Wilderness Fitness Podcast with Dr. Rob Minturn PT, CSCS · Dr. Rob Minturn PT, CSCS

Ep 72: Radical Transparency & CBD with CEO of Sunny Skies CBD, Ben Rippley

·1 hr 12 min·1 clip

We control every step from growing hemp to manufacturing finished products

Dr. Rob Minton opens with Ben Ripley, the co-owner, founder, and CEO of Sunny Skies CBD. He notes that the shop is in his hometown, which gives the conversation a local, slightly surreal feel before they get into the business. Ben says the company has been in business six years. He explains that Sunny Skies is vertically integrated, so the team grows, processes, and manufactures its own CBD instead of outsourcing the whole chain. That setup matters. Rob and Ben spend time on why it can affect quality control, how the company began in 2019 with Ben and his business partner Pete Adler, and how Ben's background in Colorado and Wisconsin shaped his path into CBD. Rob keeps pressing on the product side. Ben walks through the difference between full-spectrum extract, broad-spectrum extract, and CBD isolate, starting from the hemp plant's natural cannabinoid mix. The middle of the conversation gets specific. He explains that broad-spectrum keeps other cannabinoids like CBG and CBDV while removing THC, and that the finished products are tested repeatedly, both in-house and by third-party labs, to make sure the result really is 0.00 THC. That is the point for a lot of people. The testing discussion is tied to ordinary life, especially for anyone who gets screened at work and cannot afford a bad surprise. Ben also describes CBD isolate as the purest form of CBD. He says it comes out as a white crystalline powder and can reach 99.7 to 99.9 percent CBD, unlike distillate, which keeps a broader cannabinoid profile. From there, the talk widens. Ben notes that studies have used full-spectrum, broad-spectrum, and isolate products in different ways, but that he is not aware of a side-by-side study directly comparing those forms against one another. Rob keeps the interview moving with the kind of practical curiosity that wants the answer before the jargon. The episode ends up being more about how to think about CBD products than about hype, and it stays grounded in testing, processing, and the actual differences that matter when someone is deciding what to buy. There is plenty of terminology to sort through, but if you want a cleaner map of the CBD shelf and the tradeoffs behind it, this one does the job.

As heard by us

A practical CBD primer on how products are made, tested, and separated into full-spectrum, broad-spectrum, and isolate forms.

The conversation keeps CBD grounded in practical terms, moving through where Sunny Skies CBD is based, why vertical integration matters, and how full-spectrum, broad-spectrum, and isolate products differ. Dr.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want the CBD differences that actually matter before you buy.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Wilderness Fitness Podcast with Dr. Rob Minturn PT, CSCS