0 – Welcome to the Frontline Herbalism Podcast

Nicole (she/her) introduces the vision and aims of the Frontline Herbalism Podcast, and shares some background info on the work of the Solidarity Apothecary.

Links & resources from this episode

Find them all at solidarityapothecary.org/podcast/

Support the show

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

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from the Solidarity Apothecary.

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This is your place for all things, plants and liberation.

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Hello.

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Welcome to the frontline herbalism podcast.

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This is obviously episode zero.

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So thank you so much for, for downloading it and taking the time to listen.

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I'm just going to share a little bit about what this podcast is about and a

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little bit of background about myself.

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So my name is Nicole Rose.

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I organize a project called the Solidarity Apothecary.

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Some of you might know if you've, you've actually managed to find this podcast,

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but the mission of the Solidarity Apothecary is to materially support.

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So, you know, support in practical ways, revolutionary struggles and

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communities with plant medicines to strengthen collective autonomy,

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self-defense and resilience to climate change, capitalism and state violence.

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So, you know, some small, some small goals there.

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But some of the things I do, so I work as a herbalist.

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I work with a project in Calais and Northern France with refugees.

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I've written a book about plants and their uses in prison that

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goes to prisoners worldwide.

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And I'll be talking about this a little bit more later.

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I supply herbal medicines to projects and groups and people living

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on kind of frontline sites like protest camps, or demonstrations.

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I work as a street medic.

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Yeah.

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And I also organize a Solidarity project called Ukraine herbal solidarity, which

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I'll talk about more and yeah, in general, like my passions are plants obviously

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and herbal medicine and social struggle.

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So I'm a really long-term organizer.

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I'm 34.

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Now I started organizing when I was about eight years old.

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After my grandma showed me around a factory farm to collect some

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eggs and I was absolutely horrified and it started me on this big

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journey around animal liberation.

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And I got involved in all this sort of like normal kind of

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mainstream things like Amnesty International and prisoner support.

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And then yeah, over time I just kind of became like more and more radicalized.

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And I found a book when I was babysitting by Errico

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Malatesta, an Italian anarchist.

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And it was just like, holy shit, like, this is the, this is it.

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Like, this is the phrase open looking for that summarizes,

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like how I feel about the world.

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I know not everyone identifies as . And even for me, it's like a very imperfect

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word, but for me and my kind of analysis of the world, like I like it because

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it's the closest thing I have to kind of like a total liberation framework.

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So I think that I want to be organizing towards a world where we've like

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eradicated different forms of domination.

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And I know that's going to be like a struggle across generations to challenge

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different forms of oppression, whether it's racism, sexism, transphobia,

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speciesism environmental destruction, like all the, all the things.

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But yeah, I think.

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I think anarchism for me gives me a really good framework where I can look

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at bigger power structures, like the state or capitalism and how we organize

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our lives and think about how they relate to power and oppression and yeah.

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And to the land.

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And you might be like, what the hell has this got to do of herbalism?

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But we'll be revealed over the next few shows.

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I actually think plant medicines are an incredible tool for resilience.

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I think.

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Amazing for our nervous systems for organizers who are dealing

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with some pretty heavy shit, to be honest, like police violence,

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raids, arrest, repression, prison, as well as anyone just trying to

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survive in this capitalist world.

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So yeah, some of the aims of the show so one of the biggest

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ones is to support people.

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So you guys listening to learn about plant medicines.

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So I want to have like practical advice.

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Plants about like knowledge about their uses, about their histories, about

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different traditions around the world.

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And I want to support people to basically like skill up, you know, I, I didn't,

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I wasn't born knowing about herbalism.

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I didn't have this romantic grandmother, like teaching me these

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herbs, like, you know, I grew up in England and Wales and Scotland.

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You know, my generation, like you're much more likely to be able

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to identify thousands of corporate logos than you are ever like the most

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basic of plants growing like in your garden or in the city where you live.

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So for me, it's been a real big journey of like reclaiming this plant knowledge.

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And, you know, like yeah, learning those skills, learning how to make

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medicine, not just for myself, but for my community, for different

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projects for resistance and resilience.

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So yeah, I want things to be really practical.

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The other aim is like, I really want this podcast to serve movements for liberation.

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So that might be an, anarchists abolitionists anti-racist anti-colonial

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to fascist feminist or movements working for queer and trans liberation,

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animal liberation, ecological defense, just like all the things,

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all the struggles against domination.

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Like however they are, wherever that organizing.

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I want this podcast to be useful because I think anyone engaged in those

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movements for more than a second will know how difficult and challenging

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this work can be, but also how life affirming and strengthening it can be.

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And I think plant medicines are just like the most amazing support for

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people doing that, doing that work.

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I also want to share learning and inspiration from grassroots

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health initiatives and frontline herbal projects around the world.

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So that might be people doing clinics in refugee camps that might be, or,

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you know, at like border sites, like in Calais in France or in Mexico.

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That might be groups developing kind of like natural health clinics, like

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for example, in Rojava in Northeast Syria, Kurdistan yeah, just like

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different projects around the world.

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Cause I think they've got a huge amount to teach people, you know, there's

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no guidebook for this stuff, right?

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Like I think the only way we're going to learn is by interviewing people,

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seeing how they're working, taking what we can from their experiences

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and applying them in our own regions and in our own communities, which are

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all completely unique and different.

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But, you know, we share like common threads.

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The other goal is to amplify marginalized voices in herbalism to

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center, voices of Black, Indigenous, People of Colour herbalists,

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working class and queer communities.

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I think, yeah, people are, you know, really doing the work and that the

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kind of center stage of, of reclaiming herbalism of sharing, knowledge of

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continuing knowledges, that haven't been completely successfully repressed

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by, you know, like Western white, colonial capitalist, patriarchy, like,

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you know, I want to be able to create a platform where I'm interviewing

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guests and sharing news about projects and fundraisers for other projects.

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So that's like a really big goal.

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I also really want to like share political content that kind of

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mobilizes people and give some resources like towards liberation.

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So, you know, shout outs for new prisoners that want letters for projects,

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for collectives, for action alerts.

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And if you've got like anything that you'd like me to share on this

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podcast, like I'm going to have a little segment where I'm doing like

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mini shout, shout outs for projects.

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And I'm going to put them in the show links and, and on my website.

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And yeah, I really want it, you know, obviously like podcasts

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got a date quite quickly, but.

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It to be like a platform for everyone who can share, like stuff that they're working

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on for liberation in different ways.

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I want to kind of create content that supports people like who have experienced

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or who are experiencing state violence, burnout or kind of like trauma with

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practical tools and plant medicine and resources about like trauma recovery.

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I'm an ex prisoner.

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I did a three and a half year sentence when I was 21.

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And that was a kind of amidst a decade of repression against the campaign I

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was involved with to close down this animal testing company in the UK.

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And yeah, it was an absolute minefield, like in terms of, of

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PTSD and navigating that stuff.

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And I support a lot of people leaving prison and who've been

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through all sorts of stuff.

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And I think plants offer us like amazing tools to help us support

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our own other systems and to help us kind of survive in this world.

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So yeah, I don't want it just to be for like, you know, organizers

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and herbalists like, I also want it to be for people who are.

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You know, who are in that, here in that pain place, if that makes sense.

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Cause like, you know, it's, it's a long term thing, right?

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Like I still struggle with PTSD.

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Like it's, you know, I've definitely got on top of it as much as I can with

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herbalism and supplements and then, you know, support and stuff like that.

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But I think, yeah, I think it's an ongoing journey and I really

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want to explore that in the show.

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And finally, like, you know, the world is burning, right?

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Like climate change.

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Holy shit.

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That's the thing.

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I really want the podcast to be a practical resource for people that

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are kind of proactively developing this kind of ecological and healthcare

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infrastructure needed to respond to climate change like worldwide.

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And there's so many beautiful examples of that from herbalists having stations

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for respiratory support during wildfires, or, you know, responding to hurricanes

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or floods or doing like refugee support, like all of these kind of things.

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They're just gonna like increase over time.

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Right.

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Imminently.

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And I think it's like amazing.

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If we can have the kind of.

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You know, the tools and resources collectively to respond to this stuff.

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Yeah.

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And then just in terms of like personal aims, like for the solidarity of

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apothecary, I'm going to talk about my projects in a minute, but I really want

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to build the sort of supporter base you know, like Instagram followers and

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subscribers and monthly supporters.

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Like I really like to sell more books.

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And yeah, and just kind of like create chance for people to, to

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get to know me a little bit and feel confident to access support.

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So, you know, to submit a request for herbal solidarity for their, you know,

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for their protest camp or for their collective or for themselves, right?

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Like if you're burnt out or struggling or, you know, dealing with PTSD or

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other things because of your work, like as an organizer or because

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you've been through the system, like been through the prison system or

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detention centers or anything else.

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Like, I want people to feel confident to be able to contact me and be like, Hey,

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I would really appreciate some support.

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Yeah.

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So.

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That's kind of like what the show is about.

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You know, too many, too many things as normal Gemini ascendent.

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So it's like about all the things all the time.

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But just a little bit about the solidarity apothecary.

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I'd been doing kind of prisoner support for nearly 18 years now,

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but that's a huge part of my life.

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And over time I could just see people were really struggling like

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with, with their health, with like that mental health, like all the

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different things because of depression.

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And I started kind of giving friends, some people I knew like herbs, like herbs

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that I'd experimented with or taken.

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And then that kind of just like grew over time.

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And I decided that I wanted to be a full-time herbalist and I didn't want

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my conviction or my time in prison to prevent me from supporting people.

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So I managed to find an amazing school called the plant medicine school

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in Ireland, who I highly recommend.

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And yeah, I did a four year program to become like a clinical herbalist.

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And it was like one of the best things I've done in my entire life.

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And now I'm trying to support other people as a herbalist.

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So in 2019 I wrote this book called the prisoner's herbal.

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Everyone's like, oh, I can't believe you like publish this book so fast.

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They don't realize it's like, I actually started working on this zine when I was

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in prison, which is like 10 years ago now.

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So it really wasn't a fast project.

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I just kind of like did the graphics and stuff quite quickly, like, you

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know, like the formatting of the.

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But yeah, like the Prisoner's Herbal it's, it's like a pretty beefy book.

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It's like 256 pages, I think.

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And it's all about kind of like 10, 10 different plants that

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I connected with in prison.

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So that's just like plants that were growing in the courtyard.

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Right.

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That we're just like coming up through the concrete, like

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dandelions and nettles and chickweed.

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And it's also about like, things you can find on the canteen.

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So this is stuff you can just like buy in the prison.

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So things like salt or pepper or turmeric or yeah, different things

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like that and how to use them and like fruits and vegetables as well,

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like onion and apples and yeah.

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You know, like all the things that you could possibly scrounge and find in a

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prison, I like included in the book.

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And then there's also a section about how to do, how to do like wound care and also

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like how to connect to a plant's kind of a bit more spiritually, like lots of people

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inside can obviously not access plants in any way, like, you know, especially

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with the pandemic, like in a UK context, people are really doing like 23 and a half

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hours a day, like locked in their rooms.

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Like, and they're lucky if they get out for association, if I'm honest, and that's

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what we call the time when you kind of are allowed out in your courtyard, you know,

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for other prisoners, like they might be in a lower category prison and they might be

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able to be unlocked or work in the gardens will work at some horticulture project.

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But yeah, the kind of experiences of people incarcerated is vast.

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And that's why I'm wanting to include like lots of different

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options for connecting with plants.

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And that book is distributed by a crew called the prisoner's

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herbalism collective.

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So I think it was 2020.

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I put a call out for a bit more support to make it a bit more like collective.

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So it, wasn't kind of like on my shoulders and got an amazing like international

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crew of people who, you know, like process requests from prisoners.

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We've got a PO box in New York and in the UK who upload all their details to

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a spreadsheet and we get books posted out to them who help with fundraising.

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And yeah, and it's a really huge part of my life.

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Like every book that I've sold, like near enough, all the money has

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gone to posting books to prisoners.

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And we, must've got about 3000 now, I think by now to

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people and present worldwide.

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And there's different translated additions.

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There's going to be additions coming out for Spain and Mexico.

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In Greece and also like Germany and France kind of on a longer term horizon.

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So yeah, so that's the prisoners herbalism collective.

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I also have a book called overcoming burnout, which also came out in 2019.

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And it's like a collection of blogs that I wrote back in,

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like way back in 2016, 2017.

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I got really sick on a speaking tour in Spain and the Basque

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country and France, and yeah.

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Developed this really gnarly long-term illness called costochondritis,

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which is a chronic inflammation in the cartilage of your rib cage.

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Excruciating pain.

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And yeah, just like the experiences of being ill and navigating the medical

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industrial complex and learning about herbalism and learning about how chronic

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stress affects your health and how we deal with grief and movements and

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how we You know, like process trauma and our body, like these were all

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things that I kind of learned about.

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Like, as I was kind of recovering, and I know like the word recovery

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is a bit of a loaded word.

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Yeah.

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I just kind of started writing blogs really about my journey as

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a kind of like cathartic rant.

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It kind of really resonated with people with.

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So yeah, so that book's available on my website as well.

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Like the same as the prisoners herbal and the medicinal herb coloring book, like

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all our available was downloadable eBooks, like as PDFs or as well as physical books.

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And I hand, post them out myself cause you know, capitalism.

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And then, like I mentioned at the beginning . I also have this option

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on my website for people to request herbal support, like herbal solidarity.

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So I get lots of requests through that form, and that could be like an individual

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that wants support because they're burnt out or they've just got out of prison

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and they need support, or it could be a project, you know, like a detainees

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support group who are dealing with a really intense campaign or a really big

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workload who just wants some kind of immune support, or it could be people

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living at kind of a protest camp who are dealing constant evictions and stress and

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arrests, and they want stuff, you know, to prevent like COVID and things like this.

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So, yeah, so there's like a big variety.

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Yeah.

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And you know, to fund that work, I sell, I sell the books.

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We also have a book called the medicinal herb coloring book, 50 incredible

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illustrations by my friend Amani.

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Who's just absolutely amazing talented artist.

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She's definitely going to be on the show in the future talking about like

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chronic illness and disability justice.

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So, yeah, that's kind of like my work in the world.

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There's probably stuff I've missed, but that's like a little bit about me.

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Like I said, I'm based, I'm based in England in the Southwest near Bristol

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kind of lineages are like English Welsh and Irish and the kind of plant medicine

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I practice is from those traditions.

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But, you know, I love learning about different plant cultures around the

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world and yeah, I would encourage anyone listening to this podcast to, to kind of.

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I understand that I'm talking about how it's from that lens.

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Cause that's like authentic to me, but to kind of lean into

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herbalism, that's like relevant to them and their lineages and yeah.

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Their relationship to plant medicine and the family's

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relationship to plant medicine.

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Yeah.

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And also, I just want to say like, This is like an experiment.

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Like I'm a bit of a, like, get it done, get it out person.

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Like I'm not a perfectionist, but I just want to like lean into the

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fact that like, I will screw up.

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Like, I will say things that are problematic or not phrased in a good way.

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I'm sure I'll make comments that are like oppressive or abelist or

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racist or sexist or, you know, like there's just like so many things that.

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Yeah, I could say that are kind of like from where I am now or what

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I'm saying, like unconsciously.

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And I really appreciate it if people email me or give me feedback because

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you know, all of this stuff is like a constant learning journey.

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Like I just think like we are where we are and we have to just keep learning

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and learning and learning and like leaning in towards like liberation.

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And you know, sometimes we won't do that very well.

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Like I can guarantee you won't do that very well if you're a white person.

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So like, you know, I want the show to be like a space where people can learn, can

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make mistakes, can educate each other.

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You know, I think.

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Liberation works should be liberating.

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If that makes sense.

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Like, I think, you know, we can all like lean in to hearing some content on here

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that we could find a bit challenging.

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You know, like I know people have all sorts of feelings about the prison

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system and abolition, these different ideas, or, you know, how do we build

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a world without states or, you know, armed struggle or whatever it is.

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Like, there's so many different things we're going to talk about that

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could upset people that could trigger them that could push them in certain

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directions or, you know, generate a bit of feedback in them some way.

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And I just want to say, like, that is the work, right?

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Like, that is what I hope to do with these episodes.

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And I'm sure when guests come on, like I'm going to really learn from them.

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And that's what I'm super excited about is just like selfishly

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all the people I found go on.

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I'm just going to like invite on the show and get a precious bit of time with them.

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So I'm really excited for that.

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Oh, so I think podcasts are amazing because they're just more accessible.

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Like I'm dyslexic.

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I also drive and do like a lot of practical work where I work, you know,

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where I live in terms of managing land and making medicine and harvesting herbs.

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And, and so like, I think podcasts are amazing because they're just like this

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great format in terms of accessibility.

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I'm going to have transcripts up, but if there's like anything else I can do

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to make the show like more accessible for you, like, please let me know.

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Like I said, like I'm learning and yeah, I just want it to be as helpful

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and useful for people as possible.

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Yeah.

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And you know, maybe it be a real niche, like maybe, maybe it'll just be me and

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like six cute queers from Instagram.

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And if it is that's okay.

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But I really think there's people like all over the planet that are just, you

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know, really dedicated and grafting for liberation in different ways.

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You know, whether they're fighting dams in Serbia or, you know, organizing support

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for refugees and migrants in Calais.

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You know, like fighting police violence in the U S or, you know,

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there's just like 1,000,001 examples.

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And I think, yeah, these are really revolutionary times, you know, we've

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got like global climate change.

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We've got the invasion of Ukraine.

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We've got, you know, wars happening, left right and center.

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We've got environmental destruction.

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I could list like a million depressing things.

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In response to all of those, there's incredible cultures of solidarity and

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self-organized movements, you know, like with the pandemic, like this huge

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shift in kind of global awareness of tools, like mutual aid and, you know,

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yeah, I just, yeah, I just think there's loads going on and I really want to

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capture a little bit of it for this moment in time with this podcast and try

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and get as much learning from that as possible for everyone and yeah, find me.

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I just, I just want to be a plant geek.

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I just want to talk about plants.

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I want to share about plants.

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I want to hear guests talk about plants.

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You know, they are absolutely amazing and yeah, who wouldn't want to talk about,

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I actually had an ex girlfriend wrote to me in prison and say that one of the

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reasons she was breaking up with me was because she just wasn't that into plants.

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So if you're not that into plants, this show is probably not for you,

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but if you are, please keep listening and yeah, I'll do my best to, to

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make a kind of fun and interesting and informative podcast for you.

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The best I can.

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Okay.

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Take care.

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Thanks.

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Thanks so much for listening to the frontline herbalism podcast, you

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can find the transcripts, the links, all the resources from the show at

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