Episode 37
​
Madison Madden is an Ayurvedic practitioner, trained in California and India.  She uses a detoxification practice called Panchakarma to help people remove toxics  from their bodies, as part of an ancient medical tradition, which originated in India. 
​
Madison is the author of a book called Mind Body Food, which tells the tale of her journey from a toxic pesticide exposure, as a toddler, through an impaired childhood.  She finds yoga and Auryvedic medicine and walks a path to healing and health.  Now she helps others along that path. 

Madison is also an expert yoga and somatic practitioner and she lives in Colorado, where she's a consultant at Live Wise. ​

We reference this medical research about getting PFAS out of your blood.  To find auryvedic practitioners in the USA look here. 

​Play audio, below:

Episode 36

Will Chappell is the President of Air and Water Quality, Inc., a Maine-based business that helps homeowners resolve water quality concerns.  Since Maine has a higher percentage of residents drinking from residential wells than any other state, it is a matter of public health to get regular testing for well water.

Toxic heavy metals (arsenic, manganese, uranium) and man-made chemicals (PFAS) can often be present in our residential well water.  Because you cannot see, smell or taste these toxics, it is important to test your residential wells every 3-5 years.  

One can get started by contacting a lab or reaching out to a water treatment business.  In Maine, there are also funds available to help low-income households with testing and remediation expenses. 

Play audio, below:

Episode 32

​Dr. Kyra Naumoff Shields is an Environmental Health Scientist at Healthy Babies, Bright Futures, an organization known for protecting children's developing bodies and brains from neurotoxins, present in our everyday lives. 

Dr. Naumoff Shields is HBBF's Director of the program called  Bright Cities, reducing toxic exposures on a community level.  

She discusses research and engagement the organization has done around toxic-free baby food, the increased incidence of developmental delays and the link between toxics and climate change.

Play audio, below:

Episode 37

Madison Madden is an Ayurvedic practitioner, trained in California and India.  She uses a detoxification practice called Panchakarma to help people remove toxics  from their bodies, as part of an ancient medical tradition, which originated in India. 
​
Madison is the author of a book called Mind Body Food, which tells the tale of her journey from a toxic pesticide exposure, as a toddler, through an impaired childhood.  She finds yoga and Auryvedic medicine and walks a path to healing and health.  Now she helps others along that path. 

Madison is also an expert yoga and somatic practitioner and she lives in Colorado, where she's a consultant at Live Wise. 

A listing of Ayurvedic medicine practitioners can be found here.

Play audio, below:

Episode 26

Frederica Perera, PhD founded Columbia's Center for Children's Environmental Health and is a professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health.  Recently, her book Children's Health and the Perils of Climate Change was published by Oxford University Press, (2022).  

Dr. Perera wrote this book as a wake up call, a call to action.  From her research, she knows that children are particularly at risk from air pollution, mostly caused by fossil fuels.  This book is timely because the cures for children's health are the same as the ones we can employ for climate health, which is considered to be in Code Red Alert, by the UN.  

This book is a resource and a reference for both children's ill health (eg: SIDS, Asthma, ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, anxiety/depression, loss of IQ, mental health) and the more hopeful solution-focused examples that have been demonstrated effective, around the globe. 

Governments have a large role to play in the fix, but Dr. Perera recognizes that individual choices influence others and make a real difference.  Organizations that she recommends:
Fridays for Future
Sunrise Movement
International Youth Climate Movement,
Zero Hour
Earth Uprising
Extinction Rebellion
Moms Clean Air Force
The Society of Fearless Grandmothers
The Elders

Dr. Perera says, "Now's the time" to act.  Our actions can alleviate suffering, costly medical treatments, and death.  Positive changes will benefit us by slowing climate change, making green jobs, recovering human potential  and a creating healthier population/planet, for all species. 

​Play audio, below:

Episode 25

​Dr. Roopa Krithivasan, recently published a 68 page report called Problem Plastic: How Polyester and PET Plastic Can Be Unsafe, Unjust and Unsustainable Materials.  Dr. Krithivasan is the Director of Research for Defend Our Health and has a background in social, ecological and conservation research.  

Dr. Krithivasan discusses the hidden health hazards from the hundreds of chemicals used to make plastics.  For instance, antimony is a chemical used in the plastic finishing process for PET and polyester (plastic bottles, clothing, stuffed animals, packaging), and it is toxic to the liver and heart.  More than 99% of PET and polyester is made from non-renewable fossil gas and oil and is very often created in plants located next to "fenceline communities."  Serious environmental justice issues have been created In these exposed communities.  Often young children and people of color face the greatest harm  to the chemicals used in the plastic plants next door.

Roopa Krithivasan calls for greater corporate responsibility with regard to reducing and/or eliminating the toxics used in plastics production.

Play audio, below:

Episode 23

​Mindi Messmer is an environmental and public health scientist (Clinical and Translational Science, MS) so other parents reached out to her when local families began experiencing a tragic pediatric cancer cluster in Rye, NH 2014. Her empathy for their terribly scary situations led her to become involved as a local activist, leader, and public servant.

Mindi Messmer was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives (2016-2018) where she worked to protect public health through bills on PFAS, arsenic and lead poisoning prevention. She remains committed to cancer prevention and environmental and drinking water protection.

Mindi is the author of Female Disruptors, Stories of Mighty Female Scientists (2022), which she discusses in this interview. 

Play audio, below:

Episode 10

Lori Gramlich represents Old Orchard Beach in the Maine Legislature, where she has introduced numerous bills to support the health of children and clean drinking water.  

Lori uses her skills as a social worker and advocate to protect Mainers from toxic harms that come from PFAS in firefighting foam and household products, arsenic in our residential well water, and keeping glyphosate away from developing children.  

Lori Gramlich shines as a champion of the environment on the Environment and Natural Resources committee. Her reverence for the natural world, and the health of the people who live here, is what motivates her actions and leadership.  
Some of Rep. Gramlich's sponsored bills have become laws, making Maine a national leader in the control of the spreading of PFAS products and holding corporate polluters responsible. 

Bonus: Before the Deluge -- A favorite Jackson Browne song that underscores the relationship between earth health and "the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power." 

Play audio, below: