Tag Archives: david gottfried

Episode 29 Dr. Srini Pillay

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How we think is of the utmost. Yet we’re still in the infancy of learning about how our minds work.

Have you noticed that many of your best breakthroughs come when you’re not focusing on problem-solving and checking off boxes on your to-do list? Perhaps this occurred in the shower, or a slow hike in nature or while cooking or gardening. For me, I think I make more money from my bike riding than working at my desk.

I’m guilty of hyperfocus, tending towards OCD when I’m on the trail of completing an important task, solving a problem or incubating a new invention. Sometimes I wake up after obsessively walking or running down that path for a period of time and wonder where I’ve been. To my surprise that period of time can be an hour or two, but sometimes even a year or decade. Too much focus can not only blind us, but it also can take us astray from utilizing the broader talents and character of our full personalities and traits.

Dr. Srini Pillay, in his new book, Tinker Dabble Doodle Try [Unlock the power of the unfocused mind], dares us to tap into our ingenuity and brilliance. He shows us how to boost our creativity, master multitasking, getting unstuck and getting to greatness. It’s all in our minds but needs to be harnessed.

I’m excited for you to meet Dr. Srini Pillay in this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show. Our conversation is engaging, and flowing as we learn how our brains can boost productivity as we entertain allowing the unfocused to enter our daily lives.  He writes, “In truth, focus in isolation will actually work against you and disempower you.” Dr. Pillay has one of the most intriguing minds and personalities in my life, and I’m sure you’ll benefit from his erudition. He’s a Harvard trained psychiatrist and professor and an advisor to leading global organizations.

To opening up our minds to full potential!

David Gottfried

Episode 28 Kevin Gianni

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As I age, I not only want to improve and sustain my health, increasingly I want to connect with those that inspire me and speak the truth, grounded in wisdom.

The essence of life is health. For me, it’s health of the planet, our home, and living and nonliving species, including us. What’s up for grabs though, is how we choose to live. This includes what we put into our mouths – is it fueling us or toxic?

I’ve been investigating how to optimally fuel my body the past year – focussing on a ketogenic diet [high fat, low carbs, moderate protein]. I’ve also done two fasts – one was five days and the other I lasted four. Each day I stab my finger for morning blood, measuring my fasting blood sugar and ketones. I measure my sleep index and body fat as well. I have a goal of 13%, given my 2-year obsession with cycling and having to pedal my body up the steep hills.

Finding the optimal food plan that fuels your body for optimal performance is tricky. Insulin plays a big part as do other hormones. These are influenced greatly by stress as well as sleep. Exercise helps us stabilize as does yoga and meditation. And of course, there’s getting rid of sugar, gluten and …

As a green building guy for the past 25 years, I’ve been amazed that us greenies work on making the planet more sustainable, but forget about the most basic structure to green: our own bodies. I used to call myself a fraud because I’d create LEED Platinum buildings all day long, but didn’t even know what a green life entailed, or if I was living one. But that’s a story for another time.

My good friend and colleague, Kevin Gianni, did something we’d all like to do, at least most of us. He and his wife, Annmarie, took off to travel the world, much of it in a 36-foot motorhome fueled by vegetable oil. They set off with an interesting quest: to discover: What — and how much — should we eat. As Kevin writes in his inspiring and hilarious book about the journey, Kale and Coffee, “I was an addict in search of the purest dope: raw, vegan, organic food… I was headed down a path of self-destruction.”

I’m excited for you to meet Kevin Gianni in this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show. Our conversation is funny, honest, informative and inspiring. Kevin is one of the most genuine and authentic of anyone I’ve ever met. And I’m sure you’ll benefit and be humored by him as well.

To your best health!

David

PS: Kevin writes in his book, Kale and Coffee, “The reason we’re so confused about our own health is that the stories we’ve been told are a series of cuts, edits, and rewrites by the media, health gurus, companies, medical doctors, and researchers– in some cases, by total nutcases.”

Episode 26 Brent Constantz

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This month’s reading of CO2 is 407 parts per million. That’s sixteen percent [57 PPM] beyond the highest level advocated by scientists. When I was born we were at 317 PPM. Now, climate change is in full swing with melting glaciers, ocean rise, increasing annual hurricanes, floods, and ocean acidification.

It’s depressing to witness a complete withdrawal of a decade of good work as we push America first – even beyond our ability to sustain and provide for the future.

However, in this new era of climate gloom, there’s still many actions of hope. One bright spot is entrepreneur Brent Constantz, CEO of a fascinating start-up called Blue Planet. The company has patented a biomimic technology inspired by marine ecosystems used to build coral reefs by mineralizing carbon into building and highway materials. In full disclosure, I’m pleased to be on their advisory board.

As a serial inventor, innovation comes naturally to Brent Constantz having founded six Silicon Valley companies. He also has over 100 US patents and another 100 pending. He teaches biomineralization at Stanford University.

I’m excited to introduce you to Brent and share our engaging conversation about the future of Earth in this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show. Click above to listen in to our dialog.

Here’s to abating climate change through economic and practical market-based solutions!

David

Episode 25 Nick Polizzi

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The first time I watched the documentary Sacred Science, I was flabbergasted. I just couldn’t fathom that someone, i.e. producer Nick Polizzi, would make such a film. “Why in the world would he take those sick people into the Amazon rainforest for a month? Who would do that?” I remarked to my wife Sara afterward.

Nick Polizzi is a rare documentary filmmaker. His mission is to learn and teach us about medicinal plant science and hidden secrets. Sacred Science was a blockbuster. Not only is it a highly artful and entertaining, it’s inciteful of the potential of the 44,000 Amazonian plants that can potentially heal us. And yet only about 1% have been studied.

Traditional medicine has much to learn from medicine men of the Amazon. They’ve been studying and passing down knowledge for centuries.

I’m excited to introduce you to filmmaker Nick Polizzi in this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show. He’s funny, charming, witty and insightful. Afterall, who arranges for eight ailing patients to go down and into the jungle to heal in isolated huts under the care of Peru’s indigenous medicine men? Click above and listen in now.

Here’s to healing in natural ways,
D

Episode 24 Hunter Lovins

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I remember the first time I met Hunter Lovins. We were on a joint trip to China, invited by a group sponsored by the mayor of Shanghai. Our mission was to help brainstorm the future sustainability of a city that wanted to double in size in about ten years, adding the equivalent density of San Francisco.

On the morning of the first day we boarded a bus to tour the old city, where they’d started to tear down many of the historic structures for their growth on steroids. I looked over at a woman standing next to Amory Lovins, who I’d met before at a few early U.S. Green Building Council meetings at the renowned Rocky Mountain Institute, one of the foremost environmental NGO think tanks in the world, which Hunter cofounded.

She had on a large black cowboy hat, pointed red and black cowboy boots and a large thick oval metal belt buckle securing her thick brown leather belt around her dark blue jeans. Long braided brownish blonde hair hung down over a checkered pink and white flannel shirt. She looked fit and strong. Later I learned that Hunter was an active rodeo barrel racing champion.

During our intensive US/China brainstorms on how to mitigate the environmental impact of the massive development plans for Shanghai and decades later of good work and interactions, I’ve come to admire Hunter’s prolific mind and passion for nurturing business and capitalism to solve our ecological problems in a win-win.

In this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show, Hunter says, “It has become really apparent that there is a business case for sustainability. Activists used to think that it was simply a moral imperative that we would lose life as we know it on the planet, and that remains true, but what has changed… is that companies have realized that when you behave more responsibly to people and the planet, you make more money. Surprise!”

Hunter has an incredible background. She’s president of Natural Capitalism Solutions and has been a professor of sustainable business at several MBA programs. She’s an author of more than 14 books, global keynote speaker, and Hero of the Planet award winner by Time Magazine. Hunter was Rocky Mountain Institute’s CEO for strategy and has a law degree.

It’s my pleasure to invite you to listen in to our conversation as Hunter Lovins and I discuss the future of business and our planet in this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show.

Episode 23 Alan Christianson

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A few years ago I was in the Caribbean at a business mastermind. On the first morning, I woke up early and took a long walk on a pathway along the sparkling ocean. Just as I was hitting stride about a mile from the hotel, I was startled by an exuberant call.

“Excuse me!”

I jumped to the side of the road as what looks like an ironman triathlete passes me on… a unicycle? Sweat is pouring off the guy’s face, drenching his joy. It was Dr. Alan Christianson.

“Hey, David,” Dr. C shouted. “Great morning for a ride.” I nod my head up and down in awe. I wipe my forehead.

Fast forward one year. I’m in Dr. C’s Prius driving to another business event when he tells me that his other favorite morning sport starting at 5 a.m. is to lift boulders next to his home in Arizona and place them on a wall he’s building. Once the wall is finished, he takes down the boulders and builds another one. And he’s not even in prison.

Not only is Dr. C an uber athlete, but he’s similarly driven in his functional medicine practice. He’s also the author of the New York Times bestseller The Adrenal Reset Diet. At his clinic, he helps patients with thyroid problems, adrenal issues, weight loss, and hormonal imbalance. Dr. C brings a rare blend of intellect, care, humor and cutting-edge personalized medicine.

It’s my pleasure to invite you to join Dr. C and me in this week’s Regen360 iTunes podcast show. You’ll learn how to boost your health and take individual control of your weight, energy, stress and future.

To your health,
David Gottfried

 

Episode 22 Dale Bredesen

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How do you want to age? Most of us fear living out our years in a nursing home as we drool away with an absent mind.

According to my wife Dr. Sara in her new book Younger, the number of people 65 and older that get alzheimer’s disease is expected to triple and that our risk doubles every five years. By age 85 our risk hits fifty percent!

Most of us know someone who has experienced this disease. They lose their memory, language, problem solving and cognitive capabilities.

This week’s Regen360 podcast show features a global expert in treating alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Dale Bredesen practices at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and is a UCLA professor of medicine specializing in neurology. His research and trials give us great hope that alzheimer’s can be reversed through an intensive functional medicine protocol over three to six months.

Dr. Bredesen points out that if we envision a roof with 36 leaking holes and a drug that patches just one hole, we still have a leaky roof. So we need to treat the totality of holes to stop the condition. The key, as always, is to address the multiple root-causes.

Tune in now…

To living younger,
David

Episode 21 Bill Browning

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I remember the first time I heard Bill Browning speak. It was in 1991 at the AIA convention in Boston. Initially, I was sitting in the rear, but I moved to the front row after he’d started so that I could catch every word. Bill is a bit soft spoken and speaks at his own cadence, stopping to smile, chuckle and sprinkle his thoughtful words with humor or more like an erudite riddle. He spoke about terms I’d never heard before: life cycle assessment, embodied energy, blackwater treatment. I wrote so fast in my notebook that it’s a wonder that I didn’t break my pen.

Please join me in this week’s Regen360 podcast show where I have the pleasure of interviewing Bill Browning. We talk about Biomimicry and some of his favorite green projects. We reminisce about the early days of green building such as the greening of the White House.

At that first green convention for me, I learned that Bill had started the green development services arm of the renowned Rocky Mountain Institute, under the tutelage of Amory Lovins. I’d read Amory’s book Soft Energy Paths in my solar engineering course at Stanford in 1981. It was the first time I’d heard the term Amory invented: Negawatt, meaning that a watt of energy saved is equivalent in power to a watt generated, but has a zero ecological footprint.

Bill went on to write several important sustainable building books, including Green Development. We first worked together when I founded ASTM’s green subcommittee and then the U.S. Green Building Council in 1992. Bill was our first environmental organization member and is still active 25 years later.

What I love about Bill is his mind. It’s prolific, almost photographic and critically analytic. It seems that all concepts come easy to Bill and his unique ability is the synthesis and articulation. He can apply his focus to almost any topic, but sustainability and the future survival of humans and other species is his main concern.

Please join me to hear my interview with Bill Brown in this week’s Regen360 podcast show. You’ll understand why Bill is so dear to the world and our future, and worth every minute of your time.

To our sustainable future,
David