In a time of burnout and disconnection, this conversation offers a practical way back to ourselves and each other. Melanie Underwood reveals how food and shared meals can rebuild curiosity, calm, and real human connection - especially for families navigating the digital age.

What You’ll Hear:

1. Why cooking can be one of the most powerful forms of mindfulness, especially if sitting still isn’t your thing
2. How non-judgment in the kitchen builds confidence, curiosity, and trust in kids and adults
3. The simple ways shared meals create community, conversation, and cultural connection
4. Why mistakes (in food and in life) are often the greatest teachers
5. How cooking helps kids develop independence, self-advocacy, and real-world life skills
6. A gentle antidote to burnout that doesn’t involve productivity hacks or perfection

Melanie Underwood’s personal breakthrough moment.

Melanie had a breakthrough moment when she realized:

Cooking wasn’t about precision or perfection - it was a doorway to confidence, mindfulness, and connection.

That’s when she stopped teaching rigid rules and started teaching:

1. curiosity over criticism
2. presence over performance
3. trust over technique

From that moment on, cooking became Melanie’s language for rebuilding human skills - especially for kids and families navigating stress, screens, and burnout.

Featured Guest: Melanie Underwood

Melanie Underwood is a food and mindfulness educator with nearly 30 years of experience and more than 50,000 students taught. She uses cooking as a sensory, non-judgmental pathway to rebuild curiosity, confidence, and connection, helping people strengthen the human skills often lost to burnout and digital overload.

Her approach works everywhere, from Fortune 500 boardrooms and school classrooms to family dinner tables, and has been featured by CNN, People, Food Network, Parents, and more.

Follow Melanie Underwood: https://www.nourishandgather.co/

Under Melanie’s leadership, Nourish & Gather offers:

1. Cooking classes (kids, teens, adults)
2. After-school programs and camps
3. Private and group culinary experiences
4. Mindful cooking and sound meditation sessions
5. Retreats that blend cooking, mindfulness, and personal connection
6. For example, immersive day retreats combining sound baths, mindful cooking, and intentional nourishment.

Meet the Host: Adrienne Giffen

Adrienne...