Qiological Podcast

We often imagine a medicine as one standardized thing: a single technique, a single explanation. But spend time where moxa is actually practiced, and the picture becomes richer and far less uniform.
In this conversation, Hannah Swift returns to Qiological to share what she learned in Japan. A language school visa grew into a network of practitioners, foragers, and dyers who showed her that mugwort reaches well beyond the clinic: into food, the bath, seasonal festivals, and daily self-care.
This is not moxa as a standardized intervention. It is moxa as a living cultural practice, shaped by season, place, and the personality of each practitioner. A practitioner’s style is not a flaw to be corrected but part of the medicine.

We say we learn from our patients. But what does that actually mean when you’re in the room, the treatment isn’t going the way you’d anticipated, and the theory leaves you more confused than connected?
In this conversation we are joined by Chris McAlister, Bonnie Wright, and Maya Suzuki for a conversation about learning from the people—and animals—we treat. We’ve all heard the phrase about “learning from our patients.” I wanted to get underneath it a bit: what happens in the uncomfortable and disorienting moments when you realize you don’t know?
We talk about putting your hands on, noticing what changes, and trying to make sense of the response without getting lost in your own ideas. We also discuss practice, teachers, theory, uncertainty, and the question of when to stop or try something else.
There’s a difference between saying the patient is the teacher and actually letting the patient teach you. That difference can be uncomfortable, useful, and hard to put into words. It also makes for a potent conversation. Listen in!

Translating Chinese medicine began, for Nigel Wiseman, with a love of language, and it has become a lifelong study of how meaning travels between worlds. His work asks that we stay faithful to what the Chinese actually says, even when it asks something of the reader.
In this conversation, we visit with Nigel and trace the path from a young linguist in early 1980s Taiwan to some of the first English-language texts on Chinese medicine. We look at how terms like “disinhibit” and “deficiency heat” came from refusing to blur distinct concepts, and why a little Chinese goes a long way for any practitioner.
We also explore the Confucian analogies at the heart of the medicine, from the liver as general to the spleen as granary official, and Nigel’s challenge to the idea that Chinese medicine is simply a Daoist art.
Listen in for a discussion on language, metaphor, and translation, and what it means to meet a medicine on its own terms.

Chinese medicine sits at an interesting crossroads, part clinical craft, part philosophical inheritance. Its practice of listening before concluding speaks meaningfully to how we meet the people who come through our doors.
In this conversation with Evan Pinto, we explore the relationship between emptying the mind and seeing a patient clearly. We look at how a few quiet breaths before entering the treatment room door can change what we perceive on the other side.
We also discuss the difference between fixing a patient and holding space for them, and what it means to wait until someone is ready. We also appreciate the humor and playfulness of Zhuangzi as a counterweight to our profession’s tendency towards seriousness.
Listen in for a conversation on integration, trust, depth, and what it means to stay curious about what we don’t yet understand in the practice of this medicine.

Every tradition has an official story, and then it has the people who actually treat patients. In this conversation with James Flowers, a historian, anthropologist, and practitioner of East Asian medicine, we ask a simple question: where did the Saam organ pairs come from? The answer, it turns out, is surprising.
That mystery opens onto what James calls the conundrum of singularity and diversity in East Asian medicine. We follow it from the Confucian kings of the Joseon dynasty, who declared prevention the best medicine, through the Japanese occupation and a century of rebellious Korean doctors, all the way to the treatment of Covid.
Along the way, we weigh standards against clinical experience, consider who holds the authority to say what's right, and ask whether Saam medicine is Buddhist or Confucian at heart.
Listen in for a conversation that moves between royal courts and modern clinics, canon and experience, and the lingering question of what medicine is and who gets to decide.