The mindbodygreen Podcast

Ellen Vora is a psychiatrist, mindbodygreen Collective member, and instructor of the mindbodygreen class Managing Depression. When it comes to approaching mental health from a holistic perspective, she's one of the world's best. Her goal is to help her patients manage their mental health with diet and lifestyle changes as much as possible, only turning to medications as temporary tools or as a last resort. This episode of the mindbodygreen Podcast is for anyone who struggles with a mental...

This week's guest needs no introduction. As the most accomplished Olympian of our time—and any time, for that matter—Michael Phelps is a wellness icon for the ages. In addition to pushing what the human body is capable of, we can thank Phelps for using his celebrity status to bring often-taboo topics like depression to the surface. I was lucky enough to sit down with the 23-time Olympic gold medalist to learn about one of his latest initiatives: water conservation. This is Phelps' second...

Adi Jaffe, Ph.D., is a world-renowned mental health expert, the CEO of IGNTD, and the host of the IGNTD Podcast. His new book, The Abstinence Myth, is all about overcoming addiction and transforming your life without judgment or shame. Dr. Jaffe is well-known for questioning the status quo and the rules we've been living by when it comes to addiction and sobriety. His wife, Sophie Jaffe, is the woman behind Philosophie, a line of superfoods that are designed to promote health from the inside...

By now, you've probably at least heard of Simple Mills: The line of gluten-free and paleo-friendly cookies, crackers, baking mixes, and frostings taking over grocery aisles around the country. But we bet you didn't know the story of the brand's founder and CEO, Katlin Smith. Smith launched the health food brand at the ripe age of 24 after seeing how cutting out dairy and gluten completely transformed her life. She first set out to, as she says, "raise the standards of what healthy food...

This week, I sat down with Dr. Dean and Dr. Ayesha Sherzai—directors of the Alzheimer's Prevention Program at Loma Linda University Medical Center and authors of The Alzheimer's Solution—to talk about all things brain health, a topic that is more important now than ever before. Did you know that half of the people who live to the age of 85 will have Alzheimer's? It's quickly becoming the most pressing health issue facing our world today. As we learned at revitalize 2018, when the Sherzais...

If you've ever had a Perfect Bar, you understand the hype. The protein-packed snack stuffed with superfoods has picked up a serious cult following, thanks to its simple filling ingredients and downright addicting flavor (a box of the dark chocolate peanut butter bars has been known to disappear from the mbg office fridge in about three seconds flat). Co-founded by siblings Bill and Leigh Keith in 2005, the initial idea for the brand actually dates back to long road trips their large family...

Functional medicine expert, mbg class instructor and Collective member, and my dear friend Will Cole, D.C., IFMCP, grew up in a wellness-focused household. But after 10 years of struggling with poor digestion and low energy on a carb-heavy, vegan diet, he knew there had to be a better way to eat plant-based. That's when he discovered the brain-boosting benefits of the ketogenic diet and fueling his body with healthy fats. If you haven't heard of the ketogenic diet yet, it's a high-fat,...

Nicolas Jammet, Jonathan Neman, and Nathaniel Ru know what sweetgreen customers want because they are sweetgreen customers. More than 10 years ago, they were frustrated by the lack of affordable and delicious food that was also healthy and made them feel good, so the three then-college seniors set out to make salad cool. In 2007, they opened the first sweetgreen and immediately knew they were on to something. They have since grown the ingredient-driven, fast-casual chain to 86 locations...

Tero Isokauppila has been foraging for mushrooms for pretty much his entire life, from when he grew up on the Finnish farm that's been in his family for 13 (!!) generations to, well, right after this interview, when he was off to Central Park to see what fungi he could find. The founder of Four Sigmatic, the powdered mushroom company that's become the obsession of the wellness world, sat down with me to dive deep into medicinal mushrooms. We talk about what mushrooms actually are (turns...

Jon Sebastiani is no stranger to the world of entrepreneurship. At the age of 8, Jon got his taste of working as an entrepreneur on his family’s vineyard in Sonoma Valley, founded in 1894 as one of the wine region’s first vineyards. He continued to work on the business side of the family brand throughout his 20s and early 30s, until the company was sold in 2005. After a self-proclaimed identity crisis of sorts, Jon shifted his focus to his own health, which led him to run in the New York...

Jasmine Hemsley has been a force in the wellness world since she started the world-famous Hemsley + Hemsley brand alongside her sister Melissa in 2014. Their first book, The Art of Eating Well, flipped the script on dieting and proved that eating well can be delicious, soul-satisfying, and not at all restrictive. Since this book became an international best-seller, Jasmine has served as a food consultant to a celebrity clientele, penned two more cookbooks, and traveled the world sharing her...

Erik Oberholtzer is a renowned professional chef who spent 10 years in some of the best fine dining kitchens in California. After getting his start at Chez Panisse, he cooked everywhere from Lark Creek Inn to Left Bank to Shutters on the Beach. Inspired by his relationships with local farmers and his access to fresh ingredients, he became passionate about finding a way to bring farm-to-fork to the masses. In 2006, he opened Tender Greens, a slow-foods-meets-fast-food restaurant in Culver...

Dr. Tanzeem Bhatia, M.D., is a superwoman in her own right. She's not just an M.D.—she has functional medicine, integrative, and holistic physician training, and she's a certified nutritionist, acupuncturist, yoga teacher, and traditional Chinese medicine practitioner. Whew! She might be one of the most qualified medical professionals to help women, as she's seen thousands through her practice and has noticed a few patterns in the way health issues present themselves. Her book, Superwoman...

Weleda is a green brand that goes way, way back—it's been around since 1921. Originally a plant-based medicine company, over the years it has evolved into a natural beauty powerhouse that calls on the power of plants for its nourishing products. In this episode, Rob Keen, who has served as Weleda's CEO for North America since 2016, gives us an inside look into the green beauty industry. He predicts the ingredients that are about to shake up our routines, describes what's next for skin care,...

Max Lugavere is a filmmaker, health science journalist, TV personality, brain health expert, and author of the New York Times best-selling book Genius Foods. For Max, brain health isn't just a trend; it's personal. After his mother was diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease at just 58, Max dedicated himself to understanding the link between diet, lifestyle, and cognitive function. After almost 10 years of research, he is sharing his brain optimizing philosophy to boost brain power,...

Climate-scientist-turned-entrepreneur Adam Lowry makes products that are better for people and better for the world, then brings them to the mainstream. The co-founder of nontoxic cleaning brand Method and plant-based dairy company Ripple Foods, Lowry has been entrenched in the wellness space for two decades. Since he started Ripple with biochemist Neil Renninger in 2014, the line of pea-based milk has raised over $100 million in funding and taken off as a protein-rich dairy alternative....

Nutritionist, functional mediation practitioner, cognitive behavioral therapist, mindbodygreen class instructor and collective member, and dear friend Dana James has helped more than 3,000 women clean up their eating habits and move closer to their happy weight over the course of her career. Dana's emphasis on psychology is unique: She believes that in order to lose weight, we need to first address the mental blocks that are holding us back. In her 12 years as a practitioner, she's...

Never heard of a chicken or lobster mushroom? Then you haven't talked to Julie Piatt. As the co-author of the new book The Plantpower Way: Italia: Delicious Vegan Recipes for the Italian Countryside, Julie can tell you all about them and will reassure you that they're vegan. This isn't the first book she's written with her husband, Rich Roll—the duo published their first vegan lifestyle book, The Plantpower Way, together back in 2015, and it became an instant hit. Between their success in...

Sarah Wilson is the journalist, entrepreneur, and author behind the I Quit Sugar empire who has helped people around the world give up the sweet stuff for the sake of their health. She is also a lifelong sufferer of anxiety. Her latest book, First We Make the Beast Beautiful, is a stunning account of how Sarah copes with anxiety and a must-have handbook for anyone who wants to understand the often illusive mental illness a little better. In this episode, Sarah—a longtime friend and...