Welcome to another installment of “10 Words or Less,” in which I ask brief questions of interesting people and request brief answers from them in return. Today’s participant is the co-producer, co-director, and writer of “Carb Loaded: A Culture Dying to Eat,”  a film that came out Oct. 1. We spoke on Oct. 3, and you can find a video version of our conversation here. Please remember: “10 words” is an intention, not a limit, so please, no counting. If you think it’s easy, let’s see you do it.

Name Lathe Poland
Born when, where Carson City Nev., winter 1973
Where do yo live now? Fairfield County, Conn.
Occupation Filmmaker
Family composition "Married 17 years with amazing wife, just the two of us."
An early formative experience “Learning [in junior high school] that food could trigger migraines for me had a pretty big impact on my view on nutrition.”
Your first paying job “You’re going to love this one. I dotted chocolates at a chocolate factory [pause] which actually connects to the previous answer I gave you."
Wisdom you retain from that experience "Find work that you actually love to do."

Welcome to another text installment of “10 Words or Less,” in which I ask brief questions of interesting people and request brief answers in return. (Previously, I posted the video of our chat; this is the edited transcript, for those who prefer text.) Today’s participant is a food-safety advocate and college instructor in regulatory affairs who formerly operated a nuclear reactor. (I can’t count how many of my friends can say that!) Please remember that “10 Words” is an ethic, not a rule, so please, no counting. If you think it’s easy, let’s see you do it.
 
Name Darin Detwiler (right)
Born when, where May 19, 1968, San Francisco
Resides "Salem, Mass., known for the Salem Witch Trials, which are allegedly tied to food-borne illness, as the source of the deliria that was perceived as witchcraft."
Job "I have two jobs: Adjunct professor at Northeastern University, where I teach in regulatory affairs of food and food industry. Also, I’m the senior policy coordinator at Stop Foodborne Illness, a national nonprofit that supports victims and their families."
What you wanted to be when you grew up "Actually, two things. I wanted to be a musician, and I wanted to be a seismologist. I really wanted to shake, rattle, and roll."
Your first paying job "When I was in high school, I played a Santa Claus at a mall. [Pause.] It wasn’t that paying."
Wisdom you retain from that experience "Never say to a kid, or ask a kid, about their parents, Mom or Dad. Always say ‘folks,’ because folks is generic, and can apply to adopted or grandparents or foster parents. We go through life thinking everyone had to fit into a cookie cutter, but there are many children who have different family situations."

We recorded this interview Friday, Oct. 3, two days after the film's release. Poland and his partner, Eric Carlsen, financed the film, which looks at how America feeds itself and the effects thereof, through Kickstarter. As regular readers know, I'll be following up this post with an edited text version of the interview sometime in the next week. But for now, our conversation just as it happened...

Darin Detwiler and I conducted this interview on Thursday. Detwiler is the senior policy coordinator for Stop Foodborne Illness and an instructor on regulatory affairs and food industries at Northeastern University. As I do, he has a deeply personal motivation to be in his line of work: His son was one of four young people who died in the 1993 E. coli outbreak at Jack in the Box restaurants in the Northwest. He tells that heartbreaking story in the interview, while also sharing vital information of use to anyone who eats.

Welcome to today’s installment of “10 Words or Less,” in which I ask brief questions of interesting people and ask for brief answers in return. In 2009, today’s participant became the youngest member of the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons to run an independent research laboratory, and he’s published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles since. He’s often quoted on matters related to obesity, which is how I learned about him. Please remember: “10 words” is a goal, not a rule, so please no counting at home.

Welcome to another version of "10 Words of Less," in which I ask brief questions of interesting people and ask for brief answers in return. Today's participant is a researcher on obesity and related topics on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. He said a few things I think are worth writing about further, but for today, please enjoy the interview. An edited transcript will follow in a separate post, and then maybe a little more after that.

The hits keep coming on “10 Words or Less,” the feature in which I ask brief questions of interesting people and request brief answers in return. Today’s participant is one of the foremost living experts on addiction. He is a Distinguished Alumni Professor and the Donald Dizney chair of the Department of Psychiatry in the University of Florida College of Medicine. Before we proceed, here’s the usual “10 Words” disclaimer: "Ten words" is an ethic, not a limit, so please, no counting. Besides, if you think it’s easy, let’s see you do it.
Name Mark Gold, MD
Residence Gainesville, Fla.
Born when, where New York City, May 1949
A formative experience "Listening to my mother, a Julliard-trained pianist, play the piano, and watching her give piano lessons."

Welcome to another installment of "10 Words or Less." Today's participant counsels clients who are struggling with food severely enough that they choose to remove themselves from home, family, and work for a period to get help. She is an author and cofounder of ACORN Food Dependency Recovery Services, based in Sarasota, Fla., which has developed a unique mode of treatment that I call "itinerant rehab" to help thousands of self-identified food addicts to regain their footing.

Name Mary Foushi
Born when, where "Nov. 18, 1952, in Milford, Del."
Anything unusual about the circumstances "Of the five children born in my family, I was the smallest, yet I ended up being over 340 pounds."
Family circumstance "I am in a long-term relationship with my partner, Phil Werdell, and we're going to get married on March 1, 2014.
What has been the overarching condition of your life? "Obesity, and it still affects me today," despite that she's maintaining a 195-pound loss for more than 21 years.
Can you give me an example? "I was recently invited to lead the OA retreat, and one of the first things that came up in me was fear that they would think, 'She's not in recovery. Look how fat she is!'"

My Hangouts On Air interview with Mary Foushi, executive director of ACORN Food Dependency Recovery Services. I'll post an edited transcript version a bit later.

Welcome to another installment of "10 Words or Less," in which I ask brief questions of interesting people and ask for brief responses in return. Today's participant is the author of the Yale Food Addiction Scale, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, and a researcher bound for greatness. Her doctoral thesis at Yale was the subject of a report on ABC's "World News Tonight," a story, I should acknowledge, that I was interviewed for through through her referral. We met at a private conference on obesity at Bainbridge Island, Washington, in 2009.
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Name Ashley Gearhardt
How many different ways has it been misspelled? "At least 3. The 'd' is tricky."
Born when and where "A little farm town in Ohio. Covington. June 18, 1982."
Anything notable about the circumstances? "I was three weeks early. My mother went into labor because she was square dancing."
What's your family circumstance? "I'm married to a wonderful man who could not have had a more different upbringing. He's a legal research librarian from San Francisco who grew up in the city. And I have two miniature wiener dogs who run my life."