KPFA - Planting Medicine

Join us for the second installment of our three part Radio with Guts series for KPFA’s “Radio with Guts” themed Fall Fund Drive.  In this show Sam Roberts discusses cooking with herbs to heal and balance digestion and digestive organs.  Fund drive show. Hosted and produced by Emiliano Lemus and Renée Camila. Additionally hosted by Sam Roberts and Violet Moon. Find archived episodes of The Herbal H...

Join us for a three-part series on digestive health, curated for KPFA’s “Radio with Guts” themed Fall Fund Drive. In this first show, Emiliano Lemus explores traditional approaches to common digestive concerns. Fund drive show. Chamomile photo by Vedrana Filipović on Unsplash. Hosted and produced by Emiliano Lemus and Renée Camila. Additionally hosted by Sam Roberts and Violet Moon. Find archived...

What does our relationship with money have to do with our health, our healing, and our collective liberation? In this hour, Renée Camila explores the plants that can support us in tending our relationship with money, from the abundance–scarcity spectrum to the ways financial stress impacts our bodies and wellbeing. We’ll consider how solidarity, community care, and our commitments to collective li...

In part two of our herbal skin care series, host Sam Roberts explores herbs for specific skin conditions—including acne, eczema, bug bites, burns, skin infections and more.  Call-ins welcome toward the end of the show. Hosted and produced by Emiliano Lemus and Renée Camila. Additionally hosted by Sam Roberts and Violet Moon. Find archived episodes of The Herbal Highway here. The post Herbal Skin C...

Join Renée Camila and her guest, Enrique Salmón (Rarámuri), for an exploration of Indigenous ecological knowledge. Enrique is an ethnobotonist, author, and head of the American Indian Studies Program at Cal State University–East Bay, in Hayward, California. Their discussion will include Enrique’s upcoming book, Kincentricity: Connecting to Nature with American Indian Food Traditions. Follow Dr. Sa...

Join Renée Camila for an exploration of one of the waters in the body: the blood. The focus in this episode is blood cleansing, beginning with understanding the blood and then looking at the herbs that can support the body’s removal of metabolic waste, the improvement of organ function, a boost of energy and health, the enhancement of the immune system, and support the health of our skin. Hosted a...

Emiliano Lemus interviews Madison Murphy Barney, author of Our Ancestors Want Us to Be Mushrooms: Wisdom for Living in Balance with the Planet and Each Other. They discuss Indigenous ancestral and mycological wisdom, as well as Madison’s doula practice and traditional plant medicines. Madison is a two spirit Shoshone, Hoopa, and mixed European ancestry sister, author, doula (across all of life’s t...

Join Sam Roberts for the first of a two part series on herbal skin care!  This show explores anatomy and physiology of the skin, the gut/skin connection, basic herbal skin care, herbal preparations for the skin and specific herbs that support the skin. Hosted and produced by Emiliano Lemus and Renée Camila. Additionally hosted by Sam Roberts and Violet Moon. Find archived episodes of The Herbal Hi...

In this episode guest host Elokin Orton-Cheung shares some steps to create a vibrant medicinal herb garden. They get into details about plants that will help feed pollinators, build the soil, and support your own health as part of a flourishing ecosystem. Hosted and produced by Emiliano Lemus and Renée Camila. Additionally hosted by Sam Roberts and Violet Moon. Find archived episodes of The Herbal...

Join Emiliano Lemus for the second show of a two-part series on herbs for fire season. This week, we focus on herbal support before the fires begin – including logistical preparation for your family, strengthening lungs, and tuning up other body systems that may be impacted by smoke and stress. Fund drive show. Hosted and produced by Emiliano Lemus and Renée Camila. Additionally hosted by Sam Robe...

Join Renée Camila for the first of a two-part series on herbs for fire season. This week Renée focuses on herbal support during an active wildfire. This episode covers respiratory steaming, emotional care, and helpful herbs to have on hand. Plants discussed include Mullein, Plantain, Marshmallow, Elder, and more. Next week Emiliano Lemus looks at herbs for preventative care. Fund drive show. Hoste...

Join Sam Roberts for an hour on the medicine of Lemon Balm!  This show explores all things Lemon Balm; physical medicine, spirit medicine, medicine making, folklore and more. Hosted and produced by Emiliano Lemus and Renée Camila. Additionally hosted by Sam Roberts and Violet Moon. Find archived episodes of The Herbal Highway here. The post Lovely Lemon Balm appeared first on KPFA.

Does summer leave you feeling overstimulated instead of energized? If the season’s bright, social pace feels more draining than restorative, you’re not alone. Join Renée Camila for an exploration of the herbs that help us find grounding, offer gentle protection, calm overwhelm, and awaken resilience so you can move through summer with greater ease, presence, and vitality. Hosted and produced by Em...

Join Renée Camila for an exploration of the herbs that helps us to align to the summer season. The focus is on herbal strategies for physical and spiritual movement to create flow and encourage change. Herbs discussed include Ginger, Cinnamon, Rosemary, Dandelion, and more. Hosted and produced by Emiliano Lemus and Renée Camila. Additionally hosted by Sam Roberts and Violet Moon. Find archived epi...

For Pride Month, hosts Emiliano Lemus and Violet Moon welcome Sol Meira Do Valle and Laurel Birch for a two-part roundtable discussion on traditional approaches to gender-affirming care. Dr. Sol (@soledad__soleil) is a doctor of East Asian Medicine based on Lenape land in Brooklyn; they are passionate about helping people reconnect with their bodies and move through pain, stress, life transitions,...

For Pride Month, hosts Emiliano Lemus and Violet Moon welcome Sol Meira Do Valle and Laurel Birch for a two-part roundtable discussion on traditional approaches to gender-affirming care. Dr. Sol (@soledad__soleil) is a doctor of East Asian Medicine based on Lenape land in Brooklyn; they are passionate about helping people reconnect with their bodies and move through pain, stress, life transitions,...

Join Emiliano Lemus for an interview with Aleya Fraser about plant medicines of the Caribbean, including ways to connect with Caribbean plants, and lessons from plants and elders. Aleya Fraser is a land steward and ethnobotanist, brought up in Maryland and now living and tending plant medicine in her ancestral lands of Trinidad and Tobago. She is the author of Caribbean Herbalism: Traditional Wisd...

Join Sam Roberts for an hour of flowers! This show explores our medicinal flowers: how to work with them, medicine making, their individual medicinal virtues, and floriography, the secret language of flowers. Hosted and produced by Emiliano Lemus and Renée Camila. Additionally hosted by Sam Roberts and Violet Moon. Find archived episodes of The Herbal Highway here. The post The Medicine Of Flowers...

During this hour, Renée Camila explores the liver as a dynamic center of balance, filtration, and renewal within the body. Together, we examine the liver’s vital functions, its intricate relationship with fats and digestion, and the herbs traditionally used to nourish, protect, and support its remarkable capacity for regeneration. Hosted and produced by Emiliano Lemus and Renée Camila. Additionall...

Emiliano Lemus interviews Nicole Rose of Solidarity Apothecary about herbs to resist fascism. They discuss organizing strategies for connecting with plant medicines as our communities navigate ICE and police violence, prisoner support, protests, and more. We also chat about Nicole Rose’s book, Herbalism and State Violence: Practical Herbal Medicine for Surviving State Repression, available as a fu...

Emiliano Lemus interviews Nicole Rose of Solidarity Apothecary about herbs to resist fascism. They discuss organizing strategies for connecting with plant medicines as our communities navigate ICE and police violence, prisoner support, protests, and more. We also chat about Nicole Rose’s book, Herbalism and State Violence: Practical Herbal Medicine for Surviving State Repression, available as a fu...

Emiliano Lemus interviews Nicole Rose of Solidarity Apothecary about herbs to resist fascism. They discuss organizing strategies for connecting with plant medicines as our communities navigate ICE and police violence, prisoner support, protests, and more. We also chat about Nicole Rose’s book, Herbalism and State Violence: Practical Herbal Medicine for Surviving State Repression, available as a fu...

This week we join Clinical Herbalist Violet Moon (@witchcraft_apothecary) as she discusses the energetics and herbal allies for the Yang Fire Horse Years with guest Elokin Orten-Cheung, L.Ac. Elokin expounds on the themes, history, elements and organ systems relevant to the Yang Fire Horse Cycle of the Chinese Zodiac. The discussion later unfolds and weaves together relevant herbal remedies and pr...

Renée Camila speaks with Olatokunboh Obasi about Indigenous perspectives on herbalism and healing. Olatokunboh, MSc, CNS, is the owner of Well of Indigenous Wisdom School, an online international program in herbalism and healing arts. She is a board-certified nutritionist, medical herbalist, and birth doula. Hosted and produced by Emiliano Lemus and Renée Camila. Additionally hosted by Sam Roberts...

Emiliano Lemus interviews Betzy Bancroft about the science and magic of preparing plant medicines. Betzy is one of the founders of the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism, and she has been teaching herbal medicine making for more than 30 years. Her new book, Herbal Pharmacy: The Science and Magic of Preparing and Administering Plant Medicine, shares knowledge gathered throughout her career ab...