Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs

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Your ring or wristband can be the best coach you’ve ever had or the loudest source of stress in your day. We sit down with Don Moxley, a veteran coach who’s spent decades with Olympic and world-class athletes, to make HRV (heart rate variability) finally make sense for normal humans who still want high performance, better recovery, and real longevity.

We get into how HRV started in serious research settings and why it matters: it reflects how well you shift between sympathetic drive and parasympathetic recovery. Don shares what he s...

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One bad call can turn into a whole alternate reality, especially when nobody stops to ask, “What else could this be?” I’m joined by Dr. Scott Standage, a Stanford-trained specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation, to unpack the real-world cost of misdiagnosis through his story and his book, White Coats and Black Swans: A Doctor’s Descent Into Misdiagnosis and Madness.

Scott walks us through how severe sleep apnea and extreme sleep deprivation were brushed aside, how low-risk options like CPAP were ignored, and how powerful medications were escalated without the clos...

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“No evidence of disease” can sound like permission to exhale, but we don’t treat it like the finish line. We talk through the uncomfortable truth behind the phrase: scans can only report what they can detect, and survivorship often becomes a full-time maintenance plan designed to keep cancer from coming back. Joe shares what it feels like when the visible crisis is gone but the stakes are still high, and Dr. Robert Hoffman explains why recurrence can return more aggressive after therapy has already selected for the toughest cells.

We dig in...

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Most families don’t fail because they don’t care. They fail because they’re exhausted, scared, and trapped in patterns that quietly protect addiction and mental health chaos. I sit down with interventionist and counselor Mike Loverde to talk about what actually moves the needle when a loved one refuses help, and why “they have to want it” can be the most dangerous sentence a family ever hears.

We get into trauma-informed care and the surge in mental health symptoms since COVID, not as a trendy talking point, but as a real-wor...

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Cannabis legalization headlines can feel like they’re only about markets, tax revenue, and who gets licensed. We wanted a different angle, so we sat down with Roger Christie, longtime cannabis advocate and author of The First Planting of Cannabis on Earth, to talk about something deeper: why this plant changes people, how prohibition shapes communities, and what “religious freedom” could mean for cannabis going forward. Roger starts with a personal story that’s both simple and startling, how cannabis helped him break a family pattern of alcoholism and sparked a lifelong commitment to healt...

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Your dentist might know more about your overall health than you think and not because they’re guessing. We sit down with Dr. Eugene Antonucci, a longtime New Orleans dentist, wellness coach, author, and LSU professor, to connect the dots between oral health and total-body longevity in a way that’s practical, grounded, and immediately useful. If you’ve ever treated brushing, flossing, food, and exercise as separate boxes, this conversation pulls it all into one clear picture.

We start with Dr. Antonucci’s 40-year view of patients across generations and the hard...

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A wreck can end your old life in seconds, then leave you managing pain for decades. My guest Troy Bergen knows that reality firsthand. He survived a vicious motorcycle crash that shattered his leg, endured years of recovery and surgeries, and then spent more than three decades trying to function while stuck in the loop of pharmaceuticals. When the side effects started stacking up, he made a decision a lot of people talk about but few pull off: find a better path and commit to it.

We talk through what changed...

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A single winter crash can take away your freedom faster than you can process what happened. Reid Robinson knows that reality intimately, and he also knows what it looks like to fight your way back. After a brutal collision left him with a catastrophic lower leg injury and a long stretch of surgeries, setbacks, and pain, he ran into a second problem almost nobody warns you about: crutches can be their own kind of suffering. 

We sit down with Reid, COO of Robinson Exotech Corporation, to unpack the recovery journey that l...

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Most advice for type 2 diabetes starts and ends with “lower your blood sugar.” That sounds logical, until you realize blood sugar can be the smoke, not the fire. Joe Grombine sits down with functional medicine practitioner Dr. Jason Shumard to unpack a different model of insulin resistance and metabolic health, one that focuses on why your cells stop handling fuel well in the first place.

We break down diabetes in plain language: how glucose is supposed to move from food to bloodstream to cells, why insulin is the key, and how chro...

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RT joins me for something different: a live, real-time consultation about prostate cancer, a rising PSA, and the messy reality of trying to self-navigate “natural” and conventional options. He did what many people are told to do, a strict high protein, low carb keto diet with no sugar, and still watched his PSA climb. That moment forces an honest question: if the numbers move the wrong way, what do you change first, and how do you change without panic?

We dig into cancer nutrition in plain language, especially methionine restriction and why...

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You can spend years fighting for people, lose your career to disability, and still find a new way to serve and heal, sometimes because a swarm of bees shows up at exactly the right moment. I’m joined by my longtime friend Devon Davis, whose path runs from cannabis patient advocacy and court support to an unexpected second calling as a beekeeper on the Canadian prairie.

We talk about what it actually means to “rescue a swarm,” why honey bee colonies swarm in the first place, and how queens, workers, and drones...

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A crystal singing bowl can change the whole room, but what does it actually do to you? We sit down with Anaiiz Molina, a yoga instructor stepping into sound healing, to unpack vinyasa flow, sound baths, and the kind of grounded calm that’s hard to explain until you’ve felt it in your body. Along the way, we talk about why the Gardens of Hope has become a space where people from all backgrounds say the same thing: “I feel safe here.”

Anais breaks down vinyasa yoga in a beginner-friendly way, sha...

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A lot of cancer advice sounds confident. Very little of it is actually well sourced. Joe Grumbine sits down with Dr. Robert M. Hoffman to unpack a skill that may matter as much as any single protocol: learning how to find, compare, and pressure-test medical information when the stakes are your life.

We start with Dr. Hoffman’s path from obsessive childhood reading to building a library of old herbal medicine books, then widen the lens to modern pharmacology. Many “synthetic” drugs trace back to compounds found in nature, which makes the us...

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Your morning doesn’t have to start with stress, scrolling, or pushing through. Joe Grumbine welcomes Floraina Threehawk back to the Healthy Living Podcast for a lighter but still deeply grounded conversation about joy, love, and what it means to “walk in beauty” while you’re healing. We connect spirituality and science through the lens of frequency, water memory, and the real-world impact of the words you repeat, the thoughts you feed, and the signals you give your nervous system.

We break down a practical, five-minute morning routine you can actually keep: pl...

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Some conversations don’t feel like “content” at all, they feel like sitting across from someone who has lived through the unthinkable and still chooses love. We’re joined by Floraina Threehawk, a Native American medicine woman and teacher, for a deep talk on trauma, resilience, and why she refuses to call herself anyone’s “healer.” Instead, she frames her role as a guide, someone who can hold presence, tell the truth, and help people remember the healer inside themselves.

Floriana shares parts of her story with care and clarity, including what it means...

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A headache, a sore back, a “bad shoulder” might be real and still not be the real source. We sit down with returning guest Erin Wilkins to unpack how an experienced healer thinks when a client walks in the door and asks for help. Instead of chasing symptoms, we talk about reading the body for clues and choosing from a practical, layered toolkit that blends nursing instincts with hands-on holistic healing.

We get specific about what’s inside that toolkit: massage therapy that functions as both comfort and assessment, osteopathic-style alignment (onsen...

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PCOS gets talked about like a fertility problem, but that framing leaves too many women confused, dismissed, and untreated. We sit down with Christine Horton, a certified health and wellness coach and dental hygienist, to explain why PCOS is now being renamed PMOS and what that signals: a lifelong polyendocrine, metabolic, ovarian syndrome that can touch everything from energy and mood to insulin resistance and heart risk.

We break down the real-world symptoms that should raise flags, including irregular cycles, cystic acne, unexplained weight changes, hair loss or unwanted hair growth...

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You can be a deeply caring person and still feel wrecked after one hard conversation. That’s the tension we get into with returning guest Erin Wilkins: why empaths, helpers, and energy workers sometimes walk away from supporting someone and end up exhausted, overwhelmed, or even physically unwell. We name it plainly, from “psychic flu” to the slow buildup of emotional residue that starts to feel like it’s just your personality now, even when it isn’t.

We explore Joe’s “spiritual barnacles” metaphor and why it fits so well. A little buildup...

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“Cannabis is legal” sounds simple until you try to serve real patients and stay out of trouble. We sit down with Liz McDuffie, director of Medical Cannabis Caregivers (MCC) in Pasadena, to tell the story behind California’s medical cannabis system and why it still leaves people exposed to enforcement, confusion, and fear even in a state covered in dispensary billboards. 

Liz and I go straight at the hard part: medical cannabis didn’t fail because patients didn’t need it. It got derailed by a system that made access easy for almost...

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Your erections might be telling you more about your future than your smartwatch ever will. We sit down with Dr. Elliot Justin, an emergency medicine physician and serial healthcare entrepreneur, to talk about a topic most guys only bring up when something breaks: erectile fitness and what it can reveal about cardiovascular health.

Dr. Justin explains why nocturnal erections aren’t just “morning wood” jokes. He frames them as a measurable, trackable vital sign and a potential leading indicator of heart risk, especially when the number, duration, or firmness drops over time...

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Something powerful happens when a wellness event stops being a sales floor and becomes a place to restore, reconnect, and build real community. Joe Grumbine sits down with returning guest Nita Watson to share the updated plan for a Gardens of Hope gathering centered on “restoration for mind, body, and spirit” and designed for anyone who wants hands-on healing, honest conversation, and a reason to show up for each other.

We talk through what you’ll actually find at the event: wellness vendors, product demos, and experiences like yoga, sound baths, Reiki...

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A cancer drug gets FDA approval and the biggest voices in oncology call it a “grand slam.” We’re not here to dunk on new treatments, we’re here to read the chart. Joe Grumbine sits down with Dr. Robert Hoffman, a research scientist who has spent decades studying methionine dependence in cancer, to ask what the trial results actually say about pancreatic cancer survival, progression-free survival, and the real cost of side effects when families are desperate for hope.

From there, we zoom out to the bigger problem: why so many cli...

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Feeding people sounds simple until you do it in public, for free, every week, with the explicit message that communities deserve food and care more than war budgets. I’m joined by Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs, the global mutual aid movement that has shared free vegetarian and vegan meals in thousands of cities since 1980. Keith walks me through the unlikely chain of moments that shaped him, from a childhood framed by the U.S. military and the National Park Service to discovering civil disobedience and committing to a life of no...

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Your confidence isn’t supposed to collapse every time the internet gets loud. We sit down with Alan Weiss, PhD, consultant, speaker, and prolific author, to talk about the very real self-esteem crisis he’s seeing across entrepreneurs, leaders, and everyday people who no longer trust their own judgment. When you can’t trust yourself, you start borrowing certainty from influencers, headlines, and groupthink, and that constant second-guessing turns into stress that shows up in your body and your relationships. 

We get clear on a distinction that changes everything: ego versus esteem...

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A hacker didn’t just break our website. They took it over, and that was the wake-up call to rebuild Willow Creek Springs from the ground up while keeping orders moving for the people who rely on our natural skincare and herbal remedies. Joe shares the real timeline: decades of small-batch formulation with Liz, an early run at CBD work before most people knew what it was, then the double hit of COVID disruptions and a two-year cancer recovery that forced the business to slow down and reset.

We get practical ab...

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Your body can tell the truth long before your mouth can. We sit down with Erin Wilkins, a dance teacher and dance therapy practitioner with 31 years of experience, to explore why movement therapy can be a lifeline for people carrying trauma, shame, and the feeling of being “stuck” inside themselves.

We talk about dance therapy as a nonverbal healing modality, especially for people who don’t want to retell their story or who can’t find the words yet. Erin explains how he meets each client differently, from someone afraid to move at...

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Your body can look “fine” on the outside while a deeper problem keeps building underneath. Joe Grumbine sits down with Angela Jenkins, founder of Health is Local and a clinical nutrition veteran with 30 plus years in the field, to talk about what changes when you stop treating isolated symptoms and start using a root cause lens.

Angela shares her own turning point with kidney failure and what finally helped her move from watchful waiting to real progress: investigating toxic burden, understanding detox cycles, and using testing strategies like hair analysis to unco...

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Letting go sounds simple until you’re staring at the thing you swore you “needed” to keep. We get real about that moment when caretaking, collecting, or coping crosses the line and starts costing you your peace. From rehoming animals to downsizing daily obligations, we unpack the emotional attachment behind clutter and the quiet fear that says nobody else will do it right, so you have to carry it all.

We also dig into practical self-awareness tools you can use right now: time tracking, journaling, and a brutally honest question to test a...

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A Fortune 125 executive seat, elite credentials, and a life that looks “made” from the outside and yet one sentence slips out at lunch: “My life sucks.” That surprising honesty kicks off our conversation with Sonny Garg, former C-suite leader and author of Desi 2.0: My Family’s American Dream and the Cost of Never Being Enough.

We dig into the real engine behind nonstop striving: chasing validation. Sonny breaks down how self-worth can get welded to achievements, especially for kids of immigrants raised on relentless “shoulds” about school, status, and success. We talk about the...

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Your “gym” doesn’t need mirrors, machines, or a monthly bill. Sometimes it looks like a wheelbarrow, a shovel, and a stretch of uneven ground that forces you to pay attention. From our nonprofit Gardens of Hope in Perris, California, I share how therapeutic horticulture turns outdoor work into real functional fitness and real mental health support, especially when you need a path back to strength.

I also get personal about recovery after stage four squamous cell carcinoma and the lingering side effects of chemotherapy. Weakness, neuropathy, dizziness, and chemo fog can ma...

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Some nights you’re tired, but your body acts like it just drank a gallon of espresso. That’s where our conversation with Erin Wilkins begins: the strange, charged feeling a lot of people report during big weather, seasonal transitions, and astrological windows like Lions Gate. We don’t treat it like a rulebook or a horoscope you have to obey. We treat it like a real human experience worth examining, especially when it impacts sleep, mood, and your ability to feel calm in your own skin.

We zoom out to ask wh...

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Addiction doesn’t always announce itself with a dramatic first hit. Sometimes it starts as a kid trying to quiet a loud, painful mind. Joe Grumbine sits down with author and recovery speaker Austin Rampt, whose memoir One Last Hit spans three decades of substance use, eight rehabs, a heart attack at 21, and a stretch living as a fugitive in Mexico after being forced into treatment under Florida’s Marchman Act.

We talk about the real mechanics of relapse prevention, including the slow “drift” that happens when daily recovery habits fade and life...

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A broken back at 15. A week in a coma. Months in a hospital bed, then a wheelchair, then a walker, then the long grind of learning to move like yourself again. Colin Owensby doesn’t tell that story for shock value, he tells it to show what resilience looks like in real life: small wins, clear choices, and a mindset that treats hardship like a problem to solve. Colin later becomes a two-time Ironman, tackles a 100-mile ultra marathon, and turns his hard-earned lessons into a practical framework he calls the “map of resi...

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You can feel “fine on paper” and still carry something heavy in your body. That’s where our conversation with Erin Wilkins goes, straight past quick fixes and into root cause healing. Erin is a longtime nurse and holistic practitioner, and she shares how her work blends practical care with energy healing tools that focus on what symptoms might be trying to say.

We talk about soul fragment work, a method Erin uses to help people identify parts of themselves that got stuck after trauma, grief, shame, or even subtle moments of sup...

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Discomfort is usually treated like a warning siren: avoid it, numb it, distract from it. But what if it’s also one of the most reliable signals you have for where growth and healing are actually possible? I’m Joe Grumbine, and I’m unpacking the messy, real-world link between discomfort and health, not just physical fitness, but mental health, emotional stability, and spiritual resilience too.

We start with the kinds of discomfort that don’t leave a bruise: sadness, anxiety, anger, stress, and the fallout from loss, trauma, and relationships that go...

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The fastest way to burn out is to confuse compassion with unlimited access. We sit down with returning guest Erin Wilkins to talk about what happens when caregivers, healers, and helpers give so much away that they’re left depleted, foggy, and running on fumes and why “no” can be one of the healthiest choices you ever make.

We dig into the real-life mechanics of sustainable helping: reciprocity, boundaries, and the uncomfortable truth that people often treat your work as valuable only after you do. Joe shares lessons from running a nonpro...

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If you’ve ever thought, “It’s natural, so it can’t hurt me,” this conversation will challenge that assumption fast. Joe Grumbine sits down again with Dr. Robert Hoffman to unpack a scary reality in cancer care: some of the biggest risks don’t come from the hospital, they come from overconfidence, weak evidence, and missing warnings.

We break down a simple, listener-friendly “levels of evidence” ladder, from hearsay and anecdotes to in vitro studies, mouse research, and then phase 1, phase 2, and randomized phase 3 clinical trials. That framework becomes a survival tool fo...

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The supplement world trains us to expect giant “proprietary blends,” but inhalation is a different game. When something goes into your lungs, “probably fine” is not good enough, and vague labels like “natural flavors” can hide a lot more than people realize. 

Joe Grumbine talks with master herbalist Anthony Canillo, founder of Five To One Formulas, about a radically simple approach to herbal vaping: single-herb botanicals infused into coconut-derived organic vegetable glycerin. We unpack why vaporization temperature matters, how combustion creates PAHs, and why adding more ingredients can increase the risk of creating u...

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A tree can be more than shade and fruit. For us, it can be a living reminder that love is real, that prayer is possible, and that healing can start the moment we stop rushing and start paying attention.

Joe Grumbine sits down again with Socrates for a joyful, faith-forward conversation about the Holy Spirit, creation, and why gardens feel like sacred ground. We talk about learning “love” through the trees, the Bible’s repeated return to gardens and water, and the way time outdoors can soften anxiety and fear. Joe also s...