The Party In My Plants Podcast

In this second episode of Existennial I explain my strong

Welcome to Existennial, a podcast where I shoot the shit about how we shape our life's own meaning on this random-ass planet and do so without miserably copy-and-pasting someone else's life or drowning in a pee-infested pool of personal responsibility anxiety.  It's where we'll investigate intentional living through a smorgasbord of science, spirituality, psychology, philosophy, pop culture, eavesdropping, and thoughts-I-have-in-the-shower.  I'm Talia Pollock, an author, columnist, and lover of the yoga pose pigeon. I've been questioning the meaning and mocking the absurdity of life since diapers—and I've been writing about it since tampons. If you're a millennial going through an existential crisis otherwise known as a quarter-life crisis..or a mid-life crisis.. a .33333333 life crisis or just a regular damn Tuesday, I am oh so glad you've landed here.  To sign up for my frequent-ish newsletter filled with all sorts of fun meaningful things that I'm hoping to be like an Orange TicTac in your i

This episode might come as a shock. Or it may not. Either way it’s here and you’re listening to it so how bout I stop guessing what emotion it might bring and just let it bring it! It has been the journey of all journeys to go on this ride with you. I thank you from the very bottom of my heart for giving me your most precious resource, your time and lending me your hopefully not too waxy ears to speak into all these hours over all these years.    If you have ideas for what you might want to hear more of as I rethink how I want to continue podcasting in the future, email me at talia@partyinmyplants.com. And on www.taliapollock.com/hello you can also sign up for my newsletter which is the best place to stay up to date with all my things! Of course, if you want the greatest thing to come out of this podcast, my book, stuffed to the brim with all the puns and healthy nuggets you’ve eaten up in this here podcast, my book Party in Your Plants is a thing you can buy wherever books are sold.    If the past 207 episod

She’s a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, a professional chef, a trained nutrition specialist, a food psychiatrist, the author of This is Your Brain on Food and just overall foodie brainiac. This chat with Dr. Uma Naidoo covered how the state of your mental health often starts with what you ate for dinner. As she says, “Happy gut, happy mood!” We talked about so much mood-boostin’ stuffs including how the gut and the brain are waaaay more closely linked than you thought. (Heard it here first before it goes mainstream!) Now, this is a chat that will have you turning your ahhhh to hahas and will have you revamping your shopping list. Yes, if you’re on a prescription, it won’t hurt to try out these brain food tips and no, I’m definitely not telling you to swap out your meds. As Dr. Uma says: you have to eat anyway, so adding healthy brain food to the plate is kinda a low hanging fruit. Her pun, not mine. Surprisingly!    Press play to hear:  How your gut health is impacting your mental health What to eat for depres

Nikki Brafman is a human design expert (in fact, she’s MY human design expert!). So much about what I teach is about living in alignment, stepping up to be your best self and living a life that is self loyal. Without human design, I wouldn’t be living my best, fullest and truest life. Or at least I wouldn’t have the verbiage to describe myself. If you read my recent Mindbodygreen article I shared how Human design legitimately changed my life. I am so thrilled to have Nikki to thank for showing me the Human Design ropes. And telling you all about the magical ropes too, in this here chat. >> PS. Get your free Human Design chart here to help you understand this episode better!

Miss Simi Botic is a barre instructor, a health coach, the author of Letting Go Of Leo and the smarty yoga pants wearing brain behind Unmeasured. That last one is basically a ballet-meets-pilates class… but one that focuses on body positivity and self-compassion. (As in diet culture turns of phrase aren’t allowed and body punishing mentalities will be kicked to the curb!) This chat was all about embracing movement that we love in a self-compassionate way that has nothing to do with earning food or shedding calories. This is the podcast episode where we kinda just said it as it is: that there are ways to enjoy your studio or gym or road time because of the joys that come with it. Joys that have nothing to do with weight or body composition! And you know what, just like healthy eating, your workout doesn’t have to suck! For the story on how Simi went from a compulsive exercise obsessed gal to the one who teaches a warm-hug-of-a-body-positive barre class, press play!    Press play to hear:  How Barre guru Simi

My lady Tricia Huffman a.k.a. The Joyologist a.k.a. affirmation queen a.k.a. the shitty thought police (OK, enough of the a.k.a.s, we get it…) is my latest and greatest guest. The woman is more super than a superfood itself and as such, this lil’ chat was even more invigorating than my post-run heaped-with-greens smoothie. Tricia has a background as a sound engineer, has spent so much of her life on the road and pivoted her whole lifestyle to be one focused on joy, positive affirmations, cultivating career success and happiness, and staunchly askewing the word “should” and all that it represents. Her whole *fig*gin jam is to wake people up to the joys that exist RIGHT NOW in their lives. My friend, don’t let these great days perish like wilted romaine lettuce that you forget at the back of your damn fridge! Listen to find out how to fill your life with joy ASAP.  Press play to hear: Why “should” is no longer allowed in our vocabulary How affirmations really work Why it’s time to wake up and actually love t

We’ve heard about making our bank accounts work for us, we’ve heard about making our businesses work for us… but what about our home sweet home? Jamie Gold is a home design marvel and the author of a new book: Wellness By Design, A Room-by-Room Guide to Optimizing Your Home for Health, Fitness and Happiness and her whole philosophy is that if you wanna get healthy, start with your space. We covered so much in this episode from revamping the kitchen, organizing the damn stacks of papers (I know you got ‘em) on your counter, embracing hacks that are going to make your home more comfortable and really thinking through how we put together the rooms that now have multiple purposes. (Home-office-turned-gym-turned-reading-corner, I’m looking at you!) I know I learned a thousand things about how to make my space work for me so that I can live my best, healthiest, sanest, life. (Even if it includes getting the dorky cushy floor mat) Of course, we brought some planty magic to turn this housewarming party up to 11.    P

This week on the pod is all about less stuff, more adventure, more freedom and the MOST fun chats with Miranda Anderson. ICYMI, I had a major move last year where Jesse, Tommy and I carted our stuff away from tiny apartments in NYC and into an amazing home in the woods where plants grace my presence the minute I walk out the front door. Behind the scenes on this whole transition was Miranda Anderson, established blogger and author of More Than Enough: How One Family Cultivated A More Abundant Life Through A Year Of Practical Minimalism whose book I listened to on repeat at least three times. In this talk we discussed how your stuff is holding you back from adventure, why practical minimalism is bound to bring fulfillment, why lipstick is freaking awesome and why open mindsets can lead to Puerto Rico or Texas or the woods o’ New York or wherever your heart leads you. I’d say this episode with Miranda left me with more than enough!     Press play to hear: Why less stuff inspires more adventure What is practica

When it comes to the good ol’ socially distanced plant partying, Tara Kemp is the guest of honor. Tara specializes in something so, so important and so, so valuable that I have the utmost respect for this gal. She helps women struggling with eating disorders recover through a plant-based eating philosophy. Having struggled with an eating disorder herself (which btw, she attributes to crippling anxiety that was left untreated) Tara, who is pursuing her phd in psychosocial health, knows a thing or two about exerting control over food, and the mental health roots in disordered eating. Her story is an empowering one. But the empowerment doesn’t stop with this special woman’s journey… we also chatted about deciding how you want to interact with food, movement, and in deciding which information to live by and which info to take with a grain of celery salt. I might as well call this one the Suit Yourself Episode.    Press play to hear: Why the road to recovery looks completely different for everyone Why U.S. treatm

My dear friend Robyn Conley Downs is a speaker, educator, entrepreneur, podcaster, and new author of The Feel Good Effect: Reclaim Your Wellness By Creating Small Shifts That Create Big Change. (She was also interviewed in episode 132.) Holding a Master’s degree in education with an emphasis in behavior change, and 4 years of public policy & health change at the doctoral level, her work taps into cutting edge science around psychology, neuroscience, mindfulness, and habits. I mean, it’s all great to educate and inspire based on personal experience, but it’s also great to have solid profesh research to back that jazzzz up. What I heart most about Robyn is not just her willingness to be honest and vulnerable about her shtuff, not just her mission to embody and amplify a gentle approach to wellness, but her super nerdy professional research background which she draws on to share cutting edge science-based, (and life-tested) radically simple solutions for wellness. Her motto is “Less striving, more ease.” And

My friend, Dr. Lauren Cook used to be best known as “The Sunny Girl,” and let me tell you, I’m probably not the only one who needs a lil’ ray of sunshine in this crazy, confusing and turbulent calendar year. This talented and wise gem of a human is a therapist, a speaker and a published author whose main goal is to help other people live according to their values. (Easy pea-sy, slice of carrot cake right?)  Way back in the day when I first met Lauren, I picked her brain and she was generous enough to share her beautiful ideas with me. I had to have her on and share her wisdom with her sweet cat purring in the background. SO, in this chat, we discussed defining personal values, decision making, addressing mental health during the pandemic, finding joy during hard times and looking not just at the shades of blue and red… but finding the purple middle ground! I loved it and I hope you will too!   Oh and she’s putting on this wonderful Hearth Conference in Cctober! She compiled a ton of inspirational and healing

Dr. Rev. Christopher Carter’s jaw-dropping impressiveness doesn’t stop at his credentials. I felt like I was in school during this interview because Christopher’s views, research, background and way of explaining Black veganism and cruelty-free eating was better than any binge-worthy docuseries I’ve ever come across during this pandemic season!    His passion for social justice, racial equality, food, animals and the environment made this such an incredibly energy-packed plant party. I loved his points about how vegan lifestyles that are self-centered don’t really bring the impact that they could have. He schooled me to the apple core. In our chat that I never wanted to end, Christopher explains how we can fill our grocery bags and load up our dinner plates in a way that doesn’t cause harm and is in solidarity with BIPOC people and their history. I mean, if you ever needed a powerful “WHY” to change your dietary lifestyle habits… this is it!    Press play to hear:  How we define Black veganism and why it’s a

Dr. Yami (rhymes with Mommy) has it going on. She’s a pediatrician (who only owns her own practice), an author, a health and wellness coach, a mom, a wife, the brains behind Veggie Fit, a podcast host, a speaker and a kick-ass family chef…and in this chat she really spills the *beans* on some great parenting truths that we all really needed to hear. We chatted about body positivity, not conflating inner health with outer appearances, encouraging kids to feel open minded at dinner time, allowing your youngins to eat intuitively, and backing the heck off to let them do so! Seriously, this episode was great. We tooks myths around children leading a vegan lifestyle and smashed ‘em up like a ripe avocado! And holy guacamole, do I ever feel like we packed this episode with all the good stuff and left no questions unanswered for our planty moms and dads or anyone caring for our inner child out there!       Press play to hear:  How to entice picky eaters How your family *can* actually become vegan The magic of beans

So, you know I wrote a book right?! Well even though it’s a cooking one, I was able to stuff more words in it than I do spinach in smoothies. And in this episode, which I’m recording just before I go on my annual summer beach vacation where I’ll be glued to sand and books and watermelon for 3 weeks, I wanted to read some of the words in MY BOOK to you all about having a house party in your plants! At the end I ask you to take my anonymous super short ~ willpower ~ survey which you can do right here :-)   If you like what you hear, you can BUY MY BEST SELLING BOOK, PARTY IN YOUR PLANTS! You can also purchase my favorite magic mushrooms, Four Sigmatic, for 15% less than other people! Check out my new empowering videos a la THE BLOW SHOW! Book me to speak at your college, conference or company! Party in My Plants on Instagram --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/existennial/message

So, you know I wrote a book right?! Well even though it’s a cooking one, I was able to stuff more words in it than I do spinach in smoothies. And in this episode, which I’m recording just before I go on my annual summer beach vacation where I’ll be glued to sand and books and watermelon for 3 weeks, I wanted to read some of the words in MY BOOK to you all about my thoughts on the triumphant trio: CHEESE, GLUTEN, and PROTEIN .. OH MY. At the end I ask you to take my anonymous super short ~ willpower ~ survey which you can do right here :-)   If you like what you hear, you can BUY MY BEST SELLING BOOK, PARTY IN YOUR PLANTS! Where to get Sunwarrior - my favorite plant-protein powder- for 20% off with code: PARTYINMYPLANTS at checkout Check out my new empowering videos a la THE BLOW SHOW! Book me to speak at your college, conference or company! Party in My Plants on Instagram --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/existennial/message

So, you know I wrote a book right?! Well even though it’s a cooking one, I was able to stuff more words in it than I do spinach in smoothies. And in this episode, which I’m recording just before I go on my annual summer beach vacation where I’ll be glued to sand and books and watermelon for 3 weeks, I wanted to read some of the words in MY BOOK to you all about how to turn your clean-food frown upside down. At the end I ask you to take my anonymous super short ~ willpower ~ survey which you can do right here :-)   If you like what you hear, you can BUY MY BEST SELLING BOOK, PARTY IN YOUR PLANTS! Where to buy Amazing Grass goodies and save 40% with code: PLANTPARTY40 Check out my new empowering videos a la THE BLOW SHOW! Book me to speak at your college, conference or company! Party in My Plants on Instagram --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/existennial/message

So, you know I wrote a book right?! Well even though it’s a cooking one, I was able to stuff more words in it than I do spinach in smoothies. And in this episode, which I’m recording just before I go on my annual summer beach vacation where I’ll be glued to sand and books and watermelon for 3 weeks, I wanted to read some of the words in MY BOOK to you all about cravings. At the end I ask you to take my anonymous super short ~ willpower ~ survey which you can do right here :-)   If you like what you hear, you can BUY MY BEST SELLING BOOK, PARTY IN YOUR PLANTS! You can also purchase my body’s most crave-able shrooms, Four Sigmatic, for 15% less than other people! Check out my new empowering videos a la THE BLOW SHOW! Book me to speak at your college, conference or company! Party in My Plants on Instagram --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/existennial/message

When I first met today’s guest who is the wonderful woman the world calls Nicole Jardim (a.k.a. The Period Girl) years and years ago we were in a mess hall (at an adult sleepaway camp called Soul Camp). My friends were crowding her (back when personal space wasn’t a danger) to ask their juicy Q’s about their menstruation and I looked her in the eye with my nuva ring wedged in real deep and said “I don’t need period help, I don’t even get mine!”    Well hashtag mega grateful only skims the surface that I got this do-over with her. In this chat, which I sorry not sorry but kinda sorry used as a personal consultation, we covered everything from my messy period moment at my Bat Mitzvah to my confession that I’m on birth control and *gasp* that I’m ready to break up with it. I learned a lot - seriously, I felt like I was a 12-year-old in sex ed class. Really, how was there SO much about my body that I didn’t even know?! Well, Nicole, whose new book, Fix Your Period, came out around when mine did, breaks down some

Jenn Racioppi’s health journey starts off really really tough. In her late teens and early 20s, Jennifer got two gynecological cancer diagnoses which led to her having a hysterectomy, being launched into early menopause and being prescribed tons of medications for depression, anxiety and hormone replacements. Don’t worry, the story has a positive ending which basically blew my socks off. This was in the 1990s and when Jennifer ventured to San Diego in search of better healing practices, she came across a woman who did her (shockingly accurate) tarot reading. From there, Jennifer started to dig into astrology, the planets, the moon cycles and all things related and it wound up being the biggest step she’s ever made towards healing. Today, she’s a genius in all these things and even has a book coming out soon. But before we get to all that jazz, here’s your astrology 101 class where I admit that I’m as much as an astrology newbie as anyone ever and Jennifer says hilarious things like “Pluto? Yeah he’s ruthless