Qiological Podcast

There is a kind of poetry to Chinese characters. They gives hints and clues about the names we give to the world. They tell a story.  In this conversation with Elisabeth Rochat we explore, like you’d explore bottles of fine wine, some of the meaning and nuance in the characters 意 yi， 通 tong， 命 ming，and 理 li. There are some delicious surprises in this conversation as I’m more conversant...

Jing, Qi and Shen— the three treasures. Like so many of these pithy quotes about Chinese medicine there is a lot here if you have taken the time to investigate it and see how it fits within your experience of practicing medicine.  In this conversation with Yair Maimon we touch on the three treasures as they relate to treating cancer with acupuncture, immunology from Chinese medicine perspecti...

Chinese is not that easy, and the 文言文 (wen yan wen) the classical Chinese, that stuff is a whole other order of magnitude in challenge to the modern Western mind. And yet if we are going to practice this medicine with deep roots into a long gone time and culture, we need access to the stepping stones that have been handed down to us over centuries through books and writing. Translating language...

The medical model is useful for certain conditions and problems. It also lends itself to a factory sort of medicine that allows a large number of people to be served using protocols and standard procedures. But when a patient’s issues don’t fit neatly into “the machine” then that system of medicine is not just not helpful, it can bring harm. Engaging with a patient free of flowcharts and diagnosti...

We venerate the masters, hold them up as shining examples of what we would like to be one some day, but let’s be honest here— most of us will never be masters. Those rarified characters are few and far between. And the process it takes is not one most of us would willing sign up for. We do however have a good shot at being a fine journeyman or journeywoman Why it’s hard to become a master? Master’...

Stems and Branches are old Chinese science. Our medicine touches on it, but most of us rely on the more modern perspectives for our clincal work. The Stems and Branches speak to a perspective of the universe and our place in it that is foreign to our minds not because of language and culture, but because we live a world that focus more on humanity than cosmos. In this conversation we touch on the...

There are many ways to attend to our patients in clinic. We can work through mental models that we’ve acquired from our schooling, study, and clinical experience. We can also use our innate human ability to touch, palpate and sense. In this episode with Chip Chase we discuss the importance of down-regulating our nervous system. Along with the use of palpation and sensing references to anchor our i...

We often consider the Five Phases when doing acupuncture, and the Six Conformations when treating our patients with herbal medicine. In this conversation we consider the interplay of “wu yun, liu qi” the five movements and six climatic qi from the perspective of diagnosis and understanding not just what problem a patient has, but also its progression through time. Listen in to this discussion on u...

This is the audio from a Teal Time talk with Sabine Wilms. Sabine holds these conversations with practitioners who have a taste for the classic and scholarly perspectives. I love the translations that Sabine so lovingly puts her heart and soul into. Humming with Elephants with one of my all time favorite books on our medicine. I was delighted to have this conversation with Sabine and how you enjoy...

We give a great amount of respect to the Classics in Chinese medicine, but understanding these foundational texts of our medicine can be challenge, even if you do understand the old form of Chinese. Just as many of struggle to get through the brilliance of Shakespeare, the classics of Chinese medicine require a particular kind of attention. And it doesn't hurt if you actually can understand the "g...

Medicine is a curious business. The “agreement” is that the patient has a problem and we as practitioners are going to fix it. It’s not an unreasonable expectation in our fee for service world. And after all, we are the experts that are supposed to know how to resolve a medical condition. But what often gets left out of the conversation is the question of “what is healing?” Along with “who” is res...

Nothing new about city and rural life being very different. But what about when it comes to having an acupuncture practice? What’s it like to practice to practice away from the bustle of big city? Are country folk really that different from city slickers? And what about non-mainstream medicine like acupuncture, how’s it accepted in the hinterlands? In this conversation with Barbara Bittinger we di...

Can you remember in those first couple of years of puberty when your senses began to quicken and a new world began to open up and you started to question your place in the unfolding this world? Adolescence is a glorious and often troublesome ripening and as with so many aspects of our lives these days... it’s medicalized as pathology instead of being seen as a series of dress rehearsals for the ch...

It’s easy to think of researchers as stotic characters in laboratory coats who rely on their frontal cortex and religiously follow the flowchart of “science.” But science is not a flowchart, and researcher is really another name for someone who grew into adulthood with their curiosity intact. Listen in to this conversation on luck, intention, intuition, investigation and biofields.

It is surprising where life can take us. We follow a hunch or a nudge and somehow gain some momentum that in time generates wind for our sails. Not many westerners in the 1970’s started along the road of Chinese medicine. In this long ranging conversation with Jake Fratkin we discuss his perspectives over time and his current thoughts on medicine. Listen in for a conversation about herbs, TCM, Jap...

Chinese medicine is not one medicine; it’s a kaleidoscopic plurality. There is no one true acupuncture; we have a rich ecosystem of perspectives and methods.  The  trouble with learning something new is that we have let loose of our current understanding usually acquired through effort and hard work. It’s hard to release what we’ve struggled to learn. Our limited understanding of the ter...

We often think of emotion as one thing. That we are sad, or angry, or frustrated, or joyous. But often it’s more complicated than that. Many times there will be an entanglement of emotion. Love and anger, grief and guilt, or excitment and anxiety. It’s when emotions get entangled people can really get stuck as it is hard to sort work through one emotion when it’s intimately connected with another...

The Chinese say 活到老學到老 hou dao lao, xue dao lao, which can be translated as “continue learning for as long as you live.” It’s good advice, and when it comes to the practice of medicine, it’s essential. Our work gives us an endless opportunity to learn and deepen our understanding. In this conversation with Kathy Taromina, Craig Mitchell and Dan Bensky we discuss what they have been learning...

The Chinese and people of East Asia deal with epidemic disease on a regular basis. And every time a new bug comes to town, they learn a little more. While we in the west have access to some of the classic materials on treating epidemics, we don’t have the same level experience. It’s not really our fault, epidemics don’t roll through here in the west as often, and even during the cold and flu seaso...

There are many ways to do acupuncture. Each method gives you a glimpse into the workings of the body, each one gives you a different map of the terrain. And each method allows us to understand and problem solve with a different set of both mental and physical tools. Susan Johnson studied with Miriam Lee, who was instrumental not just in bringing Tung Style acupuncture into our western world, but h...

Spending time in the clinic seasons us. It exposes us to success, failure and unending questions about healing, wellbeing and connection that over time can help us to sit with our patients in the midst of deep difficulty. In this conversation with Rebecca Avern we discuss the fortitude that must be developed to sit with the difficult to answer questions that arise in clinic. And how clinical work,...

The prolific science fiction write Issac Asimov wrote “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” (I found it!) but “That’s funny …” The wonderful thing about research is that it invites delicious questions and opens avenues of inquiry that lead us beyond the borders of our maps of the world. In this conversation with Richard Hammerschlag we...

The airways are full of bad news, fear and conjecture it’s a hit parade of one scary thing after another. This alone would be hard our spirits if you ingest even a portion of the 24 hour media feed. Add on isolation and an unrelenting sense of an inescapable threat— it’s tough on one’s mental and emotional wellbeing. There is a pervasive sense of grief at the loss of a world that just a few short...

These days pretty much anyone can have their own media outlet. The gatekeepers who used to control access to the airwaves and printing presses are pretty much gone. If you have something to share, especially something that focuses on or services a niche market, then this is the best time to be alive. And here in the midst of Covid-19 this just might be the perfect momnet to work on that book you’v...

We have many different ways to view the body with Chinese medicine and each of these lenses gives us a different perspective on both physiology and functionality. It’s not unlike those old acetate transparencies you'd find in old encyclopedias that would allow you to overlay different systems of the body one on top of another. Each one has its own domain, and each interlocks with the other systems...