Plants are Infinitely Healing & Folk Herbalism is for Everyone - Farai Harreld
Release Date: 05/21/2021
The Peak Is Not the Path: The Physiology of Lasting Healing - Sena Maria
Medicine Stories
Healing is often framed through the lens of heroic breakthroughs, peak experiences, and emotional catharsis, but this episode centers a steadier path. Many modern healing trends—amplified by social media and the promise of instant transformation—can quietly deplete the body, especially for women, leading to every day burnout, long-term exhaustion, and chronic illness. Rather than bypassing the physical, we return to the essentials, recognizing that illness for modern women is often rooted in chronic stress and physiological depletion- not the lack of spiritual epiphanies or endless...
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Modern Midlife Hits Different (Especially for Mothers) - Jessie Harrold
Medicine Stories
Midlife is a powerful threshold, one that is often misunderstood or endured in shame and solitude. In this episode, we explore the in-between terrain where old identities dissolve and new ways of being have not yet fully emerged. Jessie and I reflect on how today’s societal pressures collide with the emotional and biological realities of midlife and motherhood, creating an unprecedented landscape that calls for more compassion, more community, and more honest conversations. By naming and honoring these transitions, especially those unique to women, we open the door to self-discovery,...
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First Blood & Lost Rites of Passage - Kami McBride
Medicine Stories
Menarche- a girl’s first period- shapes how we experience womanhood for the rest of our lives, and the lack of initiation most of us experience is itself an initiation. In this culture that has fractured from the rites and wisdom of our grandmothers, where so many of us met our first period with confusion or shame, how do we begin to heal this tender threshold- for our daughters, and for the younger version of ourselves? In a conversation brimming with practical suggestions, my herb teacher Kami McBride- who has led countless women’s circles, developed and taught a class for cycling...
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TCM's 7yr Timeline of Women's Life Transitions - Dr. Suuzi Hazen
Medicine Stories
Did you notice metabolic changes around age 35 and/or 42? Does perimenopause even exist? Is there an ideal childbearing window? Why are humans one of the only species to experience menopause? Suuzi Hazen, doctor of Chinese Medicine and my closest companion in healing from midlife burnout, gives us the Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective on the 7 year framework for girls’ and womens’ life transitions. that inspired this conversation Join me & Suuzi at the Medicine Stories in Costa Rica November 2026! Related previous episodes with Suuzi- , , by Suuzi by Suuzi herbal...
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Reshaped by Parenthood: Families, Fathers, and the First Year - Rachelle Seliga
Medicine Stories
Birth opens the door, but what comes after walks you through it. Many new parents find themselves moving through the first year feeling lonely, confused, and wondering why it’s so hard. In this episode, I’m joined again by Rachelle Seliga of Innate Traditions, who has spent over 20 years teaching and gathering communities to explore postpartum, motherhood, and revillaging. Together, we open the conversation wider — into the realm of fatherhood — with Rachelle’s signature depth, wisdom, and grounded practicality. Whether you’re preparing for birth or reflecting on your own...
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Cannabis-Induced Psychosis: A Mother’s Story of Love and Loss - Tara Couture of Slowdown Farmstead
Medicine Stories
In 2021 Tara and her family got the knock on their door that every parent fears most. In the days that followed they discovered eighteen-year-old Mila’s journal and were able to piece together the shocking and devastating chain of events that led to her death. Tara’s Instagram and Substack, Slowdown Farmstead, is followed and admired by tens of thousands of people. Tara and her husband raised their three daughters on their beautiful Canadian farm, lovingly tending to and butchering their own livestock in order to nourish their family and community. Deeply acquainted with the cycles of...
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Women Making Medicine for Healing & Connection - Kami McBride
Medicine Stories
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. (including the peek at what you see when you log in to the course). Two 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...
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Nourishment Lost: in Culty Spaces, Self Induced, & Culturewide - Dr. Suuzi Hazen
Medicine Stories
Suuzi and I continue the discussion sparked by my last episode about culty trends in the wellness space by talking about her past with Kundalini yoga- what drew her in and, eventually, how noticing the state of nourishment of those deepest into the cult precipitated her exit. We then catch listeners up on our midlife metabolic meltdown hEaLinG jOuRnEyS and what path we’re taking forward as we continue to recover our vitality and deepen our understanding of why women’s bodies are so metabolically expensive. for this episode include an extended conversation w/ Suuz about the reaction to the...
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German New Medicine: A Lot of Magical Thinking & A Little Bit Culty Too - Demetra Gray
Medicine Stories
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...
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Women's Bodies are Metabolically Expensive (Why Things Break So Easily) - Dr. Suuzi Hazen
Medicine Stories
Chinese Medicine holds that women’s bodies are 10x harder to heal than men’s, as our reproductive system is biologically much more precious and metabolically more intensive to maintain. In this conversation my good friend, third time guest, and Doctor of Chinese Medicine Suuzi and I catch up one year after we both underwent severe energy loss to share how we’ve rebuilt and healed. We talk about shifting away from the mindset of achieving “optimum human health” (an illusion that contributed to our health crises), working and mothering in a state of total burnout, how our childrens’...
info_outlineIn these times, we all need all the healing help we can get. How lucky then that an infinite source of renewal and vitality lies just beneath our feet. Connection with the earth and plants never fails to shift our animal bodies into a place of calm receptivity and deep entrainment with the rhythms of nature. This is our ancestral birthright as human beings. Let us remember it.
TOPICS:
- Name meaning and magic
- Weaving together ancestral lines
- How a chance encounter with an intuitive foretold Farai’s future path as a healer
- Being the cycle breaker in your family
- Working with plants is infinitely healing
- Living with a partner in the military
- Connection is the main thing that heals trauma
- Including kids into our every day folk herbalism
- Mullein medicine for littles
- Treating ear issues herbally
- Herbal care for animals
- Healing with topical honey
- Drawing salves for the win
- What we do when we find an embedded tick
- Folk herbalism is for you
LINKS:
- Farai’s Patreon Folk Herbalism for Everyone
- Farai’s website
- Farai on Instagram
- Medicine Stories Patreon (tick resource and Farai’s ebooklet are here)
- It Didn’t Start With You by Mark Wolynn
- What Happened to You? by Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Bruce Perry
- Naturally Healthy Babies & Children by Aviva Jill Romm
- Natural MD Radio Podcast
- Previous episode Herbalism is Homecoming & Our Senses Are Portals of Connection with Marysia Miernowska
- Juliette de Bairacli Levy’s books (including animal care)
- Farai’s video on how to harvest nettles without getting stung
- Camille Rose hair products
- My website MythicMedicine.love
- Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?
- Medicine Stories Facebook group
- Mythic Medicine on Instagram
- Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)