Why Real Food Brands Are Hard to Build — ft. Rawia Abdel Samad

The Truth About Organic, Local Food & Living Better ft. Kawai Bitto

What if the most powerful thing you could do for your health was simply knowing where your food comes from? This week, Ali sits down with Kawai Bitto, Director of Market Operations at North Union Farmers Market, for a rich conversation on local food systems, food access, seasonal eating, and the real-life impact of supporting small farms and local makers. They dig into why local often beats organic, how farmers markets serve every budget (SNAP, WIC, and Produce Perks included), how motherhood shapes food choices, and what it means to vote with your dollars — one market visit at a time.  🍑This episode is brought to you by TheCheekyClean Collagen. Use code RAW10 for 10% off at consciouscart.com. [https://www.consciouscart.com/] Connect with Kawai: 📱 Instagram: instagram.com/waianiani [http://instagram.com/waianiani] | instagram.com/northunionfarmersmarket [http://instagram.com/northunionfarmersmarket]  🌐 Website: northunionfarmersmarket.org [http://northunionfarmersmarket.org]  Connect with Ali: 📱 Instagram: instagram.com/thecheekyclean [http://instagram.com/thecheekyclean] instagram.com/rawthepod [instagram.com/rawthepod] ───────────────────────────── Show Notes + Other RAW Resources: This Week's Episode: https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast/episodes/organic-vs-local-food-farmers-markets-kawai-bitto [https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast/episodes/organic-vs-local-food-farmers-markets-kawai-bitto]  All Episodes: https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast [https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast]

When You Change Yourself, You Change the World — ft. Tony Kost

In this powerful episode of RAW, host Alison Hite (Thacker) – founder of TheCheekyClean and Conscious Cart – sits down with Tony Kost — Cleveland hospitality leader, event coordinator at Cordelia, and nearly 10 years sober — for one of the most honest conversations about addiction and recovery the show has hosted. Tony shares his full story: alcoholism in the restaurant industry, rock bottom, detox, shame, relapse, therapy, grief, and the long, nonlinear work of building a life from the inside out. Together, he and Ali explore how comparison, disconnection, and social pressure keep people stuck — and why sobriety, community, and radical self-honesty are what set people free. This episode is for anyone questioning their relationship with alcohol, supporting someone in recovery, or simply trying to live more authentically. Follow Tony: https://www.instagram.com/tony_and_oscarjames/ [https://www.instagram.com/tony_and_oscarjames/]  Follow TheCheekyClean: https://www.instagram.com/thecheekyclean [https://www.instagram.com/thecheekyclean]  🌿 This episode is sponsored by TheCheekyClean Collagen — use code RAW10 for 10% off Collagen at https://www.consciouscart.com [https://www.consciouscart.com]  ───────────────────────────── Show Notes + Other RAW Resources: This Week’s Episode: https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast/episodes/sobriety-addiction-recovery-self-love-tony-kost [https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast/episodes/sobriety-addiction-recovery-self-love-tony-kost]  All Episodes: https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast/episodes [https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast/episodes]

The Reality of Adoption — ft. Becca Gordon

In this episode of RAW, host Alison Hite (Thacker) – founder of TheCheekyClean and Conscious Cart –  sits down with Becca Gordon — mom, entrepreneur, and founder of Bloom Social Haus and Stella and Shay Beauty Bar in Cleveland — to share the unfiltered story of her journey to motherhood through infertility, private adoption, foster care, failed placements, and finally, the day she became a mom to twin daughters. Becca talks about what the process of adoption and fostering actually looked like — the paperwork, the uncertainty, the grief, the love — and why more families need to hear the real story, not just the highlight reel. This is a conversation about resilience, community, surrender, and a motherhood that looked nothing like she planned — and became exactly what was meant for her. Follow Becca: https://instagram.com/itsbeccagordon [https://instagram.com/itsbeccagordon]  Follow TheCheekyClean: https://instagram.com/thecheekyclean [https://instagram.com/thecheekyclean] SHOP Clean Collagen: https://www.consciouscart.com/ [https://www.consciouscart.com/] ───────────────────────────── Show Notes + Other RAW Resources: This Week’s Episode: https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast/episodes/adoption-foster-care-infertility-motherhood-becca-gordon [https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast/episodes/adoption-foster-care-infertility-motherhood-becca-gordon]  All Episodes: https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast [https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast]

Why Real Food Brands Are Hard to Build — ft. Rawia Abdel Samad

In this episode of RAW, host Alison Hite (Thacker) from TheCheekyClean sits down with Rawia Abdel Samad — founder of Beituti, a modern Lebanese pantry brand bringing bold, clean-label Middle Eastern flavors into everyday cooking. Rawia shares her journey from growing up in Lebanon, where food was seasonal and deeply tied to family, to leaving a corporate consulting career and building a food company as a mom of three — one with no seed oils, no added sugars, and no shortcuts. They unpack the honest reality of what it takes to build a mission-driven food brand, why clean ingredients are structurally harder to work with, and what it means to carry your culture on a product label during conflict back home. This conversation is about food — and so much more than food. 🔗 Shop Beituti: https://eatbeituti.com [https://eatbeituti.com]  💰Code FIRSTBITE20 for 20% off your first order Follow Beituti: https://instagram.com/eatbeituti [https://instagram.com/eatbeituti]   Follow TheCheekyClean: https://instagram.com/thecheekyclean [https://instagram.com/thecheekyclean] Shop TheCheekyClean Collagen: ConsciousCart.com [https://www.consciouscart.com/] ───────────────────────────── Show Notes + Other RAW Resources: This Week’s Episode: https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast/episodes/clean-label-food-brand-eat-beituti-rawia-abdel-samad [https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast/episodes/clean-label-food-brand-eat-beituti-rawia-abdel-samad]   All Episodes: https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast [https://www.thecheekyclean.com/podcast]

The War on Women's Health — ft. Emily Sadri, NP

In this episode of Raw, host Alison Hite (Thacker) – founder of TheCheekyClean and Conscious Cart – sits down with Emily Sadri, CNM, APRN, founder of Aurelia Health, to unpack why so many women feel dismissed, confused, and underserved when it comes to health. From early perimenopause symptoms like anxiety, brain fog, and sleep disruption, to the failures of conventional women's healthcare, this conversation makes one thing clear: your symptoms are not random. They are signals. Emily shares her journey from working inside the traditional medical system to building a hormones-first telemedicine practice, and breaks down what women deserve to understand about estrogen, metabolism, ovulation, postpartum depletion, birth control, and root-cause hormonal care. This episode is for every woman who has been told her labs are "normal" when her body is telling her something different. ⁠🔗 Work with Emily⁠ [http://aureliahealth.com/get-started-with-aurelia] 💰 Code CHEEKY100 for $100 off the Hormone Deep Dive ⁠Follow Emily⁠ [http://%20instagram.com/emilysadri_np] ⁠Follow TheCheekyClean⁠ [http://instagram.com/thecheekyclean] More Clean Living Resources [https://www.thecheekyclean.com/] ⁠⁠Shop Clean Essentials You Can Trust [https://www.consciouscart.com/] ⁠⁠ [https://www.consciouscart.com/] perimenopause, menopause, hormone imbalance, women’s hormones, estrogen, progesterone, HRT, metabolism, insulin resistance, anxiety, sleep issues, fertility, birth control, autoimmune, women’s health, functional medicine, hormone therapy, midlife health, root cause healing