Review of Medicine Stories - Overshadowed by trans exclusion

Overshadowed by trans exclusion

☆

“It feels almost trite to say that I love this podcast and now feel like I don’t want to listen to it anymore. I understand the direction opened up by episode 98 with Teva Johnstone as perpetuating harm. I am not willing to continue to listen to something that mixes in hate towards trans people and proudly claims an unwillingness to be with the complexity of harm and responsibility that comes with inheriting a colonial legacy. For other podcast options for lovers of herbalism I recommend Smoke Break by the folks at Wild Gather herb school, and lovers of story medicine Finding our Way by Prentis Hemphill. Let us not misinterpret each other's creative life force as a pathology. And for those who would like to understand more of where I am coming from, I share these reflections and questions: we know from surviving indigenous cultures on turtle island (the united states) that two-spirit people have been an integral part of the not so distant past. they have been honored as knowers and holders of liminal space. we lose so much medicine and kinship when we decide to exclude identities whose manifestation feels unusual today. is this not the same struggle we have when we want to communicate with plants in a city park or feel called to dance with the water at the beach? that we will be seen as crazy, pathologized, and thus denied access to that which brings us life and connects us to our divine creative energy? As for our children, helping them to understand what trans identity is, is very different from pretending it's not present when they have questions. We help them to understand so many other things about the world, this seems like a sad place to draw a line in the sand.”Read full review »

paige mn via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 12/22/22