The Mindbodygreen Podcast

For entrepreneur Rachel Drori, access is at the core of her mission for her company, Daily Harvest. The food delivery service provides convenient fresh and frozen food without compromising on nutritional value—all delivered right to your door. Rachel essentially created Daily Harvest out of a personal need to prioritize wellness in her busy life as a working mom. She combined her background in marketing and hospitality and her passion for food politics to launch Daily Harvest on her own, starting in a commercial kitchen on Long Island City here in New York. Her passion for food politics started in college as a member of an organization that provided fresh produce to the underserved communities in West Philadelphia. Fast-forward to today: Her passion has only multiplied and now includes a mission to help broaden food access across the country, one nutritious frozen meal at a time. Even more so, Rachel is committed to changing the food system in a way that involves more transparency and outreach, particularly w

As one of mbg’s first contributors, a class instructor, and now mbg collective member, Rich Roll is passionate about using his personal story as a blueprint for how to build a life full of purpose and intuition. An ultra-endurance athlete, enthusiastic vegan, author, and podcast host, Rich has channeled his love for the outdoors and a plant-based diet into an inspiring health and wellness journey for a little over a decade. For Rich, wellness is about alchemy; health is about what’s on your plate. And although Rich credits yoga as his saving grace during his time fresh out of rehab, he recognizes that real transformation is an inside job that is oftentimes messy but always rewarding in the end. His book Finding Ultra was recently rereleased and happens to be one of my favorite books. Did I mention he was recently named the world’s fittest vegan? In this episode, Rich talks about how his rock bottom moments and early struggles with alcoholism and his climb up the corporate ladder left him broken and empty. Ri

Ever wondered what the connection between chi and the mitochondria might be? Want to know why relaxation is all about activating the parasympathetic nervous system? The human body is endlessly fascinating, which can also make getting and staying healthy feel terribly complicated. That is, until you have an expert explain it to you in a way that makes perfect sense. Dr. Frank Lipman is a leader in integrative and functional medicine, my personal doctor, a New York Times best-selling author of five books, an mbg practices instructor, and a member of the mbg Collective. His new book, launching today, How to Be Well: The 6 Keys to a Happy and Healthy Life, puts four decades of experience in one place. It's like having a health coach right in your living room. Join me as I sit down with one of my favorite people to chat about sleep, diet, movement, protecting ourselves from chemicals, and connecting with our loved ones. As it turns out, being well doesn't have to be complicated; the ordinary things we take for gra

mbg Collective member Paige Bourassa MSTOM, L.Ac., RHN, is a licensed acupuncturist, registered holistic nutritionist, Chinese herbologist, and has her master's of science in traditional Oriental medicine. She's one of the most qualified holistic and integrative practitioners bringing ancient wisdom and modern science to treat pain, psycho-emotional disorders, and chronic illness. In the episode, the Vancouver native generously shares her knowledge, giving us a full breakdown of her education and then each of the components of traditional Chinese medicine: acupuncture, acupressure, cupping, herbs, gua sha, and nutrition. She runs through some frequently asked questions and myths about acupuncture—like whether it hurts—as well as common nutrition, sleep, and movement mistakes people make every day that could be contributing to a larger imbalance resulting in pain, skin conditions, inflammation, and more. If you've ever considered going back to school to learn about acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, nu

Valter Longo, PhD, has been studying longevity for years. It wasn't long before he became fascinated by the world of fasting and calorie restriction and how they can help us maintain a healthy body and prolong our lifespan. He is now the director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California, creator of the ProLon fasting-mimicking diet, and author of the best-selling book The Longevity Diet. In this episode of the mbg podcast, we talked about the five pillars of longevity and the best way to eat to stay healthy long-term, which includes plenty of vegetables, nuts, legumes, and some fish. Dr. Longo also shared the mistakes people make when they're trying to get healthier—like moving from an unhealthy diet to an overly restrictive diet—which oftentimes leaves them lacking essential vitamins and minerals. He explained why it's important to eat food that you actually like and warned us not to assume a food that's bad for some people and is bad for everyone (think: gluten). Dr. Longo made us

Functional medicine trailblazer Dr. Mark Hyman knows a thing or two about optimal living. A man with many titles—practicing family physician, ten time #1 New York Times bestselling author, and director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, just to name a few—Hyman has been force in the wellness world, revolutionizing our approach to eating, moving, thinking, and ultimately, thriving in transformative and healing ways. His upcoming book, Food: What The Heck Should I Eat? aims to wade through the chaos involving today’s food hysteria, including nutrition confusion, environmental factors, misinformation, and conflicting science. In this episode, Dr. Hyman gets real about the current state of confusion about food, policies and government practices. We also discuss a list of wellness topics and highly contested topics like, “is adding butter to your coffee a crime?" and whether all types of dairy should be permitted in the food pyramid. A practicing 'pegan', Dr. Hyman also shares the origins and

Teacher and innovator Light Watkins has been revolutionizing the practice of meditation since 1998—and now, he's on a mission to make meditation an everyday practice, for everyone. As first a meditation practitioner and then apprentice to his Vedic Meditation teacher, Light has worked to deconstruct meditation and make the practice more accessible and sustainable. He’s the instructor of the mindbodygreen classes A Meditation Expert's 14-day Guide and Meditation For Anxiety and founder of The Shine Movement, a global pop-up inspirational variety that spotlights the stories of everyday people. Light also takes his expertise on the road, traveling around the globe hosting workshops, panels, meditation trainings and retreats. His TED Talk, “Debunking the 5 Most Common Meditation Myths” further echoes his uplifting efforts to bring meditation into the public sphere, along with a focus on cultivating inner strength, as demonstrated with first book titled, The Inner Gym. And if that doesn’t seal the deal, Light is d

It all started with blueberry muffins. Elizabeth Stein made them to woo clients for her health and nutrition, not to start a business —- but everyone was obsessed with the combination of healthy ingredients and great flavor. Ever the brilliant entrepreneur, she recognized the demand and pivoted her business. Now, only a few short years later, Purely Elizabeth is a nationally renowned brand with granolas, instant oatmeals, and more—and plans to grow far beyond breakfast. I sat down with Elizabeth to find out the secret to her mega-success and learned a lot more along the way. In this podcast, she shares the surprising country she derives inspiration from, her thoughts on "unicorn food," and what's next in healthy breakfast trends. She also shares the full story of how everyone's favorite granola came to be. To contact Jason with comments, questions, or speaker ideas, please e-mail podcast@mindbodygreen.com. For all sponsorship inquiries, please e-mail sales@mindbodygreen.com. Want to join our podcast newslet

Deepak Chopra, M.D., is one of the first pioneers of wellness and quite possibly the most widely recognized spirituality figure in the world. He began his career in the 1970s as an internist and went on to specialize in neuroendocrinology, the study of neuropeptides and neurotransmitters, which at the time was groundbreaking. That was just the beginning! Flash-forward to 2018, and he's just released his latest book—one of at least 80 he's written in his 71 years on Earth—called The Healing Self, all about empowering readers to be in control of their own health by managing stress and inflammation levels. In this episode, Dr. Chopra shares years' worth of hard-earned wisdom from his own personal life as well as his spiritual views. We discuss the truth behind making a profit on wellness, Dr. Chopra's spiritual belief systems, his exact morning routine, how to raise a conscious and mindful kid, his surprising social media practices, how he's managed to avoid all stress for the last 35 years, and the philosophies

Seth Kaufman knows about healthy food. As the head of PepsiCo's North American Nutrition division (whom we partnered with for our Next Great Nutritionist competition!), he's responsible for helping the mega-corporation make healthy options accessible and affordable for people all over the world. It's a weight he feels profoundly. "Talking about this idea of affordable nutrition, if we're not going to do it—with the scale that we have—who can?" he says. In this podcast, we talk about PepsiCo North American Nutrition's "performance with purpose" agenda, their impact on the people they serve, the planet, and more. He also opens up about his personal wellness journey, including how he spent his childhood going in and out of the hospital and the sinus infections that carried into his 30s. When he was 36, he was finally diagnosed with "primary immune deficiency," which means his body doesn't make antibodies and can't fight infection. This kick-started a health journey that lasts to this day (you should hear how far

Paul Hawken's expansive career as an environmentalist, best-selling author, and entrepreneur began with a case of greenwashing. Get the scoop on that story and so many more in this intimate podcast episode that spans from the civil rights movement into the present day and decades into the future. Hawken's expansive resume as founder of health food mecca Erewhon and lifestyle brand Smith & Hawken, author of a dozen books, and prolific public speaker and activist is only part of what makes him so fascinating. Hawken's outlook on the future of our planet is unlike any other, and the way he speaks about the people fighting climate change from the front lines can make even the most pessimistic of us more hopeful. His most recent project, Drawdown, spotlights 100 of the more substantive solutions to global warming to date and outlines ways for all of us to move them along. The mbg Lifetime Achievement Award winner and revitalize 2017 fan favorite sees climate change as the problem of our time—and says that you play

JJ Virgin is, without a doubt, one of the biggest names in health and wellness. She's a certified nutrition specialist and health and fitness instructor, has had numerous books hit the best-seller list, and leads a new class at mindbodygreen called Boost Your Metabolism. Raised on Pop-Tarts and Cap'n Crunch, she went rogue and visited a health food store at the early age of 12, which sparked her interest in health and nutrition. Virgin never looked back and has since dedicated her life to helping people break through weight loss resistance and maintain their healthiest weight—all the way from Jazzercise and low-fat diets to HIIT workouts and eating to balance blood sugar and insulin levels. In this episode of the mbg podcast, JJ opened up about a tragic hit-and-run accident that left her 15-year-old son in critical condition. It was a long healing process, physically and emotionally, and she shared the things that kept her family moving forward, now stronger than ever. To contact Jason with comments, question

Some of us know what it's like to reach a moment of reckoning—a low point in life when we know that something has to change, and there's nowhere to go but up. For Dan Harris, this moment occurred on live television in front of 5 million people. It took a panic attack reading the news on Good Morning America to make the journalist and anchor realize he needed to address his anxiety. After years of searching, Harris found his savior in meditation. But ever a skeptic at heart, Harris had to first cut through a lot of what he perceived to be flowery language and woo-woo jargon that diluted the practice's power in order to home in on his own brand of simple, straightforward mindfulness meditation. In the process, he wrote a book, 10% Happier, which went on to become a No. 1 New York Times best-seller, a practical meditation guide for the modern day. In this podcast episode, Harris—who first shared his story with mbg on the 2014 revitalize stage—dives into the genesis of his legendary first book, and his latest o

Norma Kamali is 72 and has been an ageless wellness queen since she was born. Her mother juiced, educated herself on supplements, and introduced Kamali to healthful foods at a very young age. Although she rebelled at first, wellness became a part of her DNA, and her company's. Back in 2001, Kamali opened her wellness cafe uptown in New York City in response to the September 11 attacks—she was way ahead of the wellness curve. Since then, she's written a book called Facing East, started a campaign called Stop Objectification to empower women who have been subject to misconduct, and has continued to run her namesake fashion brand. Kamali is a true renaissance woman. Her endeavors are more relevant now than perhaps ever before, and she's a living, breathing example of our You. We. All. mission to empower the planet. Listen to her interview to learn about her No. 1 wellness priority (hint: it's not food), the routine that makes her skin look youthful and glowy, and the sage advice she'd give her younger self. To c

What makes for a healthy, happy human? Dan Buettner, author, athlete, and National Geographic explorer, has traversed the world searching far and wide for the answer—and he's found it. His book, The Blue Zones, identifies the five areas of the world where people live the longest and are healthiest, snagging the secrets to longevity along the way. (Hint: Nurturing your personal relationships, eating a plant-based diet, and sleeping eight—yes, eight—hours a night all play a role.) His latest project, The Blue Zones of Happiness, goes a step further to look into the pockets of the world that have the happiest people. In this extremely candid podcast episode, he spills the extent to which money buys fulfillment, the most joyous age, and what you can do to become the happiest version of yourself every day, no matter where you live. Along the way, he shares whether exercise, coffee, and social media are helping or harming our moods, and his insights will definitely surprise you. To contact Jason with comments, ques

This special edition episode is a reflection on mindbodygreen's 2018 wellness trends! Every year in December, we release a report of our biggest trends and predictions for next year, and this time we have a sneak peek into the thought process behind the trends with our founder and CEO, Jason Wachob, along with co-founder and chief brand officer, Colleen Wachob. "It is a really exciting time to be in wellness," Jason said, as he reflected on mbg's track record for setting and predicting trends. In 2015, we were one of the first to call out supplement startups and telomeres as a trend. Two years ago in 2016, we accurately predicted guac would become a healthy staple, wellness tourism would go mainstream, and foretold the wellness world's now long-standing obsession with succulents. Last year, we reported that women's spaces and circles would grow, and from a food standpoint, we pegged personalized nutrition, medicinal mushrooms, and ketosis as wellness trends too. In this special, abbreviated episode, Jason and

GT Dave is the founder of the world's most successful kombucha company, GT's Kombucha. A native Californian, he was born a vegetarian and raised by two very holistic parents who always looked at life—and more importantly, health—from a holistic perspective. His journey with kombucha began in 1994 as a teenager when his parents starting making and drinking it regularly. Not long after, his mother—who was healthy and active—was diagnosed with breast cancer. When weeks later her doctors downgraded her tumor diagnosis from cancerous to precancerous, they asked what she was doing differently in her diet. The answer was kombucha. Still, he had no idea that just a few years later he would be bottling 60 to 100 bottles in his house every morning before driving them to local stores in a van. Through the course of his career, which is far from over, GT has made kombucha a staple in every health food store and all great wellness regimes. He brought this now wildly popular probiotic drink into the mainstream. His journey

As founder and CEO of 22 Days Nutrition and author of the New York Times best-selling book The 22-Day Revolution, Marco Borges is one of the most sought-after experts in the field of plant-based nutrition and functional foods. Growing up in Miami in the late '70s—and attending public school during the heyday of cocaine in the city—he credits his strong sense of self and determined personality for his lack of interest in drugs and alcohol. He originally wanted to be a doctor, but the more he learned about health care, the more he realized that it's a much too reactive system. Eventually, Borges became interested in fitness and cycling and learned what to eat, what not to eat, and how foods made him feel. He says he owes his success to being eternally curious about everything and refusing to compromise. In this episode we discuss starting his own business and why it's not really work when you're doing something you love. He talks about creating 22 Days Nutrition abd how one Instagram post by Beyoncé caused ever

Six years ago, Ella Mills was so ill that she could barely get out of bed. She spent hours watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians and browsing her friends' Facebook feeds, growing increasingly depressed. Doctors had diagnosed her with postural tachychardia syndrome, a rare disease, and pumped her full of medicine, but she knew there had to be a better way. Eventually, while browsing the internet, she read about the power of diet and lifestyle to heal and began experimenting with a plant-based diet. She was able to come off her medication after two years, and now, after healing her gut from rounds of antibiotics, she's feeling vibrant and healthy again. In this podcast, she chats about her healing journey and how she went from being sick in bed to the mega-successful blogger behind Deliciously Ella—and now, a businesswoman with four cookbooks (including the No. 1 best-selling debut cookbook ever in the United Kingdom), three delis, and three product ranges in over 5,500 stores. She also opens up about her

Mark Sisson is the founder of Mark's Daily Apple and Primal Kitchen (the mega-popular brand of salad dressing, energy bar, protein powder and more), the author of the brand-new The Keto Reset Diet: Reboot Your Metabolism In 21 Days to Burn Fat Forever, and the man responsible for empowering millions of people to take back control of their health. While he's now renowned as the founder of the modern-day paleo or primal diets, he wasn't always this way. Once an Ironman athlete and competitive runner, Mark used to eat a primarily carbohydrate-rich diet to fuel his athletic endurance. Seventeen years ago, he gave up grains, and it was then that pieces of the puzzle finally began to shift into place and the diseases that had been weighing him down—from IBS to chronic upper respiratory tract infections—began to clear up. He started Mark's Daily Apple, the mega-popular wellness blog, and now—nine books, hundreds of talks, and a product line later—well, the rest is history. In today's episode, Mark shares how his r