Episodes

When was the last time anyone gave you a trophy for resting? Nobody does, and that's part of the problem. In this episode, Kate sits down with her colleague Lizzie Lasater, daughter of restorative yoga teacher Judith Hanson Lasater and co-author of Savasana: The Practice of Radical Rest, just as the Northern Hemisphere heads into its season of long nights. Lizzie is honest about why she wrote the book: not because rest comes easily, but because she is a self-described high-achieving workaholic ...

When the weather turns dry and cold, the bowl-of-salad habit stops working. Your digestion starts asking for food that is warm, cooked, soft, and a little moist. In this solo episode, Kate answers the question “what do I actually eat?” with the quick, repeatable go-tos she uses every fall. Kate explains why fall calls for warm and moist qualities to balance the dryness and coldness of the season, and how that dryness can show up in hair, skin, nails, thirst, and sluggish elimination. Then she g...

If our food isn't "full power," will we feel full power? In this conversation, Kate talks with Pat Miletich, a UFC champion, martial arts coach, and Hall of Famer whose life mission is now soil health. Pat shares how a childhood of respiratory illness set him on a lifelong search for answers, and how that search led from human performance to the soil that grows our food and our herbal medicines. Kate and Pat explore why they see soil as a living ecosystem, how they see the diversity of microbes...

Are apples good for you according to Ayurveda? It depends on your digestion, and on how you prepare them. In this solo episode, Kate O'Donnell explains why apples are one of the best fall foods for cooling excess heat (pitta), why a raw, crisp apple can feel hard on a cold or sensitive gut, and how to cook apples so you get all of the medicine and none of the bloat. Kate starts with the Ayurvedic qualities of apples: cold, hard, juicy and fibrous. She explains why those qualities calm pitta and...

Are apples good for you according to Ayurveda? It depends on your digestion, and on how you prepare them. In this solo episode, Kate O'Donnell explains why apples are one of the best fall foods for cooling excess heat (pitta), why a raw, crisp apple can feel hard on a cold or sensitive gut, and how to cook apples so you get all of the medicine and none of the bloat. Kate starts with the Ayurvedic qualities of apples: cold, hard, juicy and fibrous. She explains why those qualities calm pitta and...

So many of you have written in asking about GLP-1s, the Ozempic class of drugs. This week Kate talks with Dr. Sheena Sooraj, chief clinical officer at Kerala Ayurveda Academy and Wellness Center, who sees clients on these medications every month. Dr. Sheena explains how GLP-1s work in the pancreas, stomach and brain, who tends to need them long term and who may be able to come off them with their doctor, and how Ayurveda supports digestion, hydration and the enjoyment of food while someone is on...

So many of you have written in asking about GLP-1s, the Ozempic class of drugs. This week Kate talks with Dr. Sheena Sooraj, chief clinical officer at Kerala Ayurveda Academy and Wellness Center, who sees clients on these medications every month. Dr. Sheena explains how GLP-1s work in the pancreas, stomach and brain, who tends to need them long term and who may be able to come off them with their doctor, and how Ayurveda supports digestion, hydration and the enjoyment of food while someone is on...

Every year around this time, Kate notices it first in her eyes. A little heat, a little dryness, a little irritation — the same early signal, right on schedule. In this solo episode, she uses that personal example to explain one of Ayurveda's most practical seasonal concepts: sandhi, the juncture between seasons, when the body is considered most vulnerable to imbalance. Kate walks through why the accumulated heat (pitta) of summer can tip into aggravation as the weather turns — through hot, aci...

Every year around this time, Kate notices it first in her eyes. A little heat, a little dryness, a little irritation — the same early signal, right on schedule. In this solo episode, she uses that personal example to explain one of Ayurveda's most practical seasonal concepts: sandhi, the juncture between seasons, when the body is considered most vulnerable to imbalance. Kate walks through why the accumulated heat (pitta) of summer can tip into aggravation as the weather turns — through hot, aci...

For fifteen years, Cara Brostrom has been the photographer — and co-author — behind every one of Kate's Everyday Ayurveda books. In this episode, Kate and Cara sit down together for the first time to tell the whole story: how a free PDF of five spring recipes and five photographs, made on a whim and shared on early Facebook, racked up 30,000 downloads and landed in front of an acquiring editor — and became The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook, now a perennial classic translated into seven languages. ...

For fifteen years, Cara Brostrom has been the photographer — and co-author — behind every one of Kate's Everyday Ayurveda books. In this episode, Kate and Cara sit down together for the first time to tell the whole story: how a free PDF of five spring recipes and five photographs, made on a whim and shared on early Facebook, racked up 30,000 downloads and landed in front of an acquiring editor — and became The Everyday Ayurveda Cookbook, now a perennial classic translated into seven languages. ...

Did you know the moon moves through a full cycle — dark to full and back again — in about 28 days, which is also the length of the average menstrual cycle? In this solo episode, Kate explores lunar rhythms: one of her favorite topics, and a subject she covers in Chapter 9 of her book Everyday Ayurveda for Women's Health. Ayurveda already asks us to live in tune with daily rhythms (sun up, sun down) and seasonal rhythms (what grows and changes through the year). The lunar rhythm sits alongside b...

Did you know the moon moves through a full cycle — dark to full and back again — in about 28 days, which is also the length of the average menstrual cycle? In this solo episode, Kate explores lunar rhythms: one of her favorite topics, and a subject she covers in Chapter 9 of her book Everyday Ayurveda for Women's Health. Ayurveda already asks us to live in tune with daily rhythms (sun up, sun down) and seasonal rhythms (what grows and changes through the year). The lunar rhythm sits alongside b...

Ever leave the doctor's office feeling like you didn't get to say what you actually needed to say? In this episode, Kate sits down with Dr. Elizabeth Bostock — a practicing OBGYN for 30 years, a yogi, an Ayurvedic counselor, and a contributor to Kate's book Everyday Ayurveda for Women's Health — to talk about self-advocacy in the doctor's office, especially around perimenopause and menopause. Dr. Bostock shares what she's seen across three decades and hundreds of thousands of patients: the numb...

Ever leave the doctor's office feeling like you didn't get to say what you actually needed to say? In this episode, Kate sits down with Dr. Elizabeth Bostock — a practicing OBGYN for 30 years, a yogi, an Ayurvedic counselor, and a contributor to Kate's book Everyday Ayurveda for Women's Health — to talk about self-advocacy in the doctor's office, especially around perimenopause and menopause. Dr. Bostock shares what she's seen across three decades and hundreds of thousands of patients: the numb...

The farmers market is overflowing right now — but how do you keep all that fresh, local food from going to waste before you can eat it? In this solo episode, Kate answers a listener question about preserving the late-summer and early-fall haul, and shares the exact kitchen tricks she uses to make her produce last. Kate tackles the question she gets every time she mentions saving or freezing food: doesn't Ayurveda say no leftovers, no frozen food? Her answer is a grounded, seasonal one. When you...

The farmers market is overflowing right now — but how do you keep all that fresh, local food from going to waste before you can eat it? In this solo episode, Kate answers a listener question about preserving the late-summer and early-fall haul, and shares the exact kitchen tricks she uses to make her produce last. Kate tackles the question she gets every time she mentions saving or freezing food: doesn't Ayurveda say no leftovers, no frozen food? Her answer is a grounded, seasonal one. When you...

Model Nidhi Sunil — Vogue India Model of the Year and the first Indian global ambassador for L'Oréal Paris — joins Kate for a very candid conversation about how her work affected her mental and physical health. After more than a decade of image-building, red-eye flights to Paris and back, and relentless external pressure, Nidhi hit a full-body burnout in 2022. In this episode, she opens up about depletion, self-worth, complex trauma, colorism in the fashion industry, and the slow, honest work of...

Model Nidhi Sunil — Vogue India Model of the Year and the first Indian global ambassador for L'Oréal Paris — joins Kate for a very candid conversation about how her work affected her mental and physical health. After more than a decade of image-building, red-eye flights to Paris and back, and relentless external pressure, Nidhi hit a full-body burnout in 2022. In this episode, she opens up about depletion, self-worth, complex trauma, colorism in the fashion industry, and the slow, honest work of...

Is your phone making you a little crazy? Kate opens this episode with a confession: even as a longtime Ayurveda teacher, she has to actively manage her relationship with her phone — because the device, and the apps on it, are engineered to keep you glued. If she's working at it, most of us are too. The heart of this episode is a reframe. We tend to swing to all-or-nothing: "I need to throw my phone in the desert," or nothing changes at all. Kate makes the case that what we actually need is stea...

Is your phone making you a little crazy? Kate opens this episode with a confession: even as a longtime Ayurveda teacher, she has to actively manage her relationship with her phone — because the device, and the apps on it, are engineered to keep you glued. If she's working at it, most of us are too. The heart of this episode is a reframe. We tend to swing to all-or-nothing: "I need to throw my phone in the desert," or nothing changes at all. Kate makes the case that what we actually need is stea...

Dr. Karen Kirkness has spent decades in the yoga world and the last ten-plus years in anatomy labs earning a master's in clinical anatomy and a PhD in medical sciences. In this episode she and Kate go straight into fascia — not as packing material, but as a signaling system — and into hyaluronan, the molecule that makes your tissue juicy. The surprise: more lubrication is not better. Fresh, long-chain hyaluronan tells your cells everything is regulated. But movement shears those chains into fra...

If summer heat is leaving you irritable, bloated, broken out, or just plain wiped out, this solo episode is for you. Kate O'Donnell offers a midsummer check-in through the lens of Ayurveda — explaining why this particular point in the season is such an important juncture, and what to do now to keep summer's heat from setting the stage for a fall burnout. Kate walks through the Ayurvedic concept of samprapti — the slow, predictable way a dosha moves out of balance — and helps you recognize the e...

If summer heat is leaving you irritable, bloated, broken out, or just plain wiped out, this solo episode is for you. Kate O'Donnell offers a midsummer check-in through the lens of Ayurveda — explaining why this particular point in the season is such an important juncture, and what to do now to keep summer's heat from setting the stage for a fall burnout. Kate walks through the Ayurvedic concept of samprapti — the slow, predictable way a dosha moves out of balance — and helps you recognize the e...