Commune with Jeff Krasno

Every domestic cow alive today traces back to roughly 80 wild aurochs. Now a newer version of the cow is being grown in steel tanks, with no cow at all. In this episode, the first in the new For Better or Worse series takes on cultured meat: how it’s made, the strongest case for and against it, and who’s paying on each side of the fight.

What actually happens inside the bioreactor, and the single chicken behind a whole product line

The fetal bovine serum problem underneath the “slaughter-free” pitch

Why regenerative grazing can’t meet global meat demand on its own

How the biggest names in beef ended up funding both sides

Why no state has banned a bean

This episode is for anyone who cares about where their food comes from, and anyone who wants the full picture before choosing a side.

This episode was made possible by:

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Voters just sent Washington a message. Chef Johanna Hellrigl will be watching what happens next from four blocks away.

Johanna is a James Beard semifinalist, food-systems advocate and chef-owner of Ama, a restaurant built on farm-direct organic ingredients and a kitchen she has worked to pull plastic out of. She knows a bill backed by only one party usually goes nowhere, and that every fight in Congress eventually reaches someone's dinner table. In this episode, she and Jeff talk about what it would take for food policy to reach the people who need it most, whoever holds power.

Why she says "you can't defund and deregulate and make America healthy again," and still sits down with MAHA supporters to ask how they got there

The farm bill votes she says she helped flip, and what new leadership on the agriculture committee could change

The FRESH Act, and why she believes states should keep the power to lead on food policy

What a shutdown or surprise recess does to a restaurant that depends on Congress being in town

Heat, fat, acid, and time: her rule for keeping plastic chemicals out of your food

This episode is for the parent decoding labels in a grocery aisle at 7 p.m., and anyone waiting to see whether a new Congress changes what ends up on their plate.

This episode was made possible by:

CocoaVia: Visit CocoaVia.com and get 25% off your order with code COMMUNE2026.

BIOptimizers: Go to www.bioptimizers.com/onecommune and use code ONECOMMUNE for 15% off your order.

Calocurb: Calocurb naturally activates your body’s own GLP-1 and other fullness hormones to help manage hunger and cravings. Code COMMUNE10 for 10% off at Calocurb.com.

Stemregen: Get 20% off your first order at stemregen.co/commune with the code COMMUNEPOD

LMNT: Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at drinklmnt.com/commune.

“I guess big boys do cry.” Jeff’s daughter Lolli said this after he collapsed onto her bed in a full, pillow-drenching sob while his father was fighting colon cancer.In this episode, Jeff closes the series by tracing the fatherhood he inherited and the one he’s tried to build in its place. He starts with a bitter divorce at 13 and a dad who fought for custody to break his own cycle of abandonment. He offers a long-overdue apology to the mother he shunned, and he credits Schuyler, whom he met at seventeen, with making the healing possible. He also lays out what the girls taught him in return. He let Phoebe decide whether to come home from a miserable school trip to Joshua Tree. He found two meditation apps on the iPad of a daughter who forbids him from saying the word. His closing case is for a different kind of masculinity: courage as vulnerability, discipline as discipleship, and pride as mudita, the Buddhist joy in someone else’s joy.

This episode was made possible by:

Stemregen: Get 20% off your first order at stemregen.co/commune with the code COMMUNEPOD.

LMNT: Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at ⁠drinklmnt.com/commune⁠.

BIOptimizers: Go to ⁠www.bioptimizers.com/onecommune⁠ and use code ONECOMMUNE for 15% off your order.

Vivobarefoot: Try Vivobarefoot risk-free with a 100-day return guarantee, and get 20% off your order at ⁠vivobarefoot.com/commune⁠.

Calocurb: Calocurb naturally activates your body’s own GLP-1 and other fullness hormones to help manage hunger and cravings. Code COMMUNE10 for 10% off at ⁠Calocurb.com⁠.

Somewhere between “trust no one” and “trust the experts” is a harder and more honest position. In this episode, Jeff looks at the two sides of a growing cultural standoff. On one side are the compulsive contrarians, who distrust every institution. On the other are the contrarians to the contrarians, who defend those institutions by reflex. He argues that both have confused skepticism with ideology.

Why questioning Big Pharma’s ad budget is fair, and calling medicine a scam is not

What Vioxx, OxyContin, insulin, and HIV treatment tell us about the same industry

How engagement algorithms reward the most extreme voice in the room

A case for “discrimination” in its original sense: the ability to see distinctions

This episode is for anyone tired of being asked to choose a tribe before looking at the evidence.

This episode was made possible by:

Stemregen: Get 20% off your first order at stemregen.co/commune with the code COMMUNEPOD.

LMNT: Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at ⁠drinklmnt.com/commune⁠.

BIOptimizers: Go to ⁠www.bioptimizers.com/onecommune⁠ and use code ONECOMMUNE for 15% off your order.

Vivobarefoot: Try Vivobarefoot risk-free with a 100-day return guarantee, and get 20% off your order at ⁠vivobarefoot.com/commune⁠.

Calocurb: Calocurb naturally activates your body’s own GLP-1 and other fullness hormones to help manage hunger and cravings. Code COMMUNE10 for 10% off at ⁠Calocurb.com⁠.

Have you ever thought of someone right before they called? Biologist Dr. Rupert Sheldrake says that's not a coincidence.

In this episode, Jeff sits down with Rupert Sheldrake, the Cambridge-trained biologist and author of Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home, to look at the evidence for telepathy. Rupert walks through decades of filmed experiments with dogs, nursing mothers, and phone calls, and explains why he thinks the effect depends on emotional bonds, not distance.

Recorded on a pilgrimage in the English countryside, the conversation widens into the limits of materialism, the trust crisis facing our institutions, and why Rupert, a practicing Anglican, finds more open inquiry in church than in a lab.

Why telepathy shows up most between parents and children, twins, partners, and close friends

The experiments with dogs who wait at the door when their owners head home

Rupert's telephone tests, where people guessed their caller far more often than chance

Why he compares telepathy to quantum entanglement, but stops short of calling it that

Whether science has become as dogmatic as the religion it once challenged

This episode is for anyone who has felt an unexplained connection to someone they love, or who suspects science doesn't yet have the full picture of the mind.

Originally released in 2025.

Stemregen: Get 20% off your first order at stemregen.co/commune with the code COMMUNEPOD.

LMNT: Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at drinklmnt.com/commune.

BIOptimizers: Go to www.bioptimizers.com/onecommune and use code ONECOMMUNE for 15% off your order.

Vivobarefoot: Try Vivobarefoot risk-free with a 100-day return guarantee, and get 20% off your order at vivobarefoot.com/commune.

Calocurb: Calocurb naturally activates your body’s own GLP-1 and other fullness hormones to help manage hunger and cravings. Code COMMUNE10 for 10% off at Calocurb.com.