the goop podcast

In this special episode, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Matt Richtel highlights what he learned about the immune system while researching his latest book, An Elegant Defense. Host Elise Loehnen asks him how these lessons apply to us today as we try to slow the spread of the coronavirus and stay healthy. Our immune system, says Richtel, doesn’t need a boost as much as it needs balance. “Stress,...

The Vagina Monologues author and playwright Eve Ensler joins Elise Loehnen to share her heartbreaking, honest, and hopeful story of healing her personal trauma. Ensler wrote her new book, The Apology, as a letter from the perspective of her late father, who sexually and physically abused her throughout her childhood. She describes her deeply transformative writing experience, how it felt like she...

Award-winning investigative journalist and New York Times–bestselling author Gerald Posner is telling the wild, true, and urgent story behind America’s now trillion-dollar-a-year pharmaceutical industry. In Pharma, Posner begins with the Sacklers: Before they became the family driving the rise of Oxycontin, they orchestrated the birth of medical advertising and all the monetization that came after...

“There is always something one can do,” says former UN ambassador Samantha Power. The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Education of an Idealist shares her extraordinary story: As President Obama’s former foreign policy and human rights advisor, she’s spent time both in war zones and in the situation room. She knows the internal struggle of feeling that the world should be different than it cur...

“When we see a woman who stepped out of line, we want to put her back in her cage,” says Glennon Doyle. The New York Times–bestselling author of Untamed and founder of Together Rising joins Elise Loehnen for a conversation about the moment she decided to stop abandoning herself. Like many of us, Doyle spent the majority of her life feeling that she had to be “good.” And then she quit pleasing so t...

“We’re fighting ourselves to get to a goal instead of getting into a flow state to get there,” says holistic nutritionist and author of Body Love Every Day Kelly LeVeque. As a health coach, LeVeque is familiar with the uncomfortable pendulum swing many of us feel we’re stuck in. She helps her clients make peace with—and celebrate—their food choices. In the process, they let go of guilt and shame,...

“Ibogaine made them ready for change,” says researcher Deborah Mash, PhD. Mash has been studying the effects of ibogaine since 1992. A psychedelic compound derived from the bark of a shrub native to western central Africa, ibogaine is being used as a potent addiction disruptor (specifically for opioid use). Ibogaine may have the power to reset opioid tolerance and bypass many of the withdrawal sym...

“The trauma was playing out in my decisions because it hadn’t healed,” says spiritual writer Lalah Delia. The author of Vibrate Higher Daily joins Elise Loehnen to share her journey out of survival mode and back to herself. Today, they talk about knowing your energetic worth, rediscovering circles of healing and ways to hold communities together, and what happens when we allow our energy to expres...

“The thing all great ideas have in common,” says Kevin Systrom, “is that they all seem crazy at the beginning.” The cofounder and former CEO of Instagram joins GP to tell her how he created one of the most popular companies in the world—and what we can learn from it. They talk about mistakes, taking chances, what you don’t know you don’t know, being a leader, and leaving room for creativity when y...

“Why do I have to be super sweet to get something done?” asks Issa Rae. The actor, writer, and producer of Insecure joins Elise Loehnen to talk about owning our power as women. Rae admits that she used to avoid speaking up—but now recognizes how important it is to use her voice to make change. She is honest about how much power she feels she has in our current culture and the progress we still nee...

“The fear is kind of like the gas in your tank,” says Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The actor and producer sits down with GP to talk about motherhood, family life, how she looks back on her career (Second City, SNL, Seinfeld, Veep), and where she’s going next. They talk about marriage and what makes a relationship get “cozy” over time. They talk about acting, humor, laughter. And they talk about their expe...

“This generation of women has worked very, very hard,” says writer Ada Calhoun. “And yet, not everyone has what they want.” The author of Why We Can’t Sleep joins Elise Loehnen to talk about the pressure to be perfect. They talk about the ways women—particularly Generation X women approaching midlife—have taken on the stresses of caregiving, building a successful career, and having enough money. T...

The good news, says New York Times–bestselling author Seth M. Siegel, is that we know how to fix our water systems and we can afford to do it. The bad news is there’s a lot wrong with the water we’re drinking right now: We still use the same water technologies that were put in place a century ago. Lead contamination in water pipes is still affecting the majority of our water lines. Remnants of med...

“You don’t need to wait for biotechnology,” says William Li, MD. “Foods can actually activate and boost our body’s health defenses.” The Harvard physician and author of Eat to Beat Disease reports on the remarkable things the body is capable of when food and medicine are used in tandem. He explains which foods have powerful properties that can help us prevent and heal from illness. For example, Li...

“What part do I play?” asks Robin DiAngelo, academic and author of White Fragility. DiAngelo’s critical, urgent work asks us to question what we thinkwe know about racism, the conversations we avoid having about racism, and the roles we might (unintentionally) be playing in upholding inequality. For example, says DiAngelo: “We white women have to stop using sexism to protect racism.” In this conve...

Valter Longo, PhD, author of The Longevity Diet, sat down with Elise Loehnen at In goop Health to share what he’s learned about our ability to optimize our health largely through diet and lifestyle changes. Longo, who is the director of the USC Longevity Institute, continues to conduct a wide range of fascinating research on different forms of fasting: What kind of fast is safest? How does fasting...

“My job is not to tell you something,” says BJ Miller, MD. “My job is to help you receive something.” The palliative care physician and coauthor of A Beginner’s Guide to the End joined GP on stage at In goop Health. He brought his dog, Maysie, which you’ll hear them talking about. Miller shared his own incredible personal story and wise insights about what it means to live a good life and die a go...

“The reason we don’t change,” says Shauna Shapiro, PhD, “is because most of us are missing this essential ingredient of self-compassion.” The psychology professor and author of Good Morning, I Love You joins Elise Loehnen to explain why we can forget about self-esteem and why “heartfulness” may be more meaningful to you than “mindfulness.” When we find ourselves in cycles of negative self-talk, ho...

“We can decouple shame from your sexuality,” says sex therapist Michael Vigorito. Vigorito joins Elise Loehnen to talk about how removing judgment can help us reframe our thinking about sex, desire, and the label: sex addiction. Vigorito prefers the term “out of control sexual behavior.” It doesn’t mean that someone is out of control, necessarily, but that they feel out of control. Often, Vigorito...

“Most humans live as if past and future—and especially future—were more important than this moment,” says renowned spiritual leader Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now and A New Earth. In this special conversation with GP, Tolle teaches us how to not resist our experience of the present moment, and why the feelings that we do resist have a way of—persisting. GP asks Tolle about the relations...

“Do what only you can do with your particular talents, gifts, and flaws,” says Jennifer Freed, psychological astrologer and author of Use Your Planets Wisely. In this episode, Freed joins friend Elise Loehnen to explain how we can use astrology to explore our own divine possibilities and potential. Freed reminds us that we are all a work in progress—moving away from primitive behaviors and toward...

“Conflict is really what sharpens our ability to love,” says John Gottman, PhD, who is the cofounder, with his wife Julie, of the Gottman Institute for relationships. (They’re also coauthors of the new book, Eight Dates.)Today, they join Elise Loehnen to share the tools for communication and conflict resolution that make a relationship work. We learn about perpetual issues—and how to talk about th...

“Only 20 percent of our longevity and health in old age is genetically determined,” says David Sinclair, “The rest is up to us.” The Harvard genetics professor and author of Lifespan joins Elise Loehnen to break down the science behind the aging process and our well-being. He explains why it’s good for us to experience “biological stress,” how we can absolve harmful stress, and which supplements a...

“Not only do we feel connected to one another, but we feel connected to something bigger than ourselves,” says Kelly McGonigal, health psychologist, Stanford University lecturer, and author of The Joy of Movement. Collective joy, McGonigal says, is what happens when we move our bodies in unison. It can help us reduce stress and anxiety, quiet our minds, maintain our health—and even makes us feel b...

“Investigating what’s underneath the rage can help us then articulate—more clearly—our values,” says Rhonda V. Magee, professor of law at the University of San Francisco and author of The Inner Work of Racial Justice. Magee sat down with Elise Loehnen at In goop Health and gave a master class on how we can remain grounded, compassionate, and true to ourselves in a world that often feels complex, d...