Life is a Ride---Overcoming Huge Challenges in Unconventional Ways

The Life is a Ride podcast takes a detour---normally we are focused on our health, but today's episode is on the health of our nation. The two-party system isn't working in the United States. Our guest today is rank choice voting expert and former Mayor of Santa Monica and co-founder of the California Green Party Mike Feinstein. Tune in! For more info on Mike go to X/Twitter at @mikefeinstein and more info regarding rank choice voting can be found at https://fairvote.org/ ******** Chris Joseph is a dad, environmental consultant, cancer patient advocate, best selling author, thought leader, public speaker, and founder of two music record companies and a complementary 501(c)(3) non-profit helping New Orleans artists and musicians. He's also a television producer, hobbyist songwriter, podcaster, and a lover of all things outdoors. Over the decades, Chris has served as a board of director for numerous non-profit organizations, and is currently a national board member of NatureBridge. Chris’s first book was the best seller “Life is a Ride: My Unconventional Journey of Cancer Recovery” (2020). He then co-authored "The Epiphanies Project" and is currently finalizing his third book, “The Kitchen Sink Approach to Cancer (And Why You SHOULDN'T Always Listen to Your Doctor)”. For more information about Chris Joseph, please see the following websites: https://my.terrain.network/profile/member/841?tab=overview-tab lifeisaridebook.com terrainnavigators.com and at chrisjoseph AT mac DOT com

Join me in this fascinating conversation with seven year, fourth stage breast cancer thriver Willow Star.  Willow talks about her amazing journey of healing, and how and why she became a cancer coach.  And listen for some actionable tips we can all use to get healthier! Willow can be found at:   https://www.meetwillowstar.com/ ******** Chris Joseph is a dad, environmental consultant, cancer patient advocate, best selling author, thought leader, public speaker, and founder of two music record companies and a complementary 501(c)(3) non-profit helping New Orleans artists and musicians. He's also a television producer, hobbyist songwriter, podcaster, and a lover of all things outdoors. Over the decades, Chris has served as a board of director for numerous non-profit organizations, and is currently a national board member of NatureBridge. Chris’s first book was the best seller “Life is a Ride: My Unconventional Journey of Cancer Recovery” (2020). He then co-authored "The Epiphanies Project" and is currently finalizing his third book, “The Kitchen Sink Approach to Cancer (And Why You SHOULDN'T Always Listen to Your Doctor)”. For more information about Chris Joseph, please see the following websites: https://my.terrain.network/profile/member/841?tab=overview-tab lifeisaridebook.com terrainnavigators.com and at chrisjoseph AT mac DOT com

Please listen to a fascinating and illuminating discussion with author, educator and former healthcare consultant, Beth Lambert. Beth has monitored and documented the escalating rates of childhood chronic conditions for over a decade.     Her first book, A Compromised Generation, provides a thorough analysis of the origins of this modern health crisis and documents how modifications to environmental and lifestyle factors can profoundly influence health outcomes, including full disease reversal.   Beth is also the co-author of Brain Under Attack: A Resource for Parents and Caregivers of Children with PANS, PANDAS, and Autoimmune Encephalitis.   Beth is also the founder and Executive Director of Epidemic Answers, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to reestablishing vibrant health in our children.     She is also the creator and Executive Producer of The Documenting Hope Project, a multi-year prospective research study and media project that examines the cumulative impact of environmental stressors on health and their mitigation through personalized and systems-based treatment approaches.     Beth is the mother of three children and is passionate about raising awareness about the connection between daily choices, human health, and planetary health.     Learn more about:   Epidemic Answers www.epidemicanswers.org   The Documenting Hope Project www.documentinghope.com   A Compromised Generation: http://sentientpublications.com/shop/books/all-titles/a-compromised-generation/   Brain Under Attack http://www.brainunderattack.com     ******** Chris Joseph is a dad, environmental consultant, cancer patient advocate, best selling author, thought leader, public speaker, and founder of two music record companies and a complementary 501(c)(3) non-profit helping New Orleans artists and musicians. He's also a television producer, hobbyist songwriter, podcaster, and a lover of all things outdoors. Over the decades, Chris has served as a board of director for numerous non-profit organizations, and is currently a national board member of NatureBridge. Chris’s first book was the best seller “Life is a Ride: My Unconventional Journey of Cancer Recovery” (2020). He then co-authored "The Epiphanies Project" and is currently finalizing his third book, “The Kitchen Sink Approach to Cancer (And Why You SHOULDN'T Always Listen to Your Doctor)”. For more information about Chris Joseph, please see the following websites: https://my.terrain.network/profile/member/841?tab=overview-tab lifeisaridebook.com terrainnavigators.com and at chrisjoseph AT mac DOT com

Please enjoy my talk with Jim Abrahams, best known as a writer and director (along with his friends Jerry Zucker and David Zucker) of the movies, Airplane, Kentucky Fried Movie, The Naked Gun, Top Secret and the TV show Police Squad. Jim is also the co-author of the new book:   Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!   While we touch a bit on Jim's wonderful movie and TV career, the focus of this talk is the story of Jim's son Charlie, Charlie's diagnosis with severe epilepsy at age 1, and the amazing journey that Jim and his wife Nancy embarked on to find an ultimately successful cure for their son.   Find out more about their incredible work at The Charlie Foundation:   https://charliefoundation.org/   An excerpt from Jim Abrahams in his new book "Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane!" by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker   https://a.co/6BmYU3F   After Airplane!, I married Nancy, the woman whose fingers I had nervously smooshed together while sitting through an early Airplane! screening, and we started a family.   Joseph, Jamie, and Charlie have brought incredible pride, light, and joy—and a few sleepless nights—into my life. Once David and Jerry and I decided to work independently, I directed Big Business (1988), co-wrote The Naked Gun, directed Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990), and co-wrote and directed Hot Shots! (1991) and Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993).   By then I had spent the first forty-nine years of my life trying to find things to laugh about.   Then in March 1993, everything changed. My one-year-old son, Charlie, had his first seizure. There’s absolutely nothing funny about being the parent of a child with uncontrolled epilepsy. Nothing. After a year of daily seizures, drugs, and a brain surgery, I learned that the cure for Charlie’s epilepsy, the ketogenic diet—a high fat, no sugar, limited protein diet—had been hiding in plain sight for, by then, over seventy years.   And despite the diet’s being well documented in medical texts, none of the half-dozen pediatric neurologists we had taken Charlie to see had mentioned a word about it. I found out on my own at a medical library. It was life altering—not just for Charlie and my family, but for tens of thousands like us.   Turns out there are powerful forces at work within our health care system that don’t necessarily prioritize good health. For decades, physicians have barely been taught diet therapy or even nutrition in medical school. The pharmaceutical, medical device, and sugar industries make hundreds of billions every year on anti-epileptic drugs and processed foods—but not a nickel if we change what we eat.   The cardiology community and American Heart Association demonize fat based on flawed science. Hospitals profit from tests and procedures, but again no money from diet therapy. There is a world epilepsy population of over sixty million people. Most of those people begin having their seizures as children, and only a minuscule percentage ever find out about ketogenic diet therapies. When I realized that 99 percent of what had happened to Charlie and my family was unnecessary, and that there were millions of families worldwide in the same situation, I needed to try to do something.   Nancy and I began the Charlie Foundation (charliefoundation.org) in 1994 in order to facilitate research and get the word directly to those who would benefit. Among the high points were countless articles, a couple appearances of Charlie’s story on Dateline NBC, and a movie I produced and directed about another family whose child’s epilepsy had been cured by the ketogenic diet starring Meryl Streep titled First Do No Harm (1997).   Today, of course, the diet permeates social media. When we started, there was one hospital in the world offering ketogenic diet therapy. Today, there are 250. Equally important, word about the efficacy of the ketogenic diet for epilepsy spread within the scientific community.   In 1995, we hosted the first of many scientific global symposia focused on the diet. As research into its mechanisms and applications has spiked, incredibly the professional communities have found the same metabolic pathway that is triggered by the ketogenic diet to reduce seizures has also been found to benefit Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, severe psychiatric disorders, traumatic brain injury, and even some cancers.   I did dip back into the movie business co-writing and directing Jane Austen’s: Mafia (1998) and co-writing Scary Movie 4 (2004). Although I tried my hardest, my heart was no longer in it. I was painting by numbers. I had another passion. There is no way I would have embraced the concept or had the ability to take on this oversight made by American medicine were it not for the confidence and skills I learned with David and Jerry during our Airplane! adventure. It is one more reason I will always love them—and that silly movie.” A note from Chris Joseph: I am currently raising $$$ to fund the publication of my new book "The Kitchen Sink Approach to Cancer (and Why You Shouldn't Always Listen to Your Doctor)". If my mission resonates with you, please check out the Kickstarter campaign at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kitchensink/changing-the-standard-of-care-one-reader-at-a-time     ******** Chris Joseph is a dad, environmental consultant, cancer patient advocate, best selling author, thought leader, public speaker, and founder of two music record companies and a complementary 501(c)(3) non-profit helping New Orleans artists and musicians. He's also a television producer, hobbyist songwriter, podcaster, and a lover of all things outdoors. Over the decades, Chris has served as a board of director for numerous non-profit organizations, and is currently a national board member of NatureBridge. Chris’s first book was the best seller “Life is a Ride: My Unconventional Journey of Cancer Recovery” (2020). He then co-authored "The Epiphanies Project" and is currently finalizing his third book, “The Kitchen Sink Approach to Cancer (And Why You SHOULDN'T Always Listen to Your Doctor)”. For more information about Chris Joseph, please see the following websites: https://my.terrain.network/profile/member/841?tab=overview-tab lifeisaridebook.com terrainnavigators.com and at chrisjoseph AT mac DOT com

Allan Flood, author of "Perfect Misfortune: How I Found Hope and Healing in the Teachings of Sydney Banks and The Three Principles" joins the podcast to talk about his decades long journey with M.S. and how he found a healing path. Allan's book is its fifth version, and he's helped countless people over the decades.  A fascinating conversation!   About the book:  Perfect Misfortune and the four previous editions have been about healing and about emotional and physical recovery in the face of personal crisis and loss. They've each been about discovery, recovering a piece of childhood, and finding part of ourselves we've lost bouncing over the speed bumps of life.   Perfect Misfortune is about our spiritual nature and the healing power of our spiritual nature. The book is meant for anyone with an illness or disease, physical or mental condition, who is struggling.   This book is about three principles - Mind, Thought and Consciousness - discovered originally through an insight by Sydney Banks. These three principles describe our spiritual nature in a way that's healing.   Perfect Misfortune is Allan Flood's continuing, deepening, ever-evolving journey to understand The Three Principles, the good disguised in our worst misfortunes, the learning that comes from them and how the wisdom we acquire in crisis can help us find the best in ourselves and others.   This edition is a "coming home" story. It has fresh insights and humbling discoveries he has made about life and healing over the last five years as he has sought deeper and deeper peace-of-mind.   This book is intended to give comfort and hope to those in life-changing circumstances. The journey has occasionally been harrowing as his ego trips (no pun intended) over deeply held beliefs and reactions but it's always been enriching. The path towards Truth and healing becomes more beautiful with time.   This fifth edition reflects his understanding of Sydney Banks' insights, the power of The Three Principles, and shares what he has discovered over the last five years that is healing. Allan is excited and relieved to simplify the journey, to bring this edition to life and contribute to your healing as well as his own.   So, as he has said in earlier editions of Perfect Misfortune, he invites you to grab the tiger's tail as he shares with you the greatest adventure of his life and what could be the beginning of the greatest adventure of yours as well.   About the Author: Allan Flood, author of Perfect Misfortune and Management by Inspiration, lives in Bend, Oregon. His unique and practical perspective of how to find peace and hope in the face of upsetting personal circumstances comes from living with and coming to peace with multiple sclerosis for 35 years. Allan has extensive business and non-profit experience and has seen how important it is to understand where the human experience comes from. With humor and personal warmth, Allan shares with you his insights and how they can improve your health and well-being.   Find his book on Amazon at:   https://a.co/d/igtRqR6     ******** Chris Joseph is a dad, environmental consultant, cancer patient advocate, best selling author, thought leader, public speaker, and founder of two music record companies and a complementary 501(c)(3) non-profit helping New Orleans artists and musicians. He's also a television producer, hobbyist songwriter, podcaster, and a lover of all things outdoors. Over the decades, Chris has served as a board of director for numerous non-profit organizations, and is currently a national board member of NatureBridge. Chris’s first book was the best seller “Life is a Ride: My Unconventional Journey of Cancer Recovery” (2020). He then co-authored "The Epiphanies Project" and is currently finalizing his third book, “The Kitchen Sink Approach to Cancer (And Why You SHOULDN'T Always Listen to Your Doctor)”. For more information about Chris Joseph, please see the following websites: https://my.terrain.network/profile/member/841?tab=overview-tab lifeisaridebook.com terrainnavigators.com and at chrisjoseph AT mac DOT com