Wellington Onyenwe joins the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast to discuss using an environmental justice lens in looking at chemical exposure, and his passion for food and cooking.
Onyenwe, a current fellow and a Health Scientist, Environmental Toxicologist and Public Health Emergency Responder at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also talks about being a Nigerian immigrant and his interest and career path in toxicology
The Agents of Change in Environmental Justice podcast is a biweekly podcast featuring the stories and big ideas from past and present fellows, as well as others in the field. You can see all of the past episodes here.
Listen below to our discussion with Onyenwe and subscribe to the podcast at iTunes or Spotify.
Transcript
Brian Bienkowski
Wellington, how are you doing today?
Wellington Onyenwe
I am on top of the world and walking on sunshine. How are you?
Brian Bienkowski
And you have your Superman shirt on. You really are on top of the world. Of course, listeners can’t see that, but he has a Superman shirt on, and he’s on top of the world. And where are you today as we speak?
Wellington Onyenwe
So I am currently in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Brian Bienkowski
Awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here. And of course, you are not from Atlanta. You’ve had a long, winding journey to where you’re at now. So I want to start way back at the beginning. You are a Nigerian immigrant. So tell me a little bit about your childhood.
Wellington Onyenwe
Sure. Yeah. So I’m a Nigerian immigrant. Of course, I was born abroad, but funny enough, I was not born in Nigeria. My father was in both the Nigerian military and the US military, and my mother was a traveling nurse, so we were all over the place. I was actually born in Germany, funny enough, but we were back to and from Germany and Nigeria and the UK, as it is, for many, many years, and then found ourselves in the States, when my dad was actually stationed in the States.
Brian Bienkowski
Did that leave an impact? Kind of that early travel? Or were you just so little that it did just didn’t, didn’t matter?
Wellington Onyenwe
you know, for for, for quite some time, it didn’t really matter, because I was so young. And then, you know, you get to that stage in life where you can at least remember images. It’s kind of, I call them, you know, like little, little tik-toks from childhood. And you remember images. You remember little, I guess, little videos or glimpses of life. And then as you mature, those those glimpses become actual memories. So it definitely left a lasting impact on how I just view life and humanity as it is.
Brian Bienkowski
I will say there’s a, I don’t want to make overly broad statements about you. I’ve only been in person with you once, but there is a there’s an aura to people who are well traveled, or there’s kind of a underlying empathy that you notice in a lot of people. And I got that vibe from you, and I don’t know if it’s from maybe the travel since or from the beginning of your life, but I’ve always sensed that in you, and I think that’s just such a good quality of people can get it. It’s just hard, because we can’t all bounce around in our childhoods and be exposed to so many different cultures. So when along the way, did you become aware or interested in environmental justice?
Wellington Onyenwe
Oh, man, thank you so much for that. And you know, I think that environmental justice kind of plays a part in in that character trait that you’re mentioning, because I’ve seen many different perspectives of how to live as a human being, be it in military housing, be it in a Nigerian village, a big Nigerian city, and then, of course, in the United States, seeing different styles of living in, again, military households, the rural aspect of living, and then the big time or big city living. So with environmental justice, it’s kind of looking at that lens from all of those perspectives, right? So in Nigeria, you know, burning trash, you know, that’s how we dispose of our rubbish in the village, or we did back then. And it was something that I, you know, noticing relatives having adverse health effects, having a specific colored eyes just from all of the exposure, you know, those the yellowing eyes and respiratory illness that was going around just from the exposure of kerosene. And crude oil and, you know, burning trash. And also living, you know, fast forward, living in Germany, in the UK, secondhand smoke in a big city was a huge thing. You smelt cigarettes to the point where you could honestly point out the brand and the type, unfortunately, depending on where you go. And then, of course, living in South Carolina, rural South Carolina, for a bit of time before we moved back into military housing, you would see, you know, homes that were really well kept, and then you would see some unkempt housing that were dilapidated, and folks who had different socioeconomic status. And it really puts your perspective, it challenges your perspective as far as you know what is, what is suitable, and I’m using suitable in quotation marks, and what has become their norm versus your norm, and how that really intertwines with environmental justice and injustice. Should this be our norm of living? Should we continuously be exposed to smoke from burning trash, secondhand smoke or poor housing conditions, you know, environmental conditions? Or is there something that we should do actively, bit by bit, to change this? So that’s, you know, growing up. That was one of the that was really the crux of how I started to view humanity, because it really, it forced me to think about life as a whole, in general, and what is environmental justice. I of course, didn’t know the term back then, but I knew something was different amongst how folks lived, city to city, state to state, and country to country.
Brian Bienkowski
So this is probably a hard question for you, given all your experiences, but what is a moment or event that has helped shape your identity?
Wellington Onyenwe
You know, I would have to say being 100% on my own right after high school, heading into my undergraduate studies. You know, being a latchkey kid. Now I’m dating myself. So being a latchkey kid, you know, both of my parents constantly working and traveling. We saw them at finite points in the day. You know, my dad would be, they would be stationed, sometimes out of the country. We would see him a few times out of the year. And then my mother, you know, working double shifts, it would leave my brother and myself to kind of fend for ourselves, raise ourselves. He was and is an awesome big brother. And you know, I think for me, there was always a sense of independence, having stern, strong but carrying parents around, but few, far in between, and then having a newfound experience in undergrad, where you know you have, of course, that the whole moving out and living on your own, but really viewing, viewing life, yet again, from a perspective of now being an adult, working, doing environmental justice work, not even knowing, again, that it’s environmental justice work, you know, in communities in Oakland, California, East Oakland, to be specific. You know, continuing my undergraduate education at the University of California at Berkeley, really allowed me to shape my identity from the perspective of a cultural aspect, you know, embracing my nigerianness, really fully understanding and diving deep into Igbo culture, and also, at the same time African American culture. And then, you know, looking at my close ties to the Asian community, the Latin community, just with different life experiences, whether it be, you know, martial arts, you know, being in the Pacific Islander community and volunteering there, or growing up in Los Angeles, very, very close ties to Latin America and Latin culture. And so you really start to kind of create this, this, this interesting and intricate melting pot of understanding, I like to call it, and that empathy, going back to that empathy that you were describing earlier, it really changed my perspective that much more than before, in my childhood, as far as how people live, what people’s life experiences are, how they differ from mine, and ultimately, how that shapes my identity.
Brian Bienkowski
So how did you get into toxicology? Why was that the field that spoke to you?
Wellington Onyenwe
I didn’t want to go to med school. You know? I I always joke. I use that as a joke. You know, ultimately in high school, I went to a Medical Magnet High School in Compton, California. King Drew Magnet High School of Medicine and Science, and so in your junior and senior year, you’re afforded the opportunity to work at the King Drew Trauma Center. And in that rotation, it’s literally, you know, a period, sometimes two periods throughout the school day where you are candy striping, you’re learning the tips, the tricks of the trade, and you are understanding what it means to be in various roles within the hospital. And for me, doing that for a couple of years, junior and senior year, it kind of let me know that I wanted to, I wanted to help people, but I wanted to help people on a larger scale, and I didn’t really think that I would be able to fully accomplish that in a hospital, and I felt a bit siloed. So in undergraduate studies. I really looked, especially, of course, right at your sophomore year, where they’re, they’re coercing you to to declare. I thought long and hard, and I said, you know, what if, what if I did this toxicology thing. It’s, it’s multifaceted, you know, we can go into forensics, molecular macro, or even, you know what I did, the food additives and Molecular Toxicology. It has so many different venues and different disciplines that you can delve into and still feel fulfilled, especially, you know, digging back into environmental toxicology and how that has a direct connection to environmental justice. So I thought that this was essentially a win-win. You know, there’s no way to not do well and help people and, you know, have an impact on society, not just domestically but abroad with this degree and with this with this field of study
Brian Bienkowski
you mentioned undergrad, I still find it crazy to be, you know, at 18 and 19 years old, it’s like, okay, what do you want to do with the rest of your life? It’s just, I mean, I went back to get my Master’s when I was in my late 20s, because I was just, I matured slow. It’s like, at that age, my gosh, I don’t know. I wanted to be a baseball player. Still, you know, it’s such a crazy time to try to pick a career. So when folks like you have found that that early, I’m always a little bit envious.
Wellington Onyenwe
Don’t get me wrong. Don’t get me wrong. You know, there was, there’s always that passion, that other passion, of being a chef as well, which is completely unrelated to anything toxicology, you know, with regards to toxicology. So I definitely hear you, and it’s an amazing amount of pressure to put on someone who just left and just moved out of their home, and we’re probably thinking about hanging out with their friends at the mall or going to the, you know, the latest party, and it’s just a complete, like divergence in that question, when you’re asking them, hey, what do you want to do for the rest of your life? Make that decision right now,
Brian Bienkowski
right now, and spend a lot of money doing it. So you’ve been able to and later, I definitely want to talk about being, you know, being a chef and how food you’ve kind of woven food into a lot of your environmental justice work, and both kind of the personal front and career to some extent, I want to get into that. But first, before getting in to your current work, I want to talk a little bit about some of your varied previous work in toxicology, including at a sheriff’s office, from what I understand.
Wellington Onyenwe
Yes, yes. So part of part of me figuring out what I want to do for the rest of my life, I decided to jump into the different aspects of toxicology and really just shadow and look at internships, fellowships to see if it was, in fact, the correct fit that aspect of toxicology. And so one of them actually saw me being a forensic toxicology or a criminalist forensic toxicologist. Excuse me, criminalist intern is what they call the position. And this was, I loved this position because it was one of those serendipitous things that ended up happening on a whim. You know, I was looking for internships and fellowships, and I reached out to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department. And, you know, I just explained to them what my interests were and what I do in the lab and what I do from a social perspective. And they said, “Sure, come on in.” And I did not know they were going to give me carte blanche as far as research was concerned. So we were working on some at that time. It was some pretty cutting-edge technology research. I can’t get into too much of it, but it dealt with fingerprints, DNA, and extracting those from porous surfaces, clothing, things that you normally would not, you know, think to to extract those types of data from, and so, you know, going through starting there, learning the ropes as to what it meant to be a criminalist, and then, you know, moving and graduating up from there and going on ride alongs, you know, which was a completely different experience. You know, one day I’m in the lab and, you know, working on this project, and the next minute, they’re saying, “Okay, well, the coroner is about to retire, and we’re down. We’re short staffed today, so guess what? You’re going out, you’re in the field, so you get to shadow.” And it was a crazy experience dealing with I’ll never forget my first case was, it was, it was a lot to to try and manage in one day, you know, we had an unfortunate passing of an individual, was a self inflicted gunshot wound. And from there we had to, you know, my job at that time was to come in and take the notes and draw out the schematics of the scene, any anything notable that would be, you know, reported to our sheriff and our criminalists that would be of notable concern, that may have had some sort of connection to, you know, the end result of of the decedent or the victim. But bear in mind you are now the minute you step on the front lawn. It’s, it’s an active crime scene. But the plot twist is, this is happening at three o’clock in the afternoon near an elementary school, and we’re just now putting up all of the tape. We’re just now putting everything up, you know, we just now put up the tarp. It’s a windy day, but we’re putting up tarp so, you know, the there was a lot, and there are many components, as far as you know, shielding the children from seeing something that they may not need to see, and also dealing with, you know, family members that were coming up and mourning and still in shock, and, you know, at the same time not contaminating or not disrupting the scene and getting the job done. So it started in the lab, it ended up in the field. And it was a experience for the lifetime, an experience for the lifetime that I would never trade in. I’m very, very grateful for that experience.
Brian Bienkowski
Yeah, those jobs where you have to be almost clinical and kind of just put the blinders on and do your job are always amazing to me that people can do that. I have. I have sisters and sister in laws who work in medical, the medical field and emergency care, and just the idea of being in one of those situations like you just described. Thank goodness, those people exist, and you have now taken a turn. So you’re a health scientist, environmental toxicologist at the CDC. So can you just talk a bit about your role there, and how it’s gotten you involved in some emergency responses for different crises?
Wellington Onyenwe
Sure, yes. So, you know, I left from the forensic world, where I was essentially creating breakthrough scientific projects. I was working on experiments and guidelines that were geared towards human, occupational and environmental exposure, safety and efficient, you know, methods for assessment in forensic casework. And now we’re in Atlanta, Georgia, and we are a health scientist and a toxicologist. Interestingly enough, you know, the first initial role that I had, before that role, I was still a toxicologist, but we were actually forming an Environmental Justice Office. And this was unheard of back then, to have, you know the federal government, even, you know, look at something, you know, a topic like this, you know, it was, was a very controversial, very, how do I want to say this? very controversial and very buzzworthy news topic type of discussion, and it was not something that everyone was readily amenable to, to dive into from a federal perspective. But there were a few of us, literally two handfuls in the entire agency, that were that were doing the work. We were putting together, reports, documentation, and you know that that really it made me think about, okay, this is the social aspect of everything. What about the scientific aspect? And so I shifted from that office and moved into Laboratory Sciences in the Center for Environmental Health, the National Center for Environmental Health. And there my role, essentially, is the intersection between policy partnerships and also environmental toxicology, and how those intertwine, and how we can create programs much like, you know, the program. I think we’re going to dive into it, the National report on human exposure to environmental chemicals. But before we jumped into that, or before we got there, as my career was developing, I got called into emergency response. And as you know, emergency response, it is, you know, I like to, I like to put federal work, especially at CDC, into two different hats. You have programmatic ongoing day to day. These are like your Project Officer or project management type of roles where you’re monitoring or helping out communities, as opposed to emergency response. Emergency Response is much more fast paced. Everything is due yesterday, and it is essentially, I don’t want to call it instant gratification, but you you feel as though you are doing work that is recognized almost immediately for a greater good. And you know people’s lives are at stake, communities lives are at stake, and you are solving a problem as it develops, and also managing all of the crazy twists and turns and so, yeah, emergency response, you know, it’s a catch all type of position. You know, at CDC, you have to be ready to handle things as simple as daily operations, staffing logistics, you know, backfilling positions all the way down to the nitty gritty, hardcore sciences, yeah.
Brian Bienkowski
And I think the easiest example for people to think about is just the covid 19 pandemic and the CDC literally learning about a new a new problem on the fly and trying to protect people on the fly. I mean, that was the, you know, that is the most kind of poignant recent example. And so you mentioned the the national report on human exposure to environmental chemicals. And, at EHN, we actually are pretty familiar with this. But can you just let people know, let listeners know what it is and why it’s important?
Wellington Onyenwe
Essentially, the national report on human exposure to environmental chemicals. It it provides bio monitoring, or biological monitoring data that has been gathered since that 1999 or 2000 cycle. They occur in two year cycles. It is a nationally-represented survey, and it essentially is measuring samples that are in… –these samples are blood, you know, they’re urine samples and other we call them matrices–, that are retrieved from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES. And so it’s essentially 2500 participants give or take, and the survey data are collected by by us here at CDC, and then they are evaluated and analyzed by the Division of Laboratory Sciences that is housed in the National Center for Environmental Health. And so we use a lot of fancy, fancy machines and dumbing it down, but we use very complex, you know, machinery and methodologies to really see what is going on, as far as national averages, you know, in the human body. And you know, these averages, or we call them geometric means, are really like markers. There are ways that we can really understand how, really more so the amounts of concentrations that are in the human body. And on top of that, you know, we look at the different ways that, you know, individuals here in the States can be exposed, whether it be air, water, food, soil, dust or consumer products even. And you know, from there, we can really start to uncover potential pieces to the puzzle, drawing connections from other studies or studies that are ongoing within CDC as to what all of this means. You know, when we put out the data, it’s not necessarily medically interpretable, but it’s one of those things that can you know from if you’re using that environmental justice lens, you can say to yourself, Okay, well, why is x population having a higher incidence of exposure to x chemical?
Brian Bienkowski
And you mentioned looking at this through an environmental justice lens, I wonder if you can build on that a little bit. Are there examples, or how are you and colleagues taking this data set and making sure that you are kind of teasing out folks who are maybe disproportionately exposed, or maybe are more susceptible to exposure when you’re looking at this national report?
Wellington Onyenwe
Sure. So there are limitations to the data, of course, you know, and that that really delves into PII. But with those limitations, you know, these conversations are on the horizon. And currently, I have now been named the editor in chief of this entire report.
Brian Bienkowski
Cool!
Wellington Onyenwe
So I, you know, I get to have a little bit more, you know, of course, with the with the advisement of senior leadership, I get a little bit more freedom as far as the direction that the report goes. And so, you know, hopefully in the future, you know, we can, we can collaborate internally, and, you know, at the same time or intend and build relationships externally to really drill down any any potential adverse impacts to any group. You know, because environmental justice affects us all.
Brian Bienkowski
I’ll say, as a reporter who has covered environmental toxics for years, the NHANES data is just a goldmine of stories. I mean, we, we put it against, you know, plastic production, and look what chemicals in plastic are. But, you know, you can just look slice and dice in so many ways, BPA. We’ve done a lot of reporting on BPA and how, you know, the levels that are showing up in people versus 10 years ago. So it’s just a it’s a real treasure trove for a journalist or anybody interested in kind of monitoring us, you know, environmental chemical exposure. So it’s kind of cool that you’re going to be the editor in chief. That’s good, that’s good to know. Well, I want to switch gears a little bit. We talked about food. We mentioned you being a chef, and I know that food, and specifically access to healthy food and kind of culturally relevant and appropriate foods is super important to you. So first, just in general, what does food mean to you?
Wellington Onyenwe
Food is everything. Food is a way to harmoniously bring together people, cultures, experiences, perspectives. I love that word, perspectives. And just general, general feeling and ethos together. It’s a way to bring all of those elements together. And you know what it means to me? You know I was never, I was never afforded the opportunity to participate in culinary school. I had, I had two scholarships, fully funded. And when I told my traditional Nigerian parents, my dad said, “you can either be a lawyer, doctor, engineer, or disgrace to the family.” And so I was working, I was working on that disgrace aspect, and he told me, you know, doctors don’t have time to be chefs. And so, you know, while I was on this undergraduate journey that we were discussing earlier, you know, part of that was moonlighting as a chef. I would, I would stage. And so I like to tell folks that I went to the school of hard knocks, and, you know, this was at establishments as simple as diners to five star, you know, hotel, fine dining type of establishments. And I just learned as much as I could. I soaked up as much as I could, you know, while I was in the Bay Area, while I was in Los Angeles, and then, of course, in Atlanta. And one thing that it taught me is that there are so many differences in cuisine, but there are also many similarities. And one thing that I love to experiment with is playing around with flavor profiles and also making culturally traditional dishes a little bit more contemporary and healthier, he can still have the traditional elements included. However, if there’s a way to ensure that you know, this really awesome dessert or this really awesome savory dish that I create would not give you as much adverse health effects as its traditional predecessor. You know, I’m I’m all game for that. And it’s not necessarily erasing culture, erasing, you know, how mom and dad or grandma or grandpa used to eat. It’s bringing things into a contemporary lens to ensure that they don’t fall under a statistic of adverse health effects based upon their diet or their dietary choices. And so it’s important to me. Food is important to me because you tell stories, you know, you tell stories of how people lived decades, generations ago, and a progression of how they’re living now. And so I like to tell that story on the plate. Sometimes I will introduce a lot of those traditional elements on one side of the plate or one aspect of the plate in my plating, and show you know this is where we are now. But I know you remember these flavor profiles, and I’ve had so many staunch traditional Nigerian elders, because, you know, I specialize in West African and Caribbean and fuse with, you know, Latin, European, Asian and all of these different cultures. But I have them come up and say, you know, you did this justice. It’s different. It’s different. But you did, you did this justice. I like, I like your take on it.
Brian Bienkowski
I really like that. We I have been getting back in touch with my Polish roots quite a bit, and it is so salted-meat heavy, which, don’t get me wrong, I love sausage and all of that, you know, kielbasa and stuff. But I am trying to do the same thing that you’re doing when I’m cooking, is trying to find ways to incorporate it’s a lot of, you know, cabbage and things like that too, just kind of that hearty Eastern European peasant kind of, kind of peasant food, and trying to do it in a healthier way. So I love that. And I might be sending you some recipes to see if you can give me some tips on jazz it up. Jazz it up and not raise my blood pressure while I’m trying to get back in touch with the with the culture there. So in addition to the actual cooking of the food, you’re also involved on the front end of things there in Atlanta. So I want, if you could tell listeners about the community garden you’re part of and how you all are doing things a bit differently than so many other urban gardens.
Wellington Onyenwe
Sure, yes. So I have been volunteering at the mother Clyde Memorial West End garden for a little over half a decade, and this, this, this place is a marvel. It’s not just addressing, you know, urban agriculture and urban farming and providing food to its community. It it is looking at an unprecedented holistic picture of environmental injustices. It’s looking at, you know, sustainable agriculture, with education, job training, entrepreneurship, community development, developing relationships with with law enforcement, which, of course, you know, law enforcement in in these types of areas, are always very touchy relationships. They’re very difficult relationships to piece together, especially with, you know, social events that we’ve seen in recent years, that, you know, are just reiterations of things we’ve seen over, I don’t know how many decades. And so, you know, we’re providing access to fresh, nutritious foods. We are fostering agribusiness, you know, creating concrete solutions to combat environmental injustices, and it all starts in a little stretch of land that is honestly no bigger than a parking lot, but we have an innumerable amount of crops there, from, you know, herbs to fresh peppers, which is what they’re historically known for, fruits and vegetables. And you know, I came on to manage the fruit trees. So I was, as, you know, Georgia, you know, one of the huge symbols in Georgia is the peach tree. And so I manage the peach trees, the apple trees, the pear trees, and also we have a makeshift vineyard where we grow wine grapes. And so it’s been a wonderful venture. And you know, it is welcome to all ages. We have children there, as you will, of course, read in the the essay, and then we also have the elders. And the elders really act, as you know, the the crux of this society, or the crux of this, this movement. They are the ones, the gatekeepers that show us the way of days past and how, you know, they use tips and tricks that may not be, you know, out in the public eye. You know, little things, how to make watermelon sweeter, how to make, you know, herbs grow more lush, how to make. The list goes on and on, and they’re just little tips and tricks that the average person may not know or understand unless they kind of came through our little gem here and and were taken under the wing by one of the elders.
Brian Bienkowski
And I want to circle back, stay on this kind of positive note. I want to circle back to Nigeria. So I know you’re you, obviously you’re focused on US health issues through your job. But are you able to work on any environmental health issues related to Nigeria? Or would you like to do that down the line?
Wellington Onyenwe
Yeah. So definitely, working in Nigeria is definitely one of my end goals for my career. You know, it’s, it’s, it is essentially bringing together all of these years of academic pursuit, all of these years of of, you know, Candy striping in hospitals, and at the same time, you know, working emergency response, you know, just dealing with logistics, and also being in the field, it’s, it’s bringing together the component of, you know, environmental health and exposure science, you know, the things and. And those little, those little snapshots and images that I saw as a child. It’s a full circle moment. And so, you know, there, there have been some initial talks. I’ve been working with NCDC, our country desk out there, to really understand what, what can be done. Because, you know, not many people know that the CDC is not a regulatory agency. You know we are. You know the folks that come in and strongly suggest and have guidelines and recommendations for the greater good and greater public’s health, and so it’s only when you know folks come to us and ask us for recommendations and whatnot that we can offer that guidance. But for me, it’s, it’s really, so, yeah, so it’s, you know, it’s something that I actually failed to mention earlier. You know, as a child, I always push the envelope. I always asked, Why, especially to my parents, why can we do this? Why can we not do that? And so pushing the envelope is really, you know, it lends itself back to that old, that old adage of the dose makes the poison, or it can also make the therapeutic effect and and so, you know, taking that concept and adding it to building partnerships and building collaborations, you know, abroad in Nigeria, and seeing, you know what, what can be done. Let’s push the envelope a bit. And how can we proactively collaborate on studies to get rid of, you know, electronic waste that’s been a growing issue. You know, measuring the air quality there and actually doing something tangible about it. Same goes for, you know, crude oil and just just urbanization as a whole, and how we can mitigate detrimental and adverse effects on the community and ensure that the public’s health is protected. And there’s one key component to that, which is building trust. Building trust, building reliance. And you know, building that, that relationship amongst not only the entities that we may potentially be collaborating on, on whether it be studies or reports, but the people
Brian Bienkowski
Well, Wellington, thank you so much for spending time with me today. This is just from meeting you in Philly and following your work. I’m just it’s so nice to have you in the program. I’m super excited about having somebody representing the federal the federal government. We have a lot of people in academia here, and it’s just a really good perspective that you gave us today about how you guys do your jobs and why it’s important. So before I get you out of here, I have three rapid fire questions where you can just answer with a word or a phrase first. So my favorite thing to cook is,
Wellington Onyenwe
oh, man, okay. Came in. Came in, hot. Okay, I would I would have to say, currently, currently, my favorite thing to cook is Southern barbecue. And I know it is. It’s very counterintuitive to all of this speech that we’ve had about exposure. You know, now we have polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons all in and throughout your food, but it tastes amazing.
Brian Bienkowski
I can’t start my day without
Wellington Onyenwe
I cannot start my day without mindfulness and stretching.
Brian Bienkowski
What are you looking forward to this week?
Wellington Onyenwe
I am looking forward to more culinary experimentation.
Brian Bienkowski
I think cooking is cool because of the science and art part of it. It’s really. It really is both. And I don’t know if you watch the bear, but I feel like the bear is giving people a little peek into the world both, both the chaos of kind of the restaurant industry, but also the real beauty in playing with flavor profiles, as you said, in different styles and fusions. So thank you so much for that. And Wellington, before we get you out of here, what is the last book that you read for fun? Sure,
Wellington Onyenwe
I have two. One is the power of now, by Eckhart Tolle. And I don’t know if you’re familiar with that. With that book, I am not, but it’s essentially, you know, some of the lessons that you learn from that are disconnecting from the mind, listening to the mind rising above chatter, understanding that the past has no power over your future, especially, and letting go of ego, letting thoughts go, letting judgment go, and just, you know, practicing mindfulness and being a better a better person. And a close second to that which has a very unfiltered take on all of those concepts is called “The subtle art of not giving a f*ck”. And this one is by Mark Manson. I. Don’t know if we can bleep that out, or
Brian Bienkowski
I will have you know it is you are the second person on the podcast that I’ve spoke to in the last month that mentioned that book. So I think, I think just saying F works. I think that’s good. I think that gives people okay enough. Yeah, well, Wellington, that’s a beautiful way to end. Thank you so much for being not only on the podcast, but part of the program. You felt like a friend from the time I met you. And that’s I can say that. Can’t say that about a lot of people. So it’s just, it’s just really great to hear, to hear about your journey today, and thanks so much for joining us.
Wellington Onyenwe
Thank you so much for having me. It’s been an honor and pleasure, Brian.