Live Healthy Longer with Dr. Jim Polakof
Amazing Podcasts Created & Hosted by Dr. Jim Polakof to Stimulate Your Body, Mind and Soul! It's in our nature to explore opportunities that can improve our well-being. As a celebrated podcaster with thousands of listeners, Dr. Jim Polakof continually surpasses normal limits to explore new horizons in creating a better life for his listeners and readers. ‘Live Healthy Longer’ covers a wide range of topics including new advances in health and medicine; the possibility of having past lives and reincarnation; unique perspectives on entertainment, and ‘hot topics’ debates which present both sides of key issues.
Live Healthy Longer with Dr. Jim Polakof
Confronting America’s Serious Issues and Division
We are confronted with overwhelming challenges that threaten the needs, well-being, and stability of our nation. Americans have never been more divided. Discover the real facts—and a solution for how the Baby Boomer generation can help Unify America!
A “KENNEDY” SHAME
Join Dr. Jim as he exposes the atrocities spearheaded by RFK JR. and how they are severely harming the “Health” of America! Unquestionably, his father Bobby Kennedy and uncle John F. Kennedy would be ashamed!
Additionally, you’ll hear Dr. Jim’s interview with Harry Gottlieb, founder of Unify America, as they discuss how the division in our country can be healed.
Links from today's Episode:
Piedmont Raging Grannies CLICK HERE
Unify America website: https://www.unifyamerica.org/
Unify America Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/unifyamericaofficial
Unify America Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unifyamericaofficial/
Unify America X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/_UnifyAmerica_
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We were angry when you raised all those taxes on the floor. We were outraged when you authorized those pipelines. Our infrastructure's gone to pot and our grandkids are getting shot. So we're raging cause now. You pissed off grandma.
Speaker 2:Welcome to another episode of Live Healthy Longer. You've just heard the first verse of Now You've Pissed Off Grandma, performed by the Piedmont Raging Grannies. Thank you, ladies. In the meantime, I have an important announcement for our listeners. Dr Jim Polakoff has decided he must speak out about harmful acts and division that are endangering our country. As a result, he's hosting a new podcast Boomers for America. This new weekly podcast demonstrates how the baby boomer generation can lead our nation in overcoming dangerous challenges and heal our division. Dr Jim will continue to host episodes of Live Healthy Longer, but we are encouraging our loyal audience to reach out to family members, friends and neighbors and ask them to tune in to Boomers for America. Here are our Boomer Grannies, with one more brief verse to explain why.
Speaker 1:Social security's in danger and our Medicare is too Jim Polakoff, to shine the light on today's greatest healthcare crisis.
Speaker 3:This is Dr Jim Polakoff, and, just like the sweet grannies we've heard singing, I too am pissed off. I can no longer simply remain on the sidelines as we are confronted with overwhelming challenges that threaten the needs, well-being and stability of our nation. Furthermore, americans have never been more divided. As a health care professional, I feel compelled to help and find ways to heal our country. As a result, while I will continue hosting Live, healthy, Longer episodes, please do join me in my new podcast series Boomers for America. Now you might be curious about the title. The majority of you who are listening are mostly members of the Baby Boomer generation, as am I. There are over 73 million of us, which represents a formidable force to confront issues which imperil our nation. Of course, boomers are as politically divided as any other generation in our country, but I happen to be a registered independent voter and I'm determined to host episodes which are autonomous in nature. I believe it's not about left or right, but instead doing what's right, so I hope my audience will join me as we tackle America's most pressing challenges each and every week. Simply come to our new website, boomersforamericacom. By the way, you'll enjoy meeting my guest for this episode, who heads an organization dedicated to healing the political divide in America.
Speaker 3:But first let's get back to the health aspect of this Live Healthy Longer episode. I'll begin by expressing the fact I had a great deal of respect for the aspirations of former President John F Kennedy, as well as his brother, Bobby. But RFK Jr is another story. Unquestionably, I'm convinced that his father and uncle would be ashamed of the chaos and pain he is unleashing on America. This is not a left or right issue. Robert Kennedy Jr is a lifelong Democrat and now works for a Republican administration. My problem with RFK Jr is the hurt he is causing for the citizens of our country.
Speaker 3:Rfk Jr oversees 13 health and human services agencies, which include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. Kennedy has now eliminated some 20,000 jobs. That's one quarter of this important department's workforce. Now, he recently commented that 20% of these cuts were a mistake and some will be rehired. But come on, mr Kennedy, these cuts were randomly made, just like Elon Musk's firing of essential nuclear scientists who were deeply involved in a major effort to upgrade America's nuclear arsenal. Mr Kennedy, you failed to inform the public that significant job cuts had already been made in the past few years before the Trump administration came into power. So your Department of Health's workforce was already lean before you slashed key staff members and department heads with vital tasks to protect us. For example, rfk Jr fired some two-thirds of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. Their jobs are to protect our nation's workers. Big layoffs also include members of the CDC, who research and find ways to combat disease.
Speaker 3:I can assure my listeners that without their research expertise, another COVID outbreak is just around the corner. In fact, rfk Jr just cut $11 billion in funding for further COVID research. Additionally, kennedy's cuts are leaving America more vulnerable to unsafe drugs and medical devices. And then there's pediatric cancer that's been taking a big hit. And please, let's not forget Alzheimer's. Considering that Alzheimer's disease is expected to more than double, these cuts become a major concern for we boomers as well as Generation X. So let's get down to some alarming, concrete concerns.
Speaker 3:Kennedy is not a physician and he has no medical public training whatsoever. In fact, he's made a name for himself in recent years as a vaccine disbeliever and continually promotes medical misinformation. But don't take my word for it. Instead, let's explore some facts. The measles outbreak which recently began in West Texas resulted in 40 patients quickly being hospitalized and an unvaccinated child dying. You may recall, kennedy said at the time there was nothing to be concerned about. During an interview on Fox News, he stated he had heard about a miraculous and instantaneous recovery, which he attributed to vitamin A. He specifically mentioned cod liver oil as the safest application of vitamin A. Now, after hearing this, parents who live in this measles outbreak area immediately began giving their children high doses of the supplement. Right after RFK Jr's Fox News interview, drugstores in West Texas actually struggled to keep vitamin A and cod liver oil supplements on their shelves, and then, just a few days ago, another unvaccinated child died.
Speaker 3:Medical and scientific evidence confirms vitamin A cannot prevent measles. In fact, as a result of Kennedy's misinformation, physicians at the Children's Hospital in Lubbock, texas, revealed they've now treated a handful of unvaccinated children who were given so much vitamin A that they have signs of liver damage. Dr Susan Kressley, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, emphasizes that vaccination is the most effective way to prevent measles, but this expert information fell deaf on Kennedy's ears, since it's not what he wants to hear. No, instead of supporting scientific studies which prove the effectiveness of vaccines, rfk Jr recently hired a fellow by the name of David Geyer. Now, previously, geyer had promoted a debunked theory that vaccinations are linked to autism. Yes, geyer is the same man who faced disciplinary action from state regulators for practicing medicine without a license. It's just another layer of accumulating evidence that Kennedy continues to be on the wrong side of science, which, of course, is detrimental to the well-being of our country.
Speaker 3:I've shared this information with you due to my concern that, with Robert Kennedy Jr at the helm, our health is in jeopardy. Yes, the health of our nation is in a critical state and must be addressed. A critical state and must be addressed. The good news is that recent polls and the highly successful hands-off assemblies in all 50 states not only proves a substantial number of Americans are upset, but that protesting can work, particularly over time. So let's not ignore our current health care crisis and protests. Boomers must pay close attention to this challenge. We have more at stake in this fight than any other generation.
Speaker 3:Ultimately, achieving what the majority of us want can't happen in the 2026 midterm elections, but nationwide voting is a year and a half away. In the meantime, we must make our voices heard, but it can also help to speak with your neighbors who, by the way, may have a different point of view. Yes, it's important to speak out, but so is to heal the deep division in our country. One individual who's put his words into action to lessen our divide is my guest for this episode Harry Gottlieb. Harry is the founder of Unify America and has discovered that by actually experiencing how much we have in common, division can be overcome. I believe you'll find my interview with Harry Gottlieb to be enlightening. Now, harry, you launched Unify America in 2020. Your goal was to reduce contempt and teach Americans to work together. However, before officially launching, I understand you first took a look at the pulse of America. Tell us what you found.
Speaker 4:That we have. This sounds cliche, but that we have way more in common than otherwise. The question that I went on that trip asking was are we really as divided as it seems? And I mean the answer is no, we're just simply not, but we are. It's sort of like we're just looking at the wrong things. You know, we're divided over, I mean basically, the animosity that we have for the leaders on what we imagine to be the other side, the political personalities on the other side, and in the best case scenario, we're divided over tactics. You know, I'm not. I'm for a border wall, I'm against the border wall. I'm for Medicare for all. I'm against Medicare for all.
Speaker 4:And we lose sight of the fact that, when it comes to end results, we actually want the same thing. So I was administering and iterating on a survey on Americans the goals that we share or do we share? Do we have common goals? So things like, okay, we don't agree on Medicare for all, but do we all want a health care system that is high quality and affordable for everyone? Like, is that the end result we want to?
Speaker 4:Vast majority of us think we should be able to know and determine who is coming in and out of the country. We don't most of us don't want an open border. We want to have some control. The various issues in the political sphere. If you ladder up, if you rise above the political personalities and above the tactics and say what are the end results we want to achieve, it's like we agree on everything. I mean, it feels like we're at a beach and there is this beautiful sunrise in front of us, but we're turned around looking at the garbage can that's been kicked over on the beach and spewed garbage on the beach and think that that's the totality of our reality.
Speaker 3:But we have a very interesting correlation Now within your website. The stated mission of your organization is to replace politics with problem solving. But I'd like to begin with the identification. What do you see? Are the problems today in America?
Speaker 4:The problem that we're focused on is the problem of how we solve. Problems can be broken down like this Someone walks in the door with a solution. They propose a piece of legislation. A lot of people don't like that solution, and so the second step is there's a big fight about it, and the third step is we hope a compromise emerges that serves the common good.
Speaker 3:That is good luck with politics today, but anyway, please continue Right.
Speaker 4:Well, that's I mean, but that's that is I mean. That is a. That is a pretty, pretty accurate breakdown of how not just how it is now, but how it has been since the first Congress. That is the political approach to problem solving. It is not a great approach, but right now, if you say, well, how else might we solve our problems without politics? That's like asking what else might we breathe other than air. It's just not a question that anybody's ever been asked. But it turns out there is something else we could be doing. There is something else we could be breathing.
Speaker 4:And the other approach begins with, instead of beginning with, here's my solution. It's a border wall, or my solution is Medicare for all. You start by clarifying what is the goal that we share. Let's start there. Do we want to reduce violence? We all agree. We want to reduce violence. Do we all agree we want to ensure the cleanliness and safety of America's air, land and water? Do we want to make sure that those who are released with prison leave with the tools and opportunities they need to become productive citizens? By the way, these are all examples of survey questions from our program called the Unified Challenge, where citizens get together to talk about these things.
Speaker 3:Right, and I'm going to ask you about that. But basically, you see, the answer then to solving the problems is by basically being able to reach agreement on exactly what the problem itself is and then obviously trying to discuss what the solutions are correct.
Speaker 4:That's exactly right. You begin with, you start the process very deliberately with what is our shared goal, and then the next step is well, if we have a shared goal, we don't need to demonize each other. Now we're just talking about how to do it. And then you next step is well, if we have a shared goal, we don't need to demonize each other. Now we're just talking about how to do it. And then you look at lots of different solutions and narrow down together through deliberation, which is what our founders wanted us to do to deliberate from many solutions to a shared set of solutions and then implement that.
Speaker 3:Well, that makes a great deal of sense, no question. Now you've stated to quote you. Well, somewhat, quote you out of context perhaps, but to break down the barriers to divide us, we need to become better versions of ourselves, and to do that, you've developed a civic gym. Is that where people sort of work out their differences?
Speaker 4:Well, the civic gym is if we're going to solve our problems together and I think it's clear like we're not going to solve our problems by fighting each other so we need to develop and adopt a system by which we solve our problems together. In order to do that, we need to learn how to listen to each other better. We need to learn how to overcome our biases. Now, many of your listeners may be familiar with things like confirmation bias, like the tendency to only see evidence that confirms our own point of view, but also recency bias. If there's a lot of crime in my area that I've heard of recently, well, crime is out of control, but really, crime may or may not be out of control. Maybe just what you've heard. There's all these biases that cloud our thinking and that can get in the way of good decision making.
Speaker 4:So, overcoming biases we need to understand how science works. When we think about decision making. We need to understand how data works. When we think about decision-making, we need to understand how data works in terms of decision-making. We need to understand that there are lenses when we are making decisions, civic decisions that we are always going to be wrestling with, like things like the relationship between responsibility and freedom. The relationship between responsibility and freedom I mean that comes up all the time when we're making policy. So the civic gym is yeah. How do we become better versions of ourselves? How do we become clearer seeing? How do we listen to each other better? How do we work together better? How do we make wiser decisions together?
Speaker 3:So I think we'll get to the next point. Does it now relate to the beginning of the Civic Gym? Is this where your Unify challenge comes in? I mean, it sounds a bit aggressive, but apparently does it work well.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So let me explain what it is. It's we bring two Americans together in a video conference, match them ideally so that they're really different from each other If we can match them so that they're politically different and they vote differently. That's sort of the ideal. But otherwise people who are unlikely to have met each other otherwise, you know, that's our goal. And then we give them a series of these survey questions that they go through together about goals for the United States.
Speaker 4:In some cases it may be even more specific, maybe goals for the state we did the Unified Challenge in Colorado and we had goals for the state of Colorado and people who have different perspectives, just one-on-one in this video conference, answer these survey questions. But before they answer them, they talk about them. They have the opportunity to say well, you know, I agree with this particular statement and here's why. And it's like well, you know, I disagree and here's why. And often these are conversations that lead one side or the other to, if not change their point of view, at least deepen their understanding of the issue. And they're always civil and to the other person's point of view as well.
Speaker 3:Understanding how someone feels and thinks is so important to ultimately getting to know them better and then, hopefully, if you've identified the problem, getting closer to the solution, correct.
Speaker 4:Yes, that's exactly right. I mean we have to be able to talk to each other. It turns out it's not nearly as hard as we think. People are very nervous about talking to people who've got a different kind of voting history than they do, but you put two people together. We are built to get along in one-on-one situations without groups and rallies and people pushing us around, but just two people together. It's amazing how well people listen to each other, are respectful to each other. You don't really need to do much. You don't have to sort of scold people into doing the right thing. We sort of just do it naturally.
Speaker 3:Well, you can learn more about Harry Gottlieb's approach to healing our nation's division by going to his website, unifyamericacom. I'll be right back with some concluding words that you just might wish to hear.
Speaker 2:You can find out more information about Unify America, along with other enlightening podcasts and informative blogs, by coming to our website, jamespolikoffcom. Remember. A new episode of Live Healthy Longer is broadcast each and every Wednesday on 22 audio platforms, including Spotify, iheart, google, as well as YouTube. But the easiest way to get us is on our website. Visit jamespolakoffcom. That's jamespolakoffcom. And remember, let your family members, friends and neighbors know about Dr Jim's amazing new podcast focusing on the challenges that face our country. Have them join us at BoomersForAmericacom. Now back to Dr Jim.
Speaker 3:I'd like to leave you with two quotes and a final thought. Leave you with two quotes and a final thought To demonstrate my sincere intentions to listen to all persuasions in podcast episodes to come. Let's begin with the words of a cherished Republican, Senator John McCain. He said Americans never quit, we never hide from history. Never quit, we never hide from history, we make history. Senator McCain was so correct.
Speaker 3:While we may wonder if protesting really works, I call your attention to the Vietnam War demonstrations which forced the then-President, Lyndon Johnson, not to seek another term. When congressional candidates become concerned about their re-election, they might often find the spine to speak out, rebel and vote for new policies which reflect the actual will of the people. On the other side of the aisle, it was Senator Cory Booker, during his 25-hour blockbuster speech, who I rise tonight, because silence at this moment of national crisis would be a betrayal of some of the greatest heroes of our nation, Of all of our country's generations. We boomers have lived the longest, seen the most good and bad and should by now know better. It's really up to us, during this time of crisis, to lead. This is Dr Jim Polikoff reminding you that together we can make a difference. Together we can heal. Thanks for joining me and thanks to the grannies who remind us what we must do.
Speaker 1:And thanks to the grannies who remind us what we must do. Aging cause now you pissed off grandma. You gerrymandered our elections and it's harder now to vote. You'd rob women of their rights to plan their families Gay or straight or trans or poor. We're worse off than we were before. You've ignored us. So now you pissed off grandma.
Speaker 4:Social security's in danger and our Medicare is too.
Speaker 1:Folks are dying every day for lack of health care. You keep prisoners locked in cages. Workers can't get living wages. This is cruel and we're really pissed off, grandmas. Well, you're stealing public taxes to support those private schools and you're banning books and teaching whitewash history, with our teachers unsupported and our immigrants deported. Feel the wrath of these truly pissed off grandmas. We see fat cats getting richer on the spoils of your wars. You buy bombs and drones while kids can't get school lunches. We say stop your racist wars and start listening to the poor. Wake up and hear us, because now you've pissed off, grandma. We've heard you claim you're pious Christians, as the righteous as can be. While our veterans sleep homeless on our sidewalks and while folks are going broke, you're concerned about who's woke. We'll keep singing through our pain with the Poor People's Campaign and vote you out, cause you really pissed off Grandma. We'll vote you out now because you pissed off Grandma.
