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Will Bonsall is the visionary gardener whose half-century of experimentation and iconoclasm can help us save human civilization from collapse. His method, which he refers to as "gardening without borders," takes into account all the inputs and outputs of a garden or farm, in contrast to the usual methods of conventional, organic, and permaculture production.In addition to gardening, teaching, and seed saving, Will is also a novelist. His 2010 work, Through the Eyes of a Stranger: Yaro Tales Book One, takes his philosophy and imagines it in practice in a working, sustainable civilization.

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Will Bonsall is my new hero, and I say that without exaggeration. Check out the short video clip at the top of the Links section below to see half of the reason why.

The other half of the reason take a bit longer to explain – hence this full-length podcast episode.

Will is the visionary gardener whose half-century of experimentation and iconoclasm can help us save human civilization from collapse. His method, which he refers to as “gardening without borders,” takes into account all the inputs and outputs of a garden or farm, in contrast to the usual methods of conventional, organic, and permaculture production.

In addition to gardening, teaching, and seed saving, Will is also a novelist. His 2010 work, Through the Eyes of a Stranger: Yaro Tales Book One, takes his philosophy and imagines it in practice in a working, sustainable civilization. And Will assures me that book 2 will be out soon

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know.

Aaron Stuber and Jackson Long are the irreverent, hilarious, and extremely fit duo behind the Thought For Food Podcast and nascent publishing empire.Aaron is a cardiovascular nurse, and a long-time competitive climber. When he first started dating his vegetarian girlfriend, he initially dismissed that diet as "the dumbest thing I've ever heard of." Then he began to feel the effects of adding more plants to his diet, checked out the science, and was hooked.Jackson is a competitive road cyclist who has competed at the national and international levels. During one particularly grueling training season, he followed his coaches' paleo advice and ditched the carbs - and started feeling terrible. He also turned to research, found Forks Over Knives, Rich Roll, and Brendan Brazier, and turned his health and his fitness around in short order.

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Aaron Stuber and Jackson Long are the irreverent, hilarious, and extremely fit duo behind the Thought For Food Podcast and nascent publishing empire.

Aaron is a cardiovascular nurse, and a long-time competitive climber. When he first started dating his vegetarian girlfriend, he initially dismissed that diet as “the dumbest thing I've ever heard of.” Then he began to feel the effects of adding more plants to his diet, checked out the science, and was hooked.

Jackson is a competitive road cyclist who has competed at the national and international levels. During one particularly grueling training season, he followed his coaches' paleo advice and ditched the carbs – and started feeling terrible. He also turned to research, found Forks Over Knives, Rich Roll, and Brendan Brazier, and turned his health and his fitness around in short order.

The two connected at a vegan meetup in Boulder (naturally ;), and discovered kindred spirits in each other.

The food is important, sure, but what really underpins their take on life is the phrase, “Do epic shit.” They worship the part of life that exists outside of our comfort zones. They advise us to tackle our addictions to food, drink, sloth, screens, and thinking by replacing it with a healthy addiction to personal growth.

And just in case you don't yet have a sense of this pair's willingness to be crude and funny to make a point, they have introduced the hashtag Take Epic Dumps to the world.

So I was eager to converse with Aaron and Jackson and get my own inspiration amped up by their positive energy. I think you'll feel the same.

We talked about:

* why “epic dumps” (ie large and satisfying bowel movements) are such a good metric for overall health

* the plant-based echo chamber, and how to reach outside of it to influence others

* finding concepts that everyone can get behind

* Aaron's slight performance improvement following his vegan transition

* Jackson on being a “closet vegan” in a cycling world rife with disordered eating

* leading by example, being comfortable, and not making your diet into a big deal

* why athletes are so susceptible to the positive pull of veganism

* “the magic happens when you cross the line from comfort to discomfort”

* giving people easily attainable goals

* the strategic importance of building self-efficacy rather than self-esteem

* “99.99% of people can eat one piece of broccoli a week”

* why it's more effective to meet people where they are than argue from an abolitionist vegan perspective

* and much more…

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

Thought For Food Lifestyle website

Thought For Food TV

The Instagram Thing That All the Cool Kids Are Doing These Days

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.

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

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know.

Tara Kemp is one of the happy luminaries of the plant-based movement. Spend an hour in her presence and you'll be charmed and delighted into eating better - no lectures or harangues required.When I first met Tara, I just assumed she was a natural-born positive person, never given to depression or anxiety or even garden-variety snarkiness. But as I discovered in our conversation, she has overcome a great deal to get to where she is now.And it's that journey, and the hard-won lessons gleaned from it, that give Tara the wisdom and authority and power to take on the task she's chosen for herself: helping people everywhere learn to love themselves, make peace with food, and eat life-nourishing plants.

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Tara Kemp is one of the happy luminaries of the plant-based movement. Spend an hour in her presence and you'll be charmed and delighted into eating better – no lectures or harangues required.

When I first met Tara, I just assumed she was a natural-born positive person, never given to depression or anxiety or even garden-variety snarkiness. But as I discovered in our conversation, she has overcome a great deal to get to where she is now.

And it's that journey, and the hard-won lessons gleaned from it, that give Tara the wisdom and authority and power to take on the task she's chosen for herself: helping people everywhere learn to love themselves, make peace with food, and eat life-nourishing plants.

We had a very long conversation – one of the longest in the four-plus year history of this podcast – and we really dove into Tara's early struggles, her disordered eating, and her battles with self-doubt and anxiety. I was keeping my eye on the clock (I aim for 50-60 minute conversations), and I knew there was a lot more to cover, but my curiosity got the better of me as Tara shared her story with clarity, grace, and exquisite vulnerability.

Think of this as a double-header: one 50-minute podcast about the problem, and a second podcast of equal length about the resolution: plants, meditation, service, and self-love.

We covered:

* Tara's current career goals

* why she's chasing an RD degree when she disagrees with much of the dietitian party line

* her sheltered childhood of suburbia and gymnastics

* anxiety about poor gymnastic performances, and the snowball effects of lack of control

* running and food restriction

* adding butter and eating Snickers bars before bed – the medical solution to underweight

* her addiction to people pleasing – and how that differs from a life of service

* drinking Ensure in college to gain weight

* eating healthily from a place of fear vs self-love

* trying the “vegan thing” after reading Born to Run

* how Forks Over Knives changed everything

* discovering that food didn't have to be all love/hate, restriction or guilty pleasure

* “food has so much healing power and we have so much power over our health”

* working on Radical Acceptance and meditation

* becoming our own best friend

* “I'm stronger than the anxious thoughts that come into my brain”

* and much more…

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

Tara on Instagram

Email Tara: *protected email*

Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall

Forks Over Knives

Plantstock by Engine 2

Dr. Pam Popper of Wellness Forum Health

Radical Acceptance, by Tara Brach

Tara on the PlantPower Podcast with Dylan Steeples

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.

Gratitudes

Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons

– Kim Harrison

– Lynn McLellan

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know.

Michelle McMacken, MD, is a leader in the field of plant-based lifestyle medicine. She's an assistant professor at New York University's School of Medicine, and the director of a medical weight-loss clinic at Bellevue Medical Center.She's also responsible for teaching doctors-in-training at Bellevue, where she gets to introduce the next generation of medical professionals to the wonderful world of lifestyle medicine.Bellevue serves a very diverse patient population, including people who live in homeless shelters, who speak very little English, and who have multiple other obstacles to the "Whole Foods" lifestyle.And yet she works with them, and with the other healthcare professionals who work with them, to improve their health outcomes and happiness by replacing junk food and animal products with life-supporting plant foods.

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Michelle McMacken, MD, is a leader in the field of plant-based lifestyle medicine. She's an assistant professor at New York University's School of Medicine, and the director of a medical weight-loss clinic at Bellevue Medical Center.

She's also responsible for teaching doctors-in-training at Bellevue, where she gets to introduce the next generation of medical professionals to the wonderful world of lifestyle medicine.

Bellevue serves a very diverse patient population, including people who live in homeless shelters, who speak very little English, and who have multiple other obstacles to the “Whole Foods” lifestyle.

And yet she works with them, and with the other healthcare professionals who work with them, to improve their health outcomes and happiness by replacing junk food and animal products with life-supporting plant foods.

In our conversation, we talked about Dr McMacken's unlikely journey, the state of healthcare today, and how she and many others are shifting the paradigm from disease management to disease prevention and reversal through lifestyle habits.

We covered:

* Dr. McMacken's winding path to medicine as a career

* the healing power of story and narrative

* the Lifestyle Medicine conference that changed her life

* the counseling gap in medicine – the missing link in changing patient behavior and outcomes

* the power of Motivational Interviewing

* the magic 6-word teaser question that engaged patients in real conversations about health habits

* case study: reversing type 2 diabetes

* starting patients with the familiar

* the power of a stepwise approach

* how to get doctors to add lifestyle medicine to their toolkit

* forming coalitions by not harping on the fine points

* dispelling the ketogenic myth

* and much more…

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

Dr McMacken's NYU professional page

Dr McMacken on Instagram

Dr McMacken on Twitter

American College of Lifestyle Medicine

Free video course on Motivational Interviewing

Transcript

Download the transcript in PDF format here. (Thanks to Kelly Michiya for transcribing the episode!)

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.

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

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know.

Judson Brewer, author of The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love - Why We Get Hooked, & How We Can Break Bad Habits - kept his meditation practice and medical career separate for a decade. Luckily for us, it eventually dawned on him to inform his research and clinical practice with the 2500-year-old insights of Buddhism.As he dove deep into the dynamics of addiction, he noticed that the primary western model for understanding human learning - BF Skinner's operant conditioning - was simply another way of describing the Buddhist concept of dependent generation. That is, humans, like all organisms, survived because they learned to associate certain triggers with behaviors that produced a reward that conveyed survival benefit.

Click to subscribe to the Mindset Mastery Memo.

Support the show

Judson Brewer, author of The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked, & How We Can Break Bad Habits – kept his meditation practice and medical career separate for a decade. Luckily for us, it eventually dawned on him to inform his research and clinical practice with the 2500-year-old insights of Buddhism.

As he dove deep into the dynamics of addiction, he noticed that the primary western model for understanding human learning – BF Skinner's operant conditioning – was simply another way of describing the Buddhist concept of dependent generation. That is, humans, like all organisms, survived because they learned to associate certain triggers with behaviors that produced a reward that conveyed survival benefit.

As in, see a fruit tree, eat the fruit, get a dopamine rush to the brain to signify, “This is good; let's remember it.” And repeat, with each loop reinforcing the lesson.

This was fine as long as our environment rewarded behaviors that increased our wellbeing: eating, mating, resting, finding warm and dry shelter, etc.

But along the way, we grew these big brains that complicated things. We remembered that high-calorie food made us feel good, so we turned to food to ease our bad moods even when we weren't hungry. And as we created new ways to get dopamine (drugs, alcohol, compelling technologies), our minds leveraged this learning loop into craving and addiction.

Once Brewer noticed the similarities between operant conditioning and the Buddhist model of human craving and suffering, he wondered if the Buddhist practice of mindfulness could be a tool to decouple craving from behavior. Armed with the latest real-time neurofeedback and fMRI technologies, his lab studied brains that craved and brains that had overcome cravings. Brains that had been meditating for years, and brains that had just started meditating. Brains that were struggling to meditate, and brains that received feedback on how well they were meditating.

And armed with this data, Brewer and his team at the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School crafted interventions that were staggeringly effective in helping participants overcome their addictions.

Now Brewer is making these interventions widely available,  convenient, and affordable via smartphone apps that target emotional eating, smoking, and anxiety.

In our thoroughly enjoyable (to me, at least) conversation, we covered:

* why he started meditating

* discovering a long list of personal addictions (including all the socially acceptable ones)

* the three components of habit

* why are brains are the same as sea slugs'

* traditional strategies of habit change, and their weaknesses

* the delay discounting disaster: why we don't care about future consequences

* how to hack the reward-based learning system through ancient wisdom

* why the pre-frontal cortex can't be trusted

* the blissful sensation of flow, and how we get in our own way

* the excitement paradox: why it feels kind of good and bad

* and much more…

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

JudsonBrewer.com

The Craving Mind – on amazon

The Eat Right Now App

Judson's TED talk

Transcript

Big thanks to Ashley Corcoran for transcribing this episode. You can download the PDF here.

Support the Podcast

Like what you hear? You can contribute to the growth and improvement of ...