Root Shock

Your heartbeat is a drum. It has been beating with you since long before you had a body of your own to carry it in. This ritual is a companion practice to this month’s and July’s episodes on Indigenous and West African drumming traditions. You carry a drum inside your body wherever you go. And today, we tap into that space. Over the past three months, we sat with Dr. Daniel Dickerson and Francis A...

An Iñupiaq addiction psychiatrist at UCLA discusses drumming as sacred technology, from an Alaska Native perspective.  “Traditionally, Native American people were very healthy. You know, we grew our own food, we hunted our own animals. We were engaged in spiritual practices and cultural practices that were all taught by our elders for us to use and to live healthy, healthy lives. So with historica...

Each breath is a collaboration. Each breath is in reciprocity with other living beings. This month, Root Shock tackled a solosode explaining the biological and physiological mechanisms by which our breath is linked to the breath of the trees. In today’s ritual, grab a blanket (or settle into some plush summer grass), gaze lovingly up at your favorite tree friend, and enjoy a little respite of brea...

Episode Summary Hello from the cloud forests of Central America! I’ve swapped the muggy soup-weather of Washington, DC for the misty clouds and drumming rains of Costa Rica this summer. My toes have never been muddier! It has been an immense blessing and privilege to split my time between the States and CR for the past year, and soak up some well-deserved peace. You might notice, dear listener, th...

Each breath we take is an act of reciprocity, receiving, and return. We breathe with the trees, and they with us. Each Root Shock: Rituals installment is designed to accompany the core Root Shock podcast, building somatic awareness alongside intellectual theory and discussion. This summer, I’ve stepped away from the bustling DC summer swamp and taken refuge in the misty cloud forests of Central Am...

Practice conscious hydration with this guided 10-minute water meditation. Learn a simple water blessing ritual to cultivate gratitude and deep presence. To accompany this month’s Root Shock Podcast episode on Water, our Root Shock: Rituals practice is one of attunement to the water cycle, and our place within it. We practice mindful drinking; we practice gratitude for the water and all the ways it...

“ Colonial legacy would have us believe that somehow traditional rituals and indigenous healing practices are not effective simply because they have not been scientifically proven by a white man or a white woman. Let us not continue in this colonial white supremacy ideology that some rituals and traditions that people have engaged in for thousands of years are not effective.” -Francis Agyakwa Epis...

Let the river teach you mindful perspective with the latest Root Shock Ritual. This 10-minute mindfulness meditation guides you through a relaxing river of thoughts visualization, learning from the water in all that we do. Get full access to Root Shock at rootshock.substack.com/subscribe

“What is health? Are you living? Are you able to have breath in your lungs? Are you able to touch the water? Are you able to feel the grass? Are you able to be sustainable?” – Jessica Swann “Our people lived as stewards of the land and protectors of the water for hundreds of years, and they did that through good health and a good relationship and respect to the land and respect for the water... th...

Welcome to this 10-minute guided meditation focusing on sensory awareness, sound, and mindful breathing. In this Root Shock: Rituals inaugural session, we practice deep listening to explore how your breath interacts with and contributes to the auditory ecosystem around you. ------ She’s using her YogaVoice, people! How do I keep from collapsing under the weight of emergent authoritarianism? Well c...

Welcome back, everyone! Thanks for waiting as we gathered up our mics and agonized over the editing software. While Matt is visiting his old stomping grounds in China, I (Hannah) am producing this show all on my lonesome. That’s why you’ve experienced a woeful gap during April. But now, fret not! We’re bringing you belated Earth Day content with a whole episode on ~ Climate Anxiety ~, tools for re...

Your attention is your true wealth. In a world engineered to extract it, choosing where it goes is an act of resistance. This episode is a deep dive into dopamine, phone addiction, and the attention economy. We break down what dopamine is, what it does in the brain, and how your brain’s motivation-reward system is being exploited. You will also get five practical tools for breaking the dopamine ad...

“Historically, mindfulness is embedded in an understanding of collective belonging and interconnectedness, not just as a tool for self-regulating stress. What often gets left out in Western versions are the broader ethical and communal dimensions of contemplative practices.” -Dr. Hiroe Hu In Part 2 of our deep dive into transcultural psychiatry, we’re joined by Dr. Hiroe Hu . Hiroe is a practicing...

In the early 2000s, pharmaceutical companies looked to Japan with yearning dollar-bills in their eyes. They had a hot new antidepressant just off the assembly line: Paxil. But the Japanese people weren’t into Paxil like that. In fact, they thought the American idea of depression was kind of bizarre. Nobody wanted to buy the company’s drug :( With no market, and an expensive product—what’s a corp t...