The Plantwise Podcast with Brigitte Gemme

Brigitte Gemme
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Nutrition
  • Biweekly

The Plantwise Podcast is all about evidence-based healthy lifestyle habits and the books that inspire them. Hosted with Brigitte Gemme, Ph.D., the show focuses on plant-based nutrition and the foundations of long-term well-being: exercise, sleep, stress management, community, and a positive mindset. We want to know how to prevent chronic disease and cognitive decline, so we can enjoy long, healthy, active, and meaningful lives.  The podcast features a mix of interviews with plant-friendly authors and solo episodes where Brigitte shares insight from the most important health books of our time.  What are they actually saying? What's the bigger pictures? How does it look like to live those ideas? Let's talk about it.  New episodes twice monthly. Follow the show and let great books improve your life!  Previously the Vegan Family Kitchen Podcast.  This podcast is the companion of the Plantwise Book Club: https://skool.com/plantwise/about/

  1. 3d ago

    Alt-meats, EVs, and the illusion of techno-fixes - My review of Meat by Bruce Friedrich

    Bruce Friedrich wants us to bet on alt-meats, putting our best and brightest minds to work developing alt-meats to tackle humanity's biggest problems like hunger, climate change, antimicrobial resistance, and pandemics. Based on his own examples of technological innovation, I'm not convinced alt-meat is going to really help. 👉 Can people change away from meat? And who will benefit if they don't? Would love to know what you think! 📖 Check out the book  📖 Bruce Friedrich (2026). Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity's Favorite Food - and Our Future https://bookshop.org/a/114636/9781637747933  If you buy on Bookshop.org, you will be supporting your local bookstore and the Plantwise Book Club at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting independent voices.  🧠 Presented by the Plantwise Book Club  🧠 This Fall we are reading and discussing The Alzheimer's Solution by Drs. Dean and Ayesha Sherzai. Join our community of caring and curious plant-friendly folks: https://skool.com/plantwise/  👋 ABOUT ME 👋 I'm Brigitte Gemme, Ph.D. I practice as a certified Lifestyle Medicine and habit coach to support people who want to live long, active, and meaningful lives... and also to support my reading habit. I work one-on-one with clients using evidence-based coaching methods to help healthy habits stick. Book a conversation with me to see if I'd be a good fit to support you in your journey to more aligned habits: https://tidycal.com/brigitte/health-coaching-discovery

  2. Oct 15

    Most people won't change their diet, so let's change meat 💚 Bruce Friedrich of the Good Food Institute

    Hunger, climate change, antibiotic resistance, and pandemics are all caused by animal agriculture. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone got the memo and went vegan? Yes, but Bruce Friedrich - a vegan of 39 years - knows it's not going to happen. So he's on a mission to make better meat instead... without animals. Tune in to my conversation with Bruce Friedrich, founder of the Good Food Institute and author of Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity's Favorite Food - and Our Future on the Plantwise Podcast.  Donate to the Good Food Institute and help transform the future of food: https://gfi.org/donate/  Learn more about the book: http://meatbook.org Subscribe to Bruce's Substack: https://meatmatters.substack.com/ Order Bruce Friedrich's book Meat from bookshop.org to support your local bookstore and the Plantwise Podcast at the same time (at no extra cost to you): https://bookshop.org/p/books/meat-how-the-next-agricultural-revolution-will-transform-humanity-s-favorite-food-and-our-future-bruce-friedrich/128b983789c3bab8?ean=9781637747933 Love beans and books? Need a community of healthy plant-friendly people who want to experiment with healthy evidence-based habits? Join the Plantwise Community. http://brigittegemme.com/plantwise-book-club/

  3. Oct 10

    The real-life health habits of a Lifestyle Medicine coach

    My life is very full right now: an online business, two kids, and wrapping up a divorce. How do I take care of my own physical and mental health through the final months of 2026?  In this episode, I talk you through how I think about my habits for the pillars of healthy lifestyles: nutrition, exercise, stress management, sleep, social connection, and substance avoidance, plus extra benefits from my superpower: reading. I share the habit I neglected for the past two decades, and what I'm finally doing about it, plus the simple strategies that keep the habits mostly on track in my life.  🧠 Get the free mini e-book about easy habits for brain health: https://brigittegemme.com/brain-health-habits/ 👋 ABOUT ME 👋 Hi, I'm Brigitte Gemme, a certified Lifestyle Medicine coach with a serious reading habit. I work 1:1 with clients who need to transform their life thanks to the power of evidence-based habit coaching. Let's chat: https://tidycal.com/brigitte/health-coaching-discovery  📚 JOIN THE PLANTWISE COMMUNITY If you think books are at least as good for us as vegetables and beans, come read with us! This fall we’re reading The Alzheimer’s Solution by Drs. Dean and Ayesha Sherzai and practicing brain-healthy habit experiments. http://skool.com/plantwise/

  4. Sep 17

    Is going vegan enough? What Plant Powered Seniors say

    Seniors live longer than before, but on average they spend 13 years in poor health. Do you really want to spend your retirement popping pills and chasing doctor appointments?  In this episode of the Plantwise Podcast, we dive into the newly published health guide for the older crowd: Plant Powered Seniors.  Join the conversation with two of the co-authors, Vesanto Melina and Dr Charlyn Black to find out what a well-planned plant-powered diet looks like... and how much protein we actually need after 50.  Get your copy of Plant Powered Seniors on Bookshop.org. Your purchase will support the Plantwise Podcast and independent bookstores... at no extra cost to you! Canadians can shop on booksellers.ca  🍁. 💚 Love this conversation? You'll be right at home in the Plantwise Book Club. This podcast is brought to you by the Plantwise Book Club: a welcoming community of curious people who want to learn from the top sources about plant-based nutrition and put what they learn into practice in their everyday lives. Learn more here.

  5. May 24

    How I stopped gaining weight in my 40s: boring habits that work for me

    I avoided talking about weight management for 10 years. I'm finally talking about it. Not because I had a dramatic transformation story to tell, I didn't lose 50 pounds, and I'm not selling anything. But because I'm a 48-year-old woman in perimenopause who has been intentional about weight maintenance for the past four years, and I've learned a few things worth sharing. In this video, I walk you through the 20 habits I actually use to stay at a healthy weight without dieting. They are about food, movement, and mindfulness.  Some of them are obvious. Some are tactical. One of them connects to spirituality, and it might be the most important one on the list. What I cover: 🚗 How our society is rigged against healthy weight 🥦🫘The whole-food, plant-based eating patterns that keep me satiated  ⚖️ Why I weigh myself every single morning — and why it's just data, not drama 👣 The movement habits that go way beyond the gym 🧘‍♀️ The mindfulness practice that puts space between impulse and action 💚 What I'm doing now to build a foundation before menopause changes the rules This is not a prescription. It's my honest experience as a healthy habit coach, plant-based nutrition educator, and real person navigating midlife with as much intention and as little guilt as possible. These habits are good for weight maintenance, but above all they are critical to keep chronic disease at bay.  Join us at Cooking Club - it's free! https://brigittegemme.com/cooking-club/ Mindful Eating Circle (free): https://brigittegemme.com/mindful-meal/ Take your Healthy Habit Snapshot: https://brigittegemme.com/#snapshot  0:00 — Why I avoided this topic for 10 years 1:30 — The bigger picture: why weight management is so hard 4:10 — My personal story: perimenopause and paying attention 7:30 — The 20 habits overview 7:45 — FOOD 16:15 — MOVEMENT 18:30 — MINDFULNESS & AWARENESS 23:00 — What it all comes down to

  6. May 11

    How I lowered my LDL cholesterol naturally with food: small tweaks, real results

    On my 48th birthday, my mom reminded me that my grandmother died of a heart attack at the same age. That conversation sent me to review my cholesterol results... and changed what I put on my plate (a little bit). I already eat a plant-based diet, exercise regularly, and don't smoke. But new guidelines from the American College of Cardiologists have shifted the target for LDL cholesterol from 130 down to under 100 mg/dL. At 102 (in May 2025), I had work to do. So I made some small, deliberate additions to my diet. No meds, no overhaul, no yucky supplements! A retest just last week showed promising results. Here's what happened. ➡️ Join us to discuss Dr. Greger's Lower LDL Cholesterol Naturally with Food book: Kick-off event on June 25th (free): https://brigittegemme.com/lower-ldl-kick-off/ 📚 Plantwise Book Club: https://skool.com/plantwise 🧠 Download the Brain Health e-book: https://brigittegemme.com/brain-health-habits/ 🙌 Get support: https://brigittegemme.com/coaching/ 🍲 Learn more about the Healthy Vegan Cooking Club: https://brigittegemme.com/cooking-club/

  7. Apr 26

    Dr. Greger on Changing His Mind, AI, and the Power of Defaults

    Dr. Michael Greger — physician, bestselling author of How Not to Die, and founder of NutritionFacts.org — joins the Plantwise Book Club crew for a live fireside chat focused on how he reads and writes.  In this conversation, we ask Dr. Greger how his team tracks thousands of new studies every day using PubMed alerts, a team of 100+ volunteers, and an increasing use of AI.  He shares how he actively seeks out evidence that challenges his own positions — and the times he's had to reverse course (including a heartbreaking breakup with his favorite fruit). We also cover: 🔬 How NutritionFacts.org is building an AI-powered "Ask Dr. Greger" tool using retrieval-augmented generation 🥦 The strongest argument against a plant-based diet (his answer might surprise you) 💪 How much protein you actually need — especially over 65 🏥 Why making healthy food the default choice is the most effective behavior change strategy 📚 His deep-work routine: treadmill research days, month-long project blocks, and a nine-hour interview day 🍠 How fans started bringing him sweet potatoes at book signings Dr. Greger donates all proceeds from his books to charity, takes no corporate sponsorships, runs no ads, and sells no supplements. 📖 Currently in the Plantwise Book Club, we are doing a deep dive into How Not to Die. Join us: https://brigittegemme.com/plantwise-book-club/ 🌐 NutritionFacts.org for free, science-based nutrition information https://nutritionfacts.org 🎙️ Subscribe to the Plantwise Podcast for more conversations at the intersection of plant-based nutrition, evidence, and real life. #PlantBased #NutritionFacts #MichaelGreger #HowNotToDie #PlantwisePodcast #WFPB #PlantBasedNutrition #EvidenceBased

  8. Apr 13

    Dr. Klaper: the HAPPIEST doctor... thanks to PLANTS!

    Dr. Michael Klaper was raised on a dairy farm, became a physician in 1972, and spent his first decade in medicine watching his patients get sicker. Then, he connected the dots: it's the food, doc! For the past 40+ years, he has been one of the most beloved voices in plant-based medicine, reversing high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, autoimmune disease, and more thanks to the whole plant food diet.  In 2017, he founded his not-for-profit Moving Medicine Forward to (finally!) bring nutrition education to medical schools across North America. He just published his book by the same name, and it's FANTASTIC! In this conversation we talk about:  The "toxic red tide" of molecules that flood your bloodstream every time you have a cheeseburger Why most doctors know next to nothing about nutrition (and what that costs their patients) What it takes to change someone's diet in a clinical setting Whether the medical system can be redeemed And why Dr. Klaper is the happiest of doctors! Whether you are in the medical system as a patient or as a health professional, you'll LOVE this episode.  Support Dr. Klaper's work by donating at http://movingmedforward.org/ Get your copy of Moving Medicine Forward: https://bookshop.org/a/114636/9781637748268 (while supporting the Plantwise Podcast at no extra cost to you!) --  Love this conversation? You'll be right at home in the Plantwise Book Club. Learn more here: https://brigittegemme.com/plantwise-book-club/

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

The Plantwise Podcast is all about evidence-based healthy lifestyle habits and the books that inspire them. Hosted with Brigitte Gemme, Ph.D., the show focuses on plant-based nutrition and the foundations of long-term well-being: exercise, sleep, stress management, community, and a positive mindset. We want to know how to prevent chronic disease and cognitive decline, so we can enjoy long, healthy, active, and meaningful lives.  The podcast features a mix of interviews with plant-friendly authors and solo episodes where Brigitte shares insight from the most important health books of our time.  What are they actually saying? What's the bigger pictures? How does it look like to live those ideas? Let's talk about it.  New episodes twice monthly. Follow the show and let great books improve your life!  Previously the Vegan Family Kitchen Podcast.  This podcast is the companion of the Plantwise Book Club: https://skool.com/plantwise/about/

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