Recent evidence underscores the profound effects of psychosocial factors such as meaning, purpose, altruism, and community on physical and mental health. Practices rooted in simplicity, compassion, and service not only improve individual well-being but are also associated with better immune function, reduced inflammation, and lower mortality risk. Recognizing emotional experiences like grief, gratitude, and loneliness as integral to healing can help cultivate resilience and foster deeper human connection, especially in clinical care. In parallel, choosing a whole food plant-based plate with compassion and intention has far reaching health benefits from disease prevention to environmental, nature, and the wellbeing of all living things.

In this presentation, Food Revolution Network co-founder Ocean Robbins illustrates this by bringing together the latest breakthroughs in nutrition science, behavior change, and food policy with lessons learned from a lifetime of activism — and from the recent loss of his beloved father and colleague, John Robbins. As Ocean reflects on his family’s extraordinary story, from walking away from an ice cream empire to sparking a global movement for conscious eating, he also shares what grief has been teaching him about love, leadership, and what true healing really means.