Qiological Podcast

We are encoded beings. There is a song that plays out through the patterning of our DNA. We are influenced by the tides of culture, family and peers. And there is a great turning of Stems and Branches that leaves an imprint on our mind/body as we enter the world. The Ba Zi is a description of the moment we enter this world, it’s the weather we carry with us from that first breath. It shows tendenc...

In this History Series episode we time-travel with the vivacious Cara Frank. Her story begins in the gritty, creative pulse of 1970s New York City, where as a teenager, she was navigating the counter cultural scene. Her first encounter with acupuncture was anything but ordinary—an illegal treatment that changed her life and set her on the path she travels today. Cara’s journey is a tapestry woven...

You’re probably somewhat familiar with the four needle technique. It’s an innovation said to have arisen through the meditative practice of the Korean Buddhist monk Saam, roughly four hundred years ago. It has since been passed down both through the monastic tradition, and used as well by ordinary doctors. Today you’ll also find the “Saam Method” used in academic research studies and employed as a...

How we engage the mind can have an effect on our wellbeing in profound ways. What is even more interesting is how the mind and body interact. We are all familiar how the emotions can be the source of internally generated illness, and we are all familiar with how injury or illness can in turn have an effect on our emotional life. Some would go so far as to say all physical illness is rooted in the...

What is Nature, and what is Nurture? It’s an old question that poses what is perhaps a false dichotomy.  Considering out Nature, it’s as old as Chinese medicine. And nourishing ourselves so as to enjoy the full measure of our days, also has a long history of inquiry and practice.  As practitioners we need to know how to take care of ourselves as part of being able to care for others. The...

I attended what was then known as SIOM before it was an accredited school. I thought the program and approach was a good fit for how I learned, and being in my late 30’s at the time, I did not have the patience for a program that would not let me get my hands on people for a year or more. At SIOM, they had us in the clinic from the first week. Our patients were part of our curriculum. That fit the...

For sure, the health of the brain is absolutely essential to health and wellbeing. As we age, just like with other organs, there is a lot that can go wrong with that curious Sea of Marrow. In this conversation with Clayton Shu we discuss how he went from a focus on orthopedic issues to being concerned with neurology and brain health. Clayton doesn’t really do things in halfway measures, so when he...

From the misty mountains of China to the teahouses of Taiwan, Tea has served as a bridge between nature and culture, tradition and modernity. Tea is not just a beverage, but a living entity that carries within it a connective plant wisdom and the potential for personal and societal transformation. In this conversation Brian Kirbis unveils tea's hidden depths, its ability to foster human connection...

Not only is acupuncture strange, with its twelve invisible watersheds of flow and influence. But we have the qi jing ba mai. The strange flows… usually translated as the extraordinary vessels. Some say these are the blueprint that give structure to the embryo as they help to orient and guide development. Others say that these vessels are deeply tied into our psycho-emotive functioning. Traditional...

I recently had the good fortune to sit down for a conversation with Charlie Buck, one of the  early pioneers in acupuncture and Chinese medicine in the UK. He shared his journey of discovering acupuncture in the late 1970s, a time when it was still quite unknown in the West. Our discussion explored how the landscape of acupuncture education and practice in Britain has shifted dramatically ove...

Understanding and acknowledging how things are is a terrific starting point. It’s what led Ilan Migdali to not just understand how health insurance worked in California, but opened up a path for him to create an insurance network that specifically aimed at helping acupuncturists to thrive. Beyond the creative and practical work Ilan has done with insurance, he’s also a student of the Balance Metho...

I was cautious and reluctant about studying acupuncture when it first really caught my attention. Then there are folks like John McDonald who when he first caught wind of acupuncture thought… far out man, I want to know more about that. That enthusiasm has followed him through his time as a practitioner and even through doing a Ph. D. In this conversation we’ll discuss trickster shamans, the ethic...

Tinkering and creating, I suspect that anyone who's been lucky enough to have grown up in an environment that encouraged exploration, risk taking and curiosity— they've got a perspective that has them asking “why not” instead of “why.” Figuring out how things work is fun. Even more so when you don’t take other people’s word on what is doable or not, and you go and see for yourself. Adrian Larsen h...

 I had the delightful surprise of Zoe Coldham reaching out to me to tell me about the documentary she’d created that goes into the early days of acupuncture finding its way into the mainstream of British culture. As you probably know, Qiological has been doing a little mini-series on acupuncture’s journey to the west as well. So I was keen to have her on to hear her perspective and what she’s...

The late 60s and early 70s were a time of openness and experimentation. It was the beginning of the civil rights movement, more equality for women, and the recognition that sexuality included more than love between men and women. Cultural norms were questioned and that included dietary practices, the healing arts and the relationship between humans and the planet. It was in this rich milieu of cha...

It’s fun to solve problems. Especially when you’re not quite sure what to do, so you have to pay attention and learn what’s important. You must develop the capacity to learn from both your failures and success. Mark Brinson wanted a liniment for patients and was not happy with what was on the market. So he thought he’d just mix up his own. That turned into a process of learning a lot about everyth...

The Chinese are right, the brain is a curious organ. The way the nerves entangle their way into every aspect of our body, and how their gentle electric hum gives us awareness of this container we call ourselves. Pain is how our nervous system lets us know there is a problem. Acupuncture has rightfully been seen and used as a way to intervene. Strangely enough the ear has a powerful influence on th...

What is our universe made of? How does it work, and more importantly– what are we doing here and how do we make sense of it? Eternal questions, unanswerable, but maybe the questions are not for answering, perhaps they are for focusing attention. In this conversation with Rory Hiltbrand we take a look at our peculiar situation as Beings in between the circle of heaven and square of earth. We dip in...

While many are keen on looking to “science up” acupuncture and squeeze it into the thinking and theories of conventional medicine, others are quite content with the weirdness of it. And enjoy playing around in the territory that’s off the radar of Western science. Julian Scott is one of those pioneering acupuncturists whose background in theoretical physics primed him for the strangeness of the wo...

As anyone who has started an acupuncture practice and tried explaining it to potential patients knows, it’s not easy taking the terminology and thinking of East Asian medicine into English speaking Western culture. The guest of this conversation, John Rybak, has thought long and hard about this. He is keen on helping our profession bridge how we think and work with the constraints and opportunitie...

Brenda Hood often reminds me “Chinese concepts, especially classical Chinese concepts, are big and multidimensional. They are extremely dependent on context and while shades of meaning often cross over, they can be quite different and be more or less encompassing of ideas depending on actual context.” Which is why I’m always questioning myself when wrestling ancient Chinese ideas. What’s more, it...

Saam acupuncture with its unique channel pairings, perspective on psycho-emotional dynamics, and capacity to interweave the Five Phase with the Six Qi is a powerful tool for understanding the interplay of yin and yang along with body and mind. In this conversation Joshua Park joins us to explore how Saam acupuncture gives us a holistic view and allows practitioners to approach diagnosis and treatm...

In the late 60’s and early 70’s of the last century East Asian medicine began to emerge into mainstream culture. The Reston NY Times article is often cited as a catalytic moment that put the idea of Chinese acupuncture into the minds of Americans. But other streams of medicine from Japan and Korea were also finding their way into the imagination of those who would be a conduit that would help thes...

The Middle East has a long history of war and unrest. Whatever phase of history you’d like to zoom the timeframe, you’ll likely see conflict. In Episode 72 of Everyday Acupuncture Podcast I spoke with an Israeli practitioner on what it is like to live in a place where you’re frequently hearing air raid sirens and headed to a bomb shelter. In this conversation we hear reflections of two practitione...

Here’s a question that I find difficult to answer. How does acupuncture work?  Beyond the East Asian medicine phrasing that makes zero sense to your average citizen. Just what is going on in the body in response to a sliver thin needle being placed in the flesh? And once you have an answer for that, explain how a “needle” that does not pierce the skin can accomplish the same thing? It’s an an...