Qiological Podcast
by Michael Max
Acupuncture and East Asian medicine was not developed in a laboratory. It does not advance through double-blind controlled studies, nor does it respond well to petri dish experimentation. Our medicine did not come from the statistical regression of randomized cohorts, but from the observation and treatment of individuals in their particular environment. It grows out of an embodied sense of understanding how life moves, unfolds, develops and declines.Medicine comes from continuous, thoughtful practice of what we do in clinic, and how we approach that work. The practice of medicine is more — much more — than simply treating illness. It is more than acquiring skills and techniques. And it is more than memorizing the experiences of others. It takes a certain kind of eye, an inquiring mind and relentlessly inquisitive heart.Qiological is an opportunity to deepen our practice with conversations that go deep into acupuncture, herbal medicine, cultivation practices, and the practice of havin
Episodes
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484 History Series - Translating Between Worlds • Nigel Wiseman
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…
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483 Authenticity is Difficult to Achieve • Evan Pinto
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...
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482 The Conundrum of Singularity & Diversity in the Practice of East Asian Medicine • James FLowers
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…
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481 Revisiting the Genius of Dr. Manaka • Oran Kivity and Co.
We often think good treatment begins with certainty: first identify the pattern, then decide what to do. But in the tradition of Dr. Yoshio Manaka, treatment itself can be the means of discovery. The practitioner learns by engaging the body directly and paying close attention to how it responds.…
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480 History Series - Searching for the Dao of Medicine • Volker Scheid
A tradition can feel like a single lineage, but some histories reveal a wider terrain — one that spans discernment, devotion, and the slow accumulation of who gets to call something new. In this conversation with Volker Scheid, we explore four competing visions of what good Chinese medicine...
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479 Consciousness, Ghosts, Magic & The Inexplicable • Neil Theise
Liver pathology draws curiosity as both a clinical discipline and a lens for encountering the unknown. Its practice of looking without preconception speaks meaningfully to how we meet the mysteries at the edges of a life. In this conversation, we visit with Neil Theise and explore the…
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478 Often Confused and Having Fun • Linda Kim
Confusion is often treated as a problem to solve on the way to a real answer. But in the clinic, it may be closer to the beginning of the process than an obstacle to it. In this conversation with Linda Kim, we explore what it means to practice acupuncture with curiosity rather than certainty. We...
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477 Shen, Emotion, and Ghosts • Henry Tarazona
Long before Chinese medicine took the form we recognize today, healers drilled holes in skulls to release demons. Philosophers debated what the universe was made of, while a wandering doctor read pulses instead of casting spells. In this conversation with Henry Tarazona, we trace that lineage…
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476 Beyond Normal: Reading Blood Work Through a Chinese Medicine Lens • Jessica Parker
Reading blood work well means resisting the urge to sort everything into simply normal or abnormal. But what happens when the real diagnosis lives in the relationships between markers, not the markers themselves? Dr. Jessica Parker is an acupuncturist and lab-work educator who teaches…
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475 The Practice of Seeing- Ming, Hidden Jing and Original Face • Anita Chopra & Angela Hunt
In this episode Qiological celebrates its ninth anniversary. For nine years new conversations on East Asian medicine and methods have appeared in your podcast feed each Tuesday morning Anita Chopra, our guest from episode 429, joins us again not just to discuss face reading, but to give us a...
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474 Character, Nature & Fate, A Manual of Polestar Astrology • Gregory Done
As astrology draws curiosity as both a spiritual practice and a lens for self-understanding. Its symbolic language of image can speak meaningfully to our modern linear life. In this conversation, we visit with Gregory Done we explore the relationship between fate and free will, and how inherited...
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473 Right Tradition for the Condition, Combining classical Maps in the Treatment of Long Covid • Brendan Kelly
A diagnosis can feel like a single label, but some conditions reveal a wider terrain — one that spans immune response, cultural rhythm, and slow imbalance over time. In this conversation with Brendan Kelly, we explore long COVID through the lens of classical Chinese medicine, looking at how...
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472 Art of Medicine • Bonnie Wright
Much of what happens in the treatment room never makes it onto an intake form, yet it often shapes the outcome as much as anything measurable does. In this conversation with Bonnie Wright, we explore what she calls the art of medicine, the intuitive, relational sense of truly knowing the patient…
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471 History Series: Nature is the Primary Curriculum • Judy Worsley
Practicing acupuncture for over fifty years asks us to trust intuition and stay open even when the path ahead isn't clear. But what happens when a life's direction comes not from planning, but from being pulled toward what you love? Judy Worsley is a five element acupuncturist who trained…
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470 Wen Bing Anatomy • Kerri Westhauser
As chronic, hard-to-treat disorders become more common in clinic, many practitioners are returning to Wen Bing theory for answers. In this conversation with Kerri Westhauser, we explore lurking pathogen theory and how deep-lying evils help explain complex conditions like lupus and POTS. We also...
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469 You Don't Know Before You Know • Shaun Goodman
Not every point sits in the textbook. Others only appear when the body decides to show them. In this episode we visit with Shaun Goodman, longtime practitioner of Dr. Tung's acupuncture, a Taiwanese system built on its own map of the body. What begins as a question of pronunciation quickly opens...
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468 The Challenge of Chinese Medicine • Alex Jacobs
As acupuncture and Chinese medicine face regulatory pressure and institutional change on both sides of the Atlantic, many practitioners are asking what it takes to preserve the tradition while still being taken seriously as medical professionals. In this conversation, we visit with Alex Jacobs…
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467 History Series, Rebellious Empirical Scientists Pt. 2 • Bill Prensky & Gene Bruno
Part Two How does a profession begin? Not on paper. Not with licensing boards or schools. Often enough, it starts with a handful of curious people who become convinced there's another way to do things. Part determination, part serendipity, and perhaps a good measure of luck. Bill Prensky and Gene...
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467 History Series, Rebellious Empirical Scientists Pt. 1 • Bill Prensky & Gene Bruno
Part One. How does a profession begin? Not on paper. Not with licensing boards or schools. Often enough, it starts with a handful of curious people who become convinced there's another way to do things. Part determination, part serendipity, and perhaps a good measure of luck. Bill Prensky and…
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The Cost of Entry—Loans, Schools, and Sustainability • Bex Groebner
It’s not news that there are changes afoot in the world of education. You’re probably already well aware of the closure, over the past few years, of schools with a long history. There are concerns with loan debt that have been an issue since Obama was president. Most recently, the changes to...
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466 Not Two, The Geometry of Heaven and Earth • Johan Hausen
Some teachings are preserved in books. Others are preserved in people. In this episode we visit with Johann Hausen, translator, publisher, practitioner, and long-time student of Daoist traditions in the Wudang Mountains. What begins with martial arts and Chinese medicine quickly opens into a…
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Deconstruction or Innovation • Valerie Hobbs
We tend to think of the acupuncture profession as something fixed and stable, but the reality is that it is always in motion. The practice of East Asian medicine in North America has been shaped by decades of effort—by practitioners, educators, regulators, and advocates working to create a place...
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465 Fire and Water, The Fire Horse at Mid-Year • Christine Cannon
As the Fire Horse year reaches its peak, many practitioners are noticing shifts in both the environment and the clinic. In this conversation with Christine Cannon, we explore the interaction of fire and water through the lens of Wu Yun Liu Qi, and how these energies may be influencing respiratory...
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What is Essential • Kathleen Lumiere
What if the very things that seem to be pulling our profession apart are actually the forces that will finally condense it into something more resilient? We’re in a moment of choppy waters—school closures, shrinking enrollment, and a shifting financial landscape—where the successes of what have...
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464 Time, Timing and the Timeless • Peter Firebrace
Many of us experience life through schedules, deadlines, and calendars, yet beneath them are deeper patterns that shape how we grow, adapt, heal, and change. In this conversation with Peter Firebrace, we explore Chinese perspectives on time, timing, and the timeless. Through seasonal cycles, the...
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Realities of the Math • Ryan Hofer
We’re at a moment where the structure of loans and professional education is changing. Not just for the acupuncture profession, but across the entire educational landscape. While it seems the storm has suddenly blown in, it’s been brewing for a while. In this conversation with Ryan Hofer we…
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463 Complexity, Boundaries and Biomes • Neil Theise
Clinical practice asks us to recognise patterns, trust experience, and make decisions under uncertainty. But what happens when discovery comes not from certainty, but from staying open to surprise? Dr. Neil Theise is a liver pathologist, stem cell researcher, Zen practitioner, and one of the...
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Reckoning the Present, Wayfinding the Future • Danielle Reghi
The acupuncture and East Asian profession is facing a number of critical challenges as long-established schools close, new federal guidelines on graduate education loans will dramatically change how much students can borrow, and fewer students consider a career as an acupuncturist. How to wayfind...
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462 History Series: When Resistance Strengthens Tradition • James Flowers
Medicine is never only about treatment. It also carries culture, identity, and memory. Sometimes preserving a medicine is a way of preserving a people. In this episode we visit with James Flowers to explore a potent moment in the history of Korean medicine and how Hanbang became part of Korea’s...
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461 Neurology, Concussion and the Curious Organ of Chinese Medicine • Clayton Shiu & Ayla Wolf
Often what brings someone into our office looks straightforward at first—a concussion, dizziness, headache, or a sense that something is not quite right. But what begins as the search to fix a symptom often reveals something deeper—a nervous system that has lost its bearings, sensory maps that no...
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460 Using Chinese Medicine to Treat Alpha-Gal • Rebecca Chrestman
We often think of allergies as simple reactions, but some conditions reveal a far deeper conversation between the immune system, environment, and daily life—one that evolves with every exposure. In this conversation with Rebecca Chrestman, we explore Alpha-Gal syndrome through both modern...
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459 Wandering Into Saam- History, Premodern Medicine & The Power of Four Needles • Philip Suger & Michael Brown
What makes a system feel trustworthy—results, lineage, or the way it brings you into the resonance of what’s happening? Philip Suger didn’t start with Saam acupuncture. He was in Beijing in 2010, following a thread that led him to Wang Ju-Yi and channel palpation—hands on the body, feeling where...
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458 History Series - What a long strange trip it's been • Jeffrey Dann
The path into acupuncture isn’t always clean or linear—sometimes it begins in the grit and confusion of working out just who you are in this world. From anthropology studies in Seattle’s Skid Row to the disciplined intensity of kendo in Japan, Jeffrey Dann’s journey was shaped by curiosity,...
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457 Apprentice to Curiosity • Arnie Lade
Points don’t really have a number, they have a name. They are not just a function, they embody characteristics and relationships. In this episode I get to sit for a conversation with Arnie Lade. He’s the author of a book I spent a lot of time with in the library when I was in acupuncture school....
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456 Something About Slowing Down • Sue Crites
In practice, healing often begins with seeking a solution to a problem that has us looking for help. What first looks like a search for relief becomes an encounter with something wider: the patterns of striving, the habits of attention, and the quiet ways body, mind, and spirit reorganise when we...
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455 Psychoacoustics, Healing Frequencies and the Songs of Plants • Yuval Ron • Rick Gold
Some projects kick off with a business plan. Others begin as a response to an odd little ad in the back of a magazine, or sparked by following a hunch. When you think about it, this is often how the interesting work begins—not with certainty, but with curiosity and enough craft and gumption to…
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454 History Series- You Have to Start with Imagination • Holly Guzman
We all find our own unique way into the practice of East Asian medicine. It’s part luck, part dogged curiosity and persistence, and sometimes a bit of fate. In this conversation with Holly Guzman, we wander through her circuitous route into the medicine—from knocking on the door of the Chinese...
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453 Dry Needling, Tensegrity, and the Challenges of Integration • Darren Maynard
Sports medicine acupuncture is one of those phrases that sounds neat and tidy. But, what does it actually mean?. In this conversation with Darren Maynard, dig into the complexity and methods that fall within the world of orthopedic and musculo-skeletal medicine. We explore what it means to be...
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452 Perspectives on the Mingmen • Anne Shelton Crute, Thomas Sørensen, Z'ev Rosenberg
Some concepts in Chinese medicine don’t need more poetry. They need a hands-on palpable marker, and a willingness to admit, “I think I get it… and then the light changes and I can’t see it.” That’s the territory we’re in with the Ming Men—the so‑called Gate of Destiny, the fire that isn’t just...
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451 Zang Fu Tuina and the Microbiome • Henry Tarazona
We no longer pretend the gut and the mind are separate; we know the interconnections are vast and rich. Furthermore, their communication isn’t a hack—it’s a relationship that responds to your input, and it’s something you can actually touch. In this conversation with Henry Tarazona, we hear about...
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450 The Fire is Unavoidable • Haunani Chong Drake
Sometimes the people who shape us most aren’t the ones who formally taught us anything. They’re the people in a potent moment who say something that we hear with something other than our ears— it sends us down a path we hadn't noticed that was right under our feet. In this conversation with…
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449 History Series, In the Footsteps of the Yellow Emperor • Peter Eckman
Often enough, medicine evolves not through the accumulation of answers, but instead by posing annoying questions. The thing about learning, it usually carries an element of disruption. In this conversation with Peter Eckman we follow him in his journey of sleuthing out where JR Worsley learned…
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448 Chinese New Year of the Fire Horse • Gregory Done
There’s a moment, in the slack tide between one flow and another, when a potent stillness arises, and the possibility of a new direction arrives with a feeling of invitation. It’s like standing on the threshold of a dream. We share this conversation with Gregory Done as we metamorphize from the...
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447 AI Acubot Dispatch • Vanessa Menendez Covelo
In clinical work pattern and intuition inform each other, treatment decisions arise somewhere between what we can measure and what we can only sense. This episode investigates that in-between space, where “knowing” as a human and the patterning of Large Language Models merges in uncanny ways....
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446 Failing Forward • Neal Sivula
What if “failure” was just expectations being uncomfortably rewritten by reality? In this conversation with Neal Sivula we discuss the experience of failing forward—what it actually looks and feels like when you’re a practitioner, a clinic owner, and a person who cares. How to navigate the…
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445 History Series, From Mitzvah Corps to Quan Yin • Misha Cohen
The path that connects can’t be seen when you’re looking forward, but there are values, hunches—and maybe even whispers from the future—that nudge us onto the path that matches our spirit and heart. In this History Series conversation on Qiological, we take a trip in the Wayback Machine with…
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444 Following the Tides- A Personal Journey with Hormone Replacement Therapy • Mark Brinson
There comes a time in midlife when the body’s signaling becomes a bit disordered. Energy dips without explanation. Sleep thins out. Recovery takes longer. It’s not that the system has failed—it’s that the signals aren’t as attuned as they used to be. Something in the conversation between stress,...
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443 Panel on Palpation • Slate Burris, Rick Gold & Mark Petruzzi
In the clinic, communication happens before a word is spoken. It unfolds through attention, listening, and the tactile information the body offers when we slow down enough to notice. In this conversation, we explore palpation as a central pillar of acupuncture practice—not simply as a diagnostic...
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442 When Knowing Becomes Love • Daniel Schulman
The lines we draw define us. In the pursuit of "objectivity," modern medicine draws a sharp line between the observer and the observed—the doctor and the patient. But what happens when we intentionally blur that line? What is discovered when we move toward the subject rather than away from it? In...
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441 History Series, What Happens When You Look with Interest • Stephen Brown
Good medicine has less to do with having the “right system” and more to do with the human being holding the needles. With the way we listen. The way we wait. The way we’re willing to not know… yet. In this conversation with Stephen Brown we trace his unlikely path from welding in a west coast...
About this show
Acupuncture and East Asian medicine was not developed in a laboratory. It does not advance through double-blind controlled studies, nor does it respond well to petri dish experimentation. Our medicine did not come from the statistical regression of randomized cohorts, but from the observation and treatment of individuals in their particular environment. It grows out of an embodied sense of understanding how life moves, unfolds, develops and declines.Medicine comes from continuous, thoughtful practice of what we do in clinic, and how we approach that work. The practice of medicine is more — much more — than simply treating illness. It is more than acquiring skills and techniques. And it is more than memorizing the experiences of others. It takes a certain kind of eye, an inquiring mind and relentlessly inquisitive heart.Qiological is an opportunity to deepen our practice with conversations that go deep into acupuncture, herbal medicine, cultivation practices, and the practice of havin
Hosted by
Michael Max