REV On Air - Sustainable Stories by Rêve En Vert

Today, Cora talks to the incredible YouTube phenomenon Gaz Oakley about his journey into homesteading. Gaz left his life in London where he started his career in vegan cooking to live a simpler life in the countryside of Wales. His inadvertent journey to self sufficiency has captivated and inspired millions of people across the world.

About Gaz:
 
Gaz Oakley is classically trained chef originating from Cardiff, Wales. Gaz developed a passion for cooking at an early age, influenced by his father’s culinary skills. By the age of 15, he was already working in professional kitchens, gaining valuable experience and honing his craft. After many years working in top restaurants & a sabbatical from the industry and a few health issues, he made a big change to adopt a plant based lifestyle. With this new lifestyle, his passion for cooking exploded again. In 2016, Gaz launched a YouTube channel sharing his stories through food. Since then he’s reached over 1.6 million subscribers, made a series in Wales, Mexico and Jamaica and has also written three best selling cookbooks. 
During the covid lockdowns, Oakley transitioned from living in London to a homestead in the Welsh countryside which has had a profound effect on his whole philosophy & outlook on food & life in general. Motivated by his desire to connect more deeply with the food he prepares and to promote self-sufficiency, now his practicing homesteading with his partner Tiegan Mae and new daughter. In the countryside, Gaz has dedicated himself to growing his own food, embracing the principles of organic farming and permaculture, even adopting some rescued chickens all with the goal of encouraging his audience to become a little more self sufficient and reap the many benefits of growing your own. 
The hands-on approach to growing food has allowed Gaz to develop even more innovative and seasonal recipes, reflecting the bounty of his garden. He often shares the improvements he notices in his all round physical & mental health thanks to the wonders of being at one with nature.

Merci To This Episode’s Sponsor Mill!
 
Mill is your kitchen’s new best friend. A simple, odor-free food recycler that  turns leftovers and scraps into nutrient-rich grounds with no effort. Mill prevents food waste without smells, flies, or chores. It works while you sleep and you can keep filling it for weeks.
You can use the grounds in your garden, add them to your curbside compost, or let Mill pick them up and deliver them to a small farm for you. Try it risk-free and get $75 off at mill.com/rev.
Learn More About Mill

Cora Hilts travelled to Miami to interview the incredible Dan Buettner in front of a live audience at the 1 Hotel South Beach. Cora and Dan discussed his work with Blue Zones, the places on earth where people are living healthy and happy lives up to 100 and beyond. We are thrilled to be able to share this intimate conversation and all of Dan’s tips for living a long life – the ease of which many people are doing so may surprise you!

About Dan Buettner and Blue Zones Living
 
Dan Buettner is an internationally recognized researcher, explorer, Netflix Host & Co-producer of the 3x Emmy Award winning: Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones and New York Times best-selling author. He founded Blue Zones®, a company that puts the world’s best practices in longevity and well-being to work in people’s lives. Buettner’s November 2005 National Geographic article on longevity, “The Secrets of Living Longer,” was the cover story of one of the magazine’s top-selling issues in history.

Thanks To Mill For Sponsoring This Episode!
 
Mill is your kitchen’s new best friend. A simple, odor-free food recycler that  turns leftovers and scraps into nutrient-rich grounds with no effort. Mill prevents food waste without smells, flies, or chores. It works while you sleep and you can keep filling it for weeks.
You can use the grounds in your garden, add them to your curbside compost, or let Mill pick them up and deliver them to a small farm for you. Try it risk-free and get $75 off at mill.com/rev.
Learn More About Mill

Today, Cora has her most personal conversation to date. At her home in Maine, she speaks to her childhood friend Graham Platner about his unique campaign for U.S. Senate. Running as a progressive democrat, Graham hopes to change the American system to support working class families and fight the oligarchy.

"My hope, at its core, is that working people in this country begin to realize that many of the divisive issues that we all find ourselves on opposite sides of are merely there to keep us all divided. And that we can build a real sense of true solidarity with each other over the fact that we all know that the system is not built for us, it is not representing us, and the more of that solidarity that we can build, the more organizing capacity that we can build on the ground amongst working people, the more power that we can take back from the political structure that have left us so unrepresented for so long."
– Graham Platner

Graham and Cora discuss everything from how his military service has influenced his thoughts on foreign policy to the importance of family farms. This is an intimate conversation had in her living room, with Graham sharing his lived experiences that have shaped him into the man who is becoming the political movement of Graham for Maine.

About Graham:
 
Graham Platner is a Marine and U.S. Army veteran, oyster farmer, and chair of the Sullivan Planning Board, and candidate running for U.S. Senate in Maine, to defeat Susan Collins and win back the seat for working Mainers. Whether it was enlisting in the US Marine Corps, or coming back home to Maine to work in his community, or running for Senate, at the core of every decision Graham has made has been how he can best serve the people of Maine.

After graduating high school in 2003, during the height of the Iraq War, Graham snuck his birth certificate out of his father’s office to enlist in the United States Marine Corps. After completing his infantry training, Graham was assigned to Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion 8th Marines and deployed to Al-Anbar Province, Iraq in January of 2005 where the battalion served primarily in the area east of Fallujah. In 2006, he was deployed to Ramadi, Iraq and served as machinegun section leader at the Government Center. He was deployed again in 2007.

After his third deployment, Graham enrolled at The George Washington University using the GI Bill. Graham quickly realized that his time serving in uniform was not over. So in 2009, he joined the Maryland Army National Guard. He was deployed to Afghanistan the following year where he served as a rifle team leader. 

He returned from Afghanistan and went back to school at The George Washington University in 2011. Like many veterans, Graham struggled with undiagnosed PTSD and physical challenges that come from heavy infantry combat. Graham eventually withdrew from George Washington University and moved back home to Maine where he used the resources from the Department of Veterans Affairs to get the help he needed.

After four tours overseas, Graham was deeply disillusioned with America’s failed foreign policy and endless wars and decided to focus on serving his local community in Maine.

In 2018, Graham started working on his friend’s small oyster farm in his hometown of Sullivan. He quickly felt deeply connected with the sea and the community. He eventually took over the oyster farm and built it into a business that produces high quality oysters. Graham also began a diving and mooring service to help out around the bay, and serves the town of Sullivan as Harbormaster and Planning Board Chair. 

He met Amy Gertner in 2023, fell in love, and got married soon after. They now reside in Sullivan—three doors down from where Graham grew up—with their two dogs Gryffin and Zevon and their cat Neptune.

Today I am so excited to be speaking to a woman who feels as passionately about the power of food as I do. Danielle Duboise is the co-founder of Sakara Life, a company providing the highest quality, whole food nutrition and supplements for body, skin and mind. We talk about building a body you can feel good in, and how as someone in the wellness space, she navigates its complexities. Full disclaimer, she and I both agree that the answers to a lot of health issues may be more simple than we are sometimes led to believe! 
But before I tell you a bit more about Danielle, but first I just want to say a quick merci to our sponsor today - Ergopouch. 
ErgoPouch makes premium swaddles, sleep sacks, sleep suits and pajamas of certified organic cotton and are skin friendly as reviewed by the Eczema Association of Australia. 
Our head of marketing, Taylor, recently had her second daughter and swears by ergopouch for all of her baby’s sleep wear. As we are talking so much about conscious parenting with Danielle today, it’s great to be working with a brand that cares so much about children’s exposure to harmful chemicals and makes sure all their products are natural, healthy and safe for sleeping.
Visit ergopouch, spelt out with .com, to learn more!
And as we are speaking all about food with Danielle today, I want to take this opportunity to talk a little about an issue that I feel personally very strongly about which is food waste. The United States discards more food than any other country in the world: nearly 120 billion pounds every year. That’s estimated to be almost 40 percent of the entire US food supply, and equates to 325 pounds of waste per person. That’s like every person in America throwing 975 apples right into the garbage — or rather right into landfills, as most discarded food ends up there. In fact, food is the single largest component taking up space inside US landfills, making up 22 percent of municipal solid waste. So we clearly need a solution, and I am thrilled to have one for you in the form of Mill, an at home food recycler that I am truly thrilled to be working with and that I am using at my own house now. 
Mill is your kitchen’s new best friend. A simple, odor-free food recycler that turns leftovers and scraps into nutrient-rich grounds with no effort. Mill prevents food waste without smells, flies, or chores. It works while you sleep and you can keep filling it for weeks.
You can use the grounds in your garden, add them to your curbside compost, or let Mill pick them up and deliver them to a small farm for you - which I completely love for my city friends. I can attest to using them in our organic vegetable garden here in Maine and being thrilled with the results. 
Give it a try for yourself -- it's risk-free and you can get $75 off at mill.com/rev.
So now just a little more about Danielle and the story of her starting Sakara.
Bootstrapped from just $700, Danielle and co-founder Whitney Tingle raised at a dinner party, Sakara Life is a whole-body wellness company on a mission to nourish your body's innate power. They put clients in the driver’s seat of their own health with their proprietary plant-based nutrition program, functional snacks and supplements.
With a Masters of Science in Functional Medicine and Human Nutrition from University of Western States, Danielle combines her expertise in science-backed nutrition with her passion for holistic wellness to inspire others to nourish their bodies and live their most vibrant lives. 
Today we speak about the importance of reframing our thoughts around food - how we can embrace food instead of fear it. We also speak about her personal experiences with eating, but also how she is navigating the world of pregnancy, post partum and motherhood with both consciousness and grace when it comes to her family’s health.

Cora Hilts heads to Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, California. She talks with founder Mike Freed about his journey. And How he built one of the most stunning and most sustainable hotels in the world.

About Post Ranch Inn
 
Big Sur is one of the world’s most beautiful places. Among its treasures is Post Ranch Inn, known as one of the most iconic hotels globally. Even though sustainability guided its design, the hotel never sacrificed aesthetics or quality. Everything blends together in a harmonious manner. The owner, Mike Freed, says a love of the land and the people of Big Sur informed every decision he made in creating the hotel.
This hotel is beautiful inside and out. It started with the local community’s involvement. A native architect focused on natural building methods helped shape it. Now, the hotel uses various technologies to improve efficiency and keep spaces healthy. For the planet and their guests!

What Makes Post Ranch Inn So Sustainable
 
In 2009, they installed a 945-panel solar system. The EPA estimates this installation prevents about 600,000 pounds of carbon emissions annually. This represents just one way Post Ranch actively conserves energy and champions clean power.
The guest rooms and tree houses are to immerse people in nature rather than position them as mere observers. Architects employed bio-structure principles and chose natural materials like glass, wood, and stone. They also integrated passive solar heating throughout the buildings.
Post Ranch Inn protects this pristine landscape and its wildlife by designating 90 of its 100 acres as a conservation area. Zero-impact principles and land preservation drive every decision they make.
Sierra Mar, the Post Ranch Inn restaurant champions local farmers and strengthens the regional economy. The restaurant features all-natural, free-range beef and poultry while showcasing fresh, seasonal organic vegetables and fruit that grow on-site or come from nearby farms.

Thanks To Mill, For Sponsoring This Episode
 
Mill is your kitchen’s new best friend. A simple, odor-free food recycler that  turns leftovers and scraps into nutrient-rich grounds with no effort. Mill prevents food waste without smells, flies, or chores. It works while you sleep and you can keep filling it for weeks.
You can use the grounds in your garden, add them to your curbside compost, or let Mill pick them up and deliver them to a small farm for you.
Try it risk-free and get $75 off at mill.com/rev.

Learn More About Mill