Menarche- a girl's first period- shapes how we experience womanhood for the rest of our lives, and the lack of initiation most of us experience is itself an initiation. In this culture that has fractured from the rites and wisdom of our grandmothers, where so many of us met our first period with confusion or shame, how do we begin to heal this tender threshold- for our daughters, and for the younger version of ourselves?

In a conversation brimming with practical suggestions, my herb teacher Kami McBride- who has led countless women's circles, developed and taught a class for cycling women, and even written a book on menstruation- shares her decades of experience and insight. Together, we explore how to remember what was once celebrated, and how to bring reverence and empowerment back to this profound beginning.

Medicine Stories Patreon (thank you!)- enter the giveaway & get a list of my favorite books on menstruation

Kami's free classes: DIY Body Butter for Gifting & Top 3 Stress-Melting Herbal Oils

Kami's course: Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils

Join me at the Medicine Stories Healing Waters Nature Immersion Retreat in Costa Rica November 2026!

Mythic Medicine herbal remedies- take our quiz to be notified when our Moment Markers Bundles become available

Kami on Instagram

Amber on Instagram

Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Did you notice metabolic changes around age 35 and/or 42? Does perimenopause even exist? Is there an ideal childbearing window? Why are humans one of the only species to experience menopause? Suuzi Hazen, doctor of Chinese Medicine and my closest companion in healing from midlife burnout, gives us the Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective on the 7 year framework for girls' and womens' life transitions.

Suuzi's post that inspired this conversation

Join me & Suuzi at the Medicine Stories Healing Waters Nature Immersion Retreat in Costa Rica November 2026!

Medicine Stories Podcast

Related previous episodes with Suuzi- Nourishment Lost, Women's Bodies are Metabolically Expensive, Midlife Burnout for Women

Mother's Best Liver Pills by Suuzi

Women's Bodies podcast by Suuzi

Mythic Medicine herbal remedies- take our quiz to be notified when our Moment Markers Bundles become available

Suuzi on Instagram

Me on Instagram

Leonard Shlain

Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Birth opens the door, but what comes after walks you through it. Many new parents find themselves moving through the first year feeling lonely, confused, and wondering why it's so hard.

In this episode, I'm joined again by Rachelle Seliga of Innate Traditions, who has spent over 20 years teaching and gathering communities to explore postpartum, motherhood, and revillaging. Together, we open the conversation wider — into the realm of fatherhood — with Rachelle's signature depth, wisdom, and grounded practicality.

Whether you're preparing for birth or reflecting on your own postpartum journey, this conversation offers insight, validation, and a new lens on what it means to be reshaped by parenthood.

Planning for the Fourth Trimester for Mothers & Fathers workshop with Rachelle and Dan

Two Medicine Stories Patreon bonuses:

1) extended interview w/ Rachelle giving me her hot takes on controversial wellness/spirituality topics and

2) audio recording of me giving a podcast/medicine/life/health status update

Rachelle's previous Medicine Stories appearance Revillaging: Maternal, Cultural, and Planetary Wellness Are One

Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?

Innate Traditions Website

Innate Traditions Instagram

Mythic Medicine Website

Mythic Medicine Instagram

Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

In 2021 Tara and her family got the knock on their door that every parent fears most. In the days that followed they discovered eighteen-year-old Mila's journal and were able to piece together the shocking and devastating chain of events that led to her death.

Tara's Instagram and Substack, Slowdown Farmstead, is followed and admired by tens of thousands of people. Tara and her husband raised their three daughters on their beautiful Canadian farm, lovingly tending to and butchering their own livestock in order to nourish their family and community. Deeply acquainted with the cycles of nature, Tara has a perspective on the interconnectedness of life and death that was the daily reality for our ancestors but eludes most modern people.

But that did not prepare her for what could happen when a drug that is now bred to be as strong as any pharmaceutical- and which is often misunderstood as being a benign herbal medicine- snuck its way into her daughter's life at a vulnerable time and completely rewired her brain in a matter of months.

It is our hope that sharing Mila's story will make more people aware of the increasingly common psychosis that is a side effect of the new high-THC strains of cannabis on the market, and especially of its dangers for the developing teenage brain.

Please read the articles linked below for more.

Tara's essay What Happened To Our Daughter- don't miss the dozens of resources about the risks of cannabis at the end

How Weed Became the New OxyContin: Big Pharma and Big Tobacco Are Helping Market High-Potency, Psychosis-Inducing THC Products as Your Mother's 'Medical Marijuana'

Patreon bonus conversation- What We Want Our Daughter To Know: women, restriction, chronic illness & more on Tara's metabolic journey

Learn more about Tara's book Radiance of the Ordinary

Slowdown Farmstead on Substack and Instagram

Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome

Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?

My website MythicMedicine.love

Mythic Medicine on Instagram

Medicine Stories Facebook group

Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

My most beloved herbal elder and I talk about our favorite subject- women throughout time using plants for self care, family healing, and community connection. After nearly 4 decades as a practicing herbalist and teacher, and in an age of informational overabundance, Kami has seen what actually works when it comes to truly embodying herbal knowing.

Find Kami's freebies & learn more about Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils (including the peek at what you see when you log in to the course).

Two Patreon bonuses for this episode-

1) an extended conversation with Kami where we share our stories of Mothering Without Elders

2) two free videos with Kami entitled Garden Herb Walk- meet 9 favorite garden herbs that can calm the nerves, help with digestion, heal the skin, kick a cold, and more! Let's meet beautiful edible and medicinal flowers, weeds, leaves and seeds and find out which ones are used for what.

Kami's book The Herbal Kitchen

Amber's website MythicMedicine.love

Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?

Amber/Mythic Medicine on Instagram

Medicine Stories Facebook group

Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Suuzi and I continue the discussion sparked by my last episode about culty trends in the wellness space by talking about her past with Kundalini yoga- what drew her in and, eventually, how noticing the state of nourishment of those deepest into the cult precipitated her exit. We then catch listeners up on our midlife metabolic meltdown hEaLinG jOuRnEyS and what path we're taking forward as we continue to recover our vitality and deepen our understanding of why women's bodies are so metabolically expensive.

Patreon bonuses for this episode include an extended conversation w/ Suuz about the reaction to the German New Medicine episode (114) & how it surprisingly kindled a discussion amongst patrons about a remarkably similar ideology, a 10% off coupon code for Suuzi's grass fed, grass finished liver pills, and a chance to ask us questions. Also photos of Suuzi in turbans!

Dr. Suuzi on Instagram

Mother's Best Liver Pills

Amber's website MythicMedicine.love

Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?

Amber/Mythic Medicine on Instagram

Medicine Stories Facebook group

Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Mentioned in this episode:

Kimberly Ann Johnson on Whose Body Is It

Breath of Fire Kundalini cult/Guru Jagat documentary

Kathleen Stewart's story

The Rooted in Resilience podcast and specific Minnesota Starvation Experiment episodes with Kathleen Stewart

The Energy Balance Podcast

The group coaching program Suuzi is in is Transfrom

Cronometer nutrition tracking app

How to Not Get Fat on the "Pro-Metabolic Diet": a guide for switching to nourishing foods while avoiding fat gain by Kaya of Fundamental Nourishment

Eating a "Pro-Metabolic Diet" Will Not Heal You: an appeal for having context to understand the big picture by Kaya of Fundamental Nourishment

GNM is an alt health trend that has grown in popularity in recent years. It is attractive to so many (including me and my guest, once) because it acknowledges the role that emotions and trauma play in physical health and symptom manifestation, something that mainstream medicine still somehow refuses to do.

But just because some aspects of an ideology are true and helpful does not mean that the entire framework is valid. Critical thinking and humility are essential tools for navigating information overload and complex frameworks, especially when it comes to health.

The allure of certainty and specialized knowledge can lead people to adopt rigid belief systems that don't hold up to critical thinking, and the the zealotry of believing that your group's belief system will save the world only further strengthens unconscious confirmation bias (along with other logical fallacies common in GNM- loading the language, heads you lose tails I win, us v them thinking, bizarre antisemitic conspiracies, etc).

But what might be most worrisome about this growing movement is the purity mindset demanded of its more extreme adherents- the belief that nothing outside of us can affect us if only we believe strongly enough in our own omnipotence and prove our righteousness and purity by attaining a total lack of symptoms.

What is viewed as radical sovereignty and empowerment is really just outright magical thinking reinforced by an absence of humility, mystery, and the reality that ultimately we are not in control of what happens to us. The body is not a closed system; we are deeply embedded in overlapping ecologies.

This episode has been years in the making, and I have been asked time and time again for my take on GNM. When I was sent Demetra's essay on the subject I knew that I had finally found the right person to have this conversation with. Her past cult experience, and my years of deep dives into culty thinking and behavior, provide a lens through which to view this phenomenon.

Though we do not claim that GNM is a cult in the traditional sense, cultishness is a spectrum and GNM is definitely on that spectrum.

Also its tenets are demonstrably false, and have led to death in some cases. NBD.

In our Patreon bonus conversation Demetra shares her cult story- joining what she thought was a good thing, slowly realizing it wasn't, leaving, being attacked by the leader and other members, and the long "deprogramming" and stabilization process that all cult survivors undergo

Demetra's essay The Culty Fraud of German New Medicine

Dr. Moss's report German New Medicine- Hope or Hoax?

Demetra's podcast Impolite Company on Spotify and Apple

Amber's website MythicMedicine.love

Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?

Mythic Medicine on Instagram

Medicine Stories Facebook group

Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Mentioned in this episode:

Tension Myositis Syndrome

Cell Danger Response

A Little Bit Culty podcast (the best!)

Cult documentaries (by no means an extensive list)- The Vow (NXIVM), Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence, Breath of Fire (Kundalini yoga), The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin

Steven Hassan's BITE model

Cult expert Robert Jay Lifton

What metabolic patterns did you inherit from your parents, and what may you have passed down to your own children? Many behavioral issues, and even what are usually considered personality traits (like that of high sensitivity), can be linked to mineral imbalances and overall health.

Heavy metals often accumulate in individuals due to stress, compromised metabolic function, or ancestral imprints, not necessarily always due to direct exposure. Heroic detoxification protocols should be approached with caution, as forcing the removal of metals without addressing underlying nutrient deficiencies can have unintended consequences.

Let us welcome in the medicine of sitting with the right questions as we collectively navigate information overwhelm, and walk slowly together toward ever deeper levels of self attunement and inner resourcing.

Resources:

Niecia on Instagram

Medicine Stories Patreon (extended convo w/ Niecia + more)

Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?

MythicMedicine.love

Mythic Medicine on Instagram

Medicine Stories Facebook group

Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Mentioned in this episode:

Lead Safe Mama

Fertility is not just the ability to conceive, but is an indicator of overall health and the capacity to nurture life; it is how we extend genetic strength across time and space into generations we will never know. Pregnancy and menopause are transformative states that reveal underlying metabolic and hormonal imbalances, emphasizing the complex interplay between biochemistry, psychology, and lifestyle. In an age of rampant metabolic dysfunction, let us together find our way to renewed vitality, for ourselves and for those yet to come.

Resources:

Medicine Stories Patreon (extended convo w/ Niecia)

Niecia on Instagram

Take our fun quiz Which Healing Herb Matches Your Energy?

My website MythicMedicine.love

Mythic Medicine on Instagram

Medicine Stories Facebook group

Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)

Get the transcript here

Mentioned in this episode:

Wise Women Diaries podcast interview w/ Niecia telling the story of her first birth, instagram of podcast host is Trusting Life

Casey Means

Niecia has learned about biomechanics in pregnancy and birth from Adelaide Meadow

Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage by Rachel Reed

Mary Lou Singleton on early motherhood

St. John’s Wort has evolved over millennia to capture sunlight and turn it into the molecule hypericin, which has numerous profound effects on our human bodies.

Our St. John’s Wort Oil is HALF OFF until sold out (as of June 2024)!

From deep nerve healing, relaxation, and pain relief when applied externally to its antidepressant, antiviral, and liver supportive properties when taken internally, SJW has always occupied an exalted place in the medicine cabinet of the ancestral humans who were lucky enough to live where it grew, and is one of the most used and loved herbal medicines in the world today.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• St. John’s Wort acts as an extension of sunlight

• The endless external uses include the healing of wounds, bruises, burns, blisters, cuts, eczema, growing pains, inflamed skin, muscle pain, nerve pain, neck tension, spasms, back pain, neuralgia, sciatica, insomnia, anxiety, and stress

• The oil is indispensable for menstrual pain, pregnancy, postpartum, babies, children, elders, empaths, and highly sensitive people

• Photosensitivity, precancerous skin cells, and using SJW as sunscreen

• Internal uses: notes on the antidepressant, antiviral, and liver supportive effects (including my shingles story)

• Hypericum feeds our inner radiance and summons forth our purpose and power

• This ancient herb has always been associated with fairies and other magical beings

• How empire co-opted pagan rituals and herbal practices

• The widespread ritual use of St. John’s Wort as a protective herb

• A word on wildcrafting and non-natives v invasives

• Making your own high potency, shelf stable herbal oils

• Herbal medicine is so simple, yet also endlessly complex

• Kami McBride speaks about St. John’s Wort

RESOURCES:

• Mythic Medicinals St. John’s Wort Oil (half off!)

• Medicine Stories Patreon (patrons can download Rosalee’s ebook here)

• Cute, short video showcasing our St. John’s Wort garden

Learn to Make Your Own Herbal Oils:

• Kami McBride’s Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils online course

• My video Sneak Peak at the Handcrafted Healing Herbal Oils online course from Kami McBride

Podcast Episodes & Books Mentioned:

• Episode 23 The Profound Medicine of Herbal Body Oils

• Episode 53 with Kami McBride Healing Herbal Oils: How to Make and Use Them

• Episode 55 with Lola Pickett Highly Sensitive People are the Psychedelic Plants of the Human Realm

• Episode 67 with Nadine Artemis Harvesting Light: the Alchemy of Sun & Human

• Episode 65 with Rosalee de la Foret Wild Remedies: Tending Relationships with the Land Around Us

• Episode 17 with Sajah Popham True Holistic Healing: Bridging Plant & Human Consciousness

• Episode 62 with Sajah Popham Called to the Plant Path: Herbal Myths, Healing Forward, and Human Ecology

• The article Feeding Your Inner Sun with St. John’s Wort from The School for Evolutionary Herbalism

• Wild Remedies: How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine by Rosalee de la Foret and Emily Han

• The Untold History of Healing: Plant Lore and Medicinal Magic from the Stone Age to Present by Wolf D. Storl

• The Herbal Lore of Wise Women and Wortcunners: The Healing Power of Medicinal Plants by Wolf D. Storl

• A Modern Herbal II by Maude Grieve

• The New Healing Herbs: The Essential Guide to More Than 130 of Nature's Most Potent Herbal Remedies by Michael Castleman 

More Good Stuff:

• Kathi Keville’s website 

• My website MythicMedicine.love 

• Take our fun Which Healing Herb is Your Spirit Medicine? Quiz

• Medicine Stories Facebook group

• Mythic Medicine on Instagram

• Music by Mariee Siou (from her beautiful song Wild Eyes)