The Bossticks - #140: Keep A Breast - Breast Cancer: Self Checks, Early Detection, and How To Be Preventative

Episode Date: October 2, 2018

On this episode we sit down with Shaney Jo Darden who is the founder and CCO of the Keep A Breast Foundation. We discuss breast cancer and how to perform self checks. We discuss early detection and how to take preventative measures. To learn more about the Keep A Breast Foundation click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) WOO FOR PLAY is the all natural and organic coconut love oil that is changing the way we have sex. With only 4 all natural ingredients WOO is the perfect personal lubricant to spice up your sex life.  All Him & Her Listeners will receive 20% off your entire order plus free shipping when when visiting www.wooforplay.com & using promo code HIMANDHER at checkout. Capri Blue offers high quality candles, premium home fragrance, and beauty care products. With universal approval from both men and women Capri Blue offers products for everyone. All of Capri Blue's products are made with clean, cruelty free vegan formula. For 20% your entire order at Capri Blue go to capri-blue.com/skinny.  This episode was brought to you by Fabletics. Your new go to for all athletic wear.  Fabletics is offering our listeners an incredible deal you don't want to miss: Get 2 leggings for only $24 a ($99 value) when you sign up for a VIP membership. Just go to Fabletics.com/skinny to take advantage of this deal now. International shipping is available and there is absolutely no commitment when you purchase your first order!  Fabletics.com/skinny Terms and conditions apply.   

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A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. Aha. What's up guys? Welcome back to the skinny confidential, him and her show. Happy Tuesday.

I'm Lauren Everett. I am the creator of the Skinny Confidential, which is a cheeky resource for beauty, wellness, and business. And I am the hymn in The Him and Her Show. My name is Michael Bostic. I am an entrepreneur and brand builder. Most recently, the CEO of Dear Media, which is a new kind of podcast network, focused on female content in the audio space. So this episode is all about boobs. We've done an episode in the past that was all about boob jobs, but this is actually about breast cancer. And we wanted to bring someone on who could showcase the importance of doing self-checks at home. I know there's a lot of women listening to this podcast and tell your friends after this. Tell your mom, tell your grandma, how important it is to check yourself. We really get into it with the owner of Keep Abrest. That's coming up.

But before we get into it, I want to talk to you about what I did with the charity because that was fun. What did you do, Lauren? I think I saw what you did. I know you did the whole casting thing. You had cast chips all over the house. It was in the shower. put it on Instagram I saw, but I don't really get what you did it for. Okay, so what I did is Keep a Breast came over to our condo and she cast my boobs.

And one of the boobs cast, so I did too, is going to be auctioned off to a charity. So they take the cast and they have a talented artist paint the cast into something that's very on brand for the Skinning Confidential. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Let me get this straight. Someone's going to be bidding on your breasts now? someone's bidding on my breasts. We're going to make it.

And do we have a user profile or any idea of what this individual is, who this individual is, what types of individuals bid on these things? Don't go run and create a fake Instagram account to bid on my tits, okay? Listen, I'm not bidding on something I already got. So anyways, they're going to decorate the boobs, a talented artist in very TSC color. So we're going to do like bubble gum, light pink, a little bit of black in there. And then they're going to be bid off to see. someone and all the proceeds go to charity. So I'm very excited about that. Well, see, I would bid for

charity now that you say that. Okay. All right. Well, put your money where your mouth is. I do have a hard time paying for something that I already have, right? That I sleep next to every night. But for charity, should we share the request that you asked? Because I had to make two casts. I'm hoping some real, real heavy hitting rich dude or dudette comes in and buys them for the charity because they could do some damage for the... Michael requested us to make another. cast for his office. It's not going to be his dear media office, but he did ask for an extra cast. His cast will be painted very, very gothic, loud, maybe a little heavy metal-esque by a different artist. And you still get to bed for charity. I'm like an only child I can't, I never learned to share even though I have two siblings.

You are about it sharing. Listen, I, if you're going to make, when I heard you were doing one, I was like, get me one too. So we did two breastcast. I stood in the kitchen and the only part that kind of hurt is when they take the cast off. It felt like I was wearing a giant band-aid. Did you have a couple little little little hair fuzz? Yeah, a little hair fuzz. Yeah, I had a little hair fuzz. And she like took it off and cut it and she was such an artist. She's the owner of Keepa Brass. Her name is Shaney. And she's incredible. She's been doing this for 15 years. Maybe she'll come and cast me. No, no, no. No, she's not, what's she going to cast? Your balls? I'm not going to be bidden for those. Sorry, babe. No one's going to bid on your

balls. You'd be surprised. Let's see. Any takers? If anyone wants to bid on his balls, no one's bidding. It's like fucking crickets. Okay. You know what's also going to be displayed in your office, Michael? What? Capri blue candles. Okay. Those things smell good. Oh, they're so good. So there's really nothing better than a great candle. And you would be surprised because they're actually really hard to find these days. I feel like there's so many different options and brands. but my favorite brand by far is Capri Blue. You guys have seen it all over the skinny confidential and also on my Instagram story. I'm always burning them in the backgrounds of my recipes.

So now I want to give you the deets on the podcast plus a sweet discount code. So if you're new to Capri Blue candles, you want to start with the volcano. Okay, this is what I started with. This is still my go-to. I mean, all the sense are insane, but this one especially is legit. Their candles will all make your house. feel like the most cozy situation, but the volcano is my go-to. It's my favorite one to burn in the room. It's my favorite one to burn in the kitchen. I even like the living room. You can't go wrong here.

It's the perfect scent. It's not too overpowering, but it's not underwhelming. You know what I mean? It's kind of like in the middle. And I just feel like choosing a candle is like picking cologne or perfume. You want to get it right because it affects the vibe of everything. You don't want it too strong, but you want it to give a little kick. Anyway, if you're new to Capri Blue, you want to start with the volcano, in my opinion. It has notes of tropical fruit and this sugary citrus. My favorite two smells. The volcano fragrance is familiar. It's inviting. It's fresh. It's powerful. I'm obsessed. Everyone loves it. If you ask them about Capri Blue, I'm sure they'll all say they love the volcano scent. Even men love it. I love it. We know, babe. You have like 10 in your office.

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To shop Capri Blue Candles, go to Capri-Dash-B-B-Loo.com slash Skinny. That's C-A-P-R-I-B-B-Boo.com slash Skinny. for a 20% off your entire order. That's Capri-Dashblue.com slash skinny for 20% off your order. Speaking of vibes. So I've realized, for the first time of my life, I had a suspicion, but I've realized finally that I'm getting old.

Getting old, we went to Cross this weekend. Everyone, all the young kids go to Cross, and everyone's all excited. We brought a huge group crosses this music festival here. How would you describe it? Is it like a techno? is a house. The setup is amazing. Yes, of course.

It's insane. It's so well done. The lights, everything. Our friend Gilling and Maricio, actually run it. And they do an insane job. Yeah, they put it on. But that's all great. That's all good and great.

But so we're there. We're at the festival. I'm like, okay, here's the thing. I'm going to get into it. I'm going to run around. You know, not really my type of music per se, but I try to keep up with it. Like the night before I was at a drop kick Murfries

and Flogging Molly concert, which, you know, that's like a little bit maybe more of my scene. I was at El Pashto eating prosciutto and melon having a chocolate biscotti with minti. Lauren, we don't need your whole life story. But anyway, so then we go the next day, switch scenes from like punk metal music to this. I'm like, okay, I'm going to keep up with everybody. I know a lot of the listeners probably like the music that there. And I get there.

Everyone there is like 21, 22. The music, everyone's like screaming and yelling. Like, they're so excited. There's a girl crying because there's music. There's these kids playing. It looks like Nickelodeon cartoons. and I looked around and realized I had no idea

about any of the music, no idea about any of the people, and for the first time I was like, I am old and I'm out of touch. And then I took him to the back and changed his depends and pushed him out on a wheelchair. Pretty much.

Connected you to your oxygen tank. I couldn't believe it. I didn't know anything. I couldn't name a song, didn't know who anyone was. Either I'm like just super out of it. I thought it was plugged in. Okay.

I thought I was in the scene. I took you for oysters and warm bread. and he was satisfied. Yeah. I mean, listen, I love our friends. I love that they put this thing on and I love that we went with our friends. But as soon as I got to that table with the warm bread and the wine, I was like, this is maybe more me.

And on Sunday, we had a day of rest. We just chilled and read and watched TV. And Michael has been making me watch American Horror Story every night in the dark. And then he rolls over and falls asleep. What season? What season are we on? Colt. Yeah.

It's actually really scary. I don't usually get scared, but this one's scary. me to sleep. Okay, good for you. Anyways, we should get back to, I want to, I want to just talk about that tangent. Is there anybody else out there that listens to this show, DM me, Sam, not the only one. I can't be the only one that doesn't know about all the music. He loves a DM. How do you keep up with all this new music? You can't even figure it out. I thought the hip-hop stuff moved fast. Now, like, this stuff moves even fast as a DJ here, DJ there. Okay, you like to be in bed by nine o'clock now. That's what I'm dealing with. I'm done. I'm done. Since this episode is booby-based,

let's discuss bras and tanks, okay? But let's talk about affordable ones. So recently I ordered a bunch of sports bras and tanks off fabletics. Here's the thing. It's really so affordable that you can't help yourself. And their stuff is so cute. They have leggings. They have tanks. They have bras. And there's these leggings. There's these ones that are so flattering. It's like a black, tight legging with a big, thick white band. It sort of lays at the hip bone. Kind of a lot of their leggings do. I've worn these specific ones like a hundred times. I wear them all the time. In fact, I wore them all Sunday when I watched American Horror Story and read Jerry Hall's autobiography. Anyway, it comes, the leggings come with this vibe black sports bra that pushes your boobs up. It gives you support. I need support,

especially when I'm walking on the treadmill returning emails. Fabletics has all these sets and they're so good guys, they're like $35 for a set. So you get a bra and leggings for $35, which is nuts. Some of them you can come with a tank. If you're going to pick up a tank from Fabletics, definitely get the black museta seamless open work tank. It sucks you in. It really sucks my stomach in and it looks fab with the leggings that I mentioned. So a little bit of background on Fabletics. So it was born in 2013 and co-founded by actress Kate Hudson. I'm sure you've heard of her. You know, she's the stunner and how to lose a guy in 10 days. I mean, how could you forget that yellow dress? Goldie Han, Kurt Russell. Yep, that's her. So the details, how it works. So you take a style pop quiz.

I mentioned that I love yoga and black during mine. And then you shop from thousands of styles that are curated for you. You can check out as a guest or become a VIP member. VIP perks are that you get 50% off regular prices, free shipping, and additional perks. I'm very, very into this whole thing for the skinny confidential audience because they're flattering and affordable. I love that both. You know this. if you're in the Skinny Confidential Secret Facebook group. Here's the offer. Let's talk deals and steals. Fabletics is offering our listeners an incredible deal you don't want to miss.

Get two leggings for $24, which is a $99 value when you sign up for a VIP membership. Just go to Fabletics.com slash skinny to take advantage of this deal now. That's fabletics.com slash skinny to get two leggings for $24. Also free shipping on orders over $49. International shipping is available and there's absolutely no commitment when you is your first order. Fabledics.com slash skinny. After a close friend was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, designer and artist Shaney Joe Darden founded the global nonprofit organization, the Keep a Breast Foundation. She did this to raise awareness of breast cancer and to encourage

prevention and early detection among young people. Keep a breast educates young women about the importance of starting a breast health routine from a young age because knowledge is power, early detection saves lives, and prevention is the cure. You know, I love. I love it. of preventative measures. Their goal is to reduce the rates of breast cancer, not just treat it or find a cure. They also have an app called Check Yourself app. It's a free app that teaches you how to do a breast self-check and allows you to schedule an automatic monthly reminder. I just downloaded it. It's available in six languages. With that, let's welcome Shaney to the podcast. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. We're here. We're live. Live back in the studio.

We got my breast casted just now. Yep. So you missed it. Yeah, you missed it. Sorry, Michael. I always missed the best things. Yeah. He's going to get one for his office, though.

So I said that when you're working and you're feeling horny, you can just, like, grab a tit. I'm pretty sure that that would never fly in this office. And I just wanted to disclaim that that never happens to me. I work with a lot of women in the office. You can do it at your at home office. Yes, it'll have to be in the at home office for sure. Okay. We're going to cast the neighbors.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. We're going to do your balls next. We better get a lot of casting. All right, Cheney, introduce yourself to the audience. Give us your background. I'm Shaney Joe, and I'm the founder of the Keep a Breast Foundation. Our mission is to empower young people around the world with breast health education and support. It's our 18th year.

We're based here in Los Angeles, but we're doing work all over the world. We have affiliates in Europe. We're doing work in Mexico. We have some special projects in Africa right now, in Japan. Canada, many places, so we're really spreading this love for boobs and self-love and early detection all over the world. How did you get into this line of work 18 years ago? Well, it was super accidental.

My background is in fashion. I studied fashion design. I was a denim designer. I worked in the skateboard industry for many years designing jeans for skateboarders for, you know, companies like DC shoes and Etnese and Altamont. And at the same time, I was producing art exhibitions. for a collective called Modart. And so we would do these huge art and fashion exhibitions,

usually during the action sports trade show. And from there, one of the artists that we were working with was diagnosed with breast cancer. And we were all in our 20s at the time, you know, in San Diego, in skateboard, snowboard scene. And, you know, it was a small community back then. And it really hit a group of people in a way, like we didn't understand that young women

could be diagnosed with breast cancer. It was not anything you're thinking about. about when you're in your 20 is, of course. So we all just rallied to get together to do something to raise money to help her. And nothing at that time, everything was really like walks or, you know, pink ribbons or everything seems so old lady. It wasn't really my style, you know. So I was like, well, I know how to do art shows. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to cast a bunch of boobs, get all my friends together, get everyone naked, have a big party, like get the plaster out, cast all the boobs, have the artist paint them, do a show.

And that's what we did. We raised money and we donated it to her. And it was really ever only just to be a one-time thing. And why casts? You talked to me a little bit about this while you were casting me. Why did you decide to do casts on the boobs? Well, I was thinking about creating an exhibition and there's always so many shows where artists just donate paintings to raise money, but I wanted to do something really special and I wanted to create something that told the story of cancer and was able through art and through like the female form be able to have this discussion that is really difficult to have, you know, especially, I mean, for anyone, really at any age. And I've always been a huge fan of Frida Kahlo and I was always inspired by her,

you know, her life was so extraordinary and she was in an accident when she was young and she had to wear these casts. And there was all these photos of her in her bed painting. her cast and I was just always felt it was such an example of really creating beauty out of tragedy and you know her the strength and the beauty that she represented through so much hardship is to me just so empowering and also the story of many cancer survivors at the same time so I just decided well I'm gonna instead of asking the artist to just donate a painting I'm gonna make a cast I'm gonna send them boobs so I called all them all on the phone like hey you guys I'm to send you some boobs in the mail like we paint them and send them back they're like okay shaney whatever and it was

yeah it was beautiful it's just a beautiful way to involve not only the castee the person being casted but the artist and it's a story telling the whole way everyone has their own experience and you know you're sharing your experience with your friends and then the artist will share their experience and then you know it just goes along the way and it's it's a conversation tool to talk about you know a serious cause if someone's diagnosed with breast cancer, do you go and do the casting before anything happens? Do you normally do it after? How does that work? Well, we have a special program actually. It's called the treasure chest program. And it's hard to reach women right at diagnosis because there's so much going on. You're being, you know, shuffled around to so many different appointments. You have to learn an entirely new language.

You know, you're getting all these recommendations. And so hopefully through that time, we have a special kit. It's called a treasure chest kit. And it has all the materials you need in it to do the casting in your own home, and we send it to survivors all over the country. So it can happen, you know, before surgery, a lot of women really like to kind of mark that moment of their natural breast before they're going to either have, you know, reconstruction or a lumpectomy or whatever they're choosing at that point to go through, or, you know, women will do it after their surgeries. And so it has a different meaning depending on when they decide to do it.

Okay, so let's talk about someone that wants to check themselves but doesn't know how to go about it. Like me, actually. I think that this is a really good platform for you to come on. There's so many women listening right now. What's something that everyone can do while they're driving in the shower, in bed, wherever they are right now, at their desk even, to check? Yeah, I mean, just right now, everyone can just kind of grab their boobs. We all do it every day, all the time. And it just feels super good, actually.

I mean, if you're just kind of squeezing your boobs and massaging them, it's like, it's really relaxing and it feels so good. And that's the thing is like we're having a good time. We're like having, you know, happy emotions while we're feeling ourselves. And that's really important. And so, you know, we have an app. It's called Check Yourself. It shows you how to do the steps of the self-check. And it's important that you do it once a month.

And early detection is really the key to survival. So if you find something early, you can, you know, maybe not have to go through so many surgeries or so many things or chemo or radiation or all the things involved. Do you know what the survival rate is for early detection? The long term survival rate is much higher for early detection. But depending on the different stages, I don't know like the exact rates. I think they're probably changing all the time. And there's so many different types of breast cancer that like I could never know. I'm not a doctor.

So unfortunately there's a lot of different types of cancer. Is there something near and dear to your heart or something specific that happened that got you interested in breast cancer specifically and being a part of that cause or helping people get through breast cancer or bringing awareness to this space? Or is it just a friend or like what was ultimately the thing that got you so involved in the space? Yeah. Personally, it was just my one friend who was, it was in the year 2000 and she had breast cancer. And her name was Margaret Kilgallan and she was part of. of the artist community that that I was working with. And so it just, you know, over time, obviously I've

met so many young, young, young women who, you know, have to go through, you know, everything that goes along with a breast cancer diagnosis. What goes along with that for someone that doesn't know? What does a breast cancer diagnosis look like? Like walk us from the beginning to sort of the end. Yeah, I mean, for everyone, it could be totally different, right? But when you're checking yourself, we want you to be checking from a place of love. So you're not. looking for cancer. So it's important to just do your check on every month basis to know what's normal for you. And then if you do find something, it could be like you could have, you know, bulging, you could have itching, you could have rashes, you could actually really feel a hard lump.

So there's so many different things that you could be feeling. But if you feel something that isn't normal for you, we want to encourage you to go to your doctor right away and get that checked out. But then you would get, you know, a lot of times I'll give you a mammogram. then maybe you'll get an MRI and then you'll kind of get shuffled around to different doctors to get your actual diagnosis and it could look like having you know a lumpectomy which you know is not a you know it's a major surgery but you could also look at getting you know a single mastectomy or a double mastectomy for those of us who don't know exactly what that means can you explain it's just having your breast removed so you could have one or both breasts removed you could have um radiation

you could have chemotherapy. There's different types of radiation, and then also with chemotherapy, you could do three rounds. You could do six rounds. So it's really like what your doctor is prescribing. And then when you do have a breast remove, sometimes they'll put, most of the time, they'll put something in you called an expander that will kind of stretch out your breast before they can actually do the reconstructed breast or put in the implant. So some women actually do a reconstructed breast with fat from their stomach.

So if they don't want to have an actual artificial implant in their body, you can reconstruct a breast with, you know, take fat from your stomach and put it in your breast. So there's so many different things and so many women have to go through multiple, multiple, multiple surgeries, not only just removing, you know, the breast, but there's like nipple sparing. There's so many different things. I guess as I hear you talking, like this is a lot of scary stuff and a lot of women listening. It's scary for them.

Throughout your years of working in this space and the experience, is there any stories you could think of over people that you can point to that could help maybe empower or give women courage in the space of, you know, if they're looking for, you know, I don't, what I don't want them to take away from is I don't want people to walk away from this podcast in a space of fear, more of a space of education. Are there any stories that come to mind of anybody that you've worked with that have overcome this or found things early on. I guess do you know what I'm looking for here? Yeah, absolutely. I think, I mean, first of all, keep abreast. Obviously, if you follow us,

if you know who we are, you know that we're coming from a different point of view. So you know we're not your typical breast cancer organization. Our focus is on early detection. It's on breast cancer prevention. It's on all the different things you can do to lower your risk. So we come at this from a youthful, from a fun perspective, and we're not out here to, like, scare people or freak people out. We're not, you know, like putting scary statistics in front of your face all day. We're putting like actionable things that you can do to lower your risk. So we want to, you know, empower people. We want to educate people. We want to teach people how to be their own health advocates. What are some things that people can do that are preventative? I'm obsessed with

preventative health and beauty. And I just, I find it so interesting that there's things that you can actually do. What, what are some tips and tricks? There's so many different things. I mean, obviously, the first thing is to do yourself check. So knowing your body, knowing what's normal for you. And then there's kind of the typical risk factors like, you know, alcohol, your weight. But a lot of the things that we like to talk about are living a non-toxic lifestyle. So one of our other programs is called non-toxic revolution. And we teach, you know, small, actionable steps that you can do to reduce your toxic exposure that's ultimately going to lower your risk. Because what are some of those? Can you give us a couple of examples?

Yeah. Well, because, well, because, well, 90% of cancers are environmental. And so there's this only 10% that's related to your family history. So if you think of this 90%, there's things that you can actually control. And so some of the things are, you know, your house. I have to pause you for a second. Can you tell him to take away his hairspray then? Please.

You're spraying that every morning. Go ahead. Well, I don't know if it's toxic or not. I'd have to read the ingredients. So toxic. But go on. Just putting that in his head. Go on.

But we have these different categories. So it's your house, your mouth, your body, plastic. sucks and heart and soul. So there's different things that you can do in your own home, whether it's cleaning products to lower your risk. These things have harmful carcinogens that you're exposing yourself to on an everyday basis. The different things you're eating, you know, eating organic. We always recommend a plant-based diet is good. So eating organic is important. You know, a high fiber diet is important. It definitely lowers your risk. Beauty products are a huge one, you know, really reading your labels, looking for non-toxic beauty products.

What's, like, I guess, my question, I always like to play devil's advocate. Like, when you point to scientific studies, like, what is there things, is the resources of things that you can point to if anybody's interested in looking to those resources? Absolutely. There's a huge, massive report called The State of the Evidence that was published by Dr. Janet Gray with breast cancer prevention partners years ago. And this report is what inspired me actually to start the non-toxic revolution because I was like, holy shit.

This is such gnarly information. No one's going to read this 40-page scientist report. So we kind of take that and break it into actionable steps. We work with organizations like the Environmental Working Group and Breast Cancer Prevention Partners that are really the leaders in the environmental links to causing cancer. So there is a lot of studies that actually prove that the carcinages in all of these things that we're exposed to are linked to causing cancer. Okay, but go back to the plastic. I want you to keep going.

So yeah, your house, your mouth, your body. So beauty products, lotions, your skin is your largest organ. So just think, like how many things are using every day? Shaving cream, shampoo, you know, many people are using 13 to 25 products a day. And especially in like teen years when your body is more susceptible to these different chemicals, you know, it's important to teach young women also about the importance of using non-toxic beauty products. So your house, your mouth, your body, plastic sucks. So there's all kinds of different.

different chemicals in plastic. We don't drink out of plastic. We don't use plastic. What are you looking at me? You got like four drinks in front of you. Okay. And a plastic lip thing and your phone case. Yeah.

And heart and soul. You know, like a lot of your prevention is about your stress level and taking care of yourself. So, you know, meditation, listening to good music, going for hikes, getting outside. You know, you have to like finding what it is that can help you de-stress, calm down. you know, is an important factor for prevention. Well, it's clear and proven that stress definitely weakens your immune system, for sure. See, there?

Little Devil's advocate? You're on my side. I never try to contradict people, but I always like to try to give both sides of it so that your expertise can shine through. It's super important, you know, and I've been doing this for a long time, but I'm an artist, you know, so I feel really grateful that I'm able to use, like, my creativity for a good cause and then work with, you know, scientists and doctors to help back all the campaigns and everything that we do.

So we have different campaigns. We have a campaign called Open This Pit Up, which is around your deodorant. We have hair dye campaigns. What's the best deodorant? Oh, gosh. Well, we really like Schmits over here at Keeper Brass. That's one of our favorites. And there's one called pH Fresh that I personally use.

And there's a lot of really good ones on the market now. What about tattoos? Because you and our compadres in the tattoo department, you think we're going to run into trouble there? Actually, tattoo ink is pretty toxic. So we have a blog on our website, and it's one of our top-viewed blogs. about tattoo ink and getting, you know, making sure you're asking where this ink comes from. And yeah, I mean, it's in our skin. Too late now.

No turning back now. Can you call out any brands that you highly recommend? I know you called out some deodorant brands, but is there other brands that you just look at and you say, wow, they really fucking get it? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of really amazing beauty brands. We have on the Non-Toxic Revolution website, we have a give shop, and we have a lot of really cool brands on there that donate their products to us that people buy straight for donations. So it's a way that we can fundraise. There's a brand that I love called Bear Bones Body,

which is great for skincare. I use their face oil all the time. I really love the Schmidt's deodorant brand. And personally, I don't really wear much makeup. What about house cleaning stuff? Oh, house cleaning stuff. The honest, honest company is super good. We love their stuff. And yeah, there's just so many good ones out there now. Okay, and we can find them all on your site if we want to go look and stock the situation. I would like to know, and maybe this is a weird question, but how has cancer changed and evolved since you started 18 years ago? And I guess my question is, have you seen it affect more younger people?

Have you seen breast cancer sort of change? Or have you seen survival rates change? Or have you seen technology? Or has it stayed the same? Yeah. You know, science has evolved. And so I think when science evolves, you get more information. You get more knowledge.

And so you have more of an opportunity to educate and you have more of an opportunity to inspire. And so we want to obviously, you know, educate people on early detection. The things that I've seen changing is more and more young women being diagnosed with breast cancer. So those numbers are definitely going up. Why do you think that is? globally. It's the environmental, the environmental exposures. You know, our grandmothers weren't exposed to the things that, that were exposed to on a daily basis. So we have higher, higher environmental risk to the disease for sure. And I, you know, I really see there's more education,

there's more access, there's more groups out there that are, you know, making this available. The conversation is now, you know, mainstream. Also, when our grandparents are, you know, mothers or our mothers were diagnosed, you know, they wouldn't tell anyone. People in the family didn't know, you know, it was a secret. It was a bad thing. You didn't talk about cancer. And so keep abreast who we really try to break that taboo of breasts and talking about it. And, you know, when something happens like this, it happens to the whole family. What positives have you seen come out of breast cancer? I mean, I'm sure you've seen some really heartwarming, amazing stories. Is there stories that you, you know, look to, you know,

too that you're you're just like obsessed with telling it's a counterintuitive question but i get what you're what you're saying well it's it's counterintuitive but i'm sure there's got to be positives that come out of something that's so negative yeah i mean it makes me want to cry actually are our co-founder her name's mona she was diagnosed with breast cancer and her mother also had breast cancer and it was like really she is the closest person i've ever had to me you know who's who's really gone through this she's like my best friend our co-founder like i don't know what i would do without her and you know watching her go through this was super hard for me. But something she said that she never felt so loved before. Like through this whole process, it really changed her life in a positive way because she realized

how many people really, really, really love her. And I think that was a really big deal for her. And then she also got like crazy into hip hop dancing. And so she's like a 50 year old like hip hop maniac dancer right now. So beautiful, so sexy. So a lot of times, you know, like something tragic happens to someone and it can really change their life, their life for the better, but also, you know, people die. I also think that when you're faced with something like that, a lot of the stuff that you think is important becomes irrelevant, right? Like you're like, maybe that, maybe working my ass off of that job doesn't make as much sense,

maybe killing myself over this, you know, goal doesn't make sense. You kind of start doing what you want to do in living, I know that sounds strange, but you really, like, all the inhibition is out of the winter. You're like, okay, this is what I want to do until you, and it puts those, um, you, what's really important in perspective. Yeah, 100%. How can men help a situation? Because you were telling me a little bit about this earlier.

What can they do? I mean, men also can get breast cancer. So it's important that men know that they also are at risk. But a lot of times also it's the men that will detect the lump in their partner's breasts. So a lot of times we have our education booth and it's out at like surf events or music events and couples are coming up and the guys are kind of like, oh, this is a for me and I'm like no wait a minute here's this educational information read it because a lot of times the men are like hey babe that wasn't there before because they may have their hands on your boobs you know more than you do so it's definitely something just for guys to know that you know they have a

part in the health of their partner physical health mental health you know all the things it's a it's a two-way street and you know if for some reason your wife is to be you know diagnosed or your girlfriend or anyone in your family, you become a caregiver. And the caregiver role of men and the family members is a huge role in caregivers also need a lot of support. It's true because I don't, if I was to close my eyes, I was thinking about it, it's kind of creepy. There's not a lot of textures that I know better in the dark than those, than those boobs. See? It's true. Well, they're new boobs, so you don't know them that well. I mean, we're still, like, you're still courting them. Don't get too excited. We'll do an hour examination. We're not married yet with the boobs. Like, you're still dating them. We have to do a, a,

We'll do a recovery course. Okay. So if you were to explain how to check yourself, and I know you have an app, you guys will leave all the info in the show notes. But if you were to explain to someone over audio how to check themselves and break it down like you have on this little list, can you kind of go down it and explain just anyone that's listening that maybe wants to do this right now? Yeah, let's break it down. So the first thing is, is you cannot do this wrong. So there's really no wrong way to do it. But the first step is mirror mirror.

So you want to look in the mirror and look at your boobs. Put your hands over your head. Look at everything. Lift your boob up. Lift it over. Just look at your boob everywhere. Does anything, you know, look weird. Is there any puckering?

Does anything odd? Just have a really good look at yourself. And then the next step after that is called mini massage. And so you just take three fingers and you kind of just go all around your boob everywhere and you know just give yourself a nice little massage and you're really just looking for anything that doesn't feel normal to you step three is up and down so you're kind of first you're going in a little circular motion so then next you want to go all the way up and down and you want to kind of start at your like chest collarbone and just go all the way down

down down to your like solar plexes and up and down over across your whole boob so just go up and down up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down. Up and down. And then after that is what we call your pits. And so the majority of cancers is actually 47% of cancers are found in this kind of upper quadrant closer into your armpit area. So we tell people just to make sure, you know, you have your hand over your head. And I mean, you can do it anywhere, wherever you guys all are. And, you know, everyone do it. And you just get your fingers all up in your pit area. And you don't touch your pits very often, you know. And I even like to use one of those deodorants that you have to actually put on with your fingers.

And so you want to make sure that you're getting all the way up into your armpit area because that's also where your lymph nodes are and you know, so you want to just check that whole area. And then the last step is squeeze. So you want to squeeze your nipple and you're just looking for any like irregular pain, any weird discharge, anything that's just not normal. So that's kind of, you know, five steps. But you can make it two, you can make it three. You can just like lay down and relax and use coconut oil or whatever you have.

there's all these cute little booby bombs out there now that you can rub all over in your boobs. And it just feels really good. And so just rub, massage, squeeze, like, however you feel most comfortable, just check it out. You know, I have implants, obviously, because you just did a cast on me naked. I know you couldn't tell. No, I'm just kidding. Really? I know.

Rivening. No way. Shocker. What is the difference between someone doing a self? exam with implants and without and is there a difference? It's a more difficult to do it, you know, with implants. So you have to, you know, take a little extra care and knowing what feels normal to you. A lot of women have fibristic breasts or just, you know, kind of just naturally lumpy breasts. And so it's also a little bit harder or even, you know, really large breasts. It can be more difficult

to just get all around there. So yeah, it's just everyone kind of knowing themselves, knowing what's normal and also just knowing your family history too is a good thing to know what advice would you give someone that was diagnosed with breast cancer recently or knows someone or has a family member that was diagnosed what where can they sort of start well if you're newly diagnosed there's an awesome organization that we work with called the young survival coalition and they are like the one-stop shop for newly diagnosed women they kind of just go through everything that you need to know They tell you everything that you're about to go through, and they have all kinds of options and support options. You know, if you need insurance, if you need support, if you need community, they have, you know, different groups all over the country that are there to support you.

So we work with the main office in New York, but also with the group in San Diego and Seattle. And they're an amazing organization. We love them. And what about just how to act if you have a family member? Is there something you just think it's just being there for them? the person or is there something that they maybe can go buy as a gift? Like what would you recommend? I think the best thing is to just be there for that person as a friend. And like a lot of times the person who's going through it doesn't want to talk about their cancer. They just want

to like normalize their life and with their friends. Sometimes they just want a bitch. So I think one of the biggest things is not giving that person advice because they're getting so much advice all day long. And so it's just really empowering them to make decisions unless they're specifically asking you for advice on something. So many people who are diagnosed with breast cancer get crazy advice about like, do this green juice enema or go to my doctor in Mexico or you need to sit and meditate for 10 days straight and your cancer will be cured or don't eat, you know, don't eat sugar, all these things and everyone has, you know, valid advice.

It becomes overwhelming. Yeah, it becomes incredibly overwhelming. So really the best thing is just like, sit with your friends. go for a walk, have a coffee, chill out, just be normal. And if you're scared, also, like, tell them that you're scared. When my friend, most friend, was diagnosed, I was like, I'm afraid. Like, I also need support. And she was like, why do you need support?

You don't have cancer. And I was like, I'm like, you're my best friend. Like, I'm scared right now. And so just being honest with her also about my feelings, but not putting it on her. But just being able to have that conversation is super real. As you were talking, I was thinking, what is some bad advice you hear when it comes to the subject of cancer? I'm sure she has a lot of evidence. What I definitely...

She's all, let me pull out my scroll. Like there is, I mean, trust me, I, and the reason I always play devil's advocate is I want to make sure that we're never taking people in direction where they're like, oh, like, they get some really bad advice or saying, oh, well, that person said this, so now I can go off. And, to me, if you're diagnosed with cancer and somebody tells you to go meditate for 10 days, like, that is, I mean, in common sense, that tells you that's very bad advice, in my opinion, that maybe that offends some people. So I guess what I'm trying to get to is, is there really bad advice that you hear that you would caution people against? I mean, constantly. There's so much, so much bad advice. But the thing is, is like, for someone, if they feel like going to meditate for 10 days is really going to help them, like, maybe it really will, like, calm them down. Give them peace, like all these things, you know?

But it may not cure them. It's not going to cure them. We can definitely say that's not going to help. happen. But yeah, it's really just your own gut check. And everyone's, everyone's gut check is different depending on if they have family or if they're single and what age they are and have they had kids and all these things. You know, so the decisions you're making as a woman are, you know, they affect the people around you too. So you're making your decisions not only based on what your needs are, but the needs of your family.

Like there's common sense thing that makes sense, right? Like chemicals obviously bad. certain diet things bad, drinking too much alcohol bad. But I also want to make sure that people don't become neurotic about everything. We're like, I can't do this. I can't do that. I can't do that. I can't do that. Because then you then you're creating all sorts of other problems for yourself that may not have anything to do with cancer. Yeah. I mean you have to live your life. Yeah. Everyone has to just live their life and do their best. And if you can, you know, reduce your use of single use plastics. If you can reduce your exposure to pesticides and carcinogens and if, you know, like I'm not perfect and no one's perfect.

You know, a lot of my friends are scared to like do things in front of me because they think I'm like the super judge of all the perfect things. Well, it's not, you know, like I do things everyone normal does. I drink, you know, margaritas all the time. Hell yeah. So you just, you have to live your life and you have to like, you know, be joyous and all of those things also lead to like being healthy. What was it like casting Katie Perry?

Oh, I actually didn't cast Katie Perry. One of my girls, Erica, casted Katie when she was on the Vance Warp Tour. There's a video on YouTube. So you can watch it. Who was your favorite person to cast? Oh, my gosh. I have casted so many women all over the world. I really love casting Dita Vantis.

She was a really fun one, really sweet, beautiful, beautiful boobs, beautiful girl. She did the art on her own cast, and it was like you would love it. It was super pink, glittery, like iridescent glitter everywhere with these golden, like, swirly tassels on it. You got Lauren Pinned to a T. Oh, gosh. Her cast was really beautiful. And, yeah, I have so many good memories of casting survivors at all different stages of, you know, their bodies. And, yes.

You cast pink. Casted pink. That was a really fun one. Gigi gorgeous. Casted Gigi just like. For Crush cosmetics. A couple weeks ago was super fun to cast Gigi. She is like really free and she loves her boobs and we have her fiancé painted the cast and

it's really, really beautiful. Don't get any ideas, Michael. You're not going to paint my cast. Sorry. I have it more of a freehand style. Yeah, no, no, no. We won't do that. I was going to ask you what a book or which book or resource you recommend, but I think

I actually want to recommend it for you, which is your app. I mean, I think you should talk about your app here and what a resource that is for breast cancer awareness. Yeah, we have this app. It's an incredible tool. It's called Check Yourself. It's free. It's in both the Google Android and Apple stores.

I just downloaded it. It's so feminine and pink and cheeky and cute. Thank you. Yeah, it's really our goal to make it beautiful and to make it like fun to open. And so it has a special feature where you can set a, time and a day to send you an automatic reminder. So it's best to do yourself check a week after your period. So if you kind of have a good idea, you can ask your assistant, Lauren, when your period is.

I asked my assistant. I text Mimi today from the kitchen. I go, wait, when was my last period? Because she keeps track of it. That's kind of bleak. Ariel's laughing. She can set it for you. Mimi, are you listening right now?

Mimi's a busy body. She needs to get a hobby. Do you know when my last period was? When are you the most gross? So you want to set it and set it and forget it. So it'll send you a text message once a month that says time to check yourself. And so the app goes through the steps. It also has more information, more resources.

It's available in six languages. We have women in over 170 countries using the app. We have about 61,000 users. We're trying to get to 80,000 by the end of this year. So I need all of you out there to download it. Help me reach my goals. And we'll be adding new languages every year. And, you know, it's an amazing tool because so many women don't have access to this information,

especially in countries where, you know, you really don't talk about boobs. And so we see people in random places, you know, in Turkey and Pakistan and, you know, crazy parts of China and all over the world, we can see the map of where they're downloading this. I'm just like, how do they even know this exists, what they do? And so we have this opportunity to empower women with information on their own home that they can do, you know, anywhere on their phone. Everyone has a phone now and in their own language. It's efficient too, just how I like it. Yes.

Where can everyone find Keep Abrest. Tell us, give us the deets. Keepabrest.org on Instagram, web everywhere. We're just Keep Abrest everywhere. We're easy to find. We're all over the place. Lauren likes to end every show with a quote from her favorite person. Ulysses S. Grant, the leader of the north.

Lauren, go ahead. He still can't get over this. Michael, I'm in a cast for your dick tonight. This story and gave a quote by the story of Ulysses, which is an ancient story. And Lauren thought it was Ulysses S. Grant, the leader of the north, and I'm never letting it go. Sorry.

We can't all be perfect. I like it. Thank you for coming on. That was so informative. Oh, thank you guys. And, you know, let me know how the breast checks go over there back from home. If someone wants to check out my cast with the art we're going to get on it, Do you know when that info is going to be up and where they can find it?

We'll have to figure it out. You'll post about it. I'll post it on my Instagram. Yeah. I'll post it on my Insta, guys. All right, y'all. Thank you for coming on you. Check yourself.

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