When you think of a spiritual seeker, you probably conjure up images of shaved heads, orange robes, dark meditation halls, and gongs. But sitting in silence is not the only way to mediate. You can also run around in circles 12-14 hours a day, pushing your body and mental resolve to their limit. Every year, a dozen or so seekers show up in Queens, New York, to run around an unremarkable city block until they hit 59 miles. They do this for 52 days straight, 3100 miles total. This extreme race has been happening since 1997, and many runners are repeat participants. Our guest on this week’s show directed a film profiling this race and the global phenomenon of running as a spiritual practice.

Listen & Learn:

• How average people, older people, and non-athletes are completing this race
• How ultra-running can be mostly a mental challenge
• How transcendence is the goal and a necessity for this type of race
• How humans are truly born to run
• Why a spiritual guru founded this race

Links & Resources:

• 3100: Run & Become Race

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Sanjay is a runner and documentary filmmaker whose films include Ocean Monk, Challenging Impossibility and Food Chains. His most recent film, 3100: Run and Become, details the world’s most elusive and elite multi-day foot race around one utterly unremarkable half-mile urban sidewalk block in Queens, New York. The race demands competitors to complete at least 59 miles a day for 52 straight days.

Nutritional Tip of the Week:

• Eggs & Cholesterol

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Real health is more than just food and exercise. The key elements we often overlook are love, support, community, and stress management. These factors are so much more difficult to manage but potentially even more important than nailing the perfect diet or workout routine. My guest on this week’s podcast has an incredible track record for reversing and healing heart disease through lifestyle interventions, and he shares his very simple four-pronged approach to health and wellness for life.

Listen & Learn:

• How to stress less
• Why movement and love matter so much
• How simple holistic health can be
• Why it’s important to get clear about your life goals

Links & Resources:

• Dr. Ornish’s Website
• Undo It Book Site

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Dean Ornish, M.D., is the founder and president of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute. He is the Clinical Professor of Medicine at both UCSF and UCSD. He was recognized as "one of the 125 most extraordinary University of Texas alumni in the past 125 years;" as a "TIME 100 Innovator" by TIME magazine; as "one of the 50 most influential members of his generation” by LIFE magazine; as "one of the most interesting people of the year" by People magazine; and as "one of the world's seven most powerful teachers" by Forbes magazine. His most recent book, Undo It, is available on his website or Amazon.

Nutritional Tip of the Week:

• Rapeseed Oil

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Your social media feed is filled with the curated lives of a bunch of strangers who you “follow” for no obvious reason. They are better-looking than you, their lunch looks tastier, their prose is so witty. Wow, what a life. But is it real? Probably not.

On an average day, most of us feel a combination of overwhelm, exhaustion, silliness, joy, loss, fear, anxiety, and depression. For a few wonderful moments, we get lost in our work or family lives, we get sucked into an inspiring story or enchanted by a new idea. And then our stomach hurts and tomorrow’s responsibilities begin to suck away the momentary peace of today.

Real life is a big, sloppy soup of emotions and the challenge is this: How do you find your authentic self amidst all that? Who are you really and what drives you? How can you cut through the Starbucks and puppies selfies to figure out what you’re supposed to be doing with yourself in this one precious life you have? My guest on this week’s podcast has some ideas.

Listen & Learn:

• Why we give ourselves what we feel we deserve
• Why clarity and purpose can cause you uneasiness (at first)
• How to use isolated dreaming to figure yourself out
• What to do when you know only what you don’t want  
  

Links & Resources:

• Philip’s Site
• One Last Talk Book
  

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Philip McKernan is a speaker, author, and entrepreneur. He teaches people to become more intuitive so they know when they are on the right path. Philip works around the world with individuals, couples, and corporate organizations such as Shell and more recently the Canadian Olympic team before the London games. He’s the author of One Last Talk: Rich on Paper, Poor on Life available on Amazon or on his site.

Nutritional Tip of the Week:

• Micotoxins in Coffee

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• Send me a voicemail here: Ask Lucas a Question
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From the melting ice caps to dying marine reefs and depleted fish populations, we’re facing some big challenges right now, but very few people flip the lens to look at their own bodies to ask: “How are these petrochemical toxins affecting me and my family?”

The truth is, toxins affect all of us from the moment we’re born. Newborns enter the world with 200+ chemical toxins inside them, and the quantity tends to go up and up as we age. Plastics can make your fat cells bigger and mess up your hormones. Chemical additives in foods can give you brain fog and mood disorders. Artificial sweeteners can affect cognition, digestion, and hunger. These toxins are huge and growing problems, and most people are not paying attention.

On this week’s show, you’ll meet a medical doctor, a father, and a researcher who is uncovering simple truths about our toxic world along with practical solutions for staying sane and healthy.

Listen & Learn:

• Why you should cook with stainless steel or cast iron
• Why plastics #3, #6 and #7 are the worst (look at the recycling symbol)
• How microwaving plastics can release endocrine disruptors
• Why canned foods of all types should be avoided
• Why hormones-disruptors can affect everything from your mood, waistline and sex drive
• Why Europe has banned 1300 chemicals in household and food products and the USA has only banned 11
• Why flame-retardants are required in the USA, despite questionable efficacy huge side effects
• Why you should buy paraben-free, phthalate-free, and SLS-free products
• Why “fragrance” is often code for “dangerous chemical we’d like to keep secret”

Links & Resource:

• Dr. Leo Trasande’s Site and Book
  

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Dr. Leonardo Trasande is a pediatrician, professor, and researcher. He is the author of the new book, Sicker, Fatter, Poorer: The Urgent Threat of Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals to Our Health and Future and What We Can Do About It.

Nutritional Tip of the Week:

• Cashews Moldy

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The two big reasons marriages fail are sex and money. While finances are by no means easy, you can always go get another job, cut back, add on, or get creative. These creative solutions rarely play out well when it comes to sex, so you can quickly see why challenges often end in disaster. Sexuality is such a private issue, something most people prefer to discuss behind closed doors; but in reality, they don’t even discuss it in privacy either. Mostly, it goes unspoken.

So what do you do? What is sexuality? How does it change as you age, have kids, and grow older? On this week’s show, you’ll meet a sex therapist with a very simple and practical approach to sex and sexuality. He’ll share his time-tested clinical experiences and hopefully shed some light on the challenges in the bedroom.

Listen & Learn:

• Why good sex is fundamentally about getting stupid and happy together
• How children can sometimes kill sexuality in a relationship
• How age and mismatched desire can create new challenges in a couple
• Men vs. women: is there a difference?
• Why we often protest during the day the things we fantasize about at night
  

Links & Resources:

• Dr. Synder’s Website

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Stephen Snyder, MD is a sex and relationship therapist in Manhattan, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine, a regular contributor to Huffington Post and Psychology. Today, a frequent guest on major media, and one of America's most original voices of sex and relationships. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and children. He is the author of the book Love Worth Making.

Nutritional Tip of the Week:

• Tahini Raw

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