Aging Well With Pharmacist Ben, October 5, 2026

Aging Well With Pharmacist Ben Peer Advocacy, Social Care Networks, and the Gordian Knot of Health with Giovanna Marc Pharmacist Ben welcomes peer advocate and PhD Giovanna Marc to talk about her journey through mental health crises, her work as a peer specialist, and New York's Medicaid social care pilot. The hour also covers pharmacy history, engineered food, nutrition, and a closing argument that the gut is where health problems begin. Pharmacy Roots, Toxic Drugs, and Engineered Food Pharmacist Ben opens the hour by describing pharmacy as a practice rooted in food, herbs and botanicals before synthetic drugs took over in the middle of the nineteenth century. He argues that people now take prescriptions as an ordinary part of life, even though every drug must be cleared from the body using nutrients such as B vitamins, vitamin C, magnesium and zinc. He recalls his early years as a pharmacist in the 1980s, when he began suggesting supplements to patients and was let go from a Kmart pharmacy. Ben then turns to processed food, describing excitotoxins such as monosodium glutamate as additives that make food hard to resist. He presents nutritional supplementation as a way to offset an imperfect diet, mentions his Pharmacist Ben's Academy, and sets up the rest of the hour with a promise to talk about mental health. Introducing Dr. Giovanna Marc and Her Story Ben introduces his guest, Dr. Giovanna Marc, as a PhD and peer advocate who helps people reach mental health services, food assistance and other community resources. He describes a close friend who struggled with alcoholism, drug use and delusions while relying on Medicaid, and says he found it nearly impossible to find good care for her. Before inviting Marc to speak, he asks her to share how she came to the work and what she has endured. Marc begins by telling listeners she was a teen mother who later lost a child, then lost another child after a period of improvement. She says she has lived with agoraphobia, has been on medication for most of her life, and has spent time in psychiatric hospitals. Ben responds with repeated expressions of amazement and tells her she has turned her tragedy into something that helps people. Peer Specialists, Howie the Harp, and Advocacy Work Marc explains her early attempts to find work after years of crisis, saying she kept trying even after a job as a peer specialist did not last. She credits Julio Medina, who runs Exodus Transitional in New York City, with taking her under his wing, and she recalls completing a two-week mental health work development program before landing that first position. Ben asks what a peer specialist is, and Marc answers that peers use their lived experience to help others going through similar situations. She describes Howie the Harp, the training program named for advocate Howard Geld, which she says began in New York in 1995. An internship at CASES, a reentry program, led her to return to school, and she later earned a PhD in organizational innovation and change leadership, with a thesis on the emergent peer workforce in hybrid employment settings. Ben calls her work turning personal tragedy into help for others, something he compares to the Lord's work. Social Care Networks and the Medicaid Pilot Marc describes her nonprofit, Multi Assistance Resource Centers, which she says is entirely peer-led and helps people navigate services. She explains that much of its current work involves New York's Medicaid waiver 1115, which she describes as a social care network addressing social needs rather than medical ones. Her example is a person worried about six months of unpaid rent, a light bill near shutoff, and children who must still get to school. Marc says addressing those problems can keep people out of emergency rooms, and she lists weekly food subscription boxes and transportation to work, school, doctor visits and court. Ben is astonished that government recognizes financial stress as a cause of illness, and asks how the program is paid for. Marc answers that it runs through Medicaid, while Ben says he doubts the government has money for it. She adds that the program is a pilot in New York State with an end date of March 2027. Ben asks her to send him a link so he can learn more. Paranoia, Food, and Supplements in Daily Life Ben asks whether people are going crazy these days, and Marc says they are more paranoid and that today's constant video makes everything visible. Marc says she is 51 and Ben says he is 66. Ben argues that the mental health crisis may be even more significant than chronic degenerative disease, and Marc agrees, saying people doubt what they see and hear. Ben asks how much of mental health is nutritional, emotional or spiritual, and Marc says she would blame most of it on nutrition, pointing to fruits and vegetables distributed free in the Bronx at Hunts Point. Ben reacts with surprise at the price of a banana at a Whole Foods market. Marc describes her morning suppleme