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David turned me onto learning about non-Western medicine because our system is primarily geared toward curing and not prevention. I’ve felt the difference in just modifying my food intake as much as possible away from the all-too-normal American diet that includes too much sugar, fat, and processed foods. So I’m excited today to share my chat with Dr. Shivani Gupta, an Ayurvedic medicine practitioner. We take a deep dive into how plant medicine and dietary modifications can benefit your body to battle inflammation, a popular buzzword these days. She explains what it really means and what it means to you when you eliminate it. We have a detailed discussion about the herb turmeric, a powerful natural anti-inflammatory that I have always used, what kind you should take, and what you should look for when evaluating the many options on the market. She also explains the benefits of another natural medicine, ashwagandha, that you may have heard many use to calm their brain and enhance focus. She covers a lot more important health topics on her Fusionary Health podcast, which you can catch on her website shivanigupta.com or on Apple Podcasts. She has also rolled her extensive knowledge into a supplement company called Fusionary Formulas, that includes many products to help fight inflammation, improve sleep, support women’s health, and much more. She has generously offered a 15% discount to all WASP listeners using the code WASP2025 on its website fusionaryformulas.com

Dr. Shivani Gupta

shivanigupta.com

visionaryformulas.com

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Instagram, Threads, and YouTube @dr.shivanigupta

Fusionary Health podcast

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
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We’ve had several WASP episodes about organ transplant recipients who have gone on to accomplish impressive feats, but here’s one from the other side. Dan Armstead had plans to be a kidney donor from the time he learned in a high school class that you actually only need one to function perfectly normally. He eventually got tested and officially listed on the donor registry and then it barely took 48 hours before he got linked to someone who was in end stage renal disease who desperately needed a kidney, and it turned out it was his kidney that perfectly matched. But I’m not going to spoil it for you how that match took place because it’s a remarkable, heartwarming story. What is important to tell you right now is how admirably selfless Dan’s act was, and how he wants to spread the word about how easy it is to get tested to be a potential donor, and how little ongoing impact it has had physically on him. Most importantly, there are thousands on the kidney transplant waitlist who sometimes remain there for years – and sadly many don’t make it at all. Dan, who runs a Synergy HomeCare provider, however, was able to save a life with his incredibly generous donation. I think this story will make your day a whole lot brighter, and who knows, maybe motivate some of you to someday save a life yourself.

Dan Armstead

Facebook Dan Armstead

Gabrielle's "G"'s foundation

Onekidonekidney.com

Bill Stahl
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When I volunteered at the Painter Boy aid station of the Leadville Silver Rush 50, there was a runner who came in who looked rather young and somewhat beaten down by the course and the heat and I thought might need some extra attention. I got to know a bit about 17-year-old Teagan Martin and his dad KC who was running with him in what was both of their first 50-milers, and that this was part of their buildup for the difficult Creede 100-miler in a couple of weeks. What really set Teagan apart is that he was doing all of this ultramarathoning as a fundraiser for people in Phillips County, a rural area of Eastern Colorado near the Nebraska border, where he lives in the county seat of Holyoke. I later got to see Teagan and KC triumphantly cross the finish line of the SR50 and learned more about what Teagan is doing with his foundation called Running 4 Reasons. When I sat down with Teagan, his mom and de facto crew chief, Gina, and KC, they described running both the Silver Rush and Creede, a small, high-altitude race with a 40-hour cutoff in the Colorado mountains, where they were last among the 24 finishers. It was a lot of fun chatting with true ultramarathon neophytes and the numerous lessons, I really mean numerous lessons, they learned along the way, some of which will likely have you chuckling, as well as the altruistic spirit they have to help their neighbors during hard times. Teagan is a really impressive young man who has put in the miles not just running but doing the extraordinarily hard work in pounding the pavement in his town to try to address their agricultural community’s staggering needs. I think you’ll be inspired by how much this project means to a young guy who is just getting started in his philanthropic life. If you would like to support the Martins’ very worthy effort, check out the Running 4 Reasons Facebook page or call him at 970-518-8241.

Teagan Martin

Instagram @martinteagan5

Bill Stahl
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Most people don’t imagine octogenarians throwing shotputs, discuses, and the hammer at track meets. I have officiated enough track meets that I have seen bunches of them doing so. One is Terry Ten Eyck of Golden CO, who back in 1963 set the state shotput mark of 59’-10¾”, breaking the previous record by four feet, while throwing for Wheat Ridge H.S. He went on to briefly compete in track and football at the University of Colorado and then served for 7½ years in the Navy, including in Vietnam. After about a 50-year hiatus, Terry returned to the track and field world, competing in masters meets and winning medals, most recently winning the world indoor championship in the shotput for the 80–84-year-old age group. His favorite event is the hammer which involves spinning around and throwing an 8.8-pound (4 kg.) ball attached to a four-foot wire. He also does the seldom-seen weight throw, which requires throwing an even heavier weight with a shorter wire, ideally suited to indoor competitions. Terry and I talk a lot about field events through the ages, share some great track stories and valuable wisdom, and hopefully you’ll be inspired hearing what it’s like to train and compete at the master’s level when most his age are in their rocking chairs.

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
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I really didn’t have to write much of an intro because I could simply copy the fascinating story in Dave Munson’s bio. It resonates with me because it reminds me about how David Clark found so much more happiness, not by making and spending huge amounts of money from his mattress and furniture businesses, but by serving others. I also love how Dave Munson manufactures products that are unique and insanely durable, which has become so rare these days. The story begins in 1999, in a dusty leather shop in Morelia, Mexico, young American Dave Munson slid a hand-drawn sketch across the counter and said, “No breakable parts. I want my grandkids to fight over it when I’m dead.” What a great slogan! That moment sparked the beginning of Saddleback Leather Co. That bag turned heads everywhere it went, and before long, Dave was selling bags on eBay, eventually bringing in family members to help meet demand. With grit, grace, and a business coach, he evolved into the CEO of one of the most recognized leather brands in the world. Today, Saddleback Leather is known for crafting over-engineered full-grain leather goods with a 100-year warranty — built to outlive the owner and become heirlooms.

Dave’s wife, Suzette, is his true partner in both business and life. Together they raise their two kids and sponsor many more in Rwanda. Suzette also leads Love 41, a sister company to Saddleback that donates 100% of its profits to helping vulnerable communities in Rwanda, Mexico, and Fort Worth, Texas. They also operate the Saddleback Leather Factory, where all of their products are made, and you’ll learn here why leather goods make so much more sense for the environment than those made from artificial fibers. Headquartered near Fort Worth — where the Munsons live in safari tents — the company is celebrating more than 20 years in business. For Dave, it was never about getting rich. It’s always been about using business as a force for good — to shift the trajectory of poverty-stricken families and create a global ripple effect of hope, one bag at a time. As Dave puts it: “We make the longest lasting, most over-engineered leather bags in the world — and we love people while we do it.” I think it’s a really cool mission statement.

Dave Munson

Saddlebackleather.com

Facebook Saddleback Leather Co.

Instagram @saddlebackbags

YouTube @saddlebackleather

Bill Stahl
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Brian Watson was in New York City in 2018 and noticed hundreds of thousands of people crowding the streets and asked what was going on. A friend told him it was the NYC Marathon, a foreign concept to a guy living in a 300-pound body. He calmly told those around him that he would run it the next year. While that might sound daffy to some, those that knew Brian knew to take him at his word. Before you knew it, Brian had dropped a third of his weight, had finished New York, and was moving up to ultramarathons. Beginning in 2021, he completed in successive years the Arkansas Traveler 100, the Leadville Trail 100, and the Javelina Jundred. Then he jumped up to 200s and up, and discovered he actually placed better as the race got longer, finishing the Moab 240 and the Arizona Monster 300 in the top half of the fields. When I met Brian in Leadville, he was only a few days removed from having completed Badwater 135, the so-called World’s Toughest Ultramarathon in Death Valley, in 45:04:16. Transforming into an ultramarathoner is only part of his story. He owns a chain of pizza restaurants in Texas and Oklahoma and is partner in a real estate company, among his business ventures. Through all of this, he has gained amazing insights, many of which he shares in this chat. You will learn a ton about ultramarathoning and some iconic races in this episode, but also about so many of the lessons one learns doing these races that strongly apply to anyone’s daily life, including overcoming the hurdles we all face, and about the mental battles that derail our success. Brian has a matter-of-fact, no-nonsense approach to racing, like pushing through mid-race stress fractures and weather issues, but that through good planning and determination when things go south, reaching the finish line becomes a foregone conclusion, as it is with anything else he puts his mind to.

Brian Watson

Strava Brian Watson

Bill Stahl
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In previous episodes, we’ve chatted with some young runners who have taken on ultramarathons like the Leadville Trail 100, something that was unheard of in the ancient days when I began in the sport. While it’s become less rare to see this, it’s now been taken up a notch. Meet the Chisholm family of Salem, NH. Brothers Ben, Brody, Elliott, and Asher all play hockey, with the three eldest at one time playing on the same line together on their high school team. Led by their parents, the boys started off climbing in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, eventually summitting all of its 48 4000-foot peaks, which is no joke in difficulty. This evolved to the family next through-hiking the entire Appalachian Trail, then the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail, each of which are thousands of miles long and take months to complete, and definitely at times challenged the limits of family togetherness. While later hiking the Arizona Trail, they learned about this thing called ultramarathoning and on a whim entered the Elden Crest 38-miler, in which second-oldest son Brody led the family to the finish line in fifth-place overall. So the next logical step of course was to return to Arizona to run the 2024 Cocodona 250. Of course. Since races like this include large swaths of hiking, the family leaned heavily on their strong through-hiking skills, a theory that bore fruit. Brody, 17 at the time, boldly had his sights on setting a course record despite having had no prior ultra experience longer than 38 miles, but has 4:30 mile speed on the track, so he could add that running ability to the mix. He learned a lot of ultramarathoning lessons, especially regarding fueling, but still astoundingly finished 12th in 75:42:42, a pace of 18:11 per mile for more than 250 miles. Meanwhile, 18-year-old brother Ben finished 34th in 87:01:50 despite battling lack of sleep and hallucinations, and mom Jennie finished as well in 103:58:03 while overcoming tibial stress fractures. Round two for the family was this year as 16-year-old Elliott attempted to usurp Brody’s record as the youngest-ever Cocodona finisher, but a sickness felled his chance, and Brody also DNF’d. However, Jennie chopped more than 14 hours off of her previous time and placed as the 7th female finisher. So Elliott took on a new challenge the day before we recorded this and ran the Back Cove Backyard Ultra in Portland, ME, where he impressively ran 121 miles, running another 4.16-mile loop at the start of every hour for 29 hours, the third-most in the last-man-standing event. With Jennie and the three oldest boys of this super nice family all crammed onto a couch together for this really fun chat, we cover how they logistically pull all of this off with schoolwork and teen life in general, as well as dealing with those who have this idea that teenage boys shouldn’t take on epic challenges like they have. I think anyone who has doubts will walk away with other ideas after listening to them.

The family

Instagram @thefieldtrip_5

Jennie Chisholm

Instagram @_jenniechisholm

Ben Chisholm

Instagram @benchisholm_7

Brody Chisholm

Instagram @brody.chisholm

Elliott Chisholm

Instagram @elliott.chisholm

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
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All was good in the life of Kijuan Amey of Durham, NC. He had an exciting job as an Air Force in-flight refueling specialist, advancing to the rank of Staff Sergeant. He was finishing his bachelor’s degree with a 3.87 GPA, played semipro football, had a girlfriend, played the drums, had started a company doing website design and social media marketing for businesses, owned a sweet 2014 Dodge Charger with a Hemi V8, and was active in his church. All at the age of 25. He also enjoyed relaxing takes drives on his Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle. On the fateful day on May 5, 2017, a Honda Accord, in broad daylight, inexplicably pulled out in front of Kijuan and his motorcycle, striking and almost killing him. The long list of injuries included shattering bones in his lower right leg, left hip and femur, and lower vertebrae, a fractured skull, a broken jaw, and a torn lower eyelid that caused his eye to pop out. Kijuan was in a coma for a month, and when he awoke in the hospital, he had no idea that he’d even been in an accident, only that he couldn’t see, and with his jaw wired shut, couldn’t ask anyone, either. He thought he was in some sort of a nightmare, not reality. Can you imagine trying to process that in your mind? Kijuan faced arduous months of physical and mental rehab, including dealing with the permanent loss of his sight. He’ll probably never know why the driver pulled out like that. However, Kijuan is too young and ambitious to be held down, so what you are going to hear in this episode is Kijaun’s inspiring battle back and determination to make a difference. His motto is that he may have lost his sight, but not his vision. He is a motivating force and is empowering others to success. He has been called the “Excuse Destroyer,” because he hasn’t let this rough incident hold him back and wants to make sure others don’t hold themselves back, either. He’s out there motivational speaking, and you can book him at ameymotivation.com, where you can also hear him playing the drums to what I think are awesomely soulful tunes. After listening to this incredible story, I highly recommend reading his soon-to-be-bestseller, “Don’t Focus on Why Me: From Motorcycle Accident to Miracle,” which is a quick, yet uplifting read that you can find both on his website and on Amazon.

Kijuan Amey

ameymotivation.com

kijuan@ameymotivation.com

Facebook Amey Motivation

Instagram @kijuanamey

LinkedIn Kijuan Amey

YouTube @Story_OfSuccess

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
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