Feeding the Whole Family and Cooking as a Meditation Practice with Cynthia Lair
Photo: Courtesy of Cynthia Lair
Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Show Notes
Cynthia Lair has written three cookbooks, including “Feeding the Whole Family,” and her latest, “Sourdough on the Rise.” She’s given a TEDx talk on “How to Cut an Onion,” and was the host of the YouTube series “Cookus Interruptus.” Her passion for food and nutrition played out on faculty at Bastyr University from 1994 to 2016 where she created and directed Bastyr’s Bachelor of Science in Nutrition & Culinary Arts degree program. She taught whole foods cooking at the Seattle area’s famous PCC Markets for nearly thirty years, and she’s presented at Dr. Andrew Weill’s annual Health & Nutrition Conference. Her first career was as an actress in New York, theater has always been a part of her life, and more recently she has returned to it full steam performing and teaching improv theater.
It’s an absolute honor to have Cynthia on the show. She was one of my favorite professors as a student at Bastyr University many moons ago because of her amazing depth of food and culinary knowledge combined with her playful teaching style.
In this conversation we begin by understanding how she got into teaching people how to cook and writing her amazing book Feeding the Whole Family. We delve into the messiness of feeding picky eaters and the challenges of getting everyone gathered and happy around the table. We talk about her time at Bastyr University teaching budding doctors the importance of learning to cook. Then we take things deeper in my favorite part, Cynthia’s philosophy of approaching food and cooking as an act of meditation. Then we round it out by sharing the process of creating Cookus Interruptus, a YouTube cooking show she created with some fellow actors that she describes as “Michael Pollan meets Everyone Loves Raymond. Lastly, of course Cynthia shares how she thinks about nature and her tips for microdosing it regularly.
If you’re a parent trying to feed your family and create healthy behaviors around food, or if you are in desperate need for some common sense approaches to eating well, or if you’re looking for ways to get the benefits of meditation without sitting on a cushion, I hope this episode will help replenish your stoke for the kitchen.
Episode Links
Feeding the Whole Family: Cooking with Whole Foods: More than 200 Recipes for Feeding Babies, Young Children, and Their Parents
Sourdough on the Rise: How to Confidently Make Whole Grain Sourdough Breads at Home
How to Cut an Onion Ted Talk by Cynthia Lair
@dottiesourdough on Instagram
Actively Noticing Nature (Not Just Time in Nature) Helps Promote Nature Connectedness by Miles Richardson et al.
Dr. Weil Nutrition & Health Conference
Cooked by Michael Pollan
Connect with Nature Junkie
@NatureJunkieRadio on Instagram
Email: hello@naturejunkielife.com (submit a microdose of nature by emailing a 30-60 second voice memo with your name, how you microdose nature and how it makes you feel so we can share it with the community)
Show Production Credits
Podcast cover art by Ahab Nimry (@ahabnimry, https://bigdaytheagency.com/)
Outro music by Tyler Johnson
Enjoy the Ride,
Jeff
