How fit is your gut? Are you racking up your plant points this week? If you have gut issues and are confused by elimination diets, Fiber Fueled (2020) by Will Bulsiewicz, might be a good read. Listen in as Eleanor and Kristen start a critical conversation about his Plant-Based Gut Health Program for losing weight, restoring your health, and optimizing your microbiome. We would appreciate it if you would subscribe/follow the podcast to hear more about this book!...

White chocolate and anchovies, anyone? This week, we opened a book by Bob Holmes, FLAVOR: The Science of Our Most Neglected Sense (2017).  He takes us on an exploration of the sum of all the sensations we get when we have food in our mouth. He goes all over the world to talk to researchers, food corporation executives, chefs, and “home cooks.”  Kristen and Eleanor had fun talking about Holmes' insights on flavor pairings, wine tasting, how we can experience...

Are you actively engaged with your money? A hoarder/ a spender? A money addict?  Or are you indifferent and try to have nothing to do with money? Or do you actively stay as far away from money as possible? A monk? Do you need a checkup on your Money IQ (Intelligent Quotient) and your Money EQ (Emotional Quotient)? Is your money infected with Happiness?  Eleanor and Kristen review a fun book about our relationship with money and how it might be affecting our...

How long do you want to live? Is your goal to live without disease? How could you do that? If you are intrigued, this book might be for you. Dr. Peter Attia, MD, describes his vision of a new medical model (Medicine 3.0) that is very exciting because it is based on preventing disease or reducing our risks. Kristen and Eleanor tip-toe through some of the highlights of the book OUTLIVE: The Science & Art of Longevity by Peter Attia with Bill Gifford (2023)....

Bring the balloons and sound the horns—it’s a celebration. Tune in as Kristen, Eleanor, and Tim celebrate the THIRD year of the Health Geeks Book Club Podcast. They are still committed to bringing you wellness book reviews and sharing what’s up next on their reading list! We would appreciate it if you would subscribe/follow the podcast to hear more about these books! And you can purchase them via an affiliate link by visiting the "Bookstore" tab above. This episode is sponsored by: 360...

Do you ever think about the relationship of pleasure and pain in your life? Dopamine is getting more attention in the scientific and medical community as well as in "Corporate America." We have unprecedented access to gambling, shopping, food, drugs, social media, news media, video….  In her book, DOPAMINE NATION: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence (2021), Anna Lembke, Ph.D. explores and reveals the trauma that is unfolding. She skillfully condenses our complex...

Have you made what you thought was a commitment to improving your exercise, or other health-related behaviors, only to give up and disappoint yourself? Michelle Segar has written a book to help us understand the science-based reasons why it’s not our fault that we have failed to stick with those plans. She gives us a new and simple framework for SUSTAINABLE success! Kristen and Eleanor jump into a robust discussion of this “on point” book-- NO SWEAT: How the Simple Science of...

Do you, or someone you know, have an autoimmune disease? Have you ever heard of Lupus? Amanda Chay has written a book about her tortuous journey to a diagnosis and her experience living with Lupus. Her book, THE GIRLFRIEND’S GUIDE TO LUPUS: How to Control Your Sh^tty Diagnosis (2023) is “an honest exploration of the challenges of coping with a chronic illness: (Liz S. Lupus Warrior).  Kristen and Eleanor were so pleased to have Amanda join us on our podcast. We talked...

Have you been told by a doctor that you need to lose weight? Do you need caffeine to keep you going throughout the day? Is your mood variable? Do you experience brain fog? Do you have prediabetes or type 2 diabetes? Do you have trouble sleeping? This book might be for you. Maybe your blood glucose levels are out of whack?  Kristen and Eleanor dig down into a central topic of our health as Jessie Inchauspé leads us through her 2022 book GLUCOSE...

Have you experienced a moment of awe recently? Did you make a “vocal burst” when you did? Did you get teary or goosebumps? How did you feel right after experiencing awe?  Dacher Keltner shares what he has learned about the experience of “awe,” an emotional state that deserves attention. He examines it through the lenses of science, culture, and personal stories. He speculates on the evolutionary influence of awe and the importance of awe to our good...

If you could have a biometer that tells you the nutrient content of your fresh food, like a carrot, would you use one at the grocery store? Do you buy organic produce? Do you know how your food is grown? Do you think it makes a difference to your health? And what is this about grass-fed beef?  Kristen and Eleanor let Robert R. Montgomery and Anne Bikle take them on a tour of the history of regenerative farming and why we SHOULD focus on the health of our soils....

Are you a “good” housekeeper”? Are you just lazy, or is your mother-in-law? Is there a relationship between the condition of our house, our home, our  “space,” and our health? Jennifer Hammon, owner of Monarch Living LLC and a professional organizer and move manager joins Kristen and Eleanor to talk about KC Davis’s simple little book HOW TO KEEP HOUSE WHILE DROWNING: a gentle approach to cleaning and organizing (2020).  This book is so much more than you might...

Do you drink coffee and forget to exercise? We invited one of our favorite authors, Health Skeptic Robert J. Davis, PhD back into the studio to discuss TWO more of his books. We started with Coffee is Bad Good for You (2012), a book where he reviews scientific evidence on drinks (coffee/wine/milk), dietary fats, carbohydrates, sugars, spices, chocolate, garlic meat, fish, vegetarian diets and so much more. We couldn’t cover all those topics, but we picked some to...

How many times have you told yourself that you would live a healthier life- will eat better and exercise more? How many times have you disappointed yourself by not sticking to your plan? Michelle Segar, PhD rewrites the story of behavior change in her book, THE JOY CHOICE: How to Finally Achieve Lasting Changes in Eating and Exercise (2022). Kristen and Eleanor found this book revolutionary and had a robust coffee chat/ book club meeting sharing some of the provocative...

When was the last time you truly had fun? Has it been a while? It turns out that having fun is critical to our good health. We found a book that calls our attention to something that most of us are missing in our lives. We invited Carolyn Bennett-Sullivan, from Soft Golf (a business based on fun) to join us this week. We discuss THE POWER OF FUN: How to Feel Alive Again by Catherine Price (2021), and Producer Tim pipes in too. This is one of our...

Kristen and Eleanor get recharged and read some books. In the meantime, here's a revisiting of Episode #63. Do you wake up anxious? Worry through the day? Binge worry late into the night? Are you part of the 80% of Americans who are anxious, according to the APA (American Psychiatric Association)? The Health Geeks, Kristen and Eleanor, think all of us should read this book. We loved talking about the stories and the brain tools that Judson...

Once you finish a book, do you move on? Or do you keep thinking about it? We keep our conversation going and want you to join us. Need a summer read? Eleanor is still thinking about David Linden‘s fascination with our skin’s sensory receptors discussed in the book TOUCH: The science of hand, heart, and mind. Touch is so interconnected to our emotions, our language, and our relationship with the world- just think about that. Kristen reflects on the books that...

If you had to give up one of your senses, would it be touch? What do you know about how touch serves you? Kristen and Eleanor plow into the science of touch as presented by David J Linden, a neuroscientist, professor, and writer in his 2016 book TOUCH: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind. “With a novelist’s flair for anecdote, Linden unpacks the science behind touch by revealing how the sense informs and motivates us in everyday situations!”-The Scientist We...

Who can you really count on to be dependable when you need help? If you could stop working without loss of income, would you? What would you do instead? Complete the following sentence anyway you wish: A person feels good when…..?  These are some of the questions people involved in the longest-running scientific study of Happiness thought about and answered.  Eleanor and Kristen talk about topics in adult development from the new book THE GOOD LIFE: Lessons...

Can money buy happiness? How much of our happiness is under our control? How should we be spending our time?  How do you assess your social fitness? Do our relationships affect our health?  Kristen and Eleanor found a book that they both liked. In this episode, they begin to share some of the highlights from this hot-off-the-press book-- THE GOOD LIFE: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Robert Waldinger, MD, and...

Do you need some company today? Join Eleanor and Kristen for a casual talk as the conversation continues about the books they have read. They giggle a bit and share common foibles and tips from their reading that are helpful.  Who else is reading books with us? Do people recommend books to you? Are they ones we have reviewed or might like to read?    We encourage you to keep talking about the books you read, don’t dismiss them, embrace them, and...

What happens to the voices in our heads when something terrible happens? How do we help each other recover from traumatic experiences? How can the cognitive and emotional aspects of the experience blend in healing? Kristen and Eleanor talk about more of the tools Ethan Kross reviews to help us “resolve the tension between getting caught in negative thought spirals and thinking clearly and constructively”. This book just keeps getting more interesting, so we...

Do you like to share your negative experiences with others? Do you encourage your friends to talk about their negative experiences or do you try to distract them? Do you like it when people overshare with you? Ethan Kross reveals surprising interactions he discovered in his professional career and writes about them in his 2021 book. Eleanor and Kristen share some insights about empathy and social media interaction and its influence on our self-talk. We...

Do you ever talk to yourself? Do you ever feel crazy for talking to yourself?  Who is really in our heads?  Ethan Kross explores those voices in our heads in his book, CHATTER: The Voices in our Head, Why it Matters, and How to Harness It (2021).   Kristen and Eleanor decided to take a few episodes to really dig into why we talk to ourselves, why it sometimes backfires on us, and how we help ourselves and others when the voices become hurtful.  We just...