Podcasts about julia you

Julia Masli is an award-winning clown from Estonia, now based in London.Her latest show, “ha ha ha ha ha ha ha” was nominated for Edinburgh's top prize of Best Comedy Show and named number one comedy show of the year by the 'Guardian'. Having now completed a 4-week sold out run of shows at London's Soho Theatre, Julia will embark on a 4 week Off-Broadway transfer to save the USA at Soho Playhouse in New York.We discuss the importance of physical communication when learning a new language, attending Gaulier with the likes of Viggo Venn and vulnerability within an largely improvised show.Join the Insiders Club at patreon.com/comcompod where you can WATCH the full episode and get access to 30 minutes of extras including protecting yourself when things go wrong, performing long runs of the same show and committing to the things that'll bring you joy.Support the Podcast at Patreon.com/ComComPod☑️ Get full video episodes (including this one)☑️ Extra content now in video as well as audio (including 30 minutes with Julia)☑️ Exclusive guest announcements and engagement ☑️ New membership offerings including a monthly “Stu&A” which is a Q&A with me with a fun title.Catch Up with Julia:You can see "Julia Masli: ha ha ha ha ha ha ha" in:NEW YORK from 15th May through to the 8th JuneBRIGHTON on 25th OctoberLONDON from 3rd December 2024 through to 11th January 2025 Find out more at www.juliamasli.com. You can also follow Julia on Twitter and Instagram.Everything Stu's up to:Mach SPOILERS | May 2024: https://machcomedyfest.co.uk/show/2024/stuart-goldsmith-spoilers/Mach CCP Redacted | May 2024: https://machcomedyfest.co.uk/show/2024/stuart-goldsmith-the-comedians-comedian-podcast-redacted-2/Wells | May 2024: https://www.wellscomfest.com/whats-on/stuart-goldsmith-2024Discover Stu's comedy about the climate crisis, for everyone from activists to CEOs, at www.stuartgoldsmith.com/climate.Find everything else you at linktr.ee/stuartgoldsmith. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After infertility and an initial C-section due to breech presentation, Julia knew that a VBAC was the redemption she needed. During her VBAC prep, she truly did it all.Julia labored hard, completely dilated, and pushed like a warrior. She was calling the shots and was fully supported every step of the way. But as she pushed, the radiating shoulder pain became hard to ignore. Baby's heart was decelerating. Yellow-tinged amniotic fluid suggested meconium.Julia wanted to keep pushing, but she also knew something wasn't right. Julia proved her true strength by listening. She put her body and her baby above her own birth dreams. We are SO proud of Julia's courage and know you will be inspired by her many victories!Additional linksBloom NutritionTVL Blog: Understanding Uterine RuptureTVL Blog: How To Cope When You Don't Get Your VBACTVL CBAC Facebook CommunityHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsFull transcriptNote: All transcripts are edited to correct grammar, false starts, and filler words. Meagan: Happy Wednesday, everybody. This is Meagan with The VBAC Link and we have our friend, Julia, with us today. Julia's story is going to be a CBAC. I love CBAC stories. I know that here at The VBAC Link, you think, “Oh, it should be all VBAC,” because that's what we talk about which yes, it is a main focus of VBAC, but we don't want to forget about our CBAC mamas. I was a CBAC mama myself and it is so important to talk about that as well because just like every first birth may unexpectedly go into a Cesarean, so are those VBAC births. Sometimes those are unexpected. Sometimes they are desired, and so we really like to talk about everything here and share all of the pros and the cons of everything. I am excited about Julia's story. I feel like in so many ways, even though I have had a VBAC, I can connect to CBACs so deeply as well because I have had a CBAC. That CBAC wasn't actually something that I desired necessarily, but that CBAC was something that I found a lot of healing through. So I'm excited to go into this story. Review of the WeekMeagan: But of course, you know we have a Review of the Week. We are always looking for more reviews so if you haven't yet, feel free to jump over on Apple or wherever you are listening or email us. Google and send us a review. We would love to know how you feel about The VBAC Link podcast and how the stories of all of these incredible people are changing the way you're viewing and the things that you are learning along your journey. This review is actually on our VBAC course for our Ultimate Parents' VBAC Course. This is from Dani and it says, “This course gave me the knowledge and confidence I needed to move forward with my plan to have an HBAC.” If you didn't know, HBAC is home birth after Cesarean. “When you realize that VBAC is just birth and hear the studies and insights that eliminate the mess and evoke a lot of the fear in many C-section mamas, you realize you've got this. I was empowered to find a provider that truly supported me and realize how much my gut was telling me my previous provider was not the way to go. I can't wait to share my HBAC story when the time comes. Thank you so much for all you do.”And thank you, Dani. That is amazing. That is what we want to do here at The VBAC Link. We want to share all of the pros, the cons, and prepare you the way you need to be prepared whether that is for a vaginal birth after a Cesarean or a Cesarean birth after a Cesarean or home birth. Whatever that may be, we want to empower you and put the tools in your pocket for you to use. So if you have any other questions about our online course, we actually have them for birth workers as well. We have certified doulas, which, also, if you are looking for a doula, check out our website. We have so many incredible doulas all over the world. Seriously, all over the world. You can go to thevbaclink.com and click “courses” or “find a doula” to learn more about our online self-paced course. Julia's StoryMeagan: Okay, Julia. I am so excited to talk with you today. Thank you so much for being here with us, for taking the time out of your day, and for being someone to share a very vulnerable space because I know sometimes CBAC is vulnerable. It is vulnerable, but I'm looking at your picture of you holding your baby after your C-section and it is beautiful. You are glowing. You are absolutely glowing. I mean, your smile is amazing. So I will turn the time over to you to share your experience with a CBAC. Julia: Okay, thank you so much. I'm so honored to be here at The VBAC Link. I had the goal of sharing a VBAC story, but I am proud of myself for coming back and sharing my CBAC story regardless even though it didn't turn out the way I had planned it to. I hope that my story can help at least one other person as your stories have helped me.  Meagan: Yes. Yeah. It will. It definitely will. I remember having that feeling of that too of wanting so badly to share my VBAC story on The Birth Hour actually if you guys know The Birth Hour podcast. Julia: Yep. Yep, I'm very familiar. Meagan: I was like, “I am going to be a VBAC. I'm going to share on The Birth Hour.” It was not a VBAC and then I was like, “Oh.” And I did. I kind of was like, “Oh. I won't submit it.” But I regret that. I totally regret that. I actually did submit my VBAC story as well. They get so many submissions as well, but I am so glad that you are here and that you are proud of yourself because you should be. Julia: Mhmm, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. So I'll start out by tracing back to my first pregnancy because it paves the way for my second pregnancy and birth if that's okay. Meagan: Right. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Julia: Going back, starting in October 2018, my husband and I had just gotten married and we were ready to start a family. My story has a bit of infertility in it, so I'll touch on that if that's okay. Yeah. I started trying to get pregnant in October 2018 and wasn't getting my period. I decided to take matters into my own hands very quickly and go see an OB. They started me on medicated cycles with them, and I did three of those. Those were unsuccessful. In September 2019, I went to a reproductive endocrinologist, and in November, so two months later, we did our first IUI and it was successful. That's how my first daughter was conceived. Just wanted to touch on infertility. It's over now, but it was quite a big part of my story too because just another– I thought my body could do something that is always talked about happening very easily and it didn't, so that was crushing at the time. It still is part of who I am and also dictated my feelings with my C-sections. I'll fast forward to finding out that I would need a C-section with my daughter, Charlotte. My pregnancy with her was uncomplicated aside from happening during COVID and just not having a lot of support during that time. I just did an online birth class through my hospital that was just very cookie-cutter. I didn't really get the opportunity to explore. I did interview some doulas in April 2020 and then it never really came to fruition. When I was 37 weeks, I found out that Charlotte was breech. There had been no indications of it up until that point. My OB does a check at 36 weeks to see if baby is head down and I was a little late for that. That appointment was a little further down. Meagan: Delayed. Julia: Yeah. Delayed. I didn't get seen until 37 weeks and then at that point, it's kind of a lot to find out that your baby is breech then because efforts to try and turn them are not as easy. It happens, I'm sure, but not for me. I had the opportunity to try an ECV, an external cephalic version, but I opted not to. I just didn't have a good feeling about it. They scheduled my C-section for August 6th. I will say that this was hard for me to cope with. I did have a period of grieving. During my whole pregnancy, people would ask me what my birth plan was and I said, “Anything but a C-section.” When that happened to me, I felt that I had jinxed myself, but I know that's not necessarily true. Her birth was on August 6th of 2020. I went in at noon. They gave me a COVID test. They hooked me up to the machines. There was a little delay because my OB was dealing with a vaginal birth. I remember at the time, even then, I was like, “That hurts,” that the person having a vaginal birth is getting precedence over me. It just was one last dig that I wasn't getting the vaginal birth that I had hoped for because I had been hoping for a vaginal birth.But anyways, they took me back at 3:00 and my daughter was born shortly after. I had no problems with breastfeeding. She latched quickly. I was only in the hospital for 36 hours just, especially during COVID, they were encouraging people to leave as quickly as possible as long as things were okay. That was my story, so I do think I went home a little too early post-C-section. I remember taking that first trip up my stairs because I live in a two-story home and it was brutal. Meagan: Yeah. I had stairs with my second C-section. We had a breezeway that you had to pull down and then you had to climb upstairs to get to the first level and then climb up the stairs to get to the second level. There were 16-17 stairs in each set. I was just crawling, crawling up them. I was like, “I'm not coming downstairs. Everyone can bring me food. I'm not coming back down.” Julia: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I had dinner in bed that night or the next few nights. Yeah. Same story. I was like, “I'm not going back down for a while. So I dealt with that. Overall, my feelings around it were I was disappointed that I didn't get my vaginal birth, but as the weeks went by, my experience as I looked back, was okay. It was straightforward. No complications and my recovery went well. It was hard though as we just talked about it. It's easy to glaze over that. I had started to read already about pregnancy number two and how it's extra hard to care for your first child while recovering from a C-section so that was a big motivator for me for my next birth. But yeah. Pretty soon after, I remember sitting in the rocking chair with my daughter while I was nap-trapped and getting on forums researching about C-sections and having weird, sad feelings about having a C-section after a birth. I think that was new to me. I felt a lot of feelings of inadequacy or just disappointment around it. I didn't quite know that that was normal and then I think researching that led me to find out that a VBAC was an option. It's interesting to think back to a time when I didn't know what a VBAC was really. Meagan: Right? Julia: I could talk about it for hours now. But yeah, that term VBAC kept coming up, so I knew that in my next pregnancy that that was what I wanted to aim for in my next birth. After my daughter turned one in August 2021, I pretty quickly wanted to start trying for number two. One, I was genuinely excited to try and start working towards a VBAC, and given my history of infertility, I wanted to get started sooner rather than later. We had to get help with getting pregnant again. We did an IUI and we were lucky enough that it was successful on the first try again. That was in September 2021. I pretty quickly started forming my birth team just having already done so much research on VBAC and knowing that was essential to success. I did go to my first OB appointment at my old OB's office and just wanted to pick their brains about what their policy was on VBAC. They told me that they don't induce VBACs or don't induce with a previous Cesarean delivery. They would give me up until 40 weeks up until my due date to go into labor naturally but if I didn't, they would schedule a C-section. I heard that and I was like, “Yeah, I'm out of here.” I, in the meantime, joined some local mom groups and my local ICAN chapter Facebook group. I stumbled upon this group of midwives in the Michigan area that was close to me that was very VBAC friendly. I read a lot of success stories with that group of midwives. There was one in particular whose name kept coming up. I reached out to them and got set up with their group. I had to switch complete hospital systems. It was a little complicated but it was worth it. I switched providers and I also hired a doula very early on or signed on with her very early on, maybe at 9-10 weeks into my pregnancy. She also offered Hypnobirthing classes so my husband and I did those virtually. That was really cool. Like I said, with my first pregnancy, I really didn't get much support to help me towards a vaginal birth although I ended up with my daughter being breech and if I had prepared, that wouldn't have necessarily changed things much. But I felt really well supported during this pregnancy through those Hypnobirthing classes and exploring the more holistic way of prepping for birth. I got really into– I mean, I will say it was towards the end when I really started practicing my Hypnobirthing breathing and practicing the meditations. I did that and I also started seeing a chiropractor at 20 weeks. I went pretty much every week especially given my history of having a breech baby, I wanted to optimize my pelvic alignment for that. So that was another way that I felt supported just constantly getting really good, positive feedback from my providers like, “Oh yeah. You are such a good candidate for VBAC. You're doing all of the right things.”I also did the Spinning Babies Daily Essentials. I was constantly thinking about my posture and my sitting position when I was sitting at night on my couch. I would sit forward again to promote good alignment with the baby's head. I did all of the usual. At 34 weeks, I started red raspberry leaf tea. At 36 weeks, I started eating dates 3 times a day. I was walking. I was sitting on my birthing ball a lot more towards the end just to ideally promote labor to start naturally because as I got closer to the end of my pregnancy, the pressure to go into labor naturally started to build in my head just because I read that the best chance of success with a VBAC is going into labor naturally. That was heavy on my mind as it got closer and closer. I live in Michigan, but I'm originally from Massachusetts so my mom flew out the day before my due date which was June 17th of 2022. When she came out, I felt even more pressure. She was not pressuring me at all, but I just felt the pressure building like, “Okay. The spotlight's on me to go into labor.” I just remember those few days until I did ultimately “go into labor” were very hard emotionally but they were also nice. I spent it walking with my mom and just doing activities with my daughter to pass the time. It was a time I was very much present just because I was very much aware as the days went by that I would inevitably be having this baby sooner than later. I went in at 39 weeks for my checkup and I knew I wanted to get checked then. I hadn't been checked until then. I was tempted to but I didn't just to avoid the mental gymnastics of dilation and all that. At 39 weeks, my midwife checked me and I was a fingertip dilated, but she said I was very soft. My cervix was very soft and my cervix was 80% effaced. She was very hopeful about that. I went home and Googled that. They said that was a good place to be for labor to start eventually. I wasn't totally closed and high or anything like that. I had the next checkup at 40 weeks and 4 days. I was still the same, a fingertip. Soft cervix, 80% effaced so I was a little discouraged by that. In the meantime, I had started upping my attempts to induce labor naturally. I started pumping at night. I did a lot of curb walking and my doula encouraged me to buy some clary sage essential oil. I guess if you put some on your feet and I had my husband massage my feet with the clary sage oil and put it on some pressure points that it could help kickstart labor. Meagan: Spleen 6 can help. A lot of people go and get pedicures and then they go into labor and they're like, “Oh what?” That's what they're doing. They're massaging down there really well and it can totally help. Yeah. Julia: Yeah. Yeah, so I did that clary sage and the foot massage the night before I did actually technically go into labor. I don't know if that helped or if that kickstarted things. At 40 weeks and 5 days, it was about 9:00 in the morning and I was sitting down for breakfast with my daughter. My mom was there and my husband was there, but he was working from home. I went to go stand up and I felt a warm gush of fluid. I was like, “Oh, that's interesting.” I stopped and said, “Oh my god. I think I just peed myself.”Yeah. Of all the ways I thought my labor would start, I never thought it would be with my water breaking. I don't know why. You always hear that women are like, “I'm just peeing myself. That's not my water breaking.” It didn't come out in a big gush, but it was small gushes throughout the morning. I put on a pad and I did notice even from the beginning that my pad was a little yellow-ish tinged. I didn't think too much of it. Immediately, my mind went to meconium, but I thought that would be a little more green or brown, I think I was reading, so I wasn't too concerned about that. I just went about my morning because I was still skeptical that I wasn't peeing myself and that it was my water. Around noon, I texted my doula to let her know. She was excited that things were happening. I did tell her that the pad had a little bit of a yellowish tinge. She texted back that it was likely meconium but to not be too concerned. Once she confirmed that I got anxious just from what I had heard from birth stories. That's not the best way to start labor is one, your water breaking first without really any cramping or contractions afterward. That was the other side of it. I didn't really have a lot of cramping afterward that was indicating that labor was picking up. Once she told me that was meconium, I pretty much was like, “Okay. We need to go to the hospital.” I think in an ideal world given that I was trying to avoid intervention as long as I could that I would maybe hang out at home for a little while longer to see if labor progressed, but once I heard it could have been meconium, I was like, “Okay. We need to go.” So we did. I arrived around 1:00 p.m. that day. I went to triage and got checked. They confirmed that my water had broken and that there was some meconium staining as they called it. I got checked in. We went over my birth plan. The vibe was very positive and I had submitted a birth plan to my midwife. She submitted it to the hospital so it was very nice to know that they were on board with my birth plan. They had looked it over. The midwife that came in to check me said, “I know what your birth plan is and what you want.” That was really nice to hear already and to feel supported. They checked me in. I got into a room and they encouraged me to walk the halls to kickstart contractions and also tried nipple stimulation with pumping. They recommended pumping for 10 minutes on, 20 minutes off, and also going in the shower. All of the rooms at the hospital where I delivered had a tub and a shower. They encouraged me to go in there and use the showerhead for nipple stimulation as well to help kickstart contractions. I did that from 1:00 until about 8:00 p.m. Labor really didn't start up. Around 8:30, the midwife came in and we decided to start Pitocin. I wasn't too keen on it just because I knew that starting any intervention like that could decrease my chances of VBAC, but I was also at the same time excited to get contractions going and get things started just because I knew that I was on somewhat of a clock. My midwife group did not push the time between when my water broke and when I would have to deliver. They didn't put that pressure on me which was very nice, but in my head, I knew that I personally didn't want it if there was something going on, I didn't want my baby to be in danger given that my water had been broken for 12 hours already. It broke at 9:00 a.m. and this was around 9:00 p.m. when we started Pitocin and there was some meconium staining in it. I was nervous for myself. I put faith in my midwives, but I knew that I was also concerned. Initially, she started at 2 units of Pitocin and then upped it every hour I believe. She upped it, I want to say, by 2 units every hour. Around 11:00, things picked up. I took a selfie of myself in the hospital bed at 10:45. I was looking back at my pictures. I was smiling and that was the last picture I took for the remainder of the birth up until my daughter was born. That's how I know that at 11:00 things started to pick up because that's when I went into labor land and full-on contractions. My husband and I started timing contractions. I was really excited to feel a contraction. I wanted to deliver vaginally of course, but one thing that I missed out on with my first birth was the labor experience because it was planned. I didn't feel a single contraction with my first birth so I was excited to feel that and at least have that experience I did get that experience so that's something that has helped me come to terms with it all. When the contractions started, I was happy although I was in pain. We were just trying different positions. I went into the tub and since I was a VBAC, I was on continuous monitoring so being in the tub was hard, but my nurse was great about making sure that the monitors stayed on my belly even when I was writhing around in pain in the tub. They had the band around my belly and then they put a pantyhose sleeve over it to secure the monitor, but it did keep moving around and all that. They never made me get out of the tub or anything to keep it more secure. That didn't happen. They just worked hard to do their best. Around 5:00 a.m. on the next day, I was up to about 12 units of Pitocin. I was reading back through my notes and my midwife said I wasn't tolerating those contractions very well, so she turned it down to 10 units. I will backtrack a little bit and say that around 3:00, my doula showed up just because I was in a lot of pain but I wasn't ready for pain relief yet and just wanted her to come and help me along. My doula showed up around 3:00 a.m.She was very supportive and was helping me through contractions. She did encourage me to get in the tub another time even though I had gotten out. It just was not working for me. It was not giving me pain relief. The tub wasn't very big. It was kind of like your classic tub, so it was hard to really get in a comfortable position. It even felt like the contractions were worse in the tub. I didn't experience that relief that I thought the water might give me. Around 6:00 or so, we started talking about pain relief medication. They gave me the option for fentanyl which, they said, would be a short burst of relief, or the epidural. I was pretty well educated on both options, but I did take a little while to make the decision to ultimately go with the epidural just because I knew that again, it could slow down my labor and could lead to not achieving my goal of a VBAC. I was contracting every 2-4 minutes at that point. The surges, I guess I haven't been calling them surges as we had been taught in Hypnobirthing. The surges were very intense. Around 7:00, I got the epidural and I felt some relief when they gave it to me. They pretty much encouraged me to take a nap. I was able to close my eyes for 40 minutes but didn't sleep too long. I didn't get that 3 or 4-hour nap that you sometimes get post-epidural. And then around 10:00, I said that I was feeling some pubic bone pressure. It was just very intense and I could not ignore it. It didn't seem like the epidural was touching it much. I will say that I wasn't using the epidural button too much to give me more medication. I don't know why. I think that maybe I was just in labor land and didn't think to use it. I did press it a couple of times and it didn't really seem to touch the pubic bone pressure. I had the midwife come in. She checked me at that point around 10:00 a.m. I was 5 centimeters dilated which was exciting. Meagan: Yeah. That's way awesome. That's really awesome. Julia: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. The whole time, I was just in disbelief that I was living the story that I had heard so many times of actually having interventions and dilating and all that. But when she checked me, I was 5 centimeters, but she also said that the baby was malpositioned. Her chin wasn't tucked as it should be. It was up, so that was likely causing the pubic bone pressure and also keeping me from dilating more. They hadn't checked me much. I think that was the first time they had checked me since I went to triage the previous day just because my water had broken and they try to avoid that as much as they can to reduce the risk of infection. So from 10:00 until 3:00, we worked on getting the baby to move into a better position so that I could dilate more. I think a midwife checked me at another point between 10 and 3 and I hadn't progressed at all. I think there was a little bit of pressure or just a little bit of tension with not dilating during that time, and given the “clock” that I was on with my water broken. We talked about options for what would happen if I didn't progress more, but by 3:00, she did check me again and I was 7 centimeters dilated. I remember being like, “Oh my gosh. I'm going to have my VBAC. It's happening.” I remember crying because I was really concerned that I wasn't going to progress. Especially, I think I was blaming it on the epidural which made me nervous. So that was exciting. Right after that, from 3:00-5:00, I took a nap. It was a really nice time. While I was sleeping, my doula was reading me birth affirmations and up until that point, she had also been helping with different positions as we had tried to move the baby's head down. I had my head up on the top of the bed facing down on the bed, my head on the top of the bed and she was just reading me birth affirmations and helping me through contractions. In hindsight, it was such a nice time. While I was in a lot of pain, I was enjoying it. I will say a lot of my pain was in my butt and back area. I think I was having back labor. My husband, I haven't given him any credit yet, but he was amazing during birth and was really putting counterpressure on my back to help counteract the pain that I was feeling down there. It was just really, really, really good with how he worked with me and how he helped me to get through each contraction. That was most of the day. I woke up around 5:30 and I felt pubic pain again and then all of a sudden, it radiated up to the top of my abdomen under the top of my rib cage and it also radiated up into my clavicle. Immediately, I got on all fours and I was like, “I do not feel good.” It was interesting because earlier in the day when I felt that pubic pressure, I was questioning, “Oh, is this uterine rupture?” My doula said, “No. Usually, if you have a uterine rupture, one symptom is that you have pain up in your shoulders.” I was like, “Oh. I don't have that” at the time when I first felt that pain, but they had attributed it to the malpositioning of the baby. Fast forward to when I said I was in a lot of pain and said, “I really don't feel good,” I did have that pain in my shoulder. Immediately, I was like, “Oh my god. This is happening. This is rupture.” None of the midwives or nurses were saying that it was. I guess I learned during all of this that there aren't a lot of easy ways to know if you have had a rupture. It was kind of up to me to communicate how I was feeling. Meagan: right. Julia: You know, because I could have gone along and ignored that pain or thought it was maybe related to contractions or the baby moving down, but it was a distinct pain. At that time, I also started throwing up, but it was at the time that could be transition. I think the nurses thought that was what it was. Meagan: Baby was doing okay at this point?Julia: Yeah. Baby was great up until this point. Yeah. In all my notes, it said, “Fetal heart tones great, in the 140s,” but after I had that episode or series of episodes of vomiting, the fetal heart rate dropped. That's when things started to get a little dicey or they were dicey. It had been very chill and just letting me do my thing up until that point, but then they started saying, “Okay. We need to start making some decisions because we are having some decels.” That was happening at the same time that iI was dealing with the pain. I forgot some of what happened next, but I had pretty good notes from my doctors that helped refresh my memory and one of the OBs came in. I guess baby had flipped OP, so one of the OBs came in and actually turned her to be in the right position, so that was great. At that point, I was complete. They gave me permission to start pushing. Meanwhile, I was still dealing with this pain. I had become, I think I just stopped talking about the pain as much thinking, “Oh maybe if I don't talk about it, it'll go away” or that I could still carry on with pushing and get this all over with and get my vaginal birth. They gave me a chance to push. I pushed for about an hour. I always hear how it feels like it was five minutes, but it was a full hour of pushing and it felt like it went by really quickly. I think during this time, they had inserted an IUPC, the intrauterine pressure catheter just as a way to also monitor how baby was doing and also to backup the pain I was feeling to see if anything was off, maybe they would pick it up with that because that's the only true way to measure the strength of uterine contractions I guess. I started pushing. It was a really exciting time. I had all my team around me. I had my doula put washcloths on my forehead. I had my husband on one side. My mom was actually there. She was just coming to visit because the rule was that I could have two people at my bedside during birth, two extra support people. My mom was able to come and go to the hospital as she wanted to, but she couldn't be at my bedside. She walked in at the exact same time that my pain started. It was probably traumatic for her to walk into that. I was screaming and vomiting. Everyone was caught up in that, so I think people forgot about the rule and just ignored it. She was able to be at my bedside while I was pushing too which was really cool because having given birth back in August 2020, I just had my husband which I'm grateful for, but I didn't have my mom there and I'm very close with her, so it was just like a dream come true to have my mom there while I was pushing, my husband there, my doula, all of the midwives there encouraging me and cheering me on. They brought over a mirror and I got to see the baby's head. They even brought the pull-up bar or whatever and wrapped a sheet around it and had me pull on that to help me. Meagan: They call that tug-of-war. That's what it's called. Tug-of-war.Julia: Tug-of-war. Yeah. Yeah, so that was really great aside from the intense pain I was feeling. I really didn't feel like I could push effectively. I was pushing, but I just couldn't push how I thought I should because of this pain. I felt like if I pushed too hard, something was going to happen. Something was going to burst because I did have that in the back of my head that it was probably my uterus rupturing. Like I said, they trusted me to tell them to make the call if things weren't feeling right. You know, of course, I had done all of this work, and yeah. I had done all of this work to prepare for a VBAC and I really, really wanted this to happen, so I had quieted down about the pain. They let me keep pushing, but then at some point, I was like, “What I'm doing is either putting my life and/or my daughter's life at risk.” I felt kind of selfish continuing to push despite having this pain and despite pushing through what my body was telling me to do. I just knew something wasn't right. They had, of course, brought up the concept of the C-section around this time, but they were giving me the chance to see if baby could progress further down. I was pushing and like I said, I didn't feel effective enough and it was reflected because baby was not moving down that the rate that they would have hoped, and given that the baby was having heart decels, that was really concerning to them. I ultimately made the call for the C-section because I just couldn't keep doing it. Like I said, I knew something wasn't right and if I continued to push, I was probably putting myself or my daughter at risk. So that was around 6:30 and then once I made that call, everything was a flurry. I had a C-section before, so I know how things in the OR how busy it gets, and how quickly it gets busy, but I hadn't had an emergency C-section yet, so that was just a new experience. It was a lot to go from pushing and everyone cheering me on to getting prepped for surgery, getting pulled this way and that way. I had said that my epidural wasn't working very well. The OB that had since taken over now that it had taken a turn and it might be heading towards the surgery route, the midwives had to step back a little bit. The OBs were in the room and my OB had mentioned something about, “You might have to be put out.” I said, “I would go for the C-section, but I knew that if I had to go under general anesthesia, I was not going to be good mentally.” I did not want that. I did not want to be asleep when my daughter was born.So I did say that. I did advocate for that. I said, “Can't the epidural be converted to a spinal?” The anesthesiologist was already in there. She was optimistic about that. I forget why it might not have happened and why it's hard to convert one to the other, but I knew that was a thing that could be done, so I pushed for that. I said multiple times, “I do not want to be put to sleep,” so I'm happy about that at least. And then, yeah. I forget if I walked or was wheeled to the OR, but I was in so much pain at that point. I couldn't wait for the spinal because I knew the relief that it gives. You feel nothing from the neck down, so I couldn't wait for the spinal. At that point, my doula said that she was going to leave. I was just about to step into the OR and she said she was going to leave. I don't know what the rules were, but I believe that just my husband or one support person could go into the OR with me. My mom was still there at that time, so she could be waiting in recovery for me, so my doula said that she was going to leave but that she would check in with me the next day. Yeah. So I remember going into the OR and I had just done this less than two years ago so I remember the whole story of how it goes. You know, getting the spinal, then laying me down quickly, and doing the time out, then the surgery started. I wasn't sad at that time. My focus had shifted to, “Is the baby going to be okay?” During surgery, at one point, they said, “Yeah. You had a rupture,” so I knew. Meagan: So you did? Did they confirm a full rupture? Julia: My doctor said it depends on who you ask. What ended up happening was not a complete or catastrophic rupture. Meagan: A dehiscence?  Julia: Exactly, yeah. Meagan: Okay. Julia: A dehiscence. It was a 3-centimeter dehiscence that was not coming from my scar at all. It was in my uterine wall elsewhere down below, lower in my abdomen but not near my scar. There was amniotic fluid and meconium leaking out of it into my abdomen. Yeah. So all the while, I was still feeling this pain and this clavicle pain is what became my primary pain during all of it. During the surgery, I kept trying to move because I was in so much pain. The anesthesiologist kept saying, “You have to sit still. You have to sit still.” So that was very hard. So once I was in surgery, my focus shifted to my daughter. I had requested, as I was going into the OR, for a clear sheet. I was trying to fumble for ways that I could make it a gentle C-section as best as I could. I didn't really prepare for that. I didn't really put in my birth plan what to do in the chance of a C-section. So I asked for the clear drape, but I don't think that my daughter was doing well enough when she came out to drop the drape. They never did and I'm assuming that's why.I've also gone through and read her notes and her APGAR score at one minute was a 4. She wasn't doing so great. She had to be resuscitated somewhat, then by five minutes, her APGAR was a 9. They did say that her cord gasses were concerning, so they did end up having to take her to the special care nursery. But as you saw in the picture, I was able to be with my daughter for some time. I got a picture with her. She was there for a while. Again, it felt like I was in there for five minutes, but I was in there for probably an hour and a half. I had my husband go with her to the special care nursery once they said they had to take her. I was just there and yeah. As they were sewing me back up, they pressed on my uterus. I forget what they were doing but they pushed on my uterus. Meagan: Probably Credé. Julia: Yeah, is that right? Yeah. Meagan: Yeah, they are checking for bleeding and clogs and those types of things. And probably fundal height. Julia: Yeah, they did something, but it made me scream from the pain that it caused. That was a little traumatic, but eventually, I was wheeled out to recovery and my mom was there. Luckily, my daughter only had to be in the special care nursery for two hours I believe. I was reunited with her in recovery and she latched right away and all that good stuff. I was very grateful for that. Shortly after, my OB who did the surgery came in and started talking to me about the rupture. She did call it dehiscence but she said in her book, any sort of tearing in the uterus is a rupture. She told me that I could get pregnant again, but I'd have to wait. I think at the time she said 18 months to conceive again and then she went on to say that a future pregnancy would be very closely monitored and that I would have to deliver between 36 and 37 weeks.That was pretty heavy for me. Meagan: Yeah. Julia: And still something that I am still working through. I guess I feel most sad about the repercussions of trying for the VBAC on future pregnancies just because I tell myself that if I had gone for a repeat C-section, none of this would have happened and I could have gone forward and tried for a VBA2C. Yeah, but as I've thought about it, if I hadn't tried, I would have been very disappointed. I had to try at that point, so I'm glad I got the labor experience that I had hoped for. Like I said, I got to that point where I was pushing. Everyone was cheering around me. I had my doula. I was doing the position changes and getting in the tub, birth affirmations, and all of that but I didn't end up getting to deliver vaginally which was a big part of my goal and still something that I am working through. But after the fact, I did realize that my daughter could have been– things could have turned out worse for sure. I'm very grateful for her health and my health. I did have some complications after the birth. I had to go to the ER twice in the week after her birth because I had this debilitating pain in my ribs and still on my clavicles. They ended up telling me that it was just trapped air which sounds silly because of how much pain I was in. Meagan: No. It's not silly. I had that with my second C-section. Julia: Really? Meagan: It's no joke. Julia: Yeah. Meagan: I'm like, “I just want to poke a hole right here in my shoulder.” It was so bad. Julia: Yeah. Yeah. Whenever I moved, it was debilitating pain. It was crazy. It was trapped air and then also as I had mentioned, the meconium and amniotic fluid had gone up into my abdomen, so that was causing a lot of irritation. Yeah, so the first week of my daughter's life, I was in and out of the ER. I had to have a CAT scan at one point and drink the contrast. They recommend not breastfeeding and pumping and dumping for 1-2 days after that so I did have to give her formula for a day. At the time, I was like, “Whatever. Everything's gone not how I had planned, so whatever. I guess I'll give her formula for a day.” But it was just a day. It is what it is. Meagan: Yeah, but it impacted you too so try not to just cut it back. It's like whenever everyone's like, “Well, yeah but your baby's okay and you're okay.” You're like, “Yeah and I'm happy about that, but it doesn't mean I'm not upset about the other things.” Julia: Right. Meagan: that's one of the biggest things. It's okay to be grateful for a safe mom and a safe baby and that everyone was okay, but it's totally okay to grieve and to feel upset or even mad or sad. You have those emotions. If you don't allow yourself to have those emotions, we can't start healing, right? Julia: Right, right. Yeah. Meagan: So I want to talk about a couple of things. One is dehiscence. It's not a word that a lot of people hear. Like you said, it depends on the provider. It depends on who you're talking to because most providers correct you. It's like, “If you had dehiscence, it was a rupture.” There are three layers to the uterus. If the uterine scar opens up partially, but yours didn't, stretching the scar out can cause that bottom layer to tear open. Yours was in a different place, but it means it's not through all of the layers. That's what they categorize as a dehiscence where it was starting. I'm very proud of you for following your heart and following your mind because you were like, “Something's off.” It's so hard because you were in that so close moment of, “I can do this. The baby's right there. I can see my baby's head.” Julia: Yeah. Meagan: I can't imagine the banter that went through your mind of, “I'm so close to the birth I want, but something's not feeling right,” so be proud of yourself for really following that intuition. We talk about that a lot here, this intuition and the intuition is strong. It doesn't usually bring fear. It brings facts. It's like, “Yep. This sucks. This isn't what I wanted, but I have to make this decision.” So yeah.There's a uterine window, uterine dehiscence, and then uterine rupture, a full rupture. Sometimes, even a window will be documented as a rupture on op reports. It's really important to give it a look, but still, I mean, it happened and it sucks. It really sucks. It doesn't happen often and we don't know even why it happens, but it happens. I'm so glad that you guys are okay and I'm so glad that you were able to have your baby on your chest and be with your baby a little bit more. I also want to talk about how to cope when you don't get your VBAC. It's hard. It's really hard. I can't say that it's easy. I can't say that I didn't cry my eyes out. Ugly cry. Sobbing. Even though my second C-section was a healing experience that I'm grateful for, I didn't want that birth. That's not the way that I wanted to give birth. I had to process it. Not getting your VBAC and processing it. What tips would you give? I'm sure you're still healing and processing, but what tips would you give to our listeners who may not have ended in a VBAC or may not end in a VBAC for processing and working through that? Julia: Yeah. My biggest tip would go out to people who are trying for a VBAC right now would be just to definitely explore being okay with things not going to plan because I think that dictates how you can cope with things afterward. I think if I had gotten ahead of it a little bit and listened to more CBAC stories and written on my birth plan what I would want in the event of a C-section. It's such a hard balance of wanting to stay positive and keeping those negative thoughts out of your mind but also not negating the fact that there is a chance because I definitely did not think I would have a uterine rupture. I just had a planned C-section for a breech baby, so I had no indication that I would have a rupture. I think just exploring that and not pushing away those feelings that come up when you see CBAC stories on the Facebook groups. I would even ignore those and just focus only on VBAC success stories. I think if I had surrounded myself with more of that and more of the alternative, I would have come out a little bit stronger. It still would have been hard and it is hard, but if I could go back in time, that's what I would have done. For women who have had a CBAC and had their story about how things didn't go according to plan, I would say to get help and not be afraid to get help. I'm lucky that the hospital I delivered at has a program to follow up with women who have had traumatic births and have a history of anxiety or other mental illness. I do have a history of anxiety so I was glad for a consult from a midwife who is also a therapist and works with therapists who will give you help to process your birth. It's not just any old therapist. They are birth trauma specialists. That was really amazing.In hindsight, it still doesn't fix anything, but having someone there to support you is important. You can talk to your family about it, talk to your spouse about it, but they are not in your head and they don't know really how truly, truly invested you were in it. You do get a lot of, “You should be happy.” One tip with working with mom therapists is every time you go to a negative thought about, “Oh, this is all my fault or I did this wrong and that's why I ended up not having a VBAC,” to replace it with a positive thought. If you are blaming your body for not doing such and such, replace it with something that your body did do. For me, that was, “My body gave me a very strong message that things were not right.” That likely saved my daughter and my life, so when I go to think of those negative thoughts about what I could have done differently, I tried to replace them with that thought or something similar to how my body did work with me during that process. That's been really helpful. I think that could be helpful for other women listening too. Meagan: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. You know, we say it all too often. We hear it all too often. Failed VBAC. Failed. The word “failed”. I'm sorry, but we did not bleepity bleepity bleepity bleep fail. There is no failure in birth. It sucks that we have even incorporated that word and we use it as “failure to progress”. We use it in medical terms. “Failure to progress”, that's what the medical providers use it as and we do. We reference that. But holy cow. There is no failing. It's important to know that. Yes. For me, my body didn't make it past 3 centimeters the first time, 1 centimeter the second time. My doctor even told me, “Yeah. You won't be able to.” But that's not true. I love that you said, “Fill my mind with something positive.” Look what it did do. Look what it did achieve. Look at what I achieved. Look at how hard of a thing I did. Julia: Yep, absolutely. Meagan: I love that. I love that so much. We are going to have a uterine rupture blog and how to cope if you don't get your VBAC in the show notes but something else I really want to include in the show notes is your website. I love what you do and we will make sure to of course tag you and everything in the post but I love what you are doing. You are a registered dietician. A lot of people write us and they say, “I already had my baby. I'm 6 months postpartum. I want to start really working on this prep early for my future VBAC.” They're like, “What can I do?” One of the number one things– there are so many things. Education, finding a supportive provider, and all of those things, but truly, it's working on our whole self. That means mentally, too. We've got to work through previous traumas and fears and work through that, but also nutrition. Nutrition and exercise are so important. You help with pregnancy and postpartum. You talk about intuitive eating. You even help with fertility. So before we go, I would love for you to share because you do online stuff, right? Julia: Yep, yep. I see clients virtually all over the country. I'm based in Michigan right now, so a lot of my clients are from Michigan, but I see clients in other states as well. I work from an intuitive eating mindset trying not to focus on dieting and numbers and all of that, but trying to just as we've talked about in this episode, learn to trust our bodies when it comes to our hunger cues, eating, and how we like to move our bodies, finding movement that we genuinely enjoy, not exercise that we dread. Meagan: Yeah, yeah. Julia: That's especially important during pregnancy when you really have to listen to your body, truly, and what it's telling you. So yeah, that's what I do. Meagan: Awesome. You even help with snack and meal plans. I mean, just as a busy mom in general, it's really hard and when you are prepping and you're like, “I'm raising 1, 2, 3, 4, or however many kids. I'm doing all of the other things around the house. I'm trying to educate myself for this VBAC.” You do all of these things. We sometimes forget to serve ourselves with our food, so I love that. If I could just have that plan, it would be so nice to know that this is what I'm going to eat today instead of, “Oh, I'll just grab a quick snack that's maybe not so healthy for me because I'm so hungry.” I love that you do that. We will make sure. It's Bloom Nutrition. Bloom Nutrition, is that correct?Julia: Yes, yes. Yep.Meagan: We will make sure to put that in the show notes and make sure to tag you. So if you are listening, go hang out. Check out the show notes or go hang out on her page. Check her out on Instagram and Facebook. We'll have all of that listed because truly, it is important. It is really, really important. Thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you for sharing your story and for being vulnerable. Julia: Thank you so much. Meagan: I know that that had to have been hard in the moment, but I'm so proud of you and I really am so proud of you. I hope you know that you are a Woman of Strength. You are so strong and you are capable of so many things. Even though the birth didn't happen the way you desired, I know that your daughter way down the road and any kids that you have in the future are going to love you and say, “Thank you for bringing me here today.” Julia: Yep, absolutely. Thank you so much. It's been great to be here. An honor, truly. Thank you. Meagan: Thank you. ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Tell us about your experience at thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Meagan's bio, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Thank you for joining us for our 2nd Cabral HouseCall of the weekend! I'm looking forward to sharing with you some of our community's questions that have come in over the past few weeks…   Ryan: Dr. Cabral, I started wearing a fitness tracking watch about a year ago and have noticed a very common trend in heart rate throughout the day. According to my device, my daily resting heart rate low point occurs around 1-3pm after my afternoon walk, as opposed to during sleep, where most people claim your lowest heart rate occurs. I feel very rested upon waking, and tend to get very good sleep, bot in quality and quantity. For some context, I am 27, workout in the mornings, work a job that some days requires non-stop moving and other days based at a desk, I don't eat within 2-3 hours of going to bed, and my RHR hits 39-42 bpm in the afternoon, while usually hovering around 50-60 throughout the night. I am aware of the potential accuracy issues, but the repeating trend has me curious if this is an indicator of anything I could improve. Thank you for all you do and for keeping me constantly curious and wanting to learn and improve!   Julia: You and your team are incredible. Thank you for your dedication. I had a hair tissue test done right before removing my mercury dental fillings and other heavy metals came up such as tin and nickel but mercury was low! My holistic dentist said that it might have been because the mercury is trapped and can't get out from the body and hence not showing up in the hair. Is this possible?   Synthia: How would you go about someone that has high cortisol in the AM but low cortisol in the afternoon, evening and before bed? I already wake up earlier than everyone else to get my morning routine in and actually start my day relaxed before my toddler wakes up.   Carly: Hi Dr. Cabral! So much gratitude for your team and all that you do to empower us to reclaim our health and move forward on our journey towards healing! My parents recently had a series of unfortunate events happen following a major error made by a roofer when getting their roof replaced. Long story short, they had a lot of water damage in their ceilings and walls and have to get everything replaced to avoid mold damage. Their house has become unlivable. Despite our pleas, my father is insistent on staying and sleeping in the house; going down with the ship. I am worried about all the insulation and fiberglass he could be inhaling and would appreciate any suggestions on how to help him detox his lungs. Thank you so much!   Anonymous: Hi Dr. Cabral! I am such a huge fan of your podcast and it has honestly really changed my life. I now try to share it along with your book with everyone I know because it truly is a blessing. Thank you for all you and your team do! So, about seven years ago, I (25 yr Female) got this rash in my armpit and my dermatologist diagnosed it as a rare skin condition called Fox-fordyce disease. She told me there was no real cure but prescribed me some creams that I tried with no success. I have been learning a lot about Ayurveda these past few years and what it has taught me is that almost all conditions are reversible with the right approach and with time. Do you know of any remedy to this condition or at least a way to reduce it? I would really appreciate your insight. I would also love to hear your thoughts on healing post inflammatory hyper pigmentation on darker skin tones. I have some dark pigmentation on my legs from insect bites when I was a child that have never really lightened. Numerous doctors have told me that they cant prescribe the usual creams for this condition because they are not effective on darker complexions and could actually make the hyperpigmentation worse. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this. Thank you!   Dani: Hey, Dr Cabral. Quick question. A celebrity (Lori Harvey) was being praised for her figure and many women asked what's her secret. She responded that she trains twice a day (plates is one of the workouts) and ate 1200 calories a day for 21 days. This she said aided her to lose 15 lbs and get the figure she wanted. Her comments received backlash. So the question is, is what she did safe for her or something that one should not have done?   Thank you for tuning into this weekend's Cabral HouseCalls and be sure to check back tomorrow for our Mindset & Motivation Monday show to get your week started off right! - - - Show Notes and Resources: StephenCabral.com/2382 - - - Get a FREE Copy of Dr. Cabral's Book: The Rain Barrel Effect - - - Join the Community & Get Your Questions Answered: CabralSupportGroup.com - - - Dr. Cabral's Most Popular At-Home Lab Tests: > Complete Minerals & Metals Test (Test for mineral imbalances & heavy metal toxicity) - - - > Complete Candida, Metabolic & Vitamins Test (Test for 75 biomarkers including yeast & bacterial gut overgrowth, as well as vitamin levels) - - - > Complete Stress, Mood & Metabolism Test (Discover your complete thyroid, adrenal, hormone, vitamin D & insulin levels) - - - > Complete Food Sensitivity Test (Find out your hidden food sensitivities) - - - > Complete Omega-3 & Inflammation Test (Discover your levels of inflammation related to your omega-6 to omega-3 levels) - - - Get Your Question Answered On An Upcoming HouseCall: StephenCabral.com/askcabral - - - Would You Take 30 Seconds To Rate & Review The Cabral Concept? The best way to help me spread our mission of true natural health is to pass on the good word, and I read and appreciate every review!

Show Notes: 00:20 Drummers in the family. Sort of. 02:55 Thanksgiving short season and we love it. 06:55 The joy of juicing. 10:26 Maggie's therapy experience. 11:00 Dan just wrapped a live webinar before recording. 12:34 Lizzo crashes a party in LA. 17:02 Listener question from Julia: “You mentioned sobriety in previous podcast. Did you have a drinking problem?” 25:16 Maggie's (lack of) sleep schedule. 26:10 Maggie photo shoot with a friend. 28:13 Listener questions from Kristen and Tea about not feeling like they know themselves. 29:14 Mags' response to the listener questions. 30:11 Dan responses to the listener questions. 34:09 Really good quotes. 40:22 Book or lullaby?

Haley Nahman runs a weekly newsletter and podcast called Maybe Baby, which was recently written up in The New Yorker To offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BEST TRANSCRIPT: ZAK: Welcome back to the Best Advice Show and today, we're gonna get meta. We're gonna talk about advice about advice. Back in episode #48, Julia Putnam touched on this.. JULIA: You should never give unsolicited advice... ZAK: Today's advice-giver is Haley Nahman. She is a writer and proprietor of the excellent newsletter, Maybe Baby and her advice dovetails nicely with what Julia said. HALEY: I think it's also ok to not follow advice and just make mistakes. I think are own experiences teach us lessons better than anyone else. I really don't think you can learn lessons before you experience them yourself. All the wisdom is out there. If you could just hear wisdom and live it, we would all be perfect but that's just not really how it works. So, yeah, I think my final comment is the worst case scenario is you fuck up and now you are smarter and now you know yourself better. The stakes aren't as high as ever think they are and your life will teach you so much more if you're paying attention than other people ever can. ZAK: Yeah. That's great. I love that. Cause especially me as the maker of an advice show and people that listen to this advice show, I think we can get obsessed in trying to subscribe to or search for the best path, but, can't know until we know. HALEY: Yeah, I spent so much of my 20s trying to follow everyone else's advice. It lands you into a really weird place. You don't know who you are. A lot of pent up emotion that you just want to release that feels like...you feel misunderstood. And it doesn't really help you grow to just follow the perfect path. So, there's always an upside to fucking up. I saw a Kurt Vonnegut quote that said, "the truth is we know so little about life, we don't know what the good news is and what the bad news is" and I think that's true of our mistakes too. We don't know what's gonna help up and what's gonna hurt us until we find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号: VOA英语每日一听 Todd: So, Julia, let's talk about types of people.Julia: OK.Todd: Right, first one, are you a fitness freak?Julia: A fitness freak? I'm fairly fit but I'm not a freak. No, I'm not a fitness freak, no.Todd: So you exercise but it's not like you do it all the time?Julia: No, and I do some unhealthy stuff as well. I like to drink and I'm a former smoker and yes, no I'm not a fitness freak.Todd: Right. I think a fitness freak is like somebody who does it, who exercises compulsively.Julia: I indulge in bad stuff too so no I'm not a fitness freak.Todd: OK, so that leads us to the next question. Are you a party animal?Julia: Not anymore. I'm too old now.Todd: When you were younger, you were a party animal?Julia: I think, yeah, that was probably the type that I most fitted into.Todd: Nice. I was never a party animal.Julia: No?Todd: No, I've always been pretty tame. I've always been pretty tame.Julia: Yes, I was pretty wild when I was younger.Todd: Really?Julia: Yeah.Todd: So you used to drink, smoke, stay up late?Julia: Yeah. All that and more, yeah.Todd: Come home in the wee hours of the morning?Julia: Oh, yeah.Todd: Oh, nice, that's cool. OK, next one would be do you know anybody in your family who's a couch potato?Julia: Couch potato?Todd: Because I know that you're not a couch potato.Julia: I'm not a couch potato, no. My brother sometimes demonstrates couch potato traits.Todd: Yeah.Julia: He likes to play video games and stuff like that and he'll spend a lot of time watching movies and so he does spend a lot of time sedentary compared to me. He makes me look like a fitness freak, I guess, because he doesn't do so much exercise.Todd: Right. And so for people listening a couch potato is somebody who watches a lot of TV and sits on the couch.Julia: Spends a lot of time on the couch, yeah.Todd: Well, how about the similar personality trait of the bookworm? Are you a bookworm?Julia: A bookworm? No, but I think my husband's probably a bookworm.Todd: Yeah?Julia: He spends a lot of time reading books. He reads very fast so he gets through a lot of books.Todd: He's a speed reader?Julia: Yeah, he's a very fast reader and he has to read. He has to have a book with him all the time. He cannot, a waiting room or on a train or any situation where you've just got to sit around, he cannot do it if he doesn't have a book.Todd: Yeah. You know I live alone and that's a terrible trait that I have. I cannot sit and eat and just eat without something to occupy my attention. I have to read or I have to be like watching something on the computer and if I go to a waiting room or anything like that or I'm on a plane I'm the same. I have to have something to read. It drives me nuts.Julia: You see I can't read on transport because I get sick. It makes me sick, it makes me nauseous.Todd: Like motion sickness?Julia: Yeah. So I don't have a habit of reading on a train. A bus or a car, oh my God no, I can't read. No way but my husband reads everywhere all the time.

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号: VOA英语每日一听 Todd: So, Julia, let's talk about types of people.Julia: OK.Todd: Right, first one, are you a fitness freak?Julia: A fitness freak? I'm fairly fit but I'm not a freak. No, I'm not a fitness freak, no.Todd: So you exercise but it's not like you do it all the time?Julia: No, and I do some unhealthy stuff as well. I like to drink and I'm a former smoker and yes, no I'm not a fitness freak.Todd: Right. I think a fitness freak is like somebody who does it, who exercises compulsively.Julia: I indulge in bad stuff too so no I'm not a fitness freak.Todd: OK, so that leads us to the next question. Are you a party animal?Julia: Not anymore. I'm too old now.Todd: When you were younger, you were a party animal?Julia: I think, yeah, that was probably the type that I most fitted into.Todd: Nice. I was never a party animal.Julia: No?Todd: No, I've always been pretty tame. I've always been pretty tame.Julia: Yes, I was pretty wild when I was younger.Todd: Really?Julia: Yeah.Todd: So you used to drink, smoke, stay up late?Julia: Yeah. All that and more, yeah.Todd: Come home in the wee hours of the morning?Julia: Oh, yeah.Todd: Oh, nice, that's cool. OK, next one would be do you know anybody in your family who's a couch potato?Julia: Couch potato?Todd: Because I know that you're not a couch potato.Julia: I'm not a couch potato, no. My brother sometimes demonstrates couch potato traits.Todd: Yeah.Julia: He likes to play video games and stuff like that and he'll spend a lot of time watching movies and so he does spend a lot of time sedentary compared to me. He makes me look like a fitness freak, I guess, because he doesn't do so much exercise.Todd: Right. And so for people listening a couch potato is somebody who watches a lot of TV and sits on the couch.Julia: Spends a lot of time on the couch, yeah.Todd: Well, how about the similar personality trait of the bookworm? Are you a bookworm?Julia: A bookworm? No, but I think my husband's probably a bookworm.Todd: Yeah?Julia: He spends a lot of time reading books. He reads very fast so he gets through a lot of books.Todd: He's a speed reader?Julia: Yeah, he's a very fast reader and he has to read. He has to have a book with him all the time. He cannot, a waiting room or on a train or any situation where you've just got to sit around, he cannot do it if he doesn't have a book.Todd: Yeah. You know I live alone and that's a terrible trait that I have. I cannot sit and eat and just eat without something to occupy my attention. I have to read or I have to be like watching something on the computer and if I go to a waiting room or anything like that or I'm on a plane I'm the same. I have to have something to read. It drives me nuts.Julia: You see I can't read on transport because I get sick. It makes me sick, it makes me nauseous.Todd: Like motion sickness?Julia: Yeah. So I don't have a habit of reading on a train. A bus or a car, oh my God no, I can't read. No way but my husband reads everywhere all the time.

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号: VOA英语每日一听 Todd: We're talking about education and about, you know, people applying themselves and giving grades and giving praise and stuff like that. Have you ever thought that maybe we, because we're both teachers, both of us are teachers, that maybe we put too much effort on judging everybody and that maybe it's OK for kids to realize failure is not really a bad thing or maybe quitting is not a bad thing?Julia: Absolutely. Yeah, I think, I think all the emphasis should be put on the effort that people make, and yeah the failing or succeeding is kind of secondary to that.Todd: Because it does seem that we push kids at all levels to get good grades, go to college, get that good job and that, that usually works out but in a lot of cases people find success because they fail because they don't do well and that leads them to something else in life. So I guess, I'm not saying don't try, just quit at everything, but that we have to just accept that actually maybe quitting is not such a bad thing.Julia: No, I don't think it is. No, I think you're working, that's all part of the learning process, working out what. I was lucky. I was given very good advice at school and I wasn't pushed to get good grades, I wasn't pushed to pursue a career. The advice I was given was do what you enjoy doing cos they're the things you'll be good at.Todd: Yeah.Julia: And that was great advice. I don't have a career but I'm happy.Todd: There you go. There was a great quote the other day by someone in the paper about starting your own business and the person said, you know, follow your passion and keep at it and the money will follow and I think that's pretty much the case for a lot of people that, you know, that they find success. It's kind of how it worked out for me with the website actually. So, I did it for years, I didn't make any money and now it makes a little money but I just enjoyed it. I kept doing it, I kept doing it and I think that's kind of the key. Don't stop.Julia: There's that other famous quote about doing what makes you come alive. Don't ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive because the world needs people who've come alive, meaning like pursue your passion and that will lead to success, whatever success means. It's the way we define success as well is also part of the problem.Todd: True, true.Julia: You know, high income, is that success? And in my book that's not what success is. Success is happiness.Todd: So what is happiness?Julia: Happiness is just contentment, absolute peace with the way you are right now, and what you're doing right now. Not striving or yearning for things that are beyond your grasp.Todd: Beyond your reach?Julia: Yeah.Todd: Yeah, that's good.

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号: VOA英语每日一听 Todd: We're talking about education and about, you know, people applying themselves and giving grades and giving praise and stuff like that. Have you ever thought that maybe we, because we're both teachers, both of us are teachers, that maybe we put too much effort on judging everybody and that maybe it's OK for kids to realize failure is not really a bad thing or maybe quitting is not a bad thing?Julia: Absolutely. Yeah, I think, I think all the emphasis should be put on the effort that people make, and yeah the failing or succeeding is kind of secondary to that.Todd: Because it does seem that we push kids at all levels to get good grades, go to college, get that good job and that, that usually works out but in a lot of cases people find success because they fail because they don't do well and that leads them to something else in life. So I guess, I'm not saying don't try, just quit at everything, but that we have to just accept that actually maybe quitting is not such a bad thing.Julia: No, I don't think it is. No, I think you're working, that's all part of the learning process, working out what. I was lucky. I was given very good advice at school and I wasn't pushed to get good grades, I wasn't pushed to pursue a career. The advice I was given was do what you enjoy doing cos they're the things you'll be good at.Todd: Yeah.Julia: And that was great advice. I don't have a career but I'm happy.Todd: There you go. There was a great quote the other day by someone in the paper about starting your own business and the person said, you know, follow your passion and keep at it and the money will follow and I think that's pretty much the case for a lot of people that, you know, that they find success. It's kind of how it worked out for me with the website actually. So, I did it for years, I didn't make any money and now it makes a little money but I just enjoyed it. I kept doing it, I kept doing it and I think that's kind of the key. Don't stop.Julia: There's that other famous quote about doing what makes you come alive. Don't ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive because the world needs people who've come alive, meaning like pursue your passion and that will lead to success, whatever success means. It's the way we define success as well is also part of the problem.Todd: True, true.Julia: You know, high income, is that success? And in my book that's not what success is. Success is happiness.Todd: So what is happiness?Julia: Happiness is just contentment, absolute peace with the way you are right now, and what you're doing right now. Not striving or yearning for things that are beyond your grasp.Todd: Beyond your reach?Julia: Yeah.Todd: Yeah, that's good.

Today I had the pleasure of speaking with the Entrepreneur, and founder of FITFATANDALLTHAT, Julia. Julia had an eating disorder herself and realize she could do better with her life. She started her journey and made a full recovery. Julia founded FITFATANDALLTHAT to give back from what she learned from her own coach and sharing it to help people live a better life. Let’s jump right into Julia’s story of how accepting your body for what it is can never define you as a human being and that you can live better once you fully understand how your body works with food. [00:01 - 06:30] Opening Segment I talk briefly about valuable information that you can take advantage of in this episode I introduce and welcome guest Julia into the show Julia talks about how she started her journey as an eating disorder recovery coach She went through the same eating disorder experience and made a full recovery Giving back what she has learned and helping people through her own experience [06:30 - 20:10] Good Juju & Body Acceptance Julia talks about the importance of having a coach during your recovery journey Common mistakes about how people view eating disorder Every woman has had some type of eating disorder Julia weighs in on Body Positivity Movement Body neutrality helps people focus less on their bodies and accept them Brands that show different models with different body types Brands need to showcase more black women [20:11 - 31:02] What is The Body Positivity Movement? Julia talks about what this movement actually is People think it's skinny-shaming We are so much more than our bodies It's not promoting obesity Your worth is not based on your appearance Julia talks about intuitive eating It's not a diet Listening to what your body wants to eat so you can be satisfied and avoid overeating [31:03 - 33:40] What Should I Do Now?  Julia gives valuable advice that helps you get started on your journey Getting the right resources Searching for the right type of support Registered Dietician Eating Disorder Therapist  Recovery Coach Start to follow women of different shapes, color, and sizes Give your brain a different option to think a different way [33:41 - 42:20] Closing Segment How did it look like quitting your 9 to 5 job? Julia talks about her transition to recovery coaching If you could give yourself one piece of advice when you were starting out, what would that be? "Things have a way of working out" Words of appreciation for Julia and Julia's work Connect with Julia online. Check out her links below   [42:21 - 53:07] Off The Clock I will share with you some of my favorite black-led podcasts The Free Time Podcast with Karl Sona Balanced Black Girl Podcast with Lestraundra Alfred Get Loved Up with Koya Webb Food Heaven Podcast with Jessica and Wendy Blk Pod Collective Black on Black Cinema Strong Black Lead Review of the week From annas804: "She is very insightful and brings up important topics. I enjoy listening to her!" Final words from me   Tweetable Quotes:  "Every woman has had some type of disordered eating. It doesn't matter if it was for a week for years, we all struggle with our body image. We are all programmed to think one thing about bodies and that we are thin and successful to be loved, and to feel worthy." - Julia "You can't judge a person's health solely based on their body." - C.N. Sloan   Resources mentioned in the episode: Health At Every Size The Intuitive Eating Workbook 8 Keys to Recovery from an Eating Disorder Working Overtime The Podcast   You can connect with Julia on Instagram or join the Good Juju Gang. Visit her website https://www.fitfatandallthat.com/ to know more about eating disorder recovery journey or shoot her a direct email at fitfatandallthat@gmail.com LEAVE A REVIEW + Help people spread the message of motivation and chasing your dreams by sharing this episode or click here to listen to our previous episodes. Keep Up with the Podcast on Instagram @workingotpodcast.Follow my personal page on Instagram @cnsloan_   Don't forget to subscribe and leave a 5-star review! 

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号: VOA英语每日一听 Todd: So, Julia, now you are a parent.Julia: That's right.Todd: And have you heard of all these terms that we have in the US for different types of parents? I wonder if you have them in the UK?Julia: You mean like soccer mum, stuff like that?Todd: Exactly.Julia: That's the only one I've heard of actually.Todd: OK. So what do you think a soccer mom is? What have you heard?Julia: My image is a mother who dedicates her time to running her kids to and from soccer practice. Is that right?Todd: Right.Julia: And also drives a big vehicle? My image is of a big SUV or a big four-wheel drive.Todd: Right. I think it's also, it's like a parent that has many scheduled events for their child.Julia: Oh, OK.Todd: So maybe they have swimming class or soccer practice, ballet and stuff like that.Julia: Oh, maybe I'm a little bit of a soccer mum.Todd: Yeah, I think now, yeah. I think it's actually a good term. It's like, I think a soccer mom usually is considered a caring parent.Julia: OK.Todd: And they try to have their child doing productive things.Julia: It must be pretty, quite an affluent perhaps middle-class kind of parent.Todd: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Now we have the equivalent, it's called a Nascar dad.Julia: Is Nascar some kind of car racing?Todd: Yeah, basically it's just the, these cars they run around and ride around in a circle. It's kind of like horse racing for cars, you just go round and round. But, yeah, so I guess it's the same thing. It's just a dad who's really, you know, really into his kids, spends a lot of time with his kids.Julia: Would this be a stay at home dad, like a...?Todd: No, no. It's just kind of like a good old boy father, like a dad who's kind of blue-collar, not rich, you know, maybe lower middle class maybe but just kind of like your typical sitcom, TV sitcom dadI guess.Julia: But that's nice. Takes his kids everywhere, that's nice.Todd: Yeah, yeah.Julia: Involved in the...Todd: Yeah, like a Nascar dad would probably take his son's hunting and maybe take his daughter shopping and stuff like that.

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号: VOA英语每日一听 Todd: So, Julia, now you are a parent.Julia: That's right.Todd: And have you heard of all these terms that we have in the US for different types of parents? I wonder if you have them in the UK?Julia: You mean like soccer mum, stuff like that?Todd: Exactly.Julia: That's the only one I've heard of actually.Todd: OK. So what do you think a soccer mom is? What have you heard?Julia: My image is a mother who dedicates her time to running her kids to and from soccer practice. Is that right?Todd: Right.Julia: And also drives a big vehicle? My image is of a big SUV or a big four-wheel drive.Todd: Right. I think it's also, it's like a parent that has many scheduled events for their child.Julia: Oh, OK.Todd: So maybe they have swimming class or soccer practice, ballet and stuff like that.Julia: Oh, maybe I'm a little bit of a soccer mum.Todd: Yeah, I think now, yeah. I think it's actually a good term. It's like, I think a soccer mom usually is considered a caring parent.Julia: OK.Todd: And they try to have their child doing productive things.Julia: It must be pretty, quite an affluent perhaps middle-class kind of parent.Todd: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Now we have the equivalent, it's called a Nascar dad.Julia: Is Nascar some kind of car racing?Todd: Yeah, basically it's just the, these cars they run around and ride around in a circle. It's kind of like horse racing for cars, you just go round and round. But, yeah, so I guess it's the same thing. It's just a dad who's really, you know, really into his kids, spends a lot of time with his kids.Julia: Would this be a stay at home dad, like a...?Todd: No, no. It's just kind of like a good old boy father, like a dad who's kind of blue-collar, not rich, you know, maybe lower middle class maybe but just kind of like your typical sitcom, TV sitcom dadI guess.Julia: But that's nice. Takes his kids everywhere, that's nice.Todd: Yeah, yeah.Julia: Involved in the...Todd: Yeah, like a Nascar dad would probably take his son's hunting and maybe take his daughter shopping and stuff like that.

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号: VOA英语每日一听 Julia: And how about you? What kind of learner are you?Todd: Well I guess I'm maybe kinesthetic, that's movement, right, or doing things with your hands.Julia: Yeah, I think so or even your whole body?Todd: I don't know. Is kinesthetic using your hands or is it your whole body? Or does it matter?Julia: I'm not sure it matters. Perhaps there's two different types. I know there's something called TPR when we teach English, total physical response.Todd: Right. So that would be kinesthetic?Julia: That's maybe kinesthetic, that's where you give an instruction and the student performs the task and they use the whole body in that case but it can just be your hands or a body part. I think it's both.Todd: Yes, I think so, yeah. Yes, I mean, so basically if I do it like if I somehow have to make it or if I'm moving, I definitely think I learn better. You know, I learned how to do everything for web design and stuff like that by I think just moving the mouse, click here, click there, type here, type there, whereas like reading it from a book I just, you know, I couldn't learn it that way. So maybe, maybe, I'm kind of that way. The same with cooking, you know, like I have to do it. If I don't do it I'm not going to remember it. I just can't read a recipe and cook. So I think maybe the other thing I would be, would be, I guess would be an aural learner or auditory learner. So basically through hearing.Julia: My husband's the same, yeah.Todd: Yeah.Julia: He can hear a sentence, hear a new word, and remember it just from his ears.Todd: Really?Julia: Yeah.Todd: That's good.Julia: That's very good, yeah.Todd: Like I love podcasts and I love hearing things, that's probably why I have this website. I don't like reading too much. I do read and I actually don't even like watching TV very much. I don't like watching movies very much.Julia: Really?Todd: No. I would actually much rather listen to a radio program, a good podcast, than watch a movie.Julia: You see when I listen to a podcast...Todd: While I'm walking.Julia: There you go, definitely kinesthetic. If I listen to a podcast, I get a little bit frustrated that I can't see the people speaking.Todd: Really?Julia: It frustrates me a little bit that I can't see the faces when they're talking when I don't know what they look like.Todd: Oh, I never even thought of that. Yeah, I just don't even care.Julia: I need to, I need visual input in order for it to, I don't know, go into that part of my brain where it stays, where it stores maybe.Todd: So we're definitely two different types of learners?Julia: Absolutely, yes.

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号: VOA英语每日一听 Julia: And how about you? What kind of learner are you?Todd: Well I guess I'm maybe kinesthetic, that's movement, right, or doing things with your hands.Julia: Yeah, I think so or even your whole body?Todd: I don't know. Is kinesthetic using your hands or is it your whole body? Or does it matter?Julia: I'm not sure it matters. Perhaps there's two different types. I know there's something called TPR when we teach English, total physical response.Todd: Right. So that would be kinesthetic?Julia: That's maybe kinesthetic, that's where you give an instruction and the student performs the task and they use the whole body in that case but it can just be your hands or a body part. I think it's both.Todd: Yes, I think so, yeah. Yes, I mean, so basically if I do it like if I somehow have to make it or if I'm moving, I definitely think I learn better. You know, I learned how to do everything for web design and stuff like that by I think just moving the mouse, click here, click there, type here, type there, whereas like reading it from a book I just, you know, I couldn't learn it that way. So maybe, maybe, I'm kind of that way. The same with cooking, you know, like I have to do it. If I don't do it I'm not going to remember it. I just can't read a recipe and cook. So I think maybe the other thing I would be, would be, I guess would be an aural learner or auditory learner. So basically through hearing.Julia: My husband's the same, yeah.Todd: Yeah.Julia: He can hear a sentence, hear a new word, and remember it just from his ears.Todd: Really?Julia: Yeah.Todd: That's good.Julia: That's very good, yeah.Todd: Like I love podcasts and I love hearing things, that's probably why I have this website. I don't like reading too much. I do read and I actually don't even like watching TV very much. I don't like watching movies very much.Julia: Really?Todd: No. I would actually much rather listen to a radio program, a good podcast, than watch a movie.Julia: You see when I listen to a podcast...Todd: While I'm walking.Julia: There you go, definitely kinesthetic. If I listen to a podcast, I get a little bit frustrated that I can't see the people speaking.Todd: Really?Julia: It frustrates me a little bit that I can't see the faces when they're talking when I don't know what they look like.Todd: Oh, I never even thought of that. Yeah, I just don't even care.Julia: I need to, I need visual input in order for it to, I don't know, go into that part of my brain where it stays, where it stores maybe.Todd: So we're definitely two different types of learners?Julia: Absolutely, yes.

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号: VOA英语每日一听Julia: So we're talking about your wedding, Nathan. Was it a stressful experience for you?Nathan: Yes, I think you could say that it was pretty stressful in several ways. The first one was a kind of stupid thing was that a long time ago I'd broken a tooth and a couple of days before I got married, the tooth got stuck in a chocolate bar and broke again. So I'd been to an emergency...Julia: You looked pretty then?Nathan: Yeah, I'd been to an emergency dentist session to have a new cap stuck on but I was really worried that (a) I couldn't speak properly because my mouth was still a bit getting used to the shape of the tooth and I was worried that the tooth was going to fall off but also I'm not very good in front of large groups of people and I had to, I had to do some speeches and I hadn't really...Julia: You made a speech?Nathan: Yeah, I didn't really memorize the speeches properly and so I really struggled with the speeches but I think the other thing was that I couldn't relax because everybody was taking photos and every time I wanted to have a drink of beer or have a mouthful of food, someone was like just one more photo, just one more photo and so I kept on saying to people like I'm really tired, you know, I'd really like to eat my food and everybody kept on coming up and taking photos and I actually got a bit frustrated and a bit...Julia: You were grumpy on your wedding day?Nathan: Well, I get grumpy everywhere. We had three parties so the first party was...Julia: Three parties?Nathan: Yeah, we had the wedding ceremony and then we had the meal and then we had a second party where we did some games and then we had a third party at a karaoke booth which was fantastic.Julia: Right and were you still in your wedding gear for all those parties?Nathan: Yeah. Actually I said to you sometime before that my wife had two wedding dresses but by the time we went to karaoke she was on her third wedding dress.Julia: Oh, wow.Nathan: So she had a pretty good time getting changed.Julia: It was a huge event then?Nathan: It was.Julia: How long did it take to plan this wedding?Nathan: I think it took only two months. My wife's pretty organized so she's like this is going to happen, this is going to happen, boom, boom, boom.Julia: So she made most of the important stressful decisions?Nathan: Oh yeah. The planning was easy for me. I just said yes to everything.Julia: And did you go on a honeymoon?Nathan: That's a major bone of contention. That's, I've never been forgiven for this because we, I guess we really didn't have a huge amount of money and afterward my wife wanted to take...Julia: You spent a lot on the wedding.Nathan: Yeah, she wanted to have a really romantic honeymoon in the Maldives and I'd actually put the idea of the Maldives into her head when I was drinking one time and afterward, we didn't do anything after the wedding because we'd been really busy during the wedding getting friends and family to fly in.Julia: You needed a break?Nathan: Yeah, but then about a month later we went to Thailand, and then we went to Singapore and we did lots of small trips in Malaysia and different things but they weren't really romantic and so my wife is still waiting for her romantic honeymoon.Julia: You went traveling, well that's nice.Nathan: Yeah, well.

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号: VOA英语每日一听Julia: So we're talking about your wedding, Nathan. Was it a stressful experience for you?Nathan: Yes, I think you could say that it was pretty stressful in several ways. The first one was a kind of stupid thing was that a long time ago I'd broken a tooth and a couple of days before I got married, the tooth got stuck in a chocolate bar and broke again. So I'd been to an emergency...Julia: You looked pretty then?Nathan: Yeah, I'd been to an emergency dentist session to have a new cap stuck on but I was really worried that (a) I couldn't speak properly because my mouth was still a bit getting used to the shape of the tooth and I was worried that the tooth was going to fall off but also I'm not very good in front of large groups of people and I had to, I had to do some speeches and I hadn't really...Julia: You made a speech?Nathan: Yeah, I didn't really memorize the speeches properly and so I really struggled with the speeches but I think the other thing was that I couldn't relax because everybody was taking photos and every time I wanted to have a drink of beer or have a mouthful of food, someone was like just one more photo, just one more photo and so I kept on saying to people like I'm really tired, you know, I'd really like to eat my food and everybody kept on coming up and taking photos and I actually got a bit frustrated and a bit...Julia: You were grumpy on your wedding day?Nathan: Well, I get grumpy everywhere. We had three parties so the first party was...Julia: Three parties?Nathan: Yeah, we had the wedding ceremony and then we had the meal and then we had a second party where we did some games and then we had a third party at a karaoke booth which was fantastic.Julia: Right and were you still in your wedding gear for all those parties?Nathan: Yeah. Actually I said to you sometime before that my wife had two wedding dresses but by the time we went to karaoke she was on her third wedding dress.Julia: Oh, wow.Nathan: So she had a pretty good time getting changed.Julia: It was a huge event then?Nathan: It was.Julia: How long did it take to plan this wedding?Nathan: I think it took only two months. My wife's pretty organized so she's like this is going to happen, this is going to happen, boom, boom, boom.Julia: So she made most of the important stressful decisions?Nathan: Oh yeah. The planning was easy for me. I just said yes to everything.Julia: And did you go on a honeymoon?Nathan: That's a major bone of contention. That's, I've never been forgiven for this because we, I guess we really didn't have a huge amount of money and afterward my wife wanted to take...Julia: You spent a lot on the wedding.Nathan: Yeah, she wanted to have a really romantic honeymoon in the Maldives and I'd actually put the idea of the Maldives into her head when I was drinking one time and afterward, we didn't do anything after the wedding because we'd been really busy during the wedding getting friends and family to fly in.Julia: You needed a break?Nathan: Yeah, but then about a month later we went to Thailand, and then we went to Singapore and we did lots of small trips in Malaysia and different things but they weren't really romantic and so my wife is still waiting for her romantic honeymoon.Julia: You went traveling, well that's nice.Nathan: Yeah, well.

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号: VOA英语每日一听 Julia: Hi, my name's Julia and I am talking to Nathan about his wedding experience. Nathan, tell me how was your wedding day.Nathan: My wedding day was, I guess, mixed. I think the build-up to my wedding was quite funny. I didn't feel in control of my wedding so we went to several different, I don't know what to call them, wedding shops or wedding planning companies and they asked us how much money we could spend first and the first thing that comes out is how much money do you think you're going to spend on your wedding and I felt that was kind of like a real personal, a kind of an embarrassing question as well because...Julia: You're British.Nathan: We didn't really have much money. Well, yeah, cos I'm British maybe.Julia: Can I ask you how much did you spend on your wedding?Nathan: Oooh, it was I guess about, in pounds it would have come out at a guess about fifteen thousand pounds.Julia: I've heard that's the average, I think, for a wedding. I don't know but...Nathan: So I wasn't doing my wedding in England, I was doing it overseas and there were a few things I had to get to used to. And one of those things was the wedding company that we chose offered us some, some different priests to do the ceremony for us but they're not real priests.Julia: Like a priests menu?Nathan: Yeah, it's like a priests menu and you've got these like different guys who are playing the role of the priest for the wedding so I happened to know all of the guys in this menu and they said to me, they said to me ah so this guy's really, really popular. Barry priest is like the most popular priest, we really recommend him and I was looking at the picture thinking I know Barry priest and last night I went drinking with Barry priest and he, he didn't look like a very good priest last night.Julia: You got married by your drinking buddy.Nathan: But we didn't in the end. We avoided that but, yeah, all these different choices on a menu, I felt like a McDonald's menu rather than like, it was like do you want a large priest or a small priest or like do you want extra large candles or like small candles in your wedding ceremony lunch and different things so it was kind of, yeah, it was kind of McDonaldized kind of wedding where you had to choose this option or this option and it didn't feel very personal to me at the beginning.Julia: Was it romantic, do you think it was romantic in the end?Nathan: Is a wedding supposed to be romantic or is it supposed to be a party?Julia: I'm a woman and I think it's supposed to be romantic.Nathan: Yeah, maybe I let my wife down a bit.Julia: Ceremonial, maybe ceremonial, was it ceremonial?Nathan: Very, very.Julia: What did you wear? Did you wear some special clothes?Nathan: Like a morning suit, you know like in England you have a grey morning suit, top and tails, but we, mine was black and I felt like I was...Julia: That sounds cool.Nathan: And I felt like I was like kind of Reeves in the Matrix going in with this like black suit and long black tails and...Julia: Did you wear shades?Nathan: If I could have got away with it, I would have.Julia: What was your wife wearing? Was she in black as well?Nathan: She did two different dresses.Julia: Oh, nice.Nathan: And so she had this white wedding dress for the fake church ceremony and then afterward during the lunch she got changed into a dress and it was made from, it was made from an old Japanese kimono.Julia: Like silk?Nathan: So it was all made of silk and it was bright pink with peacocks and flowers and things.Julia: Sounds gorgeous.Nathan: And she'd taken it to a shop and they'd converted it for her.Julia: Sounds beautiful. Does she still have that then? Did she keep that?Nathan: Yep.Julia: Does she still wear it?Nathan: Does she still wear it? If she had an occasion, there's never going to be an occasion where you can wear that dress but it's a pretty amazing dress to look at.Julia: So I guess it's about the memory though, it's certainly, it's certainly a memorable occasion.Nathan: Yeah, well, we've got videos, we've got albums, we've got all sorts of stuff.Julia: Was it stressful? Was it a stressful experience?

更多英语知识，请关注微信公众号: VOA英语每日一听 Julia: Hi, my name's Julia and I am talking to Nathan about his wedding experience. Nathan, tell me how was your wedding day.Nathan: My wedding day was, I guess, mixed. I think the build-up to my wedding was quite funny. I didn't feel in control of my wedding so we went to several different, I don't know what to call them, wedding shops or wedding planning companies and they asked us how much money we could spend first and the first thing that comes out is how much money do you think you're going to spend on your wedding and I felt that was kind of like a real personal, a kind of an embarrassing question as well because...Julia: You're British.Nathan: We didn't really have much money. Well, yeah, cos I'm British maybe.Julia: Can I ask you how much did you spend on your wedding?Nathan: Oooh, it was I guess about, in pounds it would have come out at a guess about fifteen thousand pounds.Julia: I've heard that's the average, I think, for a wedding. I don't know but...Nathan: So I wasn't doing my wedding in England, I was doing it overseas and there were a few things I had to get to used to. And one of those things was the wedding company that we chose offered us some, some different priests to do the ceremony for us but they're not real priests.Julia: Like a priests menu?Nathan: Yeah, it's like a priests menu and you've got these like different guys who are playing the role of the priest for the wedding so I happened to know all of the guys in this menu and they said to me, they said to me ah so this guy's really, really popular. Barry priest is like the most popular priest, we really recommend him and I was looking at the picture thinking I know Barry priest and last night I went drinking with Barry priest and he, he didn't look like a very good priest last night.Julia: You got married by your drinking buddy.Nathan: But we didn't in the end. We avoided that but, yeah, all these different choices on a menu, I felt like a McDonald's menu rather than like, it was like do you want a large priest or a small priest or like do you want extra large candles or like small candles in your wedding ceremony lunch and different things so it was kind of, yeah, it was kind of McDonaldized kind of wedding where you had to choose this option or this option and it didn't feel very personal to me at the beginning.Julia: Was it romantic, do you think it was romantic in the end?Nathan: Is a wedding supposed to be romantic or is it supposed to be a party?Julia: I'm a woman and I think it's supposed to be romantic.Nathan: Yeah, maybe I let my wife down a bit.Julia: Ceremonial, maybe ceremonial, was it ceremonial?Nathan: Very, very.Julia: What did you wear? Did you wear some special clothes?Nathan: Like a morning suit, you know like in England you have a grey morning suit, top and tails, but we, mine was black and I felt like I was...Julia: That sounds cool.Nathan: And I felt like I was like kind of Reeves in the Matrix going in with this like black suit and long black tails and...Julia: Did you wear shades?Nathan: If I could have got away with it, I would have.Julia: What was your wife wearing? Was she in black as well?Nathan: She did two different dresses.Julia: Oh, nice.Nathan: And so she had this white wedding dress for the fake church ceremony and then afterward during the lunch she got changed into a dress and it was made from, it was made from an old Japanese kimono.Julia: Like silk?Nathan: So it was all made of silk and it was bright pink with peacocks and flowers and things.Julia: Sounds gorgeous.Nathan: And she'd taken it to a shop and they'd converted it for her.Julia: Sounds beautiful. Does she still have that then? Did she keep that?Nathan: Yep.Julia: Does she still wear it?Nathan: Does she still wear it? If she had an occasion, there's never going to be an occasion where you can wear that dress but it's a pretty amazing dress to look at.Julia: So I guess it's about the memory though, it's certainly, it's certainly a memorable occasion.Nathan: Yeah, well, we've got videos, we've got albums, we've got all sorts of stuff.Julia: Was it stressful? Was it a stressful experience?

Julia Hickman is a lifestyle and online fitness coach helping time-crunched women make fitness something that improves, not consumes, their lives so they have time for their families. Her business started as a SAHM side gig after quitting her corporate job and eventually getting fired from her CrossFit coaching gig. She now helps women in NJ and other states with a program that pairs core-connecting, strength and cardio movements with an individualized plan to have them feeling and looking better than ever without sacrifice or deprivation. This episode takes us through a heartbreaking time in her life when she was unexpectedly let go from a job she loved. Listen in as she tells us a story of heartbreak and the ultimate reinvention of her best self as she subsequently created the Fastinista Online Studio. Listen in as we chat about: How to turn a “firing” into a positive career move for yourself The importance of practicing positive affirmations Creating your business based on the needs and feedback of your customers The role that business coaching played in her progress Turning her hobby into a paying profession Want to contact Julia? You can get in touch with her on her website or on Instagram! Find Kim Ransom on my: Website Instagram or Facebook

Dr. Julia Spinolo is a Doctor of Nursing Practice and Reiki Master who offers energy healing, intuitive coaching, and spiritual guidance. She combines her knowledge of science based medicine and energetic healing modalities to help clients return to their centered selves. We're talking about best practices for energy healers. If you are a Reiki Master or a practitioner of another healing modality, this is a great set of ethical guidelines. And if you are considering energy healing as a client or patient, we talk about the positive attributes you should be looking for in a practitioner, common red flags you might want to be aware of, and what kind of expectations you should have about outcomes. GUEST LINKS - JULIA SPINOLO juliaspinolo.com Resources (Research) Medical Girl Mystical World Dr. Julia Spinolo's Show MENTIONED ON THE SHOW Don't Fear Placebos Akimbo: a podcast from Seth Godin HOST LINKS - SLADE ROBERSON Slade's Books & Courses Get an intuitive reading with Slade Automatic Intuition FACEBOOK GROUP Shift Your Spirits Community BECOME A PATRON https://www.patreon.com/shiftyourspirits Edit your pledge on Patreon TRANSCRIPT Julia: I was working as a college professor and going on about life. Had my terminal degree. Thought that life was good, had a great house, had a great husband, great marriage, and then I was diagnosed with breast cancer. This was almost four years ago, which threw my world upside down. So I went through having a double mastectomy and then months of chemotherapy and then recovering. And luckily, turned out fine. Everything is fine. I'm still doing fine. But I just did not feel like myself. I got my energy back but my mind was very foggy. Had classic chemo-brain, which is where you feel like you're in a constant fog and you can't connect your thoughts or you forget things and I'm one of these very meticulous people that are on my game all the time. I'm very on the ball and I just wasn't myself. My husband, funny enough, is an oncologist. He looked at me and he said, "Well maybe this is your new normal." I was like, "No, I'm not going to let this be my new normal." So I started looking at other ways besides western medicine to see if I could start to feel better. So going back in my history, I've always been kind of a metaphysical child. I have always been interested in having psychic readings. I had my first psychic reading when I was 12. I had my aura saged at 18 on a mountaintop, and I've always been kind of connected to that world. So anyway, I go to a group meditation and they were offering pranic energy healings afterwards. I was like, you know what? I'm just going to try this to see. I had no expectations whatsoever, but I heard that it was good. People really raved about it so I'm like, why not? So I'm sitting there with no intention of what's going on. Let's just see what happens. So I had this 15 minute pranic energy healing done and it was almost immediately that I felt clear. My thoughts were... It was like the fucking light bulb came on and I was just elated. And I just fell into this. I said, "I gotta learn more about this. I know that I can do this. I'm a healer already being in medicine, because that's what we do. We help heal people and we're going to go into that later in our discussion. But as I said, I know that I can do this. So I did. I started studying, actually I looked at different modalities. I looked at pranic energy, of course you have tai chi, accupuncture, accupressure, all of that is energy work. There are so many different modalities, but reiki really resonated with me. So I studied for months and became a reiki master and really started doing that work. During this work with the energy, I did a lot of self healing and a lot of work on myself. That self work is very key for any practitioner because you've got to be right with yourself before you work with anybody else. So I did. I did a lot of healing on my own. Studied the energy work and then started seeing clients. That's how I got into this and now that's what I solely do full time. I use my medical expertise in conjunction with the energy work, because really it's all connected. The body is connected to our energy. People that have these physical manifestations, there's some root cause of what's going on and that's basically what's going on energetically. And some people are like, well what do you mean? So my thought is that everything is energy. Our cells are made up of cells that are vibrating at different frequencies that make up our different organs. But also the things that we can't see, such as our thoughts, our prayers, that kind of thing, all of that is energy. What I look at is, this is a classic example. I'm fortunate to work with a primary care group, so I'm introducing this energy work into primary care medicine, which is so freaking cool. But basically people will come to me because I'm the last resort, which I really wish it wouldn't be like that. But unfortunately, it is. Because it's like, they can't figure out what the hell is going on with me. Can you help me? Because it is. So I'll do case studies. I had a woman who was coming in and she was having all these stomach ailments and she had the battery of tests and everything was coming out fine. Everything. I mean, she had ran a gamut of tests, doctors are scratching their heads like, you know, this is just how it is and here we're going to give you this medicine that's gonna help with these symptoms, and unfortunately with western medicine, we do. We kind of shrug and be like, "Well, there's a drug for that. Let's give you that and see how you do." I'm more of like, okay, what's really going on here? So she comes to me and we start talking and kind of digging down deep. It comes across that she's had really shitty relationships where her ego, her self-esteem, was just shot. When that happens, that tells me, okay, where the energy of our self esteem is in our solar plexus, which is right in our belly, the centre of our belly. So after we went through this, and the healing that she went through, and me giving her the tools to do the self-care, keep her where she's in alignment. Because it's not just me doing the work. It's a two-way street here. The client needs to be giving the input in. Somebody doesn't come to me, I'll wave my hands around them or wave a magic wand and POOF, they're done. It doesn't go like that. So they've got to do that work too. So we work together and I mean, this can take time! It can take months of meeting and working through this. Sometimes you integrate with a therapist, if there's something that I'm not comfortable with, I definitely use other resources to help with patients. And she got to where her symptoms went away because she felt better about herself, and it wasn't... It was so rewarding to see her, that look on her face and she doesn't have to take the medicine now and she feels great about herself. I kind of went on a little tangent there.. Slade: Well let me ask you something. Let me take you back for a minute. Because I remember, I mean, you and I are friends and we talk a lot. We've had conversations about this stuff. And you told me, at one point, that you were skeptical about this type of work itself. So I'm interested, what was it that, what was the skepticism that you had and what changed for you around that? Julia: Because with my background, I was trained in evidence-based medicine. So I needed to have a number of studies to convince me that this works. That's what medicine is. That's how trials are done. We do these trials. Okay, what was the most effective treatment for this plan? So that's how we plan our course for patients. That's what I was thinking, well if this stuff works, where is the stuff out there that's proving it? And when I started looking at this, I did, as a researcher at heart, I started researching this and you know what? There is stuff out there. People don't look for that. They're like, people get uncomfortable because it's something that we can't see. It's something that's not measurable. The only thing that's really measurable is the effects on how the person feels. But also if you look at their blood pressure, for example, if they have high blood pressure, they're taking the medicine and it's not working, they go to have energy work. The thing is that the practitioners are not keeping record of that. And there's nothing that goes back to say, "Yeah this works." We're only going by word of mouth. I really strongly advocate to have that data to show, yes, this does work. That gives it the validity that it needs, that people really need to show, like, yes, this can work. Slade: So when you were researching, you said one of the things that you were most drawn to was reiki. Was that because there was more research around reiki that convinced you? Julia: You know, that's a really good question. I chose reiki because it just resonated with me. I like the flow of it. I like the teachings of it. I like that you can take what it has and you can make it your own. There's some energy modalities where you have these rules and regulations. You've gotta do it this way, that step kind of thing. You have some of that fluidity with reiki, so that's what really got me into it. But then when I started looking into the research, it was kind of like a confirmation. Yeah, this is the stuff that I really like and I can use to support the work that I do. Slade: So I know you. I know you immediately went and read a bunch of brainy stuff about this, so, I want to know in layman's terms the highlights for us. Tell us. What are some of the scientific studies that back this up? Because you're right. A lot of people don't even go and investigate it that much, but you've investigated it. So tell us what you'd found out. Julia: Well there's a lot. If people wanted to know the statistical information, like the p-values and that good stuff, that nerdy stuff, they can go to my website which will tell them at the end of the show, under Offerings, there is a tab for Resources. Slade: Okay. Julia: And that has a lot of studies in there. There's more that I could put in there, but I don't like to overwhelm people. But it has like the gist of it, just for people to say like, "Okay, this stuff really does work." So to answer your question, there are studies that have statistically significant results in patients that have acute coronary syndrome, which is heart disease. They that have received reiki have a reduction of anxiety and perceived stress. This is all measurable results. This one was really cool for me. People that received, and these are just patients in the study, patients in this study who received reiki before their colonoscopy. After they received reiki, they required less Demerol, which is pain medication, after the procedure than patients who did not have any energy healing. So that's significant, especially with our opioid epidemic and our addiction to pain medication. So that's a plus in my book. Patients that had mild Alzheimer's Disease had an increase in mental functioning and improved memory and their behavioural problems had lessened. Cancer patients who received reiki reported less fatigue and anxiety, and I'm a testament to that, which significantly improved their quality of life. And this is a really cool thing because a lot of hospitals are now implementing energy work into their practices in the hospital. So they're actually taking nurses and having them go through reiki training to help not only their patients, and have their patients more comfortable, but also they're using it on their staff to prevent burnout. And healthcare professionals who have received reiki treatments have a reduction of burnout symptoms, which is compassion fatigue. But also it increases their focus and their problem-solving skills, which is a benefit to patients because they make less mistakes. Yeah, so it's not just for the patients. It's for the patients. It's for everybody. For the primary care group that I work with, I work with the staff and the patients, because I believe that the environment needs to be healing for the patients. Because that's going to radiate off of them. If they're feeling good, it's going to radiate out. And when those patients come in to that office, they're going to feel like, hey, I'm supported, it feels good here, I know that they're here to help me. So it's a win-win. I know that you have questions about placebo, so I can hold this one study for you while we talk about that, or if you want me to talk about that now, I can. Slade: Let's go ahead and talk about placebo because I've been studying it from more of a marketing angle and I'll speak to that. But talk to me about placebo, because I think it has kind of a dirty word and I think we can change the connotation about it. But talk to me about that in the studies. Julia: Okay. So just to say that, initially when I started this is, because it wasn't my intent to get better with having this chemo brain, so as a placebo, I was kind of on the fence with it. Was I, did I really think this was going to kill me and well maybe it is. And people chalk it up to placebo. Let me say something about the placebo effect. The thing is, is that if it works, it works. Period. If the patient feels better, whether or not it's placebo or not, if they're feeling better, it's kind of like, Who cares?? They're feeling better. A lot of times, with us, we have to make it make sense to us. We need to have that statistical data for some of us. We need to have that word of mouth that somebody says to us. If somebody says it's placebo effect, it doesn't necessarily mean it's all in their head. Now I'm gonna give you this study where reiki was done on newborn babies who were born to mothers that had substance abuse problems. So these babies were at risk for detoxing, having abstinence syndrome, which, when these babies received reiki... First of all, reiki does not cause any harmful effects across the board, which is good. So it didn't show any bad effects for this. But when these babies, they don't know anything about placebo or what's really going on, when these babies had the reiki, it showed that their heart rate decreased that correlated to the peaceful state of relaxation. So explain that to me. Slade: Right. Because they can't, they don't have the consciousness for the placebo effect to work. Julia: Correct. Slade: Well, I want to say something about placebo that really, the reason why I got really interested in this, and I'll try to find the episode and link to it for everyone so they can hear him talk about it, but Seth Godin, who is basically like a marketing expert, he did a whole show about placebo and about owning the fact that if your placebo effect is effective, then it's still valuable. You know what I mean? Julia: Right! Slade: That there is something to be said for, like when somebody takes your course and they pay money to come to a classroom, well maybe they could do some of that work on their own. But part of what the workshop does is it gives them accountability, it creates a time frame and structure to learn whatever it is. All of those things are reinforcing to maybe a goal that they have. But there's also a placebo effect around the mind-body connection. The thing is that the mind-body connection is for real. So if someone's saying something to you can activate your own mind-body connection, then so be it. You know what I mean? There's nothing wrong with it. So yeah, it is really interesting though to look at and compare those results that are outside of placebo. That's when we go, "Oh crap... this person didn't even know it was being done on them." I think there have been lots of studies around prayer that have those kind of results, right? Julia: Yeah. And let me tell you, there's been studies done. There's a few that I have on my website that deal with sham reiki, which is a double blind study, which means, here I'm getting all nerdy on you, but what that is is they came in. They did a group of patients that had reiki that was done by trained, attuned practitioners. And then they had a group of patients that were "treated" with people that didn't know anything about reiki. They just came in and told them that they were a reiki person and waved their hands over them. So, this is going to get rid of our placebo effect here. So listen to this. So in this study, it statistically significantly showed that the patients that received the actual reiki was far more effective than the people that had received the sham reiki, without them even knowing it. So there's something to it. Slade: Yeah. Julia: There's something to it. Slade: Absolutely. Julia: Because it kind of debunks that placebo effect. Because of these patients that did n'o know if they were getting a true reiki practitioner or a sham reiki person. They didn't know. Slade: That's fascinating. Julia: It was REALLY fascinating. Slade: I'm so glad that you have all these resources already in one place, because there are people who will want to dig into the details. We'll just link straight to that and let them see the sources that you're pulling from. One of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you is that you do both have the medical credentials, you're ethically conscious about your reiki practitioner, you are super informed about these studies and this information. And just to be honest, when you heard me criticizing some of the aspects of energy healing and kind of going off about it, what were some of the things that went through your head that you wanted to just like shout out in defense. Julia: Well, I think that there are standards that need to be set. I mean, definitely, you know, having some ethics to the work that we do. So I'm going to address what we as energy healers need to really think about going into this work. Can we start with that first? Slade: Yeah, absolutely. That'd be great. Julia: Let's just say we'll call this the "best practices" for energy healers. This is just not for people that do reiki, but any energy modality. I think this is across the board for all energy healers or people who identify themselves as energy healers, lightworkers, what have you. The big thing is, always ask for permission to work on people. I've heard horror stories where I've heard of people being worked on when they didn't give permission, like they received distance healing from somebody. That's totally not okay. Always ask permission. Can I give you a story, a personal story? Slade: Yeah! Absolutely. Julia: I love telling stories. This was a few years ago when I was just starting my business. I had somebody that was interested in talking with me, maybe joining as a practitioner with my business. My intuition was very cautious, let me just see how it goes. We ended up having lunch and I left the meeting nice. During the meeting, she wanted to kind of like, gasp, "I want to read you, I want to do this. Can I read you now? Drop the veil", and all these theatrics and all that stuff. I was like, whatever lady. Because I've had psychic readings forever. I grew up with this stuff. So I'm like, nothing you tell me is going to, "Ohmygod!" People love that. Let me just shock the shit out of somebody. And I was like, okay... So anyway, after the lunch and everything, I was like, well that's cool. I'll keep her as a contact person, but I don't necessarily think that I'm going to work with her. At any rate, later on in the day, my stomach was feeling kind of queasy and I was like, maybe it was something I ate that's going on. Let me take another side note here. Okay, so there are things that happen with our energy, and some of it can be emotional or physical things. This doesn't discount bacteria or viruses or anything, so when people get sick and they're like, gasp, "Your energy is off." Well, maybe your energy was low enough to be susceptible to that, but stuff happens. We still get sick. People that are at high-vibe still get sick because viruses do occur, so I want to make that clear. Anyway, so my stomach wasn't feeling good, so I sent her a text and said, "Hey, are you feeling okay?" She's like, "Yeah." I said, "Oh, well that's good!" I said, "My stomach was feeling a little upset. Maybe it was just the sushi that I had, some bad sushi." Just write it off as that. She was like, "Oh no, I know what it was." And I'm like, "What was it?" And she said, "I felt that you needed energy work done so I did a bunch of work on you. People have these kinds of symptoms when I work with them, they have stomach pain or ailments and stuff like that." I lost it. "Oh no you didn't." Because you have a start to your session and an end to your session. And that's it. Anything that comes after that, like if somebody walks out my door and we're done, we're done. So this outside of let-me-heal-you or let me work on your Higher Self, that does not fly with me. So I went all over her, and I said, "Ethically, that was just a big no-no. You don't do that." She's like, "Well I'm just trying to help you. I'm trying to do what's best for you." I'm like, "You don't know what's best for me." So we really got into it. She could not understand why that was not okay. Slade: Can I tell a story too about this? Julia: Oh please! I love story time. Slade: So the whole permission thing. Anybody that's worked with me around Automatic Intuition and my mentoring knows that I'm a stickler for this. I know that there's a lot of great TV about mediums walking up to strangers in line at the butcher and reading them. I've been doing this now for like 13 years and I cannot tell you how many hundreds of emails that I receive from people telling me that my guides have communicated with them and they have a message for me. And I'm like, "Yeah, right." Julia: Okay! Slade: It's kind of a little bit insulting, you know what I mean? It's just like telling somebody, you know, that you've undressed them with your eyes or something. It's an invasion of privacy. It's also not going to be super effective if people don't have your permission and your involvement because like you said, you're not doing something AT someone. You're facilitating something that's happening within them. I know that the best readings for me is when somebody is really participating and it feels like a conversation more than me sitting in a turbin just spouting stuff out. Those styles of readings, like you said, the drama and all that stuff... I mean, there may be people who do really excellent readings with all that, but one of the things that I really want to always pound home is this idea that this stuff shouldn't make you feel bad. It shouldn't make you sick. It should be practical. And it should be empowering. And it should make you feel peaceful and hopeful and all of that stuff. So if somebody's coming at you even with just social energy boundary issues, we'll put that in the red flag category. But anyway, so... Julia: We're going to go through some red flags today in a little bit, but yeah, that was just one. Kind of piggy-backing off of that is keeping good boundaries. We as practitioners need to be respectful of other people's boundaries, and when they come to see you, again, at the end of the session, that's the end. Some people say, gasp, "Well their grandmother came to me afterwards." And I was like, "Good! If they make another session with you, you make a note of it and tell them then." Also, and this is kind of like the Hippocratic Oath where it's always do good and no harm. Always come with that good heartfelt intent. Oh, here's a big one. Check your ego. When something is going on and you want to send reiki, whether it's to a person or to a population or that kind of thing, you want to question your ethics. You want to ask yourself, Why am I doing this? Are you doing it out of a true sense of help or are you doing it for your ego? And how you can do that is, are you really truly there to help or are you looking for the accolades and the money in your pocket. So really check yourself before you do that. What is my intent here? Is it really because I care or do I want the recognition to say, I healed this person, and to brag about it? And don't do any help unless it's okay with the person. Again, going back to ask the person. But also not guaranteeing that you're going to fix them. Nobody fixes anybody. Even in medicine, we don't fix people. It's called practicing medicine for a reason. We practice it. We try to look at the best practices that have been used with these patients in these certain populations or certain diseases. It does not necessarily mean that we fix them. If it helps with that, yay. That's great. But as far as fixing people, no. So when people claim "I cured this", or "Don't do that treatment and only come to me from now on", that's part of our red flag category too. So really watch yourself and check in. What am I doing this for? Am I trying to fix this person? Am I using all the resources available that can be applicable for this person? Really check in with yourself. The other thing that I want to say is for people to do that self work on themselves. They need to do those self healing practices. They need to practice what they preach. Are they taking good care of themselves? Are they checking in? Are they having energy work done by other practitioners and that self care? Because if they're not able to take care of themselves, if they're gonna be like a martyr and wave their magic wand and fix everybody, and then they get so exhausted and compassion fatigue, they did that to themselves. So they really need to have those moments of where they're doing their self care. So those are my best practices for energy healers. Slade: I know that we definitely have a lot of people in our listening audience who are coming to this as peers. They're listening to this conversation because they ARE reiki practitioners. Like you said, even if you are a practitioner, you still want to be on the receiving end sometimes, and there may be people listening to this show who've maybe never had a reiki treatment, or a session with an energy healer. So let's flip it a little bit and look at it from the perspective of if you're looking to be a client, what are some of the things that you're looking for in choosing a practitioner, and maybe that includes some of the red flags as well. Talk about that. Julia: Okay. First of all, for people that are looking into it, they need to have an open mind of what all of this is. A lot of people will come in to be a skeptic, "Oh, I just want to figure out what this is about to debunk people", and that's just, who knows what's going to happen for that, so have an open mind. Look for your intent of what you are seeking energy healing for. The other thing is, a lot of people when they're in desperate need of help, they're going to clamour around and get so many different people involved. So if too many therapies can be, you know, they're like, the more energy work I have from different practitioners and different modalities, the best. Well people have to be patient with that to see how each modality works for them. Because I have some people say, "Well I just left my accupuncturist and I came here and then I'm going to go do yoga after I go to do this." That's too much. Do one at a time. Do one every couple of weeks or whatever. People try to get that fix. Being healed like, fast, and it just doesn't happen. Also, I want to advise people to really trust their gut. Go with that intuition of like, if somebody gives you bad vibes, or you're kind of questioning it, you're looking at their website and it doesn't really resonate with you, don't go see that person. Look at word of mouth. Your friends, what they say. Look at the testimonies on people's website and see if you really like what you read. You want to avoid anybody that says that THEIR way is the RIGHT way. Again, looking at people saying that they can cure you. That's a big red flag. So watch out for that. People that say that you ONLY need my services. You don't need to see that person. Or you don't need to go to that support group. People that kind of monopolize on that. That's something that people need to watch out for. Slade: Well here's a good point that just occurred to me as we were talking about this. So kind of trying to grab all the stuff and do everything at once. I'm gonna do yoga, I'm gonna get acupuncture, I'm gonna go to my massage therapist, and I'm gonna have reiki. That's all too much. Partly because you can't really judge then which thing is being the most effective. Julia: Correct. Slade: You know, if you break them down and do them one at a time, then you have a better sense of which one's working for you. Julia: Yeah. Slade: BUT, by the same token, you need to have supportive therapies and treatments and experiences of different kinds. For instance, you need to have actual medical treatment if it's a medical issue, in addition to energy work. And then maybe you do need something that's a support group that's more of a social experience. So that's an interesting thing that just came to me as we're talking about this, to be able to discern the difference between having a lot of different avenues of support versus doing all the things at once. You know what I'm saying? Julia: Right. I mean I do that with my... I refer out with my clients all the time. If there's something that I'm not comfortable doing, I refer them out. And I know the people that I refer them to are trusted individuals that are highly qualified to do what they do. For example, I had a gentleman that, we were talking and he realized that he had a problem with alcohol. So I referred him to this great therapist and a support group that he could have. I mean, I wasn't going to sit there and say, "I'm going to be your support..." I'm not able to do that and I can't provide that for him. I'm not going to give him false hope. Slade: Listen, I have sent more people into therapy and 12 step programs as an intuitive than I probably even would've been able to as a therapist. Julia: Yeah! And I do! I refer them to, you know, if they have something that's going on with their thyroid they say, or whatever, I'll give medical referrals. It's like I'm the go-to point. "Here. Let me guide you this way." I'm kind of like a guide for a lot of people. Slade: Yeah. Julia: They come in and they're all like, "This is what's going on." I'm like, "Okay. Let's see what I can do. If I can't help you or if this doesn't work for you, then let's go here. Here's my list of recommendations here." And go from there. Another thing that I wanted to mention for people that are looking at energy healers. If they come across energy healers and they are talking about clients and not keeping confidentiality, you know, identifying information, if they're talking about people using their names and everything, they're definitely gonna be talking about you. So you wanna make sure that your practitioner has a confidentiality clause in their policies and their procedures to make sure they ensure that for their clients. That's happened before. Because if they're talking about other people, they're definitely going to be talking about you. The last thing that I want to say with researching energy healers for people is that if they go into a session and the practitioner's like, "Well, for us to do this, you're going to have to pay me more money." I've been advised that I should be doing packages for people and it just kind of rubs me the wrong way. Because sometimes one treatment is good enough for that client and they can come back in six months or a year from now. Maybe that one treatment is enough for them, so that's something that I'm kind of like on the fence about. But anybody that locks you in to get that more money coming in. Now I'm honest with people. If they come in and see me and I feel they need a couple more sessions, I'll be like, "You know, I think you may need to see me in a couple of weeks. Let's see how this does. Let's see how you feel", that kind of thing. There's no pressure or obligation for them to give me money to help them, you know what I mean? Slade: Yeah. And I want to say something about that for other practitioners and other professional intuitives. Whatever it is that you're doing as a practice, people often ask me about bundling services and bundling sessions, the only place that I really officially bundle sessions is when I'm going to be mentoring somebody and training them in this work. And I let them know upfront, this pricing is based off this number of sessions with me. So that's something that... There is no you do one session and then, "Oh, actually, in order to complete your training, you need three more." I don't do that. I will say this too. I don't really want clients that need to talk to me once a month. Because then I worry about their dependence on the work that I'm doing for them. Julia: Yes! Slade: Versus their personal empowerment. And I also know that there's a certain type of person, and I'm one of them, who needs a really good session once every six months. And then I'm good. Julia: Yup! Slade: I've got a To-Do list coming out of that session and I'm on fire to go and work on it. So leave me alone and let me go do what you just taught me to do and see what I can do on my own. If I do run into a client who really just, they like to talk to me once a season or twice a year or whatever that is, I do create special pricing and packaging for them off the books. It's not on the website. It's kind of more like a secret deal for your best clients kind of thing. It usually involves a discount, not additional money. It's usually like, you know what? If you're going to keep coming to me every year on your birthday, you don't need to be paying as much as everyone else. I think that, when you would consider paying for bundling, like I'm going to go ahead and pay for three more sessions up front, it's as if you already had a couple with that person and you like them so much, you're already booking more booking more booking more. And then the option of doing a bundle is just a logical discount for you. That would be a great time to do it. Julia: Yeah. Like I said, I'm on the fence about that but for people to promote it, I don't know. We'll see. Maybe I'll change my mind. Slade: It shouldn't be the exit speech before you leave. Julia: Yes! Or if people say, some people say, "You have this curse. BUT I can get rid of that curse for you." Slade: Ohmygod. Julia: If you take this feather and this herb and pay me $600. That's what gives us a bad rep! All that stuff gives us such a bad rep, because of the shady stuff that happens. Slade: Well, and I have people all the time that come to me with this idea that they've been cursed or hexed by somebody else. I had a lady try to tell me that there was a man in France that she'd never met before who had cursed her for six years. And I was like, "Okay...." First of all, I do believe, I want to speak to this a little bit because I think it speaks to the idea of energy healing or working on people at a distance. I believe that we can do everything within the bubble of our own mind-body connection. I believe that you can absolutely curse your damn self. You can totally put a spell on yourself and screw yourself up. I do believe that you can make choices that you have to unravel somewhere down the road. You're like, Uh, yeah, that wasn't the best idea. But the idea of somebody being able to project magical energy at you from France and screw up your life is not something that I believe is possible unless you take that on board. In order for you to believe that you're ex-boyfriend is cursing you because he's stalking you, making your life miserable, well there's a part of your consciousness that is open to him and is taking on that belief. This gets to the idea of people doing distance healing on someone without their permission. I just don't, flat out, believe it works. Julia: So are you saying that you don't believe distant healing works? Or... Slade: I do believe distance healing works when the other person is engaged, like we were saying. Julia: Yes. Slade: When it's a dialogue. When you're facilitating their self healing, it is a conversation like you and I are having right now. We're both showing up to this. We're open to each other and we're communicating back and forth. But I can't get an interview out of you by just willing it to be so while you're down in Atlanta having coffee. That's not... I don't know. I mean there may be studies that can prove it wrong. I have seen really interesting studies around people being prayed for, that didn't even know they were being prayed for, and did not believe in prayer, who still reported miraculous healing and all that kind of stuff. So I believe... Here's the thing. I believe everything a little bit and I'm open to something until it's been debunked. But my personal feeling when I encounter somebody who says that they are removing curses for people, or that they're healing someone without their knowledge or permission. My first thought is like, meh, that's probably not very effective. It's probably just not working. Julia: It's called classic manipulation. Yeah. Classic manipulation there. Slade: Well, you have to be aware of the manipulation for it to work on you. You know what I mean? Julia: Yeah. Slade: I mean, you have to be at least having a conversation with somebody over the phone, you have to be reading an email from them. In order for somebody to manipulate you, you have to be open to that information coming in. I don't think somebody can manipulate you or curse you or heal you if you're going about your business and you've never even heard of them before. I just don't think it happens. Julia: No, I agree with you on that point. I do. Slade: That's a little rant. A little tangential rant. Julia: That's okay. You go on. This is your show. You do what you want to do. Slade: Ohmygosh. Okay, is there anything else that we feel like, oh, I know something we can say about choosing a practitioner. Julia: Yeah. Slade: One of the things that's so cool about this show in this format, is it allows people to listen to us and maybe you do look at somebody's website and well, her website's pretty and she's got some testimonials. Look here's a link to an interview she did. I'm going to go and listen to her. I'm going to listen to her talk to someone else. I'm going to watch a video. I'm gonna watch her TV show. It allows people to resonate with you and to evaluate how they feel about you. I can't imagine why you'd want to hire somebody that you didn't get a good vibe from. But I have heard time and time again that people are booking sessions with me because they listen to the podcast and they feel like they speak my language. There's something about that that we really can't control. It's happening at a level we may not even be conscious of. So, like you said, trust your gut. Be open to the fact that you have the option in a lot of cases to even talk to this person on the phone and do a free consultation or something. You know, interact with them a little bit. If they're not responsive in email, if they're weird on the phone, don't work with them. There's tons of other people out there that you would rather be working with. Julia: Umhmm. Absolutely. Slade: So. Julia: So. Slade: What do you hope to contribute to the greater conversation about spirituality and health and wellness, east meets west medicine, all that good stuff? Julia: All that good stuff. I would like for people to have an open mind, to say anything is possible, but I love seeing what I'm doing now with bringing the, where western trained physicians are bringing me in to do this eastern part of healing for their patients to have that whole well-rounded care. So what I would like to see is that, not that one is bad and the other's... Or like one's crazy and the other one is pill pushers or whatever. There's a happy balance between the two. And then really just for people to do that self-exploration and see what truly resonates with them. Slade: You have a television show that's kind of this whole concept. Tell us about that. Julia: I do! I have a... I'm just wrapping up my second season of Medical Girl Mystical World at the Lighter Side Network. It's wonderful. The network itself has over 400 shows on there with different hosts. But it's really having that mind-body-spirit, that wholesomeness, it's like feel good TV. We talk about that and I've always had people on my show where it peaks my curiosity of, let me learn more about that. That's the thing. I can't judge something when I don't know about it. You know what I mean? So I have. I've had people that do crystal healings or people that do numerology or astral projection. That kind of thing. Because these are the things I don't know enough so I want to educate myself on there so I can make informed decisions about how I want to do things. So it's my inquiring mind. Finding these people and just learning about what they do. Slade: And we're going to link in the show notes because you have a free promo where people can get three months of access to the network. Tell us about that. Julia: Yeah, so if you go to https://www.juliaspinolo.com/ If you look at the link that says "Medical Girl Mystical World", if you click that and subscribe to my email, it will give you that code where you get three months. So you can check it out. Check out my show and the other shows too. See if there's things that resonate with them. If they continue after the three months, to continue with that, it's fine. I think the monthly fee is $6.99, very inexpensive. So have them check it out. See what you like about it. Slade: Awesome. Dr. Julia Spinolo. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. Julia: It's an honour to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Slade: Tell us one more time where we can find you online. Julia: https://www.juliaspinolo.com/ Slade: Awesome. That was great, Julia. Thanks.

Panel: Charles Max Wood Dave Kimura David Richards Special Guests: Julia Evans In this episode of Ruby Rogues, the panel talks with Julia Evans who is a software engineer at Stripe and lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The panel talks with Julia about her tool Ruby Spy among other topics. Check it out! Show Topics: 1:34 – Julia gives her background. 1:52 – Chuck: You’ve been on the show before. Listeners, go check it out! 2:30 – What is Ruby Spy? 2:09 – Julia: I wanted to know WHY my computer was doing what it was doing. I felt that it was my right, so I wrote that program. 3:20 – Julia: This does have these profiling tools in Java. I thought it was unfair that Java had better tools than Ruby. I figured Ruby should have it, too. 3:44 – Chuck talks about tools and Ruby Spy. 4:05 – Julia recommends it. Julia: You had to install the gem in order to use it. 4:30 – Chuck: some people say that it has affected their performance. 4:42 – Julia: Ruby Spy is a separate process. Julia continues this conversation and goes in-depth of what Ruby Spy is, etc. 5:27 – When would you use something like this, and what kind of data would get you back to debug the slow points. 5:43 – Julia: When you run Ruby Spy it will... 6:20 – Chuck: Does it give you method names? 6:25 – Julia: Yes, 20% in this method or... 6:37 – I can see how that would be helpful on certain aspects. Being able to narrow down the 1,000 methods where you cab get your biggest bang for your buck. 7:05 – Julia comments. 7:35 – Chuck: I know people pay for Relic... 7:56 – Chuck: When it tells you which method is taking a long time, will it look at the stack and THIS method is insufficient b/c this other method is insufficient? How does it do that? 8:35 – Julia answers the questions. 8:58 – Chuck: I’d imagine that it could keep anything in memory. Did you have to do a bunch of work where THAT means THAT? 9:20 – Julia answers. Julia: The differences weren’t that big between the different versions. 9:54 – Julia goes through the different ways the versions are different. 11:56 – Panelist asks a question. Is this meant for Ruby Scripts? 12:10 – Julia: It doesn’t care – as long as you are using the Ruby Interpreter. 12:25 – Chuck: Sometimes my performance issues is Ruby, and sometimes it’s the database. For Ruby it will sit there and wait for IO. Is that a blind spot that you will have in Ruby Spy? 12:54 – Julia: Great question. There are 2 ways to do profiling. Julia explains these two ways. 13:54 – Wall Clock Time. 14:04 – Chuck: Your computer has a speed and however long it takes to run one cycle. It is similar, but... 14:26 – I guess as long as it’s relative – I was looking at these graphs you wrote. 14:51 – Julia. 14:56 – Panelist: That has been my issue. Changing context into a profiler... 15:27 – Julia. 15:38 – Chuck: Do you have to run it through something...? 15:49 – Julia. 15:53 – Chuck: Is that the most effective way to look at the data through Ruby Spy? 16:07 – Julia: I twill show you the output as it is profiling. 2 visualizations: flame graph and... 16:45 – Chuck. 16:49 – Julia: It is the only visualization that I know of. 17:00 – Chuck: I don’t know. 17:05 – Julia: You have spent this amount of % to... How much time was spent in this function or that function? I feel that the flame graph is much more helpful than a list of percentages. 17:33 – Chuck: What are you looking at in the flame graph? 17:37 – Guest: Basically what time was spent in that function. You look at what is big, and then you figure out if that is something to optimize or not. You go to the docs and... 18:36 – Jackal. 18:40 – Main problem that I would run into is the information OVERLOAD. Now you have the action controllers and all these other components that aren’t normally visual. Panelist asks a question to Julia. 19:29 – Julia: It does give you everything. If you have a real serious problem often the answer will really jump out at you. What I would say – if something is really slow it is right there. 20:08 – Chuck: You will see the name of the method? 20:15 – Chuck: Any other information it will give you? 20:22 – Julia: The line number. 20:28 – Chuck asks another question. 20:41 – Chuck: Success stories? 20:45 – Julia: Yes, I do. GitHub – success stories. Julia gives us one of her success stories. This user said that it helped them by 30%. 21:28 – I can’t imagine using a Rail app that is over 10 years old. So much as changed! A lot of the documentation would be harder to find. 22:00 – Julia gives another example of a success story. 22:10 – When it goes to production – my brain turns off and get jittery. Figure out what happens in production and I wouldn’t want to guess for an app that couldn’t be down. This is what is happening right here and right now. 22:46 – Chuck: How do they get it out into production... 22:57 – Julia: Through GitHub that you can download. If you are on a Mac and your developing you can do it through Home Brew. 23:17 – Chuck and Julia go back and forth. 23:27 – Panelist: You don’t need to have it all the time, but a good tool. 23:44 – Julia: I want people to use it but not all the time; only when they need it. 23:58 – Panelist: I think on a lot of these scripts... Rails Panel – Panelist mentions this. 25:02 – Panelist asks her a question. 25:12 – Pie Spy is something else that someone wrote. 25:28 – Julia: Ruby Spy came first, and Pie Spy is inspired Ruby Spy. He did a good job building that. 25:50 – Advertisement – Code Badges 26:35 – People still use PHP? 26:42 – Julia: Yep! 26:47 – Chuck talks about his neighbor and how he raves about this feature or that feature. 27:07 – In PHP’s defense it has come a long way. I think they are at version 7 or version 8. Sounds like they did a lot of new things with the language. 27:31 – Julia: Instead of that or this language is better – what TOOLS can we use? I hear Ruby users make fun of Java, but Java has great tools. What can we learn from that language rather than bashing the other languages? 28:13 – Chuck chimes-in. Dot.net. 28:58 – Chuck: Let’s talk about that with the opensource. 29:09 – Julia talks about the opensource project. 30:30 – Julia: I asked my manager at Stripe to do this sabbatical in advance. I worked on it for 3 months. I got a check from Segment. 31:05 – Panelist adds in his comments and asks a question. 31:26 – Julia never used it. 31:32 – I have done a lot with Ruby Motion in the past. I am curious how that would work with Ruby Spy? 32:18 – IOS is pretty locked down, so I don’t think that would fly. 32:36 – Chuck talks about Ruby Motion and how he thinks Ruby Spy would / wouldn’t fit. 32:56 – What is funny about that, Chuck, is that you can ALT click... 34:07 – Chuck mentions another app. 34:17 – Julia. 34:40 – Chuck. 35:03 – Chuck: What else are you doing with Ruby Spy that is new? 35:05 – Julia: Not much. It’s fun to see people come in to make contributions. 35:33 – Panelist: Here is a suggestion, some kind of web server that you could... 35:57 – Great idea. 36:04 – Chuck: It wouldn’t be hard to embed it. 36:12 – Julia: Sharing it between...so we don’t have to build the same thing twice. 36:33 – Chuck and Julia go back-and-forth about Ruby Spy and Pie Spy, 37:23 – Julia: Pearl was my first language, and I still love it. 37:32 – Chuck: I guess I can’t knock it because I really haven’t tried it. 37:48 – Ruby was inspired by Pearl so there’s that. 37:57 – Chuck: How do people start using your tool? What is your advice? 38:01 – Julia: Yeah just try it and see. Install it through Home Brew if you have a Mac. 38:25 – Chuck: Picks! 38:32 – Advertisement – Get a Coder Job. 39:07 – Picks! Links: Get a Coder Job Course Ruby Motion Ruby on Rails StackProf – GitHub Ruby Spy Rails_Panel – GitHub Julia Evans’ Twitter Julia Evans’ Blog Julia Evans’ GitHub Julia Evans’ LinkedIn Sponsors: Sentry Digital Ocean Get a Coder Job Course Picks: Dave Vise Deep Freeze Charles Elixir in Phoenix Vue JS Views on Vue Side Projects Doc McStuffins Headphones David Ed Lahey Julia Growing a Business Notability App

Panel: Charles Max Wood Dave Kimura David Richards Special Guests: Julia Evans In this episode of Ruby Rogues, the panel talks with Julia Evans who is a software engineer at Stripe and lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The panel talks with Julia about her tool Ruby Spy among other topics. Check it out! Show Topics: 1:34 – Julia gives her background. 1:52 – Chuck: You’ve been on the show before. Listeners, go check it out! 2:30 – What is Ruby Spy? 2:09 – Julia: I wanted to know WHY my computer was doing what it was doing. I felt that it was my right, so I wrote that program. 3:20 – Julia: This does have these profiling tools in Java. I thought it was unfair that Java had better tools than Ruby. I figured Ruby should have it, too. 3:44 – Chuck talks about tools and Ruby Spy. 4:05 – Julia recommends it. Julia: You had to install the gem in order to use it. 4:30 – Chuck: some people say that it has affected their performance. 4:42 – Julia: Ruby Spy is a separate process. Julia continues this conversation and goes in-depth of what Ruby Spy is, etc. 5:27 – When would you use something like this, and what kind of data would get you back to debug the slow points. 5:43 – Julia: When you run Ruby Spy it will... 6:20 – Chuck: Does it give you method names? 6:25 – Julia: Yes, 20% in this method or... 6:37 – I can see how that would be helpful on certain aspects. Being able to narrow down the 1,000 methods where you cab get your biggest bang for your buck. 7:05 – Julia comments. 7:35 – Chuck: I know people pay for Relic... 7:56 – Chuck: When it tells you which method is taking a long time, will it look at the stack and THIS method is insufficient b/c this other method is insufficient? How does it do that? 8:35 – Julia answers the questions. 8:58 – Chuck: I’d imagine that it could keep anything in memory. Did you have to do a bunch of work where THAT means THAT? 9:20 – Julia answers. Julia: The differences weren’t that big between the different versions. 9:54 – Julia goes through the different ways the versions are different. 11:56 – Panelist asks a question. Is this meant for Ruby Scripts? 12:10 – Julia: It doesn’t care – as long as you are using the Ruby Interpreter. 12:25 – Chuck: Sometimes my performance issues is Ruby, and sometimes it’s the database. For Ruby it will sit there and wait for IO. Is that a blind spot that you will have in Ruby Spy? 12:54 – Julia: Great question. There are 2 ways to do profiling. Julia explains these two ways. 13:54 – Wall Clock Time. 14:04 – Chuck: Your computer has a speed and however long it takes to run one cycle. It is similar, but... 14:26 – I guess as long as it’s relative – I was looking at these graphs you wrote. 14:51 – Julia. 14:56 – Panelist: That has been my issue. Changing context into a profiler... 15:27 – Julia. 15:38 – Chuck: Do you have to run it through something...? 15:49 – Julia. 15:53 – Chuck: Is that the most effective way to look at the data through Ruby Spy? 16:07 – Julia: I twill show you the output as it is profiling. 2 visualizations: flame graph and... 16:45 – Chuck. 16:49 – Julia: It is the only visualization that I know of. 17:00 – Chuck: I don’t know. 17:05 – Julia: You have spent this amount of % to... How much time was spent in this function or that function? I feel that the flame graph is much more helpful than a list of percentages. 17:33 – Chuck: What are you looking at in the flame graph? 17:37 – Guest: Basically what time was spent in that function. You look at what is big, and then you figure out if that is something to optimize or not. You go to the docs and... 18:36 – Jackal. 18:40 – Main problem that I would run into is the information OVERLOAD. Now you have the action controllers and all these other components that aren’t normally visual. Panelist asks a question to Julia. 19:29 – Julia: It does give you everything. If you have a real serious problem often the answer will really jump out at you. What I would say – if something is really slow it is right there. 20:08 – Chuck: You will see the name of the method? 20:15 – Chuck: Any other information it will give you? 20:22 – Julia: The line number. 20:28 – Chuck asks another question. 20:41 – Chuck: Success stories? 20:45 – Julia: Yes, I do. GitHub – success stories. Julia gives us one of her success stories. This user said that it helped them by 30%. 21:28 – I can’t imagine using a Rail app that is over 10 years old. So much as changed! A lot of the documentation would be harder to find. 22:00 – Julia gives another example of a success story. 22:10 – When it goes to production – my brain turns off and get jittery. Figure out what happens in production and I wouldn’t want to guess for an app that couldn’t be down. This is what is happening right here and right now. 22:46 – Chuck: How do they get it out into production... 22:57 – Julia: Through GitHub that you can download. If you are on a Mac and your developing you can do it through Home Brew. 23:17 – Chuck and Julia go back and forth. 23:27 – Panelist: You don’t need to have it all the time, but a good tool. 23:44 – Julia: I want people to use it but not all the time; only when they need it. 23:58 – Panelist: I think on a lot of these scripts... Rails Panel – Panelist mentions this. 25:02 – Panelist asks her a question. 25:12 – Pie Spy is something else that someone wrote. 25:28 – Julia: Ruby Spy came first, and Pie Spy is inspired Ruby Spy. He did a good job building that. 25:50 – Advertisement – Code Badges 26:35 – People still use PHP? 26:42 – Julia: Yep! 26:47 – Chuck talks about his neighbor and how he raves about this feature or that feature. 27:07 – In PHP’s defense it has come a long way. I think they are at version 7 or version 8. Sounds like they did a lot of new things with the language. 27:31 – Julia: Instead of that or this language is better – what TOOLS can we use? I hear Ruby users make fun of Java, but Java has great tools. What can we learn from that language rather than bashing the other languages? 28:13 – Chuck chimes-in. Dot.net. 28:58 – Chuck: Let’s talk about that with the opensource. 29:09 – Julia talks about the opensource project. 30:30 – Julia: I asked my manager at Stripe to do this sabbatical in advance. I worked on it for 3 months. I got a check from Segment. 31:05 – Panelist adds in his comments and asks a question. 31:26 – Julia never used it. 31:32 – I have done a lot with Ruby Motion in the past. I am curious how that would work with Ruby Spy? 32:18 – IOS is pretty locked down, so I don’t think that would fly. 32:36 – Chuck talks about Ruby Motion and how he thinks Ruby Spy would / wouldn’t fit. 32:56 – What is funny about that, Chuck, is that you can ALT click... 34:07 – Chuck mentions another app. 34:17 – Julia. 34:40 – Chuck. 35:03 – Chuck: What else are you doing with Ruby Spy that is new? 35:05 – Julia: Not much. It’s fun to see people come in to make contributions. 35:33 – Panelist: Here is a suggestion, some kind of web server that you could... 35:57 – Great idea. 36:04 – Chuck: It wouldn’t be hard to embed it. 36:12 – Julia: Sharing it between...so we don’t have to build the same thing twice. 36:33 – Chuck and Julia go back-and-forth about Ruby Spy and Pie Spy, 37:23 – Julia: Pearl was my first language, and I still love it. 37:32 – Chuck: I guess I can’t knock it because I really haven’t tried it. 37:48 – Ruby was inspired by Pearl so there’s that. 37:57 – Chuck: How do people start using your tool? What is your advice? 38:01 – Julia: Yeah just try it and see. Install it through Home Brew if you have a Mac. 38:25 – Chuck: Picks! 38:32 – Advertisement – Get a Coder Job. 39:07 – Picks! Links: Get a Coder Job Course Ruby Motion Ruby on Rails StackProf – GitHub Ruby Spy Rails_Panel – GitHub Julia Evans’ Twitter Julia Evans’ Blog Julia Evans’ GitHub Julia Evans’ LinkedIn Sponsors: Sentry Digital Ocean Get a Coder Job Course Picks: Dave Vise Deep Freeze Charles Elixir in Phoenix Vue JS Views on Vue Side Projects Doc McStuffins Headphones David Ed Lahey Julia Growing a Business Notability App

Panel: Charles Max Wood Dave Kimura David Richards Special Guests: Julia Evans In this episode of Ruby Rogues, the panel talks with Julia Evans who is a software engineer at Stripe and lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The panel talks with Julia about her tool Ruby Spy among other topics. Check it out! Show Topics: 1:34 – Julia gives her background. 1:52 – Chuck: You’ve been on the show before. Listeners, go check it out! 2:30 – What is Ruby Spy? 2:09 – Julia: I wanted to know WHY my computer was doing what it was doing. I felt that it was my right, so I wrote that program. 3:20 – Julia: This does have these profiling tools in Java. I thought it was unfair that Java had better tools than Ruby. I figured Ruby should have it, too. 3:44 – Chuck talks about tools and Ruby Spy. 4:05 – Julia recommends it. Julia: You had to install the gem in order to use it. 4:30 – Chuck: some people say that it has affected their performance. 4:42 – Julia: Ruby Spy is a separate process. Julia continues this conversation and goes in-depth of what Ruby Spy is, etc. 5:27 – When would you use something like this, and what kind of data would get you back to debug the slow points. 5:43 – Julia: When you run Ruby Spy it will... 6:20 – Chuck: Does it give you method names? 6:25 – Julia: Yes, 20% in this method or... 6:37 – I can see how that would be helpful on certain aspects. Being able to narrow down the 1,000 methods where you cab get your biggest bang for your buck. 7:05 – Julia comments. 7:35 – Chuck: I know people pay for Relic... 7:56 – Chuck: When it tells you which method is taking a long time, will it look at the stack and THIS method is insufficient b/c this other method is insufficient? How does it do that? 8:35 – Julia answers the questions. 8:58 – Chuck: I’d imagine that it could keep anything in memory. Did you have to do a bunch of work where THAT means THAT? 9:20 – Julia answers. Julia: The differences weren’t that big between the different versions. 9:54 – Julia goes through the different ways the versions are different. 11:56 – Panelist asks a question. Is this meant for Ruby Scripts? 12:10 – Julia: It doesn’t care – as long as you are using the Ruby Interpreter. 12:25 – Chuck: Sometimes my performance issues is Ruby, and sometimes it’s the database. For Ruby it will sit there and wait for IO. Is that a blind spot that you will have in Ruby Spy? 12:54 – Julia: Great question. There are 2 ways to do profiling. Julia explains these two ways. 13:54 – Wall Clock Time. 14:04 – Chuck: Your computer has a speed and however long it takes to run one cycle. It is similar, but... 14:26 – I guess as long as it’s relative – I was looking at these graphs you wrote. 14:51 – Julia. 14:56 – Panelist: That has been my issue. Changing context into a profiler... 15:27 – Julia. 15:38 – Chuck: Do you have to run it through something...? 15:49 – Julia. 15:53 – Chuck: Is that the most effective way to look at the data through Ruby Spy? 16:07 – Julia: I twill show you the output as it is profiling. 2 visualizations: flame graph and... 16:45 – Chuck. 16:49 – Julia: It is the only visualization that I know of. 17:00 – Chuck: I don’t know. 17:05 – Julia: You have spent this amount of % to... How much time was spent in this function or that function? I feel that the flame graph is much more helpful than a list of percentages. 17:33 – Chuck: What are you looking at in the flame graph? 17:37 – Guest: Basically what time was spent in that function. You look at what is big, and then you figure out if that is something to optimize or not. You go to the docs and... 18:36 – Jackal. 18:40 – Main problem that I would run into is the information OVERLOAD. Now you have the action controllers and all these other components that aren’t normally visual. Panelist asks a question to Julia. 19:29 – Julia: It does give you everything. If you have a real serious problem often the answer will really jump out at you. What I would say – if something is really slow it is right there. 20:08 – Chuck: You will see the name of the method? 20:15 – Chuck: Any other information it will give you? 20:22 – Julia: The line number. 20:28 – Chuck asks another question. 20:41 – Chuck: Success stories? 20:45 – Julia: Yes, I do. GitHub – success stories. Julia gives us one of her success stories. This user said that it helped them by 30%. 21:28 – I can’t imagine using a Rail app that is over 10 years old. So much as changed! A lot of the documentation would be harder to find. 22:00 – Julia gives another example of a success story. 22:10 – When it goes to production – my brain turns off and get jittery. Figure out what happens in production and I wouldn’t want to guess for an app that couldn’t be down. This is what is happening right here and right now. 22:46 – Chuck: How do they get it out into production... 22:57 – Julia: Through GitHub that you can download. If you are on a Mac and your developing you can do it through Home Brew. 23:17 – Chuck and Julia go back and forth. 23:27 – Panelist: You don’t need to have it all the time, but a good tool. 23:44 – Julia: I want people to use it but not all the time; only when they need it. 23:58 – Panelist: I think on a lot of these scripts... Rails Panel – Panelist mentions this. 25:02 – Panelist asks her a question. 25:12 – Pie Spy is something else that someone wrote. 25:28 – Julia: Ruby Spy came first, and Pie Spy is inspired Ruby Spy. He did a good job building that. 25:50 – Advertisement – Code Badges 26:35 – People still use PHP? 26:42 – Julia: Yep! 26:47 – Chuck talks about his neighbor and how he raves about this feature or that feature. 27:07 – In PHP’s defense it has come a long way. I think they are at version 7 or version 8. Sounds like they did a lot of new things with the language. 27:31 – Julia: Instead of that or this language is better – what TOOLS can we use? I hear Ruby users make fun of Java, but Java has great tools. What can we learn from that language rather than bashing the other languages? 28:13 – Chuck chimes-in. Dot.net. 28:58 – Chuck: Let’s talk about that with the opensource. 29:09 – Julia talks about the opensource project. 30:30 – Julia: I asked my manager at Stripe to do this sabbatical in advance. I worked on it for 3 months. I got a check from Segment. 31:05 – Panelist adds in his comments and asks a question. 31:26 – Julia never used it. 31:32 – I have done a lot with Ruby Motion in the past. I am curious how that would work with Ruby Spy? 32:18 – IOS is pretty locked down, so I don’t think that would fly. 32:36 – Chuck talks about Ruby Motion and how he thinks Ruby Spy would / wouldn’t fit. 32:56 – What is funny about that, Chuck, is that you can ALT click... 34:07 – Chuck mentions another app. 34:17 – Julia. 34:40 – Chuck. 35:03 – Chuck: What else are you doing with Ruby Spy that is new? 35:05 – Julia: Not much. It’s fun to see people come in to make contributions. 35:33 – Panelist: Here is a suggestion, some kind of web server that you could... 35:57 – Great idea. 36:04 – Chuck: It wouldn’t be hard to embed it. 36:12 – Julia: Sharing it between...so we don’t have to build the same thing twice. 36:33 – Chuck and Julia go back-and-forth about Ruby Spy and Pie Spy, 37:23 – Julia: Pearl was my first language, and I still love it. 37:32 – Chuck: I guess I can’t knock it because I really haven’t tried it. 37:48 – Ruby was inspired by Pearl so there’s that. 37:57 – Chuck: How do people start using your tool? What is your advice? 38:01 – Julia: Yeah just try it and see. Install it through Home Brew if you have a Mac. 38:25 – Chuck: Picks! 38:32 – Advertisement – Get a Coder Job. 39:07 – Picks! Links: Get a Coder Job Course Ruby Motion Ruby on Rails StackProf – GitHub Ruby Spy Rails_Panel – GitHub Julia Evans’ Twitter Julia Evans’ Blog Julia Evans’ GitHub Julia Evans’ LinkedIn Sponsors: Sentry Digital Ocean Get a Coder Job Course Picks: Dave Vise Deep Freeze Charles Elixir in Phoenix Vue JS Views on Vue Side Projects Doc McStuffins Headphones David Ed Lahey Julia Growing a Business Notability App

On today's episode, I'm chatting with my reverse interviewer Julia all about healthy body image preservation! We're back with our 143rd episode of the Fed+Fit Podcast! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode and be sure to subscribe on iTunes! Find us HERE on iTunes and be sure to "subscribe." Episode 143 Sponsors ButcherBox - for $15 off + free bacon (!!) with your order Real Life, Baby! - For a limited time, get 10%-off with the discount code "Cricket10" Episode 143 Transcription Today’s show is brought to you by Real Life Baby! Real Life Baby is a fabulous online resource where you will find a variety of tips on baby and toddler well-being in addition to the most thoughtfully sourced baby gear eco shop. Real Life Baby is a great resource for parents looking to surround their little ones with the safest, most nurturing materials available. I’m personally a big fan of the humanely sourced wool products. You can explore the Real Life Baby shop by heading to their website at www. reallifebabyecoshop.com. And for a short period of time, you can even get 10% discount by using the code “Cricket10” all one word; discount code inspired by my own little bun in the oven. Cassy Joy: Welcome back to another episode of the Fed and Fit podcast. I am your host, Cassy Joy Garcia. And I am thrilled to invite you all back for another week of food, mindset, fitness, all the good things. Today, we have another great reverse interview. I would love to introduce you all to Julia. First, if you’re confused about what a reverse interview is; these are when a Fed and Fit listener or reader writes in with a great question and instead of politely answering their question via email, like they’ve asked me to, I instead invite them onto the podcast to ask over a phone call. Where hopefully we have a conversation that I’m sure benefits more than just the two of us. So that’s kind of the nature of these calls. I’m thrilled to introduce you all today to Julia. She is from Philadelphia, and she is a speech language pathologist. She works with young kids in a school. Welcome to the show, Julia! Julia: Hi! I’m so happy to be here. Cassy Joy: I’m so happy to have you here! Well, like I told you before I started pressing record, or pressed record, I am yours for the next 30 minutes. Julia: Sounds good. Cassy Joy: So the baton is yours. Feel free to pepper me with whatever questions you’ve got. Julia: OK, sounds good. So, I wrote in with a question about; more of a mindset type. I guess looking for mindset advice, about body image. I feel like this is something that’s really out there in the media these days. But I guess I’ll just get into my personal things. Because I’m sure everybody has their own vision of their body and body image, but I’ll just get into mine. I feel like I can remember issues starting as young as 5th grade. I remember even before social media, I was looking into magazines that were like; oh these perfect model girls, and I don’t look that way. And then in middle school, obviously it is the worst for most kids. And I can say that because I work in a middle school. No one is really the shining star. And your bodies are changing so significantly that no one is looking their best. And then through high school and college, I was always a swimmer. The comparison factor there is real, because you're pretty much in a swim suit at all times. So you're not leaving much to the imagination. So I guess fast forward to now. I’m in my mid to late-20s. I feel like I eat a very clean diet. I am aware of what foods I can handle and what I cannot. I definitely control myself in moderation with certain foods. I wouldn’t say I’m completely gluten free or dairy free or anything like that. But I tend to stick on that type of paleo diet mindset type of thing. But I don’t necessarily; I’ll have a piece of cake if it’s there. Cassy Joy: Yeah. Julia: You know what I mean.

Young professionals today are super brave. We move across cities, states, and even oceans - [Julia] This rural mission is brought to you by Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Leadership and Rural Medicine programs. The podcast is funded in part by a generous grant provided by the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation. To learn more about the Leadership in Rural Medicine programs, please visit www.msururalhealth.chm.msu.edu. I'm your host, Julia Terhune, and stay tuned for more from this Rural Mission. (bluegrass music) -[Julia] Hello, and welcome back to another episode of this Rural Mission, brought to you by Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. Today we're going to take a little bit of a different route. Today we're going to talk about what it means to be brave. That might seem like a really different topic. Typically we talk about rural health disparities or we talk about social issues in rural America and now we're going to talk about bravery? Well, hear me out for a second We do a lot of brave things in our lives. Some of us move overseas, some of us go out of state to a brand new place to get an education or change jobs and all of those things, every single one of them is extremely brave and courageous, but there's something else that's just as brave and that's going back. Going back to that small town that you grew up in, going back to the place you said you would never return to. (electric guitar music) We're going to talk to a number of people today. Some of the people that we talk to are planning to return to their small town after they graduate. Some are already returning to their small town to get an education, and some swore they would never, ever return but have made a career out of their small town. I encourage you to stay tuned and hear more from this Rural Mission. We've got an interesting road ahead and I'm excited for you to see how brave you really have to be to go back. Daniel Drake, soon to be Dr. Daniel Drake, is a Rural Community Health Program student at the Midland Regional campus. - [Daniel] I mean, I grew up in Caro and Caro is a relatively small town. And so I went up to the UP and I was at Michigan Tech. No one in my family is a physician, no one had gone to a four-year university at all. So I was kind of figuring it all out on my own and when I was at Tech, I heard about an early assurance program that Michigan state did and you took your MCAT early and applied early and so I think I found out it was 2012 when I found out that I was going to go to Michigan State for my medical school. - [Paula] So I'm Paula Klose and I am a family physician, I'm a graduate of Michigan State College of Human Medicine and I trained in the Upper Peninsula campus for my clinical years. - [Daniel] I have always kind of known that I wanted to do rural health, that was always my big thing. Being from a small town, going to undergrad in a small town where I knew I wanted to practice rurally. - [Paula] I wanted to work in a rural community, I wanted to live in a log cabin that I built by hand (laughs). And so when I was applying to medical schools, I chose Michigan State College of Medicine because of the Upper Peninsula medical education program. - [Daniel] With R-CHP, the rural community health program, Midland has a site for that in Pigeon. - [Paula] For the past, let's see, six years, I have been involved with Michigan State again and was asked to be the community assistant dean for the Midland Regional campus. - [Daniel] In Pigeon, it is near the tip of the thumb and Huron County, not far from my hometown at all and it was a place that I was familiar with. I was like, it would be really exiting to go back and just be able to actually practice clinical medicine up there. - [Julia] You grew up here too, didn't you? - [Paula] Yes, yeah. I wasn't born here, but my dad worked for Dow Chemical and never thought I would end up back here again. Pictured myself living in the UP, practicing. And so I was going to use the Midland family medicine residency as a practice interview. So I came down, interviewed with the program, actually learned more about the program than I had known and loved it and so ended up ranking them first and matched (laughs). And so, the rest of the story. - [Daniel] For me, if you would have asked me three years ago or four years ago before I started, I would have told you I will never go back to the farm. I would have said I don't want to go back. - [Paula] So I was not going to live in Midland, Michigan. I was going to live in that little community (laughs), but loved my partners, and my practice, and my patients and it's really an excellent hospital system to work in, so I ended up staying here raising my kids. - [Daniel] As I've gone through this, the training, as I've had kids, it's really dawned on me the importance of community and family. But here in a city, there can still be some anonymity with how you're treating patients, right? Like, you blend into the crowd of a couple other. Couple other. A huge group of doctors. A rural area, if you go back, you might be the only doctor in that town. - [Paula] As I started residency and I had a panel of patients, all the sudden my panel was full of nurses I worked with, friends, friends' parents, colleagues of my father (laughs). So you get into this role that has all these multifaceted dimensions, right? I was also the first female primary care physician in Midland and I had overwhelming interest in being part of my practice. - [Daniel] so your reputation is really on the line and I think that to go into a situation like that, I think that takes bravery. - [Paula] As a woman in medicine in a smaller community, you're already a leader of sorts, so some of that came with the position and the same thing with my position as community assistant dean, you know, that's what I am and I represent the health system as well as the college, so that's challenges. I wouldn't say that it was bravery, but it was a challenge. - [Daniel] I honestly look forward to it though. I think that's also one of the strongest things about practicing rural medicine and one of the biggest benefits about it is the fact that you can really carry a community and help them out and I don't know, I just love that idea.   (acoustic guitar music) - [Julia] The voices that you're hearing in this segment are of Ali Hoppy, Elana Rosmussen, and Kala Yob. All three are premed undergraduate students from Michigan. All three of them have something else in common. They all participated in Michigan State University's Rural Premedical Internship Program in the summer of 2016. I'll be telling you more about the Rural Premedical Internship Program or the RPIP program I just a bit, but before I do, let's talk a little bit about what it means to be brave. Ali, Elana, and Kala talk a little bit about that. All three of them have spent time overseas. - [Ali] I went to Ghana the summer of 2015, so after my freshman year of college. - [Julia] So you were 19? - [Ali] Yes, 19. - [Elana] I went to Australia for six weeks. - [Kala] I studied abroad in Segovia, Spain. - [Julia] And how long were you there? - [Kala] For two months. (acoustic guitar music) - [Ali] Ghana more picked me. I grew up in a very small town in the thumb. Rural Michigan. My senior year in high school, unfortunately got a phone call one morning that my oldest brother Josh has been killed in a car accident. My brother, he was a high school teacher. He left a legacy through a lot of people in the way he lived his life. I heard of this trip to Ghana and I just wanted to go. I didn't have any real reason behind it. I just wanted to go and touch as many lives. I saw how short how lives can be but how much you can do in that short time. I just hopped on the plane and went to Ghana. - [Julia] Yet when I ask them what they would rather do, get on a plane and go back to those foreign lands or apply to medical school, I wasn't surprised with the answers that I received. When you think about hopping on a plane and going back to Spain or applying to medical school, which scares you more? - [Kala] Applying to medical school (laughs). - [Ali] Ghana, jumping on a plane, going to Ghana, was hands down less terrifying than filling out a medical school application.   - [Elana] I know that I can do it, but I have a hard time with that, getting from there to expressing that to somebody else, I have a hard time with. So I have a really big concern for that part as far as applying for medical school, but I know that once I get in, I'm really excited for that next step, but I'm excited to actually be there and be with the people that have that same feeling that I have a hard time explaining (laughs). - [Kala] I just noticed through this whole process how much of a well-rounded person you need to be and I guess in a small town it's like, that's not the focus. It's just kind of survive, get through, and do your best and then in a small town, it's easy to stand out (laughs) because there's less people and then once you get to the medical school process, you need to know how to stand out, you need to know how to be different. (acoustic guitar music) - [Julia] Dr. Mower is the assistant dean of admissions at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. Michigan State University College of Human Medicine has had a significant devotion to underserved populations since its foundation in 1964. We were the very first community-based medical education program and we're pretty proud of that. Dr. Mower is responsible for making sure that we are not only admitting the best potential doctors, but that we are also admitting students who are diverse and have altruistic reasons for going into medicine. We want students to return to underserved communities, specifically rural communities, and Dr. Mower has some real concerns about how students get their medical education and where they go when they're done practicing because that's also very important. (piano music) - [Dr. Mower] I think we're a medical school that takes its mission seriously. I think we bring a lot of people in who have a lot of ideals and hopes, and ideas of how they want to serve in the medical field. And so, I mean, I just think that there has to be more, I mean if we're going to be serious about this, I think we have to figure out a way to capture these kids before they show up on our doorstep and we have to figure out a way to continue to monitor and mentor them once they walk away, particularly if it's a student who has identified him or herself as having a strong interest in serving an underserved area, whether that be rural, whether that be intercity, urban, whether that be migrant healthcare, LGBT health care, international developing country health care. I mean, we need to figure out a way to continue to follow and mentor these graduates, even though they are under the direct tutelage of perhaps somebody else right now. - [Julia] Dr. Mower's concern for having a place for rural students before medical school, during medical school, and after medical school is a significant concern and something that should be taken very seriously and we have. Dr. Andrea Wendling has been running the rural premedical Internship Program for several years now. It's a place, a place for rural students to learn more about getting into medical school and to help them feel more confident and prepared. And Dr. Wendling is reaching her goals for this program. Let's just return for one moment back to Elana, Ali, and Kala. Hear what they have to say about returning to their rural community, even though they have gone on to do amazing things both in the state of Michigan and abroad. - [Julia] Why, why rural? I know you said that there's a need, but I mean, you're living in East Lansing, you lived in all these big cities, I mean, why go back? - [Elana] It's the whole package that is really appealing to me. I like the idea of going home. I belong there, I don't belong here in East Lansing. It's just a feeling, I know it. - [Ali] I love my rural community, but for people that have grown up rural, you know when you're there that you're ready to go see something new because you don't know the uniqueness and the specialness of the place you live until you leave it. Going to Grand Valley was amazing for me because it really taught me how much I had back home and how unique and special those small communities are. - [Kala] So yeah, I'm really excited to come here and to practice one day and to be that extra resource for people. And not only to help them, but to have known where they come from. - [Ali] And I was so excited to learn that that's something that you can actually specifically pursue and there's people out there that can help you make that happen and know how to make that happen because when I came into this and I've known that I wanted to go to medical school for a long time, but when I came into it, I thought that I was going to have to establish myself in an urban area to gain the training and stuff. I didn't realize that there was an option to directly go to the rural setting and just learn there, start there, and continue on there. (piano music) - [Julia] I get it, we all want to make an impact, we all want to do really brave and courageous things that last a lifetime and even longer. That's the reason why we go to school, that's the reason why we move places, that's the reason why we work. We want to do great things in the time that we have and I'm not saying that going overseas and going to a new land, or starting over in a brand new place isn't brave or courageous or impactful. I think that there are lots of people that have done amazing things by stepping way out of their comfort zone. What I'm actually saying is that going back is just as courageous. Go back and work at your local hospital making sure that hiring processes are up to federal standards for diversity and inclusion. Go become a teacher back at your hometown, go serve the geriatric community as a doctor, a nurse, or a physical therapist. Go back, do great things with the time that you have in a community that you know and love. In my opinion, that's just as brave. Normally, I end with some music, but today I'm going to end with a poem. In Defense of Small Towns by Oliver De La Paz. When I look at it, it's simple, really. I hated life there.   September, once filled with animal deaths and toughened hay. And the smells of fall were boiled-down beets and potatoes or the farmhands' breeches smeared with oil and diesel as they rode into town, dusty and pissed. The radio station split time between metal and Tejano, and the only action happened on Friday nights where the high school football team gave everyone a chance at forgiveness. The town left no room for novelty or change. The sheriff knew everyone's son and despite that, we'd cruise up and down the avenues, switching between brake and gearshift. We'd fight and spit chew into Big Gulp cups and have our hearts broken nightly. In that town I learned to fire a shotgun at nine and wring a chicken's neck with one hand by twirling the bird and whipping it straight like a towel. But I loved the place once. Everything was blonde and cracked and the irrigation ditches stretched to the end of the earth. You could ride on a bicycle and see clearly the outline of every leaf or catch on the streets each word of a neighbor's argument. Nothing could happen there and if I willed it, the place would have me slipping over its rocks into the river with the sugar plant's steam or signing papers at a storefront army desk, buttoned up with medallions and a crew cut, eyeing the next recruits. If I've learned anything, it's that I could be anywhere, staring at a hunk of asphalt or listening to the clap of billiard balls against each other in a bar and hear my name. Indifference now? Some. I shook loose, but that isn't the whole story. The fact is I'm still in love. And when I wake up, I watch my son yawn, and my mind turns his upswept hair into cornstalks at the edge of a field. Stillness is an acre, and his body idles, deep like heavy machinery. I want to take him back there, to the small town of my youth and hold the book of wildflowers open for him, and look. I want him to know the colors of horses, to run with a cattail in his hand and watch as its seeds fly weightless as though nothing mattered, as though the little things we tell ourselves about our pasts stay there, rising slightly and just out of reach. Oliver De La Paz is an associate professor of English at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. I want to thank him sincerely for letting us read his poem on this Rural Mission. You can find more of his poems at www.oliverdelapaz.com. (acoustic guitar music) ♫ When I turn to little town Thank you again for listening to this Rural Mission. It's an honor and a privilege to get to produce this podcast. Each topic is more interesting and I get to interview some of the most intelligent and intriguing people. I want to thank some of those people. I want to thank Dr. Mower and Dr. Klose for taking time out of their schedules to speak with me. I also want to thank Dan Drake. Dan Drake is a fourth-year medical student and will be graduating in May. I'm really proud of the things that he's accomplished and he's been an outstanding student and a fantastic person to get to know. I want to thank three student-to-be doctors if everything. I want to thank the three R-PIPe students that I spoke to today, Ali Hoppy, Elana Rosmussen, and Kala Yob. It was great to get to work with them this summer and it was even more fun to get to know them a little bit more through this interview. As always, a sincere thanks to Dr. Andrea Wendling, the Director of Rural Community Health at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. This podcast would not be possible without her and she is a physician who also moved away and went back. She didn't go back to her hometown, but she went back to her husband's hometown and has worked as a rural family medicine doctor for a number of years. Her contribution to rural medicine, again, is also clinical and academic, much like Dr. Klose's and she does fantastic things to make sure that rural medical students are represented in medical education, specifically at MSU. Thank you to everyone and I hope you join us again next time for more from this Rural Mission. ♫ Picking up the pieces ♫ Of where I should have been ♫ And if you see Michigan State University has been devoted to recruiting, training, and retaining doctors in rural communities for over 40 years. We started in 1974 with the Rural Physicians Program up in Marquette, Michigan and we've expanded with the Rural Community Health Program down into the Lower Peninsula through the Midland Regional Campus and the Traverse City Regional campus. For several years now, Dr. Andrea Wending has been running the Rural Premedical Internship Program or the RPIP program. This program works with undergraduate students who are interested in pursuing medicine as their career. The program preference is premed undergraduate students who are from a rural community or have a significant devotion to a rural community. We run the program every summer and students are accepted through an application process. If you are interested in the Rural Premedical Internship Program, please visit our website at www.msururalhealth.chm.msu.edu. There you can find out more about the program, its requirements, and even apply. ♫ When I close my eyes and pray ♫ The song's rapt hold and wouldn't let go ♫ Until we went our separate ways ♫ Oh little town oh town ♫ I'm on your streets again ♫ Picking up the pieces ♫ Of where I should have been ♫ And if you see the side of me ♫ That brings me to your door ♫ Then hold me little town ♫ And if you see the side of me ♫ That brings me to your door ♫ Then hold me little town Please visit our website at www.msururalhealth.chm.msu.edu. By joining our website, you could connect to us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can also find out more about our musician. Music today was provided by Horton Creek and Bryan Eggers, a local musician and Michigan native. We hope you tune in next time to hear more from this Rural Mission. to live up to our potential and make a positive impact on our world. Moving back to that small town that you swore you would never return to can also be a very brave thing to do. Think about it... Make a name for yourself in a completely new city? Or try to convince your high school English teacher that you are capable of managing their healthcare? For the students and doctors we are talking to on this episode, that is exactly what they've done! We also highlight a program that has been helping rural undergraduate premedical students matriculate into medical school and live out these brave, brave career choices.