Terrain Theory

Terrain Theory

Terrain Theory is hosted by childhood friends Ben Hardy and Mike Merenda, two seekers on a mission to dismantle the fear-based germ-theory paradigm and illuminate how the body’s terrain—its environment, balance, and intelligence—shapes true wellness. Through insightful conversations with pioneering guests, we reveal how nature’s intelligence, ancient wisdom, and modern science converge in the art of true health and healing. Every episode invites you to reclaim your agency, recognize that you are your primary healthcare provider, and transform your own terrain into a sanctuary of resilience and vitality.

Episodes

February 17, 2026 130 mins

Long before modern TCM was standardized, systematized, and filtered through a biomedical lens, Classical Chinese Medicine described health as harmony...not the absence of pathogens, but the presence of balance.

In this conversation, Tommy Hughes walks us back to the original canon — the Huangdi Neijing, the language of Qi, the cosmology of seasons, and the principle of treating what is not yet diseased.

We explore the distinction bet...

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What if many of the chronic issues we label as “disease” are really the result of lost space, broken flow, and a body that can no longer breathe from the inside out?

In this episode of the Terrain Theory Podcast, we’re joined by fascia researcher and Block Therapy founder Deanna Hansen for a deep exploration of fascia as the physical environment of the body...and why its condition may determine how well your terrain can heal, detoxi...

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Since his last appearance on the Terrain Theory Podcast, Mitch The Orgone Donor has been thinking bigger.

In this wide-ranging return conversation, Mitch challenges one of the most entrenched narratives in the alternative research world: that chemtrails and geoengineering are the agenda itself. Instead, he argues that what we see in the sky may be a symptom – a visible byproduct of a much larger system of control operating at the le...

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For months on Terrain Theory, we’ve been exploring nutrition through the lens of terrain – questioning fasting, fruit-heavy paradigms, Natural Hygiene, and the idea that healing happens not through intervention, but through removal of interference. In this episode, we step before the diet wars entirely and ask a deeper question: what is the human body actually built from, and who are we eating for?

Our guest is Phoenix Be, a Primal ...

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What if much of today’s terrain theory conversation is missing its own scientific foundation?

In this episode of the Terrain Theory Podcast, we’re joined by Lauren Farris – co-founder of the Terrain Model Refutes Germ Theory community and founder of The Raw Key – for a deep dive into what she argues has been largely overlooked: 150 years of natural hygiene science that followed Béchamp and predates modern medicine entirely.

Lauren sh...

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What happens when someone trained at the very heart of modern science begins to question everything they were taught?

In this episode of the Terrain Theory Podcast, we’re joined by Dr. Jo Whitaker, a scientist with a PhD in genetic vaccines and advanced training in genetics, microbiology, immunology, and oncology, whose career took a radical turn when the prevailing scientific narrative stopped matching observable reality.

Trained at...

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December 30, 2025 29 mins

At the end of every Terrain Theory episode, we ask our guests the same question:

What are your non-negotiables, the daily habits you do to tend to your terrain?

In this special year-end episode, we revisit some of the most compelling answers from 2025. Across disciplines and perspectives, our guests reflect on rhythm and circadian health, movement in nature, nutrition and species-appropriate eating, discipline and simplicity, stillne...

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In this Wellness Check episode of the Terrain Theory Podcast, Ben and Mike sit down with their Primary Healthcare Providers – themselves – for a grounded, honest check-in as 2025 comes to a close and 2026 comes into view.

This conversation spans the deeply personal and the deeply practical.

Ben shares the story of welcoming a new baby through an unexpected, peaceful home birth – an experience that reframes birth not as a medical emer...

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After more than three years, Marlon Azurdia returns to the Terrain Theory Podcast...and he brings with him a depth of lived experience that can only come from someone fully committed to walking the path.

A former CrossFit Games athlete who famously competed as a vegan, Marlon has spent the last decade challenging every nutritional and performance assumption placed in front of him. In this episode, he shares how that journey has evol...

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What if one of the longest-running human health experiments has been hiding in plain sight...quietly unfolding across the life of a man who’s never eaten the Standard American Diet, never accepted the inevitability of chronic disease, and never believed that health comes from a pill, an injection, or a supplement?

In this episode, we sit down with Mark Huberman, President of the National Health Association and lifelong practitioner ...

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New York City history teacher Stephanie Edmonds never imagined that her dedication to her students would one day cost her the career she loved. But during COVID, as she watched extended school shutdowns devastate her students’ mental health and academic progress, she began speaking publicly about the harms she was witnessing firsthand. When New York City rolled out vaccine mandates for teachers, Stephanie refused — and was ultimate...

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What if the diet you believe is healing your body is actually holding it hostage?
 In this episode, we sit down with Mariah Manazza — once a full-on homesteader living the traditional diet dream — as she reveals how raw milk, pasture-raised meats, and ancestral traditions weren’t enough. In fact, they nearly broke her. Migraines, depression, numbness, leg pain, cysts — all symptoms she was told she’d have for life. Until she as...

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Alcohol is the world’s most socially accepted toxin — a substance woven into our rituals, relationships, and celebrations, yet responsible for immeasurable physical, emotional, and societal harm. What happens when we finally confront that truth?

In this episode, we sit down with Professor David Nutt, neuropsychopharmacologist, author, and founder of GABA Labs, to explore alcohol’s hidden toll on the human terrain — from cellular tox...

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What if your body isn’t just a collection of organs, but a living, self-organizing field of light, water, and energy? In this episode of the Terrain Theory Podcast, Ben and Mike sit down with Nikko Kennedy, Director of Research at the Institute of Applied Quantum Biology, to explore the frontier where circadian health meets quantum biology.

Nikko explains how quantum physics underlies the biological processes of life, from the way m...

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Elizabeth Vernon is a beekeeper-activist, herbalist, and founder of Queen Bees Farmacy, dedicated to bringing together the world of wild-crafted remedies, advocacy, and deep terrain insight.

In this episode, we dive into the hidden dimensions of health and resistance — from how screen time is reshaping our bodies and nervous systems to the untested and unknown dangers of biologics. Elizabeth pulls no punches as we unpack how certain...

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Dr. Anna Sitkoff is a naturopathic physician and herbalist whose clinical and personal journey has been guided by a deep relationship with medicinal mushrooms. In this episode, she shares how her early exposure to natural medicine—and a life-changing experience with her father’s cancer treatment—sparked a decade-long exploration into the world of fungi.

Dr. Sitkoff unpacks the science and spirit of mushrooms: their role in...

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Dr. Shivani Gupta is an Ayurvedic practitioner, author, and founder of Fusionary Formulas. In this episode, she helps us rediscover Ayurveda as the original terrain-based health system — one that recognizes the body’s innate intelligence and its connection to mind, spirit, and environment (Nature). We discuss how to identify your mind-body type (dosha), personalize your health rituals, and use ancient wisdom to navigate modern stre...

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Can the darkness heal you? Are you willing to find out?

Scott Berman is the founder of Sky Cave Retreats, a dark retreat sanctuary in Southern Oregon that puts guests in complete and total darkness for a set period of time. In this safe space, with somatic support and all needs met, a guest may relax into the rhythms of the dark, soften, and simply exist.

In this conversation with Scott we discuss:

  • How his early experiences with w...
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This is the hill we die on.

Leah Wilson is Executive Director and Co-Founder of Stand for Health Freedom, a nonprofit organization dedicated to informing and activating grassroots movements to protect our health and our families. Since their inception in 2019 they have helped empower the masses to take over 6 million actions to preserve and promote informed consent, parental rights, religious freedom, freedom of speech, and privacy.

...

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Salima Adelstein is a Master Healer, a Sufi Spiritual Guide, and the co-founder of The University of Sufism, a non-profit, religious organization whose vision is to open the heart of humanity to the Reality of Divine Love, Gnostic understanding and complete healing.

In this conversation we discuss:

  • Understanding Sufism
  • The central practices of the Sufi
  • The power of remembrance
  • Purification of the heart
  • How asking "what do I love...
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