Acclaimed Guests
Trupti Gokani
Neurologist, Ayurvedic Expert & Master Practitioner of NLP
Trupti Gokani, MD is an award-winning, board-certified neurologist, health & mindset coach, ayurvedic expert, and Master Practitioner of NLP, who has dedicated her life to developing a unique blend of ancient wisdom with modern approaches. By melding these approaches, she’s become a highly sought-after speaker and coach, sharing holistic wellness strategies with larger-than-life media personalities like Dr. Oz, global pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer, and coaching clients from all over the world. Dr. Gokani is best known for her revolutionary integrative approach to treating migraines, one of the most disabling neurological conditions, through The Zira Mind & Body Center which she founded in 2006. As a Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, she now uses this additional approach to help clients understand their unconscious mind programs which keeps them in repetitive patterns of disharmony of thoughts, words, and action, leading to misalignment with the true self and optimal health.
Stephanie Coontz
Historian, Advisor & Author
Stephanie Coontz earned a B.A. from the American History Honors Program at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was a member of the campus political party SLATE and participated in the civil rights movement and the Free Speech Movement. Attending the University of Washington on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, she earned a Master of Arts in European History Abandoning further graduate work, she joined the staff of the National Peace Action Coalition, later becoming a National Coordinator; they focused on building peaceful, legal demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Before returning to full-time teaching, Coontz also had a leadership role in the Young Socialist Alliance, a Trotskyist youth group of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). By the late 1970s, however, Coontz had parted company with the SWP.
Olga Korbut
Olympic Gold-Winning Gymnast
Olga Korbut, is an Olympic gold-winning gymnast who competed for the Soviet Union in the 1972 games. She sparked a new enthusiasm for female gymnasts and transitioned the sport into something more acrobatic. Sports Illustrated named her one of the 40 most influential athletes of the last 40 years in 1994 alongside mostly male legends, including Muhammad Ali and Larry Bird. She was the first gymnast ever inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
Christiane Northrup, M.D.
Board-Certified OB/GYN
Christiane Northrup, M.D., is board-certified OB/GYN and a visionary pioneer in the field of women’s health and wellness, with more than 30 years of experience teaching women how to thrive at every stage of life. Her New York Times bestselling books include Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom, The Wisdom of Menopause and Goddesses Never Age. She was named one of Reader’s Digest’s “100 Most Trusted People in America” in 2013.
Kevin Weeks
Close Associate
Winter Hill Gang Boss
Kevin Weeks is a former mobster and previously close associate of infamous Winter Hill Gang boss James J. Bulger. Weeks became a cooperating witness after his 1999 arrest, giving testimony that helped catch more criminals. Promotion for his book Where’s Whitey?, written with Phyllis Karas, began the same day as the FBI stepped up efforts to catch Bulger, who was captured two days later.
Garland Waller
Film Producer and Professor
Boston University
Garland Waller is an award-winning documentarian and educator currently serving as an Associate Professor at Boston University’s Dept. of Television and Film. Her work has been recognized by the International Film Festival of New York, American Women in Radio and Television, and New England Emmys. She co-produced the acclaimed documentary No Way Out But One, which won the Award for Film and Media Excellence from the Institute of Violence, Trauma and Abuse.
Irving Kirsch
Associate Director of Placebo Studies
Harvard Medical School
Irving Kirsch is the Associate Director of the Program in Placebo Studies at Harvard Medical School and a Professor Emeritus at the University of Hull and the University of Connecticut. He has authored 10 books and over 200 scientific articles on placebo effects, antidepressants, hypnosis, and suggestion. His research on antidepressants influenced UK depression treatment guidelines. His book, The Emperor’s New Drugs, was shortlisted for the Mind Book of the Year award.
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
Author & Professor of Education
Harvard University
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, author and MacArthur prize-winning sociologist, is the Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education at Harvard University. Since 1972, she has studied families, communities, schools, and the links between human development and social change. Her book Balm in Gilead won a Christopher Award for “literary merit and humanitarian achievement.” She also holds twenty-eight honorary degrees and is the first African American woman at Harvard to have an endowed professorship named in her honor.
Dan Ariely
Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics
Duke University
Dan Ariely Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, is dedicated to finding out why we so often fail to act in our own best interest and what forces influence our behavior. For example, why do we promise to skip the chocolate cake and then give in when the dessert tray arrives? His sometimes unusual but always amusing experiments demonstrate profound ideas that fly in the face of common wisdom.
Ernie Bodai, M.D.
Chief of Surgery
Kaiser Permanente, Sacramento
Ernie Bodai, M.D. Born in Budapest in 1951, escaped to the U.S. with his family during the Hungarian Revolution and somehow made his way to Chief of Surgery at Kaiser Permanente, Sacramento. He now directs their nationally-recognized Breast Health Center. Frustrated by slow research funding, Dr. Bodai single-handedly led a successful campaign to create the Breast Cancer Research Stamp, raising nearly $73 million. He’s now working on a global stamp to further cancer research.
