157: Starts with the Sun: Why Circadian Basics Matter More Than You Think with Shannon Kates

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“I tried everything under the sun—except the sun. And that was what I needed to do,” says Shannon Kates, former investment banker turned wellness advocate, who joins the Quantum Biology Collective Podcast to share her transformational journey from peak career success to debilitating health challenges—and her surprising, science-backed path back to vitality.

In this episode, Shannon Kates reveals how the endless pursuit of solutions in the digital health marketplace left her feeling more overwhelmed and unwell than ever. After running the gauntlet of supplements, specialist diets, and protocols, she discovered that the missing piece wasn’t in her pantry, but just beyond her front door—a fundamental reconnection with natural light, circadian rhythms, and nature itself.

Rooted in research spanning thousands of PubMed studies and Nobel-winning discoveries in circadian biology, Shannon Kates unpacks how light—and darkness—drive our mitochondrial health, shape our metabolism, and even regulate anxiety. She shares how simple, ancient practices like morning sunlight, grounding, and blocking artificial blue light at night offer more powerful results than any trendy biohack.

Tune into the Quantum Biology Collective Podcast to hear how Shannon Kates cut through the chaos, formed Squint Essentials as a “start here” guide for overwhelmed seekers, and why true wellness might be, as she puts it, “embarrassingly simple.” Discover why, if you haven’t thought about light, there’s more room for hope, healing, and energy than you ever realized.

5 Key Takeaways

Light is the overlooked foundation of vibrant health—start reclaiming your biology today with these essentials:

1. Get outside for morning sunlight before screens—begin every day with natural light to set your circadian rhythm and energize your body.
2. Prioritize real connection with nature—take sun breaks, eat or make calls outside, and ground yourself daily for a stronger body and mind.
3. Ditch blue light at night—dim your lights, use blue-blocking glasses, and shut off screens early to protect melatonin and deep sleep.
4. Unsubscribe from the chaos—stop chasing endless wellness tips and focus instead on these core routines that move the needle.
5. Take small, consistent steps—perfection isn’t required. Every bit of extra sunlight and grounded time counts, so start simple and build from there.

Memorable Quotes

"I tried everything under the sun except the sun, and that was what I needed to do. I didn’t realize that my relationship with light and my daily routines around light were actually what would move the needle on all these issues that were bothering me most."

"My health and wellness was all about my relationship with light. It was about this Nobel Prize winning concept of circadian rhythm—bright days and dark nights. It felt so simple, almost embarrassingly simple, but it’s the foundation for everything else."

"Our body is incredibly complex, but the solution is embarrassingly simple, and that is getting outside every day. We are circadian beings, we live by rhythms, and our health really starts with cycles and routines that are basic and every day."

Connect with Shannon

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Episode Transcript

(06:12):
Shannon Kate, welcome to the QVC podcast.
Thank you. Happy to be here. Yeah. I'm so excited to do
this. So I want to dive into your story,
um, because as we were just chatting about, I love, I love
the stories of people especially who have, like, a very strong
business background or from what we would consider like a very sort of

(06:35):
traditional way of doing things in the world. And
then they find their way into. The wellness lane because. Right. You know, we
can talk about, you know, people are like, oh, you know,
I don't do that. That's not my deal. Like, let's go to the doctor and
get into all this other nonsense. So walk us through. Walk
us through your story. You're an investment banker, you're doing all

(06:57):
the things, and now here you are,
right, Creating a media company for light. So tell us
what happened. Yes. So, yes, I am the I'm pearl wearing
hippie dippy now. But anyway, so I
did. I worked for an investment bank. I lived in Los Angeles.
And, you know, I was. I was doing all

(07:20):
the right things and. But I wasn't feeling my best and
I knew something was off and I took the
traditional route. I went to my functional doctor.
By that time, you know, I was in my 40s, my hormones were
crashing, and I actually, I went to the doctor and

(07:41):
she, this is a true story. She said, I'm sorry, Shannon, I think
your ovaries have just fallen asleep. This is just a short
period of time. And I said, well, can you wake them?
Can you wake them up? And
so I was having all these experiences and I wasn't getting, you know, I was.
The people that I was expecting to have the answers didn't have them.

(08:03):
So I did what everybody else did. And I think my story is no
different than anyone else's, which is I searched for answers,
and once I didn't get them from the people that I thought should have them,
I. I took it upon myself. And when I first took it upon
myself, I became, you know,
what a marketer's dream. Right? I read every

(08:26):
email, I signed up for every
influencer's, you know, thoughts on health. And I mean, even
this morning when I look in my email, I have to share this with you
because my. My struggle with health was
that. Not that I didn't have solutions, but. But I was
overwhelmed with solutions. There were so many solutions

(08:47):
in the health marketplace, and I was completely overwhelmed by
them. And so if there was, you know, someone would
say, oh, I've got something for that. Oh, text me that, oh, I have someone
for that. Oh, I'll do that. So I was just chasing
solutions, but still really feeling miserable and
not figuring out why I couldn't get my

(09:08):
body to a place where I wanted it to be. And so even this
morning, I have to share this with you because we are in this chaos of
health. It says, okay, so, one. These are all.
Okay, so these are all. Because what I love that you did
was, okay, so you're. You're having health
issues that are affecting your quality of life. Yes. Go to your doctor, everyone.

(09:31):
Which we all do. And they're like, yeah, your labs are okay. Don't
worry about it. Or whatever. No, you're just, you know, know, getting older. Oh, you
have young kids. This is normal. Basically, a
million different ways of saying, like, I got nothing. I got
nothing. I got nothing. Yeah. So some people slink away and are like,
oh, I guess. I guess this is just life now. That's. And

(09:52):
then some people, like, you are like, no, I don't accept
that. Nope, that was me too. I'm like, this can't be right.
Nope. And then the journey begins.
It's like, where to go? There's so much.
And yeah, you sign up and so you're still. So you are just going to
share with us some. Yeah. And then you start to get. Problem isn't like, oh,

(10:15):
I got nothing. The problem is I got so much and I don't know exactly
thing exactly. And I had everything. So, you
know, I wasn't methylating my B vitamins. So I went on, you
know, the big chase for methylcobalamin. And I thought if I could get my
supplements right, then everything would be fine, you
know. And then I, you know, and then I had heavy metals.

(10:38):
And so what I didn't know at the time was that my best chelator
for heavy metals was actually melanin, was actually the sun.
But there were so many things about light that I didn't understand at that time.
And I didn't understand that light was actually what moved
the needle on so many of the com. So every complaint
that I had, whether it was. Whether it was, you know, gut issues,

(11:00):
I was having bloating, I was having hormone issues, I was having sleep
issues, I was having thyroid issues. I was, you know,
I had anxiety out of nowhere. I just didn't know I wasn't
operating optimally. And I couldn't figure it out. And I was
given small little tidbits and I chased down there, I chased
this, I chased that. And then I'm still

(11:23):
noticing. And I mean, no one can even have a conversation
anymore with a group of women or a group of men. All
people are talking about is, you know, carbs and
protein and fat and what should I be doing? And what I know
now is that it comes back to
energy over inflammation, right? And that one third of the

(11:44):
story is food, but two thirds is
light and grounding. And our bodies as
electromagnetic beings, we are not this kind of,
you know, we aren't just a function of these diets. And
this, you know, this morning in my email, you know all the
headlines and I every morning you open up your email.

(12:07):
So one common, one common fruit turns sleep
into a fat burning machine. And that was the email that I
responded to. What is that common fruit? I need to find out what that
common fruit was. And I was a very intelligent person, but boy,
they had me because I was searching. I didn't feel well.
I wanted answers and I really wanted to find them. And I was,

(12:29):
I tried everything. I tried everything under the sun except the sun.
And that was what I needed to do. And
even this, you know, memory loss linked to five common
additives. Are they in your pantry? So I would
fall into this kind of. Oh, so I would check my pantry.
I probably had, I read that email five years ago, I probably would have

(12:51):
undone my pantry, figured out if I had these five ingredients
and actually thought that those were contributing to
things like why I wasn't sleeping, why I didn't have energy,
why my hormones were dysregulated. And I didn't realize that
my relationship with light and my daily routines around
light were actually what were really going to move the needle on

(13:14):
all these issues that were bothering me most.
And so that was so,
so eye opening. But just in terms of results,
just changing how I felt. I mean, I literally
was so fatigued. I was so fatigued. I
mean, in the afternoon. And then of course, I go to my caffeine

(13:37):
and you know, I'm trying, oh, I'm going to load on more
supplements. I mean, I kept loading. Oh, it must be the collagen protein.
Oh, I didn't juice my celery this morning. Oh, I didn't count my
steps. Oh, I didn't do this. I didn't do this. And there's kind of this
cycle of disappointment in what I'm not keeping up with
because there's so many solutions. So there, it wasn't

(13:59):
possible for me to achieve health because I
couldn't, I couldn't really follow all these
solutions. There were so many when the real solution was
embarrassingly simple. It was embarrassingly simple,
which was reconnect with nature. And it was
starting my day without my phone, not sleeping with my phone

(14:21):
in my room. Starting my day with morning light as
early as possible. Sunrises are optimal, you know, know,
grounded in the earth, facing east, no
contacts, light in my eyes, light on my skin.
Connecting to nature and actually listening to nature. I mean, I
realized that I just had become so disconnected.

(14:43):
I didn't even hear birds anymore. I mean, I know that sounds crazy, but
I literally was so disconnected that I,
I had all these natural frequencies that I were, was just
completely disconnected from. So.
Wow. Yeah, it's amazing. And it's, you
know when you say like I didn't even hear the birds, I totally feel that.

(15:06):
And it's like the
way that, I mean there's so much in what you just said that we,
that we can unpack, but
the idea that so many of our health issues
have come about because of the artificial barriers that we put up
between ourselves and what really

(15:28):
drives our biology, which is nature.
And then on top of that, within those barriers, we've filled it up
with harmful frequencies that
are harming our biology and cut ourselves off. And
so we go to find solutions for that and we're
just inundated. And the,

(15:52):
the digital marketing sphere has so
completely taken over, which, you know, I, I think
it's great that people are able to, to run a business off the Internet and
work outside the system. I think that's amazing. I have no problem with it.
But in order to maintain your social
content, like we're just, just completely overwhelmed

(16:15):
with these tips, as you said. So
talk to me a little bit. So you were like navigating through like
pro tip after pro tip after pro tip,
which doesn't lead us to the
fundamentals. Right. So how'd you get there?

(16:35):
I did a lot of research, a ton of research, and I enjoyed it. And
the most shocking part of the research is that
it wasn't a deep dive, it was a very shallow dive because there is
so much research, there are thousands and thousands,
you know, over 80,000 PubMed articles about
circadian biology. And so what I learned is

(16:58):
that my health and wellness was all about
my relationship with light. And it was about this Nobel
Prize winning concept of circadian rhythm, which is
bright days and dark nights. And it felt so simple,
too simple. And I think because we're so marketed
with so many solutions, we don't believe it could be that simple.

(17:21):
We don't believe that it could be that basic. It must be Harder,
you know, we must have to pay for it. It's like, you know, there's, there's,
you know, economic theories about how you value things. And some
people will value, even if it's the same item, if
something's more expensive than the other, then they think that has more
value, which is so interesting to me because the best value, I mean,

(17:44):
they say the best things in life are, are free. And it's true for your
health, whether you want to believe it or not. And I wanted to pay.
I said, oh, if there's a detox, I can buy.
Oh, there's a juice cleanse. Oh, the collagen proteins. Sign me
up. It was this endless cycle of sign
me up. And I was signing up for indoor things and I

(18:06):
needed to sign up for nature. And interestingly enough,
you know, as I did the research and as I really, I love history
as well, you know, I looked at how we evolve
and where we evolved. You know, we evolved on the Eastern Rift
of Africa in the sun, you know, full spectrum
sun. And that is how our brains evolved.

(18:28):
And yes, you know, we all took these migration paths and we have
mitochondrial DNA that really inform, you
know, how our bodies work. And if you look at
the work of Doug Wallace, he's actually the chief of, I'm sure you know Doug,
he's the chief of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania.
He has done incred research on our

(18:50):
mitochondrial DNA and he's shown us that while
we continue to look at research on our nuclear
DNA, that our mitochondria are the one that are
informing us of whether we get sick or stay
well. And that 85 to 90% of
cancers and disease are attributable to

(19:12):
our mitochondrial dysfunction. And how do our mitochondria do
well or not do well? The light we provide them.
So the very mechanism in our cells
that determines whether we get well, stay well
or get sick is dependent on light. It's dependent on
frequencies, it's dependent on the daily

(19:34):
routines that we do around light. Our mitochondria
need full spectrum light, they need infrared light.
In fact, they can't produce ATP unless they have
infrared light, which is 43% of the
daily sun. So just getting outside, you're
providing your body energy that has nothing to do with food.

(19:55):
And our emails. My email this morning was all about food
and the ingredients in my pantry and the food that's going to help me
sleep and the food that's going to do that, and food nourishing food, local
grown food, very important. But I'm a numbers person. And if
you say I can focus on the 2/3 or the 1/3,
I'm going to focus on the 2/3 because that is the driver

(20:18):
for me. That's what moved the needle for me. Do you have to eat
healthy? Should you eat healthy? Of course. But what I'm saying and
what I learned for me is that how our bodies
operate was not just about food. It was about the
water in our body, the grounding, the energy that
we could create by connecting with the sun. And these are kind

(20:40):
of basic, you know, I'm dumbing down quantum biology, but it doesn't
have to be. It's very
simple. If you can't say it in a simple way,
I don't think. Yeah, I mean, it's. The sun's stupid. Like, that's
it. It's, it's about building
your day around light. And we can't always do that. Right? We're,

(21:03):
we're not, you know, our ancestors, we're not naked in the sun all
day hunting and gathering, but we can
create opportunities in our day and prioritize
light. And we prioritize light above everything else.
That means when you're looking at your day, I'm not just looking at,
oh, this is what I'm going to do today. I'm looking at my

(21:26):
day of, this is what I'm going to do today. And how
does light impact that? Am I going to have a meeting during UVA
rise when the sun is around 10 degrees? No, I'm actually going to allow
myself to build my day around the sun. I mean, we've
built our life and our harvest around the sun
for thousands of years. I mean, that's how we live. That is

(21:48):
so true. And we're like, oh, let's take this, take the light cycles
into account and people like, do you understand my schedule?
Right. Exactly. It's not a, this is not
a new thing. No, it's not a new thing. And we're about to, you
know, go through daylight savings again. I mean, we're constantly
toying with Mother Nature and, you know, you sound so

(22:11):
silly. Never fool with Mother Nature. Well, don't. It's true.
It's very true. We, the sun. The
sun is perfectly calibrated for us. Every single
wavelength of light is calibrated for a certain reason
for our body, to keep us healthy. Whether that is the
visible light spectrum that we can see, the red, orange, blue, green, all the

(22:34):
things we learned. Or is it infrared that we
can't see. Infrared is incredibly important. And it's available to us
all day. And uv. UV is incredibly important
to us. And so, you know, I got this email this morning. Add this
to coffee. 312% faster fat
burn. 312% faster fat burn. But what people

(22:57):
don't know is that beta oxidation is fat
burning. Beta oxidation happens to our body, in our body
to help us burn fat. What do we need for beta oxidation?
We need UV light. So we're getting all these
emails about how we need to burn fat, how
we burn fat, we burn fat outside. We burn

(23:19):
fat, we help our metabolism outside.
And I think it's so funny that, you know, these continuous glucose
monitors are all the rage. I was just in New York City, and all these
women, you know, slapping them on and saying, oh, my gosh,
I can't believe when I ate a hot fudge sundae,
it didn't increase my glucose as fast as my

(23:41):
quinoa salad. But they're missing controls
for light. They are chasing down all these
modalities, and they think they're digging deep because they're using a continuous
glucose monitor. And that's what doctors use. But the fact is,
is the. That light is much more powerful to
that equation than anything that they're learning from the continuous glucose

(24:03):
monitor. In fact, had they just got 15 minutes of red light,
they would have reduced those blood glucose spikes by
27% just by getting red light, just by being
outside. So they've. We're thinking of food
and we're thinking of health in the context of.
Of blood sugar. And blood sugar is very important. But how

(24:26):
is our blood sugar regulated? Our blood sugar is regulated
when our mitochondria are working properly, when we're getting red and
infrared light, when our cells are churning. When our cells are
churning, they can deal with a whole lot, but we're
not letting them work properly. And our mitochondria are
powerhouses from 10th grade. They're powering down. And

(24:48):
when they power down, we can't accomplish the basic
things that we want, like sleep, metabolism. All the
things that we're complaining about all come back to light.
So it's. Shannon, you're a powerhouse.
You're a powerhouse explainer. I love it. I love it. And
because, yeah, I mean, this is what's missing, and this is

(25:12):
sort of what we're all here for,
is to bring this piece back in. And
as you said, it's not about replacing anything. I
mean, it may end up replacing some things. It turns out you might not need
certain things once you get outside, but it's not about replacing modalities or
making everything about this. It's about understanding

(25:34):
that this is fundamental. So as you said, okay, so Doug Wallace
has showed us unless you have a rare genetic
disorder, everything, every chronic illness comes back to
mitochondria. Right. And all the research has shown us
that mitochondria are totally light dependent. Yes.
And yet your peers are all drowning in

(25:57):
glucose monitors and you know, 800 different email
tips every day about a whole array of things
without coming back to first
principles. Absolutely. And the sad part
to me is that you know, and I know you've had
some amazing people on your show when you're talking about nervous system

(26:19):
regulation. You know, all these solutions,
ironically are such a detriment to people's
nervous systems. And for our mitochondria to work,
we have to begin with our nervous system. We have to be in a
state where we can actually accept
information and relax into it and research and

(26:42):
be curious. But everyone is so
dysregulated. We have so much information. So that's
kind of number one. That's a big part of it
and we are so connected. Say a little bit more about that and
like what your personal experience is and what you found in the research.
So you know, we've talked a little bit about how light supports our

(27:04):
mitochondrial function. We need it to be healthy. And yes, every important
biological process. Talk to me
about that felt sense of safety because anxiety
is, I mean it is so pervasive.
It is from 4 year olds to
80 year old, you know, like everyone seems to

(27:26):
be struggling with that in
some capacity. And the way that we all went to food and supplements for
our health situations for anxiety, we're all going to a psychological
solution, right. Which again, very important.
Right. But if we don't look at also from this perspective, we're missing
something. So talk to me like what you've seen around that.

(27:50):
Well, I think it's, it's, there's two parts, right? There's,
there's the daytime light and then there's the avoidance of
blue light at night. And what I saw in my experience
was that, that second piece, my relationship with
artificial light at night was a huge driver
in anxiety and cortisol. And so

(28:12):
I kind of prided myself, oh, I'm a night owl. And you
know, at the time, you know, I had young kids and so I'd get them
to bed and then my night, that was, that was my jam. That
was when I was going to get stuff done, I was alone, I could,
I could think, I could accomplish and so
what I actually was doing was, was just the opposite.

(28:35):
So when my kids went down and I was, you know,
unknowingly helping them with their circadian rhythm, I was really
disrupting mine. And so the night for me
was a blue light moment. And what I've learned
in my study of light, and it's really fascinating, but
that as I said before, the sun is perfectly

(28:57):
calibrated and that the sun works as a team, which
is what I say, is that all these wavelengths work together. And
they never are solo, they're never rogue, they're never alone,
they're perfectly designed. And, and even studies on UV
light, I mean, when they, when they demonize UV light, they
studied UV light on its own. Well, of course it

(29:19):
doesn't work when it's on its own. It is always
accompanied by infrared and the other visible light
spectrum wavelengths. So we never experience
light solo, except for one thing on this
screen. And this is intense blue
light solo, and is not matched by red.

(29:40):
It's not matched by infrared or UV or any of the other colors of the
visible spectrum. And that's not natural. It's light we
created. And it's very useful so you and I can speak
to each other. But it's not how we were designed
to accept light. And so what I found personally,
and as I reflect back, I realized that,

(30:03):
boy, in the evening, I was ingesting a lot of
high intensity blue light that was unaccompanied by the other
wavelengths. And that was what was going in my eyes
and on my skin. And what I learned is
that we have non visual photoreceptors in our eyes called
melanopsin. And melanopsin is particular

(30:25):
to, particular to both our eyes and
our skin, but it's a blue light detector. So we're designed to
see blue light because we're designed to see blue light in
nature. And let me explain. So blue light is our
timekeeper. When we get up in the morning and we see blue light in the
morning, it tells our body to wake up. It's our blue light.

(30:47):
It's cortisol. It raises our cortisol. This is when raising cortisol is good
in the morning. And blue light allows you to do that. It's your wake
up and go wavelength, also accompanied by rain. It's
embedded in that spectrum. Embedded in that spectrum. We
go outside, there's blue light in there. Okay, there's blue light,
but it's not alone. There's blue and red and green

(31:10):
in the morning because we need all These wavelengths to start our day.
And yes, we need to put our melatonin away, bring our
cortisol up and start our day. That's how we do it. But
fast forward to the evening. I'm creating
an artificial environment on my screens when I'm doing
my shopping or whatever I'm doing at night that I need to get done.

(31:32):
I'm actually taking blue light that's unaccompanied by these
natural wave, other natural wavelengths. How it happens in nature.
I'm increasing my cortisol. I'm increasing my blood
glucose. I mean, if I was wearing a continuous glucose monitor
at 11pm at night while I'm doing my online shopping, it
doesn't matter what I'm eating, that monitor is going

(31:55):
to spike because of the blue light. It's not about
food. It's about light. Okay? So I just wanted to
say that again for everyone who may be new to
this arena. Blue light
at night, even if you're not eating anything,
will spike your blood sugar. So ladies with the

(32:18):
glucose monitors, put it on.
Actually, don't pop open your laptop and watch what happens.
Right, right. And that is, I find, like, this piece
really blows people's minds. It blows my mind. Every time I hear it, it blows
my mind. I'm like, what? Right? And everyone
says, oh, gosh, you know, it's late at night, and then they're walking over

(32:40):
to their cabinets, right? And they're having the midnight snack.
And then the next morning they're saying, oh, why did I do that? Well, I
can tell you why you did that. You did that because you were
bombarding yourself with blue light. And it's not. I mean,
it's not your fault. You don't know it, but it's increasing
your glucose, it's increasing your cortisol, and it's actually

(33:03):
reducing your insulin sensitivity for the following day.
So then you wake up and it's just this vicious cycle. And like, oh,
my gosh. So that blue light spiking me, it's going to start a
craving. I'm going to have a midnight spot snack, which then wrecks,
wrecks my sleep. And I've already wrecked my sleep with the blue light,
okay? And it crushes me. So it's increasing

(33:25):
your blood glucose, it's making you want more snacks, and
it's crushing your melatonin. So your melatonin is this
master antioxidant that you need for sleep.
And what we found and what the research is showing us
is that melatonin is more than just a sleep Hormone.
And we kind of treat it as a sleep hormone. Right? I mean, it's who

(33:48):
I can't tell you, even my own daughter. I mean, the melatonin gummies by
the bedside, that's what everyone's go to is. Oh, good. Okay,
I need to get to sleep. I'm gonna pop. Is it a 5 milligram night?
Is it a 10 milligram night? And this is kind of the
cycle of chaos that we're in because we don't understand
melatonin. And melatonin,

(34:11):
it's called the night hormone, but it's made all day. In fact, it's
only 5% of melatonin is made in your pineal gland.
95% is made in your mitochondria. It's made at a cellular
level. And how is it made? It's made from all this
infrared light, all this red light that you've been in the sun all
day, 43% of daytime light.

(34:33):
That's your melatonin gummy. That's where you're going to get your sleep.
By creating the circadian rhythm by
exposing yourself to bright light during the day and this darkness at
night. That is where sleep comes from. That's how you build
melatonin. And your melatonin is what is required
for you to do critical cell repair.

(34:56):
So during the night autophagy, this is self
cleaning. This is. And I just did a reel about this, I haven't
posted it yet, but I had two trash cans, you know, I had
the blue recycle and I had the black trash can. So
autophagy is what happens when you recycle and repair.
That's how you have restorative sleep. So it's not just about

(35:18):
sleep, it's about repair. Because if we didn't repair, if
we didn't run our dirty dishwasher every night, we're going to wake up with dirty
dishes. So we need to recycle and repair. We also have a
process called apoptosis, which is cell suicide. It sounds scary, but it's
necessary because if cells aren't working for us, if they're cancer cells,
we need to get rid of them. But all this is dependent on

(35:40):
the melatonin that we're making. This master antioxidant
that we think comes in a gummy, but it really comes in our
relationship around light.
It's just so powerful.
It is just so powerful.

(36:01):
Shannon, I'm so glad we're doing this. I love a good high level
overview. It's like my favorite. I mean, I know
the deep dives are very popular. But this is really like, it's because
it's just so important to like go up high and look
at all of it from a high level perspective. And what you were
saying, it's like, what is the thing that is going to move the needle

(36:23):
in one direction or the other on all of these things,
right? And it's light, slash darkness. Right.
And, and I mean when you look at the research, I mean, for anyone that
wants to take, I mean, deep dives are really helpful and I,
my most important piece of advice is be curious.
You know, just keep being curious. Notice the things you

(36:46):
know, read your emails, read all your wellness emails and just
observe them. Don't act upon them, just observe them
and see. I mean, that's a frequency in itself.
So you're taking in these frequencies, these marketing frequencies.
They all affect you, you know, whether they're positive or negative. You're taking
them all in. And so, you know, the research is

(37:08):
there. I mean, we can talk about the Swedish Cohort, I mean, 88,000
women, you know, is saying that, you know, that
your failure to get outside and your failure to get in the sun
has a bigger impact on, on your health and smoking. So
this is really powerful information. We
have to be outside, we have to reconnect with nature

(37:31):
and that's how our body works. So it's a light story.
But I mean if you look at, you know, if anyone wants to do a
deep dive, but I mean, if you look at equals MC squared and the
photoelectric effect, we absolutely
need electrons to use the photons of light. How do we
gather those electrons? Well, some of them come from food.

(37:52):
There's electromagnetic, you know, I always say, you know, food
is an electron, electron barcode. So we're gathering
electrons from food, but that's just part of it.
The other part is nature. So we're gathering these
electrons from the ground. We have this unlimited supply of
electrons and our body needs those electrons to gather

(38:13):
these photons. They all work together. They all work
together. And these are basic everyday tasks.
They're not even tasks, they're just your routine. So in
the morning, you absolutely need to see natural sunlight.
First thing, do not check your phone. Do not look at what happened last
night. Do not start the reels, start in sun,

(38:36):
start in light. It is perfectly calibrated. It is your
friend, it's outside and it wants to make you better.
It wants to make you better. It wants you to operate
at your best. You just have to allow it to. You
just have to get outside and you have to connect with nature.
Love that. And yeah, I mean, on the

(38:59):
topic of deep dives, I just wanted to, like,
park here for a minute for me. So as
a person in the world, right. Like, my interest in
health strategies is like, how much do I need to know and how much do
I need to do in order to live my. The rest of my life?
Now, somebody who works in the health space, those

(39:22):
health strategies and how they work may be their life.
That might be their. Their entire focus. But
for the client or the patient of those people, which is
where I put myself, I just need enough
information to be motivated to make the change.
And I'm good. So if you

(39:45):
feel like you need to deep dive into every paper that came out,
but it's not unless you're. Unless you really, really want to
go for it, but it's like, just give that
intellectual part of you enough to chew on to
be like, oh, this makes sense. Right? And
that's it. That's all we need. Exactly. Because that's what you're providing

(40:08):
here today. So thank you very much. Right. I did the deep dive,
but it just like, there's chaos in everything, right? And there
was time. I really, Yeah, I just really want to talk to that person who's
not the researcher, who has a busy life. And it's like, what are you
ladies talking about? Right? And I had to
look, yeah, I did the deep dive, and

(40:30):
that's why. But I had to stop. And I'm
always learning. I research every day, but I did a deep
dive and I developed a really good foundation. And what
I realized is that our body is incredibly
complex, but the solution is
embarrassingly simple, and that is getting

(40:51):
outside every day. And yes, I have
poured through research article after research
article, and that is really important.
And ironically, I think the best way to take the deep
dive is to focus on the everyday,
because then your mind will open and you will actually

(41:13):
be more ready for the deep dive. And the deep dive won't
overwhelm you as much. Interestingly enough, I think people
start deep dives in places where they
actually may still be sick and where
they're experiencing cognitive haze and they have brain fog,
and then they do these deep dives, and then it becomes more

(41:35):
overwhelming. So why I founded Squint was.
Well, number one, I wanted to teach my kids early what I learned
late because it was overwhelming. I. It was this aha moment, and
I thought, oh, my God, Gosh, I need to let them know,
let my family know, let my Friends know,
but it's really important to know that

(41:59):
your health really starts in cycles and
routines that are basic and every day. We are
circadian beings. We live by rhythms
and when. We can live by simple daily rhythms.
And just in the back of your mind, think of light.
When you're, you know, going to a restaurant and they say,

(42:20):
do you want to sit inside or outside? I want to sit outside.
Choose light. Whenever you have the choice, choose light.
When you can take your coffee outside, when you can
take a phone call outside, when you can take your shoes off and
be barefoot, and you don't have to be barefoot to ground.
You can connect to the earth in so many ways. You can go

(42:43):
swimming. That seems extreme to some people, actually, but just
go out with shoes on and hold a tree. This isn't about
being hippie dippy or being fashionable. You can wear your
Manalo's and go hug a tree. You know, you can be
all those people. You can. You can be everything, and you can be
healthy. It just has to include light in nature. You don't have

(43:06):
to, you know, wear, you know, a macrame
necklace and a hemp sack skirt
to understand nature. It is science. The research
is there. It is overwhelming that circadian biology
is the biggest driver to your energy and your strength.
And if you aren't living your life by light, if you

(43:28):
aren't using and being informed
by light to manage your day,
then you have so much room to be healthy. It's so
exciting because it's so simple. And once you start making these
changes, you will. You will really, really feel
it. And it's really incredible.

(43:50):
Yes. And I love that framing because
it is exciting. I've, you know, sometimes
broached this topic maybe with, like, a mom on the playground. And
I have been met with, like, what
another thing to worry about, like,
all right, like, oh, now I have to think about the light coming out of

(44:13):
their eye. Like, well, yeah,
sorry. But on
the flip side, it's like, if you come at it
through the portal of all of the. All of the health issues and all of
the mental health issues that everybody is
struggling with, and it's like. And you don't know anything about light, there's

(44:36):
so much room to grow. It's like, such exciting news. So
exciting. It's so exciting. And,
you know, I think part
of the journey of health
is that we are in this chaos, you know, and so the
irony is that, you know, there's a lot of us that are doing the research

(44:57):
and saying, oh, it's about light, it's about grounding, it's about sound
and frequencies. And so we don't want to contribute to
chaos. I don't want to contribute to chaos. We don't need any more
chaos. So what I offer and why I
started Squint Essentials was to create a
place for very basic daily routines that were

(45:19):
actionable and doable and not overwhelming
and that people could build slowly. But you have to
build. That's the non positive part. There is
an urgency to this and you have to start this now
because it's so important. Your mitochondria every day
are deciding what kind of environment are you providing them

(45:42):
and you need to give them a break. They're overwhelmed.
They're overwhelmed by non native
electromagnetic fields, they're overwhelmed by the blue light in
our screens, they're overwhelmed by storms, stress, they're
overwhelmed by our dysregulated nervous system. So
be nice to yourself, be kind to yourself. Start

(46:04):
easy. Just start with Morning Sun. Start
with Morning Sun. Make that a foundation of your
day every day. Don't do anything else, don't read the emails,
unsubscribe, unsubscribe to everything that doesn't have to do
with light. And start easy, start with Morning sun.
And don't beat yourself up. If you have a day where you're not doing

(46:27):
it as well as you know, just get out
there, get Morning sun and try it and, and make
it part of your day. Make it a routine. It's consistency over
perfection and just keep doing it.
I love, and I love that that you founded Squint

(46:47):
Essentials, which is like, would you say a media
company with a very, a very tight focus
to share this information or tell us how it
works. And you talk about sharing protocols like let's, let's hear some of the
top. Ones that people, you know,
it's light and grounding, you know, it's light

(47:09):
and grounding. And what I want Squint
to be is, you know, a launch pad to further
learning. But it's going to be a place where you're going to start.
You're going to start with the basics, you're going to start with Morning Sun.
And what I try not to do is create more chaos.
I am very boring in the sense that I say the same things

(47:32):
over and over. I try to say them in different ways because
what I learned through all this is that, you know, I,
someone said something about light five times and I didn't understand it and then the
sixth time, oh, it clicked and I Said, oh,
that makes sense. That makes sense that
we are, you know, that vitamin B is a

(47:55):
chromophore for light. Like that. All these things that I, all these
modalities that I had been trying and trying
were all just trying to capture light. I mean, that's what we're about.
We're about capturing light, using it, absorbing it,
emitting it. It's all about. We do that.
And it sounds so basic and a little bit hippie dippy,

(48:19):
but the science is showing us that that relationship
with light, bright, full spectrum sunlight
during the day and darkness at night is.
And it's. And the numbers show it, the research
shows it. So to the extent that you
can kind of move the chaos away, quiet

(48:42):
your mind, forget the emails, forget the
ingredients in your pantry that they're telling you to hide from,
forget, you know, the chocolate that's 37%
healthier than broccoli. All these things, you know,
we love. Oh, chocolate, red wine, I'm in. And it's not about
that. But we get inundated by the chaos of

(49:04):
those solutions when really the
best thing is to start your day with light,
take sun breaks throughout the day, ground as much as you
possibly can during the day, and block artificial light
at night. It's pretty simple.
It's pretty simple. And as you said, you know, as you were

(49:27):
saying earlier, almost the reason that,
that people reject it, like, oh, what? Like just that, like, you don't have to
be true. And there is
a certain amount of courage involved in following
the guidance that you're offering here, which is to simplify down
to the most essential thing and focus on it till it becomes an

(49:50):
ingrained part of your life. Right. I think that that
feeling of overwhelm underneath,
like the avalanche of pro tips that
we subscribe to and scroll through every day,
there's a certain kind of
safety in not having to make a decision, right?

(50:13):
Like if there's so much noise, there's so many things and it's like,
I'll do this and try this and la la la la la la. And even
mixed in there, there might be some light tips. But if they're just. If it's
just like this pro tip and that pro tip and this really.
Oh, blue blockers are just like a biohacking trend, right? Like, if it's just
all locked in there, we don't have

(50:34):
to make a decision because it's just so much noise. And it takes
courage to pick something and follow through.
And I think sometimes we consciously or
unconsciously hang out in the Noise, because we're not ready for
that commitment. It's very true. And it's not
to say that sun and grounding are the only modalities

(50:57):
that. I mean, obviously, hydration is a huge part of our health,
and I'm a big proponent of, you know, water
that's, you know, has minerals added to it. If you want a vortex, I mean,
there's a lot. But I guess what I'm saying is
part of protecting yourself from this chaos
is keeping it simple. Because as soon as

(51:20):
you start going down the road, then you're getting into, you know, and
all these things are important, fascia and lymph. And there's a lot
of things that you potentially could do
to improve your health. What I'm saying is
start here. This is the start here moment. Start with
light, start with grounding, and then you will be

(51:43):
in a physical and mental place where
you can actually start discerning what makes the
most sense. But for me, I was in such
a state of nervous system dysregulation, I just. And I'm
competitive. I was like, I'm gonna win. I'm gonna win. I'm gonna. I'm gonna
get that idea. I'm gonna get the latest hack, and I'm gonna get the hack

(52:05):
that everyone's going to, you know, everyone's going to do. And
it's insanity. It's so embarrassing. But it was. And
then I think, too, our health care,
instead of looking inward and
thinking about how our body works and how we're connected
to nature, we are all about health

(52:28):
as it relates to a cocktail party. We're all about health
as it relates to conversation and connection. So. So,
interestingly enough, I think that
we're finding ourselves connecting to other people by
speaking about health, because we're speaking about our challenges
and what we're trying and what we're doing. I'll send you this. Oh, you send

(52:50):
me that? You've got a guy for this. Oh, I've got a gal for that.
And so, ironically, we're making these connections
on health, but they aren't connecting us to nature. They
aren't connecting us to light. They aren't connecting us to the
actual solution. So I love the conversation.
I love that people are thinking about their health. I love that

(53:11):
people are searching for solutions. But I started
squint to save you a lot of time, because time is your most valuable
asset. And I've done the deep dive. Meredith's done the
deepest dive. There's a lot of people that are doing deep dives.
But every day, the deep dive
presents itself as very easy, actionable

(53:33):
daily routines around sun and around grounding
and around light. Yeah.
And again, just to reiterate, because this is,
you know, I really want this episode to be useful for the person who
is. Who is not going to take a certification
in applied quantum biology. Right. This is for the person. Person who just wants to

(53:56):
feel better. Yes. You know, share this with that person in your life.
And this is the fundamental. So we. You implement,
you know, we implement everything that you've been saying, Shannon. And it's
like, okay, then when I go for lymphatic
drainage, or then when I go, you know, my. At least I. My. I know
where my body is. Is. Yes,

(54:19):
I know where it is. Right. And I know what it. It can
do on its own. Exactly. Okay, then where do I
need help? Yes. And that's the point. That is the
ultimate point, knowing what your body can do on its
own. Because we never
trust our body, because our body gives us a

(54:41):
lot of signals. You know, we're hurting, we're aching, we're
sore, we're whatever. But those signals are just from
our body trying to help us, trying to give us a signal to say,
hey, maybe you need to change things up. And those
signals are, you need to change things up about light.
Because that's what I respond to. That's, you know, deep

(55:04):
down this cell in the middle of my body,
that's what they're responding to. You know, they don't real. They're not count. Your
mitochondria isn't counting calories. It's counting electrons. You
know, it's counting frequency. It's counting the environment that you're in.
It doesn't care whether you're a paleo or carnivore. It
cares about how you are interacting with your

(55:25):
environment. We were never intended to live
inside, especially in winter, with our thermostats to 80
degrees. Our mitochondria respond to both light
and temperature. And now that we're going into
winter, we need to live by nature.
And so what that means is that, you know, if

(55:48):
you're living in Minnesota, you know, go
out and go ice fishing. You know, go out and. And get
in snow, get in ice, be cold.
Tell your mitochondria where you are on Earth. Because if
you're in your house, in your snuggly loungewear and your
ugg boots, your mitochondria doesn't know where you are. They think you're down at the

(56:11):
equator, and you're not. And Your diet
is also a reflection on where you are too. So your mitochondria are
not expecting you to eat mangoes and bananas.
You know, they're sensing that you're in a cold environment and so
you need to adjust those electrons accordingly. That's a whole
different discussion. But the point is, is that our mitochondria,

(56:34):
they are our sixth sense. They are telling us, you know,
this is what's going on. They sense what's going on. They sense
everything, every frequency. They sense a fire engine
driving by. You know, they sense noise pollution and sound
pollution and, you know, the, the air we breathe,
everything, they're taking it all in. And I think we just need to do a

(56:56):
better job of allowing them to see what's around. And what's
around is the sun and the earth and the trees and
being outside. Yeah. And
that is a really, I think, like
a really, really good way to think about it. And that's what has always
stayed with me, is that I'm filled up with sensors

(57:18):
sensing my environment, sensing my light environment, sensing my
dark environment. And they're, they're instructing my body.
So if I cut myself off and then replace that
with, with this wi fi and
blue light, it's, it's really. We've created like a perfect
storm for mitochondrial destruction. Yes.

(57:41):
And if we start in that fundamental place,
then we can create a foundation that alleviates some of that.
That. Right. And it's taking the dog out for a walk on a winter's
day. You know, it's all. I'm glad you brought up winter.
Yeah. Because I always thought, oh, God, winter, I have to move somewhere warm. It's
like, no, I just have to. Like go for a walk every day. Exactly. And

(58:03):
maybe you don't bundle up. I mean, maybe you just,
you know, maybe you wear a short sleeve shirt. Obviously you don't want
hypothermia, but, you know, maybe you push yourself a little
bit, but just connect with nature. I think, you know, we have a
very, you know, everyone's, you know, trying to get the next answer, even on
modalities that are helpful. I mean, cold plunge,

(58:25):
great modality, but people are
reading into it. You know, oh, I'm doing 47 degrees. Oh, I'm at
50. Oh, you're only at 50. Oh, that's not. And it's just,
it's just like this cocktail conversation of
our health. And it's crazy to me. And the
part point is, is that our mitochondria are looking for signals

(58:48):
and anything below 98.7. That means,
you know, I, I mean, this isn't that complicated. You just
need to get cold. You don't need to perfectly perfect your
cold plunge temperature. You just need to
be more in sync with your environment and you need to,
if it's winter and you live in a cold place, you should be

(59:10):
cold. That's what your mitochondria are expecting, right?
If it's winter where you are, we, you should feel
cold on a regular basis because it's cold.
It is, it's cold. It's cold. We got our
little seat heaters in. The car and we're so
smart. We're, you know, they say, you know, we're, we're so smart,

(59:33):
we create all this technology, we create seat warmers,
you know, we create, you know, meta glasses. You know, we create
all these things, but yet are they
a reflection of how we evolved? No, we actually
evolved our brain in the sun. We didn't evolve it
inside. And if we want to continue evolving, if we want to

(59:56):
stay curious, if we want to not be
overwhelmed by mental health issues and mental health issues,
you know, in 2030, the numbers are off the charts.
And if we don't change our daily routines,
and that's why there is urgency to this, because
we're moving in the wrong direction. But the beauty is

(01:00:20):
that the solution is very
accessible every day and it's free.
Yes, yes.
Shannon, this is such an important message and I just love the way
that you've framed it.
And I think it's time for us to get off

(01:00:42):
the treadmill. Just get off the health tip
treadmill, go down to the basics, down to the
fundamentals, down to the foundation and live from there.
And I obviously, and you and everyone
listening, probably we have access to just an abundance
of health support. And the beautiful thing is

(01:01:04):
that when we need it, we can go get it.
But it, you know, if we're living in,
if we've got those fundamentals in place, it
doesn't feel like a treadmill. And I, and I also want to say like,
there's always, you know, like, and you mentioned this too, right? Like healing
is non linear. We could start here and end up somewhere else and go. And

(01:01:27):
it's like now, you know, we just are almost unlocking each
door that needs to be unlocked, whether it's healing, trauma, whether it's
changing our food, whatever it is, for sure.
But this is the, this is the solid ground that we can stand
on as we walk that path.
Very, very true. And I think we're in an environment, I Mean,

(01:01:50):
even, you know, Hollywood, all the lessons, you know, it's the biggest loser,
you know, it's, it's these. But, but health doesn't work that way. I
mean, every day we have an opportunity to change our
health, which is so exciting. I mean, every day you have
an opportunity to reconnect with nature, to
reconnect with light, and to rebuild, to rebuild the

(01:02:12):
photoreceptors in your eyes, to rebuild your
mitochondria, you know, and it's, it's so hopeful
and it's very easy if
you just take it slowly and not let it overwhelm you and
don't. It's not another thing. Sun and grounding
aren't an add on. They're foundations.

(01:02:34):
And I think when you use them as foundations,
they'll give you the clarity. It'll make you
feel like you're in a place where then, then you can decide what's the
next step. Then, then what do I do?
And then when you get that clarity, I think when you start
reading those emails, you won't be overwhelmed by them. You might even

(01:02:56):
giggle, you know, you might even say, oh,
you know, it's overwhelming. So just
cancel the chaos and start with the basics. The Squint
Essentials. Love. So where can everyone
find the Squint Essentials? So I have
a website which is

(01:03:17):
www.squintessentials.com. i think the most fun
place to find us is on Instagram at
Squint Essentials. And so I usually have a
theme for the week, but it all comes back to light. So I
give checklists every week, but they're always about light.
It's all the same things over. But they're good reminders because.

(01:03:39):
Because we get busy in our life and we can't divorce ourselves
from tech entirely. But, you know, we can use little
tips. You know, maybe you throw away your
earbuds. That would be a great start on tech. And maybe
instead of those earbuds, you use wired headphones,
you know, all these kind of basic things. So be gentle on

(01:04:02):
yourself. Don't do what I did, which is, you know, try
everything all at once and just say, I'm gonna win, I'm gonna win.
I'm gonna win. Because you're gonna lose that way. You're gonna lose Bitcoin because you're
gonna be overwhelmed. So take, just like I said, start with
morning sun, you know, and then at night, dim your
lights. Figure out ways, you know, as we're about to go through a

(01:04:24):
time change. So I have, I'm talking, you know, next week at
squint about, you know, it's dark. You know, we're all having these
moments. Oh my gosh, it's 7:30 and it's dark
and I'm not even tired yet. You know, what are we going to do?
And our normal behavior is, oh, I'm going to go watch four
shows of my new favorite show. And that's

(01:04:46):
fun, that's great. But again,
what is the context of light and how is that going to help me feel?
What's that going to do to my cortisol? What's it going to do to my
glucose? What's it going to do to my melatonin? What kind of sleep do
I want to have? You know, so you
don't have to live by the fire every night,

(01:05:08):
but you do have to make a few
changes to your everyday routine and it will
feel really good.
Yes. And there, you know. Yeah. And
some nights there's a show to watch. Of course.
Can wear the orange glasses. Yes. You can mitigate

(01:05:30):
little workarounds. There are, I mean
every night I. Go to bed really early. Right.
You don't have to go to bed at 7. But if your new favorite show
is on and then they say, do you want another episode? And then, you know,
you better be wearing blue blockers. Your body is wanting you
to because your body finished its day. You know

(01:05:52):
this, your cells got the last blue light of the day, that
natural blue timekeeper when the sun set. So your body's
expecting the day to be over. When you go to your shows,
you're starting the day again. You're giving your body that midday
blue high intensity light and saying, oh, it's time to wake up again.
It's the middle of the day. So use

(01:06:16):
man made smarts which are blue blockers. Block the
blue. You don't have to not watch shows anymore,
but you might need to watch shows in a
more mindful way that is very, very doable.
Yes. I'm having flashbacks. I

(01:06:36):
had a job for a while coaching women in
finance who had just had babies and
they all had their routine and they,
they would leave work earlier now that they had a baby
and then they'd, but they wouldn't want to fall behind their peers

(01:06:56):
so they would put the baby down and log back on and I,
when we, you know, is my job as a coach to support them through to
their goals and those were their goals that I think back down like, oh,
right. I wish I could have at least told you
to put a filter on that. Laptop screen.
I know. And you know, we just don't think about it.

(01:07:19):
And I didn't think about it. In fact, you know, when I was working,
my badge of honor was that I had three screens. I had
a Bloomberg and I had this and I thought
I was so cool, you know, this, I had
made it. I was a three screen
businesswoman, you know, but at the time, oh my gosh,

(01:07:42):
I think about what I did and I think that period of time
was incredibly detrimental to my health. You know, I thought I was
winning, I thought I was superwoman, but I
didn't realize. I mean. And the worst part of it is that I
worked market hours. So. But I
was in California. So I would wake up at 4:30, I would wake up at

(01:08:06):
4:30 in the morning and then I was a hard worker worker and I would
stay at my, you know, desk till 5 o'. Clock, right. In the
winter that meant I never saw the sun.
I literally never saw the sun during periods of the year.
So imagine. And I didn't, you know,
imagine. And now we know your poor body,

(01:08:28):
your poor cells. I know, I know, but it's true. We just
don't think, like, we just, just don't think about
it. No. And there's things that feel so important and they
are, I don't, I know that, you know, career is, is of course
a really important purpose and I don't want to take away from that.
I have, I have friends now who work in Manhattan five days a

(01:08:50):
week and you know, but I tell them like, can you, could you eat
lunch outside? Right? You know, just, just these little
things because it's just not on the radar. And
so I really appreciate, Shannon, that
you are putting it on the radar for people and
reaching, you know, reaching especially women

(01:09:12):
because the great thing is like, you feel good now. I feel good now.
I mean, I do think, I don't know that I'll ever quite
get my mitochondria back to where no, I wouldn't have been
if I hadn't trashed them. Right. However, I
can live my life. So these,
whatever is going on with anyone listening,

(01:09:34):
take heart, right? Like when given
the correct inputs, our bodies can do amazing
things. Yes. And I, and it's very true,
you know, I trash my mitochondria too. And
truth be told, I trash my mitochondria every day
that I live. Where I live that's full of 5G,

(01:09:57):
you know, I, I mean we have so many inputs and then we can talk
about food and everything is, that's in Our food.
So for me, these daily routines,
they're not optional, they're mandatory because
I have done enough damage with all my artificial
light, and I did enough damage by thinking I was a

(01:10:19):
California girl, but I really wasn't at the beach much, you know,
and. But that's not to say, you know, I,
you know, I have zoom calls, I'm in meetings, but I take sun
breaks, so there's way to mitigate it. It isn't an all or nothing. It isn't.
Oh, well, that's all well and good. I have a job. I can't. Of course
you have to go to your job. You have to do your job, but take

(01:10:41):
a leadership role at your job. Bring your meeting outside.
Encourage these meetings outside. Take sun break. You know, people.
Take smoke breaks. Take a sun break. Let's rename it.
You know, there's lots of things we can do if we do
it together. And once we're all educated, I think we'll all feel
better and we can all help each other.

(01:11:04):
Yes. And that's. Yeah, that's a great spot to wrap up, as. I
don't. That's another thing people do. They're like, oh, I have to change every light
bulb in my house. That's overwhelming. I'm not going to do it. I have to.
Overall, I have to quit my job and move to the Bahamas. I can't do
it. Never mind. It's like, no, no, no. Any. Every small change.
Every small. Any small change makes a difference. Start small, small

(01:11:24):
change. Yes. All right, Shannon, thank you so
much. This was incredibly fun. Thank you so much, Meredith. And
thank you for all you are doing. You're my hero. And,
you know, you were a big part of getting me started on all of this,
and so inspired, so grateful for you. Thank you, thank you,
thank you, Shannon.