Health Is A Skill with Todd Vande Hei

Todd Vande Hei
  • 5.0 (65)
  • Health & Fitness
  • Updated Weekly

Health is not something you are born with. It is something you build — deliberately, with the right team, the right data, and the discipline to treat your body like the most important thing you run. Health Is a Skill is hosted by Todd Vande Hei, CEO of Stark, who went from cluster seizures, chronic migraines, and a dad bod at 36 to the 99th percentile of health at 50+. Not by finding a guru. By assembling a team of specialists and running his health like a Fortune 100 company. Each week, Todd brings solo deep-dives and expert conversations across all ten spokes of the Wheel of Health — from hormones and gut health to mental fitness, sleep, body composition, and longevity. The guests are practitioners, not influencers. The advice is data-driven, not dogmatic. And the proof of concept walks into every recording session.

  1. 3d ago

    The Ancient Health Protocol Nobody Is Using - The Sabbath as Modern Medicine

    Most high-performing leaders are disciplined in business, yet struggle with their health. The issue often isn't a lack of effort—it's chronic hurry and constant nervous system activation. In this episode, Todd Vande Hei, CEO of Stark, explores why an ancient 3,000-year-old practice—the Sabbath—might be the ultimate health and longevity protocol. Drawing insights from John Mark Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry and modern neuroscience, we break down how chronic sympathetic stress ruins your markers and why intentional rest is a biological necessity. Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

  2. Sep 24

    The Hidden Longevity Risk Every CEO Has (It's Not What You Think)

    Many business leaders do everything right: they optimize their workouts, track their metrics, and stick to strict protocols. Yet, across patient data at Stark, high performers remain the loneliest demographic—and it comes with severe biological consequences. In this video, Todd Vande Hei is explores how transactional environments and convenience-driven communication leave leaders functionally isolated. He highlights critical data—including how isolation increases heart disease risk by 17% and mimics the health hazards of heavy smoking—while offering three clear, actionable prescriptions to restore real connection and boost longevity. Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

  3. Sep 17

    Losing Endurance as You Age? Lactate May Be Part of the Answer

    For over 100 years, we’ve been told that lactic acid is a toxic waste product responsible for muscle burn, fatigue, and hitting the wall. We were wrong. In this video, Todd Vande Hei (CEO of Stark) breaks down the history of lactate, why it isn't the villain we thought it was, and how it actually functions as a primary fuel source for your brain, heart, and muscles during high-performance work. What you’ll learn in this video: The 100-Year Myth: How Archibald Hill’s 1920s Nobel Prize-winning research led to decades of misunderstanding. The Paradigm Shift: How George Brooks uncovered that lactate is an essential fuel shuttle, not waste. Cognitive Stamina for Leaders: Why high-stakes decision-making burns lactate and how training your metabolic engine keeps you sharp all day. Mastering Zone 2 Training: How to use portable finger-prick lactate analyzers (like the Lactate Plus) to find your true aerobic threshold instead of relying on generic heart rate estimates. The Future of Fitness Tech: What continuous lactate monitors (CLMs) will mean for performance tracking. Stop blaming lactate—learn how to optimize it to elevate your physical endurance and executive brainpower. Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

  4. Sep 11

    The Menopause Information Women Were Never Taught

    The discussion focuses heavily on perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health, emphasizing the lack of modern clinical education for doctors regarding these life transitions. Dr. Rollins debunks widespread historical medical myths regarding hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and breast cancer, sharing insights on how synthetic hormones vs. bioidentical hormones behave in the body.6789 Key topics explored include: The "Three Sisters" of Hormones: Understanding the crucial, interconnected roles of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone in regulating mood, anxiety, sleep, bone density, and overall metabolic health in women. Comprehensive Testing: The advantages of non-traditional laboratory tests, such as the Dutch test, to thoroughly evaluate cortisol pathways and steroid hormone metabolites. Midlife and the Workplace: Strategies for female corporate leaders navigating perimenopause symptoms while maintaining high-level career performance and team communication. Lifestyle Medicine: The fundamental impacts of nutrition, gut microbiome tracking, alcohol limitation, and stress management on long-term health and cellular longevity. Dr. Rollins also outlines her personal health journey with PCOS and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and previews her upcoming playbook Pivot, which reframes perimenopause not as a medical crisis to survive, but as a crucial window of opportunity to positively alter a woman's health trajectory. 00:00 - The Perimenopause Crisis Conventional Medicine Misses 01:15 - Dr. Jennifer Rollins' Personal Journey with PCOS & Hashimoto’s 05:40 - Root Cause Care vs. Traditional Insurance Models 13:30 - Why Menopause Education is Failing in Medical Schools 16:50 - Advanced Lab Testing: What is the DUTCH Test? 20:05 - The Three Sisters: Estrogen, Progesterone, and Testosterone Explained 26:00 - Managing Emotional Challenges & Midlife Isolation 35:15 - Navigating Perimenopause Symptoms in the Corporate Workplace 39:35 - Debunking HRT Myths: The Truth About Estrogen and Breast Cancer 46:15 - Pivot: Reframing Midlife as a Longevity Opportunity Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

  5. Sep 9

    Before You Inject Peptides, Watch This - 16 Years of Clinical Reality

    Peptide therapy is entering a new chapter with recent FDA decisions. Learn what this means for your long-term health protocol. The FDA recently voted to legalize six specific peptides for compounding, sparking a significant debate with the pharmaceutical industry. This decision impacts how we approach health optimization, especially for those who have relied on these compounds for years. We look at the history of these substances, which have been used effectively for nearly two decades, proving their role in a disciplined performance health lifestyle is far from new. Many high-performers and business leaders struggle to maintain their physical well-being while managing intense professional demands. This discussion clarifies why FDA compounding regulations matter for your access to effective treatments and how to maintain discipline in your health routine despite the noise from the industry. It is about understanding the landscape so you can make informed decisions regarding peptide therapy for your body. Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

  6. Sep 9

    The Fertility Secret Your Doctor Never Told You

    What if your fatigue, low drive, or inability to push through a performance ceiling isn't a lack of motivation at all? In this episode, Todd Vanderhay, CEO of Stark, sits down with Dr. Aumatama Simmons—a double board-certified naturopathic doctor, naturopathic endocrinologist, and the creator of the Restorative Fertility Method. With nearly 20 years of clinical experience, Dr. Aumatama shares her unique insights into how hormonal intelligence governs both conception and peak performance. Discover why high-achievers running on "cortisol override" hit a hard ceiling that discipline alone can't break, the moving personal story that led her to holistic cancer therapies, and how mind-body resilience and personalized epigenetic screening can unlock the body’s innate power to heal and reproduce. Whether you are seeking fertility optimization or aiming to break through a professional burnout ceiling, this episode provides a profound look at shifting from survival mode to thriving. Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

  7. Aug 20

    From 250 Pounds to Optimized: The Fat Daddy Workout That Works

    Before the sun came up, everything looked impossible. Payroll was due. The state wanted sixty thousand dollars he didn't have. The business felt like it was dying. So he got into the ice bath. Twenty seconds later, he thought: maybe there's three things I haven't tried yet. When he got out, he couldn't wait to try them. Dr. Thomas Seager is a tenured engineering professor at Arizona State University who built the Morozko ice bath—a machine that manufactures its own ice rather than relying on cold water alone. His accidental discovery: ice baths before exercise dramatically elevate testosterone in men through a measurable biological shift in the blood. His research has reached mainstream attention and opened a clinical door to understanding how cold thermogenesis rebuilds mitochondria—the cellular engines where aging accelerates or decelerates. On Health Is a Skill, you'll learn the protocol, the science behind hormonal optimization through cold exposure, and how thermal medicine reshapes recovery and nervous system resilience. Todd Vande Hei built Stark Health as a facility where leaders come to recalibrate their nervous systems and reclaim their bodies as operating systems. For him, the ice bath is a leadership tool—a three-minute lever that shifts his emotional state for five hours, making him present with his team and his family. This conversation bridges the engineering precision of cold exposure with the real stakes of building a business, leading people, and understanding what your body is actually capable of. About the Guest: Dr. Thomas Seager is an engineering professor at Arizona State University and founder of Morozko Forge, where he applies rigorous science to thermal medicine and human performance. Learn more at morozkoforge.com. Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

  8. Aug 13

    Nick Onken: The Body Learns at the Speed of Honesty

    A man walked off a plane at the foot of Wudang Mountain without knowing he stood at the birthplace of Tai Chi, or that the month ahead would fracture his life into before and after. Hands that wouldn't obey. A body built from years of pushing. Five days a week, six hours a day, waking at 5:30 AM to train. Then the shifu said something that changed everything: slow down. Nick Onken spent two decades at the top of his field—building brands for recognizable entrepreneurs, developing AI tools for personal identity, working with names like Lewis Howes and Jim Kwik. At 47, he did the opposite of what built his success: he stopped, went to China, and learned that kung fu means repetition until mastery, not martial art. He discovered that the body learns at the speed of honesty, not ambition. In this episode of Health Is a Skill, Nick brings the systems thinking of a creative technologist to the slowest practice on earth, and Todd extracts the operating principles that transfer directly to your nervous system, your recovery, and the cost of sustained high performance. Todd Vande Hei recognizes something in Nick's journey that his own fifty-eight years of sprinting between projects has been trying to communicate—that the next threat isn't the grind itself. It's the hypervigilance the grind creates. This conversation is about what happens when ambition finally meets the body's actual language, and why the fastest path forward requires stopping. About the Guest: Nick Onken is a brand strategist, creative director, and AI developer who has spent twenty years building identity systems for high-performing entrepreneurs. His work spans personal branding, artificial intelligence applications, and now embodied practice through martial arts training at Wudang Mountain. His background includes collaborations with some of the most recognized names in performance and education. Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

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About

Health is not something you are born with. It is something you build — deliberately, with the right team, the right data, and the discipline to treat your body like the most important thing you run. Health Is a Skill is hosted by Todd Vande Hei, CEO of Stark, who went from cluster seizures, chronic migraines, and a dad bod at 36 to the 99th percentile of health at 50+. Not by finding a guru. By assembling a team of specialists and running his health like a Fortune 100 company. Each week, Todd brings solo deep-dives and expert conversations across all ten spokes of the Wheel of Health — from hormones and gut health to mental fitness, sleep, body composition, and longevity. The guests are practitioners, not influencers. The advice is data-driven, not dogmatic. And the proof of concept walks into every recording session.

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