Your Life Depends On It

Host Mark Steele and resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider, M.D., interview acting coach Warner Loughlin. She is the acting coach for modern icons like Ryan Reynolds and Amy Adams. Warner started her career as an actress, and during that time she was taught the method of substitution, where the performer takes his or her own past trauma and personal negative experiences and then relives them mentally and emotionally for the sake of the performance. Even though this method was taught by the greats such as Stanislavski and Meisner, it achieved inconsistent results. On one hand, you could produce an Oscar-winning performance, on the other, a complete emotional and mental breakdown. Warner knew that there had to be a better way to get beautiful and moving performances without the threat to an actor’s emotional, mental and physical wellbeing. 

Host Mark Steele and resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider, M.D., interview Dr. Phil Roman, an expert cardiac anesthesiologist. Dr. Roman has trained in some of the leading institutions in the world, including Johns Hopkins and Duke University. However, despite his outstanding credentials, he describes himself as an intellectual late bloomer. Born to a Belgian father and a French mother, Dr. Roman’s childhood spanned the globe before they settled in the southern United States. As a college student in his early 20s, Dr. Roman was experiencing academic ups and downs until one day, a meeting with a guidance counselor gave him the insight that he needed to find his path. 

Host Mark Steele and resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider, M.D., interview Michael Garnsey, a computer forensics investigator with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Department. Michael was named the Nation’s Top Forensic Examiner in 2019. Unfortunately, the esteemed title comes with having a front row seat to the most depraved behavior of the human race. In his work to catch people who victimize children, how does he cope with the brutality of it? He finds strength in his fellow officers and the family they create together. 

Host Mark Steele and resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider, M.D., interview Dr. Kevin Lillehei, chair of Neurosurgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Dr. Kevin Lillehei grew up as the son of the most important pioneer of heart surgery. Every critical development in open heart surgery was inspired or invented by the elder Dr. Lillehei. Years later the torch was passed to the son. Dr. Lillehei has been a pioneer in the field of neuro-oncology. He has made it his life’s work to treat glioblastomas. Glioblastoma is the worst of brain tumors, but Dr. Lillehei approaches them with immunotherapy and an intentional focus on hope. 

Host Mark Steele and resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider, M.D., interview entrepreneur and champion youth football coach, Mike Piha. Mike is the CEO and Co-Founder of HitCheck, a cognitive assessment aid that is transforming the process of rapid concussion diagnosis. Mike’s life passion is coaching youth football. He has coached and inspired young athletes for 30 years. Many of whom have gone on to play college and pro-ball. The inspiration he creates comes from an unorthodox coaching method. He works aggressively with his weakest and least experienced players. He does this not just to shape them into athletes but strong, disciplined, and kind adults. 

Host Mark Steele and resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider, M.D., interview musician and recording artist Taylor Hanson. Taylor has spent the last 25 years of his life creating music with his brothers as a member of the superstar band, Hanson. When Taylor isn’t touring and releasing albums, he is working on eradicating hunger within his home state of Oklahoma. Taylor talks to us about his work with Food On the Move, an organization fighting to solve the predicament of food deserts. He discusses his life mission of building bridges and not walls, to bring people together instead of separating us. This philosophy begins within his own family. 

Host Mark Steele and resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider, M.D., interview finance expert and author Michael (Mike) Wilkerson to discuss his new book, Stormwall: Observations on America in Peril. Mike is a graduate of Yale and Harvard. Mike is also the Chairman of the Board of charity: water, a nonprofit whose mission is to bring clean and safe drinking water to developing countries. He has an outstanding career at the very top of the world of business. Mike unpacks with Dr. Schneider the four confluences that are the perfect storm to a historic moment of grave concern.

Host Mark Steele and resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider, M.D., interview veterinary orthopedic surgeon and expert horseman Dr. Larry Bramlage. Dr. Bramlage opens up about the moments in life that led him to becoming the leading equine veterinarian in the world. Those important turning points in his life caused a ripple effect in the lives of racehorses around the globe. One of those ripples was Dr. Bramlage’s development of the lifesaving fetlock arthrodesis procedure that changed the sport of horseracing.

Host Mark Steele and resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider, M.D., interview renowned hand surgeon Dr. Asif Ilyas. Dr. Ilyas talks to us about two groundbreaking initiatives. One involving a unique way of doing anesthesia for orthopedic operations and the other centering around a new way of communicating to patients about pain control. In both instances, Dr. Ilyas and his partners at the Rothman Institute think out of the box, demonstrating the power of using imagination and science to change the way medicine is done. 

Resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider, M.D., hosts Media Fabrica’s very own Mark Steele. We dive deep into Mark’s early years as an aspiring writer and standup comedian. Mark has used his award-winning career in the creative industry to uniquely tackle the challenges that come from being a parent to children on the autism spectrum. Dave and Mark open us up to what being on the autism spectrum actually means, and what an individual living with this disorder goes through on a daily basis. Mark elaborates on the importance of meeting your loved ones where they are, instead of where you think they should be. Even though the journey of parenthood is teaching and giving your children the tools they need to be as successful as possible, we also learn so much from them along the way.

Host Mark Steele and resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider, M.D., interview award-winning author Wendy Moore. We dive deep into her fifth book, No Man’s Land, the story of the trailblazing women who ran Britain’s most extraordinary military hospital in WW1.  Louisa Garrett Anderson and Flora Murray seized their moment in history and laid the groundwork for the future of women in medicine. They lived by the suffragette’s motto, “Deeds not words,” and with that philosophy they were able to not just get a seat at the table but build their own table. As Wendy painted the picture of what their life was like during the harrowing days of WW1, she challenged her own thought process and reevaluated her convictions for the causes in which she herself believes. 

Host Mark Steele and resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider, M.D., interview Alan Culpepper, an Olympian in both track and the marathon, who understands the nuances of endurance. Alan Culpepper, who began his running career at 15 years old, is versatile on an unheard-of level. Alan has run both under a four-minute mile and a marathon pace of under five minutes per mile. Even though these stats are phenomenal, they were not accomplished by accident, they are a result of preparing well.  Alan’s road to the Olympics was not always a smooth one, but he was able to break down each of his unsuccessful races to expose the weaknesses in his armor. With this knowledge, he was able to build on every “failure” and understand the most necessary miles are usually the toughest miles. 

Host Mark Steele and resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider, M.D., interview Steve Hess, a former strength coach for the Denver Nuggets who believes positivity is the key to success when training professional athletes. Hess landed his dream job with the Nuggets when he was a young South African who never had a real job and was two feet shorter than every player in his charge. Over his career, Hess noticed that the life of the pro athlete seen by the public was not always the total picture. Often, these athletes came from broken homes and backgrounds and were in need of the simple reaffirmation that they could be successful and reach their dreams. This is where Hess discovered positivity is key. His philosophy: empower belief instead of destroying it. In the process, Hess helps pro athletes find physical, mental and emotional peak performance.

Host Mark Steele and resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider speak with Dr. Karen Meech, an expert at the forefront of modern astrophysics. Dr. Meech’s inspiration for her life’s work began at the age of seven when her obsession with Star Trek and camping out under the stars with her father motivated her to write science fiction essays throughout high school. Instead of those pursuits opening the door for a career as a science fiction writer, however, Dr. Meech’s imagination and curiosity granted her access to the vast expanse of space. That curiosity she had as a child grew and led Dr. Meech down a path where she would become the foremost expert on comets in her role as an astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii. As Dr. Meech puts it, “It's the hunt for an answer. You know, you get that little tenacious tingle that you just want to solve something.”

Host Mark Steele and resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider, M.D., interview Dr. David VanSickle, the Colorado neurosurgeon whose groundbreaking work has advanced deep brain stimulation to treat Parkinson's disease.After earning a master’s degree in engineering, Dr. VanSickle heard a new calling and determined that a career as an engineer was not actually the path best suited for him. So he listened to the calling and bravely started over, walking a new path to become a brain surgeon. Along the way, Dr. VanSickle discovered he is dyslexic. At the time, he had no way of knowing that the collision of his two degrees combined with his need to come at learning from unorthodox directions would render him a revolutionary. He was on the path toward becoming a new thinker at the top of his field, and about to break history-making ground in the fight against Parkinson’s disease. In the process of redefining himself, Dr. VanSickle developed insights into what kind of people it requires to truly challenge the status quo in any field and make real progress.Learn more about Dr. Dave Schneider and Mark Steele at MediaFabricaStudio.com.

Host Mark Steele and resident expert Dr. Dave Schneider, M.D., discuss the battle against Covid-19 with Ken Bernard, a retired rear admiral in the United States Public Health Service. Bernard previously served in the George W. Bush Administration as Special Assistant to the President for Biodefense and as Assistant Surgeon General. During this time, he was the lead for public health issues on the National Security Council. Bernard currently serves as an adviser for Stanford Biosecurity, whose mission is to mobilize our community locally, nationally and internationally in creating practical solutions to protect our nation and the world from the infectious disease disasters. He began his career as an epidemiologist and disease detective at the Center for Disease Control, and he's considered a world expert on bioterrorism and biosafety.Learn more about Dr. David Schneider and Mark Steele at MediaFabricaStudio.com