PLANTSTRONG Podcast
Rip Esselstyn
The PLANT STRONG Podcast is for people who want real answers about food, health, and longevity—without the noise, fear, or extremes.
Maybe you’ve been diagnosed with a chronic condition and want a path forward that actually supports healing. Maybe you’re an athlete looking to fuel performance and recovery. Maybe you’re a parent trying to escape the ultra-processed food aisle and feed your family real, nourishing meals. Or maybe you’re simply tired of being confused about what “healthy” actually means.
The challenge? Eating more real food can feel overwhelming. You’ve heard warnings about protein, cost, or restriction. You’ve been told it’s complicated, boring, or socially isolating.
This podcast exists to change that.
Each week, host Rip Esselstyn sits down with leading doctors, researchers, athletes, authors, and everyday people who are proving—through lived experience and science—that eating more whole plants and moving your body consistently can deliver powerful, lasting results. We’re not interested in perfection or dogma. We’re here to be extremely practical, extremely evidence-based, and extremely encouraging.
Rip’s work began more than two decades ago, when he helped transform the health of his fellow firefighters using simple, whole foods—guided by the groundbreaking research of his father, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr. That experience launched a lifelong mission to help people reclaim their health through real food and active living, and ultimately led to the creation of PLANT STRONG.
Today, the podcast is an extension of that mission: cutting through misinformation, challenging cultural norms, and showing what’s possible when you fuel your body with food that actually supports it.
You’ll hear conversations about:
Preventing and reversing chronic disease
Strength, endurance, and recovery
Gut health, inflammation, and longevity
Behavior change that actually sticks
How to build habits you can sustain in real life
You’ll also hear about REAL30™—our simple, powerful framework built around consistency, not restriction:
30 days
30 minutes of movement a day
30 different whole plants each week
REAL30 is often where listeners turn inspiration into action—and it’s a recurring thread throughout the show.
This podcast isn’t about being perfect. It’s about eating real food, building real habits, and getting real results. You won’t be weak when you eat strong food.
Welcome to PLANT STRONG.
Maybe you’ve been diagnosed with a chronic condition and want a path forward that actually supports healing. Maybe you’re an athlete looking to fuel performance and recovery. Maybe you’re a parent trying to escape the ultra-processed food aisle and feed your family real, nourishing meals. Or maybe you’re simply tired of being confused about what “healthy” actually means.
The challenge? Eating more real food can feel overwhelming. You’ve heard warnings about protein, cost, or restriction. You’ve been told it’s complicated, boring, or socially isolating.
This podcast exists to change that.
Each week, host Rip Esselstyn sits down with leading doctors, researchers, athletes, authors, and everyday people who are proving—through lived experience and science—that eating more whole plants and moving your body consistently can deliver powerful, lasting results. We’re not interested in perfection or dogma. We’re here to be extremely practical, extremely evidence-based, and extremely encouraging.
Rip’s work began more than two decades ago, when he helped transform the health of his fellow firefighters using simple, whole foods—guided by the groundbreaking research of his father, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr. That experience launched a lifelong mission to help people reclaim their health through real food and active living, and ultimately led to the creation of PLANT STRONG.
Today, the podcast is an extension of that mission: cutting through misinformation, challenging cultural norms, and showing what’s possible when you fuel your body with food that actually supports it.
You’ll hear conversations about:
Preventing and reversing chronic disease
Strength, endurance, and recovery
Gut health, inflammation, and longevity
Behavior change that actually sticks
How to build habits you can sustain in real life
You’ll also hear about REAL30™—our simple, powerful framework built around consistency, not restriction:
30 days
30 minutes of movement a day
30 different whole plants each week
REAL30 is often where listeners turn inspiration into action—and it’s a recurring thread throughout the show.
This podcast isn’t about being perfect. It’s about eating real food, building real habits, and getting real results. You won’t be weak when you eat strong food.
Welcome to PLANT STRONG.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jul 2, 2019 • 1h 10min
Ep. 12: Scott & Jenny Jurek - Fueled by Plants
This week's podcast episode features a candid conversation with ultrarunners, Scott and Jenny Jurek. Scott's record-breaking run of the Appalachian Trail is chronicled in his latest book North: Finding My Way While Running the Appalachian Trail, and in the upcoming film The Game Changers. Support for this week's episode comes from Nutramilk - the easiest and fastest way to make your own plant milk at home! Enjoy a $50 discount and free shipping with code PLANTSTRONG. Seeking a solution for making the plant-strong lifestyle convenient and inspiring? The Plant-Strong Meal Planner offers 1000s of recipes customized to your preferences, an integrated shopping list and grocery delivery! Our Engine 2 Coaches are on hand to offer support and answer any questions - all for $1.90 a week when you sign up for a year. Visit our Plant-Strong Meal Planner today! . Engine 2 Website Scott Jurek Website Game Changers Movie Website
Jun 25, 2019 • 43min
Ep. 11: Making a Lifestyle U-Turn - From Pain to Purpose with Brooklyn Borough President, Eric Adams
If you think one person can't make an impace, think again. In 2016 at the young age of 54, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams listened as his doctor gave him a grim diagnosis of Type II diabetes. Sadly, he felt it was an inevitable fate because of rampant family history. What didn’t sit with him was relinquishing control of his health and realizing that he was going to be on medication for the rest of his life as his body continued to deteriorate. Refusing to be buried by this diagnosis, Adams did something that would change the course of his life forever. Instead of googling, “Living with Diabetes,” he typed, “Reversing Diabetes” and a seed was planted. Fortunately, that seed has produced a bountiful harvest of hope and inspiration. In just three short years since that diagnosis, Eric Adams has made a remarkable personal recovery plus a resounding impact with whole foods plant-based initiatives in New York City. He has lived a rich life committed to public service as an NYC Police Officer, New York State Senator, and Brooklyn Borough President. But this new chapter may be his most vital act of service yet - improving the lives and vitality of families and children in New York and beyond. One person can, indeed, create meaningful change and leave a legacy of hope. Will you be the next? . Support for this week's episode comes from Nutramilk - the easiest and fastest way to make your own plant milk at home! Enjoy a $50 discount and free shipping with code PLANTSTRONG. Seeking a solution for making the plant-strong lifestyle convenient and inspiring? The Plant-Strong Meal Planner offers 1000s of recipes customized to your preferences, an integrated shopping list and grocery delivery! Our Engine 2 Coaches are on hand to offer support and answer any questions - all for $1.90 a week when you sign up for a year. Visit our Plant-Strong Meal Planner today! Engine 2 Diet Website Eric Adams Bio Eric Adams Twitter Eric Adams Instagram
Jun 18, 2019 • 46min
Ep. 10: Dr. Michael Klaper and Dr. Doug Lisle, PhD on Keto - A Physiologic Parlor Trick
In part two of this continued exploration on the pitfalls of the popular paleo and ketogenic diets, we enlist the expertise of Dr. Michael Klaper as well as Dr. Doug Lisle, clinical psychologist at the TrueNorth Health Center, on why these two popular diets are nothing more than a physiological parlor trick you play on your health. Like a trusty old car, the human body is amazingly resilient. In the same way that you can go several thousand miles without a proper oil change and maintenance, you can also load your body over time with processed acidic foods. The effects of this neglect and accumulation of “dirty fuel,” may not be immediate but, rest assured, they will swell into serious health issues in the long-term. As Dr. Lisle says, “The keto diet is a credit card. It can make you feel rich, but you’re really just accumulating a tremendous amount of debt.” The cost? Your health. Don’t trade years of a vibrant life for a few pounds on the scale. . Support for this week's episode comes from Nutramilk - the easiest and fastest way to make your own plant milk at home! Enjoy a $50 discount and free shipping with code PLANTSTRONG. Seeking a solution for making the plant-strong lifestyle convenient and inspiring? The Plant-Strong Meal Planner offers 1000s of recipes customized to your preferences, an integrated shopping list and grocery delivery! Our Engine 2 Coaches are on hand to offer support and answer any questions - all for $1.90 a week when you sign up for a year. Visit our Plant-Strong Meal Planner today! Engine 2 Diet Website Michael Klaper, MD Website Doug Lisle, PhD
Jun 11, 2019 • 44min
Ep. 9: Dr. Michael Klaper on Paleo - The Devil's Bargain
This week on the podcast, Rip dives head-first into the paleo-keto debate after he and Joe discussed how popular the meat-centered and carb-limiting diets are in firehouses across the country. I bet it's taking over in your circles too. At first blush, it may seem hard to debate the merits when the paleo diet does result in weight loss and the ketogenic diet does reduce blood sugars (temporarily). But at what cost? Dr. Klaper has been practicing on the front lines of medicine for almost 40 years and knows a thing or two about how the body works. He also knows a poorly designed shortcut when he sees one. Listen in and hear all about the pitfalls of paleo and how it really is like making a bargain with the devil! . Support for this week's episode comes from Nutramilk - the easiest and fastest way to make your own plant milk at home! Enjoy a $50 discount and free shipping with code PLANTSTRONG. Seeking a solution for making the plant-strong lifestyle convenient and inspiring? The Plant-Strong Meal Planner offers 1000s of recipes customized to your preferences, an integrated shopping list and grocery delivery! Our Engine 2 Coaches are on hand to offer support and answer any questions - all for $1.90 a week when you sign up for a year. Visit our Plant-Strong Meal Planner today! Engine 2 Diet Website
Jun 4, 2019 • 48min
Ep. 8: Paul de Gelder - Improvise-Adapt-Overcome
Change is a Choice. Paul de Gelder wasn't given a choice the day he was attacked by a shark as a clearance diver in Sydney Harbor. But he did choose how he would react. Using the mantra he’d been taught in the Army to "Improvise, Adapt, Overcome,” Paul was able to fight back from life-threatening injuries and to create a life that exceeds his most wild dreams. In this episode, Paul shares how and why he adopted a plant-based diet and what it’s meant to his health, and his efforts to save the very creatures that nearly killed him. Now a host of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, Paul is a vocal advocate for shark education and conservation. Buckle-up for this one and prepare to be inspired by someone who will make you question every excuse you’ve ever made.
May 21, 2019 • 36min
Ep. 7: Chuck Carroll - Crushing Fast Food Addiction
This episode is NOT sponsored by Taco Bell. Fast food is highly addictive and in this week's episode, we meet a man who overcame the siren song of the drive-thru and is using plants to stay the course. At just 5 feet 6 inches tall, Chuck Carroll weighed 420 pounds before radically changing his life. He was taking a long walk off a very short pier. Like so many others, he tried and failed countless times to lose weight. Any success he achieved was short-lived as the weight came pouring back on and then some. But then he did something remarkable and turned it all around. Rip had a chance encounter with Chuck at the Barnard Medical Center while being interviewed for "The Exam Room". Chuck's story of radical transformation is jaw-dropping and his candid conversation with Rip highlights all that is possible with plants and determination. Intimately acquainted with the lonely and habitual trap of fast food, Chuck weighs in on Joe’s recent slip up with Burger King and cautions against further "experimentation".
May 16, 2019 • 34min
Ep. 6: Check in with Joe Inga
When you're going plant-strong, it seems the world is working against you. We can't turn on the TV or drive down the street without being tempted. We live in a cultural mindset of "everything in moderation" - giving us the green light to indulge at every turn as long as we put in extra time at the gym. And we know marketing campaigns are scientifically designed to trigger us - making us crave sugary, salty, fat-laden, food-like substances. For many, including Joe, the drive-thru is a powerful siren song. In this check-in episode, Joe gives Rip an update on how he's doing. Hear which recipes he's made for the firehouse plus his updated biometric results. Joe will share his progress in building stamina and strength with exercise, and a setback where he found himself ordering Burger King (after 60 days of going 100%!). Plus, we'll meet Joe's wife, Jennifer!
May 14, 2019 • 33min
Ep. 5: Dr. Aaron Spitz - Let's Talk About the Elephant...In Your Pants
“If we can’t get [men] with concern over their heart or concern over cancer, we can probably get them with concern over their penis. A plant-powered penis is the key to a plant-powered person. It is the gateway organ,” shares Dr. Aaron Spitz in this eye-opening and *ahem* uplifting conversation giving straight answers on the topic every man cares about, but is too afraid to ask. Dr. Spitz has a clear five-step plan to improve sexual health: Go Fork Yourself, Sexercise, Go Offline, Detox, and Snooze or Lose. His easy-to-implement directives cover a wide range of behaviors worth examining and will dispel any concern listeners may have about forfeiting their man card in exchange for a plant-strong diet.
May 7, 2019 • 34min
Ep. 4: J.D. Roth & Chrissy Roth - Whoever Loses the Most Wins
Achieving real change in your life starts with losing before you can win. As the creator of The Biggest Loser on NBC, J.D. Roth built an empire giving people the tools they need to shed their identity and turn on the light switch to finding their ‘beast mode’. Listen as Rip and J.D. talk about the mental resiliency of a true “loser” and why we all should aspire to be one. Joe’s been gaining an average of 13 pounds a year, jeopardizing his performance as a firefighter and a father. He needs to pump the brakes and adopt a better plan - including some lofty athletic goals. J.D. is a straight shooter when it comes to busting excuses and firmly believes that anyone can do anything. J.D.’s wife Chrissy is a plant-strong force as well and has not only converted the couple’s teen boys, but a growing number of friends and neighbors have embraced the lifestyle due to their efforts. This plant-powered couple inspires everyone around them to step over the cultural hurdles, crush the excuses and just do it.
Apr 30, 2019 • 32min
Ep. 3: Drs. Dean & Ayesha Sherzai - Sleep! Who Needs It? You do.
Getting a good night’s sleep at a fire station is like trying to do homework at a rock concert. Dream on! For most of us, sleep can be elusive, interrupted, and hard to come by in our tech-heavy, fast-paced world. But good sleep is crucial for brain health, allowing our main operating system to repair and reboot. This week, Rip introduces Joe to husband-wife neurologists Dean and Ayesha Sherzai, leading physicians and researchers on brain health and the prevention of Alzheimer’s. “Assume you have bad genes and then live in a way that reduces your vascular risk”, says Dr. Dean Sherzai before sharing how plant-based nutrition, exercise, sleep, mental activity and stress reduction all play pivotal roles in our ability to thrive. Learn tips for getting a good night’s sleep even if your life circumstances are working against you. Be inspired by some positive news about Alzheimer’s and dementia - and hear simple actionable steps we can all take today to avoid this kind of demise.
