A stunning change is afoot

More like a role reversal

Ever since my wife, Allison McKeany, and I met over 13 years ago, I’ve been the one more likely to create something and put it out into the world (be it my writing, music, startup companies, random thoughts on social media, etc.). Yet lately, she’s been putting herself out there way more than I have been.

She has been hosting a weekly radio show for over six months now, writes TWO Substack publications (Insight Into Health and Put Your Food to Work), speaks at recurring events in our Sonoma community, and leads a local gleaning program through extrafood.org. And this is all on top of her paid work as a registered dietitian and consultant.

Not to mention, she’s also an incredible mom to our daughter, who has a disability, and my 17-year-old stepdaughter (who somehow can now drive and will be a senior in high school next year!).

It’s kind of a lot—in a good way. I often feel like I can’t keep up with everything she has going on.

There was a time several months ago when she was frustrated. She wanted to do more to help people in our community and beyond. She wanted to spread her message of moving people beyond what to do for their health, to explore their personal why, and ultimately figure out how to make it work for them in a realistic, sustainable way. In other words, help them be healthier with no fad diets, no shaming, and no shoulds.

I pushed back, worried that she already had too much on her plate. I’d seen myself get burned out trying to juggle a full-time job while caretaking our daughter, and, y’know, just generally adulting. And I didn’t want to see her go down that all-too-familiar route. But then she shot back with the sort of unadulterated self-confidence and passion I wish I had and said, “Everything I’m doing right now is easy. I can practically do it in my sleep. I have so much more to give.”

Ever since then, I’ve noticed just how easy it is for her. Often, I find her in “madman mode,” where her keyboard fingers seemingly can’t keep up with how fast her brain is moving. It can be intimidating because I know she’s usually like ten steps ahead of me. There’s this impressive sense of urgency that she’s able to conjure day in and day out. When she speaks about what’s feeling alive for her in her work, her enthusiasm for helping people live more healthily is infectious. It’s the type of work that doesn’t really have a finish line. And yet, that fact doesn’t seem to bother her at all. If anything, it seems to motivate her even more.

What I admire about her most is that she does all this with truly pure intentions. She doesn’t want to make a ton of money off of it. She couldn't care less about being famous. She cringes at the thought of her being considered a brand. Instead, she really just wants to get approachable, actionable, accurate health information into people’s hands and brains so they can live better, longer lives.

I share all this not only because she’s my wife and I love her and I’m proud of her, but because she just announced her new podcast, Insight Into Health, which she will be publishing every week starting this Wednesday.

Check out the 62-second trailer here:

Insight into Health Podcast Trailer

You can subscribe to it on Substack or follow it wherever you listen to podcasts (here are the links to Apple and Spotify).

If you’re not already convinced, here are a few more reasons to listen to her:

• Allison is a 6 on the Enneagram, called The Loyalist. This is relevant because it means she’s generally hypervigilant. In other words, she won’t share any information she doesn’t wholeheartedly believe in and, most importantly, has researched extensively. On the other hand, it also means that everything she shares includes a disclaimer that it’s not medical advice.

• In a similar vein, she generally has a scientific bent, which means she’s more than willing to change her mind if newer or better research becomes available on any given health subject.

• She’s funnier than she gives herself credit for.

• Even though I’ve known her longer than the vast majority of you reading this, and she and I have had many discussions about the topics she’ll be exploring, I almost always learn something new when I read or listen to her work.

Okay, that’s enough from me for today. Now it’s your turn to spend just over a minute of your day listening to her podcast trailer and subscribing to get her upcoming episodes.