Radical Health Radio

Latest Episodes:

This Ritual Allows You to Channel Creativity on Command | James McCrae Sep 24, 2026

Show notes

Can you really channel creativity on command through your subconscious?

My guest, James McCrae, is a poet, author, and artist behind the WordsAreVibrations project. His take on creativity as channeling reshaped how I think about the creative process.

The opening question I ask him is what it actually feels like to have that many people experience something you posted without a strategy behind it. His answer sets up the rest of the conversation.

We get into the subconscious as a portal, why the conscious mind is like a hard drive and the subconscious is the internet, and how the collective unconscious explains why the same ideas surface around the world at once.

James talks about art as the soil where new mythology gets planted, memes as the smallest unit of a cultural idea, and why politics and culture are downstream of the artists willing to sit still long enough to receive something real.

The cult of seriousness comes up, along with why stillness terrifies most people, AI as a tool rather than the artist, the trap of vanity metrics, and how personal reinvention actually works when the old version of you stops fitting.

Press play if you have been avoiding the thing you know you should be creating.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[3:14] Creativity as widening access to the subconscious

[8:23] What blocks people from their own intuition

[13:06] Why life is not a problem to solve

[16:45] Terence McKenna and the acceleration of human novelty

[24:09] Memes as the smallest unit of a spreading idea

[31:29] The danger of justifying atrocities for your own team

[41:24] Creativity as a way to reinvent your whole life

[47:30] Why stillness is something people are desperate to avoid

[54:14] The surrender that let grace bring the poetry back

[1:07:29] Vanity metrics feel like cocaine

[1:16:05] Whether the best art really comes from heartbreak

Resources Mentioned:

Allen Ginsberg | Website

Find more from James:

James McCrae | Website | Instagram | Substack

Instructions Before Visiting Earth | Poem

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

The Worst Consequence Of The Modern Food System | Chef Aran Goldstein Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

Most chefs teach urgency in the kitchen. Chef Aran Goldstein thinks that's exactly what's severing us from our own dinner tables.

Aran is a chef, writer, and founder of Unprocessed who's cooked from Tuscany to China and now feeds kids at private schools using nose-to-tail, farm-sourced ingredients most parents wouldn't dream of putting in a lunchbox.

He grew up as the overweight kid glued to Julia Child reruns while eating two bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches on a Saturday. In Piedmont, he served blood sausage roasted over potatoes and tripe terrine on Fridays to schoolchildren, and they ran full-sprint to get it.

Aran hasn't bought grocery store pork or chicken in almost two years. He talks about drawing hard lines: never McDonald's, never Chick-fil-A, and the mantra he uses before crossing the threshold into his own house so he doesn't dump frantic energy on his wife and kids.

Paul Chek once said, “Your ‘yes’ has no value until you learn to say ‘no’”. Chef Aran has built a life around that sentence, and he doesn't sell an easy version of it.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[4:45] Food as a lifelong thread, from an overweight kid to a career

[10:56] Waking up before it's too late to change

[18:57] Whether anyone can be truly healthy inside a city

[24:42] The surrender experiment that led Chef Aran to Tennessee

[35:03] Passing on stress instead of nourishment, without slipping into a purity spiral

[50:06] The stress of perfection harms more than the food itself

[57:50] Power follows the blame finger and self-governance

[1:05:12] Men have to move their water every day

[1:18:18] The travel, obsession, and unconventional school kitchens that shaped his career

Resources Mentioned:

The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating by Fergus Henderson | Book

Lineage Provisions - Grass-Fed Air Dried Beef Snacks | Product

Heart and Soil - Beef Organ Supplements | Product

Find more from Chef Aran:

Chef Aran Goldstein | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | LinkedIn

Unprocessed Podcast | Spotify or YouTube

Unprocessed | Substack

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | InstagramRadical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

We're Stuck In A Cult of Seriousness - Here's How to Get Out Sep 09, 2026

Show notes

By every standard metric I was doing great, and I was also miserable, which is where this episode starts.

The cult of seriousness has convinced us that every walk needs a step count, every hobby needs a purpose, and every hour needs an output. My argument is that this obsession with self-optimisation is inefficient, inhumane, and the fastest way to drain the joy out of a life you're supposedly building.

The head is a scarcity factory that runs on prediction and protection, and it will keep you safe by keeping you small. The heart plays a completely different game, and most of us have lost access to it because feelings are inconvenient in a culture that only rewards output.

Andrew Wilkinson's line about successful people being "a walking anxiety disorder harnessed for productivity" sits at the centre of this one for a reason.

There's a specific question I heard years ago that broke my brain and pushed me off the ladder I was climbing. If you've been performing your way through a life that doesn't feel like yours, this is the reframe I wish someone had handed me sooner.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[2:02] The head as a scarcity factory built for survival

[3:34] When everything in life needs a purpose

[5:45] A ladder leaning against the wrong wall

[7:30] Caring less does not mean caring about nothing

[9:16] Asking what your heart wants over your head

[11:29] Why a good question beats any answer given

[13:19] You are the cause of and solution to your problems

[15:01] Dropping the cult of seriousness as a frequency shift

Resources Mentioned:

Ste’s Post - Care Less | Instagram

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

How Skye Mackintosh Got Jacked in 20 Mins/Day With No Gym Sep 02, 2026

Show notes

Skye sat on the idea of posting his workouts for three months because he knew that the second he hit publish, there was no going back.

Skye Mackintosh is the Daily Reps guy, and he's spent the past year proving you don't need a gym, a trainer, or hours a day to get in real shape. He started with pushups and jump squats. Nothing else.

What drew me in was his reason for posting. He didn't do it to build a brand. He did it because he knew that if strangers were watching, he'd finally have to follow through.

We get into the moment his ego took a hit strapping on a weighted vest, why he just told his job of nine years he's done, and how consistency actually works when you're sick, tired, or having a bad day.

There's a real conversation in here about people outsourcing their thinking to AI, why authenticity is becoming the rarest thing online, and how being bored around a campfire might be more valuable than any productivity hack. He also gets into fatherhood, marriage, and the standards he reads to himself every morning.

If you've ever felt intimidated by fitness content or told yourself you don't have time, this one will hit differently.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[3:16] How slogging for hours in the gym became unsustainable

[9:20] Why intensity is the real lever behind 20-minute workouts

[16:11] Reducing friction and designing your environment for consistency

[25:06] Learning to celebrate a milestone that feels like just who you are

[30:59] Finding yourself in silence and boredom

[36:46] What actually changed in Skye's mind and body after one year

[42:17] Imposter syndrome and standing in the fire of online criticism

[47:46] The books, perspectives, and simplicity principles that have shaped how he thinks

[63:13] Marriage, fatherhood, and what truly matters most

[67:57] What's next for Skye, from a possible book to speaking on big stages

Resources Mentioned:

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey | Book or Audiobook

Essentialism by Greg McKeown | Book or Audiobook

Effortless by Greg McKeown | Book or Audiobook

The Power of Bad by John Tierney and Roy F. Baumeister | Book or Audiobook

Find more from Skye:

Skye Macintosh | Instagram

Daily Reps | App

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

Skin Cancer Isn't Caused By The Sun. This Is The Real Cause Aug 26, 2026

Show notes

The sun is not as damaging as you've been told… Zaid Dahhaj shows us where the research breaks.

Zaid runs The Circadian Classroom and studies circadian biology from first principles, which is how he ended up pulling apart the mainstream narrative around melanin, melanoma, and sunscreen.

Once you understand that the research demonising UV is largely built on isolated UV exposure, nocturnal mice, albino mice, and keratinocyte-only petri dishes, the whole "sun causes cancer" story starts to look a lot less airtight.

Melanin gets reframed here as an active defence system rather than damage on a ledger. It's photoprotective, it dissipates UV as heat, and it even chelates certain heavy metals.

Night shift work is classified as a probable carcinogen, and most people are living a low-grade version of it: dark days indoors, and bright nights under LEDs. That's the inversion Zaid keeps coming back to.

We also take a serious look at sunscreen chemistry, vitamin D3, sunglasses and eye health, seed oils and burn risk, and how to build a solar callus without frying yourself on a beach in Costa Rica.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[8:05] Night shift work's carcinogen classification and what it reveals about us all

[11:21] Circadian repair restores UV-damaged cells so there's no accumulated damage

[20:41] The sun-cancer research is built on nocturnal mice and isolated UV

[30:34] The melanoma overdiagnosis problem and dermatology's stage zero caution

[34:26] A tan isn't damage, melanin works as nature's sunscreen

[47:16] The case for actively seeking the sun, and when to do it

[51:58] Sunglasses remove one leg of the circadian stool

[58:46] SPF 50 blocks the very anti-cancer vitamin D your skin needs

[1:09:26] The exact daily routine to build your solar callus without burning

Resources Mentioned:

My Circadian App | Website

Tap Zap App | Website

In Defense of Sunlight by Rowan Jacobsen | Book or Audiobook

Dr. Jack Kruse | Website

A. Bernard Ackerman, MD | Wikipedia

The Rapid Rise in Cutaneous Melanoma Diagnoses by Welch, H.G. et al. | Article

Teo Soleymani, MD | LinkedIn

Use code SUN to get 50% off Zaid’s 80/20 Circadian Course here.

Find more from Zaid:

Zaid K. Dahhaj | Instagram | X | Website

The Circadian Classroom | SubStack

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

Miesha Tate: Winning The Belt Was The Worst Thing That Happened To Me Aug 19, 2026

Show notes

Miesha Tate spent her whole life chasing a UFC world title, and when she won it, it broke her.

Miesha is a former UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion, one of the fighters who cracked women's MMA open at the highest level, and someone who has now spent almost as much time deconstructing what that pursuit cost her as she did chasing it.

We sat down in Malibu and got into the parts of the story you don't usually hear. The moment she realised the gold belt didn't solve a single one of her problems. The years of eating disorders, distilled water weight cuts, and amenorrhea she was privately navigating while headlining pay-per-views. The pregnancy loss earlier this year that forced her to look at what her fighting career had done to her hormones. And the coach whose death became the reason she started her podcast.

Miesha is direct about what she got wrong: the war she waged with her own body, the intuition she overrode because she'd signed on the dotted line, and the mental health cost of being the "strong woman" everyone pointed to. She's also honest about what actually helped her rebuild, from cognitive behavioural therapy to prayer to learning, for the first time in her life, how to be present.

If you've ever confused discipline with self-punishment, this one will resonate.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[9:53] 99% of a cage fight happens inside your own head before the walk out

[15:20] How winning the belt became the biggest breaking point of Miesha’s life

[24:15] The eating disorder, the weight cuts, and drinking distilled water for 72 hours

[40:09] Women need 100 to 300 more calories in the luteal phase, and no diet accounts for it

[52:36] The pregnancy loss she believes was tied to years of under-fueling her body

[1:04:19] How prayer, reconnection, and a cognitive behavioral therapist pulled her out of the darkness

[1:14:40] The balloon exercise that taught her presence for the first time in her life

[1:25:57] Why Miesha believes public school was designed to divide the nuclear family

Resources Mentioned:

ROAR (Women Are Not Small Men) by Stacy T. Sims, PhD | Book

The Period Brain by Sarah E. Hill, PhD | Book

Hold On To Your Kids by Gabor Maté, MD and Gordon Neufeld, PhD | Book

When The Body Says No by Gabor Maté, MD | Book

Dr. Kayla Osterhoff | Website

Find more from Miesha:

Miesha Tate | Instagram | X | Website

Built for Growth | Podcast

Apogee Boise (Micro School) | Website

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

Big Wave Surfer Luca Padua: This Is How You Master Extreme Fear & Anxiety Aug 12, 2026

Show notes

Most people think big wave surfers are fearless. Luca says fear is the only place courage can exist.

Luca Padua is a big wave surfer from Half Moon Bay, California, who grew up two miles from Mavericks, one of the most dangerous waves on Earth. He surfed it for the first time at 13, lived with Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reece for six years, and now runs Bigger Than Waves, a project supporting veteran mental health through VETS.

What surprised me is how honest Luca is about being scared. He was the cautious kid his mom had to walk down the high dive.

He argues fear is intelligence, not weakness. Courage isn't innate; it's built through training, like the pool sessions with Laird that once made him black out. That framing runs through every story he tells, from his first drop at Mavericks with the jagged Boneyard rocks below him to sitting shoulder to shoulder with his childhood heroes in the lineup.

We also get into his path away from enlisting in the military, the letter from a special operations friend that changed his direction, and why he believes purpose has to come before performance.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[6:04] Big wave surfers aren't fearless, and the only place courage can exist

[10:33] The lore of Mavericks and what makes an 80-foot wave so deadly

[23:49] Luca’s fallout with his parents after that first Mavericks session, and finding his path forward

[37:16] The lesson Laird Hamilton taught him about being faithful in the small things

[42:01] Almost enlisting in the military, and how Bigger Than Waves and VETS was born

[53:48] What training with Ido Portal and Christian McCaffrey taught him about being a beginner

[1:00:39] Navigating social media as a distraction machine while staying on the righteous path

Resources Mentioned:

Laird Hamilton | Website

VETS (Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions) | Website

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson | Book

Inside Maverick's: Portrait of a Monster Wave by Doug Acton | Book

In Waves and War | Netflix

Find more from Luca:

Luca Padua | Instagram | YouTube

Bigger Than Waves | Instagram | Website

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

How Psychedelics Modify Your Consciousness & Deeper Beliefs | Dr. Chloe West Aug 05, 2026

Show notes

Psychedelics can expand your consciousness in a way most people can’t imagine.

My guest is Dr. Chloe West, a PhD neuroscientist who's been researching psychedelics for nearly a decade and is now writing a book on psychedelics and religious trauma.

Dr. Chloe explains what happens in the brain during a trip, from increased entropy to disorganized activity in the default mode network. Her framing of the brain as clay, where plasticity softens it, and the trip itself guides how it gets reshaped, is one of the clearest explanations I've heard.

We get into the REBUS model and one finding that stopped me: the research doesn't actually show that psychedelics reliably turn atheists into believers, even though people will swear otherwise. Beliefs about the self, however, are another story.

Her personal story is where this conversation deepens. Chloe grew up in evangelical Christianity in the South, walked away from it in graduate school, and is now researching how psychedelics might offer something the deconstruction space has been missing: a tool for reconstruction.

She describes someone close to her who spent years praying out of fear, and after psychedelics only wanted to pray out of gratitude. That single shift, from fear to gratitude, is what many therapeutic outcomes seem to rest on.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[3:41] Psychedelics as the fastest method for rewiring rigid beliefs

[7:57] Defining consciousness, and whether psychedelics can really expand it

[17:30] Predictive processing turns your brain into a protection machine working against you

[23:08] Why integration matters and how set and setting predict a bad trip

[27:33] Eli Lilly's $3.8 billion DMT bet and why both political sides embrace psychedelics

[37:49] Growing up evangelical and using psychedelics to heal religious trauma

[50:21] Microdosing versus heroic doses, and the new psychedelics that skip the trip

[57:32] Finding your default state of consciousness through silent retreats and breathwork

[1:05:56] Which psychedelic calls to Chloe most, and the mystery of ayahuasca's plant intelligence

Resources Mentioned:

Sky Breath Meditation | Website

Art of Living Retreat Center | Website

For weekly essays on psychedelics, consciousness, and belief, join Dr. Chloe West’s Substack here, or follow her on social media to stay connected.

Find more from Dr. Chloe:

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

Why You Can't Heal Your Traumatic Memories | Jessica Ella Jul 29, 2026

Show notes

The self-help industry convinced you that you can heal yourself… is it true though?

Jessica Ella is the founder of Aaruka® Therapy and a survivor of severe childhood sexual abuse, CPTSD, and repressed memory that didn't surface until she was 30. Her perspective matters because she built the method she needed after Google, Reddit, and a decade of therapy gave her dead ends.

Repression, she explains, is one of the most powerful survival mechanisms the brain has, and there's a reason her memories only returned once her life became safe enough to hold them.

The conversation gets into why plant medicine, breathwork, and standard talk therapy often uncover trauma without actually completing it, and what has to happen at the subconscious, somatic, and energetic level for a memory to stop replaying.

Anyone stuck in the same patterns despite years of work will find something here worth sitting with.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[18:56] How the brain hyper-fixates on sound to block long-term memory access

[28:00] The Stockholm syndrome of remembering your father was your abuser

[34:20] Inside the Aruka method: the four pillars and why we start with the biggest trauma first

[43:24] The shrink ray gun technique and why speaking out loud beats silent processing

[52:51] Why plant medicine and breathwork uncover trauma but can't complete it

[1:11:52] The difference between people who get buried by trauma and those who alchemize it

[1:29:37] Why spirituality can't fix a brain that's been rewired by trauma

Resources Mentioned:

The Aaruka® Healing Exchange | ⁠Practice Portal

⁠For anyone who can't afford therapy right now, the Aaruka® Healing Exchange offers free sessions with a current student. ⁠Submit a request⁠ to get started.

Find more from Jessica:

Jessica Ella | ⁠Website⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠

Aaruka® Therapy | ⁠Instagram⁠

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | ⁠Instagram⁠

Radical Health Radio | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠

Heart and Soil Supplements | ⁠Website⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠X⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠

The Real Reason You Can't Break Your Income Ceiling | Nick Komodina Jul 22, 2026

Show notes

Nick Komodina built a $500k/month business with zero ads, and he almost didn't live long enough to see it.

Nick is a conscious leadership and business mentor, author of Surrender, and one of the most direct voices I've come across on what breaks people once they get what they thought they wanted. The story starts in an Eight Mile trailer park and lands in a backyard with a gun to his head. Between those two points is a version of success most of the online coaching world refuses to talk about.

Comfort is expensive. Faith is not certainty. Self-sabotage is a goal in disguise. Nick unpacks all three with the kind of specificity that makes you uncomfortable in the best way. We also have a real conversation about content, being the guide instead of the hero, and why a massive spike in followers didn't move his engagement numbers at all.

If you've been sitting on a calling and dressing it up as a strategy, this episode names the game you're actually playing.

You’ll learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[3:09] Growing up in a trailer park, and the moment stealing $100 became an identity

[7:37] Some people see through the matrix while others stay NPCs forever

[12:14] Childhood trauma buries the gift God placed inside you

[17:35] The biggest content mistake: positioning yourself as the guide, not the hero

[24:31] How desperate people con themselves using scammy coaches as a tool

[30:18] The night a voice stopped him from pulling the trigger

[35:46] The four pillars of success and why training your weakest muscle matters most

[47:44] Coming off TRT and healing gut infections forced him to pull back from business

[58:46] Adlerian psychology and why you actually don't want to break past 10K months

[1:06:49] Letting the right people opt out is the real content strategy

Follow Nick on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ for more content on conscious leadership, authentic brand building, and turning big visions into reality.

Find more from Nick:

Nick Komodina | ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

Surrender by Nick Komodina | ⁠⁠Book⁠⁠

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠

Radical Health Radio | ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

Heart and Soil Supplements | ⁠⁠Website⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

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