Episode #38: Yali Szulanski

Yali Szulanski, M.A., is a mother to two amazing kids, Zoey, 3 years old, and Eli, 5 months old. She is a teacher and the founder of The “I Am” Project, through which students integrate contemplative and mind-body-spirit practices into their classrooms and lives in accessible and practical ways. As a survivor of trauma and in recovery from an eating disorder now for 10 years, Yali has used her struggles and healing to inform her studies and work.

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Episode #37: Susannah Meadows

Susannah Meadows is the author of The Other Side of Impossible: Ordinary People Who Faced Daunting Medical Challenges and Refused to Give Up. The book tells the stories of unlikely recoveries and the science behind them and was featured on Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, and NPR, as well as in Oprah Magazine and The New York Times.

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Episode #35: Emily Fletcher

Emily Fletcher is the founder of Ziva, the creator of The Ziva Technique, and regarded as the leading expert in meditation for high performance. The New York Times, The Today Show, Vogue and ABC News have all featured her work. She’s been named one of the top 100 women in wellness, has taught 15,000 students and has spoken on meditation for performance at Google, Harvard Business School, Summit Series, Viacom & Wanderlust.

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Episode #34: Bob Martin

Bob Martin is committed to helping the tens of millions of children whose dreams have been shattered or curtailed by a medical issue or one of the many socialization challenges kids often face. Martin has observed firsthand the pain and sorrow a debilitating disease or disorder inflicts on a child and the child’s family. He has also uncovered several serious shortfalls in America’s approach to pediatric research.

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Episode #33: Ally Hilfiger

Ally Hilfiger is an artist, designer, writer and the daughter of fashion mogul and entrepreneur Tommy Hilfiger. As a producer, she created and starred in the docu-series Rich Girls for MTV, and as a designer, spearheaded the women’s clothing line NAHM that was featured in the documentary “Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s”. Her 2016 memoir, Bite Me: How Lyme Disease Stole My Childhood, Made Me Crazy, and Almost Killed Me, explored her chronic battle with Lyme Disease. Ally lives in Los Angeles with her husband, artist Steve Hash, and daughter Harley Hilfiger-Hash and has just launched her new Clothing line “Series Eight”, which is a bespoke limited edition brand.

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Episode #32: Melissa Marans

Melissa Glazer Marans is an interior designer and new mom to a 4 month old son, Jacob. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, and proud alumna of The Ohio State University, Melissa moved to NYC in 2009. Melissa spent four years at Transperfect in a variety of roles before departing for non-profit life at UJA-Federation of NY, where she served in a managerial fundraising role within the Lawyers Division.

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Episode #31: Carly Stein

Carly Stein, founder and CEO of Beekeeper's Naturals, is a savvy and inspiring entrepreneur. She is a beekeeper herself who developed an innovative bee-made nutraceutical product line that provides effective, natural solutions to everyday modern health issues. Her passion for the power of the bees originated from a personal medical issue she faced while traveling in Italy. After discovering the incredible healing properties of bee propolis while abroad, she set out on a mission to share the wonders from the hive and educate people on the integral role the bees play in our ecosystem.

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Episode #30: Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Letty Cottin Pogrebin is a writer, activist, and national lecturer. A founding editor of Ms. Magazine, she is the author of eleven books, among them two novels — Single Jewish Male Seeking Soul Mate and Three Daughters — as well as the guidebook, How To Be A Friend To A Friend Who’s Sick, and two acclaimed memoirs, Getting Over Getting Older, and Deborah, Golda, and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America. She won an Emmy Award for her work as Consulting Editor on Free to Be, You & Me, Marlo Thomas’ ground-breaking children's record, book and TV special.

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Episode #29: Genevieve Gorder

Genevieve Gorder’s soulful style and genuine enthusiasm have made her one of America’s favorite interior designers for many years. She is the founder and director of the Genevieve Gorder brand, a television host and producer, home product designer, contributing author, and global ambassador for home and human rights.

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Episode #28: Monique Gore-Massy

Monique C. Gore-Massy, known as "The LemonadeMaker", is a Motivational Speaker, Lupus Awareness/ Patient Advocate/ International Ambassador. Monique is a local and national legislative lupus advocate, organizational volunteer, program facilitator, panel and workshop moderator, presiding on local and international committees/ advisory boards; with an extensive focus on awareness, health disparities and socioeconomic impact, and lupus clinical research engagements in the diaspora. In 2010, Monique heard three words that changed the trajectory of her life, “You have Lupus.”

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Episode #27: Norine Spero

Norine Spero was born in the Bronx and moved to Queens at the age of 11. Always a very independent person, she traveled to Israel and throughout Europe by herself, meeting wonderful people along the way. She lived in San Francisco for a year before deciding to return to New York to go to school to become an optician. She chose that career because at the time there were few women in that field and she saw it as an opportunity. As she began her career as an optician working for the State College of Optometry she met the love of her life, Harry.

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Episode #26: Nitika Chopra

Nitika Chopra has been a leader in the wellness industry since she founded her blog in 2010. As the host of the Talk Show Naturally Beautiful on Z-Living and as the on-air expert for Fresh on QVC, Nitika has always empowered women to use beauty as a tangible access point to self-love.

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Episode #25: Gunnar Esiason

Gunnar Esiason is a successful 27-year-old young man living with cystic fibrosis. After graduating from Boston College in 2013, he is now a program director, patient advocate and board member at the Boomer Esiason Foundation, the charity his parents started upon learning of his cystic fibrosis diagnosis. Gunnar is also a co-host of Breathe In: A Cystic Fibrosis Podcast, a writer and the head coach of his high school alma mater’s varsity ice hockey team. Above all else, Gunnar believes it’s important for people living with chronic illness to feel empowered to advocate themselves as equal individuals. He lives in New York.

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Episode #24: Dr. Alexandra Freeman

Dr. Alexandra Freeman is a pediatric infectious diseases physician at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health who focuses on the diagnosis and management of primary immunodeficiencies.  Dr. Freeman received her medical training at Georgetown University Medical School, completed her pediatric residency training at Yale New Haven Children’s hospital and her pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at Northwestern’s program in Chicago.

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Episode #23: Becca Skolnick

Becca B. Skolnick, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and co-founder of MindWell NYC, a group private practice in Manhattan specializing in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and mindfulness-based approaches. She works collaboratively with clients to teach them coping skills and help them think and behave more adaptively in line with their goals and values.

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Episode #22: Akilah Cadet

With three degrees — including a PhD — in health science, Akilah Cadet is a self-professed health nerd. Her familiarity with the health system has proven particularly useful over the last fifteen months, as she’s navigated hospitals stays and appointments with specialists in search of a primary diagnosis for her heart-related symptoms.

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Episode #21: Tracy Shaw

Tracy Shaw, currently, serves as Assistant Vice President, Head of Business Owner Market Development for MassMutual. As a business development strategist; her work has influenced industries from financial services to employee benefit planning to health care; with focus on enriching the customer’s experience, streamlining processes, innovating products and their delivery, while enhancing RoI. Today, the insight-driven marketing programs delivered by her team offer business owners relevant education & solutions to grow and protect their businesses — now and for the next generation.

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