Dan Pashman:  Hey everyone. Dan here with another Sporkful reheat for your listening pleasure. It's almost April 1st, which means it's almost April Fool's Day, which means it's time to bring out a classic from the Sporkful Vault. We actually first ran this episode on an April 1st. It came out on April 1st. We didn't say a single word about it. We just dropped it in the feed 

Dan Pashman: And many of you thought, thought it was hilarious. Some of you were confused, some were even upset. So I'm happy to re-share it with you now with the setup that this is a satire, it's a joke. It was originally designed as an April Fools episode, which I think I. In some ways, I think knowing that, uh, you can appreciate it, you can listen to it like, oh, imagine how I heard this not knowing what it was, but also now you can laugh at the jokes even more 'cause you know it's a satire. 

Dan Pashman: It's also, by the way, one of my very favorite episodes of all time. So I hope you like it. Now remember, there's an episode of The Sporkful you want us to pull outta the deep freezer? Let us know. Send us a voice memo or email to hello@sporkful.com.  Don't forget to include your first name, location, which episode you want to hear and why. Thanks so much and enjoy this very cleansing reheat.

Dan Pashman: While we’re here in your house, Jolenta, can you show me around a little? 

Jolenta Gold: Yeah sure!

Dan Pashman: This is my friend Jolenta Gold. She’s a health and wellness blogger. Recently we met up in her town house in Manhattan.

Jolenta Gold: Right here in my kitchen you'll see my fabulous avocado cupboard.

Dan Pashman:  Very nice. 

Jolenta Gold: Just full of avocados from all my various…

Dan Pashman: Oh wow, and you get like a little divot along the shelf there's a little row of divots  so that avocados all stand up.

Jolenta Gold:  It's like, you know that compartment in your refrigerator that's built for individual eggs? 

Dan Pashman: Yeah. Yeah. 

Jolenta Gold: You know, you can take 'em outta a car and stick 'em right in there. That's what this whole cupboard is just for avocados.

Dan Pashman: Wow. And they're, they're all at different levels of ripeness too. 

Jolenta Gold: Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: That's genius. 

Jolenta Gold: Yeah. As you can see up at the top, we're, we're not quite ripe yet. And then we rotate them down as they become ready to eat.

Dan Pashman: And by “we” you mean…

Jolenta Gold: Oh, I mean, my staff. 

Dan Pashman: You got it. Got it. 

Jolenta Gold: You know, I supervise it all. I just don't necessarily physically do it.

Dan Pashman: If you've been listening to this show for a while, you know that I've never been Mr. Health and Wellness guy. That's just not what this show's ever been about. But I gotta be honest, when I hit 40, I just started not feeling as good. My body didn't bounce back as quickly. My joints were aching. So I decided to start a journey to change the way I eat, really to change my whole lifestyle.

Dan Pashman: I figured it would be an experiment, so I didn't say anything here on the show because I wasn't sure it would stick. But now I'm a few months in and I gotta say it's going really well. 

Dan Pashman: And part of the reason why it's going so well is that I've been inspired by some incredible people, namely the three people I'm gonna introduce you to in this week's show. Beginning with Jolenta

Jolenta Gold: I had to change my whole relationship to food. It's not my friend, it's not gonna hang out with me when I'm lonely, Dan, it is my fuel. 

Dan Pashman: This episode's gonna be a little different, but I can't wait to share it with you. Stick around.

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: This is the Sporkful. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people. When I started my health and wellness journey a few months ago, the first thing I did was just reach out to friends, find out what resources they use, who they get info from, and one name kept coming up over and over.  Jolenta Gold. 

Dan Pashman: As I said, Jolenta is a health and wellness blogger. She's also a public speaker and an influencer. I decided to attend one of her seminars and I just found her enthusiasm to be contagious. So I'm excited to share her passion with you today. But when we spoke recently, I was also excited to hear the story of her journey.

Jolenta Gold: Growing up, I always thought wellness sort of just came naturally to me. You know, I was always on the thinner side. I always played a sport or two in school. I just always had that under control and never really thought about what I was putting into my body. 

Dan Pashman:  Jolenta grew up on Manhattan's Upper East Side and went to Spence, a private all girls school there.

Dan Pashman: It's the same school Gwyneth Paltrow went to. When Jolenta got married, her parents bought her the $23 million townhouse next door, which is where we met up to talk. 

Jolenta Gold: After I had my twins, they are going out all day with their two nannies. My husband's at work, and all of a sudden I'm at home with nothing to do and I just start eating and eating and eating. And as I eat, Dan, I just get more and more depressed. I'm gaining weight. I wasn't even a good mother. You know, the nannies will be like, the kids are going to the pool. And I'd be like, I can't go to the pool. I look like garbage. I'm gonna sit in the dark with my bread and hate myself.

Dan Pashman: Jolenta says things got worse and worse. She went from eating a whole bag of mini carrots to eating a whole bag of full size carrots. Finally, she hit rock bottom.

Jolenta Gold: One night I was craving sugar. I found myself sneaking into one of my twins backpacks, scrounging for those little natural fruit chews I give them. And I ate the entire pouch of one of my kids' fruit chews. And I was like, who am I? 

Dan Pashman: And so when did things start to turn around for you? 

Jolenta Gold: Well, I went to my doctor and she got me hooked up with a wonderful team, a nutritionist, a personal trainer, a life coach, and together we all realized I was putting horrible poison into my body. Turns out I learned my body is a machine, Dan and I need to put premium, premium gas into that machine. 

Dan Pashman: So tell me about some of the different diets you've gone on. 

Jolenta Gold: Well, Dan, I'm gonna stop you right there because I don't use the word diet. The D word is a dirty word. It's not a diet Dan, it's a lifestyle. I had to change my whole lifestyle. I did South Beach, I tried the gazpacho cleanse. I even tried this strawberry seed cleanse and you know, that is surprisingly filling, but it is very time consuming to harvest all the actual seeds. My housekeeper was picking seeds outta strawberries for days. 

Dan Pashman: I have been experimenting with some cleanses too, but as I told Jolenta, I don't think I could ever totally give up all my favorite foods forever, and that didn't seem to be okay with her.

Jolenta Gold: You are what you eat. So do you want to be fast, cheap, processed, fake? 

Dan Pashman: What about Doritos? 

Jolenta Gold: Those are heavily, heavily processed. Dan, I think you are teasing me with that question. 

Dan Pashman: No, they, they, yeah. I mean, I know that they're not the healthiest,

Jolenta Gold: They're fast, they're easy, they're heavily processed. Do you wanna be a Dorito?

Jolenta Gold: I mean, they take, do you wanna be an orange dusty triangle that sits on a shelf? No, you want to be a life giving avocado, just the closer it is to nature the better. And if there is a carbohydrate in it, get rid of it. 

Dan Pashman: So Jolenta, you said earlier that you don't like to use the D word.

Jolenta Gold: Right.

Dan Pashman: Diet.

Jolenta Gold: No. 

Dan Pashman: Why don't you like that word?

Jolenta Gold:  Well, Dan. Because there is no right body, and I think a diet implies that I'm gonna get you to this, you know, right shape and right weight, and I am just all about being healthy. 

Dan Pashman: But it kind of seems like when you say healthy, you really mean skinny. 

Jolenta Gold: All bodies are beautiful. I accept everyone. I am a fat ally, you could say. I just want everyone to also be healthy. You know, I walk down the street, I see people eating sandwiches with large pieces of bread. I see people eating chips on the go, and that's where the obesity epidemic comes from. 

Dan Pashman: Now, I mean, I do wanna ask you, you made a couple references to your staff, the staff in your home. 

Jolenta Gold: Mm-hmm. 

Dan Pashman: And also the doctors and the nutritionists and all this. 

Jolenta Gold: Right. 

Dan Pashman: Let's be honest, like not everybody is able to afford this kind of support for their, for their eating. 

Jolenta Gold: Right. Dan, this is something I am very, very passionate about. You know, it is wellness for everyone and there are so many problems we come up against. You know, there's bad diet advice, food deserts, you know, gerrymandering, me too, Teapot Dome, Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania, JFK, blown away. I mean, what else do I have to say? 

Dan Pashman: So before you go… 

Jolenta Gold: Uh-huh.

Dan Pashman: Let's bring it back to food. 

Jolenta Gold: Okay. 

Dan Pashman: I wanna do a lightning round where I say a cleanse and you tell me what you think about it.

Jolenta Gold: Great. 

Dan Pashman: First up, the master cleanse, that's when you have nothing but water, lemon juice, cayenne and maple syrup.

Jolenta Gold: Energizing. It is such an energizing cleanse. You get so many electrolytes, it feels like you're on a runner's high all day long. It's amazing. 

Dan Pashman: The goat milk cleanse.

Jolenta Gold: Well, that one really helped with my situation.

Dan Pashman: I tried one called the green apple, bad apple cleanse. Have you heard about that?

Jolenta Gold: No. 

Dan Pashman: You begin every day with 10 green apples. 

Jolenta Gold: I like it. 

Dan Pashman: You pick up the first green apple and you need to stare at it, and you think about everything, everything, every toxin inside you, you not just food related toxins, but I'm talking about anything that…

Jolenta Gold: The air around you. The city is so dirty. 

Dan Pashman: Yes. 

Dan Pashman: And anything that's making you angry or anxious or depressed, 

Jolenta Gold: Oh my gosh. Emotional toxin. 

Dan Pashman: Yes. 

Jolenta Gold: So important Dan. 

Dan Pashman: Yes. And so you, you just stare at that green apple and you need to focus on all that negativity. And then you scream at the apple. 

Jolenta Gold: I love it. 

Dan Pashman: You release all that negativity into the apple.

Jolenta Gold: Yes. Get it out. 

Dan Pashman: Right. And then you put that apple into the compost bin. 

Jolenta Gold: Interesting. And earth friendly, right? I like it. 

Dan Pashman: Get rid of it. Then the second apple, you eat. 

Jolenta Gold: Wow. 

Dan Pashman: And you go back and forth. 

Jolenta Gold: Sort of a clean slate thing, right? 

Dan Pashman: And then over the course of the day, you start with your 10 apples. You go back and forth, you scream at an apple. You eat an apple, you scream at an apple. You eat an apple. And when you're out of apples, you're done eating for the day. 

Jolenta Gold: That's beautiful. It's so cleansing. Inside and out mentally, physically. Oh, you know what cleanse I've been really into is the shiitake mushroom noodle cleanse. You know those shiitake mushroom noodles you can get?

Dan Pashman: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. 

Jolenta Gold: They sort of come in like this, mushroomy water. You don't eat the noodles, you only drink the water. They come in that you're supposed to discard before you cook the noodles. It really kickstarts your metabolism again. 

Dan Pashman: Right. 

Jolenta Gold: Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: That sounds, that's very similar to the cleanse I'm on right now. The one I'm doing now is from the book French Women Don’t Get Fat, but like French men also are pretty skinny, so I figured I'd give it a shot. 

Jolenta Gold: Agree. 

Dan Pashman: And um, but it begins with… You have to drink nothing but leak water for two days. That's like you boil leaks in water and then just drink the water.

Jolenta Gold: Like broth.

Dan Pashman: Right, right, right. Yeah. Um, and like, so far so good. Um, but actually hang on though. I realize I haven't had lunch yet. Hang, hang on one sec.

[DRINKING SOUNDS]

Jolenta Gold: Bon appetit. 

Dan Pashman: This is not enough food for me.

Dan Pashman: That's Jolenta Gold. Her health and wellness blog, which focuses on the ketogenic lifestyle is called Ke Told You So. Coming up, our journey continues. I'll talk with an ultra marathoner who's gonna totally revolutionize the way we all think about smoothies. Then later we'll meet a yoga instructor in LA who's doing incredible things with turmeric. Stick around.

+++ BREAK +++

Dan Pashman: Welcome back to another Sporkful reheat. I'm Dan Pashman. Wanna watch me walking my dog while ranting about some food related issue that's on my mind? Wanna see what I'm cooking? Wanna see what I'm eating? The best way to do that is to follow me on Instagram. My kids make occasional appearances. There's a lot of fun to be had. So please follow me on Instagram at @thesporkful. Again, that's @thesporkful. Thanks. Now, back to this week's reheat. 

Dan Pashman:  When I set out to change the way I eat, I knew that if I was really gonna start to feel the difference, to feel better, I'd also have to exercise more. One day I was scrolling through Instagram and I came across a guy named Ian Bryan.

Dan Pashman: Ian's an angel investor and ultra marathoner. He's also into Tough Mudders. Those are like part run, part obstacle course. Ian posts these viral Instagram stories where he gives investment tips while crawling through mud and under barbed wire. So I started following him and his videos always get me so pumped up.

Dan Pashman: I knew I had to include him in this episode. When we spoke recently, the first thing I wanted to know is what's Ian training for right now? 

Ian Bryan: I have an 18 miler coming up. I'm doing that actually as the first part of a 30 miler. I have kind of a little finish line at 18, uh, and then do the remaining… remaining 12.

Dan Pashman: But so isn't that just a 30 miler then? 

Ian Bryan: Yeah. But if, uh, if you, wherever you put the finish line, that's an accomplishment. And that's something for you to remember.

Dan Pashman: Right.

Ian Bryan: So what kind of runs are you, how long are you running? 

Dan Pashman: Um, more like, um, one or two minutes. 

Ian Bryan: Okay. And how far does that get you? 

Dan Pashman: I mean, there's like, um, a stop sign.

Ian Bryan: Mm-hmm. 

Dan Pashman: Down at the end of my street. 

Ian Bryan: You as a runner, you don't need to pay attention to that sign, even though it says stop. You can keep going. 

Dan Pashman: Right. Right. But usually, usually by the time I get to that sign, I'm tired. 

Ian Bryan: Right, right. Um, well, it's a, you know, it's a process. Yes. I run 10 to 15 to 20 miles a day, but five miles a day is fine. I run five miles a day, several times a day. 

Dan Pashman: That, uh, yeah. I mean, hey, I love that you are so passionate about it. It's just, I'm, I'm just being honest. Like, for me, when I hear that, it just sort of makes me feel like a running failure. Well, when I first started, I couldn't run five miles. I had to run six because five wasn't enough.

Dan Pashman: Let's talk about food, 'cause this is a food podcast. 

Ian Bryan: Mm-hmm. 

Dan Pashman: What do you eat when you're going on one of these big runs? How do you manage your caloric intake? 'cause you must burn a lot of calories on one of these things. 

Ian Bryan: So I have a number of goos that you can get them in any flavor. 

Dan Pashman: These are like tubes of goo?

Ian Bryan: It's repackaged cake frosting that somewhere on the packaging says the word sport. 

Dan Pashman: Okay. 

Ian Bryan: Uh, so you can bring five or six of those depending on, you know, you want to take one every four miles, maybe every five miles in your case… Maybe just sort of a constant feed into you. 

Dan Pashman: Okay. Got it. Uh, but maybe I could get one of those helmets that they make, like with the two beer can holders and the straws that come down?

Ian Bryan: That's an ex– it's an excellent idea. I mean, so they have, you know, they have vests and belts to which you can attach nutrition, but then, you know, there is a lot of the body that hasn't been exploited yet. 

Dan Pashman: You mean like for carrying snacks. 

Ian Bryan: Think about take a, take a fruit leather, make it a bracelet, right? Take two more fruit leathers. Anklets wrap a wrap, a tortilla around your neck. 

Dan Pashman: I love tortillas. How do I know… Like, let's say I, let's say I work my way up to like a lot of miles running. Sure. How do I know if I have enough food with me? 

Ian Bryan: Well, you want to eat before you're hungry and drink before you're thirsty.

Dan Pashman: So you're saying like, eat preemptively. 

Ian Bryan: Eat preemptively. Yes. 

Dan Pashman: Well, that's, that's actually great for me because that is something I already do. 

Ian Bryan: You've been doing it your whole life. 

Dan Pashman: That's right. It, it's, I, I've been training it, it turns out, I guess, to be a runner, but I've been training by doing the eating part of being a runner.

Ian Bryan: Mm-hmm. 

Dan Pashman: Instead of the running part of being a runner. 

Ian Bryan: Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: One of the things I'm so excited to talk with you about, Ian, is that you have, you've taken all your experience running and doing all kinds of extreme exercise and your experience with food and eating while running, and you, you've come up with something.

Ian Bryan: Yes. SMUn. 

Dan Pashman: Wha- What? 

Ian Bryan: It's a smoothie brand. It's called SMUn. 

Dan Pashman: SMUn?

Ian Bryan: SMUn, it's, uh, S-M-U-N, but the N is tiny. 

Dan Pashman: So you–Wait, how, how do you say it? 

Ian Bryan: SMUn. 

Dan Pashman: SMUn

Ian Bryan: SMUn. So you want, uh, just, it's just spelled SMU with a tiny N. 

Dan Pashman: And so, and, and so because it's smaller, you also like say it smaller. 

Ian Bryan: Yeah. Yeah. You kind of pull back the throttle when you get to that part of the word.

Dan Pashman: Got it. And so what is SMUn?

Ian Bryan: SMUn. 

Dan Pashman: Right. Okay, so, so what is it? 

Ian Bryan: Well, uh, I can't talk about everything. Uh, there's some non-disclosures, but we brought in a team from NASA, from other space agencies using technology that could very well have been used to solve any number of the world's problems, those kinds of minds pointing at the splendor. They're using AI. They're using machine learning. They're using TI a-learning jumbotrons. This blender is the Tinder of Uber. 

Dan Pashman: So I mean, Ian, I know some of it is proprietary, but you gotta tell me a little bit more about this product. 

Ian Bryan: Here's where we're coming from. When I'm out on an ultra marathon, or you are on your way to the stop sign, you need fuel, right? I am getting as much fuel into my body as I can, but my body has to do a lot of work digesting that, and I want all of my body's effort to be going to my legs. So pre-digested food, what's the most pre-digested food? The smoothest food. 

Dan Pashman: Smoothies?

Ian Bryan: Smoothies. Every smoothie you've ever had. What's wrong with it?

Dan Pashman: It doesn't…

Ian Bryan: It's not smooth enough. Could we make a smoothie smoother? We can make a smoothie smoother. SMUn

Dan Pashman: How did you get this business off the ground? 

Ian Bryan: Well, first was the idea, and once I had the idea, I opened up Microsoft Excel, made a spreadsheet, took that spreadsheet, Silicon Valley.

Dan Pashman: And you've raised a lot of money on this thing now

Ian Bryan: So much.

Dan Pashman: One of the things that I also love about your work, Ian, is that, um, you know, you're giving back is obviously so important to you. You are, you built like a charitable component into SMUn. 

Ian Bryan: So what we say is everybody deserves a smoothie, whether you want a smoothie or not. So when you buy a SMUn smoothie, we will give you another one that you can give to someone, whether or not they want it.

Dan Pashman: So, so when I buy… If I just want one smoothie and I don't want the extra charity smoothie that I would give to someone else. How much is that one smoothie? 

Ian Bryan:  $12 standard standard price for our small. 

Dan Pashman: And then if I wanna be able to give one to charity, how much does that cost? 

Ian Bryan: $24. 

Dan Pashman: Got it.

Ian Bryan: But that 24 is only going to the first smoothie. The second smoothie is free. 

Dan Pashman: Wow. So Ian, where are you hoping to take SMUn? 

Ian Bryan: Well, I, I look around at the ultra marathons I'm at, and even when I'm just walking down the street and I see people eating and drinking all sorts of healthy foods, and I think, why are they not drinking a SMUn right now? So it's a dream, but it's my dream that within five years, everything every human being is eating is a SMUn smoothie. 

Dan Pashman: Like all caloric intake. 

Ian Bryan: All caloric intake 

Dan Pashman: On the whole planet. 

Ian Bryan: Yes. 

Dan Pashman: Then you'll be able to like determine who lives and dies. 

Ian Bryan: I mean, that's, I think the real value proposition. There's not a lot of companies out there on the market that can control the future of all life on earth. So I would love to see SMUn be acquired and I don’t need it to be trillions of dollars. I just need it to be way, way more than it's worth. Like I said, it's… It's a dream, but it's my dream.

MUSIC

Dan Pashman: That's Ian Bryan. He's the founder, CEO, and Chief Smoothie Disruption Officer of SMUn. 

Dan Pashman: So, Ian is using the latest technology to create an all new kind of food. But what about the ingredients and traditions that people have been relying on for centuries? For that, we turn to Jenny Miller. She's a yoga teacher and certified Master Herbalist in LA.

Dan Pashman: You've heard of Echinacea Ginseng, ginkgo Baloba. No one was using any of those before Jenny discovered them. We'll get to how she and I met, but when I talked with her recently, the first thing I wanted to know was what herb is gonna be the next hot new thousand year old trend. 

Jenny Miller: There is an amazing Indian ginseng called Ashwagandha. Have you heard of it, Dan? 

Dan Pashman: I mean, I've heard people talking about it, but I don't, I have no idea what it is. 

Jenny Miller: I mean, it's basically like a knobby route. Um, I, to be honest, it's really what cured my restless legs. I mean, I just could never Netflix and chill. I’m always, always netflixing and twitching. 

Dan Pashman: And So you're, you're referring to ashwagandha as Indian ginseng?

Jenny Miller: Yeah. It's sort of like, I kind of call it like. Korean garlic. 

Dan Pashman: Oh, I thought that was Cambodian ginger. 

Jenny Miller: No, it's Korean garlic.

Dan Pashman: Jenny says Ashwagandha is about to be everywhere. She's gonna make sure of it. 

Jenny Miller: You know, I, I don't even like the word Influencer with a capital I, but I do know that when I post an Instagram story, things fly off the shelves. I really see that as my role really amplifying and supporting ancient traditions that people have forgotten, but really have been the foundation to the health and wellness of Okinawa villagers who live to be a hundred. You know, 

Dan Pashman: So I had never done yoga in my life and I was in LA a few weeks ago and you know, I'm trying to get healthier. I figured I would give it a shot and I walked into your yoga studio. 

Jenny Miller: Yes. I loved it. 

Dan Pashman: Does that happen often to you, that people just like walk into your studio? 

Jenny Miller: Yeah, I think, you know, sometimes when you know you need some healing, people get called to my studio. It's very inviting. So I'm glad you liked it.

Dan Pashman: Yeah, no, that's certainly how I felt. And you know, so, so I didn't realize that I was walking into the advanced sweat shop yoga, what do you call that yoga? 

Jenny Miller: Yeah, definitely. It's the advanced sweat shop yoga. Um, what we do is we actually go a little higher than your regular hot yoga because I mean, let's just be honest, like there is so much negativity in the world and so I decided we just wanna take it to the next level. And so yeah, it's pretty hot in there. 

Dan Pashman: And so, so let's, let's back up here a little bit, Jenny, because I, we, we, I want people to hear your origin story, okay? Yes. How, I know you're not originally from LA, like how, how did you, how did you come to be who you are today? 

Jenny Miller: Oh my goodness. I love talking about my origin story. Well, um, I grew up in a little town outside of Indianapolis called Muncie. Shout out to Muncie. 

Dan Pashman: As a kid, Jenny had a bunch of health problems.

Jenny Miller: Migraine headaches.

Dan Pashman: Social distortion.

Jenny Miller: Rosacea.

Dan Pashman: Anthrax.

Jenny Miller: Irritable bowel. 

Dan Pashman: And mega death, which despite its name turns out to be less serious than actual death.

Dan Pashman: Jenny's parents took her to all different doctors who put her on all kinds of diets and medications. Nothing worked. Then, Jenny had an epiphany that would change her life forever. She was in college at a keg party. 

Jenny Miller: I know it's gonna sound silly, but I was like smoking a blunt and like it like slipped out of my hand and it totally, I actually fell and I like hit my head on the corner of a keg and I like totally got knocked out. 

MUSIC

Jenny Miller: I had this vision of myself floating in space above the Great Wall of China, Ancor Watt, a Shinto temple. I just thought to myself, Oh my God, like, we are not even of our bodies. Is our body, our body anyway?

Dan Pashman: When Jenny came to, she was a yoga teacher, she got on the next plane to Los Angeles, which is where she discovered a dish called kichuri.

Jenny Miller: Kichuri is amazing. It is literally the thing that changed my life. 

Dan Pashman: It's like lentils and rice. This is like a South Asian dish. 

Jenny Miller: Yes. From the Indian subcontinent and I mean, I even used to sneeze when I would get out into the sun. You know about this, right? 

Dan Pashman: Yeah. 

Jenny Miller: Like how some people sneeze when they're in the sun. 

Dan Pashman: My wife has that. Yeah. 

Jenny Miller: Oh my God. Yeah. Who knew that kichuri with so much turmeric would work? 

Dan Pashman: But so kichuri is lentils and rice and turmeric, can we please just take a minute and talk about turmeric? 

Jenny Miller: I literally have an altar for turmeric in my house. It is in the northeastern corner of my house. The feng shui is perfect and this, this altar literally has piles of different types of food and pharmaceutical grade turmeric. It's how I make sure I stay focused and grounded about what really matters, and turmeric really drives my life. Yeah. 

Dan Pashman: And, and I mean, kichuri is like the hot dish in the wellness world right now, Jenny. And you, you like discovered it. 

Jenny Miller: I mean, I, Dan, I'm not really into the sort of competitive titles around… 

Dan Pashman: Mm-hmm. 

Jenny Miller: … Being first or number one, but I did, I did discover it first about five years ago. 

Dan Pashman: That experience discovering kichuri, that's what led you to open your yoga studio? 

Jenny Miller: It is. You know, I actually, um, specialize in a form of yoga that I developed. Um, it's both the extreme sweatshop yoga that you experience combined with kichuri. So what you basically do is while we go through our flow, we actually rotate, um, each person in the group through a hot soaking tub of my special kichuri. 

Dan Pashman: And then at the end of a session, who eats the kichuri? 

Jenny Miller: Oh, we all take a taste of it.

Dan Pashman: Okay, so your studio has the sweatshop yoga. You're doing kichuri yoga. And now I understand you've also added baby yoga?

Jenny Miller: Yes. Uh, I mean, you know, you've seen the baby yoga and I think it's lovely for mothers and fathers to bond with their baby. But you know, at my studio we actually do an intermediate level of baby yoga. Prior to starting your baby yoga session, we have all the babies swaddled in a injera-based wrap that Wakandan villagers have been using for centuries. It's really beautiful. It's soft and pillowy, and you can eat it. 

Dan Pashman: Jenny, I gotta say, it seems like you're just sort of glomming onto a bunch of other cultures. Can you tell me a little more about how you've researched all this? 

Jenny Miller: Oh gosh. I actually did tour a lot in Asia. I spent about two weeks in Tokyo and on my way to Chang Mai in Thailand I did have a layover in Shanghai, which was lovely. It was, uh, the best 12 hours of my life. Um, and um, I also then made it down to Sri Lanka. Uh, Sri Lanka is a tiny island just south of India. And, um, it really was beautiful beaches and drinks and, um, massages, a lot of massage therapy. I received a lot of massage therapy there. 

Jenny Miller: And, um. I like to interact with the locals, especially when they're serving me my food.

Dan Pashman: I mean, clearly traveling places to experience other cultures is better than not doing that, but is sitting on a beach in a resort really the best way to experience those cultures?

Dan Pashman: Um, you know, we live in a really tough world nowadays, and everyone is stressed out. Everyone is depressed. I barely can check into the news without wanting to just fall apart, and so why can't we, you know, find a little liberation through eating a beautiful mix of quinoa and lentil with turmeric. Why can't we use that as our portal into wellness?

Jenny Miller: When you go to a different ethnic hole in the wall restaurant in Los Angeles, the dirtier the better. It gives you more of that authentic taste. Sometimes I even actually take my food and rub it on the floor. Just to make sure that I'm getting all of the microbes, because that's the closest thing that I can get to transporting myself to India or Vietnam. You know, you want all of the microbes and if you have those microbes in your neighborhood. Why not eat all of it?

Dan Pashman: That's Jenny Miller of Kichuri Yoga in Los Angeles. So I guess my journey continues and the thing I'm learning is that… 

Jenny Miller: Everyone please plant your feet lightly on the floor. 

Dan Pashman: Oh. 

Jenny Miller: Take a deep breath in.

Jenny Miller: Stop 

Jenny Miller: Now, the rest.

Jenny Miller: Dan, the Sporkful, I wish you peace and silence in your mind, body and bowel.

[GONG SOUND]

Dan Pashman: We done?

Dan Pashman: What a journey, what a destination. I feel so much better. Next week on the show, we kick off a six part series on millet. Get Psyched.