La Puma Proffers Solution for our ‘Indoor Epidemic’ and More Spoken Word Matters
Santa Barbara’s own two-time best-selling author, TV personality, physician, professional chef and, most tellingly, regenerative-organic farmer Dr. John La Puma heads to Montecito’s beloved bookshop to talk about and sign copies of Indoor Epidemic, his just-published and heavily-researched work subtitled: 93% Inside Steals Sleep, Focus and Years – The 7% Outdoor Rx Restores Them. At a pair of press gatherings at his small farm on the city’s upper westside, La Puma talked about the concepts in the book – which show how too much time indoors (or rather not enough time outside) can lead to a plethora of problems that plague our society these days, including depression, difficulties with sleep, trouble focusing, and even high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer.
The good news is that it takes but a modicum of time in nature to address the problem. He not only discussed this fact, he happily demonstrated it on a tour around the charming urban-agricultural locale, showing off the sights, sounds, smells, and even touch and taste, as samples of his produce were shared. At different stations we learned that natural morning light combats overexposure to pixels, how movement in nature (“green exercise”) is more valuable than time at a gym, and why taking time to notice the sky and take intentional breaths pack big health benefits into relatively
brief moments.
The catalyst for La Puma came about 15 years ago. He’d departed his recently purchased farm (and its litany of much needed upgrades) for an appearance on Dr. Oz in New York, but immediately longed to be back in town working on the land.
“I had a very successful speaking career and was lucky to get booked on Dr. Oz, but instead of adding more events in New York I felt compelled to get back to grow things other than my career,” he said. “I just wanted to go home and pull weeds, trap gophers and plant trees. Here I was on a fast track, and I apparently wanted to get off it. I wondered why. I wanted to figure out the science of it.”
More than a decade later he’d digested more than 2,000 peer-reviewed studies about how nature works as medicine. La Puma was ready and willing to share how, on average, as little as 17 minutes a day of intentional time in nature can significantly improve your health.
Indoor Epidemic has seven chapters that explain step-by-step how to counteract too much time indoors, each chapter focusing on a different locale on the farm. It’s a process he has previously shared with groups of people – including a session with physicians at UCLA, who partook of the hands-on experience to help them articulate and prescribe the remedy to patients.
“It’s about repurposing the two-to-five hours – out of the average 12 hours a week that we already spend outside – as healthcare,” La Puma said. “Specific intentional time turns the minutes into medicine.”
La Puma will be at Tecolote Book Shop, 1470 East Valley Road, from 3-5 pm on Saturday, April 18. Much more information, including videos and a link to an audio copy of the book, is available at https://tinyurl.com/La-Puma-Book
More Tecolote Talks
Shaun Tomson, the Montecito-based world champion surfer turned bestselling author and globally respected leadership speaker, is publishing a 20th anniversary edition of Surfer’s Code, his self-help book borne out of personal tragedy that shares timeless values of commitment, resilience, courage, and personal responsibility. The updated edition, officially out April 28, includes a new introduction plus revised and updated material drawn from decades of lived experience in and out of the water, including some practices meant to address an increasingly broken world. At Tecolote at 3 pm on Saturday, May 2, Tomson signs copies and invites visitors to experience the power of making promises and carrying through on the commitment; aka “I will.”
Ann Shepphird stops in at Tecolote to talk about Destination New York City, the fourth book in her Destination Murder Mystery series, which combines exotic locales and a behind-the-scenes look at the travel industry itself; the combination rife with the mystery genre’s requisite plot twists and turns. In addition to signing copies of her books, Shepphird will also share details of the next mystery book in the series, set to take place in Santa Barbara, adding our charming seaside city to previous “Destination” sites of Maui, Monterey, and Lake Tahoe. The event on Saturday, April 25, coincides with Independent Bookstore Day.
Reel Fun at the SB Lit Fest
The Santa Barbara Literary Festival packs a truly impressive number of events into its brief two-day event over the weekend of May 2-3, its brisk pace standing in stark contrast to the venerable Santa Barbara Writers Conference that lasts just shy of a full week annually in June, thus serving as a sort of counterpoint that flips SBWC upside down in a number of ways.
The SB Literary Fest features a mass influx of authors who engage in talks and panel discussions, while actual workshops are largely only an hour long. This is the reverse of SBWC, whose days are taken up with numerous workshops over the course of the conference, the author speaking events inserted here and there into the itinerary. Another contrast is the peripatetic nature of the May Santa Barbara Literary Festival, which takes place at almost a dozen different venues, mostly in the beautiful downtown area. SBWC, by comparison, offers its wares within the confines of the Mar Monte Hotel on Cabrillo. Taken together, lucky writers, readers, and all-around lovers of the published and spoken word should be fully sated by the time mid-June rolls around.
The Literary Festival has so many speakers, it’s easy not to notice some of the big names in the screenwriter and film makers section, those not normally noted for literary works. This category includes Matthew Weiner, who topped his success as a writer and executive producer on The Sopranos by creating and serving as showrunner of the even more popular and influential series Mad Men. Some would say both series can be seen as much more literary than many modern novels.
Also coming is Bob Gale, the co-creator, co-writer and producer of the Back to the Future trilogy of films alongside the more famous Robert Zemeckis, the movies’ director (and husband of Literary Festival co-founder and Montecito Journal columnist Leslie Zemeckis). Gale conceived the story, developing the concept of a teenager traveling back to high school with his father and coming up with the idea of a DeLorean as the time-traveling device.
Among screenwriter, director and actor John Gatins’ credits is the 2012 film Flight, which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the movie that starred Denzel Washington and was directed, not coincidentally, by Robert Zemeckis.
Weiner and Gatins will team up to discuss “Story, Structure, and Screenwriting,” covering the elements that turn a blank page into an unforgettable film or television series including character, dialogue, structure, revision and collaboration. The conversation takes place at the (very recently repurposed) Karpeles Manuscript Library at 1:45 pm on Sunday, May 3. Actress, writer and stand-up comedian Cathryn Michon moderates.
The aforementioned Bob Gale will offer in his event (12:15 pm on Saturday, May 2) an inside look at the creation and evolution of the Back to the Future franchise, diving into the writing process, the decisions that shaped the films’ iconic characters, and their later adaptation to a Broadway musical. Billy Zane, who played one of bully Biff Tannen’s high school cronies in his first film role, will be on hand to sign autographs at the end of the event.
In an event at the intersection of entertainment and journalism, the panel called “Inside the wild rise of Rolling Stone” brings together Peter Richardson, author of the just-published Brand New Beat: The Wild Rise of Rolling Stone Magazine, PEN USA Award-wining journalist Ann Louise Bardach, former Rolling Stone writer-editors Abe Peck and Charles Perry, and moderator Jerry Roberts. The panel will talk about the magazine’s pioneering, rule-dismissing form of journalism and where the publication stands today at 5:15 pm on Saturday, May 2, at Restaurant Roy.
Visit www.santabarbaraliteraryfestival.org
Turn the Page with Veteran Political Journalist
The Santa Barbara News-Press, – recently revived as an online only operation through NewsWell, a nonprofit based at Arizona State University – hosts writer Susan Page. The author and longtime USA Today Washington Bureau Chief will be appearing at the News-Press’ first ever event at CEC’s Environmental Hub on April 23. Page, whose best-selling biographies include books on Barbara Walters, Barbara Bush, and Nancy Pelosi, is promoting her new book, The Queen and Her Presidents: The Hidden Hand That Shaped History, which was released on April 14. The book is described as The Crown meets The West Wing in an illuminating history that chronicles the largely unknown story of Queen Elizabeth II’s relationship with 13 American presidents, from Harry Truman to Donald Trump over her 70-year reign. Incidentally, that’s just three more American presidents than Page herself has personally interviewed.
The event, supported by the Santa Barbara Literary Festival, includes a cocktail hour with Page and the Santa Barbara News-Press team, with a Q&A and book signing to follow.
Admission is free.
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