Herbal Radio

For this week's plant adventure on Herbal Radio, we sit down with the President of Native Botanical Inc., Edward Fletcher. We had the opportunity to learn about Ed's many intriguing life journeys that led him to his wide-spread successes throughout the herbal community today. We'll dive into Ed's upbringing, where his family founded the first nature preserve in North Carolina in the early 1900s, a...

Mimi Prunella Hernandez is an herbalist, and author of the National Geographic Herbal . For over a decade, Mimi has served as the executive director of the American Herbalists Guild, where she has worked tirelessly to ensure that herbalists have a strong professional community to support their work. In 2023, Mimi received a Botanical Excellence Award from the American Botanical Council. Jiling and...

Today's Herbal Radio episode features Mason Hutchison, a true rising star in the herbalism community and the founder of HerbRally . Mason grew up in Eugene, OR and held the title of Event Coordinator on the Mountain Rose Herbs Marketing Team for over a decade. His contributions and dedication to the herbalism community has left an everlasting impact on Mountain Rose Herbs, and Mason is considered...

On this week's episode of Herbal Radio, we had the honor of interviewing one of the greatest living herbalists and world-blended practitioners, Margi Flint. With Margi's 40+ years of experience in herbal medicine, she shares her wisdom on honoring the life force within plants, rather than taking advantage of what plants can offer us. Margi dives into her beginnings as a wild-spirited girl who freq...

Robin Rose Bennett is a storyteller, writer, and herbalist, offering classes in Herbal Medicine and EarthSpirit Teachings since 1986 at herb conferences, festivals, medical schools, and most joyously, outside with the plants. She is the author of Healing Magic: A Green Witch Guidebook to Conscious Living , The Gift of Healing Herbs: Plant Medicines and Home Remedies for a Vibrantly Healthy Life ,...

In this week's Herbal Radio episode, we recount our enthralling and informative conversation with the bilingual-bicultural holistic practitioner, Patricia Cortez. Patricia sits down with Thomas in his studio and looks back on her childhood in El Salvador, her maternal grandmother's role as a "Spiritist" in her community, and the history of Día de Muertos. We hope you enjoy this touching podcast fu...

There may be no better person that embodies the vision of "Plant Stories" like herbal troubadour and Appalachian naturalist, Doug Elliot. A gifted storyteller, Doug recites both wisdom and whimsical through spoken word and song. We've compiled some of our favorite songs that Doug has recorded with us and are releasing them together, in this delightful and heart-warming episode. Our host, Thomas, g...

Accessible herbal education, community outreach, and learning how can we better share herbal medicine are core values of ours at Mountain Rose Herbs. Discussing these topics led us to our guest this week, Tree Knowlton. Tree is one of the coordinators of Herbalists Without Borders Eugene chapter, graduate of Columbines School of Botanical Studies, master medicine maker, urban homesteader, and ador...

We are deeply thankful for today's interview with co-founder of Holistic Divine Innovations and founder of the Ridgecrest Community Garden and Herbal Zen Garden, Tyrone Ledford. This inspiring conversation centers around Tyrone's life growing up in Compton, California, his experiences growing food, his development of the Ridgecrest Community Garden and Herbal Zen Garden, as well as his life's othe...

This week's episode was recorded at the in-person Summer 2022 Free Herbalism Project at Mt. Pisgah Arboretum in Eugene, Oregon. Emcee, Jiling Lin , introduces keynote speaker jim mcdonald – who presents on the many virtues of plantain. It's commonly said in herbalism that "It's far better to know a dozen uses for one herb than one use for a dozen herbs", yet, many people still think of herbs in a...

On this episode of Plant Stories on Herbal Radio, we had the opportunity to speak with the acclaimed and enthralling herbalist, Richo Cech. We dive deep into Richo's life and passions, discussing everything from his seed-seeking adventures in Africa, to captivating stories of how he grew Strictly Medicinal Seeds from the ground up (pun-intended). Richo Cech started his professional work as an arch...

Join herbalists Jiling Lin, Erika Galentin, and Camille Freeman for a lively Tea Talks Roundtable discussion on Nurturing the Herbal Practitioner.  We explore: • some of the challenges that come with running an herbal practice  • how to create a work cadence that's realistic in the long run  • establishing clear boundaries between work and personal life • how to run an herbal practice that feels e...

We are so pleased to feature another interview with our friend Lucretia VanDyke. On Herbal Radio, we have learned about Lucretia's upbringing and what led her to work with plants, but we have never gotten to learn what plants she loves and why. In this Plant Stories episode, Lucretia talks about her favorite edible plants of New Orleans and the significance they played in her upbringing that began...

This week's guest on Interviews on Herbal Radio is esteemed herbalist, David Winston. David is well known in the herbal community for his decades of clinical experience, teaching, and medicine making. We hope you enjoy!     David Winston is an internationally known lecturer, author, ethnobotanist and the founder of Herbalist & Alchemist.   For over 45 years, David has been studying, practicing, te...

Dr. Athene Eisenhardt , Licensed Acupuncturist and Herbalist, found her path in life by way of the plant world. Working professionally as a field botanist for Yosemite National Park led her to begin wildcrafting and using native California plants as medicine, and to study the Taoist 5 elements in nature.  She maintains a private practice in Oakland, California, offering 5 Element Acupuncture and I...

This podcast episode is a combination of two plant profiles from a pre-recorded garden plant walk with clinical herbalist, field botanist, and nutrition educator, Shana Lipner Grover. Shana introduces us to two common and abundant garden plants: oregano and St. John's wort. Shana teaches us how we can make functional medicine from the culinary and medicinal herbs that grow so easily outside our fr...

Herbalist and educator Alex Queathem Payne joins us for an in-person interview after she toured the Mountain Rose Herbs facilities this past spring. Thomas and Alex discuss her naturalist upbringing, the 'green' lineage in her family, and her educational path, including her studies at the Columbines School of Botanical Studies. Alex tells us about her childhood connection with mint and her adultho...

We had the pleasure of interviewing our good friend and esteemed herbalist, 7Song. This conversation was recorded in the Winter of 2022. Learn about 7Song's upbringing, his path and approach to herbalism, as well as his general advice to up and coming herbalists including practicing in a clinic. Humorous and entertaining, we hope you enjoy this meandering and wonderful conversation. 7Song is an he...

Toby began studying East Asian medicine in 1997 with Sunim Doam, a Korean monk trained in the Saam tradition. In 2016, he completed a PhD in Classical Chinese Medicine under the guidance of 88th generation Daoist priest Jeffrey Yuen. Toby just published his first book this April, " An Introduction to Chinese Medicine: A Patient's Guide to Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Nutrition, & More ". It offer...

Jesús Garcia is a Mexican Shaman and Herbalist teaching the traditions of lineage work through botanica practices of curanderia and community spiritual herbalism. Jesús is an early childcare educator focusing on nature school fundamentals through holistic enrichment garden programs and is the founder of the Herbal Action Project , a nature play-school and community garden sanctuary.  Jiling and Je...

Jesse Wolf Hardin joins us for a very special podcast episode with Thomas Dick, to discuss the importance of in-person herbal events. The timing couldn't be more perfect as many herbal events are taking place throughout the country. Wolf poetically describes the tradition and range of herbal events as well as how to choose which herbal event is best for you. Perhaps most touching, Wolf reminds us...

Today's episode is a rerelease of an excerpt from our spring online  Free Herbalism Project  hosted on April 8, 2021. This presentation was the inspiring and informative intro with our guest emcee  Bevin Clare . Bevin covers a few of her favorite spring flowers and notes their traits as well as some lesser known facts. It's a fun, short presentation, but we think you'll have a lot of takeaways fro...

We first met Ryland Engelhart and Finian Makepeace, co-founders of Kiss the Ground – a nonprofit raising awareness for regeneration through storytelling, education, and advocacy – at Natural Products Expo West in 2022. Since our initial meeting, we knew that we shared foundational values with these inspirational leaders, such as the importance of soil health and sustainable agriculture, sparking o...

In this "Tea Talks Roundtable," Jiling discusses the topic of "Food as Medicine" with herbalists Christa Sinadinos, Rona Leah, Jana Kilgore, and Mary Colvin. With our collective herbal experience as two professional cooks, three book authors, two herb school founders, and five herbalists working with different populations, teaching styles, and botanical expertise-- you can expect a fun and delicio...

This week on Plant Stories, we're releasing our interview with Michelle Guerrero Denison. Michelle is an herbalist, formulator, educator, and the founder of The Twig & Feather. Michelle resides in Southern California and talks about how through her family's own health challenges, she found herbalism and holistic wellness. Refreshing, engaging, and open-minded, Michelle's plant stories are human ce...