podcast

This week we’re out in Coal River Valley, West Virginia, helping out at a free herbal clinic for folks in this area who’ve been affected by mountaintop removal mining. We interviewed three members of the local Herbal Medics team – Maureen, Hannah, and Lauren share their connections to the area, connecting with locals (and reconnecting…

This week we do a lightning round of “minigraphs” on some of our favorite herbs. We started by taking a look at what we’ve got on our herb shelf (okay . . . *shelves*) in the kitchen right now, and selecting a few semi-randomly until our 45 minute timer went off. We covered reishi, catnip,…

It’s not just for lattes anymore: the ubiquitous pumpkin spice blend is in fact an herbal formula! The standard pumpkin [pie] spice mix is cinnamon, ginger, clove, allspice, nutmeg. From an herbalists point of view, this is a mix of aromatic, pungent, carminative spices, very antioxidant-rich, and most of which are also antimicrobial. In this…

Ryn leads off this week with a variety of herbs to try reducing the ringing in the ears called tinnitus. Herbs to drain stuck fluids, quell nervous irritation, and increase cerebral circulation can all help out with this distracting problem. Katja has some great ideas for you headache sufferers out there – starting with some…

Caregiving is exhausting, thankless, necessary work, and becoming increasingly more common. In the first half of this episode, Katja shares some insights into the difficulties facing those who are caring for elders, and herbal allies who can help them as they help others. In the second half, Ryn shares what he found after investigating everything…

This week we bring you a podcast we originally aired on the HerbRally podcast as its inaugural episode, last July, all about the model we use for running free herbal clinics – both in our own space here in Boston, as well as out in communities in need. We wanted to share it in case…

If back-to-school means the nest is empty, you may want some herbal support! Katja shares her favorite allies for this difficult transition. Ryn reflects on a forest movement immersion event he experienced recently, and shares some lessons he [re]learned there about challenge, adaptability, and seeing the complex context. Herbs discussed include hawthorn, motherwort, sage, catnip,…

This week, Ryn leads off with some thoughts on salad: why it’s often boring and nutritionally deficient, and how to boost it up with some wild greens, herbal pesto, spice blends, and feral berries – and how to get these from the grocery store when it’s not spring or summer. Katja goes over some herbs…

In this episode both Ryn & Katja have things to share related to sleep. Katja leads off with a listener question about alcohol cravings at bedtime, then discusses some of her own strategies for coping with restless thoughts that interfere with rest. Ryn lays out the effects of caffeine in the body to help you…

This week, a case of histiocytoma on a dog’s paw leads Katja to talk about wound care for animal companions. What to do when a furry friend has a wound? Help it out with herbs! It’s not as hard as you might be thinking. Ryn received a helpful email this week that made him want…

The world’s on fire, no one wants to admit they’re occasionally catastrophic, and sometimes all you want to eat is ice cream. In this episode we’ll talk about herbs to support respiratory health in times of dryness and smoke inhalation. We’ve also got a dramatic* reading of Katja’s favorite blog post ever, You’re A Trainwreck.…

Introverts & extraverts, as patterns of personality, each have their strengths and weaknesses. In this episode we’ll discuss herbal allies to accommodate common discomforts experienced by those who identify with one or another pole of this spectrum. Introversion & extraversion don’t need to be “fixed”, but their extremes can be balanced and their weak points…