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
Apr 23, 2019 • 38min
Ep 2: Ann Crile Esselstyn - I'm In! Now What Do I Do?
Eating plant-based, especially in a firehouse, can be challenging. In this episode, Rip introduces Joe to his mom Ann Crile Esselstyn, and serves up a dose of her unbridled enthusiasm. Thriving in her 80’s, Ann is a true force of nature and embodies the many benefits of plants. She’s learned many tricks-to-the-trade since starting this lifestyle in 1984 - hear how she keeps inspired, joyful, and motivated to experiment in the kitchen. She shares five kitchen essentials everyone should have, how to set yourself up for success, tasty hacks for adding greens to your meals plus a dozen simple and delicious ideas on what to eat. These practical heartfelt solutions will help anyone to be brave and dive into the lifestyle, fork first! Joe’s made progress in the kitchen too and his palate is changing. He’s working hard to keep the new foods interesting, to plan ahead, and to prepare for ‘grab and go’ situations. Can you do the same in your house?
Apr 4, 2019 • 2min
PLANTSTRONG
Plant-Strong’s inaugural season marshals together an all-star line-up of some of the world’s most renowned physicians and inspirational leaders to help Bronx firefighter Joe Inga change his life. An near fatal accident on the job forced Joe, a 34-year-old husband and father of two, to face his own mortality. Instead of falling back into old destructive habits, Joe decides he wants a different outcome. Join our host Rip Esselstyn, #1 New York Times best selling author and founder of Engine 2, as he coaches Joe how to rescue his health.
4 snips
Apr 2, 2019 • 37min
Ep 1: Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr and an Intro to Joe Inga
Meet Joe Inga, a New York City firefighter with Engine 72 in the Bronx. Joe decides to buck the firehouse culture by doing something as nutty as eating plant based! That’s right – no meat, no dairy, and nothing that came from something with a face or a mother. As you can imagine, change is hard. But Joe is on a mission and damn the torpedoes! Between being a new father, battling addiction, and recently coming face to face with his own mortality, Joe needs support. In season 1 we’ll follow Joe’s ups and downs as he moves towards becoming the plant-strong man he knows he can be! Also meet Rip’s dad, the world renowned Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., from the Cleveland Clinic and learn how he trekked upstream against all the naysayers to discover the causation of heart disease and how our fork can be our most powerful ally in halting and even reversing the #1 killer of Americans! Hear why you should care about nitric oxide and the four reasons it’s critical for cardiovascular health. Discover what foods have the highest antioxidant value, plus why and how you should eat them. And most importantly, understand all the life-saving benefits to eating a plant-strong diet from the man who pioneered the research.
