Visionary filmmaker and social entrepreneur Kenny Ausubel discussed his journey looking for environmental solutions drawn from nature’s intelligence, and the corrosive civil war between natural and conventional medicine that has led to the suppression of promising therapies. He spoke at length about the saga of Harry Hoxsey, who set up clinics and treated cancer patients with an herbal formula. It's been called the wildest story in medical history, with Hoxsey being jailed countless times, and engaging in a series of court battles, most of which he won. His last US clinic was closed in 1960, and moved to Tijuana where it still exists.

The formula, which contains such herbs as Red Clover Blossoms and Burdock Root, was never fully tested, but as recently as 1999 the NIH declared that it was worthy of further study. "The FDA has yet to approve one single non-toxic treatment for cancer or anything that isn't patented by a major pharmaceutical company," Ausubel commented. "It's really terrorism" against alternative practitioners, he continued, noting that because cancer has been shown to be caused by environmental and occupational exposures in 70-90% of cases, it could be preventable.

Among the other "bioneers" or biological pioneers, he named mycologist Paul Stamets who has discovered and developed an array of medicinal mushrooms, and attorney Thomas Linzey, the director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which was instrumental in getting corporate farming banned from parts of Pennsylvania. Ausubel also talked about undergoing UV Blood Treatments, in which blood is taken out with an IV, and exposed to light which kills viruses, as well as the work of cancer researcher Stanislaw Burzynski, whose antineoplaston treatments are said to be especially effective for brain cancer.

Likeability Factors

First hour guest, Professor of Global Marketing Rohit Bhargava talked about the force of likeability which influences our decisions from who we vote for, to who we befriend, to what companies we do business with. In a world where we often don't trust the organizations around us, we turn to the people behind them to build relationships with, he explained. Bhargava differentiated niceness from likeability, suggesting that nice people are afraid to tell you the truth, whereas likeable people start with a base of honesty. People such as (the late) Steve Jobs and Simon Cowell, who have been seen as not nice, tell you the truth to your face, and are often liked because of that, he continued. One tip he shared for increasing your likeability is to practice active listening, making sure you understand what is said, rather than just waiting for your turn to talk.

News segment guest: Jeff Nelken