Mental Health Film Comment Podcast Was Such An Enjoyable Experience. We Talked About How I Converted To Christianity And The Reasons That Happened To Me. On The Mental Health Film Comment They Discuss Various Mental Health Issues As Depicted In Various Media.

Mental Health Film Comment

In this Mental Health Film Comment Podcast, I spoke with Brian Black about my conversion to Christianity and the reasons that happened. We also talk about mental health issues as depicted in various media and some episodes are more film-specific than others. All episodes provide information and resources to help and encourage people.

We discussed:

• Divine guidance in my life
• Developing empathy and compassion
• Taking action in life and that next step to change your life
• My conversion to Christianity and how that has changed my life

For many people, the first step to finding balance and living a fulfilling life entails learning how to manage their mental health. And while there are plenty of resources out there for those who need them, not everyone is aware that these options exist. That’s where this Mental Health Film Comment Podcast comes in – as Brian Black discusses mental illness and its impact on people, their lives and relationships, he also delves into what mental wellness means to him. In addition to valuable advice about coping mechanisms, you’ll learn about some of the tools that have helped him and his guests maintain a better quality of life over time.

Brian Black was such a great host and we thoroughly enjoyed talking together. We discussed lessons in life and developing compassion, empathy and sympathy towards other people’s situations.

Podcasts JUN 14, 2021 “The Hunger Games” (2012) “The Hunger Games” (2012) “The Hunger Games” (2012) & mental health.

Mental health issues

Mental health issues are a big part of the agenda of course and Brian directs people to resources if they are suffering.

Guests talk about depression, bipolar, anxiety, and other mental health issues and topics

Some episodes are more film-specific than others. All episodes will provide info and resources.

We talked about how I converted to Christianity and the reasons that happened to me. On the Mental Health Film Comment – discuss various mental health issues as depicted in various media. Guests talk about depression, bipolar, anxiety, and other mental health issues and topics. Some episodes are more film-specific than others; all provide info/resources for listeners with specific needs or who want help.

Mental Health Film Comment Podcast Was Great

Brian Black was such a great host and we thoroughly enjoyed talking together. We discussed lessons in life and developing compassion, empathy and sympathy towards other people’s situations.

Brian explained that he is offended because of a lack of compassion in society and is not offended by people discussing faith, Christianity and being tolerant in life.

I also explained to Brian how I created success in podcasting, it was by following the man upstairs.

I must thank the Mental Health Film Comment team and Brian was such a gentleman. I really hope you enjoy listening to this interview.

Also if you are interested in mental health issues and topics then take the time to listen to some of the other episodes Brian has.

If you are into Stanley Tucci then do listen to this interview too below too.

And don’t forget to share with your friends.

Stanley Tucci – is an American actor, writer, producer and film director.

What are the biggest struggles you have been through in your career?

How did you overcome your emotions when you were going through these struggles?

I heard about your Negroni drink – and my friend seemed to think you should have stirred and not shaken.

When you played “George Harvey” in The Lovely Bones (2009)] you said “I never wanted to play a serial killer. I don’t like to watch things about serial killers or kids getting hurt. I can’t stand that, really. But this was something beyond that. It was an exploration of loss and hope. And I’m glad that I chose to do it.”

Stanley shares such great value in this episode, it was a real joy to speak with him.

Here is a link to Positive Personal Power Podcast https://positivepersonalpower.net/hollywood-legend-stanley-tucci-shares-his-tips-on-getting-through-lifes-struggles/

Welcome to the final episode of our first series on Positive Personal Power. Today, we’re turning the tables and Stephen Dickens interviewed one of the Legacy media Hub founders and founder of Positive Personal Power Podcast Nathaniel Schooler.

Nathaniel is currently embarking on a road trip around Europe and this episode is an update of the why and the how and of course what Nat has been getting up to.

Nathaniel Schooler took a road trip around Europe and this episode is an update of the why and the how and of course what it has been like so far.

Hosted by IBM sales leader Steven Dickens. This episode turned the tables and Nat got a chance to share a little bit of his family history.

He also explains what travelling has been like across Europe under the shadow of Covid19.
If you want to learn more about Nat’s trip Facebook is the best place to see all his posts.

He talks about the Mann family’s 1933 vintage Lagonda. The picture is the slightly earlier model, Nat’s grandfather is in the passenger seat.

https://www.facebook.com/natschooler

A full transcript from the interview is below.

Nathaniel Schooler  00:49

Oh, this is quite interesting. I’ve got Steven Dickens here with me today and welcome before I get stuck in! Nice to see you, Steven.

Steven Dickens  01:00

It’s always good to be on the show, Nate.

Nathaniel Schooler  01:05

It’s, fantastic. I mean, I know you’ve been on quite a few podcasts with me over the last four or five years. And this is a really monumental episode because it brings together all the key learnings that I’ve had in the Positive Personal Power’s first 20 episodes. And you know, we’ve interviewed people like Stanley Tucci…

Nathaniel Schooler  01:26

We’ve interviewed, famous cricket players, famous rugby players, we’ve interviewed the founder of Coffee Republic, we’ve interviewed, a whole load of amazing people, and I have been very privileged to have Michael Tobin OBE arrange a lot of these interviews for me in the beginning. And, you know, this episode really is to kind of sum up what I’ve learned from from all these episodes and also go through kind of, where I’m at right now and the road trip that I’m on and you’re going to be basically talking to me and asking me about it.

Steven Dickens  01:59

So yeah, in a minute I get to turn the tables on you. It’s not you interviewing me. It’s the other way around there. So I’m looking forward to this.

Nathaniel Schooler  02:09

It’s strange, very strange.

Steven Dickens  02:12

So, I mean with that in mind, we’ve been chatting over the last few days. And I think it’s been really interesting to hear a little bit about the sort of road trip you’ve been on. And that sparked us brainstorming about this podcast. I think the interesting thing for me and will be interesting for the listeners is this road trip sounds like a microcosm of the journey you’ve been on more widely, so maybe give us a sort of short term lens on what the last sort of a couple of months have looked like. And then we’ll maybe go broader from that and talk about the journey of discovery you’ve been on?

Nathaniel Schooler  02:51

No, sure. Well, like most people, I was kind of sitting there and I was, you know, in my bedroom, working on my computer. Like a lot of people work in their bedrooms and you know sitting there and I was like this is just too much. Like I can’t, all I do is I get in my car I drive to Lidl and I go and get some food and then I might, you know, go for a walk or something.

Nathaniel Schooler  03:18

But like this isn’t living like this is, this is existing. And with Brexit looming and these kinds of things, I was thinking, Well, what the hell am I gonna do like if I want to move and I want to move somewhere in Europe, I need to do it before the end of Brexit happens, before the actual date, which really is the end of this year. Yeah. So I was like: -“Well, what am I going to do? Like where am I going to go?” So basically just got all my stuff and booked.

Nathaniel Schooler  03:49

Well, I first of all, I booked the Euro tunnel back in. I think it was about May or something or April, but unfortunately, Poland closed the border, three days before I was going to leave. So I literally just missed going at that point. So, then I stayed and I worked from home. I went to Lidl every week and I got my food and I, you know, put my mask on and I washed my hands and you know, and all these things I actually wasn’t wearing a mask because I was one of these mask deniers at that point. And, after my cousin hassled me and he was like, you’ve got to wear a mask, his dad was you know, head of admissions for Harvard medical and he’s like, this is a fact you need to wear a mask.

Nathaniel Schooler  04:33

So when I got to Poland, you know, everyone was wearing masks, so I booked this ticket. And I deferred it because I couldn’t leave because the borders were shot so as soon as I heard like, you could drive across I was like, right, I’m out here. I literally just donned all my stuff. Put it in my car my 15-year-old 535 M Sport BMW 2005 it is the best car I’ve ever owned. It’s like, you know, 300 horsepower, huge fat wheels. Yeah. You know, it’s reliable. It’s a great car. Yeah. I mean, I have had some problems. I mean, we can dig into them in a minute, right….

Nathaniel Schooler  05:14

But so I just put my stuff in the car, left one thing somewhere with someone and I’ve reduced my belongings to a car of stuff over the past 10 years. Because, you know, I left my wife about five years ago and I went to Spain and filled up a Jeep. I went over there for a year and literally ended up you know, basically coming back because it didn’t work out. And each time I’ve just kind of got rid of belongings and it feels really good. If there’s some sort of, I don’t know, weird thing, because it means that you look at everything that you have, and then you think well, do I really want this? Do I actually need this? And am I going to wear it? And is it necessary to keep? And it’s such a really good feeling to do that.

Steven Dickens  06:05

That reduction, that minimalism, my wife and I have this conversation, she’s a doesn’t need things person and I’m a consumption person. So it’s an interesting sort of dynamic. Talk a little bit more about kind of the thought process, have you always been like that? Is that something you’ve kind of stumbled across? Talk to me a little bit about that.

Nathaniel Schooler  06:30

I mean, I’ve owned loads of different properties over the years, I had a house, my first place when I was like, 20, I bought a house, I had like motorbikes and bicycles and yeah, loads of stuff. And I was really sentimental about everything. But now, I mean, I have a few choice belongings that I kind of, you know, I carry around with me probably just a square box.

Nathaniel Schooler  06:52

The most important belonging that I have is actually this giraffe that my daughter gave me and it’s got her name on the back. She lives with her mother, but she’s called Maya and this is the most important thing, because every time when I get somewhere and I put my computer out on the table, this has to be right next to my machine. And that is Funny, isn’t it? If 20 years ago, you said to me, oh, you’re going to be travelling around, you’re going to end up in Croatia and you’re going to be there and you’re going to put a giraffe on your table and that’s your most important possession…

Nathaniel Schooler  07:26

It’s like, the whole definition of important changes as well whilst you’re doing that, because it’s like, well, what do you need to work? Okay, so I need a podcast microphone, I need a really good computer, I need another computer in case the other computer doesn’t work and then you need your adapters and you know, so I kind of bought a toolbox right. About two weeks ago and I put all my cables and all my really cool stuff in the toolbox.

Nathaniel Schooler  07:54

So now I feel so much cleaner and so much more organized. And my sister has been organizing people professionally for like, 20 plus years. That’s what she does. And yes, that and you would not believe the amount of clutter that people have. And they don’t want it and they don’t need it. And I think it’s really great feeling every time you go and you move somewhere, you get rid of more stuff.

Steven Dickens  08:22

And that’s something I moved a bunch of times myself. That’s something, we’re due a house move. And the thing I’m looking forward to in the house move is getting rid of a bunch of stuff. So it’s interesting, this is the longest we’ve ever been in one house. And as I say, we’re overdue. So let’s kind of pick up the pace.

Let’s pick up the pace a little and give a bit of a timeline of kind of where you’ve been what you’ve done, because we’ve kept in touch the last few months, but when we spoke the other day, I was like, you’ve been here, you’ve been there you’ve been…

Nathaniel Schooler  08:57

Yeah!

Steven Dickens 08:57

So maybe just give the listeners a sort of condensed view of the kind of way you’ve been and what you’ve done. And then we’ll rip off that.

Nathaniel Schooler  09:06

But well, I mean, I literally left England on the 22nd of June put all my stuff in the car as I say, drove to the EuroTunnel, there was no traffic on the road surprise, surprise and then I ended up going on the EuroTunnel, which a lot of people don’t even know what it is, it is the longest tunnel I think underwater in the world.

Nathaniel Schooler  09:25

Apparently, it’s 23 miles, which I’ve never been on it before. And I actually screamed like a kid. When I was sitting there. There were no cars behind me. I mean, a whole carriage on my own and on a train, you’re sitting there in your car, and it goes underwater, and I was just I was screaming my head off. I was laughing because it was just such a euphoria.

Nathaniel Schooler  09:45

It was just the most exciting thing to just not have, to just not know, to know you’re going somewhere but not know what the future holds used to be really scary. It used to be the scariest thing but now I’ve just kind of embraced change, and I’ve gone well, you know, this is gonna be fun. And if it isn’t, then it’s going to be painful. And then you’re going to learn anyway. So it’s like, well, what’s the point of not doing something? If you’re frightened, you just need to do it. Yeah, I mean, that’s the thing.

Steven Dickens  10:18

That leads to my favourite quotes and I use them almost daily. I’m a huge Star Wars fan. If if we’re doing the videos, you can see the Star Wars memorabilia on the wall of the office. famous quote by Yoda, “Do or do not there is no try.” Because you see people and being in sales, getting to know is kind of a big thing for me, but you see people and they’re like: – “Oh, yeah, I’ll try and do that.”

Well, that’s just code for you’re not gonna do it. So just why I have this Yoda quote in my head, I often say: – “Well are you going to do it or not?” And then there are like: – “Well, I’ll try.” Well, I’ll try means you’re not going to do it. “So that’s fine, okay, but now I know.” And they are like “No, no, no, no, I’m gonna try and do it.”

Steven Dickens  11:06

You’re either gonna do it or you’re not gonna do it.

Steven Dickens  11:09

So I think it’s, that mindset, something that I kind of listen for and people either do things or they don’t do things. So, it’s interesting, you’ve kind of taken that philosophy and I’m either gonna do this or I’m not gonna do it and if I’m going to do it, I’m going to embrace the process.

Nathaniel Schooler  11:27

Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s scary. The whole thing’s very scary. But so so I literally jumped on the tunnel drove across France across Belgium, and I arrived in Germany in a town called Dortmund and I booked a five star no four-star hotel. It was under £100 including breakfast. I think it was like a Mercure or something, absolutely beautiful.

Really nice people, super breakfast. And yeah, it was phenomenal. absolutely phenomenal so then I drove the next day to Berlin.

Nathaniel Schooler  11:29

It’s a long trip. I drove to Berlin, ended up having a five-star hotel for 85 pounds, including breakfast. The only difference between the four and the five star was the coffee machine in the room was exceptionally good in the five stars and they had obviously a fridge and stuff. But that was the only real difference there was not a lot, because Mercure I take my hat off to them. Just take my hat off, it is super, really super. You know.

Steven Dickens  12:38

So how do you find a hotel? I think I’ve not been anywhere in 24 weeks. As you know, I’m a road warrior in hotels all the time. I don’t know what I think about going to a hotel in a strange place for the first time.

Nathaniel Schooler  12:54

Yeah.

Steven Dickens  12:55

In the current climate, you know, turn up in Berlin. You’ve got a hotel booked. You probably booked it online a couple of days before, kind of talk to me. Just Yeah, there’s a lot of people like me who haven’t travelled in a while. What’s that? What’s the process? Like you walk into reception?

Nathaniel Schooler  13:12

No, no, it’s, it’s not about that. The first thing starts with looking on Booking.com. And it starts with comparing cleanliness results. And that is the most important thing after the price. Price first, cleanliness, location, parking, because if you’ve got a car full of everything that you own, right, your whole life is in that car. You want to make sure you’ve got good parking, and it’s gonna be safe. And there’s a certain degree of paranoia that comes with that.

Nathaniel Schooler  13:43

However, it’s a 15-year-old car, it’s not clean. It’s a bit beaten up, you know, it is what it is. So you know, I’ve been quite lucky on that front. So when you arrive at the hotel, you know, when I arrived It was quite weird.

It was surreal. I mean there were no people there, you get there and out of a hotel that’s probably got 360 rooms you’ve got one which has got 25 rooms full. When I arrived in Dortmund there were probably 25 rooms. Very few people for breakfast, I mean I took I did some videos and took some pictures and it was insane actually, it was pretty insane.

Nathaniel Schooler  14:24

The number of people out, very few people, but it was beautiful because there were no people on the road. It was super clean. You know, it was really enjoyable experience, to be honest. And it was just the peace of not having anything to think about, not having a computer in front of you and not having a phone to mess about with and not having anything except for you know, your Sat Nav, and your phone with your Sat Nav on with you know, occasional messages or calls from people. And that’s it and it’s just brilliant to clear your mind. Like that’s the beauty of driving like there’s nothing else apart from your driving.

Steven Dickens  15:08

Yeah. So one thing that was interesting you told me about this that’s in your DNA that’s in your kind of family consciousness this driving. So tell the listeners a little bit about that this kind of road trip baked into the sort of family DNA piece because I think that’s a fantastic story.

Nathaniel Schooler  15:29

It’s a good story. It’s a really good story and yeah, I think travelling is certainly in my blood. My grandfather used to spend a lot of time with his brother Conrad back in back in 1933. They basically had a vintage Lagonda and Conrad bought the vintage Lagonda. That was the first one that he bought. And then he basically bought another one and they used to do the Monte Carlo Rally.

Nathaniel Schooler  15:59

So, my cousin actually wrote a really long piece on it, because he’s still got the car and he wrote a really long piece for the Lagonda club and it’s actually a 1934 Lagonda, it was built in 33 and it’s registered in 34. And James wrote this massive long piece but I’m not going to read you the whole piece because it’s like 1500 words, but basically, it was ordered by his grandfather, Conrad Mann, who basically was really well known in the Lagonda circles.

Nathaniel Schooler  16:32

He already entered and competed in the 1931 and 32 Monte Carlo rallies in a supercharged two litre Lagonda. So this latest Lagonda that they have is actually original from 1934 when Conrad bought it and my my my grandfather used to travel with Conrad his brother and they would go on these rallies and God knows what they got up to. I mean literally, they were naughty. Yeah, like really! I have no idea what they got to but, but basically…

Steven Dickens  17:11

Boys are boys on tour, boys on tour before that was a phrase completely but I mean literally in you can only imagine a road trip across Europe in the 30s.

Nathaniel Schooler  17:24

Yeah

Steven Dickens  17:24

You know when in that well what would have been a current Lagonda back then, now’s a vintage Lagonda. Obviously, that would have been brand new then. Yeah, that’s a road trip.

Nathaniel Schooler  17:33

Oh an insane road trip. Yeah. And literally in let me see in 1936. My grandfather was driving and they basically set off from John o’Groats in this car and through the Highlands, right and basically came off the road and they got pulled out by a tractor three hours later that year. And I think they actually finished number 60th out of 72, even though they had this problem of coming off the road and everything, but the car basically sat on blocks during the war at Conrad’s farm, my great uncle’s farm. And, and then he basically used to drive this car from Tenterten all the way to the East end of London, to the brewery, which was Mann’s brewery.

Nathaniel Schooler  18:25

That was one of the largest breweries in the UK, it actually merged with Watney’s unfortunately because that was the demise of the brewery because they launched a very bad beer, unfortunately, but it was a very big brewery. It started in like 1800, I think, or 1780 roundabout.

Nathaniel Schooler  18:44

And they built that up until I don’t know the eighth largest, I think it was eventually before it before its demise. They had 2000 pubs on my mother’s side. And it was a big business you know. But the love of travelling it’s more than that. I mean, my dad, he came from America, he moved over here back in, back in what the 1960s. You know, so, and he drove around Italy in his car. And, you know, when he got married, he did that for his first wife, and, you know, so I think it’s just in my blood, like travelling is just, you know, got relatives all over the world. And it’s just like, I just love seeing new things, doing new things. It’s just a disease almost, you know, a bug. Really yeah.

Steven Dickens  19:37

So, so you’re in Berlin. So yes, so you’ve done the UK to France, through Belgium, now in Germany, the second stop in Germany, where is next?

Nathaniel Schooler  19:50

The Autobahn. Okay, which is just it was crazy.

Nathaniel Schooler  19:56

Yeah, I mean, I’ve never driven for a long period of time over 100 and something miles an hour. I mean, literally, when you get to like 120 your car behaves totally differently when you are doing that for a long period of time.

Nathaniel Schooler  20:12

It is scary because you go around these bends and like and you’re like, wow, this is 120 miles an hour and you’ve got to be so much softer on the steering, but much more definite. Yeah, this car is really good because it’s got a special type of steering. So it adjusts automatically the steering based upon the speed you’re doing. It’s built. I mean, I was like, why is this car so good? Like I didn’t realize my friend Erik sold it to me like three years ago and I didn’t realize, my respect for the five series BMW is huge now. I mean, really, you know,

Steven Dickens   20:48

A shout out to our sponsors from BMW by the way for this podcast. Of course. Nate is looking for a brand new BMW five series BMW are listening We welcome the opportunity to test drive your car for the next three years! So you’re tearing out of Berlin 120 miles an hour. On the autobahn.

Nathaniel Schooler  21:11

Oh no I did 140, I wanted to see how fast we go the course.

Steven Dickens  21:16

So you were driving fast with nowhere to go?

Nathaniel Schooler  21:20

No, I was heading to Warsaw I was heading to Warsaw and stayed in Warsaw for a while. Went all around Poland saw all sorts of amazing places like the Polish mountains Zakopane, the Polish seaside.

Nathaniel Schooler  21:37

Amazing Poland. Poland is a really fantastic place. It’s the most it’s the wealthiest country actually in central-eastern Europe as well. Because the Polish work so hard, and they really do like if they’ve got a job to do. It’s not like oh, I’ve done my eight hours for today. I’m going to start again tomorrow. It’s like they pick it up.

Nathaniel Schooler  21:58

They do the work and It’s done. Right, and it could take them 20 hours and they will do it right. And my respect for the Polish is huge. I actually my grandfather, on my dad’s side, him he actually came from but it was Poland. But it changed to Ukraine. Now it’s Ukraine, but he was from Ukraine.

Nathaniel Schooler  22:20

And he went to America in like 19. Let me see would have been 19, probably 1920, I would think maybe a little earlier. And then basically, he started, he started off working, basically lived with some relatives and he and he put himself through MIT and then once he finished MIT.

He basically started, first of all, a scrap metal company and then he turned to scrap metal company into a partition walling company, and they used to have a box at the opera, you know, my dad had a new car every Two or three years because he worked for the company and so yeah, it’s um, but I never managed to get to to to the city where he was at the time where he was born, but, but my great grandmother used to smuggle people and horses across the Russian border. She spoke like 11 languages are something ridiculous. And I mean, I have pictures of her like, you wouldn’t mess with her. Yeah, like really? She was just like really just stern.

Steven Dickens  23:29

Yeah, she was a fierce lady.

Nathaniel Schooler  23:31

Yeah, my sister said, she was called Bad Bubby. This is what my sister said. And she wouldn’t let her have a doll. She would just take the doll off her and like, give her something practical and say you don’t want that rubbish.

Nathaniel Schooler  23:41

She was just mean. Yeah, but it’s a different era. Like, you know, a totally different era, basically. And Poland is like that and it’s shaped like that. And I always wondered why Polish people like to walk around with a moody look on their faces. And it’s like well actually life is hard. Yeah, and, you know, we in the western privileged upbringings, we think that everybody has easy it’s like no, like, when you see some people and how they live like it’s really hard. Yeah. And Poland was a real eye-opener for me actually going to these different places, the Polish are lovely people, the food is incredible and that’s another love of mine I love food really!

Steven Dickens  24:25

Well, I think it’s interesting. The more I’ve travelled, the more perspective I’ve got. I’ve spent time in China. I’ve been around the world in time in Vietnam and, and places that are kind of off the beaten track.

And it gives you a perspective that you don’t get sitting in upstate New York where I am at the moment. You just think the world is like where you are. And it’s only when you do that journey and you go and discover. You go somewhere else that you realize the world isn’t like the bubble that I’ve been living in. So, I mean, you’re transposing Poland on to your experience, you know, I would say the same about Vietnam. You know, you go to those places, and it’s kinda like, this is so different to what I’m used to.

Nathaniel Schooler  25:16

Yeah.

Steven Dickens 25:17

That you, you just see it, you just, it gives you a different perspective. So, you end up in Warsaw.

Nathaniel Schooler  25:23

Yep. How? How long do you therefore well spend a bit of time I spend about what nearly two months in Poland. In the country, in the summer house as well over there. And it was fantastic. And I think the word is Jowka. Everyone has a Jowka in Poland. And it’s a bit like an allotment that we have in England except for you build a house on it or you put a caravan on it, or you do what you want with it. And that’s quite cool because everyone has one.

So it’s like a thing and it brings a family together. And I thought that was really quite nice. That’s a really nice thing the Polish have. Yeah, everyone has this little piece of land and they do what they went with it and it’s just quite cool, right. Like the way the way they have a real family-orientated thing going on.

The food is fantastic, people are fantastic. You know, but it just wasn’t for me. I’m afraid, so. So I decided what the hell am I gonna do? Like where am I gonna go?

Steven Dickens  26:18

So where’s next? Yeah, where do you go?

Nathaniel Schooler  26:21

Well, I was like, ahh, I need to go and see my buddy Charlie, because he lives in Croatia. So I was like, right, Croatia here I come, baby. And literally, put all my stuff in the car again, got rid of a little bit more stuff. And then literally just drove to Croatia. So I stopped. I went to Auschwitz on the way which put my whole life into perspective. It put everything into perspective completely.

Nathaniel Schooler  26:47

Yeah. It wasn’t the 80,000 pairs of shoes that I saw. It wasn’t it wasn’t that display of those.

It was. It was more about the poems that the survivors had written that’s what really made me tear up at the end.

Nathaniel Schooler  27:03

Because I’ve been to the killing fields in Cambodia. I’ve been to S21, the torture museum in Cambodia. I’ve stood on where the mass murders happened.

Nathaniel Schooler  27:37

Yeah.

Steven Dickens  27:38

I’ve never been, but your experiences are the same and consistent with everybody I’ve spoken to as they talk about it as that is that kind of pivotal moment that sort of brings everything into context. So you’re on the road from Auschwitz to Croatia?

Nathaniel Schooler 

And you know, and it was just like, the whole thing it was just surreal like, you know, you go to the left or you go to the right if you go to the left, I think you die if you go to the right you go and work and then you die. And like, the sign above Auschwitz says, you know: – ‘Work makes you free.’ And it was just like, the way that they broke these people down. When they arrived like that. It was just, it was emotional, really emotional.

Nathaniel Schooler  27:55

I went to Bratislava, Slovakia. I get confused between Slovakia and Slovenia. But Bratislava is beautiful when you drive in. it’s mind-blowing.

Nathaniel Schooler  28:32

So I’ve got a whole load of pictures on my Instagram for that. And then I was like, right, Croatia. And then Charlie’s like: – “Right meet me here on this island. And I’m like: – “Alright, cool.” So he’s like: – “Get the ferry over and jump over and blah, blah, blah.” And he’s, he’s married to a really famous pop singer here. And like she gets like, I think she’s got like a million reach. Yeah, so she’s one of the biggest influencers in Croatia.

Nathaniel Schooler  28:59

Yeah. So People came up to me and Charlie, and they’re like: – “Can I have a picture of you?” To him. And I’m like, What? Like, it just cracked me up. Yeah, I’ve never seen that before.

Nathaniel Schooler  29:09

And I just sort of poked him and I laughed. It was hilarious because he was really embarrassed. It was just so funny. Yeah. So ended up on this island, just! Because my car was making a funny noise. And it was and it was and it was basically losing loads of power. And I was just and I called Erik because he knows everything about these cars.

Steven Dickens  29:30

So you broke it on the Autobahn is the short story!

Nathaniel Schooler  29:32

No, no, I broke it. Well yes. I think I started to break it then. And then I broke it when I arrived here. Because like speed limits. I mean, like there are no police. I mean, like, you know, you get on the toll road. Yeah, you just do 120 miles. No one cares. 120, 130 so really, nobody cares. It’s fantastic. Yeah.

Nathaniel Schooler  29:56

View this post on Instagram

This was my tyre! Pleased I found a great mechanic near #split — #sutivan to be precise. Honest too! Fixed my car and now it’s like driving a new car again…whoop whoop

A post shared by Nathaniel Schooler (@natschooler) on Aug 26, 2020 at 10:23am PDT

So I basically found this mechanic because Charlie’s girlfriend’s mother has a house somewhere around that island. So I basically found this mechanic who she had used the only mechanic on the island, super honest. Basically, he put in a new part for my car looked it over. He said, there’s something wrong with your tyre. And I was like, ‘Whoa,’ and he and he literally showed me this tire after I’d got it repaired. And it was absolutely it was shredded in the middle of it, the wall is broken in the middle of this tyre.

Nathaniel Schooler  30:27

And when you rolled it down the road it was going donk donk donk like this. And I don’t actually know when that happened. I think it was sometimes just before I got on the ferry basically to get over here. So I didn’t go fast. Yeah, but it was just like, so I got that fixed. And now my car’s running sweet. And today I’ve just been spending a little time trying to find an adapter for my webcam because it’s a USB 3.1 and not USB because I stupidly bought it without checking the configurations so.

Steven Dickens  30:59

So you are in Croatia.

Nathaniel Schooler

Yeah!

Steven Dickens 31:01

As we start to think about wrapping this up, tell us a little bit about it, you’ve given us a really great perspective. I don’t think anybody gets to do that kind of road trip, you’ve embraced COVID, and kind of what that’s done to your life and the transition. And you’ve decided, I’m just gonna get on the road, I’m gonna enjoy and embrace this experience. We’ve got a couple more minutes, give me a view of what’s been the last few months of your journey. And you think that fits in the broader context of the life journey.

Nathaniel Schooler  31:32

It’s just given me a whole new perspective and made me realize that you know, the world is a big place. If you get to do some, you just gotta get on with it. Stop being delayed by everyone else. Everyone else’s opinions of what you should do, what you shouldn’t do, how you should do this and that and everything.

Nathaniel Schooler  31:49

It’s like, you need to just go with your gut instinct, gut instinct. and determination and focus are all keys to all of this. Yeah. And just hang out with good people online offline, get rid of idiots from your life. Seriously, I’d like I’m shouting if it’s a bit louder than the rest of this, I mean because that is what affects you. These people don’t offer any value whatsoever. No encouragement, no enthusiasm. They gossip about every single thing that’s wrong in their lives. Yeah, get rid of them. Let them go and talk to people that like to wallow in self gratified depressing thoughts. Yeah, let them go say goodbye. So

Nathaniel Schooler  31:59

Yeah, so let’s, so let’s, let’s still distil this down. We’ve spent half an hour talking about this. I think the listeners will get a lot from this, from the tales from the road and the journey and just some of your funny stories, but, but also the perspective, so if you had to boil this down to three key takeaways, as we wrap up, what would they be? Just three short take on it.

Nathaniel Schooler  32:58

Trust in yourself and trusting something. I don’t know what that may be for you anyone listening? You might not believe in God, but I do.

Nathaniel Schooler  33:08

And for me, it’s like, just trust in God, trust in whatever you believe in to deliver you from hell because otherwise, you’re going to live a life that you could have lived. You’re going to lay on your deathbed, you’re gonna look back, like like that story, the Tolstoy story, the story of Ivan Ilyich. And you’re going to look back over your life and you’re going to say, “Well, whose life did I live? It wasn’t my life. It was someone else’s.” And if and if you think that you’re going to end up in that place, change your life and do it now before you waste even more years of your life, you know.

Steven Dickens  33:42

So Nate that I think.

Nathaniel Schooler 

I can’t give you three things.

Steven Dickens 33:47

I think you gave me two before I asked a question.

Nathaniel Schooler  33:50

So okay.

Steven Dickens  33:50

I think I think we’re good. I think we’re good. You take the final one. So I’m gonna let you off.

Steven Dickens  33:56

I think, an interesting podcast free format, is really good to get a personal perspective on a short term journey, but also in the context and the life journey you’ve been on. And the listeners are going to really enjoy this.

Steven Dickens  34:11

I think we’re going to be recording another one of these I feel, as you go from Croatia to somewhere else. So it’s gonna be interesting in a few weeks time. I’ve got the next instalment of what I’m calling Tales from the road with Nate Schooler.

Nathaniel Schooler  34:25

But I may stay here. It’s very nice. Really,

Steven Dickens  34:29

We can change the title and call it we can call it Tales from Croatia.

Nathaniel Schooler  34:33

I don’t know. I don’t mind. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s the next instalment right still ‘tales of the road.’ Because I’ll be looking for a place to live you see, so yeah, but thank you, Steven. I think it’s been great!

Steven Dickens 34:45

Always a pleasure. Always a pleasure to record a podcast with you. Nate, I think we’ll be doing more together in the future. So maybe listeners check out for those, I think, great perspectives to them and your own personal journey. I think the listeners will have got an insight into a sort of Europe that they may be won’t have heard before.

Steven Dickens  35:03

So thank you very much for the opportunity to be a guest host this time and turn the tables.

Nathaniel Schooler  35:09

It’s really weird. Yeah. But I think, you know, also just to sort of top it off, I think the most important thing is, no matter how successful you are, there is always something that you want to go for and some goal that you want to achieve. And that’s what I’ve learned from interviewing all these successful people in the last 20 episodes, 19 episodes. They have, every single person, you know, they have obstacles, but they all move beyond them. And they, whilst they might be successful in one place. They are still searching for something else and still looking for the next thing.

Nathaniel Schooler  35:51

I think Nate, there’s no better way to wrap up the show. So thank you very much, and I’ll speak to you soon. Thanks, Steven.

Joined by Sahar Hashemi OBE co-founder of the coffee chain Coffee Republic and confectionery brand Skinny Candy, since selling both businesses she has authored two books ‘Anyone Can Do It’ and ‘Switched On: You Have It In You.’

Nadya Rousseau and Nathaniel Schooler discuss Sahar’s ethos, maintaining the ‘Startup Forever’ Mindset and realising anyone can do it, you can do it! Just go and make it happen, start it today!!

The questions below are mixed up a little during the episode but they covered the following and more!!

Tell us about you, who are you and what drives you to do what you do?
Why does positivity matter to you?
What is your personal “positive superpower”?

Specific to your journey:

What was the impetus for starting Coffee Republic in the UK, a country known not for its love of coffee, but a love of tea?
How did the business grow to 110 stores?
After Coffee Republic, you started Skinny Candy. How did that come about?
Your two books, Startup Forever and Anyone Can Do It, are incredibly motivational. Why are they important for newbie business owners to read?
What is the most important piece of advice you want to leave with burgeoning entrepreneurs?
Has COVID-19 impacted you? If so, how?

@startupforever on Instagram and Twitter

http://saharhashemi.com/

Questions for Kim Adele:-

I noticed you have worked at Board Level in FTSE 250s, you were Head of Sales for Sage and Ops Director at Barclays and am really interested to learn more about you, what you do now and what drives you?

Why does positivity matter to you?

What is your personal “positive superpower”?

These are just some of the questions that Kim-Adele answered: –

Imposter Syndrome
Why do people get it?
Bullying, people telling us what we should do in life.

How do they move beyond it?
How do they avoid relapsing?

We received so many questions from our Facebook audience and Kim did her best to answer them all. We hope you derive some insights from this highly informative interview.

Mike: How do you cope with it and what do you do to elevate your self-esteem?”

Terri: How do you stop it from stealing your enjoyment when you achieve something you’ve worked hard at and it keeps telling you it was too easy, you didn’t earn your stripes getting it and you don’t deserve it?

Jason: Is there an existing explanation from the field of psychology for this? Is it related to feelings of guilt or lack of confidence or feelings of inadequacy or knowing it wasn’t earned or possibly something else? Likely a lot of overlap.

Mike: If imposter syndrome simply means inferiority complex.

Terri: How do you stop it from stealing your enjoyment when you achieve something you’ve worked hard at and it keeps telling you it was too easy, you didn’t earn your stripes getting it and you don’t deserve it?

I am suffering with it enormously at the moment with the growing success of Shadow Man and people wanting my autograph and interviews etc.

Jo: How do you address your students’ questions about imposter syndrome when you suffer from it yourself?

Henry: Why does the impostor syndrome only hit when we do something we really really care about. And not when we’re say? Doing the dishes.

Proma: Every time I battle the syndrome and get back to the game and start doing well, I soon fall back into it. It’s seems like a cyclical phase. How do you combat that? How do you make staying out of the syndrome phase more permanent?

Stu: That should be a good one! Ask him how it is he knows so much about impostor syndrome, made me smile!!

Louise: I knew a woman who was very successful. She was the founding editor of a famous magazine. She was always concerned that “they” will find out how incompetent she was.

Jason: Such a relevant and common thing we all suffer from most of the time. I guess “how do you cope with it and what do you do to elevate your self-esteem?”
In the past and being someone that works alone and at home it’s been contributing to open-source, attending meet-ups and events and realising that you ARE valued.

Lauren: How do we teach our kids that it doesn’t take passing an exam to equate to intelligence yet they are conditioned towards that way of thinking every day at school and by society.

Shamir: How do external factors (family, friends) & past experiences play a part in IS and how can one address this to move forward.

Andrzej: Why does it seem to only affect those who are actually qualified to be where they are, not the fakers and pretenders?

Lisa: I suffer from Impostor Syndrome and have to battle with it every day, it isn’t easy to deal with. I would be very interested in her insights as I’m giving a talk on this subject for European Digital Week next month, I’d love to know from her what she thinks could be done to stop bullying and how to deal with bullying, it is due to bullying that my impostor syndrome is so high. I’ve been bullied, harassed and abused not just at school but through my entire life, and it has been worse in the workplace than it ever was for me in school. Yet nothing seems to be done about it.
I’m in the cybersecurity industry and I can honestly say I’ve had nothing but support for what I do from other men in the industry, yet I’ve been on the receiving end of some awful bullying, harassment and abuse from other women in the industry.

Amanda: There is an interesting link between women and ethnicity and imposter syndrome, I would ask to what extent does paternalism and patriarchal cultures affect someone with imposter syndrome and how can people navigate a white male-dominated work environment for example for a positive outcome in their careers?

Ize: How can you gain confidence to get out of it and not relapse?

Chris: What is the opposite of Imposter Syndrome …?

If you didn’t get your question answered then please contact Kim Adele via her website or on LinkedIn.

Kimadele.org
Kim Adele Platts

You can also get Nat Schooler here

And you can listen to some more helpful episodes here on Imposter Syndrome

Nat Schooler and Ted Rubin discussed:

Attitude and Perspective that Leads to a Positive Mindset
Fighting to Keep his daughters in his life.
Having a positive attitude despite the pain. 
Getting through this pain is ok, you can be upset, you can be angry, not angry at people or yourself but angry at the situation.

If you want to find Ted Rubin he is on all major social media channels.

And his website here: https://tedrubin.com/about-ted-rubin/

If you want to learn more about Photofy it’s here https://photofy.com/

You can get Nat Schooler here: https://natschooler.com/

Edited 29/01/2022: There is a full transcript below the audio.

Are you looking for a way to improve your health? Dr Blake Shusterman the cooking doc offers an innovative and transformational approach to cooking and eating that can help you look and feel your best. In this podcast, Dr Shusterman shares his expert advice on how to keep away from eating junk food to look after your health. So if you’re ready to take charge of your health, listen to this podcast! You won’t regret it.

South Carolina-based Dr Shusterman is especially aware of the importance of high-quality food. His passion for getting people to eat and live better led him to write his book, “Kidney Healthy Cooking.”

His book is available both in ebook format and on Amazon includes a number of delicious and kidney-friendly recipes and guidance to look after your kidneys and to keep your potassium levels low.

You may also want to check out this blog and podcast Mastering Mindsets: Health, Mindset And Exercise Interview: Change Your Life as these elements are all crucial to a healthier, happier life.

Dr. Blake’s recipes are also featured on kidney nonprofit The American Kidney Fund’s “Kidney Kitchen” portion of its website. As an ambassador for AKF, also, Dr. Blake Shusterman the cooking doc regularly co-hosts Facebook Lives and virtual events to inspire and educate people concerned about their kidney health.

This was another really fun episode hosted by Nadya Rousseau (CEO Alter New Media) and Nathaniel Schooler

These are just some of the questions that Nephrologist Dr Blake Shusterman the cooking doc joins us to answer:

• Tell us about you, who are you and what drives you to do what you do?
• Why does positivity matter to you?
• What is your personal “positive superpower”?
• Not many nephrologists also moonlight as “Cooking Docs.” What was the inspiration behind your platform and the #Changeyourbuds movement?
• How do you motivate your patients who are struggling to enjoy healthy food?
• Do you have a particular memory of a challenging patient who felt particularly discouraged about improving their health?
• Why do so many Americans struggle with their health?
• How can we motivate them to make a collective shift?
• You recently became an ambassador for the American Kidney Foundation. How will this relationship manifest? (Talk about Kidney Kitchen, Panels)

Dr. Blake is now in an exclusive ambassadorship with the American Kidney Fund, the nation’s largest leading npo on kidney health. This relationship will amplify the positive impact in a big way. Here is a link to their recent press release.

Find Blake here https://www.thecookingdoc.co/

You can also get Nat Schooler here: https://natschooler.com/

If you would like to read the transcript that is below.

Nathaniel Schooler

00:00:49

Okay. Alrighty. So welcome. I am very happy actually, because not only am I joined by Nadya Russo, founder, CEO of purpose forward marketing agency Alter New Media, but we are joined by Dr. Blake Schusterman. Hope I pronounced your name. Right. Perfect. Good. I learned that from Stanley touchy. He does that a lot. He goes like this and you are South Carolina kidney doctor on a mission to change your buds with your delicious and modern recipes. And I might like to add that I have looked at your website and it did make me hungry.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:01:39

Glad to hear that. That’s good.

Nadya Rousseau

00:01:42

Well, that’s a good thing. We all want to be hungry for healthier stuff as opposed to the bad stuff.

Nathaniel Schooler

00:01:48

Yes. And it’s very difficult. I see all these cakes and ice creams everywhere and all, I do like a nice cake, but anyhow, let’s get down to it. Tell us about you. Like who are you and what drives you to do what you do?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:02:08

It’s kind of a big question, Nat, just start off.

Nadya Rousseau

00:02:15

I’m a little bit down. Maybe

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:02:19

I am, a kidney doctor, as you said in Greenville, South Carolina, which is in the Southeastern part of the United States. And I’ve been here for about 11 years and that’s my day job taking care of people with kidney disease, whether they’re at risk for kidney disease, they and I have kidney failure where the kidneys fail completely. So my day job is working as a kidney doctor and then I’ve started on the side, a YouTube channel and a website where my goal is to get people to eat healthier food because what you eat has such a tremendous impact on your overall health and your kidney health even more.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:03:01

So that’s kind of who I am. What drives me. I could think I could talk forever about what drives me, what drives you? Come on, tell us a few things. So, you know, I think if you get down to it, you know, from, as you get older in life, different things drive you along the way. So, you know, you start off, I’m a firstborn child. I am a driven type of personality. What drives me is to succeed in whatever I’m doing. And you know, as you go through life, maybe your drive isn’t so much to succeed and then you kind of want to support your family a little bit. And then you want to take care of your patients and make sure what you’re doing in life has a positive outcome on people. And I think by this time in my life, I kind of balance all three of those things as what drives me in my day-to-day life.

Nadya Rousseau

00:04:00

I mean, a big part of what you do is having this awesome platform, the cookingdoc, which is obviously, you know, you designed it to really encourage people to eat healthier, to learn how to enjoy food without, you know, seeking Taiz, which is a big concern. Would you say, like, what was the impetus for that? Was it a patient of yours that was kind of, or maybe several going on about how they can not give up some of their bad foods? Like what started this movement and this platform? What was the impetus?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:04:33

Th that was certainly part of it. Nadia coming down to South Carolina and a lot of people don’t know what healthy food is and they don’t know how food affects what they eat. I’m sorry, about how food affects their health overall. And people really do not want to eat food. That doesn’t taste good. So if you have food that is healthy, but doesn’t taste good, nobody’s going to jump right in and eat that because they think it will be better for their health. So you have to make the healthy food tastes good and live up to this kind of Southern standards or else people won’t go that direction. So part of it is exactly what you said, really trying to get people to eat healthier food. And then another part of it was seeing the down here in South Carolina physicians and the medical establishment wasn’t necessarily providing a good example for people on what to eat. So whether or not that’s food delivered to people in the hospital that’s totally unhealthy or at the dialysis centers looking and seeing candy and chips and soda served to them. Yeah, it was crazy. I mean, how can we expect people to eat healthy food and know what’s healthy if we’re serving them things that don’t fit in those categories,

Nadya Rousseau

00:05:53

Mixed messages, not, I don’t know if you know this, but my dad actually has kidney disease. So one of them, I mean, obviously it was like, oh my gosh, like, this is somebody that a spouse is the advice that my father has started to adopt. You know, he’s always been pretty healthy, but there were still some issues, you know, too much cheese, too much red wine, you know, different things and like go into the issues of a high potassium diet, hear about whether that would just be going off to sidebar, but he suddenly had a medical appointment and he was very pleased to learn that he’s practically kidney disease free because of eating so well on a really healthy diet. So it does work, but of course, you know, it’s subjective as well cause everyone has a different situation. So, you know, do you get some resistance from your patients when you make these suggestions? Are they kind of like, oh, this is important. This is going to be gross. Like I’ll never be able to change.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:06:56

I mean, I think it depends. I certainly get people that say I can’t eat anything other than what I’ve been raised on, but I more T more than that, I think I get people that say, yeah, that sounds like a great idea. I would love to eat in a way that benefits my health, but then, you know, I see them three or six months later and basically, nothing has, has changed. I think that’s more common than anything people want to do it, but it’s really hard if you don’t have the tools to succeed.

Nathaniel Schooler

00:07:28

Can I jump in on that? Do, do you, do you think that it’s a lot to do with their environment and not just what they’ve been brought up on, but actually the people around them? I mean,

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:07:38

Yeah. I mean, those people that have like the really severe morbid obesity, I mean, that’s like, that’s a whole different side, I think. And there definitely is more than just that one person, you know, going overboard with what they’re eating. I think the environment plays a huge role, but it’s not, it’s often like, you know, your, your friends and your family and what’s on TV. You’re bombarded with advertisements, I’m healthy food. I drove down the road in one of these rural offices that I work at. I work at a rural office and then there’s a dialysis clinic and I drove those two miles and I counted and there were 60 fast food options along the side of the highway in those two miles. And I think just being in that situation where you can have easy access to unhealthy food or at the grocery store, thousands of unhealthy items, processed foods, just right in your face, it’s really hard to find the right things to eat, especially if those are the cheap ones.

Nathaniel Schooler

00:08:43

Shoot. I just had a Big Mac today. You know what? I really enjoyed it. I haven’t had a Big Mac for months. Yeah. And it was delicious. Seriously.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:08:54

I haven’t had a Big Mac

Nadya Rousseau

00:08:55

The map is a little less bad in Europe. I mean, I remember when I was in Spain and like I went into a McDonald’s and then a Starbucks and everything was much more like artisinal and it didn’t seem like it was loaded with preservatives and stuff. I mean, who knows, but I mean, I know that the requirement

Dr. Blake Shusterman

00:09:16

Audio

Nathaniel Schooler

00:09:18

Good, really this big map, it’s the F it’s the mayonnaise. Yeah. And the gherkins, I was just talking about it. It’s like the way the cheese, it’s the texture of the cheese, the gherkins, like the barn, like the piece of bread in the middle. Like, it just worked some, sorry.

Nadya Rousseau

00:09:39

You have people that are coming in are like, it’s describing their daily diet, which I’m sure some people like probably are not so honest all the time with you about what they eat. But if you get the sense that this is like a daily thing, like what food, like, you obviously have a big recipe, like a roll of huge Rolodex of recipes that are healthy. But I mean, obviously, somebody who’s used to like just going in and getting a big magnet. Not only is it delicious to them, but it’s convenient. It’s fast. Itas cheap. Like how would, like what type of food or activity, would you recommend to help them transition out of that habit? Especially if it’s daily?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:10:15

Well, first let me, let me address with that Big Mac there because that is the problem because that big Mac tastes so good and you can just pick it up and it just hits all those flavours inside your mouth. And it’s just like the perfect bite. And that’s what, that’s what we’re up against to try to solve the health problems. When somebody takes a bite of a Big Mac, I mean that first kind of high salt has fat flavour just gets ya. And so to try to compete with something like that is very, very difficult. That food is only made for flavour and not made at all for health. And so it’s hard to compete with that. And so when somebody comes in and they say, they eat the big Mac, whether they’re doing it every day or once a week, you know, I think kind of the first step is finding something that is going to work for them.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:11:12

So not everybody that comes into my office that has difficulty figuring out what the right thing to eat is gets fixed with the same solution or, or, or understands the same solution. So, you know, if we find something that works well, so if you have a soda every day, or if you have a Big Mac every day, I’m often not going to say, just cut them out completely because people don’t often respond to that. So if you have a Big Mac every day, maybe we cut it out to, you know, three a week and you make your lunch the rest of the days or something like that. We kind of it’s about,

Nathaniel Schooler

01:11:50

Is that it three a week? Is that all I’m allowed? Come on, man.

Nadya Rousseau

01:11:55

I want to look bang. I want to have everything. I would have chicken.

Nathaniel Schooler

01:11:59

Okay. Oh, I like the chicken nuggets with the sweet and sour sauce.

Nadya Rousseau

01:12:06

I’m sorry. I’m more of a Chick-fil-A person now.

Nathaniel Schooler

01:12:10

I’ve got a confession to make though. My girlfriend said, oh, you can have half my chicken wrap as well. And I was like, okay, wait a minute. But I didn’t eat the chips. Okay. I don’t eat chips with a Big Mac. Cause it’s a rip off, you buy a meal to rip off. Yeah. And I don’t do the milkshakes cause there are too many calories. Right. But I did have a soda. I had a Sprite Fries, French fries bar,

Nadya Rousseau

01:12:44

Like a confessional

Nathaniel Schooler

01:12:47

Confession. Yeah. Serious. I feel really bad. I feel bad.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:12:53

Let’s tackle your eating habits. Then

Nathaniel Schooler

01:12:56

Recently I’ve been having a lot of cakes and desserts and mango ice cream and stuff, you know?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:13:05

Yeah. It’s not, it’s not easy. Once you get caught in a route have eaten a lot of unhealthy things. It takes a lot of work to undo some of those habits. You know, some of those things, when I see somebody who’s 50, they’ve been eating the same way for 35, 40 years. And so we have to work slowly to unwind some of those patterns of what they like to eat, what they think tastes good and, and it can take years, but you’re better off doing that over a five-year period and making it stick rather than kind of cutting everything off at once or going on a fad diet. Well, in six months, they’re back to where they were before.

Nathaniel Schooler

01:13:45

I’m not 50 yet for five years, six years actually. However, I’m not, I’m not making a habit of eating all these cakes, but I was on a holiday like, yeah, come on.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:13:58

Hey, I got nothing against that in enjoyment on holiday, on that forward.

Nathaniel Schooler

01:14:02

Yeah. So I know you’re a positive guy, right? You were really positive guy. Yeah. So I’ve got a good question for you. We asked this one to everyone, even actually Stanley Tucci. We didn’t ask him because we didn’t have these amazing questions at that time, but what, why should I say, why does positivity matter to you? But like,

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:14:31

Well, when I think about positivity, first of all, it’s much easier to be positive when things are going well. Right. And it’s much easier to be positive if things aren’t going well if you know that you’re able to deal with whatever the consequences are of things going totally wrong. And so that’s kind of where I look at positivity because deep down I’m a, I’m a realist. Okay. So I can, I can look at things and I see I’m not going to be positive about things that don’t have the capability of ending up with a positive outcome. But if I can look at something and say, well, even if things don’t go the way I want, we’re going to really make the best of it. And I’m going to get through this. It helps me get through any kind of situation that I find myself in. But again, when things are going well, staying positive is much easier. Everybody knows.

Nadya Rousseau

01:15:33

Yeah. I have a spin-off question on that because obviously, you know, in your line of work and dealing with people at all different stages of, you know, kidney disease and other issues, like how do you navigate like realism and positivity. If you’re dealing with somebody that doesn’t look like they’re across, you know, the future is not looking very bright based upon like their issue, their situation, perhaps they’re going to have to go to dialysis and it just doesn’t look like it’s going to be a positive outcome at this point. But so how do you navigate that when you’re dealing with your patients?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:16:15

That’s a hard situation to be in. And in the course of my years, as a doctor, you know, the amount of positivity that my patients can bring to a difficult situation is really, I mean, it’s incredibly inspiring. It’s, it’s mind blowing the way you can talk to somebody and say that they’re going to end up on dialysis. And there’s not much that I can do. And the, they will have a period of kind of understanding and maybe tears, but then, you know, they’re there, they’re ready. This is, they say, when, when the time comes, I’m going to get through it. We’re going to work towards a kidney transplant. You know, from my standpoint, I try to focus on how we’re going to have the quality of life and how your life is going to change with dialysis, but how we’re going to focus on the things that are going to be positive in that life. Because there are certain things that I can’t change. And sometimes when people are developing kidney failure, no matter what I do, or no matter what they do, things are just going to end up where we don’t want them. And so if we kind of takes that as a given, then we can really make the best of being on dialysis or, or getting a kidney transplant. And people are absolutely amazing in their ability to change their mindset and be positive about a really difficult situation.

Nathaniel Schooler

01:17:44

Yeah. Yeah. I can imagine. It’s very tough. My godfather had a heart and two kidneys last year in the states. Yeah. Out in, out in California, he’s from the UK, but he looks amazing. He said they had him running up and down Hills. Like it’s incredible. Yeah. It’s, it’s just incredible really what you, what you can do now with medicine, but like, you know, your, your focus on diet is, is really, really good, really inspirational for people. I’m sure. And so what is your personal positive superpower?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:18:23

Can luck be a Personal Positive Superpower

Nadya Rousseau

01:18:28

Luck?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

01:18:30

That’s a good question. So, I mean, I feel that a lot of, a lot of the, a ability for me to be positive in my life comes from Robert. I’ve really been very lucky. You know, I have, I was born with great parents. I was born in middle-class family. I was able to go through medical school and do okay. You know, I, if I got into trouble, I, I got out of it. Okay. And that’s, that’s allowed me to stay positive because I’ve been lucky. But you know, if we’re looking kind of beyond the luck, I think that, I think kindness towards people is probably the way that I approach most, most of my situations to try to keep them positive. And by being kind and understanding where somebody is coming from, it really has the ability to take a situation and, and put a positive spin on it.

Nadya Rousseau

01:19:34

Yeah. There’s thing that, you know, kind of just like the advantages of meeting people where they’re at and just understanding that not everyone is going to be necessarily receiving the advice and the information at the same way that somebody else might end is understanding, like, just being compassionate, I guess, like understanding that not everybody is at this level. Well, even though there are advantages of being at this level, being willing to kind of take them through it, which I think your platform is really helpful at doing.

Nathaniel Schooler

02:20:10

Yeah. So now I’m sure you’ve got a really in-depth question here, for Blake.

Nadya Rousseau

02:20:21

Lots of in-depth questions. I mean, I think that you know, already, there’s just so much that we’re opening up here, but I mean, just by virtue of living where you live, I mean, you grew up in Maryland as I did, which, you know, Maryland is not too far behind South Carolina when it comes to these health issues. I grew up in Western, Maryland. I grew up in a little town called Hagerstown, Maryland, where there is a huge obesity problem. I mean, probably, I mean, I hate to say it, but probably one in three people are obese. You know, maybe one in five are morbidly obese. I mean, it’s very pervasive. So I mean, how would you say, like, what do you think the main issue is with America in particularly these smaller communities? Why is America struggling so hard with food and health?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:21:17

So I, if you can figure that out for certain audio, I think that’s a Nobel prize, the answer right there. But I think there are some things that really that factor in the one is we talked about it a little earlier, the availability of processed foods and unhealthy foods, no matter where you go, whether you’re in the supermarket or driving down the highway. I think also poverty is certainly a driver of obesity and poor health outcomes. If people don’t have access to money, they don’t have access to shelter. They don’t have access to fresh food. They don’t have a kitchen that they can cook in. They don’t have somebody to care for their kids while they work, or they don’t have a job. If you don’t have those things available to you, then it’s much more difficult to really focus on your own health. And those kinds of things affect your stress levels. Stress levels can be a risk factor for obesity. And if you’re not, if you don’t have that security, then oftentimes changing the focus onto your health and what you’re eating and making sure that you can focus on those things becomes much more difficult. So I think it’s a, it’s a multifaceted problem. And I don’t think there’s one quick, easy answer to it. Yeah.

Nathaniel Schooler

02:22:41

It’s very true. I was thinking about, I was thinking about privilege earlier. I was literally just talking about earlier and how, you know, when I was immature and young, I used to think that everyone had the same privilege, the same opportunity, but we don’t like it, we just don’t. Yeah. Like, you know, there’s the colour thing and then there’s, and then there’s the poverty thing. And then there’s the health thing and they’re all related and it’s, it’s very, very sad. Very sad.

Nadya Rousseau

02:23:10

Yeah. I mean, I do think that more people need to take control of their health. I mean, obviously like when we look at second and third world countries and people who are in poverty like they’re emaciated, they’re not morbidly obese. So I mean, there is an issue here that we need to look at as a culture as well. I mean, it’s just craziness. I mean, I forced myself to drop almost 55 pounds as a 14 year old, you know, not many people can do that was, you know, shoving honeybuns and doughnuts steaks and all kinds of stuff down my throat. And I was like, I’m tired of being bullied. So I’m going to start walking the track three miles a day, you know? So I think we need more advocates like yourself out there that are kind of doling out this really this helpful, inspiring advice, but also, you know, not being afraid to be a little, getting a little bit of tough love as well. Do you consider yourself somebody that likes to give a little tough love? Do you ever give tough love to your patients when they’re being resistant? Because you are a realist, you said after all

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:24:24

I am a realist and I, I sometimes I do give tough love, you know, especially if I think that there are ways for that person to make changes in their, in their diet or their health to really improve their themselves. So, you know, if I see somebody who I think really can, can do better, who has the means to do it and the availability, but they’re not, then certainly I can give a little tough love. I’m also very kind of an individualist though. And so I’ll do the best I can. I’ll tell you what I think is good. I’ll give you a little bit of tough love. And then if you, if you don’t follow that or you’re not able to, then when you come back in three months, I’ll still give you the same care and we’ll talk about it again. And I’ll be positive about making that change at that time because I understand that if somebody doesn’t make the change one time, it might not be the right period in their life to do it, but it may be six months later, the time comes. So sometimes I’ll give a little bit of tough love. It’s a fine line though, because you, you don’t want to discourage somebody. And some people don’t respond well, to tough love. So, you know, if I see 30 patients in a day, it’s, you have to really kind of navigate, who’s going to respond to what certain types of motivation.

Nadya Rousseau

02:25:43

Right? Excellent. Cool.

Nathaniel Schooler

02:25:46

Yeah. I’m a big believer in exercise, you know, exercise every day. Yeah. So important. But I think a lot of people are just caught up in and they haven’t found the exercise regime that they enjoy. And I think that’s, that’s really unfortunate. It’s sad for a lot of people, you know,

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:26:04

I call exercise. That’s, that’s the only thing that I have as a miracle drug. It’s really amazing. Even if a lot of people don’t lose weight with exercise, the way it helps your mental health and your joints and your strength is I don’t have any medicine that I can give that’s as good as exercise five times a week.

Nadya Rousseau

02:26:28

Oh yeah. That’s a great way of releasing stress. Of course, out here in Vegas where it’s, you know, you’re dealing with triple digits and then you’re dealing with gym closures and other things you kind of got to create your own little space in your house, which of course can be a bit redundant, but better that than nothing at all. Right?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:26:46

Yeah. I just got a treadmill. I, because I can’t go to the gym. So I ordered a treadmill and it basically takes up about half of my living room and looks for redness.

Nathaniel Schooler

02:26:58

Yeah, it is. It is what it is. Yeah. I just, I just started Tai Chi when I was 20 and I’m fortunate enough to have stuck at it for nearly 25 years. And that’s just my, you know, my what an hour, two hours a day. Exercise of choice. Right. But

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:27:16

How often do you do it now? Every day.

Nathaniel Schooler

02:27:19

That’s great. Yeah. It keeps me sane. Yeah. It means that when, when, when Nadia is rude to me, it’s okay. I can

Nadya Rousseau

02:27:28

Release that stress.

Nathaniel Schooler

02:27:30

I’m mirroring her head as well. It’s this way, my head is this way you see,

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:27:36

And exercise keeps me a hundred percent sane. That

Nathaniel Schooler

02:27:42

It sounds like you’re doing a fantastic job over there though. So can you, can you give, can you give some advice on, on, on these recipes? Like what’s, what’s your favourite recipe right now? Like a healthy, healthy salad. Yeah. Like some kind of Saturday.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:27:57

Yeah. I’ve seen, I’ve been making, you know, it’s summer here. So we’ve got lots of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. And so I’ve been making a lot of cucumber tomato salad with a whole bunch of different dressings on them. Some fresh Bazell I’ve been experimenting with some new spices, one called sumac. I don’t know if you’ve ever cooked with sumac.

Nathaniel Schooler

02:28:17

Yeah, no. What is

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:28:20

That? I think it’s a ground Berry, but it’s, it’s used in Middle Eastern cooking and it gives a little Tang, little lemony Tang to it. And so I make a little Mediterranean vinegarette with sumac, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, and a pinch of salt. And then it just goes over some freshly cut, cucumbers, tomatoes, little onion, whatever herbs you have around. And it’s fabulous. Sometimes I throw some chickpeas in there. If you’re looking for a plant-based meal, no,

Nathaniel Schooler

02:28:53

I’m getting hungry now. I think maybe I might experiment with that.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:28:57

Are you getting hungry or now than we were when we were talking about the big Macs,

Nathaniel Schooler

02:29:02

Much hungry. Yeah. Because you know, I know there’s no, I know there’s no goodness in those things, but I enjoyed it. It’s a memory. You see, this is, this is, this is what you’re trying to break people away from. Yeah. Is childhood memories of eating Big Macs. Yeah. Because that burger has not changed in however many years. Right. Like my dad took me to have a Big Mac when I was like probably 10 years old. He comes from Connecticut. Yeah. And, and, you know, he came to America. We even had root beer here in England. Well, when I lived in England, we had, we had root beer there and he would order the root beer. And, unfortunately they stopped serving that. But you know, I’m much hungrier thinking about better quality food. Definitely. You know?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

02:29:51

So that’s, that’s exactly what I’m talking about now when I talk about changing your buds. So, you know, those taste buds with that big Mac are associated with those memories of childhood and that delicious bite and other people have that around here, whether it’s with fried chicken or macaroni and cheese. And so that first bite that the taste buds just kind of bring that all together and breaking those patterns so that you now associate a healthier food with kind of the same nostalgic feeling is really one of the keys to building healthier eating habits, to sustain you for the rest of your life.

Nathaniel Schooler

03:30:32

Got it. I’ll tell you some of the food out here in Poland is incredible. Like really? Yeah. Like they do this, they do this Borsch soup. Yeah. Which is like beetroot soup. Right. Is just amazing. But you can

Nadya Rousseau

03:30:48

Put,

Nathaniel Schooler

03:30:49

There you go. Right. So, but you, so you can put, you can put these noodles in a, like dumplings in and, and it’s just, wow. Like incredible people don’t understand how good the Polish food is. Like, I like the sauerkraut, I’ve got a whole new thing for sauerkraut because one day you get the sauerkraut. Right. And it’s not that Sally. Yeah. But then you leave it in the fridge and it gets sourer and sourer. Yeah. Incredible really

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:31:20

Sounds amazing.

Nadya Rousseau

03:31:21

Like a delicious fusion of like Eastern Europe and like German, because Germany has such an influence and Poland, you know, obviously for bad reasons and for not so bad, but the food there, as a result, has been, become very interesting, like kind of a fusion.

Nathaniel Schooler

03:31:38

Yeah. And a lot of Ukrainian, there’s a lot of Ukrainian cooks here, Ukrainian food.

Nadya Rousseau

03:31:44

They have like their own take on it.

Nathaniel Schooler

03:31:46

Think. Yeah, they do. That’s the word parochial. Yeah. Amazing. Like there are so it’s, it’s, there’s a wealth of really healthy food, but the problem is is that they still like the cakes and there are huge cake shops. And I mean, literally everywhere I go, I just, and they displayed really well. And you look through the window and you’re like, oh, and you can just imagine the sugar rush. Right. When you, when you, when you stuff your face with that, but it’s bad. Right.

Nadya Rousseau

03:32:18

You have more self-control though over there. I mean, you don’t really see a big obesity problem and Poland or other, you know, Eastern European countries. There probably are some people who are overweight, but it’s not at the level of America. So, you know, I have another question for you. Like, we actually have a question and a thought because obviously, I mean the whole reason you’re doing the change, your buds movement and your website and all of these amazing things, the cooking dock is really to amplify your reach, to get more people, to understand the importance of healthy eating and to kind of ease them into this transition of a healthier lifestyle. So in this process, you actually have partnered up with the American kidney fund, which is one of the largest, if not the largest nonprofits in America, really focusing on kidney health. Can you tell us a bit about that partnership and how you think this might lead to a greater impact?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:33:15

Sure. So the American kidney fund has a spot on their website. That’s called the kidney kitchen and it’s a really great resource for people with kidney disease, because it, it allows you to see where a recipe fits into your specific stage of kidney disease. Not only that, but the food tastes really good. They don’t put just kind of junkie recipes up there just for the sake of putting a recipe up there. That’s good for kidney health. So I think that by working together with them, we can really amplify the message. And I can put some of my recipes up there to show people that eating well can not only improve your kidney health, but it can taste good. I think that’s the bottom line. The food that we’re putting up there tastes good and is good for your health and the combination of their reach to people all across the United States and my knowledge about healthy cooking and how to make food tastes good, as well as my understanding as a kidney doctor about kind of the basic science of things I think, is going to be an amazing combination, which I hope really starts to change the direction, the trajectory of kidney disease in the United States.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:34:32

Cause right now there are 37 million people in the us who have kidney disease and that number continues to grow. And the earlier on that we can hit that people with early stage kidney disease, getting them to eat healthier food and really focus on stopping the progression of their kidney disease is going to be hopefully really beneficial for everybody out there.

Nathaniel Schooler

03:34:59

Can I just, I’ve got a question, right? I know it’s not in the pre-prepared questions, so I’m sorry about that. But, but I just want to know what the main causes of, of kidney disease and also kidney problems are like, what, what would you encourage people to do on a, on a, on a daily basis to look after their kidney health?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:35:24

So the main two main causes of kidney disease are high blood pressure and diabetes. Diabetes is certainly number one. And that is why the focus on healthy eating is so important because if you catch diabetes, either by preventing it or by maintaining good control from the very beginning, you may be able to significantly lower the incidence of kidney disease, but, and, but kidney disease can be caused by a whole lot of things. There are genetic factors involved. There are medications that can cause kidney problems, but diabetes is the big one hypertension under that high blood pressure. And a lot of these things can be managed with diet. And the tricky thing about kidney disease, we’re going to talk about it is that there are really no symptoms until it gets near the end stages. So there are five stages of kidney disease, and people often don’t have any symptoms until they get to stage four or even stage five when it’s too late. So things like screening for people at risk for kidney disease is incredibly important with a blood test or urine test if you have diabetes or high blood pressure or a family member with kidney disease. And so if we can catch it earlier and focus on a diet as a means to prevent things from getting bad, that’s where I think a lot of this stuff comes in.

Nadya Rousseau

03:36:48

What percentage of your patients would you say present a pre-existing issue like high blood pressure or diabetes?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:36:57

90, 90 to 95%. Wow.

Nadya Rousseau

03:37:01

That is incredible. I mentioned earlier that my dad is doing really, really well with his kidney disease and he actually had neither of those preexisting conditions. So definitely in the minority of suffers and perhaps that is why he was able to really kind of self medicate, if you will, with food, you know, much easier level, perhaps in those who have these other underlying conditions. But I do believe he was at like stage three or something, something like that when he discovered that he had it. And now with his recent testing, he said, it’s practically like unnoticeable. So

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:37:40

That’s, that’s amazing. You know, one of the things Nadia that I think about people like your dad who have stage three kidney disease, which is, which is relatively early on in the, in the progression. But, you know, I think about kind of the way I used to handle people with kidney disease. Like your dad had before. I really understood how this stuff works. I work. So I saw a patient probably about eight to 10 years ago, and she was right in the same level where your dad was. And she was looking to me for changes in her diet that she could make to really help kind of either reverse her kidney disease or prevented it from getting worse. And at that time I didn’t have anything to tell her. I basically told her, you eat a low sodium diet and you’re good to go. And she fired me. She wanted more than that. She, she wanted more than that. She was so unhappy with, with the advice I hear, and for years I thought that she was in the wrong, but then kind of, as I’ve learned more about diet and the way it affects kidney disease, I’ve learned that I should have given her much more than what I gave her and important

Nadya Rousseau

03:38:52

That’s it’s so straightforward. Like, you know, get a, on a low sodium diet, what is it called the dash? Would you say it’s called the dash diet

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:39:00

Or just,

Nadya Rousseau

03:39:03

Yeah. So, but then it’s like someone who’s not doesn’t even understand like sodium or like how to identify it or what foods might like naturally carry it or anything later it’s like, oh, what, like, what do I do? Yeah,

Nathaniel Schooler

03:39:16

Yeah. But then, but then it, so, so basically we’re talking about two things too, to attempt to look after your kidneys, right. We’re saying diet exercise. Yeah. And we’ve diet, we’re talking about drinking a lot of water and we’re talking about keeping the sodium levels, the salt intake low. Right. And eating lots of fruits and vegetables and healthy proteins with some carbs and whatever. Right. Like it’s, it’s no more complicated than that. Is that correct?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

03:39:47

Yeah. So exactly. A couple of things on that one is it what’s good for your kidneys, especially in the early stages of kidney diseases is the same thing. That’s good for the rest of your body. So you eat in a healthy way, just like you said, fruits and vegetables, watch the animal protein, whole grains. Those kinds of things are great for your kidneys, just like their brain for your heart and your brain and your gut health. So it’s very similar. The other thing is when we talk about drinking water, so people, there’s this whole thing out there about drinking eight, eight ounce glasses of water a day, and you really don’t need that for your kidney health. And I see that you’ve taken a nice little sip of water. That’s perfect.

Nathaniel Schooler

04:40:31

So I couldn’t help it.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:40:33

Right. But, the key with drinking is to make sure you’re drinking mostly water. So it’s not necessarily that your drink needs to drink eight, eight glasses of water a day, but did she, you don’t go for the sugar-sweetened beverages as a substitute for those waters. That’s where people get into big trouble. Okay.

Nathaniel Schooler

04:40:59

That’s very helpful. So w what about drinking tea? Because we love tea

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:41:05

T good for you. Especially unsweetened tea, you know, down here in the south of the United States, they, they serve iced tea and it’s with tons of sugar in it. So that’s not so much, but regular tea and black coffee, they just keep showing study after studies of the black coffee show that it’s good for your health, especially your kidneys. So drinking.

Nathaniel Schooler

04:41:27

That’s interesting. So I’ve heard that the tea actually can replace the water and your water intake. Is that, or do you need water on top of the T?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:41:36

No. I think for the most part unsweetened tea, especially if it doesn’t have, if it’s not one of the really high caffeinated tea, then that water in that tea can certainly hydrate you. You know, I, I suggest people at least have a couple of glasses of plain water a day, but, but tea is absolutely hydrating.

Nathaniel Schooler

04:41:56

Super, super. So I’ve got another question here for you. Believe it or not. Let’s see. So why do you think so many, I mean, you’ve covered a little bit about this, but why do you think so many Americans struggle with their health and how can we motivate them to make a collective shift? Do you think?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:42:25

So? I, you know, I, I often think about a couple of patients that I saw because I think the answer is it’s complicated. And I don’t think that it’s a one size fits all answer for people. So, you know, I had a couple of cousins that I remember from about five, five years back, their fathers were brothers and both of their fathers had kidney failure were ended up on dialysis. So both of these cousins were, were at high risk for kidney disease and ending up on dialysis. And so they came to see me early on in their stages of kidney disease. And the first one really was able to make a ton of changes to his diet. He and his whole family decided that they were motivated and ready to do it. And his kidney disease really kind of flat stayed stable. And, and that was through talking about avoiding the processed foods and the fast foods and the things that were really getting him into trouble.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:43:30

And what I think really gets a lot of people in the United States into trouble. In addition to those kinds of social determinants of health, like poverty that we talked about, his, his cousin didn’t do that. And he didn’t do it because he, his, I think it was his mother got sick. And so when his mom got sick, then his wife had to take care of his mom and they lost another source of income. They lost some caregiving at home. He had to do everything he could to keep food on the table. And so he went out and he worked 70 hours a week as a truck driver to support people because he didn’t have any other help. And when he did that, he didn’t take his medicines all the time. Sometimes he couldn’t afford his medicines, he couldn’t come to see me and his, his outcome was much different than mine.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:44:27

And so, you know, if we think about kind of, I’m sorry, this outcome much different than his cousins who ended up doing fine, this guy ended up on dialysis. And so when we think about the whole United States and really try to focus on how to make a healthier movement, a healthier change, if we don’t change the whole culture where people do not have healthy food, kind of put in front of them at an affordable cost and the time to make the healthy food and the support for their family that they need, I think it’s going to be a tough battle, naughty and a tough battle that,

Nadya Rousseau

04:45:09

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think it just right now with, there’s so much stress and, you know, affecting the world, but, you know, particularly in the United States and particularly in some of these more rural areas where, you know, there’s a lot of push and pull and back and forth, you don’t really know what’s happening with the pandemic and everything else. So it’s really, you know, people are going to turn to things that comfort them.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:45:38

That’s very true, but, but I, and I wanted to let, let me say something really positive because I think that, that I have seen people make changes in difficult situations in their diet. And I’ve been down in South Carolina, for 11 years and the knowledge that people have now compared to when I started about how to eat healthily, how to eat plant-based foods, the options in the grocery stores and even at some of the restaurants is healthier than it used to be. And so I really do think that we’re making progress by offering people the opportunity and the knowledge to eat healthier foods. So I, it may sound like, I think things are really difficult, but I think that we’ve made a ton of progress. And I think that there is a way to get people healthier.

Nadya Rousseau

04:46:31

Absolutely. And I think people are willing to open up and try and figure out a way to change, particularly, you know, when you’re looking at, when you did a lie, for example, what the American kidney fund, and just seeing all of the people like asking questions and really enthusiastic about the information you were providing. So I certainly think that you’re really on the right track to getting people into a better mindset around food.

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:46:59

I hope so. I find that people really do want to change, and they really do want to do the things that are good for their health. We just have to give them the education, the tools and the opportunity, to make it happen.

Nadya Rousseau

04:47:13

Yep. Yeah.

Nathaniel Schooler

04:47:14

What a fantastic purpose you have. I think it’s great, you know,

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:47:20

Really

Nadya Rousseau

04:47:24

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Do you have any parting words for us that you to leave with the audience about, you know, maybe one action item that someone could implement in their life today to feel a little bit healthier and on a better track, what they’re eating?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:47:42

Sure. So, you know, if you’re struggling with how to eat healthy food or what changes to make in your diet, take a, take a step back. And most people can see one habit that is not working for them, whether or not that’s stopping at the gas station for breakfast or stopping at McDonald’s for lunch and having a big Mac, or it’s having a doughnut or it’s having a soda every afternoon. So rather than trying to overhaul everything at once, why don’t you pick one of those habits and work on that for the next six months, and really try to see if you can conquer that one, find something to substitute for that habit that’s healthy. And once you can kick that habit, that’s making your health go the wrong direction. Then you can have the confidence and know that you had the ability to make even more changes to work on bettering your health over time.

Nathaniel Schooler

04:48:44

Absolutely. Super well, thank you. It’s been, it’s been, it’s been really, really interesting. I don’t think there’s enough information about this and we will drop some links to your website and obviously this movement, this change your buds movement that you’re behind. Right. And I’m sure that has got a load of legs.

Nadya Rousseau

04:49:03

Yep, absolutely. Do you want to shout out your website, Blake?

Dr. Blake Shusterman

04:49:07

Sure. Check out my website. It’s the cooking doc dot C O and I’ve got lots of healthy recipes on there. Videos teach you about how to incorporate healthier habits into your daily life. We usually have a new recipe or a new tip once a week with a video. So make sure you sign up for my newsletter. Subscribe to my YouTube channel. Also Facebook and Instagram. We’d love to see you there. I think that we can really help you make a difference.

Nadya Rousseau

04:49:38

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much. And as not sad, we’ll be leaving all those links for everybody. So you can easily find Blake and reach out with any of your questions. Now, do you have any parting words on your side?

Nathaniel Schooler

04:49:51

No, it’s been a pleasure. That’s it? Thank you.

Mimi Harker OBE – Community Councillor, Campaigner and Fundraiser.

Nat Schooler and Mimi discussed the following:

Fighting Injustice, Anti-bullying, Combating Racism, Sexism, and Anti Lipstick-ism.

Growing up as an Indian Woman in a Man’s World.

British. Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (used to refer to members of non-white communities in the UK).

Being From Darjeeling and Living in England.

How She Has Achieved Success and The Inspiration She Found From Mother Teresa.

You can get Nat Schooler here: https://natschooler.com/

Rasha Goel discusses with Nadya Rousseau and Nat Schooler her career history and how she got to achieve success in one of the toughest industries on the planet.

Tell us about you, who are you, and what drives you to do what you do?

Why does positivity matter to you?

We also discussed meditating, controlling our minds despite the situation we are in.

Not absorbing negative emotions from other people, journals, headspace app and how to keep calm and be reminded that walking is a meditation as are many other activities.

We also asked Rasha the following questions: –

How did you get started in Hollywood, and did you expect to be doing what you’re doing now?

You do a lot of work around highlighting diversity, particularly for Southeast Asians. Can you talk about how that is manifesting for you and why it’s so important?

Tell us about “Raw with Rasha.” How did you come up with the concept?

What is your personal “positive superpower”?

Find Rasha Goel here https://www.rashagoel.com/

Get Nat Schooler here: https://natschooler.com/

Stephen Gillen – Successful global entrepreneur and film-maker and is the awarded peace ambassador who was nominated last year for an international peace prize and he is soon to release his book The Monkey Puzzle Tree, of which there is a film already in pre-production.

He discusses with Nat Schooler how he changed his life from this extreme situation to become a successful CEO and entrepreneur.

Stephen Gillen’S YouTube Channel (top business/life/Crime Content) link below https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-gTnVyH3DqOlh3eiGlxGQ

Stephen Gillen personal brand & to buy a limited edition of his bestselling book ‘The Monkey Puzzle Tree’, www.stephengillen.com

Stephen Gillen’s reality changed, his transition and transformation was against all the odds.

Nat Schooler thoroughly enjoyed interviewing Stephen and you can find Nat here: https://natschooler.com/

Joined By Laura Gasner Otting – Washington Post Best Selling Author and a Regular Contributor to Good Morning America and The Today Show, No2 Global Startup Coach, no 10 Motivational Speaker as Voted By Global Gurus.

Nathaniel Schooler and Laura Discussed How to Say No to the New Normal and Create the Life We Want.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced all of us to re-evaluate our priorities and the way we live our lives. The “new normal” of social distancing and working from home has been a difficult adjustment for many people. However, it’s important to remember that this is not the only way to live. In her book, “Limitless” author Laura Gasner Otting explores how we can use this time of upheaval to create the life we want. By making small changes in our daily routines, she argues, we can create a more fulfilling, meaningful, and sustainable life. So if you’re feeling lost or stuck in the “new normal,” remember that you have the power to create the life you want. Take the time to listen to this podcast and grab Laura’s book Limitless.

With Limitless Opportunities how do we find our calling?

How do We Creating the Life we want?

How do we reinvent ourselves?

HeyLgo.com

HeyLgo.com/learn

Get Nat Schooler here: https://natschooler.com/