Motivation, inspiration, sweet scenery: this episode has it all! And that’s because we’re talking to Shannon O'Donnell, a responsible tourism advocate who was named a National Geographic Traveler of the Year for her work helping travelers use grassroots tourism as a force for good. Shannan accomplishes this through Grassroots Volunteering, the world’s largest database of social enterprises empowering travelers to connect to causes and communities in the places they travel, and her book The...

Mike Kelly is the creator of Papa Bear’s Nut Butter (and the titular Papa Bear). He started the business for a simple reason: he loves nut butter! It’s something for the healthy people out there who appreciate life’s indulgences.   But here’s a funny little thing about this conversation – just days after our interview, some big changes happened in Mike’s life and business: Papa Bear’s is actually dissolving! Mike is partnering with up with two other people to start a new food brand focusing...

Today we start our show off with a toast to breakfast for lunch – one of the delicious concepts that Columbus-based Piada Italian Street Food is experimenting with right now.   Our guest, Matt Eisenacher, is the Chief Concept Officer for Piada Italian Street Food. It’s a great title, and it means he oversees the branding, marketing, IT, and business development efforts as the restaurant expands nationwide. Matt joined Piada in 2013, when they had 16 restaurants open, and has overseen a LOT...

Today we raise our glasses to the Taco Touchers out there, which is what you call the amazing people that make your food with love at Joe Kahn’s Condado Tacos.   Joe worked as everything from a busboy at Sizzler to a roller skating server to restaurant manager before he and his wife came up with the idea for Condado Tacos, the go-to taco joint for Columbus that is quickly growing through the Midwest. They specialize in creating unique (stuffed) tacos, guacamole, and margaritas at affordable...

Formerly an architect and marketing consultant in Italy, now a production designer and private chef in LA: today’s guest, Alessandra Manias, is just bursting at the seams with passion and creativity.   Alessandra started Saor Project with her husband, Gianluca Zago, to share the origin of ancient Italian culture, particularly northeastern Italian cuisine, with a wider audience. The real Italian traditions are based on a peasant culture and poor food, which is disappearing in the modern...

Birk O'Halloran leads us in a toast to “getting drunk with the right people at the right time” – and it’s so forking appropriate for this episode (and, heck, the past 68 episodes too)! Birk is the owner of winemaker Iconic Wine, the author of Eat Ink, and a former sommelier.   When Birk started writing Eat Ink, he was trying to answer an age-old question: Why do all chefs look like pirates? It ultimately became a cookbook, but it began as a photo story about tattoos, misfits, and the...

Nik Hawks & Lee Selman are the co-founders of Paleo Treats, and let me just say: you do not have to be paleo to enjoy these forking delicious snacks!   These two are a really cute couple and wonderful business partners, with wild backgrounds. Nik is a former Navy SEAL and serial entrepreneur who is really just a badass, genuine, and sweet guy. Lee is pretty much an adventurer-turned-artist and entrepreneur, having previously lived in Nicaragua during the Iran-Contra war and co-founded...

Chef Sandy Siles is one of the best chefs in Costa Rica. He is Costa Rica’s Ambassador of National Gastronomy and the chef at the incredible Shambala Restaurant. He cooks with a really unique combination of flavors and techniques, resulting in some of the best tasting dishes you’ve never seen before.   On top of that,  Chef Randy Siles runs a Foundation named Artesanos de la Gastronomia or Gastronomic Artisans, where he mentors young people in Santa Teresa and gives them the opportunity to...

Chef James Kelly, or Jim for short, is a Southern New Jersey boy who relocated to Costa Rica nearly a decade ago. He is now the Executive Chef & Owner of Soma Chef Services, in addition to being a Partner in La Buena Paleta (which produces coconut water-based organic fruit & vegetable ice pops with superfoods in them) and the Owner of Dos Santos Taqueria (a cantina and food truck).   Soma is absolutely incredible – a collaborative effort between Costa Rica's finest food, beverage,...

Georges Lefebvre is the magnanimous madman who created Hacienda Okhra, a concept community and farm located in the breathtaking hills of Las Delicias, just above the town of Mal Pais on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. Although it started as a home for Georges and a few friends, this community has grown into an impressive business and they actually supply food for a good majority of the locals in the area.   This dream-like community features premium facilities, 106...

Today our guest leads us in a toast to meeting new people, the beautiful jungle atmosphere, and being able to do what we love and connect with people. It was the perfect toast to kick off my very first conversation with Rima Danielle Jomaa, AKA Rima the Jungle Girl.   Rima is an entrepreneur, licensed marriage counselor, and vegan lifestyle advocate. She’s really incorporated an incredible brand and lifestyle, inspiring and activating others to reclaim their health, happiness, and freedom...

I had quite the adventure with Ryan Bickle, the owner and master brewer of Butterfly Brewing Company, a “hill-top jungle-brewery-butterfly-garden by the sea.”   The garden and nanobrewery are located in Montezuma, Costa Rica, on the southern tip of the peninsula. The beers are just forking delicious, but if that isn’t enough, you can enjoy them while taking in the view of countless neotropical butterflies. And if you want to see the place, you can check out the videos I took on Facebook:...

This is the first episode from my forking awesome Costa Rica adventure! I had the opportunity to sit down with Paige Cain, an Owner/Operator of Hotel Mono Azul – which means Blue Monkey. The hotel is family run, located in the heart of the lush Costa Rican rainforests and pacific beaches of Manuel Antonio.   Due to different resources, laws, and regulations, things in the food & hospitality world are done quite a bit differently in Costa Rica. Paige gives us a peek behind the curtain,...

Today Jessica Jebout leads us in a toast to our future: where our lovers are the truest, our friends are the staunchest, our bank account is the largest, and our liver is no worse for the wear!   And today, we toast with an untraditional drink: the non-alcoholic beer St. Pauli. You see, Jessica is a sober lifestyle guide and the creator of A Sober Girls Guide, a how-to for navigating through love and life from a sober point of view – something that is not necessarily easy to do as a...

Today we’re checking back in with our very first guest, Brooke Rewa, Founder of Made with Love Wellness. So much has happened in the last year, so we have a lot to talk about: rebranding, starting over from scratch, new products, a lot of delicious juice, and how she (somehow!) looks even more forking radiant than last time we talked!   If you haven’t heard Brooke’s first episode, or if you just need to brush up on her pro tips, you can find it at justforkingaround.net/001.   “One bottle...

Today we toast to the invisible people in the food system: the farmers, the farm workers, the truckers, the people behind the scenes in restaurants, and the women throughout history – a passion for today’s forking awesome guest.   Audra Mulkern is an author, photographer, and farm-to-table documentarian. She is the Executive Producer and host of the in-development documentary film Women’s Work: the untold story of America’s female farmers, and Founder of The Female Farmer Project, a...

Today we toast to building community! I met Jeremy Redman, host of Not Boring Business and Founder of AirFive, at one of his live podcast events just a few weeks ago. It was an amazing event where we enjoyed good beer, great company, and a collaborative atmosphere: the perfect ingredients for a forking awesome community!   AirFive has gone through a few different iterations – a digital business card app, an alumni association app, event influencers, and drink subscripscriptions – but, at...

Your requests have been answered: Kelly Roach is back for another episode!! If you didn’t hear our first episode, Kelly is the host of Unstoppable Success Radio, an international best-selling author, strategist, motivator, and really just a badass. She’s also in the process of launching a brand-new company, Give Her Courage, a personal development company for kids that is focused on instilling courage and confidence in girls at a very young age.   You might wonder, what does Kelly Roach have...

Resilience, passion, mardi gras, crawfish, beer, music, and the people: there’s a lot to love in New Orleans, and the ONE thing that brings people together more than the food is a mutual love of cocktails. In celebration of this – and everything else in the city’s vibrant, three-hundred year history – we are chatting with Eileen Bivalacqua & Mary Anna Rogers, co-owners of Seven Three Distilling.   Eileen is the distiller’s resident “Boss Lady,” making sure that everything is organized and...

Pia Carusone, with her co-founder Rachel Gardner, opened Republic Restoratives Distillery in May 2016 – the only crowd-funded distillery in the country and the first women-owned distillery in D.C.   So how did Pia get to be the owner of a distillery in our nation’s capital? Hold onto something, because this story is full of emotion, determination, calculation, cheer, and inspiration.   Are you ready for an adventure? Because I want to show you a side of the LA food scene that most people will...

This week, our series on the badass women in the spirits world stays local! I got to join Litty Mathew in person at Greenbar Distillery, the first distillery to open in LA after prohibition ended. Litty is the co-founder and spiritsmaker at Greenbar Distillery, where she and her husband oversee a growing portfolio of small-batch, organic spirits – the largest in the world!   https://www.facebook.com/debi.saltzberg/videos/10155512593228042/     Litty kicks the episode off with a toast to being...

Lacie Thornton is our fourth badass female distiller in three episodes, and she knows a thing or two about both sharks and booze!! Lacie is one of two distillers at Grand Traverse Distillery, where she is responsible for the production of vodka, gin, rum, bourbon, and rye whiskey at Michigan's first Craft Certified Grain-to-Bottle distillery. They’re a small company, but they produce more booze than any other distiller in the state of Michigan! In a former life, Lacie was a scientist working...

Today we’re talking to another kick-ass, badass female distiller: Ashby Marshall, Co-Founder & Brand Director of Spirit Works Distillery. I’m not kidding when I say Ashby is a forking badass. She met her husband and co-founder, Timo, while they were both sailing around on the Rainbow Warrior for Greenpeace. Wow!!     Just a few years later, they laid anchor in the Bay area. They originally wanted to work with local microdistilleries to reproduce a version of Timo’s family Sloe Gin recipe,...

In November, 2015, this dynamic duo broke ground on the 15,000-square-foot distillery in Shelbyville, KY. Joyce is the Master Distiller behind the operation, while her daughter Autumn acts as Co-Owner and Marketing Manager. And although Jeptha Creed is still very young, they’re already creating incredible buzz in the spirits world.   This episode is sponsored by Ora Organic, my favorite supplement company because they use only organic and sustainable ingredients in ALL of their supplements,...

  Returning guest Lorri Moore joins us on the boat once again, with a bottle of bubbly white wine and a toast to living the CBD lifestyle: healthy and abundant in all things wonderful. Lorri is the Founder of Iron Horse Organics, and her mission is to provide both individuals and animals with pharmaceutical grade, full spectrum hemp oil extracts.   This episode is sponsored by Ora Organic, my favorite supplement company because they use only organic and sustainable ingredients in ALL of their...