The Reaching Higher Podcast

When Senator Lindsey Graham died suddenly of an aortic dissection, actor Tyler Ritter recognized the coded phrase "brief illness" immediately. In 2003, his father — beloved actor John Ritter — died from the same misdiagnosed condition. In this special return episode, recorded from Argentina, Tyler explains what an aortic dissection actually is, why doctors so often miss it, and how the John Ritter Foundation is working ...

For the better part of 14 years, Jim Weiss was my boss, my mentor, and the person who taught me that communication is leadership. He also wrote the foreword to my book, Wired for Purpose. So this one is personal.

Jim is the founder and now chairman of Real Chemistry — the company he started as a one-person consultancy in 2001 and grew into a global health innovation powerhouse. Today he hosts the Get Real podcast, a show b...

What happens when a single text message becomes a movement? In this episode of the Reaching Higher Podcast, Aaron Strout sits down with Shawn VanDiver, Navy veteran and founder of AfghanEvac, the coalition that has helped resettle more than 195,000 Afghan allies. Shawn traces the story from an August 2021 message from his friend Lucky to building what federal leaders call the gold standard for public-private partnership.

Along t...

In this episode, host Aaron Strout sits down with a longtime friend, Dr. Chethan Sathya — pediatric trauma surgeon, public health leader, trained journalist, and Oscar-winning consulting producer. From a SXSW speaker dinner years ago to this long-overdue deep dive, the two unpack Chethan's improbable career and the through-line that connects all of it: the belief that storytelling, backed by data, is what actually changes hea...

James and Nancy Keach join Reaching Higher for a conversation about brotherhood, memory, and the diseases that quietly reshape families. James — director of Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, Turning Point, and the new Greg Allman: The Music of My Soul — shares how he found himself telling stories about Alzheimer’s, addiction, and grief, and what forty years of failed drug trials taught him about the scientists behi...

In this special edition of Reaching Higher, host Aaron Strout looks back on an unforgettable Season Two — featuring Kathy Giusti, Justin Brooks, Chef Christine Ha, Gary Vaynerchuk, Chef Aaron Sanchez, and a healthcare-and-AI panel with Dr. Amy Abernethy, Seema Verma, and Christopher Kunney. Aaron also celebrates the launch of his book, Wired for Purpose, and his East Coast tour through DC, NYC, and Boston. Plus, a sneak peek ...

Greg Kahn operates at the intersection of three worlds most people treat as separate careers: artificial intelligence, media, and sports. A self-described "catalytic connector" who has driven billions in deals and advised giants like Google, Disney, and MasterCard, Greg co-founded AI Trailblazers to help leaders cut through the hype and actually move the technology forward. He's also bringing The Global Game Summit to Newark this J...

What happens when you put three of healthcare's sharpest minds in the same room? You get a masterclass in what it's actually going to take to fix a broken system.

In this special panel episode, host Aaron Strout is joined by Dr. Amy Abernethy, co-founder of Highlander Health, former FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner, and hematologist-oncologist with 500+ published works; Seema Verma, EVP & GM of Oracle Health and Life Scienc...

Re-posting this episode with Michigan State Senator and 2026 US Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow who brings a refreshing, no-bullshit approach to politics — one rooted not in law school, but in industrial design. In this candid conversation, Mallory shares how her Notre Dame design background shaped her problem-solving mindset, her mother's powerful example of faith-in-action over performative religion, and the now-viral 202...

What happens when your professional mission and your deepest personal loss become the same thing? Phyllis Barkman Ferrell — former Eli Lilly executive, global health architect, and relentless Alzheimer’s advocate — knows firsthand. Six months after taking over Lilly’s Alzheimer’s disease portfolio in 2011, her father was diagnosed. Eighteen months later, her father-in-law was too. That loss became the ...

What if the most powerful tool for your mental and physical health has been with you your entire life? In this episode, Aaron sits down with Charlie Baldwin, a certified breathing instructor with the Art of Living — a global wellness organization founded in 1981, now active in over 185 countries.

During this episode, Charlie shares his remarkable journey from a college student battling depression and nearly dropping out, t...

What if the most powerful cancer-fighting tools aren't found in a pharmacy, but in your daily habits? In this episode, Aaron sits down with Dr. Lorenzo Cohen, a pioneer in integrative oncology who has spent nearly 30 years at MD Anderson Cancer Center blending conventional cancer care with evidence-based lifestyle interventions.

Dr. Cohen introduces us to the "Mix of Six" — six lifestyle pillars that can meaningfully reduc...

In this special crossover episode, Aaron trades his usual hosting chair for the guest seat alongside "Joyosity" author Jenn Whitmer — and the two are interviewed by none other than bestselling author and Non-Obvious Company founder Rohit Bhargava. What unfolds is a rich, candid conversation about two books, two missions, and one shared conviction: that humanity — joy, purpose, belonging, and genuine human connection &md...

Aaron and Justin cover a remarkable amount of ground, from Justin's early days as a clinical teaching fellow at Georgetown (where he and Aaron first crossed paths) to his decision to quit a stable law professorship and launch the California Innocence Project in 1999. Justin explains what compelled him to visit a young woman on death row in Illinois who claimed innocence — and how that single visit changed the trajectory of hi...

Chef Christine Ha — MasterChef Season 3 winner, New York Times bestselling cookbook author, restaurateur, and disability advocate — joins Aaron Strout for a deeply moving and inspiring conversation. Christine shares how losing her mother at 14, gradually losing her sight to neuromyelitis optica, and competing on the world's biggest cooking stage all shaped the chef, author, and advocate she is today. From the kitchen of...

In this deeply moving episode, host Aaron Strout sits down with Luke Mickelson, founder of nonprofit "Sleep in Heavenly Peace" (SHP) — the organization behind the powerful mission: "No kid sleeps on the floor in our town."

What started in Luke's Idaho garage after discovering local children sleeping on piles of clothes has grown into a global movement with over 400 chapters across the US and four countries, delivering hund...

What does it take to go from a terminal diagnosis to transforming an entire industry? In this episode, we sit down with Kathy Giusti — two-time cancer survivor, founder of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), Harvard Business School faculty member, and author of Fatal to Fearless — to talk about adopting a CEO mindset when navigating a cancer diagnosis, breaking down silos in healthcare, and why curing cance...

Today’s guest is someone who truly embodies what it means to reach higher—Chef Aaron Sanchez. I met Chef Aaron Sanchez about 15 years ago at his friend's restaurant in New Orleans. My family and I had discovered him on the Food Network's show, Chopped back in 2009 and he was one of our favorites.

Over the years, we kept in touch and he was gracious enough to be a guest on my previous What2Know (which morphed into the...

In this episode, Aaron Strout sits down with Alaina Percival, co‑founder of Women Who Code to explore her journey from global brand management at companies like Puma and Versace to building one of the world’s most influential communities for women in tech.

During the conversation, Alaina shares how teaching herself to code sparked a mission that ultimately supported women across 147 countries before Women Who Code transiti...