Brenda Hood often reminds me “Chinese concepts, especially classical Chinese concepts, are big and multidimensional. They are extremely dependent on context and while shades of meaning often cross over, they can be quite different and be more or less encompassing of ideas depending on actual context.” Which is why I’m always questioning myself when wrestling ancient Chinese ideas. What’s more, it will seem culture itself is constantly rewriting history to fit the current zeitgeist. So words and ...
May 14, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 356
Saam acupuncture with its unique channel pairings, perspective on psycho-emotional dynamics, and capacity to interweave the Five Phase with the Six Qi is a powerful tool for understanding the interplay of yin and yang along with body and mind. In this conversation Joshua Park joins us to explore how Saam acupuncture gives us a holistic view and allows practitioners to approach diagnosis and treatment from multiple perspectives. Listen into this discussion of how using multiple lenses gives a mor...
May 07, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 355
In the late 60’s and early 70’s of the last century East Asian medicine began to emerge into mainstream culture. The Reston NY Times article is often cited as a catalytic moment that put the idea of Chinese acupuncture into the minds of Americans. But other streams of medicine from Japan and Korea were also finding their way into the imagination of those who would be a conduit that would help these methods to flourish in the mainstream of Western culture. Peter Eckman has been a unique bridging ...
Apr 30, 2024•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 354
The Middle East has a long history of war and unrest. Whatever phase of history you’d like to zoom the timeframe, you’ll likely see conflict. In Episode 72 of Everyday Acupuncture Podcast I spoke with an Israeli practitioner on what it is like to live in a place where you’re frequently hearing air raid sirens and headed to a bomb shelter. In this conversation we hear reflections of two practitioners who share their experience in the aftermath of the attacks of October 7th. In this conversation w...
Apr 23, 2024•1 hr 40 min•Ep. 353
Here’s a question that I find difficult to answer. How does acupuncture work? Beyond the East Asian medicine phrasing that makes zero sense to your average citizen. Just what is going on in the body in response to a sliver thin needle being placed in the flesh? And once you have an answer for that, explain how a “needle” that does not pierce the skin can accomplish the same thing? It’s an annoying question isn’t it? Which makes it a very good question, and the motivation for inviting Gary Kleppe...
Apr 16, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 352
Women develop through the cycles of seven. Men through the rhythms of eight. Women, more resonate with Blood. Men, with qi. Being human, there is a lot we share in common. Looking at our classic books on medicine, from the point of view of physiology and health, there are differences. And from the perspective of development, going from child to adult, and from adult to elder, we walk paths that orbit around one another. Damo MItchell recently commented on social media about his concern that men,...
Apr 09, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 351
East Asian medicine recognizes the central role that food can play in our health and wellbeing. We have various models for understanding the fluctuations and trajectories a human body can travel as we navigate the time we have between Heaven and Earth. In this conversation with Jaguang Sunim we explore the Korean Sa Sang constitutional perspective as it relates to our physiology, along with the strengths and deficiencies that we can mitigate with the foods we choose to eat on a regular basis. Ad...
Apr 02, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 350
The 1960’s and 70’s saw an explosion of alternative health and lifestyle practices appear at the edges of culture. It was a time ripe with possibility and fraught with peril, after all there was a war going on. The kind where men were drafted. As with any troubled time, there is also opportunity. Because as things fall apart, they also fall together. The guest of this episode, Stuart Watts, he had a bent for spiritual practice, a curiosity about health beyond the mainstream, and an adventurous a...
Mar 26, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 349
Change happens through time, it unfolds within the rhythmic inhale and exhale, it expresses through lunar and solar cycles, it follows the arc of development, fruition, and decline. There are recognizable pathways and markers that arise within what is mostly a non-linear experience of life. Daniel Atchison-Nevel used to skip school and hang out at the library where he found himself in the company of old Russian Jewish mystics, their stories and tattered copies of the Dao De Jing. Not a bad place...
Mar 19, 2024•1 hr 48 min•Ep. 348
Alchemy sounds like magic. It sounds like magic because it involves the transmuting of something coarse and without value to something refined and of worth. But really, there is nothing magical about it. It’s the process of finding a corner of the world you want to work on, and applying some elbow grease to make it better. In this conversation with Leta Herman we explore the first four of the nine palaces of Alchemy. Which is to say, the nuts and bolts of working with the everyday world, because...
Mar 12, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 347
You’ve probably heard about family lineage types of acupuncture from Asia. Here in the West, acupuncture is still a bit of a newcomer to the medical scene, but it has been around long enough that we are beginning to see second generation practitioners. In this conversation we have a father son team, Joe and Sam Audette. Joe is a medical doctor and has deeply studied and helps to teach the work of Kiiko Matsumoto. And in this conversation you’ll get all kinds of helpful tips on areas of the abdom...
Mar 05, 2024•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 346
It was challenging enough for me in the 1990’s to set myself on the path of learning acupuncture. and by then, we had established schools and clear pathways to licensure and a livelihood. But back in the early days it took a rare kind of individual with a big spirit to seek out the knowledge required to learn acupuncture. The guest of this episode, Ted Kaptchuk, is one of those explorative pioneers that headed East because he was sure he’d find something, even though he’d no idea of how he was g...
Feb 27, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 345
Medicinal mushrooms have made their way into the everyday lives of the “old one-hundred names,” us common folk. Formerly rare and precious substances like Ling Zhi and Dong Chong Xia Cao are now cultivated and readily available for people like you and me. Considered to be “higher” level medicinals, these are substances considered more for promoting wellbeing, than treating illness. Which brings us to the topic of “Tonic Herbs” and Yang Sheng, the nourishment of life. In this conversation with Ma...
Feb 20, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 344
Clinical experience and results are paramount in developing skill as a Chinese medicine practitioner. Theory should serve practice, not the other way around. Specializing in certain disease categories like dermatology can accelerate your learning process. In this conversation with Mazin Al-Khafaji we explore how he’s spent the past few decades using Chinese medicine to treat difficult skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis. His study of Chinese medicine and unexpected collaboration with conve...
Feb 13, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 343
We are here in the midst of winter cold going into the Spring Festival— the new Chinese Lunar year. It might seem strange to consider Spring as beginning in the deep middle of dark and cold, but all beginnings start in the dark. They begin before they can be seen. Qiological is delighted to have Gregory Done back with his perspective on the coming Wood Dragon year. This 12 year Earthly cycle of animals began anew with the Metal Rat in 2020, and we know how that shifted our world in profound ways...
Feb 06, 2024•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 342
In the mid 70’s there were four English language books on acupuncture. Which wasn’t much to go on. But for the people that started learning acupuncture in those days. It was enough to get started. Suzuki Roshi is famous for saying “in the beginners mind there are many possibilities, in the experts mind there are few.” Which is another way to say being young and foolish is not a bad way to get started with things, because you don’t know what you can’t not do. and exploring new territory brings it...
Jan 30, 2024•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 341
There are aspects of East Asian medicine that touch on the frameworks of Buddhism, Daoism, Shamanism, and Alchemy. What’s more the lenses of philosophy, psychology, spirituality, and cosmology also can come into play when we consider the nature of the channels and points. Touching on existential questions and potentials for healing transformation, our guest in this episode, Zac Lui, discusses the Five Phases and channel dynamics from a perspective you’ve likely not considered. And touches on the...
Jan 23, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 340
Meditation is seen as an ancient panacea to modern problems. Mindfulness and equanimity will help with your productivity at work, relationships at home, reduce your need for certain medication and in general make you a better version of yourself. But the inward turned gaze often enough does not reveal a tranquil garden, but a junkyard. The promise of stillness and equanimity evaporates in the onslaught of our unruly human minds. In this conversation with Leo Lok, we investigate how mediation can...
Jan 16, 2024•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 339
Pain is a helpful signal when it works properly as a warning signal. But when that signal goes awry, it dramatically changes a person’s life and also affects their close relationships. Jonathan Riemer has been researching chronic pain in children and he’s found there are social, neurological and psychological aspects to pain and its treatment. Listen into this conversation on illness and how it functions within the family systems, disconnections between the mind and body, and the importance of o...
Jan 09, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 338
The curious thing about having someone ask me a question and engage in a conversation of inquiry is that I hear myself saying things that are usually hidden just under the surface of habit and belief. In this episode the guest of the podcast is me. and the host steering the boat… it’s Rick Gold. if you don’t know Rick, listen to episode 323. He’s had a hand in hundreds of people learning our medicine. Listen in for a discussion of the influence that shop class has had on me over the years, some ...
Jan 02, 2024•1 hr 48 min•Ep. 337
We all have some kind of call to follow medicine, otherwise we wouldn’t be in the trade. If you answer that call today, you’ve got a profession you can work yourself into. But back in the late 70’s early 80’s, the profession was still finding its footing. And if you’re like the guest of this episode, Z’ev Rosenberg, having an established professional track was less of a concern than following a hunger he had for natural methods for restoring and maintaining health. Listen into this conversation ...
Dec 26, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 336
The vast wealth, and it is a wealth, of writing on Chinese medicine is in Chinese. Granted, at this moment in time there is enough material that has made its way into English that you wouldn’t be able to read all of it in one lifetime. That’s far cry from the handful of books of 40 years ago. Still, the history and perspectives that have found their way down to the present in Chinese. It’s like an alternative universe. Maybe several of them. In this episode with Michael Brown, Will Cerveles, Era...
Dec 19, 2023•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 335
Some people dream of being influencers and social media stars. They are looking for a glamorous life in front of the camera. Not so for the guest of today’s episode who first published a Facebook video as a way to help support her students. It was a complete shock when someone from another country wrote to tell her how they appreciated the help in learning medicine. In this conversation with Clara Cohen we reflect on how she got started with her YouTube channel, Acupro Academy. It’s been an acci...
Dec 12, 2023•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 334
We practice traditional medicine, or do we? Because Chinese medicine has roots and writings that go back into misty history, it’s easy to imagine we practice much like your average Qing or Ming doctor. But the truth is, the way practitioners worked even just a hundred years ago would be quite foreign to the standards of today. In this conversation with Eric Karchmer we explore some of the themes and historic insights from his new book Prescriptions for Virtuosity, The Post Colonial Struggle of C...
Dec 05, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 333
In this conversation, our guest Efrem Korngold said, “the definition of a good paradigm is that you can apply it effectively to new problems.” You know how sometimes you hear something and it stops you dead in your tracks, it rings true in a way that you can feel in your bones, muscles and blood. I heard this and felt the truth of it. What’s more was his further comment that Chinese medicine; it’s good paradigm. Listen into this conversation on the early days of Chinese medicine emerging into th...
Nov 28, 2023•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 332
“My Po made the decision” I’m usually skeptical about most explanations of the “Spirit” of the five Zang viscera. Not that I don’t indulge speculation myself, I most certainly do. But given these ideas come down to us from another time, language, and culture. Given they’ve traveled through through the millennia I’m mightily reluctant to stake a claim on what the ancients might have intended. That said, the guest of today’s conversation Karine Kedar said the above quote towards the beginning of o...
Nov 21, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 331
You don’t need to practice acupuncture for very long to realize that people frequently slip into a deep state of quietude and repose. Often enough, they come out of a session with a completely different look to their eyes, they move slower and with a more integrated coordination, they’re focused less on the noise in their life, and more on the potency of the present. In this conversation with John Myerson, we explore acupuncture and non-ordinary states of consciousness. This was part of a PhD di...
Nov 14, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 330
I’ve often enough equated the word Alchemy with Magic. Hoping for something that would quickly and painlessly transform the troubles dogging me. Perhaps this is possible with magic, but alchemy, that is a process of preparation, distillation and attentiveness. It’s a undertaking that requires a kind of containment and the transformative power of time is a key ingredient. Maybe not unlike the process of learning medicine by practicing medicine. In this conversation with Leta Herman we discuss alc...
Nov 07, 2023•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 329
It’s surprising the unexpected paths we trod that lead us to our destiny. Especially when you’re headed into a profession or line of work that does not yet exist. In this conversation with Jake Fratkin, we meander through tales of back pain, bitter herbs, beginner's luck and crooked judges. We reflect on the joys and uncertainties of following your fascination to wherever it leads, and making a go of life on the edge of the establishment. Listen into this discussion on blackjack statistics, monk...
Oct 31, 2023•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 328
There are several foundational texts that lay the groundwork for Chinese herbal medicine. Usually when you think about the Shang Han Lun, you’d immediately think of herbs. And when you think about the various herbs that make up the classic prescriptions, you’ll realize they all have a flavor, direction and character. In essence— a kind of qi. In this conversation with Maya Suzuki we discuss the dynamic of Gui Zhi Tang. How it leaves palpable traces in the body. And how to use acupuncture in a wa...
Oct 24, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 327
