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Here's To Your Health with Joshua Lane with Joshua Lane
Raw Milk's Rising Popularity and Remembering Rascals Secret Weapon David Brigati with Mark McAfee and John Materano
Host Joshua Lane features three guests this hour: clinical nutritionist Karen Masterson-Koch on Aloe Life's energy and digestion products, Raw Farm founder Mark McAfee on the raw milk and raw cheese movement, and longtime friend John Materano remembering the life of Rascals harmony arranger David Brigati.
Karen Masterson-Koch Returns With Aloe Life
Joshua Lane opens the show by welcoming back Karen Masterson-Koch, the founder of Aloe Life and a regular contributor with more than forty years of experience as a clinical nutritionist. Lane reminds listeners that Masterson-Koch worked alongside doctors in immunology and allergy clinics during the 1980s and wrote the book Beyond Gluten Intolerance. He praises Aloe Life's concentrated, unfiltered aloe products, including Aloe Gold and the topical Skin Gel, which he says cleared up his own teenage skin issues. Masterson-Koch explains that Aloe Gold is made from twenty-five pounds of organic aloe leaves per quart and retains the bitter yellow sap most commercial aloe products filter out, the compound she says drives digestion, energy and immune support. She walks through research she cites from Tufts University and describes clients, including a neighbor managing leukemia, who felt more energized after adding Aloe Gold, vitamin E, vitamin C and B-complex to their routines. Lane repeats the Aloe Life phone number and website for listeners wanting to order.
Monica Brant's Endorsement and a Turn to Raw Milk
Between segments, fitness Olympia champion Monica Brant appears in a brief spot endorsing Aloe Life, crediting the Aloe Gold and Daily Greens products with helping her win a Worlds European Union figure title in 2016 and supporting her workouts after more than thirty years as a professional athlete. Lane then shifts the hour toward a different kind of nutrition debate, introducing the ongoing argument over raw milk. He notes that many Americans grew up believing raw milk was dangerous, while a growing number of consumers now say it tastes better and feels better to drink. To explore the subject, Lane welcomes Mark McAfee, founder of Raw Farm, which he introduces as America's largest raw dairy. McAfee immediately draws a distinction between the raw milk destined for pasteurization, which he says is commingled from dozens of dairies with little attention to cleanliness, and the raw milk his own farm produces for direct human consumption, which comes from a single, carefully tested herd under strict standards for both the cows and the workers who care for them.
Mark McAfee on Camping With the Cows and Raw Milk's Growth
McAfee tells Lane that interest in raw milk keeps growing because people share their experiences, pointing to Camping with the Cows, Raw Farm's sixth annual gathering, which drew about fourteen hundred visitors and eighty-five influencers to the farm for two days of bonfires, local food vendors and live music from a band that traveled from Texas. He describes giving guests a tour of the farm's own Thermo Fisher pathogen lab, where the operation runs roughly one hundred fifty tests a day on individual cows, bulk tanks and finished products to screen for E. coli, salmonella, listeria and campylobacter. McAfee says the farm now milks about twelve hundred cows across two dairies and moves fifty to fifty-five thousand gallons of milk a week into stores throughout California. Lane, who says he regularly drinks the farm's fermented raw milk and notices a difference in his own health, asks whether the movement is accelerating, and McAfee credits word of mouth among families who say their children suffer fewer ear infections, colds and asthma flare-ups after switching from pasteurized milk.
The Fight Over Raw Cheese Labeling
McAfee turns to Raw Farm's cheese, which he calls one of the only truly raw cheeses still sold at retail in America. He says the FDA recently asked the farm to pasteurize its cheese and still call it raw, a request he refused as fraudulent and misleading to consumers who specifically seek out unheated, bioactive-rich dairy in the tradition of the so-called French paradox cheeses. McAfee quotes an FDA inspector, Jane Choi, as telling him Raw Farm is the last cheese maker in the country that does not thermalize or pasteurize before packaging. He explains that because federal code contains no legal definition of the word raw, other brands can heat-treat their cheese and still market it as raw, destroying the bioactive compounds he says protect gut health. Lane calls the practice shocking. McAfee adds that chefs increasingly use the farm's raw cream and raw butter, which carry those same compounds, in dressings, desserts and coffee drinks, even when customers are wary of drinking raw milk itself, and he predicts the broader market will keep growing despite higher prices.
John Materano Remembers David Brigati
After the break, Lane welcomes his longtime friend John Materano, who grew up with Eddie and David Brigati in Garfield, New Jersey, to discuss David Brigati's life following his recent death. Materano recalls that he, David, Eddie and a friend called Rocky shared a tight-knit neighborhood around Monroe Street, Grand Street and Lincoln Place, and that David showed an early gift for music, singing in a high school doo-wop group called the Garfield High School Bel-Airs before fronting his own group, the Hi-Fis, which scored hits with My Friend and Dorothy. Materano describes an amateur night at a Harlem theater where David's otherwise all-white group placed second in audience applause, losing only to Donna Summer. From there, Materano says David joined forces with Joey Dee of neighboring Passaic to form Joey Dee and the Starliters, an act that filmed three movies and became an early integrated rock band, with Willie Davis on drums and Carl Lattimore on organ performing alongside the group's white singers at a moment when such mixing was still rare in American pop music.
Jimi Hendrix, Joe Pesci, and the Rockit Kids Legacy
Materano explains that David arranged the Starliters' backup vocals and later became what Felix Cavaliere called the secret weapon of the Rascals, singing the soaring harmonies behind Groovin', People Got to Be Free and A Beautiful Morning while staying largely out of the spotlight himself. Lane recalls that the Starliters once played the Peppermint Lounge alongside visiting Beatles and later employed a young, unknown guitarist named Jimi Hendrix for a year, while Materano adds that Joe Pesci cut David's hair as a barber before joining the band. David also turned down a spot on Dinah Shore's television show and reportedly dated Jane Russell, choosing instead to stay loyal to Joey Dee. Materano describes a later reunion show with Eddie and Ronnie Spector, and explains that Eddie now mentors young musicians through a program called the Rockit Kids. Lane closes the hour by thanking Materano for sharing David Brigati's story and inviting listeners to email guest suggestions before signing off and wishing everyone a healthy, safe evening.
Raw Milk's Rising Popularity and Remembering Rascals Secret Weapon David Brigati with Mark McAfee and John Materano
Host Joshua Lane features three guests this hour: clinical nutritionist Karen Masterson-Koch on Aloe Life's energy and digestion products, Raw Farm founder Mark McAfee on the raw milk and raw cheese movement, and longtime friend John Materano remembering the life of Rascals harmony arranger David Brigati.
Karen Masterson-Koch Returns With Aloe Life
Joshua Lane opens the show by welcoming back Karen Masterson-Koch, the founder of Aloe Life and a regular contributor with more than forty years of experience as a clinical nutritionist. Lane reminds listeners that Masterson-Koch worked alongside doctors in immunology and allergy clinics during the 1980s and wrote the book Beyond Gluten Intolerance. He praises Aloe Life's concentrated, unfiltered aloe products, including Aloe Gold and the topical Skin Gel, which he says cleared up his own teenage skin issues. Masterson-Koch explains that Aloe Gold is made from twenty-five pounds of organic aloe leaves per quart and retains the bitter yellow sap most commercial aloe products filter out, the compound she says drives digestion, energy and immune support. She walks through research she cites from Tufts University and describes clients, including a neighbor managing leukemia, who felt more energized after adding Aloe Gold, vitamin E, vitamin C and B-complex to their routines. Lane repeats the Aloe Life phone number and website for listeners wanting to order.
Monica Brant's Endorsement and a Turn to Raw Milk
Between segments, fitness Olympia champion Monica Brant appears in a brief spot endorsing Aloe Life, crediting the Aloe Gold and Daily Greens products with helping her win a Worlds European Union figure title in 2016 and supporting her workouts after more than thirty years as a professional athlete. Lane then shifts the hour toward a different kind of nutrition debate, introducing the ongoing argument over raw milk. He notes that many Americans grew up believing raw milk was dangerous, while a growing number of consumers now say it tastes better and feels better to drink. To explore the subject, Lane welcomes Mark McAfee, founder of Raw Farm, which he introduces as America's largest raw dairy. McAfee immediately draws a distinction between the raw milk destined for pasteurization, which he says is commingled from dozens of dairies with little attention to cleanliness, and the raw milk his own farm produces for direct human consumption, which comes from a single, carefully tested herd under strict standards for both the cows and the workers who care for them.
Mark McAfee on Camping With the Cows and Raw Milk's Growth
McAfee tells Lane that interest in raw milk keeps growing because people share their experiences, pointing to Camping with the Cows, Raw Farm's sixth annual gathering, which drew about fourteen hundred visitors and eighty-five influencers to the farm for two days of bonfires, local food vendors and live music from a band that traveled from Texas. He describes giving guests a tour of the farm's own Thermo Fisher pathogen lab, where the operation runs roughly one hundred fifty tests a day on individual cows, bulk tanks and finished products to screen for E. coli, salmonella, listeria and campylobacter. McAfee says the farm now milks about twelve hundred cows across two dairies and moves fifty to fifty-five thousand gallons of milk a week into stores throughout California. Lane, who says he regularly drinks the farm's fermented raw milk and notices a difference in his own health, asks whether the movement is accelerating, and McAfee credits word of mouth among families who say their children suffer fewer ear infections, colds and asthma flare-ups after switching from pasteurized milk.
The Fight Over Raw Cheese Labeling
McAfee turns to Raw Farm's cheese, which he calls one of the only truly raw cheeses still sold at retail in America. He says the FDA recently asked the farm to pasteurize its cheese and still call it raw, a request he refused as fraudulent and misleading to consumers who specifically seek out unheated, bioactive-rich dairy in the tradition of the so-called French paradox cheeses. McAfee quotes an FDA inspector, Jane Choi, as telling him Raw Farm is the last cheese maker in the country that does not thermalize or pasteurize before packaging. He explains that because federal code contains no legal definition of the word raw, other brands can heat-treat their cheese and still market it as raw, destroying the bioactive compounds he says protect gut health. Lane calls the practice shocking. McAfee adds that chefs increasingly use the farm's raw cream and raw butter, which carry those same compounds, in dressings, desserts and coffee drinks, even when customers are wary of drinking raw milk itself, and he predicts the broader market will keep growing despite higher prices.
John Materano Remembers David Brigati
After the break, Lane welcomes his longtime friend John Materano, who grew up with Eddie and David Brigati in Garfield, New Jersey, to discuss David Brigati's life following his recent death. Materano recalls that he, David, Eddie and a friend called Rocky shared a tight-knit neighborhood around Monroe Street, Grand Street and Lincoln Place, and that David showed an early gift for music, singing in a high school doo-wop group called the Garfield High School Bel-Airs before fronting his own group, the Hi-Fis, which scored hits with My Friend and Dorothy. Materano describes an amateur night at a Harlem theater where David's otherwise all-white group placed second in audience applause, losing only to Donna Summer. From there, Materano says David joined forces with Joey Dee of neighboring Passaic to form Joey Dee and the Starliters, an act that filmed three movies and became an early integrated rock band, with Willie Davis on drums and Carl Lattimore on organ performing alongside the group's white singers at a moment when such mixing was still rare in American pop music.
Jimi Hendrix, Joe Pesci, and the Rockit Kids Legacy
Materano explains that David arranged the Starliters' backup vocals and later became what Felix Cavaliere called the secret weapon of the Rascals, singing the soaring harmonies behind Groovin', People Got to Be Free and A Beautiful Morning while staying largely out of the spotlight himself. Lane recalls that the Starliters once played the Peppermint Lounge alongside visiting Beatles and later employed a young, unknown guitarist named Jimi Hendrix for a year, while Materano adds that Joe Pesci cut David's hair as a barber before joining the band. David also turned down a spot on Dinah Shore's television show and reportedly dated Jane Russell, choosing instead to stay loyal to Joey Dee. Materano describes a later reunion show with Eddie and Ronnie Spector, and explains that Eddie now mentors young musicians through a program called the Rockit Kids. Lane closes the hour by thanking Materano for sharing David Brigati's story and inviting listeners to email guest suggestions before signing off and wishing everyone a healthy, safe evening.