The Way Forward with Alec Zeck

This podcast is made possible by our listeners and viewers. If this show has brought you value, you can support it by becoming a member of The Way Forward, our platform designed to help you find the health and freedom community (people, practitioners, schools, farms, and more) near you. Your membership directly supports the podcast and the work we do.

If you knew how toxic our modern building materials are, mold wouldn’t be your biggest worry.

Lauren Riddei got sick from her own job sites, and a naturopath's question helped point her toward why. She is a triple-certified building biologist and interior designer who rebuilt her practice around the idea that many modern building materials are contributing to poor health.

The conversation gets specific. Acrylic paints she describes as smelling like acetone. Spray foam that can obscure water damage in a wall assembly. Fixed LED cans that are impossible to swap out. A smart meter her own utility company claimed it didn't know how to remove. Carpet that the EPA studied and removed from its own headquarters, before publicly denying it caused harm.

A lot of what she recommends comes back to older craft. The five-weight pulley window built to be repaired. Linseed oil instead of a plastic coating. Mineral paint that binds to the wall rather than sitting on top of it. Kapok, cork, hemp, natural latex. Most of these predate the synthetic versions that replaced them.

Lauren also explains why she thinks of mold as a way-shower rather than a villain, and why building smaller may matter more than building "green."

You'll Learn:

[0:00] Introduction
[7:02] The rain barrel effect and reaching critical mass
[12:11] Discovering building biology after a spiritual awakening
[24:40] Why Europe builds with mass wall systems
[34:35] Interrupting the general contractor's monocultured approach
[43:09] Any redeeming qualities in modern homes
[58:22] Healthy material swaps, from kapok fiber to cork flooring
[1:16:02] Removing the smart meter and choosing circadian lighting
[1:36:08] The German origins and 25 principles of building biology
[1:57:07] We're building too big, and the greed and speed behind it
[2:15:16] Moon wood and harvesting by the lunar cycle
[2:31:06] A closing quote on biophilia and the built environment

Related The Way Forward Episodes:

Cancer, Forest Bathing, and Bio-hacking featuring Dean Hall | Podcast
The Science of Cannabis & Its True Health Benefits with Dani Fontaine | Podcast
The Hidden Ways Your Home Affects Your Health (And Your Spirit) with Danijela Saponjic | Podcast

Resources Mentioned:

Healthy Building Alliance | Website
Prescriptions for a Healthy House by Paula Baker-Laporte and John C Banta | Book
Map of Synthetica | Website
Lumios from Ra Optics | Website
25 Principles of Building Biology | PDF
The Moon Wood | Documentary

Find more from Lauren:

Haus Holistics | Website
Building Biology Institute | Website
Building Biology Interior Design | Masterclass

See how Lauren’s renovating her house on Instagram.

Find more from Alec:

Alec Zeck | Instagram | X
The Way Forward | Instagram

Donate to The Way Forward here.

The Way Forward is Sponsored By:

New Biology Clinic: Redefine Health from the Ground Up
Experience tailored terrain-based health services with consults, livestreams, movement classes, and more. Use code THEWAYFORWARD (case-sensitive) for $50 off activation.
The Way Forward members get the $150 fee waived.

BEAM Minerals: Feel the Difference in Days: Join thousands recharging with plant-based minerals. Click here for 20% off your first bottle of BEAM.

Want more crypto insights and a community to back you up?
Join the Crypto Freedom Academy today. It’s 100% free and designed to help you master the markets. 🔗 Get your free lifetime access here.

This podcast is made possible by our listeners and viewers. If this show has brought you value, you can support it by becoming a member of The Way Forward, our platform designed to help you find the health and freedom community (people, practitioners, schools, farms, and more) near you. Your membership directly supports the podcast and the work we do.

The identity you built was just a solution to trauma.

Kyle Cease is a transformational teacher, former touring comedian with two #1 Comedy Central specials, New York Times bestselling author, and creator of the Evolving Out Loud global community. He has coached over 16,000 people through his talks, retreats, online programs, and one-on-one.

His wife, Dr. Amber Lynn Cease, a holistic doctor, spiritual mentor, and relationship educator, joins us later. Her honesty about what this inner work has done to her nervous system is some of the most grounded relationship talk I've heard on this show.

Choosing a Costa Rica healing intensive over a Vegas event with Tony Robbins changed something the second Kyle made the call. He learned that the trauma you're avoiding lives in your body, not in your mind, and that positive thinking often becomes a form of spiritual bypass rather than actual healing. Years earlier, a viral blog post from a fellow comedian forced him into six days alone in a hotel room, facing the ego he'd spent his whole career building.

Amber talks openly about leaving her old life for this relationship, the protector that ran her nervous system for years, and the day Kyle told her she was allowed to burn in hell.

You'll Learn:

[0:00] Introduction
[7:03] The highest of the ego versus the highest of the heart
[15:06] Every "I have to" sits on top of fear of never being loved
[27:44] You are what you love, not what loves you
[35:01] The world mirrors you and the only work is inside
[51:15] Falling in love with emptiness on a 15-day water fast
[1:13:49] Project Looking Glass stopped working in 2012
[1:42:37] Letting the false self die inside a relationship worth fighting for
[2:14:55] Holding space means not defending, just hearing them
[2:45:47] Meditation isn't for quieting the mind, it's for dissolving the small self

Resources Mentioned:

Revolver (Movie) | IMDb

Find more from Kyle and Amber:

Kyle Cease | Website | Instagram | Courses

Dr. Amber Lynn Cease | Instagram

Intimate Expansion Couples Course with Kyle and Amber | Website

Find more from Alec:

Alec Zeck | Instagram | X
The Way Forward | Instagram

Donate to The Way Forward here.

The Way Forward is Sponsored By:

Get 10% off your Heart & Soil order with code THEWAYFWRD at checkout. Shop Heart & Soil here.

Eating well shouldn't be complicated. Dr. Cowan’s Garden makes it simple to increase your daily nutrient density with their signature vegetable powders, clean pantry staples, and pasture-raised products. Family-run and committed to "beyond-organic" quality.
* Offer: Use code THEWAYFORWARD for 15% off your first order.
* Shop: Dr. Cowan's Garden

Want to grow your podcast but not sure what's actually working? Podigy helps me produce The Way Forward. Take their free assessment to get clear on your next move—and a chance to win a call with their founder.

This podcast is made possible by our listeners and viewers. If this show has brought you value, you can support it by becoming a member of The Way Forward, our platform designed to help you find the health and freedom community (people, practitioners, schools, farms, and more) near you. Your membership directly supports the podcast and the work we do.

Click here to order The Primordial Code. Use code TWFSHIP for free shipping in the USA.

When Brian Costello lost everything, he was able to understand what true healing is.

Brian Costello is the author of The Primordial Code, a former CrossFit gym owner, and a multi-time national beach sprinting champion who rebuilt his life from rock bottom into something he never planned for.

We open with the body, because the way you’re sitting right now is training how you'll walk into every conversation this week. Brian throws light on the root, heart, and crown, and how couches and cushions mask the signals your spine has been sending for decades. He shows why back chain dominance changes how people respond to you before you even speak.

From there we move into his story. A 250-pound snatch PR started the collapse, followed by a surgery he wouldn't do today. His wife had an affair with a close friend, and for nearly two years anger was the only emotion he could reach. A 30-day fast with his wife reset them both. Plant medicine and a move to Costa Rica followed. His book came through once he stopped trying to write the one he thought he owed people.

His brother Danny also gets real time here. Danny was vaccine-injured at 18 months and spent 20 years without a voice, but at age five he had a dream that his answer would come in the form of a board… You’ll want to hear this one!

You'll Learn:

[0:00] Introduction
[10:37] Fully taking up your space as physical and spiritual practice
[26:29] How the GOATa blueprint decodes durable human movement
[36:06] Primordial Flow turns the floor into a conversation with the body
[1:00:31] How CrossFit and a betrayal led Brian to rock bottom
[1:16:20] Finding a way out one bite at a time
[1:23:17] The 30-day fast that redefined abundance and healing
[1:31:04] Ancient healing discoveries that led Brian to write The Primordial Code
[1:49:58] The Primordial Code's fictional society and the real Confluence community it's inspiring
[3:03:17] Brian's brother, a nonverbal speller, and what spellers can teach us

Related The Way Forward Episodes:

The Lies About Anarchy & Politics The Media Want You To Believe with Catherine Bleish Bonandin | Podcast

Resources Mentioned:

All We Know… ...Is In The Air by Danny Costello | Book
My Words Are My Voice | Podcast
Fast Like A Girl by Dr. Mindy Pelz | Book or Audiobook

Find more from Brian:

Brian Costello | Website
The Primordial Code | Audio Series

Find more from Alec:

Alec Zeck | Instagram | X
The Way Forward | Instagram

Donate to The Way Forward here.

The Way Forward is Sponsored By:

Want more crypto insights and a community to back you up?
Join the Crypto Freedom Academy today. It’s 100% free and designed to help you master the markets. 🔗 Get your free lifetime access here.

New Biology Clinic: Redefine Health from the Ground Up
Experience tailored terrain-based health services with consults, livestreams, movement classes, and more. Use code THEWAYFORWARD (case-sensitive) for $50 off activation.
The Way Forward members get the $150 fee waived.

BEAM Minerals: Feel the Difference in Days: Join thousands recharging with plant-based minerals. Click here for 20% Off Your First Bottle of BEAM.

This podcast is made possible by our listeners and viewers. If this show has brought you value, you can support it by becoming a member of The Way Forward, our platform designed to help you find the health and freedom community (people, practitioners, schools, farms, and more) near you. Your membership directly supports the podcast and the work we do.

America’s history was completely rewritten, and no one is talking about it.

My guest in this episode is known online as The Archivist, an independent researcher who spends his time reading newspapers from the 1700s through the early 1900s and archiving what the accepted history books left out.

A motorcycle accident and near-death experience twenty years ago set him on this path. Since then, he's built the Anomalous America series, going state by state through old articles about buried cities, giant skeletons, canal systems lined with radium-impregnated ceramics, petrified forests, and mummies pulled from caves and mounds in the middle of the country.

Our conversation moves through the collapse of the standard American narrative. The insane asylums that dwarfed every Capitol building. The tunnels dynamited during construction of the St. Louis bridge. Lovelock Cave and what the natives kept telling settlers about the giants they had warred with. Philadelphia City Hall and why they couldn't afford to tear it down.

If the history you were handed has started to feel thin, this one gives you something real to explore.

You'll Learn:

[0:00] Introduction
[5:12] Radium-laced ceramics in Arizona's canals may have supercharged ancient crops
[10:45] The old maps and biblical narrative that point to America, not the Middle East
[21:34] Where the Archivist diverges from Graham Hancock's timelines
[39:43] The philanthropic institutions given a dictate to rewrite history
[46:18] The biggest buildings in 1800s America were insane asylums in the middle of nowhere
[1:07:38] The three layers of burials and how they reveal separate lost civilizations
[1:15:22] Newspaper clippings on Texas's petrified forests, ancient walls, and a lost race
[1:23:53] The Smithsonian became the highest bidder for dragons, sloths, and mummies
[1:47:09] The Kandahar giant and Lovelock Cave, and whether giants still hide underground
[1:58:32] The little season and millennial reign that explain a completely inverted world
[2:17:22] They couldn't tear down Philadelphia City Hall without bankrupting the country
[2:32:32] The near-death experience that set the Archivist on this path

Find more from The Archivist:

The Archivist | YouTube | X

Find more from Alec:

Alec Zeck | Instagram | X
The Way Forward | Instagram

Donate to The Way Forward here.

The Way Forward is Sponsored By:

Want to grow your podcast but not sure what's actually working? Podigy helps me produce The Way Forward. Take their free assessment to get clear on your next move—and a chance to win a call with their founder.

Get 10% off your Heart & Soil order with code THEWAYFWRD at checkout. Shop Heart & Soil here.

Eating well shouldn't be complicated. Dr. Cowan’s Garden makes it simple to increase your daily nutrient density with their signature vegetable powders, clean pantry staples, and pasture-raised products. Family-run and committed to "beyond-organic" quality.
* Offer: Use code THEWAYFORWARD for 15% off your first order.
* Shop: Dr. Cowan's Garden

This podcast is made possible by our listeners and viewers. If this show has brought you value, you can support it by becoming a member of The Way Forward, our platform designed to help you find the health and freedom community (people, practitioners, schools, farms, and more) near you. Your membership directly supports the podcast and the work we do.

Data centers and flock cameras are damaging our society in ways most people can’t even imagine.

My guest today is Clayton Tucker: Lampasas rancher, Secretary of the Texas Farmers Union, and candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner running to halt AI data center expansion statewide.

Clayton lived in China and Taiwan and saw the surveillance playbook up close. That same playbook is getting imported here through hyperscale AI facilities, Flock cameras, and utility lines built by bureaucrats who may not even have the legal authority to route them.

A cattle rancher north of Dallas lost calves to stillbirths after a BESS facility went in across the road. A mother and daughter watched migraines and ear infections stop the moment they moved away. A Canadian sheep farming family lost about 500 head, and the daughter told Clayton her father developed early-onset dementia in the same window.

Clayton also lays out the counter-move: ag impact studies, development districts, water conservation districts, rezoning, cross-partisan pressure.

If you eat food and live in Texas, this one's for you.

You'll Learn:

[0:00] Introduction
[8:45] Why the 5,000-to-400 China gap makes the whole competition argument a lie
[19:20] The Flock camera that appeared at his ranch after he started talking
[28:05] Wall Street's plan to drain Texas dry, and the cooling scam that hides it
[39:57] 765 lines corroding pipelines toward disaster, and the zero-water tech being ignored
[55:49] The stillbirths, migraines, and dead sheep that nearby families report
[1:28:19] Light pollution two miles out still wrecks your biology
[1:37:51] The tax handouts fueling BESS fires, and why stopping the AI bubble matters now
[1:59:33] The limits of fixing this alone, and Clayton’s message to MAHA on change
[2:09:49] The regenerative score label, and flagging processed food as abnormal
[2:28:21] His MAHA-branded opponent's stock ties to glyphosate and Tyson

Related The Way Forward Episodes:

Coming Home: Healing the Chronic Disease of Separation with Dr. Zach Bush | Podcast
Ez-Water, Aether, & The Biofield featuring Carrie Bennett | Podcast
Circadian Biology, Leptin, & Light featuring Sarah Kleiner | Podcast
How Too Much Artificial Light & Sunlight Affect Lifelong Health & Mortality with Matt Maruca | Podcast

Resources Mentioned:

AI Data Center Map | Website
Family Farms Filing Bankruptcy by Alec | Instagram Post

Find more from Clayton:

Clayton Tucker | Pitch In | Learn More

Find more from Alec:

Alec Zeck | Instagram | X
The Way Forward | Instagram

Donate to The Way Forward here.

The Way Forward is Sponsored By:

New Biology Clinic: Redefine Health from the Ground Up
Experience tailored terrain-based health services with consults, livestreams, movement classes, and more. Use code THEWAYFORWARD (case-sensitive) for $50 off activation.
The Way Forward members get the $150 fee waived.

BEAM Minerals: Feel the Difference in Days: Join thousands recharging with plant-based minerals. Click here for 20% Off Your First Bottle of BEAM.

Want more crypto insights and a community to back you up?
Join the Crypto Freedom Academy today. It’s 100% free and designed to help you master the markets. 🔗 Get your free lifetime access here.