Podcast: Flipping the Table
Michael Dimock, director of PHI’s Roots of Change, hosts dynamic and enlightening conversations with people who are flipping the table to create new ways to feed the world.
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Focus Areas
Capacity Building & Leadership, Healthy Communities -
Issues
Nutrition & Food Security, Population Health, Rural Health -
Expertise
Coalition & Network Building -
Programs
Roots of Change
Honest conversations about food, farming and the future
Food production causes more damage to the planet than any other human activity, contributing to global warming; lost biodiversity; degraded soil, water, air and rural economies; and epidemics of diet-related disease.
This podcast, hosted by Michael Dimock, presents dynamic and enlightening conversations with people who are flipping the table to create new ways to feed the world. Their ideas will inspire action and positivity in our challenging times, and appeal to listeners and sponsors who strive to create healthy and resilient people, communities and economies.
Michael Dimock is director of Roots of Change, a think-and-do tank working to ensure emergence of a sustainable food system in California. Roots of Change is a program of the Public Health Institute.
S8 Ep 8 - Old Salt Festival, P3: Two Women Redefining the Power of Partnership in Ranching
Meet Jaimie Stoltzfus of P Bar Ranch and Cowgirl Meat Company and Amber Smith of Antelope Springs Ranch and Executive Director of Women in Ranching. Though separated by hundreds of miles, these first-generation ranchers, mothers and collaborators are united by a common vision for the future of ranching.
Together, they share the story of an innovative partnership raising calves on Montana's Northern Great Plains and grass-finishing them in the Absaroka Mountains to produce regeneratively raised, grass-finished beef. Along the way, they reflect on breaking into a traditionally male-dominated industry, and why collaboration—not competition—is helping build a more resilient future for ranchers, rural communities and the land.
S8 Ep 7 - Old Salt Festival, P2: Purpose-Driven Capital for Regional & Regenerative Food Systems
In Episode 2 of the Old Salt Festival series, Michael Dimock sits down with Steward's Alissa Welker, VP of Operations and Ryan Anderson, COO to explore the organization's unique community lending platform, which has financed more than 100 farms and regional food businesses across the country. Together, they discuss how innovative financing, local infrastructure, and stronger market connections can help regenerative agriculture grow.
Michael is then joined by Roots of Change's Coco Sanabria for a conversation with Stephen Hohenrieder, Founder of Grounded Capital. Drawing on decades of experience investing in agriculture and consumer brands, Stephen shares why regenerative food and farming is gaining traction, how thoughtful capital can strengthen entire food ecosystems, and what it will take to build a more resilient, regional food economy.
S8 Ep 6 - Old Salt Festival, P1: Building Stronger Regional Food Systems Through The Power of Networks & Collaboration
This is the first of six podcasts featuring voices from this past June's Old Salt Festival. You will hear farmers, ranchers, business leaders and advocates who are creating an agrarian culture that points the way to a healthier food system in America.
In Episode 1, Michael Dimock sits down with Jose Corona, Chief Agricultural Business Officer in the Office of Kat Taylor, to discuss his work leading a farmer-guided team building the Agricultural Platform Collective—a mechanism to expand business opportunities for small farmers in California's San Joaquin Valley.
He is then joined by Conner Hackett, General Manager of Stemple Creek Ranch, one of California's leading grass-fed, regenerative livestock operations, to explore how strong networks and collaboration can help build more resilient regional food systems.
S8 Ep 5 - Dr. Steven Chen and Erin Martin: From Regenerative Farms to Food is Medicine
Food is Medicine is gaining momentum across the country, grounded in a simple but powerful idea: healthy food can help prevent, manage and even reverse chronic disease. But this movement is about more than treating illness. It is about changing the conditions that shape health, including nutrition security, access to care, soil health, food quality and the strength of local and regional food systems. This episode explores what that vision looks like in practice with two leaders helping shape the future of Food is Medicine.
Image caption: From left, Erin Martin and Dr. Steven Chen speak with Flipping the Table host Coco Sanabria, Program Manager at Roots of Change, and Matthew Marsom, CEO of Goodwin Strategies and Roots of Change consultant policy adviser.
S8 Ep 4 - Marion Nestle: A timely conversation with our nation's food politics pioneer and its God Mother of Food Studies
Dr. Marion Nestle's 2002 book, Food Politics was instrumental in awakening the nation to the disfunction in America's food policy and its food system. She reflects on her path to food policy and shares her thinking about what she sees is important today for those seeking change.
S8 Ep 3 - Artist Narsiso Martinez Paints Portraits of Farmworkers on Produce Boxes
A former farmworker himself, gifted artist Narsiso Martinez paints farmworker portraits on flattened produce boxes, which now hang in museums, galleries and homes. Narsiso is lifting up men and women that most people never see or hear, but upon whom our very lives depend.
S8 Ep 2 - Kelly Ryerson, known as Glyphosate Girl and a MAHA Mom
In February 2026, President Trump signed an Executive Order defining glyphosate as critical to national security. This created a firestorm among the mostly mother-powered stream of the MAHA movement insisting HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr., eliminate risky or toxic chemicals from agriculture and food ingredients. Kelly Ryerson, a nationally recognized MAHA member often seen lobbying Congress, shares her thoughts on MAHA’s response to the Trump Administration’s support for the controversial herbicide.
S8 Ep 1 - Aria McLauchlan and Harley Cross of Land Core Protect Our Soil
It is rare for business-oriented folks to commit their lives to policy work. But the cofounders of Land Core are doing just that. With business backgrounds they understood how federal farm policy needed to change in order to create healthy and resilient agriculture. They are creating tools and farm bill programs that offer a brighter future by weaving bipartisan support for good soil policy.
S7 Ep22 - Terra Madre Americas: Segment 9: Meat as Medicine for People & the Planet: The Gifts of Nutrient Density
Flipping the Table Co-host Coco Sanabria engages Mary Purdy (l), Sara Keough (c) and Stephan van Vliet (r) to answer the question can meat heal both our bodies & the environment? They share the emerging nutrient density science & how regeneratively raised meat supports human health while restoring ecosystems.
S7 Ep21 - Terra Madre Americas: Segment 8: Lamb & the Land: How Shepherds Are Feeding People & the Landc
The relationship between sheep & humans stretches back 12,000 years. These docile and productive animals provide delicious meat & high-quality fiber. Robert Irwin, Dylan Boeken and Sallie Calhoun share why lamb matters, how thoughtful grazing sustains ecosystems & how their industry can reduce toxic waste and us of herbicides, while it reduces fire danger.
About the Podcast
PHI’s Roots of Change’s (ROC) collaborative network of organizations, businesses and governments hopes to make regenerative agriculture and healthy food accessible to all people including individuals, community-based organizations, food producers and businesses, advocating nonprofits, government agencies and more. ROC is committed to improving our culture’s understanding of our food system from field to table, its production systems and markets, and the policies that guide its function. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Youtube.
Host: Michael Reid Dimock is the program director of Roots of Change at the Public Health Institute. From a leadership role in the global Slow Food Movement to leadership of winning policy campaigns, for two decades he has led catalytic work to transform thinking and laws governing our production of food and management of farms. He serves on the advisory board of the UCLA Law School’s Resnick Food Law and Policy Program as well as the nonprofit boards of Farm to Pantry and the Wild Farm Alliance. Author Katrina Fried and Photographer Paul Mobley feature Michael in their book Everyday Heroes: 50 Americans Changing The World. His global network of allies and social media followers links 140,000 individuals and organizations.
Producer: Courtney Grace is a sound designer, vocalist, and music producer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She studied Sound Design at San Francisco State University and started her music and sound business, Courtney Grace Music and Sound in 2015. She has worked on several podcasts, films, and songs, and has worked on projects with Google and Skywalker Sound. Aside from work, she is very passionate about social justice issues, video editing, graphic design, and enjoys healthy foods and adventurous hikes in nature.
Originally published by Roots of Change
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