Podcast 100: The Definitive Guide to Herbalism

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were one book you could read, one teacher you could study with, one website you could scroll through – that would tell you everything you need to know about herbalism? Sometimes it seems like there ought to be a definitive guide to herbalism – and for our 100th episode, we’d love to give it to you!

But the thing is, there isn’t one.

There’s only the hard way.

But don’t let that discourage you! The “hard way” turns out to be the nuanced way, the complex way, the adaptable way – it turns out to be the only way, because shortcuts don’t work. Lifehacks don’t hack it. One-size-fits-all prescriptions and panacea formulae don’t actually fit everyone or solve everything. Herbalism has to be flexible and adaptable to meet the needs of people in different bodies, situations, times, and places.

Herbalism has changed and evolved a lot just in the time we’ve been practicing, and it will continue to change for as long as humans and plants come together. So even though there’s no definitive guide to herbalism, there are ways to orient yourself and organize your training that can make you a more adaptable and agile herbalist. We’ve built our practice and our curriculum with a focus on these, and in this episode we’re sharing the big-picture view of what we’ve learned along the way.

Has it really been 100 episodes? Wow! Thanks so much to our supporters for keeping us going and enabling us to put this out there in the world. You’re also making it possible for us to do our free clinics and community outreach projects. If you’d like to become a supporter, you can! We’ll even share you a special supporters-only video each week. Lately we’ve been making a series of videos about herbs you can harvest fresh all winter long. Get access to the whole archive and all the new ones by becoming a supporter today!