The mindbodygreen Podcast

Tara Stiles is the co-founder of Strala Yoga and author of six books, including the new Guiding Strala: The Yoga Training Manual to Ignite Freedom, Get Connected, and Build Radiant Health and Happiness. She's also a new mom and a resident of DUMBO, Brooklyn, New York's latest booming wellness mecca. Tara started her yoga journey in the woods of the Midwest where she grew up. Tara remembers spending hours practicing meditation (although she had no idea that was what she was doing at the time). She moved out to New York to become a dancer, which transitioned to modeling and eventually yoga—and at the time, yoga wasn't nearly as popular as it is today. When she was just starting to dip her toes in the yoga world, Tara found herself at a retreat upstate where she met her now-husband, Michael Taylor. Her first impression of Mike was a good one (he was the only other person on the retreat who brought chocolate), and on their first date, he charmed her further by bringing his own sandwich, eating it on the floor of her studio apartment, and showing off his handstand skills. The two eventually got married, co-founded Strala together, and now have a beautiful 8-month-old daughter together, Daisy. Despite the ease of Tara's life now, it hasn't always been like this. In this episode, Tara opened up about her what her experience with Strala Yoga has really been like over the years and the unique challenges that come with going into business with your spouse (at one point, she and Mike almost got divorced), and how being sexually assaulted led to a severe eating disorder. You'll also learn about the parts of motherhood Tara didn't see coming and what she thinks the future of wellness looks like. We've teamed up with Thrive Market to give you $60 of FREE organic groceries + free shipping + a free 30 day trial. Go to thrivemarket.com/mindbodygreen to redeem. Keep in mind, Thrive Market's prices are already up to 50% off retail, and now they're giving you an EXTRA $60 free! And if you want to shop Jason's picks for Ellie, be sure to check out the "Moms" section! 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. To join our podcast email newsletter, please visit http://bit.ly/mbgpodemail.

Barry Stuart Sternlicht is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, and chairman of Starwood Property Trust, the largest commercial mortgage REIT in the United States. He's the brains behind W Hotels, Bliss Spa, and environmental flagship brand 1 Hotels—oh, and he's also a billionaire. But he wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His father was a Holocaust survivor from Poland, his mother a biology teacher (later turned stockbroker) born and raised in New York. When you ask Sternlicht how he got from a public school education to Harvard Business School, from arbitrage trading on Wall Street to building a $50 billion real estate empire, he immediately references his biggest influences: his father and Neil Bluhm (co-founder of JMB Realty). Sternlicht makes no bones about having learned from both their great successes and their abject failures. If you'd asked a 20-something Sternlicht what drove him to succeed, he'd have said, "I wanted to be rich enough to have a tennis court and a pool." But something deeper than that has driven him to the success he's found today. What he found in the hotel industry when he first started running his own company was a deeply ingrained pursuit of mediocrity, which spurred him on to create something better. "The pervasive culture of striving to be average was not for me." But when you learn a little bit about the mission-driven nature of his latest enterprise, the 1 Hotels brand, it becomes clear that, beyond just creating something he's proud of, Sternlicht has become motivated to invest in something bigger than himself—bigger than any of us—the planet. If you're not familiar with the wellness-oriented, sustainable hotel chain, this statement from Sternlicht on the 1 Hotels homepage sums it up beautifully: "I wanted to capture the beauty of nature in a hotel and in doing so, commit to safeguarding it as best I can, a responsibility that I believe we all share." In this episode of the mbg podcast, Sternlicht digs deep, sharing the lessons that made him who he is, how he worked his way from low man on the totem pole to monolithic mogul, and how he aims to protect and conserve our world to the best of his ability (and how we can help). If there's ever been a can't-miss episode, this is it. We've teamed up with Thrive Market to give you $60 of FREE organic groceries + free shipping + a free 30 day trial. Go to thrivemarket.com/mindbodygreen to redeem. Keep in mind, Thrive Market's prices are already up to 50% off retail, and now they're giving you an EXTRA $60 free! And if you want to shop Jason's picks for Ellie, be sure to check out the "Moms" section! 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. To join our podcast email newsletter, please visit http://bit.ly/mbgpodemail.

Dr. Mark Hyman is a pioneer in the field of functional medicine and a nine-time New York Times best-selling author. He's an internationally recognized leader, speaker, and director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine. We discussed his life and background in health—from working for a year in China to starting his yoga practice in 1979, when it was still a fringe activity. He also revealed the details of the two major health crises he's suffered in his life. The first occurred when he was living in Beijing, where he got mercury poisoning and developed a whole host of health issues from depression to muscle breakdown to chronic diarrhea. It was this struggle that propelled him into the field of functional medicine. Another occurred recently, and he'll share how he rebuilt his body's systems and health from the ground up using intravenous ozone—a very experimental and controversial therapy—IV infusions, and stem cells. Dr. Hyman and I will cover the debate over saturated fat—and why the AHA declared coconut oil unhealthy—and whether or not cholesterol has anything to do with heart disease. His book Eat Fat, Get Thin challenges the belief that we should be following a low-fat diet when the evidence is just not there. As a leading voice in wellness and functional medicine, Dr. Hyman is leading the charge for all of us to take back our health—one step at a time. As both a doctor and patient, he's experienced the powers of functional medicine and getting to the root cause of disease. You won't want to miss this one! We've teamed up with Thrive Market to give you $60 of FREE organic groceries + free shipping + a free 30 day trial. Go to thrivemarket.com/mindbodygreen to redeem. Keep in mind, Thrive Market's prices are already up to 50% off retail, and now they're giving you an EXTRA $60 free! And if you want to shop Jason's picks for Ellie, be sure to check out the "Moms" section! 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. To join our podcast email newsletter, please visit http://bit.ly/mbgpodemail.

Kelly LeVeque is a certified holistic nutritionist, wellness expert, health coach, and author of the best-selling book Body Love, which has been taking the wellness community by storm. She serves as the guide for our new advanced functional nutrition program, where we'll teach you everything you need to know about functional food and the endless healing abilities of nutrition. "Live in balance, weigh what you want, and free yourself from food drama forever" is the mantra LeVeque lives by. She started her career in the medical industry, working with oncologists and cancer patients, and ended up in the world of holistic nutrition, working with celebrities like Jessica Alba. In this podcast, you'll learn why this background in science and medicine helps her understand nutrition and determine what's legitimate—and what's not. She'll spill on how to feed your cells with the fab four—protein, fat, fiber, and greens—and why a diet of steamed broccoli and chicken isn't going to help you live your best life. So many of us struggle with maintaining healthy lifestyle changes, and in this podcast LeVeque explains why most diets go wrong: They are too restrictive. Her best advice for anyone struggling with diet and sticking to healthy lifestyle changes? Focus on what you're adding to your life instead of how much you're depriving yourself: "If you understand blood sugar and if you're thinking about what you should put on your plate instead of all the things you shouldn't have, it gives you a little less anxiety about it." You'll leave this episode with a new understanding of the ketogenic diet, intermittent fasting, the bulletproof diet, and what happens in the body when you eat sugar. In other words: the knowledge you need to navigate the wellness world and live your best life through food as medicine. 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. To join our podcast email newsletter, please visit http://bit.ly/mbgpodemail.

Dr. Frank Lipman and mbg go way back—if you dive into the mindbodygreen archives, you'll see his contributions started in 2010, just a year after we launched the site. Aside from being my personal doctor, Dr. Lipman is internationally recognized as one of the leading experts on healthy detox and is a pioneer of the holistic, East-meets-West functional medicine movement. He noticed early on that Western medicine was ideal for helping acute medical events like heart attacks and broken bones, but it didn't solve chronic illnesses like insomnia, headaches, and indigestion. These tricky conditions called for alternative holistic and integrative techniques, which proved to be more effective. His philosophy is simple: In practice, he harnesses the healing powers of ancient traditions like Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture, and more, in the context of his Western medicine training. His work has shaped the way the wellness community heals themselves, encouraging his patients and followers to support their detox pathways and mental health while eschewing unsustainable crash diets. To that end, Dr. Lipman has incited significant shifts in the wellness landscape. He is the founder and director of the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center, a functional medicine mecca in New York City where he practices. He's also the creator of Be Well, a lifestyle wellness brand that offers supplements, detoxes, and cleanses to help people look and feel their best. "Detox done properly is an entry point to healthy living. It's not everything, but it's an entry point," Dr. Lipman said on the show. Amen! In our 20th episode, Dr. Lipman shares his fascinating background and how he came to be one of the leading functional medicine doctors in America. Turns out it had a lot to do with early exposure to energetic healers in hospitals during Apartheid, getting a green card in New York City by working in the Bronx, pursuing apprenticeships at holistic wellness centers, and following his then-unpopular vision of a holistic medical practice. I asked him hard questions about the future of wellness and the root cause of most health issues today, which he maintains are stress, poor diet, and restless sleep. Dr. Lipman gives his best tips for better shut-eye, what is wrong with "wellness" today, and a look into the future of well-being. 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. To join our podcast email newsletter, please visit http://bit.ly/mbgpodemail.

Sadie Lincoln is the founder of Barre3, a beloved workout designed to give you a deep muscle burn, a strong endorphin high, and a centered mind. These days, Sadie's life in Portland, Oregon is bursting with success and joy, but she had her fair share of struggles on her rise to the top. Sadie met her husband and business partner while working at 24-Hour Fitness, and the duo instantly connected. After getting married and buying a house in the Bay Area, the couple decided to uproot, moving to Portland to pursue their dreams of launching their own business. They were surprised by how easily it all came together. Here, Sadie opens up about falling in love with her body, starting her own business (and how Madonna helped!), what she looks for in a Barre3 employee, and where she hopes the wellness conversation will be in five years. 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. To join our podcast email newsletter, please visit http://bit.ly/mbgpodemail.

Seamus Mullen is a world-class chef, a James Beard award semifinalist, the owner of two popular NYC restaurants, and a regular on the Food Network. Today, his life looks happy, healthy, and thriving. But it was just six years ago that he was suffering from a maelstrom of maladies, from rheumatoid arthritis to injuries from a motorcycle accident to a deep-vein thrombosis incident that nearly killed him. After his cocktail of prescription medicines caused him to have a grand mal seizure in Thailand, he knew something had to change. He began seeing Dr. Frank Lipman, a functional medicine expert (and a huge part of the mbg family!), who helped him realize how the food he was eating affected his body (laying the groundwork for Seamus' new cookbook, Real Food Heals). Seamus' recovery wasn't instant—he talks in the podcast about how it took a good six months for him to begin feeling different—but it was nearly complete, and, as he says in our chat, he hasn't taken a single step backward in his health since then. In this episode, we talk about the lifestyle habits that were hurting Seamus and the ones that were vital to his recovery. He shares why he believes health is more contagious than disease and what he thinks the future of food is. 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. To join our podcast email newsletter, please visit http://bit.ly/mbgpodemail.

Tyler Haney is the founder of Outdoor Voices, a brand that has been making waves in the athleisure space in recent years. She launched OV in 2014, when she was still a business student at Parsons. A West Coast native, Haney got burnt out on sports and decided to move to New York City to try her hand in the apparel industry. In our conversation, she talks about first pitching her idea to investors, when she was filled with self-doubt, and the moments that kept her going. Tyler has goals beyond athleisure. She wants to redefine "recreation" to mean moving your body and connecting with nature. Tune in to hear why she wants people to do things that make them feel good, for the joy of it, and let go of the pressure to perform. 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. To join our podcast email newsletter, please visit http://bit.ly/mbgpodemail.

As the president of the National Resources Defense Council, Rhea Suh leads the 500 scientists, attorneys, and policy experts that make the NRDC one of the country's most effective environmental action organizations. As the world enters into an unprecedented age of climate instability, Rhea is at the forefront of the fight to protect our planet. From energy policy to wildlife conservation to transportation innovation, she's tackling the issues that move the needle on climate change in big ways. In this podcast episode, Rhea talks about the biggest threats to the environment now, and why the NRDC has never been more important. She shares how in the face of global obstacles she maintains her indomitable sense of optimism for the potential of this organization—and for our country. What motivates her most is something so many of us can relate to: keeping the planet safe for our children. You won't want to miss this inspiring conversation. 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. To join our podcast email newsletter, please visit http://bit.ly/mbgpodemail.

As the CEO of Flywheel Sports, it's safe to say that Sarah Robb O'Hagan has seen a lot of career success. But it wasn't always that way—Sarah got fired twice before she went on to work for Gatorade, Nike, Equinox, and eventually Flywheel. Now, Sarah is a mother of three (she had three kids in four years!) and this April, she released her book Extreme You: Step Up. Stand Out. Kick Ass Repeat. These days, Sarah is all about embracing vulnerability, getting enough sleep, and doing her best to let go of her Type A ways from time to time. In this podcast episode, Sarah opens up about how millennials view fitness differently from other generations, what makes a boutique fitness studio have staying power, and why being honest about past struggles can lead you down the path of career success. 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. To join our podcast email newsletter, please visit http://bit.ly/mbgpodemail.

Samantha Boardman, psychiatrist and M.D., spent years treating clients with traditional psychiatric techniques—until a patient fired her. She told Dr. Boardman that every session made her feel worse. And it made sense. After all, therapy, the way most psychologists and psychiatrists are taught, focuses on the negative to the exclusion of the positive. And, Boardman realized, "she was right. I knew how to dial down her misery, but I knew nothing about how to build up her strengths and cultivate well-being." That's when she went in search of something different. She found it at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a master's degree in applied positive psychology. Now, Boardman practices positive psychiatry—an approach to therapy that focuses on building resilience and enhancing life rather than eradicating perceived negativity. In this podcast episode, we'll take a deep dive into how Samantha got her start, what motivates her to always keep learning, and what makes for a truly fulfilling life. 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. To join our podcast email newsletter, please visit http://bit.ly/mbgpodemail.

Sheryl O'Loughlin is the boss you always wish you had. The former CEO of Clif Bar and Plum Organics lives and breathes passion and purpose and creates dynamic environments in which her employees can do the same. And she's taking this mentality to the next level with her latest project, REBBL, a brand of coconut milk elixirs infused with super herbs. In this podcast episode, Sheryl gets candid about the trials of running a business and the toll they took on her mental and physical well-being. After nearly filing for bankruptcy and struggling with an eating disorder, Sheryl was left at rock bottom. Tune in to find out how she bounced back to sign on to the plant alchemy beverage that's causing serious buzz in the functional food sphere. Along the way, she shares the qualities that have helped her grow not one, not two, but three wellness empires. With insight into what makes her run away from investors to the unorthodox question she asks in every interview, this is one episode that any aspiring entrepreneur shouldn't miss. 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. To join our podcast email newsletter, please visit http://bit.ly/mbgpodemail.

Dr. Aviva Romm is a midwife, herbalist, ecologist, and writer who—after having four kids—went on to become a Yale-trained M.D. As one of mbg's most trusted voices in the areas of thyroid health, hormone balance, and women's health, she's a driving force in the holistic medicine community. Her new book, The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution: A Proven 4-Week Program to Rescue Your Metabolism, Hormones, Mind & Mood, is a goldmine for those suffering from a thyroid problem or for anyone feeling overwhelmed and physically spent by all of the demands of life in the 21st century. Dr. Romm journeyed from a bullied kid in Queens, to college at 15, and to center stage of the health and wellness world after that. She shares with us her perspective on the future of medicine, the connection between personal health and global health, and what prompted her to go 35 years without taking a pharmaceutical. Dr. Romm has us all wanting to learn more about the ways in which our bodies respond to the busy and stressful lives we lead. 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. To join our podcast email newsletter, please visit http://bit.ly/mbgpodemail.

Greg Stehltenpohl is the man behind not one but two major brands in the health food space—Odwalla juices and Califia Farms non-dairy milk and milk products. As perhaps the first environmental sciences graduate from Stanford (he shares that story in future depth in the podcast), Greg started his career when a book literally fell off a shelf and into his lap at a bookstore—and forever changed his life. In this podcast episode, Greg opens up about building Odwalla into a multi-million dollar brand (it was eventually bought by Coke), and the hardships he faced along the way, including how he bounced back from the 1996 E. Coli outbreak that could've sunk the company. He also gets personal, diving into his personal health crisis, the time doctors told him he had 48 hours to live, and how the entire ordeal ultimately gave him a new perspective on business, and life. Now, Greg runs the non-dairy juggernaut Califia Farms, which has single-handedly shaped the alternative milk space. He shares his secrets to building not one but two multi-million dollar businesses, and what's next for the brand. 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. To join our podcast email newsletter, please visit http://bit.ly/mbgpodemail.

Hillary Biscay has an impressive resume. In addition to being a graduate of USC (after turning down Harvard) and swimming competitively there, Hillary is an ironman champion, ultraman world champion, and the most prolific iron-distance competitor on the professional women's training circuit. What that means? She's competed in over 60 Ironman triathlons. Wrap your mind around that. In this podcast episode, Hillary opens about how she got to where she did in her athletic career. In her authentic, down-to-earth, and humorous way, she explains that her career took a lot of hard work, a laser-like focus, and an ability to never doubt herself—even when others doubted her. In fact, Hillary is so determined that she once competed with a broken hip (yes, really). While Hillary is no longer competing in ironman championships, she's moved to a new phase in her life: Motherhood. Here, she opens up how difficult the adoption process was, and explains the ins and outs of adopting a child in this country. Additionally, Hillary shares why she's been plant-based for years—and why it took her so long to get there, despite her love of animals. 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. To join our podcast email newsletter, please visit http://bit.ly/mbgpodemail.