83 – Solidarity Apothecary Offerings in 2025

Posted on 15th January 2025

In this episode, Nicole (she/her) shares all the offerings of the Solidarity Apothecary in 2025. Including courses, workshops, books, free resources and more.

Links & resources from this episode

Find them all at solidarityapothecary.org/podcast/

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Music from Sole & DJ Pain – Battle of Humans | Plant illustrations by @amani_writes | In solidarity, please subscribe, rate & review this podcast wherever you listen.

Transcript
Nicole:

Welcome to the Frontline Herbalism Podcast with your host, Nicole Rose, from the

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Solidarity Apothecary.

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This is your place for all things plants and

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liberation.

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Let's get started.

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Hello.

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Welcome back to the Frontline Herbalism

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Podcast.

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I thought before diving into the Herbs first Sustaining Resistance series and all the

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things, I'd just continue on with these, like, little announcement episodes.

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So I've already done one, sharing the 2024 review of the year.

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And I've also published an episod today about plans for 2025 other than just breastfeeding

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and changing nappies.

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But I wanted to record an episode with all of

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the kind of offerings of the Solidarity Apothecary because I know sometimes they can

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be, you know, like, with anyone, and their project is hard to know.

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Like, all the things that are available.

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We all have our own sort of, like, ecosystems of things that are happening.

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And I just thought if everything was in the same place, it might be useful for folks.

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So I'll put a link in the show.

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Notes to a website post has got all this

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information and links to the various things specifically.

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So, yeah, I'm just gonna.

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I'm just gonna make this brief and I'm gonna

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dive in.

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So, yeah, just at the top.

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Solidarity Apothecary courses.

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So maybe you've heard if you followed this

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podcast.

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I talk a lot about this course, but the kind of, like, signature course that I run is this

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herbalism PTSD and traumatic stress course, which I launch once, sometimes twice a year.

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It is, like, with all of these offerings, by the way.

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It is like no one turned away for lack of funds.

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So it's like a complete sliding scale.

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People are welcome to access it for free if

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needed.

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Otherwise there's like, yeah, different rates of pay for different folks, you know, who have

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different access to financial resources.

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But, yeah, there's like, a bunch of episodes

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on the kind of podcast history where I'm talking about the course.

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So you can check those out.

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It's basically got eight modules.

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It's exploring all about how trauma shapes the body, different kind of political frameworks

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around trauma.

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How do we collectively respond to trauma and

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traumatic stress?

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We. There's like a nervous system deep dive looking at kind of anatomy and physiology and

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various kind of nervous system states.

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And then, yeah, and then we introduce all the

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herbalism stuff to things about, you know, first steps in herbalism and medicine, making

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skills and safe foraging and stuff like that.

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But also this kind of real intense deep dive into plants called nervines, which are, like,

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nerves with an affinity for the nervous system, herbs.

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So all nerves have an affinity with the nervous system.

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Herbs with an affinity for the nervous system.

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And we look at different categories of those

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and yeah, each kind of plan is quite in depth with different kind of like focuses and

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traditional uses, but also, you know, different kind of articles and recent research

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around the plants and experiences from my time as a herbalist and my self experimentation.

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So yeah, it is coming from.

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I'm gonna launch it on the 22nd of March and

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I'm gonna close it on the 12th of April.

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So I don't normally publish the closing date

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because people will just end up buying it on the closing day.

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And it just causes like weeks of anxiety for me that haven't made any money.

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You know, just for transparency purpose.

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This course is what like basically funds my

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time and funds the apothecary.

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If you've ever done herbalism, you'll know that the costs are really expensive.

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Like little plastic bottles and glycerin and vodka and medic postage is eye watering for

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all the like thousands of prisoner books that we distribute.

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So yeah, it's.

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Yeah, it's a big fundraiser for this, for the

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Solidarity Pottery in general.

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So I really encourage you to join the waiting list so you can find a link to that on the

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course and like on the course kind of page.

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The waiting list means that I get like a

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flavor of how many people are interested in the course.

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But it also means that like you don't miss it because I only email my main user a few times

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about it and people regularly miss it and they're like, oh my God.

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And I'm like, sorry, I'm not going to open it till next year.

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So being on the waiting list just means that like, yeah, you have kind of access to it.

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Yeah. So that's the main course coming up this spring.

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I'm also teaching two face to face courses.

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These are the practical medicine making

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intensives.

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So they are three day courses, like completely

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outside.

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I'm very grateful that no one's had Covid.

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Like no one's developed Covid from coming to

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the course.

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Like you'll see about that stuff in the

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welcome package.

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Um, but yeah, again like it's not completely.

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No one turned away for lack of funds.

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Like it, you know, there's like paid places

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that make the whole thing happen.

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Um, but I do on every course I give about a

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third of the places away to people who just kind of request them really, like who are on

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benefits, who are on super low incomes, who are struggling financially.

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Um, so yeah, if you are interested in kind of a free or subsidized place, you know, like

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maybe you can afford something but not the whole thing.

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Then please email me@infooldapothecary.org

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otherwise I personally think it's still quite affordable.

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Yeah, it's like, you know, you can learn all the skills that can take you years and years

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to learn, like in three days.

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Like we literally do everything from tinctures

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to different kinds of glycerites to infused oils and ointments.

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Like, people just love it.

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And they literally come away with loads of

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confidence to make medicine and go on to, you know, volunteer with a clinic in Calais, for

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example, making medicine.

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So, yeah, I'm very proud of the course.

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It's tons of fun.

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Get to meet me and my man and our doggy and our baby.

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So people enjoy that.

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And yeah, it's on this beautiful small holding

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in Somerset.

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So, yeah, anyway, so the dates for those are

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the 16th to the 18th of May and the 13th to the 15th of June.

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I generally just email my newsletter list telling them when they're available to be

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booked.

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And they tend to get booked like very quickly,

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like a week or so.

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So if you're interested, please join the

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newsletter list.

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I'll put the link in the show notes so again, you don't miss it.

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Okay. And then there's also various like free online herbal workshops or sliding scale

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workshops.

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So there's one about making herbal medicine

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with glycerin which is like a paid offering, but there's codes on the page if you need to

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access it for free.

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So this is all about, yeah, how to work with glycerin as an alternative to alcohol to make

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accessible medicine.

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Because not everyone in our communities can

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consume medicine with alcohol.

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So, yeah, I have experimented for years and how to make like effective, potent, strong

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glycerites.

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And yeah, I can make them very quickly in like

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one to two days using a slow cooker.

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I talk about the ones that you don't use a slow cooker for that are best fresh, for

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example.

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And I talk about these as like warm and cold methods.

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So anyway, it's a very geeky offering, very focused on that one aspect of medicine making.

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But it's like, yeah, again, all the funds go towards the apothecary.

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And then, yeah, I have a bunch of like recordings of workshops that I've done like

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over the last few years.

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So there's one that was at the New York

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Anarchist Book affair about herbalism and state violence that was back in 2020.

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So that's just Like a general introduction to the solidarity apothecary.

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And like, what are the roles of herbalists and responding to state violence, you know, like,

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beyond just like being a street medic, for example, like, how can we show up for people

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in prison?

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How can we show up for communities that are, you know, traumatized by the state and

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capitalism, etc.

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There's also a free.

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And again, these are all accessible on the

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website for free.

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You can just, like sign up.

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There's one about herbalism, incarceration and abol.

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So this is all about how does, like, herbalism relate to kind of like abolitionist struggle

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and how does it relate to prisoners? You know, we have millions of people in prison

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across the world who are excluded from herbalism, who are experiencing really intense

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medical neglect.

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I literally just got off the phone from Farah, who I put an action alert for on my website,

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who's in prison, being denied cancer treatment, eating horrific food, like,

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terrified of dying.

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Um, and yeah, that's just like a terrain of struggle that we need to fight.

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So, yeah, please check out that workshop.

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There's also one that I did for folks from the

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kind of like, Stop Cop City struggle with a comrade called Cindy Milstein, anarchist

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author.

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Yeah, about state repression, trauma and the body.

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So that's looking at the role of kind of state repression in terms of PTSD and trauma and

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ways our bodies express distress and the role of solidarity and kind of mitigating some of

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that trauma and distress.

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And I haven't uploaded it yet, but the recent workshop I did with Railway Art Apothecary,

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who are amazing, who've been doing these workshops with me as like fundraisers, and

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this one raised like 500 quid or something, which is just so amazing, which will cover

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like a bunch of medicine making costs for Cali and stuff.

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So, yeah, that's herbalism and border violence.

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It shares all about the work with the mobile herbal clinic in France, working with people

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on the move and refugees and asylum seekers, as well as kind of other herbal, like,

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solidarity efforts that have taken place with folks in kind of like detention centers here.

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Sorry, I don't mean detention centers.

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I mean like my brain.

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It was like a camp in South Wales where people were held during the pandemic.

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But it wasn't the same as like a detention center, like a prison, if that makes sense.

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Anyway, and it also talks about Ukraine herbal solidarity as well.

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So, yeah, I will upload that soon.

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Yeah, the webpage shares about my herbal care packages, so I'm gonna do like a separate

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podcast episode about these soon.

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But if you go to the link, you can see that

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I've kind of like standardized some of the things I offer after years and years of just

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kind of like making individual blends for people or like sending very unique things.

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I'm just not in the kind of stage of my life right now, like being a kind of full time

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breastfeeding parent to, you know, have that many hours and that much support to kind of be

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in my shed.

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And Lee is so heavy.

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He is a chunky monkey.

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So it's like, yeah, I can't just have him in the harness while I'm doing herbal stuff as I

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dreamed about.

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But yeah, I've basically like refined these herbal care packages and I've made like

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explicit forms to kind of like our open source database.

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So people can yeah, just like submit a request basically.

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So I've got anti repression care packs, I've got prisoner family care packs, I've got care

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packs for hunt subs, care packs for grassroots groups, and also like a kind of sites of

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resistance care pack where people that are for example, living on like an occupation or some

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other site of resistance can kind of request like more medicine in bulk and like first aid

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kits, things like that.

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So yeah, please check out the website link for that.

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Yeah. And just.

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Yeah, they're mostly orientated towards people

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in like England, Wales and Scotland.

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But I am happy to post things abroad like if

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there can be a little bit of like collaboration with that, you know, like

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organizing punk post or fundraising for postage, stuff like that.

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Because it's like, it's a real challenge like posting things abroad with herbs.

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Anyway.

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Yeah, scrolling down.

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So we've also got the prisoners herbal books.

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So these were published, if you don't know, in 2019 and they go to prisoners around the world

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for free.

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There's various translated copies that are on the website, including in Spanish and Italian

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which are available as ebooks and also available as printed books in the, in the kind

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of various countries like in Mexico and Chile and in Italy and the Spanish state.

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So yeah, so the prisoner's Herbal is available.

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I put the form, like the webpage.

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The link to the form is on this webpage.

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So if you need to request a copy of the book, please like put the prisoner's details through

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that and we'll get, get it off in the post.

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We have had a few returns recently from some folks from the US so we will be getting back

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to you soon if that's one of your friends or family members.

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Unfortunately, other books available.

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So I've stopped like physically Posting books

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out.

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But I'm selling these books as kind of PDFs or

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ebooks and the website has got links to where you can buy physical copies if you prefer

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those.

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So, yeah, the books are available are the Prisoner's Herbal, like I just mentioned

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Overcoming Burnout, which is kind of a collection of writings from like, you know,

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like over a decade ago, nearly now, but all about, you know, like, collective care.

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And it's basically like a bunch of rants about the anarchist movement and a bunch of rants

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about collective care and ableism and patriarchy and all the things and repression

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and trauma and grief.

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And. Yeah, I've recently published that as a podcast and you're going to hear a little

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announcement about that soon.

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But I. Yeah, I spent some time recording the

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episodes to make them more accessible for people.

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And I've also added in some journal request journal prompts.

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Um, so, yeah, I'm hoping it's kind of like a useful, like, movement resource for folks.

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Other books.

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There's also medicinal herb coloring books.

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So I collaborated with my.

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One of my closest friends, Imani, who does

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like these amazing illustrations.

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So there's 50 beautiful plant illustrations

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and little paragraphs about that plant's like, medicinal qualities.

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Excuse me.

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You can download that as a PDF and print them

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off.

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We also send copies of that book to folks in

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prison as well.

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Excuse me.

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Yeah, and then the book, the Herbalism and State Violence Book.

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So this was the book that I published last year, which has got contributions from folks

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all around the world.

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I was working on it since like 2020.

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It's kind of.

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Yeah. Bringing together examples of herbal

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solidarity in practice.

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It introduces various forms of state violence.

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And yeah, it's 444 pages and it's got loads of recipes in it.

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It's got plant profiles in it.

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Yeah, I'd like to think it's got shitloads of value for people.

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Like, if you're, like, remotely interested in like, kind of political herbalism stuff, you

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will love it.

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So, yeah, please check that out.

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That's available for £6 as an ebook.

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But again, like, no one's turned away for lack of funds, so just drop me an email if you want

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a free copy.

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Yeah, and then I've mentioned the podcast, the Overcoming Burner Podcast, and there's just

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like a couple of other little resources on my website.

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So there's a guide to making elderberry cough syrup and there's also a guide for herbal

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support for panic attacks that you can check out.

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In terms of other offerings that I do.

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So I'M I'm still not doing onetoone support.

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I mentioned it in the last podcast, but it's just so timec consuming and I just have two

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afternoons a week where my mom looks after my son and my partner is kind of in full time

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recovery land.

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So yeah, he, you know, he does his best around the house and stuff, but I just don't have

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like the quality time to like offer that kind of dedicated support to people individually,

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which I think when you're experiencing an illness you really need.

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So yeah, I'm not doing that for the time being and I'm hoping when Lee's kind of like 18

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months old or something I can, I can work on that more.

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Yeah, and I'm obviously unfortunately not going to Calais myself, but the project is

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continuing.

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The folks were there this month.

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So yeah, look out for the trip report on their kind of Instagram with the mobile Herbal

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Clinic Calais.

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So yeah, that's just like a little one stop

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shop of all the Solidarity Pothecary offerings this year.

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You may have heard in the plans episode there's like a bunch of stuff on Horizon as

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well.

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But yeah, these are the things that are kind

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of there.

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They're available.

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Please make use of them.

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And yeah, again, if you're interested in the Herbalism PTSD course, I would love to welcome

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you in.

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Please.

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Yeah, please sign up for the waiting list and yeah, just check out all the links in the show

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notes.

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Okay, thanks so much.

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Take care.

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Bye.

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Thanks so much for listening to the Frontline Herbalism podcast.

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You can find the transcript, the links, all the resources from the show at solidarity

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apothecary.org forward/podcast.