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What happens when we stop thinking for ourselves and let the machine do it for us?
In this 100th episode of Everyday Ancestral, I sit down with my favorite person in the world, my wife, Margaret Floyd Barry. This episode is part celebration, part reflection, and part wake-up call. We talk about what 100 episodes have taught me, why curiosity and connection have become even more important, and how AI is changing the way we think, learn, work, heal, and relate to one another.
Margaret brings a grounded and practical perspective because she is not someone rejecting AI outright. She uses it. She sees its power. But through her work with practitioners at the Institute of Restorative Health, she is also seeing what happens when people start delegating too much of their thinking, discernment, and human connection to a machine. This conversation is about where AI can help, where it can mislead, and why the future of health may depend on staying deeply human.
Why This Matters to You
Feeling like AI is everywhere all at once?Margaret reminds us that this is not theory. This is happening right now. AI is already changing how we write, research, communicate, evaluate health information, build businesses, and make decisions. The question is not whether AI is powerful. The question is whether you are still the one doing the critical thinking.
Using AI to answer health questions? Margaret explains that AI can be useful when you have enough expertise to catch when it is wrong. But if you are uploading labs, asking for health plans, or relying on it to interpret complex symptoms without the guidance of a real human practitioner, you may be missing context, nuance, and lived clinical experience.
Worried that human connection is disappearing? This conversation reminds us that healing is not just information. Margaret shares that having another person sit with you, listen to you, hold space, and respond human to human creates a very different experience than interacting with a machine. In health, that human element is not extra. It can be essential.
Trying to protect your ability to think deeply?Margaret points out that AI can make life faster, but speed is not the same as wisdom. Reading real books, writing with pen and paper, teaching what you are learning, and having thoughtful conversations with other humans all help exercise the very muscles we risk letting atrophy.
Feeling pressure to automate everything?This episode offers another path. Yes, AI can be a tool. But in a world where more companies are moving toward bots, scripts, and automation, the opportunity may be to become more human, not less. Real calls, real conversations, real writing, and real relationships can become the thing that sets you apart.
Actionable Advice
Use AI as a tool, not a replacement. Let it support your thinking, but do not hand over your discernment, judgment, or responsibility.
Ask whether you can catch it when it is wrong.If you do not have enough knowledge to recognize a bad answer, be cautious about relying on AI for important decisions.
Protect human connection. In health, business, family, and community, choose real conversations whenever they matter most.
Exercise your thinking muscles. Read physical books, write by hand, talk through ideas, and teach what you are learning to another person.
Vote with your choices. If you value human practitioners, human service, and human creativity, support the people and businesses still choosing that path.
Links and Resources to Explore
Institute of Restorative Health
Follow the Institute on Instagram
Listen to the Full Episode – Available now on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
Margaret’s journey is rooted in functional health, practitioner education, and helping people look beyond surface-level answers. Through her work at the Institute of Restorative Health, she has seen how powerful real training, clinical experience, and human nuance can be. In this conversation, she brings that same lens to AI, reminding us that information alone does not heal. Discernment, context, relationship, and lived experience still matter.
In our 100th episode of Everyday Ancestral, Margaret Floyd Barry and I also talk about why AI wants to please you, the risk of uploading lab results, and habits that keep your thinking sharp.
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