The mindbodygreen Podcast

“We are no longer living in conditions that we naturally evolved for,” says Aldrich Chan, PsyD.

Chan is a neuropsychologist, psychotherapist, and author of two award winning books: Reassembling Models of Reality and 7 Principles of Nature: How We Strayed & How We Return. He is the president of the Society for Neuroexistential Psychology and founder of the Center for Neuropsychology and Consciousness (CNC), a practice in Miami, Florida that provides neuropsychological and psychological services. In addition to his practice, he serves on the faculty at Pepperdine University, teaching at their masters and doctoral programs.

00:00 - What a neuropsychologist does

06:25 - How much of the brain can change

08:21 - Working in focus cycles

11:41 - The SAD theory of mental distress

16:51 - Evolutionary mismatch and modern life

18:35 - Choice overload

21:05 - The problem with divided attention

23:22 - Episode break

25:20 - Vital signals & finding your values

30:01 - The neuroscience of intuition

34:27 - Intuition vs overanalyzing

37:41 - 7 principles for living in alignment

41:10 - Reframing uncertainty as opportunity

44:45 - A Taoist parable about fortune

Referenced in the episode:

For more about Chan, visit: https://www.drchancnc.com/

Ward 2017: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691462

Ang 2025: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-05616-001

We hope you enjoy this episode, and feel free to watch the full video on YouTube! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: podcast@mindbodygreen.com.
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In this week’s solo episode of the mindbodygreen podcast, Jason breaks down a fascinating study of hotel room attendants that showed how a small shift in mindset can completely change how our bodies respond to movement. It’s easy to get caught up in the data, but this study is a reminder that the meaning you assign to what you're doing is another critical input.

00:00 - The chambermaid study

04:06 - What changed after four weeks

06:24 - The milkshake study

07:37 - The honest caveats

09:03 - 3 ways to use this today

Referenced in the episode:

Read the Harvard study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17425538/

Read the milkshake study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21574706/

For more about Alia Crum, visit: https://www.instagram.com/draliacrum/?hl=en

Listen to the episode with Dr. Ellen Langer: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-think-yourself-younger-mother-of-mindfulness/id1246494475?

We hope you enjoy this episode, and feel free to watch the full video on YouTube! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: podcast@mindbodygreen.com.
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“Small steps add up over time to the big changes that we seek,” says Matt Bloom, Ph.D.

Bloom is a professor emeritus of business at the University of Notre Dame. He has a PhD in psychology from Cornell University. For nearly thirty years, he and his research team studied the well-being of people who work in the helping and healing professions including physicians, humanitarian workers, clergy and public school teachers. Matt is cofounder of Ritual, a mobile app that offers a living library of evidence-based well-being practices created in partnership with wise guides including Barbara Brown Taylor, Kate Bowler, Steve Kerr, Nedra Glover Tawaab, and Anne Lamott.

00:00 - Why small habits beat big overhauls

05:05 - The 5-minute worry window

07:24 - Lessons from high-stress professions

13:32 - Radical acceptance & psychological flexibility

15:32 - An exercise for hard experiences

17:33 - When resilience through becomes self-destructive

20:22 - Why you need an accountability partner

24:57 - Practice over perfectionism

28:16 - Balancing great & good enough

31:48 - Burnout & finding your core values

34:34 - His Wall Street wake-up call

35:37 - Achieving personal & professional alignment

40:15 - Science that stands out

42:11 - Children & grandchildren

Referenced in the episode:

Visit Bloom’s website: https://mattbloom.org/

Buy Bloom’s new book: https://www.amazon.com/Lasting-Wellbeing-Science-Based-Tranquility-Authenticity/dp/1637748787/ref=sr_1_1

For more about the worry window, visit Elissa Epel’s website: https://www.elissaepel.com/

For more about radical acceptance, visit Steven Hayes’ website: https://stevenchayes.com/the-bittersweet-art-of-acceptance-2/

We hope you enjoy this episode, and feel free to watch the full video on YouTube! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: podcast@mindbodygreen.com.
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“The food industry is experimenting on us without data and knowledge,” says Dariush Mozaffarian, M.D., DrPH.

Mozaffarian is a cardiologist, Director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, and author of the book, Food is Medicine (Holt/Macmillan). He serves as Distinguished Professor, Dean Emeritus, and Jean Mayer Professor; and is clinically active in cardiology at Tufts Medical Center. His work aims to create the evidence and translation for a food system that is nutritious, equitable, and sustainable. He has authored nearly 700 scientific publications, and has served in numerous advisory roles. His work has been featured in leading media outlets, and Thomson Reuters has named him as one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds. Dr. Mozaffarian received his B.S. in biological sciences from Stanford, M.D. from Columbia, Doctorate in Public Health from Harvard, and clinical training in internal medicine at Stanford and in cardiology at the University of Washington. He is married, has three children, and actively trains as a Fourth Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo.

00:00 - The last century of nutrition science

07:03 - The single-nutrient mistake

10:50 - Pellagra & the birth of enriched flour

13:45 - Macros vs. food quality

17:05 - The 3 buckets of food

21:56 - What’s the deal with red meat

24:46 - Episode break

27:14 - Cholesterol absorbers & plant sterols

31:05 - How low-fat & Big Tobacco fueled ultra-processing

33:24 - The truth about seed oils

38:06 - Sweeteners & additives

41:41 - Flipping the script on the food system

47:28 - The problem with calorie counting

52:16 - Inside a cardiologist's shopping cart

Referenced in the episode:

Buy Mozaffarian’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250394287

Visit the Food Is Medicine Institute website: https://tuftsfoodismedicine.org/

We hope you enjoy this episode, and feel free to watch the full video on YouTube! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: podcast@mindbodygreen.com.
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"What we know for sure is that Alzheimer's is a preventable disease. It's not destiny,” says Kellyann Niotis, M.D.

Niotis is the world’s first fellowship-trained preventive neurologist. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine, the Director of Parkinson’s and Lewy Body Dementia Prevention Research at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (IND) and runs a private preventive neurology practice in New York City focused on early detection and personalized risk reduction strategies for diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Dementia with Lewy Bodies. Her research has been published in notable medical journals and presented at national and international conferences. Her expertise has been featured in media outlets such as CNN and NBC, and she has received numerous honors and awards recognizing her work. She is passionate about advancing the field of preventive neurology—not only through clinical care and research but also through advocacy for policy change and expanding access to education and treatment.

00:00 - Your genes are not your destiny

05:06 - Why prevention starts in your 30s

06:44 - Cholesterol management for brain health

11:06 - Explaining amyloid & p-tau 217

17:17 - How viruses & your cycle affect tau

19:37 - Dr. Niotis’s research

23:41 - What movement reveals about your brain

30:37 - Why motor reserve matters

34:47 - Why variety is key when exercising for brain health

37:38 - Elen’s story with two APOE4 copies

44:37 - ApoA1: the brain's cholesterol exception

47:42 - The future of Alzheimer's treatment

50:43 - The statin study she'd love to run

Referenced in the episode:

Visit Niotis’s website: http://www.drkellyannniotis.com/

Visit Niotis’s practice: http://www.preventive-neuro.com/

For more about Beth Lewis: https://www.instagram.com/bethlewisfit/

Listen to our episode with Richard Isaacson: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4uW7V9qfeD2vj2m56MZlYB

We hope you enjoy this episode, and feel free to watch the full video on YouTube! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: podcast@mindbodygreen.com.
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