 Welcome to Ancestral Health Today, evolutionary insights into modern health. This episode of Ancestral Health Today is brought to you by the beekeeper's granddaughter, with tallow that is a beautiful all-natural skincare alternative using only the highest quality ingredients. The beef tallow comes from grass-finished cattle and is wet-rendered to remove all odors and impurities. Essentia oils are then added for their medicinal properties to create thoughtful, bioavailable, and healthy handmade skincare. Organic, cold-pressed jojoba oil and romanuca honey are added and whipped to create a silky, luxurious texture. The products range from anti-aging, antioxidant to anti-inflammatory and much more, and they smell absolutely delicious. The balms can be used on all parts of the body, including the hair to moisturize and repair. Please go to thebeekeepersgranddaughter.com and use the discount code A-H-T-15 at checkout to receive 15% off of your first order. And don't forget your Christmas presents. Hi everybody and welcome to the Ancestral Health Today podcast. Today with us we have Angie Alt. Angie, welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much. Yes, absolutely. Thank you for being here. I love to let the guests do most of their introductions because you're the person who knows yourself best. So if you could please tell our audience a little bit about yourself and the history on how you got into Ancestral Health and the paleo and autoimmune world way back. Yeah. So I guess, you know, my journey started, I think we're getting close to 12 years ago now. I have three autoimmune diseases, celiac disease endometriosis and lichen sclerosis. And I went through a period in my late 20s and early 30s where I kind of got rapidly much more ill while I was living in West Africa. I got evacuated multiple times for health crises. And kind of after more than a decade of being sick with undiagnosed celiac disease, I finally got a diagnosis in 2012. And shortly after that, I found and adopted the autoimmune protocol or AIP, a lot of your listeners probably know about it. And it was brand new at the time, but I thought that I would give it a try to see if it could help me heal. And it worked very well, much, much better than I expected it to. Within six weeks, my gluten antibodies had dropped by more than half. By six months, it was like having a new body. And by one year, I decided to kind of change everything about my life to concentrate on helping other people learn about, you know, dietary and lifestyle changes that they could make to help better manage their autoimmune diseases. So from there, I became a certified health coach and a nutritional therapist. I eventually partnered with Mickey Trescott and we ran autoimmune wellness for a lot of years together. I also developed health coaching programs that were eventually used in partnership with doctors and microbiome specialists to do research that helped show the efficacy of the autoimmune protocol. And it helped train other practitioners from kind of across the health and wellness spectrum about how to use the protocol. And then, yeah, about November of last year, I decided to step back from my role in the community so that I could kind of focus on some new aspects of health and wellness. That's wonderful. And I'm one of the AAP certified practitioners. Yes, that was one of our students, an amazing student at that. Always great to get to talk to you because that's really important work. And you spent a lot of time in that doing that work and refining the program and reaching out to people to make sure that a lot of people were aware and included and being able to bring it to the community. Yeah. So can you tell me a little bit more about your time in that world and also how looking back you see that, you know, there was a it was a reflection in some ways and in other ways, if it was not a reflection of community, what things you think you did great and what things you wish could have been better in terms of community work? Yeah, yeah. By the way, I really appreciate this question. I think it's a really good question. It's good to reflect on this after more than a decade of that work. So I think there was or there is like a very great need among those with autoimmune disease to find support and approaches outside of our conventional healthcare system because our system is, as you know, designed to address acute health issues. You know, if you've got a broken arm or a heart attack, our system will definitely help you and help you well. But when we have chronic illness or chronic disease, our system is just not very well suited. And a lot of people with autoimmune disease are just kind of drowning trying to get help in that system. So I think that what we built reflected a real community in that we addressed that need. Nikita Valario is the woman who coined the term community care. And she says that part of her definition for community care is that it involves a commitment to reduce harm simply by being together. And I think that we created a space where folks could find support and they could find new approaches. They could learn additional steps that they could kind of take on their own to help manage their autoimmune diseases. I think it kind of offered some hope. So I think we were effective in that, in reducing harm just by being together, by creating a place, even if it was virtual where people could kind of get that kind of help. On the other side though, I think especially early on, I was so focused on just getting the information out there for individuals to act on that I didn't consider the barriers that exist for so many of us to do any of those actions on our own. And I think after I started running my group programs and just getting to observe so many people at once trying to make those changes, I saw so clearly that there was greater success inside of a community. And that helped me see that we needed to leverage the community to address the systemic issues that were making everyone unwell. Again, to Nikita Velario's definition of kind of true community reduces harm, I don't think we were leveraging the community to reduce harm yet in that, in that, to reduce the systemic harms, if that makes sense. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. What do you think our ancestors were like from a community perspective? Because there's a lot of emphasis on the food aspect of ancestral health and also the autoimmune and paleo communities. There's a lot of focus on food and community is not a topic that is at the forefront of the discussions. So what do you think the communities were like in ancestral health? What information do we have? And what do you think we can bring to the modern world from that time that can have a greater impact on health outcomes? When I think about ancestral health personally, I really think about Native American peoples because my own heritage is reflected in that. My grandfather was the last member of our family to be a recognized tribal member. So that's really like, you know, that really is what comes to my mind. And recently, I've been reading the book, Braiding Sweetgrass, it's by Robin Wall Kimmerer. It's my favorite book. Oh my gosh. We can do a whole other podcast episode just about this book as well. But, you know, Ms. Kimmerer is a botanist and she's indigenous and something that she writes about in the book that is like blowing my mind right now in terms of approach to community is her experience trying to learn her tribe's language. And the reason she's trying to do that is to prevent the language from dying. But she writes a chapter in the book where she describes how indigenous languages pretty much universally have a grammar of animacy, meaning that the way they speak refers to things that we don't see as alive in English as alive as beings. And, you know, for instance, like an apple, when you speak about an apple in her native language and her tribal language, you would say apple that being is you would recognize it as a living thing. And I think that teaches us a lot about how our ancestors approached community. They spoke over and over about their fellow beings, and it changed how they treated the planet and our non habit non human inhabitants of the planet. I think that if we I'm not suggesting that we're all going to like, you know, stop speaking English and, and, you know, speak other languages that use this grammar of animacy, but I think if we thought about community in that way, it would change so much that would be better for our health. You know, if we saw our, you know, rivers as alive and as beings that have to be treated in a certain way, if we saw our soil as alive and needing to be treated in a certain way that those would have direct impacts on us in terms of food and water health. So that's one thing that I think is really interesting about how our ancestors saw community. I also think that we don't have to go really far back into ancestry. We can see examples of how and our ancestors approached community by looking at the blue zone studies that are that are recent and now. And I think with the exception of maybe the blue zone community in Loma Linda, California, most of those blue zones are from cultures that have ancient roots and all of them make social connection a priority. Where in our lives, we make work a priority. We say a lot in our modern culture that we prioritize family in our in our social connections, but we don't we prioritize work above everything. And I think that's really important. Having that safety net and social connection is really a key to health and longevity. Yeah, that's really important. So how do you do you think there was a pivotal time that sort of thrusted you into being much more certain center into the community aspect of health and well being in general? I know that you said that, you know, you you observed a lot. And you realize that there were social determinants of health and that there was so much more impact in community. But I think it was also surprising to a lot of the people who follow you that you sort of left the autoimmune paleo work that you were doing and that you have had a really dramatic shift, if you will. So was there a catalyst for that to happen? You know, I think for me, the shift personally, like kind of internally started to happen around 2018. It was kind of a slow build to that point. And then from 2018 until I actually made the announcement to make the shift last fall, you know, that was like a four year period. So I really wrestled with that decision for a long time and really, really thought carefully about it. I don't know if there was one particular thing that occurred at that point when I started to kind of make that internal shift, but it does go back to my experience with like a very high volume group health coaching program. I mean, over the course of my program, about 2500 people went through the process. So I had this like very unique opportunity to observe what thousands of people are doing in the middle of their health journeys. And especially because I was focused on people with autoimmune disease, I saw that most of them were in a really desperate place and they were doing everything they could. They were trying so hard to balance their lives and all these multiple overlapping responsibilities with their deteriorating health. And they were so overwhelmed trying to navigate our systems, which are really inadequate for support. And I just realized that no amount of individual action was going to be enough to deal with the systemic failures and that we needed stronger community action if we really wanted to heal. That really started it for me and I think by 2020 in the midst of the pandemic and all the racial justice uprisings, it really crystallized. And I knew we really needed to shift our conversation. What do you think that people who are embedded in this community and who really, really plays a lot of emphasis on health and who do a lot to maintain their health, to improve their health, to get out of illness situations and a lot of them can do better in order to have the impact that is not just individual. If you were to create a system for allowing people to be able to transform the health of the community, where would you start? Where would you go? I think that I would start by encouraging people to question what they believe about health and wellness and how it's achieved. I think it's difficult to take a community-based approach if you're unwilling to examine and possibly relearn what we've been taught in a really hyper individualized society about how health and wellness is achieved. I think that's probably the first step. I think from there, the next step is to then start having the conversation, adding your voice, speaking up about what you see in terms of broken systems, recognizing if you have any privilege or any platform, whatever size. If you have 100 followers on Facebook, that's a platform to speak up and use that to highlight some of the inequities that exist. We can't move on to fixing the problems unless we acknowledge the problems. So it's having that conversation. I feel like people overcomplicate the steps that need to be taken to start moving towards a community-based approach. We have to start with a conversation that will allow us to take collective action towards what is going to be major social change. There is a lot of resistance to that. There is a lot of hyper individualism. There is a lot of a lot of saying that if you are not improving your health is because you're not doing the right things. You're not disciplined enough. You're not just paying attention. You're brainwashed by the food industry. There's a lot of blaming that goes around in terms of why things are not working for society at large. If somebody comes at it with an open mind and looks at those issues, then yes, you can see a lot of it. But there are a lot of people who are stuck in that belief. Like you say, question what you have come to believe. That happens at all levels. But how do you integrate that bubble, that type of mindset that it's very difficult to get out of and start showing people that doing something like that is beneficial for the entire population? How do we get people to move past those beliefs and into that type of action? So first of all, you're right. I really want to validate that you're right, but it's really hard. It is really, really hard. It's especially hard to be on the leading edge of trying to make that change. If you're in a bubble, if you're in a space where that's not really well accepted and you're trying to be the first to speak up and lead that conversation, it's really difficult. There will be a lot of pushback. I definitely don't want to give the impression to the ancestral health community that this will be super easy and everybody will welcome the conversation. It won't be that way initially. But I think it could help to start by sharing examples of when the individual action is not going to be enough. If people have concrete ideas in their mind about these scenarios that arise where individual action isn't going to work, I think that can help them start to see the truth of this and shift their mindset. For instance, an example that I saw recently of the hyperindividualism personal responsibility message is the Washington Post ran a headline in their climate solutions section that read, your body can build up tolerance to heat. Here's how. That's really wild and it's implying personal responsibility for surviving climate change. Rather than recognizing we need to overhaul the way we're doing things on the planet, we keep asking individuals to become more resilient so that a few can continue to benefit financially instead of collectively kind of demanding that we change so that it will benefit all of us. Another example would be that in the U.S. our groundwater is being rapidly depleted and that's happening all over the United States but it's especially acute in the Southwest. We all know in the ancestral health community that water is absolutely the basis of life for all of us. There's nothing more fundamental to our health and wellness than having access to clean drinking water. But if our community keeps focusing on individual actions that are kind of like higher up the hierarchy of needs pyramid, I would think about things like an example might be we're spending energy teaching people how to hack their macros to maximize their energy. I'm not saying that that's not a worthwhile thing to do at some point but we're preventing pouring our collective action into something as basic and critical as fresh water for all people. We can't take enough individual action to deal with the heat emergencies. We can't take enough individual action to deal with depleted groundwater sources. We need to do that collectively. Yeah, absolutely. I agree. I grew up in a society that was very, very much community oriented and helping each other and I sometimes sound like a broken record when I go over that because there was so much opportunity for everyone to have access to so many things just not at the perhaps the level that we're accustomed to but there was a lot of happiness and there was a lot of lack of illnesses and when somebody was ill the community would rally and help that person or that family out to make sure that they were taken care of. I see people breaking down because they are on their own. Families live far apart and even if you are within a physical community your neighbors are not necessarily a tiny community. You see them eventually and you say hi when you go by but there's no that closeness. So in the direction that we're going how do we look back and start to integrate those ancestral practices in a meaningful way? What do people do first? Where do they go next? If someone is interested and looks at it and says, yeah, you know what? I really need to help my community and I really need to make this you know a community effort not just what I'm doing for myself. What are the practical steps for them to get started and go there? I think you know so you know this is one thing that I'm trying to kind of advocate with you know simple conversations about different subjects in the new space where I'm kind of writing about community care and I think that it's about slowing ourselves down, being okay with small steps and simplifying as much as possible. So for instance in your neighborhood that might look like you know going and knocking on the door of one neighbor and introducing yourself and sharing a little bit about yourself or maybe you're out walking your dog and you see another neighbor walking their dog saying hi making sure they know your name making sure that you know their name. It might start as simple as that and again to the to the point that I think people over complicate it's start we have to speak to each other it starts with just speaking to each other and maybe from there it turns into sharing a meal I mean back to the food emphasis in the ancestral health community. If we if we believe food is medicine in this space I think we need to expand that belief to understanding how much community is medicine and then if you if you combine those two things sharing a meal I think that is actually very powerful in terms of health and wellness and and building that connection in real life you know so small steps say hi make sure your neighbors know you make sure you know them maybe you know extend that to a backyard barbecue invite you know share some food together those are the real steps you have to have connection before you can then mount into collective power. So I think it starts really small and simple. How about the people who are already there they're you know they're friendly they're very much connected in their neighborhoods and their maybe work environment how do they grow that community aspect. Yeah I think from there once you have real genuine connections then start to have those conversations and maybe you know like the examples I gave before maybe bring up some of these things that are affecting everyone's health and wellness but we can't individually do enough to address them start to come up with ideas how will you help each other reduce harm about that how can you expand that bigger you know I I hate to sound like a little bit too too simplified by saying have the conversation but I I do think that's part of our problem we don't speak about these things to each other you know for instance recently I wrote about climate change and being a little bit afraid to talk about it because we are kind of taking a little bit of a like that's a Debbie Downer conversation approach right you like we're afraid to speak about it with each other but we got to we got to get through that part and and speak together in order to address anything. Yeah absolutely and the conversations that are happening are the ones about cultural wars whether you believe yeah this is the approach or you believe that this is the approach and not having that communication which is absolutely essential to community but we're bombarded with that message online and everywhere so how do people get over that barrier and you know set aside what could be I know that not all differences are superficial there's a lot of you know deep-seated deep-seated how do I say this ingrained beliefs that can be very harmful but there's a lot of just superficial barriers that are just manifested in cultural wars how do people overcome that and move past it in order to have deep meaning conversations yeah I mean I think one way is to focus on on the reduce harm part of community care so let's say you get to know your neighbor and you guys are on speaking terms you know each other's names maybe you've shared a couple wheels together backyard barbecues whatever and you're trying to kind of move into how how are we going to reduce harm instead of for instance focusing on you know why climate change is happening and who's to blame for climate change maybe you say to your neighbor oh you know it seems like the heat is getting more and more serious in our community every summer do you have any ideas about what we could do to make sure that all of our neighbors have proper air conditioning you know focus on how are we going to reduce harm and and and try to have the conversation there be you know solution oriented to the thing that is affecting everyone's health and wellness and and start there rather than start with do you believe in climate change or who do you think is responsible for climate change like let's stop having that conversation let's start having the conversation about how are we going to adapt and help everybody maybe in our cul-de-sac you know or on our block be safer you know could we check up on our elderly neighbors and make sure that their air air conditioning is running well or does anybody in our neighborhood not have enough money to pay the power bill in a critical time when they need air conditioning how can we like maybe we can raise funds together and make sure everybody's power bill is paid yeah that's absolutely amazing really practical steps start with yeah start with reduced harm yeah so let's shift a little bit to that junction of food and autoimmune and the community aspect of it so one of the things that I think a lot think about a lot is the fact that there's a lot of fear about food that can really block the community aspect but as you know with the work that you did for so many years there are real consequences to you know the types of foods that we have access to and that we eat in the food environment so how do we overcome that aspect of you know I'm going to a backyard barbecue but I'm gluten-free and I can't have this and you know I can't have night shades and all of that and you have people who don't necessarily understand where that's coming from and that can become a barrier sometimes to that community aspect so how do you navigate that with people and especially for people who don't have access to what they may need at the moment in order to improve their health so first to the to the navigating it if you have some specialized you know dietary restrictions I kind of hate to use the word restriction it's not it's not a restriction it's really about you know health maintenance but the way that I have always handled that over the years and encouraged other people to handle it is to try to encourage in your community those kinds of events where where you all bring food together potluck style events picnics barbecues things like that because that gives you an opportunity to bring some of your own food and you don't have to go into a big long conversation about I need to be gluten-free or I need to be whatever you just bring your own food and maybe people are interested in it a recent example from my own life my neighborhood celebrated its 50th anniversary and we had a big grill out you know the whole community was invited and there was a dessert contest so I made a gluten-free peach crumble and that's what I brought and I ended up winning and I didn't tell anybody that it was gluten-free I didn't mention any of that I just I just put it out and I was like enjoy everyone and people loved it they were just like totally into this this peach crumble and I just I just didn't I didn't bring it up as something that could be a barrier to us connecting I just said let's share some food I brought peach crumble you know um I think that's one way to address that side of it when we're talking about folks who maybe need access to foods that could be beneficial to them and they don't have the access I think it's really important for those of us who are in a leadership position or as practitioners to to recognize that we might need to modify how we're talking about food and how we're talking about accessing food maybe that means like um sharing ways that the template that you're encouraging can be shifted to meet different income needs you know um for instance at one point um Mickey and I with Autoimmune Wellness you know we we used to do the Autoimmune Wellness podcast we put out um a season where we brought on a social worker who talked about you know utilizing food stamps to go as far as you could we put out um you know blog posts where we were like this is one way you can modify things here's the biggest impact things to focus on you don't have to do this you know a hundred percent perfectly for it to move the needle um trying to do things like that in a community together this might again be a reduced harm conversation where you say oh you know maybe you reach out to another friend and say I see that there's you know some of our friends are having trouble accessing all the food they need what can we do about that together you know can we raise some money and and go out and get those foods can we start a food pantry that offers that I know that there's a food pantry I believe they're located in California called Porchlight and they specifically collect food for those who have allergies and intolerances but also can't afford you know to go to Whole Foods and load their cart up right so maybe it means you know coming together and collectively doing something like that yeah really all um very practical steps to moving forward um what would you say would be the um government role and all of this and how can people in and the way of building that community get involved and shift in the structures that are in place so that there isn't so much um friction for people without access um to be able to implement you know the steps that they need to improve their health yeah I mean this is this gets into the the trickiest hardest to move uh piece of this whole thing right it's about I mean I think that we we have to really carefully research the the candidates that are being elected in our communities you know starting with our local level going to our state level and then obviously to the federal level um and understand really what their positions are and what their qualifications are for addressing these things making sure that we're electing people who are going to advocate for for that kind of change I I think you want to try to identify the the leaders who are going to see that we need a bottom up system rather than a top down system you know I think we all see that the top down doesn't typically work it's not meeting most of the needs of of the you know vulnerable group at the bottom and and a successful society can be best judged on how well they may meet the needs of the people at the bottom um so finding candidates who are aligned with that kind of thinking and are willing to really go to bat to try to shift that um and then yeah again I'm really like hammering the strum but it goes back to the conversation we have to have conversations together with our friends and our family our neighbors um you know maybe you're going to have that conversation even in the the virtual world which does have an impact on our real world and say like these are the things that are making all of us unhealthy and unwell what kind of changes do we need to advocate for so that this can improve I think we you know in the United States we we kind of at least we used to be taught that we shouldn't talk about religion or politics ever but I think we didn't develop then good skills for having these conversations and we avoided them until we got into a space that's really dangerous for a lot of people and leaving a big big section of our society behind and making all of us sick um so we have to be brave enough to start having that conversation and raising those issues so that we all get on the same page how about people who are already where you are people who recognize this they are all invested they recognize that the way that our ancestors lived in community in communion the way that they raised food the way that they took care of each other the way that they slept the way that they worked they you know all of it worked in a way that made societies healthy people who are already there but they are lost for what to do because they are also trapped in the go-go-go you know society there they have obligations and they have children and jobs and you know your schedule is totally full to the brim on a daily basis so how can people start making a shift that is impactful within their conditions that they're in that they're recognizing the need is just being able to fit that within everything that they're doing um again I think this is start small start slow simplify you know be be okay with that it's I think it's um really important to recognize that any any step we take in the right direction is a worthwhile step when we're operating in a system like this you know you you have to recognize that you alone overnight cannot change at all and and you can't you can't just kind of you know run yourself into the ground to try to get there either that that won't actually serve anyone including yourself so being okay with this the smallest step that you can take within a broken system um I think that that's really important you know I think those of us who are probably already here probably feel an immense amount of pressure to try to you know fix it overnight um so just being okay with with being able to take the smallest change in the smallest action I think is really important um yeah and and doing what you can to simplify your life in a way that frees up space to focus on this more and more you know it's not always realistic I think if you recognize that you have more privilege even if it's only temporary that could be leveraged to help address these problems you should take it um we're in a moment that could use all hands on deck so if you have that kind of privilege you should take it in in my particular case I'm in a position right now um it is it is gonna have an end point but I'm in a position right now where I can spend almost all my time focused on my community and focused on this messaging um and I want to try to map maximize it while I can absolutely and we we've talked about from the perspective of someone who can and has the the ability or the privilege to be able to do things whether financially or reaching out but what advice do you have to people on the other end of the spectrum you know let's talk about somebody who um doesn't have a lot of money for food but has a lot of conditions and and the need to address you know lifestyle interventions um that person perhaps doesn't get a lot of sleep um maybe that person has to have two jobs um that person lives in a crowded city without a lot of access to nature and you know the idea of you know go spend time in nature is just not something that's feasible how does that person start to reach out instead to those who are able to help without feeling like they're asking for charity without feeling like you know they're just um asking for a handout how does that person build community from the need perspective not necessarily to um to take advantage of it for themselves because they're in that situation but to also expand that access for the rest of that community yeah I mean this is uh a really vulnerable space to be in that is a really really vulnerable space to be in and it takes um just an immense amount of bravery to reach out and say that you have any need in the first place um and try to connect with others in a way that might be meaningful beyond just just yourself in your own immediate need and I have oof I I I have to be careful I don't get a little emotional Isabel like I have a lot I have so much compassion for people in that position because I have had a part of my life where I was in that position um you know when my daughter was very young we spent the first five years of her life on welfare um I worked a night job overnight I got off at like three o'clock in the morning I had to be in class at school at like nine o'clock in the morning I I seriously got like two to three hours of sleep a night it was really really hard position to be in I think if a person in that position is able to um kind of summon the courage in the first place to reach out that's already a huge step in the right direction and a huge huge win and it it's getting it's helping by being open and honest about the need they have it is helping push our um societal conversation or our cultural conversation about the the negative um consequences of hyperindividualism like they are doing something really really courageous actually so I think it's there it's just saying I have a need you know how can we figure out how to meet it like for me at that time one of the things I had to do was say to my family and friends I can cover I can figure out a way to use the the broken system that we have to help me get childcare during the day but I need child care in the middle of the night because that's when I have to go earn money and can we piece together a system so somebody is with my child and she is safe and taken care of while I go earn money and and it it paid off to be vulnerable because I was able to stitch that together and it made me closer in some cases with the people who who stepped up that's another aspect where um the hyperindividualism that we are so accustomed to doesn't even let us see like I grew up in a multi-generational family and I have been able to craft that now with my children um and I know that people think that it's like it's a crazy concept why don't they want to go away or why do you not want them to be away um but if people only realize the difference that it makes in our day to day life like when I'm working like a crazy person I have somebody that I can say can you cook tonight and still have you know a healthy meal we have dogs and there's always somebody to take care of them um and even without considering the helping aspect the amount of time that we spend together as a family that is so joyful that you know has so many benefits it's incredible um but I also understand it's really hard to do when you have grown up used to the concept that you know you want to do your own things in your own way 100% of the time and bringing that balance just doesn't seem to be possible when you're having to compromise with other adults you know in the way that you do things so um but a lot of cultures you know other cultures have that um and I think that in terms of mental health in terms of general health and in terms of just pure life satisfaction um they seem so much better off than we are as a society because of that yeah I mean you know you know you've you've shared with me before about your arrangement with your kids as well and you know that I'm like super into it I think it's so cool that you guys have done this and part of the reason I think that is because actually American culture is kind of weird about the way that we don't encourage any multi-generational living and and kind of um a lot of mutual um help and reciprocity across a family to you know make it so that everybody in the family can live more more successfully and more happily and healthfully I mean um you know in terms of ancestral health one one of the things that we do the most backwards it is it and that's detrimental for our health and wellness is that we strive to do so many things on our own that in ancestral communities they did all together you know there was a whole collective of people that addressed you know making sure there was food on the table there was a whole collective of people that addressed raising a child and we we focus so much on on forcing an individual to carry all of that load no wonder so many of us are sick I mean that is an immense amount of stress and I know the ancestral health communities is you know really big into managing stress in order to you know maintain our health and have better longevity and that that is one source of our stress that we are so like you know compartmentalized in our own little basically islands um if we shifted into doing things collectively it would be so much happier and healthier yeah I definitely agree um so if you were hypothetically made a precedent of the United States tomorrow and you had the power to shift systems and your main priority was to build a healthy and happy society with a focus on ancestral health what would be the framework what would be the structure where would you start and how would you build it all oh my goodness that is a big question as well um well first of all for for your listeners who know me and follow me they might be surprised to know it but I would never ever become the president I do not want to be a politician in any way shape or form despite how outspoken I um but if I became president hmm you know I would probably do a lot to shift um how we handle health care I would probably want us to go to a universal health care system because so many people are shut out of getting even the acute care that they need let alone any any care for chronic issues and and you know a lot of people don't engage in preventative health care because they can't access the system they can't afford it so I would probably start there I think we would save ourselves a lot of money as a nation if we made sure people got care before they developed diseases instead of after um so I would probably do that I think that um I would probably want to put in place a system that offered really high quality universal child care um because so many people in our country can't access that and it's such a high amount of stress trying to best care for your children while you earn a living um and I I think if we had really great centers where our children were happy and healthy together that would create some community connection um and yeah I would want to do a lot to help improve our food system and our water quality I think those are that those are base of the pyramid type of needs right yeah those are really really important ones so are you sure you don't want to run yeah those are no thank you yeah those are really really critical um Angie thank you so much for doing this and talking about such an important aspect of health which is community and how we exist within our communities not just within our closed ones but within the the communities in general and how that affects the entire ecosystem and the rest of the non-human communities that surround us and that our ancestors have made such a big part and such a reverence towards um you know the the rest of our history so that's really really important can you tell people where they can find you and follow your work uh yeah so I'm I'm writing now on sub-stack so they can find me at sub-stack.com slash Angie Alt um the name of my sub-stack there is notes from a neighbor just having one conversation at a time about these these topics and how to shift our thinking I'm hoping I'm giving people um some language for having the conversation that I'm really emphasizing that we have um and they can also find me on Instagram at Angie Alt. Amazing thank you so much for being with us today we really appreciate it and um I hope you have a beautiful time in community and that uh people really um follow what you're doing and uh learn you know some practical steps and some um really important ways in which we can make our ancestral health really community help yeah um yeah thanks for inviting me on as well thanks for joining us on this episode of ancestral health today we hope you enjoyed our discussion on how evolutionary insights can inform modern health practices be sure to subscribe to our podcast to catch future episodes