Abidemi: Hi. So Rory.

Rory: Yeah, hi.

Abidemi: Hi. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Rory: I’m not sure, you know. Sometimes I think that I’m basically an introvert. Like as I get older, I much prefer my own company.

Abidemi: Interesting.

Rory: I don’t really like going to parties that much if there’s going to be new people there. If it’s my friends, I’m happy to go out, but I don’t know. What about you?

Abidemi: It’s funny what you said. I feel the same way. I think sometimes I’m an introvert and other times I can be an extrovert. But maybe in reverse to what you said. I feel like the older I get, the more extroverted I become.

Rory: That’s interesting.

Abidemi: While I was younger, I was a lot shier, so I preferred my own company. But now I find that sometimes too, I really enjoy people. So I like to meet new ones. So yeah.

Rory: Yes. In the classroom, as a teacher, I’m quite an extrovert I think. I quite like being up in front of students and showing of, but I would never do that in front of other teachers or my friends, in my personal life.

Abidemi: Interesting.

Rory: But something about the classroom maybe because it’s my environment and I’m in control that I feel more comfortable, like being more extroverted and showing off, camping up.

Abidemi: I think it would be a little difficult to be introverted if you were a language teacher. I think it certainly helps to be extroverted or to act to be able to become more extroverted when you’re in the classroom for sure. For sure.

Rory: Yeah. And have you ever done anything really extroverted, like performed in public?

Abidemi: Before I used to sing actually, and I have sang in concerts.

Rory: Right.

Abidemi: And it’s true. I think that’s where my introverted self really comes out because although I enjoy singing, and I like the attention to a certain extent, but I get really nervous. Really, really nervous when I’m in front of a large crowd. And sometimes I’m like, “Why am I doing this to myself? Why am I here?”

Rory: Yeah.

Abidemi: But yeah, I don’t do that so much anymore.

Rory: Right. And do you think people can change? Do you think people – because people seem to want to become more extroverted? It seems to be like society says extroverted people are successful people.

Abidemi: It’s true.

Rory: Do you think people can change or do you think people should try to change?

Abidemi: I’ve heard of actually people saying that depending on the language that people change with the language. I’ve heard of some of my students saying that when they speak in a different language, their personality actually changes, where maybe in their own language, they may be quieter. But when they speak the different language, they become a lot more extroverted.

Rory: Right.

Abidemi: It’s as if they change. So whether or not it’s a real change I think you can “fake it” quote-unquote even if you’re not an extrovert or an introvert. Maybe for a few hours or for the occasion. Yeah, you can pretend, and then go back.

Rory: Right. I wonder if when we speak a different language, we don’t have the same connections with the words.

Abidemi: That’s true.

Rory: It makes it easier to maybe speak more honestly and not worry about what other people think of us.

Abidemi: That’s true.

Sarah: So Adam, today we’re talking about do-overs. So what is something that you wish you would have done over? For example, maybe something in your university life?

Adam: Yeah. There are a few things. I might change my major. I studied education, and while I enjoy what I’m doing right now, my free time I really like watching movies about science and astronomy. And if I would go back to school and start my studies over, I’d probably study something along those lines, astronomy and metaphysics or something.

I think that those topics are really interesting and on the cutting edge of science and just fascinating to explore.

Sarah: Interesting. Anything else you wish you would have done?

Adam: I might have been more involved in the sports clubs at my school. For example, the American football team. I played in high school but in college, I wanted to play but I didn’t have the motivation to push me over the edge to actually go out and really put my heart into it.

I went to one training day and kind of tried out, but I didn’t really pursue it as much as I would have liked. I think it would have been fun to be a part of that culture and that environment.

Sarah: How about something that you did do that maybe now you wish you hadn’t?

Adam: I pierced my ears in high school because that was the cool thing to do. But now I don’t wear earrings. And yeah, looking back on it, kind of just a silly thing to do that I’m trying to follow the trends, that, you know, trends usually pass.

So yeah, that would be something that I wouldn’t do again.

Sarah: Nice. Anything else you would have changed?

Adam: I might have made different decisions about my girlfriends at the time. I had a really good girlfriend in the beginning of college, and things didn’t work out because of a variety of reasons. But I think if we would have worked on it, we could have. We could have made it, made it happen. So yeah, that’s something I think about sometimes about life in college.

It’s always, you know, college love is kind of a crazy thing. So yeah, we’re too much like kids, I guess, I think at that age.

Sarah: Okay. Thanks, Adam.

Spencer: Yeah. So Curtis, what would your dream house be like? Tell me about the kitchen, living room, yard.

Curtis: Well, I’ve thought a lot about my dream house and designing it. Actually, that’s the kind of work that my father does, so he said he could draw the plans up for me. But I’ve done a lot of art and I really want to work my art into the house.

So the living room, I would like there to be kind of a frieze around the outside of the room where I actually do the art myself. Now, I used to do a lot of construction when I was younger, and so I would really like to take part in the process so that I have a kind of sense of ownership with the house that I’ve really built a part of that.

The kitchen, I want it to be a very large space and next to a room that has a lot of media so that you can kind of pay attention to things or watch tutorials and recipes while you’re cooking, follow along with your favorite chefs or cooking channels. I’d like a really big industrial refrigerator and a huge island that I can work with, as well as a massive sink for cleaning things.

I used to work at a restaurant and I loved the dishwasher there because it was so quick and easy. So I would like a restaurant-style dishwasher in my kitchen, too.

Spencer: Yeah. So tell me about – what would your yard be like?

Curtis: I would like a lot of grass. I really love a yard with nice grass especially when you’re playing soccer, you can get under the ball and have a lot of fun like that.

Spencer: It’s nice to have a big backyard to play sports.

Curtis: Yeah. I think so as well.

Spencer: What about your bathroom?

Curtis: My bathroom. Well, I would like to have a kind of a spa in there, honestly. I would like to have a big bathtub. But I want my house to have geothermal heating. And if I have a geothermal heating system, I can also probably have a hot spring in the bathroom.

I like it to be quite big and have a nice shower as well. Just very nice open area with nice sinks. I don’t want to feel constrained in my bathroom. I don’t want it to be small. It has to be big.

Spencer: What about your living room?

Curtis: My living room. One of the things that was really important to me for my living room again, is the art that I want to have a lot of details around the outside that are murals or friezes that I have actually created on the wall and so that there’s almost a kind of entertaining sense about it. Just being in there before you turn on any other devices or televisions or anything like that. That there is kind of a artistic and comfortable feel to it. It doesn’t feel sterile, it feels very homey.

Spencer: Cool. Would you have a big garage?

Curtis: I probably would have a big garage because I really love driving, and I used to race cars at the track. And for the purposes of doing work on cars, or any other DIY work around the house, I would like to have a really big nice garage.

Spencer: Would you have any sort of like swimming pool or – I know you said you wanted a sauna in your bathroom but…

Curtis: I would really like a portion that’s maybe separate from the bathroom, that has shutters that open up. So on a nice night, you can actually open it and see out over the yard or whatever landscapes that the house is built next to.

Spencer: That would be cool.

Curtis: But I would like the area to be a little bit private, hopefully surrounded by woods a little bit where you can’t see your neighbors immediately.

Spencer: Yeah, exactly.

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Todd: So I’m here with Olga, and she’s a health coach, and we were talking about the difference between modern trends in nutrition and traditional health and things like that. I thought I would throw out some idioms, and you … age-old idioms, words of wisdom, and how they apply today.

So the first one is: variety is the spice of life.

Olga: I totally agree with that, and I see it in clinical practice to be true. You don’t really need to be Ph. D in healing or nutrition. If you throw into your diet variety, and it would change with the season, it would change with location, it would change with your mood and how your body feels, then that’s it. A variety can really give your body everything, and your body has all the knowledge, all the wisdom, and knows what to do with that.

Todd: So basically when we eat we shouldn’t just eat one type of food, we wanna make sure we have a very varied food supply of vegetables, fruit, even meat, things like that?

Olga: That is correct, and our ancestors used to have a variety that is not two, not five, not 10, but 100 times more than what we do now. Our ancestors would have 3,000 different food items that they would rotate.

Todd: Wow, that’s fascinating. Okay, how about the next one, common one: an apple a day keeps the doctor away?

Olga: That is actually very interesting, because the more I was looking into this particular fruit, the more respect I got for it. And when I designed liver detox systems, we have a special apple day, and we use malic acid and apples as a preparation to dissolve gallbladder and liver stones, and you can go on and on and on about all the components of an apple. It’s so complicated, and yet so simple. You just grab an apple, bite, chew, swallow, done.

Todd: Wow. And I think also it’s kind of like basically if you just eat unprocessed foods, if you eat natural foods, right, then you will probably stay healthy and you won’t need to see the doctor.

Olga: Well, this is exactly what the proverb says, and it’s very literal.

Todd: Okay, so how about one not related to food: all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, which I guess means if you just work all the time and you don’t rest and relax and have fun, then you’ll just be a boring person.

Olga: Well, actually any kind of extreme has health consequences. We talk a little bit about toxicity and deficiency as roots of any health problems, so when you don’t have enough of something, or too much of something, both cause problems.

Todd: Wow, that’s fascinating. Okay, so let’s talk about sleep. The early bird gets the worm. So I think it means that people that go to bed early and wake up early, they’re more productive? Do you think that’s what it means?

Olga: Well, I’m not sure. Honestly, I’ve seen people really individualize their life, and some people go to bed late and wake up late, and they’re still productive. And in different times of our lives we have different periods when it’s better to go to bed early and wake up earlier, and other times it’s okay to go to bed late and wake up late. But in general, yes, Chinese medicine talks a lot about their times for the different meridians that represent organs.

For example, from 11:00 in the evening until 3:00 in the morning, it’s liver and gallbladder time. So if you’re up during that time, these organs do not rejuvenate, they don’t repair, and it’s tremendous stress for them.

Todd: Wow. Okay, so let’s talk a little bit about medicine and seeking help. How about a stitch in time saves nine?

Olga: Well, I think it’s true for a lot of things in the healing world. It’s much, much easier to prevent disease than to reverse it. So a lot of times if you get the disease, the best-case scenario in modern medicine is just to control the symptoms and to slow down the progression. But if you use the natural preventive medicine, it’s actually much less effort, and you can enjoy life and you can enjoy that first stitch without ever thinking or needing the nine that would be needed if you didn’t do something preventive.

Todd: Okay, wow, fascinating. And the last one, I think this is … you’ve talked about this before. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing.

Olga: Yes, again, I can refer to Oriental wisdom of yin and yang. If you can visualize the symbol of yin-yang, usually it’s two half-circles, and there is a seed of the opposite color right in the middle of it. So in the white you would have a seed of black, and in the black a seed of white, and they constantly turn into each other. So too much of something turns into its exact opposite.

Todd: Wow, fascinating. Thanks a lot.

Olga: Most welcome.