The Holistic Herbalism Podcast

CommonWealth Holistic Herbalism
  • 4.8 (458)
  • Alternative Health
  • Updated Weekly

Practical herbalism from practicing herbalists. Conversations, botanical deep-dives, Q&A with clinical herbalists Katja Swift & Ryn Midura of CommonWealth Holistic Herbalism.

  1. Sep 5

    Elderberry Syrup Isn't Everything (Replay)

    While our Fallow Month of August has ended, we've got one more replay for you!   (If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out Katja's piece If You Really Want to Learn Herbalism, Stop Studying.) This week we're airing a replay of episode 265: Elderberry Syrup Isn't Everything. Elderberry syrup isn’t everything an herbalist has to offer to someone suffering from a cold, the flu, COVID, RSV, or any of the many other respiratory ailments to which we humans are susceptible. Despite being the first thought to come to many minds when asked if they’re prepared for winter illnesses, we’d encourage you to broaden your view both of what elder does, and what herbs can do in these situations. Elderberry is famous for inhibiting viral replication, most notably of the flu virus, by interfering with its capacity to replicate. Elderberry constituents have been shown in petri-dish studies to bind the neuraminidase ‘spike’ on the virus. It can therefore reduce the virus’ capacity to ‘break into’ our cells and convert them into virus-making factories. Sounds good! Note, however, that this particular mode of action was identified through in vitro studies. The limitation here is that the required concentration of those constituents may not be attained in our bloodstream when we ingest elderberry syrup. It may not reach the tissues which are under attack by the virus. So while this is an interesting mechanism of action – and one we’ve ourselves taught about often when discussing elderberry – we now consider it as potentially less relevant to the general impacts of elderberry on viral illness. So what matters more? The effects of elderberry on inflammatory patterns in the body. An efficient immune response includes inflammatory and anti-inflammatory actions, both at the right times and in the right amounts; elderberry supports this. And here’s the good news: so do other berries! Every berry with deep pigmentation – blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, cranberry, serviceberry, aronia berry, and many more – will work to improve inflammation management within the body. At the same time, they’ll enhance vascular integrity and flexibility (particularly important given the capacity of COVID to damage these tissues). So elder isn’t the only berry who can help us. And berries aren’t the only supportive herbs, either – nor are herbs the end of our options! First of all, elder offers flowers as much as berries, and those are helpful for managing fever. Working with elder in formula with other herbs – like our homemade winter elixir – is an excellent way to enhance its actions. But there are also plenty of good herbs beyond elderberry syrup, including pungents like ginger, decongestants like sage, expectorants like elecampane, and aromatics like pine. Last but by no means least: nourishing food, gentle movement, and restorative sleep can each be just as important as any herbal remedies we choose. If you live in the northern hemisphere, cold & flu season is just around the corner! No matter where you live, it’s good to have the knowledge and skills you need to take care of these common problems at home. Herbal Remedies for Cold & Flu teaches you everything you need to know to conquer a cold or fight off the flu. We teach you how to work with herbs that are safe and effective for all aspects of the illness. These strategies can also be very effective when coping with COVID, RSV, and other respiratory infections, too! Our focus is on finding ways to support what your body is already trying to do as it works to restore balance. Like all our offerings, these bundles of self-paced online video courses come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more. If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

  2. Aug 29

    Acknowledging Complexity Is Not Gatekeeping (Replay)

    August is a Fallow Month for us, so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in the field, kitchen, and apothecary. If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out Katja's piece If You Really Want to Learn Herbalism, Stop Studying. This week we're airing a replay of episode 230: Acknowledging Complexity Is Not Gatekeeping. When you’re an herbalist, it’s normal to get questions from people about herbs. Usually they’re thinking that it’s a simple question, and expecting a simple response: “What’s good for IBS?” “Chamomile.” But the truth is a lot more complex than that! When you learn about herbalism, you come to understand that there are no herbs “for” any disease state. Instead, there are herbs who can exert influences on the body, and those may match well (or poorly) with the specific state of an individual person. So you become less enthusiastic about simply giving someone the name of an herb when they ask “what’ll work for…?” This dynamic is even more pronounced on social media. Whether in an herbalism discussion group or in direct messages from your followers, an herbalist on social media will see lots of these types of questions – and lots of those one-word responses, too! But people don’t take the names of herbs – they take herbs! Which means they prepare tea (using this much plant matter for that much water), or they take tincture (made at this or that herb:menstruum ratio), or they get a supplement (made by this or that brand)… And so even if you give someone the name of a plant, have you really helped them figure out how to take it? How much to take? How often, for how long? All those details can make or break the success of an intervention. When you get that kind of question, you want to give a helpful answer – and that can mean an answer that’s quite different from what the asker expects. Instead of simply listing names of herbs, try giving an insight into your own herbal thought process! For example, if they’re asking about “herbs for headaches”, you can briefly describe various patterns that can cause headache – heat, dryness, tension, stagnation, etc – and help them identify what kind of headache they have. From there, you can suggest herbs to experiment with – and that’s an important phrase, “to experiment with”! Helping people understand that working with herbs involves multiple rounds of self-experimentation is a great service you can provide. It takes a little more time to construct a response like this, but it’s significantly more helpful to the asker. They might expect you to simply know the right herb for them, and if you just say “it depends and it’s complicated”, that can feel like you’re gatekeeping. But if you share your own decision-making process, you both teach them how to think like an herbalist (even just a little bit), and you help them understand you’re not holding out on them! Looking to improve your skills as an herbalist and clinician? Our Clinical Skills for Herbalists course has practical guidance for setting you up from scratch, or building on your existing foundation. If you enjoyed the episode, it helps us a lot if you subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

  3. Aug 22

    Can I Be A Plus-Sized Herbalist? (Replay)

    August is a Fallow Month for us, so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in the field, kitchen, and apothecary. If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out Katja's piece If You Really Want to Learn Herbalism, Stop Studying. This week we're airing a replay of episode 243: Can I Be A Plus-Sized Herbalist? Katja writes… Today a student sent me a question and it was so important, i asked her if i could (anonymously) share it, because i know other people are wondering this too. I wanted to ask for any advice or your thoughts on how to handle being a plus size herbalist.I am plus sized. Though I am currently in working on a healthier life style that includes using herbs, I feel like when people see me or see that Im plus sized that they may not want to work with me or any of my products.I feel like this is my calling I have fallen in love with herbs and how they naturally work with in the body. but I feel like this could possibly hinder me from even opening my own practice one day. I kinda feel alone in this due to most of the herbalist I see on social media are very fit and “healthy”.Am I wrong to want to be an herbalist even though I am also going through a battle and journey with my weight? The bottom line is: we need you. We need plus-sized herbalists. We need everyone, no matter where you are in your journey, whether you’re small or big or short or tall or thin or fat or disabled or abled or sedentary or athletic or anything else. And the other bottom line is that weight and health are not the same thing. I know that society has all these ideas about what is “good” and “healthy” but that doesn’t mean they’re true. You can be healthy and big! You can be healthy and small! You can be unhealthy and be small or big too! We’re all just trying to get through our day, and we’re all in the body we’re in. You don’t have to get thin to get healthy, so let’s make our bodies healthy now, regardless of what size or shape they are. And let’s love them too because bodies are pretty amazing actually! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

  4. Aug 15

    Can Herbs "Heal"? (Replay)

    August is a Fallow Month for us, so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in the field, kitchen, and apothecary. If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out Katja's piece If You Really Want to Learn Herbalism, Stop Studying. This week we're airing a replay of episode 248: Can Herbs “Heal”? What does it mean to heal? When are we “healed”? Are there some wounds that can’t be healed? If we can’t heal – in the sense of achieving “perfect health” – are we failures, as people or as herbalists?  In this episode, Katja shares her thoughts on the words and ideas “healing” carries in our culture, offering a critique of their common (and commercialized!) semantic and emotional baggage. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

  5. Aug 8

    Thorn Medicine (Replay)

    Hi everyone! August is a Fallow Month for us, and so we are dialing back on some of our activities while we focus our attention on coursework production, curriculum development, and - most importantly - hands-on herbalism in the field, kitchen, and apothecary. If you don't know or don't remember what a Fallow Month is, listen to the full explanation in episode 212! Or if you'd prefer some reading, check out Katja's piece If You Really Want to Learn Herbalism, Stop Studying. This week we're airing a replay of episode 274: Thorn Medicine. Have you ever wished you had thorns? Have you ever felt like you needed to protect your heart, your space, your peace of mind, or your time from a world that asks too much of you – or takes without asking? You’re not alone. This is what thorn medicine can bring you. Thorns aren’t weapons, they’re defenses. They don’t seek an animal or human out with the intent to cause harm, they hold space and define boundaries. Touch me here, says the rose, but not there. Admire my flowers, says the motherwort, but don’t you dare clutch my seeds. We can learn from this. We can take the medicine of thorns into ourselves. We can do this literally, not only (oh, “only”!) metaphorically or symbolically. Most all thorny herbs, and particularly the thorns themselves, carry a key herbal action: astringency. This is an action which literally pulls things together, and holds things together. Each plant’s thorn is different, serving its own purpose. Hawthorn’s long, widely spaced thorns evolved to counter the hungers of the giant sloth, and they retain that shape long after the lumbering herbivore went extinct: they are the living memory of a predator past. Ocotillo’s inexhaustible rows of spines render it no more easy a prey than the cactus who share its landscape. Thistle spikes out from every possible surface, asserting itself in all directions as its firework flowers reach for the sky. Which thorns are yours? Pull yourself together. Hold your boundaries. Make a safe space. Then, within that thorn-walled refuge, your flowers will unfold. Thorn medicine is only one form of support herbs can offer our emotions. Our Neurological & Emotional Health course is a user’s guide to your nerves, your emotions, and the herbs who can lift you, hold you, brace you, and sustain you. We teach holistic herbal strategies for addressing both neurological & psychological health issues. It includes a lengthy discussion of herbal pain management strategies, too! Like all our offerings, this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

  6. Jul 30

    Is Perimenopause Making You Tired?

    I don’t know about you, but my social media feed is filled with stuff that is supposed to “give me more energy” to get through perimenopause. What does that even mean?  Perimenopause isn’t causing fatigue for no reason. Your body is doing things: some are new, and some are a sort of inverse callback to your teenage years. Yeah, that’s right – menopause is like a second puberty. Fun! This is work. It’s like remodeling your house while you live inside it. There’s a lot to change, a lot to update, some things to take offline, and all of it happens while you’re in the midst of your daily needs for function, repair, healing, and growth. Those never truly stop, but the demands of the remodel can make them all slow down, or get more difficult. In this episode, Katja shares herbs who will do some of the work for you. By reducing inflammation in the blood vessels and in the digestive tract, and by keeping your lymphatic system flowing smoothly, you can free up a lot of resources inside the body so that your internal workload is lower. In a sense they serve to enhance your inner clean-up crews and help them function more efficiently. (It would be nice if they would also clean your actual house, but alas.) It doesn’t take stimulants or adaptogens to do this job. We don’t always need to solve feeling tired by going to the buzzy herbs. So if you’re feeling tied, but you don’t even have time to take a nap, at least these herbs can do some of your work for you! Here are the links Katja talked about in this video: The Reproductive Health course, which includes not just peri/menopause, but also everything else – endometriosis, PCOS/PMOS, managing your cycle, and more. Also prostate health and andropause: reproductive health for everyone!Our full course catalog – everything we offer. (Yep, there’s a lot.)Our favorite gluten free/dairy free cinnamon buns. These are SO GOOD. Our gluten free / dairy free substitutes list. Tons of options so you don’t have to feel deprived as you change up your diet!Everything’s on sale in July – there’s still time! All our offerings are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! Use code CATNIP at checkout to get 20% off! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

  7. Jul 29

    Take Care of Each Other

    We like to sign off our show by saying, “Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, and drink some tea.” It’s our favorite little motto and it’s a great reminder that herbalism and self-care go right alongside mutual aid! In our episode 283: Vetting Your Herbalism Sources: Red Flags & Green Flags, we talked about how it isn’t actually bucking the system to ignore the FDA and FTC laws about “telling & selling”. Neither is it a cool rebellious act to turn away from scientific knowledge, modern medical technologies, or even conventional treatments. They each have their place, and herbalism isn’t an ‘alternative’ to them in the sense of a dichotomous choice – either herbs or science, either herbalism or medicine. We can fit together, and we get better results when we do. But it’s certainly true that conventional medicine has problems, and that the system needs some bucking! A system reliant on consumerism – buying your way to better health – always leaves people out. A lot of people. They need help, and we can help them. The best way to do that is a little surprising: take care of each other. Extend our circle of care outside ourselves, outside our family and housemates, and further out into the world. We are all here together, and we can all support one another. And since we’re all herbalists here, let’s do it with herbs! Three ways to get started: FREE Emergency Preparedness course – Concise and targeted lessons teach you how to prepare for emergencies ranging from hurricanes to wildfires to heatwaves. Learn to construct a modular, no-frills herbal first aid kit, food reserve, and go-bag (or shelter-in-place bag). Understand herbal wound care and all the steps to take for cuts and burns. Anticipate and prepare for the effects of climate disasters in your community, not only to help yourself, but to help others too.SLIDING SCALE Herbal Community Care Toolkit – This 20-hour video course teaches you safe, inexpensive, and accessible herbs which can make a difference in the most common health concerns in our society today. High blood pressure, diabetes, edema, pain, poor sleep – there are herbs to support people facing all of these challenges and more. They don’t need to be expensive, exotic, or risky. They don’t need to be “maximum strength” or “100x concentrated”. Gentle, simple, safe herbs can help people you know and love.SLIDING SCALE Accessible Herbalism course – We consider this essential training for clinical herbalists, but you don’t have to be one to want this information! Providing care to everyone is challenging, and involves a lot of creativity and skill to find the right resources and get them to the right people – and to do it all without burning out. To do it, we teach strategies to work around resource constraints, addressing the realities of time and energy involved in herbal work. We share our methods for finding funding, improving access to care, and building community support networks: mutual aid for herbalists and the communities they serve.You can go deeper, of course! These are starting points to get you helpful and empowered as soon as possible, while keeping safety first. And don’t forget… Everything’s on sale in July! All our offerings are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! Use code CATNIP at checkout to get 20% off! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

  8. Jul 23

    What's a Good Herb for...?

    Do your friends ask you, “what’s a good herb for…” IBS, or PMS, or fibromyalgia, or whatever is bugging them? If you’ve ever struggled to answer such a request, you’re not alone. It’s not just about the difficulty of the pathology, though – it’s also about the complexity of the person, and the variability between people. Everyone thinks they can ask “what’s a good herb for IBS” and that you should have the answer. (Oops, you might even be thinking about an answer right now!) The question to ask right alongside such a thought is this: is that answer appropriate for the person asking? Remember, every body is different! As herbalists, we need a lot more information than just the name of the problem. One of our favorite mottoes around here is: “people don’t take the names of herbs”. It means that you’re not giving a good answer if a person asks “what’s a good herb for migraines” and you respond “feverfew”. You’ve left out tons of important details: form, dose, timing, duration, formulation… the list goes on. The other side of the equation would be “people don’t take herbs for the names of their symptoms”, or their discomforts, or their diagnoses. There are no “herbs for IBS” in the abstract, or in every individual case. Examples make this point most clearly, so this week’s episode of the Holistic Herbalism Podcast is us talking through five different examples of people asking for help with health problems. We describe how we would break those problems down so that we can figure out what the right answer is for them, specifically – not for “someone”, generally. What would we ask first to get a foothold on the issue? What would we observe, and ask the client to observe, as we work to figure out the information we need? How would we construct a protocol and a set of health experiments that will actually help them? Listen in to hear us talk through the process in several different cases. Everything’s on sale in July! All our offerings are self-paced online video courses. They all come with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, lifetime access to current & future course material, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more! Use code CATNIP at checkout to get 20% off! If you have a moment, it would help us a lot if you could subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!! Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas. Support the show You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!

See All (304)

4.8
out of 5
458 Ratings

About

Practical herbalism from practicing herbalists. Conversations, botanical deep-dives, Q&A with clinical herbalists Katja Swift & Ryn Midura of CommonWealth Holistic Herbalism.

Information

  • Creator
    CommonWealth Holistic Herbalism
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    304
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Holistic Herbalism Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Holistic Herbalism Podcast

You Might Also Like