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ReWild Yourself

Welcome to the ReWild Yourself Podcast! I’m Daniel Vitalis, and I’ll be your guide through the world of human ecology and lifestyle design. We’ll explore the strategies that our ancient human bodies and minds need to thrive in a modern world — awakening our instincts and freeing ourselves from the degenerative effects of human domestication.
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ReWild Yourself
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Now displaying: June, 2016
Jun 29, 2016

Jake Steiner — holistic eye guru & natural vision health advocate — learned how to naturally improve his -5D myopia and, in the past decade, has helped thousands of others get their healthy eyes back too. In this episode, Jake is here to give us the lowdown on myopia and how it isn’t actually a disease at all, but instead a contrived illness created by mainstream optometry. The cause of most nearsightedness is (surprise!) staring at screens, small text and the like for extended periods of time. You may be surprised to learn, however — especially those of you with eyesight issues — that myopia can be reversed. This interview is full of insights, tips and strategies on how you can do just that. Tune in to learn Jake’s unique, holistic approach to healing eyesight!

EPISODE BREAKDOWN:

  • Jake’s story and how he learned to beat his -5D myopia
  • What is myopia?
  • Lens-induced myopia
  • Learned helplessness
  • Habit changes to improve your vision
  • Outdoor vs indoor lighting
  • Challenging your eyes to improve your eyesight
  • Two quick tests to measure your eyesight
  • Turning haters into benefactors
  • Jake’s eyesight course and blog
  • Jake’s prognosis for the future of the human species
Jun 21, 2016

Amanda Archibald is a trailblazer in the field of Culinary Genomics — a unique interface between the culinary arts and genomic medicine — and her work is literally changing how we translate the science of nutrition. Science has proven that our lifestyle and dietary choices shape our epigenetic health. In this interview, Amanda details what lifestyle characteristics and foods can produce beneficial gene expression in your body and potentially help you to live a longer, healthier life. She shares some powerful insights on the topic of Social Genomics and the importance of community for epigenetic health that I think you’ll find particularly interesting. Learning how your daily habits and choices literally shape you on a genetic level is a vital tool to add to your toolkit!

EPISODE BREAKDOWN:

  • What is Culinary Genomics?
  • The lifestyle characteristics of centenarians
  • How mothers-to-be can shape their child’s epigenetic health in-utero
  • Social Genomics and social isolation in a more connected world
  • Consequences of contemporary social threats
  • How fostering true social connection can mean living longer
  • Eating wild foods for beneficial gene expression
  • Changing your diet to work with your genes
  • How to incorporate culinary genomics into your diet strategy + work with Amanda
  • Amanda’s prognosis for the future of the human species
Jun 15, 2016

Why aren’t I a Vegan? I get asked this question all the time, and in this solo episode I break down the core reasons why I think we need to reexamine the Vegan approach. I consider myself to be a conscious omnivore and promote a Four Kingdoms approach to diet (eating from the animal, plant, fungal and bacterial kingdoms). In my personal quest for the most natural diet, I was a vegan for about 10 years. In this show, I’ll tell you a bit about my experience as a vegan, why I started eating animal foods again and why long-term veganism is an experiment and maybe not an appropriate diet for a healthy, robust human ape. In the end, I give a strategy for those who still want to see the world go vegan, and explain how they could best achieve that!

EPISODE BREAKDOWN:

  • The issue with “isms"
  • My personal search for the most natural diet
  • The two types of veganism
  • Chimps, bonobos & 3.6 million years of archaeology
  • The hand-raising experiment
  • Anthropomorphic cartoon animals and charismatic megafauna
  • Factory farmed animals
  • Nutrient deficiencies in vegan diets
  • Kids and veganism
  • Social isolation
  • Our hunting lineage
  • How a misanthropic world view takes humans out of the ecosystem
  • Conscious omnivory — the Four Kingdoms of Food
  • The vegan experiment
Jun 8, 2016

Have you ever wondered what your local landscape was like in years past — before sidewalks, stop signs and modern buildings? In this episode, Dan Flores — author of American Serengeti andCoyote America — gives us some context about the history of our North American landscape and ecology. No matter where you are in the world, though, the story he shares is pertinent and relatable. In our very recent past, the Great Plains region of North America was a wild and undomesticated landscape rich with megafauna. Dan shares a bit about how the forces of domestication shaped the ecology of the Great Plains we know today and the promising conservation efforts going into the ReWilding of the American West.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN:

  • How an early fascination with nature & wildlife shaped Dan’s life and work
  • The ecology of the American Serengeti
  • Are wild horses an invasive species of the American West?
  • The role of Homo sapiens in ecology
  • Ecological involvement of Native Americans
  • Native American use of bows and atlatls
  • Canids of North America
  • The wolf in your backyard
  • Coyote’s trickster archetype
  • The war on canids
  • What do coyotes eat?
  • ReWilding the American Serengeti
  • Dan’s prognosis for the future of the human species
Jun 3, 2016

As we often discuss on this show, developing and maintaining a connection to the elements — fire, earth, water, air — is a vital component of a beneficial overall health strategy. Direct, personal connection to your water source is a topic I’m particularly passionate about, and I’ve offered strategies and best practices for procuring your own spring water in a previous episode of the podcast (Why I Forage Wild Water - Daniel Vitalis #80). Gathering your own spring water is not always possible for everyone, for various reasons (location, lack of time, etc), so for all of you on the West Coast, I have an exciting service to share.

Fountain Of Truth Spring Water is sourced from the pristine Opal Springs, which emerges from the earth in the high desert of Central Oregon. Today’s guest, Mukhande Singh, bottles this water in glass jugs at the source and delivers, chilled, right to the doors of spring water drinkers along the West Coast. In this interview, he shares his experience with stewarding a spring and how you West Coasters can take advantage of this wonderful service.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN:

  • Mukhande’s first experiences with spring water
  • How Mukhande came to steward a spring
  • Effects of sterilizing water with UV light
  • Breakdown of Opal Springs
  • How to get water delivered from Opal Springs
  • Mukhande’s prognosis for the future of the human species
Jun 1, 2016

Brian Mackenzie is a human performance and movement specialist, and the innovator of the endurance, strength and conditioning paradigm. Originally, I brought Brian on the show to talk with him about performance breathing (which we do discuss!), but our conversation ends up traversing some fascinating terrain on the topics of harmonizing with the natural world, conditioning your body for adaptation through hormesis, how practicing discipline can actually give you more freedom and why specialization is less than optimal.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN:

  • Harmonizing with the natural world
  • Merging nature with technology in human performance
  • Hormesis — turning down comfort, turning up adaptation
  • Top recovery recommendations
  • Brian’s morning hydration protocol
  • Discipline is everything
  • Developing a breathing practice
  • Specializing vs generalizing | Applying the fundamentals
  • A breathing practice you can do right now
  • Drowning euphoria
  • Brian’s prognosis for the future of the human species
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