Wandering Into Wellness

Katie Sanderson - Try It Taste It Pass It On

Katie Sanderson is a truly unique food entrepreneur - carving a path with no particular template, following flavours, and listening to her instincts, as opposed to attending to any grand scripted career.

...we should mention she is also the maker of one of our single favourite food items in the whole damn world...the joy that is peanut rayu...

In this chat we explore what fuels her passion in all the various food projects she engages, the wanderly path that has got her where she is today, and what changes have come about recently in her life, most especially since the birth of her baby boy Rui.

We also chat about some great little food ideas - watch this space where we'll be posting links to those recipes in the coming days...

Find out more about Katie and her food projects at the below links
Insta: @katiejsanderson
www.katiejanesanderson.com
www.whitemausu.com

Dessie Fitzgerald - A True Phoenix

Sometimes you meet someone and within minutes you just know that this meeting will stay with you for the rest of your life; that it will impact the way you think, it will make you re-evaluate the things that you believe to be important in your life, the things that you thought defined you.
Our meeting with All Ireland winning inter- county Hurler , Dessie Fitzgerald is the perfect example of this ; his personal story is one that includes extreme physical and emotional hardship and yet he has managed to navigate his way through these challenges and emerged as a beacon of hope and inspiration for his community and the future generations of young hurlers to come.

Here we talk to Dessie about his journey from lying paralysed in a hospital bed to where he is now, having finished his training as a life coach and set up a practice that will enable him to share the wisdom he has gained along the way with others. We discuss the need for alternatives to the conventional male role models especially in the world of professional sports. We learn about the steps he took to find his way through depression and grief,and discuss the support structures that are keenly needed in the area of men's mental health especially in sports and rural communities in Ireland.

Unpacking Modern Man - Is Masculinity a Dirty Word?

The role of man is in a tight spot. Caught between two worlds, embarrassed by its past failures, losing its agency to be a useful voice in the current social and political climate. Something needs to change and an evolution must happen.

In this panel discussion Finn and Lydia talk to a group of men, all faced with these questions and struggling to find answers for their own sake as well as for the wider world.

Joseph Devlin - in his day job Joseph works as a physical therapist, who as an empath has the skills to develop great emotional connection with his clients. He also is involved in men's sheds under the banner of the Man Kind Project https://mankindprojectuki.org/

Danny Groenland - Danny is a musician and parent who has had personally faced up to the challenge of self examination posed to men by the Repeal movement, reassessing his role in the household, and writing a tune related to the moment. Check it out here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgkPGTSGzpA

Olivier Barre - Olivier is a Taoist Healing Teacher, also an acupuncturist and capoeira teacher, who was in Ireland offering a Taoist men's sexual health workshop through universaltao.ie

One Life One Chance - Chef Takashi Miyazaki in Ichigo Ichie

We were so privileged to have this chance to chat with Takashi Miyazaki, just awarded his first Michelin star, recently after opening his new restaurant project in Cork, Ichigo Ichie, where he serves a 12 course kappou style kaiseki service, which gives him an opportunity to elevate his food to high art, with an experimental approach his cuisine and an emphasis on local ingredients.

Miyazaki chatted openly about his childhood, and early memories of food with his grandmother, allowing us unique insight into the workings of this great chef. We also discuss his journey into food, and some of his favourite ingredients like daikon radish, along with some of his uniquely creative approaches to food preparation, such as kombu cured oysters and his 12 day aged tuna.

The Death Discussions - Living With Grief

In this episode Finn and Lydia discuss the ways in which we approach death and grieving in the modern day.We compare the different death rituals used in cultures around the world and ponder on how we could learn from them and even look at begining to ameliorate our attitude towards the cycle of life and death and integrate that into daily life so that we are better placed to process the emotions both physically and emotionally when we are faced with them.

We talk about ways in which we can help ourselves and those around us through the grieving process, via supplements to calm the nervous system, breath practices to ground us back into our bodies and our favourite resources both in print and on the web to draw wisdom from.

We mentioned a few handy reading references during this episode -

No Matter What - Debi Gliori
Michael Rosen's Sad Book - Michael Rosen
It's Ok To Not Be Ok - Megan Divine
The Tibetan Book of Living And Dying
Elizabeth Kublor Ross - On Grief And Grieving
The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion
Goodbye Mog - Judith Kerr

 

If you hop over to our Youtube you can catch Lydia doing a short yoga sequence that you can practice along with, to help bring balance back to the physical, emotional and glandular systems of the body.  

Holly White - Pure Driven Vegan @ Vegfest 2018

"Pure As The Driven Snow" wouldn't be inappropriate commentary on the delicate and forthright Holly White.

With her first cookbook, "Vegan-ish" fresh off the press we went to town on her mission as a vegan, how she models herself and what questions she asks as a conscious consumer, and her take on the epic rise of social media and its potentially positive impact on our society.

You can catch up with Holly on hollywhite.ie, or find her through Instagram @hollywhite.ie, and you can pick up her book, Vegan-ish at all good bookstores, and as part of our selection at The Hopsack

Dr Melanie Joy Moving From Carnism to Compassion

Dr Melanie Joy gave me great insight into the cause of veganism, her transition to becoming an educator and her work as a social psychologist helping vegans to maintain open conversations with non-vegans and how the movement can maintain cohesion as it grows.  We chatted about the state of play for veganism around the world and her thoughts on where it might go from here.

Curiosity in this case did NOT kill the cat, the cow nor any other domestic or agrarian animal.  But. It took a toll.  This podcast was 1 woman short of our full complement.  Lydia will be back for sure next time around, so excuse the one legged, man only approach this time.

You can find more out about Melanie on her site https://www.carnism.org/ or through all her social media channels.

 

Dr Robert Verkerk - Thumbs Down to Lancet High 5 for High Fat

You don't get any better in nutrition education than this man. Any time Dr Rob opens his mouth, we sit up and pay attention, because there is no voice speaking more sense, operating with such integrity or passion than Rob. With a unique ability to distill vast and detailed concepts into succinct and sound advice, Rob takes on high fat, low carb and intermittent fasting.

Oh and he does it ALL in 10 minutes. We set the clock for 5. But that wasn't really doing the man or the topic much justice.

Follow this fascinating human at www.anhinternational.org

Jamie White - Going Head First @ The Electric Picnic 2018

Jamie White, a serial entrepreneur, is on a serious internal journey.  From his early years getting exposure to the life altering words of those like Tony Robbins, Jamie has taken elements from a number of spiritual disciplines, nutritional reference points and training gurus and gone to WORK...on himself.

We discussed lots of fascinating health paradigms with Jamie - from Keto dieting, intermittent fasting and veganism, to mindfulness, and breathwork techniques.  

His unique personal insight gave us great fodder for an engaging chat with this switched on human being, who is inspiring others to change with his thoughts and actions.

We finished up this one with a fun debate on the top 4 things we can do to start to change our lives.

Apologies for the sound quality on this one folks, we were UNIQUELY challenged by the hectic environment.  Lydia's mic decided not to perform for us at all, so we were thinking maybe we wouldn't be able to launch this episode at all, but the info is so good we felt we'd give you all the opportunity to decide that for yourselves - enjoy!!

You can find more out about Jamie on jamiewhite.com and through his social media platforms.  Jamie is involved in putting together some seriously exciting conferences, especially intriguing for us his health summit Fresh Resolutions, taking place next January - check in with him for further details!

Dr Ciara Kelly Being a Doctor is Kinda Nuts

What’s in a nut? That was the kernel of this one, but we got sidetracked, charting Ciara’s evolution of thinking that has brought her into her current state as a junior medical doctor, food blogger and keen nutrition advocate, both in the workplace and outside of it. Fascinating to get an insight into one of the busiest Irish hospitals, St James, from the unique perspective of a young, motivated and super bright junior doctor who is carving a path towards a preventative healthcare model.

Tune in to the second half where we get into the nitty gritty of nutrients in nuts, the phytate debate, some wicked recipes incorporating nuts into sweet and savoury fun foods, including a yummy tahini fudge (sorry for the fudgey munching sounds!).  Here's the link to Susan Jane White's tahini fudge which inspired our delectations - http://www.susanjanewhite.com/pomegranate-fudge/

Plus Finn gets his first scolding from Lydia for talking too fast....eek. Post a comment if this has been a problem for you, and we'll make sure he takes it on board!