Herbal Medicine
361 Evil Bone Water • Mark Brinson
It’s fun to solve problems. Especially when you’re not quite sure what to do, so you have to pay attention and learn what’s important. You must develop the capacity to learn from both your failures and success.
Mark Brinson wanted a liniment for patients and was not happy with what was on the market. So he thought he’d just mix up his own. That turned into a process of learning a lot about everything from the quality of the herbs, to the nature of the water, to distilling his own alcohol.
Listen into this conversation on herbal alchemy, marketing with a sense of humor and how to have fun as a mad scientist.
344 Jing, Authenticity and Mushrooms • Mason Taylor
Medicinal mushrooms have made their way into the everyday lives of the “old one-hundred names,” us common folk. Formerly rare and precious substances like Ling Zhi and Dong Chong Xia Cao are now cultivated and readily available for people like you and me.
Considered to be “higher” level medicinals, these are substances considered more for promoting wellbeing, than treating illness. Which brings us to the topic of “Tonic Herbs” and Yang Sheng, the nourishment of life.
Listen into this discussion of mushrooms, longevity and the search for authentic meaning.
343 Chinese Medicine Dermatology • Mazin Al-Khafaji
Clinical experience and results are paramount in developing skill as a Chinese medicine practitioner. Theory should serve practice, not the other way around. Specializing in certain disease categories like dermatology can accelerate your learning process.
In this conversation with Mazin Al-Khafaji we explore how he’s spent the past few decades using Chinese medicine to treat difficult skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis. His study of Chinese medicine and unexpected collaboration with conventional doctors on eczema trials added fuel to the fire of his interest in dermatology. Since then, he’s dedicated his work to researching and treating recalcitrant skin disorders, and teaching others who have an interest in this speciality.
335 Academy of Source Based Medicine • Michael Brown, Eran Even, Will Ceurvels, & Ivan Zavala
The vast wealth, and it is a wealth, of writing on Chinese medicine is in Chinese.
In this episode with Michael Brown, Will Cerveles, Eran Even, and Ivan Zalava, we have a discussion not just on translation, but more importantly the varied perspectives of practitioners whose work others thought was interesting enough to print and re-print through the decades and even centuries.
These guys are the new wave of practitioner/translators and they are fired up about what they’re discovering. And keen on sharing it with the rest of us.
333 Prescriptions for Virtuosity • Eric Karchmer
We practice traditional medicine, or do we?
Because Chinese medicine has roots and writings that go back into misty history, it’s easy to imagine we practice much like your average Qing or Ming doctor. But the truth is, the way practitioners worked even just a hundred years ago would be quite foreign to the standards of today.
In this conversation with Eric Karchmer we explore some of the themes and historic insights from his new book Prescriptions for Virtuosity, The Post Colonial Struggle of Chinese Medicine.
I’m serious when I tell you— it’s going to blow your mind.
318 A Peripatetic Education • Andy Ellis
The book we used for studying acupuncture points at the Seattle Institute of Oriental Medicine was Foundations of Chinese Acupuncture. That along with Grasping the Wind were my entry into the study of channels and points. Both of those books had the handiwork of today’s guest, Andy Ellis.
Listen into this conversation on learning, finding teachers, and how putting yourself in front of what you’re curious about will open 緣分 Yuan Fen like opportunities, you can’t get any other way.
316 Growing Up With Herbs • Yvonne Lau
What you grow up with, that’s what becomes normal. You could be smack dab in the middle of something extraordinary, but it’s simply everyday life for you.
In this conversation with Yvonne Lau we reflect on her experience of growing up as the daughter of immigrants from Southern China who ran an herb store in San Francisco’s Chinatown. It was a time when a few dedicated young people from the mainstream culture began to show a respectful and insatiable interest in Chinese medicine.
The interest of those young people was part of what would become a growing acceptance of Chinese medicine in the west. And the herb store; it too has grown through the years.
300 Clinician's Guide to the Shang Han Lun • Dr Shou-Chun Ma & Dan Bensky
Medicine is always a discussion, Be it between practitioner and patient, between colleagues talking shop, or through the stream of history and commentary that accompany the classics of Chinese medicine. In this conversation with Dr. Shou-Chun Ma...
297 Covid Long Haul, Threat or Opportunity • Nigel Dawes L.Ac
In a world where change is the only constant, East Asian medicine offers a way to track change even in the midst of change. Our medicine has a way of adjusting to changing times and has the capacity to bring the essence of ideas and perspectives from the past into the unique moment of the present. History rhymes with itself, and it’s our job to figure out how.
In this conversation with Nigel Dawes, we take a dive into the mutability of Covid and other wind viruses, the long-term sequela of Covid, and how to be inventive with our formulas as we look to adapt to ever unfolding change in our clinical work. We also touch on the impact of political, behavioral, and psychological underpinnings of the pandemic.
296 Considering Long Covid, Research and Practice • Beau Anderson
Our experience of the past three years has revealed gaps in our knowledge, fractures in our social fabric and the influence of toxic social media. It’s been a pandemic that has not only affected our bodies, but our minds as well.
In this conversation with Beau Anderson, we look at long Covid through the lenses of Western and East Asian medicine, discuss the flexibility and adaptability of Chinese medicine for systemic disorders like long Covid, and the shortcomings of attempting to validate the ancient healing practice using modern scientific methodologies. We also explore possible ways of harnessing and positioning our medicine for the future.