Episodes

Tracy Smaldino is the founder of Trauma Rockstars, a keynote speaker, author, podcast host, and someone who spent decades looking functional on the outside while carrying trauma she had never truly faced. When the pandemic forced her to slow down, a simple meditation practice opened the door to memories, survivor’s guilt, and pain she had worked hard to bury. We talk about trauma without comparing or minimizing it, why being busy can sometimes be a way to avoid ourselves, and how healing can ...

Dr. Hema Murty returns to Uncle Marv’s Unhealthy Podcast for a real conversation about health that goes way beyond the gym and the number on the scale. Dr. Hema brings the perspective of an aerospace engineer, advanced yoga instructor, personal trainer, and nutrition coach to explain why our bodies need to be treated like individual systems, not like cookie-cutter fitness projects. We talk about the overlooked basics that can make a big difference: quality sleep, drinking enough water, managing...

Hydration should be simple, but the marketing has made it feel like plain water is no longer enough. I wanted to look past the flashy labels and find out when electrolyte drinks can actually make sense, when they are probably unnecessary, and what we should be watching for when it comes to sodium, sugar, and ingredients. I share my own honest struggle with moving away from soda, trying flavored-water products, and figuring out how to make healthier choices without pretending I have it all figur...

Dr. Hema Murty has a PhD in aerospace engineering, but the work she is doing today is all about helping people move better, hurt less, and stop treating their bodies like machines that need to be forced into submission. Her path into wellness began with her own knee pain after training for and completing the Toronto Marathon, followed by years of frustrating advice that did not actually solve the problem. We talk about why one-size-fits-all fitness plans often leave people discouraged, the co...

Liz Watt is back for part two, and we go deeper into what happened after her personal health turnaround. Liz is the CEO and co-founder of Be Healthy Utah, an author, speaker, health coach, and someone who has built a meaningful community around natural health, resilience, and the belief that it is never too late to make changes that support a better life. She shares how a dream, a big leap of faith, and a conference that did not go exactly as planned became the beginning of something much big...

Liz Watt had spent years living what she believed was a healthy, natural life. She cooked from scratch, raised six kids, leaned into natural remedies, and built a life around wellness. Then her body began falling apart in ways nobody could explain. Pain moved through her joints, numbness spread across her back, and everyday life became something she had to fight through. What I appreciated about Liz’s story is that she does not pretend there was one magic fix. She talks about slowing down, pa...

Mealtime battles can wear a family down in a hurry. You start out trying to serve a decent meal, then suddenly you are negotiating over one bite of chicken, making a second dinner, or wondering whether your child is getting enough nutrition. I sat down with pediatric speech-language pathologist and holistic feeding specialist Lena Livinsky to talk about why picky eating can be more than just a frustrating phase. Lena shares how her own son’s struggles with food changed the way she viewed feed...

Could one meal a day help you lose weight? Maybe. But feeling hungry, run-down, and stressed about food is not exactly the definition of healthy, so Uncle Marv digs into what OMAD can do, what it cannot prove, and what a more realistic middle ground may look like. OMAD, short for One Meal a Day, sounds wonderfully simple on paper. One meal, fewer decisions, less cooking, maybe fewer calories. But simple is not always the same thing as sustainable. Uncle Marv looks past the dramatic claims and a...

Coach Brian Parana returns to walk through the “how” behind getting healthier when you’re a driven dad, business leader, and frequent traveler who lives on planes, in hotels, and at conferences. Instead of yelling “try harder,” Brian breaks down simple systems that fit the real-world chaos of client dinners, late nights, and inconsistent schedules. We talk through his AIM principle for moment-by-moment decisions, why the first win is often just maintaining your weight on a trip, and how to rebui...

If you’re a business owner, IT guy, or high performer who feels like you’re crushing it for clients but limping home at the end of the day, this conversation is going to feel very familiar. Brian has spent more than two decades working with husbands and dads who are worn out, overweight, and half present at home, and he explains why so many of us hit that wall in our 40s and 50s. We walk through his journey from coaching cross country and teaching classes at the YMCA to training business owners ...

Barb Nangle is back to unpack how real boundaries create internal safety, cut burnout, and help you stop abandoning yourself. We talk about learning to say no without guilt, and how that shift ripples through work, relationships, and recovery.

Barb Nangle and I dig into what it really means to feel safe in your own life by learning where your limits are and actually honoring them. Her story of codependency, recovery, and reparenting yourself shows how boundaries can transform everything from friendships and work to weight, health, and love.

Dr. Noushin Hart opens up about how trauma changed everything she believed about healing, cancer care, and what patients really need. She talks straight about the limits of Western medicine, the power of mindset, and why the whole person matters, not just the diagnosis.

Food isn’t the real problem, it’s the job we’ve given it. Paige and I get honest about food addiction, decision fatigue, planning, and how to build a life you don’t want to escape from with sugar and junk food.

Sugar isn’t just a “bad habit” for some folks; it hijacks the brain like any other addiction, and Paige Alexander breaks down what that actually looks and feels like so we can finally stop calling it a willpower problem.

Catherine Crestani comes back to talk about what happens when we hand our voice, our relationships, and even our kids over to AI and screens instead of showing up as ourselves. She shares stories from clients, her own writing, and her novel “My Virtual Obsession” to show how easy it is to trade real connection for a safe digital fantasy.

In this part two with Catherine Creestani of Willow Healing, we talk about what happens after you walk away from the life that looks “successful” on paper and finally admit your body and intuition weren’t lying. We get into inner authority, joy, and why your life starts to change when you stop outsourcing your decisions to social media, technology, and everyone else’s expectations.

Catherine Crestani thought she was living the dream: two six‑figure careers, a thriving clinic, and a picture‑perfect life, right up until her body started going numb and her soul checked out. In this episode, she shares how burnout, divorce, and a “dark night of the soul” forced her to walk away from everything and finally choose her own health, intuition, and happiness.

Jason Yun was the “healthy” gym owner doing all the right workouts, eating all the right foods, and secretly crashing inside from exhaustion, hormone chaos, and depression. In this episode, he walks through how deadlifts, late-night dinners, and expert advice failed him, and how circadian rhythm, sunlight, and simple timing changes gave him his energy and life back.

Magic opens up about being medically gaslit, excluded by friends and family, and raising kids while sick, then finding mentors who helped her understand the real root causes behind her illness. We get into fear, accountability, “giving away” our health to others, and what it actually looks like to build a life that supports your body instead of fighting it.

Greg shares wild, honest stories from his Lyme and chronic illness clinic, including a brilliant college student who used bee venom in his nose to get his memory back and a UK educator who discovered Lyme wasn’t her biggest problem at all. If you’ve been told your labs are “normal” while your body screams otherwise, this conversation will make you feel seen and give you new ideas to explore.

Greg shares how crippling gut pain, brain fog, and 2:30 a.m. robotics lab shifts pushed him to walk away from NASA and follow his bliss into Chinese medicine and root-cause healing. We talk about stubborn chronic symptoms, gut-brain connection, and the moment a 20‑year autoimmune gut nightmare finally broke.

Jessica walks us through a different way to think about food: not as “good” or “bad,” but as part of a bigger picture of your actual life, history, culture, and emotions. If you’ve ever tried every diet, still felt broken, and wondered “what is normal eating, really,” this one is going to hit close to home.

Dan MacQueen thought he just had savage headaches and a stressful tech job in London. Within days, he was blind on a tube platform, rushed into emergency brain surgery, and dropped into a month‑long coma while his family flew in from Canada not knowing if he would still be alive. When he finally woke up, he couldn’t walk, talk, or even smile, and the guy who used to run his own schedule at Hootsuite suddenly needed help just to make it down a hallway.