397 History Series, The Migration of Chinese Medicine to the American West • Tamara Venit-Shelton
The history of medicine isn’t just about treatments and techniques—it’s about migration, adaptation, and how healing traditions take root in new landscapes. The movement of Chinese medicine to the American West is a story woven with resilience, ingenuity, and cultural exchange.
In this conversation with historian Tamara Venit-Shelton, we explore the migration of Chinese medicine through the lens of immigration, frontier life, and evolving medical landscapes. Her research uncovers the untold stories of Chinese herbalists, the communities they served, and the challenges they faced in an unfamiliar land.
Listen into this discussion as we trace the paths of early Chinese practitioners, the role of herbal medicine in frontier healthcare, the legal and social battles they encountered, and the ways in which Chinese medicine shaped—and was shaped by—the American medical landscape.
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106 Rhythm and Motion: The Magic of Bamboo Moxa • Oran Kivity
The characters for acupuncture in Chinese, 針灸zhen jiu, literally translate as needle and moxa.
You surely were introduced to the cigar-like pole moxa and large cones of smoldering mugwort on slices of ginger or aconite in acupuncture school. Perhaps you also were exposed to the Japanese rice grain moxa techniques or burning balls of moxa on the head of needle. Not surprising there are a variety of forms of using Ai Ye to bring a kind of simulative heat into the body.
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105 Posture, Structure, Function and Knife Needles • Brian Bowen
Musculoskeletal issues are the bread and butter of many acupuncture practices. Many people only think of acupuncture when they think about the treatment of pain, and not without good reason. Acupuncture is helpful in the treatment of pain. And as acupuncturists we know we could probably do a lot better too.
In this conversation we explore the use of the Dao Zhen, the knife needle. But more importantly, we take a look at how the body is put together. And how to “see” the story of a person’s physiology.
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104 Considering Our Roots- The Overlooked Basics of Chinese Medicine • Rhonda Chang
We pride ourselves on being connected to an ancient medicine, to a way of thinking, working and treating that ties us back to the luminaries of our field. But medicine is always influenced by the times. And the influences that brought Chinese medicine to the west, and the ways we learned it shape our thought and practice.
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103 Resonance and Vibration • Mary Elizabeth Wakefield & MichelAngelo
Resonance, 感應 gan ying, is an aspect of Chinese philosophy that runs through many aspects of our medicine.
We see resonance as we look through the unfolding of life through the five phases. The way we see east, spring, liver, green, beginnings and wood as having shared energies; the way they resonant the phase of wood.
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102 Getting Your Tech Together: What Acupuncturists Need to Know About Technology • Stacey Chapman
We all know that Tech is part of a modern practice. And regardless of whether we love it, or hate it, it plays a central role in our day to day operations, marketing and communications.Just like our patients find the language of Chinese medicine to...
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101 Aligning Purpose, Resources and Spirit: An Exploration of Business, Wealth and Wellbeing • Matt Ludmer
Perspective changes everything.
We can approach the business and financial aspects of our practices a distasteful task that we’d prefer to delegate to someone else. Or we can take it as the opportunity it is to work through our shadow material around the issues of money, power, authority and integrity.
In this conversation we explore how wealth allows us to interact more fully with our world. How finances are just one aspect of a balanced and integral life. And how the relationships with community and ourselves are not separate from our relationship to money and purpose.
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Five Movements and Six Qi • Sharon Weizenbaum
We often consider the Five Phases when doing acupuncture, and the Six Conformations when treating our patients with herbal medicine.
In this conversation we consider the interplay of “wu yun, liu qi” the five movements and six climatic qi from the perspective of diagnosis and understanding not just what problem a patient has, but also its progression through time.
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100 Anniversary Show: Art, Postcards, Persistence and Practice • Diana Moll
Last year for the first anniversary of Qiological I invited a listener of the podcast to join me for a conversation, this year I did the same. Part of the reason is that I love hearing from listeners of the show. And the other part is that we all have something to share with each other, and I especially love talking to practitioners that you might not know.
I love talking to people that have been working away in their clinics, usually without fanfare or desire for public recognition. And have through their experience learned something of our medicine, and how it helps people.
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099 Pain, Neurobiology, Beauty, and Big Cats: A Surprising Conversation on Veterinary Acupuncture • Bonnie Wright
I started this episode thinking we would be talking about lions, tigers and bears. But we ended up with glial cells, learning and neuroplasticity. Just like in clinic there are often surprising things that show up, and so too it is podcast conversations.
In this conversation we start with veterinarian acupuncture. But then take a hard right and go deep into neuroscience, the treatment of pain, nervous system regulation and how medicine is beautiful. I loved our discussion as it ranged from the clinical ‘how-to’s” of working with animals, to the deep science of neurobiology, and all woven together with a sense of inquiry and appreciation for the beauty of nature and the practice of medicine.
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Slow Medicine: How Chinese Medicine Became Associated With the Treatment of Chronic Illness • Eric Karchmer
When I lived in China I’d often hear people there say “use western medicine for quick results, but use Chinese medicine for chronic conditions.” It was a bit confusing for me, as even as a student and new practitioner I’d see Chinese medicine be really helpful for more acute conditions. It made me wonder if the Chinese really understood Chinese medicine.
In this conversation we get some perspective on this issue. Listen into this discussion on how the clashing of cultures and China’s desire to “modernize” had an impact on the medicine we practice.
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098 Medicine, Not-knowing and The Curious Ways Healing Arising • Lonny Jarrett
Medicine is an unending study. A process of learning, sifting what helps from what doesn’t, and recognizing that we often are students of the unknown.
In this conversation we explore healing, sacrifice, the importance of learning a tradition and finding a mentor.
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097 Considering the Soil: An Agrarian Perspective on Chinese Herb Cultivation • Jean Giblette
There is more to growing herbs than understanding plants. There are the considerations of soil, economic environment, weather patterns, cultural and market forces, and the kind of eye and vision that can see the interactions of these forces not just over seasons, but years or decades.
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Moving Through Trauma: A Path of Healing and Resiliency • Alaine Duncan
Trauma has both a physiological and emotional impact on us. It can set up a kind of dysregulation that while in the midst of trauma can be adaptive, and in fact help us to survive, but over time can be source of all kinds of physical and emotional problems.
In this “part two” conversation we discuss the cycle of healing that can occur as patients move through the five phases of trauma and recovery. And how Chinese medicine, an understanding of modern neurobiology, and gentle hands on work can not only heal trauma, but help to build greater resiliency.
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096 Magic of Mushrooms: The Modern Use of Mycelial Medicinals • Robert Hoffman
Mushrooms are a curiosity. Neither plant, nor animal, they are stuff of fairy tales and dreams. They hint at something dangerous. They could be delicious, or they could kill you. They sprout up unexpectedly and then quickly melt away. Their underground mycelial networks make them some of nature’s largest collective organisms
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095 The Blindness of Experts • Kevin Ergil
We rely on the skills of experts. The car mechanic, plumber, web designer, business coach. We want to trust the people that are in the position where our lack of knowledge leaves us vulnerable. We’d like for them to have our best interests in mind, and we also know from experience that we question…
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Channeling the Moon • Sabine Wilms
Chinese medicine has a long, long history of puzzling through and treating women’s health issues. In this conversation we touch on clinical considerations that come to us from the Song dynasty.
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094 Business Creativity and the Entrepreneurial Perspective • John McGarvey
Business is one of those aspects of practice that many new practitioners approach with a not small amount of fear and loathing. Business is often viewed as something bothersome and takes away from focusing on our practice. But the truth is, just like there is a false dichotomy between mind and body, the idea that business is somehow separate from our practice not only is not helpful, but cuts us off from all kinds of creativity and learning.
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093 Treating Trauma Through the Five Phases • Alaine Duncan
The experience of trauma is as much a part of life as is falling in love, having family disagreements, and wondering how we fit in this life. And while we tend to focus on the problems that have their roots in traumatic experiences, it is also possible that we can become more resilient and anti-fragile by moving through traumic experiences in a way that allows us to harvest the lessons of the experience.
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092 The Power of Story • Jason Robertson
What we tell ourselves might be more powerful than our actual experiences. Not only that, our thoughts shape our bodies. Practitioners of East Asian medicine have hard-won, clinically derived tools for conceptualizing how biography affects physiology.
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091 Hands on Medicine • Josh Margolis
When I was a kid it was easy to smell a snow storm coming, or to be able to feel how the wind shifted and the light in the sky meant that you’d better take cover as a thunderstorm was maybe, if you were lucky, 20 minutes away. Us humans have the...
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