The Urban Monk Podcast

bPOSSIBLE podcast with Dr Pedram Shojai. Health, wellness, and personal development media in a new steaming service that's designed to help you live your best life. Pedram Shojai is the Urban Monk. He is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, a Taoist Priest, a Qi Gong Master, film maker, author, and Kung Fu world traveler. He invites you to join in the conversation exploring what it means to live with balance in the 21st century. In this episode, Gut Health with Kiran Krishnan from Microbiome Labs, Pedram and Kiran discuss the evolution of our perception of the microbiome and how the microbiome is currently viewed in science and society. What new science and treatments are emerging that could improve your health and lifestyle?  What small changes can you make in the ways you eat, sleep, and go about your day that can greatly impact the health of your microbiome?   Learn more: https://www.bpossible.com/ https://get.bpossible.com/podcast/   Discover Microbiome Labs https://get.bpossible.com/microbiome/ https://get

bPOSSIBLE podcast with Dr Pedram Shojai. Health, wellness, and personal development media in a new steaming service that's designed to help you live your best life. Pedram Shojai is the Urban Monk. He is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, a Taoist Priest, a Qi Gong Master, film maker, author, and Kung Fu world traveler. He invites you to join in the conversation exploring what it means to live with balance in the 21st century. In this episode, Quantum Biology with Catherine Clinton, Pedram and Catherine analyze how quantum biology has exploded to the forefront of modern medicine. What treatments now how substantial evidence that might've been doubted in the past? How are ancient indigenous medical practices re-emerging as essential perspectives on our health? What can you be focusing on if you want to live a healthier lifestyle? Join Dr. Pedram Shojai and Dr. Catherine Clinton in this episode of the bPOSSIBLE podcast!    

What has been the crisis here in the West, where articles are constantly written about the dogmatic American work ethic? We don’t know why we’re doing what we’re doing. We’re just responding to our basest impulses – gotta eat, gotta pay bills, gotta avoid bad feelings, gotta up the dopamine. And until we know why we’re doing what we’re doing – chasing jobs or quitting them – nothing’s going to change.  Jonathan Fields is obsessed with this problem. As a writer, his primary curiosity is what gets people up in the morning… and what makes them keep getting up when times get hard. Tune in and learn about your own sparketype so you can change your entire relationship to work. 

What does your brain have in common with a fungal network? Well, have you ever seen both? They look quite a bit alike... Often, neurologists frustrated at the stalemate we've reached as regards healing people are the first to research alternative methods – anything from psychedelics to bio feedback and even the physiological power of soothing. Listen to Dr. David Rabin tell me what he discovered about diverting resources away from survival and straight into recovery... 

Trying to get whole after a traumatic experience can feel like a lesson in acronyms – NLP, EMDR, CBT, etc. One method deserves to be better understood. You’ve likely seen videos of powerful physical reactions as people release the trauma their nervous systems have been holding onto. This is somatic experiencing. And Karlee Holden is a dedicated practitioner. She grew up well-versed in NLP and the language of healing. But later in life, it simply wasn’t enough to heal her. So she searched, and she foun

Ann Louise Gittleman, who is 71 years young (though you’d never know it to hear about how she spends her days), fell into the world of detoxifying 40 years ago. The woman who became her mentor was 84 when they met; she lived to be 106. She taught Ann everything she knew about longevity and sparked in her a powerful urge to grow stronger as the years advance. Now, her life is lived in the service of unearthing cutting-edge resources that dismantle the myth of aging. We’re living longer, but we’re not necessarily living healthier. That’s where the term radical longevity comes from. The future is here, and Ann’s at the helm.

Imagine if “joining the family business” meant partnering with your father to make groundbreaking microbiome research and gut solutions available to the masses twenty years before mainstream medicine gets hold of them. For Afif Ghannoum, that’s exactly what happened.  His dad, Dr. Mahmoud Ghannoum, was one of the first major medical minds to study the microbiology of the oral biome… and then, in time, the GI biome. His discoveries have led to breakthrough after breakthrough, especially as regards a very important consideration: The presence of fungi in the gut and its interaction with the bacterial community.

There's no punchline here – just a frank, honest, and loving discussion about the unconventional paths Rabbi Doniel Katz and I took to achieve and sustain enlightenment. Across disciplines, religions, practices, and ideologies, there’s something we all have in common that makes us more alike than it makes us different. We build and rebuild our spiritual hygiene every single day. The work and the discipline and the years of studying create an energy field around all of us that binds us to a shared purpose – to find true integration, and train the muscles that got us there to remember how to do it again and again and again.

Whole body vibration isn't a new idea, but the advancement of the technology recently might as well have reinvented the wheel. My good friend Perry Cammisa has been helping me rehab an injury through PM&R with the power of vibrational therapy, and if you didn't know that was a possibility... you need to hear this. This tech can be traced back to Russian astronauts innovating ways to reintegrate back into Earth's gravity-laden environment. Actually, even farther than that, but we'll get there. Ultimately? We're talking about bone mass and why it's so important to your WHOLE body health. 

In 2019, former bodybuilder Aaron Alexander published his book all about the eponymous method he developed himself: "The Align Method: 5 Movement Principles for a Stronger Body, Sharper Mind, and Stress-Proof Life." He thinks our bodies speak more than one language – and depending on how connected you are to its pain and joy, you may not be able to understand what it’s telling you. And then how will you know when you’re aligned and when you’re not? How will you read the signal? Alignment isn’t just a yoga buzzword – it means a lot more than that, and it’s informed by more than how advanced your practice is. Tune in as we talk about compensatory practices (both Western and not, male and not), the importance of heightened senses to our nervous system, why nutrition means more than diet, the two biggest factors in miscommunication, and so much more. 

How long is it going to take for the emotional tectonic plates of society to shift from grounding in foundation and tradition to exploring lofty ideals and leading with imagination? Who did ancient cultures believe they were worshipping when they looked to the heavens for advice? How do we respond to good times, to chaos, to tough times? How did our ancestors? These are the kinds of questions that keep Dr. Rachelle Dixon busy in her practice and in her personal development. We got to dig into how astrology can be used as an optimization tool to guide us towards our best lives, even if you choose not to believe in it. She's spent her life as a doctor, healer, and educator trying to instill belief in one's own intuition into those she works with – and the stars are often a historical and contemporary source of wisdom from which to draw. Pedram and Rachelle wax astrological about where we've been, where we are, and how we can prepare for where we're going. 

If your first reaction to drinking the olive oil in your cabinet is to check the date or gag, you're probably using olive oil as distant from a fresh olive oil harvest as the tea in your cupboards are from Chinese botanicals. T.J. Robinson, former chef and professional olive oil tester and judge, had such a revelation upon tasting his first fresh olive oil that he not only never went back... But he started a Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club that sources from four different seasonal harvests per year in order to deliver perfectly aged olive oil made from the highest quality olives that can be certifiably found. He talks me through a taste-testing of his latest batch, debunking all sorts of myths about the health benefits, cooking uses, and grocery store varieties of olive oil along the way.

Ron and Johanna Melchiore have been living off the grid for decades, but what does it mean to go off the grid? How disconnected must one be? Ron and Johanna join Pedram Shojai and discuss their experience in having their own chunk of wilderness. What was it like getting started? How did they build their home? How do they get food? How do they collect water for cooking, drinking, and bathing? And what do they do during the winters? Pedram asks about the freedom of having the land work for you but also the potential dangers of being isolated. Becoming an independent homesteader does not mean fully disconnecting from society, but what complications could still arise? Is this something anyone can do?

"Plants often look like what they're for," Evan Cohen tells Pedram Shojai. For many of us who have lived in urban environments all of our lives, this can be a difficult concept to grasp. This week's guest to The Urban Monk Podcast discusses the benefits of how plants in certain cases can have obvious benefits just based on what they look. How can we determine the energetic signature of plants and how can we harness their essence to benefit our health?

We don't need to tell you, but 2020 has been quite the wild ride! With so much going on from the US Presidential election to the pandemic to wild weather events such as wildfires and hurricanes, it's hard to just focus! Attention is being pulled in every direction. Social media is even monetizing attention! So how do we get our focus back to ourselves? Pedram Shojai here on The Urban Monk Podcast wanted to take a moment to discuss the importance of drawing attention back to yourself. With how media can divert our attention to things that may not be affecting us in the moment, it can be hard to focus on your own needs. What is important to you? What goals do you have? And what are you doing to reach those goals? Pedram gives some tips based on his studies with Chinese Medicine on how you can make yourself your own main focus again.

Everyone is exhausted! We all run into walls. We have trouble waking up in the morning and we go for the cup of coffee or tea to pick us up, but by the afternoon we crash. We do we continue to ride these waves of highs and lows of energy? Why do so many of us suffer from chronic fatigue? The usual suspects of stress and lack of sleep are obvious, but what if there was more to it? Is it the food we eat? The lack of exercise? Could it be unchecked mold building up in our homes? Do we have to drastically change our lives to live a life full of energy? Or are the minor changes and shifts we can make that add up to leave chronic fatigue behind?

Kawasaki Disease is a condition that causes inflammation in the walls of some blood vessels in the body. It's most common in infants and young children. Recently there have been cases of a Kawasaki-like disease associated with COVID-19 appearing. What does the early research show? Pedram Shojai invites pediatrician Dr. Pejman Katiraei back to give a ground-level view of what he's currently seeing. Is this emergence of Kawasaki Disease a concern for parents? On top of everything else to worry about during the pandemic, how can we best protect children from this potential illness?   This video is part of our new course, Raising Healthy Kids, part of the Urban Monk Academy.   Try it free for 2 weeks: https://secure.theurbanmonk.com/academy/raising-healthy-kids

News used to be just the facts. But nowadays media has become highly charged, fear-based grabs for ratings. While it's important to be an informed citizens, sometimes the dour news can be extremely detrimental to our own outlook on the world while adding undue stress into our lives. Guest John Biffar, founder and president of PeaceVision, has a different approach. John through PeaceVision produces original video aiming to be free of negativity, politics, and violence while showcasing paths towards positive change. How is John able to bring to light stories of positivity in a society of click-bait headlines? How does John hope to provide people with actionable ways to achieve more peace in their own lives? How can we be conscious of the media we consume and how that affects our own lives in the era of coronavirus and COVID-19?

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues many people are looking to whatever they can to take preventative measures against the coronavirus risk. Washing hands and sanitizing surfaces are great steps, surely, but what about other over the counter remedies? Dr. Elroy Vojdani and Dr. Pejman Katiraei join Pedram Shojai on this episode of The Urban Monk Podcast to discuss how certain measures might actually be more damaging to the gut and the gastrointestinal tract that might work against the immune system. What is happening in the gut and the immune system when we are infected with COVID-19 or other viruses? Why does infection affect some with terrible symptoms while others are asymptomatic? How is the mucosal immune system a front line defense and how can we bolster its effectiveness through lifestyle? Is the conventional traditional medical model able to study viral infections from a holistic perspective?

The pandemic of COVID-19 has changed the world and how we all interact with one another. But for many of us this pandemic has also affected our jobs, our schools, our livelihoods. While it is important to remain safe and follow social distancing guidelines, how must we change our mindsets on how we earn an income? Pedram Shojai invites Robert Kiyosaki to The Urban Monk Podcast. Robert is the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. He discusses how we must think about cashflow and the system many of us find ourselves trapped in. That is the system that has now broken during a pandemic. How can we leave the rat race to become financially independent and prepare for the next economic downturn?