating nothing but potatoes - was that he was treating food like an alcoholic treats booze.

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Andrew Taylor was tired of being out of shape, obese, and sick. An olympic hopeful in his teens, he had let his fitness and health slip away as his commitment to kayaking waned but his addictions to food persisted.

His depression, largely fueled by the thought that he was far away from the person he wanted to be, always kept him returning to the trough for another supersized hit of vegan junk food.

His revelation – and the spark of his transformational year of eating nothing but potatoes – was that he was treating food like an alcoholic treats booze.

And so he would have to quit food.

Not all food, obviously, but close.

That’s when Andrew decided that the humble potato – nutritionally speaking, one of nature’s most perfect foods – would be his one concession to the need for calories and nutrition.

His journey, what he learned, and how he accidentally became famous – listen to this episode to get the story.

Enjoy, add your voice to the conversation via the comment box or audio recording box below, and please share – that's how we spread our message and spread our roots.

Links

Andrew's Website: Spudfit.com

Andrew on Instagram

Spud Fit cookbook – Kindle Edition

Support the Podcast

Like what you hear? You can contribute to the growth and improvement of the podcast by becoming a patron. Click the “Support on Patreon” or “Donate” buttons on the right to help out.

Ready to embark on your Big Change journey?

Are you tired of knowing what to do, and still not doing it consistently? The WellStart Health Big Change Program, led by Josh LaJaunie and myself, will help you take the steps to finally live according to your knowledge and values.

Go to WellStartHealth.com/program to learn more, and to get notified about the next program.

Ask your questions or share your feedback

Comment on the show notes for this episode (below)

Connect with me

Subscribe, rate, and review in iTunes

Join the Plant Yourself Facebook Page

Music

The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.

It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.

You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.

Gratitudes

Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons

– Kim Harrison – Lynn McLellan – Anthony Dissen – Brittany Porter – Dominic Marro – Barbara Whitney – Tammy Black – Amy Good – Amanda Hatherly – Mary Jane Wheeler – Ellen Kennelly – Melissa Cobb – Rachel Behrens – Christine Nielsen – Tina Scharf – Tina Ahern – Jen Vilkinofsky – David Byczek – Michele X – Elspeth Feldman – Viktoriya Dolomanova – Leah Stolar – Allan Kristensen – Colleen Peck – Michele Landry – Jozina – Julianne Rowland – Stu Dolnick – Sara Durkacs – Kelly Cameron – Wayne Pedersen – Leanne Peterson – Janet Selby – Claire Adams – Tom Fronczak – Jeannette Benham – Gila Lacerte – David Donohue – Blair Seibert – Doron Avizov – Gio and Carolyn Argentati – Jodi Friesner – RuthAnn Funderburk – Mischa Rosen –...

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know.

Hillary Rettig is both an activist and a productivity expert, two vocations that don't seem to have much in common at first glance. But as soon as I started reading two of her books, The Lifelong Activist and The 7 Secrets of the Prolific, I got the connection.Unproductive would-be activists are disempowered activists.And in a world that systematically tries to disempower those who challenge its structures of power and privilege, the last thing we need is to get in our own way when we stand up to injustice.

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