Medicine Stories

The Lindsay Clancy case has us thinking about the Traditional Chinese Medicine concept of Essence- what depletes it, what replenishes it, and how it is impacted by modern life and motherhood. We talk about how closely spaced births, inadequate postpartum recovery, illness, and chronic overextension can deplete these reserves- and how nourishment, rest, hydration, and mindful use of our energy can help restore them. We also explore the importance of community and finding a sustainable balance between giving and receiving, depletion and replenishment. Ultimately, this conversation asks what might change if women treated conserving and replenishing their vitality as essential to lifelong health. LINKS: Medicine Stories Patreon- bonus conversation w/ Suuzi Join Amber & Suuzi at the Healing Waters Nature Immersion Retreat in Costa Rica Nov 3-8 (last day to sign up is 9/13/26) The first of Suuzi's posts on Essence Suuzi's Mother's Best Liver Pills The Mythic Medicine herb shop (big sale!!) Amber on Instagram Quiz: Find Your Wise Woman Archetype Medicine Stories Facebook group Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

In the years since the pandemic, many of us have found ourselves deeply fatigued- not only physically and emotionally, but spiritually. The wellness world that once felt hopeful has become crowded with endless advice, conflicting opinions, and relentless marketing, leaving many people questioning who and what they can trust. As wellness has become increasingly commodified, it has also become harder to distinguish between what is truly nourishing and what simply captures our attention. Many are stepping back from the noise, longing for a slower, more grounded relationship with health. And yet, the desire to feel well has not disappeared. If anything, it has become more sincere. If you've ever felt disillusioned by wellness culture but still deeply long to be well, this one's for you. An off-the-cuff solo episode, I share musings on our collective loss of trust in the wellness industry, where that leaves me as the host of this podcast, and what has remained steady and true for me in the midst of ever-collapsing paradigms. Tell me your thoughts on Substack Girls trip this November Mythic Medicine herb shop

My most beloved herbal elder and I talk about our favorite subject- women throughout time using plants for self care, family healing, and community connection. After nearly 4 decades as a practicing herbalist and teacher, and in an age of informational overabundance, Kami has seen what actually works when it comes to truly embodying herbal knowing. Find Kami's freebies & learn more about Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils (including the peek at what you see when you log in to the course). Two Patreon bonuses for this episode- 1) an extended conversation with Kami where we share our stories of Mothering Without Elders 2) two free videos with Kami entitled Garden Herb Walk- meet 9 favorite garden herbs that can calm the nerves, help with digestion, heal the skin, kick a cold, and more! Let's meet beautiful edible and medicinal flowers, weeds, leaves and seeds and find out which ones are used for what. Kami's book The Herbal Kitchen Amber's website MythicMedicine.love Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy? Amber/Mythic Medicine on Instagram Medicine Stories Facebook group Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

GNM is an alt health trend that has grown in popularity in recent years. It is attractive to so many (including me and my guest, once) because it acknowledges the role that emotions and trauma play in physical health and symptom manifestation, something that mainstream medicine still somehow refuses to do. But just because some aspects of an ideology are true and helpful does not mean that the entire framework is valid. Critical thinking and humility are essential tools for navigating information overload and complex frameworks, especially when it comes to health. The allure of certainty and specialized knowledge can lead people to adopt rigid belief systems that don't hold up to critical thinking, and the the zealotry of believing that your group's belief system will save the world only further strengthens unconscious confirmation bias (along with other logical fallacies common in GNM- loading the language, heads you lose tails I win, us v them thinking, bizarre antisemitic conspiracies, etc). But what might be most worrisome about this growing movement is the purity mindset demanded of its more extreme adherents- the belief that nothing outside of us can affect us if only we believe strongly enough in our own omnipotence and prove our righteousness and purity by attaining a total lack of symptoms. What is viewed as radical sovereignty and empowerment is really just outright magical thinking reinforced by an absence of humility, mystery, and the reality that ultimately we are not in control of what happens to us. The body is not a closed system; we are deeply embedded in overlapping ecologies. This episode has been years in the making, and I have been asked time and time again for my take on GNM. When I was sent Demetra's essay on the subject I knew that I had finally found the right person to have this conversation with. Her past cult experience, and my years of deep dives into culty thinking and behavior, provide a lens through which to view this phenomenon. Though we do not claim that GNM is a cult in the traditional sense, cultishness is a spectrum and GNM is definitely on that spectrum. Also its tenets are demonstrably false, and have led to death in some cases. NBD. In our Patreon bonus conversation Demetra shares her cult story- joining what she thought was a good thing, slowly realizing it wasn't, leaving, being attacked by the leader and other members, and the long "deprogramming" and stabilization process that all cult survivors undergo Demetra's essay The Culty Fraud of German New Medicine Dr. Moss's report German New Medicine- Hope or Hoax? Demetra's podcast Impolite Company on Spotify and Apple Amber's website MythicMedicine.love Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy? Mythic Medicine on Instagram Medicine Stories Facebook group Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes) Mentioned in this episode: Tension Myositis Syndrome Cell Danger Response A Little Bit Culty podcast (the best!) Cult documentaries (by no means an extensive list)- The Vow (NXIVM), Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence, Breath of Fire (Kundalini yoga), The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin Steven Hassan's BITE model Cult expert Robert Jay Lifton

The times are unprecedented and there is no template for the future. We all feel this, and we feel the overwhelm of information, influence, and opinions. Herbalism, as it always has, offers us sanctuary from everything vying to take hold of our attention and life force. Not so that we can check out in an endless fog of self care, but so that we can be truly present and embodied as we navigate this time of rapid and radical change. The plants call us home to ourselves. Kami's Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils course Video Sneak Peak at the Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils Course from Kami McBride (what it looks like when you log in) Mastery by Robert Green Medicine Stories Patreon (podcast bonuses!) Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy? My website MythicMedicine.love Mythic Medicine on Instagram Medicine Stories Facebook group Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

"I pray to the dead to help me remember who I am while I'm still alive." To be in relationship with those who've gone before us is a deeply human way of being. Our ancestors knew that the "departed" never left, and that they answer when called. The way modern Western people conceive of the dead is a deviation that discards millennia of human knowing. Let us pray to the ancestors to help us sober up from civilization, remember what we've always known, and reclaim the long story of the soul. RESOURCES: Perdita's website Take Back the Magic Medicine Stories Patreon (book giveaway & course coupon code) Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death by Bernd Heinrich Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds by Thomas Halliday Waking Up to the Dark by Clark Strand My podcast about my mother's passing What I'd Be Without You: My Mother's Life, Death, and Legacy of Love The Madonna Secret, a novel by Sophie Strand Perdita and her husband Clark Strand's website The Way of the Rose Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy? Our website & herbal medicines MythicMedicine.love Mythic Medicine on Instagram Medicine Stories Facebook group Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)