Radical Health Radio

Miesha Tate spent her whole life chasing a UFC world title, and when she won it, it broke her.

Miesha is a former UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion, one of the fighters who cracked women's MMA open at the highest level, and someone who has now spent almost as much time deconstructing what that pursuit cost her as she did chasing it.

We sat down in Malibu and got into the parts of the story you don't usually hear. The moment she realised the gold belt didn't solve a single one of her problems. The years of eating disorders, distilled water weight cuts, and amenorrhea she was privately navigating while headlining pay-per-views. The pregnancy loss earlier this year that forced her to look at what her fighting career had done to her hormones. And the coach whose death became the reason she started her podcast.

Miesha is direct about what she got wrong: the war she waged with her own body, the intuition she overrode because she'd signed on the dotted line, and the mental health cost of being the "strong woman" everyone pointed to. She's also honest about what actually helped her rebuild, from cognitive behavioural therapy to prayer to learning, for the first time in her life, how to be present.

If you've ever confused discipline with self-punishment, this one will resonate.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[9:53] 99% of a cage fight happens inside your own head before the walk out

[15:20] How winning the belt became the biggest breaking point of Miesha’s life

[24:15] The eating disorder, the weight cuts, and drinking distilled water for 72 hours

[40:09] Women need 100 to 300 more calories in the luteal phase, and no diet accounts for it

[52:36] The pregnancy loss she believes was tied to years of under-fueling her body

[1:04:19] How prayer, reconnection, and a cognitive behavioral therapist pulled her out of the darkness

[1:14:40] The balloon exercise that taught her presence for the first time in her life

[1:25:57] Why Miesha believes public school was designed to divide the nuclear family

Resources Mentioned:

ROAR (Women Are Not Small Men) by Stacy T. Sims, PhD | Book

The Period Brain by Sarah E. Hill, PhD | Book

Hold On To Your Kids by Gabor Maté, MD and Gordon Neufeld, PhD | Book

When The Body Says No by Gabor Maté, MD | Book

Dr. Kayla Osterhoff | Website

Find more from Miesha:

Miesha Tate | Instagram | X | Website

Built for Growth | Podcast

Apogee Boise (Micro School) | Website

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

Most people think big wave surfers are fearless. Luca says fear is the only place courage can exist.

Luca Padua is a big wave surfer from Half Moon Bay, California, who grew up two miles from Mavericks, one of the most dangerous waves on Earth. He surfed it for the first time at 13, lived with Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reece for six years, and now runs Bigger Than Waves, a project supporting veteran mental health through VETS.

What surprised me is how honest Luca is about being scared. He was the cautious kid his mom had to walk down the high dive.

He argues fear is intelligence, not weakness. Courage isn't innate; it's built through training, like the pool sessions with Laird that once made him black out. That framing runs through every story he tells, from his first drop at Mavericks with the jagged Boneyard rocks below him to sitting shoulder to shoulder with his childhood heroes in the lineup.

We also get into his path away from enlisting in the military, the letter from a special operations friend that changed his direction, and why he believes purpose has to come before performance.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[6:04] Big wave surfers aren't fearless, and the only place courage can exist

[10:33] The lore of Mavericks and what makes an 80-foot wave so deadly

[23:49] Luca’s fallout with his parents after that first Mavericks session, and finding his path forward

[37:16] The lesson Laird Hamilton taught him about being faithful in the small things

[42:01] Almost enlisting in the military, and how Bigger Than Waves and VETS was born

[53:48] What training with Ido Portal and Christian McCaffrey taught him about being a beginner

[1:00:39] Navigating social media as a distraction machine while staying on the righteous path

Resources Mentioned:

Laird Hamilton | Website

VETS (Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions) | Website

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson | Book

Inside Maverick's: Portrait of a Monster Wave by Doug Acton | Book

In Waves and War | Netflix

Find more from Luca:

Luca Padua | Instagram | YouTube

Bigger Than Waves | Instagram | Website

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

Psychedelics can expand your consciousness in a way most people can’t imagine.

My guest is Dr. Chloe West, a PhD neuroscientist who's been researching psychedelics for nearly a decade and is now writing a book on psychedelics and religious trauma.

Dr. Chloe explains what happens in the brain during a trip, from increased entropy to disorganized activity in the default mode network. Her framing of the brain as clay, where plasticity softens it, and the trip itself guides how it gets reshaped, is one of the clearest explanations I've heard.

We get into the REBUS model and one finding that stopped me: the research doesn't actually show that psychedelics reliably turn atheists into believers, even though people will swear otherwise. Beliefs about the self, however, are another story.

Her personal story is where this conversation deepens. Chloe grew up in evangelical Christianity in the South, walked away from it in graduate school, and is now researching how psychedelics might offer something the deconstruction space has been missing: a tool for reconstruction.

She describes someone close to her who spent years praying out of fear, and after psychedelics only wanted to pray out of gratitude. That single shift, from fear to gratitude, is what many therapeutic outcomes seem to rest on.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[3:41] Psychedelics as the fastest method for rewiring rigid beliefs

[7:57] Defining consciousness, and whether psychedelics can really expand it

[17:30] Predictive processing turns your brain into a protection machine working against you

[23:08] Why integration matters and how set and setting predict a bad trip

[27:33] Eli Lilly's $3.8 billion DMT bet and why both political sides embrace psychedelics

[37:49] Growing up evangelical and using psychedelics to heal religious trauma

[50:21] Microdosing versus heroic doses, and the new psychedelics that skip the trip

[57:32] Finding your default state of consciousness through silent retreats and breathwork

[1:05:56] Which psychedelic calls to Chloe most, and the mystery of ayahuasca's plant intelligence

Resources Mentioned:

Sky Breath Meditation | Website

Art of Living Retreat Center | Website

For weekly essays on psychedelics, consciousness, and belief, join Dr. Chloe West’s Substack here, or follow her on social media to stay connected.

Find more from Dr. Chloe:

Dr. Chloe West | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | X | TikTok | YouTube | Substack

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | Instagram

Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube

Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube

The self-help industry convinced you that you can heal yourself… is it true though?

Jessica Ella is the founder of Aaruka® Therapy and a survivor of severe childhood sexual abuse, CPTSD, and repressed memory that didn't surface until she was 30. Her perspective matters because she built the method she needed after Google, Reddit, and a decade of therapy gave her dead ends.

Repression, she explains, is one of the most powerful survival mechanisms the brain has, and there's a reason her memories only returned once her life became safe enough to hold them.

The conversation gets into why plant medicine, breathwork, and standard talk therapy often uncover trauma without actually completing it, and what has to happen at the subconscious, somatic, and energetic level for a memory to stop replaying.

Anyone stuck in the same patterns despite years of work will find something here worth sitting with.

You’ll learn:

[0:00] Introduction

[18:56] How the brain hyper-fixates on sound to block long-term memory access

[28:00] The Stockholm syndrome of remembering your father was your abuser

[34:20] Inside the Aruka method: the four pillars and why we start with the biggest trauma first

[43:24] The shrink ray gun technique and why speaking out loud beats silent processing

[52:51] Why plant medicine and breathwork uncover trauma but can't complete it

[1:11:52] The difference between people who get buried by trauma and those who alchemize it

[1:29:37] Why spirituality can't fix a brain that's been rewired by trauma

Resources Mentioned:

The Aaruka® Healing Exchange | ⁠Practice Portal

⁠For anyone who can't afford therapy right now, the Aaruka® Healing Exchange offers free sessions with a current student. ⁠Submit a request⁠ to get started.

Find more from Jessica:

Jessica Ella | ⁠Website⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠

Aaruka® Therapy | ⁠Instagram⁠

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | ⁠Instagram⁠

Radical Health Radio | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠

Heart and Soil Supplements | ⁠Website⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠X⁠ | ⁠YouTube⁠

Nick Komodina built a $500k/month business with zero ads, and he almost didn't live long enough to see it.

Nick is a conscious leadership and business mentor, author of Surrender, and one of the most direct voices I've come across on what breaks people once they get what they thought they wanted. The story starts in an Eight Mile trailer park and lands in a backyard with a gun to his head. Between those two points is a version of success most of the online coaching world refuses to talk about.

Comfort is expensive. Faith is not certainty. Self-sabotage is a goal in disguise. Nick unpacks all three with the kind of specificity that makes you uncomfortable in the best way. We also have a real conversation about content, being the guide instead of the hero, and why a massive spike in followers didn't move his engagement numbers at all.

If you've been sitting on a calling and dressing it up as a strategy, this episode names the game you're actually playing.

You’ll learn:

[00:00] Introduction

[3:09] Growing up in a trailer park, and the moment stealing $100 became an identity

[7:37] Some people see through the matrix while others stay NPCs forever

[12:14] Childhood trauma buries the gift God placed inside you

[17:35] The biggest content mistake: positioning yourself as the guide, not the hero

[24:31] How desperate people con themselves using scammy coaches as a tool

[30:18] The night a voice stopped him from pulling the trigger

[35:46] The four pillars of success and why training your weakest muscle matters most

[47:44] Coming off TRT and healing gut infections forced him to pull back from business

[58:46] Adlerian psychology and why you actually don't want to break past 10K months

[1:06:49] Letting the right people opt out is the real content strategy

Follow Nick on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ for more content on conscious leadership, authentic brand building, and turning big visions into reality.

Find more from Nick:

Nick Komodina | ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

Surrender by Nick Komodina | ⁠⁠Book⁠⁠

Find more from Ste:

Ste Lane | ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠

Radical Health Radio | ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

Heart and Soil Supplements | ⁠⁠Website⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠X⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠