KPFA - Planting Medicine

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...

Spring invites movement, clearing, and renewal. In this episode, Renée Camila traces four vital currents of seasonal health: the cleansing of blood, the stirring of digestion, the awakening of lymph, and the gentle nourishment of the adrenals and nervous system. Hosted and produced by Emiliano Lemus and Renée Camila. Additionally hosted by Sam Roberts and Violet Moon. Find archived episodes of The...

Join Renée Camila and guest Tuan for a conversation exploring the cultural and historical patterns that give rise to health supremacy and fascist health ideologies. They discuss how radical herbalism can serve as a practice of resistance against the ongoing oppression of our communities. Tuan is an activist-scholar and clinical herbalist living and working in Abenaki territory in Vermont. Tuan can...

On “The Search for Yerba Mansa”, we Join Clinical Herbalist Violet Moon as she travels throughout the Bay Area in Search of Yerba Mansa (Anemopsis californica). Violet deep-dives into the unique botany and medicinal importance of Yerba Mansa, as well as illuminates the intersection of the plants sensitive ecological niches and the environmental pressures threatening it’s survival. Violet is joined...

How do you keep your heart and circulatory system healthy, for the long-term? Join Emiliano Lemus for a show on traditional medicines for your cardiovascular system, covering topics including the heart, blood vessels, blood pressure, 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 her...

Emiliano Lemus answers your herbalism questions live on the air! Call the KPFA studio between 1 and 2pm Pacific Time at 1-800-958-9008, and bring your curiosity for plants and healing. 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 Call-Ins! appeared first on KPFA.

In this three-show series, Emiliano Lemus interviews Christopher and Katherine Parker about their book The Mycelial Healer, as well as their work in wild co-tending, and deep roots in Indigenous healing and ecology. Join us to hear about growing mushrooms at home, incorporating mycelia into your recipes, and fun mushroom science — then deepen into the traditional and spiritual science of moving in...

In this three-show series, Emiliano Lemus interviews Christopher and Katherine Parker about their book The Mycelial Healer, as well as their work in wild co-tending, and deep roots in Indigenous healing and ecology. Join us to hear about growing mushrooms at home, incorporating mycelia into your recipes, and fun mushroom science — then deepen into the traditional and spiritual science of moving in...

In this three-show series, Emiliano Lemus interviews Christopher and Katherine Parker about their book The Mycelial Healer, as well as their work in wild co-tending, and deep roots in Indigenous healing and ecology. Join us to hear about growing mushrooms at home, incorporating mycelia into your recipes, and fun mushroom science — then deepen into the traditional and spiritual science of moving in...

Join Sam Roberts for an exploration of chemical weapons aftercare.  This hour looks at plants and practices to support the body and spirit after being tear gassed or pepper sprayed in this moment of heightened political resistance. 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...

Join host Sam Roberts for a deep dive into Chamomile.  In Sam’s opinion, Chamomile is one of the most undervalued herbs despite it being available in most grocery stores.  Listen in for an hour long exploration of Chamomile’s folk lore, physical and spirit medicine, medicine making and growing tips. Hosted and produced by Emiliano Lemus and Renée Camila. Additionally hosted by Sam Roberts and Viol...

Join Emiliano Lemus and mycologist Patricia Ononiwu Kaishan for an exploration of how attunement with ecologies is central to belonging and healing. Patricia is the author of Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature, as well as the curator of mycology at the New York State Museum and faculty with the Bard Prison Initiative. Hosted and produced by Emiliano Lemus and Renée Camila. Addition...

Join Renée Camila in conversation with Maria Noël Groves for a deep dive into herbal gut health. Together, they explore the nuanced dance between stimulating digestion and soothing the gut, unpacking when each approach is most effective, how to sequence them, and the herbal strategies that support a balanced, resilient digestive system. Maria Noël Groves, RH (AHG), is a clinical herbalist, instruc...